Archive for the 'Free Will' Category
September 20th, 2012 by jdsawyer
If you’re just joining this abomination-in-progress, I recommend starting back at Day 1, where you will find the rationale (such as it is) for this madness.
Day 5
First Tuesday in quite a while where I haven’t been cloistered with other writers doing writerly things. Feels vaguely dirty. Decided to atone by indulging in an unnatural act involving two bottles of club soda, one plate of shellfish, and a willow tree. Managed to escape in time to avoid impertinent questions raised by a neighbor.
Started recording session by creating graph for tracking progress, am dismayed to discover that I’m only 15000 words in so far. Decide to deliberately break day up into 1.5hrs on/1.5hrs off sessions to keep voice fresh and rested, aiming for a 25000 word day. Began recording 11am, finished final shift at 10pm. Total words recorded: 25468. Rock!
Decided to celebrate with excursion to hot tub. Nearly fell asleep. Startled awake by strange gathering of neighborhood felines exhibiting pack hunting behavior. Fifteen of them surrounded the tub and started mewling in a distinctly predatory manner. Effected heroic escape by leaping out over one, rolling on the concrete, running naked into the house, and returning armored with soggy shorts and t-shirt (as had forgotten to dry self) and did mighty battle with towel that I had, foolishly, left out of reach of the tub. Sustained only minor injuries, to hands and feet. Suspect I may have damaged voice by mewling profanity in cat-eese. Ended night by retiring to living room with large scotch and BBC mystery shows.
Stop By tomorrow, for The Tale of the Croaking Director
September 18th, 2012 by jdsawyer
This is the third installment in the Free Will Studio Diary. To catch up on the ongoing adventure, start here.
Day 4
Monday. Original ambition to do 25,000 words in a day thwarted by a conspiracy of other folks wanting to use the house. One fellow in particular took a bit of convincing, but thankfully managed to avoid an encounter with the police while burying the body underneath the spice garden out back. Unfortunately, presence of corpse attracted neighborhood cats for a meowing orgy, ruining the peacefulness of the aural environment–cannot help but think I’d have been better off letting the guy read his book in peace.
Fortunately, I had unexpected company today as partner opted to call in sick due to virulent allergy to bureaucracy. Seized opportunity to do massive (and massively overdue) schedule management rap session. Massive paramilitary assault on office supply store netted a lifetime supply of dry-erase markers and only one bullet wound–huzzah!
Managed to quiet down neighborhood cats by judicious application of potassium cyanide and salmon, which meant that I didn’t have to thaw any dead cow for the evening’s barbecue. Hot tubbing and astrophotography followed dinner, and then finally some peace and quiet, during which over 10k words of Free Will spewed forth into the microphone. Downside: voice out of shape, and now cannot talk. And still not done.
September 17th, 2012 by jdsawyer
This is the second post in an ongoing series detailing my week in a borrowed recording studio. The previous entry can be found here.
Day 3
Day 3: Spent morning imprisoned in a church, forced to document an archaic bonding ceremony due to filial obligation. Managed to escape without acquiring a new soul–go me! On the downside, contracted migraine due to excessive photography under direct sunlight. Upon emerging from cave, recorded lunar chase sequence and Presidential standoff–total audio now stands at four hours. Should pass the 100 page mark (of 750 pages) tomorrow or Tuesday. Back in the groove, have five hours of recording scheduled for tomorrow. I can hear the music and the voices again–podcasting beckons me once again.
Come back tomorrow to learn what happens when I try to record 25000 words in a single day…
September 17th, 2012 by jdsawyer
One of the dubious features of life in an apartment is that you’re at the mercy of the folks who live around you when it comes to noise. A couple of years ago, I acquired some new neighbors who, in spite of being thoroughly decent human beings, came equipped with toddlers, and those toddlers have lung and attitude like a soul singer could only dream of.
After about six months of this, I thought to myself: “Self, why don’t you just record at night?”
So, I tried that, only to discover that the kid seemed to have my studio under surveillance. For two years, I haven’t been able to record for more than twenty minutes without having to shut down due to screaming neighbor children. It’s so bad, in fact, that all of AWP–house, studio, and business office–is in the process of buying a building and moving (which also eats up a lot of time).
Meanwhile, the lack of ability to reliably record has been driving me slowly mad–and a friend noticed. Heading out of town for a few weeks, he offered me the use of his library to record in while he’s gone. So, this fall, for three weeks, I’ve got reliable quiet for recording, and just for fun I’m going to keep a diary of things here.
Here’s Day 1:
Day 1: Fought my way past piles of moving boxes to get to the old studio and pack up the equipment rack, recording rig, and mic rig. Upon arrival at [redacted]‘s house, discovered large, fire-breathing cat guarding the door. Deployed emergency stash of anchovies, then realized I had left the key at home.
Obtained entry to house through use of cunning and unscrupulous means acquired during high school adventures in gangland, Brought portable mixing board on the grounds that the big one doesn’t fit in the car. Spent three hours chasing down the noise in the new room and applying acoustical treatments to make it whisper quiet. Finished night by loading script breakouts onto the e-reader, practicing my elocution, and receiving a pedicure from a friendly neighbor. It must be nice to have neighbors that have hobbies that don’t involve squalling infants.
Not a bad first day. Day two, though, is where things really started to heat up.
Day 2: Started laying down tracks today, getting back into the reading groove. Warmed up on the first five chapters of And Then She Was Gone, then shifted to Free Will once I had my eye in. Have decided to devote the studio time to this one until it’s done. Laid down two hours of good narration audio. Waylaid halfway through recording session by rabid realtor demanding emergency meeting, had to brave long canyon full of smoke-breathing steel creatures to make meeting, whereupon was expected to sign away my soul for the fourteenth time during this house hunt. Finished day with no soul, and good audio. I count it as a win.
Tune in tomorrow, when the adventures really heat up!
Edit: The next installment is now available. Find it here.
April 6th, 2012 by jdsawyer
Okay, here we go. I’ve got the major and minor open roles collated for Free Will. If you’re interested in being a part of it, download the following PDFs, look over the information, and contact me about the roles you’re interested in.
Major Roles
Minor Roles
It’s already shaping up to be a great production. Our cast already contains such folks as:
Stephen H. Wilson
Miss Kalendar
Tee Morris
Philippa Ballantine
Christiana Ellis
Chris Lester
Nobilis Reed
Scott Sigler
and many, many more…
Casting calls on Monday will post for the Clarke Lantham books.
April 3rd, 2012 by jdsawyer
So, as many of you might have noticed, we occasionally produce audiobooks through ArtisticWhispers Productions. Those of you that have may have also noticed that we haven’t put a new one out (or, at least, anything resembling a complete one) in about two years.
The hiatus is over. As of this past weekend, the following books have all moved out of the pre-production stage and into the production stage.
The books currently in production are:
Throwing Lead
And Then She Was Gone
A Ghostly Christmas Present
Smoke Rings
Free Will
Being In Production
Being “In Production” means that the project is currently being recorded. Some bits of pre-production might go on concurrently, for example…
Casting
All of the fiction books will be full-cast productions in the classic AWP style. Here are the numbers on the roles available for each book (bearing in mind that, since this is audio, actors can double, triple, or quintiple up on roles):
And Then She Was Gone needs 27 roles filled. 9 of these have five lines or fewer.
A Ghostly Christmas Present needs 14 roles filled, 4 of these have five lines or fewer
Smoke Rings needs 21 roles filled. About half of these are roles with fewer than five lines.
Free Will needs 118 roles filled. About half of these are roles with fewer than five lines.
What Happens Now
Starting later this week, I will spool out the open casting calls. These books will be available commercially, so if you wish to participate, in addition to having the ability to record clean audio and (for the more involved roles) the willingness to take live-direction, you must be willing to sign a contract detailing the release of your voice for commercial purposes and entitling you to payment.
Payment for these books, because they’re the first commercial round, will be on a deferred fee basis + royalties. Because payment is involved, you will need to include your Tax ID number on the contract and, when payment comes due, fill out the relevant tax forms.
Watch This Space
These are the first five of an anticipated 9 productions this year, and there will be a similar number next year. I’m looking to build a stable of actors I can work with medium-to-long term.
What Does This Mean for the Podcast?
The podcast returns with Free Will (rebooted) in late spring/early summer. I’m aiming for Balticon, but might overshoot or undershoot by as much as three weeks, depending on how briskly casting goes.
Free Will will be approximately 60 episodes long, and will start out as a bi-weekly podcast, ramping to weekly once the entire production is wrapped. As such, it will run for 13-19 months before we reach the end. Since such a long story full of cliffhangers will drive some of you around the bend, the full audiobook will be available for purchase by DragonCon, if not before.
Additionally, the initial chapters of the other books will drop in the feed so that you who subscribe can hear what’s going on in the productions that aren’t delivered to you on the feed.
And, of course, Dealing In will return, as I sense we’ll have quite a lot to talk about as the story unfolds.
Future novels will podcast after Free Will wraps, but there will always be more content available than what’s going through the ‘cast. You all have spoken loudly, and we here around the Bay have heard your cries.
Stay tuned! More in a couple days.
Update: Free Will casting call has posted. Find it here
December 28th, 2011 by jdsawyer
There will be a new newsletter out shortly after the new year, but as we’re winding down this year I wanted to take a moment out and give you all a wave and huge thanks.
2011 has been a remarkably productive year, and the last four days are going to be some of its busiest as I hurry to package a few new short stories, finish up two books, and put together a kickstarter video.
But the best part, the part so many of you have been waiting for, has already started:
The recording studio is back up and running. We’re recording audiobooks for Free Will (which will be podcast), for the Clarke Lantham books, and for a few other things that we’ll announce later on. And today, we’re also recording new episodes of Apologia.
I can’t tell you how excited I am to have it all ticking over again.
More soon. Until then, have an excellent year’s end!
July 12th, 2011 by jdsawyer
So, Free Will is in prep for release right now, with the typos and other nit-picky details being worked over, layout being done, etc. It’s a big step forward in the Antithesis Progression, and there are a lot of you out there who have been waiting patiently for the series to continue.
Some of you will get a sneak peak. You see, this is a big book. It ate up more pages, and more time, than I expected by an order of magnitude, and I’m eager to see it find a good home on the shelves and in the e-readers of all of you, including those of you who have drifted away in the meantime, intending to come back when the series continued.
To let people know Antithesis is back, we’re going to need publicity. Publicity means you! Some of you out there enjoy blogging, posting opinion pieces and reviews, etc., and you are the ones I need. Starting today, the first hundred of you that email me (either the normal way through the feedback at jdsawyer.net address, or through the web form you can find here) with the subject line “Free Will Ebook” will receive a free, pre-copyedits ebook version of Free Will (and a corrected version once the proofs are done).
In return for receiving this advance review copy, you promise to blog the book when you’ve finished reading it and, once the book is released to the general public in the next week or two, to post a copy or extract of your blog review in two of the following: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Goodreads, Kobo, Sony ebook store, Kobo, iBookstore. Those of you who feel enthusiastic enough about the book to post the review in all those places will be entered into a drawing. The four prizes in that drawing will be:
A copy of the signed-and-numbered collector’s edition of the Predestination poster
A signed paperback copy of Predestination
A signed paperback copy of Down From Ten
A Clarke Lantham Mysteries 2-pack: Paperbacks of And Then She Was Gone and A Ghostly Christmas Present
Spread the word!
Also, watch this space. There will be more announcements in the coming days about casting calls, a new Death Threats contest, and other goodies.
July 2nd, 2011 by jdsawyer
Neurological pharmacology–a fancy way of saying “what drugs do to brains”–is a subject with which I have a special fascination. Some of them accentuate specific aspects of personality, some create hallucinations and religious experience, some relieve depression, some kick the sex drive or the bonding drive into high gear. In a lot of ways, though, for my money, I’d nominate alcohol as the most interesting for one reason:
In vino, veritas. Pliny the Elder nailed it: Wine tells the truth. It doesn’t make you do things so much as it lets you do things. You can learn a lot about yourself, and about your friends, by watching what happens when they’re well-buzzed.
National holidays can do the same thing to people–and not just because of the amount of alcohol people tend to consume given half an excuse. Like all things, love of one’s country can come in a lot of flavors. Soviet dissidents, for example, loved their country while hating its system–they loved its culture, its geography, its weather, the shared history in which their identity was rooted. Members of totalitarian systems, on the other hand, are trained to identify the system with the country, and to see non-conformity as so unpatriotic as to deserve death. Some people are patriotic about countries where they’ve never lived, so much so that they’ll move across the world to live in them, because they’ve fallen in love with the ideology, or the people, or the culture of that country. You can learn a lot about a person by watching the flavor of their patriotism.
Writing a political thriller series these last few years, I’ve carefully watched the political micro-climates around the world and studied how they relate to the version of love of country I carry around in my own psyche. Call it a love affair with the Jeffersonian vision of freedom: “I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”
This year has been an amazing year around the world for the struggle against different forms of tyranny, and as an Americans it’s been more exciting than I can say to watch the most action-packed year of calculated struggles against tyranny since the late 80s and early 90s (it’s also more than a little embarrassing how little my home culture seems interested in carrying on their struggle on the home front, but that’s a topic for another time). It’s quite possible that the Arab Spring, the Iranian struggles, and the other protests and revolutions around the world will all come to bad ends in the same way that the revolutions of the twentieth century almost all ended in dictatorship, civil war, and genocide; still, I have a thin hope that some of the people who are laying down their lives–for reasons as simple as the next loaf of bread or as idealistic as bringing democracy and universal suffrage to cultures where such notions are without precedent–may have read history and learned from the missteps of the last hundred years.
Because of that, in celebration of the first revolution that actually worked (if imperfectly), I’ve dedicated Free Will (my new book about revolution) as follows:
This volume is dedicated to the men and women
Who sat in Tahrir
Who crossed the Wall in Berlin
Who fell at Tiananmen Square
Who bled in the streets of Tehran
Who lost their lives in Boston
And all those like them before and since.
To them we owe a debt we cannot repay
Save that we make their dream come true
For Everyone
Forever.
I’ll be seeing you soon, with the rest of the book. Have a safe weekend–and spend it however you want to. The ability to make that choice is a remarkable thing in the history of the world.
July 1st, 2011 by jdsawyer
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