The Boy Detective Fails
by Joe Meno
Fourth Story Media
A fresh perspective in storytelling
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Welcome to Fourth Story Media
We are a new media company. We tell stories that unfold across books, the web, mobile phones and other forms of media. We invite kids to participate in the stories they read...
Traditionally, stories would be told through one medium. A film would exist as a film. A book would exist as a book. Now, the internet and new forms of technology are enabling storytellers to tell their stories not through one medium, but through every conceivable form of media.
— Michael Smith, CEO & Owner, Mind Candy and Perplex City
What We Are Reading
Blue is for Nightmares
by Laurie Faria Stolarz
A Gate at the Stairs
by Lorrie Moore
Invisible I
by Melissa Kantor & Stella Lennon
Today I Wrote Nothing
by Danil Kharms
Latest Conversations
January 8, 2010
Talking Monkeys, Helpful Robots, and Cars That Run on Trash
The Philadelphia Inquirer’s adorable Decade in Preview: The Youthful Vision interviews “experts” (kids mostly under 13) on how the world will be different in 2020. Although no one makes predictions about books, robots, female presidents, and lasers look like they’re going to play a central role in our lives.
Some highlights:
- I think in 10 years there will be a device that makes monkeys talk to you in English. It will be the next big hit in the U.S. (Lexi, 8 )
- Robots will take over the world. They will have lasers. (Jorah, 12)
- I think in 2020 there’s going to be a woman president, TVs will have touch screens, and I think I’ll be a famous/rich artist. (Robyn, 11)
- There may not be any blue sky. (Annie, 7)
- By 2020 I think there will be screens on every desk in school, and trains that run under water (not in tunnels). (Blaise, 12)
Read the full piece here.
(via Buzzfeed)
November 2, 2009
Galley Cat Describes TAP as an “Alternative Reality Soap Opera for Teen Readers”
Last week, MediaBistro’s Ron Hogan stopped by our offices to chat with us about The Amanda Project and what we’re up to at Fourth Story Media in general. We had a great time – jumping into a discussion about immersive fiction – soap operas, ARGs and role-playing games, books – the works! From his post:
“The effect, we commented to Holton, was like a participatory soap opera, or a massive Dungeons & Dragons campaign with one dungeonmaster and hundreds of players; she brought up the classic text-based puzzle games Infocom created for home computer owners in the 1980s, which set us both on a nostalgia kick for their adaptation of The Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy, one of the truly great interactive fictions. (Interestingly, that was the second time this month we’d found ourselves in that conversation!)
“A lot of adults had a really hard time grasping this,” Holton says of the way the books and the website link together into one overarching immersive narrative, “but I would explain it to a 13-year-old girl and ” (she snaps! her fingers) “she’d get it in 30 seconds. In fact, beta users used to tell us it took them a long time to figure the website out, and it would turn out ‘a long time’ was five minutes.” Inspired by the initial success of The Amanda Project, Fourth Story is already preparing another series, a science-fiction-themed narrative aimed at young male readers. “In some ways, this is radically different than what I’d been doing for the last 20 years,” Holton reflects, “but the basics are still the same… What’s the story? And how do you think readers will be interested by it?”