Tesser Well!

Tomorrow is my grandmother's birthday. She would have been 94. She gave herself to the world and we loved her back. She inspired us - her family, friends and fans to embrace all parts of ourselves and live life to the fullest with conviction and imagination. She encouraged us to "tesser well".

"Tesser Well" is how she signed copies of A Wrinkle in Time. It references not only the fourth dimension travel through time and space, it also alludes to her basic philosophy that whenever we open our minds and heart - whether it is mind-travel through reading, or spiritual-travel through being vulnerable and loving, we and the planet are better off.

Madeleine was one of the most accessible writers of her time. If she were alive today, she would be all over social media and interacting with her fans in new and fun ways. We have been mourning that she can't do this herself - we have been feeling the pain of her loss.

But what if we got together as a community to keep her legacy shiny and golden? Hmmmm . . . well guess what? There IS a new fan page on Facebook called Tesser Well that launched just yesterday! It's that virtual place where Madeleine we can all share, interact and gather information.  You can also have more access to all things Madeleine by following her on twitter @tesserwellMLE.

In Madeleine's honor, let's have the phrase "tesser well" join the ranks of "May the force be with you", and "Live long and prosper". Join the revolution!

To celebrate my grandmother's birthday, and the upcoming holidays, I will give away one beautiful hardback copy of the 50th edition of A Wrinkle in Time. How to enter? There are five ways! (If you do all four things I will put your name in the lottery five times.)

1) Comment below on your favorite way to tesser
2) Follow this blog!
3) Follow me on Facebook
4) Follow me on twitter @lenaroy and retweet!
5) Share this blog post on Facebook!

The random winner will be picked and announced next Wednesday, December 5th.

Tesser Well!

Author Page: Do You "Like" Me? and Other Marketing Insanities

It's been a couple of weeks of in and out illness. A real doozy. Have you been there? Five of us smashed in a house, infecting and reinfecting each other, no matter how many times we wash our hands. In fact, right now I'm home with two sick boys watching reruns of MONK and PSYCH.

What does this have to do with the insanity of marketing? Well, I'll tell ya.

Saturday night I went to bed early with my feverish daughter, and was toolin' around Facebook when I decided to throw caution to the wind and create a more official "author" Facebook page. I already have a page for Edges, created over a year ago in the lead up to publication, watching way too closely for my mental health at the rate it's "likes" were ticking upward. I naively hoped that my book would take the world by storm - instead it's been a slow build.

Just the way our careers should be. Yet publication, and the need to be "liked" has been a challenge to my maturity. It makes me uncomfortable because I feel both needy and tacky. Dirty.

Although Facebook and other social media has been a good time and an incredible tool for creating community, I have often felt like a fifteen-year-old all over again - who doesn't experience a flush of excitement when a comment or a post garners fun or thoughtful interaction? And then the opposite - it's even easier on Facebook to compare our insides to other people's outsides and judge ourselves based on who "likes" us. Sometimes I just want to delete my accounts just so I can focus on my writing.

Yet I am an author, and need to use the tools at my disposal. I have to treat myself like a business, and the fact is that I wrote EDGES years ago. I have written two (as yet to be published) novels since then. I run an after-school creative writing program, I live and breathe writing. I need to have another page where I can post things that are not necessarily related to Edges. And Facebook makes it so darn easy!

My author page. I had 40 "likes" in the first half hour, 80 "likes" in the next half hour. All friends full of love and support. Phew!

The goal? To increase business, to reach more potential readers of my blog and my book(s).

So. The next few sentences are not going to be pretty - they're going to highlight an insecurity that I need to keep in check: I have to admit that I've been obsessively checking my page for new "likes". 145, 146, 147 . . . I have to seriously get over it. After all, I've been blogging regularly for two years now (oh! I missed my anniversary?!) and I "only" have 158 followers, yet I still write.

How many "likes" do I need? Will it ever be "enough"?

It's foolish to focus on that.

Writing is the way I process the world, and if I stop because I'm uncomfortable, because I'm not popular "enough" then I will be denying myself the key to my personal freedom.

Marketing is a tool to use and not be used by, but I like that my imperfections remind me of my vulnerability and my need for humility. It keeps me authentic. Don't you agree?

And yes, go "like" my page! And follow my blog! ;-)

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