I’ll be hosting a Twitter chat at 12:30 p.m. eastern today on a wide range of writing topics: making time to write, writing routines, writing fiction vs. non-fiction, and about my novel, The Cortlandt Boys. The hash tag is #CortlandtBoys, and my handle is @lvanderkam. Please join me! If you can’t make it live, no worries. You can post a question or comment with the hash tag beforehand, and I’ll answer it during the chat (you can email me as well: lvanderkam at yahoo dot com).
If you haven’t had a chance to read the novel yet, would you please consider doing so? Here’s a write-up from The Book Goddess: “Nostalgia, romance and mystery are three genres that work well separately, and work well in couples, but jamming them together, you think it wouldn’t work. But wow does it. It was such a page turner. … All in all a very intriguing read and I would recommend it.”
Hi Laura, I missed the Twitter chat but had a question for you. When working from home, how do you re-create the office “water-cooler” chats, the social interaction in an office that provides insights to what’s on your colleagues’ minds, collaboration/problem solving and new ideas? Do you seek out this interaction or find it online? Thanks,
Andrea
@Andrea – good question. I would say that online becomes my water cooler: visiting and commenting on blogs, Twitter, FB, etc. I should get out to more professional events but that is a work in progress. I have a lot of email and phone call back and forth with the people I work more closely with (editors, publicity, etc.) Do you work from home? What do you do?
Thanks for the reply. Yes, I work from home four days a week and am onsite at my client’s one day. I am a communications consultant for city governments and government agencies–I work on public information and community outreach projects. There’s not a lot of back and forth since they usually hire me because they don’t have time or staff to dedicate to the project, so I’m on my own.
I find it challenging to use the internet for a “water-cooler” because it turns into a rabbit hole of diversions. My new thing is to plan lunch or coffee with an acquaintance or someone new a couple of times a week since I can get out while kids are in school–professional events are definitely a challenge to make.
Here’s my email if you’d like to contact me [email protected].
Thanks for the interesting blog– one of my go-to diversions!
Andrea
Hi Laura,
sorry for missing your Twitter chat.
What`s your routine when it comes to writing blog posts for FastCompany?
How do you plan your post?
How much time do you spend on average per post?
Thanks,
Tor