Interactive narrative - at Poole literature festival

Interactive fiction -

Some just really click through a story -

http://www.poolelitfest.com/new-media-prize.php

Ideas about writers sites - and image of writers

I'v been looking at writers sites - Haven't come across many I really like much so far - They mostly seem almost like directory listings - very few inspire a reader to pick up any of their books.
Sites about books - seem more thought out in terms of appeal to an audience - So Lee Child's Jack Reacher - http://www.jackreacher.co.uk/

I rather like this site - http://www.malcolmpryce.com/home.html - It does echo the style / type of writing / books he produces - I like the simplicity of the interface and there is a simple concept to it - looking inside the writers head - although not hugely original fits the purpose - and to me is more appealing than so many that are more catalogue like in style. You also get a sense of personality from the site - so many seem really just publicity material. Like Ian McEwan's - http://www.ianmcewan.com/ - As are many writers sites they are third person about the author - rather than by the author - an extension of the book cover information - Even Ian McEwan's blog and Facebook are about him rather than by him.

Some sites seem to have a forum or some opportunity for fans to communicate / participate -
The Life of Pi - http://www.lifeofpi.co.uk/ - had a 'read along' - not exactly sure how this worked - it isn't explained in detail anywhere obvious on the site - and there are readers videos (not many) -

The Irvine Welsh site - http://www.irvinewelsh.net/ - After an introduction does seem a personal site and does reflect the author - And not just as a writer of fiction - The site has a journalistic flavour to it.

Margaret Atwood's site is interesting and full of resources - very magazine style and mixes her writing and writing about writing with her environmental campaigning - which does put her writing in context - http://www.margaretatwood.ca/index.php

An aside - my son has altered my facebook settings to be in pirate speak - So the facebook pages of these illustrious authors - Cap'n McEwan and Cap'n Atwood - have been very entertaining - and illustrates a factor about the web, which is the lack of control any author has when their work is released into the wilds of the web - The way it can be copied and edited, mashed up, or translated into real or fictional tongues - gives the written word a life of it's own - In some ways it guess it always has had - being retold - translated - adapted for different mediums -

More ideas about goggle mapping

I have completed a google map story - with video clips of audio of the story and still photographs - I would rather just straight audio but not sure I can manage to do it - What I have so far isn't really there yet - it is too linear - the photographs are distracting - and the voice is not right. I think the next version will be organised as dates and titles - will span a longer time frame and be more standalone snapshots of events in Piotr's back story- not one narrative over several locations but separate incidents - that in total paint a picture of where he has come from but do not follow one set narrative - More non-linear fragments is more applicable to this medium.

Reading

I have been reading a lot about reading habits - Interesting ideas from Kevin Kelly on his blog -

About the notion that we are now more active when we read - and when we read on screen - follow links - look things up communicate with other people about what we are reading. He proposes that reading will become a more physical activity. There is much discussion that follows in the comments about 'screening' - reading on screen and whether readers take in as much information, whether the brain works in the same way reading from screen as from paper and what this means -

I suppose what interests me in all this though is the notion of the active participation in and the possible expansion of the act of reading facilitated by screen reading mediums - and whether these are enriching extensions or distractions from the central message / story /communication. But with reading available on screen devices will readers wander anyway? Are we now in the habit of reading around the subject, googling for ourselves and making our own extensions to the books we read?

I have yet to read a novel on the ipad - but hopefully will soon - and I am keen to see how my experience will differ and what extra content appeals. This Ideo video proposes a possible future for reading - bit glossy -

The Future of the Book. from IDEO on Vimeo.

Mike Wesch's video about text on line - Explains very well the ways in which the database driven web (web 2) has altered the way we write and the way in which we collectively sift through content on line - The ideas about multiple authors - meaning created through tags - pathways through information collectively authored, is all very interesting.

Google maps

I have been working on a google map - It is a narrative that introduces a character by charting their arrival in LIverpool. The first attempt I received some interesting comments on - particularly about how readers had zoomed into the satelite images - obvious really - and how this recognition of spaces - the whole location based aspect had worked - and so I wanted to make more of this - also some felt that you get a photorealistic image and there is movement which makes the experience quite filmic and so we discussed the use of sound - I found an example of a map with sound - which is great and ideally how I would like to make my map - I really like the simplicity of it - http://www.soundseeker.org/ - but this seems difficult to do - and I don't want to get bogged down in the technology but concentrate on the story - and how to structure it across locations. So far I have used video clips called from youtube - which is simple and straightforward to do - although has drawbacks - I liked the idea of still images but didn't want moving images - so mostly the video is a still image and sound - The images are not right - not really what I want to convey - or right in terms of location - Although I don't want literal images from the locations - more to give texture and atmosphere. I recorded my own voice - which is ok - but I am seeking a young male voice which I think will sound better - so more work to do - but here it is so far -

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=107650386987840170604.00048f8054e4984544be6&ll=53.375252,-2.933816&spn=0.001648,0.004174&t=h&z=18&iwloc=00048f80587ac5e58764e