After my spaniel Archie's success on Twitter I didn't feel quite so bad when, for a subject called Creating Digital Content at RMIT, I had to start a Twitter site of my own - yes, in my own name, no hiding behind Archie. I set out to follow mainly writers, publishers, some favourite 'reviews' (Paris, London, Sydney, New York) and a select few of the umpteen million How-to's posted by those (who are these people?) who would tell us how easy it is to be a successful—and presumably, published—writer in this world where the proliferation of self-published books seems positively alarming. Quality control anyone?
The self-promotion thing on Twitter is hard to take. Archie never had to put up with this. But, I have to confess that, if you can bypass all that, a lot of excellent articles come my way - 'Popular in Your Network' - without me having to trawl through the entire journal, review or whatever. Someone in cyberspace is pretty cluey about selecting what they think I might like to read. More often than not, they get it right.
For the same subject at RMIT we had to create a major project, most typically a website of some kind which many chose as a place in which to showcase their own writing. Lots of them are hugely impressive.
I chose instead to create a site where I could explain the background, the impetus, behind a manuscript of mine called The Time of the Lilyweeds. This manuscript has been through Varuna, through an ASA mentorship and has, it seems, been 'polished' to within an inch of its life. There are now no excuses for not putting it out there to publishers to find its way either into print or into their no-doubt bulging recycle bin. A terrifying thought. I have other manuscripts finished, another underway which I'm putting out to trusted friends in episode form for feedback. But Lilyweeds, as it's referred to by those I know, love and trust, is the one I'm committed to, the one I want 'out there' as a lasting tribute to a group of women whom I believe to be severely under-represented in Australian fiction.
It might be a bit premature, mightn't it, giving this unpublished manuscript its own website at this early stage?
But if you'd like to know about it and why I came to write it, there's a lot of information there at
https://lilyweeds.me
I'd love you to let me know what you think...
~*~
https://twitter.com/gabygard1218
https://twitter.com/Archie_Spaniel
https://twitter.com/Archie_Spaniel
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