I occasionally take Twitter a little for granted. Not that I’m not appreciative of the way that it works for me personally, but I forget that it connects other people the same way. I came across a conversation between Neil Gaiman and Laurell K. Hamilton (Two of my very favorite authors. I credit Hamilton’s Anita Blake for a lot of my sarcastic replies growing up.)
I went through an entire SLEW of emotions here, people. In the space of about three seconds.
1. Surprise
Wait, they KNOW each other?? They’re REAL?
2. Self-patronization
Of course they’re real people, nutjob. You’ve been following Neil for years on Twitter, and even though it never occurred to you to look up and follow Laurell, she wasn’t a mythical being. You saw her on book tour. You totally stalked her autograph for A Kiss of Shadows! And it makes sense they know each other, they’re both celebrated authors in more or less the same field. Pull it together, subconscious me!
3. GeekgasmExcitement
Aaaaaahhh!!!! Two of my favorite authors are TALKING TO EACH OTHER! Giving and asking ADVICE!! That is SO. COOL!! *kermitflail*
4. Weird sense of intrusiveness
Wait, they’re talking to each other. It’s a public forum, but they’re talking to each other. It’s not a conversation I’m a part of, but I can see it.
…..Eeee.
Most of the time when I look into a conversation thread, it’s between two or more people that I actually know in person and possibly even have a connection to what they’re talking about. This was one of the first times where I saw a conversation between people that I don’t know personally, but I knew OF both of them. Authors I feel a deep connection to. I’ve read their words, fairly obsessively, for YEARS; these weren’t simply celebrities that I only knew vaguely of.
It was very cool in a vaguely unsettling way, but an interesting reminder that the celebs/authors/actors who use twitter really do tend to use it in the same way we do; to talk with their friends in a less personal way than a cell phone.
On a totally different note, yay! Something other than a series from Laurell!! Hopefully! Maybe! Because honestly, much as I love Anita Blake and as much as I love Meredith Gentry, they both tend to descend into some serious #vaginalfantasy territory. I have other books for that. Laurell writes fantastic violence and politics, would love to see a book that focused more on that.
That’s exactly what happened to me when I realised Felicia Day and Wil Wheaton knew each other! It’s sometimes strange for people outside of Hollywood seeing just how small a world it is over there. I followed both you and James Gunn for ages before I saw your paths cross and realise you knew each other. It’s also strange seeing two people who didn’t now each other when you started following them meet at a party or start working together on a show. I’ve seen that happen a few times and I totally relate to stages 3 and 4. I get excited and my first instinct is to pipe up and help introduce them to each other, before I realise that I don’t know them, they don’t know me and I’m standing there like an invisible voyeur watching them engage each other for the first time. But then I look around and realise that there are 10,000 other people doing the same thing.
I am a twitter junkie so this kind of thing always happens to me. Sometimes it feels like I’m a part of the conversation, and I forget I’ve never really met these people. It’s kind of a weird feeling.
I have been following you for quite awhile…But, as for the Author”s in conversing to another~I’ve noticed this allot of different Public Figures & thier Occupations that they do contact oneanother all the time Eg; on Twitter there’s a number of Author’s in England alway’s Pun’ing and Attackin’ each others Blog or Tweet, Comment made somewhere. Occasionly it geys downright vicious, not often~funny stuff sometimes…
I’m sure that in orther Professssions the same goes on? I recently obserrved all this while in Hospital for 2mnth’s…nurse & doctor inuendoe’s that go on. LOL ^¿^
I saw it described awesomely. “Facebook is for friends who’ve become strangers, Twitter is for strangers who should be friends.” I feel an odd kinship with all the people that I follow; I feel like I know them, which is dangerous. These are not people I know, these are not people I’ve met outside of a brief sentence at a book signing. But I do enjoy watching them talk at the world and at each other.
The latest “Wait, these guys know each other?!” moment was when Alton Brown and Adam Savage met and posted pictures.