I wrote LIKES because I wanted a little book of short stories about the dark world of social media.
In my book, I explored how social media addiction is warping all of us, from cyclists in pursuit of digital crowns to drunk tweets leading to online humiliation.
Above all, I wanted LIKES to be approachable. A short book of short stories that anyone could pick up and read.
A friend of mine left a copy of my book out to see if her mother would read it. She did and loved it, marveling over the variety of short stories in the collection, drawn from different people and parts of the world. Each story was different and well-told.
She called LIKES:
“A great little nonstop clever book!”
Which is better marketing copy than anything I was able to come up.
It’s hard to describe something you spent so much time on and have such a personal relationship with.
Looking at LIKES, I don’t see finished stories but, instead, I remember the experience of writing and editing them, recalling what I wrote but also what I took out. There were stories I loved to write, like “Twitter Famous,” my tale of viral humiliation in Florida, as well as stories that I wrote and rewrote, such as the first story in the book, “Avocado Toast.”
I don’t see the finished product, instead I see the process of getting there, all the messy backstage business that the audience never observes. That’s why it’s so hard to describe your own art. Only after time and distance do you start to appreciate what you created.
“A great little nonstop clever book!”
Exactly. I couldn’t have said it better myself.