Who are you?
Musicology Duck started at a musicology conference held at the now defunct Peabody Hotel in Little Rock, Arkansas, which had live ducks populating the lobby. A friend and I thought it would be funny if one of the ducks escaped and started live-tweeting the conference. (It was pretty funny.)

Unexpectedly, however, the @musicologyduck Twitter account continued to gain followers long after the conference was over. After a few years of maintaining that Twitter presence, I have decided I want a space to write longer things—especially book reviews—so here I am.

Being an internet bird, I take all plumes seriously, but especially the nom de plume. Some people know who I am, some people don’t. (I have lost track of who is who at this point.) I appreciate that folks in the know have not publicly connected my legal name and my handle.

Although I love to write, I have perversely little desire at the moment to write as a form of career advancement. I also find the ubiquitous “opinions are mine” disclaimer insufficient to divorce myself from my employers, and I like to be able to write as freely as possible about the topics that interest me. Therefore, I attempt to keep my identity at least un-Googleable.

Why can’t I comment on posts?
I have neither the time nor the stomach to monitor a comments section, and it is important to me that this be a comfortable place for myself and for anyone else who chooses to read what I put here.

So how can I contact you?
I’m on Twitter @musicologyduck. I make my best effort to respond to mentions and my direct messages are currently open.

But I’m not on Twitter.
But I am. I’m already drowning in unanswered email, about which I feel terribly guilty, and I would like not to feel guilty about a blog that I do for free for fun. I’m just going to keep it all on Twitter.

How do I send you a thing to review?
Well, I’m out of shelf space at the duck pond so I prefer electronic copies. Contact me on Twitter and I’ll tell you where to send them. And while I hope someday to have infinite time for reading/writing/listening, right now, I face the usual limitations of mortal adult life on earth and frequently trip over my own ambitions to get things done. So I can’t promise a review.

How should I cite you?
You probably shouldn’t if you want to maintain your respectability. But if you do want to, you can use they/them pronouns and indicate the author as “Musicology Duck” in your preferred citation style. You should probably print/save a copy of the thing you are citing and include an accurate access date in your citation. I do often decide to change, update, or delete previously posted content on a whim.