Taking a break from Social Media

September has been a hectic month, hence the absence of regular blog posts. It started with a road trip to the WPA in North Carolina and ended with a road trip to Howell in Michigan for a wedding. Add in family visiting from England, and my daughter gearing up for her departure for a six month internship in Berlin, and it’s easy to understand how the month has passed with little productivity on the latest manuscript or with the preparations for the next book release (The Anniversary due in December).

That’s okay, though, because it’s been a lot of fun and an opportunity to stoke the imagination while indulging in my passion for travel. It also gave me a chance to step back from the lure of social media which seemed to be taking up more and more of my time for little reward. Whether I will be able to stick to my vow to reduce the amount of time I spend online remains to be seen, but I’m encouraged by the fact that although I had a laptop with me on my travels, it was rarely switched on!

Initially I had planned to blog about my journeys en-route, until I discovered I’d forgot to pack the cable which links my camera to my computer and wouldn’t be able to add any pictures. I suppose this is one argument in favor of having a smartphone, instead of a cellphone so old, it’s probably a miracle I can still make calls on it, let alone take photos. However, at least it means that I’m not running the risk of being one of those annoying people who pull out their phone every few minutes no matter where they are.

While I will admit social media has its advantages, life seemed to work quite well before the advent of smartphones and tablets, so in this regard I’m somewhat of a dinosaur who doesn’t quite understand why there is such a pressing need to be connected at all times.

What do you think?  

Summer Reading

I'm an avid reader, rarely without a book, so I sometimes forget that not everyone is such a fan of reading. However, since becoming an author, I'm constantly surprised by how many people say they only read fiction while on vacation.

I find myself wondering what they do with their time if they don't read, which is silly really because they presumably have their own hobbies of choice, or they watch television, play computer games or hang out on social media sites. There are so many alternatives to reading and only so much time in the day to do them. 

Vacations used to take people completely away from their usual routines and often their hobbies so it made sense that this might be the time when they would pick up a good book or two while relaxing on the beach, round the pool or at the lake, because there was not much else to do.

Summer has traditionally been a good time for book sales, especially of those books which fit into the 'beach-read' category. But with the advent of laptops, tablets and smart phones, and more and more places offering Wi-Fi, I have to wonder what effect this will have on summer reading. While e-readers may tempt dedicated readers to load up with more books than they might otherwise carry on vacation, tablets and smart phones may just as easily tempt those less obsessed readers away from books altogether.

What do you think? Would the ability to be able to be connected to your social networks, watch online news etc., reduce your reading time on vacation? Or do you like to disconnect from the electronic world while on vacation?

To Tweet Or Not To Tweet

Just over a month ago, I joined Twitter. It wasn’t an easy decision as I already felt overwhelmed by the amount of social media that I was involved in, but having seen numerous suggestions that Twitter was the way to get some recognition as an author, I decided I should really give it a go.