As noted in a 2018 blogpost, I had left Facebook, but now I’m back.
It was so difficult to leave Facebook that I swore that once I did, I wouldn’t be back. But then, several years later, my debut novel, All the Beautiful Liars, was to be published and it dawned on me that much more was involved and that it wasn’t really just about me. It was about my publisher, a young independent and innovative one, and the authors he had brought out into the world, which I am happy to say included me. Just take a look at what Eye & Lightning Books is doing.
So, I went back to Facebook and set up a page for my writing news. I’d had many friends in the old days and it was a good time to reconnect with them, other writing mates and former colleagues. And it felt like Mark Zuckerberg’s era of disruption could soon be over, so I went fast and added all the friends I still thought I had. And guess what, my account was disabled. I had to send in an ID and prove who I was. There was no way to actually “talk” to anyone at Facebook, so I resigned myself to going without and ranted about the situation on Twitter. I received many messages of support from people who had had a similar experience. Three days later, when curious about Facebook’s double standards, I was checking out an Australian woman to be stripped of her Order of Australia, and bingo! – I was back. From what I’ve heard, it was a kind of record. Did Twitter help? Did the ID help? Did Facebook recognize its mistake and put everything back without a word? I’ll never know. But then, there is and has been so much speculation in my life that now I’m looking at speculative fiction.
And on that note, I’m happy to say that I have a piece of flash fiction called “The Wishbone” appearing in a speculative fiction anthology to aid the Australian bushfire relief, entitled Stories of Hope.
And there’s an element of the speculative in my novel, All the Beautiful Liars, available for preorder until the launch on 16 March. So, for less than you’d pay for a cup of coffee, you can help ensure that my book gets into print, and into bookshops. It is, after all, in the first group of Lightning Bolt books mentioned by The Bookseller.
So onwards in these interesting times, and please don’t forget to wash your hands.
