J. Kenner's Blog, page 105

How to use lists to organize and navigate Twitter

Let’s face it: Twitter can be daunting. Especially if you follow a lot of people. Maybe you’re an author and follow other writers, fans, publishers, agents, celebrities, whoever. Maybe you just enjoy the conversation on Twitter and so you follow a bunch of different folks from celebrities to local businesses to family members.

Whether you follow fifty people or fifty-thousand, using Twitter lists can make the experience much saner! (Also, a lot of folks don’t realize that you can add someone to a list without actually following them!)

This post will teach you how to use Twitter lists to organize Twitter and to better navigate Twitter.

Let’s get started. Lists are a way that you can sort through the stream of conversation that is the world of Twitter. I have thousands of people I follow. If I had to find my friends’ or family’s tweets in that stream, I’d be dead meat. But if I put everyone in a private “Family” list, all I have to do is go to that list to see what everyone is up to.

Similarly, I can keep all my publishers in one list, celebrities I follow, local stores I frequent, etc. etc.

Not only that, but I don’t necessarily have to create the list! Lists can be either public or private–and you can subscribe to the public ones! That’s how I keep track of people in my local writing group chapter. I subscribe to the Twitter list that a member of the group created. Sweet!

Creating a List

What you see when you arrive on Twitter when you’re logged in.

First thing you want to do is go to Twitter and log in.  Once you go, you should see something like the image on the left (my Twitter page).

Let’s say that you want to put your five best friends into a list called “Besties.”  First, you need to go to where you set up the lists in Twitter.  That is in the top right of the screen–the little gear next to the blue writing prompt icon.

When you click and pull down, it will look like  this:

The “gear” on Twitter drops down to a menu that includes “lists”

Now, click on “lists”.

This will take you to a page that looks like this:

This is what you see when you click on Lists. If you don’t have Lists, the “list” portion will be empty. But we’ll soon fix that!

See the “Create List” button to the right of “Lists Subscribed to/Member of”?  Click on that!

You’ll get a new box that looks like this:

 

We wanted to call the List “Besties” so you’d type that in the List Name.  You don’t have to have a description, but you can add it if you want.

If this list is just for you to organize your Twitter life, you may want to keep it Private (just click that button).  If you want other people to be able to see (and subscribe) to your list, then keep it on the default Public setting.

Once your list is created, Twitter will prompt you to add people to it.  Navigate to the people you want using their name or their Twitter handle (i.e., @juliekenner).  Their information will pop up in list format.  (In the image below, I searched for my buddy Dee Davis.)

Beside the person’s name will be a little icon that looks like a person with a drop down arrow.  Click on the arrow to get another menu.  It will look something like this:

The first step to adding someone to a list. Click the little person icon!

As you can see, the third item on the drop down menu is Add or remove from lists.  Click that.

You will get yet another screen. This one will show you all the lists you have created with little check boxes beside them.  Check the box you want to add your friend to (in our example, you’d check “Besties,” but since I hadn’t created that list when I took the screenshot, we’ll just say that we want to add Dee to “my new list”).

It will look a bit like this:

Check the appropriate box and voila! you have a list!

To add more people, simply search for that person, click on the little “people” icon and repeat the process!

Once you have lists in place, when you navigate to that list, you see only the tweets made by the people in your list.  A much more manageable chunk!

But how do you navigate to the list?

Easy!

Just click on the “me” button at the top of your screen.  The bottom item on the top left box is “lists”.  Click there, and you will see all of your lists pop up underneath your profile box.

This is the Box on the Me Screen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So there you have it!  That’s how you set up (and find) a list!

But what if you want to subscribe to someone else’s list?  Or tell them how to subscribe to yours?

Also super easy.

Just navigate to someone on Twitter.  Let’s go to my Agent’s twitter page, www.twitter.com/Trident_Media

When you arrive, you’ll see the box in the top left with “Lists” as the bottom option.  Click on that, and you get to what I’m calling the “List View” page.

One of those is Trident Agents.  If you click on that, you’re given the option to subscribe.  (See, it’s in the top left about where it used to say “Lists”).  Just click!

Now back at your own profile, when you go to your List View, Trident Agents will be in your lists.  Not as one you created, but as one you subscribe to.  Click on it, and you will be seeing only those tweets!  Groovy!

 

So there you go!  I hope this intro to using Twitter lists was helpful!

Next Twitter How-to:  Using hashtags (#)!

Did this help? What Twitter topics would you like to see covered?

And don’t forget to enter my holiday contest!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

One more quick note:  I'm blog-touring for the rest of the month and early January!  Come by and say hi! My tour schedule is here.! 



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Put the privacy screen up…I have a scene to write!

I’m blogging over at Seductive Musings at today’s stop on my blog tour about one of my favorite scenes in Release Me that involves a limo, a phone, a game of Simon Says and …

Well, let’s just say that my keyboard didn’t quite melt …

Curious? Come on over! And you can even enter for a chance to win a copy of Release Me!

A whole new meaning to “high” tea

If you haven’t seen this spoof of Breaking Bad performed by the men of Downton Abbey, you are missing out.

Too. Dang. Funny.

Beautiful, rich, and a just a tad messed up

I’m over at ARe Cafe on today’s stop on the Release Me blog tour talking about how much I love strong characters … but only if their strength is colored by their flaws. Come by and share some of your favorite strong characters with flawed melty insides. Hint, one of mine has a last name that’s a city in Texas.

Use this link to get to my guest blog at ARe Cafe!

 

Join me tomorrow at Seductive Musings! You can find the full tour schedule here. Remember, Random House is giving a way a copy of the book or a digital read at every stop!

e sure to scroll down and share the post! After all, sharing is sexy!

 And don’t forget to enter my holiday contest!

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Don’t Miss Double Danger by Dee Davis!

Happy Release Day to Dee! And a great day for readers! Be sure to snag your copy of Double Danger!

If only I could come up with another word for “miss” that starts with a “D” I would have had a truly awesome headline.

But that would distract from the real point which is that today is Release Day for my BFF Dee Davis and Double Danger, book six (wow!) of her A-Tac series (with more to come!).

This is especially cool as I take full and complete responsibility for how awesome this series is.

No, really. Because it was conceived in my back yard. (Excuse me while I buff my nails on my shirt.)

Yes, about six (wow) years ago, Dee was visiting. We took our wine glasses to the back yard, dangled our feet in the pool, and did what writers do when we get together (yes, drink, but also talk story ideas).

Dee was putting together a proposal for a new series and we talked and talked and drank and drank, and by the end of the evening, A-Tac was born!

See? All you readers owe me a big debt!

But seriously, congrats to Dee (who is also a fellow Whine Sister), and if you haven’t checked out the series, dive right in! The water’s fine. Trust me, you won’t regret it!

Have you read the A-Tac series? Are you a romantic suspense fan?

And don’t forget to enter my holiday contest!

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Of Hobbits and Tolkien and Target … oh my!

Hello world!  I have Liv Rancourt blogging here today about her adventures in Middle Earth, ah, um…well, sort of!  Liv has a really cool day job (check her website if you don’t believe me) and she used to front a rock band and studied Gregorian chant. How. cool. is. that?  Without further ado, heeeereeee’s Liv!

First I want to thank you for the chance to appear on your blog, Julie. (J.K. here: of course!) I really appreciate it!

Now, I’m going to let you all in on a little secret. I can’t exactly speak Elvish, but I’m a huge Tolkien fan. As such I am clearly excited by the release of the new movie. So excited, in fact, that it inspired this blog post…

I survived Target. On Saturday, December 8th.

There & back again.

Now, that may not sound like that much of an accomplishment, but hello? Christmas is in less than three weeks, and the Target closest to my house has a parking lot designed by dwarves. And yes, I mean like the short guys in the Hobbit who spend all their time digging convoluted tunnels.

To get into the store, I first had to drive up a narrow ramp that pivots sharply, with the bare minimum in the way of sight lines. If you take it at more than about 7.5 miles an hour, the odds of getting into a head-on collision with a dragon…I mean, another happy holiday shopper…are pretty exponential.

I kinda wish I had Gandalf along to lead the charge.  Or maybe that Aragorn dude…

Oops, wrong story.

Instead of Gandalf, there were a series of Rent-A-Cops, whose waving arms and neon orange vests did their best to keep the flow of traffic moving. Because if people can’t park, they can’t get into the store to buy things. And that’s the real goal of all this, right?

After successfully navigating Mirkwood the parking garage, I took myself into the store. I wrestled a cart away from one of the red-vested elves who run the place, and reached for my list, only to find I had nothing in my pocketsss…

Isn’t that precious?

Because there’s nothing like doubling back – for the third time – through a throng of frantic villagers to find that one thing absolutely necessary for the success of Christmas.

Like any worthy quest, there were moments of abject despair. Where ARE the potato mashers? How can I put together Christmas dinner without a potato masher? And there were moments of glorious euphoria, like when I found the PERFECT glass peacock ornaments.

Not a gold ring, but still pretty cool.

Now, I know you’re all picking up what I’m putting down here. Holiday shopping is what you make of it, and I wish you all the best in your travels.  And remember…

There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after.  (JRR Tolkien)

Or, for those of you who are headed for Target…

There are no safe paths in this part of the world. Remember you are over the Edge of the Wild now, and in for all sorts of fun wherever you go. (JRR Tolkien)

Peace,

Liv

Thanks so much for blogging today, Liv, although the “Christmas in less than three weeks” part of your post gave me heart palpitations!  Liv writes paranormal and romance, often at the same time. Come visit her at her website & blog (www.livrancourt.com), on Facebook (www.facebook.com/liv.rancourt), or on Twitter (www.twitter.com/LivRancourt). 

Liv is also the author of the holiday-themed romance short story, The Santa Drag, available on Kindle for just 99 cents!

When Mackenzie Reed takes a job as a mall Santa, she doesn’t expect to run into the one guy she ever loved … while she’s in Santa drag!

One more quick note:  I'm blog-touring for the rest of the month and early January!  Come by and say hi! My tour schedule is here. Thanks, J.K.

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Why bookstores are like a bad boy lover

I’m over at Harlequin Junkies for the first stop on the Release Me blog tour! Come by, say hi, and enter to win a copy of your very own!

I’ve been doing a lot of shopping lately, which means dropping in and out of a lot of bookstores. Because what’s the point of shopping if you don’t pick up a few books? And it suddenly struck me: Bookstores have a bad boy quality to them.

Don’t believe me? Well, let’s let me prove it to you. I’ve been spending a lot of time with Damien Stark, the super-sexy, darkly dangerous hero in Release Me who claims Nikki for his own. Read more at Harlequin Junkies

Be sure to come visit! And look for me tomorrow at ARE Cafe!

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Sexy Snippet Sunday! A new Release Me excerpt!

I’ll be blog-touring for Release Me starting tomorrow (December 17) and on into January! I hope you stop by. Random House is generously giving away copies of the book, both digital and print! Click the image for the blog tour schedule!

Here’s another glimpse at Nikki and Damien, from Release Me, coming January 1!!!

He’s poured himself a glass as well, and now he walks around the bar. I think he’s going to sit on the stool next to me, but he doesn’t. He simply leans against it, which means that he’s a few inches closer to me . . . and between Damien Stark and me, inches can be dangerous.

I tell myself it’s to quell my nerves and take another sip, then wait for Damien to say something else. He’s quiet, though, watching me. I begin to feel a bit self conscious under his unabashed inspection.

“You’re staring,” I finally say.

“You’re beautiful.”

I look away. It’s not what I want to hear. “I’m not,” I say. “Or maybe I am. Does it matter?”

“Sometimes,” he says, which is the most honest answer I’ve ever heard to that particular question. “It matters to me.”

“Why?”

“Because I like looking at you. I like the way you hold your shoulders back. The way you walk as if the world is yours for the taking.”

I shake my head a little. “That’s just years of walking with a book on my head, and lectures from my mother, and endless etiquette classes.”

“It’s more than that. I like the way you wear your clothes, as if you understand that it’s you and not the cloth that matters. You are beautiful, Nikki, but it’s because of what you exude as much as it is the standard of beauty that we see in pageants and on magazine covers.”

“What if everything you see in me is a lie?”

“It’s not,” he says.

I take a slug of my bourbon. “Maybe you’re not as smart as you think you are, Mr. Stark.”

“Nonsense. I’m fucking brilliant. Or haven’t you heard?”  His grin is wide and boyish and I can’t help but laugh. And then, before I even have time to catch my breath, the boyish expression is gone, replaced with one of fire and need. He moves fast, and before I can blink he’s twisted my barstool so that my back is to the bar and he has a hand on either side of me. I’m caged in, trapped in Damien’s heat. “I am smart, Nikki,” he says. “I’m smart enough to know that you feel it, too. This isn’t just heat, it’s a goddamned conflagration. Not chemistry, but nuclear fission.”

I’m flush and breathing hard. He’s right—so help me, he’s right. But even so …

“There’s nothing good about an atomic reaction,” I say. “And the blast destroys everything it touches.”

“Bullshit.”  The word comes out hard. He’s right in front of me, and I can feel the anger coming off of him in waves. “Goddammit, Nikki, don’t do that. Don’t play those kind of games with me. Don’t make this complicated when it should be so damn simple.”

“Should be?” I repeat. “What the hell does that mean?  Nothing is simple. Am I attracted to you?  Hell yes. But you don’t even know me.”

I stifle a sigh. Sometimes I wonder if I even know myself, or if all those years of being molded by my mother—being told what to eat, what to drink, who to date, when to sleep, and all the other Mommy Dearest bullshit—had sucked Nikki right out of me.

But no. No, I fought to keep the core of myself, even if I do keep it buried deep.

I look fiercely at him. “You don’t know me,” I repeat.

The intensity with which he looks back at me almost makes me stumble. “But I do.”

Something in his voice makes me feel exposed. He has me on edge again, and I look away, not liking the way he seems to be shining a spotlight on me.

It takes me a moment to gather myself, and when I do, I tilt my head just enough to look up at him. “We’re not taking this further, Mr. Stark. Absolutely not.”

“I don’t accept that.”  His voice is a low growl that rumbles through me, weakening my resolve.

I don’t say a word. I can’t seem to form one.

“I liked it,” he continues, as he traces his fingertips down the sleeve of my jacket. “You liked it. I’m not seeing a sound basis for cessation, Ms. Fairchild.”

I force myself to make a coherent sound. “I like cheesecake, but I only have it rarely. And I know it’s bad for me.”

“Sometimes bad is good.”

“Bullshit. That’s what people say to alleviate their own guilt or justify their own weakness. Bad is bad. A is A.”

“I didn’t realize we were discussing philosophy. Shall I counter with the teachings of Aristippus? He held that pleasure is the highest good.” His fingertip traces my collarbone. “And I want to be very, very good with you.”

I shiver from his touch, allowing myself one brief moment to savor the pleasure of basking in the glow of Damien Stark. Then I turn away, so that I’m speaking to the air, but not to the man. “This isn’t going anywhere.”  My voice is a whisper. My voice is the sound of regret. “It can’t.”

“Why not?”  I hear the gentleness in his voice and wonder how much of myself I’ve inadvertently revealed.

I don’t say a word.

He exhales, and I can feel the frustration rolling off him in waves. “Ultimately, your free will is your own, Ms. Fairchild. As is mine.”

“Yours?”

“I’m free to try to convince you otherwise.”

JK here:  As you might imagine, Damien is VERY good at convincing!  I hope you’ll check out the book!  You can pre-order the book from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Random House, or your favorite retailer!

When the story grabs you and won’t let go: The Stellestrian

I’ve known Craig Stiles since we both auditioned for the same play oh-so-many years ago, and I have to say he is one multi-talented guy.  He’s built his own house (not like my husband and I did by picking out a model home plan, but really building the dang thing), he’s a working screenwriter, and now he has an awesome graphic novel to add to his accomplishments.

Having chatted with Craig about the story throughout its various permutations, I really want to get the word out about it, and especially alert folks that The Stellestrian is scheduled to be FREE for the Kindle on Sunday, December 16.  So be sure to snag your own copy!  And here’s Craig, to tell you more about how this story came to be!

 You mean, we had a choice?

So I’m a writer.  Actually, I’m a screenwriter, which makes me about 3 times more nuts than your average writer.  I’ve actually sold stuff, so I guess that makes me official, but it sure hasn’t made me rich, or famous, or popular.  Though I think the cat does like that fact that I’m around the house all the time.

I also rather like writing stories with female protagonists.  Madness!!!  At least it’s considered madness in one major city on the west coast.  It’s a habit I’m trying to break.  As for choice, about the only choice any writer really has is which story they want to TRY to tell next, and sometimes you don’t even have that choice.

I’m a slogger.  I get an idea and I build it out one beat at a time.  I’m not one of those writers that sees the whole story and just has to tell it, and then hammers out a draft over the course of week trapped at home by heavy snowfall.  I think that’s a myth.  Nobody does that.  Perhaps it’s an honest lie. Women say they never remember the pain of childbirth; maybe some writers are the same about the pain of birthing a story.

Women say they never remember the pain of childbirth; maybe some writers are the same about the pain of birthing a story.

And then there’s the exception.  That time when the only choice you think you have is taken away.  That time that a story does come to you during the bliss of sleep and appears fully developed by the time you’ve poured that first cup of coffee.

Such was the case with a little story I called The Stellestrian.  Heck, even the title showed up out of the ether.  When that happens, YOU TELL THAT STORY.  You sit down and you hammer out every beat you can as fast as you can, and the coffee burns into the bottom of the pot.  Good.  It’s down on paper.  Thirty quickly scrawled pages in a legal pad.  I have it.  It’s not going to get away just a quickly as it came, provided I can read my handwriting after I hit the deadline I’m working on.

That was five years ago.  The legal pad sat for a few months, and then I called my agent and pitched it.  “It’s great,” she said.  “But we could never sell it.  It’s too big.  It’s one of those things that will need to exist in another form first.  Have you considered a graphic novel?  This would make a great graphic novel.”  Three more years and several more projects come and go.  I wrote the script between all the sure things that are never so sure.  And all that time, the little story about the girl who knew everything about her life was a lie, who knew it was a lie, but didn’t know the truth herself, kept eating at me.  It wanted to be told.  That girl wanted to become a Stellestrian.

And then one of the sure things actually hit.  Hollywood cut me a check.

A more prudent writer would have dug a hole so deep that Gollum couldn’t have sniffed the ring out of it, and stuck that check at the bottom.  He’d have filled the hole with concrete and lined the trail back to it with explosives.  I’m not that prudent.

Cool art from The Stellestrian

I interviewed artists – dozens of artist.  And I learned that if there’s anyone more hungry that writers, it’s comic book artists.  That’s good news because they work cheap.  But oh, what a lot of work.  Budget?  Ha!  Don’t ask.

My brilliant artist, Sam Wohl, and I conversed, drew, reviewed, drew, and revised for 15 months.  We had three inkers, two colorists and a letterer all working to create 120 pages of pure graphic storytelling bliss, and it was as much fun as I’ve ever had in my life, but don’t ask.  It’s not about the money.  The story needed told.

And now it’s out.  My little big epic sci-fi story called The Stellestrian exists in full living color.  I have printed copies.  I can hold them in my hand.  I still enjoy it every time I read it, and I can’t say that every time I finish a project.

We’ve published digitally on Amazon, and we’re actually selling copies, and people like it.  Some like it a lot.  One girl’s read it three times.  Her boyfriend got curious and read it.  He told her it was one of the best sci-fi stories he’s ever read.  They live in Minneapolis.  She wants to be an astronomer.  I feel like a little part of their lives.

That’s what it’s about.

Sometimes I’m glad there’s no choice.

 Craig Stiles is a screenwriter based out of Los Angeles, California.  You can snag your copy of The Stellestrian for free on Sunday, December 16.  And in the meantime, hang out with Craig at The Stellestrian’s Facebook page and find him on Twitter!

J.K. here: I’m so pleased that Craig was able to guest blog … and that I get the chance to remind everyone to snag a free copy of The Stellestrian! 

So tell us, do you read graphic novels?  Young adult fiction?  Space stories?  We’d love to hear your thoughts … and don’t forget to enter the holiday contest, too.  Just use the Rafflecopter widget below.

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Demon sale for the holidays!

Looking for a holiday book with demons (after all, who isn’t?) — California Demon is now on sale for the Nook!