I wrote a little something about bedtime stories for my friend Jeff Hite’s website. Here’s how it begins…
A few nights ago I was sitting with my daughter Sophie, looking through A Children’s Treasury of Mythology. She’s three years old and one of her favorite things is to go through the book and name the various gods and mortals and monsters in Margaret Evans Price excellent illustrations from 1924.
It is a point of pride for my wife and me that our daughter can recognize the Gods by sight.
Bear with me. This post is a long one. I’m making some changes in the next few days and I wanted to take a few minutes to explain why.
I don’t think it’s any secret that I have a day job — I work in Advertising, in case you didn’t know. I’m very fortunate, in that I enjoy what I do and really love the people I work for.
One of my roles in the company where I work is to stay on top of our digital security. It’s a lot of fun and, from time to time, I get to relieve my boyhood fantasies of wanting to be Jeff Bridges’ character from Tron.
(Dork.)
Well . . . mostly, it’s lots of fun. It’s less fun when an Middle Eastern domain pirate targets your company on a Thursday evening. Yes, that really happened a few years back. And, yes, that was a bad couple of weeks for me. I didn’t even have a glowing frisbee to defend myself.
Recently, my company just went through a big security audit. Going through that process got me thinking about some nagging loose ends in my own online life, particularly as it relates to social media.
I’ve been on social media for a relatively long time now. This website has been out there for even longer. Originally, this site and my various social media profiles were meant as an outlet to share my work and make connections with new readers. But, of course, that has evolved significantly. Now I also get to meet very nice people who share my interests and insanity, many of whom are now friends.
A few years back there were a series of events on Facebook which caused me to reassess my approach to all of this. There was no single episode, but a number of small occurrences made me somewhat uncomfortable with the intermingling of my personal and public online life.
In response, I closed my personal profile to new friend requests and set up my fan page for followers, fans, and readers.
Overall, that’s worked pretty well — at least, until recently.
Recently, I’ve found that the boundary that I set between personal and professional life has gotten a bit blurry once again. That’s to be expected, of course. It’s a natural by-product of connecting with people online. I don’t consider it a bad thing at all. But it’s drifting out of my comfort zone once again.
Don’t misunderstand me. I’m quite aware that I am not, by any stretch, a celebrity. I know I don’t have a gazillion followers and fans out there desperate for a glimpse into my soul.
Honestly, I get it.
But I am delighted and grateful that there are a few very nice people out there who like my work and want to connect with me online. Because I genuinely want to connect with them.
On Twitter, anyone can connect with me. My account is open and I really enjoy the connections and friendships that I have made there. And I’m always happy to make new ones.
For my own sanity’s sake, though, I typically try to keep my own feed to around 100 people or so. Any more than that and I have trouble with the signal to noise ratio. So if I don’t follow you back, it’s because I don’t really know you well enough. If we interact often, if you’re nice and funny and interested in the same things I am, then I might end up following you back. No promises. But that’s an open conversation and I’m happy to have it.
Facebook is more . . . problematic. I have a personal profile that I keep pretty well locked down these days. It’s only for family and very, very close friends. Over time, however, I haven’t always been diligent about maintaining that separation. So there’s a lot of other people in there now — some I haven’t seen in years, some who snuck over from Twitter, some who I let in after I’d closed the door.
But not all of these people should have access to, for instance, pictures of my children . . . or listen in on my conversations with my wife.
In fact, almost none of them should.
I like these people. They’re readers, they’re fans, and a few are in that odd category of online-friends-that-I-don’t-really-know-anything-about. They send me very nice notes about how much they like my books, for which I’m very grateful. I appreciate all the support and I’d love to give everyone the benefit of the doubt and assume that they’re all very nice people . . . but the truth is that they’re also strangers.
Nice people, perhaps but still strangers.
None of this is anyone’s fault but my own. I’m not reacting to a single person or a single episode. If anyone did anything wrong, it’s me.
Typically, my Facebook “policy” has been to point people to my public fan page when they send me a Friend Request. More often than not, they don’t follow through. I won’t pretend to assume I know the reason why — or that everyone has the same reason — but it does lead me to want to try and clarify what’s going on here.
I’ve been putting off all of this for a while now, but it’s time. So over the next few days, I’m going to clean things up a bit — repaint the boundaries and make sure that the lines are clear again.
As a result, some people are going to get removed from my personal Facebook.
Some of them might not even notice. Or care. But a few might be hurt by this.
I completely understand and I am sorry.
I wish I could say “this isn’t personal” but that’d be a lie. It’s very personal. Which is why I have to (re)draw those lines.
But, if you’re one of those very nice online-friends-who-also-happen-to-be-strangers, I sincerely hope you’ll understand.
And I hope that you’ll reach out on Twitter or my Fan Page to stay connected.
——-
(ADDING: Again, I know I’m not as special as this might sound. I’m not trying to make myself out to be something precious. I’m not. But my personal life is.)
Boy I can’t believe it’s January 1st already.
It’s been such a hectic year, so much going on. And can you believe how fast the time flies when you’re so . . . wait, what?
It’s the 17th?
Already?
Is it still January, at least?
Well. Okay then.
Erm…
A lot happened last year, most of it unexpected. I still feel like I’m catching up, emotionally and physically, to everything that showed up in 2012.
And then I wonder if it has always been this way, and I’m only just now noticing.
Probably.
I just sent off the last of the pre-Christmas books this morning.
Many thanks to all of you who ordered copies of Assam & Darjeeling, Matters of Mortology, and The Cradle as gifts for family and friends this year. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate all the enthusiasm and support.
Although the holiday sale is over, you can, of course, still order books here.
A new song from Poe, even just a snippet, is always a welcome (and long overdue) surprise.
You heard me. Myrna Loy.If you’re following me on Twitter or Facebook, then you may have seen some recent late night posts about harpies. A few people have asked if this is for a new project, something as yet unannounced.
Yes. Yes it is.
I know I’ve whined about it for a while now but this new project is finally building up some momentum now.
Slowly. But it’s there.
And, as a few of you have figured out: It takes place in the Underworld. Again.
And yes: A few familiar faces are likely to put in an appearance.
(It has a title, this new book. In case you were wondering. But I’m not quite ready to share it yet.)
I have no idea how long this story will take to write. I suspect it’s a long one.
Which means you’ll have to settle for little posts and tidbits that I learn along the way, such as: It turns out that harpies can be rather lovely. Turns out that it’s sirens who are the ugly ones, apparently. But you’re wise to steer clear of both, if it all possible.
The good news is, we have some tentative dates for new books next year.
As it stands right now, my next novel The Red Boy will go on sale in the Spring. I think it’s going to be one that people will like — at least, it’s one I like a lot.
Later in 2013, my book 430 will go on sale just in time for Halloween. This one is probably my most personal work to date. In fact, it’s a memoir.
You heard me.
A few weeks back I managed to drag my rapidly disintegrating frame to the doctor for my annual checkup.
It turns out that my suspicions we correct: I am, in fact, getting old.
The eye test was laughable. I didn’t notice when my right eye decided to stop working (mostly) but it appears that it has.
And x-rays have revealed that my stiff neck is actually arthritis, which is almost certainly affecting the nerves running down my left arm. Which is probably why my arm has recently developed the habit of suddenly going numb or (worse) twisting itself into aching cramps.
I would complain about this sort of thing but I have friends who’ve lost parents and grandparents this year, friends who’ve been diagnosed with cancer and other nasty ailments, friends who struggle every day with every possible disappointment or despair.
And that’s just the people I know. There’s a whole lot of sad in the world, especially these days.
I tend not to take things for granted. Now more than ever.
There’s still time to pick up sale copies of Assam & Darjeeling and Matters of Mortology — but you really should order today if you want to get them in time for the holidays.
Lots of people have been buying them for friends and family as gifts this year. And each purchase comes with a free eBook version as well.
In recent days, some folks have noticed that I’ve been mentioning harpies on my Facebook page. I’m working on a new book, hence these little glimpses of the story. There will be more as I go along.
This morning I was looking over my blogroll, in particular one of the comic book blogs I read regularly, and ran across this:
This sort of thing can ruin my whole day.
For what it’s worth, I stopped reading The Unwritten a few years back. It’s not a bad book but just wasn’t my cup of tea. But it’s one people seem to like a lot.
Which makes my discovery this morning all the more irritating.
This all the time. I wish I could say I’m used to it. But now I’m torn: do I go back to the comic so I can be sure that the plans I’ve had for this new book don’t lead me down a similar path as what Mike Carey is doing . . . or do I let it go and trust the story I’ve been given?
At the end of the day, you have to trust the story.
Kids at the nearby shopping centre sometimes heckle, Moore says, calling him God, or Jesus, “which I’ll take, because Jesus died at 33 and they’ve obviously mistaken me for a much younger man”.