1867 Update

If you follow this blog, you will already know that I am currently working with a friend (cyberpiper) in the production of an authentic historical reproduction of 1867 Luxembourg, using the Roblox platform.

Using old photographs and other historical documents, cyberpiper and I are producing a realistic computer generation of how this part of Luxembourg would have looked in the mid-nineteenth century.

If you are keen to see how the work in progress is faring, you are welcome to view the following video clip of a basic walk around the Rue des bons Malades. Cyberpiper and I are now working on buildings on the opposite side of the river, before proceeding to complete the section of the city beyond the church.

There is a great deal of work to do but you are welcome to visit what has been done so far, if you remain interested.

Click here for a link to the1867 game.

Can you recognise the location shown in this photograph, by visiting and playing the game?

Ultimately, our aim is to produce a working game that may encourage gamers to enjoy and respect our amazing shared historical heritage.

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1867

You may have seen very little activity from me, over the past few months, and wondered what I am up to.

You will already know, if you have read any of my free eBooks, that I am interested in Victorian history. Many of my stories are based around this era or set in a Victorian steampunk genre. You would be correct in thinking that the Victorian period is a favourite point of interest for me.

Since the start of 2019 I have paired up with an Internet friend of mine (cyberpiper) and, together, we have worked on the construction of a computer-generated reconstruction of 1867 Luxembourg. My friend lives in Luxembourg and has an avid interest in the year 1867, due to its importance in the history of Luxembourg. As for me, as you will already know, this project marries very closely with my own interest in history and my background in the education of children.

Although a great deal of work has been completed, there is still a vast amount of work left to do. It will be a long time until we can both realise our goal of a fully functioning game, set in 1867, where gamers can live, work and explore the city of Luxembourg, in 1867. Even still, this short video should give you a taste of what has been achieved so far.

If you are interested you can access the game by clicking on this link.

Fantasy Faire

Today at 12:00 noon (Second Life Time) I have been asked to participate in a literacy event at Second Life’s Fantasy Faire. I have chosen to read one of my stories, one that was pictured within the now redundant Pfaffenthal sim of Second Life: Professor Nibbler’s Most Amazing Mouse Circus.

If you are free in three hours time, you are welcome to log in and listen.

“Have you seen a real live mouse circus? If you have, you’re very lucky indeed, as very few other people have ever seen one. When Professor Nibbler brought his most amazing mouse circus to Pfaffenthal, two homeless children (Jacob and Molly) were enchanted by the posters that were pasted across the city. However, as is common with other stories from Maxwell Grantly, things don’t go according to plan. Discover how Jacob and Molly got to see the most amazing mouse circus in the world and find out what they saw there.”

You can find more details here.

Fantasy Faire Presentation

Maxwell Grantley presents ‘Professor Nibbler’s Most Amazing Mouse Circus’

When:

Fri, 19 April, (12:00 – 13:00 Second Life Time / 20:00 – 21:00 British Summer Time)

Where:

Trollhaugen (Second Life)

Description:

Have you seen a real live mouse circus? If you have, you’re very lucky indeed, as very few other people have ever seen one. As part of the performance, the mice will climb upon tightropes, perform amazing acrobatics and scamper about doing all sorts of incredible things. When Professor Nibbler brought his most amazing mouse circus to Luxembourg, two homeless children (Jacob and Molly) were enchanted by the posters that were pasted across the city. However, as is common with other stories from Maxwell Grantly, things don’t go according to plan. Discover how Jacob and Molly got to see the most amazing mouse circus in the world and find out what they saw.

For More Details:

https://fantasyfairesl.wordpress.com/

Fantasy Faire 2019

This Friday (Friday 19th April at 20:00 – British Summer Time) Maxwell Grantly will be talking about and reading from his story ‘Professor Nibbler’s Most Amazing Mouse Circus’ – as part of the online Fantasy Faire event. At the same time, he will be giving a slideshow presentation of illustrations from the book.

You are warmly welcome to attend the online session, if you are free. You can find more details about Fantasy Faire at the following link:

https://fantasyfairesl.wordpress.com/

Merry Christmas

Wishing each and every one of you a very Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year.

Thank you for following this blog.

If you have a few quiet minutes spare this festive season, have you read The Christmas Penny?

‘The Christmas Penny’ tells the adventure of two Victorian street urchins, who found a whole new penny, one Christmas in New Babbage, and saw Professor Jiggers’ Flea Circus. As with all stories by Maxwell Grantly, things never go according to plan. If you are interested in reading this story, it can be downloaded free of charge from Barnes & Noble, Blio, iBooks, Inktera, Kobo, Lulu and Smashwords. Simply type “Maxwell Grantly” or “The Christmas Penny” into the search bar at any of these eight sites.

Story-Telling of the Future

Originally, story-telling would occur by word-of-mouth. Then, with the invention of the printing press, paper-based books were soon to be developed and the novel was born. More recently, with advances in technology, audio books became popular. Today, with the popularity of digital information, people can now read digitalised eBooks on an electronic device.

You may agree that it is very difficult, if not impossible, to predict how story-telling will proceed into the future. However, could it be that the reading experience may become more interactive, with the reader becoming a participant in the story?

If this is the case, this picture may give you an appetite of what we might expect in the very near future. The children in this photograph have been inspired and taught by Hauptmann Weydert. They are following a projection of a story, by author Maxwell Grantly, upon a screen at the back of the studio as the plot is being read by the youth leader. At the same time, the children are exploring a digital reconstruction of the story’s setting on their own individual computer within Hauptmann Weydert’s IT studio. They have even been able to interact with different characters from the story at the same time, talking to them and playing a range of basic games.

Who knows how the reading experience may develop in the more distant future!

(Picture Credit: Hauptmann Weydert)

Transmedia Story-Telling

Today at 14:00 Luxembourg time (13:00 Greenwich Mean Time) a group of children from the Luxembourg Eich day care centre had an opportunity to listen to a retelling of Maxwell Grantly’s “Fire Starter!” story. At the same time, they were also able to wander around a digital reconstruction of the setting of the story to meet some of the characters from the book. You can see, in the image attached to this post, that they even had the chance to met the baby dragon that had just escaped from one of the chimneys in Pfaffenthal.

The crowd were able to wander around the digitally created streets of old Luxembourg, to the baby dragon’s favourite place: the smoke house. There was even a chance at the end of the story-telling session for a quick game of ‘chase’ around the streets of 1867 Pfaffenthal.

If you would also like to explore the streets that feature in the stories of Maxwell Grantly, firstly you will need a programme that will run on your PC or iMac. To do this, you’ll need to download some free 3D browsing software: the Second Life Viewer. You can download this viewer by clicking on the orange button at this link:

https://secondlife.com/support/downloads/

(Hint: this viewer runs best on a modern computer. If your computer is slow or very old, your experience may be sluggish.)

Next, after you have downloaded this viewer, just launch the software and then click on the link below, called a slurl. This slurl will transport you directly into the middle of a computer-generated reconstruction where you can explore the locations that feature in many of the stories of Maxwell Grantly. If you time your visit well, you can even meet the very characters that appear within these stories and chat with them one-by-one, in real time.

Here is the slurl that leads you into the heart of the city:

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Pfaffenthal%20Vauban/132/124/26

Enjoy yourself and who knows, you might even be lucky and meet Fingers, the pickpocket from Maxwell Grantly’s trilogy about this character.

(Sensible Internet advice: You may also meet other Second Life users, book readers and many sorts of other people from all around the globe, who are using the viewer at the same time. Many of these will be friendly and welcoming but there are times when you may cross the path of someone who is not. Sadly, I cannot control the actions of any other visitor to this three-dimensional world. It is for this reason, I would always advise that you do not allow children to wander about using this CGI software, without appropriate adult supervision.)

Meet the Characters

Wouldn’t it be amazing if, after reading a book, you could get up and immediately wander around the location of the story? How incredible it would be if you could actually explore the streets of the book’s setting and meet the characters about whom you have just read!

Well, with the power of technology, today you can!

If you want to wander around the streets that feature in the stories of Maxwell Grantly, firstly you will need a programme that will run on your PC or iMac. To do this, you’ll need to download some free 3D browsing software: the Second Life Viewer. You can download this viewer by clicking on the orange button at this link:

https://secondlife.com/support/downloads/

(Hint: this viewer runs best on a modern computer. If your computer is slow or very old, your experience may be sluggish.)

Next, after you have downloaded this viewer, just launch the software and then click on the link below, called a slurl. This slurl will transport you directly into the middle of a computer-generated reconstruction where you can explore the locations that feature in many of the stories of Maxwell Grantly. If you time your visit well, you can even meet the very characters that appear within these stories and chat with them one-by-one, in real time. (The illustration above shows my interaction with an underground child miner who I found digging in the network of tunnels beneath the city.)

Here is the slurl that leads you into the heart of the city:

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Pfaffenthal%20Vauban/132/124/26

Enjoy yourself and who knows, you might even be lucky and meet Fingers, the pickpocket from Maxwell Grantly’s trilogy about this character.

(Sensible Internet advice: You may also meet other Second Life users, book readers and many sorts of other people from all around the globe, who are using the viewer at the same time. Many of these will be friendly and welcoming but there are times when you may cross the path of someone who is not. Sadly, I cannot control the actions of any other visitor to this three-dimensional world. It is for this reason, I would always advise that you do not allow children to wander about using this CGI software, without appropriate adult supervision.)

Fire Starter!

I am very pleased to announce a new free eBook by Maxwell Grantly: “Fire Starter!”

When a series of fires broke out around the city, the finger of suspicion pointed to William Marley: the chimney sweep. Was he negligent with his sweeping duties? However, as is common with stories by Maxwell Grantly, all is not as you might expect it to be. Read “Fire Starter!’ to find out how William solved the riddle of the numerous chimney fires and, by doing so, saved the city’s inhabitants from their burning misery.

If you are interested in reading “Fire Starter!” you may like to know that this story can be downloaded free of charge from the iBooks store or from Kobo. Sadly, the software at Amazon does not allow a zero pricing and so (if you use a Kindle) you may also download this story – but at a very small charge. Just type “Maxwell Grantly” into the search bar at any of these three sites.