This is my new website. It’s lovely. I very much enjoy looking at it. If it could float in virtual space, as-is, for all time, without my having to lift a cursor-finger to it, I would be absolutely delighted. But no. I have to write stuff, now that it’s here. I have to contribute content. This idea doesn’t bore, offend or irritate me: it terrifies me.
I’m not a technophobe. True, up until a couple of months ago I wrote my first drafts entirely in longhand – but ever since I fell off my horse on the road to Damascus, clutching a MacBook Air, I’ve been learning to enjoy composing on-screen. And I’ve done the website thing before, once upon a time, when my second book had just come out. I was pretty good at keeping the site up-to-date: I even had a forum where actual readers posted actual thoughts about my books – but when spammers began to outnumber readers, I shut it down. I joined sffworld.com and posted enthusiastically – for a while.
It’s this “for a while” thing that’s so telling.
My shrill, foot-stampy rationalizations have included:
I have a day job! For much of the year I have a night job too! I have a house, a tall science fiction writer, two kids, four cats and a couple of rabbits to maintain! When I’m not working, teaching or dealing with piano lessons and kibble-buying, I like to write a little, maybe! I don’t have time for a website!
But, though all of these points are valid, they’re not why I’m afraid of my new website, either.
Here’s why.
I fear that I’ll post fluffy and/or self-serving and/or mundane things, and…I fear that I’ll enjoy this.
Dumb, fluffy fears – and anyway, my third book is only months away from publication. So here I am, taking on ego and Internet in one fell (if wobbly) swoop.
I’m anticipating that I’ll post fairly frequently – for a while…
So come back, now and then. You just might see me fall off my horse again.
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