Manoj Pandey likes to keep it short. So, in 2011, the Delhi-based writer/illustrator registered the Twitter handle @TalesOnTweet and began posting stories of 140 characters or less. Pandey's first story went like this, "When Ruben woke up on his bed the next morning there was a whale lying by his side. The bed was wet. Yet, he wasn't alarmed." His taut tales caught the eye of publishing giant Penguin Books USA, and its review of them on Twitter went viral. Subsequently, some of the most celebrated names in literature joined Pandey's pursuit to make every character count. Indian politician and author Shashi Tharoor wrote, "Gandhi saw the misery of Partition and broke his vow of silence. He wept." Booker Prize winner Margaret Atwood tweeted, "Red footprint, white footprint. An axe in the snow. But no body. Was a large bird involved? He scratched his head and made notes." The Satanic Verses writer Salman Rushdie tweeted, "She died. He followed her into the underworld. She refused to return preferring Hades. It was a long way to go to be dumped." Pandey now gets 600 submissions per month, the best of which are being compiled into an illustrated book to be published by HarperCollins India next year. "At this point, we are trying to get as many interesting tweets as we can," Pandey says. The deadline for submissions to be considered for the book is October. Tweet your tales to @TalesOnTweet or use the hashtag #TalesOnTweet on Twitter.
