Last week, I won a twitter short story competition about Thanksgiving, along with five other people. What do I know about Thanksgiving? I know it is the busiest time in America for the airlines, along with Christmas. I know lots of pumpkins are cut up and eaten in sweet pies. But that's about it.
In the aftermath, one of the winners wrote about the competition; about what it means to him and what it might mean for all the winners. You can find it here:
http://joshsmithpoetry.com/articles/plowing-through-to-ploughshares
When I roamed twitter and saw I had won, I laughed a bit, but didn't give it a second thought. Of course I wondered what the prize might be, and I am still waiting to receive it. Perhaps the literary magazine which sponsored the prize refuses to pay for postage downunder. The other winners have tweeted their joy at receiving a copy of the latest magazine edition.
Then I discovered over 4,000 people had access to this competition and that the other winners were overwhelmed and delighted. Maybe I should be too!
This little win is most timely. Just as I was rethinking the twitter phenomenon and spruiking my new found tweeting passion to anyone who cared to listen, one of the city's switched on commentators, Jessica Irvine, found herself agreeing with me! She asserts that "Twitter and Facebook offer some of our best hopes for the next productivity revolution."
Read more of Jessica: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/social-networking-sites-are-factories-of-modern-ideas-20111124-1nwy3.html#ixzz1eia7dfv7
Knowing how many long, lonely hours I have spent perched in front of a computer screen working out how twitter works while rest of the the household snores, I would have to agree. How productive I have been out there in Cyberspace! Not that I am obsessed with Justin Bieber or care about Lady Gaga's innermost thoughts, though I did notice Charlie Sheen has 5 million followers, but follows only 65 other mortals. No, I don't much care about celebrity nose-picking. My tweeting is part of the campaign to 'writer self promote' and keep in touch with the writerly community. Painful though it may be, in fact it feels like a continual prod in the guts, this new approach is the way to go, apparently. I am following nearly 300 twitterers, all of them literary magazines, publishers and writers. A few of them follow me.
And here are the winning Thanksgiving tweets (otherwise known as very, very short stories):
*My sister lacks segues. Told us she was pregnant as she passed the food across the table. Turkey, and tears
*Family friend looks at what I read in the car on the way to dinner and says, "You know your magazine has no pictures, right?"
*I chopped a bird in Reno just to watch him fry, Dad the chef coos to my cousin the PETA activist, who is not from around here.
*creepy uncle w/breath like moth balls nxt to me + dog lapping his balls undr the table- what's for dinner? liquid wild turkey*....all that abbreviation; this one must be from a Gen Y!
(Mine): "Repeat email: please rsvp for catering! Turn to husband: 'that should sort bums on seats, but what to do about the vegan?'"
And my absolute favourite from 'Alex':
*We were frightened one year when my grandfather left the 'with' out of the invitation to dinner, it said: "let's eat grandma!"
To all our US friends and rels: Happy Thanksgiving!
Vegan Hell!
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