on writing

Matthew Seiji Burns is a writer, director, composer, and game designer. With the help of Zachtronics game studio, he created Eliza a visual novel about an AI counseling program, the people who develop it, and the people who use it.

Prior to Eliza, Burns worked on a variety of games. He’s the creator of the interactive fiction projects Apology Simulator, The Writer Will Do Something, and The Arboretum. He’s also worked with Zachtronics to write and compose for titles such as EXAPunks, Opus Magnum, and more.

Burns has also worked as a producer at Treyarch, Bungie, and 343 Industries on titles such as Halo 3 & Halo ODST.

We talk with burns about our complicated, sometimes worrying, relationship to computers and why he's attracted to interactive novels. 

Hosted by Phillip Russell and Ben Thorp

Check out Matthew's website here.

Learn more about Eliza here.

Try out this recreation of Eliza chatbot here.

Visit our website: Originstory.show

Follow us on Twitter @originstory_

Do you have feedback or questions for us? Email us theoriginstorypod@gmail.com

Cover art and website design by Melody Hirsch

Origin Story original score by Ryan Hopper 

Is your life out of control? Is your plate full? Do you need a platter or a table instead to pile it all on?  Is time running away from you? 

We can change things. We can change ourselves. 

What would you sacrifice for your child? Dreams? Ambitions? Everything?

Jim Bowen is a single father who struggles with his ex-wife. He still loves her and wants it to work but her toxic personality is devastating to their sweet seven-year-old daughter, Lily. 

His grand ambitions of being an architect and building skyscrapers in a big city have eluded him. He’s on edge, working in a factory and living in a dying mid-west town while trying to raise his daughter and teach her right from wrong. The pressures are mounting.

Like the town, he fights on for a better life. That better life may come in the form of a single woman with a child of her own.

Pushed to the limits, they fight through each day, while most of the townspeople hold together like a family relying on each other. 

The town that once thrived now hangs on to the past like a fraying thread. 

Did they stay too long? Will love save them, or will bitterness destroy them all?

The answers delve deep into the eternal question of what it means to truly love.

I wasn't going to do this but I woke inspired this morning. 

There is a light and darkness we all grapple with, but there is a deeper truth and a higher self we aspire to. Reuben the protagonist is lost going through his days while his alter-ego Claremone is fighting to be brought into the light. Tanz the Accountant, a seer who helps Claremone on his quest to battle these dark forces of the Toxic Whisperers that are cutting off the evolution of souls. 

They must reveal this plot or all will be damned for eternity.

Daniel and I discuss how he got into making films, his production company totonyproductions, a production company that was created for and dedicated to his cousin and best friend Anthony, who had died of Cystic Fibrosis.

We discuss topics ranging from why Americans want films to end with a happy ending, and Daniel's love of French cinema. Also, he reads a few poems from his recently released poetry book Just a Boy Blaming Himself  which can be found on Amazon.

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Does the past wear you down? Do you feel stuck wanting more? It's time to let go of the unwanted.

Jane Harper is one of the rare authors whose books are so successful that they’ve carved out a whole new genre – it’s called Outback or Rural Noir, and it has taken the world by storm. Jane is the author of international bestsellers The Dry, Force of Nature, The Lost Man and the new book that’s recently come out called The Survivors which sold an extraordinary 20,000 copies in the first week it was released in Australia, immediately going to no. #1 on the bestseller lists. Jane does many things to weave her particular magic. She captures the hostility as well as the beauty of the Australian landscape, and she writes characters you’re invested in, with pacey stories you can’t put down. Her books have been published in over 40 territories and have won numerous awards including the British Book Awards Crime and Thriller Book of the Year, The Sunday Times Crime book of the year, Amazon’s Best Mystery and Thriller Novel - the list goes on. The film adaptation of The Dry, made by Reese Witherspoon and her production company, will be released next year.

What friends, thoughts, beliefs are you plugged into? Do they free you or condemn you? Let's dive deeper into this. 

Are you a truth seeker? Writers and artists are truth seekers. Often from great suffering we want to learn how life works. The Whys. The Hows. We want to explore the truths of humanity and bring it into the light turning fact into fiction. The facts get built into the characters we create. It is often through pain we want to express or purge to find conclusions, answers, and healing. It is the sword we express to create our worlds and the same sword we bleed from. 

Leanne is an extraordinary artist and writer. She is the author of 'Was She Pretty' which looks at jealousy and how we fixate on our partner’s exes; 'Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, Including Books, Street Fashion, and Jewelry' which tells the demise of a relationship in a way no one else would think of; 'Native Trees of Canada'; 'Swimming Studies' which won the National Book Critic's Circle Award Award; and 'Women in Clothes' that Leanne wrote with Sheila Heti and Heidi Julavits. Her latest is 'Guestbook', a book about ghosts that isn’t just about ghosts. Leanne’s also written a picture book called 'Toys Talking', and she’s done many other things – art director of the New York Times op ed page, cover designer, co-founder of the publisher J&L Books and judge of The Booker Prize. And she’s a mum to Tomasina. Leanne’s Canadian but has lived in New York for many years.

You can find Leanne's work here: http://www.leanneshapton.com