So I lit a candle last night and branding

If you follow me on twitter or Facebook you are likely aware that I received several copies of my book Egret the Elephant, yesterday. To see my name in print on an actual physical book was something I always dreamed of.  The kids were in bed and I was standing in the kitchen staring at this box of books. For a second, just a second, I went to call my mom who passed over 3 1/2 year ago. I then went from elation to despair in about 3 seconds flat.  I wanted to connect to my mom and the only way I could think to do that was to light a candle. Now in Judaism there are certain times you light a candle for a family member’s passing. I am far from an expert but I doubt doing so on a random day was particularly Kosher. Again I am far from an expert. But that is what I did and it did help for whatever reason.

Now this actually reminds me on an argument I had with someone the other night. He was saying I should do more to divorce myself from the Egret brand. He runs a website dedicated to a certain sport. He spends his time promoting that website and thinks I should do the same for Egret. I completely disagreed. I said that while Egret is a brand and I do have a website and Facebook Page dedicated solely to that brand, she is also a product of a larger brand — Corey Feldman, writer. I went on to say that I will have other brands as well. I will have other stories, kids and otherwise, but they will all fit under the larger brand of me the writer.  He went on to say something that I was reminded of when I wrote the first part of this post.

Here is what he said:”I’m a mom of 3 children who lives in St. Louis. My kids love Egret and I want to be on your thread for the latest Egret book publishes and announcements but I’m not interested in adult drama or Judaism so, as a result, I might loss interest or chose to not follow your page.”

My response was she could follow the egret fan page or website, that have all the update information they need. But the more I think about it the more that statement pisses me off. I’m a writer, I express myself through writing.  I’m not going to curtail what I write for fear of bigotry and ignorance. And unless I write under a pseudonym, which I’m not going to do (unless I start writing erotica), there is no point. Egret will always be under my brand. Besides I currently have much greater reach than Egret, it would be silly not to utilize my personal brand to promote my product.  If someone doesn’t want to buy my product because the’re a bigot, so be it.

What do you think?