Bein’ a Groupie

While I was growing up, I would have avoided any activity which resulting in that label. However, nowadays I enjoy participating in some of the internet groups that I’ve found. In particular, Whiskey Creek Press has a author’s group which can be helpful to new authors who are learning that publisher’s system.

My WCP editor, Gina, also has a small group for writers which concentrates on writing, editing, and marketing. I’ve learned a lot hanging out there. On the other hand, there are a few groups I’ve joined to promote my writings, and these have been a mixed bag— some have interesting posts, and one is just plain weird.

It’s my understanding that most groupies are “lurkers”— they read the posts but seldom contribute anything. Sometimes I do that, especially when the groupies have bad manners, and I can think of a couple of folks who should read Ronda Rich’s book on What Southern Women Know That Everyone Should Know. In general, southern women can get their way without being pushy or rude, and Rich has an entire chapter on the subject.

In the past couple of weeks, I began my own, private, group at Yahoo. The reason I am restricting membership is to thwart spam and to protect the privacy of those who do choose to join. To begin, I sent invitations to people who have contacted me about the books I’ve written or about writing in general. Thus far, I have sent 24 invitations and now have three (other) members for my group.

While that’s not much of a fan club, I will try to write some things there that I can’t put on my website or this blog, and maybe those few faithful friends and fans will enjoy visiting enough to encourage a few others to join my group.