Archive for the 'Podcasting' Category
March 16th, 2010 by jdsawyer
As part of my self-education as a writer learning to market his work, I’ve been watching trends in e-books and audiobooks as well as publishing industry trends, and thinking about them in the context of podcasting as an endeavor that takes a lot of passion and commitment from very creative people.
With all the talk of the podcasting revolution a few years ago, I wonder how many people truly grasp the potential enormity of what we’re doing. Just like good old Mr. Ballantine who invented the paperback, we podcasters are creating new kinds of intellectual property. However, unlike Mr. Ballantine, we don’t fully appreciate what we’re up to.
Continue reading ‘It’s Time To Bust It Open’
March 1st, 2010 by jdsawyer
Free content – particularly in the audio fiction space – suddenly seems a lot less of a perpetual free lunch than it did six months ago, and it’s got a lot of folks freaking out in my corner of the Internet. Providers are dropping like flies this year! Matthew Wayne Selznick and J.C. Hutchins have both very publicly withdrawn from the podcast fiction space, and for the best reason there is: Money.
[Correction: MWS chimed in in the comments to correct my misapprehension of his current attitude toward podcasting, which is considerably more complex than the paragraph above makes it seem. My apologies for inadvertently misrepresenting him.]
The two of them are generation one podiobookers who appeared in the space hot on the heels of the three founders, and seeing them throw in the towel has a lot of other creators wondering: “Are we all just being idiots giving stuff away for free?” And it’s got a lot of fans wondering “What’s going to happen now? Are all my favorite writers going to give up?”
Continue reading ‘If You Build It, Will They Come?’
January 7th, 2010 by jdsawyer
As I sat in this chair this morning prepping the next round of episodes for Down From Ten after a longer-than-intended Christmas hiatus, I got the news that Tee Morris’s wife died yesterday, leaving Tee and his five-year-old daughter, affectionately known as Sonic Boom, behind.
You that listen here regularly know Tee from his starring role as Amos in Down From Ten, or perhaps you heard his voice as Marian’s boss in Predestination or from the Predestination exit interview, but the story of Tee Morris is quite a bit more colorful. Tee invented podcast fiction, co-founded podiobooks.com, and is thus created the industry which launched the careers of myself, Chris Lester, Philippa Ballantine, Nathan Lowell, Scott Sigler, Christiana Ellis, Mur Lafferty, Nobilis Reed, and many others. He’s also directly helped many of us, and many others, with encouragement, advice, and lending his voice to our worlds. He’s also become a good friend to many of us, apart from a professional association.
Odd as it sounds, there are three things in this modern world that are more expensive than any other – being born, dying, and death. Natalie Morris’s death was sudden and unexpected, but it has left Tee with a raft of expenses he must meet immediately, and this as an unexpectedly single parent. Because of this, I have a special request for you – if you were planning on sending me a tip in the next week or three, send it to Tee instead.
Below you’ll find a widget for the chip-in account that Philippa Ballantine has started to help get Tee and Sonic Boom through the crisis time to calmer waters. Please click on it and toss a couple bucks in if at all you can.
November 12th, 2009 by jdsawyer
Philippa Ballantine’s DIGITAL MAGIC, J. Daniel Sawyer’s FREE WILL AND OTHER COMPULSIONS, and Chris Lester’s METAMOR CITY SEASON 2 have been unleashed upon the world. You’ve heard the first episodes, now talk to the authors. We will all be live on Talkshoe this evening, 6pm PST, taking your calls and chewing the scenery. Contests will be had — prizes will be given — insanity will rule the day.
Here’s the timeline for the rest of the Triple Threat (so far):
Thursday, 11/12/09:
6 PM Pacific Time: Dan Sawyer & Pip Ballantine begin the LIVE Triple Threat Launchcast event at TalkShoe <–link leads to the show.
8 PM Pacific Time (est.): Chris Lester joins the Launchcast.
The Launchcast will include…
* Live call-ins from fans
* Trivia contests
* Prize giveaways
* Sneak peeks at the upcoming podcast seasons
Sunday, 11/22/09:
7 PM Pacific Time: Chris Lester, Dan Sawyer, Kitty Nic’Iaian and Gail Carriger record the first feedback show of the new season of Metamor City! Send in your responses to the new episodes and we’ll include them in the show.
It’s all on- so hope you can join us!
(some text pilfered from Philippa Ballantine)
September 3rd, 2009 by jdsawyer
Brian Clay has posted a very kind review of Predestination and of Down From Ten, as well as of Philippa Ballantine’s Weather Child and Scott Sigler’s new hardcover release The Rookie (which is, by the by, probably his best work and it’s a gorgeous hardcover).
Anyway, Brian has this to say about the words of your humble narrator:
“The current novel Down from Ten which has been describe as The Shinning meets “Clue†is a great story and the cast is doing an outstanding job. Warning – it is an in-flight podcast so when you catch up with the episodes you will be dealing with “cliffhangersâ€!
Though it is his other podcast novel I really wanted to mention, The Antithesis Progression: Predestination and Other Games of Chance, first the title is just plain awesome, I am aware that for the sake of “selling†the novel the title will be tweaked to be more approachable, which is only sensible; however, the Lit geek in me states firmly that the title is perfect and should be left alone. Okay, that said the title isn’t the only awesome thing here. The story is fantastic, driven by a cast of characters with powerful agendas that makes this space – spy – political – thriller come to life unlike any other podcast novel I have listened to. Take the time to check it out.
Something to keep in mind both novels are definitely for adults, not kid or office safe content.”
Thank you Brian, for the review. Those of you who don’t read Brian’s blog, it’s worth a gander. Check it out.
July 24th, 2009 by jdsawyer
Well, ladies and germs, it’s official:
Predestination is a parsec finalist. Officially we’re up for “Best New Speculative Fiction Podcaster/Team,” and, while it’s only *one* of the nominations I was hoping for, if i had to pick only one this would probably be it. Why’s that? Well, this one has the advantage of being a shared award. I don’t know how many physical awards they give out, but if they give out multiples one is definitely going to Danny Schade, whose music made the world complete.
Thank you — all of you — for a hell of a first year doing this. Next year is, I hope, going to be even more exciting — I’ve gots me some plans!
July 9th, 2009 by jdsawyer
I’m stopping in to give you all a quick digest on my recent activities, which have been many, prolific, and at hopefully somewhat scandalous.
First, the appearances. You can find me on recent episodes of Podioracket, The Dead Robots Society, and doing voice work as the German Army in Philippa Ballantine’s Weather Child. You can also hear my fantasy story Buried Alive In The Blues, for which I also did some of the voice work, on the excellent (if racy) anthology series Erotica A La Carte.
For those of you who enjoy my Open Source madness will be pleased to hear that there are new LinuxJournal articles – one is a review of the Indamixx portable recording studio, and the other, which hasn’t yet published, is a review of OpenGear’s new KVM management console. I’m currently stalking a couple more regular writing gigs, so if the internet gods smile upon me, you may be seeing quite a lot more out of me in this vein in the coming months.
Podcast monkeys, you may have noticed the new buttons on the right side of the page – each podcast feed now has an iTunes one-click subscription link, as well as the normal RSS buttons. There’s also now an Uberfeed, which will give you everything I podcast (except Apologia, which you can get here).
You also may have noticed that I’m now podcasting my new novel Down From Ten. This is a comedic country house mystery with elements of romance, horror, and science fiction around the edges – it’s a change of gears from The Antithesis Progression. It’s also listed on iTunes now, so if you’re listening and enjoying it, please leave a review and tell your friends.
I’m also the subject of, and participant in dialog to, a blog series about the doctrinal foundations of Christianity by Scott Roche on the Spiritual Tramp blog. If you like my arguments on Apologia, you’ll definitely find this one entertaining.
I’ve also recorded MORE Reprobates Hour episodes, which, along with all the other special features I have on my hard drive, I’ll hopefully start spooling out here again this month.
As far as writing projects go, Free Will is picking up steam and is now officially on schedule for a November release. I’m also working on a couple more secret projects, which hopefully I’ll have news about soon here.
Finally, I hope to have some good news on sales in the next couple weeks, so watch this space!
June 18th, 2009 by jdsawyer
Six Parsecs, to be exact. I’ve been officially nominated for the Parsec awards in six categories – three for The Antithesis Progression and three for Sculpting God.
For Predestination, I’ve been nominated for:
Best Speculative Fiction Story (Novel Form)
Best Audio Drama (Long Form including Independents)
Best New Speculative Fiction Podcaster/Team
And for Sculpting God, I’ve been nominated for:
Best Speculative Fiction Story (Short Form)
Best Audio Drama (Short Form including Independents)
Best Speculative Fiction Magazine or Anthology Podcast
There’s obviously a lot of genre bending that I’m doing between fiction/drama, so that may work against me. Who knows? The only down side of this is that I have to send in samples, which is one more thing on my overlong to-do list. Even so…
Being nominated for the Parsecs f*cking rocks! Thanks guys, you are all fabulous!
-Dan
May 15th, 2009 by jdsawyer
Those of you who listened to Predestination heard Christiana Ellis’s voice playing bit parts — when you listen to Down From Ten you’ll hear her as one of the main characters. But when you listen to her podcasts – Shallow Thoughts, Space Casey, or Nina Kimberley – you’ll be holding your sides.
Which is what this post is about. Christiana Ellis’ hysterical send up of epic fantasy, Nina Kimberley the Merciless is now available on Amazon.com. I *LOVE* this book — very clever, loads of fun, and written with a genuine literacy that’s very refreshing in any kind of Fantasy, let alone comedic fantasy. Download the ebook here to read on your computer or portable reader, subscribe to the podcast here, and support the author’s print debut by heading over to Amazon and buying today.
January 14th, 2009 by jdsawyer
Download Subscribe
We take a break from the constant sex talk to go over the latest feedback and…oh, yeah…talk about sex a bit. And geekiness. And all other manner of insanity. Stay tuned at the end where we announce the winner of the iTunes review contest.
Enjoy!
P.S. My illness has settled into my chest, so still no recording. Damn you, Lester!!!
December 25th, 2008 by jdsawyer
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.
December 23rd, 2008 by jdsawyer
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.
December 15th, 2008 by jdsawyer
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
November 14th, 2008 by jdsawyer
I’ve been gone a while, and I’m afraid I’ll be gone another few days at least. Seems that I caught a really nasty flu at SteamCon that not only laid me flat for a week, but it has completely robbed me of my voice, thus rendering me unable to podcast. My voice is barely starting to return now, so hopefully another few days will see me back in full form. Thanks for bearing with me, everyone, and for the support you’ve sent over twitter. It’s much appreciated!
August 25th, 2008 by jdsawyer
I have to say, up front, that I’m not a big fan of superheroes. Occasionally, a stand-out will come along, like the new Batman Movies or the first X-men film, that will stop me in my tracks and make me cheer, but generally speaking, the whole notion just doesn’t appeal to me all that much. I’m a practical guy – I like my magic to be magic, and my techno-wizardry to have a hard science foundation, and super-heroes always strike me as trying to have it both ways: occasionally tipping a had to the notion of science while pretending that things like “radiation” or “viruses” or “mutations” can explain everything. That, and the writing on most superhero stories is pretty spare and juvenile.
Playing For Keeps is different. Mighty Mur has delivered The writing is smart, the characters are well drawn and have surprising depth, and she sneaks in the thought-provoking concepts in sophisticated, subtle ways, teasing the moral, ethical, philosophical, and emotional implications of her universe out one thread at a time. It’s the kind of book that is a good, fun read the first time through, and then you find yourself turning it over again in your mind a week or two later, until you decide to go back and read it again to find out what it was that you missed. Something hooked your subconscious, and you don’t know what. Playing on three levels: the superhero story, but delightfully satirized, the human story of social rejects getting revenge, and the philosophical level where the reader is invited to ponder what simple concepts that we encounter ever day – such as ownership and respect – really mean when you dig down into them, Playing for Keeps delivers depth and challenge wrapped up in pink spandex. Funny as hell, witty like Wilde, and filled with cliffhangers from start to finish, this is one book you shouldn’t allow yourself to miss.
Mur’s making her run on Amazon today – - not tomorrow, as I mistakenly said in the latest Antithesis episode — so if you can order today, do so. If you can’t, do order as soon as you’re able. This is one talent that the world deserves to discover, and pushing her out into the limelight with her first novel here is a big step towards that discovery.
