What is Blind Date?
Blind Date is an ‘interactive romance’.
What’s an interactive romance?
I don’t know. It’s just a description I made up. It’s an ebook, I guess. An ebook and an audiobook. For a while I thought about calling it an ‘interactive short story’, but ‘romance’ seemed funnier.
So it’s like a Choose Your Own Adventure?
Sort of, except that’s a copyrighted term. So no (officially). Also, there’s only one ending. All the choices you make are in the middle. I feel like I’m giving too much away, just play it and find out for yourself.
So there’s a definite beginning and end, and it’s only the middle bit you choose? Is this some kind of comment on or joke about fatalism perhaps?
I don’t know.
Why didn’t you release it on Valentine’s day?
I was too slow. I wish I’d released it on Valentine’s day. Oh well.
Is it safe for work/children/my prudish aunt?
There are three swear words in it (two f-bombs and an s-bomb), if I’m remembering correctly. There’s no sex or anything.
It sounds pretty romantic.
I think you should just read it and find out.
Why isn’t it free?
Well, it kind of is if you just play it on bandcamp by clicking through the tracks. If you are completely broke or you want to review it for somewhere and you want to read it instead of listening to it, send me an email (chriskillen@gmail.com) and i’ll send you the epub or mobi file for free. I’ve set the downloads at £1 or more because it took me a while to make and I don’t have very much money right now and I am hoping vaguely that a few people might pay to download it and I can put that money towards next month’s rent while I finish the final edits on my next novel.
How long did it take you to make?
I wrote the original text version over a few weeks last year. Then all this ebook/audiobook stuff has taken an extra week or two, too. The full text is about 8,000 words long.
How did you make it?
I used Microsoft Word (to write it), Sigil (to make the epub file), Kindle Previewer (to convert the epub to mobi) and Reaper (to make the audiobook version). I don’t actually own an ereader, so I haven’t been able to test them out fully. If you notice any weird faults or anything with the epub or mobi files: sorry/please let me know (chriskillen@gmail.com).
What else have you made/written?
I made another interactive short story thing a couple of years ago, which was a prototype for this one I guess. It’s called I Am Having a Nice Time and you can play it online. I wrote a novel called The Bird Room which was published in 2009, and I have a second novel called In Real Life due for publication in 2014. I helped write and make a film called Wizard’s Way which is due out later this year. For other links/stuff/etc, please visit my blog and/or my ‘official website’.
