So, I’m not even sure if this is worth a blog post, but I am just so confused by a baffling series of event on Twitter today, I wanted to share it and get feedback. There is an author I greatly respect and admire, I follow her on Twitter. Today she posted this:
“Think I can feel a bout of focus coming on. Fingers crossed. #adhd”
Just in case you don’t know ADHD refers to Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder which is a disorder that, among other things, can make it difficult for a person to focus on a task. I responded thusly:
“I think getting off Twitter would help you focus! : ) looking forward to your next book!”
Now, in the world of great humour, that joke is not going to go down as a classic. You know, take away the distraction of Twitter to help you focus. Funny, right? I mean, not hilarious, just a small observation from a fan. And to make sure that the nature of the Tweet was clear, I put in the funny little emoticon, and then mentioned that I was looking forward to her next book. Just a harmless little burst of nothing, like so much on Twitter.
Hours went by, and then I received this reply:
“@drewbeatty Please don’t presume to give me medical advice. Thank you.”
Wow. Presume. Getting off Twitter as medical advice. I was, frankly, surprised. But hey, at least she said thank you, that’s polite, right? So, in an attempt to clarify, I sent this:
“Sorry, it was only intended as a slight joke, not medical advice. No harm intended.”
See, I even admitted that is was just a slight joke. But then came the real shocker.
I had been blocked by this user.
It might be the first time I have ever been blocked before. I have had lots of users unfollow me, usually spammers that I didn’t follow back, but I don’t know of anyone blocking me. Until today.
So, to recap, I sent a slightly funny Tweet to a favourite author, intending to be supportive, and then an apology, and she blocked me.
I have to wonder if she was really offended by my joke, as though I was making light of ADHD, but I do not feel the text of my original Tweet has that connotation. Or if she is easily offended about it, then why Tweet about it with a hashtag?
But let’s look at what I lost.
1. Some respect for an author I like. I probably will not read her other books, not out of some childish spite, but more because in the back of my mind it will niggle at me. “She block me for that Tweet!” I will be thinking, and that will take me out of the story. And it’s not like there isn’t a HUGE backlog of other books I would like to read.
2. A Twitter follower. Wait, she never followed me anyhow. So I lost access to her Tweets.
Let’s look at what she lost.
1. An avid fan. I have bought or borrowed most of her books. I have discussed and recommend her work with friends. I have blogged about her readings, I have mentioned her as an inspiration for Lost Gods. So, she was never going to retire on what I could do for her, but it’s not like she is making Stephanie Meyer book sales.
2. A customer. Now I know I have already talked about her books, but this is bigger. Along with being a writer, she also mentors writers. For $2000.00. I was seriously considering trying to scrape the money together to do this, not this year, and probably not next, but in the future. I really, really won’t be doing that now.
So, here are all the facts as I know them. What say you? Was my first Tweet rude or insensitive? Was I playing god by telling someone to get off Twitter? Leave your responses in the comments, please. I’m really curious.
Anyone who has so much as glanced at my blog will know the huge amount of respect I have for Jennifer Hudock, so I am thrilled to announce that she will be dropping by drewbeatty.com on her very first blog tour!
Pat Pillars had a great idea to do a giveaway for people who comment on the posts. For his giveaway, you have to comment on three blogs, mine is going to be a little more difficult. To help support her blog tour, I have decided I will give away a personally inscribed copy of Lost Gods! What you need to do to win this bad boy is simple. Jenny is going to visit 7 websites on her tour. Visit the sites, and comment on the 7 blog posts. The most important thing is that you comment on ALL 7 posts! On June 1st, 2010, I will look at the sites in question and compile a list of people who have posted on all of them, and draw their names from a hat, or perhaps a cookie jar. Oh, wait, we broke the cookie jar. Hat it is then.
So, you get to visit 7 cool sites, read or listen to 7 cool interviews, and then get a chance to win a book! By me! That is what we call win-win, people.
Check back in this first week of June to see if you have won! Actually, you should just check back here all the time.
One of the least pleasant tasks for most writers is editing. Once the story or novel is finished, authors are done with it. But editing a finished work is an important part of the process. It’s not enough to run a quick spell check, a manuscript takes careful and thoughtful consideration. One thing I do to help me with the editing process is to print out a copy and break out a trusty pen.
I know some people will be shocked by this. Yes, I understand the advantages of editing on a computer, and believe me, i do a lot of that as well, but there are specific reasons that I use the printed page as well.
The first reason is that I find more mistakes this way. The human brain is trained to process information in different ways. While I can correct the majority of my errors on the computer, there are some that slip by. The majority of the reading I do on the computer is scanning, and that is how I process information. Editing is not scanning. You need to look carefully and slowly. Paper helps accomplish this.
I also find that the story becomes more alive for me. I grew up with paper books, and while I love eBooks, the physical nature of the paper helps me to make the worlds I create more concrete, more real. I find that I can not only find basic grammar and spelling mistakes, but I can also find blocks of dead or dull writing, and make them stronger. There is an immersive quality to writing on paper that just doesn’t exist on the computer.
There is an environmental concern, yes. I try to purchase recycled paper, and it goes into the blue box. I also try to reuse pages, printing on the other side, or finding another use for the pages to help offset the expense, both financial and environmental.
So, when will you be able to see the fruits of this editing? Stay tuned for some announcements soon.
If you have any editing techniques that help you, feel free to share them in the comments.
May is Zombie Awareness Month. Why is that, you ask? Well, apparently a hell of a lot of Zombie movies take place in May. I don’t know why, perhaps people think that the beauty of spring contrasts thematically to shambling corpses so nicely. Or the rebirth of animated corpses mirroring the rebirth of of nature. In the northern hemisphere, anyhow.
So, here are some things to help you celebrate Zombie Awareness Month. You can send your friends a witty postcard to let them know the joy of Zombie Awareness Month. You can deck out your Twitter and Facebook Avatars with these handsome Twibbons. Finally, you can buy Zombonauts, the anthology in which my “Zombies in Space” story appears.
I’m lucky enough to know some really great people via Twitter. And no, this will not be yet another post about how awesome Twitter is and how much I love it (although is has been awhile since I have done one of those).
No, this is about something bigger. A couple of people who will be familiar to anyone who reads this blog, James Melzer and Jennifer Hudock, had an idea. What if we could get a bunch of creative people together to share ideas, brainstorm, look at best practices, help, support and inspire each other? Thus was born The Creative Alliance.
There are a ton of great people over there, all working to help each other. You should come too. It doesn’t matter if you are a writer, musician, painter, or have a website with 1516 pictures of Kim Karsashian. You will find something useful, or make a new connection, and some friends. Come on, check it out.
Ebook shorts, that is! This Mayday, May 1, 2010, Edward G. Talbot is releasing two ebook collections of short stories. A Funny Pair of Shorts contains three humorous shorts, while A Horrifying Pair Of Shorts has three horror stories. Each set is only 99 cents!
Being the upstanding writer-type he is, you can read a sample of the stories, so you know what you are getting into.
Anyone who knows me, or who has read Lost Gods, knows how important The Hold Steady is to me. I am pretty sure they are the best band making music right now, and I often (or always) listen to them when I am writing.
In Lost Gods, Coyote takes Anansi to a Hold Steady show. That concert experience was lifted from my own expereince seeing the band at the Opera House here in Toronto a few years back:
The lights went down, and the curtains opened, revealing a somewhat motley looking group of musicians in standard rock and roll formation. Drums, keyboard, lead and bass guitar, fronted by a wildly enthusiastic front man. They launched into their first song, a story of booze soaked love and redemption that managed to avoid being cliché, and the crowd exploded. Coyote’s eyes were shining as he looked at the stage, wide with wonder and delight.
“Let’s go down,” he shouted. We swept down the stairs, and immediately felt the wall of heat from the crowd. Coyote, with a carnivore’s instinct for sneaking around unnoticed, lead us in a winding path through the packed bodies, until we were directly in the middle of them. We settled in behind two large indie kids, their shoulders making an inverted proscenium arch through which I had the perfect view of the stage. Song after song, the band played, drank, and communed with their audience. The subject material was dark; people living on the fringes of life, with a tenuous grasp on reality. I could relate. What was amazing is that no matter how dark the song, no matter how bleak the lives of the characters, the singer was so enthusiastic, so happy. The show was like a perfect distillation of joy, for all to indulge in. Joy as the new drug. And the audience was hooked. For over two hours the band played, giving their heart and soul to this celebration of life. It was staggering. Finally, they finished, and we went out into the night.
All this to introduce the new album, streaming below. Enjoy.
Recently I had the opportunity to join fellow podcasters Scott Roche and James Melzer in a Skype discussion about eBooks. We talked about different distribution models, Smashwords, how to publicize our efforts and more.
James had a lot of interesting things to say regarding the free model, and it seems that the conversation has helped focus his thoughts, because today he announced that he will be giving his short fiction away for free.
So I don’t post a lot of the stuff I do with the kids. I’m not sure why, I just never got into it, besides a few “Talking with Tots” podcasts a few years ago. Today, however, I had a conversation with my son thta was a lot of fun, and really showed me how the three year old mind works. His favourite song is “Take a Minute” by K’Naan, although he calls it “Nosey Nose” (from the lyric And any man who knows a thing knows He knows). He was sining it, and I was trying to record it. This it what followed.
Living with kids, man, they are never not interesting.
Jenny Hudock is an unstoppable force of fiction. This week she has not one, but 2 stories for sale. I know what you’re thinking “She’s just trying to milk us for $1.98. I see what she’s doing there!” Well, you couldn’t be more wrong.
It’s 2 stories, for 99 cents. I bet you feel like a bit of a tool now, eh? Wanna know more? You can also get a podcast version free with purchase of the eBook.
So, get yourself over to Smashwords, and check this onethese two out. Here’s a little taste:
Treed
I know it’s stupid, but I wish I had a backpack full of brains instead of a week’s supply of granola and dried fruit. Unfortunately when you’re packing for a big hike, the last thing you really worry about is how you’re going to fend off the walking dead. I’m more or less convinced that a backpack full of brains would be a good distraction, allowing me to climb down from this tree while they were feasting and run away.
So far, the tree has been a pretty safe haven. The dead aren’t smart enough to climb trees; they’re clumsy. These last two hours though, their focus seems to have gotten sharper, and I know it’s because I’m the only meal within a ten mile radius. And that is where the brains would come in handy. I’d only need to throw one or two of them and then watch them all stumble after it like broken dogs fighting over a bone.
Instead of brains though, I have granola bars and banana chips and enough water to choke a horse in the desert. I don’t even have a gun, and even if I did, I wouldn’t know the first thing about how to use it. I’m just a girl, and before you say, “Well I guess that was your first mistake,” I’ll have you know that I survived the first attack. I swung my way through a wave of hungry, dead campers while my boyfriend Keith was overwhelmed and torn limb from limb like a Thanksgiving turkey at a homeless shelter.
The last thing I heard him say was, “Run, Laura! Run!” That second “run” was wet, and it gurgled in his throat like hair in a clogged drain.
I didn’t ask questions. With a heavy branch in my hand, I picked up my feet and booked outta there Olympic-gold-medal-track-runner-style.
Keith’s garbled screams echoed off the canyons, and I ran until I couldn’t hear them anymore. By the time I stopped to catch my breath and shed a couple of tears, I was lost.
When we were attacked, we had already hiked about two days from the state park parking lot. Silly me left Keith in charge of both the compass and the GPS, which meant I was more or less screwed, and I wasn’t going back for either one. I didn’t even realize just how badly I was screwed until I circled back around the same rock formation the fifth time, stifling my own screams of frustration.
That was then I saw them. There were five of them staggering toward me in dusty clothes, their gore-crusted mouths gaping, innards strewn like gutted trout. Three of them were pretty badly decomposed from the smell of them, and the other two looked more like recent victims. Possibly even victims of the rotting corpses leading the way.
For a second I was scared that Keith was right behind them, but so far there’s been no sign of him.
