Next of Kin: Giving Thanks for the Online Family

In spite of what the retail world has been trying to shove down our throats for the past month, this is the week when the holiday season really begins. Before all the insanity starts, this Thursday we gather with family and friends, look around the table and for one brief moment, get all choked up and thankful and shit.

Now because most of people I am thankful for will not be at my dinner table (hmm, is there a connection?) I'll just put down a few words.

The more you write online, the more you become involved with other writers. You comment on each other's sites, you blog hop, you guest post, you share articles... you help each other out. I have a bunch of those guys for whom I am thankful. Now some of them have books and I know they would be thankful if I plug them. So I will. See how that works.

Jim Wood. Now Jim and I have actually met a couple of times. He writes at gojimmygo.net, GuitarWorld and other places. He has also written two children's books, both with illustrations by Michele Quinn. The first book, Doodle, saw profits go towards helping the family of an ill child. The second book, Doodle Meets the Pound Pup, will see profits help an animal shelter. Good people doing a good job. Help them out if you can, they will be very thankful.

Lance Burson. Where do I start? Lance writes... a lot. And he writes well. He has two books published at the moment, and number three is in the works. His site is My Blog Can Beat Up Your Blog and his two books: The Ballad of Helene Troy and Soul to Body are good reads. Please buy them, his wife and three daughters would be eternally thankful. You can find them here: Buy The Books

Linda Roy. Not only is she a writer, she's a rocker. Yes, she's in a band, Jehova Waitresses. I dare you to find a better name for a band than that. She has a great blog Elleroy Was Here, which is funny as hell, and it's where she serves up cocktails every Saturday. Cocktails people. We can all be thankful for that.

Jen Kehl. Another busy writer. Jen has her own blog My Skewed View and she runs the wonderfully fun Tuesday Twisted Mix Tape blog hop. And she's included in a book too, The Mother of All Meltdowns. For the blog hop alone we would all be thankful, but wait... there's more. Jen, along with Lance and Linda, run a new and most excellent music website called Raised on the Radio. You should visit there often. You will be thankful you did.

Richard Fulco: Editor of Riffraf.net, another great music site. He is also an author, but we all have to wait until March, when his first novel ‘There Is No End to This Slope’ will be published. I'm sure he would be thankful if you pre-order his book, but checking out riffraf will make him smile too.

Ok, so those are the writers I am thankful for at the moment. They always have your back, and are there to catch you when the written words you have committed yourself to writing, become this dark cloud from which no light can penetrate. They are also a little weird, funny and don't know how to say no. For that, I am really thankful.

You guys all rock.

Sniglisms: Part 1

In our first chapter of Sniglisms, I offer two stories while distinct in their subject matter are definitely sailing on the same ocean.


Story #1: Internet Use Disorder. Oh c'mon, you knew it was coming. I'm just surprised it's taken so long. We now have a name for the feeling of anxiety or shakiness we may experience when we are yanked off the internet...you know, offline. Are we ever offline anymore? Apparently gamers are the ones most affected by this new disorder, which goes by the nickname IUD. Correct me if I'm wrong, but haven't we already used that little trifecta of letters? I'd hate for a health care professional to get the two confused.

Now this little affliction is so new, they don't even know if it is an actual disorder or if it will need treatment. Scientists believe this internet addition may damage the same areas of the brain as drug and alcohol addiction. It appears to affect processing of emotions, executive thinking skills, attention span and cognitive control. You know, pretty much everything you need to be a stable human being. The younger generations are so screwed.

Here's the full story: Internet Addiction

Story #2: Writers are more prone to mental illness. huh, Imagine that. I thank my beautiful niece for this story...I think there was something she was trying to tell me.

A study done in Sweden has concluded that creative people are the craziest. They needed to do a study on this? Have they never done any actual...reading? Writers are nuts. Period. We write because we hear voices, shit did I say that out loud, inside us with lots to say. So we say it...in words.

Well, it seems the study says writers in particular, are the ones most likely to be bi-polar, clinically depressed, schizophrenic and be addicted to something or other... the internet perhaps? Do you see where I'm going here?

Writers. On the outside they seem to be pretty normal, but when you read some of their work you really start to see they are no-doubt-about-it, residing in another universe. Sane people just don't have those thoughts...or do they?

With so many writers out there who write and are published primarily on the internet, does it mean they are doubly afflicted? This is not good.

 I am a writer. I write for the internet. I am screwed.

Read the story: Writers are crazy or something like that.