When I was a high school junior, I had a friend named Cindy. She and her family had come to the Newport, RI area for one year so her father, a Marine Corps officer, could attend the Naval War College. Cindy and I hit it off and became fast friends. I remember she drove a yellow Volkswagen beetle (the original version), and we used to zoom around town together. One day I asked her to teach me to drive her car, a stick shift. We pulled into a parking lot, traded places, and I looked down at the floor. "What's the third pedal for?" I asked her. She gave me a shocked look and said, "Get the hell out of my car!" After having owned several cars with standards transmissions, I find that memory even more funny! At the end of the school year, Cindy and her family moved on, and I never saw her again. I think we kept in touch for a while (the memory is sketchy on that), but lost track of each other over time. A few months ago, she popped up on Facebook and we're back in touch. I hadn't realized how much I'd missed Cindy until I heard from her again. That's one reason why I love Facebook.
Since I separated my friends/family page from my author page, my author page has grown in leaps and bounds to nearly 2,000 friends, most of whom are in some way connected to the romance business—either as readers or writers. I've met so many new people who've gone out and bought my books after getting to know me on Facebook. Some of them have also become active readers here on my blog. I'm grateful for every one of my new friends, and they are 2,000 more reasons why I love Facebook.
Earlier this year, my little family of four embarked on a family project to find a new dog. Consuela has been gone almost a year, and we felt ready to start again with a new pet. We scoured the Internet, visited local shelters (a few too depressing for words) and put the word out that we were actively looking. Our search was going nowhere fast until I posted a notice to my personal friend/family page and the network kicked into gear. A friend of my cousin's who I haven't seen in years, but who I'm friends with on Facebook, had a coworker whose college-age daughter had a puppy that was too much for her to care for. (Did you follow that?) We connected via Facebook, exchanged a few e-mails and that's how Brandy the dog came to live with us this week. Brandy is just the latest reason why I love Facebook.
Have you had any blasts from the past or interesting networking experiences on Facebook? I haven't ventured into Twitter yet. I'm too afraid of being taken over. Any thoughts on that? Are you my friend on Facebook? If not, click on the link to the right and join my fan page (as much as I hate that they call it that—sounds so egotistical! LOL)
