By Shelley Burbank: This includes an excerpt from my latest PINK DANDELIONS newsletter.
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| Dandelion Seeds |
FROM PINK DANDELIONS
With everything going on right now, and in spite of the tasteless, smell-less, sterile poison that is AI’s non-living“breath” seeping into nearly every corner of our human world, I feel something rising in humanity: a desire to turn our backs (some a little, some a lot) on technology and to return, instead, to our humanity. All our messy, emotional, fleshy, smelly, oozy, soaring, dancing, laughing, swirling in circles on the grass, and lifting our faces to feel the rain humanity.
Do you feel it? Do those words grab you by the hand and swing you around? Do they make your heart lift?
Typing them makes me feel happy. I wrote about this creativity era in my journal yesterday, about how I feel as if we are moving into a new phase of life, one that is more connected with actual, living things: people, nature, animals, human-made art and crafts, voices raised in song, feet pounding a rhythmic dance, long hugs, big smiles, and laughing together over a shared experience.
Our new creativity era has begun, I feel it swirling around me, and it brings a feeling of peace and giddiness at the same time. I want to create. I want to share. I want to be in commune with other creators.
I’m dedicating myself to creativity. I’m letting ego and the materialist/capitalist side of the writing life become just a sidenote to the main event. It feels like turning a corner. Here, something whispers to me, is the human-scaled place to dwell.
Read the entire newsletter
https://open.substack.com/pub/shelleyburbank/p/our-creativity-era-has-just-begun
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So, Dear Type M-ers, one way I am dedicating myself to this creativity is letting go of social media. I know I've talked about it a lot, but I've reached my limit of patience with this poisonous, anti-human, dumpster-fire technology. Social media isn't necessary for the writing life, and it's not really all that effective in growing a readership, despite all the hype that it will and that there are no better alternatives.
I'm calling B.S. on that "common knowledge."
I don't need to outline all the reasons social media is bad for human beings, especially kids, and for society in general. You've heard it all. I've heard it all. I've come to the conclusion that I can't support these platforms anymore, even if it means I'm undermining my writing career.
But I don't actually believe that anymore. I think there are better ways, especially since the great algorithmic pivot on the platforms around 2019-2020 which severely limits organic reach.
It's a waste of time. It's emotionally and psychologically addictive. It stokes conflict and outrage.
So, the other day I posted a "this is why I'm taking a 30-day break from social media" reel in Facebook and Instagram. I moved these apps to the "back" page of my phone apps so I don't see them. I turned off push notifications so they don't pop up to tempt me. I'm officially taking a 30-day break, but I'm pretty sure at the end of that time I'm going to abandon my accounts, leave them there as a "calling card" directing people to my website instead, or possibly even delete them altogether.
I should delete them. Why? Because that's how we take these platforms down. One deleted account at a time. Oh, by the way, some estimates are that 50% of the ad traffic comes from "bots." In other words, when you are paying for an ad and you get charged for an "impression" that impression might be made by a bot, not someone who might actually buy your book. Even accounts are, by some estimates, 10-16% fake.
It's a zombie apocalypse in there, you just don't realize it yet.
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Meanwhile, new mystery novella (137 pages) has launched and is available in both ebook and paperback on KDP/Amazon. I'm really pleased at how it came out, and early reviewers are giving it very high marks and enthusiastic comments.
Read the description and buy at https://www.amazon.com/Strawberry-Moon-Mystery-Olivia-Novella-ebook/dp/B0GGYX6CJB
Meet Your Next Favorite Female Sleuth. Strawberry Moon Mystery by Shelley Burbank. Olivia Lively, P.I. Mystery Series
- Coastal Maine Setting
- Female Investigator
- Frenemies & Betrayal
- Literary Mystery
