Author Fair, Car Accident, and Politics

Author Fair
I did my first gig as an author this week. It was a local author fair at the county library. I didn’t sell much, but I did get my name out there more. I also had a number of excellent conversations with people. Participating in this taught me, or better put reinforced, the idea that writing is only a relatively small part of being an author. I know it seems like the majority of the work ought to be writing, however people want to know you as an author. So, the bulk of what an author needs to do is the publicity stuff, including connecting with people.

Car Accident
On Tuesday this week I ended up in a car accident. The cars ahead of me stopped, I stopped, but the car behind me did not stop. She hit me and pushed me into the car ahead of me. Let me tell you, whiplash sucks. What is even more annoying is dealing with the insurance companies afterward. The number of times I’ve had to explain what happened to multiple people is ridiculous. Then, because of the whiplash, I’ve had to talk to a bunch of people about that, too, since personal injury goes through a different department in both insurance companies. There has got to be a better way to do this.

Politics

I had a rather interesting thought after watching the news recently. There has been so much attention on the negativity and divisiveness going on. I don’t care what you pick, it seems like the two sides are so set in their ways acknowledging that both sides may have valid points seems impossible. This seems to be particularly true with government right now. What really makes me wonder, though, is whether it is deliberate. What if the politicians want us so focused on the small handful of divisive issues that we don’t see what else they’re doing? I know this sounds like a conspiracy theory and I do not generally subscribe to them. However, the level of issues just seems way out of proportion to what it seems like it should be. I mean, come on, some of the inane things that have hit the news lately? Just makes me wonder.