Guest Post with Liz Meldon

Welcome to the next guest blogger, Liz Meldon! She's the fabulous author of Maenad of Manhattan and she's here a-takin-over my blog.

Check out her post after the jump!

Online Author Friendships

Liz Meldon

I am very grateful to be hosted today by the superbly talented S. Usher Evans. This is the first time I’ve been hosted by another author as a guest blogger, and I’m very happy to be here. I think her theme for January (friendship and trust) is extremely important to all authors, especially online, and is one that should highlighted more often.

When I first found myself confronted with the rocky seas of self-publishing, I didn’t anticipate the need to have very many online friends. After all, I had been fairly active online for a number of years at that point, but most of the “friends” I had made weren’t there for the long haul. I guess you could say I was lazy with my internet pals, and when I look back now, that’s something I deeply regret. Believe it or not, the friends you make online as an author are both similar and vastly different from the ones you make in person.

That being said, I think there’s a special place for online friendships, particularly in the indie author community. I mean, where else can you go where everyone will instantly understand your brand of crazy? So, why are Internet friends so awesome? Well, let me count the ways...

Internet friends share a lot of the same interests

I mean, there’s a pretty slim chance you found each other on the World Wide Web without having something in common. There is a niche for everyone on the Internet, and in our case, it’s the indie author-sphere. Your online author chums understand fully and empathize your need to excessively research obscure topics. I mean, does your search history match that of a serial killer’s search history? Yes? Well your Internet friends get it, because their search history probably does too. Do you have those friends off-line who ask how can you possibly spend so much time reading? Well you won’t find that in your author friends online—they just get it. No questions asked, complete understanding.

Internet friends are your cheerleaders

In my experience, all the friends I have made online in the last year or so genuinely want to see me succeed. Author friends cheer for you after your triumphs, and are always there with supportive words and probably a cute (and totally relatable) gif after your failures. People in the online author community, especially indie authors, understand firsthand just how difficult things can get. They know. They realize. They get you and the work you’re doing, and the real friends you make are ready to hold you up, whether you are soaring high or in the midst of crashing and burning. And if they aren’t, they probably aren’t real friends—plain and simple.

Internet friends will tell you if something sucks

If the internet has taught us anything, it’s that it’s much easier to be cruel when you’re hiding behind a monitor—just look at the Youtube comments section on literally any video imaginable. Now, that’s not to say your internet friends are giving you criticism to be cruel, but it’s much easier to be totally honest when you don’t have to see the other person’s reaction. Sometimes your work needs a swift kick in the pants, and because your internet writing pals are your cheerleaders, they want to see you do well. Sometimes, in order to do well, you have to scrap a scene you love—and that’s what online friends can do for you. The truth hurts, but sometimes it’s easier coming from an email than a face-to-face interaction.

Internet friends are like a food combo

Not in that they are a way to get a burger, fries, and drink at an affordable price, but your internet author friends are a combo of a real-world friendship and all of the above benefits. You get a person to joke around with, share your stories jokes with, and be supported by through tough times—plus a friend in your life who can relate to you on a very intimate level. Writing is an intimate art, and non-writers just don’t get the nuances behind it. The same goes for just about any job out there. You need people in your corner who have a personal understanding of your craft, but who can also take a step back and listen to your story about that one time at the gym when that jerk stole your machine. Online author friends are, really, the best of both worlds.

So, don’t be like me. I had plenty of opportunities over the years to make lifelong friendships with the people I met online, and I kind of just shrugged them off. It’s easy to do when you don’t actually interact with them face-to-face—you can’t see the disappointment when you just vanish from their life. Cherish the folks you meet online, especially fellow authors. They will understand your struggle. They sympathize when your book doesn’t instantly become a bestseller, even though your mom swore it would. You’re all in this together. You’re going to be passionate about many of the same things—cherish your internet friends. You won’t realize how lonely it is online until you’re screaming into the void, and no one’s there to “like” your jokes.

About Liz's Book

The glory days of Ancient Greece are long gone, and the gods of the Old World are scattered across the globe. As their popularity dwindles, as their worshippers forget, their power fades. Luckily for Aphrodite, she’s a household name. After all, how could anyone ever forget the Greek goddess of Love?

Unfortunately, no one seems to know or care about her divinity. In a world of skeptics and technology-crazed mortals, loneliness and boredom have taken hold. Her life consists of romance advice columns, martini bars, and flings with empty-headed men—until she meets Loki.

She’s intrigued: it’s been decades—centuries even—since she laid eyes on another god, particularly one outside her pantheon. In their short time together, she realizes just how much she needs the companionship of one of her own. Loki, however, seems more interested in catching a murderous maenad than swapping stories about the old days.

Can she convince Loki to stay and make her life a little less lonely, or will he persuade her to join him on his quest for more worshippers? His questionable tactics make her uneasy, but how can she turn down the opportunity to live as she once did: freely, powerfully, and lustfully as Aphrodite of Olympus.