Book Feature and Guest Blog: James Hutchings

In the technological age of facebook and twitter, the books we read are changing. Check out this new book by author James Hutchings, in which he uses the idea of Twitter technology in writing his new book.


Two-Fisted Tweets is a collection of thirty short stories. Each is less than 140 characters (the length of a Twitter tweet).

I've always been more interested in short stories than in novels, both writing and reading. However, if I hadn't discovered the Nanoism and PicFic websites, who publish tweet-length writing, I don't think I ever would've written anything that short.

I've been surprised how much you can get into a tiny number of words. This is especially true in science fiction, fantasy, and horror, where there are common plots that you can suggest by mentioning one or two elements.

I think I'm partly reacting against the tendency towards huge 'doorstop' novels, where every story has to be 1000 pages long and part of a series. It seems to be especially severe in fantasy.

I don't want to write a blurb that's longer than the book, so I'll stop there. If you're interested, the homepage for the book is Here, and my blog is Here.