Executive Severance [Paperback]

Robert K Blechman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 14, 2011

Executive Severance, while a work of fiction, is delightfully full of references to Media Ecology, and especially to Marshall McLuhan. You don't have to be a media ecologist to love Executive Severance, or laugh at Blechman's extraordinary sense of humor, but if you are now or ever have been one, you will get a great deal of added enjoyment from your reading experience.

What makes the print edition of Executive Severance truly exceptional is the amazing illustrations that accompany the story, produced by the acclaimed cartoonist, David Arshawsky.
-Lance Strate, author of On the Binding Biases of Time and Other Essays on General Semantics and Media Ecology

Editorial Reviews

Review

Executive Severance, a masterful work of Twitter microblogging fiction, is delightfully full of punny dialogue, clever character conditions, and a total lack of adherence to the old "rules" of storytelling.

"A delightful 'twitstery' - a mystery written in real time Tweets - that is compelling, entertaining, and shows off what can be done in the 140-character form with style and mastery. Poe would have been proud of the new form Blechman has given to the mystery story."
- Paul Levinson, author of New New Media and The Plot to Save Socrates

"A He Dunit. It's got everything: narrative drive, mystery, comedy, thrills, tension, laughs. Blechman is on to something, a genre as important to literature as the invention of haiku in rhyme. ..."
- Marvin Kitman, media critic, author of The Man Who Would Not Shut Up: The Rise of Bill O'Reilly

A laugh out loud comic mystery novel that is born from the juxtaposition of authorial invention and technological communication innovation. Hold the phone; exalt in the mystery--engage with Blechman's story which signals the inception of a new literary art form.
- Marleen S. Barr, Envisioning the Future: Science Fiction and the Next Millennium

"Embracing the challenges found in publishing via the medium Twitter, Bob Blechman's super silly story Executive Severance is stuffed with punny dialogue, clever character conditions, and a total lack of adherence to the old "rules" of storytelling."
- Michelle Anderson, mediaChick, The Miracle in July - a digital love story

From the Author

"What could be more practical for a man caught between the Scylla of a literary culture and the Charybdis of post-literate technology to make himself a raft of ad copy?" -Marshall McLuhan

According to Wikipedia, the Twitter network began in 2006 and as of this writing in 2010 is approaching 200 million users worldwide. By 2009 I realized Twitter was a happening thing and if I didn't jump on the bandwagon I'd be left behind with my ocarina and tambourine. But how to proceed? I had dabbled in Facebook and MySpace, but this Twitter thing was different. Limited to 140 characters (or less), with no photos, videos or extended links, Twitter conveyed the brief, the inconsequential, the trivial. In other words, the Twitter medium was a perfect vehicle for my literary aspirations.

I conceived a literary experiment: Was it possible to maintain a narrative structure and attract a reading public 140 characters at a time? After 15 months and the more than 800 tweets that make up this Twitter novel, I can say confidently that the answer is "no."

I adopted the detective genre as the driver for my story because the brevity enforced by the Twitter medium of necessity requires that much be left out of the narrative. In Understanding Media, Marshall McLuhan said:

"Likewise, in reading the detective story the reader participates as co-author simply because so much has been left out of the narrative."

Twitter as a medium forces the reader to fill in many of the blanks, so the detective genre mirrors the biases of the Twitter medium.Would my hero solve the crime? Would he undergo physical and mental trials? Would he get the girl? Would he spawn a publishing franchish? I soon realized that Twitter forced me to adopt the serial techniques of newspaper comic page story telling. To succeed I needed to learn and adopt the narrative strategies of Al Capp (creator of L'il Abner) or Chester Gould (Creator of Dick Tracy) as well as Raymond Chandler or Mickey Spillane. How did comic strip authors hold their readers' attention each day and tell a joke while moving the story forward? How did mystery writers plant clues to direct or misdirect their readers while inexorably leading to the revelatory climax?

Like advertising, I had concerns about reach, frequency and repetition. I didn't have the advantage of artwork, so I had to duplicate the effect with words alone. I spent a lot of time in the New York Public Library reading archives of newspaper daily comic strips. Comic strip artists can't assume that their readers will see every issue published, so story telling in the funny pages involved a lot of repetition. The last panel of the Friday strip was often the first panel of Monday's entry so readers who missed last week would see it again this week. Since my Twitter history was readily available to my followers I decided that I wouldn't do a lot of repeating.

So the Twitter environment forces storytelling considerations similar to advertising, and also similar to daily comic strips. There has been some concern about the negative influence of Twitter on spelling, grammar and punctuation. I suggest that Twitter detractors consider the gold in the Twitter stream, not just the dross.

I created a new Twitter account "RKBs_Twitstery" as a container for my novel and coined a new term for the Twitter mystery genre. Starting on May 6, 2009 I posted a new Executive Severance tweet twice a day every day for 15 months, never missing a deadline. The 140 character limit required intensive wordsmithing, creative editing, the omission of punctuation in some cases and a lot of counting. I cultivated brevity, concision and obsessive-compulsion. Fortunately, once I completed my writing I was able to leave these habits behind. The cumulative result of my Twitter efforts is collected the Twitter Novel Executive Severance, just released by NeoPoiesis Press and available at Amazon.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 148 pages
• Publisher: NeoPoiesis Press, LLC; 1st edition (December 14, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0983274754
• ISBN-13: 978-0983274759
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.3 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,585,467 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Recent News

Executive Severance, a comic mystery novel composed entirely in Twitter, has won the coveted 2012 Mary Shelley Award for Outstanding Fictional Work from the Media Ecology Association!

Executive Severance author Robert K. Blechman received his award at ceremonies Friday, June 8 2012 at Manhattan College in Riverdale, NY.

Commenting on his award, Dr. Blechman said: "Of course the Mary Shelley award is sought after by all serious writers. I am honored to be chosen as this year's winner."

About the Author

Robert K. Blechman has 30 years experience as an information technology executive and consultant. He graduated from the University of Chicago with a BA in English Literature and went on to earn an MBA in finance and a Ph.D. in Media Ecology from New York University. Dr. Blechman taught courses on media industries, media theoy and mass media studies at Fordham University, Hunter College and Queens College. His areas of expertise include social media, advertising and media industries.

In his corporate career Dr. Blechman held senior technology and finance management positions at iconic national institutions including St. George's University, Columbia University Medical Center, the New York City Board of Education, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, HarperCollins Publishers, Olympia & York Real Estate Management, and CBS News.

Starting on May 6, 2009, Dr. 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, Dr. Blechman completed his "twitstery" or twitter mystery in 15 months. The 140 character limit of Twitter required intensive wordsmithing, creative editing, the omission of punctuation in some cases and a lot of counting. To succeed he needed to adopt the narrative strategies of Al Capp (creator of L'il Abner) or Chester Gould (creator of Dick Tracy) as well as Raymond Chandler or Mickey Spillane. Midway through his creative efforts he was approached by NeoPoiesis Press to bring his Twitter postings together in book form.

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/.

A Twitter sequel to Executive Severance is in the works. Follow @Twitstery to be part of this new Twitter Fiction!

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A page turner! What a great idea! March 28, 2012

By kef

Format:Paperback

I wish I had thought of this! I think Blechman is on to something with this 'genre'.

As for this specific book - it's really, really witty and clever! It's a quick and easy, enjoyable and funny read. I'd recommend it if you're traveling, commuting to work (public transportation only!! no driving and reading!), on vacation, etc. It gets you thinking "outside the box" (pun intended!). I truly enjoyed reading it, and my roommate is reading it now. I hear her laughing in her room as I write this :)

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Smart, funny and clever... February 24, 2012

By Jeannette Kantzalis

Format:Paperback

Told in Twit-format, this novel was originally an experiment.
What the author came up with was brilliance!
Buy it. You won't be sorry!
Josephine the Outlaw King

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A book of humerous porportions June 2, 2012

By TicToc

Format:Paperback

Article first published as Book Review: Executive Severance by Robert K. Blechman on Blogcritics.

Is it truly possible to write a novel using 149 words or less over an extended period of time? Obviously it can be done, but would it be readable and make sense. Would it flow in such a way as to peak your interest?

Well if you enjoy high slapstick comedy, and a sense of the pun, look no further than Executive Severance by Robert K. Blechman. Writing a novel using twitter seems such a daunting task, and yet Blechman persevered and did it with certain panache.

Take a B-grade movie and add a bit of "Mystery Science Theater" for poking fun and you get a slight definition of how this novel reads. A murder mystery full of oddballs and skullduggery, goofy scenarios and just a jumble of happenings, the tweets are very readable. At times the writing is a bit incomprehensible due to some of the characterizations of the protagonists but you find you are soon able to decipher the strange writings.

Almost comic book style you can visualize the characters with the ever present bubble from our days of reading them, the flow is along the same lines. The prose is written in a steady even pace, even with the 149 or less characters needed in order to be tweet-worthy.

If you love fun and comedy, as well as slapstick humor this is an insightful way to get your fix. The story while just a bit absurd is also a mystery, a bit of a thriller and much, much more. To use such a forum and create a work that reads so well requires both talent and patience, we see that with clarity in this strange and witty whodunit.

If you are a twitter fan you will find much of the novel also twists around some of the issues with tweeting, and you will find some hilarity as well as possible frustration from your own experiences. This is a tickle your funny bone experience. Reading some of the tweets during parties and group events would be a fascinating way to break the ice in a way that would create a buzz. Try it on for size and see what you think. This could become a cult favorite.

This book was received as a free copy from the author. All opinions are my own based off my reading and understanding of the material.