My kitty got a new optical mouse (as well as his new Kindle) and he has been so happy with it. I actually had to buy him the new mouse and a keyboard, after spilling coffee on his laptop. Ron was so mad, so we bustled off to Target and bought him the mouse and keyboard. He didn’t really like the keyboard and we were both thankful when the lappy dried out and it’s keyboard resumed working. But the mouse has been a real hit around here.
It’s been a stressful couple of days for me. On the spur of the moment I contributed a guest post to my friend Holly’s blog and it appeared at approximately the same time as I published The Bet Mr. Everything Didn’t Take. These two posts between them have over 200 comments as I write this. I tried very hard to reply to almost every comment, though I know that I missed and skipped a few. It was a whirlwind of chat that left me both tired out and deeply satisfied in refuting Mr. Everything’s claim that conversation is just for Facebook.
Then I hosted a tweet chat with my friend Jenn Thorson, author of There Goes The Galaxy. As I made clear in my review I adore Jenn and think that her book could be huge. But my first experience hosting a twebevent chat was one of those occasions where everything that could go wrong goes wrong. I did not know when I set it up that Jenn would be accessing the chat from her phone, since it was scheduled at 8pm her time and at home she has dialup. Had I known that the featured guest was going to be on a phone, I would have done something differently. As Susan, Tom and I have come to know, while it is possible to access a twitter chat on a phone, chances are it will be slow and flaky. I also learned that while Empire Avenue missions are a great way to get a large number of folks to tweet something for you, having thousands of tweets sent does little to get lots of interested book lovers to show up for an author chat. #soNOTmyday
Despite the technical problems (I was not surprised that Jenn’s battery died and she had to get hooked up to her charger and poor Susan who had a horrible headache but gamely participated) it was fascinating to hear a bit more from Jenn about how, when and why she wrote her book. And I do plan to edit from the chat a bit of questions and answers that can be published somewhere. I’ve stated before that I am about half way through the ten years of hard work that will be required to become an overnight success. And when the day comes that I have my pick of authors who are thrilled to have me promoting their books because Libdrone has become this generations’ answer to the old Playboy interview, I know I will look back on this little fiasco and laugh. Heck, come to think of it, I’m laughing now.
Libdrone's Thoughts and Musings 
Ah, the joys of technology…marvelous when it works, worse than the Stone Age when it fails. 🙂
yep….and according to Jenn it’s exactly the same way in distant space 🙂
Well, we learn something everyday. I’m glad to learn at least one of your family members are happy.
we are all of us fairly happy in this house today, I think. Thanks so much for stopping by, Nicolas.
Technology has its own magics, keyboards that resume working after a coffee inscident, etc.
for sure. any techy who doesn’t acknowledge the magic involved….is not someone I would turn to for advice 🙂
‘Ten years of hard work required to become an overnight success.’ I love that. Yep, stuff happens, the important thing is to keep moving and laugh about it which you’re apparently doing — you’ll be fine.
Thanks so much for doing three things, Emmanuel. (Noticed you tweeted, Facebooked AND commented on this post– see what I mean Ryan?) A 2 year trip around the world would require very different planning and preparation than a 2 month trip around the world, even if both journeys took you to exactly the same destinations. I take no credit for “it takes 10 years of hard work to become an overnight success”. This is I believe simply a folk wisdom phrase that has been told to many youngsters over the years. I do know that understanding that you are working on a long term project is immensely helpful in being realistic in conceiving shorter term objectives. And having a long perspective certainly makes the bad days easier to laugh off.
I hope you don’t mind that I shared AND commented =p
As a cat owner I knew EXACTLY where this story was going before I even clicked the link – I can’t keep mine away from my desk!
Will definitely check out the links in your post – what a day!
Having lots of tweets sent does little to get authors to show up for a chat. Profound. Empire Avenue can become a bit of an echo chamber that influences other users of Empire Avenue but not necessarily the real world.
Don Corleone,
Certainly you are correct that Empire Avenue can be an echo chamber at times. Though I feel quite quite certain that the thousand or so people I’m connected with on EAv are no more or less real people than any other group I am a part of. Certainly I think that one must take care not to become overly swayed by any echo chamber. But just cuz they’re in love with their own voices doesn’t mean they never say anything worthwhile 🙂
Ryan, I’ve found with EAv missions that less demanding I am, the less I try to force folks to do exactly what I want them to do and the more I keep the tone light, friendly and amusing, the more people do. imho, this is a huge tip for using EAv missions successfully. I was genuinely sorry that I was unable to make charitable Oliver get this point.
(And part of me is tempted to explain that my kitty is actually my huzband– who is allergic to cats– and who identifies as a Lion in the way that I identify as a Bear, but fear this would be Way too much information 🙂
Do you really find that meaningful info comes out of those tweetchats? I haven’t found that to be the case.
Sometimes great information is shared in Tweetchats, yes. I’ve participated in many very successful ones. I also am coming to know that it is a very challenging format and may work best with a regularly scheduled time that can draw and retain a committed group of participants. I’ve come to believe that in this particular instance it would have been far better to have asked the author questions privately and then published an article of the interview.
You gotta love technology. But all’s well that ends well.
Cheers
I weep with you, but I also laugh a little, because you have the writer’s skill of turning the vagaries of life into an amusing anecdote.
Will it cheer you up to know that on Tuesday something similar happened to me? I am not trying to start a war of the who-caught-the-bigger-fish variety, because I was only meant to be a participant, not the host. It was an online question and answer session, and because I am a good friend of the host, she came to me first. I could hear her, but she couldn’t hear me (clue for the equally witless: you have to keep the Ctrl button held down as you speak – remember WW2 films of pilots with ‘Wilco’ and ‘Over’? Sort of like that. I just hit the button once, expecting it – I now see stupidly – to get the message)
I had to apologise on facebook and submit to a somewhat (OK, very) embarrassing conversation.
I thought I had better make up for it by doing my first ever youtube video. If a voice between HM the Queen and a face like Margaret Rutherford do it for you, then make my embarrassment complete and take a peek at http://www.youtube.com/user/lcsykes (third one down)
Laura,
I remarked to a friend recently that any story can be a comedy or a tragedy. Or both. I really is as my friend Holly says, A Matter Of Perspective. I am severely hearing impaired. It just isn’t physically possible for me to talk on a telephone or do an audio-video chat online– if I can’t Read what others have to say, it simply isn’t possible for me to communicate with them. And I do thank you for sharing the tip about the Ctrl button. (I am picturing an airliner disaster flick and the stewardess* who is flying the plane is unable to communicate with the men on the ground for want of knowledge of the little button.)
*yes, of course, I do know that the men and women who now do that job are now more properly referred to as “flight attendants”, however the movie in my head is an old one and when it was filmed these ladies were definitely referred to as stewardesses.
**and with a shout out to Cyndee Haydon and my other friends on Pinterest, while there is certainly sexism online and in social media, the above demonstrates how far we HAVE come
Nothing fixes internet Mana burn like an unplugged walk and fresh air. Thanks for the note on the retweet vs meaningful action and attendance ratio. Cheers.
Sadly I have found that tweetchats give me a roaring headache or I would participate more often
Wow, a real exegesis of first world problems …. by the way, what organs are that on the background?
The background today is a chicken and ham pie. It’s such a close up that it’s hard to see what it is.
Reblogged this on Gayecrispin's Blog.
Hi Alan, another interesting read as usual. You shall be a master at tweet chats before you know it. Thank you and shared everywhere I could. Gaye
Heya, Alan- I totally appreciate the chat event, and I actually heard from a few people who caught some of it and seemed to enjoy it. So it wasn’t a bust. 🙂
_I_ didn’t know I was going to be on a phone, either, until I saw what was happening on my dial-up connection. If I’d had my head straighter on the potential problems, I would have tried accessing the site from home instead of work in advance to see just how slow it would be– totally my fault. 🙂
Hopefully, you’ve recovered since then.
lol. Nothing to recover from. I picked out the questions and answers and sent you the transcript on Facebook. It can be edited further and then published wherever. Thank you so much for being such a gracious guest, Jenn.