Happy February, readers! I am now two months into my six-month social media sabbatical, and these have been two of the best, yet most confusing months as an author. Everywhere authors turn, we’re told that we have to have social media in order to be successful. If we don’t, we’ll be left behind and forgotten. This was one of my fears, too, but I’m coming to see that isn’t exactly true.
Off Social Discovery #2 – FOMO is real, y’all.
FOMO stands for the Fear of Missing Out. If we skip a day of scrolling our social media feeds or checking Messenger, we might miss the most important thing in the history of creation. If Jesus returns, how will we know?
I jest (sort of), but this is exactly what it feels like being on social media. Social media tells us that we have to keep up, keep pace, and then race forward. We have to know all the things and do all the things. If we don’t, we might miss out. Without social media, how will we know about our friends’ lives, new babies, new jobs, and every other detail? Where will we get our news? How can we keep up?
The truth is, we can’t. With over 4 billion users on Facebook alone, it is impossible to see and hear all the things. As someone who loves to know all the details, this is difficult for me. As it turns out, there are some things I don’t need to know and what I do care about, I can get another way. News sources are sent to my email, podcast list, or sourced directly. Authors and other influencers usually have free newsletters, podcasts, or blog subscriptions. Small businesses have email lists and/or apps, often with more deals than they post socially. And phone calls/text/video chat/in-person get togethers provide info about friends and family without ever scrolling through a feed. It requires me to be intentional and basically create my own “feed” without an algorithm deciding what I should find important.
Will I miss out on some things? Of course. Infinite scroll was created to be exactly that – infinite and impossible. It keeps us constantly searching for the next thing to excite our brains, whether good or bad. It won’t end, because it was designed not to. There is no way to check off the metaphorical to-do list, leaving us more scattered than ever before. In fact, Aza Raskin, the inventor of infinite scroll, and Leah Pearlman, the co-inventor of Facebook’s Like button both admitted in this article and several others that they no longer like their own inventions.
Is it possible to find balance while using social media? For some, I think it could be. It requires definitive boundaries and specific goals. Does social media works toward those goals or against them? Is it making us and, in turn, others better? Perhaps most importantly, by not missing out on social media, are we missing out on something in real life? And is real life really something we can afford to miss? These are all questions I’m asking myself during this time away.
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Goin’ Sparkin’ in Sparks Fly Upward
The other day, I was listening to the musical soundtrack, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, which takes place in 1850s Oregon, the same decade and general location as Larksong Legacy. If you haven’t seen the movie with Howard Keel and Jane Powell, you need to; it’s fantastic, albeit politically incorrect to modern ears. In one of the songs, they use the phrase, “goin’ sparkin'” which, of course, reminded me of the title of Sparks Fly Upward. Have you heard this phrase before? Basically, it’s another way of saying you were dating with the intention of pursuing marriage. Igniting the couple’s attraction, as it were.
(Minor spoilers below.)
In Larksong Legacy, courting and marriage are extremely complicated things, and “sparkin'” means taking on more than mere attraction. For Sarah, it includes the curse of six dead husbands. For Coraline, health complications. For Alice Ann, her dreams over everything. And for Martha, interracial romance in a time when it was both forbidden and illegal.
As Martha says in Sparks Fly Upward, “For a former plantation slave and a former plantation son, in a country fiercely divided by race, it was a situation most precarious and insensible. With as many reasons as she told herself to remain distant, another several dozen encouraged her to fall headlong into the void. He had never seemed to mind her skin’s deep copper hue. To him, their friendship had been like one of her mama’s hymns—the same melody in two separate keys. If only the entire world could sing such a song.”
Please pray for me as I move into the last 20% of this draft. My hope is to send it to beta readers by the end of April. Keep an eye out for the cover reveal in next month’s newsletter!
Larksong Legacy is coming to Audiobook!
After many auditions, much frustration, and a whole heap of prayers, I was blessed to find a wonderful narrator for the entire Larksong Legacy series, including the two books not yet published. Production of For a Noble Purpose began last week with an anticipated release date of June 2024. Dusk Shall Weep should hopefully be available in Fall 2024 and Sparks Fly Upward in either late 2024 or early 2025. Due to royalty share agreements, all audio books will only be available on Audible, Amazon, and iTunes. eBooks and paperbacks will continue to be available worldwide.
As a reminder, I still have FREE Audible audiobook codes available for Across Oceans. Reply to this email to claim one or you can purchase the audiobook below:
Get your copy of Across Oceans.
Note for my Christian Fiction readers: While Across Oceans is considered clean, it is not directly written as Christian Fiction.
Releasing in February
Need another read? Here are the new releases I’m excited about:
- Hey, Jude Carpenter by Storm Shultz – The Beatles, Shakespeare, and dairy farms come together in this modern day Romeo and Juliet retelling.
- The Rhythm of Fractured Grace by Amanda Wen – A violin, shared between the past and present, brings love, hope, and healing to two fractured faiths.
- While the City Sleeps by Elizabeth Camden – A dentist and a police officer join forces to overcome criminal conspiracy in 1913 New York.
- All My Secrets by Lynn Austin – Set in Gilded Age New York, three generations of women must confront the past in order to make a better future for their family.
- The Irish Matchmaker by Jennifer Deibel – The matchmaker’s daughter has her toughest match yet – to find a widower a wife without falling for him herself.
Want to know what I’m currently reading? Follow me on GoodReads.
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Until next month, happy reading!
Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam
Kelsey
Purchase signed copies of my books: kelseygietl.com
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