An Author is Born #NathanFillion #Twitter

The day job has adopted a hybrid work week (one of the only truly great things to come out of the pandemic) and yesterday was my on-site day. I get home, I'm tired, I'm hungry, I don't want to write, I just want to veg on the couch. I turn the television on and it's the pilot episode of Castle. And was reminded of how Nathan Fillion's Twitter, and a case of the flu, led to my first full length book finding a publisher. 

Nathan Fillion Sunglass GIFfrom Nathan Fillion GIFs

My brother recommended Twitter.  We’re both fans of Nathan Fillion and he follows the actor on Twitter.  Being not just brother but also a friend, he knows my sense of humor, probably better than anyone else having been subjected to it for longer than anyone else on this big blue orb, and he figured I’d get a laugh out of the actor IRL. 

It didn’t take long for me to start playing with it.  Twitter, not Nathan Fillion.  Which I think is the point or it’s just me following Nathan Fillion which is pretty much the definition of internet stalking…yes?  What I found is endlessly more useful than a quick chuckle.  I have discovered, and I am continuing to discover, a network of other writers.  It would be like AA if AA were fun.  [I’ve never been to AA and if it is fun, I apologize for assuming that it is not.  But based on what I know of it, I imagine it to be emotionally devastating and I don't think emotional devastation is ever fun. I get a little leeway for personal opinion here since it is MY blog.  Thanks.]  

I’m not normally home on Tuesdays. I’m not normally home weekdays, period, but my daughter was sick with the flu, and I was home with her. It’s not such a bad gig, if you don’t mind the disgusting parts that accompany a sick eight-year-old, and as I’ve been a mom far longer than I haven’t been, I long ago stopped minding the disgusting bits. The poor little thing had finally managed to nod off and I was quietly wasting time exploring Twitter.

I was excited to learn that I could follow my favorite authors and their publishers. And one of them was running something called a Twitter-Pitch. I figured what the heck, right? My heart nearly bust out of my chest when they requested the full manuscript. And I cried when they sent the contract. Voila! I went from a writer to an author in one afternoon. Thanks to a sick kid, Twitter, and Nathan Fillion. 

How amazing is that? And you know what ~ he really is funny.