Haphazard?

“Dependent upon or characterized by mere chance.”

Well, what do you know? That’s a pretty accurate depiction of how I Twitter!

I never bother to “catch-up” on tweets I’ve missed. I mean, I’d be on Twitter 24/7 if I did that – especially since I pretty much have only one rule when it comes to Twitter. That rule is: follow interesting people. It’s a pretty good rule, if I do say so myself. But it means I end up following an awful lot of people. Because there are a lot of interesting people out there.

So Twitter is very much an of-the-moment thing for me. If the tweet is there when I check in, I get to see it. If not, well, I don’t angst about it, but I don’t see it either.

So this week’s links are all here by mere chance. Definitely haphazard.

Got to love it!

Writing, Reading & Creativity

• Is a writer’s success due to skill, or the idea? Natalie Whipple addresses this in Idea + Skill + Luck. (via @elizabethscraig)
• An interview with author Lisa See on creativity and passion in writing. I haven’t read See’s novels yet, but they are on my list. I really enjoyed this interview! (via @PenelopePrzekop)
• Do you write flash fiction? Writer’s Advice is holding its Fifth Annual Flash Prose Contest. (via Write for a Reader, @writereader)
• I discovered the very interesting Routines for Writers, tagline “helping writers write more”. This month is Author Crush Month and there are some fantastic interviews with writers like Lois Lowry and Julie Garwood. (via @inkyelbows)
• How do you write about a real location if you haven’t been there? The Creative Penn has a bunch of great tips – and I discovered Google Street View (when you zoom in to street level, drag the little person icon to the street you want to see)! (via @Kristen_Howe)
• Check out these plotting boards! You all know I’m a pantser (ie, I write by the seat of my pants, with nary a clue as to where I’m headed but trusting that I’ll get there), but there’s always a part of me that wants to be organized. I dream about stuff like this (not that I could ever implement it, but I like to dream). (via  @RachelleGardner)
• According to Common Sense Media, Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret is NOT okay for tweens. Meg Cabot weighs in with her thoughts on this. (via @kristin_walker)
• This is a beautiful piece on the indie bookstore Politics and Prose, written by author Susan Jane Gilman. (via @BethFishReads)
• These journaling tips have prompted me to dig out one of my lovely Moleskine notebooks and give journaling another try: How To Increase Your Happiness with Journal Writing. (via @journalwriter7)
• David Parker’s amazing eulogy for his father, Robert B. Parker. Parker was one of my favorite writers, and this eulogy is just beautiful. (via @JoeFinder)

Other Interesting Stuff

• Model Coco Rocha speaks out about the ultra young and ultra thin trend in the modeling industry: “I’m a 21 year old model, 6 inches taller and 10 sizes smaller than the average American woman. Yet in another parallel universe I’m considered “fat”…” (via @ETCanada)
• Daily Routines: How writers, artists, and other interesting people organize their days is such an interesting site! The site is currently not posting any updates (they have a book coming out in 2011) but the archives are filled with some great stuff. (via @anndouglas)
• Tips to improve your memory! I just knew Soduko would come in handy – and now I have a reason to splurge on blueberries, too. (via @BigBookofYou)

Learning Links and Games

• Interested in archeology? Archaeology Daily News is on Twitter: @ArchaeologyDN! (via @LoreleiKing, who is, by the way, the voice of Stephanie Plum, and Lulu, and Grandma Mazur in the audio version of Janet Evanovitch’s novels)
• We’re homeschooling our youngest, and these free earth science worksheets and printables look just amazing! (via @education_com)
• Here’s a fun logic game for kids: Chocolate Fix. While you can purchase the physical game, Thinkfun also offers an online version you can play for free here. And Everything Mom has a giveaway for the game (ends March 5, US and Canada). (via @cbadov)

Just Plain Fun

• I’d been hearing a lot about “Norwegian curling pants” but hadn’t actually seen what everyone was talking about. And then I read Dress Like An Olympian: Norwegian Curling Pants And Other Distractions and I finally got it …  (and if you want a pair for yourself, there’s a link in the article to a store that actually sells them – let me know if you do, okay?) (via @alicepope)
• A Twitter-inspired sitcom? I’m kidding, right? No, apparently not. William Shatner will be in a pilot that’s based on the Twitter account @shitmydadsays. (via @CanadaCool)

Welcome to my not-so-regular feature, From the Haphazard Twitter Files of Ms. Bookish (and yes, the title is a tribute to a one of my favorite books, From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, by E.L. Konigsburg).

I recently discovered that the Tweetdeck iPhone app now lets me email tweets to myself without leaving the app – a real time-saver, and ever since I started using it, I’ve accumulated a lot of great links – kind of a method of bookmarking when I’m not on my computer, plus great for writing up this feature (so it might be a more regular one from now on!).

Because, as it turns out, my favorite time for going on Twitter is in the morning, when I’m relaxing with a cup of coffee and not quite ready to get up and start doing things.

I don’t know about you, but I find such great links through Twitter – things that I might never have caught sight of otherwise. I know some people think Twitter is all about tweeting personal, irrelevant stuff (“Just had a bowl of soup for lunch. Yum.”) but it’s not just about personal updates (although yes, I do enjoy a smattering of those, too – it humanizes the whole experience for me). It’s such a great place to find interesting links (of course, much depends on the people you’re following – but on the positive side, you’re fully in charge of that!).

Bookish Links

• Author Kate Scowen is looking for teens to interview for her upcoming book for and about teenagers. (Via @AnnickPress)
• This contest makes you work for it, and I’m not sure of the end date, but you can win these gorgeous Art + Design titles. (Via @ChronicleBooks)
• Watching the English, by Kate Fox and Sixty Million Frenchmen Can’t Be Wrong, by Jean-Benoit Nadeau: two books I added to my wish list as a result of a Twitter conversation with Jackie of Farm Lane Books.
• Here’s something fun for younger kids – answer the question “can you think of an animal that would enjoy a story, and why might reading to them be difficult?” and be entered for a chance to win a signed, original sketch by illustrator Andrea Wayne von Königslöw. (Via @AnnickPress)

Writing Links

• Darcy Pattison’s tips on plot, plot layers and subplots. And the tips are helpful even if you write by the seat of your pants like I do! (Via @inkyelbows)
• I discovered the Procrastinating Writers blog and Twitter account via @WriteSuccess. Procrastinating Writers offers up some good posts on how to get your butt in the seat of that chair (which is really my one and only problem when it comes to writing) – for example, this post lead me to Nancy Rawlinson’s post about using start-up lists as a tool to get you started writing.
• Free novel-planning and novel-writing worksheets: Book in a Month worksheets! *Note: PDF file (Via ProcrastWriter)
• YALitChat Ning group – I’ve signed up but haven’t had a chance yet to browse through the site. At first glance, though, it looks like a great resource! (Via @galleysmith)

Other Fun and Interesting Stuff

• Seth Godin and Steven Pressfield on what’s really holding you back. (Via @MaureenCole)
• For iPhone lovers, here are the winners of the 2009 Best App Ever awards – find the “best” app in 56 categories. (Via @iPhoneLife)
• In case you’re hungry, this recipe for Parmesan-Herb popovers looks delicious. I’ve emailed this one to my husband and hope to be tasting this soon! (Via @AndrewsMcMeel)
• For those of you with kids learning about biology (or if you love biology yourself), you can download Immune Attack, an educational video game that introduces basic concepts of molecular and cellular biology to middle school, high school and entry-level college students, created by the Federation of American Scientists. Mashable writes about this game and Second Life in How Social Gaming is Improving Education. (Via @mashable)

Are you on Twitter? What do you like best about it? And here’s the link to my Twitter page!

The other day I was emailing a friend of mine about Twitter – he’s new to Twitter and hasn’t been liking it as much as Facebook. I was sending him some ideas I had about how to get more comfortable with Twitter, and I said something about “going broad” with Twitter, as compared to Facebook.

This got me thinking about how people approach these social networking sites.

I’m active both on Facebook and on Twitter, but I’m active in very different ways on each site.

I keep my Facebook profile fairly private, and my friends list on the small side. Most of the friends in my Facebook account are either real-life friends, or online friends who’ve become good friends. I do have a few people on my friends list I don’t know very well, but very few.

I update my Facebook status with personal things – my thoughts of the day, pictures taken on my iPhone as I go about everyday life, links to funny or inspiring videos I come across … my latest Bejewelled score …

I have a great time on Facebook; it’s where I keep in touch with friends. I laugh a lot when I’m on the site, make comments, click on the “like” button quite often.

My daughter occasionally sends me funny, sweet little Facebook chat messages from her computer, which is a desk away from mine. My son sometimes makes quirky remarks on my wall that make me smile.

I see Twitter, on the other hand, as being more wide open – more like a fabulous cocktail party to which everyone has been invited. I only have one rule of thumb when it comes to following people: I follow anyone I find interesting.

I go to Twitter to discover new links, catch up on the latest news, and chat with an assortment of fun people about lots of different things. I love that I don’t have to be there every day, every hour, every minute. I love that no matter what time of day it is, whenever I pop into Twitter, there’s usually some interesting conversations going on. I love never knowing what new thing I’ll discover through a link in someone’s tweet.

None of this would happen if I didn’t follow a wide assortment of people. So I keep my Twitter outlook broad.

As with Facebook, I have a great time with my Twitter account, but it’s a different kind of fun.

I’ve been wondering whether other people approach these two social media sites the same way I do. I know there are some people with a ton of friends on both Facebook and Twitter; I wonder what their approaches are to each site. Do they share the same things on each site? Are their friends and followers lists made up of the same people?

What do you do? Are you on both Facebook and Twitter? Do you participate frequently or infrequently? What’s your strategy for the best use of these two social networking sites?

This has been my first full week “back” on Twitter, and so far so good – it’s been a lot of fun, I’ve met a lot of great people, and best of all, I’m learning new things. Including the fact that I have a disturbing tendency to use a lot of exclamation marks when I’m confined to 140 characters (I don’t think I want to know what this implies about my writing style …)

But anyway, I like to put everything to good use, so I thought I’d play around with this new series that I am tentatively entitling “What I Learned on Twitter This Week” “From the Haphazard Twitter Files of Ms. Bookish”.

(I’m writing this as a draft post that I’ll be adding to all week, so I might come up with a snazzier title, but my brain has been on overload for a while now so probably not. So, okay, maybe this new title’s not snazzier, but I quite like it. Anyone ever read From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler? Loved that book when I was a kid!

Here’s what I picked up this week on Twitter – they aren’t all “bookish” but they’ve enriched my life nevertheless.

• How to get hold of quotes when you’re reviewing the audiobook version. BethF (@bethfishreads) gave me this great piece of advice: use the “search inside” feature at Amazon or Barnes & Noble to look for specific quotes.
• So, what if you haven’t actually read the book? How to lie about books is a must read. It’s hilarious – I was laughing out loud all the way through – and the tips might actually work (the kitten one, definitely – oh, and the one about Dune, too). And remember: “There’s no shame in lying about what you’ve read. There’s only shame in getting caught. Then you look like a doofus, and an illiterate one at that. And there are few things upon which the literate world heaps more scorn than doofi.” Via @greybon
• Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. Haven’t read the book, but now I want to read it AND see the movie. (Although Rebecca tells me the book doesn’t actually feature an inventor. Still, looks like fun.) Via @imlostinbooks
• Maybe I should be getting an MP3 player. I know, I know. I love my iPod. But if there’s a way to do a little rewinding on it, I sure don’t know how. But I can do this with an MP3 player – which is exactly what I need.
• A Twitter television series. Is the world really ready for a Twitter TV series? It boggles my mind when I start thinking of the scripts and characters … But as it turns out, it’s not exactly what it sounds like.
• Book adaptations on the big screen. Ten books to read before they hit the big screen – interesting to see what Hollywood considers good movie material. Via @laurengibaldi
• And speaking of which: 13 book to film adaptations the authors hated – complete with the trailers! Via @LJBookReview
• No more overdue books! (Or at least, that’s the hope …). Library Elf sends out overdue and pre-due notices via email, and luckily my library is supported. I am beyond thrilled about this. I had a little bit of a problem setting up my account, and then I used the username I use to log-in to my library, rather than my library card number, and it worked! Via @Vasilly.
• Free audiobook downloads. You get to download Merrano of the Dry Country, by Louis L’Amour, Dinosaurs Before Dark (Magic Tree House book) and The Sword of Hades, by Percy Jackson, all in audio, if you sign up for the Random House Audio newsletter. Via @randomhouse.
• Writers on writers. Videos of writers Salmon Rushdie, John Grisham, Margaret Atwood, Ian McEwan and David Foster Wallce talking about different aspects of writing: Writers on Writing collection. Via @randomhouse.

So far so good. I’ll have to see where Twittering takes me, but it’s been a fun week so far.