Social Media and the Feminine
When I first published Farming Soul, one of my greatest surprises was the initiation into the social media, something with which I had little contact. I had no idea what a blog was and I didn’t have a Facebook page, thinking that was only for teenagers. So when Mel Mathews of Fisher King Press set up my blog site, informing me that this was an important part of the publicity process, I felt like I had fallen down a rabbit hole.
Once a young patient in my psychological practice accused me of being a dinosaur because I didn’t text message and my cell phone wasn’t “smart”. This most recent confrontation with technology through the “social media” convinced me that this must be true and that I was going to have to do something about it.
I was not alone, however. Fellow authors at Fisher King Press who were about my age also had no idea what we were up against. We hired my daughter-in-law, Melissa, to show us some simple things: how to do info panels on Facebook, how to announce blog postings on Facebook, and what was a successful blog entry, and what was not.
These two years of publishing have been a crash course in becoming more knowledgeable about navigating social media. The last few months have introduced me to yet another facet: Internet radio and video interviews. Most of these sites and stations involve entrepreneurs, usually young, who interview online and on radio programs and then podcast the interview. Most are passionate about their work, most blog, and often daily, with a particular focus. The ones with whom I have had contact have been interested in farming, ecology, psychology, consciousness, and fiction writing.
What I find common to these unique people is their can-do attitude. It is one of the things that I also enjoy about blogging: you do not have to wait on the powers-that-be to decide if what you have to say is worthy of publishing or airing, in other words, make a lot of money for them! You put your thoughts out there, and let the public decide what it wants to read.
I have been very moved by my experience with these entrepreneurs. They are generous with their time and energy and they are creating a very different way of disseminating information and making connections. In the Jungian tradition, this process is much more feminine-based, more grass roots, more connected, cooperative, less competitive. It is a process that afforded the Arab Spring and Occupy movements by offering quick, uncensored dissemination of information.
I have also been introduced to wonderful writers I would never have come across in bookstores, now catering to huge publishing houses. Below are a few bloggers and interviewers that I have particularly enjoyed. Check them out! (The links to their interviews, book reviews, and blogs of my own work are on my side bar.)
Book Reviewers, Bloggers, and Interviewers:
Bonnie Bright, Depth Psychology Alliance. Bonnie is the force behind this blog/website that forms an online depth psychology community. This includes interviews with authors and thinkers and an online book club.
Smoky Zeidel, Smoky Talks Authors. Author, blogger, writing teacher, and editor. Smoky is a great advocate for small press writers. My first “meeting” with her was when she interviewed me after reading my novel Snakes. I have since made use of her excellent editing skills. She also writes great novels!
Malcolm Campbell, knightofswords.wordpress.com. I first “met” Malcolm when he reviewed Farming Soul for Amazon. I then read one of his novels, The Sun Singer, which turns out to be a statue in a park near where I grew up, a statue which emblazoned itself upon my young psyche, its arms raising to the sun. His novels are imaginative and invite you to other dimensions of reality, but he is a funny and articulate blogger and reviewer.
Leah Shelleda at leahshelleda.com is an award winning poet and is Professor Emeritus of Humanities and Philosophy at the College of Marin. She is a deeply thoughtful blogger, her blog site one you will want to subscribe to.
Kala Ambrose, Explore Your Spirit with Kala Show. Kala does radio interviews and also teaches and writes about spirituality. She is a warm, generous, and open interviewer.
Jo Conrad: Although Jo Conrad lives in Germany and many of his video interviews are in German, a number are in English. The following is a link to his interview with me last April 2011. Spirituality of Farming with Jo Conrad
Naomi Ruth Lowinsky, The Sister from Below. Naomi is a regular blogger, reviewer, a fellow Jungian analyst, and a gifted poet from a lineage of artists. She has also done some thoughtful, deep reviews.
David Van Nyes, Shrink Rap Radio. David Van Nyes, psychology professor emeritus of Sonoma State University, interviews authors and teachers in the field of psychology. He has quite an archive of interviews with prominent thinkers in the field of Jungian psychology and psychology in general.