Lost in "Space"

Okay, so first I signed up with MySpace. Heard it was a good networking tool, and a way to get your name out there, maybe promote your work. It was okay. It was fun to set up my own "MySpace page," personalizing it with music, an animated slideshow, a humongous list of favorite movies and stuff. It was even fun making new "friends." But while I did meet some kindred souls on there – and even re-hooked up with some old acquaintances – there was just too much adolescent bullshit to deal with.

I still check in every day, once or twice, but that's it.

Then ComicSpace came along. In function and purpose, pretty much the same as MySpace, but at least there everybody had at least one thing in common – they're into comics. I spend a fair amount of time over there, and one thing I've learned is that it's absolutely true that the only people reading comics are people who want to make them. No wonder sales are so dismal!

Now, I've been turned onto CrimeSpace, a social networking site aimed at crime fiction authors and fans. Since my leg's feeling a bit better tonight, I spent some time – after getting some writing done (yay!) – setting up a profile over there.

It's interesting. When I first got online a decade or so ago, I was very heavy into reading crime fiction, and belonged to a number of newsgroups and forums devoted to the genre, but I haven't been into that "scene" so much in the last few years. Mostly because I haven't been able to keep up with the genre like I used to when I could afford to buy a bunch of books every month.

But I've been making a point of reading more in the genre, and I'm itching to get back to writing the stuff again, too, so CrimeSpace looked like it might be a good place to hang out.

On the other hand, it might just turn into another time-sucking site I "have to" visit every day. :) We'll see.

If you're interested in checking out my "pages" on any of these "spaces," you'll find links over in the sidebar at right.