The terrible intimacy of @.

Ouch, I had no idea the "@" symbol could create such a predicament.

I just started using twitter as well, so this is definitely a good thing to remember. I just assumed that anything with the @Skeletor sign is akin to shouting, 'Hey you! Your stuff is __.' at Skeletor while walking by him on the street. It is a unidirectional generation of noise, and when that noise is negative, I'm sorry. When it's positive though, I imagine that must be still exhausting, but lovely. I think you and anyone else using social media so consistently and with such depth should be freakin' applauded for managing with such grace, no less, the sheer scope and volume of noise levelled at you every day!

YES IMPORTANT! And easy to forget. I never @ authors now unless we have had previous discussions about how they want to see my review (this happened like once) even if the review is positive. It feel really pushy otherwise.

Snakes... Why did it have to be snakes?

A variation of this happened to me a few weeks ago. I wrote an analysis of whether Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, which is currently being adapted for Starz, would work as a TV show. As a fan of the books, I'm hopeful that it will, but I can see a few potential problems. It got Tweeted by an Outlander fan page, along with my Twitter handle, and for about a day and a half afterwards I was fending off outraged fans. Most of the comments were confined to my blog, but some of the nastier ones did @-check me on Twitter. I didn't respond. I figured discretion was the better part of valor, in that case.

If I post reviews to Twitter, I will only @ the author on positive reviews. I don't necessarily expect a response, but I know some authors like to blog/RT their positive reviews. I figure they can do with it what they will. (In truth, I'm terribly negligent about sending my reviews to Twitter, anyway.)

I don't @-check negative reviews. If there's any hesitation on my part about whether the author would want to read it, I don't Tweet it to the author. I don't want to be that person who tears an author down just because I didn't like his/her book. As a writer myself, I know how emotionally attached you can become to your work, and I wouldn't want someone doing that to me. Even most of my positive reviews have some criticisms, and I don't Tweet those, either.

To be honest, though, since I only blog about once a week, I have the luxury of picking and choosing the books I want to write about. I tend to write primarily about books I really liked. I decided some time ago that I'd rather be that person boosting the authors/books I enjoyed than eviscerating the ones I didn't. :-)

Good goddess. WTF is wrong with some people? My understanding is that tweeting @ a specific person is trying to start a conversation with them. Honestly, given some of the crap that you have gotten for being a woman writer who is open and vocal about diversity in fiction and other such things... I would almost wonder if some of these people were trying to ply you into engaging with a bad review... which would almost certainly cause Drama. (I wish I didn't have to think like this but given some of the things I have seen happen to other women authors, I really wouldn't put it past some people.)

Also, if I may say, I tweeted @ you regarding misreading the "New October Books" headline from my Goodreads emails and thinking immediately of Toby Daye. I may have let out a squee when I saw you replied. :)

Congrats on taking the high ground and sharing your frustration rather than responding to said silly people. Some internet users need to realize that they are talking in public. I'm sure they have their own lounge room where they can talk about whatever they want, chuck their opinions around as carelessly as they like. I am definitely opinionated but wouldn't want to share anything critical I say about a public person with the actual person. How horrid.

LOVE LOVE LOVE your work by the way :)

on a positive note, it means that your work is getting more popular and more people think your work is successful enough to mention on twitter. there are probably alot of authors out that there that would love to have this problem.

@Mira: please write more zombie books.
@Mira: you should have won the hugo.

LJ has tripped me up with this, because at some point in the last couple of years, LJ started emailing you if someone else used your handle. And I literally *do* forget this happens and have used the LJ handles of authors when I'm reviewing their work. GAH.

Otherwise, I do avoid telling authors "I reviewed your work here!" unless my review is very positive.