#WritersWise!!!

For all of you on Twitter folks.....#WritersWise Chat 9th Nov (Wednesday) with @LouiseMPhillips!!! 8pm GMT 3pm ET. All welcome!

THE GAME CHANGER is Trending on Twitter!!!

WOO + HOO...‪#‎THEGAMECHANGER‬ is now trending on TWITTER ‪#‎publicationday‬

Thank YOU!

So we are nearly there folks. One month to go, one month to publication day.

I got to thinking, that it might be a good time to stop and say 'Thank You'.

In the acknowledgments for Red Ribbons, my opening words are -

'The creation of a novel is a journey which begins well before the first word is written and continues long after the last full stop. I owe a huge debt of thanks to many people.... '

And these words ring true for me, not just today, or when Red Ribbons is finally published, or ten years from now when hopefully I will have written many others stories - these words have been true from the moment I was introduced to books, to the joy of living in an  imaginary world, and will last hopefully for a very long time to come.

I openly admit that I am nervous, excited, unsure, a mix of so many different emotions, but whether Red Ribbons is a success or not, the journey so far has been a success for me.

I have gotten to know a great many people along the way, some here on this blog, and on Twitter.  I have made some lifelong friends, and the experience has been an emotional roller coaster, with many moments of joy, uncertainty, frustration, laughter, doubt, belief, the list is endless, but what has never been in any doubt, is that the journey has been enriched by all the people who have supported me along the way, thankfully another very long list, and one that I really appreciate.

Some of you who follow this blog might remember a post I did a while back - it was about a friend of mine, the late, Joan O Flynn. My life was enriched for Joan being in it. She will stay with me always, and apart from being an amazing woman, writer, and friend, she had great belief in me.  We all need friends like Joan, people who believe in us even when we doubt ourselves.

So no matter how the next leg in this journey goes, today, and every bit of the journey so far has been an absolute pleasure, and this wouldn't have been the case without you. So THANK YOU.

Top 10

Having gone past the 75,000 hit mark yesterday, I figured it might be worthwhile to reflect on which posts got you all connecting over the last 12 months, and here they are:-

1.  Dreams can come true... HERE

2.  What I know about Twitter Lists HERE

3.  Role Play HERE

4.  RTE Guide/Penguin Short Story Competition HERE

5.  Book Club Reviews of Before I Go To Sleep HERE

6.  Blackberry Picking - Seamus Heaney HERE

7.  International Woman's Day Poem HERE

8.  Twists of Twitter HERE

9.  Monkey & The Brain Eater HERE

10.Novelicious/Harper Collins UK Novel Competition HERE 

An enormous 'THANK YOU' to everyone who has visited this site, and a special thanks for all 1,223 of you, who visited the top billing post with the news of my dream turning into a reality.

Thought for the Weekend - Any Dream Will Do!

Normally, I use famous quotes for these blog posts - words of wisdom from writers, philosophers, artists, and those wise folk called anonymous, but today is slightly different.  Today, I'm going to go with 'Any Dream Will Do', which some of you might connect to the musical 'Joseph' or 'Joseph And The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat', which I knew it by.  It just so happens though, that it is also the title of a new book, one which is in the shops NOW, written by one of the many great people I have come to know in Twitter Land -Maria Duffy.

So I got to thinking how important these four words actually are.  We all need dreams, we all need something to strive for, and these dreams are as individual as we are.  My hubby has been more into the dream idea over the years than me.  And for the most part, most of his dreams have come true.  I tended to things that dreams were things you did in your sleep, and probably should be left there.  But over the last while, I've been thinking that perhaps I'm wrong.  You have to dream, to have to believe that wishes will come true, because even if they don't, it's a whole lot better dreaming about them than not!

Here's a pic of Maria's book, which I plan to pick up very soon myself - and Maria, I warn you in advance, your signature will be required.

Twists of Twitter -

A Twitter Journey -

A-ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ of Twitter Twists!

A. You hear about other people using Twitter - and you say thanks but no thanks.

B. Then serious programmes on the telly start to say things like - you can tweet us @XXXX - you wonder what is wrong with text and email - why are these things not enough?

C. People like Susan Boyle become an overnight success because Demi Moore sends out a tweet and her Xfactor audition has so many downloads the system nearly crashes - you begin to ask  yourself it there more to this tweeting than you might have thought.

D. All the kids start doing it - a sure sign that something is afoot - then political programmes like Tonight with Vincent Browne has a special section just on tweets and twitter.

E. You think about facebook and blogging and email, worrying about how much more time Twitter will take up, but already you are hooked because after all, wondering about something is the first step to crossing the line.

F. You continue to resist - think about setting up an anti-twitter campaign - you know you hate being one of a crowd and there is all this jargon about followers - as if this Twitter thing could be the beginning of a commune - who is following who and why?

G. Then you decide definitely, it is not for you.

H. Someone then says - 'It's all very well you blogging, but tweeting is where it is at - if you are not on Twitter, well you are simply not on.'

I. You decide to give it a go - after all what can be the harm of it.

J. Registered-you think long and hard about your first tweet - you want to put your best foot/tweet forward.

K. You send out a deep and meaningful quote conscious that someone you do not know could read it and have a life changing experience.

L. No one notices - so you wait and wait - nothing happens.

M. You decide to give up, become one of the millions who has treaded this path before and dismissed the idea.

N. Then you get a follower, you are not really sure how or why but you start thinking about it again - you send out another tweet.

O. You contact everyone you know to see if they are on Twitter - you follow them.

P. You send out bulk emails to all the people in your email address book, your followers increase.

Q. Every morning you wonder, do I have another follower?

R. You discover tweeting is all about mentions and RT's - and thanking people - because thanking people does more than just say thanks, it spreads the word.

S. Your tweets increase, you start to make 'friends' on Twitter, you have personal conversations with pictures which might not even be of those you are tweeting with.

T. You decide that your children should NOT tweet - after all what if that nice granny turns out to be an axe murderer.

U. Then you dig deeper because suddenly you are up and really running, you follow @stranger @interesting picture @newslink @thingstodoinyourcity.

V. You tell all your friends about how great Twitter is - raise your eyebrows in surprise when someone is not on it and say, 'It's all very well you blogging, but tweeting is where it is at - if you are not on Twitter, well you are simply not on.'

W. You give tutorials on your blog about 'Lists' because so many people don't understand them.

X. You start getting up extra early so that you can send out your #FF - follow fridays.

Y. Then start wondering about doing a blog post about controlling your time on twitter.

Z.  You stop talking to your actual friends because well this tweeting is important stuff.

ZZ. You stop and think - decide to ease up a bit.

ZZZ. Your followers are not increasing the way they did before, you think about how you liked all those gold star stickers at school.

ZZZZ. You set up autotweets - saves time - makes sense.

ZZZZZ.  By now you have everyone in lists - but your list of blog pals is so long you rarely get to visit @stranger @interesting picture @newslink @thingstodoinyourcity.

ZZZZZZ. Your son tells you -'Mam I think you might have a Twitter problem.'

ZZZZZZZ. You deny this, but secretly wonder - and as you know wondering is the beginning of crossing the line.

ZZZZZZZZ. So you ease up again - limit your time - hope you have got the balance right.

ZZZZZZZZZ. You do a blog post about your A-Z Twitter journey.

ZZZZZZZZZZ. And wonder where it will all end up?

ZZZZZZZZZZZ. You shut down the computer - tell yourself you can do this.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZ. You switch the computer back on again.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. Wonder if you are the only one hooked.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. After blogging about this, you tweet about it.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. Start to get excited about Twitter all over again.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. And so the journey continues!!!!!!

Let me know how you are all getting on......................

First Twitter Memory - We all have one!!

I read a great blog post from my friend Niamh Greene (@Niamh_Greene), all about her relationship with Twitter.  Now I say friend tentatively because I 've never actually met Niamh.  Our relationship began on this wonderful phenomenon called Twitter!

In her post Niamh talks about the good and bad things about Twitter, and just so you have something to look forward to in the future, at some point soon I hope to do a post called 'The Good, The Bad & The Ugly of Twitter', but in the meantime, Niamh's post got me thinking about my first Twitter memory - all 66 days ago.

To begin with, like Niamh I had avoided facebook, bebo and god knows what else.  I liked blogging, and emailing, and even Skype, but Twitter was not for me.

Finally about 67 days ago another friend (one whom I actually met in person), told me to give Twitter a try.  I thought God No!  Do I have to!  But like all older-bold children, once I finished ranting and raving to myself (as I often do), I set about the task in hand.

Experience has taught me to always seek expert advice, and with Twitter, I wasn't going to change a trusted system.  So I duly sought out a professional.

Her name was Orla, a daughter of a friend of mine.  Orla has just finished her Junior Cert, so was a definate expert.  Myself and Orla together registered me on Twitter.  We did this upstairs in the back bedroom while her Mom minded the vino downstairs.  Orla was brilliant and I sent out my first tweet.  I couldn't believe it when my niece responded, liking my quote about writing - I was hooked.

Now this brings me nicely to another thing I've learned in life.  If someone reaches out a hand to you, you should grab it.  With this in mind, I met my niece (the wonderful @RachelLuRay) in the 'Queen of Tarts' for tea and well, tart.  Rachel explained loads to me about @Mentions, TinyURL, Favourites, RT's, some great twitter sites to get started with - and so with the help of the experts, I was off.

I played around with the Twitter bug for about a week, doing what I do best, observing.  I discovered all about #ff friday, and how a DM was different to an @Mention, and bit by bit, I got the hang of it.

Since joining Twitter, I have managed to do lots of things. I have increased my blog hits and blog followers for one, which is brilliant because I love to get comments.  After 66 days, I now have 823 Twitter followers. I became Number 28 in Ireland this week in the Follow Friday rankings.  I also managed to get hacked at least once, had a follower who seemed very nice turn quite strange and horrid, got a DM that upset me, but most of all, and I really mean this (it is not just some sop that people dish out), I have met some brilliant folk who matter to me as friends, whom I didn't know 66 days ago, but now count!

Anyhow (fav crutch word) - What is your first Twitter memory??  Come on share it!

Link HERE to @RachelLuRay fab post on changing technology, iphone, twitter & a lot more besides! You'll understand why I call her an expert!

Why I use favourites on Twitter!

A couple of weeks back I did a post on 'Twitter Lists' and it proved to be very popular.  At the time I was really amazed at how many people didn't use 'Lists', because I know I could not survive Twitter without them - Check it out HERE

The way I look on Twitter is, it is something that in order to maximise it's value without it eating into tons of your day, you have to use as many available functions designed to help manage your time. 

Which is why along with 'Twitter Lists', I use 'Favourites'.

Here are some of my reasons:-

1.
They are a great means of storing information which you know you will want to come back to and review.  For example, if you see details of a competition you are interested in, just store it in favourites, then check out the details nearer the deadline dates etc.

2.
As I said above, they make for better time management - let's suppose you see a tweet with a link that you are interested in reading, but you're rushing out the door - just pop it in favourites and you can check it out at your leisure later on.

3.
Same goes for links to blog post that are too long to read on the spot - put them in favourites, then review and leave your blog comment later when you have a longer period of time available to enjoy them.

4.
They are also a good place to keep great advice - for example tips on writing, tools which you will read and reread to improve your writing skills, or whatever pieces of information are helpful to further your own aims and ambitions.

5.
If you have a blog, they are also a great place to store ideas - A fab image, a brill quote, a discussion topic which you might want to feature on a future blog post - pop them in favs, and they are there waiting for you to pick up whenever you are ready.

Everyone will have their own reasons for keeping favourites, above are a few of mine.  Important to remember however, is that favourites are a bit like clothes hanging in a wardrobe, they are there waiting for you, but you must make regular checks to make sure they are still things you need/want, or you will end up with unnecessary bulk gathering dust.

Do a regular check of your favourites, and whenever you are finished with one, just click 'unfavourite' and like magic it is gone. 

Add your own reason/comment regarding favourites below - you know I always love to hear your thoughts.

What I know about Twitter Lists

Firstly, I'll put my hand up and admit that I love lists, I use them all the time, not just for shopping, but for planning, prioritising, the list of lists is endless! 

This inclination means that when it came to lists on twitter, I figured they might be something I would be interested in.

In my humble opinion everyone on twitter should use lists and here's what I've learned to date, and why people should use them:

Firstly they lend themselves to the divide and conquer idea, because if you put someone in a list, instead of browsing through miles of tweets everyday, you can read them in a logical format.  For example, if you follow a number of News sites, you can put all of them in a list called 'News', this makes looking through the news tweets easier than when they are mixed in with other tweets.

You can also read your tweets in a manner of their importance to you - lets say you put all your blogpals or friends in one list, or have a number of favourite writers, again you can create 2 more lists marked, 'blogpals/friends' & 'favourite writers' list.  This means that if time is short you can log in, and in an instant see what people in these two lists have tweeted over let's say the last 24 hours.

A note of importance here, when you create your lists, you can have them as public lists, or private lists.  At the moment, I have all my lists as private, but this will probably change.  Like for example, if I change my list marked 'Irish Writers' to a public list, then others can follow it.

The other thing that I have decided about lists, is that it is better to allocate followers to a list from the get go, because it sorts out having to do a lot of housekeeping later.

You can also have someone in more than one list, they can be in a list called 'thriller writers' and also in a list called 'writers who blog'.

You can also have someone on a list and not be a follower.  Once you put them on a list, their tweets will appear, whether you follow them or not.

You can change your listings at any point, so a follower could start off in one list, for example 'Art' and end up being in 'pals/friends'.

So finally, this is how you can create a list, and place your followers/people you follow in them.

If you click on a follower, then you will see their profile etc on the right. To the right of the 'Following Button' you will see a link button with an envelope on it, and to the right of that, a link button with the top of a person, (head and shoulders) - click the dropdown arrow and click on 'Add to list'.  If you have a list created already and you want to place this follower in it, just tick the box beside your list title.  If you haven't got a list created, or if you are only starting to create lists, after you click 'Add to list' - then click on 'Create a list'.  Once you choose this, type in the name you want applied to this list, type in a description if you want one.  Your list will automatically be created as a public list, but if you want it to stay private for now, under privacy, just click on the 'private' option, then save list.

All very easy.  Just to note here, this is not an extensive post on all about lists, because there is a lot about them, I still havn't figured out yet, but when I do, I'll let you know all about it.

Discovery Bank Holiday

Exhausting Bank Holiday Weekend, tons of stuff to catch up on, lots of gardening work to do, a family birthday party at our place yesterday, a sit down 4 course affair, a new book to start 'The hand that first held mine' by Maggie O Farrell, a short story to finish, and last but not least, editing work on the novel.  So yes, I was busy, but despite this, today took some unusual twists which led to a few discoveries, not the beer cans below, they belong to Son & Co.


Building up stocks for Oxegen - Tesco €1 Per Can Saturday!

Anyhow, first discovery was that we have about a dozen blueberry trees out back.  Now you would think that these should have been pretty obvious, but not when you consider that most of out back is a bit on the wild side! A lot of earth clearing and general let's get this outside place into some kind of shape, finally brought my attention to a number of smaller trees within the jungle, and that was when I discovered the tiny blueberries, currently green adding to their desire to be invisible.  So this bank holiday Monday morning, I was well pleased with my first discovery, I even managed to get a great recipe off the Internet for blueberry jam!


Blueberries in their June green disguise.

All this adventuring was thirsty work, so it was soon time for my caffeine fix.  The birds were feeding like mad outside the kitchen window therefore grabbing my interest, when I noticed a new bird.  By new bird, I mean a particular type of bird.  After studying the new creature, (well creatures because there were about four of them for ages) I checked my book on Garden Birds, only to discover that we now had tree sparrows!  A species found in less than one per cent of Irish Gardens.  Well, I was delighted to discover Number 45 in the range of garden birds, because between them and the blueberries, things were certainly looking up.

Thus, having sat on my rear end for a really long time, feeling rather special with my Blueberries and the discovery that the Tree Sparrow had chosen our little piece of earth, we brought our mad dog off for a drive and very long walk to the Bohernabreena Reservoir. 


Benson chilling

The day was a lot brighter than yesterday, and the walk being a long one meant Benson was getting pretty thirsty, so we headed up to a stream that he likes to bathe in.  When we got there we were surprised at how low the water was.  However, the low water meant that we could cross over on the stones where normally you would get wet up to your knees.  When we got to the other side, we found a part of the park/reservoir that we had not been in before, thereby getting our third and final discovery (well so far!), on this bank holiday Monday.


Hidden Gem.

All in all, it was a great day, I even got some writing done in between adventures and my unhealthy new interest in Twitter!

By the way, please, please join me on Twitter, I am great fun altogether!

10 Writing Mistakes

As you all know by now, I have just started on Twitter.  I guess like most social networking, it has good and bad parts.  The trick is to work these out early, so you get lots of interesting/worthwhile pieces of information, (emphasis on the worthwhile here) and not get so distracted, that your unwashed dishes are a result of Twitter and not because of hours of writing.

Here's something that came over Twitter this morning, and I think it is a good one, well worth the read.  I am planning on testing my writing out against it, next time around!

Happy reading!

http://www.broca.org/style.html


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Twitter, twitter everywhere!

At long last 120 Socks is on Twitter!

If you are crazy enough, you can just click FOLLOW ME  and join in on the madness!

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