Hello world indeed.
It’s been a while since I last used WordPress, and an even longer time since I needed to set up a personal site — which just goes to show how quickly things, particularly technology things, can change. While I’ve been off microblogging and remembering to take pictures of my life, blogging has moved on…but I hope it will come back again. I was pretty nostalgic the other day for the early 2000s when you and your friends took care to post thoughtful updates about their lives, no more often than daily, but as often as possible. Whether your friend wrote a paragraph about their family or a screed about their hopes and fears, you could check in and learn something new about them. I fear that it’s harder to learn about your online friends when we’re all posting a photo of our breakfast, retweeting a meme, and then (or at least I am) yelling at some evil entity in tweet-length anger….
But I do want to connect, even while I want to take steps and care to separate myself from the downsides of social media. If you’ve figured out how to do that, contact me. Or write a book about it — we could all use the advice!
Meanwhile, I am struggling with something as an author, which I’ll share. As a reader — and I think of myself first and foremost as a reader, and I think a writer must read — I’ve never been particularly interested in following the story of today’s word count, today’s imposter syndrome, our hopes and dreams. None of this is bad. Let me repeat: NONE OF THIS IS BAD. But like reviews are for readers, some shop talk is for writers. So I’m thinking about: Can I write about the stories behind the stories, for readers who want to know a little more? When I talk shop, can it be a cool way to get insight into what goes into telling a story? Can I — do I dare — share more of the everyday that I want to know about other people, like how your family is doing, your very favorite recipe, your most meaningful traditions?
So there’s my promise and my premise both. Hello world: Follow along as I try to figure it all out.
Meanwhile, good news: Calhoun Howard, a book publisher and packager, will be taking on my book The 30-Day Engagement and novella Girl Gets Ghosted. More on this soon! I hope these two stories will turn into a loosely related romance series about the handful of characters that appear in a group chat. Everybody in that scroll of silly remarks deserves a happy ending.