“One small candle in the dark”: How my posts began
Occasionally, I am stopped around town by someone who says that they like my daily posts or my humor posts. I am gratified that so many Facebook friends and users look at these posts, which generally come out each evening. Over time, I’ve developed a few followers who routinely like and then share them. Additionally, I’ve actually had several people I don’t know share them. In all this time, I have had no snarky trolling of my posts, mainly I think because I keep these items from being overtly political or negative in their humor.
I got to wondering if my followers knew the history of these posts. Thus, this blog.
First off, blogging. I have two websites: www.jamesazarzana.com and www.themarscosaga.com. On each, I try to keep my followers abreast of my writing. I started what I thought would be a weekly blog, “The Eclectic Blog,” way back in 2013. Weekly became twice a month, then monthly. I tried having guest bloggers. I even wrote “blogs” in the voice of my characters trying to get a following going.
The weekly, monthly, (and frankly) yearly blog became too much. I am, after all, a novelist first and foremost, writing, editing, publishing, and promoting my books.
I also tried doing live chats. Once more, I started with the high ambition of doing weekly topics ranging from writing ideas and pep talks. I provided lists of writers worth reading like those who explored the theme of, say, World War One.
Like my blogs, these started with a bang, but soon hit this or that snag, and so I stopped. Perhaps I will restart the live chats again as the launch date of The Marsco Sustainability Project, Book III of The Marsco Saga, approaches.
During the spring and summer of 2016, when the acrid and acrimonious Democratic primary season was ending and the even more acrid and acrimonious presidential election was beginning, I was adding to the mean-spiritedness, putting up snarky and disrespectful comments about candidates and voters alike.
That summer, around late July or early August 2016, I had a change of heart. It was my Road to Damascus. I was sick of all the angry belittling on Facebook, some of which I contributed to or at least reposted with reckless abandon. I was part of the problem. I was ready to just drop Facebook altogether.
But I use Facebook for PR—in the end, I am still a writer trying to expand my audience and reader base. And, I have family and friends around the world. On any given day, posts on my feed may be in Chinese, Italian, Swedish, or English—subdialects of American, Canadian, Irish, Welsh, Scottish, and Swedish-English. They may be from distant relatives, readers from afar, followers, friends of friends, or groups I follow (like sci-fi writers’ groups). Former students who now work or teach around the world end up on my page. It goes without saying, I follow several Notre Dame Fighting Irish Football posts.
So, my epiphany that summer was simple. I was becoming the worst sort of troll. And, like Joe Fox in You Got Mail, I realized the nastier I got on Facebook, the less I liked myself. I knew I could do nothing about negative posts that came my way except not repost them, not comment about them, and in some case, delete them. But, in the long run, I knew I could really do nothing. . . except be positive.
That was it. That simple. Be positive.
Starting in the summer of 2016, at first rather randomly, I began to post here and there a positive message. Generally, I’d say “Here is my post for July something 2016, on kindness, writing, and teaching.” Occasionally, I delved into other topics, like parenting or traveling. Although I have made a few of these post’s images myself, mostly I find an inspirational quote I like, Bing it, and look for a great photo with the quote. Something like this:
I always write up a bit about it, then have Marianne proof it. (Shout out to Marianne and all others who have the unique skill to proofread. Not my forte.)
As the 2016 election approached, I posted more regularly to the point where I planned to put something up every day. It grew into a sort of blog, my short comment along with a quote on a background image I liked.
For the longest time, I made sure I never repeated the same quote, but since I have been doing this now almost daily since August 2016, I have chosen to repeat some images—they are just that good.
Soon, I was given a quick tutorial about Facebook by Chelsea Lund (www.+Impression.com who helps me with my PR) about linking my Marsco FB page to these posts. Next, I was posting them on my own “personal” FB page and my “Marsco Saga” page. And over time, I began to develop a small following who repost me almost on a daily basis.
The humor posts sprang up differently. Once in a while, I would post a humorous cartoon, usually one tied to writing. I noticed how much more play via reposts that my humorous ones received. Quick on the uptake, I decided to do two nightly posts, a “serious” one with an uplifting quote and a humorous one.
For a time, the humorous posts were tied to a monthly theme. September 2018 was teaching. October 2018 was Halloween. During November, with its NaNoWriMo events (National Novel Writing Month), I posted about writing. December was Christmas. January 2019 was science fiction because, as you all know, January 2nd is National Science Fiction Day. (Photo below.)
In the end, it really didn’t take much to fall into a routine of posting two positive images with my comments, one serious and one humorous. I did take a break last summer, when I traveled to Sweden for the birth of our grandson. He is my youngest Marsco fan. (Photo below.)
But, since then, I am back on track.
And it’s become quite a routine behind the scenes. I have jpg files for the posts, a system to keep them in order and keep them from being reused too soon. I have a file with all the images going back to the beginning, one I occasionally dip into for reposting a favorite or timely one. I am sure I will reuse one about autumn, which will be upon us soon. (Photo below.)
So, there you have it. I am trying to light a candle, and now a second one as well, each night in the darkness of trolling, cynicism, and despair.
Over time, I moved into using Twitter to post each night. I don’t have many followers there yet, but I’m on the feed. I do get a few comments from folks at times. Mostly, I hear via Facebook.
I hope you have time to look at my FB page and follow along. “James Zarzana” or “The Marsco Saga” will get to either page.
If you found this explanatory blog interesting, please like and repost it. And of course, you can always like my Marsco Saga Facebook page. And feel free to repost any or all of my daily posts. I hope you find them insightful and humorous.
Thanks for reading.
Occasionally, I am stopped around town by someone who says that they like my daily posts or my humor posts. I am gratified that so many Facebook friends and users look at these posts, which generally come out each evening. Over time, I’ve developed a few followers who routinely like and then share them. Additionally, I’ve actually had several people I don’t know share them. In all this time, I have had no snarky trolling of my posts, mainly I think because I keep these items from being overtly political or negative in their humor.
I got to wondering if my followers knew the history of these posts. Thus, this blog.
First off, blogging. I have two websites: www.jamesazarzana.com and www.themarscosaga.com. On each, I try to keep my followers abreast of my writing. I started what I thought would be a weekly blog, “The Eclectic Blog,” way back in 2013. Weekly became twice a month, then monthly. I tried having guest bloggers. I even wrote “blogs” in the voice of my characters trying to get a following going.
The weekly, monthly, (and frankly) yearly blog became too much. I am, after all, a novelist first and foremost, writing, editing, publishing, and promoting my books.
I also tried doing live chats. Once more, I started with the high ambition of doing weekly topics ranging from writing ideas and pep talks. I provided lists of writers worth reading like those who explored the theme of, say, World War One.
Like my blogs, these started with a bang, but soon hit this or that snag, and so I stopped. Perhaps I will restart the live chats again as the launch date of The Marsco Sustainability Project, Book III of The Marsco Saga, approaches.
During the spring and summer of 2016, when the acrid and acrimonious Democratic primary season was ending and the even more acrid and acrimonious presidential election was beginning, I was adding to the mean-spiritedness, putting up snarky and disrespectful comments about candidates and voters alike.
That summer, around late July or early August 2016, I had a change of heart. It was my Road to Damascus. I was sick of all the angry belittling on Facebook, some of which I contributed to or at least reposted with reckless abandon. I was part of the problem. I was ready to just drop Facebook altogether.
But I use Facebook for PR—in the end, I am still a writer trying to expand my audience and reader base. And, I have family and friends around the world. On any given day, posts on my feed may be in Chinese, Italian, Swedish, or English—subdialects of American, Canadian, Irish, Welsh, Scottish, and Swedish-English. They may be from distant relatives, readers from afar, followers, friends of friends, or groups I follow (like sci-fi writers’ groups). Former students who now work or teach around the world end up on my page. It goes without saying, I follow several Notre Dame Fighting Irish Football posts.
So, my epiphany that summer was simple. I was becoming the worst sort of troll. And, like Joe Fox in You Got Mail, I realized the nastier I got on Facebook, the less I liked myself. I knew I could do nothing about negative posts that came my way except not repost them, not comment about them, and in some case, delete them. But, in the long run, I knew I could really do nothing. . . except be positive.
That was it. That simple. Be positive.
Starting in the summer of 2016, at first rather randomly, I began to post here and there a positive message. Generally, I’d say “Here is my post for July something 2016, on kindness, writing, and teaching.” Occasionally, I delved into other topics, like parenting or traveling. Although I have made a few of these post’s images myself, mostly I find an inspirational quote I like, Bing it, and look for a great photo with the quote. Something like this:
I always write up a bit about it, then have Marianne proof it. (Shout out to Marianne and all others who have the unique skill to proofread. Not my forte.)
As the 2016 election approached, I posted more regularly to the point where I planned to put something up every day. It grew into a sort of blog, my short comment along with a quote on a background image I liked.
For the longest time, I made sure I never repeated the same quote, but since I have been doing this now almost daily since August 2016, I have chosen to repeat some images—they are just that good.
Soon, I was given a quick tutorial about Facebook by Chelsea Lund (www.+Impression.com who helps me with my PR) about linking my Marsco FB page to these posts. Next, I was posting them on my own “personal” FB page and my “Marsco Saga” page. And over time, I began to develop a small following who repost me almost on a daily basis.
The humor posts sprang up differently. Once in a while, I would post a humorous cartoon, usually one tied to writing. I noticed how much more play via reposts that my humorous ones received. Quick on the uptake, I decided to do two nightly posts, a “serious” one with an uplifting quote and a humorous one.
For a time, the humorous posts were tied to a monthly theme. September 2018 was teaching. October 2018 was Halloween. During November, with its NaNoWriMo events (National Novel Writing Month), I posted about writing. December was Christmas. January 2019 was science fiction because, as you all know, January 2nd is National Science Fiction Day. (Photo below.)
In the end, it really didn’t take much to fall into a routine of posting two positive images with my comments, one serious and one humorous. I did take a break last summer, when I traveled to Sweden for the birth of our grandson. He is my youngest Marsco fan. (Photo below.)
But, since then, I am back on track.
And it’s become quite a routine behind the scenes. I have jpg files for the posts, a system to keep them in order and keep them from being reused too soon. I have a file with all the images going back to the beginning, one I occasionally dip into for reposting a favorite or timely one. I am sure I will reuse one about autumn, which will be upon us soon. (Photo below.)
So, there you have it. I am trying to light a candle, and now a second one as well, each night in the darkness of trolling, cynicism, and despair.
Over time, I moved into using Twitter to post each night. I don’t have many followers there yet, but I’m on the feed. I do get a few comments from folks at times. Mostly, I hear via Facebook.
I hope you have time to look at my FB page and follow along. “James Zarzana” or “The Marsco Saga” will get to either page.
If you found this explanatory blog interesting, please like and repost it. And of course, you can always like my Marsco Saga Facebook page. And feel free to repost any or all of my daily posts. I hope you find them insightful and humorous.
Thanks for reading.
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