UPDATE (2016): I have changed my Twitter handle so this story is no longer easy to read online.

I had the pleasure of being selected as a featured storyteller for the Twitter Fiction Festival (May 11-15, 2015). I've never done anything like this before, and it definitely had its positives and negatives. Joining the ranks of esteemed authors such as Celeste Ng, Jonathan Evison, Margaret Atwood, and Daniel Handler, and plenty of talented writers, I unveiled a short story, "We've Never Had a Death at the Silver Leaf Hotel," in 3 parts over the course of 3 days.

Next: @FabulistCat's continuing #TwitterFiction story of life and death in a hotel. Follow along at http://t.co/ihDxcPGgdk
— Twitter Books (@TwitterBooks) May 15, 2015

When I originally pitched the story, I knew a couple things for certain: 1) I was going to tell the story from multiple fictional Twitter accounts. 2) I wanted a wedding and a funeral to be happening almost simultaneously.

And I knew a couple small details about each of my characters: the Silver Leaf Hotel's social media feed, Lucy (a housekeeper), Ted (front desk manager) and Drew (a sous chef). I knew the story would take place in the NC mountains in a hotel much like a cross between Grove Park Inn and Hot Springs. And...that was it.

Each night, I wrote the story live, using TweetDeck, and bouncing between characters. It was a lot of fun. I made it up on the spot, which had a great sit-around-the-campfire-and-now-it's-your-turn-to-tell-something-good vitality to the narrative, something which I hadn't felt in a while. A kind of excitement of making up a story on the spot, like I do when I babysit children.

On the third night, I was unexpectedly delayed because Thad got sick after dinner, but a late story is better than a non-story, I guess.

Whew. That was...interesting. Never took care of a sick kid while live-tweeting fiction before.
— Catherine Campbell (@FabulistCat) May 15, 2015

All in all, a fantastic experience using a years-old platform in a new way for myself. I'm thankful to the crew behind the Festival for asking me to be a part of it.

To see the story, go to #SLHfic on Twitter and select "All" tweets to read the story from the bottom up, beginning to end.