Listening News

I listened to the first four stories of the Drabblecast today. Norm Sherman’s description states “flash fiction stories of an unusual nature”, and he delivers just that. Unusual, bizzare, and more than a little grotesque. “Coughing Dog” takes a sad situation and escalates it to a surprising level. Sherman’s writing was very solid, if disturbing, the narration was okay, and improves with each episode.  (Eww factor 5 for sfx and images) 

“Longing for Love: A Unicorn’s Story” by Lindsey and Lacey Anderson was an ode to misery and despair. While original in concept, and imaginative, it was hard to finish. (Eww factor 2 for images)

“Next Stop” by Luke Coddington was my favorite of the four. The setup made me uncomfortable at first as I tried to predict the outcome, but the payoff was suprising and satisfying. (Eww factor 1 for dirt)

“Uncle Ollie’s Gift” by Kendall Marchman had some moments but the feel was sort of pulp horror, and obsession of the main character seemed too strong for the setup.  (Eww factor 4 for inappropriate retreival)

The dark and grotesque bent of this series is not exacty my taste, but the writing is interesting and the technical aspects are executed well.

Check out more of the Dabblecast here

I listen to up to ten hours a day to a wide variety of podcasts. The UC Berkeley podcasts on science and history are technically sound, and the lectures are highly educational. Berkeley Groks is a science radio show done in magazine style, that I have enjoyed in the past. Dr. Charles Lee and Dr. Frank Ling are knowedgeable and can inteligently discuss a wide range of topics. Unfortunately the May 9th episode failed horribly. the show was hosted by three people i assume werestudents. The students silly, often giggly delivery of the science news set my teeth on edge. There seemed to have been more filler music, which could be considered a blessing. There was a report about pigeons navigating ability being linked to iron crystals in ther beaks. This compass like effect was erroneously equated to GPS, then when asked, the student could not provide the source. They also discussed the Nor’Easter; “…I was delayed by that storm…Oh! that’s terrible…How do you get to work?…Wow…I think a nor’easter happens like this..”  The discussion then degerated into weather anecdotes. The interview was with Tyson Mao who discussed solving the Rubik’s Cube. He admitted that there was no math in his method, just rote techniques and a lot of practice. They also discussed his reality tv career. To be honest, I am writing this rant a couple of days later, from hastily scribbled notes. I may have garbled a point or two, but i could not bear to listen again to nail down the details.

 My second rant is about what I call ‘girl robot’ voices. Remember the CitiBank identity theft campaign? somewhere out there on th web is an evil site that hosts a devil-spawned female voice emulator that some geeks just can’t resist. Too many podcasts use it for titles and episode numbers and one serialized novel actualy uses it for three ‘girl robot’ characters. If you must use a voice emulator, I beg of you, find one that sounds better than my late 80’s Amiga.

I heard this blog mentioned on one of Leo Laporte’s numerous podcasts, so I checked it out. John Chow dot Com is full of tips to monetize your web presence, and make money online. While most of us are not trying to make a living with our hobbies, John clearly is and he is good at it. Many of his tips are good for increasing web traffic for whatever project you have. I myself used a wordpress plugin he recomended to reduce duplicate blog pages that Google does not like. If you review his blog like this, he will also link to yours, wich is a way to increase your search profile. I am a newb to the net, but reading his blog has given me more ideas for promoting my blog.

The Hunt, book two of The Secret World Chronicle is set to release on June 1st.
As part of the promotional tour de force Steve and Mercedes have graciously granted me an interview, which I present to you.

1. Will The Hunt settle into more traditional superhero fare, or continue with the cutthroat action?
M: The Hunt continues on several fronts.  The search for the identity and location of the Thulians continues.  Echo copes with many problems; political maneuvering, blame-casting, the decimation of their personnel, the emboldening of the meta-villain population, just to name a few.  And just who is behind all of this?

S:  The first book, Invasion, was meant to be an introduction to the Secret World by way of sudden chaos. Now the heroes must deal with the aftermath. The Thulians are still out there, somewhere, but there’s trouble at home. We’ll also learn more about Metis, the secret science city, and meet Echo’s second greatest foe, Dominic Verdigris VIII.

2. I understand that the main characters belong to individual authors, how much crossover will there be? Will there more team dynamics?

M: We would very much like for there to be more team dynamics; that is in the plan, although we are keeping our plans fluid.

S:  You will see a consolidation of viewpoints and character arcs, but the POV characters that you have already met — Belladonna, Handsome Devil, Mercurye, Ramona, Vickie Vee, et al, will still tell their stories.

3. Vickie Vee and Murdock seem born leaders, though flawed. Are you going to introduce new Metas to fill their teams, or gather known characters?

M: New metas will continue to be introduced as we have left the door open for more writers, later, and by invitation. Existing characters will die.  There will be a lot of twists that hopefully no one will see coming.

S: Vickie Vee a leader? Never thought of her that way, though in a time of crisis, everyone must step up and be counted. That’s the joy of the Secret World: each character, no matter how damaged, will be tested and required to excel or fall. But the answer to the second question is, of course, yes! Nothing is more fun than conceiving superheroes.

4. Will there be more of the Eisenfaust back-story?

M: There is some in a story just recorded, “Sgian Dubh” and will be more as we do fill-in WWII stories.

S: Let’s  just say that, when I die, I also want my body to be carted off to a secret science city by a UFO.

5. I actually teared up at a couple of points, the first appearance of Seraphym, Handsome Devil seeing Shahkti dodging energy beams on the highway. Are you ever moved by your own work? Or each others?

M: Heavens yes.  I cry over my own work like the  heroine of Romancing the Stone and I cry at the work of my collaborators.

S: If I can’t make people cry with my writing, I just hit them with a stick when their back is turned.

6. Speaking of Seraphym… Wow!  But please be careful, don’t lose the mystery.

M: Seraphym, I hope, is as alien as an almost-omniscient creature must be.

S: It is a challenge to include an omniscient protagonist, but then, Misty has had a bit of practice at her craft.  Seraphym presents some of the more intriguing dilemmas for our characters.

7. How’s the long distance collaboration working? Do you miss the high five moments?  Any phone calls at three am?

M: No phone calls but a lot of IM.  That’s the  real benefit in living in the internet age.

S: In a sense it’s like Misty and I work together at a company but on separate floors. I know I can call her at anytime (3 am is actually an ideal time for her!) but IM is easier. And, more importantly, Google Talk keeps logs for us so we don’t have to jot anything down! It’s a tremendously handy tool.

 8. It’s hard to sustain a labor of love, especially at this level, so do you have plans for monetizing this project?

M: That has always been the plan.  We hope to prove there is an audience for this story by getting one on our own.  Once we can bring that to the table, we have an advantage.  If we can really do our job well, the buzz will be big enough that the publishers will come to us.

S: Without much press, SWC has already amassed a substantial audience. When we do haul out the big guns, it will be ubiquitous! We hope.  But the podcasting approach has been a quite a boon to us. It has given us control over our concept and time to nurture it without interference, so we can present a complete package to a publisher. I think in the future you will see this approach more often.

Thank you for your time, and thank you for this wonderful Podcast.
For the latest on Secret World Chronicles, visit the official SecretBlog
For the Podcast feed go to FeedBurner or ITunes

‘Jake Sampson: Monster Hunter’ 

I just finished the first Jake Sampson serial, ‘The Hyborean Gate’. As I’ve said before, I am not a fan of the radio drama genre, but I did enjoy this one.  Jake is a detective and adventurer hired by Robert E. Howard to help solve rather tough problem. Along the way he befriends Texas Holdem, a WWI pilot, and Lucy Carter, a sassy lion tamer. The writing and acting are pure Pulp, but lovingly done, with no sense of a sneer or snide remark.  

One reason I tend to dislike the genre is a tendency to overuse lame sfx at varying volume levels. While this serial doesn’t suffer from this I did count twenty-six footsteps from the circus owners tent to the lion cage. Just a few steps all I need to get the point. Generally the sfx are well done, the Artie Shaw score is complimentary to the action, and neither drowns out the dialogue.

The next adventure Jake Sampson and the Tears of RA is scheduled for release May 30. It will be interesting to see if Broken Sea can keep the quality this high.

 ’How to Succeed in Evil’

This is a fun podcast full of in jokes and superhero cliches. Rather than being tiresome, the cliches are used as a shorthand to set up the stories and sweep you to the punchlines. Edwin is an Evil Efficiency Consultant, which means he advises criminals in how to maximize their profits. Unfortunately for Edwin, “They never listen,” and his frustration grows.

The plot and release dates are kind of erratic, but once you understand Edwin’s motivation and detachment, you can pick up anywhere in the timeline and enjoy. I was getting into the ongoing plot when there were a couple of flashbacks, then a complete reboot to Edwin 2.0.  Edwin 2.0 apparently caused a firestorm of protest and was quickly followed by a retraction. Even so, I am eagerly awaiting the inexplicable conlcusion to the El Justiador plotline.

This podcast contains some music and sound that seems roughly edited in, but doesn’t realy detract from the story. A quick scan of the site shows no mention of anyone else supplying voices, so I assume it’s all Patrick. The episodes seem to average six minutes, so they are perfect for cleanseing the palate between other, heavier fare.

Spoiler Alert: Since this book has been available for some time, I dicuss more of the plot than I normaly would.

‘Descent’ is the first podcast novel of J.C. Hutchins 7th Son trilogy and the second serialized novel I discovered after moving from radio to podcasts during my ten hour shift. It could be described as a contemporary sci-fi thriller, that goes a little overboard. Hutchins begins with a interesting concept where seven clones are made from geneticly engineered child, who are then rasied believing they are the original. The original, code named John Alpha, is brought to the research facility to participate in the experiment. He becomes unbalanced and begins a plot to rule, or destroy, the world. The clones are then brought in and asked to help find and stop Alpha. 

Hutchins also illustrates Moore’s Law by describing a cavern filled with ’70s vintage Cray supercomputers needed to up/download Alpha’s personality into the clones. Alpha uses current tech to fashion a device to acomplish the same ends about the size of a Playstation 2. At first I counted this over the top, but on reflection it’s one of the more believeable aspects of the tale.

Ok, now that the good points are out of the way…

John Alpha was using his mind control to spread like a virus, and had the clones following the leads he provided from the begining. Some of the clones were leading a strike team into what they knew to be a trap, while various Alpha agents were taking control of the US Vice President, a Russian general, and a nuclear missle base. The evil plan was ticking away like clockwork, but there was no real suspense. To me it felt as if the plot was on rails, with no hope of redemption short of deus ex machina. This may be unfair because I have not finished the novel, but it’s one of the reasons I put it aside. Another problem was the trouble keeping the characters straight. Hutchins did publish a guide on his website, but that did me no good in my listening enviroment.

I generaly prefer a straight read to the full radio drama with sfx and music. This novel was read by the author, which I applaud, but some of the voices he used grated on my nerves. The cross promotion with other podcasts led to quest narrators reading the “What Has Gone Before” segment. This could be annoying as some tried to put thier own spin on the text. I started listening after the entire novel ws released, so the “WHGB” segment was redundant as well. Maybe a stripped version could be offered from the archives.

All in all, while I wish the author continued success, I am not a fan of this work. I will keep an eye out for whatever his next project is, and give him another listen.

First, an apology to the author of ‘Life Sentence’. I realy disliked the character and could not imagine how Anne Stringer was going to hang a series on him. I understand the collection better after listening to another episode. The theme of the Amarant involves various perspectives on immortality. Of course, not everyone would enjoy endless life, but the author was very effective in portraying one of the worst attitudes one could have towards it.  I still can’t say that I enjoyed the story, but with my new understanding I can appreciate the talent that went into creating it.

“No World for Warriors” is a thoughtful examination of the warrior mentality and the futility of immortality. The author, Matt Wallace, clearly understands the military and the difference between a warrior and a soldier. As a vet myself, I can tell you that not even every soldier understands this. U.S. Marine Drill Instructors will compare their methods to the Spartans, seeming to forget the slavery, homosexuality, and dependence on religious omens at the core of the Spartan ethos. The futility in this story and in ‘Life Sentence’ seems to stem from the lack of growth these immortals suffer. One of the reasons I reacted so negatively to the character in ‘Sentence’ was his self-pitying paralysis. The warrior here at least realizes that he needs change, and sees some of his fellows as role models, whether or not he actualy can.

The podcast is narrated by Rick Stringer whose voice is fitting to the material. Athough I generaly prefer a straight reading, the soundtrack is also well done.

I listened to three stories from Variant Frequencies today. The most recent one was ‘Firstborn’ a tale of two angels trying to rehabilitate a fallen angel through a disturbing method. Failure follows failure and even the celestial begins to despair. This story was not read by a single narrator but a full cast of familiar voices from Farpoint media podcasts. The story intrigued me, but I found the conclusion a little unsatisfying. Any fan of Dogma or Good Omens will find this take on the supernatural worth the time.

The second was ‘See’, an abstract sci-fi scene about a sudden shift of perception. Read by the author, a Swede named A.R. Yngve, this story has a quick set-up, a satisifying exposition of the surreal circumstances the lead wakes up to, and finishes with the beginings of adaptaion. I enjoyed puzzeling out the reason for the situation, and was still suprised by its cause. I give this story high marks for writing and execution.

I did not like the third story ‘Life Sentence’. The lead character is an unlikeable thief who is in possesion of something most of us would desire more than gold. He thinks of this gift as a burden, just as he did his family before he discovered it. This is no conflicted everyman or flawed hero, but a whiney nihilist. I realise that this is only the introduction to the Amarant series, but I found it to be very slow, and with no payoff. Anyone who remembers Jon Lovitz’s ‘Mephistopheles the Devil’ on The Peoples Court will figure out the twist based on the title and tagline. I was also annoyed by the constant music under the spoke words, but that may just be a taste issue. I will give this author a second chance, but i am not hopeful.

My goal for a pocast is short stories and serials like Variant Frequencies but lighter, more fun. You know, space opera, sword and sorcery, and smart parody, that kind of stuff. If you have something you’d like to submit, email me here or post at the forums

“The Secret World Chronicles” 

 The power of this podcast blew me away. I had listened to several chapters of J.C. Hutchins ‘Seventh Son’ novel, but was losing interest when I found “Secret World” on iTunes. “The Invasion Was Delivered by Overnight Express” set up the ‘verse perfectly and pulled me into it. I had to ration myself to one story a day, it was so overwhelming. I assume you have had a similar experience with either this podcast or another before finding this site, so I will try to refrain from drooling too much.

The action is set in the present day with a history of superheros since WWII. The heros are mostly affiliated with ECHO, a global security contractor run by Nicola Tesla’s great nephew. The Bad Guys are Nazis in nine-foot tall powered armour who seem to appear out of nowhere after six decades. The style is very Pulp, but the characters are much deeper than those of the ‘Golden Age of Comics’ Handsome Devil, with his luck and arrogance, is my favorite character. His luck should qualify him as a Mach 2, as he makes clear in his internal dialogue. Part of his character development occurs when he realizes that while his power may be near unbeatable, it cares nothing for the preservation of those he cares for. Spurred by concern for a loved one, he goes above and beyond in true heroic fashion, scoring one of the few victories in the novel.

I was suprised at how strongly I reacted to mere descriptions of the Nazi symbols. We see a lot of Nazis in movies and videogames these days, and the swastika has lost some of its shock value. While individual Neo-Nazis may be dangerous, their movement is viewed by the mainstream as distatestful but only slightly more credible than Satan worshipers. Hearing the thoughts and reactions of those facing powerful and organized forces bearing the swastika brought home a sense of horror and menace that I had not felt since reading all I could find on WWII in high school.

Another aspect of the collection I appreciate is the relatively low power levels of many characters. I was never a fan of Superman, or the Avengers who often had a god or two on the roster. I was a fan of the X-Men in the ’80s. Cyclops, Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler, ShadowCat, or Collossus alone were not all-powerfull, but as a team they could face any challenge. I am eager to hear what teams form and how they interact in the face of the greatest challenge their world has ever faced.

In a recent interview, Mercedes Lackey and Steve Libbey recounted the origin of this braided novel.  Lackey had begun to play ‘City of Heroes,’ a mmrpg in the superhero genre, and gravitated towards Libbey’s group ‘CCCP’ who were serious roleplayers. Soon the game could not support the interaction and storytelling that built up between this group of creative people, so they started writing and collaborating on what was essentialy fanfic. As the Secret World took shape, Lackey looked into publishing options for this new (to her) genre. Despite her great number of sucessful series, no one wanted to take a chance on her outside of the fantasy genre.