Happy Friday to you! I only have four things to share this week, but there’s a lot to chew on in some of them.
- Jane Friedman’s post on social media for authors was a soothing balm to me. Particularly these sentences: “It works best when you can see it as play, as a natural extension of your work. As soon as you carve it out as the ‘marketing and promotion’ part of work/life, your results may be lackluster.” Sometimes, I worry about my online presence, as the bulk of my writing time is spent in offline projects and SEO stuff. Then when I do post on social media, I feel like it has to really be something special. So I end up not posting for longer. It’s possible I’m overthinking it and just need to play.
- Melissa Febos via Catapult urges us to fight the expectations placed on us (…that we place on ourselves also?) to better manage our time and get work done. I like any advice that tells me to ignore emails (except for customer emails at work, of course).
- If there’s one thing I love about the upcoming female remake of Lord of the Flies, it’s the opportunity it provides for satire. The last faux excerpt on this list is my favorite:
“Murder?!” asked Erica.
“Literally the only thing we’re trying to do on this island is not die. Why—” but Sam couldn’t finish her sentence. She was laughing too hard.
- The 2017 Texas Book Festival. I am going to this one year. This might not be the year, but maybe. I haven’t been to Austin in a while.
So that’s my week. Give me a fifth – what have you read this week that you liked?
M. Suzanne Terry 
I’ll have to check out Jane Friedman’s post – she often aggravates me and I want to see what you found to be a “soothing balm.”
I read an insightful blog written by a good friend of mine, Lorraine Watson, entitled “Dreams in the Toilet.” http://mailchi.mp/c233eb6d308a/finding-sense-in-a-super-sucks-sunday-2759893?e=ea6fefc8df
What I found helpful about Jane’s post is the reminder to relax about social media. Writers are often bogged down with all the rules of what we have to do/shouldn’t do to create a social media presence and market ourselves. As someone who tends to be concerned with doing everything the “right” way, the gentle nudge that what is right varies somewhat from person to person was what I needed to hear.