I’m going to try a new thing here on the blog every Friday. In the old days of Social Media I would have tweeted or posted these via Facebook. But I still have a desire to keep this place active and two: I want to provide weekly updates outside of my newsletter. So each Friday I’ll be putting these out… We’ll see how it goes.

1. My Social Media Presence

Social media comes, and it goes. Heck remember XANGA, MySpace, and AOL Chat? Twitter and Facebook have been the dominate forces the last few years with Instagram and TikTok quickly growing. The problem is TikTok is probably going to be banned in the interest of national security, and Twitter is a complete disaster right now in my opinion. Personally, I miss the old days of twitter. The truth is I have to think about where my audience is at. So for author related things I’ll be on both Instagram and Threads. For friendships I’ll be on Facebook. If I do post on twitter it’s only going to be occasionally and for updates. I’ll decide at the end of August if it’s worth my time staying or leaving completely. Who really knows. But at the moment I don’t enjoy being there anymore.

2. Podcast Break

The podcast is taking a break. I try to take a break every 20 to 25 episodes. And since I just posted episode 47 I’ve decided to take that break now. I have a lot going on in August and it’s a brutal month to try and post and edit. It will be back in September with episode 48 and we’ll run until sometime in December. I love the podcast and it keeps me active in the pop culture world. So it’s not going away. I may even explore the possibility of turning things over to a guest host once or twice just to get some different content. So if you think you might be interested in hosting, let me know.

3. Kickstarter Fulfillment

The main reason I’m taking a break from the podcast is I’m about to shift into Kickstarter fulfillment mode on Aug 1st. I have a lot to get done and need to stay focused. The Kickstarter was definitely the hardest and most challenging marketing I have ever done. It was a learning experience. I’ll be dropping a blog post soon on the top five mistakes I feel I made.

4. Dusting Off Some Old Stories

Since I won’t be writing much in August other than on the collaboration project I’m doing with Steve Rzasa and Jason Joyner, I’ve decided to dust off some old stories and touch them up over the next month. I’ll be looking for beta readers, so if you are interested in reading a political thriller set in a VR world where gamers compete on behalf of politicians to see which party dominates certain campaign ad space- let me know.

5. What I’m Reading & Watching this Week

Right now I’m reading Star Wars: Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn. I haven’t read this series since the early 2000’s. There is so much I had forgotten so I’m glad for the chance to reexplore this trilogy. I’ve also started a reread of the Wheel of Time on Audible. I’m currently about 25% through the Eye of the World. This will be my fourth time through the Wheel of Time and I learn something new each time.

Since Ashoka is kicking off soon I’m doing a binge watch of Star Wars Rebels! I’ve stoked about this one. Thrawn is hands down my favorite Star Wars character so with Heir, Rebels, and Ashoka I’m pretty much Star Wars geeked out for the month.

That’s all I have for this week! I’ll be back next week to provide some updates on writing plans etc. heading into the fall.