Meeting via Twitter – #Writers

 

It was strange to travel from Northampton to London yesterday, to have lunch with a bunch of people I’d never met before.

It wasn’t until I walked into the restaurant hoping I ‘d recognise someone, anyone from their Twitter photo, panic flooded through me. This could be a disaster. The temptation to run out the door and head to Oxford Street to do a bit of shopping instead was immense.

Instead I shrugged my coat off, summoned a smile, and wondered whether it was too early to start drinking.

Within seconds any tension I’d felt dissipated. Everyone was far lovelier than I’d hoped and understood, in a way my non-writer friends can’t, the joy of finishing a novel, the wrench of leaving characters behind, the fear of starting something new and the feeling of falling in love all over again when writing another book.

The hours flashed by without any awkward silences at all. I came away feeling super inspired and I can’t wait to do it again.

It was so lovely to meet you Karen Coles, Kerry Fisher, Lucille Grant, Jane Isaac, Tina Death, Ruby Speechley, and Jo Hogan.

And a big thanks to Debra Brown for arranging it all.

To Tweet or not to Tweet (can you answer the question)?

‘You should be on twitter, Mum, connect with other writers,’ said my son, nodding wisely.

‘I don’t have enough time as it is. I don’t think so.’

‘But it will only take 5 minutes, I’ll help you.’

‘Umm, ok.’ I agreed, glad of a chance to spend some time with my 16 year old technical whizz and learnt three things,

 

1) I only understand, on average, every fifth word my son says nowadays. I thought tweets were something birds did, and hashtags sound like they should be smoked.

2) I have reached an age where I am easily confused. I regret laughing at my Mum all those years ago trying to get to grips with setting the video to record. Technology is overwhelming.

3) Nothing takes 5 minutes.

 

It took 45 minutes to find a name. Seriously. Every and all variations of my first, second, maiden and married name needed to include a string of digits I would never remember. Fabricating Fiction was too many characters. Fabfiction was taken (although not being used – grrr). I eventually settled on @fab_fiction, even though I suspect it sounds a teensy bit pretentious.

So now what? Actually I’m not sure. Bored with the amount of time it took me to choose a name my son has wandered off leaving me alone with an empty feed and no idea how to find people to follow.

I think I’ll grab a can of Guiness out the fridge. Now that’s my kind of widget.

 

Is it worth it. Any advice gratefully received.