As some of you know, I am a fairly recent and fully immersed convert to the power of twitter. I have discovered cool new art through twitter, bought awesome things, been amused by cats and found new horse-based free to boot. And boots, the guy who sells my western boots often posts pictures of new arrivals on twitter – it’s generally delightful.

My twitter feed is made up of three things: general and often strange musings; #cowboyhour, a weekly event I run where each Friday we indulge in something suitably fitting for which I try and get photos (last week we had a play by play of horse shoeing, just for those who have never seen it done); and stuff about the writing. And it is, of course, on this last point that I wish to speak with you.

There is lots of cool writing stuff on twitter, and you can keep up with your favourite authors with the #amwriting hashtag (there is also an #amediting for those who dedicate themselves to making us authors look a bit more clever than we actually are, and for this, we thank you). And because twitter is on my phone, I often accompany these with pictures taken from my current writing screen: tiny little snapshots into the world of the future. There aren’t ever any actual spoilers, but by following me on twitter, I guarantee you’ll get more information about Kieran and Robin, Oli and Buddy, and the Chalk Horse Hill pack, sooner than you would otherwise.

The last part of this is that often, other agencies on twitter will launch competitions and challenges. Edinburgh Book Festival (@edbookfest) are currently running a series of themed ‘a story in one tweet’ challenges (for those of you who don’t know, twitter is limited to 140 characters per tweet), and I am lucky enough to have been features for yesterday’s challenge: “Beginnings”

You can follow all the entries with the #StoryShop hastag, and you can find out more about the challenges and the featured authors here: https://storify.com/edbookfest/twitter-storyshop-challenge