July 2, 2015

The social media engage/disengage battle

Yesterday I caught myself on noticing how "I'll just check my phone real quick" turned into 30 minutes of lost time. I'm usually pretty diligent about sticking to the routine of DO NOT ENGAGE ONLINE UNTIL YOUR WORK IS DONE, but I'm only human so I slip. For some reason this particular slip really got under my skin. It was evening and I was so tired that I had no energy to exercise or to meditate. My day was packed and I hoped to combine the two into one biking session with my eyes closed. It didn't happen. I got upset. As a result, I didn't sleep well.

Meditating clears my mind. Without it it's like a bee drunk on vodka mixed with beer, buzzing around and around and around my skull until I want to drive my head through the wall and be no more (in other words, slide down the wall into a brainless bloody morass). I thought checking my phone would only take a few minutes. Ha ha ha. When I glanced at the clock, I nearly dropped it. It wasn't a few minutes like I thought it would be. It was 30 fucking minutes. I have robbed myself of exercise, of mediation, and of a good night's sleep. So today, as I'm typing this, I'm not even going to look at what's happening on the sparkling internets until this post is done.

January 28, 2015

How I launch my books: I DON'T

by Ksenia Anske

Shocker! Not what you expected to hear. Ana Elisa Miranda asked me this question, about how I launch my books. I thought about telling you that I strap them to a seat like Laikas and hurl them into space on board of various Sputniks. I also thought about the idea of chucking them into bushes out the window or, an amusement of a more gregarious variety, tossing them on people's heads from a high balcony and see what they say.

That was me not being serious. This is me attempting to be serious.

I don't launch my books. I really don't. I swear.

January 24, 2015

How often should you blog and indulge in social media?

by Ksenia Anske

This question arose today from a conversation with Isaac Marion. We were chatting about incessant prodding done by agents, marketers, social media experts, hungry raccoons pretending to be social media experts, and a slew of other people who think they know what kind of an online behavior leads to better book sales. As you have guessed, this prodding is aimed at writers. Its message is simple. "Sprinkle your marvelous thoughts online in a liberal layer, daily, smear it on so thick that others will sink into oblivion." Now, to decode this "simple" message, here is what they mean. Blog regularly, tweet regularly, Facebook regularly, fart regularly (and, preferably, artistically). And here is why this makes me angry.

December 20, 2014

I broke my writing routine

by Ksenia Anske

Oops! It broke! Well, it was supposed to break. There were fissures running along its spine for a while now--my daily writing routine, that is--only I was ignoring them out of some imbricated stubbornness, you know, like a hideous serpent so used to its covert cemented ways, it refuses change like a plague. Yes, that was me. And guess who was suffering for it? Me.

What exactly am I talking about? And why did I break this thing I'm talking about?