Welcome to Carolyn Handler Miller's Website!

Hi, there!
THIS WEBSITE focuses on the many hats I wear as a writer (and my specialty in new media), and also on my work as a speaker, teacher and consultant…

I invite you to...

AND HERE'S SOME NEWS…

My Book

The second edition of my book, DIGITAL STORYTELLING: A CREATOR'S GUIDE TO INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT (Focal Press) has gone into a second printing! It was also recently translated into Korean. The new edition covers hot new areas like Alternate Reality Games (ARGs), virtual worlds, serious games, and user generated content. It also contains some fascinating new chapters, such as the one on robots, androids and animatronic characters. In addition, there's a whole new multi-chapter section on using digital storytelling techniques for information, education, training, promotion and marketing. And of course it includes updates of all the topics covered in the first edition, including transmedia storytelling and serious games. It’s available in various retail bookstores, through my publisher, Focal Press, and through Amazon (which you can order from the box on the right)….

Recent and Upcoming Engagements

I’m excited that I’ll be one of the presenters at StoryWorld, the upcoming conference on transmedia storytelling taking place in San Francisco in early November.

Transmedia storytelling is clearly an in-demand topic! In the recent past, I’ve also done a guest lecture on transmedia storytelling at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles and was slated to do an interactive lab on transmedia storytelling for The Screenwriting Conference in Santa Fe, though this year’s conference was unfortunately canceled. I’ve also been in discussions with a major non-profit organization about doing a Webinar on transmedia storytelling.

And during the past several months, I traveled back East twice to do lectures and talks – to New York, New Jersey and Florida. I also flew up to Seattle, to do a workshop for the Northwest Screenwriters Guild. I did several talks in California as well, at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts and at the Hollywood Campus of Columbia College of Chicago. I also did two renditions of my talk, The Seven Kisses of Death of Children’s Interactive Media, once for the Dust or Magic App Camp in Monterey, CA., and once again for the Dust or Magic Institute in Lambertsville, NJ. Most of it was captured on video in the New Jersey Dust or Magic Institute (see below).

YouTube Video

You can see a YouTube video of my “Seven Kisses of Death” talk that was taped in New Jersey, though the beginning unfortunately got lopped off. Also, why in the world am I waving my hands around so much??? Well, I guess talking about this topic always gets me excited.

New Writing/Consulting Projects

I've been working recently on two Web-based virtual worlds for children, each quite different from the other. The Jasmine Club is a multi-faceted site, partially geared for social networking, and it's designed for girls in the Middle East, an under-served group if there ever was one. It's going to be visually rich and full of interactive possibilities. At present, I’m working on a multi-part series of interactive stories for the site, but right now the Jasmine Club is still in its early stages. Here’s a link to an article about it, though.

The other children's site I'm involved with, however, is much further along. It's called the Bamboo Bunch, and it's a fantasy site populated with gnomes, fairies, imps and the like. It even has its own video on YouTube.

In addition, I've been doing some consulting for a company developing a line of educational and personal development games and have been doing some initial work in creating an interactive children’s adventure story for the iPad. For more information about my work as a writer and consultant, please visit the section of my website on writing, speaking, teaching and consulting.

University Teaching

I’m continuing to teach for the relatively new IFDM program (Interdisciplinary Film and Digital Media) at the University of New Mexico. This semester, I’m teaching a class called Activating Digital Space. My students are hard at work creating games for smart phones, developing interactive stories for the Web and building transmedia projects. I think – hope! – they are having fun! In any case, they are definitely on the cutting edge of digital media. My lectures focus on theory and content development while the labs are dedicated to the hands on work of building digital content.

Last semester, I taught a new online course for IFDM, Storytelling for Emergent Media. As the name suggestions, it was about creating narratives for various forms of New Media. This wasn’t your grandpa’s online class, either! We used video, audio and web conferencing, and the entire course was intensely interactive.

Going back a little further, last summer, I was a guest faculty member for a program called Girls Make Media, held at the Santa Fe Community College. The goal of the program is to encourage young women to think about careers in media. In the past, the focus has been on film, but my role was to introduce the students to the possibilities of digital media.   

I also recently served as Dissertation Mentor for two graduate students working on their MA degrees at De Montfort University in the UK, for their forward looking Master’s Degree program in Creative Writing and New Media. I’ve been teaching online for the program for the past several years. Sadly, however, that wonderful program has been discontinued. However, I’m grateful that the university has archived some of my materials and has also archived my lectures, as well as the lectures of other guest lecturers.

KAPi Awards Judge

Last winter I was honored by being asked to be one of the judges for this year’s KAPi Awards (Kids At Play interactive). The judging process was a stimulating experience and we debated with great thoughtfulness about the winners for every category. The awards were presented this Jan. 6 at CES (the Consumer Electronics Show).

Founders Space

I recently joined Founders Space as an advisor. Check them out.

Founders Space

Please, do come back again for updates and new features! Thanks.

Carolyn Handler Miller