Well, the short answer is probably obvious: COVID.  The COVID-19 virus, the quarantine, the shutdown, all of it, it hit me like a truck.  As it did most of us.  Since Spring of 2020, I’ve been fortunate to avoid COVID through rigorous isolation, masking, vaccinations, and all that good stuff.  But friends and family both have managed to catch it, even when doing everything ‘right’.  And I saw what the virus could do on even the healthy, even the fully vaccinated.  So while you may see some claiming things were excessive, I feel things weren’t stringent enough.  Because, holy hell, COVID is no joke.

But it wasn’t just COVID.  2020 was a really sobering year online.  We saw the proverbial ‘town square’ weaponized for the rich for no real reason beyond mere ego.  We saw the violence of political discourse go from intermittent to focused.  We saw the deliberate spread of social and political lies (sorry, I refuse to use cutesy euphemisms like ‘misinformation’ or ‘false news’; they’re lies).  And all of this cost a lot of people their lives.  It just felt really poor form to throw my stories and whatnot into that mix.

I left social media entirely and, frankly, I wish I’d stayed off.  Sadly, a social media presence is a necessity for authors and creative types in general.  Oh sure, there are one or two outliers who have managed to buck the trend one way or another.  But they’re just that: outliers who are not indicative of the vast, overwhelming majority.

So I’m back.  I’ll be posting on here regularly.  Same is true for the big social media outlets (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook).  I’ll also start releasing stories soon.  I’ll be releasing some new books, both on my own and with Caffeine & Ink, by year’s end.

Returning to social media is interesting because it’s one part promotion, one part performance art.  My relationship with social media has always been more stand-up comedy than water cooler conversation.  I’ve never been one for back-n-forths and all that.  I feel like you’re kind enough to give me your attention, I want to give you something deserving of your attention.  Something thought-provoking, something engaging, or at the very least something funny.  So that’s what I’m going to try and do.  Sure, I’ll be pitching my stories and my books.  But I hope to do it at least in an entertaining way.  The last thing I want to do is be boring, in literature or online.

So yeah.

New content.  New stories.  New books.  All are on their way.

I hope you’re well and I hope things are improving, and continue to improve.

See you again soon.