Blogging and Pinning

[alex_beecroft]

Ah, if only all blogging was this effortless! Today, courtesy of Charlie Cochrane, I’m talking about the differences between m/f and m/m romance on the Flirty Author Bitches blog:

http://flirtyauthorbitches.com/2012/06/not-your-mothers-historical-romance/

Thanks Charlie!

I’ve also recently started using Pinterest. I’m always curious to try out the latest new thing in social media – largely in a vain attempt to find one that will suit me. Often I make a great, enthusiastic start and then lapse into silence again. Who knows whether that will be the case here or not? But I will say that I actually see a way to use Pinterest in the cause of writing.

I’m currently doing galley proofs for the Under the Hill books, and then I’m going to move on to editing The Pilgrims’ Tale (and then I’m going to move on to editing Elf Princes’ Quest.) So I’m saving my “but I still need to write, or else I’ll go insane” brain by doing 500 words of a new vampire novella in the morning before I get to work on all that editing. And – coming slowly back around to the point here – Pinterest is being brilliant for keeping all the research pictures that I’ve never known what to do with before.

Now if I Google “18th Century Wallachian Boyar” I don’t have to just look at the picture and try to remember it, or bookmark it, or download it and upload it into an awkward research folder somewhere. I can just pin it, and then I can go and look at all my similar pins together and get a pictorial overview which is wonderful for giving a feel for the atmosphere. And I can organise all of this by book, which makes lots of sense to me, and also ends up looking very pretty.

http://pinterest.com/alexbeecroft/

So yes, I can see myself using Pinterest on a regular basis. I have no idea whether it will be of any use, social media or promo-wise, but I suspect that’s always been very secondary to me anyway. As a research tool, it’s prime

Mirrored from Alex Beecroft - Author of Gay Historical and Fantasy Fiction.

Comments

[bimo]

So yes, I can see myself using Pinterest on a regular basis. I have no idea whether it will be of any use, social media or promo-wise, but I suspect that’s always been very secondary to me anyway. As a research tool, it’s prime :)


I've been using Pinterest for quite a while now, mostly as a virtual scrapbook for books and art, and I must say that I'm feeling rather happy with it. No idea if this makes any sense at all, but there is a certain flair of anonymity (absence of peer pressure?) to it which allows me to feel far more comfortable with posting stuff than I could ever feel on DW/LJ.

http://pinterest.com/bimotweets/

[alex_beecroft]

I see what you mean, I think. It doesn't feel very 'social' in the sense that you're on display before a potentially hostile audience. People look at the pictures and not at you.

Heh, I love that Space Girl vid! What a great song too :)

[bimo]

This vid is just fabulous, isn't it? I only wonder... What does it tell about me that I can easily identify about 90% of its source material? ;-)

People look at the pictures and not at you

*nods*

Absolutely.

However, for me it's not so much about fearing open hostilities, though (I guess, I'm not nearly a big enough fish or controversial enough to provoke any of the animosities that you and other folks have encountered). What keeps stressing me about DW/LJ instead is a rather weird sort of online inferiority complex, the mostly unfounded notion that people might find me a hopeless bore and not quite up to their standards...

On Pinterest, on the other hand, I feel like I can post whatever I want without boring or disappointing folks, simply because over there it's all so very arbitrary. People just look at the prettiness, but otherwise don't really care.

[alex_beecroft]

I know what you mean, but if it's any comfort I've never found you to be boring at all. You've always got something interesting and well-considered to say. It's the people who don't think before they speak and just trot out the latest inflammatory stuff who strike me as dull. I value my small circle of people who don't talk unless they have something worthwhile to say, and definitely include you in it.

[bimo]

Aw, thank you! :-)

I value my small circle of people who don't talk unless they have something worthwhile to say

The same goes for me as well. Ever since I first got introduced to the strange world of LJ by one of my oldest and most trusted fannish friends back in 2003, I've always made very conscious choices regarding the question whether to add or not to add someone to my f-list. Maybe it all comes down to a question of personal "online chemistry" and halfway compatible modes of social interaction in the end, but being genuinely interested in what a person has actually to say has always been a key factor for me :-)