One Year Of Blogging, Etc.

Hard to believe it's been a whole year since I started my blog. You might remember that day better, though, because of the news that started it all - the news that motivated me to become a blogger. I'm talking, of course, of the announcement that Spider-Man was joining the MCU without Andrew Garfield. I hoped to get a trend going, hoped to spread the hashtag #Garfield4Spidey to support the un-cancellation of The Amazing Spider-Man 3. I failed, but I still keep that hashtag on pretty much all my profiles because as much as I've come to eagerly await Tom Holland's performance as Spidey, all my Pinecones know Garfield is still my favorite.

Try and resist that face. Go on. I dare you.

In the year I've been blogging, I've continued writing my ongoing series of Spider-Man fanfics, and attracted a number of readers who, like me, share this belief and happily have gone along with the ongoing spiraling plot threads of the Deadpool Syndrome trilogy, in particular, which deal with our heroes' new goal of preventing the recasting of Peter Parker and all his friends and enemies. Wattpad user Sierra Daniels (@yourmybeautifulsoul) is just such an example.

And there are others whom I've connected with online who believe in the power of Andrew Garfield. One such example - More Happy Than Not writer Adam Silvera, one of many authors I've discovered in the past year whom I would love to see, one day, write short but sweet words of praise to appear on the back cover of a hardcover printing of Red Rain. Also on that list are tons upon tons of other writers, some of whom I've also had the chance to interact with on a semi-regular basis on Twitter. I'm looking at you, Zac Brewer and Taran Matharu and Zoraida Córdova!

I probably wouldn't have joined Twitter, however, without the delightfully pernicious influence of the amazing people at Wattpad's Corner Booth. I distinctly remember them talking about the importance of social media one day, and next thing I knew, I was signing myself up for a Twitter account @WriterRickyPine. This, of course, is just one of many effects of their amazing videos. For a taste of what they're like for the uninitiated, I have here in my hand their very first video, all 59 minutes of it:

And after joining Twitter, I found myself taking part in all sorts of writerly activities that I hadn't been able to find on Wattpad. Like, for instance, #1LineWed, and #PitMad and #WhyIWriteYA. And, from there, I was able to connect with more writers than ever. Not only the aforementioned published authors and the best Wattpad has to offer, but other indie writers and/or writers seeking representation like me. (On another note, I still have yet to get an agent, but I've sent a few more queries lately, so...fingers crossed.) In this category, we have the likes of Brett Michael Orr, whose Bureau of Time is the very first e-book I checked out at the library, and very much deserves that honor. Through Brett, I also found some more cool bloggers, among them Brianna da Silva, with whom Brett and I recently had a nice long chat about the Red Queen series and how to improve it. I also have a great friend in @SpeedyElite, who one day will share shelf space with me - and wouldn't it be something if we could sign books together? :D Let's not forget Briana Mae Morgan, a Wattpadder and published writer whose Blood and Water, I'm currently reading, slowly but surely. Speaking of cool Wattpadders, might I mention @SkiesAfterRain and her amazing sense of comedy and tragedy both? And then we have @YaezaTheCasualReader, also on Wattpad, and also on his Daily Life of a Teenage Aspie blog, which needs more viewers like most humans need water. (Seriously, if you are now or have ever been a teenager, pay his blog a visit.) Last but not least, Dakoda Bigelow. His book Lykaon isn't officially published in the real world, but my characters know and love his work already.

Bottom line - this last orbit around the sun has changed my life. Because I've got a healthy streak of paranoia, I take steps to keep my online presence hidden from my parents (which is why I use an alias on the interwebs), so I'm sure they'll be plenty surprised when I finally get published and they learn that I've been slowly but surely spreading word about Red Rain and other projects born in my brain across social media. I'm sure, like Jay's mom in the latest chapter of The Normals, they'll want me to talk them through the process of building their own Twitters just so they can follow me and keep a creepy-ass electronic eye on me (and probably be all weirded out by my uncontrollable fanboying as I relentlessly live-tweet my viewings of The Flash, Supergirl, Teen Wolf, iZombie, etc.)

But until that day comes, I'll keep on building my Pinecone Army, one new online friend at a time. Maybe in another year I'll still be seeking an agent, or maybe decide to go into self-publishing like some of my fellow writers (B.R. Myers and Jess Pawley come to mind.) Or, God willing, I'll finally have an agent, and my dreams of seeing Red Rain on store shelves and with a film adaptation being made in Hollywood (or Vancouver, the landscape of which is, I think, a closer match to Coldfire Creek) will be that much closer to coming true.

And as I stay up till midnight so I can put up this link-heavy post (please do follow the links, they lead to cool places!) on the actual day of my "blogoversary" (sorry-not-sorry, but I had to use that term, don't shoot me!), I just have a couple more things to say, Pinecones.

#FeedTheRightWolf

Remember: Denis Leary is always watching. Always.