Hello, everyone.
This coming November I will celebrate my 72nd birthday. Even as I contemplate another year in my life, I have to wonder, where did the time go? Seems like only yesterday I was a vigorous thirty-year-old woman with two kids. I had a lot on my plate, but managed to get it all done in the time required. When the boys were on their own, I turned my energies to writing--something I'd wanted to do for a long time. My father wrote short stories. I found them in a folder when I was a teenager. After he passed away, I made sure they were always in a safe place. By today's standards, his stories are pretty awful what with POV and dialogue, but the fact is they gave me the push I needed to pen my own. I had my first book published in 2010 and all I could think of was how proud Dad would have been.
Last week, my oldest son and his three sons came for their summer visit. Naturally, the final edits for Judge Not landed in my inbox and a few days later, the first round edits for Killer Country Club joined them. Not wanting to miss family time, I put off doing anything with them. Have to face the music now and get to work. But one thing stood out this past week. When my company returned home, I realized I was exhausted. It took two days to recover. And I had no inclination to do my job. Those two book edits are still waiting. I have to face the fact I no longer have the stamina I did even five years ago. And while my general health is good, I'm beginning to discover little aches and pains that weren't there last year. Plus, I've found I'm having a hard time focusing on what I should do, and instead squander hours on nonsense like social media and gaming.
In view of this, I came to a reluctant conclusion. After these two books are released, I will take a break from writing. So what if I only write five hundred words a week just to keep my mind active. I'm sure that one day I'll find my muse again and have at it. But for now, I'm sick of deadlines.
I also made another decision. This will be my last blog entry. I've had a ball this past five-plus years, but it's time to call it quits. I've struggled for several months on subject matter and honestly feel I've been lacking. I'm going to miss all of you. Smart Girls Read Romance is a terrific outlet for both readers and writers. I hope I've given you a few laughs and smiles along the way. To readers, I hope I've shown you a glimpse of what it's like to be an author. To my fellow writers, I hope I've imparted some of my knowledge and experiences to help you along the way--or to have you nod your heads in agreement and say, "Yeah, I can relate to that!"
I'll still read SGRR and make the occasional comment. Who knows? When my head is screwed on straight again, I may crawl on my hands and knees begging Caroline Clemmons for another go at blogging.
Finally, I'd like to thank you all for your support, comments, and readership.
So long, farewell, auf weidersein, adeiu, and good-bye--at least for now.
Suzanne
Showing posts with label Judge Not. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Judge Not. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 30, 2019
Thursday, May 30, 2019
Social Media Ain't So Social Anymore by Suzanne Rossi
Hello everyone.
I hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day. Our weekend was very quiet, which was how we planned it.
I think I've blogged about social media before, but now it's time to take another crack at it.
I've been on Facebook and Twitter for over ten years. I enjoyed catching up with old friends and relatives who live a thousand miles away. But that is slowly changing. The "hello, how are you" of Facebook is no longer there. The trivial and silly "Had bacon and eggs for breakfast" of Twitter is a thing of the past. And the reason for this is the sites have been politically weaponized. It's impossible to log into either of them without politics rearing its ugly head. And the saddest part is that both have encouraged the process.
Let's start with Twitter. What began as a simple avenue to let others know about you has developed into an arena of raging politics. Most of the tweets coming over my news feed are political in nature. Now, I don't mind people indulging in their opinions online. If I don't agree, I can scroll by and ignore it. The problem is the vitriol has gotten out of control. And the content of the tweets is questionable as to being the truth. It's hard to separate fact from fiction. Recently, even the site itself has come under fire for implementing its political inclinations into the mix. Many users have been suspended or banned for stating their beliefs. Twitter used the art of "shadow banning" wherein what you have tweeted is shown in your news feed, but not in others. Therefore, your statistics on retweets, likes, and replies take a serious dip. Twitter has also taken it upon themselves to delete some of your followers, so those numbers change, too.
To be honest, I no longer promote my books on Twitter and I notice fewer and fewer authors doing the same. I'll also admit that I'm politically opinionated and frequently use the site to air those opinions, but not under my author moniker.
Facebook became the social media darling. Users could connect with high school or college friends and distant relatives. It took the place of e-mail, which took the place of the telephone, which shoved an old-fashioned letter right out the door. It was instant communication on a large platform. It was fun. I have two FB pages--one professional and one personal.
But in the last few years, Facebook has also has come under the gun for dubious business actions. When you sign up for Facebook, you list a lot of personal data on the site--e-mail, where you went to school, city of residence, even phone numbers. It turns out that FB was selling that data to others. Suddenly, the robocalls skyrocketed as did the unsolicited e-mails from various companies trying to sell their products. The sad part is, the ability for them to do this is laid out right in front of us with the "Terms of Service." You know, that unbelievably long statement in legalese that nobody other than a lawyer can understand. Does anybody really plow through all that and read it? No. We simply hit the accept button and move on. About a year or so ago, I went through my privacy settings and turned off as many as possible.
Facebook has another trick they play on their users--they regulate which postings you see. Yep. They use an algorithm to determine which of your "friends" postings are shown first. Now, I'm not sure what an algorithm is--it's got something to do with math and computers. I'm lucky I can turn my laptop on, let alone understand how all this works. However, I have about 350 "friends" yet often only see the same 25 or 30 people popping up in my news feed. And some of those people have very strong political opinions that are opposite of mine. I rarely answer and scroll past, but every day, there they are again. If I haven't seen "Mary's" postings in a while, I go to her timeline and discover the section called, "Posts you may not have seen." She's posting--it's just not showing up on my page. Now, when I friend a person, I do so with the expectation of seeing their posts. Not seeing them leaves me feeling cheated.
As a result of all of this, I've cut back my time on Facebook, too. I try to post updates on my writing and my books, my everyday life, and of course, funny sayings. Occasionally, I post something political, but make the attempt to keep it general in nature.
There are other social platforms out there. One is gab.com. It was started by someone sick and tired of censorship on Twitter and Facebook. There are no rules. People can post whatever they like without fear of being reprimanded by the site. The only censorship is what the user feels is necessary. He or she can mute another user and not see their posts. But beware--Gab by its very nature of no censorship is filled with hate groups. You have to decide what to mute. I find I'm not using it as much as I did when I first signed up 6 months ago. Can't stand the negativity or the ugliness of the words.
I also recently heard about a new site called "Parler." I have no idea how it is set up, but will check it out soon.
On the upside, I just finished my final edits for Judge Not. I'll have a release date soon. I also am happy to announce I received a contract for Killer Country Club, book #4 of the Snoop Group series.
Hope everyone is sliding from Spring into Summer gracefully. I've been looking forward to warm weather for months. Have a good one and I'll see you in June.
Suzanne
I hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day. Our weekend was very quiet, which was how we planned it.
I think I've blogged about social media before, but now it's time to take another crack at it.
I've been on Facebook and Twitter for over ten years. I enjoyed catching up with old friends and relatives who live a thousand miles away. But that is slowly changing. The "hello, how are you" of Facebook is no longer there. The trivial and silly "Had bacon and eggs for breakfast" of Twitter is a thing of the past. And the reason for this is the sites have been politically weaponized. It's impossible to log into either of them without politics rearing its ugly head. And the saddest part is that both have encouraged the process.
Let's start with Twitter. What began as a simple avenue to let others know about you has developed into an arena of raging politics. Most of the tweets coming over my news feed are political in nature. Now, I don't mind people indulging in their opinions online. If I don't agree, I can scroll by and ignore it. The problem is the vitriol has gotten out of control. And the content of the tweets is questionable as to being the truth. It's hard to separate fact from fiction. Recently, even the site itself has come under fire for implementing its political inclinations into the mix. Many users have been suspended or banned for stating their beliefs. Twitter used the art of "shadow banning" wherein what you have tweeted is shown in your news feed, but not in others. Therefore, your statistics on retweets, likes, and replies take a serious dip. Twitter has also taken it upon themselves to delete some of your followers, so those numbers change, too.
To be honest, I no longer promote my books on Twitter and I notice fewer and fewer authors doing the same. I'll also admit that I'm politically opinionated and frequently use the site to air those opinions, but not under my author moniker.
Facebook became the social media darling. Users could connect with high school or college friends and distant relatives. It took the place of e-mail, which took the place of the telephone, which shoved an old-fashioned letter right out the door. It was instant communication on a large platform. It was fun. I have two FB pages--one professional and one personal.
But in the last few years, Facebook has also has come under the gun for dubious business actions. When you sign up for Facebook, you list a lot of personal data on the site--e-mail, where you went to school, city of residence, even phone numbers. It turns out that FB was selling that data to others. Suddenly, the robocalls skyrocketed as did the unsolicited e-mails from various companies trying to sell their products. The sad part is, the ability for them to do this is laid out right in front of us with the "Terms of Service." You know, that unbelievably long statement in legalese that nobody other than a lawyer can understand. Does anybody really plow through all that and read it? No. We simply hit the accept button and move on. About a year or so ago, I went through my privacy settings and turned off as many as possible.
Facebook has another trick they play on their users--they regulate which postings you see. Yep. They use an algorithm to determine which of your "friends" postings are shown first. Now, I'm not sure what an algorithm is--it's got something to do with math and computers. I'm lucky I can turn my laptop on, let alone understand how all this works. However, I have about 350 "friends" yet often only see the same 25 or 30 people popping up in my news feed. And some of those people have very strong political opinions that are opposite of mine. I rarely answer and scroll past, but every day, there they are again. If I haven't seen "Mary's" postings in a while, I go to her timeline and discover the section called, "Posts you may not have seen." She's posting--it's just not showing up on my page. Now, when I friend a person, I do so with the expectation of seeing their posts. Not seeing them leaves me feeling cheated.
As a result of all of this, I've cut back my time on Facebook, too. I try to post updates on my writing and my books, my everyday life, and of course, funny sayings. Occasionally, I post something political, but make the attempt to keep it general in nature.
There are other social platforms out there. One is gab.com. It was started by someone sick and tired of censorship on Twitter and Facebook. There are no rules. People can post whatever they like without fear of being reprimanded by the site. The only censorship is what the user feels is necessary. He or she can mute another user and not see their posts. But beware--Gab by its very nature of no censorship is filled with hate groups. You have to decide what to mute. I find I'm not using it as much as I did when I first signed up 6 months ago. Can't stand the negativity or the ugliness of the words.
I also recently heard about a new site called "Parler." I have no idea how it is set up, but will check it out soon.
On the upside, I just finished my final edits for Judge Not. I'll have a release date soon. I also am happy to announce I received a contract for Killer Country Club, book #4 of the Snoop Group series.
Hope everyone is sliding from Spring into Summer gracefully. I've been looking forward to warm weather for months. Have a good one and I'll see you in June.
Suzanne
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)