(No, I don't have a new kitten. I just like cat pictures.)

As soon as I got home from Dragon Con, I put my Facebook & Twitter passwords into the hands of my trusted Spouseman. If anyone noticed a drop in activity on Twitter or my near-total absence on Facebook (I doubt it, but I want to be thorough) that's what's up.  I'm getting a lot done offline these days. TONS. It feels great.I've also been thinking a bit about my social media presence.Fair warning to recent followers: I'm not good at "Maintaining a Social Media Presence" in the ways most book marketing gurus still recommend.My feeds are not well-curated.  I put online whatever filters through the unreliable sieve of my impulses. I take loads of unmodified food, yard, and cat pictures, post moody observations about my writing fails and flails, log in whatever I've collected from pop culture, and indulge in random outbursts of joy, frustration, and/or existential angst.My Personal Brand, such as it is, might best be described as Flaky Eclectic.Yes, I have been asked the question, "Why spend time on social media at all, then, especially on a blog, if not to aid in your authorial endeavors?"Simple answer: it's what I do. I am a diarist. Not a regular nor a diligent one, perhaps, but the shoe fits. I think things, and I record them. I was blogging for years before I tackled the wacky task of publishing a novel.  This website blog is still more of a life record than a promotional tool.I've been writing random notes to an invisible, possibly imaginary audience a lot longer than that--ever since the day I was living independently and nothing I wrote could be used against me (The potential for judgment horrified me--the idea of my ideas or my emotions being corrected was unbearable.)ANYway. I've been over that fear for a long time. Pretty sure my dad reads my blog, even. (HI, DAD! LOVE YOU!)  My me-ness is well settled in ways that it wasn't when I was younger. The field in which my fucks are sown is barren, etc, etc, and all that.BUT I DIGRESS. As I do. Short form: I post stuff online because it's my way of affirming my existence. No more, no less. I write, so a lot of my posts are about writing, but this is not and never will be a writing blog, nor will it be a pretty one full of promotional perkiness.My life is not interesting. I rarely have vibrant insights. I won't solicit much interaction online--too much social contact, even at a distance, even online, wears me out & leaves me paranoid even though I crave attention as much as any other creator. So I will come and go, flit and hermit, all quite unpredictably. (Contradictions-R-Us, hello.)In short, and belatedly, you'll be disappointed if you expect me to be entertaining. My books  are entertaining. They're full of really cool people having exciting, amazing, occasionally painful adventures. Me? Not so much.This brings us to the end of another mostly meandering post.  Next one will be all about media consumption. I've gotten loads of reading done!