This is Day 4 of the Book Tour

The race to win the free copy of The Wildcat’s Victory is neck and neck, but it’s between me and Cheryl, the lady shepherding my book tour at the moment. What’s up, folks – too shy to write anything on the blog sites? The owners of the sites won’t bite.

While I’d prefer to reserve my time and energy for fiction writing, it’s liberating to jump in to an ongoing discussion on a forum and root for someone’s idea that seems to have become swamped. I receive notifications from three or four discussion sites whenever someone jumps on my arguments and I can decide if it’s worth logging on to strike back. I don’t have any emotional investment in being proven right – such a thing is impossible in such a forum anyway, but I do believe in participatory democracy and see Internet fora as a brave new approach to freedom of speech.

Those ideas are among the sentiments that drive Gisel Matah, the protagonist of my Iskander series novels. She passionately believes in the promotion of the Common Good even though she belongs to an elitist organization that profits from capitalizing on that which others cannot. I know that’s a bit different – in timescale, anyway – than movements to protect the Commons in our societies, where collective rights and ownership have been looted since the 80s in order that free trade may be shown to increase wealth. If truth were known, the net gain would be very close to zero. Of course, no one accepts what I say. Which is why writers all write – in the hope that one day they might produce an “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” that changes the world.

Can’t happen unless you write – and unless you network with other writers to create a community that raises the profile and success of us all. Writing a comment to a blog shows you’ve been there . . . and perhaps that you care.

Visit Paperback Writer http://rebecca2007.wordpress.com/ to talk about The Wildcat’s Victory

Have a good day, and do your bit for your own future………Chris

Tags: democracy, forum, participation, Pump Up Your Book Promotion, The Wildcat's Victory, virtual book tour