Daniel Pinkwater’s novel Bushman Lives! ends just as Harold Knishke and his friend Geets (and some other familiar characters) are setting out across Lake Michigan, rowing towards that mysterious island (you know the one). Soon after, Mr. Pinkwater revealed (via pinkwater.com) we might never find out what happened to Harold & company:
I had a book in mind, but the publisher changed its policy. Instead of offering a contract in advance, after which I would write the book, as they had for The Neddiad, The Yggyssey, Adventures of a Cat Whiskered Girl, and Bushman Lives, they said they would be willing to look at a finished manuscript for another book, and possibly publish it. I had no confidence in the editor, and besides I’ve never done it that way with a novel. There didn’t seem to be any point in approaching another publisher with what they would regard as part of a series published by another company. So I haven’t written that book. I would like to write it, and I’m considering publishing it as an ebook, or possibly offering it as a serial online, chapter by chapter.
Recently, Mr. Pinkwater’s dormant Twitter account came to life. More recently he started posting what would appear to be the continuing adventures of Harold. So did his publisher wise up? Does he have the novel complete and ready to serialize by chapter? Or is he going to serialize it sentence by sentence on Twitter? We also can’t rule out he’s simply decided to make it up as he goes along, tweet by tweet.