Reviews, Recipes, and Random Slices of Life

If you would enjoy listening to me read another story to you, you can find "Breath Stirs In the Husk" by Eileen Wiedbrauk over at Pseudopod, here: http://pseudopod.org/2014/10/03/pseudopod-406-breath-stirs-in-the-husk/

This is a rural Green Man horror story about life and death and the dilemmas in-between. Don't worry, there's a happy ending--of sorts.

Listen to me reading Eugie Foster’s haunting modern fantasy, Black Swan, White Swan over at PodCastle! (And if you like fantasy, you should be listening to PodCastle anyway.)

Listen here: http://podcastle.org/2011/11/22/podcastle-184-black-swan-white-swan/  
Join the discussion here: http://forum.escapeartists.net/index.php?topic=5659.0

10/06/10, Wednesday
* http://www.writingexcuses.com/2010/09/07/we-5-1-third-person-limited/
* http://podcasts.odysseyworkshop.org/odysseypodcasts_41_gregoryfrost_viewpointvoicepsychicdistance1.mp3


10/04/10, Monday
Circus of Brass and Bone Writing Log



New words: 433
Total words: 23,758
Overused word: mam
Gratuitous object: pitcher and basin
Type of scene: the lull
Challenge(s): Putting a (necessary?) pause in.
Which line is it anyways?After a long while, during which William stared at the ceiling and tried to think of nothing, William's mam woke.
Other writingy stuff:
* Posted writing log and freewriting.
* Read Publisher's Lunch and WritersDigest newsletters.
* Updated market list with new Escape Pod information (pay raise! yay!).

There are more moving parts to this than one might think--this is me trying to figure them out so I know what to do next!

Done:
* Episode 1 written.
* Podcasting equipment and software acquired and tested.
* Art arranged - waiting.
* Revenue model developed (more on that later).
* Music - Summon brass, contact band. (Successful! Permissions acquired!)
* Set up website and acquire domain (http://www.circusofbrassandbone.com). Pages: main, the story behind the story, bio, behind-the-scenes blog feed, donation incentives, special features--make sure donations set up!
* Set up RSS feed for episodes (stuck with funneling this through LJ).

Ongoing:
* Episode 2 being written (backburnered at the moment).
* Story research - alternating reading non-fiction on the era and the circus, and immediately post-apocalyptic fiction on my bus rides, etc. Fun! Lots of notes.

To Do, Pre-Launch:
* Edit Episode 1.
* Record podcast (figure out best reading voice, record, optimize sound).
* Figure out tying episodes into Digg, Fb liking, etc.
* Get some kind of free business cards to hand out to people if they ask.

Post-Launch
* Publicize as much as humanly possible. Jump up and down shouting in public places. Walk around wearing sandwich boards. Whatever it takes.
* Get podcast/serial listed and shared through appropriate distribution hubs.
* Kiva, etc. - try crowdfunding places, too.

To Do, Someday/Maybe/Less Immediately:
* Create iPhone/Google book app?
* Set up CafePress/Zazzle store with merch?
* Community/auction site?


...I think I'm looking at next Tuesday as when it'll be ready for launch after all. I don't want to launch this between Friday and Monday, and I can't get it all ready by--tomorrow! So next Tuesday it is.

SF audio stories available for free download that I really, really liked today:

http://escapepod.org/2010/06/10/ep244-non-zero-probabilities/
What if all the improbabilities suddenly become very likely? The slip on a banana peel, custard pie in the face? Or the wrench in just the right place to short circuit a connection and derail a train?

http://escapepod.org/2010/06/01/ep243-im-alive-i-love-you-ill-see-you-in-reno/
It's about relative time, and the orbits of electrons, and on-and-off relationships, but mostly--mostly it's just plain good.

(Links go directly to the RSS feeds, because I am lazy and that was easiest.) As you will note, I'm quite fond of N/MPR.

Odyssey SF/F Writing Workshop Podcasts - Discussion of Journeyman- and Master-level writing techniques.
PodCastle - The best fantasy short stories.
Scientific American - Science stories, discussed in a bit more depth.
The FuMP - Humorous parody music.
WNYC's Radio Lab Podcast : NPR Podcasts - A tasty mix of radio theater, science, sound engineering, philosophy, and magic.

Here are some podcasts I've enjoyed recently.

Escape Pod - EP216: βoyfriend
A touching, humorous, sweet-but-not-saccharine story about how an artificial intelligence that really loved you would act.

Radiolab - Sum
An odd, dryly humorous observation of one's life unrolling before one's eyes--after death.

Hearing Voices - Nine to Five
Segments of interviews with people whose jobs are stranger and more interesting than mine, in unexpected ways.

Drabblecast - Clown Eggs
Nature, red in tooth and claw. I can't really describe this--but it's worth listening to!

And best of the lot--Escape Pod - An Almanac for the Alien Invaders
A deceptively detached, thought-provoking view of an alien invasion unlike any that I've ever read before.

I listen to a lot of podcasts at work and at home. Some are fiction, some are nonfiction. Here are a few of the ones I've enjoyed recently.

Radiolab's Where Am I? - Fascinating interviews remixed with science studies and experiments about how our bodies know what belongs to them, and how they get confused, and out-of-body experiences. Really cool and interesting stuff here. MP3.

TED's Erin McKean redefines the dictionary - A very funny lecture sure to be enjoyed by word geeks. gunn, I'm looking at you. MP3.

Catherynne M. Valente's Wine is a Story - An experimental reading/song/music/poem remix/trailer of her short story, "Wine is a Story." Follow that first link to read about what she's trying to do. It's an interesting approach to story promotion for writers. MP3.

Magic realism (or urban fantasy, if you want to call it that) done Americana-style can be a beautiful thing. Examples of this are Neil Gaimon's American Gods, Tim Powers' Fault Lines series (Last Call, Expiration Date, Earthquake Weather), and Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine. Hotel Astarte is an Americana magic realism short story podcast from PodCastle. It's not a sad story, but its bones have the old sorrow of fairytales and decades-old tragedies. The writing is as refreshing as a cold glass of milk and a slice of fresh-baked honey wheat bread after you've finished hanging the laundry out to dry in the summer sun.

Go forth and listen.