[Purple-Blurb] Two Blurblets soon; full series resumes in Spring

[Nick Montfort]

Dear Purple Blurbers,

Sorry for not mentioning it sooner -- I'm on leave (sabbatical) this 
semester and don't have teaching or related responsibilities at MIT. So, 
as I dutifully focus on research and creative projects, Purple Blurb is 
also on leave. We'll both be back in February 2011 for the Spring 
semester.

In the meantime, there are two mini-Blurb events that may be of interest 
to you:

(1) November 2 book release party for my Riddle & Bind
(2) November 7 codefest for my interactive fiction system, Curveship

(1) My book of poems Riddle & Bind (with an official publication date of 
October 31) is out. One day Amazon will have an image of the cover. But 
for now, anyone can order the book through either Amazon or Spineless 
Books, which does have an image of the cover:

http://spinelessbooks.com/riddle

There’s a book release party happening here in Cambridge, in Harvard 
Square:

Grafton Street Restaurant and Bar
1230 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02138

Tuesday November 2
6-9pm

You’re invited to stop by, peruse the book, and hang out with us. The book 
will be available for sale, too, but if you just want to come by and flip 
through it, or try to crack the code of Christian Bök’s encrypted 
back-cover blurb, that’s fine too. Grafton Street serves fine food and 
drink, and you’re welcome to purchase yourself some of it -- there are no 
retail obligations, though.


(2) If you have some experience programming in Python (it need not be 
extensive) and would like to spend a good bit of November 7 helping me 
with my interactive fiction system, Curveship, please send me an email for 
details on this gathering.

Thanks to a great suggestion from Prof. Fox Harrell, I’ll be hosting a 
one-day Curveship Codefest. People are welcome to write games, to write 
spin (ways of narrating), and to hack on the core Curveship system with 
me. We’ll be working toward a release of Curveship under a free software 
license in December or January.


I'm working with others to line up some great events for Spring 2011. I 
hope to see you at one or both of these -- but in any case, will look 
forward to catching up with you next semester.

  -Nick

-- 
-   Nick Montfort         nickm at nickm.com     http://nickm.com
--
-   Associate Professor of Digital Media
  -  Program in Writing & Humanistic Studies, MIT
--  77 Massachusetts Avenue, 14N-233, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307