Back in December my phone began turning off when someone would call. So instead of hearing Ring-Ring I heard nothing. It was harmless at first. Just a few missed calls and then Iceman, aka DH, bought me an iPhone. That was all well and good, but my old computer, which I was borrowing from a friend, wouldn’t update my iTunes and therefore I couldn’t update my nice new iPhone. Thus a new computer must be had. 

See, before I had the new computer, a White MacBook, I couldn’t use social media because my old computer that was not a Mac would crash. This is the same computer that I wrote Coiled Revenge and Smooth Lies on. The same computer that I penned other books on and read my email on, but alas, it wouldn’t social media. There were many reasons why we didn’t update the old computer, one of which was it was old. So old that a few of you reading this post may not have even been born when it was made. That’s an exaggeration, but you get the point.

Now I have a bran new computer and a nice and shiny new phone. I had been enticed with Social Media by Peter Shankman and all his Social Media wizardry, but I couldn’t participate. But after my technology rebirth I could Twitter and Facebook all I wanted.

Some people see Twitter and Facebook as a time waste and it can be. But oh, how wonderful it is to quickly connect with so many people in such a short period of time. My email is so much more of a time waster than Twitter and Facebook combined. Egads, I have upwards of 400 unread messages and I’m wondering when I’m going to go through them.

What can you do with Facebook? It’s about connections. Real connections, not fakey marketing hype that looks like fakey marketing hype. I’ve already spotted a few of them and set their status to “Less about XXX.” If you don’t want to get real then don’t get on Facebook. I do mention that I have books on Facebook, and once I started collecting friends on FB I did see a rise in the number of books sold. But my sole purpose wasn’t to sell books. Connections with real people who you’ve met online or in person is what FB is about.

Twitter is a hoot. No, really I’m having a blast getting 140 character updates from people I know and people I just like to follow because they are intelligent and funny. I’m not a pro at Twitter but using TweetDeck on my computer and Twitterific on my iPhone has made it easier to navigate. I’m @thrillerauthor on Twitter if you Tweet.

As I’m working on my new books, one that’s a cougar story and one that’s a spine tingling thriller, I’m able to connect quickly and disconnect quickly. I don’t have to go to someone else’s blog to find out what’s going on. And depending on who you Twitter with you even find out about newsworthy events before they hit the AP. FB and Twitter take a short amount of time and are easy to navigate through once you become familiar with them.

What does all this have to do with my books? It makes it easier for me to work. I have a built in entertainment step away when I’m obsessing about a word or over cooking a scene. It’s fun and quick, easy to navigate through and it makes me more productive.

And to show how connected I am, or maybe how over connected I am my website is http://sarathacker.com blog is http://sarathacker.blogspot.com FB is Sara Thacker and Twitter is @thrillerauthor I think I need to institute no email Wednesday, but that’s another story.