A contact I met on Twitter made a request: If I liked his author page on Facebook, he would like mine. I took it as a nice gesture. Ah, but first I needed to create one.
So yesterday after getting a little advice from techie friends, I created a Facebook author page. https://www.facebook.com/JoanLivingstonAuthor
What will I do with my author page? It will strictly be about writing — mine, yours and theirs. I hope to post something every day.
My Facebook profile is for those who call me family or friend.
The digital world has been a wonderful way to reacquaint with people I haven’t seen in years. I enjoy school friends I last saw when I was handed my high school diploma decades ago. I marvel at the lives they have created since. I have Facebook friends who used to be work colleagues and a few from college.
Of course, I have lots of family on Facebook, including my husband’s cousins. I can recall times when it was the fastest way to reach one of our kids.
I have followed closely from afar as they shared sad news — sickness, death, divorce — and happy news — births, marriages and personal accomplishment. They love animals. They have a wicked sense of humor. Some are religious.
Then, there are those who comment on what’s happening politically. I would say most are leftist-thinking liberals. But I respect, as well, those on the other spectrum. As for my own personal views on politics, as the editor of newspaper I keep them off the Internet.
My hope is my friends, family and others will join me on my author page. That’s simple. Just go there and “like” me.
MORE: I did back-to-back interviews with authors at their readings Friday and Saturday. First, it was Steve Tapia, who wrote De la Tierra The Natural World of Northern New Mexico. Steve is a retired wildlife biologist who writes a column for The Taos News. Steve read from the book, and then I asked questions. He even did the call of a female Mexican spotted owl for the audience.
Saturday’s event was with Hannah Nordhaus, author of American Ghost. Hannah’s non-fiction book is about a ghost hunt of sorts for her great-great-grandmother Julia Staab, whose apparition has been sighted at La Posada, a Santa Fe hotel, which used to be her home long ago. We had an enjoyable discussion about the book and what it is like to be descended from a famous ghost.
The event, however, was bittersweet. It was the last for Moby Dickens Bookshop, which is closing July 3 after 31 years. The book-selling business has changed. Taos once had 11 bookstores. Now, with the closing of Moby Dickens, it will only have two second-hand bookstores.
AT LAST: The photo above is my wisteria bush in bloom. I planted it four years ago. Each spring I wonder if it will make it, and this year I was surprised to discover it would flower in this harsh high desert climate. How wonderful.