Author Peter Urpeth's new novel - 'MacKenzie's Issue' - is to be written on Twitter - tweet by tweet - yes, that's 140 characters a time until the end!

The new novel - at this stage - will focus on the strange life of the last son of an obscure branch of the Clan MacKenzie, and is set on Scotland's north west coast, and in the Outer Hebrides. However, this might change as the tweet novel emerges, bit by bit.

Peter Urpeth said:

"As a writer, a novelist, I am intrigued by the opportunities, challenges and limitations the digital world generates, and I want to explore and experience new digital media from the viewpoint of a writer of long fiction. My new 'novel' - 'MacKenzie's Issue' - will be written tweet by tweet with an undertaking by me to add at least one new tweet section every day until the end is reached and the archive of tweets will remain accessible so that new readers can catch-up at any time.

"At this time, with the publishing of the first tweet, the novel is only 140 characters complete. Normally as a novelist writing and publishing in the traditional manner, the book would of course be finished and have gone through countless revisions before seeing the light of day and being exposed to a readership. This one is 'published' as it is written and that obviously removes much of the writer's ability to edit, rework, reappraise, reject or rejoice in his/her words. I have not pre-written this book, it is new at the point of every tweet, and I also aim to reflect on and respond to feedback from readers. One immediate challenge is to make sentences that have economy, and which work within the limitations of the 140 character maximum tweet entry, and part of me wants to use twitter to see how our conceptions of the novel itself are challenged by new media.

"I must also say that of course, this route to publication, this method of writing, side-steps the entire traditional publishing process. This is not a totally new idea, tweet novels have been posted before, and some have been bought-up and subsequently published in traditional form. So this is also an exploration of digital marketing for writers, and maybe a new way of reading or experiencing fiction, too."

Peter Urpeth is a novelist, improvising musician and is Writing Development Coordinator for the Highlands and Islands arts development agency, HI-Arts (www.hi-arts.co.uk). His first novel 'Far Inland' was published by Birlinn Polygon in April 2006. His short stories have been published by Two Ravens Press, amongst others, and as a journalist he has written for national newspapers in the UK, the arts and music press in Europe and USA. He lives on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides.

MacKenzie's Issue can be found at:

http://twitter.com/peterurpeth