I apologize for the name Soft Dorothy.

Where did it come from? I can explain by saying that I came up with it when I was going to college in Kansas twenty-five years ago.

I could just stop and leave it at that.

Duane Blehm was an early Macintosh shareware developer from Kansas. His games gave me inspiration. That he was even deeper in the sticks of Kansas than I was gave me confidence that anyone, from anywhere, could aspire to some measure of success writing shareware.

Self-publishing on the Internet was a novel thing then — it wasn’t about who you knew. Obvious now, of course.

Duane’s “Hometown Software” with a scarecrow for the logo inspired me as well.

Following a Wizard of Oz theme, I think the naming process went something like: perhaps I could name my shareware company, “Dorothy Software.” No, let’s mix it up and be more provocative: “Soft Dorothy Software.”

It has sort of grown on me now though. I did shorten it to Soft Dorothy.

(The also-risque logo I used back then was scanned from a book of clip-art shown above. Did you know she was holding a flower and looking at a butterfly? I had forgotten.)