It’s A New Day, It’s A New Dawn

And, it’s a cold one! Frigid, even. Holy moly, these single digits are killa. Makes it difficult for the brain cells to fire.

I realize I have taken a hiatus from blogging, tweeting, and general internet stuff, and most of that was not on purpose. Oh, you have your usual holiday issues, then some health issues, and of course, the ever-present real-life drama issues, and next thing you know, a whole  month or more has passed by with nary a blog word written. Although only one out of the three have actually been resolved, it’s past time to dive back in to the blogosphere. I hope I haven’t lost all two of my readers (heh) but I’m willing to work hard to woo you back into the fold.

Let’s start with some Twitter-love, shall we? #Fridayflash is still going strong, and a “Best of” anthology is planned. For writers, I strongly urge you to participate in this weekly exercise, because…well, because it is so much fun! As a reader, I urge you with equal fervor to make the rounds and read…there is some astounding talent out there, and you won’t be sorry. As a matter of fact, I suspect you’ll thank me profusely and maybe even name your first born child after me. Yes, the stories are that good. Check it out.

The latest Twitter hashtag that’s come to my attention is #storystarters. How cool is this? Clifford Fryman had the brilliant idea (while in the shower, heh) to post 50 “story starters” to “kickstart creativity when your muse is a no show.” Each #storystarter is 125 characters, and he started posting them today in batches of five. I can see the potential for it to catch fire in the same way #fridayflash did. According to Cliff, who was kind enough to respond to my nosy questions, the idea is to provide a daily place to post or take advantage of a prompt. He posts three per day, usually. The 50 #storystarters were the result of a Twitter challenge Cliff posted, in order to raise awareness. It worked! He met the challenge, so today starts the posting marathon of the fruits of his labor. Anyone can participate and post a #storystarter by simply using the hashtag. He encourages people to first of all, write! And direct message him or Tweet the link to any story inspired by one of the story starters.

Cliff has tentative plans to release his personal story starters in a free e-book around NaNo time, but the future of #storystarters is still in the infant stage. The potential is shining and exciting. You can follow Cliff on Twitter here, and I highly recommend you do so… there could be more challenges to come, and you don’t want to miss them!

Cliff and I agree that Twitter has been a huge benefit, and he considers this his way of paying it forward. That’s the great thing about Twitter — many fine, talented people who are generous with their time and talents. I love Twitter.

I’ll be keeping a close eye on this, and have already scribbled a couple of #storystarters on my trusty notepad for future reference. Very cool, and the gods know that muse of mine needs a good poke now and then.

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This is my latest earworm by DJEarworm — a seriously talented young man. Dare you not to do some chair dancing when you see it

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Well, this is a start on getting it on with the new year. I have expectations tempered by a realistic outlook. This ain’t my first new year, but hopefully it will be better than the last two have been, which in all honesty, have sucked the hairy nutz of Lucifer. One thing I can say about the last sixteen months in particular…I may have been bent, but I am not broken, and I still have hope. I’m gonna take that and run with it.