What is a fandom – what is your fandom?

One of the things that everyone tells you when you start writing (or at the very least when you first publish) is that you should have a ‘writer’s blog’ and on that blog ‘fandom’ is strictly forbidden.  I understand why.  We shouldn’t let our ‘fan fiction’ flag fly.  Publishers just don’t take to writers of fan fiction (or at least they say they don’t) but the question is:

What should, or shouldn’t be in this blog?

I love several television shows, and I even have participated in fan communities.  And, yes, there is fan fiction.  I have been at the edges of fan communities based on books as well and there is a bit of fan fiction there as well. 

But my question is, what makes a fandom a fandom?    

I love hockey.  All but one of my published pieces involve hockey.   I love the Bruins most of all and then the other 29 teams are in my mind in a sort of matrix of teams. 

And, believe it or not there is NHL fan fiction.  Not that I’ve participated in that.  I’ve made my own league, with my own teams and I write my fiction about them.

So the question is; Is being the fan of a sports team being part of a fandom? 

What do you think? 

And what is your fandom?  

It’s all about balance

I have two short e-books published by Books To Go Now  and two upcoming short stories, one in a hold it in your hand anthology and another one with B2GN.  I know that when you are with a small publisher your number of sales is dependent on how much you can market yourself. 

The thing is I’m not good at marketing myself. 

I mean I try.  I got a blog under my real name, I have a twitter and a facebook and my live journal.  The thing is I never seem to be able to update them; or at least not with the regularity that I would like.  I feel like I should be saying something interesting or funny.  I often feel like I should be exceptional before I even try to have anyone even look at it. 

I guess that’s not how I should be looking at it.,  If I don’t put myself out there I’ll never get anywhere. 

The other problem I have is time.  I work three jobs (admittedly one job I only do once a month or so) so time is an issue.  And I do like to spend time with people and write from time to time.  I am not near a computer from 8am to 8pm most nights.

Anyway this is the long way of saying that for the next month I am going to start working on getting my stuff together.  I’m going to start working on blogging and really pushing my stories.  Not to the exclusion of everything else, of course, but hopefully enough for me to get on a roll with it.  I am hoping to find a balance of life, writing and social media.