Thursday, February 28, 2013

My "Pretend" Friends

As an indie author, I spend a lot of time alone in my "office", promoting myself online. Pinterest, Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, and the biggest evil time sucker, Twitter. When I first signed up for Twitter last year, I didn't get it and almost walked away without giving it another thought.

Boy, am I glad I didn't.

To my total astonishment, I have met so many amazing, good people from networking on there. So many of them are other writers, who you would think would be competition, but the community of authors is strong and extremely supportive. And they're not just acquaintances, but people I have worked with and leaned on for help and advice. Actual friends. I feel more of a connection to some of the people on there than I do to some of my "real life" friends. So many of them have made an important impact on my life. And I really want to meet all of them in personeven though my husband is convinced most of them are serial killers in real life (which would actually make for really good writing material).
While some of my new compadres may be a lot harder to visit as they don't live in the same country (Emma Meade, I vow to come to Ireland one day!), I've kept plans in the back of my mind to meet up with many of them. Some live in areas I already visit on a regular basis because I have family there; like Texas, Florida and California. Some live in really awesome locations that have already made my "to visit" list; like Alaska and Colorado. And some live in New York, where I hope to go in early December for a third time.

But I recently signed up to attend a writer's convention in Madison, Wisconsin where I may have the opportunity to meet three of these new buddies!
While there are many ups and downs to being an author, this is certainly one of the major ups. Now I just worry because I'm so excited to meet these friends that I'll come off as being a complete psycho. Which is probably debatable. Regardless, I think my life has been enriched by so many of these people, and I'm forever grateful for their friendship.

Even if we never get the chance to actually meet in person.

4 comments:

SK Anthony said...

Well, I think we have to be a little bit psycho if we are writers, but alas...
It's fantastic to connect to so many wonderful writer compadres and even better to come out alive! When you come to NY maybe I can meet you and if you give me an autograph I promise not to go all 'serial killer' on you, not this time anyway... lol

Anonymous said...

Jen, I will get to the US one day. One of my dreams is to spend a few months travelling around the States and Canada. I will be looking you up when I get there! I have probably 20 bloggers and writer pals I met online and love chatting to, and I hope to meet them in person some day.
I'll bring some Wine and Guinness with me :)

Unknown said...

I would love that! We'll have to keep in touch!

Unknown said...

That would be so awesome!! I could show you a good time at the mall of America! :)

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