Twitter vs facebook

 Twitter versus facebook - a poem

Tweet tweet. 


One hundred and forty characters, in which to share your thoughts. 
Simple.
Succinct.
See something
Tweet about it,
Suddenly
It is shared across the world. 


Status update


Everything from personal to professional to 
Proof of how wonderful your friends are.


Photos of babies and rants about irresponsible dog owners
Virtual coffee mornings
With the occasional poke. 



I love both twitter and facebook (especially since I can access them on my phone - helps me stay in touch with the world). The way I see it though, they aren't really in competition.

Twitter is where I share  my thoughts.
Facebook is where I share my life.

Facebook is for the personal, for my close friends and family. Twitter is for everyone else. My tweets are there for all the world to see. My facebook profile is hidden behind walls of privacy settings.

Twitter is also linked to my professional identity. Me as a writer, a creative writing facilitator.

Facebook is personal. It's where I share my feelings about being a mum, among other things.

When I enter twitter, I am a slightly different person to the one that wanders around facebook.

Other writers...

So I haven't had much time for writing lately, so I figured I could take the opportunity to tell you about some other very talented writers...

There is the darkly talented Jo Robertson, co-author of Casting Shadows, who has released a volume of horror short stories.


Behind the Shutters is a great collection of short stories set in that most horrifying of landscapes - the seeming innocence of suburbia. The opening story, My Name is Graham Roper, is my favourite. It is the perfect example Jo's darkly humorous writing. I dare you to read this book and not laugh out loud at one page, then cower in terror at the next!


Behind the Shutters is available from Lulu and Amazon.




If fantasy is more your thing, you could always read The Kingdom of Malinas by E.J. Tett.

It is a Young Adult fantasy, but I found there was plenty in it for adult readers - particularly if you like your female characters feisty, and not damsel-in-distress types.

The Kingdom of Malinas is the first in the trilogy: the second book, The Empress Graves , is also out. The final part will be out soon, so now would be a great time to read the first two!

The Kingdom of Malinas and The Empress Graves are available from Lulu and Amazon.






Also available is Magenta Shaman by Lily Childs, available on Amazon for kindle download.


So go check these writers out, have a read of the wonderful work they have to offer! 

What have I been doing?! Well...

There is the horror of the dirty nappies....the shrieks and squeals of a little girl who likes to make a lot of noise. Parenting is a full time job, it appears. I don't seem to be able to find a lot of time for writing. There are ideas floating around in my head, but getting them down is another story (pun not really intended). They're also all quite vague, nothing quite story-shaped just yet. Maybe I should try a few writing challenges to get back into it...




There has been sadness as well. We had to say goodbye to Muttley a few weeks ago. He was barely mobile, and getting incontinent. It was hard seeing him like that, and hard for him to be like that. This is how I want to remember him:

Heading to the beach

At the beach




Savaging a stick...

 

Happy.

Goodbye, Muttley.

He was a great dog and will never be forgotten.

Publication, yay...Dark Gothic Resurrected Magazine.

My story, The Venetian, features in April's issue of Dark Gothic Resurrected magazine.

I miss writing...

No chance for writing these days, any time I have to spare (which isn't a lot) is spent studying and writing essays, and trying to maintain some kind of cleanliness in the pigsty I call home...

In about 6 weeks I have exams and then I will have a few months off study at least, so hopefully my little darling will sometimes spare me time to write a story or two.

I also look forward to catching up on all your blogs and escapades...I have not forgotten any of you, I'm just hibernating my writing-self.

Save the words

I don't have a lot of time for blogging what with the little one, but I do still find time to browse the net & I found this site:


Save the Words



 Words that have fallen out of regular use ask you to adopt them - i.e. agree to use them regularly.

Some great words that are worth knowing just for their scrabble values. And because they sound cool. Examples include:



Quaeritate (to ask)
Odynometer (an instrument for measuring pain - nice word for a horror writer? I'm sure an evil character could find a use for one of those...)
 Viliorate (to deteriorate)
Snollygoster (a shrewd, unprincipled person, especially a politician - appropriate for the times we live in!)



...go check out the site! I'm sure we could all improve our vocabulary!

Too happy to write horror...

As many of you know, I was pregnant...well I had a beautiful baby girl almost 3 weeks ago.

She is perfect :-)

I will get back to writing dark fantasy, apocalyptic & horror stories again but at the moment everything is too full of loveliness and light :-)

I will also get around to commenting and reading people's blogs again - once I come to terms with this new "sleep" cycle which mostly involves not sleeping.

She's so worth it though :-) Nothing beats this feeling & even though I'm a writer I can't begin to describe it!