"Be brave enough to be bad at something new," or so said Jon Acuff. So, today I decided to brave and be not just bad, but very bad at something new: today I would create my author website. A bit late, some may think, since my first novel was published back in 1998. I could claim I'm just late to the game, but in truth I'd tried this endeavor before (more times than I'd care to admit) and each time had given up after hours of hair-pulling, obscenity-spewing frustration at the grim reality that I am a tried and true, dyed in the wool Luddite. I'd fully accepted the unhappy fact that I would never have my own author page, at least not one I'd created from scratch. No. That would have to wait until I could pay someone to set one up for me, which meant, in essence, never. I'm not cheap. I'm just not fully onboard with paying someone to do something I should be able to do myself if I just applied myself (this mindset has largely served me well: I can now fix most home plumbing issues, service my own car, and the like).
Then, during the night, the perfect name for my website came to me: The Periodic Fable. I make no claim that this name is 100% original. Others have thought of it too, a fact brought home to me when I tried to create a new gmail account with that name (so that my website and contact address were matchy-matchy). Nope. Already taken. I ran through various variations, and all those were taken as well. Then I tried MyPeriodicFable--and it was available! Kismet! I was meant to create my author website today, a daunting task if ever there was one, with the added impetus (read: panic) that I must do it before anyone else grabbed the name for their own author site and associated mail address.
So, after (far too many) hours spent at the task, it's finally up and running--ta-da! Still working out the wrinkles, still finding myself yelling at my hapless monitor far too much, but it's up. And what of the war between imagination and reality? What I imagined is now reality, so both sides can reasonably claim victory, as can Team Luddite. Huzzah!
I'm not so vain or egocentric to assume this site will attract people in droves, each and every one overly eager to read my words of wisdom. I find it laughable (and a little sad) how many bloggers out there really think others are hanging on their every word. I doubt I'll have many visitors and that's okay because that's not really the point, at least at this point. Plus it gives me time to figure things out. As an author you are expected to have a social media presence, a "platform", not to mention a website, and to carry the burden of promoting your work. Long gone are the days when marketing/promoting were the obligation of one's publisher and the author was free to concentrate on his/her/their writing. Now it's the author's job to not only create but to sell the fruits of their creation nonstop and I freely admit I am terrible at self-promotion. I simply hate it. I also hate that no matter where you turn on social media, someone is trying to sell you something (and I'm not referring to all the data miners tracking your every move so they can target ads to get you to buy the last item you looked at on ebay or on some online store--don't get me started on them).
This website will serve as another venue to promote my work, certainly, but I don't envision it being its primary purpose. I do plan on using this website to examine issues that relate to my writing, my characters and the worlds they inhabit. I have a short story (more a novella) that I might post here, rather than shop it around to publishers. Basically, I want this to be a sandbox of ideas that is open to any who stop by and care to contribute (polite comments welcome; rude comments will earn the perpetrator a one-way ticket to the nearest black hole).
And now, my long suffering dogs (which I'm sure will feature prominently in future posts)and after a day of listening to me swear and curse and threaten great bodily harm to the developers of this site (sorry!) and agreeing wholeheartedly to my litany of complaints, are telling me they've earned their suppers. So have I.
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