New hyperstory release:
“The Pyxis Memo: On Resurrecting the Free Web” (a hypertext in eBook form)
The Fracture of 2018 ended the United States as we know it. The fear, the violence, the bombs…where did it all originate? And can the box of destruction be closed once it’s been laid open?
As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, Wonderbox is my little experimentation baby. I’m a writer and researcher in digital fiction, and in the past couple of years I’ve been questioning more and more why this fascinating, nubile, agile form of narrative hasn’t really hit the mainstream, despite almost 3 1/2 decades of creativity, sharing, and growth. So I turned my research and creative activities to publishing.
If you’ve had a squiz at the Wonderbox website, you may have noticed under “Projects” is a listing for Hyperbooks. This is my creative + publishing experiment to see if I can bring new (paying!) audiences to digital fiction through the established and thriving marketplace of eBooks. Why not? They’re already hypertextual!
I published my first “hyperstory”, a short hypertext in eBook form, last year about this time: “The Futographer“. I haven’t pushed it much, but my mom likes it, so there’s a ringing endorsement for you. It’s always been my aim to write something my mom would “get”, and not need me to walk her through it (she liked my previous interactive fiction, but it was definitely a guided tour).
Of course, this is the same woman who follows her “I love yous” with “I guess somebody has to.” Take her endorsement as you will.
Anyway, I’ve just released my latest hyperstory, “The Pyxis Memo: On Resurrecting the Free Web“. It’s not as straightforward, and my mom hasn’t read it yet, but my husband has, and he liked it, so there’s another ringing endorsement for you.
My goal with these hyperstories is to establish a niche for these works in eBook marketplaces. Start small, go big. Through the smaller texts, I’ve been learning the best ways to code my XML files so the hyperstories function as closely to online hypertexts as possible (yeah, there will be an academic paper or two out of this at some point), and hopefully building a little audience of awareness for them, so that when I finally work my magnum opus out (it’s coming, trust me), it will function brilliantly and beautifully and make me the next J.K. Rowling. Or, at least, I hope it won’t suck.
There you have it. Check out “The Pyxis Memo”, and let me know what you think (#PyxisMemo).
