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Gale Minchew, PhD

Inspire • Uplift • Motivate • Empower

The Re-Invention Of Authors Supporting Authors...In The Twitterverse

When I decided to sign up for Twitter just a few short months ago, I had no idea what I was getting myself into.  The purpose was to broaden my reach, I suppose.  But in hindsight, I realize I have learned so much more on Twitter than I have learned anywhere else in such a short amount of time.  You may wonder…what could Twitter possibly teach me?   I pondered this question for some time before deciding to write this post. 

First and foremost, Twitter has introduced me to people I may never have had an opportunity to meet.  Through this community, I have seen first hand that people from different cultures, countries, and backgrounds around the world really have similar interests, experiences, joys, losses, failures, and triumphs…despite what some may say.  And within that Twitter community, or Twitterverse as I affectionally call it, I have found some truly inspiring people: readers supporting authors and bloggers, friends supporting friends, businesses supporting businesses, bloggers supporting authors and readers, and authors supporting other authors, bloggers, and readers.

Indeed, I do not believe I have ever met a more committed and supportive group of people than those I have met on Twitter.  Overly optimistic you may ask…or perhaps just delusional…The skeptics may point to high  profile statistics and question whether these people are really supportive.  They may say those people with high statistics are simply in it for vanity reasons or for what it can do for them.  Well, perhaps that is true for some, but most of the people I have ‘met’ on Twitter follow other people as a show of support, look at the stats…

Do you think, at this point, John Locke really needs to follow anyone else on Twitter?  I think 25K-26K followers/followees are pretty good stats.  But I followed him just the other day when I decided to pull my head out of the ice ages…and guess what?  He followed back.  Melissa Foster is another example.  Truly inspirational and supportive tweets at 9K-10K followers/followees, and she was one of the first people to ever follow me.  At the time I only had maybe 30-40 followers.  (Notice there is no ‘K’ at the end.)  But, as accomplished authors, each of these individuals went out of their way to welcome me, support me, and treat me as an equal, as have all of the countless other authors who have supported me and my fellow authors…Patti Roberts, Julie Belfield, Gwenn Wright, and James Wilcox, to name just a few.   (No offense intended for not being able to include all of my friends here…equate it to the 140 character restraint!)

As authors supporting authors, we post links to other authors’ books, their guest blog posts, and interviews.  We cheer each other on for book releases, chart rankings, and book signings.  We come together to brainstorm and create new promotional opportunities such as group giveaways, blog tours, and $.99 book events.  We create hash tags that help the Twitterverse locate each other’s tweets.  We sympathize when something doesn’t go as planned and encourage a positive perspective.  We introduce our friends to each other.  We answer questions with which other authors may be struggling.

Twitter has re-invented the concept of support for one another.  And from Twitter, I have learned that above all else, we are not only authors supporting authors…we are friends supporting each other’s goals and aspirations…turning dreams into realities.

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Retired Guest Blog Entries

The Sidewalk Ends Here…

May 11, 2011

I don’t remember any books from my childhood.  At least, that’s what I thought.  When I first tried to conger up memories of reading, I drew a complete blank.  Yes, I couldn’t think of one single book!  So, I decided to delve a little further into my mind and came up with the cute teddy bear board book my mom read to me as a toddler, Cinderella, and The Princess and the Pea.  I still have that little teddy bear book and will always cherish it.  But, can that really be all I remember reading as a child?  Pulling those memories from the frayed edges of my mind soon buried me under a wave of book covers and authors.  Oh!  What about the Sweet Valley High series by Francine Pascal?  I read that series incessantly during my teen years.  I remember spending so much money on those books…and it became a challenge…buying, reading, and arranging all those books on my shelf in chronological order.  Then, a little further back I remembered some required reading from middle school…Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume and the life and writings of Edgar Allen Poe.  I admit, I didn’t care for Judy Blume, but I was fascinated with Edgar Allen Poe…The Raven, The Tell Tale Heart, The Masque of the Red Death, The Pit and the Pendulum, and so on.  But, I still wonder why they had Poe as required reading for a 13 year old!  It was probably my fascination with Poe that led to my interest in crime/suspense/mystery novels.  So, it was only logical that by high school, I had moved on to Dean Koontz, Stephen King, and Anne Rice. 

I continued to ponder the books I read as a child and found that with all the authors, titles, and genres flowing through my mind, I continuously returned to fourth grade.  It was a magical year, I suppose…a time for trading stickers with my friends, staying out of the clutches of boys chasing girls on the playground, and my first introduction to poetry.  Now, I admit I would have done almost anything to not go outside for recess, as you can imagine!  Quite coincidentally, my fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Joyce Sigler, had an exciting project for me and a friend in lieu of play time.  At recess, she would tape a large sheet of white paper on the wall and place the overhead projector in just the right spot for maximum size.  She would then place a transparency on the overhead glass, and my friend and I would carefully trace the letters and drawings onto the plain white paper.  That simple job made me feel important!  And, unbeknownst to me at the time, I learned about poetry and how to make that funny little lower case ‘a’.  I mean, who really writes an ‘a’ like that?  Ultimately, I ended up reading the entire book from which the transparencies were made.  What an exciting experience at such an impressionable time in my young life!

You may wonder what poetry could possibly fill a fourth grader with so much excitement.  This poetry was magical, complete with funny drawings…a book filled of stories such as Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout who would not take the garbage out, a crocodile who went to the dentist, and little Peggy Ann McKay who was so sick she could not go to school today!  Yes, Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein became my favorite book that year.  That year became one of my most memorable years in school and, by my estimation, served as a catalyst for my growing love of books.

I now share Mr. Silverstein’s books with my own children.  Not only Where the Sidewalk Ends, but A Light in the Attic, Falling Up, and The Giving Tree, as well.  Will my fourth grader have the same memories about reading these books as I have?  Probably not, but I hope to make an impression as great as that given to me all those years ago by one very special fourth grade teacher and Shel Silverstein!

*This entry first appeared as a guest post on basicallyamazingashley.com in May 2011