Thanks for being bold and bringing up the topic!

You'll enjoy him, Kris. And Popeye. I think he's off picking up a new cat at a shelter. I'm not sure if she'll travel with him or not. But it is fun! Enjoy!

Life is a risk, right? It's all about finding where you're comfortable and knowing when to nudge yourself beyond your comfort zone. Thanks for this wonderful discussion, Lisa!

Cole is a FANTASTIC, wonderful, funny horse. You've found your fish, my friend. You just need to finish the (searches for a f word to keep the alliteration going, decides best to give up on that...) second book! My husband and I have a rule about things that sort of sit sideways with us: if we get that weird gut feeling? We go with it our gut. Why? Better to miss out on something that might have been good than to get into something we knew better than to mess with! It was worth a try, and you're right... they could be SO good. They could be amazing experiences if everyone came to them with the same spirit. But like most giveaways, you want to be giving away something your FISH actually wants. You have excellent instincts. Go have fun swimming with the fishes!

Lol. Yes. I decided long ago that life is too short to hang out with toxic strangers, especially since I'm "socially awkward on social." 😂 Thought provoking? Yes. Mean? No. Social is meant to be fun (in my mind).

Regarding the quality vs. quantity, it's funny b/c that's how I roll in real life, so why wouldn't "social" be any different? The "follow trains" always sat sideways with me, anyway. If people did want to actually engage and did so with the people they followed and got to follow them then it'd be a slightly different story--which was why I was willing to try. No surprise that it didn't pan out that way. I found a handful I still engage with, but they are writers...

I've absorbed your lessons--I just need to find the fish. Although you make a good point about the horse people. And Cole is a funny horse 😁😉

I'll think about it, Karen. (Pulls up Evernote, adds it to list of WITS article ideas...) I agree that we do need to talk about it. The problem is that some people confuse the topic with political issues and that's something I choose to stay away from.

I eventually decided to check out TikTok and found it to be fun and welcoming. Note: I seldom post, but that's pretty much my norm. I have a good friend who posts. She freaked out when I started following her and it cracked me up. "You'll see the whole me! Not just the part I show you!" Yes, I was intrigued... and we had a long chat about just how "straight laced" she thought I was!!! I've found that TikTok and Twitter are my current favorites, the ones that can drag me away from work and take me down a rabbit hole.

For me, I have less fear of anyone tracking me online for one solid reason: my information was released in the Equifax breach. Anyone who wants to know anything about me can find it all too quickly. Thanks to large companies releasing my data on a regular basis, I feel that I have very little privacy. As a result, I treat every phone call as spam.

So for context... the opportunity to follow the latest trends in book marketing made TikTok worth the experiment for me. The sheer FUN of the thing is what kept me. Which does NOT mean I'm saying it is safe! Comparative risk...

Oh, and... you enjoy it. So you don't have to make yourself do it. You'll need to remind yourself to STOP it and get back to writing. This is GOOD social media. This is exactly what I'm going for with this article. This is a non-toxic social media situation...where you're having fun. That's the goal. Have fun, meet people. Connect with people. Be social. (grin)

I think we've talked about "quality" of list vs "quantity" of list. A lot of folks don't realize that a big inactive list doesn't help you... and can even hurt. Good for you for declining (politely - could you be anything ELSE???). And let's think about those horse and other animal accounts that you love. IF one of those people picked up either of your books... let's say they don't know your writing, but they're going to try you. They come across your character, Jimmy. Jimmy is so sweet with the animals. All of the horse passages you write show that you love horses, you get them. Some of your horses are almost characters. This random horse lover is going to enjoy every scene with a horse or animal in it. That's a big part of your book! They're going to genuinely enjoy the story, even if it isn't in their genre. Why? Because the writing is good and you share a love of animals. I see nothing wrong with this scenario.

Lisa- I'm so grateful for your thoughtful reply. Tiktok seems a little less scary now, though still intimidating. I'll keep an open mind and will see where that leads me. I still would love to see this in a separate post so I can share it with my writer networks!