The Red Forge Publishing House

By Keren Sutcliffe

Trinket 2017

First entry of Blog 2011
Website created by Keren Sutcliffe : The Red Forge Publishing House
2015 and updated in 2016, 2017, 2021, 2024, 2025

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without prior written permission.
This work was continually updated on The Red Forge Publishing House website from 2014 to ongoing to 2025.

theredforgepublishinghouse.com
Copyright © The Perpetual Tale, The Red Forge Publishing House, The Theodorus Spiral Company, Maxden Library and Information Services

A painted elephant is an unexpected, incongruous, amazing feat that is well outside what is expected.
‘push the envelope’ = ‘to paint the elephant’

Here we go together to discover the Theodorus Spiral as it reaches out to the far corners of the universe but also possibly as it doubles over itself as it goes inwards.

Rainbow Spiral 2014

Flare 2017

Kembla’s Statue 2017

Hello and “what’s this all about?”

Kes Enterprises 2015

You have come across a creative installation which is multi-media, multi-faceted and with multiple access points.
The Red Forge Publishing House is an ongoing piece of writing, music and artwork that has evolved from previous work explained further down. It is developing into:
• written word: A Perpetual Tale and The Red Forge Publishing House
• music: Hopeful in the Paradox (formerly Homeless in Paris)
• painting + sculpture: Kembla’s Work: A monument to Hypatia
• information service Maxden Library and Information Services
• MATLAB art designs
• play titled The Red Forge Publishing House. First performed Korked (Port Adelaide) 2017 and Adelaide Fringe 2018.
Another dimension is the Theodorus Spiral Company which is a website highlighting everything about the Spiral of Theodorus. Effort has been put into the Winding Pattern and still hoping to produce Theodorus Shields in the future. Another area is the idea of travelling to Libya to find evidence of Theodorus of Cyrene being there or any artifact showing an example of a Theordorus Spiral.
Kes Creations was added in April 2015. It is an online store to purchase The Red Forge Publishing House and Theodorus Spiral Company merchandise.

I originally wrote My Painted Elephant for an entry into the Paris Literary Prize run by the Shakespeare & Company Bookshop but it has since developed into a multi-media work of hypertext fiction and real-time music and sculpture.
I began writing the third section The Wave and the Particle in June 2015 and it developed into a hypertext fiction. It was the sequel to My Painted Elephant but could have been read first. Late in 2015 I rearranged the work creating three books: My Painted Elephant, The Red Forge Publishing House, and The Wave and the Particle.
These works are now entwined in the story A Perpetual Tale and the play called The Red Forge Publishing House. The main themes are: sci-fi themes: holograms and time travel, information science and the psychology of success versus failure. There are two historical characters Theodorus of Cyrene and Hypatia. Kesbooks Skytower does exist, but she seems to be stuck in Second Life. I still enjoy the idea of a hologram sent from the future. The other characters Max, the information agent and Charlotte, the owner of the Theodorus Spiral Company and Marla are fictional. New characters were introduced in The Red Forge Publishing House, Tarnie and Leroy. Tarnie is the music director and Leroy the science writer.
Marla really wanted an editor and for a couple of years a new character, ArkiMay was the editor but as of early 2024 ArkiMay is Chat GPT (Chatty G).
Marla was played in the Adelaide Fringe 2018 production by Tuesday Udell who along with Bridget Giannini were important collaborators. Exciting times finding actors for Max and Charlotte literally the day before. It was a special moment when someone arrived with a printed copy of a ticket.
At the last meeting of The Red Forge Publishing House (September 2024), Tarnie was acknowledged for her effort writing the songs and learning to play piano and guitar and being able to promote the work at local pubs.
At this stage all the work is my own except Chatty G prepared Investigating the Legacy of Theodorus of Cyrene: A Research Proposal for Archaeological and Mathematical Evidence in Shahat, Libya.

King Regards
Keren Sutcliffe

Contents

Hello and “what’s this all about?” 5
Contents 7
The Blog 9
Script: The Red Forge Publishing House – The Play 20
A Perpetual Tale 27
Homeless in Paradise 72
KesCreations Merch Shop 73
Keren’s 60th Birthday Party Speech 74
Ars Conjecture by Jakob Bernoulli 1713 77
MATLAB CODE 2011 78
Theodorus Spiral Winding Pattern 80
Theodorus of Cyrene 82
Investigating the Legacy of Theodorus of Cyrene: A Research Proposal for Archaeological and Mathematical Evidence in Shahat, Libya 83
The Letters 86
The Datacom Poem – It’s been months. 88
The Gold Lotus Song 90
If it Don’t Work Out with you Mate 91
The Freedom Song 92

Shed Art 2020 Instagram Post

The Blog

Tuesday 30 July 2024
Much has happened since the Fringe Performance!
I am still working on the story, play, artwork and music. It keeps me engaged in something and takes my mind off my worries.
I have finally worked out the code to get the MATLAB art work out of MATLAB thanks to ChatGPT.
Posted by Kesbooks at 06:54

Wednesday 4 October 2017
The Red Forge Publishing House Adelaide Fringe Performance

Posted by Kesbooks at 17:25

Monday 17 July 2017
Upcoming Performance
The Red Forge Publishing House will perform at Korked in Port Adelaide on the 27th of July 2017 at 3.30pm to 4.30 pm and then have a space at SneakPeak SALA over the weekend 28th – 29th of July 2017 in Carlton St Port Adelaide.

The performance will be a telling of A Perpetual Tale and playing of Homeless in Paradise (Helpless in the Paradox). The art space will have Kembla’s sculpture and painting, garments that Max and Marla wear at Maxden Library and Information Service and some Matlab presentations.

Posted by Kesbooks at 04:29

Saturday 14 January 2017
Time marches on.

2017 has come and things have revved up a bit. Stumbling into the Data Science course has led to quite a lot more to think about and given me so much more material for my writing…now I just need to follow through and get it completed. Maxden Library is taking shape and I have begun looking for a grant to be able to employ some staff to help out. Very exciting times.

Posted by Kesbooks at 12:18

Thursday 10 December 2015
Tracks at the Railway

Homeless in Paris performed live at Adelaide Railway Station 9th Dec 2015
Posted by Kesbooks at 19:08

Thursday 5 November 2015
A Perpetual Tale by Keren Sutcliffe

“The Age Entitlement is Over” quote by Joe Hockey Australian Treasurer (2012–2014), makes it sound like it is possible to come up with a source of income overnight.
This is my attempt to do so. By inventing a story and weaving it through time, using Social Media and whatever means available to promote it. Is it working? Not yet.
Problems:
• The content itself; is the story good enough?
• Is it novel/unique to enough to be of interest without being so confusing that readers are lost?
• Is the commercialisation of it right, ie asking readers to buy a t-shirt if they like it?
• The promotion of it. Considering the vast amount of stories and competition for peoples time; how to get noticed?
Posted by Kesbooks at 14:37

Tuesday 27 October 2015
New Media Writing Competition
Wow, you never know what will come up next!
Stumbled across a competition that I could enter The Red Forge Publishing House into:
http://newmediawritingprize.co.uk/

Monday 12 October 2015
Port Festival 2015

Artist and Designers Market @Port Festival 2015
Thanks to everyone who came through.
See you next year.
Posted by Kesbooks at 21:11

Thursday 8 October 2015
Port Festival 2015

All is prepared. I am not sure how well it will go down tomorrow. I certainly am wondering what is to become of me (Homeless in Paris). I have told Gwen I will be brave and I have pledged all proceeds to the Artist Blacksmiths Association of South Australia.

Yes, I will take the magic wand.
Posted by Kesbooks at 18:37

Saturday 29 August 2015
I will be performing My Painted Elephant at Port Festival.in October. I will play Homeless an Paris and have the sculpture on show. I’m a bit nervous but seem compelled to get people to read the story.

I’ve started writing another work call The Wave and the Particle. I am going to try writing it directly onto the website.
Posted by Kesbooks at 00:18

Monday 6 July 2015
New book cover

Hi, I have started writing the next installment of My Painted Elephant and it is called The Wave and the Particle. I am finally really enjoying the writing process but having bit of a struggle keeping up with my ideas.
Posted by Kesbooks at 13:49

Thursday 18 June 2015

This is Kesbooks. She is a hologram sent here from the future.(some time around the year 3000). The science surrounding this feat are unknown at this time. She is trying her best to fit in around here and has begun working as the Librarian at The Red Forge Publishing House.
Posted by Kesbooks at 03:22
Hi, since I went to an Information Session on Social Media at the Adelaide City Library I’ve been really getting into my “Online Presence”. My character Kesbooks has been Tweeting, signed up to Google+, Tumblr, Instagram etc. It has brought on a feeling of need to press on with My Painted Elephant and get it out to a readership ASAP. I want to rename the written portion The Wave and the Particle. My Painted Elephant will still be retained at the title of the overall work which includes: the novel, the musical piece, the sculpture and the creative installation.

Posted by Kesbooks at 03:15

Wednesday 20 May 2015

I’ve been practising my song Homeless in Paris. You can view video at
theredforgepublishinghouse.com
Posted by Kesbooks at 23:19
Wednesday 8 April 2015
New Online Store
Purchase The Red Forge Publishing House and Theodorus Spiral Company merchandise @ Kes Creations

Posted by Kesbooks at 19:10

Sunday 23 November 2014

from the Red Forge in Adelaide South Australia, artist Keren Sutcliffe
Posted by Kesbooks at 20:54

Thursday 11 September 2014
My Painted Elephant: Part 3: A monument to Hypatia is still being constructed.
the red forge facebook page
Posted by Kesbooks at 18:42

Saturday 23 August 2014
The Next Layer
The Next Layer is the second book in My Painted Elephant. Brenda finds herself in the “place where she feels good all of the time”. Everything is just as she always wanted it, the people are interesting, the architecture and artworks are amazing. She has a room with a great view and downstairs there is a pool and a bar. She meets Paul who is her case manager/personal assistant. It is pretty cool.
Posted by Kesbooks at 21:11

Thursday 10 July 2014
Homeless in Paris

Hi this is my first attempt at a presenting my piece of music which is Part 2 of my art installation:

My Painted Elephant (written word)
Part 2: Homeless in Paris (music)
Part 3: Kembla’s Work: a monument to Hypatia (sculpture)
Part 4: online footprint
Posted by Kesbooks at 19:49

Sunday 25 May 2014
the red forge facebook page

Posted by Kesbooks at 20:56

Sunday 25 May 2014
the red forge animated logo

Posted by Kesbooks at 20:44

Tuesday 6 May 2014
The second level: ‘it’s a game’.

‘Yes, a multi-level, online and real world puzzle.’
‘Are there clues in My Painted Elephant?’
‘My Painted Elephant has background information, it will help to read it, if you can. I know it was written in a rush but you can learn something about the characters and the settings’.
Brenda struggles to except that her good modern life is all her life is going to be and leaves her family to write a novel while living rough in Paris. Her novel is about the Theodorus Spiral, holograms and time entanglement.

‘What is the first accomplishment in the real world puzzle?’
‘You go to the bookshop and play Homeless in Paris’.
Posted by Kesbooks at 17:17

Friday 24 June 2011
Welcome to the red forge.

I am supposed to be studying for my exams but am distracted by the idea of having my first blog. I intend for the red forge to be a place for me to put out my ideas but the red forge is also a physical place – my blacksmithing forge. It is really great being a blacksmith in South Australia at the moment because we have started the Artistic Blacksmithing Association of South Australia with some really fantastic, enthusiastic members.

Anyway that’s it for now.
Posted by Kesbooks at 03:08

Script: The Red Forge Publishing House – The Play

Adelaide Fringe 2018

Bridget rings the bell. Audience settles.
Set: Park Bench with Theodorus Spiral cushion with Kesbooks Skytower picture and Eiffel Tower ornament.
Keren at keyboard. Plays intro music.

Keren: Good Evening and Welcome to The Red Forge Publishing House Fringe Performance. We are all very excited to be here to present to you what we hope will be a fun and interesting hour of entertainment. There will be a short break where you are welcome to chat and stretch your legs but please when you hear the bell try to focus on the play again.
So, without further ado, make yourselves comfortable and sit back and relax.
Keren: This story begins with a woman named Brenda, who while she has lived a wonderful life, raised a family with her loving husband, had begun to feel, ‘is this it!’. The niggling feeling has slowly turned into an obsession and the desire to express herself became more and more urgent. She began writing a story, performing a song, painting a picture and slowly this amalgamated into what she called a creative installation.
Keren walks of the stage and sits in the audience.
At the same time:
Brenda walks onto stage sits on the bench and opens the laptop. Speaks to the audience a little forlornly: I don’t know why I have left my home in Adelaide, Australia to come to Paris to write my story. I just found the distractions at home unbearable, so I left home without telling anyone to come here to write. I am very worried I have made a dreadful mistake…what will become of me?
If I just write one sentence at a time perhaps I can make it happen. I’m going to call it My Painted Elephant and I am going to make the chapter lengths proportional to the change in the hypotenuse of the Theodorus Spiral.
Brenda speaks cheerfully. Max is one of my main characters. He is an information warrior. It has been hard for everyone to keep up with all the changes in information technology, but he has toiled away keeping abreast of it all. He has built up his information agency while others have been allowing the big tech companies to take over. And he has championed for the small and large causes such as dwindling library resources and customer rights and expectations to good customer service in the tech savvy, data rich world.
Max: Max walks on stage and speaks to the audience. You should be in control of your data from the cradle to the grave and I will help you to achieve this. Having trouble dealing with large companies such as utility or energy companies, in agony trying to get good customer service. Are you getting the run around? I will help you.
Come to Maxden Library and Information Services for all your information needs.
Max puts his phone to his ear and mimes conversation and looking at his tablet. Walks to the side of the stage.
Brenda: Speaks to the audience. Another main character in my story is Charlotte. She is Max’s sister and she is founder of the Theodorus Spiral Company. Everything about her business has a connection to the Theodorus Spiral.
Charlotte: Charlotte comes on stage. Whirls showing off her dress. The Theodorus Spiral has some very useful properties that are yet to be fully utilised. While I am happy that I can manufacture fun theodorus spiral shaped wall hangings which people use for lucky charms, what I really want is to produce functioning shields for domestic use and I think a theodorus spiral layout would enhance solar farms and other applications that need a direct line of site with a central point.
Brenda: I have another character, unfortunately I can’t show her to you. It is all very frustrating you know. I understand I must be patient. Hologram technology is getting better everyday but I really want to you see Kesbooks Skytower, the hologram sent from the future.
She is a hologram embedded with micro organic material, so it is very difficult to tell she is a hologram and most people are not really looking at other people, they barely look properly at themselves.
Kesbooks Skytower came out of a computer at the Semaphore Library and has been living among her friends Max and Charlotte for a little while. She is a little confronting as she is a total recall machine as she was uploaded with all human knowledge before she was sent back from the year 3000 via the game Second Life. She is also recording everything she sees and hears for a reality TV show in the future.
Brenda sighs.
I might starve or die from cold. I must keep writing. I can’t just introduce characters and think that is enough for the audience.
Brenda speaks brighter. A party scene. Max will have a party. Sending Kesbooks Skytower from the future has caused all sorts of time entanglement problems and slowly the community has learned that time travel is possible. Max will hold a party and the guests will arrive all excited discussing whether or not they would like to time travel and what would they want to do.
Party Scene.
Audience (Extras) come to the stage speaking about whether they want to time travel and what they would do. Everyone is excited. Leave space at centre front stage for Charlotte introduce Marla to Max.
Charlotte: Hey Max meet my friend Marla.
Max: Nice to meet you.
Marla: Nice to meet you Max. Charlotte has told me about your information agency, perhaps you would like to help me with something. I’m the director of a new start-up company called The Red Forge Publishing House. Let me tell you more.
Max and Marla walk off talking about The Red Forge Publishing House.
Charlotte helps Brenda to get bench and props off the stage. Charlotte goes to get changed, Max whips off his shirt.
Max, Leroy and Tarnie set up table and chairs for next scene.
Max, Leroy, Tarnie seated on stage each shuffling notes, looking at devices, putting glasses on.
Marla storms into the office of The Red Forge Publishing House wearing her Red Forge Publishing House T-shirt.
Marla: Good Morning, team.
Max, Leroy and Tarnie: Good Morning.
Marla. Right, great to see you all. Where’s Charlotte?
Marla: Breathe, they’re closing in on us, we are running out of time. I knew this would happen; we can’t seem to move quickly enough.
Marla: OK guys, we need to really step it up now team. It’s good to see you are all wearing your Red Forge Publishing House t-shirts. Are they available on the website?
Tarnie: Not The Red Forge Publishing House website, we don’t have enough resources for that but an Australian company called Print Bar are doing a great job with the T-shirts, the quality is good, we haven’t had a single complaint and they take care of the invoicing etc.
Marla: Good. So much is going on out there; we are going to get left behind. I need to get the book printed, the screen play needs to be written and the music needs to become recognisable. We must start getting the product out there. I really think the time is right now. It is just the sort of entertainment the public are looking for; a little bit quirky but offering real substance something for an audience to think about.
Marla: That’s good. Now I know the book, My Painted Elephant needs editing, but I want start promoting it now. Leave it a bit rough, it will give it an arty, edgy feel. Besides Brenda losses her laptop with the work unfinished so it is supposed to have an unfinished feel.
Tarnie: OK boss. I think we will need an editor in the future. Have you seen the add for the Fringe play, library is misspelt.
Marla: What? Oh no. You rushed that through. Ok. Doesn’t matter we’ll just mention that in the play.
Max: We spelt it right on the t-shirts. Smiles at Marla
Marla: Tarnie, I want the website to be a record of progress, so anyone can see who is the owner of the Intellectual Property. Max, can you please work out a legal strategy; start with a copyright statement but I think we need to be prepared for a plagiarism case. But one more edit is needed, I agree. I want you all to have another look at it, it probably needs updating with all the creative ideas that have come with putting on the Fringe Play. If we get enough ticket sales we can send the book to the printers.
Marla: Kesbooks Skytower needs to do more on the social media to promote the products. Leroy, I really need you to come up with the believable science for Kesbooks. There is a lot going on with holography. I want it to be the very latest, original idea and of course the time travel must stay in.”
An audible groan was heard from Leroy
Leroy: A hologram sent from the future with total recall sending information into the future for a reality TV show. Exaggerated eye roll.
Leroy: She should have laser’s coming out of her eyes. Pokes fun at Marla behind her back.
Marla: Stop it Leroy, I know the time entanglement angle irks you, but it is staying. It really is the whole point of the concept. Get people to think about what they would do it time travel were possible.
Leroy: It just isn’t realistic because of the changing the past paradox etc. um..higgaldy pickledy as Brenda words it in My Painted Elephant.
Marla: Yes and she then proceeds to ignore the higgeldy pickledy.
Leroy: It could be possible to travel on your own time line and not change anything. Just travel forward and back. Just go and have a look, perhaps the electromagnetic forces will be so strong that actually making changes is not physically possible.
Marla: Well you’re the science writer: that’s what I employed you for. Also, I don’t get what Brenda was saying about the derivatives of the theodorus spiral, you know the chapter lengths, why does she do that? And didn’t I ask for you to continue on writing Kesbook’s diary?
Leroy puts his head down and starts writing.
Tarnie: And I have been thinking we could set up a studio and stream live music via the website too.
Max: I have created the Maxden Library and Information Services website. I am getting lots of enquires from people having trouble accessing information and managing their personal data.
Charlotte rushes in and sits.
Charlotte: The Theodorus Spiral Company also has a website explaining all about the spiral and I have been working on an education program that takes people from simple geometry all the way to complex computer programming all focused on the Theodorus Spiral.
Marla: Good, Good.
Marla: Max, Tarnie, I want to sell the book as an e-book directly from the website. I don’t think we can keep My Painted Elephant as a free book. I want a check-out on the website. As a business we really need to start making some money. Now I hope you are all wearing your t-shirts out and about. We really need to get some more exposure in the community with our product.
Marla: Tarnie get that music score completed. Live music would be great Tarnie but are you going to do it? Let’s find a professional singer and band, let’s turn it into a musical or an opera. Get the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra on board. Perhaps once we start getting some t-shirt and books sales we can look at doing more.
Tarnie: I’m in connected to Vincent Ciccarello CEO of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra on Linked In. I am going to send him a demo. All we need is to get a bit of traction. A few high-profile people interested and we will be away. Hey, what about Elon Musk wearing one the shirts at a conference?
Charlotte: Oh Marla and my fun theodorus spiral inspired patterns for the TV screens will be a lovely touch. Some are created using the square root of negative numbers.
Leroy: that’s awesome Charlotte and I reckon the messing around with the square root of negative could be part of the reason Kesbooks Skytower comes into being. We could even have a fun little ditty.
Leroy, Max, Charlotte and Tarnie all sing “The Theodorus Spiral, negative image will get you into outer space”.
Marla: Brilliant, keep up the good work. OK team, that is enough for today.
Leroy, Max, Charlotte and Tarnie all get up and leave.
Max: Now let’s get to the meeting we really need to be at.

After the others leave Marla starts writing a list:
Marla:
• Holograms
• Commercialisation of business
• Marketing; is social media working?
After a massive sigh, she begins writing another list titled POSITIONS VACANT
Marla:
• Writers for the The Red Forge Publishing House concept
• Editor
• Search Engine Marketing and Branding Experts
• Mathematician for Theodorus Spiral research
• Physicist (Optics and Theoretical) for Kesbooks Skytower hologram.
• Data and Information Scientists, collection and analysis of information seeking behaviour and databank development for Maxden Library and Information Services
• Manufacturers of Theodorus Shields (or wall hangings)
• Clothing manufacturers and retailers for merchandise.
• Musicians and singers to perform Hopeful in the Paradox
Marla: FOR SALE: Innovative Concept Best Offer.
Picks up phone.
Marla: Yes Ridley, are you interested….I only agree if you convince me you will get the special effects for Kesbooks Skytower right…and Tarnie will want the rights to the music.
End of Act 2.
Jan and Vin remove table and chairs, replace with podium.

Act 3.
Frank: Good Evening everyone. Welcome. We are here to discuss the matter of time travel. While we all got excited about being able to travel through time it has become obvious there are problems with us all travelling backwards and forwards whenever we like it. It is dangerous and causing utter chaos.
Frank: I would like to acknowledge Max from Maxden Library and Information Services for organising some fantastic regulated tours into the past and future and those of us who have been on them are very grateful for the wonderful experience.
Frank: However it has to all stop until we can get a consensus on what are the critical missions. So without further ago we will hear from several speakers tonight who would like to put forward their proposals and we can try to have an understanding of what the community want to do.
Frank points to Jeff
Frank: Mr Thompson
Jeff: I propose we travel as far into the future as we can to discover where we meet or have contact with any species from other planets. I will be good for us to find out if we are alone or not.
Crowd ooo’s. Frank writes something down. Some inaudible chit chat.
Frank: Order. Bridget
Bridget: I think we should go back in time with several public health messages such as the benefits of washing hands, the dangers of smoking etc.
Crowd ooo’s. Frank writes something down. Some inaudible chit chat.
Someone yells out. That could lead to an astronomical increase on the current population??
Crowd ooo’s. Frank writes something down. Some inaudible chit chat.
Franks acknowledges that person.
Person: We are against time travellers turning up in our time and using our resources. We need to concentrate on helping the people in our own time.
Crowd ooo’s. Frank writes something down. Some inaudible chit chat.
Lars yells from behind the bar.
Lars: All time travellers are welcome at the Dockside. Let them come.
Crowd ooo’s. Frank writes something down. Some inaudible chit chat.
Another Person: My religion disagrees with time travel and we believe it is an unnatural event and it should be barred forever.

Another Person: Rubbish. Save the extinct animals. Save the dodo, save the ????
Crowd ooo’s. Frank writes something down. Some inaudible chit chat.
Franks sees Max waving frantically
Max: I propose we go back and save Hypatia the Greek Mathematician. I have been conjecturing all the possibilities and I believe had she lived, better solutions to many world issues would have resulted. Following her guidance our calculations would have led to a perfect allocation of resources using time travel so each Earthly citizen can receive the resources they need at whatever time slot best fits their needs.
Crowd ooo’s. Frank writes something down. Some inaudible chit chat.
Brenda jumps up from the bench which is off to the side.
Brenda: Stop I didn’t write any of this.
Frank carries the podium off the stage. Brenda sits back down and begins typing.
Brenda: to the audience. Perhaps time is travelling backwards we just perceive it as forwards. How many of you have thought about something only to find it happening in the future quite randomly? Is it fate? Is it all a dream?
Lyle approaches Brenda.
Lyle: Come on home darling. Time is travelling in the right direction. I love you.
Lyle leads Brenda off the stage but she leaves the laptop behind.
Marla walks up to the bench picks up the laptop and opens it. Presses a few keys.
Marla: Oo My Painted Elephant perhaps I could publish this. I could start a company. The Red Forge Publishing House.
Marla walks off with the laptop.

Fringe Play 2018

A Perpetual Tale by Keren Sutcliffe is a forever changing story spiraling through time with a seemingly infinite loop in the present.
It is a free book for you to read. If you like it perhaps you might like to buy a t-shirt or something else from Kes Creations.
About the story:
Marla is the founder of The Red Forge Publishing House. One of the many projects she has on the go is trying to make the novella (My Painted Elephant) into a creative installation with a readership following and a merchandising branch.
In it, the main character Brenda, struggles to satisfy her need to accomplish something out of the ordinary. She is living homeless on the streets of Paris writing a novella that she hopes will win her a competition. Brenda’s decision to make the chapter lengths of her story proportional to the Spiral of Theodorus makes the quest to complete the task very daunting.

Book 1. My Painted Elephant Brenda has left her family in Australia and traveled to Paris to write a story where time is beginning to tangle. While obsessing with her characters Max, the Information Agent from Maxden Library and Information Services, and his sister Charlotte, the owner of the Theodorus Spiral Company, she tries to analyse her barriers to success.

Book 2. The Red Forge Publishing House Brenda has introduced her character Kesbooks Skytower; the hologram sent from the future via Second Life. Marla has set up the The Red Forge Publishing House and is frantic to make My Painted Elephant a success. ArkiMay, editor and content contributor, joins the team as well as new recruits, Leroy, the science writer and Tarnie, musical director, who come with their own complexities to the increasingly complicated situation.

Book 3. The Wave and the Particle A story spanning thousands of years. When Theodorus of Cyrene examined the Spiral of Theodorus in 400 BC, he set off a path through time to discover the mysteries of maths and science. ArkiMay joins characters from the past, present and into the future including Kembla, the time traveling blacksmith.

Book 4. The Elegant Solution The long-awaited finale chapter where loved characters turn up in all their glory, in the final scene at the the Dockside Tavern. Their saviour has arrived, spirits are lifted, and they dance the night away.

HAVE FUN and Try To Keep Up

Book 1. My Painted Elephant

1 1.00 The Longest Part(1968/1968)
2 1.41 Max and the Maxden Library and Information Services (1644/1644)
3 1.73 Brenda’s first night (1450/1450)
4 2.00 Charlotte and the Theodorus Spiral Company (1320/1284)
5 2.24 Who is Claude?(1220/1288)
6 2.45 Max meets Marla (1145/1183)

A painted elephant is an unexpected, incongruous, amazing feat that is well outside what is expected.
‘push the envelope’ = ‘to paint the elephant’

Book 1. My Painted Elephant

1 .00 The Longest Part: the longest part (Word Count: 1968)
Apparently, Ernest Hemingway had said ‘one sentence at a time’ and this is what Brenda thought as she sat down on a park bench and took out her old battered laptop from her worn backpack and began to type.
She had left her family, to live in despair and a state of constant anxiety to write a novella for a competition. Was she mad or passionate? She had bought a plane ticket with the last of the money she had made on the sale of a property from before her marriage. Her savings had slowly dwindled away over the years; her share investments had not done well and the money was nearly all gone. She felt that once that money was gone there would be no going to Paris. It was now or never.
The wind blew into Brenda’s face, this meant the tears did not run down her cheeks but blew off into the air rushing by. Her mind was numb. She had to get her story out of her head quickly before she was mugged, frozen to death or starved. She seemed so far away from where she wanted to be in terms of achievements in her life.
Brenda had read a book called An Imaginary Tale: The Story of The Square Root of -1 by Paul Nahin (1998) and had come across the Spiral of Theodorus; first put together by Theodorus of Cyrene back in about 400 BC. She was now very interested in the spiral and believed she could portray in her writing the spiral’s wonder and she hoped to win the Paris Literature Prize run by the Shakespeare and Company Bookshop.
ArkiMay pondered whether she should also update the competition to something like The New Media competition or Tor.com. The Paris Literature Prize hadn’t been run for a few years, so it was a little dated now. She wrote a note and thought she would bring it up at the next TRFPH meeting.
As Brenda started typing, she felt herself becoming immersed in the story as it appeared on the page. She could feel the cold less and less and the burden of little money and lack of accommodation slip away. She needed to write to take her mind off her the comfortable life and family she had left and the only way to do that was to keep working.
She began to write about the past and the future at the same time. She had developed a burning desire to find a way of expressing herself, to be rid of the ordinary and enter the realm of the extraordinary. Brenda wondered who else around her felt this way. Her story was about mental health issues caused by the pressure to succeed, holograms and time entanglement.
She had started to write the story while in Australia but had become so dedicated to the tale that she had traveled to Paris to be homeless and to push herself to her limits; she felt she needed to be ruthlessly joyless to achieve her goals.

The wind whipped up around her neck and she looked out across the skyline – all of Paris lay before her but she put her head down and kept typing and singing to herself.
Who in this world tells the truth?
I don’t know if I can tell.
Every day I try hard to understand.
I want to know who I am.
What’s in this world for me?
Except from Homeless in Paradise

Brenda had composed a song which she called Homeless in Paris later it would be renamed Homeless in Paradise. At her most ambitious she imagined the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra playing her song. It had taken hours of her time to teach herself how to play the piano and slowly compose the song.
She adjusted her collar around her neck; it does nothing to combat the cold. Where would she sleep tonight? She had spotted a ledge on a building. It would require her to climb the stonework but it might help her feel better than sleeping on the ground. She shut this worry out of her mind and continued to write to her imaginary readers.
The words appeared on the screen – you feel so frustrated and useless now, how can you think about what the far future will look like? I know what you mean but you must expand your mind enough to take it all in. Some of the messes we find ourselves in now could take that long to sort out. We need to try to see what the far future can look like. Will we still focus on food, health and wealth? Well, it stands to reason that if that is what was important 5000 years ago, then that in the far future it will be the same. What else should we focus on, environment, technology and creativity perhaps? Perhaps one day, once humans get over this incessant need to compete and struggle, we will find a way to be happy to connect and share.
The new communication technology frustrated her at times, it seemed basic information services were lacking. She screamed silently Information Science is a STEM subject. She also knew that to get to the point where holograms embedded with organic material could be used to travel through time, all the in-between inventions had to come first.
ArkiMay had only today read a story about a new nano thin hologram, everyday holograms are getting closer she thought to herself
Brenda was feeling anxiety from not being able to use the internet for any research she needed. She had wanted to be free of the communication trap and she felt she needed to get rid of the distraction of the modern smart phone to complete the novella. Back at home in Adelaide suburbia with the big back yard and gum trees, she had been feeling a growing pressure to be successful. She felt she could not bear the mundane any longer. Perhaps she was successful in a small life way but it was not enough.
The characters in Brenda’s story were coming alive in her mind. Max was getting closer to her and it started to feel as if Charlotte was sitting next to her. Max was an Information Agent, with his own company called Maxden Library and Information Services back in Brenda’s hometown of Port Adelaide. His twin sister Charlotte owns the Theodorus Spiral Company. One day Max finds Kesbooks Skytower, a hologram sent from the future, at the Public Library.
When Max has a party and a friend brings along Marla, a visiting publisher from Chicago, they get together to form The Red Forge Publishing House.
Once Brenda had the outline of her story in her mind, she could enter their world and leave her own. What a relief! But it turns out they have their troubles too and despite her own discomfort she begins to worry about them. Will the characters develop or will they remain flat and lifeless? Brenda needed this to work or she would surely die of the stress of being homeless in Paris.
A party is good for cheering everybody up and Brenda felt that writing about a party would be like being at one. She was becoming delirious. It would be a good opportunity to nut through all the conflicting thoughts about what people would think and feel if time travel become a reality. I mean, would you want to go forward, back or stay the same? If going to the future meant you were not here in the present, then there is the dilemma of missing out on something that is going on in the now. It would be like going on holiday and your absence would be noticed. Then there is all the higgedly piggledy business of changing the past and affecting the present and the future. Would you be brave enough to risk changing something crucial in your life by altering the past or future?
But what if you could send your hologram back into the past and it cannot alter events but only observe and transmit information to you, this would result in accurate observations of past events, available at any time.
“I’m going to call my book My Painted Elephant”, Brenda said to herself. She used to tell her children ‘go paint the elephant’ whenever they were doing something important to them. She thought the saying ‘push the envelope’ so obscure that ‘paint the elephant’ could mean the same thing.
Brenda realized she was closer now; she was getting that feeling that you get when you know what is going to happen or you have seen something before when you have never been there before; could that be because it has already happened?
Perhaps what we believe to be going into the future is really going backwards. It is similar to the notion that fate has already been decided. Where has this idea come from? Have we always known that the future has already happened? Perhaps we are just having trouble articulating it.
You may be wondering how Brenda came to have all these thoughts and ideas in her head. Well, it is a bit like a dream. Dreams can be so marvelous and it has to be wondered: does the brain think of these ideas instantaneously or has some part of the brain been working on stories, philosophies, answers, discoveries to show you when it is ready? Perhaps there is a dream stored away ready for you, or maybe there are years’ worth, all catalogued in the brain’s own way, ready to be presented to you?
So much had happened since Brenda had started writing her story that kept confirming in her mind that she was on the right path in terms of her theory about holograms and time travel. She had found out about Australian Holographics while researching about holograms. This company was around in the 1990’s near Adelaide where Max lives so it could be possible that some experiments took place in that laboratory and that could explain Kesbooks Skytower turning up in Semaphore.
She had created three websites: one called The Red Forge Publishing House where she had her story, Theodorus Spiral Company where she collated all her research about the spiral and all the Matlab artwork she had produced. She had real plans to produce decorative spiral shields and the final website was Maxden Library and Information Services where she kept continually updated links to library and information websites and had ambitions to run her own information agency that promoted the betterment of information services for everyone.
Brenda had known she might get cold living on the streets but had not really fully imagined the intensity of the cold and misery once she had gotten wet. She put her head down and gritted her teeth and set about typing. She wanted to get down in writing all these thoughts and see if anything could come of it.
At the beginning of the spiral, the spokes are small, this resembles an idea, a notion. As time goes by, the notion grows but time is not necessarily moving forward. It goes round on itself while it is growing. What if you don’t feel connected? Perhaps you can’t think clearly because you are upset or anxious.
What can you do? You need to find a small dangling thread of an idea. Grab hold of it – and do not let go. Imagine yourself where you want to be.

(2.00) Max and the Maxden Library and Information Services (1644)
His client reached across the table and kissed him. They were both momentarily stunned but she recovered first and smiled. After she left, he could still feel the pressure of her touch on his lips and it felt good for the rest of the day.
That had been Monday and Max had handed over an envelope to the client that contained answers to her problems. That was his job; Max had been spending a lot of time at the local public library. In fact, he realized he was doing a great deal of business there. It was a convenient local hang out.
Library worker Angela knew about his information agency, and she often helped him out. The relationship was reciprocal because he seemed to have better information resources available to him than she did at the library, and she often suggested library customers ask Max for help when she couldn’t. They were both good at their jobs, they were a fantastic team.

Angela often used Max’s website: Maxden Library and Information Services to help library customers. It was not the SA Libraries official website but Angela found the ‘clean skin’ format easier to use. Max has accumulated a wealth of data research knowledge and was a proficient and effective information analyser.
After closing off the job with the surprise kiss, Max caught the multi-ride vehicle over to the Port Bar. Here he was comfortable with his drinking acquaintances. Kate was working behind the bar. Stan, the owner, must have thanked his lucky stars the day Kate came through the door looking for a job.
Kate suffers from an unbelievable condition where she has forgotten that she is married to one of the state’s most famous football players. This, of course, has increased the crowd of drinkers in the bar as they watch this drama unfold before them. Each coming in after work or a day’s shopping, to see if any development had taken place. Just like watching a soap opera – only a lot more profitable for the pub and a darn sight more real.
Brenda wanted to have Kate in the story to represent her mother who was suffering from a strange disorder that no one seemed to know what to do about. Brenda’s mother had spent six months in a psychiatric ward where she was given thirty-two shock treatments but the doctors still did not know whether she had suffered a stroke or had a contentless depression. She had severe abulia; hardly spoke and was not motivated to do anything. She had been in this state for fifteen years now; just sitting all day long. All the doctors had given up and she lived in a retirement home, being cared for, but Brenda felt she should be able to find a cure or help her in some way.
Brenda and her father had spent hours discussing what they should have done and what they should do now. When Brenda was at home, she thought of things to say to her mum to try to help but always when she was near her mother she could not say anything. Her mother had some kind of barrier around her blocking out everyone. Brenda was not even sure if her mother realised she was behaving differently. Brenda’s family felt it best not to upset their mother and wife: just let her be the way she was. More tears and a small groaning sound came from her mouth, “Get back to the story”, Brenda told herself and pushed on.
“Good day Max, pint?” Stan was behind the bar tonight because the crowd had grown. Apparently Dale (the famous footballer star) had been in, again pleading with his gorgeous wife to come home and take care of their child. Kate on the other hand was working the bar in her renowned fancy style that everyone loved so much. She seemed to float around; she had fantastic memory for names and customer’s drinks. Stan had told Max she had been in a car accident and bumped her head. Dale was crazy for his wife and had been in the bar whenever she worked. This it had been going on for six months and he needed to go to practice and care for their little one. The doctors said time would tell, so we all waited and watched.
Max sat down next to Frank, and together they watched Kate pour him a beer. She smiled at both of them and Max could see in her eyes had just a touch of vagueness. He did hope things would work out for her and Dale but could not help feeling he would miss them if their lives were to return to as they had been.
Frank was a drinking mate and Max knew only that he worked in construction. He was a hard-headed, steel-cap boots bloke. Frank’s hands were rough clearly highlighting the difference in their working lives. They talked a lot about sport and politics and the stuff that life was about. Over the years they had talked through a stock market crash, a recession, the housing boom, the latest Port revival developments, the global financial crisis, climate change, whether or not carbon credits should be introduced, is negative gearing a good thing or not and were right now getting their heads around Donald Trump being President of the United States and a 12 month of discussion of Corona Virus.
Max thought it was all marvelous stuff, though he knew others seemed to struggle through the changes. Frank was a no-regrets man, who had decided very early on that things were black and white and no shades in-between. Max tried to add some dimensions to their conversations although half the time he was just padding out the time. When they said goodnight Max knew, as Frank strode confidently away, that Frank believed he was right. Max often wished he could be so sure.
Max’s shares had been lost, he’d paid seventeen per cent interest rate in hard times then divorced just as the housing boom started and spent his lousy share of the house on a big TV and sports motorbike when he should have been paying a low-interest mortgage and riding the boom time. However Max had learned through this of his incredible resilience to depression, which he had witnessed others crumble to. What agony many were suffering while he was totally unscathed, carrying on and rising to the new information age like a visionary warrior! Okay well he’d had a few pints by now and was feeling rather full of himself. But in truth his business was doing very well and he allowed himself a congratulatory one for the road.
Having moved on from the old days of driving home drunk like so many of his peers he staggered down to the wharf and caught the ferry home. Jack the ferry operator turned the other way as Max heaved over the side feeding the mulloway in the Port River. Max was the only passenger at this time of night so he was excused this time. Max felt a twinge of sadness as the kiss from the afternoon became tarnished with his regurgitation. The fresh air had cleared his head and he worked well into the night reading new information requests, working on contracts for clients, searching the net, running a few datasets through Hadoop and sending messages to researchers regarding their assignments. He went to bed a happy man.
A knock at the door awoke him and he found himself squinting at a young, well-dressed man. The man held out a card that through Max’s bleary mind became a copy of his “I need to know?” card. The man said he was sorry to come without an appointment but he was in the area and thought he would just knock. He let the chap in and made them both a coffee and piece of toast and jam. They sat in Max’s home office at the front of his 1910 cottage on the edge of the new Port development and spoke about a problem the man had.
The man wanted to buy a house in the area however he had heard that the local cement factory emitted a lot of dust and he’d found it incredibly hard to find out how bad the problem was and if it would affect his son’s asthma. Max felt a wave of apprehension cross his body. The cement factory was an ongoing hot issue for the local community. The flat rate for information was $50 for an answer within half an hour’s research.
Max had developed a system that formulated the peoples question into several appropriate search algorithms and then executed that across multiple digital platforms. He also practiced old-fashioned live data collection, analysis and report methods.
Max knew he would be able to get dust emission figures, health risks data for people living in the area and he had several anecdotal evidence documents for and against the notion that the lad’s asthma would be affected. His gut feeling was to say if you are going to worry about it don’t buy but he knew the area still held out for a capital gain and the shopping and cafe scene in the area was set to improve. They shook hands on a deal that Max would spend the 30 minutes on the job and would contact him later in the day with an update. As it was a local job he would do this himself. Max decided to go to factory and ask to speak Tony the man put in charge of cleaning the factory up.

3 (1.73) Brenda’s first night (1450)
Brenda had moved to the spot on the ledge where she pushed herself well back so anyone walking by would not notice her. She jumped back down to check whether the light of the laptop could be seen from the street but it could not. The voices of her children rang though her head. Were they alright? How angry would her husband be? She had given him no warning and merely left a note telling him she was going to Paris to write her story. He probably thought she was in a hotel. She hadn’t looked to see if he had sent messages. She courageously pushed all these thoughts out of her head. She scrambled back to her position and started tapping very softly on the keys.
ArkiMay was reading about Brenda’s struggle to succeed and she found herself having similar feelings. She had updated quite a bit of the things the men talked about at the bar and the tasks that Max did in the night for his information business but was it enough, she wasn’t too sure about who Marla thought the intended audience would be.
Not many seem to find their way without struggle.
Wouldn’t it be great to glide through life on a whirl of glamour and success? To feel triumph every day and not to have to fight emotions that cause stress. Brenda was unsure if she was writing about herself or Max until she slipped back into Max’s world. Max thought he sometimes did suffer from negative emotions especially after a boozy night.
He was back at the library and briefly talked to Angela about the cement factory and she went into a spiel about the dust covering her car and ruining the paint work on her auntie’s garden ornaments. Max told her that there should be an improvement soon. Tony had told him about the new filters so the fallout dust would be lessened. Countering this good news, though, Max had discovered some disturbing news about how the feed going into the plant was going to be recycled waste that could contain anything including plastics and he privately thought he should buy one of his sister’s devices to measure emissions.
ArkiMay wanted to add more about Charlotte’s wireless sensor network systems here. She thought while in Brenda’s story The Theodorus Spiral Company sold CO2 emission detectors she thought in the updated version there should be RF EMF detectors available. ArkiMay wrote another note to speak to Marla.
Brenda was getting distracted and tired; she turned the laptop off and drifted into sleep, incredibly unaware of her surroundings. Hours later a shout and scuffling sounds woke her and she froze in terror as she was on a large window ledge of a building in Paris, not in her bed with her husband beside her and her children asleep in their rooms. Her throat was raw and when she wiped her face it was wet, she had been crying in her sleep. She shrank into her coat as small as she could be and listened carefully to any sign anyone would approach her.
Finally the sun was bringing some light with it and Brenda felt relief spread though her, she had survived her first night. She was so sore she felt that she might not be able to walk but she very gingerly eased her way down to the ground and gathered her belongings and began to walk back to the park bench. In the corners of her eyes she spied other night dwellers appearing. She refused to make eye contact, determined to stick with her plan to get back to her story. For a moment she eased a small smile and imagined herself telling her husband about the night but then cringed at the thought he might never want to speak to her again.
Once settled on the bench she took one quick look at the view of the city of Paris and then turned on the laptop. The battery was getting low and she knew that later she would need to find somewhere to recharge it and fix herself up however she didn’t get to finish those thoughts because her mind was instantly back into the story.
Brenda felt she was ignoring her other characters. She really wanted bring Max’s sister Charlotte into the story. Time was beginning to fail to follow any order because scientists in the year 3000 were streaming a hologram back to the year 2021 and this was having numerous consequences.
Encouraged by the success of the previous chapter Brenda pushed on and was thrilled with the time entanglement story line, she sat daydreaming about the crazy happenings that could be possible with time having no order, just free to loop around and around on itself. Her heart pounded and her stomach twisted. She was alive. She was excited about her story but could not type fast enough before another flood of ideas and storylines entered her mind.
She found herself typing about Max again. Max was still sitting with Kate outside the hotel. Max was thinking about his finances. He had made $1000 dollars in the last couple of days and several other contracts had been completed so he was up a good $800 bucks for the day. Running your own business can be a little scary when it is impossible to know how much money would be made in a week.
Max bought Kate a drink and they had a meal together. Kate needed Max’s help with the Department of Human Services. She had received a debt letter but couldn’t work out if she owed money back to the Government or not. When she tried to ring she was put on hold for hours and her phone run out of charge leaving her with a deep feeling of despair.
As Frank had said when they had discussed it. “Sure they need to catch deliberate fraudsters who are ripping the tax payer off.”
However Max was very angry that the Department seemed to be focusing on those who were trying to get work and do the right thing and them presented them with impossible resolution options.
He would pursue trying to fix this appalling lack of care. He knew that it would be possible to record a natural language information request and be put into a queue without waiting on the phone line. Then be messaged with a number of available service times to choose from.
ArkiMay was happy with her current affairs additions and by then the Robo Debt had been called out.
Fellow barfly George showed up. He had been working on a technique that uses dots of paint of different colours that mixed on the canvas. He lived in one of the boarding houses overlooking the Main Road. He often caught the tram to town to visit the Art Gallery of South Australia. Max knew George was going to be famous before he was. There was something about him.
George often sipped whiskey at the Port Bar and he became involved in the Kate affair when she took a fancy to him and Dale had to explain the situation to him down the side street. George called in just after dusk each evening. He walked the streets at dusk to experience the light for his paintings.
Everyone suggested to George that he should discourage Kate from chasing him if he liked the shape of his nose. George was proud that Kate liked him and she became a sort of muse to him. Max reasoned that George might have moved away sooner if Kate was not in Port Adelaide as there really was not much happening there. In fact the billboard saying The Port Is Happening had faded so badly it was the community joke. Having said that, some people were more than happy with the slow progress as they were not keen to have it too populated with all the traffic and crowd problems that would come with it. The Port had an old world charm with its run down derelict buildings. In many ways it was an artist’s paradise as it brought out emotion in people and the daily grind was etched on the faces of the people who worked and lived there.
Brenda was baffled as to where this story line was going; it really was just her getting down on paper her view on local government and town planning. She thought she might come back and take the segment out later. She highlighted it in red and carried on. She knew that George was going to be George Seurat from the past and she wanted George to be the another sign that something was happening with the timeline.
ArkiMay noted even Brenda had highlighted the last paragraph in red. Port Adelaide was slowly but surely surging ahead. Lots of new cafes and restaurants.
A famous artist comes from the past into the future and later when one of the characters goes to the Art Institute of Chicago they find that people they know are painted into a 1900’s painting set in Paris on the banks of the Seine.
So should she now leave it out and have a different story line? ‘No, leave it all in and come back later and weed out anything that seems to be duplicating other works,’ she told herself. A passer-by gave her a queer look. ‘Oh, I am talking to myself in public,’ she thought and covered her face in shame.
What role does George play in the story? ArkiMay wants to cut two other characters completely out of the story.
After rereading her work Brenda felt quite low. What she had written was not getting to her true thread. She felt that she hadn’t adequately made the point that time in the story was overlapping. She really felt she needed to put something more into it.

4 (2.00) Charlotte and Theodorus Spiral Company (1320)
Max thought the time entanglement was caused by Charlotte’s blacksmithing. At Charlotte’s house there is Tarni aged ten, Kezza seventeen and Lottie sixty-five as well as Charlotte. Max would say she is full of herself (he jokes and chuckles to himself when he has had a couple of beers). This apparently came about when Charlotte began dabbling in blacksmithing on their great grandfather’s forge and she somehow managed to twist time around itself and ended up with a full house. You could say she is full of herself (ha ha ha). Charlotte told him about this one day because for some reason she thought I might be able to help with a problem with Kezza (17-year-old Charlotte). I do actually remember her at that age and she definitely was a pain in the arse.
ArkiMay rereads the above paragraph two times before highlighting it in purple. She needs to reread the original version as she knows there is more to this but it sounds like gibberish.
Charlotte thought the time entanglement had occurred when she had gone out to ancient aboriginal lands. She had been on a hunt with an old boyfriend to find a front end loader that had been stolen and there had been a tip-off that the loader was out bush. While she was looking for the loader she came across a buried sculpture, it was a made of iron, plastic and pink concrete. It was the Theodorus Spiral on a Pedestal. This was not an artefact from the past it was from the future.
Brenda needed a wash, her fingers ached from typing, her neck muscles felt like they were on fire. Brenda staggered down the footpath in the direction of the public library where she intended to try to clean up.
Later that morning she went to a cheap hotel and once she lay on the bed she fell asleep and slept for twelve hours. When Brenda awoke she felt surprisingly excited, she was in Paris; she was doing what she wanted to do despite all the social norms and upbringing that would have conditioned her not to follow her dreams but remain straddled to her lifestyle. The other thing was that she had a great dream in her sleep, she couldn’t wait to start writing. There was so much more to write about Charlotte and the Theodorus Spiral Company.
Charlotte is Max’s sister and Brenda paused and spent some time thinking about the developments in Charlotte’s life; how the Theodorus Spiral Company she had dreamed of years ago was now up and running, how successful it was and she imagined herself in the factory, what it would look like and how it had been to set up, all the infinite details.
Suddenly Brenda remembered that late last night she had rearranged the chapters to fit a certain length so that if the number of words in each chapter were plotted it would draw a spiral representing the change in the hypotenuse for each spoke. She named it the Theodorus Second Derivative Spiral. She needed to put in the connection between Theodorus of Cyrene in 400 BC and Charlotte as a child and as an adult here so the reader would know what she was on about.
Back in his day Theodorus woke up from an uncomfortable night under the stars. He had fallen asleep while thinking about the spiral. What happened if he kept going round and round? He had a vision during the night and it was so clear to him that he found it hard to believe it was a dream. He wanted to know what had happened, but he could not fathom it out. He had seen a young girl in a group of other young people. The world was completely different. Everything seemed ‘smooth’ and the light was very different.
There was a group of children in a room. The children were colouring in the theodorus spirals. Every child had one and every page looked the exactly the same. Theodorus was amazed. The page was a very white with a perfect Theodorus Spiral drawn. He reached down next to the young girl and lifted the flat white sheet with the picture on it. He said, “the first hypotenuse is the square root of 2, the second is the square root of 3, and so on.”
The child reacted and looked up into his face. Her face showed a look of amazement. He returned that look. He was in the future. She was looking back at the past. They connected; she knew he was interested in the picture of the spiral and that he had first thought about this a long time ago. She knew he wanted to know more about it. She knew and she did not know but would grow up to find out. She felt a sense of purpose flush over her. The man faded away.
Theodorus had been to the future to 1980 to a primary school classroom in South Australia. He had met a little girl who was going to find out what happened to the spiral as it got bigger and bigger.
This, in turn, had led to her studying engineering. She was now involved in some research and this was getting very interesting with the start of her company; The Theodorus Spiral Company. The thought of the factory and subsidiary businesses that could be created made her mind flip. Her plan was to set up a factory creating iron shields designed from the ancient Theodorus Spiral, and then market this with a mythical/magical lure. There could be a shop with T-shirts and other mementos for sale and a cafe attached to the business.
Charlotte had already found the location, opposite the cement factory, and another side business would be to monitor the emissions coming from the factory and sell personal emissions analyser for the public. It was exciting to have a plan and to imagine the future and what it might look like however in reality she knew that none of it had actually happened yet and may not. She tried to think of what barriers would get in the way; like her fear of failure or worse her fear of success.
Brenda was wandering the streets, contemplating her novel. She was back to work on how successful the Theodorus Spiral Company had been for Charlotte. Earlier Charlotte was daydreaming about her new ideas about a factory, in Brenda’s dream she had seen the factory in full swing with Charlotte occupying a mezzanine floor looking down at her creation. She was comfortable with shag pile rugs and red fluffy throws over lounges and she was some sort of queen of the factory. As a bonus, a visitor, a Viking, had come to see her about an order for shields.
The story was unfolding. Brenda could see that. The Viking would be a warrior from the past that Charlotte was selling the shields to. Time in her story would be flexible; the past could easily come to the future. With no food for 30 hours Brenda was delirious; she was rambling now. This is not going to win a fiction writing competition. Her heart sank. She really wanted to win but her book was a shabobble. The thought of the word shabobble made her weep again. Shabobble was a word she had invented for her children; it just meant a stuff-up or cluster of mistakes.
The word count is way off here…something has gone wrong. Check the original version.

5 (2.24) Who is Claude? (1220)
While she was waiting for something to happen – something happened. Claude stepped into her view. She couldn’t be sure how long he had been there. Brenda thought she would have known but there he was. Her initial reaction was to look down; she did not want to appear to be waiting for him. When she looked up he was smiling at her. By the time he was a step away Brenda felt an incredible rush travel through her body. She already knew he was a friend. How could that be? Is that instinct or something else? Hey, what’s your take on it dear reader? Do you know?
Claude was very well spoken. He introduced himself and asked if he could sit beside her. He was the first person, other than the hotel and airport staff she had spoken to in Paris. She stiffened up, she was nervous but the loneliness was taking its toll.
“How is the book coming along?”
“Why do you think I am writing a book?”
“Everybody comes to Paris and tries to write a book. What, did you think you’re the first? You’ve run away to Paris to write a best seller, to make your fortune.” He started laughing heartily. It was cruel. Not only was the story failing with all hope seeping out of Brenda, but now a man was sitting next to her laughing until tears rolled out of his eyes.
He reached into his pocket, pulled out an apple and handed it to her. She devoured it in seconds. Spit and apple fragments sprayed out over the keyboard and down her chin. Claude said he would buy her something to eat at a café down the street. She weakly followed him.
When they were seated and the food had been ordered, he had even leaned across and wiped the apple juice and skin off her face. Slowly she began to tell him about herself. She knew he thought she was a fool. She thought she was a fool, why wouldn’t he. She began to feel more comfortable. She was making a friend; it seemed. He wanted to know about the story she was writing so she began to tell him. She had not told anyone else she was even writing a story let along what it was about. She felt foolish, it sounded weak or was she weak from the stress of her rapid departure from Australia and her family. She knew it must be taking its toll. She told him about the spiral and the factory, the characters, Max, Charlotte and Kesbooks. He nodded, asked some questions and appeared to be thinking about what she was saying.
When she had finished he paused and said, “I don’t know, Brenda, it sounds thin, there has to be something in the story. You’re not getting much action happening, it is all before and after with short random scenes roughly joined together. I don’t think the judges will go for this.” “Who is the audience?” Well at least he didn’t sugar coat his response by telling her it was fantastic when secretly thinking it was no good.
They had more coffee and eventually it came to the point where they really couldn’t stay any longer. Claude suggested they go to museum in Montmartre. Brenda was delighted. This was one of her must dos while here and now she was going with her new friend. She didn’t hesitate. Once at the museum she peered at every exhibit, looking for something, a clue or guides for her story. Claude noticed and soon guessed what she was doing and told her to stop trying so hard.
“Time is travelling in the right order,” he said. “There are no clues here from the past or the future. Just relax.” “It has been scientifically proven time can not go backwards.”
This niggled on Brenda’s nerves because she was really dedicated to finishing her book and she did believe helpful hints were given to her from the past through art, literature and music. These artists were telling future beings something or were they not? Brenda could only see that they were. Anything and everything could be a clue for her. Her senses were on high alert after days of meagre food consumption and stress of the journey and living on the street. She felt she was hearing every footstep and cough as they moved out of the museum. The colours in the sky were marvellous. She felt exhilarated but also extremely anxious at the same time.
Claude had reached out for her hand and she let it happen. They were wondering through the streets together and entered into a residence. Brenda did not know where she was. Claude was handing her a wine and all she could do was accept.
“Can I play your piano?” she asked having spotted a piano in a little room off the sitting room.
“Sure,” Claude replied from the kitchen.
Brenda started to play her song that she had written, Homeless in Paridise. She felt all her tension melt, the notes seemed to fly like kites in the air. She even managed to sing. She thought Claude had gone into another room but when she turned he was right behind her. Just standing very close. She had not sensed he was there. She was in a stranger’s house. It was one of the scenarios she had told herself not to get into. It was dangerous. She bolted for the door. She could hear him calling her but she ran and ran, carrying her backpack, straining every muscle. Her heart was beating hard but she carried on. Montmartre is on a hill so she just travelled on the downward slope weaving across and down. She reached the main road and the street was very crowded. It was a long way back to the river but she dragged her feet along. She kept her eyes down and she soon wished she had stayed in the warm house but she knew she should not have gone with a stranger to their house. She ducked into the first hotel that she thought she might be able to afford and settled into a room for the night. Again she slept for hours and hours while the Parisian life carried on around her.
When Brenda awoke she felt very foolish. Not very cool; she tortured herself with embarrassment. Claude might just have been enjoying her piano playing and she had rudely ran out the door. Check-out from the hotel was not for hours so she changed tack, put on her runners and headed out for a jog. She ran and ran, just letting all the stored nervous energy go. It was a strategy she had often used when she was stressed or angry; she would run to let it go. Running through the streets of Paris was another dream come true. It was very early on a Sunday morning so she had a lot of the back streets to herself. Now she was happy, she even took a moment to smile to herself, something that she had not done for a long time.
While running her mind whirled with new ideas for the book. Back at the hotel she reread her work so far. It was a mess, the characters were not doing anything, and who were Max’s friends? Why were they in the story? What about Kesbooks, the hologram? How was she going to fit in? Slowly, though, Brenda felt that Max was not comfortable with the time disparities. She would make it that he would work hard to try to straighten the time out and in the end have to make a sacrifice and stand up for what he believed in. That sacrifice might even be his death. She began to type, trying to build up Max’s character and introduce his friends.

6 (3.00) Max’s meets Marla (1145)
The next day Max went to visit Angela at the library. She told him she’d had wonderful morning helping customers with their inquiries and had convinced two residents to take up action regarding a local park. She was turning into an environmentalist. Always going on about the way we should work to be more sustainable for the future.
“Can you find out anything positive about fallout from a cement factory” I asked her. She gave me a wonderful smile. “I love the way you work, Max. Information is a powerful commodity. Look at all these people, Max; I think I am the only person working today.” He looked around and had to think about what she was saying. There had to be at least fifty people browsing in the library. She had a point.
ArkiMay stopped here. Crikey, it must be years since 50 people were in a local public library at once. The collections had been decimated.
“Come back tomorrow Max, I will see what I can find for you. If we just spent the time and money scanning content and indexes we could retrieve a lot more information like the type you are asking for. Since the commercialisation of Google more people come to the library to find information.”
ArkiMay noted that the line about commercialisation of Google was written years ago. Here we are now at the cusp of the possibility of this coming into truth.
Max was back at the Port Bar enjoying another beer. Did he have a drinking problem? No he didn’t think so. It was just that he liked being at the Port Bar and he would only have a couple while he waited to see who came in. He was thinking about his friends and about his party which would start soon.
The party was starting in a couple of hours and Max had cleaned up his house in anticipation of the guest’s arrival earlier in the week. He decided he couldn’t wait any longer to have a drink so he went out to the shed where he had prepared a bar with quite an assortment of beverages. He was taken by surprise when he found John, an old friend, was sitting in the corner of his shed. Max was not scared as he looked very much like he had always looked: a bit sullen and angry with the world but happy to see him in a childlike way. Max was sure pleased to see him. He still had short red hair with a very long plait down his back and a very cheeky grin.
Was a ghost necessary in this story?
Max was over the initial shock and now warmed up to the idea of spending an evening with him. Max put a beer next to him and he laughed. Max told him about his plans for his time travel business. It was difficult to communicate with him but he tried. Max thought about what he must look like talking to himself. He wanted to continue the relationship now he had come to find him but the next day he was gone again. Just like when he was alive.
Charlotte came with a friend from overseas. Frank bought his wife who Max had never met in all the years they had drunk together. Kate had got the night off work. Several brought friends and family along with them. Kesbooks was there too, recording everything for the people of the year three thousand.
Everyone was talking at once about time travel. There was such a buzz about what was going on. Everyone wanted to do something different, go back in time and change events, go forward to find out the lottery numbers; it was pandemonium. The church had come out and said it was unnatural to change the order of time, some people said they were too scared to try it. Others thought they would give it a go. It was all so new. What a change for the whole world to deal with. Christian and Sandy were planning a trip back to try to see Jesus. What would you do? Are you happy with only knowing the past? If it could be changed would you be brave enough to go ahead go into the future to see how you fare or do you really already know what is going to happen to you.
Brenda was back out on the street, she began thinking she would have to try to get a job and somewhere to stay. This was a step back toward her old life. Perhaps she was not a writer but an ordinary person with no particular talents. She found herself talking to herself again. Brenda she said to herself, perhaps this is just the story of your life. Perhaps this adventure is something you will look back on and laugh about or at least have to yourself. Maybe it is back to work and family for you. You could go home, even if Jeremy won’t let you back into the house you could stay with a friend until you get resettled. The children might even admire you for trying. Perhaps it is all part of your path to the person you are going to be. She was yielding to defeat, there was not going to be any glory of being a famous writer. A moment of horror came over her. She was not who she wanted to be, only who she was. She felt sick, it was not enough. She thought about walking in front of a train but dismissed this quickly. She wouldn’t do that. There was nothing else to do but write a bit more to see if there was going to be an end to the story.
The funny part about the party Max was reflecting was that Kesbooks and John got along so well. I mean a ghost and a computer avatar, what a match. Max was shaking his head; life had really got mixed up now. It was pretty well untenable, he wanted out of it. The only good that was coming out of it was the economy was doing well. With people travelling back and forth in time there was so much more trade happening. Travel agents were creating fabulous tours of past events. Everyone wanted to go back to see the Middle Ages, see the pyramids being built or hang out with their favourite historical figure. There was a lot of research and paper work to take care of. Max had been in the uptake of the new world so he had made quite a fortune.
Another great thing that happened at the party was that Max met a nice lady name Marla. He was very pleased with himself. He really liked Marla and he really was thought her lovely because given all the opportunities the time entanglement gave everyone, she wanted to go back to a really great night she had back in her teen years. Max thought this was pretty sincere. All was going well for him.

X

7 2.65 Kesbooks Skytower (1083/1080)
8 2.82 The Red Forge Publishing House (1033/1044)
9 3.00 The Port Festival (991/939)
10 3.16 Struggling to get it right (954/856)
11 3.32 Theodorus has something to say (921/737)

Book 2. The Red Forge Publishing House

7 2.65 Kesbooks Skytower (1083)
The wind whipped up around her neck and she looked out across the skyline – all of Paris lay before her but she put her head down and kept typing and singing to herself.
Brenda decided to leave Max meeting Marla and bring Kesbooks Skytower into the story. Brenda really wanted to see her character, Kesbooks Skytower, the hologram sent from the future, become a reality. She seemed so far away from where she wanted to be in terms of achievements in her life.
Rain had started to fall, so Brenda needed to move into the alcove of an empty boutique. Soon she was back at the keyboard. Kesbooks Skytower was a character that had evolved in Brenda’s mind. Brenda had started playing Second Life and really enjoyed being her avatar, Kesbooks Skytower but what she wanted was her to appear before her, perhaps as a hologram and the idea emerged that she was a hologram sent from the future. How?
It was all going to be because a team of clever mathematicians, physicists, biologists, computer programmers and engineers in the Year 3015 AD would crack the space-time continuum and send holograms embedded with nanoscopical organic material through time. Holograms by then were a normal way of conveying information. Everyone sent their hologram to meetings to do their work. It became a great way to multitask. It had become a whole new way of communicating in about 2500AD.
Brenda was having trouble not being able to use the internet for any research she needed. She felt the world had become technologically crazy, an “app” for this and another “app” for that. Then the data hype had hit and it was all about big data and predictive analysis, leveraging that data to increase sales and wealth. It upset Brenda that the new technology didn’t seem to be helping people find information they need easily. There was no end to the hotch potch introductions of new technology in Brenda’s world though she had left all that behind while in Paris. She had wanted to be free of the communication trap; she felt she needed to get rid of the distraction of the modern smart phone in order to complete the novella. Back at home in her contemporary home in Adelaide suburbia with the big back yard and gum trees, she had been feeling a growing pressure to be successful. She felt she could not bear the mundane any longer. Perhaps she was successful in her own way but she could not see it. Some days the world seemed so complex to her that she was overwhelmed.
The following is an excerpt from the diary Kesbooks is writing for the researchers back in the year 3015.
Name: Kesbooks Skytower
1st April 2021
I am getting used to my new life. I came out of the computer program about a month ago and though it was scary at first I am now starting to have some fun. I know you can see through my camera eyes but I do have feelings about this process too. I suppose the whole world is watching and I hope I do a good job. It has all been a shock really, while we practised this in 3015, to come to 2021 is really quite an experience. People have been interesting to meet. When I first come out I was at the Semaphore Public Library, it is really nice there. Even though I look like an avatar out of Second Life people have not realized I am a hologram. I even made some friends there among the borrowers and staff.
A very nice man named Max had been especially nice and helpful. Max is an Information Agent who uses the library as his office. Max has given me some money to spend here but I really don’t need anything. Though sometimes I pretend to have lunch or drink a coffee with my new friends. He also thinks he has applied the programming of Second Life to the logic and physics of real life and that is why I am now able to teleport using GPS coordinates. I just don’t have the heart (funny really that I have picked up so quickly the human friends etiquette) to tell him I don’t need his help because I am a self learning algorithm from the future. I have been able to use machine learning to interpret and adjust my programming myself. I know you were worried that the large difference in time might weaken the signals for me to have that much power but I feel fine. Everything is going well.
I have a Facebook and Twitter accounts (it probably seems so old fashioned to you) and apparently there are a lot of other avatars from Second Life living in the “real world”. I have many friends and followers and most people are really nice because I am learning everything from scratch it has been hard not to make a mess of some stuff. I have very few emotions so I am not really effected by embarrassment.
One of my new friends Charlotte has been telling me about growing up and going to school. This has upset me because I have been created as I am today. I really wish to experience life and I have thought about how I will grow older naturally when I am an avatar. If there was such a thing as ageing in Second Life I could get back and change my appearance every six months or so. I guess I have what a lot of the people seem to want and that is an ageless appearance. I know I have had training in human psychology but actually being here so far from my own time is not always easy.
Charlotte asked me a whole bunch of questions about if I could tell the future by going back to Second Life and coming back after going forward in time or something crazy like that so she could get rich quick. I don’t think so. I do have some advantages as I do not need to sleep. I can’t feel tired and therefore can party all night. I don’t eat or drink so I am a cheap date. I was in Second Life for about a year before coming out so I do know quite a bit of stuff that I have learnt by web scraping and data analysis. While I am not that naive, I have said some really stupid things because I need to learn quite a bit of history and politics and this and that to function properly. I get better every day though because I can operate for twenty-four hours a day and with the internet it is really easy to catch up on information.
I have fixed my co-ordinates so that I have a very close to solid three-dimensional structure and can wear clothes and apply makeup etc. Most people walking down the street or at the shops don’t notice anything different about me. I don’t really feel anything when touched so that is a real disappointment as I have seen the pleasure others get from touching each other.
When Brenda reread what she had written she felt pretty good. It made sense to her. The hologram experiment of sending a hologram from the future to a computer program that was current in the desired year seemed a reasonable method. Especially if holograms were common place in the year 3015 and like the Curiosity Mars project it would have a camera and send vision and messages to the operators. Perhaps Kesbooks sounded a little too human-like but if holograms were well established and everybody used them Brenda thought they would be very human like in their speech. She thought about the smart phones that talk, they are produced to try to sound human. Kesbooks would have a will of her own because she was a great hologram on an expedition.She had even managed to get herself a job. After Max met Marla and introduced her to Marla, she joined The Red Forge Publishing House at his party, Marla gave Kesbooks the job as the Librarian there.

“I am Kesbooks Skytower, the Librarian @ The Red Forge Publishing House.”
“I am a hologram sent here from the future.”
“Nice to meet you.”

8 2.82 The Red Forge Publishing House (1033)
Marla stormed into the office of The Red Forge Publishing House just about unable to contain her frustration.
“Breathe” she told herself.
“They’re closing in on us, Tarn. I knew this would happen; we can’t seem to move quickly enough. We need to have a meeting; make it tomorrow 9 am.” Marla barked at Tarnie.
Tarnie set about contacting all the employees of The Red Forge Publishing House. She hadn’t seen Marla quite this agitated before and immediately began to worry about what was going to happen. Marla’s agitation might mean she would expect everyone to work harder and faster.
Tarnie had a lot going on in her life at the moment and was quite comfortable with the easy pace. This was going to be a drain on her reserves. She felt the transparent skin under her sleeve twitch. For the umpteenth time she thought to herself, ‘that was so stupid.’
Everyone was early to the meeting the next morning: Leroy, Max, Charlotte, Tarnie, and Marla. They had all been working there for about six weeks now. Marla had slowly begun gathering the team after gaining some traction in the interest of her project.
A few years earlier she had met a lady named Brenda who had written a novella for a literary competition. Marla had taken the project on and gathered a group of people to help her with composing the song and produce the art to complement the work. Marla had also started writing her own novel called The Wave and the Particle that continued on with some of the story lines that Brenda had started.
Marla was finding the writing process as frustrating as Brenda had. She also had the added complexity of marketing on Social Media and trying to establish The Red Forge Publishing House brand. She had met Tarnie at the pub one night and together had been working on, ideas for writing and music, media profiles and shoot off projects.
“OK guys, we need to really step it up now team. The new logo looks good.”

“So much is going on out there; we are going to get left behind. We need this book printed and the music being played. I want the artwork completed and entered into an art competition. We have to start getting the product out there. I really think the time is right now. It is just the sort of entertainment the public are looking for; a little bit quirky but offering real substance.”
“Tarnie get that music score done. Kesbooks can promote it online and maybe we can apply for an arts or some sort of business grant.”
Charlotte waded into the conversation; a little timid because she could feel Marla was so tensed up. “Do you think we will get plagiarised or ridiculed if we put it up not quite finished. I would like to see it edited again and Kesbooks is back in Second Life.” She said with a slight eye roll and exasperation. Kesbooks was certainly was getting on Charlotte’s nerves lately.
Marla cut her off “No, I want it out there. Someone is going to beat us to this. My Painted Elephant is OK as is. Leave it a bit rough, it will give it an arty, edgy feel. Besides Brenda lost her laptop with the work unfinished so it is supposed to have an unfinished feel. I want the website to be a record of progress so anyone can see who is the owner of the Intellectual Property Rights on this piece. Max, can you please compose a clear legal strategy on this matter; perhaps have a copyright statement on the first page. But one more edit is needed, I agree. Charlotte, have another look at it and then send to the printers when ready. I want to have hard copies for sale at the Port Festival in October.”
“OK boss” said Tarnie. She continued, rand said what everyone was thinking. “I think we will need an editor in the future.”
Marla nodded. Perhaps she would advertise for an editor.
“Are we continuing on with the library site?” Max interjected. “Because I have some ideas for some additional services, such as a story time and a short documentary on the Dewey Decimal System.”
“Yes, we will keep the Maxden Library and Information Services site going.”
Max interjected. “Look I want to change the name to Maxden Library and Information Services”. I think it sounds more exclusive, I have been looking into creating a separate entity. Maxden is very efficient to search for digitally because of the ‘x’, some search engines search for the least used letters first.”
Marla decided she liked the new name. “Ok Max.”
He went on. “I think we should concentrate on researching information acquisition problems for people. I’d like Maxden Library and Information Services to be a go to place for difficult information, helping organisations with information flow and removing barriers to information access.”
“Ok Max, see me later to discuss this further. If we could win the support of State Government to promote and provide support for the data collection of call centre transcripts that would be invaluable. I think. Let’s arrange another meeting to discuss Maxden Library further. I do have a couple of contacts at the University.”
Marla returned her gazed to the rest of the team. I really want the book, music and artwork finished by October, that’s four months. I think that’s do-able. Kesbooks has been doing nicely on the social media, I think it is OK she is back in Second Life. Leroy, I really need you to come up with the believable science for Kesbooks. There is a lot going on with holography. I want it to be the very latest idea and of course the time travel must stay in.”
An audible groan was heard from Leroy. He had a good idea about holograms having lasers coming out of their eyes but didn’t think Marla would like this. While popular science writing jobs were hard to come by, he thought it best to save the more contentious aspects of technology development quiet. ‘Next she will ask me about Kesbook’s Diary,’ he thought to himself.
Marla was shocked. “Stop it Leroy, I know the time entanglement angle irks you but it is staying. It really is the whole point.”
“It just isn’t realistic because of the changing the past paradox etc. um..higgaldy pickledy as Brenda puts it.” Leroy ventured. He had read My Painted Elephant and did think it had some good ideas in it but it was written by some ‘forty-something’ woman from nowhere.
“Yes and she then proceeds to ignore the higgeldy pickledy.”Marla flashed back. “It could be possible to travel on your own time line and not change anything. Just travel forward and back. Just go and have a look,” she explained.
“What is the point of that?” argued Leroy .
“That is what we are trying to find out, for fuck sake you are the science writer that is why I employed you. Also I don’t get what Brenda was saying about the derivatives of the theodorus spiral. And didn’t I ask for you to continue on writing Kesbook’s diary?”
Charlotte waded in, trying to protect Leroy. She is often shy in the meetings, not sure of herself. “I’ve been thinking of a human interest segment on our website. I have been thinking about interviewing some people, talk about their aspirations, loves etc. I think it will get a regular return to our website.”
Marla was nodding, encouraging Charlotte to tell them her ideas.
“And I have been thinking we could set up a studio and stream live music via the website too.” interjected Tarnie.
Marla raised her hand. “OK, one at a time please.”
“That’s a great idea, Charlotte, you could to do the interviews or get someone else to do it. Go ahead and get a couple of interviews recorded and we will have a look. It will be good to build up a following on the website. Now, I am writing the next part of My Painted Elephant, it is called The Wave and the Particle.”
Marla was addressing the whole group and then looked at Leroy.
“Leroy, we need a check out on the website. I want to sell the book as an e-book directly from the website. I don’t think we can keep My Painted Elephant as a free book either. As a business we really need to start making some money. Now I hope you are all wearing your t-shirts out and about. We really need to get some more exposure in the community with our product. Live music would be great Tarnie but are you going to do it? Let’s find a professional singer and band. Perhaps once we start getting some sales we can look at doing more. I would like to do surveys too, how many people out there know what hypertext fiction is?”
“I want to get Andrew, the mathematician a bit more involved. The idea is to get some of this maths and science in action not just in fiction. We need the skills base, here at TRFPH. Again once we start getting sales on the books and merchandise we can start expanding out with other functions.”
“Let’s do a maths competition on the Theodorus Spiral Company website.” Leroy suggested.
“Yes, put that attempted proof Andrew did on the website and see if anyone spots the mistake but what is the prize going to be?” Marla questioned. Money was a little tight.
“Theodorus Spiral Company t-shirts.” They all chimed together.
Charlotte’s eye lit up. “Oh Marla, I have been working on the Winding Pattern and I think we can try to get a Citizen Science Grant. The Winding Pattern is perfect for it. We ask people to look for the pattern anywhere and everywhere. With all the data that is being used and reused the pattern might turn up somewhere.”
“That is very good Charlotte, keep me informed. Max might be able to help with the grant application.”
“I’ve been reading about Linked Data. I want our site to have a Five Star rating. Leroy get on to that.”
Max saw his opportunity. “I’ve been working on a project with SA Libraries and Data SA. Maxden Library and Information Services could get their name out their within the open data and linked data circuit.”
“Brilliant, keep up the good work. OK team, that is enough for today.” Marla finished up.
Leroy caught up with Charlotte in the hallway. “I have been working on a book Learn Maths and Computer Programming with the Theodorus Spiral for people to learn maths using the Theodorus Spiral.”
“Oh that’s fantastic, Leroy, can I see it?” Charlotte inquired.
“Sure, I can send it to you.” Leroy replied.
“Why didn’t you mention it to Marla?”
“I don’t know, she just rubs me the wrong way sometimes and I just don’t want to co-operate with her.” Leroy looked at Charlotte sheepishly. Charlotte looked back at him.

9 3.00 The Port Festival (991)
Tarnie was a bit surprised but very relieved. Pretty much status quo the same for her. Just keep working on the music score. She began trying work out when she was going to fit this task in. She already knew she would be going back in time to use some of time she wasted in the past. ‘This, Leroy, is why we like time travel,’ she muttered to herself as she caught up to Max and started walking alongside him down the path to the river.
“Max, are you still organising tours back to the past?” Tarnie asked.
“Yes and I want to investigate bringing some people forward from the past, a lot less effort for everyone concerned.” Max replied.
“Oh Max that is great,” exclaimed Tarnie. “Please bring Janis Joplin forward. I’d really like to see her.”
“You know that you can go back and see her?” Max half stated, half asked.
“Yes, but I can’t fit any more time travel in.” Tarnie grumbled. “It should be infinite amount of time with going backward and forward but it doesn’t seem to be way.” Max speculated.
At her home in suburban Chicago, Marla sat down at her computer and start writing a list:
• Holograms – science (quantum computers, optics, space/time travel, worm holes, energy sources in the air)
• Data Science project – collect information seeking data and match with information provision data. Aim to reduce wasted information seeking time.
• Commercialisation of business – merchandise sales, subscription fees, book sales, shields (factory producing Aluminium/Bronze shields and trinkets), music royalties, film or animation script.
• Marketing; is social media working?
After a massive sigh she began writing another list titled POSITIONS VACANT:
• Writers for the The Red Forge Publishing House concept
• Editor
• Search Engine Marketing and Branding Experts
• Mathematician for the Winding Pattern
• Physicist (Optics and Theoretical) for Kesbooks Skytower hologram.
• Data Scientist, collection and analysis of information seeking data and try to match with information provision data.
• Manufacturers of Theodorus Shields (or wall hangings)
• Clothing manufacturers and retailers for merchandise.
• Musicians and singers to perform Homeless in Paradise
Before long Marla found herself designing a sign with the words FOR SALE:
Innovative Concept $100,000 or nearest offer.
ArkiMay was getting frustrated that the ‘The Red Forge Publishing House’ chapter was now too long. She had only been working for Marla for a few hours but already the project was doing her head in. Marla had told her she wanted the chapter lengths to follow the method that Brenda had started out to do in My Painted Elephant.
Brenda would need to rearrange the story again or maybe she thought she could add two hundred words to every chapter to make the second derivative spiral right. She had already times the change in hypotenuse by ten thousand and then divided it by two. It was becoming difficult to manage. She pondered the idea of investigating the word lengths if she calculated the change in the change of the hypotenuse of each triangle. It would then become a story with chapter lengths determined by the third derivative of the Theodorus Spiral. She was madly cutting and pasting a bit from here and into there. She was frantic because she realised she was chopping and changing the only copy. She should have made a new copy and started altering that. She only had a mini laptop with no mouse, just a worn out touch pad to work with. This was insane.
She was so absorbed in her babbling story she failed to notice Claude approaching. He was frowning at her. She was hunched up with pain etched across her face. Earlier she had caught sight of herself in the window. It was amazing the rapid decline in her appearance from just a few days on the street. Her nails were broken and her hair had massive tangles in it.
Claude whispered perhaps you need a break. “Let me buy you a meal. You are going to make yourself sick.”
“I am sick Claude. I am talking to myself in the park, believing I am a famous writer, hoping that my delusions are real. I am begging that my characters would come to life before my eyes so I can touch them and talk to them. I want to become part of my world where time can fold back on its self and I can teleport from here and see my children.”
Claude let her spill all her troubles out over him, he was very patient and kind. Perhaps she had over reacted the other night by running away from him.
Brenda was about to apologise to Claude for her silly behaviour when he told her he had phoned her husband and he was on his way to Paris to get her. He held her hand and told her that she was the story. She could relax now because it was over. She would be going home.
Claude was saying he felt she should see a doctor and eat a proper meal or at least get to a hotel to rest in comfort for a while. He showed genuine concern for her. Yet she felt betrayed by the stranger. How could he have rung Jeremy? She was up and running away again. Why were people always interfering, trying to help? She was exasperated now and had bought a bottle of port at the shop. She found her way back to the ledge where she had spent her first evening. She took a swig from the bottle and then another. She was furious at Claude for ringing Jeremy, why can’t people mind their own business and let her get on with hers. She felt the annoyance that had arisen so many times in her life when others think they know it all and try to tell her how to do things. She knew what she was doing; she was a strong, independent woman, living out her life the way she wanted to. She was not going to bend to societal norms just because she felt she needed to. She also was not thinking that the universe was taking care of her. How many times had she heard her girlfriends, some of whom were successful women, say the universe is taking care of me? Brenda shook her head. She was taking care of Brenda.
When Brenda wrote back in the year 3015 she really meant in the future but she was now convinced time was running backwards. The future is already set. It has been done. She was not going to win a writing competition, she knew it. It had all been in vain so there were more tears and feelings of despair.
Should she press on, could she fix up this work, did it have any credibility? Was it a stumbling block, a humiliation or a triumph? Was she working toward a solution with commitment but with stumbling blocks or embarrassing herself and family?
“Please send me a message” she was saying to herself. “Who are you talking to?” She didn’t know, she just wanted something like a message from the past or the future. She wanted some answers to questions about what was she doing here? What was in this world for her? She was nothing like who she had wanted to be. She missed Jeremy; she wondered what would become of her. Would she get back to Australia? All her grandiose thoughts were gone. She felt none of the confidence she had felt when she set off for Paris only a week ago. That burning desire to write a creative work and to forge a place for her in history was no longer there. She felt like just a shell of herself. She did know the future and it was not going to be good. Perhaps she would perish here.
She panicked. Perhaps she really should see a doctor in the morning. Claude was right she was making herself ill. She missed her family and her old life. She had made a big mistake. She knew Jeremy loved her so maybe he would forgive her and let her come home. The thought of his warm hands wrapped around hers made her feel better. He was a good father and husband, he really did deserve better. She should be at home cooking his dinner, making sure the school uniforms were ready for the morning. What was she doing? She had being incredibly selfish. She felt sick with grief for her old life, poor Jeremy would be having to work and look after the kids and take care of the house and pets. Would he forgive her?
Despite the agony she felt, Brenda found herself writing again.
Everyone from The Red Forge Publishing House team was exhausted but exhilarated at the same time. The artists market stall had been an overwhelming success.
The crowd had admired the iron artifacts especially the candelabra that had been hand forged at Birkenhead Blacksmithing; the first ever blacksmithing forge on the northern side of the Port River. The TRFPH team couldn’t keep up with the sales of the flip book of My Painted Elephant and The Wave and the Particle. But the main attraction was the Theodorus Spiral on the Pedestal.

.
Spiral on the Pedestal

People had flocked to the spiral like a magnet. It seemed to draw the crowd that sauntered around the grounds. Young and old stood mesmerised by it.
They had all come looking for something special, something a little different. They had certainly found it at The Red Forge Publishing House stand at The Port Festival that year.

10 3.16 Struggling to get it right (954)
Brenda looked up and an hour had passed but when she reread what she had written she was not impressed; it was going nowhere. On the spur of the moment she used a hotel’s internet to check her emails. She had been dreading opening her inbox because she thought there would be an email from her husband expressing his anger. Instead, there was nothing, just the usual junk, a couple of her usual society and club requests. Her son’s football club was having a fundraising event. She would not be attending. What would everyone think of her, abandoning her children, running away? Her heart sank – nothing from her husband; he had not pleaded with her or told her he hated her – nothing; that was worse.
Brenda did not cry this time but skipped breakfast and pushed on with her endeavour. She had wanted the story to be a life changing experience for the reader – maybe even to become a new religion. She began writing to the reader.
Do you know that feeling that comes when you know what is going to happen or you have seen something before when you have never been there before; could that be because it has already happened? What we believe to be going into the future is really going backwards. It is similar to the notion that fate has already been decided. Where has this idea come from? Have we always known that the future has already happened? Perhaps we are just having trouble articulating it.
She felt that she had adequately made the point that time in the story was overlapping. She really felt she needed to put something more into it. Max thought the time entanglement was caused by Charlotte’s secret hobby: blacksmithing. She had been working on their grandfather’s forge when all the problems with extra selves started. Charlotte thought that it had occurred when she had gone out to ancient aboriginal lands. She had been on a hunt with an old boyfriend to find a front end loader that had been stolen and there had been a tip-off that the loader was out bush. While she was looking for the loader she came across a buried sculpture, it was made of iron, plastic and pink concrete. This was not an artefact from the past it was from the future.
Brenda was back out on the streets. After rereading her work she felt let down. What she was writing was not getting to her true thread…Theodorism.
The new religion would be Theodorism. What does this mean? Understanding maths and science and knowing that by continuing a certain way will lead to success. A span of 6000 thousand years, what does the year 3015 look like? We need to plan for this now. We can make the future what we want but who is going to do it? Brenda felt that uneasy feeling come over her; was she insane or was this clarity of mind onto something? She sat and pondered whether history’s Great Thinkers had felt the same way.

11 3.32 Theodorus has something to say (921)
As much as Brenda wanted history to be different: it was not. She was not the one to change it. She wanted to be able to be connected to all the great scientists and mathematicians. They could discuss with new knowledge what they could and could not have done in the past. The future would not about money but achievements.
Not having the internet felt to Brenda like an arm had being cut off. She knew her history of maths and science but couldn’t remember the dates to know who was living at the same time as whom. She should have bought a book. She had bought one book; it seemed a funny choice now, 1800 Mechanical Movements, Devices and Appliances by Gardner D. Hiscox first written in 1899. Brenda was always amazed at how much the world knew all those years ago. She felt the education system was failing in some way because they took so long to teach children maths and science information that has known for hundreds of years. Surely we have evolved so we can teach younger children mechanics and physics in primary school. We really do underestimate younger people, no wonder they get bored at school with all the colouring in they have to do.
Brenda was again immersed in her thoughts when Theodorus whispered to her; she heard it like he was a man sitting next to her – she was not scared. The voice was strong and deep.
“Do you see that really you are back where you started though you have more understanding of who you are now? You thought it all through thoroughly; really you can relax and just enjoy life. You’ve come full circle but with more depth now to your character.”
Brenda said.”Yes, I can see, it has been a worthwhile experience. It doesn’t matter if I have failed at least I tried. I am a better person for trying.”
“Young lady, you have not failed, you have written about the spiral, people will read this and then they will know about me and what I created all those years ago. I know that while you know the hypotenuse is continually getting longer but with each triangle by a lesser amount you think it should eventually it will be a circle. I know that you have written a maths program where the spiral continues on round and round and that you have left that program running for days to see what happens. It appears to go on for infinity and you don’t understand why. Perhaps because the third derivative (the change in the change of the hypotenuse) is getting smaller therefore the difference in the change of the length is getting smaller and so it begins to look like circles with the same difference in size.”
Brenda felt relieved that she actually understood this now, finally.
She smiled. “Thanks.”
Theodorus continued. ”You have also tried to tell people your thoughts about women needing to take more of control of their environment by studying maths, science and engineering especially now there are no constraints about them going to university or working, that is courageous. You are so desperate to find a cure for your mother that you have written a book you want published in the hope someone will read it and help her.”
“Stop being so hard on yourself,” he paused for a moment and then said. “I will tell you one more thing; you were right when you wrote about people believing unsafe ideas. You have highlighted this when you say, Max thinks Charlotte set the time entanglement in motion, Charlotte thinks it was the strange artefact from the future, and you think it was the scientists and programmers in Year 3015 but I am going to tell you it was the fate of the universe that caused it. Physicists will discover time entanglement and all the social and policy issues you have mentioned will have to be discussed and controlled to prevent chaos. It was always going to happen and you cannot stop it. The future has already happened.”

Book 3 : The Wave and the Particle

12 3.60 Saving Hypatia (893/677)
13 3.46 Kembla the blacksmith (868/1170)
14 3.74 What’s in this world for Brenda (845/687)
15 3.87 Phone a friend and It’s All Gone (825/454)
16 4.00 Time to go home (806/454)
17 4.12 The end: the shortest part (789/680)

Book 3: The Wave and the Particle
12 3.60 Saving Hypatia (868)
While Marla was toiling away at home over the future of The Red Forge Publishing House. Max met up with Charlotte at the book shop. When Angela, the store owner, was busy with a customer they lent on the secret shelf and slipped into the cavity that appeared. Down the familiar corridor onto the little caboose with the brightly knitted cushions and arrived at Scarlet’s Bar just in time for the meeting that they really needed to be at.
A crowd had gathered in the bar, jostling to buy a drink and get settled before the meeting began. The news had reached Max that Kembla was going to make an appearance. Even Kesbooks Skytower had turned up. Max recalled the last screen shot he had of her, she appeared to have lost her way. He smiled at the thought she was back in the game.

The reason for the meeting was to decide what was the best use of time travel. Max and Charlotte had on their Save Hypatia t-shirts. It was all very exciting. Even though Time Travel had been officially banned, a group of underground travelers had kept the old skills alive and felt confident with the right moves they could make minute changes in history that could save the world from ruin.
Kesbooks and Max stood together discussing the scene. Kesbooks knew Saving Hypatia was only a small part of the bigger achievements that were required to pull the human race back on track.
“Kembla seems distracted by trying to save Hypatia” Kesbooks.whispered to Max.
“What do you mean?” Max asked.
“We are supposed to be pulling together all the great thinkers from all the ages and getting them together to work out solutions for the future – which we know does actually happen but it still has to be done.” Kesbooks replied.
She continued, “How many times have you been back to try to save Hypatia?”
“Several times, she never follows our advice.” Max shook his head, eyes welling up, as he recalled the scene over again in his head. The horror of Hypatia being dragged out into the street and torn apart.
THE MEETING
Frank: Good Evening everyone. Welcome. We are here to discuss the matter of time travel. While we all got excited about being able to travel through time it has become obvious there are problems with us all travelling backwards and forwards whenever we like it. It is dangerous and causing utter chaos.
Frank: I would like to acknowledge Max from Maxden Library and Information Services for organising some fantastic regulated tours into the past and future and those of us who have been on them are very grateful for the wonderful experience.
Frank: However it has to all stop until we can get a consensus on what are the critical missions. So without further ago we will hear from several speakers tonight who would like to put forward their proposals and we can try to have an understanding of what the community want to do.
Frank points to Jeff
Frank: Mr Thompson
Jeff: I propose we travel as far into the future as we can to discover where we meet or have contact with any species from other planets. I will be good for us to find out if we are alone or not.
Crowd ooo’s. Frank writes something down. Some inaudible chit chat.
Frank: Order. Bridget
Bridget: I think we should go back in time with several public health messages such as the benefits of washing hands, the dangers of smoking etc.
Crowd ooo’s. Frank writes something down. Some inaudible chit chat.
Someone yells out. That could lead to an astronomical increase on the current population??
Crowd ooo’s. Frank writes something down. Some inaudible chit chat.
Franks acknowledges that person.
Person: We are against time travellers turning up in our time and using our resources. We need to concentrate on helping the people in our own time.
Crowd ooo’s. Frank writes something down. Some inaudible chit chat.
Lars yells from behind the bar.
Lars: All time travellers are welcome at the Dockside. Let them come.
Crowd ooo’s. Frank writes something down. Some inaudible chit chat.
Another Person: My religion disagrees with time travel and we believe it is an unnatural event and it should be barred forever.
Another Person: Rubbish. Save the extinct animals. Save the dodo, save the ????
Crowd ooo’s. Frank writes something down. Some inaudible chit chat.
Franks sees Max waving frantically
Max: I propose we go back and save Hypatia the Greek Mathematician. I have been conjecturing all the possibilities and I believe had she lived, better solutions to many world issues would have resulted. Following her guidance our calculations would have led to a perfect allocation of resources using time travel so each Earthly citizen can receive the resources they need at whatever time slot best fits their needs.
Crowd ooo’s. Frank writes something down. Some inaudible chit chat.
ArkiMay had chopped and changed so much her head was spinning. Who was Kembla?

13 3.46 Kembla the blacksmith (893)
Brenda was thrilled with The Red Forge Publishing House and THE MEETING sections. Wow, perhaps her concept will get picked up by a producer. But she found herself daydreaming about the crazy happenings that would be possible if time had no order, just free to loop around and around on itself. Her heart pounded and her stomach twisted. She was alive. She was excited about her story but couldn’t think fast enough to get it collated into a manageable order to type?
She was back at the keyboard.
She was madly typing: she was going a long way back, not really having time to connect all the sentences properly; that stream of consciousness again. She was thinking where she had got the inspiration to write her story.
Perhaps from Hypatia, the mathematician, who lived in the world of the Greek philosophers : Socrates, Plato and Aristotle.
Another influence was Theodorus of Cyrene who had lived about eight hundred years before and taught her about irrational numbers and a spiral that held many secrets. This is where the Theodorus Spiral Company had come from, through time, because people had stored knowledge and made it available to be acquired by others.
ArkiMay got back to editing My Painted Elephant.
Kesbooks start to say something but the crowd hushed and Kembla again appealed to the crowd to save her daughter.
Brenda had written. “I want you to become the pink engineer; make the steel and concrete any colour you want. Brighten up this world, make a difference. Don’t be one of many, be the one that changes the world; change everything,” this is what Hypatia’s mother had told her when she a little girl.
Kembla used to say. “Things move slowly in this world. It is hard to see new truths.”
Hypatia didn’t know what steel or concrete was; they had not been invented. Her mother, Kembla, had come from the past where she was a blacksmith who would change the course of half the world by changing the path of Buddha. But she had also come from the future that knew about steel and concrete. Steel and concrete were only one of the many things that Kembla knew from the future.
It was difficult for a woman of academia at this time in history. Hypatia was brutally murdered because of her pagan beliefs by a mob of angry Christians.
Kembla felt great pain each time she thought about her daughter’s death. So unnecessary but no matter how many times she had tried to change the course of events; the result was always the same.
ArkiMay pondered, ‘how would Kembla have come from the past and knew the future at the same time.’
Brenda wondered whether she needed to put a reference to the expression ‘Things move slowly in this world. It is hard to see new truths, ‘This was apparently said by Nicola Tesla the Serbian inventor/engineer.
She hurried on, admonishing herself:, ‘it’s a work of fiction, do what you want, Brenda’.
Kembla was an artistic blacksmith with many years of experience forging metal to create fascinating works of art. Most were imperfect in many ways but they told a story of the metal they were created from. Some sculptures were like twisted plants with branches tangling around each other; they were very striking. Kembla was a woman and in the past she hid her gender because the forge was a man’s domain. She had been harassed and attacked on more than one occasion. One particular time a man had tried to take over her forge and she had to defend herself and protect her property. In the struggle she had stabbed him in the stomach with a white-hot, sizzling piece of iron. The infection from his wound had killed him. She felt great sorrow for her actions but bravely carried on.
Over the years she had learnt her skill on her own. Experimenting with different ideas, creating works that she didn’t really plan on making but that seemed to create themselves when she heated the metal and started hammering. She loved the heat coming from the fire; she became immersed in her work each time. It forced her to push herself to her creative and physical limits. It was a great comfort to her that she had these skills that she developed on her own without instruction. She worked tirelessly every day, the hammer ringing on the anvil. She sometimes had to travel great distances to get the coke for her fires and on these journeys she would meet other travellers.
On one journey she met Theodorus who told her about his spiral so while she pulled her cart of coke back home she thought about a new design to make in the forge. She would cut the iron into different lengths the measurement that Theodorus had told her and she would hammer scrolls on the ends and attach all the spokes to a shield. She might be able to sell them at the market.
Why she was a chosen one she did not know but she found herself drifting in time. For a while she was Hypatia’s mother trying to help her daughter survive. She was so frustrated with the murder of her daughter despite all her efforts to change the sequence of events. In the end she saw a way to change the attitude of men toward women. She had heard about a man named Buddha so decided to travel to meet with him on his travels and convince him to try to change the way the men in the community viewed women. They could be brave intelligent warriors with good industrial skills. They didn’t need to try to be men they just needed to realise they could be a woman but strong and capable at the same time as being feminine. The attitude of society needed to be changed. This in time perhaps they could save Hypatia from the angry mob.
When Kembla catches up with Buddha she looks him in the eyes and states, “I am the blacksmith”. He immediately sees the error of his way. He has seen the woman in the wrong light; he has misunderstood her purpose in the world. She is not to be taken lightly but taken seriously, as an equal. She knows as much as he does. Despite being deprived of education, treated like a slave and misused. She can be the pink engineer. He has missed this. It was a mistake all these years ago. He must make amends now.
“What shall we do?” “We can gather all the greatest minds, those who can contribute to make the vision. We can get them from the past, present and the future. We can get their opinions and ideas from their holograms that they send to this meeting. We have been to the future we know it can be done. The past is not a hindrance now, we have conquered time: the last frontier. It can be done.”
Unfortunately a great tragedy occurred at dinner that night. Despite Buddha realising his mistakes and vow to spread the word, Kembla accidentally killed Budda with poisonous mushrooms: diverting her chance to change the course of history and leaving Hypatia to her fate.
Brenda really liked this part of the story; this is the keynote. This strong, self-instructed, independent thinking woman was who she wanted to be like. Brenda knew her story was filled with lots of different concepts but that was the idea, the connection with the spiral that continually changes the angles between the hypotenuse and the origin.

14 3.74 What’s in this world for Brenda (845)
Suddenly Brenda believed Kesbooks Skytower was whispering to her. She was saying “Brenda I went back in time, I spoke to Theodorus He was overwhelmed of course but he listened to what I told him”.
“What did you tell him?”
“I gave him a brief history of how we have developed. I explained about all the cultures slowly getting closer together. I explained about the computer and communication making it possible to connect to each other across the world and now how people in the year 3015 have changed everything by sending me back in time.”
Next Theodorus appeared before her, standing side by side with Kesbooks.
Theodorus spoke very gently. “I want to tell you something else, Brenda. I want you to realise how far you have come. I know you knew that but I have seen the past, it was very strange to see and hear the people talk. You have only known the twenty-first century but I have been in 300 BC; you have come a long way. I don’t know why it has not worked out better for the people. You should all be happy, what happened?”
Brenda explained societies can’t agree on how to live: religion, ethics, money gets in the way of progress. Even within a family there is discord so how can a whole city, country or global community see a harmonious way. She told Theodorus about an online discussion on animal cruelty she had read in the library when she was there. Cruelty slaughtering animals for food. He said there were similar issues in his community. Mainly the people don’t think about it and the issue is ignored until it is open to discussion but everything runs its course and old thoughts become popular again.
Brenda was in a trance. Could it be real? Was she really hearing voices? Perhaps Claude had been right and she would see a doctor. It was early evening now and she felt should find somewhere to sleep the night and then in the morning sort herself out. She sat for a while on the park bench letting all the Parisian life go by her. Several people stared at her, for she was looking like a tramp now; still sipping on her port. She was surprised no one came to move her on. She thought to herself, ‘I guess I am just lucky, what a laugh.’
But to her surprise despite her resolution to give up on the book, she again found herself with words and scenes on her head. She reached into her backpack pulled out that laptop. Just a little bit more she told herself.
Again she delved into the distant past. She felt empowered; being able to swing from the past to the future quickly in her mind. It was a similar feeling to when she swung from thinking about the inside of an atom to the whole universe and when she thought of herself as an individual and then switched to the notion of being connected with all beings, past, present and in the future.

15 3.87 Phone a friend and It’s all gone (806)
Brenda was beside herself. No longer able to sleep, her mind was darting about from one thought to another. Everything that had happened to her was regurgitating in her brain. Each new thought interrupting the current thought. It was nightmarish but she still for some reason pursued her writing because she had believed all the horrific emotions were part of the process of writing a great piece.
Theodorus’ voice was gone now and she was amazed at how calm she felt. She knew he had not really spoken to her from the past, didn’t she? Brenda then really surprised herself and said, ‘I don’t even think he’s right, I am pretty sure the time entanglement did occur because of the advances in science and the ability to send a hologram into the past, at this she laughed and laughed. She laughed so hard at herself, like she had never done before. She was arguing with her own delusion. She was hysterical.
What’s in your head? Can you see the future? Sometimes I dream things and later, sometime days, months or even years later I find myself looking at the scene I had dreamed. Does that happen to you? Yes I think we can create our own future. We can think and concentrate and imagine a way of life. We can think it enough and it will happen; it can happen.
Brenda had put herself in a position where she could not give it up. She just battled on by pouring her thoughts onto the page. It was all she could do now. Where was this story going?
She recapped the plot: Theodorous first created the spiral, went to the future and saw a young Charlotte learning about the spiral, Charlotte grows up and finds a sculpture from the future and sets up a factory making Theodorous Spiral Shields and the Candelabras and sells them to past, present and future buyers. Kesbooks Skytower is sent back from the year 3015 AD by a group of scientists and computer programmers and she becomes the Librarian at The Red Forge Publishing House.
Max, who is Charlotte’s brother, is set into the story just when the time entanglement is starting because he is not comfortable with the new time regime he wants things to be normal. He wants to put time back in its place but that does not make sense anymore because time does not have a place.
The premise of the story is about struggle to achieve, Kembla the blacksmith wants to go back and make a fundamental change to history and inspire women and change the minds of men about women’s abilities to be engineers and play a more active role in shaping the future.
Brenda sighed in defeat, this is not working, she weeps for her old life, and she has been a fool. The world is so complex, she felt she would burst from the pressure inside her head.
She stumbled along to the backpacker hostel she had noticed before, found a telephone and rang her friend Krystal back in far north Australia. When Krystal answered a wave of relief swept through Brenda for she had been completely shut off from her old life for a week now and so much had happened that she was feeling completely alone. Now she was talking to her old friend Krystal who she had discussed many life changing events and thousands of not so important ones too. She poured her predicament out. Krystal patiently listened. When Brenda was finished she had wise words to say about writing, explaining that the pouring out of words was called stream of consciousness. She told Brenda to draw a circle and get the all the characters sorted out on the page with their connections. She told Brenda it was all alright, she could always come and stay at her house if she needed to.
All of a sudden all the weirdness was gone, all the thinking that the time was running backwards was gone. She was just a traveler ringing home to have a chat with a friend. When she got off the phone she went to the bar and bought another drink and had some fun talking to other travelers, sharing their stories. Eventually she staggered back exhausted but happy to her favourite spot in Paris.
When Brenda woke she was stiff as a board, she didn’t think she could move. She was so cold, her lips must be blue. She managed to reach out for her laptop to write about the dreams she had had. She realised that what she needed to do was forget about the time entanglement story because that was just about trying to change what she was not happy with. The world she lived in was all she was going to get. There was no magical power to make it all better for her. She wasn’t even delusional enough to write a good story about it. She was just down and out Brenda.
ArkiMay felt the doubt too. She should write about herself, her adventure. That might be a story.

16 (4.00) Time to go home (806)
Brenda thought perhaps she could get her old job back at the public library. She had always enjoyed being among the books. The idea that the books might vanish alarmed her. She couldn’t understand this need to make everything electronic. Surely that was using up more energy than growing trees for paper. Brenda understood the laws of entropy, once energy from whatever source it was used it could not be used again. It pained her to see so much wastage. We were supposed to be using less energy not more.
ArkiMay thought to herself, “it was a lot to do with space too … digital formats take less room to store.”
Brenda was shocked to find her laptop was gone. All that work and nothing to show for it. She jumped up searching amongst her belongings but it was not there. She was surprisingly calm about it. She thought that maybe it was for the best. She did wonder if anyone would read the document. They wouldn’t know the numbers next the chapter headings were her calculations on intended and actual word counts of the chapters to make the second derivative spiral.
The work was not good anyway. It was not going to win a fiction prize. It was the ramblings of someone who for a moment felt she could not bear to be ordinary. She felt better already. Perhaps it had all been a really bad episode. Maybe a prelude before she ended up like her mother in a home. Brenda actually found comfort in the fact that maybe she would end up in a home where everything would be done for her and she would not need to venture out into the big bad world again.
She laid back down again, waiting for help. Her lips were very dry and she had a very bad headache from the hangover. After several hours she had a wave of panic that maybe she might die here. She remembered she had not eaten since the meal with Claude, which might have been three days ago. She was so weak. She lost consciousness.
ArkiMay frowned. ‘I don’t think she would die in three days just because she didn’t eat.’
Someone was talking to Brenda; a familiar voice was gently pushing her. “Wake up, Brenda.” It is Jeremy. Her husband was there. It was amazing. She struggled to open her eyes. Claude was there too. They were trying to get water into her mouth. She weakly allowed them to pick her up. When she woke again she was in a hotel room. The room was empty. She called out and Jeremy came into the room. He did not smile at her but he was here. He had traveled all the way across the world to rescue her. For that she would be forever grateful.
While she had been sleeping Claude and Jeremy had been talking. Claude’s mother had suffered from abulia the same as Brenda’s mother and had been given a drug that had bought her back from the state she had been in. Jeremy had sent that information home to Australia for Brenda’s father, to get her mother onto the drug. Apparently it had had immediate benefits.
An email had arrived from home. Brenda’s mother had got up a few days after starting taking the drug, packed her bags, called a taxi and arrived home surprising her dad who had taken her into his arms in a flood of tears. Wow what a miracle. Brenda’s mum thanks her for not giving up on her and to please come home now. No one is mad at her.
Brenda arrived home on a Monday while her children were at school. She and Jeremy caught a taxi home from the airport. When she entered the home everything was just as she left it including some of the washing she had left on the line. She had only been gone thirteen days. It seemed like so much longer to Brenda. She and Jeremy had spent a couple of days sorting through their emotions and rekindled they relationship. Jeremy even expressed admiration to her of her efforts.
Brenda didn’t reflect much on the experience she just wanted to be able to get back to her old life. she was extremely apprehensive about the children’s reaction but she needn’t have been. They arrived home bursting to tell what they had been up to. Her daughter was already over the fact she hadn’t been able to do what she wanted on Saturday night because her brother needed to be somewhere else. Jeremy had taken care of the family in her absence. Within a few minutes of arriving home the children were watching TV and on their computers just as they always did.
Brenda started to cook the dinner.

17 (4.12) The end: the shortest part (789)
A few months later Brenda’s story won the Shakespeare and Company writing competition and her family traveled with her this time to Paris to receive her prize. They had a wonderful happy family holiday and Krystal came along as well. They visited all the great tourist spots and for some reason Brenda did not show Jeremy where she had slept those lonely nights and he did not ask. She did wish he wanted to know more about what she had done while she was here but he didn’t and she couldn’t change that.
Brenda had lost the laptop and hadn’t managed to finish the chapters so that she could get the word count of each chapter right. She did not know how she even entered the competition but she decided not to let a little rationality get in the way of a good story. What a life!
There was one strange thing that did happen that Brenda did not really stop and think about until quite a bit later. Brenda and Jeremy were sitting out the back of their house, enjoying a social gathering and telling friends how her mother had recovered from the strange illness. Jeremy was recalling how the doctor’s had found out from research that a drug had been tried on other patients similar to Brenda’s mother and had administered the drug to her while Brenda was away.
When Brenda mentioned Claude’s mother having the same condition Jeremy was confused and asked her who Claude was. She realised instantly that Jeremy had not met Claude and she then was left wondering if he had been a vision. Perhaps she had had a delusion after all. She went as far as to think perhaps some the characters from her story had come alive in her mind and appeared as real before her. She had always explained the hearing of Theodorus’s voice by the whole bottle of port she had drunk that night. Claude though was a different matter. Gosh she wouldn’t be the first author to have a vision in Paris would she? She thought while laughing at herself.
Anyway more good news is that The Red Forge Publishing House website gets cyber-attacked and this turns out to be of great benefit because victims of the attack and the investigators look at The Red Forge Publishing House website and begin reading the story. It is one of the ways it becomes successful.
ArkiMay has discussed this scenario with Marla and they both wonder if this is a likely outcome or would careful marketing and another aspect of the company such as Maxden Library and Information Services bring success. How is success going to be measured.?
Jeremy has to admit he is impressed with this. Brenda had been complaining about a fake email she had responded too and nearly gave away all her personal details. She had been furious.
Brenda decided not try to write anything else, which is fair enough considering the ordeal it was. She does occasionally wonder what happened to Kembla and follows the scientific news in hope that holograms will become a reality. When she read a science article on Facebook saying ‘Physicists confirm that time moves forward even in the quantum world‘ she hardly showed any emotion. Accepting the expert’s words as the truth. She returned to her ordinary, happy ways of living, with its ups and down but really pretty lucky life.
That whole Homeless in Paris/Red Forge Publishing House period of her life is referred to as that weird time and in time is forgotten until one day many, many years later she was thinking of studying French and had printed off a copy of Emile Zola’s The belly of Paris. While flicking through it the word abulia popped out of the page. Who is one of the characters, no other than Claude, the artist? Had she known about this before she read it? Did she somehow already know about Claude before she read about him? These incidents happen to people all the time; we called it a coincidence, when perhaps it is small fragments of time jumping about.

Book 4: The Elegant Solution
For a long time, Brenda’s life had returned to ‘normal’ and her family had lived a contented life however that ‘creative itch’ returned and life took an unexpected turn, and she now found herself living at the Dockside Tavern—a cozy, harbor-side establishment that had become her temporary home.
Nestled among the picturesque docks, the tavern provided Brenda with a unique blend of inspiration and companionship. The rustic charm of the place, with its wooden beams and maritime artifacts, fueled her creativity and offered a sense of belonging amidst the boisterous atmosphere.
The tavern’s regulars soon became familiar faces in Brenda’s daily routine. Each evening, as the sun painted the sky in hues of orange and gold, she would gather with the eclectic group of artists, musicians, and locals who frequented the tavern. Their stories, laughter, and shared camaraderie breathed life into her writing, infusing it with the vibrancy of real experiences.
Amidst the clinking glasses and soulful melodies, Brenda discovered a supportive community that embraced her journey as a writer. They celebrated her successes, offered constructive feedback, and provided a sanctuary where she could pour her heart onto the pages of her book.
Living at the Dockside Tavern allowed Brenda to break free from the isolation she had experienced during her early days in Paris. The tavern’s ambiance became the backdrop for her storytelling, offering a rich tapestry of characters and tales that she could weave into her narrative. From the weathered fishermen with stories etched upon their faces to the whimsical street performers who danced through the nearby cobblestone streets, each person she encountered added depth and authenticity to her words.
Brenda found solace in the simplicity of her new life. The daily rhythm of the tavern, the smell of freshly brewed coffee mingling with the salty sea breeze, and the comforting chatter of patrons became the backdrop of her creative process. Here, she could escape the pressures and expectations that had weighed her down in Paris, allowing her writing to flourish in an environment of acceptance and genuine connection.
As the days turned into weeks and the weeks into months, Brenda’s manuscript began to take shape. Her characters evolved, their journeys intertwining with the spirit of the tavern and the lives of its inhabitants. The once-struggling writer had found her voice, and her book reflected the transformative power of embracing the unexpected and finding home in the most unlikely of places.
Brenda’s time at the Dockside Tavern was no longer just a temporary stop on her journey; it had become an integral part of her story. The energy of the tavern infused every page, a testament to the resilience and beauty she had discovered in her own life.
With her manuscript nearing completion, Brenda felt a sense of gratitude for the serendipitous detour that had led her to the Dockside Tavern. It had become a harbor of inspiration, a sanctuary where her words could grow wings and soar. And as she readied herself to bid farewell to this chapter of her life, she knew that the memories and connections forged within those walls would forever be etched in her heart and in the pages of her book.
Brenda started writing again. The Elegant Solution.
Max was alone, at home. He looked out of the back window. It was snowing which was strange. It was fascinating. He was daydreaming. Was it true that each flake was unique but the chances were not zero that at any one time they were all the same? It could be happening now, he thought. He shook his head. It was a strange day. He was in a strange mood. Through the snow he could see, far down the garden path, that the back gate was open. He put on his old dirty woolen jumper and stepped outside. It was cold but he didn’t seem to mind and headed toward the gate.
About halfway along the path he spotted something on the ground, just off the path. On bending down he gashed his head on the side of the shed. Swearing he raised his hand to touch the wound and a drop of blood fell to the snow. He stopped and looked at the stark red blood in the white snow. He continued to the open gate. As he approach he could he something coming. It was a rumble. The trees and snowfall were blocking any view down the laneway but from the right, something was coming. It sounded like horse hooves. Standing at the open gate with a bleeding gash on his head he looked right along the laneway.
Yes, horses were coming. And a carriage and driver. A woman driver, it was Charlotte, wearing a bright red dress, with a low neckline and flowing black hair. Two magnificent horses, proudly pulling a carriage. She pulled the horses up alongside Max standing there holding his bleeding head that he has gashed on the shed. He noticed her incredibly long dark eyelashes that sparkled. He was mesmerized. She leaned down as Max leaned forward and blood from his head smeared her hands.
They both were momentarily staring at the blood. She recovered first and said. “Hop in were are off to the Dockside Tavern. I can care for that wound and buy you a whiskey.” He asked, “will Marla be there?” The carriage door opened. Someone else was inside. Max turned, looked back at his house, closed the gate, and jumped up into the carriage. Inside was Tarnie playing a guitar. Dressed like she was from the wild west. Once Max was settled it was giddy up and they were off. There sat another man. A quick introduction to Leroy, and passing of a flask with strong liquor and Max, Tarnie and Leroy were on their way.
As Max, Tarnie, and Leroy rode off in the carriage driven by Charlotte, they headed towards the Dockside Tavern. The atmosphere inside the carriage was filled with a mix of excitement and curiosity. Max couldn’t help but wonder about Marla’s presence at the tavern, while Tarnie strummed on her guitar, adding a touch of music to the journey.
As they traveled along, Max began to notice the changing scenery outside the carriage window. The snow-covered landscape gradually transformed into a bustling cityscape as they approached the Dockside area. The tavern was located near the waterfront, a hub of activity with ships coming and going, and people from all walks of life congregating there.
The carriage came to a halt outside the Dockside Tavern, a lively establishment known for its vibrant atmosphere and diverse clientele. Max, Tarnie, and Leroy stepped out, taking in the sights and sounds of the place. The three of them made their way inside, eager to see what awaited them.
Inside the tavern, they were greeted by a lively crowd and the familiar aroma of food and drink. The room was filled with laughter, conversation, and the occasional clinking of glasses. They spotted Brenda sitting at a corner table, engrossed in writing. She looked up, surprised to see Max, Tarnie, and Leroy standing before her.
Brenda smiled and waved them over, gesturing to the empty seats around her table. Max, Tarnie, and Leroy joined her, and the group began exchanging stories and catching up on each other’s lives. Brenda shared her new project, “The Elegant Solution,” a book she had started writing during her time at Dockside.
As the evening progressed, more familiar faces from their past adventures began to appear at the tavern. Marla walked in, followed by ArkiMay, who had returned to the project after a period of exploration. The energy in the room heightened as old friends reunited and new connections formed.
The night was filled with laughter, music, and a sense of possibility. The Dockside Tavern had become a meeting point for kindred spirits, a place where creativity and camaraderie thrived. Amidst the chaos of their individual lives, they had found solace and inspiration in each other’s company.
In the days that followed, Max, Tarnie, Leroy, and the rest of the group continued to gather at the tavern, collaborating on various projects and embarking on new adventures. The spirit of community and shared purpose infused their lives, fueling their creativity and providing the support they needed to pursue their dreams.
“The Elegant Solution” became more than just a book for Brenda—it became a metaphor for their collective journey. Each of them had faced their own challenges and setbacks, but together they discovered that sometimes the most elegant solution is found in the company of like-minded individuals, in the power of friendship, and in the willingness to take a leap of faith.
And so, their story continued, intertwined with the vibrant tapestry of the Dockside Tavern and the colourful characters who frequented it. They would face new trials, celebrate triumphs, and find inspiration in the most unexpected places. But through it all, they would always have each other, and the elegant solution they had discovered—a bond that could weather any storm and light the path to a brighter future.

Tattoo 2017

Homeless in Paradise

KesCreations Merch Shop

Keren’s 60th Birthday Party Speech

Hello everyone.
So glad you could make it. I am super happy to be having a birthday party. Thank you so much for coming.
Thank you Tracey, Anne Marie, family, people who have stood by me.
I want to thank the Henley Sailing Club. The ‘Come and try Sailing Days’ is a really fun day and you are sailing by the end the afternoon and a good laugh too.
I gotta thank my mum and dad who pretty much let me do what ever.I wanted. Before Dad passed away he said “make sure you enjoy yourself Keren”.
In my play there was 3 acts. Act one was Brenda sitting on a park bench lamenting leaving her family to write a novella to try and win the Shakespeare Bookshop Writing Prize. She is rather despondent about her efforts and obsesses about her characters Max and Charlotte.
Max is an information agent and is all about the truth. It has been hard for everyone to keep up with all the changes in information technology but he has toiled away to keep a breast of it all. He has his own information agency to help people find out stuff that was important to them.
“You should be in control of your own data from the cradle to the grave and I will help you achieve this”
Charlotte is the founder of The Theodorus Spiral Company. She believes in the properties of the spiral and is convinced that it holds some mathematical importance. The hypotenuses never overlap. She thinks at the theodorus spiral would enhance applications that need a direct line of sight to a central point.
At the end of this scene Brenda is not confident of where her story is going, Max seems worried that the truth was unravelling and Charlotte cannot get to the ancient ruins in Libya because of civil unrest so Brenda decides to write in a party and have time travel invented.

Party Scene
Imagine on the way to this party and you received the news that time travel has been invented. When you get here, everyone is a-buzz with what they want to do, but with lots of questions such as is it an opportunity to find fortune, what great stuff we could do collectively, is it dangerous? So much to talk about.
That was fantastic/shit depends!

Act Two was a meeting of The Red Forge Publishing House crew. So here a nested narrative has developed. Max and Charlotte are now part of Marla’s new enterprise and they are trying to promote Brenda’s story along with new characters Tarnie the music director, Leroy the science advisor and Kesbooks Skytower the hologram sent from the future.
Marla is rather frantic because there are so many opportunities with social media but they are having trouble getting their content distributed. Everyone is wearing the company T-shirts but they are just not getting any traction.
They discuss the book and website needing an editor and the intellectual property.

After some discussion Tarnie sings the Homeless In Paradise Song.

The scene finishes with Marla writing a list of all the extra staff and skills she needs to create her masterpiece
Writers, editors, Marketing people, mathematicians, Physicist, Data Scientists, Musicians.
All the while hoping a streaming service will call to offer her a price for the work as it is.

In the meantime, everyone else is going to the meeting they really need to be at.

Act Three: The Wave and the Particle
This is a community meeting. Time travel has been going for a while, but it is an absolute mess. People going here there and everywhere. So, the community get together to discuss some options of how to proceed.
So Frank the MC says Thank you for coming
We are hear to discuss the matter of time travel and we need to get a consensus on what the critical missions will be.

He acknowledged Max’s contribution for organising some fantastic tours into the past and present.

1. Travel into the future to find out if we ever find out if there are other species in the universe.
   The crowd ooo and arrr
   Someone yells out : That will use up some much energy.
2. Go back in time improve medical practice and save millions of lives.
   The crowd ooo and arrr
   Someone yells out. There will be too many people.
3. Someone yells out Ban Time Travel!! It’s against my religion. It’s dangerous.
4. Someone yells out : Go back and save extinct animals. Lots of yes’s that’s good idea.
5. Max and Charloltte yell out Save Hypatia believing she held the key to saving humanity.

In the original play Brenda pipes up and says Hang on a Minute I didn’t write that. And focus is back on her and she heads on home.
However, I am having a manic episode and goes and live at the Dockside Tavern and write the Gold Lotus Song
.

Keren’s 60th Birthday Party

And the Final Act called the Elegant Solution
I have a birthday party, everyone is here and Dino Jag jumps on stage and sings Three Little Birds in honor of Tuesday who played Marla

Everyone is happy and dances the night away.

Ars Conjecture by Jakob Bernoulli 1713

One day, I visited a special library in the city, wandering the quiet shelves, alone, and wondering what treasures I might find. A thought crossed my mind: I wonder if there are any mathematics books here. So, I drifted towards the 510 section in the Dewey decimal system. There, all by itself on the shelf, was a single book.
From the spine, I couldn’t tell what it was, so I pulled it out and opened the cover. My knees went weak, and a flutter ran through me. Inside, I found Latin words, numbers—a language of its own. I was completely taken aback, surprised by a discovery I hadn’t anticipated. I believe that’s called serendipity. At a nearby table, I leafed through its pages, each one filled with letters, numbers, diagrams, and tables. It was beautiful.
Afterward, I placed the book back on the shelf and, at first, told only a few people. Then, I decided to Google it. It turned out to be extraordinarily rare: an original Ars Conjectandi by Jakob Bernoulli, printed in 1713. I kept this discovery a secret for a couple of years, checking in every now and then to make sure it was still there.
As I researched further, I found there was an English translation, The Art of Conjecturing, by Edith Dudley Sylla, published in 2006. At the time, the only copy in the state was in a university library that was slowly moving its collection to digital formats. In the past, anyone could read a university book on site, but that was changing. Fortunately, I persuaded my daughter to borrow it for me, safeguarding it on loan.
Eventually, I told the librarians at the State Library about their rare Latin copy from 1713, valued at around $40,000. Later, I managed to buy my own copy of the English translation, worth around $700.
What are the chances of all this happening? That’s the Art of Conjecture.

MATLAB CODE 2011

clear all
%finish = 16 creates the spiral that Theodorus completed
%change the value of finish to any number
total_angle=0; winding=0; finish=16;
fprintf(‘ x hyp changeinhyp chngeinchngehyp angle chngeangle X2 Y2 winding \n’);
for x=1:finish
hyp=sqrt(x+1); chngeinhyp=1/(2sqrt(x+1)); chngechngehyp=1/(-4sqrt(x+1));
angle=atan(1/sqrt(x));
degangle=angle180/pi; chngeangle=(1/(1+x))(1/(2sqrt(x))); total_angle=total_angle+angle; degtotal_angle=total_angle180/pi;
X=hypcos(total_angle); Y=hypsin(total_angle);
winding=degtotal_angle/360;
%outside boundry
Xb=hypbcos(total_angle-angle); Yb=hypbsin(total_angle-angle);
fprintf(‘%3i %10f %10f %10f %10f %10f %10f %10f %5f \n’,x,hyp,chngeinhyp,chngechngehyp,degangle,chngeangle,X,Y,winding);
figure(1) title(‘Theodorus Spiral’) axis equal; xlabel (‘x’); ylabel (‘y’); zlabel (‘z’);
hold on
plot ([0 1], [0 0],‘k’); %First spoke
plot ([0 X],[0 Y],‘k’); %spokes
plot ([Xb,X],[Yb Y],‘k’); %boundary on xy grid
end

Change ‘finish’ to any large number and the spiral appears circular.

Theodorus Spiral Winding Pattern

I tend to call the hypotenuses ‘spokes’ and each time the next spoke crosses the positive x axis (red line in figure below) I call that a new ‘winding’.

Now if we look at number of additional spokes in each new winding,
for x up to 10,000, we get the following data.

It is possible to plot this pattern in different ways:

First 100 Windings

First 1000 Windings

Pattern Art

Theodorus of Cyrene
Born
465 BC
Cyrene (now Shahhat, Libya)
Died
398 BC
Cyrene (now Shahhat, Libya)
Summary
Theodorus was a Greek philosopher in the Cyrenaic school of moral philosophy. He was a pupil of Protagoras and the tutor of Plato and of Theaetetus.
Biography
Theodorus of Cyrene was a pupil of Protagoras and himself the tutor of Plato, teaching him mathematics, and also the tutor of Theaetetus. Plato travelled to and from Egypt and on such occasions, he spent time with Theodorus in Cyrene. Theodorus, however, did not spend his whole life in Cyrene for he was certainly in Athens at a time when Socrates was alive.

Theodorus, in addition to his work in mathematics, was :-
… distinguished … in astronomy, arithmetic, music and all educational subjects.
A member of the society of Pythagoras, Theodorus was one of the main philosophers in the Cyrenaic school of moral philosophy. He believed that pleasures and pains are neither good nor bad. Cheerfulness and wisdom, he believed, were sufficient for happiness.

Written by J J O’Connor and E F Robertson
Last Update January 1999
School of Mathematics and Statistics
University of St Andrews, Scotland

Created by Chat GPT October 2024

Investigating the Legacy of Theodorus of Cyrene: A Research Proposal for Archaeological and Mathematical Evidence in Shahat, Libya

Abstract
Theodorus of Cyrene, a prominent Greek mathematician and philosopher, is credited with several early contributions to geometry and the development of the irrational numbers. Despite his historical significance, there has been little direct archaeological evidence linking his work to specific sites. This research paper proposes an expedition to Shahat, Libya, the ancient city of Cyrene, to investigate if any remains of Theodorus’s presence or teachings can be uncovered. Specifically, the study will focus on searching for evidence of Theodorus and the geometrical figure known as the Theodorus Spiral within the ruins. The significance of this research lies in the potential for a deeper understanding of early mathematical thought, its physical manifestation in ancient architecture, and its broader cultural impact.
Introduction
The ancient city of Cyrene, located near modern-day Shahat, Libya, was a hub of intellectual activity in the Hellenistic period. Among its renowned figures was Theodorus of Cyrene, a mathematician whose influence is most recognized through his work on the irrationality of square roots and the construction of the Theodorus Spiral, also called the Spiral of Theodorus. This spiral is formed by connecting consecutive right triangles, each with a hypotenuse representing the square roots of natural numbers. Though Theodorus is a well-known figure in mathematical history, his physical presence and impact on Cyrene’s intellectual and cultural life remain largely speculative due to a lack of direct archaeological evidence.
This research aims to explore the ruins of Shahat to uncover possible inscriptions, architectural elements, or artistic representations related to Theodorus and his mathematical contributions. Specifically, this paper proposes the need to search for evidence of the Theodorus Spiral in the architectural remains of Cyrene. Establishing such connections would not only enhance our understanding of Theodorus’s work but could also provide insight into the role of mathematical thought in the cultural and architectural life of the ancient world.
Historical Background
Cyrene was founded in 631 BCE by Greek settlers from the island of Thera and quickly grew into a prosperous city, becoming one of the principal intellectual centers of the Greek world. Philosophers and mathematicians from this city made significant contributions to classical thought, and Theodorus, who lived in the 5th century BCE, was among its most distinguished. Though much of his biography remains obscure, Theodorus is primarily known for his work on irrational numbers and geometric constructs such as the eponymous spiral.
The Theodorus Spiral is of particular mathematical interest because it is an early example of an attempt to construct successive square roots geometrically. Its significance in the history of mathematics is well-documented in later works such as those of Plato, who referred to Theodorus’s teachings in his dialogues. Despite this, there has been no physical discovery of Theodorus’s writings or any artifacts directly attributed to him. Therefore, there is a need to seek archaeological evidence to confirm his historical presence in Cyrene and his contributions to the broader intellectual landscape of the region.
The Need for Field Research in Shahat, Libya
The modern-day archaeological site of Shahat, encompassing the ruins of Cyrene, remains a treasure trove of ancient history, with much of the city yet to be fully excavated. Given the significance of Cyrene as a center of learning, it is reasonable to hypothesize that Theodorus, like many intellectuals of his time, may have left behind inscriptions, architectural patterns, or other forms of material culture that reflect his mathematical work.

There are several reasons why a focused investigation is needed:

1. Lack of Direct Evidence: While the mathematical contributions of Theodorus are well known, no direct archaeological evidence has linked him to specific artifacts or sites within Cyrene. Identifying such evidence could significantly enhance our understanding of his work and influence.
2. Potential Geometric Representations: Given the mathematical nature of Theodorus’s work, it is plausible that the Theodorus Spiral or related geometric patterns could have been incorporated into the architecture of Cyrene. Similar to how the golden ratio and other geometric constructs have been found in ancient buildings, the ruins of Shahat may contain traces of geometric thinking tied to Theodorus.
3. Cultural and Intellectual Context: The presence of Theodorus in Cyrene, if established, would reinforce the city’s role as a major intellectual center. This would contribute to a broader understanding of how Greek mathematical thought influenced not only philosophy and science but also urban planning and architectural design.
4. Impact on Modern Mathematical History: Discovering evidence of Theodorus’s work in Cyrene could reshape modern interpretations of ancient mathematical development. It may also provide physical confirmation of theories that have until now relied solely on textual references, such as Plato’s dialogues.
   Research Objectives
   The primary objective of this research is to investigate whether archaeological evidence can be found to support the historical presence of Theodorus of Cyrene and his contributions to mathematics. Specific goals include:
   • Searching for inscriptions, dedications, or architectural elements explicitly naming or alluding to Theodorus.
   • Identifying geometric patterns in the ruins that correspond to the Theodorus Spiral or other known mathematical constructs.
   • Conducting a detailed survey of ruins that are likely to have housed intellectual activity, such as libraries, schools, or public squares, where Theodorus or his followers may have left their mark.
   Methodology
5. Site Survey: A comprehensive survey of the relevant sections of the ruins of Shahat, focusing on areas where intellectual and public life were prominent, such as temples, theaters, and agoras.
6. Geometric Analysis: Analysis of architectural elements to identify any patterns consistent with the Theodorus Spiral or other mathematical principles.
7. Epigraphic Research: Examination of inscriptions and dedications within the ruins, looking for references to Theodorus or his mathematical work.
8. Collaborative Research: Engaging with local and international archaeological teams working in Libya to gather data and share findings that could support or challenge the hypothesis of Theodorus’s presence in Cyrene.
   Conclusion
   The proposed research in Shahat, Libya, offers an exciting opportunity to bridge the gap between mathematical history and archaeological evidence. By exploring the ruins of Cyrene for traces of Theodorus and his work, this project has the potential to uncover a lost chapter of Greek intellectual history. Establishing a direct connection between Theodorus and Cyrene would not only enhance our understanding of his contributions but also provide invaluable insight into how mathematics shaped the culture and architecture of one of the ancient world’s greatest cities.

References
• Heath, T. L. (1921). A History of Greek Mathematics, Volume 1: From Thales to Euclid. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• Fowler, D. H. (1999). The Mathematics of Plato’s Academy: A New Reconstruction. Oxford University Press.
• Netz, R. (1999). The Shaping of Deduction in Greek Mathematics: A Study in Cognitive History. Cambridge University Press.

Written by Chat GPT September 2024

Blacksmithing @ Moonta 2010

The Letters

Below are the Letters that make up the Preface and Afterword from the original My Painted Elephant
Preface : Letter to the author
Saturday 4th Feb 2012
To myself,
This is you, writing some stuff down about your life, dreams and thoughts that have lingered enough to be written down. I hope this may help if you have lost your mind, or have suffered any brain damage from the wear and tear of living. You may be wondering how you came to have all these thoughts and ideas in your head. Well, it is a bit like a dream, dreams can be so marvellous and it has to be wondered: does the brain think of these ideas instantaneously or has some part of the brain being working on stories, philosophies, answers, discoveries to show you when it is ready? Perhaps there is a dream stored away ready for you, or maybe there are years’ worth, all catalogued in the brain’s own way, ready to be presented to you? Somehow all this is now ready to be written down. You want to enter the Paris Literary Prize this year and this is your effort. Well done.
You haven’t written all of what is to follow in one day it is just that today is the day you woke up and decided to add a beginning, middle and end to the story. You had already been writing about the Theodorus Spiral, Max, Charlotte, Kesbook Skytower and other imaginations. This is all a fiction from your mind, you have just finished reading Emile Zola’s ‘The Drinking Den’ and have quite a feeling of connection to Gervaise in the story. While I know you think you would like to be living in Paris, you are very happy and content in Adelaide, Australia and now you think that maybe the pull to Paris is because at some point maybe one of your ancestors’ lived there and some remnant of memory is still embedded in your brain. Two days ago, you woke up to a severe fit of spinning and nausea – this has led you to again worry you will end up like your mother in some semi-catatonic state that will render you useless in your later years and has sparked an energy to get something done about a book you want to write. You want your mother to take a drug to help alleviate her abulia which is a condition that affects the ability to communicate and her will to do anything at all. She has been in an old folk’s home for fifteen years and you believe, from personal research, that there is a drug that has worked in cases of abulia but she won’t take it, not being motivated to change her current endless scenario. Not even the doctors, who also have come to the same conclusion that the drug may help, can persuade her to take it. She says she is happy the way she is. You want to leave it but you feel you should be doing something to help. It is hard to just let it be and not be angry or hurt that she won’t respond to you.
Anyway just letting you know that you finally wrote a book: – perhaps you always knew that you would do it. Perhaps we all have inklings about what is going to happen to us. I am actually not sure if this is my writing from the past, the future or in the present. It might sound strange, but time may not be running as chronologically as we think. Sometimes I am so sure I know what is going to happen yet other times I get it so wrong. At this point you really don’t know if you will win the prize or not. I don’t think that is the motivation here anyway. Getting the work complete and being happy that you have produced something worth reading is much more important.
Love from you

---

Final Word: Another letter to the author
10th September 2012
Readers may think that Brenda is you but none of this true. You did not leave your family for Paris, though it has crossed your mind to do so. You have imagined what it would be like to do so, how you would feel, what you would do and where you would go. Your mother has not recovered; she continues to remain in the same state refusing to try the drug. There is unlikely to be any change in the future, you have to accept this. You have not given up on her. You are amazed that you have actually written a whole novella. Who would have thought, I mean loads of people say they are going to write a book but you actually did it. You did it even though there was no real motivation to do so. How did you get enough energy to do it? Some days you are so lethargic that just doing the daily tasks are a struggle so then from nowhere there is enough energy to write 18000 words. And there is more.
This work is really part of an art installation piece with sculpture, music and literature. The sculpture that Charlotte finds in this story is the one you are currently constructing and you have written a piece of music to go with it which you regularly play on the piano. Now you have the literature complete. Entering the novella in the Paris Literacy Prize is a way seeing how it is received. Does it get a response; is it creative and innovative enough? Only time will tell. Does the reader like it or loathe it. In some ways a response of any kind will be a success.
from the author

---

Another Embarrassing Letter to Self.
29/1/2016
Just to say your mother died…she did not recover. You continue to work on The Red Forge Publishing House Project. It now is about computer programming, and web content so this maintains your interest.
Unfortunately you now wonder whether everything is just a version of all you have seen, heard etc before and that none of your ideas are truly original.
What else is there to do though? It is best to continue trying to tie the writing, music and art into a single creative installation.
Good Luck

Self Portrait from baby photo 1989

Latest Letter

The Kerfuffle
2018-2025
If you had told me what was going to happen before the Kerfuffle I would not have believed you. My brother Paul and I would argue, I would get arrested, I would leave my partner of 24 years, Vin, I would live at the Dockside Tavern for 18 months. But alas all that did happen and all very quickly. In the space of about three months. And then, later, I would be diagnosed with bipolar disorder. I would buy my apartment by the sea, meet lots of new people and go on an amazing overseas holiday.
But it did happen. Paul and I were trying to care for our father Roy. One day Roy gets put on medication for his heart and a few days later is struggling to breath so Paul and I call the ambulance, and he is taken to hospital. While there, allied services start to talk about him needing to go into a nursing home. He must go to another recovery hospital, but this stay does not go well. The hospital care team believe he is a choking risk and disallow solids and he rapidly looses strength and weight. This doesn’t seem right to you. He was a very active person still, now confined to a wheelchair, eating mush. You and Vin take him for longer and longer home visits until after a terrifying argument with Paul, where he points a finger at you and says, ‘if you take him home you will have to care for him for the rest of your life’. You take him home permanently, feed him fish and chips and vanilla milkshakes but things are not right. While in hospital he had developed a sore on his leg that lingers for a very long time and causes quite a bit of angst. Home nurses were coming but they insisted on strapping the wound, removing the scab. This doesn’t seem right to you. You become very suspicious of the care Roy is receiving but he is obviously unwell. He needs help with everything and was very confused. A brand-new nursing home is recommended to you it is three weeks before Xmas and was highly decorated and seemed like a lot of fun. The lady showing us around seems so friendly. So, it was decided that Roy would move there.
During the admission process I give Paul’s name as the contact. At lunch I take Roy to the dining room, and no one explains where he should sit. We find an empty seat and Roy starts to cry. I leave and before long I get a phone call to say Roy has been diagnosed with Shingles and will need to be confined to his room. This troubles me. The idea was that he would be involved in a joyous Christmas at his new home but now he is to be shut in a room. And worst prescribed Lyrica. I also doubt he has shingles as I recall he was complaining of a sore ear and scratching at the side of his face the day before admittance.
Christmas Day arrives, and we have a lovely meal on the balcony at home on the Esplanade. It would be the last meal happy family Christmas; everything is about to change. After lunch we visit Roy as a family. We find him alone in the garden clearly very distressed. Everyone is upset. We insist on a doctor being called. Everyone focuses on the wound on his leg. I am starting to feel strange. No one mentions shingles. I start to distrust his nurse. Paul is aggressive towards me. The next time I visit Roy I leave the elevator on his floor and I am confused the layout is different and I take a moment to realise what was previously and an open corridor is now a barrier. I follow others through, and Roy is on the other side wailing and distressed. My heart breaks. Vinny says “I wouldn’t leave my dog there”.
I take Roy to lunch at the Palais Hotel. We are sitting out on the deck, and he announces he wants to go home. He is insistent, he doesn’t want to stay with Vin and me he wants to go home to his home. I dial the Nursing Home number, and he tells the Home Manager himself, and I take him home. I am very worried about what has taken place, but I couldn’t take him back to the home. We begin taking shifts to care for him. Neither Paul or Chris are involved. I find a caring friend and her friend, and I employ them to be with Roy on Wednesday and Friday afternoon and Thursday morning to give us a break. Another friend Natalie is employed via his Aged Care package for a couple of hours Monday afternoon II struggle with the Aged Care system and Roy’s Retirement Village don’t like me living there. I am feeling more and more strange, like I am in a movie.
The meeting with Dr Hilick, cardio
Next day Vin won’t let me go home. I spend the day with Elena,
Day with Greg and Tracey come to the Roy’s and Vin comes too.
Saturday I tell Vin we are finished.

I am loosing track with reality. I completely crack when ECH tell me Barbara was his main carer. We had never met a Barbara . Paul takes over the care of Roy and he is admitted to Grange where mum was but this time it is different. Lots of locked doors.
I begin to feel very uncomfortable with just about everything. I am supposed to be putting my play on for the Fringe. Actors are counting on me.

The Datacom Poem – It’s been months.

“Hello, how can I help you?”
I got hit by a gum tree branch
I have everything I own in garbage bags
I have a debt
I quit uni

I want to go to a funeral
What is going on with my Low-Income Card – it’s been months.

“Hello, how can I help you?”
I want to get my gas bottle filled
I can not pay my rent
I was robbed
I can’t log on to MyGov

I want to go to a funeral
What is going on with my Low-Income Card – it’s been months.

“Hello, how can I help you?”
I have no food
The fridge broke, the car broke, my partner beat my up
I switched courses
Please don’t cut me off
I want to go to a funeral
What is going on with my Low-Income Card – it’s been months.

“Hello, how can I help you?”
I want to visit my children
I want to visit my sick mother, father, brother, sister, uncle, aunt
I don’t live with my parents, surely you don’t need to know their income
I want to go to a funeral
What is going on with my Low-Income Card – it’s been months.

“Hello, how can I help you?”
I moved, I want to study overseas
I applied for a payment
I missed my appointment
I am sick, I have no money for my meds

I want to go to a funeral
What is going on with my Low-Income Card – it’s been months.

PLEASE CHECK THE WEBSITE
CALL BACK IF YOU HAVE ANY ISSUES
HAVE A NICE DAY

This was written after I spent 11 months working at Datacom answering the phones trying t assist Centerlink clients (2018/19). I had really wanted the job as I was unemployed at the time on welfare myself so with six weeks training, I was “on the other side”.
It was a very tough job. Initially we were told we would be the Youth and Student line, but it soon crept into everything: job seeker, debt management (this was particularly tough as it was during the Robodebt time), urgent payment and Low-Income Card
The line “I want to go to a funeral” comes from the Urgent Payment queries. People can ask for an advance on their next payment to go to a funeral. We had to try to verify the funeral by looking at funeral notices to allow this go ahead. It was a relentless request.
Simple requests such as changed addresses resulted in long calls that involved asking intimate details of the people that the client was living with. And I have no idea what was going on with the Low Income Card…did anyone ever get one?
And it all had to be done within certain KPIs…all about the stats and the company contract. It wasn’t the clients that bothered me (though some of stories affected me more than others) but the corporate approach to human problems. I tried my best but felt quite traumatised by the experience. I consider that I have exonerated my past sins and feel that I “did my time”.
Keren Sutcliffe

The Gold Lotus Song

I was standing on my balcony, looking out to sea
Thinking I have everything I need
Then the gold Lotus went by
I said to my family “did you see that car?”
“whose driving that car?”
I followed that car, on my bicycle, to the bar.
I’ve been drinking at this bar for a very long time.
I’ve been drinking whisky and it’s made me pretty frisky.
People ask me what are you looking for?
I say… I wanna get married on the dance floor
Just wanna get married on the dance floor
I didn’t learn how to rock and roll
But I sure know how to lose control on the dance floor
At the bar, I met Lars.
I said to Lars “have you seen the gold Lotus?”
and “whose driving that car?”
He said “girl you’re so drunk, I am going to put you bicycle out the back, into the garden.”

I’ve been drinking at this bar for a very long time.
I’ve been drinking whisky and it’s made me pretty frisky.
I’ve met a couple of really nice grooms
They ask me what are you looking for?
I say… I wanna get married on the dance floor
Just wanna get married on the dance floor
I didn’t learn how to rock and roll
But I sure know how to lose control on the dance floor
I said to Lars, “I don’t think I am going to find the gold Lotus, I don’t think I am ever going to know was driving that car.
He said, “girl, are you still here, get on your bike, get out of here.”
I said, “hey I have written a new tune.”
He said, ” that’s great, let’s hear it, I sure am sick of the old one”.
I said, “Lars, there ain’t no garden out the back, you lied about that”.

If it Don’t Work Out with you Mate

If it don’t work out with you mate, I got plenty of places to go
If it don’t work out with you mate, I got plenty of places to go
I’ll go round to Julie’s on a Saturday afternoon
I’ll drink so much champagne, I won’t remember your name

If it don’t work out with you mate, I got plenty of places to go
If it don’t work out with you mate, I got plenty of places to go
I’ll ride a classic MG down to Normaville,
I’ll sit under the jetty and be so very chill
If it don’t work out with you mate, I got plenty of places to go
If it don’t work out with you mate, I got plenty of places to go
I’ll ride my motorbike into the lovely hills
I’ll see the butterflies and soak up the thrills
If it don’t work out with you mate, I got plenty of places to go
If it don’t work out with you mate, I got plenty of places to go
I’ll go to a bar and learn to rock and roll

Learning to play the guitar 2022

The Freedom Song

I can’t believe how happy I am
To be here looking at you
We’ve laughed, and we’ve danced
And we’ve had a good time
Now we sit back and look at the view
…But there are people out there who struggle to be free
They cry out to their families
Can I be free to do as I please
I’ve got places to go … and people to meet
…but I know that I’ll be alright
I can’t believe how happy I am
To be here looking at you
We’ve laughed, and we’ve danced
And we’ve had a good time
Now we sit back and look at the view
…But there are people out there who struggle to be free
They cry out to their families
Can I be free to do as I please
I’ve got places to go … and people to meet
But you seem to feel that their part of a deal
A deal with your devil
…but I know that I’ll be alright
… because freedom’s my god.

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