The monkey business of social media

Social media is a serious networking tool for serious writing professionals. It allows you to build a readership, discuss craft and technique with fellow writers, and establish your brand identity as an author.

It also allows you to discuss feet.

This is what author/blogger Sierra Godfrey and I bonded over the other day when we realized we both have bizarrely agile toes.

Since it is obviously crucial to our writing careers that we explore this issue in depth, we began swapping stories of what we can do with our toes.

Check out her blog to find out what she's capable of, but here’s my list:

• Pick up a dropped razor in the shower. No need to bend over!
• Make my bed. I tried this when I was 10 to ensure I was prepared in case I ever lost both arms in a freak badminton accident.
• Write my name with a pen. I’m considering doing this at future book signings.
• Pull my husband’s leg hair. This is probably why he started shaving it.
• Type poignant love scenes in my manuscript. Don’t believe me? Here’s what I wrote yesterday:

Jmnglkiffooljyjyoinh grtrflrfol.rfrrejirooror

It’s clearly a very tender and moving scene, though Pythagoras was not particularly moved to find me with my feet on the keyboard.



Being serious writers who always strive to grow and improve, Sierra and I challenged each other to broaden our skills. Since she has a degree in art, I wanted to see if she could use her toes to edit a picture in Photoshop.You can see how she fared over on her blog.

Meanwhile, Sierra challenged me to embrace the spirit of the Monkey Toes Club by peeling a banana. Here’s how it unfolded.

Grasping the banana caused toe cramps at first, but I persevered.

Once I got it started, the peeling itself was fairly easy.

After peeling and devouring the banana, I went outside to swing in the trees.

So as you can see, social media is an important way for authors to forge valuable connections with fellow professionals.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to call my agent to let her know I’ll be writing my next book entirely with my feet. Pretty sure I can dial the iPhone with my toes.