Props?

The most beautiful and yet frightening thing about online communities is that they enable anyone to be able to find you. As an individual this can be troubling. I mean practically every person I've ever had a beef with, every ex-girl with a grudge can find me with an internet connection and search engine. The days of being able to just unplug the phone are long over.

But on the bright side, as an artist, it's become so much easier for me to meet my fans, who seem to be adding me by the boatload. As my work generally travels to like-minded folks by word of mouth, I'm pleasantly surprised by the number of men and women who reach out, folk who had no idea about my blog, the D projects I did and everything else. I built a page today so that fans looking for me both inside and outside of Facebook can find me more easily.

One such fan hit me up the other day to say how much he had enjoyed Cake and Got and made a note that there was character named Kenji in George Pelecanos's recent novel "The Turnaround". He wondered if it was a direct shoutout. I wasn't sure. But I knew that it was possible.

For those of you who aren't crime fiction fans, George Pelecanos is basically the DC crime guy. In addition to his novels, he wrote for The Wire and edited DC Noir, an anthology of crime fiction in DC that Johnny Temple, my partner in The Armory, published through Akashic Books. According to Johnny, when George inked the deal to do the book he said that I was the first writer he wanted to work with. Needless to say, I was damn near blushing.

Since then George and I have had a few volleys on email. He has offered me advice, referred me to contacts and given me an open lunch invitation for when I'm in the city. All of this and we've never even shaken hands. I can say the same for the relationships I've built with a number of bloggers and other artists. In that way, especially as those of us who do art for a living will have to work harder to corner enough of a market share to pay our bills (I wish I could be like Questlove and spend a grand on a pair of kicks without it hurting me). We need to connect with as many folks as possible. Shoutout to Kimberla Lawson-Roby for reminding me of this at the Harlem Book Fair. Hence I'm building my master list, which apparently none of you want to be on as you didn't hit me up the last time I asked ;)

Shoutout to George for all the love he's given me in the past. Shoutout to the ladies on Pulaski who offered me a place to live after they smelled my garlic shrimp and the coconut fettuccine I made for my Godfamily. Shoutout to Glass for the many ropes he's thrown under many different moons when I thought I was finished. Now let me go and get some work done. Out.