This is a picture of the man you should blame if you make the mistake of ordering that fatal, last cocktail at the RWA conference.  He’s a Canadian political humourist, who’s written two very witty books: The Best Laid Plans and The High Road.  He’s a writer. He’s a businessman. And this summer he decided to try his hand at teaching a social media course at the University of Toronto.

His name is Terry Fallis.

He looks innocent enough, doesn’t he?

Huh, not so much. You see, Terry is a self-made man. When publishers and agents didn’t clamour for his first novel, The Best Laid Plans, he podcasted the entire book (yeah, the entire novel) and then went on to win the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour, which if you were Canadian, you’d recognize as a big, fat, life-changing deal.  That honour immediately led to an agent and a contract with the Canadian publishing house of McClelland and Steward. And since then, he’s been selling books and getting great reviews* while spreading the word about social media’s many virtues. You know–twitter, speaking engagements, podcasts, and facebook.  They’re all tools toward catching a reader’s interest.

He’s really damnably engaging about it all. He makes it sound fun.

Okay, I’m going to admit it. I want to attract your attention so that you’ll consider reading Hedi’s Book of Rules. Not because I want another contract, or gather fans (how weird would that be?), but because without readers, Hedi is lifeless and trapped inside my imagination. She’s been howling to be released for a long, long time. 

So, I registered for Terry’s class, and took notes about tweeting, and youtube (absolutely not unless I lose another 40 pounds), and this morning, I’ve  finally did something I was dragging my heels on, just because well, my life is the monitor, my dog, my coffee machine, and the slow sweep of the clock hand–kind of boring stuff. Who’d want to read my posts about tripping over the dog on the way to the java dispenser?

But Terry said we should, we must, we can.

Hence, the creation of my very own author facebook page. You can find it by either searching for Leigh Evans or using leightweets@gmail.com

Please visit it. Right now I’m completely friendless. *sniffle* I will post frequently. Mostly because I can write more than 140 characters, which I’ve often found limiting on twitter. 

Next week, I’ll be at the Romance Writers of America’s national convention in NYC. I’ll be carrying my nifty new cellphone with its awesome camera and facebook app. 

Yes, writers-who-imbibe-one-cocktail-too-many, blame Terry Fallis.

*Printed reviews are wonderful things, but word-of-mouth is gold. On Monday as my back-guy Phil did my tune-up, he said, “Oh, I’ve recently read this great book. Really really, funny. I laughed out loud.” The book?  The Best Laid Plans. Interesting. I know that author. Yesterday, I went to bookstore to purchase it.  But once I got inside Chapters, I stood bewildered. Where would they place it? Politics? Humour? Literary? I headed for the computers. The last user’s search item was still on the screen. The name of the book? The Best Laid Plans. I’m going to read it on the plane:-)