Luv Ya Bunches

Scholastic reversed their decision!

So, it's been a bad week for this blog -I posted, what, once? :( Sorry. I have strep or something a lot like it, so I've just been trying to keep my head above water more than anything else. It sucks, but it is what it is.

Tomorrow I'm going home. Halloween at OU is not my cup of tea. I don't drink, I hate crowds and drunk people frighten and annoy me...the population of Athens doubles and then some for Halloween, and almost everyone is drunk, crowded and in costumes.

Right now I want to talk about Twitter and writing.
It's awesome.

If you took a bunch of cool, mixed it with some brevity and then gave it to people who know how to get the word out there, you'd get the writers and editors I follow on Twitter. They are some of the most brilliant, creative, talented, informative, funny and caring individuals I've seen on the internet. I argue a lot on the internet, so coming across an arena where everyone is building one another up as opposed to tearing them down is really cool.

I busted into the Twitter writer seen in my usual way -blindly and without much forethought. I started hastagging* things about Leaves & Flowers and before you knew it, my follower count started growing (and, to my knowledge, has continued doing so). I don't know these people, I'm obnoxiously self-promoting and yet they're spreading the word for me, offering me awesome links to check out, making me laugh and improving my writing skills all at the same time.

Who are these people?! They are so cool!

Seriously, if you use Twitter and you're a writer, you need to start following other writers. It is an immense help to your craft, your network and your state of mind.

*Hashtagging is this: #amwriting

If you put a hashtag and follow it up with a word or phrase sans spaces, it becomes a link that allows you to search for other people using that hashtag. #amwriting and #writing are some of the best to check out for good writers to follow (I'm not handing out names because you can all do your own grunt work, or just check out who I follow and jump on my bandwagon).

Twitter got me more than half of my submissions for L&F, and in addition to that, I made new friends. That is super cool.

Next time around I'll be talking about Twitter chats (and I will, eventually, be writing that Golden Compass article I promised. Just not yet).