What's a Humblebrag? It's a cleverly posted "I'm not worthy but look how I'm living large" statement, usually a quip on Twitter, whose main goal is self-promotion and marketing but fed to you as modesty.
As this NY Times article explains, it's looking for 'Awe and Sympathy'. They are thinly disguised boasts which are all the more irksome for the attempt at concealment.Typical examples include:
Got told I look like Jessica Alba today #iamsoconfused'
Just gave $100 to the homeless man outside the station. Irrational kindness is so cool.
Or some others:
Mark Cuban: it was right around this date in November when I was 27 years old that i remember looking at a 0 dollar bank balance at the ATM...Lance Armstrong: Remind me not to stay out til 2am w/My first real brag is about the publishing house "Books of the Dead Press," which is soon to release my next novel. If you check out the top sellers on Amazon, "Books of the Dead Press" seems to have a number one horror seller on Amazon every other day. And when I see the quality and established authors they have signed, I'm honored to be in the same sentence.
Regarding my next novel, after hearing so many people say 'it's a horror story' their voice clearly italicizing horror, I unscrambled all my thoughts and wrote the page you see above: "On Writing Dark Fiction and Horror" This article is to appear on a number of blogs as guest posts, including Wag the Fox, a Den for Dark Fiction,Now is Gone, and Silk Screen Views.
Regarding Silk Screen Views, I responded to a request to be a guest book reviewer, and was accepted. They are a huge, and ever growing book review site. Check them out here.
My short story,'Zombie Dash', which I wrote for fun, but then decided to upload it, is getting great reviews and has a 4.0 out of 5 rating on Amazon. Some of the feedback on Goodreads:~An Amazing read. For a short story, this is pretty much everything.
~I love the idea of the book because its original and clean. Best that you head straight to Amazon right now and download this gem of a book~A great little short story with good pacing and a good ending, about a fun-for-all zombie dash that turns into something else.
~And all I can say right now that this piece, obviously known as a short-story, could be a whole book of our Mark Matthews wanted it to.
So, there are my #RealBrags. For some much better examples on #Humblebrags, check out this Doonesbury strip.