The Year that Almost Wouldn’t Die

Some highlights and lowlights of 2008

This year, particularly the second half, has seen a lot of people turn very pessimistic about, well, everything. Yeah, the economy’s slowing down. Yeah, people like me are scrambling just to make ends meet – when money goes slow everywhere, it hits the arts hard. And yeah, some things just sucked. But you know what? Today’s “awful” is a hell of a lot better than “great” was when my grandparents were growing up. Despite environmental problems, terrorists, crooked investment bankers, and crookeder politicians (yes, in all parties), I’m living in a time when “five-percent unemployment” is really bad. When I was a kid in the early 80s, that would have been music to everyone’s ears. Ditto for crime, poverty, war casualty, plague death, and violence figures almost everywhere on Earth (though some of us are a lot luckier than others, through no merit of our own).

So, yeah, 2008 might have been a scary year. But as I look back at the global “Big Picture” there aren’t a lot of things that are truly scary in the long run – not like there were twenty, fifty, or eighty years ago – not to mention longer ago than that.

On a personal level, it’s been a mixed year, but as I was drawing up this list I can’t help but be staggered by how far the scales tip towards the wonderful. Click on the link to read my self-indulgent recap.
Continue reading ‘The Year that Almost Wouldn’t Die’

Predestination, Episode 15

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Tonight we see what happens to Cassy when she follow Doug Reeves into the church, and then we go Nineveh where Joss hosts the first annual Phalanx Poker Tournament, with contestants and spectators from throughout the colonies. What could possibly go wrong?

Kitty Nic’Iaian, co-producer of Predestination and the voice of Reprobates’ News announcer Hera-Flea daughter of Hera-Tick, brings us the Story So Far this week.

This week’s in-show promo is for The Seventh Son Trilogy, by J.C. Hutchins.

Cast this week (in order of appearance):

Stephanie Sawyer as Cassy Orinthal

Steven H. Wilson as Percy Scott

Michael Spence as the deputy

The Prof as the gambler

The Gift of the Magi

A classic Christmas story, short and sweet, slightly revised and performed by members of Casa Sawyer. May your holiday be filled with warmth and delight.

Predestination: Dealing In, Episode 3 (feedback show)

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Chris Lester, who plays Rison on Antithesis and is the author/producer of the Metamor City Podcast, joins Kitty Nic’Iaian and myself for drinks and carousing as we go through the feedback you’ve all sent in since last week. This one’s a must listen.

Mentioned at length is the unparalleled Nathan Lowell, who plays our own Bill Shelley. Find his audiobooks here.

Finally, be sure to check out the t-shirts gradually filling up the swag store. Now you can proclaim your membership in the Resistance, and proudly!

Bonus Content: Sexuality in Antithesis

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This is an excerpt from the feedback show I did with Chris Lester for The Metamor City Podcast. Alcohol, chocolate, and Kitty Nic’Iaian conspire with Chris and I to answer one of Chris’s emails from a heterosexual female listener who complained that her orientation was not being well represented in Metamor City. This lead to a discussion of how Chris and I each deal with gender identity and sexual orientation in our novels, and the reasons that we’ve chosen to approach these topics in the way we have.

As I mentioned, this is a small piece of a larger conversation that will be available soon on the Metamor City feed. I hope you enjoy!

Predestination Bonus Content: Religion in Antithesis

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This is a rabbit trail that Chris Lester and I went down at the end of recording Dealing In, Episode 3. It’s about 25 mins long and pretty heady, so I decided to break it off so you can take it in smaller chunks. It followed right on the heels of the end of that episode, so you can just pick the conversation up here, if you like. For those of you interested in Chris’s and my opposing views on what religion is good for, and how it effected the development of Western thought, you’ve come to the right place.

I hope you enjoy!

Cold Duty runs on ClonePod

The folks at ClonePod liked Cold Duty so much that they ALSO bought it to run as a Christmas episode. You can find it by hitting this link here.

Cold Duty: Selected Readings from the Diary of a Gelusian Repairman is the tale of a stable boy who gets caught working on a steam engine, which lights off an adventure in the big city and a 100-years too early scientific and technological revolution. Steampunk memoir – and a tale very close to my heart. If you haven’t heard it yet, I hope you’ll give it a listen.

Cold Duty goes live

As covered by SFFAudio, my story Cold Duty is now live at SteamPod. Head on over to hear a tale of a 100-years too early scientific and technological revolution that happens because a stable boy gets caught working on a steam engine. Steampunk memoir – and a tale very close to my heart.

Welcome, Sigler Junkies!

You’ve successfully found the blog for my home page. Below you can find my rants on various esoterica, above you can find links to my podcasts, publications, and more info about me. But, if you if you click here, you’ll find the blog for my podcast novel Predestination and Other Games of Chance. It’s a science fiction espionage thriller, which means that you can expect intrigue, suspense, conspiracy, violence, sex, blackmail, organized crime, politicians, defectors, and tradecraft all wrapped in a character-driven story.

This is a full-cast, full-production podcast novel. Danny Schade wrote the original score, and you’ll find many other familiar voices here: Philippa Ballantine, J.C. Hutchins, Chris Lester, Steven H. Wilson, and many other gifted voices from across the podosphere have helped bring this story to life.

You’re already a Junkie. Now, join The Resistance. This is more crack for your ears. Subscribe here.

Enjoy!
-Dan Sawyer

Predestination, Episode 14

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What makes the Lunar colony work? The docks, that’s what. And tonight, that’s where we’re going, following Cassy on her investigation of the enigma that is Scott Walters and trying to piece together the clues to what’s really going on inside her own organization.

It’s a long one this week again – 45 minutes – with new characters and new aspects of the world that will, hopefully, hold your attention at least through the end of the episode.

Heather Welliver, host of Grailwolf’s Geek Lifer and vocalist for the Pieces podcast, brings us the Story So Far this week.

This week’s in-show promo is for I Should Be Writing, THE go-to podcast for beginning authors hosted by the erudite, funny, and straight-talking Mur Lafferty. If you entertain any literary ambitions, her podcast is the place to start.

Cast this week (in order of appearance):

Steven H. Wilson as William Ellison

Chris Lester as Rison

Remembering Forry

He brought us Ray Bradbury, and The Ackermansion. He outlived many of the writers whose careers he helped start or who he helped keep in paychecks during dry spells Рwriters like Robert A. Heinlein, and Theodore Sturgeon, who he helped find jobs writing what was then considered erotica under pen names, so they could make rent. Now, the founding editor-in-chief of Famous Monsters of Filmland has, at the age of 92, taken his own journey across the river. With his departure, only one of the first wave is left with us: his prot̩g̩ Ray Bradbury.

If you have a moment this weekend, rent one of the 210 movies Forry appeared in, read one of his stories that can be found in anthologies, or read a story by one of the writers he nurtured. Read some lesbian erotica – Forry was, after all, the author of some of the first critically respectable lesbian novels under the name “Laurajean Ermayne” and was named an “Honorary Lesbian” by the country’s first ever Lesbian Rights organization, Daughters of Bilitis. Watch a Ray Harryhausen or Ed Wood film (he was instrumental in the careers of both men), or a film by Peter Jackson, Tim Burton, John Landis, Steven Spielberg, or a show by Penn and Teller (all of whom he inspired and helped along the way). Go to a fan event – oh, I didn’t mention that Forry organized some of the first science fiction conventions, invented the term “sci-fi,” and won the only Hugo award ever for World’s #1 Science Fiction Fan?

I never got to meet Forry personally. I had the chance on several occasions, and always had more pressing things to do. Now I won’t get it again. I know him through the stories of several friends who grew up under his tutelage, whose careers he nurtured, and whose lives he touched. All of them tell the same story of a man who was too kind ever to make a serious enemy, and who was always nine years old at heart. He treasured his first ever issue of Amazing Stories, and never fell out of love with science fiction, or movies, or life, or his wife, or his friends. Few of us will ever be so lucky to be so well remembered when our time comes.

I’d wish Forry a peaceful rest, but if what I know about him is anywhere near true, then he’s probably sitting on the bank of the River Styx right now, scavenging for a sandal that Odysseus might have left behind, and dreaming of setting up the definitive collection of mythological artifacts for all visitors to the shores of the afterlife. When he does, he’ll sit out in front with a recliner, a good book, and a movie screen. When you walk up, he’ll greet you with a smile and, if you’re not careful, he’ll start telling you a story. You’ll never get away — but then…who would want to?

Getting the Words Right, part 1

When writing a period piece, whether that period is past or present, getting your terminology right is essential to maintaining the illusion. It’s also one of the easiest things to miss on a revision. Lest you think the following rant is thoroughgoing self-righteousness, let me preemptively explain that it’s not. It’s actually hypocrisy. You see, in the story I recently sold to Steampod, for example, the alternate history it takes place in had a different name for the appliance we call a “freezer,” and yet there was an instance where I unconsciously reverted to my native tongue, as it were.

Often, fantasy and historical fiction falls prey to this far too easily, because we don’t often question where certain expressions in our language come from. For example, you wouldn’t want to describe a complete package as “Lock, Stock, and Barrel” if the story you’re writing takes place before the seventeenth century when the musket became widespread in Europe. The reason? “Lock, stock, and barrel” are the three major components of a musket, and all three together means that you have everything you need to assemble one.

This kind of thing can shatter the illusion that you work hard to create, as it did for me in Peter Jackson’s “The Two Towers” during the sloppiest moment in the film. At the battle of Helm’s Deep, Aragorn commands a brigade of elf archers to “fire” on the enemy. I can’t emphasize this enough: nobody in the history of the world has ever fired an arrow. The notion of “fire” being synonymous with “activate” was nonsensical before the invention of the first ever fire-powered weapon, the cannon in the 13th century in China (not introduced into Europe until much later). Even so, archers were not commanded to “fire” until many generations after bows, arrows, ballistas, catapults, and crossbows ceased to be used in military combat. When commanding archers, the term is “loose” or, less frequently, “release,” “arrow,” or “trip” – NOT “fire.”

To further the historical literacy among fantasy, science fiction, and historical fiction writers, I recommend bookmarking the phrase finder and using it frequently when writing and proofreading. A good etymological dictionary and slang dictionary wouldn’t hurt either.

Dealing In, Episode 2 (feedback show)

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The new feedback episode is live – and all of you guys rock. A fun time inside, along with TWO contest announcements for your chances to win free Antithesis swag. Take a listen!

Also, for those of you interested in my photos from Steam Powered (a.k.a. Steamcon), click here.