In the pre-computer days an author would have done this with physical piles of paper and a great deal more frustration. Now it’s easy. I’ve got a utility I wrote in Word which allows me to instantly select [...]]]> Recording Episode 14 I realise it’s too short, so start chopping up later chapters and re-arranging the bits.

In the pre-computer days an author would have done this with physical piles of paper and a great deal more frustration. Now it’s easy. I’ve got a utility I wrote in Word which allows me to instantly select a whole chapter and find out how many words it contains. I can slice chapters up and move the parts into other chapters with ease. This allows me to concentrate on the real problem, which is how to keep three strands of the story going (Sam’s, Marianne’s and Alex’s points of view) and ensure that events are synchronised across them, while keeping each Episode at around 2500 words and so around 20 minutes long.

Looking back at how much has changed over the past 20 years in terms of the tools available to authors it’s absolutely revolutionary, and a privilege to be part of it.

You can get Time Crystal from iTunes or Podiobooks on a schedule to suit yourself.

Click to hear Time Crystal at Podiobooks

In the sister publication Art & Science of [...]]]> The bee feeds Michael and he is transformed into something even more horrible, but at least he explains to Sam what is going on.

Podcast

You can get Time Crystal from iTunes or Podiobooks on a schedule to suit yourself.

Click to hear Time Crystal at Podiobooks

Art & Science

In the sister publication Art & Science of Time Crystal (which is now available on Podiobooks and iTunes) I explore how to promote Time Crystal and also give an update on the start of the LHC at CERN.

Click to hear Art & Science at Podiobooks

References

In this episode I refer to the following videos on the CERN web site:

http://cdsweb.cern.ch/record/1211563

http://public.web.cern.ch/public/ (this video might not be there for very long)

Read this Episode

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Childhood He was raised in a Catholic family, very close to his mother but dominated by his policeman father, whom he feared.

Adolescence He decided to join the fire service partly in an attempt to win his father’s respect. He [...]]]> Origins
Ludovico was born in Naples on 9 September 1968, making him a 43 year old Virgo on Crystal Day.

Childhood
He was raised in a Catholic family, very close to his mother but dominated by his policeman father, whom he feared.

Adolescence
He decided to join the fire service partly in an attempt to win his father’s respect. He was not very successful with girls, partly because he was too keen to win them, having far more confidence in his own attractiveness than circumstances warranted.

Personality
He tends to be secretive, nursing grudges against those he feels have slighted him, and secret passions for all the women whom he wants but cannot get. He tends to perform unhealthy and often violent acts in private to relieve his frustration. His conversation is splattered with childishly sexual innuendo.

Physical Appearance
Ludovico is not ugly but the leery smile and wandering hands that he tries to run over females who get too close make him repulsive to most women. For some reason he has never tried this on with Sofie, the only woman in the CERN Fire and Rescue Service, possibly because relations between fire-fighters are different from any others.

Childhood Sofie had a happy childhood, having good relationships with both her parents who loved her and her two sisters.

Adolescence She decided to go into the Fire [...]]]> Origins
Sofie was born in Thessalonika, Greece on 8 June 1986, making her a 25 year old Aquarian on Crystal Day. Her parents were manual workers in the hotel and catering industries.

Childhood
Sofie had a happy childhood, having good relationships with both her parents who loved her and her two sisters.

Adolescence
She decided to go into the Fire Service after seeing fire-fighters battling with forest fires on the outskirts of town and feeling here was a challenge worth taking.

Adulthood
Sofie has a boyfriend in Thessalonika but when she saw an advertisement for a secondment to CERN in her fire station she could not resist the opportunity to travel, meet people and gain experience. She fully intends to return to Greece and probably get married when her secondment ends.

Personality
She is a well-balanced young woman who loves her job. Within her team she tries to act as a conciliator and peace-maker especially when Ludovico annoys other members of the Service. She does not have many friends in Geneva as she has to work odd hours.

Physical Appearance
She is a strong healthy young woman who keeps herself fit. Some people consider her good looking but she thinks her nose it too big and her eyes too far apart to fit that description. She has a ready smile and an attractive figure.

You can get Time Crystal from iTunes or Podiobooks on a schedule to suit yourself.

Click to hear Time Crystal at Podiobooks

In the sister publication Art & Science of [...]]]> As a giant bee arrives at Sam’s crystal network he sees Marianne revive Catriona and Alex, who then goes off to find the doctor.

Podcast

You can get Time Crystal from iTunes or Podiobooks on a schedule to suit yourself.

Click to hear Time Crystal at Podiobooks

Art & Science

In the sister publication Art & Science of Time Crystal (which is now available on Podiobooks and iTunes) I follow up last week’s talk by describing how I have used graphical tools to help me plot scenes. I describe my use of Frameforge Previz Studio and Adobe Flash. You can listen to this as a podcast in the normal way…

Click to hear Art & Science at Podiobooks

…but because I talk about lots of graphics I have included the images here and also added the following video.

You can find the images referred to in the podcast here.

Read this Episode

If you prefer to read you can download this episode either in Portable Document Format (pdf) which can be read on the free Adobe Acrobat reader or as a free eBook.

PDF (Right click and Save as to download)

eBook (Right click and Save as to download)

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Comments on: Time Crystal By: frotter Oct 18 2009 this is really poor…..cancelled my subscription. if this is best podi can cum up with then i’m wastin my time here.

I wish I could discuss it with him and find out why he [...]]]> I found the following comment on the RSS feed for the podiobooks edition of Time Crystal:

Comments on: Time Crystal
By: frotter Oct 18 2009
this is really poor…..cancelled my subscription. if this is best podi can cum up with then i’m wastin my time here.

I wish I could discuss it with him and find out why he hated it so much (sounds like a man!). Negative feedback is extremely useful in helping a writer improve his work.

One bad response is not enough to put me off, but it has made me re-think what I am doing. I recorded Episode 12 last week and listening to it today I have decided to re-write it, increasing the tension and drama as far as possible.

So thank you, Mr Frotter, for giving me a kick up the backside!

I had printed posters and fliers, even though I knew it wasn’t really appropriate for the current target audience. The conference was focussed on using computer games to help in education, health and disability. The game part of Time Crystal hasn’t [...]]]> I attended the Interactive Technologies Conference at Game City 2009 in Nottingham Council House today.

I had printed posters and fliers, even though I knew it wasn’t really appropriate for the current target audience. The conference was focussed on using computer games to help in education, health and disability. The game part of Time Crystal hasn’t been fully developed yet, and I’m so busy with the two podcasts I don’t get time to do much, but there is the forum so it seemed worth going if only for the experience.

Here’s a snap of the posters and fliers.

I also ran over to Nottingham Castle to meet astronomers from Nottingham University to prepare for the astronomy day I am helping them with on Saturday, then left the Conference early to go to another meeting in Leicester about a science festival in March, but by the time I got there the meeting was over.

Still, I collected the names of some people at the conference who wanted the CD I had prepared for the occasion, containing the first 10 episodes of Time Crystal and the Art & Science, and I gave out a few fliers, so it was almost worth it. I had taken a microphone and audio recorder in the hope of getting a podcast out of it for next week’s Art & Science, and I did record several hours of the talks, but unfortunately none of the material was suitable for a podcast. So perhaps worth the 13 hours I spent on this today, just about.

And when I come to check out the names of the people who asked for a CD I realise that one lady, who I thought was Spanish, was actually Hungarian! I will now listen to her talk again, and see if it helps with George or Alex’s accent.

You can get Time Crystal from iTunes or Podiobooks on a schedule to suit yourself.

Escaping from the stretcher with Sam’s help, Marianne reaches the balcony where he helps her to find Catriona and Alex. He can see beyond the strange bubble. But there is danger approaching him through the sky of the pink planet.

Podcast

You can get Time Crystal from iTunes or Podiobooks on a schedule to suit yourself.

Click to hear Time Crystal at Podiobooks

Art & Science

In the sister publication Art & Science of Time Crystal (which is available on Podiobooks and iTunes) I discuss how to write a scene, exploring the point of view character and whether to use the top-down or bottom-up method.

Click to hear Art & Science at Podiobooks

Read this Episode

If you prefer to read you can download this episode either in Portable Document Format (pdf) which can be read on the free Adobe Acrobat reader or as a free eBook.

PDF (Right click and Save as to download)

eBook (Right click and Save as to download)

Free eReader

You can use eReader to read eBooks on many different devices, both mobile and desktop, including

• iPhone
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• BlackBerry
• PalmOS
• Pocket PC
• Windows Mobile
• Smartphone
• Symbian
• Windows
• Macintosh
• OQO

You can download the free eReader and download other eBooks at the eBook store.

I also include static images. These supplement episode 12 of the Art & Science of Time Crystal, due to be published in Podiobooks and iTunes on 1 November 2009. I describe my use of Frameforge Previz [...]]]> Below is a video explaining the graphical tools I have used to help me to plot scenes in Time Crystal.

I also include static images. These supplement episode 12 of the Art & Science of Time Crystal, due to be published in Podiobooks and iTunes on 1 November 2009. I describe my use of Frameforge Previz Studio and Adobe Flash among other tools.

Here is a video generated using images from Frameforge of an old (and now deleted) version Episode 1.