What We're Writing Week: Julia is Catching Up and Checking Out

 JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Don't be alarmed by the title; I'm not checking out of hotels or my day to day activities. I used the phrase because I love me some alliteration, and the writing I've been doing lately is all of a sort - reaching out to readers.

 

I have to admit, when I was pouring over issues of WRITERS DIGEST and reading mystery novels to learn the craft, I never expected the life of the author to involve so much, well, communication. Ironically, many of us are well suited as writers because we love to sit in a small room by ourselves and not have to talk to anyone. We're not misanthropes - a visit to any mystery conference will disabuse you of that idea - but we all like spending a lot of interior time. I suppose if we didn't turn to the written word, a lot of us would do well as contemplative monks (although Jenn and Hank and Rhys would be HIGHLY energetic ascetics.)

 

But I began my career at the dawn of the social media age. The first change was the author website, which enabled readers, for the first time, to connect to their favorite writers without showing up at a bookstore or library. As more and more people got online, we switched from physical newsletters (yes! I had one, done by a lovely local printing business!) to email newsletters. 

 

Then came the social media sites that are now part of our day-to-day lives. I can't recall if anyone was using MySpace professionally (anyone remember how big MySpace was for about five minutes?) but once Facebook stopped being just for college students, the whole world joined up, and authors came in droves as well. Then, for a while, the novelty of YouTube meant Book Trailers - a whole business popped up around producing them! Facebook stayed, and grew, but YouTube was quickly colonized by content producers putting out stuff that was, let's face it, much more entertaining than book trailers, so authors migrated to the cool new world of Instagram.

 

You also had to be on Goodreads, and LibraryThing, and everyone became bloggers, and it was about then when you'd start to hear writers huddled together at conferences asking each other how much social media was the right amount, and how did everyone manage to get any actual, you know, writing done while also posting and mailing and Tweeting and commenting.

 

Don't even get me started on Tik Tok. No. Not gonna go there.

 

Most of us have settled down to a few, reliable ways to connect with our readers, in part because EVERYONE has gotten a bit tired and jaded with the social media world. Quality, not quantity, has become the new standard. Which leads me to my catching up - on FB comments and writers' emails, and checking out - other authors' newsletters, because I'm restarting my own NEWS FROM THE KILL and I want to make sure it's up to date; ie, giving readers what they want and nothing they don't.

 

So, dear readers, tell me: what sites online do you find gives you the best value when interacting with writers? And, if you subscribe to any, what do you like to see in author newsletters?

On Photographs

LUCY BURDETTE: It’s kind of a mixed blessing that everyone has a camera at their fingertips these days. On the one hand, we get to see things that we'd never see otherwise – special romantic moments, pet antics, cute kids, concerts. And it sure helps when your kids and grandkids don't live close by. But at the same time I wonder about missing the boat that is life because I am so busy taking pictures and posting them to Facebook or Instagram or Twitter. Sometimes I leave the iPhone at home just to stay the moment (OK. Not often...) 

But from time to time I have not had my camera at a moment when I really wished I did. For example, John and I were walking to the Cuban coffee queen a couple of weeks ago. Chickens are ubiquitous in Key West. There’s even an ordinance that protects them from harm. And tourists go mad over them, so I don’t that often pay them much attention, although I do comment on especially handsome roosters. 



(The video above is not the one I missed, not quite as spectacular, but cute..) But on that morning I saw a very wide hen spread out on the sidewalk. So wide, it was like a chicken pancake. “I wonder if something’s wrong her?” I asked John. And as we watched for a moment, she stood up, and out from under her wide spread feathers rushed 10 tiny chicks. I so wished I had had my camera set on video for that moment. It would have gone viral! 

And here's a photo I would hate to have missed (Me with Judy Blume, yes that Judy Blume, and she's selling my books.)

Reds, how do you feel about the constant stream of photos we're bombarded with? Are you a photographer? Tell us about one of your favorites. 




HALLIE EPHRON: I wish you'd had a camera too for that hen. 

I love all the pictures and videos and how easy it is to take and share. Our kids are constantly sending them of the grandkids. It's almost like being there. Here's a video they sent us of our adorable grandson... there's nothing to it but my oh my it makes me smile.



  JENN McKINLAY: Pics or it didn't happen! Just kidding. Honestly, I love the constant stream of images. My family is all on the east coast and yet I still feel close because we share pictures, videos, and texts all the time. When the Hooligans take flight from the nest, I know it will be hard but staying connected through pictures will make it much more bearable.

RHYS BOWEN: I have just come home from an all day photo shoot. Six hours of sitting in front of a camera. My face is really tired of smiling so I may be a little anti-photo at this minute. But I do agree that sometimes we spend so much time taking pix that we lose the moment. I loved taking pictures of the grandkids when they were small. I take zillions every holiday with the family and I do enjoy looking at those. But sometimes when we travel now I leave it to John to take the pictures.

INGRID THOFT: I love that we have the means to capture our lives on film, but I agree with Lucy that it can take away from the experience if you’re too focused on the documenting rather than the living!  That said, nothing makes me smile more than getting a text showing my niece in her Halloween costume or my nephew in his bow tie before his band concert.  

In addition to family pictures, my favorites are the photos and video my husband takes underwater.  The slide shows of our snorkeling and scuba diving excursions are a huge hit in our extended family, and it makes me so happy to look at the pictures on our walls and see reminders of far flung locations like Fiji and the Great Barrier Reef.  The creatures aren’t all as cute as the nieces and nephews, but we have a soft spot for them!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  Well, I love them. I know it's distracting, and yes, there's the constant thought that we aren't living in the present, or seeing things--but just taking a photo of it. Where was I recently, some event, and all you could see were peoples' camera/phones. They had the lens between them and reality. And the Selfie Kid at the Super Bowl--there's Justin Timberlake, dancing right next to him in the stands--and all he can think about his getting a photo.  I fear I might have done the same thing.

But I adore family photos, cannot get enough of them, and it doesn't have to be my own family.  When we were on vacation last week, there were wild monkeys in the back yard of the house we rented, and I took about a zillion photos of them. (Here's one in a tree.) . And wow, when someone captures a once in a lifetime moment? 

Like--here's Sue Grafton asking me to sign my book to her! I mean--thank goodness for someone who had a camera at the ready!

I am aware that I'm not always a "good" photographer--my pics are more like happy snaps. But I try.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I am ever more not a photographer. Back in college I spent the summer in Italy, and took five pictures. Five. My sister Barb, on the other hand, takes pictures of everything! She's put together some wonderful small photo books of her and the boys' visits to Maine, and given them to me. I love them. 

Now that everyone has a camera in their pocket, I have upped my quotient. I think I took ten pictures on our recent vacation in Hawaii! I focus (no pun intended) on images of family or friends, in part because I have a very good memory for places and sights. I don't have any photos of Victoria Falls from my 1998 safari, but I have a complete memory of sitting on a rock and watching the water roar by - the sound and the damp and the lightness of the sky. On the other hand, I find it hard to conjure up what the Smithie looked like as a toddler. I need a camera for that! 

Here's one I particularly love - the family in front of Paradise Pond, on the Smith campus. It's Ivy Day, the day before graduation, and all the girls wear white. It's a nice picture of the five of us, and it also takes me back to that event, and how happy and proud I was.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I worry a lot about documenting when I should be appreciating, especially when I am traveling. It's hard to strike a balance. But there are moments when I am so glad I just happened to have my phone handy, when I would never have had a "real" camera at the ready. Here's one from last fall, of my granddaughter discovering the chicks on a trip with me to the local feed store.  

And here's another, of a red bud leaf floating on our pond, that I would never have captured if I hadn't had my phone in my pocket.

 

Red readers, are you fans of the instant photos and videos we see all around us? Or do you see a dark side? Or both?

Managing Time Online

LUCY BURDETTE: As you guys heard yesterday, I went seven days without email, phone, texts, and Internet last month. Seven days! Remember when none of us had any email at all? But I was nervous about it. I like staying connected. And once you get connected, you worry about what you're going to miss when you're not. But on this trip, there was no choice. So to get ready, first I unsubscribed from a lot of newsletters and promotional emails. Then I put all my yahoo groups on hold.

Then, goodbye Facebook.
 
So long Twitter.

I'll miss you Pinterest.

Don't forget me, Gmail.

Oh, what will I miss while I'm gone Jungle Reds?

During the trip, it was interesting to notice the many times when there was a pause in the action. These were times when I would've been thumbing through my email messages, my text messages, my Facebook posts, and so on. And there were plenty of times when questions came up about Cuba that ordinarily we would've Googled, but we had no Wi-Fi. No Google maps to check directions.

The experience was good in some ways: I was forced to do what the yoga teachers are always advising— stay in the moment. And it was good to realize how much time does get eaten up with all my various social media networks. And then to notice how my free time might be better spent unspooling knotty problems in the book that's due next month. Being online is a time sink!
So question for the day red, how do you manage your time online? Are the rewards worth the cost? Just don't say you're going to quit coming to the blog…

HALLIE EPHRON: We went to a nature preserve on Trinidad (the fabulous Asa Wright Center) and I remember sitting in the room, just sitting, and feeling so peaceful and centered once I'd gotten used to being disconnected. On a day to day basis, I do not manage it well at all. Oh, I know HOW to manage it. I just don't because e-mail and messages and facebook... they're like a narcotic. Worst of all, they make you feel like you're doing work when you're not. (Like now...)

RHYS BOWEN: My days have to start with email, the Facebook, then Jungle Reds, then sometimes Twitter, Goodreads, Amazon to check my stats. Only after all that can I have breakfast and start to write. The problem is that social media has been so incredibly good to me and for me. I never dreamed that I could say something and have ten thousand people respond to me instantly. One post recently got 16,000 visits. And I actually love getting feedback from my readers, hearing what their Christmas traditions are, their favorite books.

Earlier this year I was on a cruise and only checked e-mail a couple of times. I can't say I missed it or stood at the Grand Canal in Venice thinking "I wonder what's happening on Facebook now." But I've found that the one day I ignore my emails I find three messages from editor or agent saying "The printers need to know by tomorrow" or "we've had a request for an interview from xxx and they can only do it on xxx."

So I stay connected.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Oh, Rhys, yes, the dreaded missed email. ALWAYS. And I guess I am now accepting the reality for me--that it's a part of my life that I'm not really interested in undoing. Don't get me wrong--getting control of it is a beast! Because i can so easily get lured into Facebook and Twitter and doing "one more thing!" and making one more comment--and it's fun, you know?  

I now set a writing timer, for 30 minutes, and I don't allow myself to do anything but write. Then I can check emails. That lets me relax because that I wont miss anything,but my monkey-brain won't swing off to something else until the timer dings.Then I get five minutes, and I set the timer again.
(I know--everything that's important I learned in kindergarten.) 

DEBORAH CROMBIE:  I got so far behind on email and social media when I was on book tour that I'm still trying to catch up. (Hank, you are amazing. Could you share a little Hank-being-in-a-dozen-places-at-once-ness with the rest of us, please???) Maybe I'm having such a hard time catching up because I find I don't really mind being unconnected--although I miss keeping up with my friends on Facebook and seeing what's happening on Jungle Red... But more and more often I'm taking an unofficial "internet sabbath" on Sundays, and there's a great sense of freedom in not checking my phone all day. The phone for me is a worse time-sink than the computer. Is that true for everyone else that has smart phones, too? 

Reds, how do you do it?? Tips? Nightmare stories? We'd love to hear!