A few links and a few random thoughts on Facebook

I found a couple of interesting links over the last few days, so I thought I'd share.

Daily Writing Tips There is a lot of interesting and usable stuff on there. A lot of their ads are for self publishing, so that distresses me a bit. There is a great page on pen names- what they are, why an author should or shouldn't use one. A friend of mine and I have been going back and forth on it as I'm one of those people who feels you should have a pen name- and not just because I write gay erotica. But I digress a little here. Anyway, this looks like a nice site and so I'm going to add it to Gwenna's links on the web page.

The Write Game Blog- the friend mentioned above nudged me to this blog. Very well done. I'd friend this one but not sure how they would feel about a writer of gay smut being listed on their blog. But I will put a link on Gwenna's links page anyway.

Romance Writers United has had a complete overhaul and it looks very nice. Be sure to check it out if you haven't been there. They have free advertising, btw, in return for posting their icon on your website.

My editor at Lyrical- CD Yates, is also an author. Her newest release In the Cards came out a few days ago. Be sure to check it out!

Now on to Facebook and the other evil stepsister- Twitter. I teach a medical reimbursement class in the evenings and the topic of ethics came up. With that came that wonderful world of social networks, including Facebook and Twitter and there are others of course. I have ten students in this class and when I asked, all of them said they had a Facebook page. Not surprising I guess in this day and age.

I don't. Not a personal one, and so far, not one for Gwenna either. In all honesty, I see Facebook as something that should be treated like a live grenade and I'm holding off on dealing with it and the evil stepsister- Twitter, until I absolutely have to. I have all I can do to keep up this and my Blog, adding a couple of "social networks" in my life makes me cringe. That's one issue. Here are some of the others.

Fact, one employee in my regular day job went into Facebook on her own time, mind you, when Facebook was having some huge security breech problems. Consequently, within 15 minutes to half an hour our entire network of around 200 computers, including our at home workers were nailed with a very nasty virus that took us down completely. We deal with people's medical records. Our poor IT team was in a complete panic for several hours. (I think one is still heavily drinking in an effort to get past the nightmares...)

Fact, I know of at least two employees that I worked with who have been FIRED for remarks they made on Facebook. Immediately. Also, our local news ran a report about the fact that hackers find Facebook to be this wonderful gate into your computer, your identity and a whole host of problems you do NOT want to visit your doorstep- because these people "Friend" you and you think you know who they are- when they infact are the ugly that is identity theft.

I realize that Facebook has come a long ways and has become for many, a religion. It's like those expensive 3G cellphones that everyone (but me) must have and use and they can't imagine their life BEFORE Facebook and iPhone. I get that, I do. I just wish I didn't have to play in the sandbox as well. Don't get me wrong- I'm a gadget girl myself- I personally have not only a desktop computer, but a fantastic laptop with kick ass graphics and now have a Netbook as well. I love the internet and I'm a firm believer that eBooks are the wave of the future and I was saying that TEN YEARS ago. I even design websites (Anyone here need a nice and cheap website? I'm your girl!) But Facebook and Twitter? I'll keep looking at them like a live grenade- handle with extreme care.

Having said that, my lovely editor sent this link along about how authors should be promotiing themselves and of course, Facebook, Twitter, and blogs are all part of that system. It's a great link and wonderful information and the credit goes to her as I post it here. I'll post various

Gwenna project updates later this weekend. I hope!