Meryl's Notes Blog

Congratulations to Dawn Herring for winning The Last Will of Moira Leahy! Never fear… Thirsty is still up for the winnin’. Also, please vote for your top 25 books on writing.

Articles full of brain goodness…

• Oxford Word of the Year: 2009: I had to unfriend someone on Facebook who abused the “Join this Page” button. Other terms listed include hashtag, sexting and Obamaisms.
• Copyright Essentials for Writers: It does matter. For example, if a pub puts your article into a book, you could get paid for that — but not if you sell all rights [Link: Jessica Strawser].
• 10 Productivity Tools for Computer Addicts: I use a couple of them and others I won’t use because they’ll just hook me in and take me away from work.
• How to Identify and Deal with Different Types of Clients: Covers just about every kind of person I’ve met.
• Why Do Great Writers Steal: Good info on how to steal without plagiarizing.
• 50 Books You’ll Want to Read in 2010: Still trying to get through my list from 2005! [Link: Bubblecow]
• The Most Powerful Two Hours You’ll Ever Spend as a Storyteller: Larry ain’t kidding. I’m gonna do this someday.

For fun because we’re allowed…

• Postcards From Yo Momma: A repository of modern day material correspondence [Link: Allison Winn Scotch]
• 35 Incredible Digital Painting Tutorials: Wow. I wish I had time to try this as I can’t draw worth a darn.
• The 15 Coolest Weapons from Sci-Fi Films: Ha! I guessed Lightsaber would be the big one and it’s #1.
• Steampunk Art and Gear: Why is it we’re suddenly seeing steampunk everywhere? [Link: Calista Taylor]
• Masters of Paper Art: Whooaaaa… stunning is right [Link: Kristin Butler].
• Bio-Diversity: Leaf art… like you’ve never seen it [Link: Mark Hurst].
• The History of the Internet in a Nutshell: I used BBSes. (I appeared in the BBS Documentary.) I met the Internet in 1993 using Mosaic and then moving on to Netscape Navigator by 1995.
• Texas Footwear Fail: We certainly don’t want to keep taxes beautiful…

Image from Twitlogo.com

You do everything right in Twitter. So why are some people not following you back? It’s not you. (Well, maybe in the rare situation when someone truly doesn’t like you. Even the nicest people don’t have a fan in a person or two.) Doing Twitter right means you …

• Mix up your tweets (retweets, replies, original messages and links).
• Take care in promoting your own stuff.
• Don’t spam.
• Have a nice follower and following ratio.
• Share insights.
• Spotlight others in a genuine way.
• Have a complete profile that includes a bio, avatar, link and location.

Good for you. That’s all you can do to encourage people to follow you and stick with you. Yet, you still won’t always make the cut. I have plenty of good Twitter users who don’t follow me back or decide to stop following me and I am OK with that. Even I don’t follow back people with thousands of followers. If you work hard enough and long enough, you too, can have loads of followers without producing good quality tweets.

Why would people not follow back a good Twitter user? The first thing to understand about Twitter is that we have different goals of what we want to do with it. In other words, five people could use Twitter in different ways and they’re all doing it right. Here are the possible reasons:

1. They follow specific topics or careers: One client follows only those involved the Intranet, internal communications and enterprise communications. Another follows only those who are writers, editors and publishers.
2. They want to limit their tweet stream: There’s no rule of thumb on how often to tweet. Some do 20+ tweets a day and others do just two tweets a day. Not everyone wants a flooded Twitter stream. So they limit their follows to the people they like, admire and respect.
3. They don’t know you’re following them: Some folks opt not to receive an email every time they gain a new follower. They also don’t review their “followers” list. Who has time for that?
4. They follow only people they know offline: While we can make friends and acquaintances online, some prefer not to venture that far and stick close to home with people they already know.
5. They just started using Twitter: Few figure out Twitter in an instant, so they’re not sure how they want to use Twitter or exactly how it works.
6. They may not know they stopped following you: Twitter isn’t perfect. I’ve followed people only to find out later that I stopped following them due to a Twitter quirk. Several of us swore that we thought we were already following each other.
7. They thought they were already following you: Unless you follow fewer than 100 people, very few study their followers and make sure they stay connected. So it’s easy to overlook someone. The fastest way to see if someone follows you is to look on their Twitter page for “message” under “Actions.” If it’s not there, they’re not following you. You can send a gentle tweet or email them privately letting them know that you can’t send DMs because they’re not following you. It’s OK. Many of us appreciate that.
8. They have millions of followers: These folks tend to be the celebrities or people with popular web sites (Oprah, Ashton Kutcher, Cakewrecks and Mashable). They know they can’t keep up and operate differently from the rest of us.
9. They didn’t like your introductory direct message (DM): Some people automatically respond to every new follower with a direct message while others send annoying (yes, they annoy a lot of folks) ones like: “Thanks for following me.” “I hope to get to know you.” “You can learn more about me at my blog.”
10. They were tired of your reciprocal tweets: On #followfridays, you list a bunch of names and not much else. Or you thank every single person for retweeting (RT) or mentioning you. Some people love it. Some people hate it.
11. They never heard from you: The other person is one of those who DMs everyone and if they don’t hear back, they unfollow. Or they RT something you said and never got a thank you from you.

Again, you and I have different rules and expectations when it comes to Twitter. While I follow one rule, you may break it, and in reverse. Conversation quality is what makes the Twitter experience. Not numbers. Not who follows you.

We can’t control who follows us (aside from the occasional nudge) or adds us to one of their lists. We CAN control who we follow. In rare cases, the decision to not follow you is a personal one — but most of the time it’s not.

What rules do you have for using Twitter?

Welcome to meryl’s notes blog (this here place you’re lookin’ at) in Plano, Texas. We’re honored to be a stop in Kristin Bair O’Keeffe’s WOW! Women On Writing Blog tour. I first met Kristin through Christina Katz. Since then, I’ve read her book, exchanged a few tweets and emails and absorbed her column in Writers on the Rise. (Stay tuned in this post if ya wanna win this book!)

About Kristin Bair O’Keeffe
Kristin Bair O’Keeffe is the author of Thirsty and an American who lives in Shanghai, China. She is also a voracious reader, a happy mom, an engaging teacher who believes in “telling the best story you can…believing in your writing…and working your arse off,” a fierce advocate for the end of domestic violence, and a writer who spends as much time as possible in writerhead. To find out more, visit www.thirstythenovel.com or Kristin’s blog at www.kristinbairokeeffeblog.com.

Now… post from Kristin Bair O’Keeffe.

Congratulations!

You’re a Mom and an Author!

(Gulp…)

The Beginning

On September 26, 2008, I was in an orphanage in a small village in Vietnam. On that spectacular, unforgettable, life-changing day, a nanny placed my eight-month-old daughter in my arms for the first time.

Three weeks later when our adoption was complete, my husband and I wrapped our arms around Tully and each other, finished up our Vietnam journey, and returned to our home in Shanghai, China.

On October 24 — less than a month after I officially became a mom — I got an email from David Sanders, the director of Swallow Press. “We would like to publish your novel Thirsty,” he told me.

Huh?

Seriously?

After all the dreaming, work, sweat, worry, anticipation, rewrites, excitement, ups-and-downs, paperworkpaperchasingheartsmashingheartopening, I achieved two lifelong dreams in less than one month’s time.

Mom.

Author.

Mom.

Author.

Good gracious me.

What Next?

Of course, all the gorgeous things that are supposed to happen when you become a mom and when you become an author happened:

• I fell in love with my daughter. Deeply, madly, sweetly.
• I read and reread (and um, yes, reread) the email from David Sanders, rejoicing in the fact that my debut novel finally was going to make its way into readers’ hands.
• I obsessed about formula, vaccinations, and pediatricians.
• I nested and made a comfy home for our family.
• I obsessed about the quality of water in China and prayed that our bottled water was as safe as they said it was.
• I obsessed about what the cover of Thirsty would look like and wondered if I’d get a chance to say “yea” or “nay” or if the worst happened, “Have you lost your bloody mind?”
• I obsessed about… (you see the trend here, yes?)

But…

then the reality hit. Suddenly I had to edit my novel AND take care of my new baby…at the same time. While I’d dreamed of both things happening, never had I expected them to happen in the same month.

Kristin Bair O'Keeffe and daughter Tully

Now when I look back, I can’t quite figure out how I did it, but I guess that’s the mystery of human will. I was determined not to have any childcare help during Tully’s first months at home…the three of us had a lot of bonding to do as a family. So while Tully was awake and Andrew was at work, she and I were a team…the dynamic duo. We wandered the streets of Shanghai, danced, played, read books, touched noses, and got to know one another.

While Tully slept (during naps, early in the mornings, and late at night), I edited.

Was I exhausted?

Yes.

Was I cranky at my husband?

Oh, gosh, yeah.

Did I neglect important friendships?

Too often.

Was I deliriously happy?

Yes.

Did I finish the edit?

Barely, but yes.

Ta Da!

Now…jump in time to October 1, 2009. Thirsty is in bookstores. Tully and I are in the United States for a mini-book tour. She is a happy, silly, healthy, brilliant, stubborn toddler. I am a happyhappyhappy, silly, healthy (and yes, sometimes stubborn) mom with a great husband and terrific friends who all nurtured me through my happiest, most challenging new mama moments. I am also an author.

Win: To win a copy of the book, please leave a comment at least 50 words about parenthood, the place where you grew up or a favorite locale. You have until 11:59pm on November 25, 2009 to qualify for the drawing. The unbiased and robotic Random.org has the honor of picking the winner.

Meryl's dad in USAF: Yes, that's a ciggie. He quit smoking not long after.

Thanks to veterans everywhere for defending our country at all costs. Two of the most important men in my life served in the USAF: My dad and my husband. Also, thanks to the brave soldiers at Fort Hood who put their lives on the line to capture the shooter.

Win Therese Walsh’s captivating novel, The Last Will of Moira Leahy, and Vote for your top 25 books on writing…

Articles full of brain goodness…

• The Most Important Sentence: How to Write a Killer Opening: I love the examples shared in this article.
• The Zeno: Poetry form by J. Patrick Lewis [Link: Greg Pincus].
• Writers and Financial Woes: What’s Going On: Why some writers see their finances melting.
• First Lines That Make You Read More: And not one is what we’ve all heard like The Tale of Two Cities‘ opening line [Link: Debbie Ohi]
• Three Reasons Why You Should Read Debut Novels: Just read two (The Last Will of Moira Leahy and Thirsty; both fabulous and memorable reads.) [Link: Lara Wells]

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• 50 Ugliest Cars of the Past 50 Years: Did they read my mind? They caught some of the more popular cars that I thought weren’t purty.
• Which Religion Should I Follow flow chart: If you’re dealing with the December dilemma, here’s your answer. Wow… I had no idea some people think underwear is magical. [Link: Deb]
• 15 Strange and Bizarre Gifts for the Weirdos in Your Life: Ahem… some not safe for work.
• Michael Jackson’s Thriller: Lego-style [Link: BitRebels]
• Sesame Street Remixes: Me love Sesame Street. My mom says that I was an early reader partly because of the show. I wonder how I pulled that off considering I can’t read monsters’ lips. And of course, captions weren’t around yet. Sesame Street lollipops.

Welcome to meryl’s notes blog (this here place you’re lookin’ at) in Plano, Texas. We’re honored to be a stop in Therese Walsh’s WOW! Women On Writing Blog tour. I first met Therese in Christina Katz’s first ever #platformchat on Twitter. Since then, I’ve enjoyed getting to know her and learning from her and her Writer Unboxed site. Here’s a bit about Therese Walsh. (Stay tuned in this post if ya wanna win this book!)

About Therese Walsh

Therese Walsh’s debut novel was recently released by Random House (Shaye Areheart imprint). The Last Will of Moira Leahy is about a woman who lost her identical twin about a decade ago, but reconnects with her former life after purchasing an artifact from her past. Through interwoven narratives, we see Maeve Leahy as she was and what led to the tragedy with her sister, Moira. We travel with her in the present day as she unravels the truth about the artifact–who’s following her and leaving her notes — as layers of her past are peeled away and the course of her future is forever altered. Therese is also the co-founder of one of the Writer’s Digest best sites for writers, Writer Unboxed. You can learn more about her and her novel at her website: ThereseWalsh.com.

Developing Your Fiction Platform by Therese Walsh

In today’s world, platform is an important consideration for a debut novelist. Our technology-centered world is a noisy one, with so many things to do, to hear, to see, to read. What will set us apart? How will we gain notice? We’d all like to believe that our work will be enough to garner its due attention and propel us into a contract and then onto the NYT’s bestseller list. And it happens. To some. The rest of us have to work at it.

So how does a fiction writer go about developing a platform, anyway? Is it even possible? Yes, it is, and in several ways. Platform can be built broadly, as in the more widely you’re known, the greater the number of people you can potentially reach. It can be built specifically, through efforts you might make to tap into your core audience. And it can be strengthened subtly — almost unconsciously — as how you present yourself online says something about you and, through you, your writings.

Becoming Widely Known

This, from a recent Washington Post article:

(Many authors) “are actually selling their book long before they sell the book,” says Richard Pine, a literary agent for three decades and co-founder of InkWell Management. These people, he says, are establishing who they are and what they have to say and are building an audience years before they actually have a book on the shelves.

Kathleen Bolton and I started Writer Unboxed — a blog meant to empower other writers with craft posts and through interviews — in January of 2006, which marks the beginning of our online-platform effort. We became better known individually as the blog became more successful, and as we reached out to other writers, and as they mentioned us on their own sites, and as others linked to us, and so on.

You don’t have to use a blog, or rely on one exclusively, to get your name out there. Other avenues to a potential readership involve social networking efforts on Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads and the like. The bottom line is that you should do something — and ideally you should do many somethings — to get your name out there. The more avenues you have to becoming known, the better for you in the long haul.

Finding Your People

Though becoming known on a large scale is important to your platform, it’s also a little like taking an ad out on PerezHilton.com: Yes, you’re reaching many, but only a fraction will care enough about what you have to offer to click through and buy your book. Honing in on the people who very likely will care becomes important.

Case in point: The Last Will of Moira Leahy is a book about twins — the story of one woman’s recovery following the loss of her twin, but also the story of this woman and her sister when they were young girls, and how they grew and changed and became separate. I knew that I needed to put forth an effort to become known by the twin community in particular, so I reached out. I sent galleys. I sent emails. I connected with people on Twitter. I waited to see if these people would choose to support my work. Luckily for me, most of them did.

I made a great ally in Shelby at Double Up Books, a bookstore dedicated to all-things twin. Shelby is not only carrying Last Will in her store, she truly believes in it and even tweets about it on occasion. I’ve gladly added her store to the buying options available on my website, and I buzz her as often as I can too. (Buy from Shelby!)

Presenting the Right Face: Yours

What kind of face do you present to the world, and does that face correspond with what you write? One of the best examples I’ve seen of matching a public face with published work is via thriller novelist JA Konrath. JA’s novels (e.g. Cherry Bomb) have been called “brisk and breezy” and laden with “offbeat humor.” JA’s personality is clear when you read his blog, A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing — which, by the way, is packed with helpful information. His Facebook posts and tweets are also frequently hilarious. Brisk, breezy, offbeat humor – that’s JA, all right. He is the perfect poster child for his work.

Through online conversations at Writer Unboxed and elsewhere, I hope you’ve sensed my passion for empowering others. You’ve seen my posts on unboxed writing and the importance of polishing your prose. You know I love words and the occasional punny joke. You know I’m detail oriented and that I love a strong visual image. What you know about me sets up an expectation as to what you might find in Last Will — and, though I’m admittedly biased, I’d like to think it won’t disappoint you.

What are you doing to develop your fiction platform?

Write on, all!

Win: To win a copy of the book, please leave a comment at least 50 words long that answers the above question. Or you can write about twins, triplets, multiples. You don’t have to be a multiple. Maybe you had a good friend who was a twin. Or share how you feel about Kate Plus 8. You have until 11:59pm on November 18, 2009 to qualify for the drawing. The unbiased and robotic Random.org has the honor of picking the winner.

Photo credit: Jasper Greek Golangco

Disclaimer: I am not an accountant. The closest I can come to be considering one is from taking one graduate college course on accounting and using QuickBooks. This advice comes from my own experience.

Some writers start a freelance writing business with little thought to the business part. That’s a small part of why I thought I’d never go into business myself. I didn’t know if I could figure out the admin part of the career beyond invoicing and getting paid. Then there’s taxes (shudder).

Some of the companies I’ve freelanced for took care of the taxes. Most didn’t. So it was my responsibility as a US citizen with her own business to take care of my contribution to a teeny part of the government’s budget. If nothing else, follow the golden rule and you’ll be … well … golden. For the most part.

Golden rule: Have extra money in your business account so you can pay your taxes.

I pay quarterly taxes. In IRS speak: 1040ES (1040 estimated income form). Every quarter, I wince my way to EFTPS.gov and take care of the payment. Better to do it quarterly than to write a big check at the end of the year. Here is how I manage my taxes:

1. Obtain an Employer ID number (EIN): See this EIN chart to see if you need one.
2. Save income for taxes: I make sure I always have cash on hand to pay those taxes.
3. Figure out tax rate: IRS.gov states: “The self-employment tax rate is 15.3%. The rate consists of two parts: 12.4% for social security (old-age, survivors, and disability insurance) and 2.9% for Medicare (hospital insurance).”
4. Pay quarterly taxes by April 15 (1st quarter), June 15 (2nd quarter), September 15 (3rd quarter) and January 15 (4th quarter). I pay mine on EFTPS.gov. I look at my reports in QuickBooks to see how much I made for X quarter. I subtract expenses from that. And then apply the tax rate to the total and pay that amount.
5. Record all expenses and keep the receipts: Do you subscribe to Writer’s Digest or buy 2009 Writer’s Market? Save those receipts. They contribute to your writing business. Your home office, supplies, computer, phone and all that also count as expenses. Accounting treats some items differently, so check with your finance pro.
6. Track payments to subcontractors: This typically doesn’t apply to me — I prefer to keep it a one-person business — but I some of you may subcontract work to others. If you pay them over $600 in a year, give them Form 1099-Misc.
7. Check state income tax requirements: Thank you, Texas, for making this easy. We don’t have state income taxes in Texas, but I had to pay income taxes to New York. So not only do you need to know your resident state, but also the income tax requirements of states where you have clients. Your finance pro can help with this.

Many user-friendly applications have come out that are easier to figure out than QuickBooks. The key is to find one that lets you create invoices, record payment and enter expenses. The rest are just extras and it’s up to you whether you want them or not. I also use reconcile and reporting features.

Track everything. What you pay. What you buy. Your invoices. Your received payments. Better to record everything and let the accountant determine what qualifies than to miss a deduction or other opportunity.

What other tax management tips do you have?

Congratulations to Kim Priestap! She won a copy of Claudine Wolk’s book. Stay tuned for more books!

Wanted: Dallas area company in need of personable and experienced IT manager in hardware and networking (just about everything except software development) among other things. I have just the guy for you.

• Ask the editor: The top 5 secrets to getting a book deal: Must read for every author with a book needing a publisher [Link: Maria Schneider]
• Chrome Extensions: Extend your Google Chrome browser. I love Google Chrome and use it almost as much as Firefox. Oh, I don’t stick with one browser. Each one has strengths and weaknesses.
• Death of the Book Review: Viral Loop Chronicles Part 2: Yes, there are people who abuse the reviews feature on Amazon. But they still help shoppers especially ones who can tell a fake, author’s friend or off-topic review from a good one.
• Publishers Weekly Best Children’s Books of 2009: I’m sorry for those whose books come out in November and December [Link: Alice Pope].
• When to Walk Away: Sometimes you can’t bend any further to meet a client’s writing budget.
• Technology not causing social isolation: Pew study: Technology ENHANCES our social world. I agree wholeheartedly. I am in touch with more people daily in a single week as a freelancer than I would be in a month in a corporate job [Link: SmartBrief]

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• 7 Horrible Video Games with Awesome Soundtracks: I am not related to Earnest Evans.
• Holiday Lights: Need inspiration? Need to save time? Here’s a winner!
• 12 Coolest MP3 Players: Wait a minute. Some are NOT cool… they’re strange.
• Giant Cardboard Robot Suit: Wow.
• Youthmobile 2030: 6 Crazy Cars for the Next Generation: My car crazy son likes this.

Therese Walsh’s debut novel, The Last Will of Moira Leahy, opens with Maeve Leahy remembering losing her twin “on a harsh November nine years ago.” So it’s obvious why she has struggled with every November. That is, until now. On a whim, she attends an auction to bid on a keris, a Javanese-style dagger that launches her extraordinary journey where her past and present collide.

Though Maeve becomes a successful professor of languages at a university in Bethany, New York; it’s no surprise that she feels incomplete without her twin. So the keris reminds her of happier days in her youth when she played with her keris pretending to be Alvilda, the pirate queen. She lost the original keris in the bay near her childhood home in Castine, Maine.

Soon after the auction, she finds a pocket-sized book on weaponry in an envelope nailed to her office door. The book provides details about the keris. This anonymous message is the first of handful she receives regarding her keris, which leads her traveling to Rome bringing her near to someone she loved, Noel Ryan. He had left New York for France to track down his mother and Maeve’s childhood friend makes sure the two reconnect during her stay in Rome, Italy.

The two have an uneasy reunion in Rome, but they take the time to explore the city while searching for an empu who can unlock the secrets of her dagger. The author provides intricate details of the scenes in Castine, Bethany and Rome while blending them into the story in a masterful way.

Even good novels sometimes lag in getting the reader up to speed on specifics, but this suspenseful story never dawdles. Walsh grabs and holds the reader’s curiosity from the first page to the last as she explores girls’ past, Maeve’s relationships and the intriguing history of kerises. The author also effortlessly transitions the story back and forth between Maeve’s present time and “out of time” during the twin sisters’ childhood and adolescent years. The main characters make unpopular decisions adding more authenticity and less predictability to the story.

The secrets, travels, fantasy and humor will trigger your craving for answers to all of your questions from what happened to Moira to what makes the keris so important. The Last Will of Moira Leahy may be Walsh’s first novel, but she took risks by using multiple narrative modes, flipping between past and present and avoiding the easy route. The result is a gripping and rich story that will linger in readers’ minds for a little while.

You can feed the need for more of the story by checking out the extras on Walsh’s web site.

Watch this blog for a chance to win a copy of The Last Will of Moira Leahy when Therese Walsh stops by on her book’s WOW! Women On Writing Blog tour.

A disclaimer today to keep the FTC away: I received a copy of the book from the publisher.

If you haven’t heard by now, Twitter now has Lists that lets you put Twitter users into groups. It doesn’t matter if you’re following someone or not, you can add anyone into a list or two or three. Here’s an introduction and a how to use Twitter Lists at Web Worker Daily.

Twitter users have their own rules for who they follow and not follow. Some follow those who fall into a specific field, career and whatnot. Guy LeCharles Gonzalez follows those with some connection to publishing. It’s not elitist if someone doesn’t follow you back. They use Twitter in a different way than you and I do. Nothing against you. Really. I promise.

I follow thousands of people. It’s crazy, I know. But my work varies. Know that I do not follow every high quality tweeter who follows me. Some folks just talk about things I’m not interested in. Most of the people I follow fall into one of the following areas:

• Work as writers, editors, publishers and related.
• Tweet about casual games. After all, I run The Game Zen and write for Gamezebo.
• Experts in social media and PR. This area changes daily and I want to keep up.
• Experts in marketing especially business-to-business (B2B). For my work with InternetVIZ.
• Make me laugh. I find lots of gems in Tweets to fill me with energy and smiles.
• Those from the Dallas / Fort Worth area. Gotta stay on top of what’s happening in my neighborhood.
• People who write about things related to disabilities and accessibility. Might find something worth sharing in my CI blog.
• Gadgets, technology and web design. I cover this area often and have met a lot of folks in this field.
• People who discuss general business. This one is broad, but they just don’t fall into any of the above categories.

I know it’s crazy that I have a bit of a list and a huge Twitter stream. Social networking is high on my list of things to do for my business. Writers could manage the people they follow and their lists in the following ways:

• Create a writers list. This will be your water cooler, support system and colleagues in the same boat.
• Create separate lists for editors, publishers, agents and gigs. I lump all of these into one because I have broader interest. Or you can make one list. It depends on your needs. If writers and these folks are the type of people you follow and nothing else — then use lists to narrow them down further.
• Create a favorite people and clients list. Yes, you can make it private if you prefer not to share. This way you don’t miss a single tweet. This would most likely be a short list.
• Follow other people’s lists. Why start from scratch? We’re not the only ones creating lists, so we can follow other people’s lists. I follow Simon Mackie’s list of Web Worker Daily writers.
• Create an experts on X topic list. What’s your beat? Football? Finance? Fashion? Make a list for your frequently covered topics for instant access when you’re working on an article. No more trying to remember the people you read for the topic.
• Create a list for learning. Plenty of Twitter IDs focus on tweeting writing, grammar and other tips.
• Create a list for current events, conferences and projects. Hey, there’s lots happening on Twitter right now due to NaNoWriMo.

To see my lists, go to @merylkevans and look in the right sidebar. Click the list to see who appears in it. You can also “Follow the list,” which adds my list to yours so you won’t have to manage it. Just remember, you can’t edit other people’s lists.

Here’s a closed-captioned screencast on how to create lists.

Some developers behind applications that make it easier to manage your Twitter business are already working on adding the list feature. I look forward to seeing what they do.

I love these lists especially since I’m a freak when it comes to organization. Of course, you can find me @merylkevans; hope I make the good list!

You might like to read more Twitter articles.

How do you use the list feature?

My little guy loves They Might Be Giants. The two Johns were brilliant for coming up with entertaining yet educational (shh…) music for kids that parents can enjoy without sugar overload. Serious niche that didn’t hurt their standing with original audience. They are coming to Dallas on Halloween! Little guy will be there with big guy. Rock on! Vote for your top 25 books on writing… or win a book.

Articles with valuable advice…

• @FakeAPStylebook: OK, this belongs in fun… but it’s for writers and I don’t want it mixing in with pumpkins and zombies. Side-splitting stuff.
• The Part of Social Media That Freaks out Freelance Writers: Remember to venture out there. Don’t wait for people to come to your blog.
• About NaNoWriMo — Three Ways to Thrive, One Sure Way to Suck: If I were to do NaNoWriMo, I’d do it with the mission of having fun, challenging myself and stretching my writing boundaries — not as a stepping stone to publish a novel. Larry gives us a good reality check.
• 15 Twitter Users Shaping the Future of Publishing and 15 More from BookOven: I follow ‘em all.
• Myths about Queries: Insight you may not have heard before.
• What Problems Does Google Wave Solve? Best explanation of what Google Wave does. It even perplexed me at first. [Link: Guy LeCharles]

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• Why Dogs Don’t Like Halloween: True. Adorable anyway.
• 10 Awesome Homemade Halloween Costumes: Yip yip yip yip… Ah, memories…
• Zombie Love Cake Toppers
• 15 Coolest Google Earth Finds: I can’t tell what that is after the letter “Z.” Anyone? Anyone?
• 12 Insanely Titled Books: Some are the topic of the book…