I have to admit, I’m still figuring out social media, especially Twitter. I don’t think I’ll ever become a “Twitter personality”, in part because I focus a lot of what I “have to say” here on the blog, or don’t say publicly. Plus, when it comes to any issue I care about, by the time I reach Twitter, it’s been said better and smarter by someone else.
I wouldn’t say I’m overly choosy about who I follow– on Twitter or elsewhere– but I don’t like a particularly crowded feed. So anyone I follow who is a high-volume poster, they better be posting things I want to read*, as well as things that I’m not likely to find elsewhere. Which is why I follow @saladinahmed and @lisabolekaja, who both post and re-tweet things that I, in my relatively sheltered life, might not otherwise be aware of. So I value getting their points of view.
I’m also a big fan of @NussbaumAbigail, partly for her twitter feed, but mostly for her blog Asking the Wrong Questions. I don’t always agree with her points of view on things (though I think she’s spot-on when it comes to Battlestar Galactica), but I really enjoy reading her thoughts.
Outside of the twitterverse, I’ve become mildly obsessed with John Green’s Crash Course on YouTube, especially the World History episodes. Honestly, if you’re a writer doing any sort of large-scale worldbuilding, it’s a great, well, crash course in the basics of the rise of civilization. I mean, most of it was stuff I essentially knew, but getting a refresher in a charismatically presented package helped re-frame my thoughts.
Finally, for something different and fun, I’m also a big fan of Scott Bradlee & Postmodern Jukebox. Scott and his wide array of musician friends take modern pop songs and reframe them in old and different styles. It’s like peeking into an alternate timeline.
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In other news: ARCs of Thorn of Dentonhill have arrived! I now have an actual, tangible THIS IS A REAL BOOK thing. I’m now almost completely sure that I’m not the victim of some super-elaborate prank.
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*- I could tell you stories of the person I briefly followed who had set up a series of twenty-odd randomized autotweets plugging her books. Every day, three to five times a day, one of the same “BUY MY BOOK!” tweets. DON’T DO THIS.
Thanks for all your useful advice, +Marshal Ryan Maresco. I have found much of it invaluable. I’ll look at these people on Twitter. It’s difficult to know who to follow if you don’t know of their existence.