Would You Rather - Wednesday

So last week, I asked you all if you would rather have 1K blog followers or 10K Twitter followers.

I'm not surprised to find that blog followers won the overall vote (though I wonder if the results would have been different it this was polled on Twitter) . . . but I am surprised with the general perception about Twitter from the people that answered.

Perhaps Twitter doesn't allow the same deep insight as a blog post does, I won't argue that. But on the flip side, when you're pressed for time and want to let people know you're thinking about them, you can easily check in with a dozen or so in the same time it takes to read & respond to your average blog post.

I think, balancing a good blend of the two is a smart idea. Heck, I'm a blogging writer and I'll admit there are very few published authors blogs I visit with any regularity. But I know exactly what's going on with Richelle Mead or Cassandra Clare because (as Betty White would say) they're on The Twitter.

Now on to this week's question:

If you were forced to live as character from a fantasy saga (in their world, not ours), would you rather be in . . . ?


A)  Lord of The Rings


or 


B)  Harry Potter




Bonus question:  Which character would you like to be and why?

Get Twitter-pated With the Book Club

Okay, so I admit, Twitter and the Forever Endeavor Book Club have nothing to do with one another . . . but there's only so much you can do with blog titles, ya know.

For those of you who've been around for a little while, you know Wednesday's are typically my "Would You Rather" feature day. Well thanks to participating in two Valentine's blogfest AND joining the Crusaders (checks out the nifty badge over <-- that way somewhere), I've got quite a bit of catching up to do this week.

Speaking of which . . . Hello, my shiny new friends!!

If you've left a comment in the past few days, new friend or old, I promise to get around to holler back (if you joined recently but haven't commented, I'll still try, but sometimes blogger doesn't give me a trail to follow back to you).

Anyway, I digress. Would You Rather Wednesday will be back next week!

In the meantime, in order to quench my Twitter obsession, I've created a page (look up) for Writers Who Tweet .  I know many of you tweet, because I follow several of you already. So, if you'd like to see your name on the list for all to see, leave me a comment in that thread and I'll add your link. Also, if you know of any cool editors, agents, or those-who-have-already-been-published let me know about them too!

Lastly, quick reminder for those participating in the Forever Endeavor Book Club discussion this month (it's our inaugural month, woohoo): There is still a week & a half left before the discussion post goes up on Friday 25th. It's a pretty smooth & easy read, so don't freak out if you haven't gotten far yet. You can totally catch up! And if you must bow out . . . it's okay. This is a no pressure book club remember? ;o)

Alright, I'm off to catch myself up.  Happy Hump Day, All!

Twitterific

Hi, my name is Tracy and I’m a Twitterholic.


There, I said it. I’m over the first hurdle.

Okay, so in all seriousness, I wouldn’t call my love for Twitter an addiction, because I have it well in hand. I do it simply because I enjoy seeing what others have to say. Or maybe I’m just really a voyeur at heart. *shrugs*

Anyway… when boredom strikes and my ADD kicks into high gear, Twitter is there for me. Now, I follow plenty of sports folk (both fans and players) and pretty much the entire cast of Vampire Diaries, so I have those important aspects of my life covered…but I want to beef up my writing community tweeters.

This is where I need your help, you guys!! If you have a twitter account and I’m not following you already let me know. I also want to build a list in my sidebar of any fellow authors (from newbies to well-established) and agents/editors. So send me the names/twitter handles of people in the writing community that you enjoy. (And yes, please leave your own in there so I can include you too!!)

If you don’t have a Twitter account already and feel left out, I’m so sorry. You should totally go get one though. *Peer Pressure*


So, here are a couple of my favorites to get us started:

Authors:
kierstenwhite : Kiersten used to be one of us, now she’s one of them. But she’s darn good at it and her first novel is selling very well. So obviously, she’s doing something right, and she’s just so darn likeable.

Michellerowen : Michelle is probably in my Top 10 of favorite tweeters to read. She has a very easy-going, charming sense of humor (fits in perfectly with the fun, paranormal chic lit she writes) and I find myself never skimming over her tweets, because I want to see what she says next.

RichelleMead : Richelle is the author of my favorite YA series, so of course I stalk her online. No restraining orders, so I’m doing good. She’s got a pretty good balance of writer stuff and daily snark.

Agents:
Janet_Reid : I don’t really think the Shark needs any introduction.

NathanBransford : Again, Nathan isn’t new to most of us. He’s one of the funniest, down-to-earth agents/writers I’ve come across. He doesn’t post too often, but when he does it’s usually worth the read.

BookEndsJessica : Jessica Faust from BookEnds. Be forewarned, Jessica is as straight forward in her tweets as she is in everything else. But she’s a great one to follow to get a feel for an agents day/mood. Not to mention, if you're up early on the east coast you'll often catch her taking a few minutes to answer #askagent quetions in the morning.

Time to get Twitterpaited, pt 2.

Happy Friday, All. It’s been another busy week, but it looks like we made it through. Hoo-hah!


Okay. So the other day I offered tips on what I believe to be good Twittering. Now I’ll follow up with what I believe to be a decent list of things NOT to do.

Twitter Don’ts

Please don’t treat us to a litany of the food you eat on a daily basis: Yes, we’re all very proud of how well you’ve been doing on that new diet of yours, but unless we ASK you what you’re eating. We. Honestly. Don’t. Care. The occasional self-indulgent pat-on-the-back is fine, but remember: food tweets are like calories, less is almost always better!

Don’t become a serial tweeter: It's not good form to get into the habit of posting more than 2-3 tweets in a row. Seriously, if you’ve got that much to say why aren’t you blogging it instead? If we see this we'll totally skim right over your tweets. (This rule does not apply to you if you happen to be a celebrity. I mean, duh, you’re famous so obvious we really want to know what you’re thinking every second of the day!)

Tweeting solely for “marketing” is annoying: That isn’t to say you can’t update about your upcoming book, album, blog post, strip-o-gram services, etc. It just means we aren’t stupid. If it’s the ONLY thing you ever update about your tweets will receive the same amount of attention from us as the spam in our email inboxes. Don’t shoot yourself in the foot, okie?

Don’t pull out Tweet Deck while you’re drunk: Trust me, we WILL -- especially if we’re your “friends” -- Re-tweet your various BOOTY CALL attempts to our follower lists, just to make sure you don’t forget about them when you’re sober. (Actually, this one is kind of fun. Please disregard.)

And lastly…

Stop bitching all the time: We all need a good vent every now and again, there’s nothing wrong with that. But if you use Twitter as your own personal form of therapy rather than telling your boss, sister, boyfriend, baby daddy, etc., how you really feel – the only thing you’ll succeed in doing is to become an annoying downer. It’s not the right place to constantly release your displeasure onto the world, do us all a favor, stop being cheap and get a shrink!


Have a happy weekend all!!

Time to get Twitterpaited

Since I have a lack of all-things-writing to post about and have been witness to some grave misuses of my beloved Twitter lately, I’m dedicating my next two posts to the Do’s and Don’ts of Twittering for those not already in the know.


** Disclaimer: These notes are based on fictional tweets; therefore the owner of this blog is released from any wrongdoing or hurt feelings caused as a result of any similarities to a reader’s tweets - real or imagined**

Before getting started, I want to stress that -- despite what you may have been told elsewhere -- Twitter is meant to be used as a form of entertainment! People who take it too seriously just don’t “get the point”. Okay, so here we go.

Twitter DO’s

- Take the time to tweet about the humorous, frustrating, embarrassing, scary, etc. things that happen when no one else is around to share in it. The more “You’re not going to believe what I just saw (heard/ran across)” type tweets you post, the more entertaining others are likely to find you.

- Pictures! We luvs pictures! Stumbled across a really bad cross-dresser in Starbucks? A FedEx worker signing for a UPS package? A highway sign for “Cocksville” that makes you giggle like a middle schooler? Snap a picture and tweet. Give someone else the chuckle you’ve just had.

- Keep your tweets as free of TEXT SPEAK as possible. I know you only get 140 characters at a time, but constantly seeing UR instead of Your, or 4evr instead of Forever are … well, they’re annoying as hell. Seriously. Don’t do it.

- Mix it up and keep it fresh. Think of that friend you have that always talks about the same thing every single time you see him/her. Gets annoying, right? Avoid being THAT friend on Twitter. Update about all different sorts of things. If you only ever talk about what you had for breakfast, pretty soon people are going to start skipping your tweets or worse *gasp* stop following you!

- Use the # (hash tag) at times to make it easier for others who enjoy the same thing to find you. “#AmericanIdol hasn’t been the same since that crazy Paula left” or “To hell with what everyone else thinks, #VanillaIce was cool. Dammit." (#iamwriting is a popular one amongst our kind).

- Let other tweeters know you’re reading, by responding from time to time. If their tweet makes you want to say something to them, just hit “reply” and do it! (That being said please don’t become a celebrity stalker. There is no excuse for sending a “Hi, I’m having a wonderful morning today. How about you?” message to Nicholas Sparks, every day, because he was nice enough to respond to you once when you complimented his latest story.)

So there we go. By no means is this a comprehensive list of successful DO’s on Twitter. But if you’re a full out newbie, or otherwise miserably lost, it will at least get you started in the right direction. ;o)