Thought I’d do a press release about Time Crystal for the Times Educational Supplement so teachers can get children to look at it. Here it is:
Young adult readers to shape new novel
British author Phil Brown has invited young adults to comment on the first few chapters of his forthcoming novel Time Crystal and to follow his progress over the next few months as he writes the final third of the story.
“Reader feedback is essential to me,” Phil said. “I know this is a fabulous story with huge potential and I want to make it irresistable to the target audience, which is the 14 to 18 age group.”
Some of the educational benefits of this project are obvious. Students can see an author’s work in progress and read about his writing methods, problems and victories as he struggles with a work in progress. They can also help to shape the work by making critiques of the work.
But there are other benefits which are not quite so apparent at first sight. The story will eventually follow the characters as they move back in time through the entire history of the universe, back to the Big Bang itself and beyond. That is why the author describes this story at the Greatest Adventure in the History of the Universe. It is writing on a epic scale. This vast range brings extraordinary educational potential. A wide range of basic (and not-so-basic science) will be covered. History in its broadest possible sense will be brought to life. And these two strands, science and history, will be interwoven so the reader will see how each determines the other.
Further the social consequences of science will be explored. The moral and ethical issues surrounding scientific experiments are a major theme as the characters struggle to cope with the aftermath of disaster.
Phil takes his writing very seriously. He has spent five years researching this work, including making periodic trips to CERN in Geneva where the story is based, learning about the engineering and software that will drive the new Large Hadron Collider accelerator and the huge ATLAS detector, both due to start working in December 2007. The story is set in 2012 and follows the events during and following a disaster in ATLAS.
“It’s essential to me to get the details as accurate as possible,” Phil said, “and the people at CERN have given me incredible support for which I’m immensely grateful. Now I need to know how readers respond the the work. I’m very open to suggestions. Adult readers have already made significant contributions to the work via the Internet and now I want feedback from young adults.”
The project is available on-line at www.timecrystal.co.uk. Phil hopes to complete the first volume of the epic by the end of June 2007 so readers are advised to visit the site as soon as possible. However this is a huge project, planned to span five volumes, so there will be future work to follow over the next five years or more.
Ends
Notes for Editors
Contact Information
Philip Brown can be contacted at philip@timecrystal.co.uk. An on-line profile is available, including contact details.
CERN is the Centre for European Nuclear Research just outside Geneva and is the world’s leading nuclear physics research establishment. Details of this and the other items mentioned in this release are available on-line.
