How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Social Media

Hey folks!

I've been notably absent from SFF Seven the past couple months, at first informally, and then an official hiatus in July when I had ALL THE THINGS happening, including launching some new projects, working a writer's workshop and being Toastmaster for ArmadilloCon.  And that all was great-- I even saw Vivian at ArmadilloCon.  And so all you fine SFFSeven fans don't feel like I abandoned you for nothing, here's the text of my Toastmaster Speech.  I think it went pretty well, many people spoke highly of my speech afterwards, so that's all very nice.

Anyway, don't know if things are Back To Normal, but I'm at least trying to be back to normal here.

So what's new here?  We're talking Social Media?

Here's my personal opinion on the value of social media for writers:

Facebook: Near pointless.
Twitter: The watercooler for people who don't ever meet in person.
Instagram: Still trying to suss it out.

Really, I think it's a valuable tool, not for promotion per se, but connection.  At least, Twitter is for me.  I don't think it's very useful for getting new readers, but it's a good way to broadcast things to the readers you have, like, Hey, New Book Coming.  But you don't need to constantly broadcast Buy My Book, because of the people who follow you, either they are already reading your work, or they're probably already not going to.

But forming connections with people over Twitter has proven valuable.  Not necessarily in terms of career or monetary value, but given me a way to feel part of a larger community when most of my day to day involves being at home, not talking to anyone who isn't immediate family.  So I quite like it, even if some days it stresses me out.

So drop me a line there.  Or here.  Or even on Facebook.  It's all good.  But in the meantime, it's back to work for me.

Functional introvert in the social media stew

I’m one of those people who doesn’t people very well. Like, I get into a physical space with a bunch of humans and I shut down. Freak out. Probably blurt something indescribably stupid. Don’t even give this girl a drink, because literally the only thing saving her from embarrassing herself is her sort of ability to keep her mouth shut.

Online communication has built-in protections for weirdos like me. I can think the indescribably stupid thing. I can even type it out. And then -- and this is the beautiful part -- I can delete it.

Sometimes even after I post it I can delete it. 

So, knowing what a life-saver social media has been for me, you’d think I’d be on all the platforms doing all the things, right? Truth is, I’m not. I like Twitter for communicating with industry folks, Facebook for chatting with friends and readers (lots of overlap there), Instagram for spamming the world with pics of my pets. 

Which is not to say that I don’t know, on an intellectual level, that there’s a lot more out there, or that the other platforms and usages can be great for book promotion. Earlier this week, Jeffe Kennedy suggested asking some younger folks for tips on finding the hip apps and tricks. And yeah, you can do that. I’ve queried the smaller people who live in my house, and they’re happy to tell me about YouTube and Twitch and “famous YouTubers,” which is apparently a thing and why-even-is-that? My reactions have varied from horror to dismay.

Remember what I said about physically being a room with people? How it’s deeply un-fun? Videoing or even podcasting myself would be exactly the same: intrusive, revealing, terrifying, and almost guaranteed to be boring for you. It’s not my comfy place. Sorry kids, I am resigned to being perpetually uncool. 

So my short answer to the question this week -- how do you keep up with the trends and changes in social media? -- is that I don’t. And I’m pretty comfortable stewing in my ignorance. (Get off my lawn.)

Social Media and Bad Apples

It's an odd week to talk about social media trends and changes in light of (yet another) round of mass shootings by young white men in the US because the one thing social media does really well is rally for a cause...whether that cause is a good thing or a bad thing is quixotic and often in the eye of the beholder. The sad truth of human behavior is where there are many gathered, so too will the bad apples gather to spread their rot.

In a tiny flicker of hope for humanity, while mainstream social media is rightly outraged at US federal ineptitude, the CEO of the company providing website security for an alt-right group encouraging community violence yanked their support, thus forcing the hate group to join their kith on a different provider, who then had their services yanked in a beautiful move called "deplatforming." TechCrunch has a great article on how it went down and how much privately-owned companies actually can control (contrary to what Zuck or Jack want Congress to believe).

Speaking of those big companies, it seems like every week we have another example of their flagrant privacy abuses enabled by revenue-blinders that allow them to ignore the ethical, social, political, and community impacts of pay-to-play participants. A year away from our next Big Election, and we're no closer to ending the dissemination of Propaganda that misinforms the public and sways their opinion all the way to the voting booth. Because the majority of lawmakers don't understand the technology, they're incapable of crafting legislation that protects the citizenry rather than the corporation. They're willfully passing the buck on blocking foreign interference because of rampant corruption.

An entirely different and unrelated kerfuffle is happening on Artist Twitter wherein mainstream social platforms are casting out artists' babies with the TOS revision bathwater. The artists are looking for a new home to connect with other artists around the globe where their art is copyright protected and interaction spaces are coupled with strong individual empowerment tools. Seems like a simple request, and yet...

When will any of this change? When will we see the next-gen of Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, etc?  When there's an evolution in technology with mainstream adoption. My money's on VR, think Ender's Game. When will regulations change to protect the individual? When corporations are no longer counted as citizens and when Congress is no longer for sale--aka, not in my lifetime. Alas.

Now, this grumpy old broad is going to go write a chapter or two about overthrowing the {fictional} government...

Keeping Up with the Virtual Joneses

I just returned from a week with my family on Lake Coeur d'Alene. So lovely and relaxing! During some conversation, I mentioned Ed Sheeran, and my aunt - who'd never heard of him - asked me how I kept up on discovering new music.

It was an interesting question, and one I had to think about. Finally I said that I see a lot of recommendations on Twitter. Instagram, too. People share Spotify lists or post YouTube videos. She nodded a little at my answer, clearly a bit daunted at the prospect of emulating me there. So, I sent her two Ed Sheeran albums for her birthday.

Coincidentally enough, our topic at the SFF Seven this week is "Keeping up with trends and changes in social media." Not an easy thing to do for any of us.

It's true, in fact, of most technology. As a member of the generation that transitioned in high school and college from typewriters to word processors, I'm keenly aware of how keeping up with advances in computer technology poses greater challenges for me every year. It's a simple factor of aging that learning new tricks gets more difficult, and it seems to be true of tech that it morphs rapidly.

Also, as with slang and other forms of social interaction, social media changes even more rapidly. The youth drive the "in" form of communication - and the older generations struggle to keep up.

The good news is, I firmly believe that keeping up with trends and changes in social media helps to keep us mentally youthful. It's good to learn new things, and communicating with those younger than we are helps to keep us involved in the world. But HOW to do that?

My advice for that is the same as with all social media: pick and choose.

When you hear someone talk about something cool they saw on some social medium, go check it out. Ruthlessly control what you see - pick and choose whose timelines or accounts you follow - and then play with it. Try to resurrect that feeling of youthful exploration.

Make it fun! After all, the second rule of social media is: If it's not fun for you, don't do it.

And it's okay if something that starts out fun stops being fun after a while. I'd really love for XKCD to do a graphic of the social media life cycle. First you find a new-to-you one, you play with it, gain a following, then creepy men send you anonymous messages. Brought to you by the person who thought Instagram was a safe space and is now receiving creepster messages. *sigh*

BUT... that's a minor part of things. Inevitable as death and taxes, it seems.

Another trick is to absolutely engage with younger people and manipulate them into helping your geezer self. It requires having no shame. I recently cornered a young writer in a bar and made him show me how to do Instagram stories. He was awesome about it.

Remember: learning something new is good for our brains! And having fun doing it makes all the difference.

I just Want Strong Characters

DepositPhoto

Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is: "Heroes and heroines – how do you write them differently."

This is a topic to which I totally do not relate.

I write people.

Every person is different.

Right off the bat this question of the week doesn’t fly with me by the way because Main Characters (MC’s) don’t have to be shoved into two boxes labelled “Hero” and “Heroine”.

MC’s can be any combination of gender identities. From the website TeenTalk: “There are many different gender identities, including male, female, transgender, gender neutral, non-binary, agender, pangender, genderqueer, two-spirit, third gender, and all, none or a combination of these.”

Personally, I read and relish a wildly diverse range of books. I’d like to mention J Scott Coatsworth’s Liminal Sky scifi series as an excellent example of a reading experience during which I met and cared about and was invested in MC’s with a wide range of gender identities mirroring real life. He told the story seamlessly.

To cite my favorite movie in the entire world, “Aliens”: Ripley/Hicks. Hicks/Ripley. Ripley alone. Those two characters could be any gender identity and the movie works fine. It’s got high stakes, action, adventure, kickass MC’s and a hint of a glimpse of romance (if you’re me and you look hard for it). Just so happens the MC's were M/F in the movie but it's kind of a fun creative exercise to cast it in your head now with a wider range of gender identity choices.

When it comes to writing, my muse and I do gravitate to the male military/female civilian tropes for my MC’s, although sometimes the female character is the primary and other times it’s the male, and in some books they shoulder the load of resolving the problems I present to them pretty equally. That’s who I am, that’s the kind of romance I personally lived and it’s where my subconscious goes when I’m coming up with the plots and the people.

In many of my novels I’ve written strong women who are former military and can kick ass with the best of them. I’ve also written strong women who are singers, dancers, businesswomen, alien empaths, princesses, teachers…”strong” is the key element here for all my MC’s. Strength – of characters, of will, of learned skills and innate talents – can be found in any gender identity.

I start with the situation of the story and think about my MC’s, who I need them to be to survive and surmount the plot I have in mind and that thought process informs their backstory and their reactions to everything in the book, including the romance.

A quick excerpt from The Fated Stars, where Larissa, the tough ex-Special Forces mercenary leaves Samell, the alien empath back at the ship while she couts enemy territory:

Larissa had her first real argument with Samell once she’d landed at the small spaceport serving the planet. “I’m going out alone to reconnoiter the town, check out the fairgrounds, see what’s what with this other Kinterow operation,” Larissa said as the AI put the Valkyrie Queen into ground mode. “No one can get into the ship, but I’ve given you voice access to control the AI if anything happens to me. She can get you back to the Cherram system or she has an emergency contact to call if you prefer to try getting in touch with Sectors authorities with your situation.”

Samell stared at her, his emerald-and-gold eyes sparking with anger. “You are not going alone. Of course I’ll go too. I can use my power on any problem we encounter, or my throwing knives, or even the blaster. But I’ll not let you venture into danger without me.”

Larissa continued donning her weapons and brushed past him on her way to the airlock. “I’m the mercenary here, I know the drill on these remote worlds. I’ll give out a cover story about a phony job for public consumption, check out the bars, do the things I’ve done hundreds of times on legitimate assignments. I’ll be fine, don’t worry. I can take care of myself.”

“I know you can, but you’re only in this situation because of me.” He leaned against the bulkhead, watching her. “I have to do my share.”

“I’m not questioning your courage or your value in the field,” she said patiently. “Me by myself, no problem. You, with your distinctive hair and skin, potential problem. "

VS: Needless to say, she wins the argument and he stays with the ship.

We're All Heroes Here: Guest Post

“Who is the hero of your book?” a prospective buyer asked me at my first real book signing.

I was in a cozy bookshop in the small town of Palmer, Alaska, wearing a warm sweater to protect against the November chill and a big smile as I held up a copy of my first published novel, THE DAY BEFORE. “The hero is Sam Rose, she’s an agent for-“

The buyer shook his head. “Not the heroine. The hero.”

“Protagonist?” I suggested, looking for a polite compromise.

“I don’t really like books with girls. I want to read about heroes.”

Dear Reader, I want to assure you that at this point I stayed professional and did not have to dispose of a corpse on my drive home through the mountains that night. I did recommend a copy of EVEN VILLAINS FALL IN LOVE to him since it is told from the point of view of a male protagonist, but the whole exchange nagged at me. It still does, year and miles removed from Alaska, it bothers me that someone dismissed a truly wonderful protagonist with a sneer and the word Heroine.

English is an odd language.

No, scratch that, English is a demon hobgoblin of a language that likes to ransack other languages and steal words from them. English likes to twist and torment words until they can mean the exact opposite of what they were originally intended to mean, literally!

Hero is sometimes seen as a masculine word only. There are people who want to read it as “the male hero” rather than “the protagonist” and this presents a problem.

It’s exclusionary, forcing the binary idea of male/female and hero/heroine.

It leads to the idea that being a hero means being masculine in a traditionally masculine way.

It leaves me standing there going, “But… I want to be a hero too!”

When we read there’s always some part of us that wants to identify with the protagonist. At some level, we want to see ourself in the story. That’s why we read some books and not others, isn’t it? Because some of them resonate or speak to us while others don’t. It’s why we want diverse fiction.

We want to see ourselves as the hero regardless of which gender we identify with.

This is a big universe, and we’re all heroes in ways big and small. The courage we show when facing challenges, the compassion we have for others, is a result of our choices – not our genders.

Here’s to the heroes!

A few other novels by Liana:

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Liana Brooks is a SF/F and romance authors who loves writing about the little choices we make and big chances we take that change the universe for the better. You can find her online at www.LianaBrooks.com, on Twitter as @LianaBrooks, and read her new stories on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/LianaBrooks. She is currently working on her romantic space opera series, The Fleet of Malik, that starts with BODIES IN MOTION. The second book, CHANGE OF MOMENTUM, will be available this fall.

When Nature Says 'Hold My Beer'

Bear with me. I have a story to tell. This is Perceval. Perceval was rescued by a neighbor who presented the kitten for foster care as a 'he'. Then 'he' went into heat. He became she and (because of the aforementioned heat) developed a raging urinary tract infection. A sterile draw (with a needle and syringe) of urine at the emergency vet revealed a new mystery. Perceval had sperm swimming in her bladder.

Yes. I have male cats. They're shooting blanks. Have been since December of last year.

Thus, the vet proposed the notion that Perceval might just be both 'he' AND 'she'. Jeffe, on Instagram, instantly proposed swapping out Perceval's pronoun to They. Motion seconded, voted upon, and passed. Surgery was undertaken. It was a spay - there was a uterus and nothing more internally. Had Perceval been a true hermaphrodite, there would have been a set of male gonads as well as the female reproductive organs. There weren't. However, the doctor did point out that Perceval's external genitalia are ambiguous. While there's clearly female anatomy, it appears that a pair of testicles also tried to develop. They never fully formed, so the cat didn't have to have a neuter surgery on top of a spay surgery. And the mystery of the sperm in the bladder? We may never know. Subsequent checks of the boy cats confirms they're in the clear.

What does this have to do with writing characters in SFF? Simply this: Nature and life recently proved to me that they are far too ready, willing, and able to shatter our preconceived notions about gender, sex, and identity. So getting hung up on any kind of either/or question about who's what and therefore gets to love whom, when writing seems silly. SF and Fantasy is, to me, about who characters are as individuals - including their identities, preferences, marginalization, and how they cope. This may be privilege speaking, because I'm part of a population that doesn't often have to get to grips with being in mortal peril simply for existing. I suspect that shows in my writing because while I have a trans character, a bisexual main character, PoC as main characters - in my stories, these people are rarely under threat based on being either bi, or a PoC, or trans. Mainly because part of the joy of SF and Fantasy for me is getting to dabble in a world that's much broader than this one - one that encompasses possibilities and embraces them. I'd like to think that makes me idealistic rather than simply naive. Or worse, hurtful.

Honestly. Does anyone really think that when we finally do run into life out there in the stars that they're gonna all be CIShet/clear binary with no richness? No variety? No specialization and adaptation? If yes, do you science at all? Cause yeah, nature doesn't work that way. And so long as I'm writing, neither will I.

Writing boys, girls, and cats

My girl children are older now, but for a long time they would only write stories or draw pictures featuring ... girls. When I asked them why they never wrote or drew boys, they looked horrified. Then about oh half a puberty ago, one of them approached me and asked for tips on writing boy-POV.

At first I was like, eureka! -- they finally get it that our species has more than one gender! But then I thought about it a little more and... you know what? I don't really have any advice for them. Or for anyone.

Because the honest truth is that I write people. Sometimes cats and sometimes robots, true, but almost always people. And I define a person like Mary Shelley did: as an entity who communicates. Somebody who has a story to relate.

Yes, some of those character people have uteruses. Some have penises. Some have prehensile tails, galactic masses, or skin made of bubbles. But all of that is just frosting and glitter, folks. When it comes to writing, the person inside is the thing that matters. That's where all the angst and conflict and growth is at. Uteruses and penises don't essentially angst. They aren't stories.

So, about writing characters differently because of their gender: well, I don't.

Please leave all assumptions at the door and wipe your feet when you come into my universe. Thanks.