Author: Sheila McIntrye Good, Author

Is Your Social Media a Platform or Just another Tracking Tool?

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A couple of weeks ago the news hit the fan. NSA has been tracking our emails. Or, so they said. Everyone became a little paranoid about what else was being tracked. Then today, I pick up the paper and read, Facebook says a bug in its system caused 6 million users contact information to be inadvertently exposed.”

This is nothing new, remember the Hoover files?  If you don’t, one of my all time favorite books by Robert Ludlum, The Chancellor Manuscript, can fill you in.  It’s an old book, but if you can find a copy, it is well worth the read.

I’m not here to get into a political discussion, spying by our government has been around a long time. I understand the argument – safety versus liberty, and, there in lies the rub.

As writers, we’ve all been encouraged to build and engage in a healthy social network. Open up a Twitter account, an Author Facebook Page, join LinkedIn, Pinterest, start a Blog, and network on a regular basis. The purpose is to exchange ideas, knowledge, and get to know others interested in the same things you are.

The more name recognition you have and people you know in the industry, the more mentors available to you. Writers of all genres, beta readers, editors, critique and writing groups, all are a part of the social media network to assist writers in improving their craft. Or, so they say.

For me, I find all social media to be time eating suckers. I sit down planning to spend fifteen minutes and waste a morning scrolling through other peoples dramas. True, I’ve met many talented people and made wonderful connections at times, but Twitter will eat your soul.

And Facebook? I’m not sure what has happened to that site. Lately, all I see are pictures of food, which make me hungry, pictures of pets, or other stupid things.  I receive more requests from people asking for endorsements on LinkedIn than you can shake a stick at, and what the hell is candy crush? I don’t  have a clue.

Technology is creating the surveillance state
By John R. Quain Personal Tech Published June 19, 2013, FoxNews.com

It isn’t the NSA you need to worry about. We’ve all had a hand in this via social media.  Google, has lured us down the path as easily as the Pied Piper led children. We thought it was cool Google maps could show us a location, by satellite, right down to the house, until we learned it was our house. Or that, Google was supplying the government information, along with Verizon and the smart phones we can’t live without. Some call it security others marketing.

With every click of your button, the technology you love, track and register information about your habits likes and dislikes, online orders, and Apps. The books you download on your shiny new Kindle, including the words you highlight are a captured, categorized and tailored to market and advertise specifically to you. Their aim is to influence the way you shop, think, sway social values, and, yes vote. Think subliminal advertising on steroids.

They call it marketing, developing a platform and teach you how through  SEO, keywords, Google analytics, etc. to reach the biggest audience. It sounds as if we may all have larger audience than we realized.

I didn’t like mama looking over my shoulder when I was growing up either. The least they can do is leave a comment. I don’t know about you, but I’m almost ready to go back to hardback books, paper billing, and old-fashioned pen and paper.  What about you? What do you think?

What are Your Writing Priorities?

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To be successful writers, we are encouraged to set goals, make writing a priority, establish a daily routine, stick to it, and we do.

We set word goals, weekly goals, join challenges, write story prompts, and enter contests, all to improve our craft, establish a platform, and reach the ultimate goal – A completed novel, publications in a prestigious literary magazine, and validation.

However, life isn’t always that simple. I attended my critique group for the first time in six months or so. It was like a breath of fresh air and a shot of energizing encouragement. Maybe, I would resume writing. I hadn’t stopped writing, I couldn’t write. It wasn’t a lack of time or writer’s block. I just couldn’t write.

I have an autoimmune disease, which I’ve lived with since 1983. Last June my disease became active and the last year has been a battle. In times like these, you choose your battles and rearrange priorities. I’ve read a number of articles recently about finishing the things you start. I believe it’s an admirable value and one I do my best to live by. I have two novels and memoir I plan to finish when is not as clear now as before.

I realize die-hard writers will say you can find five minutes a day to write. Hell, I think in one my last blogs, I said ten minutes. Sometimes, we have to eat our words. The truth is, it boils down to choices, sometimes you have one, sometimes you don’t, and sometimes you have to make one.

When I began writing, I wanted to leave a legacy to my children and grandchildren. I thought completing my novel would be an incredible accomplishment for me and a gift for them. We all want to be remembered.

This year has been tough not just on me, but our entire family. I’m improving, but as I prepare to sit with my forty-year-old, step-daughter for her first round of chemotherapy, comfort the other step-daughter as she helps her forty-three-year-old husband recover from his first heart attack, or babysit my grandchildren when my daughter is recovering from an acute Crohn’s attack, my priorities must change.

I’m not negating all the advice we receive as writers to work hard toward success. I embrace them, I too pass them on and encourage others to set those same goals and priorities. I love to write, I want to write, and hope one day to have books and stories for my children and grandchildren to pass down. But, the legacy I want most to leave is, Mom was always there when we needed her. 

Do you choose your writing priorities or do they choose you?

To Daughter’s Everywhere: Mother’s Words of Wisdom

/ Sheila McIntrye Good, Author / 1 Comment

To every daughter who ever uttered the words, “I’m never going to be like my mother,” I hate to break the news to you.  It will happen, sneaking up on you when you least expect it.  Those famous last words will come rushing back and kick you in the rear.You know what I’m talking about.  Memories of having to cut your own switch, you swore NEVER to use corporal punishment.

So, you bought a cute little time-out chair.  You gloated over your parenting skills until the little angel reached her third birthday and decided she could out last you. Exhausted and patience long gone, the first nugget rolled off your tongue.  “Do you want a spanking?”  After that, the challenge was on. The little darling tested every resolve you ever made and your mother’s words tumbled out faster than water over a damn.

“Because I said so, that’s why.”
“Wait till your father gets home.”
“If you fall and break a leg, don’t come running to me.”
“Don’t you use that tone with me.”
“Don’t get smart with me.”
“If all your friends jumped off of a bridge, would you?”
“You better stop that crying or I’ll give you something to cry about.”
“I don’t care what the other kids parents told them, I said no.”
“I’m not asking you, I’m telling you.”
“Don’t put that in your mouth, you don’t know where it’s been.”
“Don’t make me come in there.”
“Go to your room and don’t come out.”
“I pray to God, you grow up and have a houseful just like you.”

But, the clincher happened when your teenager rolled her eyes at you for the first time and the world spun on its axis.“You roll your eyes again at me, and I will smack them into tomorrow.”

With her words reverberating in your ears, you run to the mirror horrified at the “mommy jeans “ and worn tee shirt you’re wearing and notice for the first time, the crow’s feet, and the hint of gray hairs.  “Oh My God!”  The reflection of your mother stares back.

Relax, acting like your mother happens to all of us.  Blame genetics, after all, you’re fifty percent her or imagine she passed on to you her secret words of wisdom.  Children didn’t come with a parent’s manual and although helpful, Dr. Spock and the other how-to- books are nothing more than quick start guides.  After those beginning years, you’re pretty much spitting in the wind and flying by the seat of your pants. You can’t prepare for this wild ride of love between a mother and her child, but words of wisdom tucked away for just the right time are priceless.

So, on Mother’s Day salute your mother, give her a call and thank her for all the words of wisdom she has imparted to you.  If you haven’t used them you will, and while you’re at it, you might want to find out a little bit more about her favorite bush. Do you have any favorite words from mom? I’d love to hear them. Leave me a comment.

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Sheila’s Morning Pages: A laugh a Day..

/ Sheila McIntrye Good, Author / 2 Comments

Flicker

You don’t stop laughing because you grow old; you grow old because you stop laughing.”  Michael Pritchard

Okay, I admit this is not mine; I can’t take credit for it. This little gem, as the rumor goes, has been making the Internet rounds, but based on the last six months around our house my husband and I could relate. We enjoyed the best belly laugh we’ve had in a long time. It felt good. Laughing together gave us a moment we shared the rest of the day.  So laugh away. Laughter is indeed good for the soul.

A Senior Moment

The tale is about a woman’s senior moment at the office and the search for her car keys.

The keys were nowhere to be found in the office, so she figured she must have left them in the car. She headed for the parking lot, thinking about the many times her husband had scolded her for leaving the keys in the ignition. As she reached the parking lot, it was empty.

She immediately called the police to report her car stolen. Then she made the most difficult call. “Honey, she said when her hubby answered. “I left my keys in the car, and it’s been stolen.”

“Are you kidding me? I dropped you off at the office,” he said. Embarrassed she said, “Well, will you come and get me?”

He retorted, “I will as soon as I convince this cop I didn’t steal your car.”

Spartanburg Herald-Journal

You can’t deny laughter; when it comes, it plops down in your favorite chair and stays as long as it wants. – Stephen King

 

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