Help Neil Gaiman Tweet A Book

Celebrated novelist Neil Gaiman is the mastermind behind the book "Coraline." I watched the movie with my godson, who fearlessly wanted a repeat viewing. It was a tough call. as I was still horrified by its whimsically fantastic but grim context. While watching BBC 1 the other day, when not wondering why the Balloon Boy hoax is world news, I learned that Gaiman has launched a cool project: a crowd-sourced short story created via Twitter.

It started last week. The British author (@Neilhimself) tweeted the first line of the story and turned it over to his fans to continue the narrative by following @BBCAA and using the hashtag #bbcawdio.

Here it is: Sam was brushing her hair when the girl in the mirror put down the hairbrush, smiled & said, "We don't love you anymore."

The final product will be released as an audiobook from BBC Audiobooks America. Expect the free download to be posted by the end of the year.

It's a sort of interactive storytelling that seems to fall in line with the natural order of the “always on” culture we live in.

Michele Lee Cobb, director of marketing of the BBC tells Library Journal the crowd-sourcing project was partially inspirted by "Twitterdämmerung," a fan-twittered opera that debuted last month at London’s Royal Opera House.

In August, the Royal Opera website posted the opening sentence: "One morning, very early, a man and a woman were standing, arm-in-arm, in London's Covent Garden." A mere 900 tweets later, organizers say they compiled a seven act libretto. In the end it became a 25 minute performance with a piano accompaniment opening to decent reviews.

So far the story ... well, it's hard to tell where it is actually going. But die-hard Gaiman fans are overjoyed to have the opportunity to be so close to his creative process.

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.org.