There and Back Again

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Good morning, everyone.

This morning, Christina Morse said her goodbyes to our Following Atticus Facebook page after a decade of helping. 

Atticus, Paige, and I first met Christina and her husband Mike on a hike to Middle Moat more than ten years ago. It was during that wondrous fifteen-day first date Paige and I shared; seven years after she shipped a singular five-pound soul north to live with me.

Strangely, the next time we all encountered each other was on Paige’s and my twelve-day second date. Once again, we were above treeline. It was Paige’s first four-thousand-footer and it was snow-capped Mount Pierce. 

Through the years I’ve had a handful of extraordinary moderators who helped grow the Following Atticus page from less than 4,000 to the more than 230,000 it is now. Christina ended up being the one who stayed the longest. 

Goodbyes are not easy for either of us. Thankfully, we’re not saying goodbye to our friendship. What I am doing is moving forward to a new way of communicating with my readers. 

As Christina pointed out, long before I had a FB page, I wrote a blog called the “Adventures of Tom & Atticus.” Those posts were the seeds of my first book, “Following Atticus.” Facebook was the next best step for us to get started, even if I only created the page at the urge of an enthusiastic and helpful marketing person at William Morrow. 

I remember the first time she brought up using Facebook page to promote my upcoming book. 

         “But what would I say?” I asked.

         “Whatever you feel like.”

Two near-death experiences, two books (one, a NY Times bestseller), Atticus, Will, Samwise, and Emily later, and, if anything, I discovered I had to limit what I wanted to say on Facebook. 

As the American attention span has dwindled, written posts don’t always connect with the masses. Photographs with very few words do. Alas, I’ve never fit well with the masses. The less people wanted to read, the more awkward the fit came. I longed to have a page where I could connect with those who wanted to read my words, and took the time to digest them. 

An interesting note…

When “Following Atticus” came out, there were probably 6,000 followers on the Facebook page. When “Will’s Red Coat” was published, there were more than 230,000. An astounding number. And yet the sales of “Following Atticus” have dwarfed those of “Will’s Red Coat.” 

It was clear that while I had attracted many folks who liked photos of cute dogs, and a sprinkling of handful of words, I was not attracting many readers.  

This new home has been a longtime coming. It’s a direct connection between author and reader. Yes, there will be photographs, but the main purpose is to reach those who mean the most to my work.

In my longing for readers, I often think back to those pages in John Irving’s “The World According to Garp” where the dance between writers and readers appears. Garp, while still in high school, falls for Helen, his eventual wife. She is a reader, and that made Garp determined to be a writer.

“It was that afternoon in the empty stadium with frog gore on the point of his javelin, when Helen Holm provoked his imagination and T. S. Garp decided he was going to be a writer. A real writer, as Helen said.”  

Irving understood what all writers and poets do. Our words need to go somewhere…to someone.

We writers appreciate those who take note of what we have to say. Sometimes words come easy. Other times we cut open our veins, break open our hearts, wrestle with a sentence until it wakes us up in the middle of the night. We pour them out, in search of those who will drink them.         

On Saturday morning, I’ll be announcing how this new page is going to work. But briefly, it will give you and option of how many times a month you wish to receive my posts delivered to your email inbox. 

The first of three options will be free: a couple of posts a month. (Currently, you are all signed up for the free option.)

The second will average three posts a week; twelve a month.

The third choice, excites me the most. It includes the twelve posts per month; a handwritten card sent; a handwritten letter; and a typed letter/writing project each month. That turns out to be thirty-six pieces of mail delivered each year the old-fashioned way. 

If you’ve followed me on Facebook the last couple of years, you’ll know that nearly half of my written posts, and a good number of photographic posts, were deleted within an hour or two of going up. Call it my great frustration of what Facebook has done to us. It’s made us a world of responders, not readers who then thoughtfully respond. 

You also probably know I’m a fan of letters. Each day I pen at least two, and typically more. Writing letters and notes to those I care about has been the heart of my writing. It’s the way “Following Atticus” was written. Each chapter was a letter to an imaginary grandchild. Much of “Will’s Red Coat” came about the same way. Large sections of the book come from letters first written to friends. 

My posts here, will take more of that more personal form. A letter to each of you, whether it’s being delivered to your inbox or your mailbox. 

I’m excited about where this is taking me. 

I’m also grateful for the years of growth I experienced on Facebook. Unfortunately, FB has changed. Only about five percent of those who follow my page get to see the posts. That will no longer be the case. There is no more middle man. It’s just you and me. This is where I get to say, I’ve come full circle, back to where I once began.

Let’s see where this dance takes us.

See you on Saturday!

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