Author Event March 9th

If you're in the St. Louis area, come see me March 9th at The Gallery at Chesterfield Arts.

The event is FREE!

Here are the deets:

Learn more about Cole's journey into self-discovery as she shares her life lessons and her publishing success of her new debut book, Katana, in the casual setting of The Gallery at Chesterfield Arts.


The Gallery at Chesterfield Arts
444 Chesterfield Center
Chesterfield, MO 63017

River Valley Authors Series: Cole Gibsen

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Wednesday, March 9 from 7 - 8:30 pm

For more information and to see other upcoming authors, visit www.chesterfieldarts.org or call 636-519-1955.

Hope to see you there!

Blog Chain: Literary Love

It's blog chain time again! This Valentine's themed chain was started by Shaun who asked:

Who is your favorite literary couple and why?

Okay, first of all, sorry this post is late. I started to write it yesterday, but then the mail came bringing with it my credit card bill, mortgage bill, and power bill. Needless to say, I lost that loving feeling. But today's anew day! So, without further ado, my favorite literary couple:

Jean Grey and Wolverine. <3

Okay, so maybe I'm cheating a little. But comic book characters can be considered literary, right? Right???

Even though Jean ended up marrying d-bag Scott, the sexual tension between Jean and Logan has remained strong over the last fifty years.



And their relationship has been pushed to the limits time and time again. Because of Jean's omega level powers, she alone can house the Phoenix Force - an entity that travels the galaxy destroying what doesn't work. So, with all the damage humans have inflicted on the earth due to wars and pollution, you can kind of imagine how the Phoenix feels about humans. But, luckily, Logan is always ready to stop Jean when she's on the verge of losing control and wiping out humanity. Unfortunately, this means killing her.

Again.

And again.

To be fair, that last panel is not Logan killing Jean to stop the Phoenix Force, but to keep her from suffering as their space ship hurtles into the sun. And because he cannot kill himself, this is what happens to Logan:

But I digress.

There's something horribly tragic, and yet romantic about a love that cannot be. And, while Jean's (currently) still dead, I can't help but wait, hope, and wish for her and Logan's happy ending.

On that note, I'll leave you with this:

If you want more X-Men, be sure to check out Marvel's website. If you feel like there's too much history to catch up on, don't worry! I got you covered. Just watch this and you're up to date.

For more literary love, check out Kate's post from yesterday and Eric's post tomorrow today!

So, how about you? Who are your favorite literary loves?

My thoughts on the 2011 Grammys...

It's been over forty years and Mick is still pointing his fingers. God bless America!

Because pointing fingers never goes stale!!!
(as seen in the below video)



Oh, and Usher?

Dr. Evil Called, he wants his suit back.

Blog Chain Post: Social Media - the New High School Lunch Room

Amanda started this round of the blog chain by asking:

Are you a good social networker? What aspect of platform building do you focus on the most? Which aspects freak you out?

What an interesting topic. I guess what surprised me most about social media is that it created a type of virtual high school lunch room. Before social media, I lived in this pretty little fantasy world where all writers were created equal, we could all be friends, and we helped each other get by in this difficult industry. But -  thanks to the likes of Facebook, Twitter, and blogs - I learned this is not always the case.

Now, don't get me wrong, I love writers. I love being able to connect with other writers from around the world and talk shop. I love that, through social media, I've made real and true friends. But there's also another side. A dark side where the cool kids sit at the cool table and if you don't have a big publisher, a big advance, or big buzz, don't you think for a second you can hang with them.

Shock and appall, right?

I know it's happened to us all, a group of people you are tight with go off and form a group blog without asking you to join, you get left off of someone's "follow Friday"/blog award list, or, my personal favorite, a big name author follows you on Twitter and you think, "How nice!" and follow them back, only, when you do, they drop you like a hot potato (they just wanted your follow - not you.)

It's enough to make anyone feel want to unplug from the Internet and crawl into a hole. Now, here's where I'm going to share with you a little secret. It's been my life motto for as long as I can remember. Just ask my husband, it's something I mumble to myself before I get up on stage to sing, speak on a panel, or walk into a party where I don't know a single soul.

Fake it until you make it.

It sounds dumb, but I swear it works. Before any public event I go to, I look at myself in the mirror and say, "You're good enough, you're smart enough..." Okay, so I don't say that. Hee. But I do tell myself that I am the person I want to be. "You're Cole Gibsen. You're funny, confident, and people are glad that you're here." And it helps me every time.

You can't hide from social media. (Well, you can but you're going to be missing out on an opportunity to meet some really awesome people.) And you can't stop sucky people from sucking. But you can change the way others perceive you and, in turn, how you perceive yourself. Just because you don't feel confident, that doesn't mean you can't act confident. You may not feel like a success or that you deserve the same accolades as that six-figure-advance author, but that doesn't mean you can't act like you do. Sometimes people act like jerks, they hurt your feelings and make you feel bad. But that doesn't mean you can't rise above it.

Edit: And Windy makes a really good point in the comments. Sometimes people do things that hurt our feelings without even realizing that they are hurting our feelings. And, again, this is another unfortunate side of the virtual world. I, myself, have said things thinking I was being funny/sarcastic, but the person reading it took it wrong (curse the lack of a sarcastic font!!) and I hurt their feelings without meaning too. This is just another example of, not only should we not take things on social media sites personally, but we should also watch what we put out there as well and how it might be interpreted. 

For more links on this chain check out Sandra's post before mine and Eric's on the twelfth!