​About a year ago, I joined Twitter, not knowing a whole lot about the platform. The whole thing seemed odd to me. I didn't really get the point of tiny messages about random stuff. My intent was to use the platform to promote Kelvoo's Testimonial, but I couldn't comprehend how to make Twitter work for me.

Earlier this summer, I decided to reply to tweets that used the #WritersLift hashtag, which invite authors to post a blurb about their current work.

I started to get some positive feedback and a better understanding of Twitter, and I began to see some positive results. I also used Twitter to browse, and sometimes respond to, social and political tweets. In doing so, I was disturbed by the amount of misinformation and negativity on the platform.

​Things started changing as soon as a certain billionaire took control of Twitter. With the future of Twitter in doubt, I set-up an account on a similar platform called Mastodon. There are a few key differences with Mastodon vs. Twitter:

• Non-profit vs. corporate ownership
• No advertisements vs. ads targeted based on your personal data
• 500 character limit per post vs. 280 characters
• No algorithm vs. your feed being filled with what Twitter "thinks" you should see
• Moderation of misinformation or hateful content vs. opening up to fringe views

As an author, the disadvantage of Mastodon is that it isn't as open to self-promotion, so I won't use it to tell people to buy my book. Nevertheless, I can answer questions or share positive news about Kelvoo's Testimonial when it is appropriate to do so.

Essentially, spending time on Twitter and then on Mastodon feels like leaving a crowded room full of screaming, angry people and hucksters, and entering a calm glade in the forest on a lovely summer day, surrounded by happy, helpful, interesting beings!

For now, I'm keeping a presence in both worlds, waiting to see what happens next.

My presence on Mastodon isn't huge just yet, but if you'd like to check out my profile and a few of my posts, just visit universeodon.com/@KelvooBook

We have a wonderful daughter who wouldn’t want me to share her name or other personal details, so I’ll just say that she’s all grown up now and enjoying much success in her profession.

When Cora and I married, I wasn’t sure what to do with my life. I worked in sales and wasn’t enjoying myself. Everything changed when we purchased (I may be giving away my age here), a Commodore home computer. I dived into the rabbit hole of programming and I found myself frustrated by the technical jargon in the “how-to” programming books. That’s when I decided to write a short book to lead readers through the process of programming games on a Vic-20 computer, written in plain English. The result was that I got myself hired to create computer games, starting my software development career. I shelved any ideas of being a writer as I managed to build on my career through self-learning and the mentorship of many co-workers, far more skilled than me.
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While programming may seem like an exercise in boredom and isolation to some, it broadened my horizons tremendously as I worked for various organizations, becoming familiar with diverse industries like insurance, banking, forestry, manufacturing, distribution, fisheries and first nations management. My work forced me to keep learning and stay curious. I couldn’t have written Kelvoo’s Testimonial without all of the experiences that came before it.
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I don’t want to give the impression that my life revolves entirely around software development. Cora and I love travel and scuba diving. I started diving at the age of fifteen and Cora and I were scuba instructors for a brief time before we married. Our travels have taken us across Canada including the high arctic, to various parts of the U.S., and to the Caribbean, the South Pacific, the U.K. and France. I also enjoy videography and playing with drones.

Over ten years ago, I tried to write a sci-fi novel. I can’t remember any of the details of the story except that it was about a scientist who invents an anti-gravity device, which transforms the world with a whole lot of unintended negative consequences. I got about eight pages in, read it back to myself, and thought it was complete rubbish! Looking back, I think I was trying too hard to be an author; making myself use words like “diminutive”, when I could have just used “small”. Thus, my writing career was shelved once again.
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My birthday in January, 2021, led me to picture the lifestyle that I’d like to have down the road when my software development career comes to a close. Once again, a rather romanticized vision of becoming a sci-fi author came into view. On January 30, I opened a new Word document and wrote, “As the morning horizon of the Kuw’baal sky began its timeless transformation from black to grey, I made my way to the algel falls…”, thus starting Kelvoo’s Testimonial.