Roger Ebert can't remember the last thing he ate. He can't remember the last thing he drank, either, or the last thing he said. Of course, those things existed; those lasts happened. They just didn't happen with enough warning for him to have bothered committing them to memory - it wasn't as though he sat down, knowingly, to his last supper or last cup of coffee or to whisper a last word into Chaz's ear. The doctors told him they were going to give him back his ability to eat, drink, and talk. But the doctors were wrong, weren't they? On some morning or afternoon or evening, sometime in 2006, Ebert took his last bite and sip, and he spoke his last word.

The Twijote project, as it is known, aims to publish the 470-odd pages of the first volume of Don Quixote's adventures using just the 140-character blocks of text allowed by Twitter. It has set itself strict rules, of the honourable but potentially foolish kind that Don Quixote and his creator, Miguel de Cervantes, might have approved of.

The 8,200-odd tweets needed to get to the end of the first volume must come from one-off visitors to the Twijote site. They are given the next block of 140 characters of text to put on Twitter. "We reckon it will take about a year, if people stick with it," said Pablo Lopez, a web designer from the north-western Spanish city of Vigo who thought up the project. "The idea is to show that culture can exist in social media – that it is not just a place for nerds and freaks," he said.

Twijote has no sponsors and no ambition to make money. "It is something we put up to see what would happen," said Lopez, who pulled in web designers from his company to help. "I had the idea one day and came into the office and persuaded people it was worth doing."

Pulp Fiction" screenwriter Roger Avary won't be tweeting again any time soon, a Ventura County sheriff's official said Monday. Avary probably will serve the rest of his yearlong sentence for a fatal drunken driving accident in the county jail instead of a lower-security work furlough program, said Sheriff's Department spokesman Ross Bonfiglio.

He's expected to be released next July. Until last week, Avary had been permitted to leave the furlough program daily to work at a production office, where he sent out tweets about strip searches, lockdowns and talks with gangbangers, officials said.

But after The Times published reports about the short messages, Avary was transferred on Thanksgiving to county jail. The tweets played a role in the decision, Bonfiglio said, but he said probation officials also had "security issues." "He really messed up," Bonfiglio said. "He could have done nine months out of a year sentence, and not even in lock-up, for killing someone. Now he is going to do the remainder of that time in county jail."

I am told that people have been twittering on my behalf, so I thought a brief visit was in order just to prevent any more confusion!

However, I should flag up now that although I could twitter endlessly, I'm afraid you won't be hearing from me very often.......... as pen and paper is my priority at the moment

But the vitriol Hoffman used to express her dissatisfaction was extreme. "Roberta Silman in the Boston Globe is a moron," one tweet began. "Now any idiot can be a critic," stated another.

At first, Hoffman defended her right to express herself any way she wanted. "Girls are taught to be gracious and keep their mouths shut. We don't have to," she wrote, and then continued a minute later: "And we writers don't have to say nothing when someone tries to destroy us."

That's not all: Hoffman tweeted Silman's phone number and e-mail address, encouraging readers to "Tell her what u think of snarky critics."

I feel this whole situation has been completely blown out of proportion. Of course I was dismayed by Roberta Silman's review which gave away the plot of the novel, and in the heat of the moment I responded strongly and I wish I hadn't. I'm sorry if I offended anyone. Reviewers are entitled to their opinions and that's the name of the game in publishing. I hope my readers understand that I didn't mean to hurt anyone and I'm truly sorry if I did.

Best,
Alice Hoffman

Okri released the first line yesterday, and will issue a line every day until publication. The poem will then be posted on his Facebook and MySpace pages, along with Ebury Publishing's blog. Okri said: "Forms follows adversity, we live in uncertain times. I think we need a new kind of writing that responds to the anxiety of our age and yet has brevity.

"Tales of Freedom, apart from the novella, brings together two short forms - the short story and haiku. My feeling is that these times are perfect for short, lucid forms. We need to get more across in fewer words. The Twitter poem tries to respond to this and the feeling of freedom."

Alex Holroyd, press officer at Faber, said: "His intention is to do the whole thing online, although it will depend on feedback and interest. It's a bit of an experiment - he is already a keen blogger and has quite a presence on the net, so we are hoping it will transfer over."

Morris updates his Twitter account "a few times a day" and followers can send him questions about the book, which he then responds to. Twitter allows followers to receive updates either online or on their mobile phone.

Holroyd said it was a useful method of "keeping his fans happy" until the next book in the series, entitled A Razor Wrapped in Silk, comes out in March 2010. "Hopefully he'll get some new [fans] in the process," she added.