Back to Business Monday: A SWEET TWEET BOOK PRIZE!!!

Okay, I'll admit to a mild Twitter addiction.  So because I'm not ready for the holiday gift-giving to end AND in anticipation of the upcoming New Year AND because I'm going to try an experiment with a Twitter contest countdown, I'm sharing some "Tweet" love with...

A CENTURY-STYLE BOOK GIVEAWAY

for one lucky winner!

What'll you get? 
ANY YOUNG ADULT NOVEL YOU'D LIKE ($20 limit!) first published in 2010 plus a copy of a 1910 classic children's book (can you guess it?).

How do you enter?
Leave a comment here at the blog naming your 2010 book of choice PLUS a contact email. 

What DON'T you have to do?
Follow my blog, retweet my contest, follow-me-on-Twitter, friend me on Facebook or any of that stuff (I hate pressure) though I won't complain if you do!

How will I choose a winner?
As usual, I will write each entrant's name on a slip of paper, and place them all in a stainless steel mixing bowl from which my assistant, Batman, will draw the winner.  Hoping someday to have enough people enter my contests that I'll have to figure out how to use those cool Google contest entering gadgets but, for now, let's just say your chances of winning are likely pretty good!

The deadline for entry is 1 PM EST on Thursday, January 6, 2011, and the winner will be announced here at the blog (I'll also contact you) on Friday, January 7.

Wordy Wednesday: #YALITCHAT

I'm delighted to be a part of an awesome website, Dear Teen Me, at which authors write letters to their teen selves.  I could explain how amazing, hilarious and inspiring it is but, oh, JUST GO ON OVER and check it out for yourself.

If you're interested in learning more about Dear Teen Me and the authors involved in the project, the amazing Georgia McBride is featuring the project on #YALITCHAT tonight (Wednesday 12/15) from 9-11 PM EST on Twitter.  I'll be there @swkehoe.  Come on over and join the conversation!

Back-to-Business Monday: ON-TASK TWEETING

First, check out the nifty labels on my last seven months of posts (or don't, really, what a dull idea).  Anyhow, my menial web-presence-maintenance task of last week is accomplished.  This week I am going to write the "about the author" page for my website and decide which old photos to include with the text.  Look forward to a sneak peak of me as a teeny ballerina next week!

Another thing I've been trying out is Tweeting.  So far, here is what I've learned:

1. It can be rather addictive and there's almost always some amazing writing chat going on or a cool book give-away contest to enter.

2. There's some super-annoying spam out there for writers (surely you've read about that writers needed thingy) that found me almost instantly (blocking as best I can with my limited technological ability).

3. MOST IMPORTANT!  It is surprisingly hard to find that line between tweeting about life and tweeting about writer-life.  This morning I found myself Tweet-musing on the deliciousness of Fritos with a sandwich.  Really, this is not the kind of thing I should be dumping into the Tweet feed BUT I know that regular Tweeting is important AND I'm a little uncomfortable just retweeting cool blog posts and talking about my own writing career so...are Fritos okay?

Do you worry about staying "on-task" with your Tweets?  Where do you draw the line?  Do you like Fritos?