Bookquake
Well, here I am, somewhere in the demilitarized zone between Goodreads and Booklikes. I'm certain the ongoing fiasco has meant a windfall for Booklikes. Hopefully they are prepared for all the refugees! I'm still wandering between the two, not willing to fully commit to one or the other. Call me a flip-flopper; I can deal with it.
This has been an interesting last week or two, to say the least. First: Goodreads explodes with accusations of censorship and corporate conflicts-of-interest. Second: #kobogeddon hits the ranks of indie authors, hitting the UK contingent particularly hard. Third, both my blog and my Smashwords pages see a huge uptick in hits. And, finally, I receive news from my agent that my novel, "Heraclix & Pomp" has received an offer - an offer that we both thought good enough to sign off on (contracts are in the mail to the publisher right now).
So I have mixed feelings. On one hand, I feel entirely lost. Goodreads seems to be crumbling under the weight of the buyout by Amazon, but I am loathe to simply abandon the site, as I love its functionality and, more importantly, I have developed a great deal of respect for many reviewers there. I've attempted to re-follow as many of my Goodreads friends as I can, but, at this point, Booklikes is a sort of masquerade party to me. I think I recognize some people here, but everyone is wearing a mask. I've tried to be a little less coy with my costume, and I hope I can eventually "see" all of my best Goodreads friends at this new soiree.
On the other hand, there's the possibility of new adventures. There's a sudden flood of new readers of my work (it's amazing what one well-placed tweet can do), and I've just signed a contract for a novel that I absolutely loved writing and am very, very excited to see in print. It's a good contract, and I'm pumped to get to editing the novel and sharing it with the world.
I think I feel a bit like my middle son, who is a senior cross-country runner. His team has seen some success this year (well, they do every year - if they go to State this year, it will be the 9th year in a row). He's the fastest runner on the team, at the moment and, in fact, ran his fastest race yet this morning. But I sense a mix of melancholy (because he sees the end of high school rushing at him) and excitement (because he sees the opportunities ahead of him). Granted, I have both the advantage and the limitation of intervening years to give me some perspective on where I am with my writing vocation and reading avocation, whereas he has some joy and heartache left ahead of him with his impending graduation.
But, frankly, I don't mind feeling like I'm 17 again!
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