Reviving CynWrites Blog

It's been a year since I've written this blog (actually my Paris blog during April, 2010), but as I'm standing on the edge of a new cliff, I'm reviving CynWrites.

The cliff I'm facing is (hopefully) publishing and marketing a children's book I've been working on for the last couple of years.  It's in the very final stages of revision and, if my 2011 horoscope is at all accurate, will be ready to face the world in about a month. 

It's apparently required that every author pursuing publication be "active in social networking" in order to have any chance at all of success.  We all know that the term "social networking" includes blogging, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and, of course, email access to every person in the world. Well...forget it.  Blogging is as far as I'm willing to go.

Having been online (to the near-exclusion of real life) since 1997, I know better than most the real dangers of plastering authentic personal information all over the Internet. I've had a business website for ten years, and even on that (which was designed as a marketing tool for potential customers) I don't have personal info posted.  "Yeah, I want your business, but I'm not telling you how to contact me.  Ha!"  A blind email contact form is as far as I'm willing to go.

Besides -- and this must be my age talking -- I simply and honestly don't understand this compulsion to "be connected" 24/7.  In fact, not even 10 minutes/7 days.  Have we as a people morphed into some kind of hive mentality?  Are we that hungry for 15 seconds (used to be minutes) worth of fame or recognition?  I just don't get the attraction of following someone's 140-character thought every time they have one.  No one is that fascinating... sorry.

My cell phone (the old-fashioned kind) handles texting, but there has to be someone on the other end whom I'm sufficiently interested in to text.  I'm not stupid technologically -- but my hand hasn't yet evolved to sport the IPhone attachment, either.  I think it's hilarious to sit in a theater or stadium or (name it) and see at least 35% of the attendees playing with their phone, coincidentally removing their attention from those who have accompanied them to the event... a simultaneous inclusion (someone or something out there) to exclusion (someone or something right here).  A conundrum in my mind -- as I said, it must be my age.

Anyway, CynWrites is back for all the thousands of people who have followed it the past years and the thousands more who will follow in the future.  I'll be writing essays on cultural issues, newsy issues, the adventures of publishing (or not), but this time around I'm leaving the political commentary to those who know what they're talking about.  I'm no pundit, and since I'm back on the political party fence, I've retired from punditry.  I hope you'll follow along even if I'm not tweeting or poking or whatever the heck else you do on social networking.

I've also posted some favorite pictures from my stay in France last year -- right hand column, you can't miss them.