Today’s host is the journalist and short story writer Gordon Darroch. Gordon actually runs two other blogs apart from the writing one that I’m appearing on: this one, where he writes movingly and with much common sense about raising two autistic children, and this one, which is a showcase for his articulate and thoughtful journalism. As well as this, he’s consistently one of the wittiest people I follow on Twitter.
In my chat with him, I jabber on about the future of publishing (after all, since when was complete ignorance a barrier to having an opinion?), how Mrs Darcy versus the Aliens came to be written as a serial, and how a writer can make use of Twitter as a marketing tool. Looking at the last of these, I think I’m probably giving myself more credit as a marketeer than I deserve. Most of what I do on social networks is completely random – but I guess that’s kind of the point I’m making.
We also have a bit of an unexpected bonus today. Just over a week before publication, I went on a Twitter search for references to “Mrs Darcy” (as you do). This was quite interesting, throwing up as it did a couple of tweets from potential reviewers, one of whom seemed to be looking forward to reading it and who most definitely was not. I also came across a link to this blog post, which as you may imagine I found more than a little alarming.
Anyway, I took a deep breath, counted from 1 to 10 and engaged. Generally speaking, I work from the position that people are reasonable if you treat them as such (and yes, I know there are some who are completely beyond the pale, but generally speaking a bit of benefit of doubt is a good starting position), and so it turned out in this case. Marta was very nice about it and subsequently asked me if I fancied being interviewed and the result is here. I’m quite pleased because last Tuesday’s interviewee was none other than Kim Newman of “Anno Dracula” fame. So I’m in rather exalted company.
Finally, the blog tour slot for September 30th has now been nabbed by Jennifer Duke of the Bennet Sisters Blog, who I visited back in December not long after I’d heard that Mrs Darcy was going to make it into book form. So that will be a nice return visit.
And I still haven’t told you what I did on Monday. Or indeed about the three exciting invitations I’ve had this week – but I’ve been sworn to silence on those for now.
2 thoughts on “Blog Tour, Day 9”
Jon, you need to start following some proper funny folk on Twitter 🙂
Seriously – I’ve found the social media thing works best when you let it evolve. I use Twitter to promote myself in various guises, though mainly I suppose as a writer and witterer. And also just to chat to people, although if I talked like that in the pub I’d probably get punched within five minutes (or have I just lived in Glasgow too long?).
Thanks again for doing the blog – some great observations (I particularly liked the line about preferring atoms to bits). I’m amazed at your ability to churn out fresh and perceptive answers for a whole month. If the line wasn’t already taken, I would salute your indefatigability.
Well, we’re only at Day 9 🙂 And I am, unfortunately, very happy to talk about myself. Comes of being an only child, I guess. Many thanks for having me, anyway – some good questions.