Active Engagement

Active Engagement.

This is something I haven’t spent enough time doing in my social media existence; I think we’re all guilty of “doom scrolling” when we should be working, or being productive. Now, there are some issues with that guilt, in that we’ve been told through this hustle culture that we have to always be productive, and that’s not true. However, I still stand by the fact that I hate how much I doom scroll (and my poor 30 year old neck hates it, too).

I try to be conscious about what I do when I’m sitting, twisted like a pretzel on my couch with my laptop on my lap, my phone beside me, and surrounded by books (including my e-reader). With how busy I am between a 9-5, a weekend job, a social life, balancing being an author, marketing specialist, promotor, event planner, etc… it’s no wonder that when I sit down I want to do fucking nothing.

What I want to do, going forward, is to make sure whenever I’m on social media that I’m actively engaging with the people who are important to me. Whether that’s my little group of weirdos, or new authors who are posting about their books… I think it’s important to put together a village, or make Instagram a village, where we support one another. In the past I’ve worked on posting book reviews of my fellow authors content. I still plan on doing that, though my reading has slowed down significantly over the years.

A little group of authors put together a support group, so we engage and share one another’s content. Normally group chats stress me out and I promptly leave them, however, this one helps me stay focused on what I’m on social media for. At the end of the day, my S.Voerman IG is for promoting my books. I do have a personal account as well, where I share more day-to-day things such as house renovations and such. I realize as I’m typing this that I’m rambling and getting off topic; what I want to say, is for those of you who are working hard on promoting and marketing, please message me and let me know if you need a little love on your post. I want to engage, be active in supporting fellow creatives.

Before I wrap this up, and this is mostly for myself because keeping organized is *hard*, and I’d be a fool not to drop some deets about upcoming events. May and June are going to be busy months!

May 3rd: Curious ComiCon Nanaimo held at Country Club Centre (my name is on the vendor list!!)

May 21st: Instagram Live: Discussing Blood Queen + The Blood Bound Series with Quill & Crow

May 27th: Blood Queen releases

June 19th: Author Event at Windowseat Books with Kate Gateley, author of the The Mythic Bones Duology (there will be snacks!)

October 25th: West Coast Readers Event held at the Bowen Complex Auditorium in Nanaimo.
This is a major event that will have an after party, a bar, food, and so many authors and books! 

Bonus Date: August 15th (I will say no more, but guess if you want)

Recommended Read: Kayla McGrath’s “This Broken Memory”