I am one of those people who always tries to find the right opportunity to say, “thanks”, “I appreciate your thoughtfulness”, “nice job”,
As the launch of my third novel, The Third Hole fast approaches, I will continue to share some of my interesting experiences with you.
Some months ago my publisher sent me sites and blogs that they thought I should connect to – to see how it’s done by experts, to add to my data base, to try and generate an interest in my upcoming book and to just network.
I’m sure you all remember my two-part blog about this grandmother and my desperate attempts to learn how to communicate via the new social media. And the only reason that the disaster I created didn’t last more than the first week was because of the genius son, Stuart. But I digress.
Once I figured out how to connect and then how to hit ‘like’ or ‘send a message’ in the proper way, I was off! I sent out nice two-or three liners like…
“just read your blog, liked it”
“what an interesting story you have told – am looking forward to reading more”
“best of luck in your new venture – hope you do really well”.
And of course you all still remember my Disqus/Comments saga with all the personal insults heaped on me – I am still standing, of course – but it prompted me to directly email some positive comments to the columnists about their articles.
So what’s the point?
I never received any responses…from any of the bloggers …and only three from the ten columnists I emailed. Which immediately raises the question…whatever happened to good manners?
If someone takes the time to send a message, especially a positive one, how rude is it to just ignore them? Now that is something politicians are famous for doing – but my fellow writers? Lesson learned. No expectations – no disappointments.
And now, more on the uglies. Even if I tell you that they don’t bother me, they do. But not enough for me to stop blogging and making comments.
I just blasted in the London Guardian about that killer with the wire legs – exercised his questionable manhood by shooting a young woman cowering in his bathroom – self defense he sobbed – and now we are watching an insane OJ repeat – let us hope that the South African justice system rises to the occasion – and that guy gets what he deserves – life without parole.
And within five minutes of the post, I got an ugly – from MachoSam (where do they get those names?):
“What’s the matter lady? You are probably too fat and ugly to get any man to notice you- Oscar is a hero – he would never kill anyone – so f….off…. and make sure you never show up in our country…or the same thing will happen to you as happened to that broad”.
Well, that was cute. At least he didn’t post the phony stuff about me that is on the internet – some people get off on knocking down others. Remember that I use my real name –but that jerk probably doesn’t know how to use the internet. Now that I am an expert, I can make judgemental assessments.
These postings and comments are still part of the pre-launch hype needed for The Third Hole. And by the way, Wikipedia is pretty accurate – so if you have forgotten or didn’t know about the Starr Affair, have a look at all of it. Not my best memories, but hey, I made it through the night and here I am!
And my friend Putchie’s comments when I told her the book’s final title:
“What? A golf book? You said it was about sex and older women – and oh yeah, a murder or two. I was looking forward to reading all about it – who cares about golf? Oh well, I’ll buy it anyhow.”
The good news is that she won’t forget the name of my book – the better news is that it has sex, murder, intrigue – everything that she wants to read about – and hopefully, a few thousand others will agree.
So The Third Hole has moved to the copy editor. No turning back now. Stay with me as I travel down an exciting and challenging path to a bestseller! I am going to share it all with you.
See you next week.
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