Susan Meachen, a romance novelist in Tennessee, fell deeply into the online world of indie writers sometimes referred to as “Romancelandia.” As in any social media group, she found support but also toxicity. In 2020, a post on her Facebook page said that she had died. Many in her online community assumed she died by suicide and unleashed rounds of grief and introspection.
Two weeks ago, Meachen returned to her page to say she was back and now “in a good place” and ready to write again. Her “back from the dead” post shocked her writing community and prompted questions from police about faking her own death online.
In a series of interviews with The New York Times, she said it had become a treacherous place as she struggled with bipolar disorder. Her husband blamed the “book world” as a danger to his wife’s welfare. I won’t reveal all of the twists of the piece, but I found it to be such an interesting window into a slice of the literary world. Romancelandia is not a place I’d care to visit.
That is wild!