Santino Hassell's Blog - Posts Tagged "internet-connections"

For those who don't know, my co-written gay romance Strong Signal releases tomorrow. It's about a gruff soldier and a charming video game streamer who meet online and go from gaming rivals to flirtatious friends to two men who share immense amounts of love and respect. In preparation for the release, Megan Erickson and I asked people to fill out a Google Form and share their own stories of cyberlove whether they met a spouse or a close friend online.

We got over thirty stories! The amount of people who met significant others on social media or World of Warcraft or in Romancelandia was astounding. In a couple of blog posts, Megan and I are going to share quotes from these stories as well as people's thoughts on Internet connections in general. STRONG SIGNAL's release week will be spent celebrating online connections.

Cyberlove Stories

“My sister met her husband online through playing World of Warcraft. Eventually they met in person and later he moved across the country so they could be together. They have now been married for over 7 years and have a 5 year old son.”

-Nicole

“I love the dynamic of online connections. It reminds me of older times when couples (and friends and family) communicated via letters. The way someone writes says a lot about them. What they choose to put into words. Which words they use. Add gaming/role playing to that and you’re getting a lot more out of an evening together than shouting across a crowded club or eating popcorn at the theatre. You instantly have something in common.”

-author Kelly Jensen met her husband on a MUD, which is a text-based MMORPG

“A lot of people discount internet relationships because they know that people can pretend to be someone they’re not. And that’s true. That happens a lot online. And sure, it’s easier to hide behind an avatar and pretend you’re half or twice your actual age or weight or whatever other thing you want to hide or misrepresent. But there are two important things that get overlooked:

1) just because you’re talking to someone who’s sitting across the table from you doesn’t mean they’re being honest with you or telling you everything
2) it can be a hell of a lot easier to talk about personal stuff online, so often times you get much more frank, real conversations with people there than you would if you were speaking to the same person face-to-face. “

-author Karen Stivali

“I think especially when you’re a writer, it’s unlikely you’ll know people in your everyday life that write, and especially that write the same things you do. It’s so nice to have an online community for that because writing is a huge part of my life. My online friends know what I’m up to in a way that my family and friends in my regular life just don’t.”

-author Michelle Hazen met her best friend and critique partner while writing Vampire Diaries fanfic

“There is a connection with Lisa that I have never found before. She gets me. She gets my insane love for books and never judges me for talking about the characters as if they were real people. She gets all my ticks, the good, the bad and she laments and celebrates with me without reservation. She is the person I can fire off an email, message or text to with ridiculous glee or the need to vent/rant and knows that I don’t require I lengthy response, just an ear to get it out. I look forward to our chats every day.

From books to work to marriage to kids to dreams to just our lives, she’s my person now.”

-Sara met Lisa on Goodreads

Read more stories on Santino's blog!