The Video Voyager

by Thomas Joseph Nowak

 

Book Details

If you work in the TV Industry--Read This

Back in the 21st century Television Trucks roamed the world televising sporting events to the homes of millions. Behind the scenes there were many more interesting characters than some of the stars that they were televising. These were the unsung heroes of their day.



Now lets fast forward to the 23rd century. Instead of TV trucks we now have Television Space Ships, roaming the universe, televising sporting events back to good olde Terra Firma, that's earth for all of you land-lubbers. The Galaxian Network has just commissioned the latest and greatest vessel of them all, The Video Voyager IV, and in this story we follow a portion of her maiden 10 year voyage.



Along the way we get the know the TV crew, particularly Sparky, the chief maintenance engineer and his cohorts. Sometimes they are like the three musketeers, other times they are more like the three stooges. A realistic and comedic relationship develops between the production and engineering crews throughout the story. Amid the televising of Gladiator Fights to the Death and Universal Olympic events the human story unfolds,. Some things never change. An unlikely heroin emerges, sent by the Network to try to help cleanup the swashbuckling antics of this 'jolly roger' space television crew.



This high tech, sci fi -comedy novel is based on some real time war stories of actual television crews of our present times. The names have been changed to protect the guilty. Super high speed travel, high power transmission, and high pressure drive the crew to their brink of sanity. Along the way, we wittiness some great transformations of personalities as they deal with real life issues and find recovery via a 12 step program to change some of their lives forever. Even the bad boys of the crew prove to be quite heroic by their selfless actions as they save the life of a young boy in peril. In the end the ultimate success of their mission involves a spaceflight back through time.



The book is 28 chapters in length, plus a short glossary of tech terms, approximately 325 pages total. It is an easy read and the story moves quickly. It gives the reader an in depth view about what goes on in the television control room and behind the scenes in sports broadcasting. The content has been carefully written to be clean enough for a near 'General Audience' rating although it has enough adult humor to entertain the sophisticated reader.



The author uses his natural birth name, Thomas Joseph Nowak to pen the Novel. This is a name closely associated with space flight and controversy, in our present time. The book lives up to the name of the author in both content and excitement.



Sequel in progress...



 

Book Excerpt

It was the Twenty Third century by the Solar calendar. Captain Lance Stockwell was supervising the wrap of the Andromeder Olympic games from the View Deck of the Video Voyager IV. The two land based mobile production units were already docked in their respective bays. Audio, as usual, was still loading microphones and their microwave IFB’s. Hence the arrival of the utility unit was delayed. As he watched the final cooling of the Nuclear Power Reactor, and the folding of the Interstellar Space Antenna System his thoughts drifted back to Earth. About two and a half light years away his four year old son and three year old daughter have probably snuck into bed with their mother. Lance had been out for almost four years on this voyage. He wondered if his son or daughter had watched any of the coverage. Probably not. After all what interest would kids that age have in the 20th annual Andromeder Space Olympics.

 

About the Author

Thomas Joseph Nowak

Tom Nowak has worked in the Television Industry since the mid 1970's. He has literally Traveled the world working as a support Engineer for television remotes. Some of the places he has been include Kenya Africa (1981) Osaka Japan (1979) Cuba(1991) and every major US city throughout the early 1990's. Tom has worked for major Network Broadcasters and Vendors throughout his career. This story was originally composed in the early 1990's and then was set to age, like a fine wine until now.



Tom is an engineer, teacher, philosopher, tinkerer and father. He has two grown children, James 25, a Computer Programmer and Elizabeth, 24 who is working on her nursing degree. Tom is happily married to the love of his life, Maiemaie and they both are planning to retire to the Philippines in about 2013.



There is a sequel in the works and also a new book, "The Complete Step by Step Vidiots Guide to Linux Ubuntu".



Tom currently works for a major TV network and also teaches on Line through NJIT for the African Virtual University. One of his goals is to bring usable technology to third world countries.



The Video Voyager is not his first Published work. He was involved with an A+ Study guide back in 1998 where he co-authored a Q+A book for A+ course prep. Look for more of his technical and creative publications to be released soon.