A Twitter Murder Mystery

Hello everybody,

I’m in a Pop Culture and Communication class and we were assigned a project to show the power and potential of Twitter. For my project, I decided to craft a murder mystery that will take place entirely through a real time Twitter feed.

Seven characters are going to a mansion for a dinner party when—what do you know—a murder takes place. Along with the host of the party, his surly butler, and the determined detective the crime will (probably) be solved.

You can follow along on Wednesday March 30^th starting at 7PM EST. It will take place for about three hours.

There are two ways to watch all of the comedic action. Keep track of the hashtag #popclue. All of the tweets will have that tag.

Or you can follow all 10 characters which you can find at these links:

http://twitter.com/DetectiveNotes

http://twitter.com/JennyFlowers01

http://twitter.com/LowlyButler

http://twitter.com/MisterGainey

http://twitter.com/MsProfessor

http://twitter.com/NextBestGangsta

http://twitter.com/PinkNRad

http://twitter.com/SteveOnTop

http://twitter.com/VirtualMom18

http://twitter.com/WriterTy

UPDATED: Another way to keep track of the story is to follow the list featuring all of these character: http://twitter.com/AustinLugar/twitter-murder-mystery-2

This will be an entertaining experiment in telling a story with a new platform. There will be plenty of jokes and clues through the duration. The more people follow along the more fun it will be. So if you think this sounds good, please tell your friends to follow these accounts or the hashtag. (If you write about this, I would love to know.)

I hope to see you on Twitter this Wednesday at 7PM!

--Austin Lugar

Spiffy Reminders and BoucherCon

Hey everyone,

Just a reminder that two of my favorite books of the year are actually now available to buy. The Ghosts of Belfast (The Twelve) and Juliet, Naked. I highly recommend both of them and you can see more paragraphs explaining why in their respected reviews.

Also while I have your attention, BoucherCon is next week! BoucherCon is the world's largest mystery convention and this year it's in Indianapolis. I've had the fun job of being in charge of the Anthony Awards and those will be awarded next Saturday. Check back at this blog for the winners. Or follow me on Twitter to get more up-to-date information from the ceremony @AustinLugar

Also a really fun thing I'm doing will be a series of interviews for The Reel Deal at BoucherCon. So once again, check back at this blog for the YouTube links and schedules of when they will air on The Reel Deal. I don't want to jinx anything, but we have a lot of great authors confirmed for a sit-down interview to discuss their relationships with Hollywood. One MAY rhyme with Bichael Bonnelly and the other is most definitely Charlaine Harris. Also many more.... Get excited.

Mystery Authors on Twitter

Now I am a big fan of the movie blog /Film. They are very fast and very informative with all sorts of movie news. They have a reoccurring story on their blog where they attempt to have a definitive list of all the celebrities that are on Twitter. Now for all of you who don’t know yet, Twitter is like a blog but you only have 140 characters to write something. It can be quite entertaining when you have someone like Jason Reitman giving updates on post-production of his new movie or comedian Michael Ian Black giving brief jokes.

Yet you know who Twitter really seems made for? No not boring teenagers who think updates like “I’m b0red!!!4!” are insightful. Writers! And who are the best kind of writers? Mystery writers! So here I am to try and do what /Film did, but with mystery writers. Now obviously I am missing people; I tried my darndest to get everyone so if you have more links for me, just put them in the comment field and I’ll update this whenever I have new names.

Mystery Authors

Jeff Abbott

Megan Abbott

Susan Wittig Albert

Tasha Alexander

Donna Andrews

Elspeth Antonelli

Suzanne Arruda

Sandi Ault

Deb Baker

Lorna Barrett

Lorraine Bartlett

Laura Benedict

Maggie Bishop

Nash Black

Stephen Booth

Rhys Bowen

Kylie Brant

Carl Brookins

Don Bruns

Julia Buckley

Alafair Burke

Jan Burke

Laura Caldwell

Bill Cameron

Chester Campbell

Sean Chercover

Lee Child

Douglas Clegg

Harlan Coben

Jeff Cohen

Meredith Cole

Kate Collins

Bill Crider

Marlis Day

Jeffery Deaver

Kyra Davis

Robert Dugoni

Carola Dunn

Barry Eisler

Christa Faust

Margaret Fenton

Jasper Fforde

Joseph Finder

John Gilstrap

Lee Goldberg

Chris Grabenstein

Andrew Gross

Allan Guthrie

Timothy Hallinan

Erin Hart

Libby Fischer Hellmann

David Hewson

Steve Hockensmith

Julie Hyzy

Sue Ann Jaffarian

Peter James

J.A. Konrath

Harley Jane Kozak

Vicki Lane

Victoria Laurie

Joyce Lavene

Debra Lee

Austin Lugar

C.J. Lyons

Debbi Mack

G.M. Malliet

Craig McDonald

F.M. Meredith

Stuart Neville

Alan Orloff

Sara Paretsky

Ann Parker

Ridley Pearson

Jason Pinter

Neil Plakcy

Ian Rankin

Christopher Ransom

Deanna Raybourn

Kathy Reichs

J.D. Rhoades

Emilie Richards

Hank Phillippi Ryan

Marcus Sakey

Tom Schreck

Lisa Scottoline

Carole Shmurak

Joanna Campbell Slan

Alexandra Sokoloff

Beth Solheim

Kelli Stanley

Jason Starr

Patricia Stoltey

Leann Sweeney

Duane Swierczynski

Terri Thayer

Lisa Unger

Stephen White

Simon Wood

More Awesome Mystery People

Busted Flush Press

Criminal Minds

David J. Montgomery

In Cold Blog

Jon Jordan

Minotaur Books

Murder By the Book

Mystery Dawg

Mystery Bookstore

The Mystery Company

Poisoned Pen

Sarah Weinman

Soho Press

I know what some of you may be thinking. Am I really an author? Since BoucherCon is being silly and calling me one, I’ll stick with it. Now remember, whenever you find another mystery author on Twitter or you find a link that doesn’t work leave me a comment or shoot me an email.