Would Anyone Notice if I Quit Social Media?

Guest post
by Emma Meade

In the past 12 months I have spent countless hours of my life on Twitter, Facebook and Goodreads. I’ve roamed around the blogosphere reading posts, leaving comments, tweeting links to interesting articles and writing for my own blog. If I were to delete every online account of mine tomorrow, would anyone notice or care? Being honest, I’d have to admit few would. And why should they? I have many blogs I enjoy, people on Twitter whose tweets and links amuse me, but if they upped and quit the virtual world and I never read another blog post or tweet from them again, I wouldn’t be broken-hearted, at least not for very long. Continue reading “Would Anyone Notice if I Quit Social Media?”

Danse Macabre

Have you ever had to pick out a casket for a loved one?

I have. This doubtful honor is a right of passage for many family members. The memory of this event is often surreal. Its grim reality weighs heavily on us, demanding stoic posture and the composure of a Vulcan. We fight to submerge the horror and the pain that goes along with it. If you are the one making the decisions, the needs of the living and the recently deceased outweigh the personal luxury of mourning.

For others, a staggering loss compels them to write, to record every vivid detail. They create a memoir of the event for their own release and to “entertain” others. This response confuses me and makes me wonder: is it because the words come easily to them, or is each one, as they are to me, a stiletto of exquisite pain they can somehow endure? What is the best medicine if your heart is an open wound? Is the exercise of recording such personal experiences viable as more than a personal exorcism? Will readers other than your friends and family care? Consider a scene in my own hell. Continue reading “Danse Macabre”

Featured Author: HK Savage

HK lives in the frozen hinterlands of the far North. The long, cold months provide ample opportunity to hunker down with her computer and create adventures far more enticing than scraping ice and getting frostbite.

Between books (she writes under two names), HK reads voraciously. Anything with a good plot and compelling characters are her broad parameters. One is as likely to catch her with a copy of Don Quixote as with the latest in Gail Carriger’s steampunk series.

HK practices martial arts, rides her horse, gardens and plays with her family every chance she gets. Next winter she intends to brush up on her Spanish and escape the cold for somewhere more tropical. Continue reading “Featured Author: HK Savage”

When I Find Myself In Times of Trouble …

Recent weeks, months even, have brought much controversy and angst to the Indie writers’ world. It has brought a whole new meaning to the term ‘sturm und drang’. Conversations on posts, Facebook, Twitter and other social media abound with laments, anger, anxiety and cries of ‘foul’. Continue reading “When I Find Myself In Times of Trouble …”