What should authors who are lukewarm about FB and Twitter do? Where should readers go for their bookish news?? (#WritingLife #AmReading)
A few updates…
I just posted my thoughts on my June Reading Challenge choices. I’ll post July’s choices tomorrow. As much as I want you all to read with me (and tell me your thoughts on the books), the other reasons I’m continuing my 2017 Reading Challenge is to be more purposeful with my own reading and to just encourage reading in general. Hey, we all have to do our part, right?
I sent out my June newsletter on June 30th with only a few hours to spare. When I started the newsletter, I wanted to make it a little different than this blog and one thing I promised was less frequent, but more consistent, content. I was having a minor panic attack at the thought of getting that newsletter out late. What’s in it? See for yourself here (hint: there’s a quiz, a recipe contest, my quarterly giveaway, and a Noon #5 update).
In other news…
EarlyWord, the publisher/librarian connection, co-founded and edited by Nora Rawlinson, announced Monday that is was ceasing publication. I read the news that day at work (for any new followers, I moonlight as a part-time librarian at my local library) and my immediate, albeit childish, one word response to EarlyWord‘s last word was…
Noooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Admittedly, I was a late-on-the-scene reader, but I’ve faithfully followed nearly every post of EarlyWord‘s for a year now (since I first started working at the library). I even mentioned my love for it just two months ago here (toward the end of the post, buried under the Giveaway subheading). Geesh, the whole thing reminded me of when GalleyCat stopped publishing back in December. And who remembers the amazing SF Signal?! (At least they still tweet.) Just in the last two weeks, both Wendig and Scalzi shared that their blog traffic numbers were way down. So, upon further refection, I’m amending my earlier initial one word response to news like this to a more mature two word response a la Dana Freeling in 1982’s Poltergeist:
Answer: Read their blogs… or just consult your own gut feelings about how the current political climate + the ways in which people read blog content now has changed things for authors. Again. Sigh.
So what’s an author who is lukewarm about Facebook and Twitter to do? Hell if I know. If you do, let me know in the comments. (This is not, btw, a shake down. I’m not asking yet again what people want to see from this blog. It’s really an invitation to any other writer out there who doesn’t love FB or Twitter to come whine with me.)
So where on earth are readers supposed to go today to get their bookish news?? Obviously, there are other sources (and, as always, I’m interested in hearing yours), but EarlyWord‘s loss will be deeply felt by me. I’m going to try to find an acceptable alternative, but it may take a while…
In the meantime, WordPress informed me that TODAY IS MY 6TH ANNIVERSARY WITH THEM. Happy Blogoversary to me! 😀
What else has been happening?
Our vampire eradication business is well underway. Last week, we brought home a huge trailer full of stakes and I spent the Fourth of July filling the kids’ water bottles with garlickly holy water. (Obviously, kidding. We replaced a bunch of fence posts and I made garlic chicken in my slow-cooker.)
I visited Ladew Gardens to check out their new and old art. To the left is Mary Ann Mears’ painted steel sculpture, “Queen.” (Literature provided to members says, “The queen has feminine curves; her pointed crown suggests power and she looks like she is armed with daggers; a warrior pawn stands by her side.” To me, it looks like the queen’s attendant is wielding a sickle. What do you think?) The sculpture is temporarily on display in the Wildflower Meadow until Halloween. As for the statue on the right, I couldn’t find a title, but you can help name it. Let’s take our inspiration from existing book titles…
Finally, I visited Annapolis, went to one of their First Sunday Arts Fests, and had the only piece of artwork I was interested in bought out from under me. And I watched Tugg unsuccessfully battle our lawn sprinkler. Afterward, he was soaked but happy. Hope you are too! 🙂
[Editor’s Note (i.e. my note – blogs have no editors, they are imperfect, bloggers even more so): An earlier version of this post referred to Dominique Dunne, the young actress who played Dana Freeling. At the time of the post, I hadn’t known that she was murdered the same year that Poltergeist came out. It was shocking, sad news for me, even almost forty years later.]
JILL ARCHER 