I have a confession. As an #authorofinstagram, I post daily pictures of my writing life that are more or less fictional stories themselves. Sure, my cats are real and that coffee was definitely mine, but not all of my posts are live (although a fair portion of them are), and the mood I describe might not necessarily be accurate.
Whaaaaat?
Don’t judge me. It’s called marketing for a reason.
When I post: #AmReading
What I’m actually doing: Flipping through #bookstagram and #bibliophile to see what everyone else is reading so I can add more books to my already ridiculously long TBR list. Oh, and reading. I’m probably reading. I’m also probably reading indoors with pajamas on. Not in the fall leaves or the snow or whatever else I took a picture of me doing hours ago.
When I post #CoffeeAddict
What I’m actually doing:
Losing my mind. No. Really. I drink too much coffee a day. Sometimes, my fingers shake. (And it doesn’t even wake me up.) I’m an addict, addict. I drink it because I can’t function without it…which means every coffee picture you see is never my first cup of coffee that day. I’m like that guy from the McDonalds commercial who can’t talk to anyone until he has his coffee. I’m having a coffee right now. (Or am I?) Since coffee means I’m losing my mind, coffee also means that I’m about write, because writing and losing your mind go hand-in-hand.
What I post: #AmWriting 
What I’m actually doing:
Staring at what I wrote last week and wondering why the hell I thought any of it was a good idea. Oh, wait. That’s not that bad. Okay. We can just rewrite this, and then…OH! (Insert fellow #amwriting poster here) is writing, too! I wonder how their day is going. *messages fellow author, geeks out for ten minutes, forgets everything* And when I finally get back to writing, something funny better not happen, or I will stop to tweet about it. This is a vicious cycle. If I manage to stay focused, writing might be done in a coffee house—that sees me way too often—or in my office—where my cats see me way too often (hence why they’re in most of my photos, but we’ll get to them in a minute…)
When I post #Catstagram
What I’m actually doing:
They’re so cute, right? Right? They’re perfect little cuddly gremlins…I mean, cats. There is a reason I call my cats gremlins. As soft and furry and sweet as they appear on my Instagram—trust me—we have our moments around here. Between my desk’s wires (Boo Boo’s favorite thing to tackle out of the wall) and Kiki’s ongoing nemesis battle with Bogart (no, really, they fight all the time), I am constantly chasing them in and out of my office. They attack pens. They attack papers. They attack dangling headphone wires. And sometimes, they throw up on my feet. But hey, that’s love.
In the end, you witness a lot of pieces of my author life, but pieces are pieces. Writing is hard. Being an author is hard. It’s not all coffee and cats and reading and writing. We have our ups and downs and everything in between. Despite all of today’s truth, I do love this crazy, catlady, writing life, and I hope you’ll still enjoy it when I share pieces of it with you on Instagram. Yes, that is a link to my Instagram. Feel free to click it. 😉
~SAT
The first Bad Bloods teaser released! You can expect a new one to release every #TeaserTuesday via…you guessed it…my Instagram. I’d love to connect with you on there, so feel free to send me a message, and be sure to pre-order Bad Bloods by clicking the links below. It’ll only be available for 2.99 for a limited time, so take advantage of the CTP sale while you can.
Pre-Order Bad Bloods today!
Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Kobo, Smashwords, Goodreads
In other news, Clean Teen Publishing is about to host an AWESOME giveaway/release party THIS Friday on Facebook. Click the link to check out the CTP Marvelous May Reads Release Party. I will be there!
Also, don’t forget, the first book in The Timely Death Trilogy is currently FREE! I wanted to give a shout out to Instagram’s Devyn T. for drawing some fan art. Feel free to send me your art any time! I love seeing it. In fact, it makes my day.
Read Minutes Before Sunset, book 1, for FREE:
Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Smashwords, Kobo, Goodreads
Seconds Before Sunrise: book 2:
Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Smashwords, Kobo, Goodreads
Death Before Daylight: book 3:
Shannon A. Thompson 
Part of me kind of wishes that I liked coffee. The only caffeine I drank regularly this year was an energy drink to get me through my 8:15 am class.
I love coffee, but I had a friend at one point convinced that anyone who loves coffee or sushi was a liar, because it was so disgusting to him, he couldn’t believe anyone would like it. Ironically, I love both. ☕ 🍣. We all have our thing, right? 🙂
~SAT
Love this post!
Jonas Lee
Date: Wed, 4 May 2016 05:02:10 +0000
To: imaginarium605@outlook.com
So happy to hear that! 🙂 Thanks for reading!
~SAT
This post inspires me to make an author instagram too! I have trouble figuring out authenticity vs. marketing presentation, but it sounds like you have a good grasp on blending the two together. I’m a coffee addict too. When I feel like I need a break, I try chai or yerba mate out… I haven’t done that for a while though, coffee is delicious.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! I always suggest focusing on 2-3 topics when starting out. Ex. I focus on cats, coffee, and writing. Of course books and baking came into play later, but I keep a theme, which helps with my brand. 🙂 It also reminds me to post because those things are so prevalent in my life. I hope that helps!
~SAT
Thanks for the advice, that’s really cool! ^_^ Cats, coffee, and writing are such love too, so awesome theme to have, lol~