From 2011

Shame isn’t something I’m generally accustomed to feeling. Not long ago, though, entirely by accident, one of my dear friends shamed me. It sounds rather silly, to be honest, but it’s true.

I was reading her blog (a worthwhile past time on any day, but especially those when you need to be uplifted) and she had done an interview about her brand new novel that’s about to come out.

As is typical in these interviews, they asked about her background. Now, I know this particular friend has written her whole life. But there was one line that truly blew my mind.

Between the ages of eight and twenty-five, I was a poet.

Do you remember the not so long go good old days where if you wanted to find out what books were coming out from our favorite authors, you had to drive to the bookstore and look on their big board above the cash register for the release dates?  

I used to love that moment when I saw one of my favorite author's books on that placard. The ones I absolutely must buy, I'd pre-order. It took me a while to realize the new books arrived on Tuesdays, but when I did, I started putting a quick bookstore stop (it was a Waldenbooks back then) on my calendar.

Neil Gaiman has announced he'll be taking a six month social media sabbatical starting in January 2014. When I read the story in the Guardian this morning, I couldn't help but cheer for him. 

Every year, during Lent, I take a social media sabbatical. I preload a bunch of links, I warn everyone I'll be gone, and I disappear. I've done this every year for the past three, and each year I write somewhere between 50-70K works (1/2-3/4 of a normal sized commercial novel.) So I know that social media impacts my time, dramatically.

I have a love/hate relationship with social media.