To blog, or not to blog: that is the question:

I’m a late-comer to social media.  I joined Twitter a few months ago under the pseudonym ‘Adam Chase’, Facebook last week(ish) and WordPress yesterday after a couple of false starts on other ‘bloggy’ type sites – apologies to those who were led down the proverbial cul de sac.   You could call me a technophobe, but actually that’s only an infinitesimal part of the story.

As a writer, I’m in the business of communication.  Words and stories are my thing.  I have many writerly friends.  Some embrace social media with brio – and they are brilliant at it – others would prefer to run off and hide under a rock.  Both sides of the camp agree that it is a time-consuming exercise. Where I stand on this issue is, rightly or wrongly, complex.  In truth, I have a deep-seated aversion to pushing ‘me’ or what I do in a society where we are encouraged to push’ me’ and what ‘me’ does.  Even as I write this, all kinds of messages have popped up on my screen telling me why ‘blogging matters more than ever’, the underlying message:   if you want to join or remain ‘in with the in crowd’, this is what any sane person/writer does.  Don’t get me wrong, I am in no way criticising those who blog and tweet for the planet.  I admire them, but for me it’s awkward.  Blame it on my upbringing, if you like, where any displays of personal ‘moi-ness’ were openly discouraged.  ‘I write therefore I am’ is about as far as it goes.  So if your desire is to get a handle on what I’m about, what I had for breakfast, or who I hang out with and what I do in my downtime, you may be disappointed.  If you’re interested in my take on current crime fiction, thrillers, spy or otherwise, the latest films and television crime dramas, the vicissitudes and challenges of staying in the publishing game, and, with my other hat on as an editorial consultant for Writers’ Workshop, talking about the most common pitfalls made by rookie writers, you’re in the right place.  I guess I’m an ‘anti-blogger’ in the same way that my main character, Hex, in my last novel ‘Wicked Game’ is an anti-hero.

Whatever else, I’ll try not to bore you, but instead attempt to bring something a little new and fresh to a subject that is endlessly fascinating to me.  And if I mention one of my novels in passing, I’ll endeavour to cast modesty aside and do it with just a small red-faced fanfare!

In the meantime, to all who might read this, have a happy and peaceful Christmas!