Never has there been a more timely book or a more timely acknowledgement of there being a more timely moment to read this timely book.
Police Detective Arkaby thought he had resolved the strange murder of millionaire industrialist and bleeding edge bio-scientist Willum Mortimus Granger, whose completely severed body he discovered at the beginning tweet of "Executive Severance", Book 1 of my Twitstery Twilogy. Arkaby is a by-the-book procedural investigator so full of himself he tweets every particular of his investigation, even though he is not, and never has been himself a billionaire Presidential candidate. Though he solves Granger’s murder, Arkaby’s habit of tweeting his every move nearly costs him his life at the hands an adversary who secretly follows his Twitter account.
Imagine now suspended Detective Arkaby's surprise when, in "The Golden Parachute", Book 2 of the Twitstery Twilogy, he receives a ghostly visit from someone who appears to be the previously deceased Willum Granger and who offers him big bucks to find his missing daughter, Regi Granger, but only if he continues tweeting. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. Still skeptical Detective Arkaby reluctantly travels to the Caribbean where he not only locates Regi, but also stumbles across the now reconnected body of Willum Granger in a Caribbean medical school autopsy lab. Arkaby describes Regi as "a cool drink of water he'd like to swallow in one gulp," but that may just be the Caribbean heat talking.
In "I Tweet, Therefore I Am, Book 3 of the Twitstery Twilogy, Arkaby and Regi return with her father's body to the States where a new murder mystery awaits them. Strange things are happening at Willum Granger's medical hospital and cloning laboratory, Body Parts R Us, where someone liquidates his brother, Farley Granger, in a gruesome and humiliating manner. It is up to Arkaby and Regi to solve this second murder and uncover the secret of his original mystery visitor. One problem: Arkaby is the chief suspect in Farley Granger's murder!
I Tweet, Therefore I Am was preceded by national best selling Twitter novel Executive Severance, (NeoPoiesis Press, 2011) which won The Mary Shelley Award for Outstanding Fiction and by The Golden Parachute, (Kindle eBook, 2016).
2 comments:
"I Tweet, Therefore I am" is genius! I cannot think of another way to connect the current, younger population to an incredibly thrilling story better then to put it right on the things they are connected to the most, technology. Many parents and teachers struggle at times to get their children/students to sit down and read a book. In today's day and age, so many of us are consumed by the technology in our lives such as the phones in our pockets, the computers with too much power connecting us to Netflix from all around the world, and the tablets that allow us to create projects while having music playing in another application so when we step back, how can we expect our children to do what, even we, cannot? This is the realization that so many of us are coming to and there have only been so many alternatives that actually work.
Robert K. Blechman recognized these problems and as an author, when the age of paper books is slowly changing to Amazon Kindles and Apple iPads, he found a way to meet these overly connected people with an incredible, mystery story in the most unique, yet effective way possible. Knowing how overly connected the younger population is with social media, he posted his novel via real-time tweets on twitter and it was a major success. So much so, that Amazon just launched the story through their booking department today, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, to further connect with people.
Looking at the most basic concepts of Marketing, the idea is that someone/some group with a product attempts to satisfy the needs of possible customers and in the process, succeeds in addressing their own needs as a person/organization. Robert K. Blechman hit the nail right on the head. He understood the struggle that people have with sitting down and reading a book, but also that we have never been as connected through technology then we are today so he met right in the middle and put his product in the hands of the reader, literally. Blechman has pioneered the way authors can connect to readers first-hand and did it in a way that, until today, did not benefit himself financially. My favorite part is that when readers are at home, they only can react to what has happened and speculate on what will come with themselves but now all readers can share their opinions with one another, which makes the experience more interactive and engaging.
Looking at the long-term effectiveness of a novel, so uniquely connected as this one, it is hard to say how well it will work and if others will try to follow in Blechman’s path. Initially, the concept sounds interesting and unique, given how society is today, but connecting through twitter could be limiting and/or problematic. I would not think that stories that typically connect with the older population would have nearly as much success as “I Tweet, Therefore I am”, because the older population typically is not as technologically connected in comparison to the younger population. These limitation may lead to authors who are attempting to connect to a wider age to steer away from this new style of storytelling.
Thanks Owen! If you could do me one more favor, please post your kind comments to my Amazon page. Thanks again. http://amzn.to/2iClZv6
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