I May have Been Too Hasty

A few weeks ago, I was surprised by a flurry of tweets to me and about me which seem to have prompted this blog to receive more notice. I assume my web site saw an increased in traffic -- I have checked the logs on that but it stands to reason since I habitually send people there.

Here's what happened:

As some of readers of this blog may know, I have in the Boston area. So does John Feitelberg. John and I (as far as I know) are not related, although I need to ask about his parents to see if he is related to other Feitelbergs (also not related) that I know about. But that's a sidebar to satisfy my curiosity on the point.

John and I are both on Twitter and are active on other sites. He tried to get the twitter name @feitelberg only I had taken it. John writes too and I guess having someone with the name you wanted, who lives in your area, and does what you do was too much for him. He tweeted on this, saying:

can't describe how much it rattles me that @feitelberg is a writer in Boston

That was last June and it surprised me because what difference does it make that I'm a writer and live in the area? I never got the answer to that and was too busy with edits to Book 1 at the time to pursue it.

Then a few weeks ago I heard from John again only this time he was getting an account for reddit. I, of course, had already been there and took the login name feitelberg. John felt obligated to share this on Twitter.

Signed up for Barstool Reddit and someone already snaked the handle feitelberg. That you again bro, @feitelberg?

He sounded far more friendly this time. I responded, 'Who me?' which opened the floodgates. The next thing I know I'm getting tweets one after the other from John and his followers. Suddenly, My tweets are being retweeted and I'm the subject of the conversation. Mostly it's praise; John asks to meet me, share a beer, and have me read some of my poetry.

Others want to know more about me. I refer everyone here to my blog and to my web site. Two days later, John blogs about this calling me the most interesting man on Twitter. For the details, visit his blog: http://boston.barstoolsports.com/m/around-barstool/bizarro-feitelberg-is-the-most-interesting-man-on-twitter/.

Now a little praise every now and again is nice. Good reviews for my novel (coming out in October now -- maybe) would be nice, but I don't need my ego stroked. My self-esteem is good enough that I know who I am and what I'm about that such hyperbole is recognized and a little strange.

But, as the saying goes, all promotion is good promotion, if it gets your name out there and that's the result here. I've got a lot of new Twitter followers, which is good. But oddly no new followers for my blog, even though some of the last few posts have seen a lot of visits.

So I'm left scratching my head. Did I stop blogging too soon? Should I resume? I don't know, but I can easily test this by writing a few posts and see what happens. I'll do this on a weekly basis now, I think and since Book 1 has been promised me by next month, perhaps I'll have more things to say about that whole experience too.

In the meantime, keep writing everyone.