Branding, tea, and other sundries.

Ever since I've been stumbling around the internet trying work out what exactly writers are supposed to do other than write, I've been hearing about Building Your Brand, and marketing and yadda whatever.

 

And yeah, I see WHY people do it but there are two things stopping me from aggressive marketing/branding.

 

1) I am hella lazy. Like, even just thinking about this stuff makes me tired.

2) It all sounds so tawdry.

 

So, I've elected to do that other thing – write (and edit, and occasionally talk crap on my blog about shit I like.) And every time people started talking about working on my brand or how am I going to promote my book and so on, I developed a convenient hearing and comprehension problem.

 

Then I read this – On the Internet There Is No Such Thing as a Brand. There Is Only You and I went YAY!  Because it's true. And it dovetailed neatly with my laziness in the face of keeping up some kind of persona on the internet. So that's nice.

 

Now, on to tea. There's a tea caravan in Cape Town, a wandering loose-leaf den of take away tea and eastern bohemian flair. Pretty damn awesome. It has a modern Hobverse charm that makes me want to snuggle down and stay there.

Also, yanno: tea.

 

It's called Lady Bonin's Tea Parlour, and it is the kind of thing I find fantastic, and oddly enough, makes me want to write more. So if you're in Cape Town, go check it out.

And now: more art from Jolene Boshoff based on When the Sea is Rising Red.

I'm so excited by this I can't even.