It seems my opinion of this social media lark hasn’t changed much since I started this blog/website six years ago.

I stumbled across a post from my 2016 archives and thought I’d share it again – just in case you are in any doubt! And of course, to save you the trouble of trawling through (gasp!) 240 posts to find it (you’re welcome!).

It comes ahead of two bits of news:

1) I’m going to be posting creative writing prompts/inspiration-related posts again, beginning this week (yay!) and

2) My new poetry book ‘Under the Influence’ is due out tomorrow, January 24th 2022, (more yay!). I haven’t seen it yet. Well, I saw the proofs, obviously. Back in early December 2021. But I’ve not seen the actual book yet. No, I don’t know why not, either.

But while I’m waiting, here it is, ‘Blog Off‘, from February 2016:

I’ve mostly managed to resist active participation in social media. I’ve dabbled of course, marvelling at the wonderful breakfast posted by a woman I used to work with six years ago, and the amusing antics of a pet Alsatian owned by someone I met in a bus queue last week. Then there’s my second cousin twice removed; it is important that I know their bedroom colour schemes and the depth of their feelings for Bolivian carnivals and natural hair extensions.

For a writer, social media is both a blessing and a curse. First off it’s inspiration, all that material just sitting there waiting to be developed from fact into fiction. But then clearly, it’s a distraction. The whole internet thing is. While you’re there trawling Facebook posts about cute kittens and ten things you didn’t know about celebrities you’ve never heard of, shouldn’t you be … ahem…writing?

Well, that’s what I’ve believed for a long time – until that is, it dawned on this late bloomer that social media can be a useful tool in the writer’s workbox. Not only useful, but essential. There are thousands of good writers out there competing with you; the ones who get published seem to be those who can market themselves. Enter stage left social media. Facebook is up there as a writer’s must-have, alongside Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, the list is daunting to a newbie…

So here I am, dipping my toe into blogging. A kind of on-line journal to share with like minded types. All my ramblings about being a writer, getting published, entering competitions and such-like. And reading, of course. I’m a voracious consumer of the written word, and like to share my literary opinions.

Meanwhile, would you like to see a photo of the delicious lunch I had with my friend Catherine the other day? There’s a writing connection – she’s a poet, too.

Oh sod it, I knew I should have taken a picture before we started eating. Never mind, here’s one of what I looked like in 2002, according to my daughter. It’s not that accurate, big bum, Norah Batty stockings and curly hair notwithstanding…

See, I even looked like a writer back then, didn’t I?

If you are still reading (thank you!), please come back on Wednesday, January 26th 2022 (5pm Dublin time), when I will be posting the first of a new series of creative writing prompts and inspirations. On a day which also happens to be Australia Day. 

And just for the record, despite my daughter’s stunning depiction of what I looked like 20 years ago, my hair has never been that colour.