Blog 5.14.24

Yesterday was rainy and dark. Today it looks like the world is in Technicolor. Sun is out, birds are chirping. The greens are greening and the blue is bluing. I’ve been working all morning on my author website, and I think I’m going to take a walk before I start writing today. It’s just too nice not to.

I’ve been trying to build social media accounts for my nom de plume. This is purely a marketing effort, which is probably why it feels so tedious. Being a creative person in 2024 means you don’t get to just work on your art. You also have to also be a marketing/PR person. Which is fine. I’ve done it for decades for other people, so I can do it myself. It’s just… work. And it feels like work. Even my personal social media accounts feel like an obligation these days.

Every time I sit down to check social media I feel at a loss for what to say. Maybe I’ve just said so much online for so long, it feels pointless. After all, I have very little to show for 20+ years of posting on various social media platforms. And the platforms have changed. Back when I started out, people were less clique-y, more adventurous. There were no shitty algorithms. No gauntlet of ads to get through. It was a place where people went to get away from the normies. Now, my feeds are primarily brands and soapboxers. Also, people who dislike reason even more than reading. (I literally saw a thread this very morning where the OP had to go through dozens of comments and ask each one ‘did you read the link?’ because people were commenting about what they thought she meant. What a goddamn waste of time.)

Again, Mastodon is my favorite place to be online, socially. But marketing is not social, and that’s my task at hand. (Marketing is actually antisocial, but I won’t go into that here). Anyway, I guess I’ll keep plugging away at it. Til now I haven’t been actively pushing my new social accounts because I was waiting to finish my new website. It’s done, so I guess this is welcome mat for anyone who wants to connect with me as Daniela Quirke, too.