The Social Media Meltdown

(Or why I gave up on certain social platforms and am watching the Twitter meltdown with amusement.)

I used to have a twitter. Back when it was nascent, growing and something popular for fanfic authors to potentially have. It was the late 2000s...and then I gave up on it like after 2 weeks because it was a little too much to keep up with. FOMO - in hindsight.

In order to keep your audience you had to keep up your twitter, write random thoughts, and possibly expose yourself to the world. Not to mention all of your social feeds will be preserved by the wayback machine. Anyways, I gave up on Twitter after 2 weeks because I just didn't want to invite that much scrutiny into both my online and private life.

Now with the Twitter meltdown, re-org, ad-revenue fiasco happening, it's amusing to see the platform that professional authors, agents and fanfic writers use (and agents definitely pitch this HARD when they ask you if you have a social presence - so do a lot of authors). It makes me wonder what happens when Twitter starts their $8 subscription for that fabled blue check mark.

As an author, I ain't paying that shit. I'm already paying to host my website and this blog. I'm not spending money on something that someone could easily impersonate me. Partially also why I don't have a big of a social presence both in my real name and pen name. I want to be able to control my social posts...not pay for someone to control my social posts as much as possible.

Also - if we start nickle and diming things that used to be free...well, something's going to give and social presence is a small price to pay (as is giving up some of the digital media platforms like Netflix, etc.).

Back in the Saddle

Back in the saddle to write Book 4 and get it out by end of 2023.

I hit both a writer's block and burnout from the events of the ongoing pandemic right after I published Book 3. So I stopped and wrote some fanfiction instead just to let my brain rest and simply play with characters and narratives that I couldn't do within the framework of the 2nd Light series.

Now I feel more confident, feel much better (though it's still a healing process with the ongoing pandemic) and am ready to continue to write.

In hilarious news: I had forgotten how atrocious Tallmadge's hand writing is in his letters. Ugh.