Robert K Blechman

The world's first and only Twitter composed mystery trilogy!

What is a Twitstery?

Twitstery

noun | Twit-ster-y | twit-st(ə-)rē

plural The Twitstery Twilogy

1. A mystery written real time in Twitter, 140 characters at a time

2. A cornucopia of puns, word play and comic misdirection stuffed with punny dialogue, clever character conditions, and a total lack of adherence to the old "rules" of storytelling.

3. A piece of fiction dealing usually with the solution of a mysterious crime, or random thoughts or political outbursts or just nonsense elevated by publication in social media

4. Something not understood or beyond understanding unless consumed in small bites

5. Profound, inexplicable, or secretive quality or character

After a 30 year career as an information technology executive and consultant, author Robert K. Blechman turned his attention to the creative possibilities of social media. Starting on May 6, 2009, Blechman conducted a literary experiment: Was it possible to maintain a narrative structure and attract a reading public in Twitter, 140 characters at a time?

Posting a new Executive Severance "tweet" twice a day, every day, never missing a deadline, Blechman completed his "Twitstery" or twitter mystery in 15 months. The 140 character limit of Twitter required intensive wordsmithing, creative editing, the omission of some punctuation and a lot of counting. To succeed he adopted the narrative strategies of Al Capp (creator of L'il Abner), Chester Gould (creator of Dick Tracy) as well as Raymond Chandler, Robert B. Parker and Mickey Spillane.

"Executive Severance", Book 1 of the Twitstery Twilogy, won the 2012 Mary Shelley Award for Outstanding Fictional Work from the Media Ecology Association and became the nation's best-selling Twitter-composed mystery.

To follow that success, Blechman returned to the keyboard and over the next three years tweeted Books 2 and 3 of The Twitstery Twilogy. "The Golden Parachute", Book 2, was released in August, 2016 as a Kindle eBook. Book 3, "I Tweet, Therefore I Am" will appear in 2017.

About the Author

Robert K. Blechman graduated from the University of Chicago with a BA in English Literature and went on to earn an MBA in finance and a Doctorate in Media Ecology from New York University.

Dr. Blechman teaches courses examining social media, media industries, media theory and mass media cultural studies. He has taught at Fordham University, Hunter College and Queens College. His areas of expertise include social media, television advertising and media industries.

In his corporate career Dr. Blechman held senior technology and finance management positions at iconic national institutions including PricewaterhouseCoopers, CBS News, HarperCollins Publishers, Columbia University Medical Center and Olympia & York Real Estate Management.

Dr. Blechman continues to tweet at @RKBs_Twitstery, discusses his Media Ecology musings and speculations at his blog, "A Model Media Ecologist" at www.robertkblechman.blogspot.com and comments on the Twitter Fiction movement at his Executive Severance companion blog "Whale Fire" at http://www.executiveseverance.blogspot.com/.