New Book Series Punch Launched In The Time Yarns Shared World Science Fiction Transmedia Universe

Online, June 21, 2011 (Newswire.com) - The new science fiction book series Punch launched on Amazon, smashwords, and Barnes & Noble at the beginning of summer. Punch is a seven book series incorporating transmedia elements. One book will be published each month until December 2011.

Author Erin Lale says, "Punch book 1: The Loribond introduces the major characters and sets up main character Carla Punch's story arc from down and out ex-Marine in book 1 to galactic hero and finally a totally unexpected transformation at the end of book 6."

Punch is a story in the Time Yarns universe, a shared world in which Lale is also directing a film and publishing anthologies of other authors' short stories. The Punch series is designed as a transmedia experience, with the ebooks incorporating pictures and sounds and links to videos.

Lale says, "I'd like to embed the videos, but they're too long and take up too much memory. The technology isn't there yet in ebooks. In fact, the Nook version actually has less transmedia in it than the Kindle version because the PubIt system isn't as robust as the Amazon DTP system. That's also the reason the Nook version has different cover art than the full version, because the Nook's platform can't handle files that big. Neither system can handle an embedded 8 minute long video, though, which is why the Basic Dej Fighting video in book 2 is a youtube link instead of embedded in the ebook itself. Some day, as computer memory improves, ebooks will be able to handle full transmedia experiences. The Basic Dej Fighting video shows part of Carla's training as a Tsim Knight. I'm going to include as much of a full transmedia experience as I can cram into the available memory for ebooks. That's also the main reason why Punch is being serialized in 7 books instead of being published as one huge, humongous 400,000 word behemoth. I can only wedge in a few embedded photos in each book without going over the memory limits. It's like in the old days when I had to put each chapter of a book on a different disk. I hope it only takes a few years before ebook technology progresses to the point where there is enough memory to completely blur the lines between what's a book and what's a movie, music video, or comic. They'll also have to improve battery life to pull that off. I kind of tweak them on that in the book by having the dej energy weapon have a battery life problem too. There are all kinds of geek in-jokes in Punch, despite the serious subject matter of Carla's recovery."