frobber on 17/2/2016 at 23:21

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Good to see TTLG still alive and kicking!

Shadowspawn keeps me posted on TTLG news. FenPhoenix also did a great LP in YouTube of my FM series. So, I'm still connected indirectly.

In recent years I've (mostly) moved on from designing spacecraft to earning a graduate degree in planetary science. These days, I study the moons of Mars among other things and I'm also working on a way to fly drones at Mars to look for life and survey possible human landing sites. Building models of the solar system isn't a whole lot different than physics in game engines -- and, in fact, I've actually used a game engine (Bullet) in my research. It's a cool job that has me working with some truly amazing people.

My reason for writing today is related to my 'night' job where I've been working on a book of short- and medium-length fiction called "The Golden Age of Heroes." Some of this is based on my knowledge of science. Overall, it covers a wide time period and generally has little to do with science. Stories are always about people no matter what is going on, and I'm not about to forget that rule.

During the last few months of my KoTP series (back in 2005) I recruited a "round table" of volunteers who were granted an inside look at the project before it was cast in concrete. In-process feedback to any creative project is critical, and I am looking to try the same sort of 'round table' with my story book. I won't mind corrections to my spelling, but I'm mostly looking for feedback on "holes" and any impressions including suggested improvements. I will not promise that I will follow suggestions. Mostly this sort of feedback kicks my creative engine into overdrive and the net effect improves the work dramatically.

To those interested in joining my round table, I will provide a link to a zip file, and you can take from there -- pick as many stories as you want to read and tell me whatever you think I should hear. At this stage in my life I am not looking for compliments and I'd rather hear about problems that need help.

If interested, please write to [email]Keneth_Ramsley@brown.edu[/email] - and I will send you a link to the file. Feedback to me will be via email. If a huge number of people are interested, I may set an upper limit on participants, but probably not. I also won't mind seeing discussion here on TTLG. But I am not expecting this.

If not interested, let me be the first to say that I get it.

I'd like to finish hearing feedback by early March. "Payment" for your help will be an acknowledgement in the book, and if the book is printed, you'll receive a signed copy. The book is likely to first appear as a Kindle edition -- in which case I'll figure out some way to grant you free access.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes!

Ken Ramsley (a.k.a., frobber)

Nightwalker on 18/2/2016 at 03:58

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This isn't technically Thief related but as frobber is a long-time forum member and best known in the Thief community here, I copied his thread from CommChat both to this forum and to the FM forum. Hopefully it will be seen by the people who are most interested in helping him out with his request.