John McDaid's Uncle Buddy's Phantom Funhouse
John G. McDaid is a science fiction writer and citizen journalist from Portsmouth, Rhode Island.His hypermedia novel, Uncle Buddy’s Phantom Funhouse, published by Eastgate Systems, won a New Media Invision Award finalist in 1993. As a member of the TINAC collective, he has spoken on digital narrative at dozens of colleges and conferences.
He attended the Clarion workshop in 1993 and sold his first short story, the Sturgeon Award-winning “Jigoku no mokushiroku” to Asimov’s in 1995. A novelette, “Keyboard Practice,” appeared in the January, 2005 Fantasy & Science Fiction, and his most recent story, “Umbrella Men,” was the cover story in that magazine in January, 2012.
As a citizen journalist, he has written about local news and politics on his site, harddeadlines.com for the past seven years; his reporting has also appeared on RI Future.
He attended Syracuse University, did graduate work at the New School University, and is ABD in Media Ecology at NYU. He lives in Portsmouth with his wife, Karen, son, Jack, and their feline companions Curiosity and Eclipse.
Versions
Uncle Buddy's Phantom Funhouse was released in two formats, on floppy disk and CD, both published by Eastgate Systems, Inc.
Version 1.1
1992: A box of five floppy disks, 12-page installation guide, installation flyer, letter from Vortex: The Anthology of Cyberfiction, nine-page short story, entitled "Tree," two music cassettes, one entitled "Retribution" and the other "The Story of Emily and the Time Machine"
Version 1.2
November 1993: A box of one CD, 12-page installation guide, installation flyer, letter from Vortex: The Anthology of Cyberfiction, nine-page short story, entitled "Tree," two music cassettes, one entitled "Retribution" and the other "The Story of Emily and the Time Machine"