Authors Electric

Get this: over the course of a couple of days two handfuls of distinctive words soared above my news feed like wildings of fireflies. The first one took me by surprise. It had nothing to do with writing. And it was  almost buried in comments on an ad for a pricey cardio test. But, at a glance, the author's personality stood out...she took a stance against the medical establishment...and ended with a war cry: I don't need this. I eat fruit and vegetables. So stuff your test. I came across these words  in the lobby of a Tucson cardio medical mill, where scores of us were processed, billed in advance, and then herded to assorted rooms for exam--then scheduled for further batteries of tests when some of us at least were feeling reasonably well. While I thought about this, I reflected on how these 13 words had led me to seek out the author's FB page, where I filed a Friend request quickly. The next day I chanced on a quote from a poet mourning 'a San Francisco that sadly is...

i Meet Tweedledum and Tweedledee--aka The MeMe's--two egomaniacal blowhards joined at the lip on Facebook. I have in mind a particular pair, so extreme and so relentless, that I've had to Mute one and completely Block the other. For the daily ego swaggering and endless self-promotion wore me down and bored me. As a writer, I'm appalled, for the authors I admire have lives apart from their work or the natural hunger for fame. As a reader, I doubt that anyone who sees FB Friends only as cash cows or tickets to one more award can write a word worth reading.  But on and on and on they go, Tweedledum and Tweedledee, without pausing to think even once about the question of all questions: Was that good for you too? For your consideration, I submit four modest proposals for keeping the bombast and bullshit in check. i 1) Writers' groups such as MWA and HWA should put a cap on the number of awards any author can receive. Three would seem reasonable; after that, let them work tow...