Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Do You Suffer from Attention Surplus Disorder?

(Photo credit: if you're seeing a ghastly shade of gray rather than the Bubbles logo, it's mine. Topic credit: AndyLeeParker , who posted www.bubblews.com/news/5018886-i-think-i039ve-got-attention-surplus-disorder .)
Attention Surplus Disorder is a whimsical name for the sense some of us get, during a hard day's Bubbling, that we're spending too much time on too many short whimsical insubstantial thoughts. Almost as bad as watching commercial television. Some people would rather engage with an interesting topic and explore it for more than five minutes at a time.

Sometimes I do that with my Blogspot and Live Journal blogs. At home I write short reaction, opinion, and review pieces while eating (yes, I eat at the computer; yes, I've spilled food on my clothes or the floor but have been careful and never spilled food on the computer). I've written whole children's stories that way, and one weekend I wrote the adult-length collection of stories for adults, "Alley Cat Tales," which is available as a $20 fundraiser. More often I'll pick out one or two pages' worth and add them to my file of things to post on a blog, some day, if I ever run out of things to post on blogs.

Because looking at a computer is so hard on our eyes I like the idea of writers using the Internet as a place to post short pieces, blurbs and teasers, limericks and haiku, as a way to market longer writing that really should be printed out so people can read it. We can get to know each other by Bubbling and thus decide whose books we want to buy. Some Bubblers have written books, like "Angels Watching Over Me" ( www.bubblews.com/news/4597049-angels-watching-over-me ).

Maybe instead of buying a book, you'd rather just read a longish, serious-ish poem by someone who's posted light verse at Bubblews or on Chatabout's "Doggerel" page? Here's a sample of my brain under the influence of Ronsard: cat-sanctuary.livejournal.com/15602.html .

Lots of people who write Real Books and Plays and so forth also write blogs. In addition to the Ozarque blog I just mentioned, here are a few more blogs by writers I met first through their Real Books:




And that's just three Real Authors, the first three off the top of my head, who frequently post substantial full-page thoughts you can find online, free of charge, just to help you become a fanatical fan and buy every single one of their books.

Are you still reading this, even after links to other good stuff have passed before your eyes? Are you a Bubbler? If so, you may be a Real Writer who's published more substantial things than Bubbles. Would you like to tell us where your printed work can be found?

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