Tag Archives: writing

Why I’m Considering a Digital Detox–and so should you

Posted on by
Reply

If you’ve followed this blog for a while, you know that a) it’s gone dark for months, almost years at a time (only becoming active if I have a new release coming out) and b) I’ve been mulling over the negative impact of spending so much time on social media for a while now. The reason for this blog being such a dead zone is directly proportional to the time I spend on other social media sites.

I look at the increased time spend on sites such as TikTok (where I get the most engagement), as well as Instagram, Facebook, etc and I can say that all the dancing and mugging for the camera has increased my traction as a writer. Maybe not much, but more than if I did nothing at all. I can look at my book sales for proof. Since the release of A Nose for Death (Ginny Reese Mysteries Book 4) in April, scarcely a day goes by when I don’t make at least one sale, and on a good day, as many as ten. That’s a far cry from when I first started publishing and I was lucky if a book made 50 lifetime sales.

But all that jumping through hoops has come with a cost: to my productivity as a writer, to my ability to focus and complete a single task, to my mental health, to my belief that kindness and empathy should be valued traits and not shunned.

To the belief that creativity is a uniquely human trait, and that we will always need art, music, and stories shared by our fellow beings.

And every time I say I’m going to do a digital detox to reset my brain and my mental health, I always have a “but, but, but…” as a reason to keep scrolling. I’m about to release a new book, I need to promote the last book, I have events planned online, I don’t want to lose traction with readers, I just started an Instagram account for the puppy, I’m considering becoming a UGC creator so I can finally realize my dream of retirement and can devote myself to writing full-time…

But I’m barely writing at all. Maybe a thousand words a month. I’ve lost confidence in my ability to tell a cohesive and entertaining story. I can’t complete a paragraph without the driving urge to pick up the phone and check my latest TikTok numbers. And this is after I decided to stop trying to market so much and concentrate more on writing again. Time and again, I’d tell myself I needed a digital detox. I’d manage to go a few days, and then I was right back again, checking Bluesky first thing in the mornings, posting to Instagram in the afternoons, and TikTok at night.

This morning (on Bluesky) I came across a post that really resonated, however. It was from @earthlyeducation on Instagram, and in it, the speaker explained that in the past, capitalism drove colonization and land grabs–but now that there is no more land to be colonized, our time is being colonized. Our time and our data, so that we’ll spend even more time on social media and can have even more ads specifically tailored to us.

It was a shocking revelation for me. This notion that social media platforms need to expand by grabbing more of our time and attention. It shouldn’t have been, given how much our social interactions have changed since the advent of smartphones. I can readily accept that social media is a source of much misinformation and deliberate manipulation of the news. But this idea that my time is being stolen from me much in the same manner as land and labor has been stolen from so many people before now was somehow astonishing to me.

So yeah, I’m thinking a digital detox is in order. Maybe until the New Year. Maybe longer. Will I severe ties with social media entirely? Good question. Maybe we’ll get this current book drafted and then we’ll see.

I’m sharing the @earthlyeducation post with you below. Something to think about.

Reclaiming My Creativity, One Step at a Time

Posted on by
2

Those of you who have been following me for a while know that I am a slow-but-steady writer. Since I began my publishing journey, I’ve written and published a book a year. When I mention this to my non-writing friends, they are astonished and never fail to ask “How do you find the time?” The truth of the matter is that time is not nearly as big a factor as finding the energy or bandwidth, particularly after an emotionally, mentally, or physically demanding day at work.

Truth be told, when it comes to being considered a successful writer these days, that kind of productivity is far too slow. There are people in the industry who produce a finished novel every 60 days. In order to gain traction with your audience, it seems like you have to write at least 3-4 books a year, something I will never do. If anything, my process is becoming even slower than before. There are a lot of reasons for this. As much as I hate to admit it, I’m 15 years older than when I started my publishing journey. I’ve worked very hard to make a name for myself as an author, and I’ve finally decided that I no longer have the energy to jump through all those hoops.

Not only do I no longer have the bandwidth to shake my little tambourine and chant my name for the masses, I barely have the energy or mental capacity to write. I’ve been working on my current WIP for a little over a year now, and I’m still nowhere close to finishing the first draft. Normally, I’d be ready to publish by now. Getting Covid this summer didn’t help. I kept a persistent low-grade fever for weeks, lost my sense of taste and smell, and worst of all, brain fog swept in to blanket every writing session with a gray mist of ‘what the heck were you thinking when you wrote this?’ each time I sat down at the keyboard. Fifteen years ago, blanking on words or struggling to capture the concept I had in mind was just a sign of fatigue and that it was time for a break. That I’d been running on fumes too long. Now I find myself wondering if my brain is turning to mush or is it the toll of the constant bombardment of daily bad news?

I’ve made a few decisions in this past year that I hope will help. I have stopped hoping that my writing pave the way for me to write full time. I’ve even stopped demanding it serve as a fallback retirement plan. It just needs to break even–to be an expensive hobby that (mostly) pays for itself. Accepting this level of “success” doesn’t mean I didn’t try hard enough or dream big enough. It simply means I can no longer keep trying to appease ever-changing algorithms, and dashing from platform to platform constantly spinning plates on sticks to keep entertaining my so-called audience.

That decision alone has meant I can spend less time on social media, which I hope will help with my regrettable tendency to doomscroll. The only reason I’m on social media is because everyone says I MUST maintain an author presence. Fine. I’ve decided that presence will be more of squatting on real estate than actually running a B&B at a financial loss. I’ve got better things to do with the short amount of time I have left on this planet than to make myself miserable because the things I’ve achieved aren’t “good enough.”

I’d been pushing myself to finish this current story by the end of this month. Today as a matter of fact. There are all kinds of theories as to the best time of year to publish–and if you only release one book a year, the final quarter isn’t it. January isn’t great either, unless you are writing a self-help or exercise book. But this story has gone from being something I thought was a cool idea to being a project I loathe working on. I don’t want to shelve it because I have too much time invested in it. I also fear if I quit at this point, I’m setting a bad precedent for myself–that I can just walk away whenever the going gets too hard. So now I’m looking at not publishing this WIP until maybe next spring, and the thought of missing my One Book A Year goal made me hyperventilate a bit.

But I’m unhappy with the story. It’s a new-to-me genre with a lot of worldbuilding and it stopped being fun a while ago. I’ll sit down to write a paragraph or two, writing and deleting the same sentence over and over again as I fail to put into words this big picture I have in my head.

The other day, I realized I no longer have to hold myself to a rigid schedule of write-publish-release. I’m allowed to publish whenever I want. The rules don’t matter.

I also realized what’s wrong with the story as it stands right now. I’ve erased all the real conflict and given the characters cartoon problems to deal with. I’ve softened the hero to the point of being ineffectual. I’ve strengthened the heroine to the point that she has no journey over the course of the story. I’ve diluted the relationships because I don’t want to deal with the emotions these character should be having. I’ve wrapped my story in a protective layer of cotton padding because I wish that my own elbows and knees were padded, and that I knew I always had a soft place to land in case of a fall.

I even gave the main character a mental block preventing her from experiencing her emotions because I must have subconsciously wished for the same. To be the strong, bad-ass heroine of my own story without doing any of the work to get there. This emotional shell around my characters–around the story as a whole–is self-preservation for me in a world I find depressing, discouraging, and terrifying right now.

But for the story to be its best, I need to take a nutcracker to that shell and break down to the meat of the characters. This little epiphany resulted in the first little spark of excitement I’ve had for this story in a while. So I will not publish before it is ready. I will take my time to make the story the best it can be. And I will put in the effort of making my characters work for their happiness.

It means there probably won’t be a McKenna/M.K. Dean release this year. But there will be one eventually. Because even though I am writing for me now, I’m also still writing for you. And I want you to enjoy the journey as well.

Maybe “Try” is Good Enough

Posted on by
6

Train climbing the White Pass in Skagway, AlaskaIt’s no secret that I’ve been struggling for a while now to find some indication that I’m making progress with my life and not simply treading water. I’ve been on the planet long enough to know that even though it feels like I should have gotten my act together decades ago, the truth of the matter is most of us are just winging it on a day to day basis.

And yet we still have this notion that we must succeed at all costs. That every day should be productive, that every minute should count. As a slow writer who has been bogged down even further by the sheer onslaught of utterly horrific news on a daily basis–and who is also very much aware of the practical amount of writing time I have left on this planet–the fact that I sit spinning my wheels is frustrating on most days and downright depressing on others.

I’ve recently been forced to rethink why I write. Most of us become writers because we love reading and storytelling, and are happiest creating our own stories with our fictional friends. I started publishing because I wanted to share my stories, but also because a tiny part of me was hoping for some sort of retirement plan. I’ve written about why I am no longer willing to jump through the marketing hoops, but taking the pressure off myself from trying to appease the Algorithm Gods didn’t magically restore the joy of creating stories for me either.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: it’s very difficult to be creative when your creative well is dry.

The other night I got into a conversation about how frustrated I was with my lack of progress in everything–how I might have 10 minutes a day to commit to something at best. How can anyone expect to make progress in ten minutes a day? The answer I got was “ten minutes a day is better than zero minutes.”

The conversation led to a series of thinky thoughts I posted on Bluesky, and I’ve decided to screencap and share them here.

I suspect many of us feel like we might as well smash the violin. But if we did, we’d never know the joy and satisfaction of what we might achieve some day.

A departure into poetry

Posted on by
Reply

Author Hiria Dunning runs a weekend writing prompt over on Bluesky called #pretendpanel. Each week, she comes up with fun challenges that really make you think about the answers. I’ve been participating (when I can) for a while now, and I encourage you to do the same. The premise is simple: pretend you’re on an author panel answering the offered question. This month, the prompts have focused on short verse form, something that is not my forte. I’ve jokingly pointed out that even when I set out to write a short story, it turns into a novel on me.

I love short stories, but I truly believe they are an art form I don’t possess the skills to create. Ditto with poetry. Today’s #pretendpanel prompt was about sharing some short-form writing, either your own or a favorite of yours.

I used to write poetry in high school. Didn’t we all? Fortunately, most of it went by the wayside. I’d kept a few favorites in a notebook but when I went to find the notebook this morning, I couldn’t locate it. Do I still have it somewhere? I don’t know. I have lots of blank notebooks. Beautiful, funny, inspiring blank notebooks that I leave blank because I’m afraid of ruining them with my messy handwriting and messy thoughts. But that is another story altogether.

Odds are the notebook–the one with a handful of semi-terrible poems–is around the house someplace. It’s also equally possible it got lost in a move, or tossed in a fit of Marie Kondoism. Who knows. I’m not even sure I mourn its loss.

But there is one poem I wrote that I’d regret losing, and fortunately, I found a copy in my dropbox.

I’m sharing it as part of the #pretendpanel prompt for today

 

Siblings

With shaking hands, I performed the rituals that would keep the room safe.
That would corral the monsters everyone said did not exist and seal them in the closet overnight.
But the magic could not keep out the noise, the sound of raised voices and splintering wood.

In the morning, I looked down through the shattered railings, shocked by the raw wood visible beneath the white paint, as though broken bones were sticking out from underneath torn skin.

And he was gone…like he did not exist.  Not to be seen again, except on rare occasions, like Christmas and funerals.  And we did not speak of him, not son, not brother.

Lying in a heat-soaked room, living for the breathless moment when the fan would oscillate in my direction.
Gasping for air like a little bluegill.
She left her narrow bed and knelt beside me, whispering, “If you don’t stop making that noise, I will kill you.”

She, who chose to hold adulthood at bay by starving her body into adolescence.
Littering our room with the detritus of desiccated meals not eaten.
She who ran away and hence did not exist, not spoken of again, not sister, not daughter.

And I, praying not to exist, began painting my room in beige.  Beige walls, beige eyes, beige hair, beige skin.  With each stroke of the paint brush, I am not here, I do not exist.

She of great passion and raging talent would not go away quietly.  She left in a storm of slamming doors and bitter tears.  She, too, ran away, existing but not existing.  A fledgling with her mouth open in a nest far away.

I stumbled into a wall today, paintbrush in hand.  Stared in shock at the gray paint dripping from the end of the brush, an anemic life force spattering on the floor.  With shaking hands, I performed the rituals that would unlock the door, the door that had long since been painted over.  I am here, but I do not exist.  I cannot leave.  I am the Good Daughter.

 

There you are. My one and only adult attempt at poetry. Maybe I can find a use for those blank notebooks after all.

A Nose for Death (Ginny Reese Mysteries Book 4) is now available!

Posted on by
4

It’s finally here! A Nose for Death (Ginny Reese Mysteries Book 4) is now available! For some reason the print version on Amazon is a little slow to go live, but it’s now up as an ebook and print book on Amazon. It will soon be live on Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Apple, or you can ask your library to stock it through Hoopla and Overdrive, if those are your preferred platforms. What can I say? Amazon is speedy, so if you can’t wait, grab your copy there. If you’d rather support different sites, the price is the same across them all.

Cover art for A Nose for Death, depicting A German Shepherd sitting in a lane with fencing on either side that leads to a lovely house in the background. Behind the dog, there is a bloody axe in the driveway.

Isn’t this cover adorable? I made high-pitched dolphin squeals when I saw this from Melody Simmons at Bookscre8tivecovers.com. Here’s the blurb:

A storm. A dog. And a body…
Ginny Reese and her dog Remington are back in a thrilling new cozy mystery by award-winning author M.K. Dean.

Veterinarian Ginny Reese is adjusting to her recent inheritance in the small southern town of Greenbrier. After a storm takes down one of the outbuildings on her property, her dog, Remington, discovers human remains in the ruins. When the victim turns out to be Vicky Coleman, an old high school classmate—and former girlfriend of Sheriff Joe Donegan—both Ginny and Joe become suspects and are sidelined by a new investigative team.

Ginny’s relationship with Vicky Coleman ended on bad terms and she feels obligated to find out what happened to her former best friend. Doing so will stir up old memories and feelings, potentially derailing whatever it is Ginny is rekindling with Joe. But Vicky played some dangerous games that put her in the crosshairs of a killer, and if Ginny isn’t careful, she and Remy will end up in the killer’s sights as well.

A Nose for Death is the fourth book in the highly acclaimed Ginny Reese Mysteries, and the stakes have never been higher. Make sure you have time to read when you pick up your copy because you won’t be able to put it down!

I can’t wait to share this with you! I’ll be doing a live on TikTok tomorrow evening (Saturday 3/29/25 at 7 pm EST) with author Dori Saltzman (Death of a Travel Advisor) to discuss writing mysteries, but also writing series. Do join us! My account is https://www.tiktok.com/@mk_dean_author. We look forward to seeing you there!

I’ll be updating this post with the other links as they go live!

Why I’m Quitting in 2025

Posted on by
5

I’ve been publishing stories since 2010, when my first book was accepted by a small press. Since then, I’ve written 19 novels under various pen names.

I made a decision to rebrand myself and self-publish in 2017, when two of the small presses I worked with stopped paying royalties to their authors. I re-branded again in 2022 when I realized that I wrote more mysteries than I did romances (though I’m stuck with this website domain name unless I want to start all over again from scratch).

Also in 2022 or thereabouts, I decided to spend less time on social media platforms I didn’t enjoy, and dove headfirst into TikTok. I didn’t abandon the other platforms–authors are expected to maintain a presence on a wide variety of sites–but I neglected them (and this website) in favor of my new shiny toy. 

I’ve never had as much fun on a social media platform as I have on TikTok. Something about the format brought out the frustrated actress in me, and I had a blast playing with wigs, filters, costumes, and lip syncing to funny sounds. If I could make it relevant to my writing, even better. But unlike people who managed to parlay their time on the app into real income, or at the very least, a decent side hustle, I never hit the big time. Not as an  influencer. Not as an author. But I met lots of wonderful people and I had FUN at a time when I needed it the most. I found an enjoyable community there, and I loved it.

It seems very likely that TikTok will be banned in the US shortly. Don’t get me started on that–that’s a whole other discussion by itself–but let’s just say that Google, Amazon, and Meta donated large sums of money to seeing the app got killed here in the US.

So, 2 years of work building a platform will be going down the drain. And I have to say, as much fun as I’ve had on TikTok, it’s been detrimental to my writing productivity. Every year I spend more and more time on marketing, promotion, and social media to the exclusion of writing. One of the nice things about TT was the algorithm was easier to master. But all SM platforms keep raising the bar on visibility, requiring you to spend either time or money there in order to be seen.

The bulk of my ideal readership is probably on Facebook, to a lesser degree, Instagram. The bulk of my sales are through Amazon. I’ve spoken at length about why I don’t have my books in KU, and only part of that is because once all other digital platforms for selling books is gone, Amazon can do whatever they like to authors. There are reasons why I can’t divorce myself from these platforms even though I have strong moral objections to how they do business. (Leaving Twitter was easy. Once Musk took over, it ceased to be a useful platform for authors. If you want to find me in a happier place, I’m on bluesky now)

And when I realized that the odds were high I was going to lose TikTok–and any traction I’ve worked to build as an indie author–something inside me just gave up.

No. I’m not going to quit writing.

But I’m going to take the pressure off of it.

I’m no longer going to jump through hoops to get noticed. I’m going to spend less time on social media period. I’m not going require my writing to fund my retirement, or make me a household name. I’m going to write because I have fun doing so, and stop trying so hard to make it a second (or third) job. I’m going to write the stories I want to read without worrying if they are marketable or not. If I pitch something to an agent, it will be for the fun of it, not because I’m hoping it will change my life. If I go to a convention, it will be to see friends, not to sell myself as an author. I’m not giving up on my dreams. I’m giving up on sacrificing joy for them. Honestly, at this point, the writing just has to break even and stop costing me money.

And while I’m conflicted about where I will spend my time as an author on social media, maybe the answer for right now is right here. Where I can release my thinky thoughts for people to read or not read as they see fit, without worrying about pleasing a demanding algorithm.

But I am going to miss you, TikTok.

 

 

December Events: Indie Author Winter Wonderland and A Cozy Mystery Party

Posted on by
Reply

It’s December 1 here, and we’re experiencing a little light snow. Sadly, snow is a rare occurrence these days, so I appreciate the weather being cooperative when I’m planning some winter-themed events!

The first is that I’m participating in the Indie Author Winter Wonderland event hosted by Indievisible Events December 6-9. This event pulls in indie authors across varied genres to showcase their work at discounted prices!

The second is on December 8th, from 1:30-2 pm EST, I’ll be doing an author takeover as part of the HUGE Cozy Mystery Party hosted by the Facebook group of the same name. I’ll be talking about the Ginny Reese Mystery series, holiday baking, and pets in books, among other things. I’ll also be giving away a $10 Amazon gift card–which I’m sure can come in handy right about now! You have to join the group to participate, but you should anyway! They are always hosting some sort of cool and fun event with great prizes too. Just look at all the names of the participating authors in this year’s party!! I believe everyone is doing their own giveaway, too!

I’m already planning to attend as many of these takeovers as possible.

For the duration of these events, An Embarrassment of Itches (Ginny Reese Mysteries Book 1) will be just 0.99 cents for a limited time. Be sure to tell your friends to snag their copy if they haven’t read it yet.

A Nose for Death (Ginny Reese Mysteries Book 4) is with the editor right now, and we’re looking at a March 2025 release date. I’m hoping to have some launch party book signings arranged by then.

Also, I’m no longer on Twitter. I’m over on Bluesky, which feels the way Twitter felt in the early days before the feeds got throttled and linking to outside sites was frowned upon.

So, come join in the fun!

It’s Bouchercon time!

Posted on by
2

Tomorrow I’m flying to Nashville to join my good friends Claire Johnson and Anna Butler at the 55th annual Bouchercon World Mystery Convention! I’m so excited! This is my first Bouchercon, as this is the first year that it’s been somewhat in my neck of the woods.

According to Bouchercon’s Mission statement:

Bouchercon’s mission is to introduce, attract, and promote readers and writers by producing outstanding, inclusive events to grow and sustain the mystery community.

Bouchercon® is the annual world mystery convention where every year readers, writers, publishers, editors, agents, booksellers and other lovers of crime fiction gather for a 4-day weekend of education, entertainment, and fun!


The first Bouchercon took place in 1970 in Santa Monica, California. Subsequent Bouchercons have been held in many cities across the United States, as well as in Toronto and the UK.

Wait, what? 1970 was 55 years ago?? I’m sure this must be a typo, right? 

At any rate, the event will be held at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center and it looks to be a SMASHING conference! The venue is amazing! There are terrific panels on almost every subject imaginable, and the Anthony Awards will be announced as well. Not to mention, I just found out Laurie King will be celebrating the 30 year anniversary of the release of The Beekeeper’s Apprentice–which also doesn’t seem possible that this beginning to a terrific series was that long ago as well.

Planning to go? Look for me there! I’ll be doing speed-dating for authors (it’s exactly what it sounds like only you as the reader sit at tables while authors come by and for 2 minutes persuade you to read their book) as well as a panel on avoiding the pitfalls of indie publishing with moderator Fred Tippet II, and panelists R Weir, Winnie Frolik, and
Josh Pachter. Immediately after the panel, I’ll be signing books in the dealer’s room. Provided I can find it! Will GPS work inside the convention center? Better brush up on those map reading skills! Hope to see you there!

Twitter, Mastodon, TikTok and all that other nonsense #twitterexodus #mastodon #tiktok

Posted on by
4

I confess, I’m a bit fed up with social media right now.

I don’t spend much time on Facebook unless I am participating in a specific group event or checking in with a particular community. I mostly cross-post to it, and have had some moderate success with Facebook ads.

But this past week, several of my ads have been rejected (won on appeal, but still) for no discernable reason, and in 7 days I’ve spent almost $50 without a single sale. I keep getting notices that my ads might not deliver because they haven’t been optimized, and yet the description of how to do this makes no sense whatsoever. As much as I was loathe to give FB any money, my ads there seemed to have a greater ROI than my ads elsewhere. Not any longer. I don’t know what’s changed, and I am exhausted by the notion that I either have to figure it out or pay someone else to teach me how to appease the new algorithms.

There’s a big #TwitterExodus afoot now in the advent of Elon Musk purchasing the site. Rumors of this event occurred back in April, but then he backed out, but was forced to honor his agreement. EM’s reason for purchasing the platform was to make it a private company and easier for people to speak more freely… which means that much of the ugliness and rampant misinformation found on such right-wing sites as Parler has gained ground almost immediately on the bird platform. For a list of all the massive proposed changes in just the last week, check out this list here.

Additional concerns about the chaos of misinformation flooding Twitter before the mid-term elections is here. Many big companies have paused advertising to see what direction Twitter will ultimately take, but EM himself cited a widely discredited website in a Tweet that implied the brutal attack on Paul Pelosi was not carried out by a far-right wing blogger but was related instead to an anti-LGBTQ “theory” about a skirmish at a local bar. The Tweet was eventually deleted, but there you are.

This kind of behavior, both by EM and on Twitter, has resulted in large numbers of the people I follow and interact with choosing to leave Twitter. Most are migrating to a site called Mastodon, which claims to be a decentralized platform that can’t be bought or sold at the whim of a single entity. Jack Dorsey, the original founder of Twitter, is planning a similar decentralized platform called BlueSky. Decentralized platforms mean you don’t just jump in and have content/people pushed toward you. You have to decide what toe you want to dip in where.

Most older people say this is much how the internet used to be–and they are embracing the chaos. To me, it feels like making the jump from cable to streaming: if I want to watch a particular show, I have to figure out what channel it’s on and whether I want access to it. The problem with Mastodon, is the search engine is VERY different. You have to know what server to join, and what “instances” to join (which are kind of like clubs on Discord, it’s all very confusing). The phone app sucks, and I’m not keen on given my information to a third party app such as Tusky (which is being recommended) to use Mastodon on my phone.

Then there’s the problem that while Twitter is an established platform like Facebook or Pinterest, and sharing buttons on media have evolved to include them, there is no such thing for Mastodon as it stands. Where I (or anyone else) used to be able to easily share information from this blog or other sites, it will take extra steps to share things to Mastodon. But if you want a primer on making the move, read this post here.

The important thing to remember is it is NOT Twitter. It’s been likened to entering a high school cafeteria with your tray and looking for a place to sit down with like-minded people, and I suppose that’s why my knee-jerk reaction to Mastodon hasn’t been good. I LOATHED high school and the clique-y mentality. I’m also at a point in my life where I don’t have a lot of time and I hate wasting it on learning things I may or may not use.

Many people are touting Discord instead, but instead of a high school cafeteria, Discord feels to me like a gated community, and you can only gain entrance if you know the password. Long, threaded conversations like you have on WhatsApp and in chat rooms have never appealed to me because I’m invariably late to the party and the thing I wanted to comment on was 50 entries back and everyone has moved off of it onto something else. Don’t get me started on Tumbler, which feels like a place where someone scribbles graffiti on a wall and others come by and add their own scribblings. The end result can be interesting, but it’s hard to have a conversation there.

At the moment, I’m spending most of my time on TikTok, which I never, ever said I’d do. I admit to having spent the last eleven months having a ridiculous amount of fun there but… and you knew there was going to be a “but” right?

I’ve scarcely written a word since joining TT. I’m spending most of my writing time drafting videos. I’ve learned how to do transitions, use filters, lip sync, and have bought a crazy amount of wigs and costumes. Somehow the learning curve it took to master TT has not brought me to teeth-grinding rage the way learning other social media–it was a lot more like discovering fandom and then teaching myself all the tools I needed to know in order to play in it.

At first, TT was a BLAST. I’m still having fun with it, but ever since publishing deemed TT was THE place to be (and truthfully, that was the only reason I made the leap), there has been a lot of pressure to be young, thin, attractive, and the kind of TT presence publishers deem valuable. There have been rumors that one of the big trad pubs told an author they couldn’t offer her a contract because she wasn’t young enough (she was in her forties…). There is also talk of publishers signing up hot young women and then pairing them with older women who ghostwrite their books for similar reasons–the youth and hotness are prime selling points on this platform.

Honestly, that doesn’t bother me that much. That kind of thing has been going on as long as youth and sex have been selling factors. But what does bother me is the rumors that TT is going to move to a paid subscription model. What bothers me is that I used to routinely get 300-400 views and now they’ve dropped to less than 100. TT is HUGE for making constant changes to the algorithm, and now the word is they want to be more like YouTube by offering longer formats (up to ten minutes) and you have to make your content searchable now with captions. It’s all about SEO to increase visibility and I get so darned tired of having to change something every time I think I have a handle on it. TT has been good to me in terms of sales. But it’s a time sink, I blame it for the bulk of the drop off in my writing production, and I’m not there in order to manipulate the ins and outs of algorithm changes. I’m there to have fun.

If it turns into another pay-to-play site, I’m gone.

I had a bit of a meltdown this morning, and my husband said something to me that made me do a double-take. I mentioned that I was so angry all the time, and he said that if I were an old white man, he’d say it was because I’d been watching FOX News. It took me aback because I’m about as far from that demographic as you can get… and yet I AM stoking my rage machine all the time over things I have very little control over.

Democracy is going to live or die one way or another. Same with our civil rights, climate change, the hope of a future for our children in a world running out of resources and becoming increasingly polarized and violent, and so on. My ANGER ALONE will not prevent these things from happening. I tell myself staying informed is the best I can do because I’m working so hard on every other front to keep my head above water I can’t spare any more energy for anything else. I’ve donated where I thought it would help the most, and I only get more begging letters and emails. I can’t stop what’s coming.

But I can stop adding fuel to a furnace already about to meltdown.

They say we can’t survive as authors or creators of any kind without social media. But I think I need to consider surviving as a person for a little while with less of it.

Mystery Loves Democracy Auction…and You’re the Winner!

Posted on by
Reply

I’m so excited to be a part of this terrific auction to raise money for the Mystery Loves Democracy Auction Sept 18th through Sept 24th (starting at 12 noon today PST, 3 pm EST)!

Here’s a direct link to one of my packages: Ginny Reese Mysteries Gift Package 

I’ve participated in similar auctions for voting rights and women’s rights run by romance organizations, so I’m thrilled to find a cause to support as a mystery writer! From the Mystery Love Democracy website: 

We’re crime fiction writers, fans, and friends who believe all eligible voters deserve to have their voices heard. The funds we raise will support Fair Fight Action in their nationwide efforts to combat voter suppression.

I’m donating two Ginny Reese Mysteries gift packages (limited to Continental US residents only). Here’s a description of the gift package:

It’s Diagnosis Murder meets All Creatures Great and Small when house-call veterinarian Ginny Reese and her dog Remy discover that life in a small town isn’t always cozy. Sometimes it’s downright deadly.

These gift packages will include signed, print copies of the first two books in the Ginny Reese series, along with individualized bookmarks, pens, and assorted swag, as well as a sneak peek at the first chapter of book 3 in the series.

M.K. Dean is the new pen name of award-winning author McKenna Dean, as she dives into the world of cozy mysteries. She likes putting her characters in hot water to see how strong they are. Like teabags, only sexier.

I do hope you’ll check out the auction! You have to see this list to believe it! There’s something for everyone’s budget, whether you’re a reader or a writer of mysteries and crime thrillers! You can bid on having a character named after you, books and gift packages, gift cards, Zoom meetings and consults with some of the biggest names in the business, brainstorming with authors on your WIP, manuscript critiques, beta reads, sessions with a psychologist (for plotting that complex character), an animal communication session, embroidered quotes from literary figures and more! Really something for every mystery lover and proceeds going to support voter’s rights. It’s a win-win for everyone!