Two Months of Twitter

 @lisabetsarai

So, I’ve now been on Twitter for roughly two months. Is it doing me any good? I’m really not sure. In fact, I still don’t really get how to use it, exactly, but it’s a weird kind of fun anyway.

I will admit that I get excited when I receive a notification that somebody new has followed me. I love hearing that someone has retweeted one of my rare posts. And I keep thinking of new people I want to follow. However, my original notions about tweeting have turned out to be misconceptions. I’d imagined the medium to be like texting, where all the tweets from people you’ve followed get pushed to your phone or web browser. In reality, it seems more like Facebook. You have to actively browse through a huge amount of activity to find tweets you want to reply to, retweet or mark as “favorites”.

It’s a more effective medium for sending out news than mailing lists because of the network effect—the fact that people following you will sometimes broadcast your news to their followers. Still, a tweet, or retweet, by no means guarantees that anyone will actually see your news. It’s just as much a crapshoot as any other marketing communication.

And I really don’t understand how to use hashtags. I mean, I understand them from a technical perspective. They’re labels you put in your tweets that are searchable and provide people in the Twittersphere with a method to find and aggregate tweets. But how do you pick good hashtags? And how do you avoid using up your precious 140 characters with them?

Some tweets are nothing but hashtags, handles and links. Total gibberish, as far as I’m concerned. When I tweet, there’s something I am trying to say. And I’m not known for being particularly concise!

One problem with my use of Twitter is that I’m in a different time zone from many of my followers and the people I follow. When I rev up Tweetdeck in the morning, most of the stuff I see is old. Meanwhile, people won’t see my tweets for hours, unless I schedule them for later (which I sometimes do). I think Twitter’s most effective as a real time medium, but for me it will never be. I don’t use my phone for tweeting, due to privacy concerns. Somedays I don’t get to log on at all.

Oh well. I’ll continue to muddle along. I’m moderately confident that I’ve gotten one or two new people to pay attention to me since I’ve signed up. I’m not sure what else I can hope for!

Now I’m off to tweet about THIS post...!

A Giveaway at C.A.'s Blog... AND Here!

Hi! I'm over at C.A. Szarek's blog today, talking about how confused my characters sometimes seem to be about what - or whom - they want.

http://caszarekwriter.blogspot.com/2014/10/friday-feature-lisabet-sarais-confused.html

Since the post I sent her was too long - I do have a problem with wordiness - she decided to omit my excerpt from The Ingredients of Bliss. So I'm posting it here, just for fun, and because it highlights my main point about my character's confusion.

Leave a comment on her post or on this post and I'll enter you to win a copy of Wild About That Thing. Leave comments on both posts, and I'll enter you twice!

Excerpt (R-rated)

“Damn you both! I’m not some piece of meat to be carved up between you!” All at once I wanted to get out of this too crowded bed. I wanted to throw on my clothes and storm out of the room in righteous indignation. To do so, though, I would have to clamber over Etienne’s magnificent body. It would be difficult to avoid touching his resurgent erection.

“Calm down, Emily.” Harry’s hand clamped around my wrist and I knew I wasn’t going anywhere. “We did confer about tonight, I admit. We agreed that sharing you was the best approach to a situation that was bound to become awkward very soon.”

“Awkward? Things were going very smoothly. You dominated me. I dominated Etienne. Everyone was happy.”

“You weren’t happy, love. Admit it. You felt guilty and confused. When you were with Etienne, you felt as though you were betraying me. Meanwhile Etienne’s devotion had you worried about his reaction when he learned you belonged to me.”

He was right, of course. I remembered my tête à tête with Etienne at the café that afternoon. I’d been terribly concerned about his reaction to the news about Harry. Meanwhile when Harry had made me recount my exploits with Etienne, I’d always tried to conceal my excitement, to play down the thrill I got acting the role of his mistress.

“You’ve got nothing to hide now.” With his lanky frame, mussed hair and crooked grin, Harry almost looked like a teenager. A very horny teen, considering the substantial erection bobbing hopefully at his groin. He flipped back onto his side and fixed me with a slightly fuzzy gaze. He was irresistibly cute without his glasses. “Everything’s out in the open.”

“But it’s all so—complicated!” As usual, my objections began to melt in the warmth of his smile.

He danced his fingers up my outstretched thigh and my pussy clenched in anticipation.

“On the contrary, I think this considerably simplifies the situation—Ms Wong.” Etienne’s voice was deferential, but I read a mirror of Harry’s mischief in his expression. “I serve you. You serve Harry. Each of us gets what he or she wants.”

“There’s no more need for secrets, love. Or for surreptitiously administered enhancements to the libido, either…” Harry slipped a fingertip between my moist lips and grazed a fingernail across my clit.

My annoyance paled next to the flare of pleasure kindled by his touch. Before I could clamp down to hold his hand in my crotch, however, he’d snatched it away.

“Oh no!” I groaned, fighting arousal and disappointment. “You told him…?”

“I had my suspicions in any case. It doesn’t matter. Your methods might have been dubious, but I’m grateful for the results.” Etienne glanced down at the livid marks from my beating, a set of parallel strips leading up his lean thighs toward his rearing cock. “I might never have had the courage to act on my desires if not for your—um—intervention.” His voice held quiet pride.

“You don’t have to be ashamed or embarrassed,” Harry added. “All we want—both of us—is to satisfy you. To please you and make you happy. Can’t you just accept that?”