Where Have I Been?

For my followers, both old and new, it may seem like I have abandoned this blog.  To be honest I have toyed with that idea.  A part of me has grown weary of the blogging sphere.  Posts are often inundated with fake “likes” and “follows by people in a thinly veiled attempt to drive me to become a part of their audience.

Let’s be honest, as writers/bloggers/authors we all want people to read our stuff.  Marketing ourselves so we stand out amongst the millions of other writers means we need to be a little selfish.  Searching for blogs to follow/like/comment in order to get more traffic is the name of the game.  The issue comes in when I get, let’s say, twenty likes on a post and only five views.  There is a problem when I get inundated with “likes” and that person then comments on a random post “Are you going to follow me now?”

This behavior is cringy and reeks of pathetic desperation from the other bloggers.  It got so bad that I started to doubt if many of my followers were legitimately interested in my content or if they simply wanted a “follow for a follow.”  Some receive a follow back from me if I’m interested in their content, but most do not because I’m not going to follow a blogger because he/she followed me.

The main reason I disappeared is because I’ve been directing my writing energy toward flash fiction.  I’ve been writing/editing/researching publishers most of the time.  All three of those take up considerable time.  In some ways flash fiction is harder to write than a novel because there is so little space to write.

I’ve decided to pop back into the blogging sphere and maybe share my experiences in the flash fiction publishing world.  In short, like all spheres of the writing world it’s a meat grinder, one to surely chew you up and spit you out if you are not keen on rejection.