…In Less than Twelve Parsecs!

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

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.

Sculpting God: The Man In The Rain

Content Warning: Contains adult language and graphic violence
 
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To kick off the Antithesis series, I’m bringing you a story that’s just at the edge of what Sculpting God normally deals with. Still a bedtime story for adults, this one tells the story of Mondu, a pawnbroker on a nature preserve in the Amazon rainforest, and a customer who walks into his store and turns his life upside down. When you’re looking for excitement, or an escape from boredom, be careful what you wish for. You might get The Man In The Rain.

Chasing the Bard fans – Welcome!

Welcome to all fans of Phillipa Ballantine’s Chasing the Bard! You’re doubtless moseying on over here because you heard me this week on The Story So Far and are wondering about those podcasts I mentioned.

Well, look no further. You can find my collection of fantasy, science fiction, and erotica stories here. It’s called Sculpting God and it’s chock full of adult-oriented bedtime stories, with a new two-parter coming next week.

The first volume of my podcast novel Antithesis – costarring the lovely Chasing The Bard author Phillipa Ballantine – will be posting shortly. There is a feed up right now, containing the promo, and episodes will start dropping before the end of the month. We’ve already got a couple of them produced – a couple more and we’ll have a comfortable buffer lined up so there won’t be any story interruptions once we get it started. In the meantime, you can read the back-of-the-book summary here, and watch the Sculpting God feed for more details.

Those of you who are of a vaguely intellectual bent might also enjoy my nonfiction podcasts, The Reprobates Hour (soon to enter its third season), and Apologia, a philosohpical roudtable discussion about matters of ethics, secularism, religion, and epistemology.

Feel free to poke around, read my older posts, and check out my photography work if you’re looking for some good desktop wallpapers.

Thanks for stopping by!

Welcome, Siglerite Junkies!

Thanks for dropping by. You’ll find the podcasts above in the menu – the link takes you to a page with descriptions of Sculpting God, the Reprobates Hour, and the other podcast I’m a regular guest on. Also, take a gander at the preview page for my new novel Predestination (and Other Games of Chance) here.

Sit down, stay a while, leave feedback, grab a drink and a cigar. Mi casa, tsu casa!

Episode 7: Lilith

Warning: This episode contains explicit sexual situations, and is intended for adult audiences.

You’ve heard the story of Adam and Eve? Don’t be so sure. The Bible doesn’t tell the whole story, but if you look closely you see where something has been removed. First, God creates “man” male and female, and then, a few verses later, he creates woman again, this time from Adam’s rib. Where did the first woman go?

If you’ve ever read the Babylonian Talmud, you know. She was kicked out of the Garden of Eden for not being properly defferential, and she went on to become quite notorious in her own right. A sexual predator, a dark goddess, a spurned woman, and the first feminist, this is her story in her own words.

Lilith.

Guest voices this week:
Stephanie Sawyer
Kitty Nic’Iaian

Promos this week:
Hutchins and Harwood explain why you have only three days left to buy Scott Sigler’s excellent novel Infected

Infected and Lilith

Hey guys, big stuff today.

First off, the new episode of Sculpting God is up on the feed. For this episode, I take you way, way, way back to the very beginning of the world, to tell you the REAL story of what happened with a certain apple in a certain garden. From the lips of the woman who was there to witness it all, you’ll hear the story of Lilith, the world’s first woman and first feminist. Listen to this one without your kids in the room; it’s sexually explicit.

Secondly, and in the long run perhaps more important, there’s only a few days left to pick up Scott Sigler’s Infected

If you haven’t heard the podcast, you’ve been missing out. I’ll be posting a proper review in a couple days when I have time, but for now suffice it to say that even if you don’t like horror, you’re probably going to enjoy this book. Check out the Amazon reviews and get your copy – and try to get it before the 14th of April so that your purchase will count towards the New York Times Bestseller list. If Scott can make the list, it’s going to mean good things for ALL podcast authors – Sigler, Harwood, Lafferty, Hutchins, Wallace, myself, and all the others who are creating excellent free content for all of you guys out there in podcastland.

If you don’t want to go to Amazon, hit B&N.com or go to a local brick-and-mortar store and look for the book with this disturbing cover:

Ep. 6: We Create Worlds, Part 2

Warning: This episode of Sculpting God is intended for adult audiences, and has content that is probably unsuitable for children and the easily offended. Strong language, dirty euphamisms, violence, sexual themes, and disturbing subject matter.

Here, at long last, is the conclusion to We Create Worlds. I had intended to release this over a month ago. Unfortunately for all of you (but fortunately for me), I was asked to write a screenplay. The resulting effort, Down From Ten, is a science fiction/mystery miniseries which my producing partners and I are now seeking funding for. It may even make an appearance as a miniseries at a future point in this podcast. You can read more about what the writing entailed at www.jdsawyer.net

Thank you all for your patience in hanging around the feed. Please spread the word – more episodes are coming.

Enjoy!

Down From Ten

The last month have seen me taking a break from the revisions to Predestination – and from Sculpting God, to my unending shame (don’t worry, it’s coming back this week). The culprit? A new drama called “Down From Ten,” which I just finished the rough on last night. I’m taking week to catch up on the things that have fallen behind, to get out new query letters, and to meet deadlines, and then I’m diving back in for revisions – but not to the exclusion of Predestination, which has acquired some great notes as a result of this little break.

At this speed, I’ll finish at least two novels this year.

Total composition time on the rough draft of Down From Ten: 27 days

Total page count: 315

Uber-projects update

So, the last month have brought a lot of new projects, as well as desperate scramblings to keep up with existing ones. Here’s the rundown:

Down From Ten
This is a mystery/suspense/science fiction/comedy/drama film I’m writing for production, hopefully later this year if the financing comes through. More news on this as the deal progresses. I got tapped for it two weeks ago and had to drop everything to get it banged out. I’m a little over halfway through it and it’s going splendidly. If the production deal goes through, this will be unlike anything that’s been filmed in a long, long time, if ever.

The Haunting of Emeritus Greenbough
Originally the Nanowrimo project that got derailed in favor of writing lectures for the Blender Boot Camp. Currently on hold until Predestination is finished.

Predestination and Other Games of Chance
Currently on page 360 of the revision. It’s coming along nicely, but is on temporary hold for another week to ten days while I finish this month’s articles and the Down From Ten screenplay.

“Cover Artist” and “Pressure Gauges”
A pair of mystery novellas introducing a new “hero” who finds himself in the midst of murder investigations at a night club and a new year’s eve party. Don’t want to say more at the moment, but hopefully I’ll be able to finish these up and sell them before too long, so you can all read them

And, of course, Sculpting God continues along swimmingly. This week, We Create Worlds part 2 will be up. Then, for Valentine’s Day, you’ll get the story of Lilith – the first woman who had far more particular and provocative ideas about what it meant to be a woman than did her successor in Eden.

We Create Worlds, Part 1 now available these: http://www.podfeed.net/podcast/Sculpting+God/12883

Think you can take the future? It’s coming. And the narrator of this week’s Sculpting God is one of those people who are going to give it to you.

Meet Rick. He’s a scurrilous, irascible scoundrel, with a heart of gold. Not in the sense of being warm and fuzzy and good underneath, but in the sense of having a heart totally devoted to gold. His favorite goldmine is his shop, an entertainment venue where he vends virtual reality and manufactured novels to his latter-day escapist customers. He runs a tidy shop, he keeps his customers happy, and he always knows the right party to hit to find a pliable college girl with more cocaine than sense. Life is good. But life has a way of doing unexpected things, and the world has a way of changing around the most adaptable people.

Take a step into Rick’s parlor. Don’t mind the bell on the door or the old fashioned cash register. Buy a manufactured novel, fresh from the computer, a first edition. Sit in the easy chair or lay out on the sofa. Strap on a helmet and a skinsuit and take a swim on Europa. He can be trusted, really. It says so on the door. He’s completely upfront with his advertising. In ten foot high letters, right above the shop front, he tells you what they do in his place:
“We Create Worlds.”

And he does it on the cheap.

Warning: This episode of Sculpting God is intended for adult audiences, and has content that is probably unsuitable for children and the easily offended. Strong language, dirty euphamisms, sexual themes, and disturbing subject matter.
Direct Download Link
Podcast Link

Episode 5: We Create Worlds, Part 1

Warning: This episode of Sculpting God is intended for adult audiences, and has content that is probably unsuitable for children and the easily offended. Strong language, dirty euphamisms, sexual themes, and disturbing subject matter.

“I love deadlines. I love the wooshing noise they make as they go by.” -Douglas Adams

This time, it’s very much a case of blown deadlines for the sake of a god product. It’s also, I’m sure you’re thinking, better late than never. This story turned out to be a difficult one to produce, simply becasue I hadn’t looked at it in a number of years. When I did, I realized that it wasn’t up to snuff for Sculpting God. “No problem,” I thought, “A quick rewrite will fix that.” Well, the quick rewrite wound up stretching to six weeks, and this little bugger of a story turned out to be a very difficult nut to crack.

However, crack it did, and here you are – the meat of the walnut, as it were.

This is the story of Rick. He’s a scurrilous, irascible scoundrel, with a heart of gold. Not in the sense of being warm and fuzzy and good underneath, but in the sense of having a heart totally devoted to gold. His favorite goldmine is his shop, an entertainment venue where he vends virtual reality and manufactured novels to his latter-day escapist customers. He runs a tidy shop, he keeps his customers happy, and he always knows the right party to hit to find a pliable college girl with more cocaine than sense. Life is good. But life has a way of doing unexpected things, and the world has a way of changing around the most adaptable people.

So, please step into Rick’s parlor. Don’t mind the bell on the door or the old fashioned cash register. Buy a manufactured novel, fresh from the computer, a first edition. Sit in the easy chair or lay out on the sofa. Strap on a helmet and a skinsuit and take a swim on Europa. He can be trusted, really. It says so on the door. He’s completely upfront with his advertising. In ten foot high letters, right above the shop front, he tells you what they do in his place:
“We Create Worlds.”

And he does it on the cheap.

We Create Worlds completed

The next episode in Sculpting God is the science fiction suspense story “We Create Worlds.” It’s actually the first short story I ever wrote as an adult, and let me tell you, when I went to record it after not having read it for years, it showed. Kind of like discovering that the arse has been inadvertently cut out of your tuxedo pants right before getting out of the car at the wedding. So, anyhow, I had to rewrite, and then reimagine, and then rewrite a few dozen more times, but I finally nailed it, bar another pass while I’m recording tomorrow. Funny thing, what was once a short, sweet romance has ballooned into a ten-thousand-word suspense story with a much more Dick-esqe edge. Fun times! Watch this space for the post of the dramatization, starring my friend Danielle Ozymandias in a couple of interesting roles.

New Podcast episodes

Sculpting God and The Polyschizmatic Reprobates Hour both have new episodes, both lots of fun. Check them out!

Sculpting God Episode 4: Control Room

What if somewhere in the universe there was a room, and in that room was a creature, surrounded by screens and dials and controls. In his room, he sees all, knows all, manages all. He directs the thoughts and actions of every being in the cosmos. Would such a creature be God? And what would it be like to be that being, spending your days and nights watching the screens and managing the affairs of all beings from a control room?

Special thanks to the Reason Driven Podcast and to the Going Linux podcast for running our promo. Enjoy!