Hey there!

The other day my husband reminded me about the Missed Connections sections in our old alternative weekly newspaper, the Seattle Weekly.

Did (do?) you have one of those sections in your local paper? Basically, it's where you could write in something like:

"You wore a purple rain jacket and ordered a quadruple cappuccino at Cafe Vita. I was reading The Stand by Steven King in the window seat, and you commented it was your favorite book as you walked back out into the rain. I thought we had chemistry? Let me know if you thought so, too."

(I did mention it was Seattle's alternative paper...)

The missed connection story my husband shared with me is not fit for polite company, because it involves bike messengers (he used to be a bike messenger in Seattle), but it did get me thinking about how much of our lives depends on fleeting chance encounters.

Last night, I had happy hour drinks with one of my oldest, dearest Portland friends, who I met purely because we sat at the same table at a monthly luncheon held by the International Association of Business Communicators — a luncheon that neither of us have been to before or since.

My life would be poorer without Melissa in it (hi Melissa!), but the fact that we even met is so completely random. What if I hadn't decided to go to that luncheon? What if she hadn't? What if we hadn't walked in the door right at the same time?

This got me thinking about was how readers find authors they love — and how that can be just as much a random event.

You met eyes with a stranger across the tidepool exhibit at the aquarium, and you shared a moment's conversation because you were both wearing shirts with octopus prints, before you both continued on to other exhibits.

You spotted a book with a curious cover on social media and read the blurb, then closed the tab, thinking you'll grab the ebook from the library later.

That person — that book — could have been your soulmate. You either exchanged information... or not. Do you ever wonder about all those people — all those books — you missed connections with?

I'm going to stop the meet-cute metaphor for now, and say that these days, as a reader, I sometimes feel overwhelmed by the vast sea of books out there. It's always been impossible to connect with every interesting book you see — and it's getting even harder to find the good ones.

I came across an article the other day that really helped explain our current dilemma: "Amazon is filled with garbage ebooks. Here’s how they get made."

It’s a long piece with an annoyingly click-baity headline, so to summarize: There's been an uptick in people who are getting rich teaching other people about the "get rich quick" opportunity of using AI to write ebooks and throw them up on Amazon.

I’m not going to get into the whether or not it’s ethical to use AI to write your books. I never plan to, because I enjoy writing books — that’s why I became a writer.

I'm also not going to get mad about people trying to make that a buck. We live in a hard, expensive world. There's always been hucksters selling you shortcuts to the things we all desire most: riches, health, love.

Plenty of industries become a fad way to make money over the years — I won't get mad that mine is currently in the crosshairs.

But it is frustrating as a reader. I used to be able to rely on Amazon's algorithms to introduce me to potential new book soul-mates. But now? Oof.

The market is suddenly crowded with titles by people who spend all their energy learning to game the system, instead of writing awesome books.

(I want to be clear once more, I'm not passing ethical judgement on authors who use AI as a tool to help them tell better stories, or authors who use ghostwriters. I make my living as a ghostwriter of business books, and let me tell you my authors are incredibly invested in their books, and put in tons of effort to bring them about. This is a different can of worms entirely.)

As a reader, that article frustrate me. As a writer, though?

I'm not that worried. It's always been hard to make a living as a writer, and people who are just hoping to get rich quick will move onto a new fad eventually. I've been working as a freelance writer for ten years — I know how to weather ups and downs.

In fact, reading that article made me feel like I'm on the right path.

You know that I've been focusing more on direct sales through my website, and platforms like Kickstarter in order to connect with my readers directly.

(If you follow many indie authors, I predict you'll be seeing more of this from all of us.)

That's because it's become so difficult for readers to find what they're looking for on platforms like Amazon — and I'm not interested in trying to stand out in a sea of get-rich-quick authors who don't respect their readers' intelligence.

This is a long-winded way to say thank you for connecting with me as a newsletter subscriber! Thanks for not missing this connection. This author's life is fuller with you in it. 🥰

Okay! That's enough from me today.

Though, if you have an awesome missed (or not missed) connection story, I'd love to hear it. If enough of you write in, maybe I'll feature the best ones in a future newsletter. :)

And if I do that, maybe I can be persuaded to tell my husband's bike messenger missed connection story...

P.S. Are you a book reviewer? I'm firing my review crew back up again, so if you'd like to be added (or re-added) hit reply and let me know where you usually review books (Amazon, Kobo, Goodreads, your own social media, etc.).

P.P.S. Right before I hit send on this, I googled "missed connections Portland" to see if this was still a thing, and found this absolutely amazing entry on Craigslist from 4 days ago. I am dying to know more...

You got a haunted armoire from Peerless Estate Sales (Roseway)

Last month you took home an armoire/cabinet from a Peerless Estate Sale on NE 65th (64th?). It was DEFINITELY haunted- I physically recoiled when I saw it, and the next day when it was marked 'Free' and I made a joke about giving away the haunted cabinet to someone working there, she mentioned she'd heard voices coming from it that morning when no-one else was in the house.

I'm not trying to get a date, just am legitimately curious if you're okay and if you have any stories to share about it!