Author Bio
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J. Daniel Sawyer is a hat-wearing, obsessive-compulsive autodidact. He is also a very minor authority on Open Source media production – a topic on which he is, unfortunately, published regularly in LinuxJournal. What’s worse, in 1999 he founded the now defunct BlenderWars, a filmmaking community devoted to the subject. He’s also a self-aggrandizing science fiction and fantasy author who publishes lurid stories and, worse, the occasional popular philosophy article.
A rising star in the small world of podcast fiction, he unscrupulously used his decade-long experience as an audio and video engineer with his painfully florid and gritty writing style to create deeply immersive audio universes. This habit, which he indulges in public, and into which he drags perfectly sensible people like composer Danny Schade, has garnered him six Parsec nominations and helped him make his first professional fiction and philosophy sales (a trend which, for the good of the world at large, we can only hope abates soon). Meanwhile, his growing, rabid fan-base is currently plotting to imprison him and force him to produce endless new literary abominations for their amusement. We can only hope they succeed. When not intruding upon his readers and listeners imaginations with his sordid tales, he endeavors to corrupt their sense of moral probity with his suspiciously titled The Polyschizmatic Reprobates Hour, a skeptical podcast with a focus on “cultural innovators” (i.e. troublemakers). He also appears religiously on Zach Moore’s Apologia, a shifty philosophy and ethics roundtable populated by people with far too much time on their hands. |
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In addition to his work as an author and producer, he is a prolific voice over artist and a regular presence throughout the podosphere, appearing either as actor or interview subject on The InfidelGuy, The Dead Robots Society, Erotica A La Carte, The Metamor City Podcast, Going Linux, and others too numerous to name.
Other current projects include the science fiction thriller Free Will and Other Compulsions, the morbidly titled educational book Philosopher Deaths, and The Sophia Project: Strong Women in World Mythology, a photography book laughably billing itself as “fine art” (which we all know is a code word for “filled with naked people”) and claiming to retell the infamous and best-forgotten stories of the great female heroes in world mythology. |
Dan,
Ejnjoyed your article on video editing software in the March issue of LJ. Question: are you familiar with any good screencasting software for Linux? Something equivalent to Camtasia or Snapz Pro?
thanks,
–markt
Mark_Taub@prenhall.com
Hi Mark -
Glad you enjoyed the video editing article.
For screencasting – as long as you don’t need real-time broadcast
abilities xvidcap, gtk-recordmydesktop, and screenkast all work pretty
well, as does invoking the following from the command line:
ffmpeg -f x11grab -s cif -i :0.0 /tmp/out.mpg
If you want to grab something that uses openGL, the only game in town
I’m aware of is a program called “yukon.”
Hope that helps!
-Dan Sawyer
Hi, your Sculpting God podcast is great. Very interesting stories, but the promos between are too loud. Is there anyway you can level the volume with the stories?
I usually listen to podcasts as I’m laying in bed at night and the difference in volume levels is really jarring.
=)
I was wondering is Scumpting God completed or are there more episodes past episode 8?
Thanks,
Ricky
Sculpting God is on Hiatus, and will return for the remainder of its run (another 4-8 stories) after my current novel, Antithesis, finishes podcasting. You can find Antithesis at http://antithesis.jdsawyer.net
Thanks for your interest – I’m glad you are enjoying the stories so far
-Dan
I started listening to a very interesting podcast with Richard Carrier titled Ancient Science part 2. I have to comment on the interviewing. One person, don’t know the names of the two who were interviewing was constantly interrupting Richard and making comments as if he was the presenter. He didn’t seem to know what he was talking about and it came across that he was more interested in himself being heard than to let Richard talk.
Marg -
Thanks for listening. I’m sorry that you felt this way about the episode – Reprobates has always been a conversational cast. One of the pitfalls of that is that new participants take a little while to find their groove. Hope other episodes wind up suiting you better — and thank you for the feedback.
-Dan
Rarely do I chuckle upon reading an author’s bio. However, upon perusing yours I nearly fell out of my chair – so riddled was I with snickers, chuckles, and guffaws. Utterly delightful.
Thankfully, I recently stumbled upon a “Down from Ten” promo. Happily I’m now subscribed, and await the auditory stimulation which was so tantalizingly promised in said promo.
BTW, have you thought of an Amazon banner – link, as an extra money maker? Another podcast I listen to seems to do well by it.
aloha – J.