My latest short story "The Night the Lights Came On"

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

All I Want for Christmas is a V.R. Supercube
(Bonus Christmas Episode)

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Now available as a free eBook at Smashwords in all the formats you could want.


Alfred Thompson can't wait to get his V.R. SuperCube game system this year for Christmas, but there's a problem. He overhears the school bully talking with his mom in the game shop and comes to a realization. He may have just found a way to never be bullied again.

Friday, December 10, 2010

News & A Tradition to Join Me In

Hey guys, I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is, my wife and I are going to Maui Hawaii! The bad news is, I haven't quite finished part II of my short story "A Second Chance," and we'll be gone for a week. So here's my plan: I'm going to finish the story and have it edited and ready to record by the time I get back from Hawaii. Then I can record it and get it into the feed in short order. So the week before Christmas I'll have it out to you. I might try and write a short Christmas story to put in the feed as well as a little Christmas gift to you guys for listening. In the mean time, join me in my tradition of reading Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. This will be my third year in a row of reading it right before Christmas. It's a tradition I might keep for the rest of my life. It's a short read, and an excellent one. When Scrooge sees the error of his ways and wakes all joyful on Christmas day, his joy leaps from the pages, or .mp3 files, into your heart. It's a wonderful story to get you into the Christmas spirit of generosity and joy. Here it is for free in all the eBook formats you could want; and here is an excellent free audiobook version of it. Enjoy!

Thursday, December 9, 2010

New Free Song "Die To Self"


Introduction to the song:

The song on its own:
Download the song: .mp3
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Here are the lyrics:

Die To Self
By Euphony Meets Cacophony

In my own strength I have tried to kill you
But now I know one who has paid the price for me
Submerged in the water I lay you out
Take you down
Die to self
You will not survive this
I come up a new man

Sunday, November 28, 2010

I won NaNoWriMo again!

I won NaNoWriMo for the second time! This year was much different, and even though I ended up crossing the 50,000 word finish line in the same amount of days, 28, it was actually a lot easier this time around. I was usually 2 days ahead in my word count throughout the month of November. This was due to waking up early on the weekends when everyone else was asleep and cranking out around four thousand words or more. Those little boosts really helped me throughout the week. I had quite a few days where I didn't write a word, and it was only thanks to my buffer that I only fell below the line once on the 24th. I thought it was going to be much harder, because last year the only way I was able to make it was using an app on my Blackberry where I could talk into it and it would convert my words into text. This year I just recorded my voice into my phone instead and then when I had time I would write out what I had recorded. I started doing this because I no longer have internet on my phone, which the app required; but I think it ended up being much faster - I just had to find the time other than my commute to write. I could get to the 1,667 words for the day off of less than ten minutes of recorded audio. If you've never written this way and have a long commute where you can't write because you're driving, you should give it a try. If you haven't tried NaNo, look into it and give it a try next year, it's the most fun you'll ever have writing. The main reason for this is that there is a community writing along with you. It was fun this year to post my wordcount and then challenge my friends to try and catch me. It was encouraging to get back to the keyboard and write more when I saw that they had passed me up. So click on the link above, and check it out. Now to finish Part II of that short story and get it recorded so you won't all be left on a cliffhanger anymore :)

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

November 2010 Update

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Happy holdiay wishes, why part II of the short story hasn't dropped in the feed, and what all I'm working on.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

NaNoWriMo Tips & Tricks

NaNoWriMo is going pretty well for me. Lately I've been getting around 1K words a day, but I'm not worried about it because I've remained a couple days ahead in my overall wordcount. I'm hoping to repeat last Saturday where I woke up at 6:30 and had a good couple hours where everyone else was asleep. I ended up writing almost 5K words! This thrilled me and I was giddy for the rest of the day. One way I've been able to crank out more words is to use my commute time to write. I know what you're going to say, "but Dan, I drive to work! I can't write while I'm driving!" What's my answer to that? "Yes you can!" I drive to work myself, and no I'm not taking my eyes off the road to write. What I'm doing is recording my voice into my phone as I drive. You should be able to do this with your hands free device, I don't want you getting pulled over for holding your phone up to your ear; "but officer, I wasn't talking on the phone, I was writing my NaNoWriMo novel." Yes you have to transcribe this when you get home, but you had to use that time to drive to work and not write as it was. Now when you get home, instead of writing off the top of your head, you're simply typing out what you already wrote; and trust me, the wordcount will fly out from your fingers much faster this way. So if you're able to try this method, I suggest you do and I hope it helps your wordcount.

Another thing I have been using is a really simple text editor called Dark Room, which you can download and begin using in seconds for free. This thing is so cool. I'm a PC guy, and I've always written using the most simple text editor out there which is Notepad. I don't care if something is spelled wrong, I don't want to see the little red squigly line; I don't even want to see extra menus or sidebars, or anything for that matter. I just want to see the text. One thing I don't like is writing on a widescreen monitor (most are these days) with Notepad maximized because then my lines of text are extremely long. So I started having my notepad window take up half the screen or less. This is no good because I can then see my desktop on the rest of the screen which is quite busy visually. Enter Dark Room. Here's what their site has to say about it: "Dark Room is a full screen, distraction free, writing environment. Unlike standard word processors that focus on features, Dark Room is just about you and your text." Perfect! The screen is black and your text is green, like the Matrix. You can change these colors but I've found this to be very easy on the eyes. Also your text is in a nice neat column. You can adjust the width of this, but I've found that straight from the download it seems to be set up perfectly. There are arrows to help you scroll up and down, but other than that it's just the text on your screen; I love it!

One last tool I'll throw in here is something I don't plan on using but have seen staggering wordcounts tweeted from fellow NaNo writers for short periods of time. It's a program called Write Or Die. Basically if you're not writing bad things start to happen. Your screen starts to turn red, very annoying sounds start to come out of your speakers. There's even a kamikaze mode where if you're not hitting your goal the software starts deleting your text one word at a time! You set a wordcount goal, and a time you'd like to write those words in and you're off. Here's the software in their words: "Write or Die is a web application that encourages writing by punishing the tendency to avoid writing. Start typing in the box. As long as you keep typing, you’re fine, but once you stop typing, you have a grace period of a certain number of seconds and then there are consequences."

Ok, now stop reading this, use the tools if you like, I hope they help, and get back to writing!

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

NaNoWriMo is here!

What's NaNoWriMo? Why it's National Novel Writing Month of course! The first day of November has passed, and I am happy to report that I was able to crank out 3,978 words on my first day! The goal is to get 50K words in the 30 day month of November; which ends up rounding to 1,667 words per day; so I'm ahead of the curve as of today. I'm hoping to do some extra words while I'm still all energetic about it so that when I have those busy days where I can only manage like 400 words I'll still be on track. This is my second year doing NaNo, and you can read about the novel I'm writing a couple of posts back from this one here. It's tentative title is: The Time Musicians. I'm really excited and really determined to get the 50K words on time again this year and win NaNoWriMo for the second year in a row. Wish me luck, or even better, sign up now and become my writing buddy. That link will also bring you to my NaNoWriMo page where you can see my wordcount progress.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Short Stories of DanDanTheArtMan 06 - A Second Chance | Pt. 1

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Jerry has problems. A few years ago his pregnant mother died. His Dad has reduced himself to a drunk. Dad gets violent when he drinks, which is all the time. Jerry decides to run away, but ends up destroying another family by taking all of his anger towards his dad out on a stranger.

Thanks to Odin1eye over at http://www.viewfromvalhalla.com/ for the intro.

Promos

Dead Robots Society & MWS Media LLC Present "Explorers"
http://deadrobotssociety.com/anthology/

Matthew Wayne Selznick's Hazy Days and Cloudy Nights
http://www.mattselznick.com/writing/fiction/hazy-days-and-cloudy-nights/

Attributions

Thanks to Wes Kinsler for his use of the truck image from his website over at http://www.wkinsler.com/

Sound effects used come from
http://www.freesound.org/

Music used
Dying To Live (Dan's old band)

Friday, October 1, 2010

My next NaNoWriMo Novel


My next NaNoWriMo novel is going to be called The Time Musicians. It is the sequel to the first novel I ever finished, which is called "The Mysterious Puddle." Last year was my first time doing NaNo and it helped me finish my second novel, which was a Science Fiction / Space Opera book called "The Trading Family." That's a working title which I am not going to keep, but it holds the spot for now. I was thinking of NaNoWriMo and remembering that you can upload an image for the book you're writing, and so I whipped up this graphic to use. The Time Musician will be kind of a genre mash up. It starts out in the near future and then goes back in time to a Medieval village where most of the first book I wrote, "The Mysterious Puddle" took place. So the setting will be SciFi for the first part, and more of a classic Fantasy setting for the second part. It will be a fun to write, and I am determined to get down 50k words during the month of November. Join me in November on the NaNoWrimo website as my writing buddy here, and lets write like the dickens! (Yes you can write like Charles or Emily if you wish)

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Inspiration

I recently switched from Blockbuster online back to Netflix for their free streaming of movies and TV shows. My wife and I are hooked on Gray's Anatomy right now, and it's saving us a ton! Anyways, while watching the previews before Pixar's movie Cars, my 2 1/2 year old son saw one for Disney's 1953 Peter Pan. I loved this movie, and now my son does too. He watched it as many times as we would let him. We've since mailed it back and he's currently watching the 2002 sequel Peter Pan in, Return to Neverland. Watching that movie with my son, for the first time in a decade or so, made the whole world come alive to me again. I thought about how cool the ideas were and I remembered my brother back when we were in college together say that he had read the book - and that it had rocked. So I have started reading the book, and it's great to get a deeper read of the story in novel form. From watching that cartoon movie, I wanted to know more about the world of Neverland. I wondered how it all really worked, it's origins, and the back story to all the characters. It inspired me to want to write more fantasy in my own work, as I've been focusing on Science Fiction lately. I can't wait to create my own world for characters to escape into. I know just how I'm going to do it too. The good folks over at The Dead Robots' Society Podcast and Matthew Wayne Selznick of the Podiobook Brave Men Run and many other projects, are going to publish an anthology called EXPLORERS: BEYOND THE HORIZON. I'll let you hear what it is in their words:


"A short story anthology to be published in 2011. The stories in EXPLORERS will feature characters forever changed by their discovery of lands and worlds beyond their own. Whether it’s by charting new stars, trekking across fantastical realms, sailing new oceans or traversing the wild and unknown spaces between dimensions, readers will find the unimaginable in the pages of EXPLORERS."


I had a great idea that I think will turn into a novel, but first I'm going to write out a short story for this anthology which will tell of some dudes discovering this world I'm going to create. My world will be much different than Neverland or Narnia but it will be imaginative, it will be mine, and it will start with an N. I was just kidding about that last part :)

I've been inspired. What inspires you? Do you think we would be pushed to create without inspiration? Was there one big moment of inspiration which started you down the path of creating art? Was it an individual or people rather than media that got you going? Is it still a hobby like it is for me, but you dream of it being more some day? If it's more than a hobby, when did you know it was what you wanted to do full time? Leave a comment, I'd love to hear your thoughts on how inspiration influences our creative output.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

I've Been Busy!

So, there is a brand spanking new short story episode I'm very happy with which dropped at the very beginning of this month, but I haven't been posting much else on here. Let me tell you why. My wife and I started doing foster care a few months ago, and have taken in 3 foster kids in that time. First we had a little 3 month old, then for 3 days his 3 year old sister, then an 8 month old. We've only had 2 at a time, but with our 2 1/2 year old son that's three kids in diapers. Yes, we're crazy :) You can hear all about it on a Foster care Podcast I started called Fostering With Love. Now we have only the 3 month old, who's now 5 months old, AND as of last night - an adopted little girl. My wife and I have been waiting for over 9 months to be placed with a baby through a local private adoption agency. Now it has happened! We're so excited. She is a beautiful 3 month old little red head. So now we have our 2 1/2 year old son, our brand new 3 month old daughter, and a 5 month old foster baby boy. Now you know why my podcast episode dropped a few days late, and why this blog has been a bit less regular than normal. As the dust settles I hope to be posting more regularly. I also hope that before too long I'll be posting the first episode of my SciFi/Space Opera novel. It has yet to go through a 2nd draft and get before beta readers, but it's getting closer. In the mean time, thank you so much for stopping by, and you can look forward to a new short story podcast every month. Until next time, this is Dan signing off.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Short Stories of DanDanTheArtMan 05 - The Last Butterscotch

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Henry Jr. and his family are excited about their newborn kittens, but after Mama had made sure they were doing well - Henry Jr. goes to the barn to see them, but after counting them finds that thereâs an extra one. He tells his mama, and they run back to discover there is indeed another cat she had not seen come out of the mother cat. As the weeks go on they notice this last kitten is very different from the others. Find out why by listening in to this episode!

Website: http://writingsofdan.blogspot.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/DanDanTheArtMan

Promos:

John Mierau
http://johnmierau.com/

P.C. Harring
http://www.cybrosisnovel.com/

Sound Effects used from: http://www.freesound.org/

Music used from: http://archive.org/

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Short Stories of DanDanTheArtMan 04 -
Little Willie's Revenge

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Good old Thomas, or @Trreed on Twitter, challenged me to come up with a short story based on a Little Willie poem he used in one of his bitstrips. This short story is based on this poem. Little Willie's mother passed away and now his dad has remarried. Now Willie has a sister a bit older than him. He hates her. Find out why and what he does about it by listening to this story.

Bitstrip by Thomas Reed or @Trreed:
http://bitstrips.com/user/1222/read.php?comic_id=679412&sc=1
http://thomasjreed.blogspot.com/

Promos:
Pirate Jack by Alessandro Cima
http://www.podiobooks.com/title/pirate-jack

Dead Mech by Jake Bible
http://feeds.feedburner.com/DeadMech
http://jakebible.com/

Attributions:

Jelly Roll Morton - Creepy Feeling
http://www.archive.org/details/JellyRollMorton-CreepyFeeling

Images used to create story graphic:
http://www.veggiegardeningtips.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/green-tomato-blight-soup.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/78/Paris_Green.JPG

Friday, July 23, 2010

An Update and a Song

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A brief update from Dan's driod R2D3PO and the full version of a song by Dan's old band Dying To Live.

Trreed's Bitstrip webcomic:
http://www.bitstrips.com/series/127948/read.php?comic_id=679412&subsection=0

Dying To Live

Me With My Rock N' Roll Hair

Lyrics to "Redemption" by Dying To Live written by Dan Absalonson:

Who am I that you should care for me
But you do. You say you love me as you love your son
and I except that love
There's no way I could live up to deserving what you've given me
but your blood was spilt so that I
may be seen as holy in the Father's eyes

Undeserving death
you laid your life down
to save mine and so I die
to sin but I'm alive in you

Promo:

The Adventures of Indiana Jim
http://podcast.indianajim.net/

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

I'm a Contest Winner!

Over at View From Valhalla, @odin1eye as he goes by on Twitter, reviews and interviews podiobooks authors. So right away, you know I'm a huge fan - anyone who promotes podiobooks is the man in my book. This is definitely true of Odin1eye, don't take my word for it, pop on over to his site and see the large number of great reviews he's posted. Also, for those authors looking to put your fiction into audio form, he has lots of great interviews asking Podiobook authors how they do it. He even has some of his own fiction over there.

New to podiobooks, and don't know where to start? I have a blog post recommending some of my favorites, but go over to his site for a ton of more extensive reviews to see what many of the books are all about. Also, leave comments on what you thought of his reviews. That's what I did, and it instantly entered me into a contest to win a free signed book he has reviewed of my choice! And guess what, I won! I chose to have Nina Kimberly the Merciless by Christiana Ellis sent to my doorstep, and she even threw in a Casey's Cadets pin that looks like the image to the right of this text! Click on the book title link and go listen to the entire novel yourself for free! It has a dragon it in, and the protagonist is a female, so not your average fantasy novel. If you're more a fan of Sci-Fi, then check out another book related to the image above by her called Space Casey, a really fun podiobook. Again, listen to the whole book for free! That's why I love Podiobooks.com. Thanks again to Odin and Christiana for the signed free copy of the book!

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Flying Island Press | Flagship

This 4th of July, celebrate our country's independence, and short story speculative fiction. Some friends of mine are starting a brand new short stories E-Zine. I had the awesome opportunity to create the cover art for their first issue, as well as the logo for the Science Fiction and Fantasy side called Flagship. The most exciting thing to me is that they're releasing the stories in every format you can think of, even audio! That's just cool. Here is a press release about their upcoming debut issue:


Flying Island Press
Press Contact - Scott Roche
(336) 462-9676

Enjoy Your Sci-fi and Fantasy How and Where You Want
Beginning July 4th, science fiction and fantasy fans will be given a new place where they can discover authors and stories they’ll be able to enjoy wherever they go. Flagship, the new e-zine by publisher Flying Island Press, will soon be releasing short stories every other month in formats for the Kindle, the iPad and iPhone, and other electronic readers.

Flying Island Press also recognizes the increasing popularity of podcasts and other forms of audio fiction. So, in addition to the e-zine, an audio version will be available to listen to on any MP3 player. Stories they release will be available both in text and in audio, allowing the consumer to choose their preferred version.

Zach Ricks, managing editor for Flagship, had this to say. “I wanted to hearken back to what some have called the Golden Age of Science Fiction.” It’s his hope that “FlagShip will be a place for optimistic, entertaining fiction.”

Each issue will cost $1.99 for the text version or the audio version or get both for just $2.99.

Issues will be available starting July 4th, 2010 at
http://flyingislandpress.com/flagship

Friday, July 2, 2010

I Started a New Blog & Podcast - Fostering With Love

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My wife and I are very soon becoming foster parents. This is no small matter. I've decided to start a new blog and podcast about the experience. I'm hoping it can be a tool for those looking to become foster parents, or anyone else who wants a glimpse of what it is like to have foster children in your home. We are very excited, and soon a little baby will be coming into our home. The blog can be found at: http://fosteringwithlove.blogspot.com/ Wish us luck and send us your prayers. :)

Bitstripped Again! This One Leads To My Next Short Story


Good old Thomas, or @Trreed on Twitter, challenged me to come up with a short story based on a Little Willie poem he used in one of his bitstrips. So my next short story will be based on this poem, I'm calling it "Little Willie's Revenge." It will drop into my feed and right here on the blog Friday July 30th. If you haven't noticed, I've been releasing my Short Stories of DanDanTheArtMan episodes on the last Friday of every month. Until then, have a great 4th of July weekend!

Friday, June 25, 2010

Short Stories of DanDanTheArtMan 03 - Evil Takes Flight


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Jeff Klots has a problem. Every time he comes home from school, he gets dive bombed by an evil crow on the way into his parent's house. He decides to do something about it. All he needs, is a weapon that will do the job.

Promos played at the end are for these fine authors:

Justing Macumber | Dead Robots Society
http://www.justinmacumber.com/
http://deadrobotssociety.com/

Paulette Jaxton | The Empress Sword
http://paulettejaxton.com/
http://empresssword.com/

Matthew Wayne Selznick | Brave Men Run
http://www.mattselznick.com/
http://www.podiobooks.com/title/brave-men-run

Also, I mentioned Michell Plested | Get Published & Galaxy Billies
http://www.michellplested.com/
http://www.michellplested.com/category/getpublished/
http://www.michellplested.com/category/galaxybillies/

And, Scott Sigler | New York Times Best Selling Author & Podcaster
http://www.scottsigler.com/

Attributions:

Music Used: Dying To Live (My Old Band)

Sound Effects provided by The Free Sound Project here:
http://www.freesound.org/

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

How Podcasting Improves my Writing

I've heard from many writers that one of the best ways to improve your writing is to read your work out loud. When you read your own work, your eye reads over things that are incorrect because you see what you think is there, not what is actually there. Reading it out loud forces you to perceive the words through a different sense, and by hearing the work you’re bypassing your brain’s ability to see what it wants to see. You'll catch things you wouldn't by simply reading what's on the page. In listening back to my short stories I've noticed that I make 2 huge mistakes often:

1. Show Don't Tell
2. Using adverbs (ex: quickly)

Also I've noticed I like to use the phrase "made a rush for..." Now that I've seen this, I can endeavor to edit all future writing, with these problems in mind.

I have three main reasons for starting this podcast.

1. To improve my writing.
2. Self imposed deadlines, to increase output.
3. To put content out there before releasing a full novel in podcast form for practice and exposure.

I'll be the first to tell you I have a long way to go as a writer, but I will get there. I'm going to try my hand at Scott Sigler's 3-5 year plan. Scott is the most successful podcast fiction author out there, a New York Times bestseller. He got there because he's a good writer, but also because he's put in a lot of hard work podcasting his fiction for free consistently. He was on his fifth podcast novel when he got a deal with Crown. I'd also like to point out that my favorite Podiobooks author Nathan Lowell recently received a publishing deal. Nathan's not a guy who promotes much, but he is extremely prolific, and has put out 7 books in 3 years, since he started podcasting Quarter Share back in 2007. That is a lot of content for his fans! I think there's something to this consistently thing, but back to Sigler. He suggests that instead of spending time trying to get published the traditional route, use that time to release your novels as free podcast audio books, building up a fan base that you can then use to leverage a deal with a publisher down the road. He says to expect it to take 3 to 5 years before you start to see things happening. It’s not like this is a sure bet towards publication, but he has 3 things that should help you; getting sick of my numbered lists yet?

1. Quality Content
2. Consistency
3. Promotion

So for me this means:

1. Continuing to better my writing skills so that I'm putting out quality content, and having self imposed deadlines of releasing one short story a month so I'll be writing a lot and hopefully improving a lot.

2. Finishing at least 2 books so I can start writing a third while releasing the first two, and finishing the entire audio production of the first book before even releasing the first episode to ensure a CONSISTENT weekly release of each episode.

3. Doing what I can to let people know about my stories via social media, creating promos for other podcasters to play, and anything else I can do to promote my work.

I obtained these great Scott Sigler nuggets of wisdom from listening to his interviews on podcasts, primarily The Adventures of Indiana Jim - Adventures 17 & 18, and follow those up with Adventure 37 where Jim talks about all of this stuff and how it relates to his work. @indianajim, who plans to follow Sigler’s advice, also has a similar blog post to the one you just read here.

Thanks for joining me in this quest for publication. It may be a long road, but it should prove to be a lot of fun. Watch for my next podcast short story “Evil Takes Flight” to drop this Friday.

Friday, June 11, 2010

I've Been Bitstripped!


Pretty cool, eh? Thomas or @trreed as he's known on Twitter is the guy who made the Bitstrip you see above. He's a huge fan of podiobooks, his Twitter bio stating: "Podiobook and Bitstrip addict, oh yeah, and Math Teacher." Anyone who is a huge fan of podiobooks, rocks in my book; but that's not the only reason he's awesome. He's one of those cool dudes I would call a super fan. Most people, if you're lucky, will leave a tiny bit of feedback for podcast authors. Some go a little farther and leave feedback by calling into the podcast author's voice line, or sending in an mp3 file. What does this guy do? He creates Bitstrips, web comics, celebrating podcast authors and their work. How cool is that? Pretty sweet promotion he's doing for podcast novels he's enjoyed. His bitstrips are funny too, you should go check them out right now.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

A Free Ringtone For Your Blackberry

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Hey guys, my service droid R2D3PO is always making fun of those little phones called droids, saying that they wish they were as cool as him. He thinks the commercials are ridiculous. I never tell him I think they look pretty cool. However I did tell him how weird it is to hear droid phones ringing all the time at work, because the ringtone is a robotronic voice saying "DROID!" I told him it reminds me of him, he didn't take kindly to that. So I thought it would be funny to set the ringtone on my Blackberry to say "BLACKBERRY!" in a robotic voice just like the droid phones, as a spoof on Droid phones for those who have a Blackberry, and for R2D3PO. I asked him to make the ringtone for me, and this is what he spit out. Feel free to download it and add it as your Blackberry's ringtone, should be a good laugh around the office when people hear your phone go off.

Saturday, June 5, 2010

A Novel Released Serially On A Blog

Michael Lee, or @GoldenAgeOfGeek, as he's known on Twitter.com, wrote an awesome YA Fantasy novel called The Hidden Kitchen. The cool thing is, you can read it for free in its entirety right now online. The novel can be found here: http://joshuasagehiddenkitchen.wordpress.com/

It was really fun reading it as he was releasing it, one chapter at a time online. I've experienced novels that way in the audio form, as you may well know, I'm a huge fan of podiobooks, or podcast novels. There's just something fun, exciting, and immediate about consuming something as it's being released. You could liken it to your favorite television show. You see an awesome episode, and you want more, but you have to wait until next week to see what happens next. When that fresh episode, or chapter, is out you race to consume it. It may be frustrating to not be able to just read to the end for many, but it's also really fun not knowing what's coming next and feeling like you're experiencing it at the same time as many others. I think you feel more connected with the other fans, as well as the author because of the way it's being released.

I think when I release my first novel it will be via podcast, but I'll also have an eBook version available for a few bucks. Those who can't wait to see what happens next, can buy the book for less than a frappuccino. What are your thoughts on that? Thanks for stopping by.
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

UPDATE

Also, I forgot to mention, Michael in all his awesomeness, put up a small bio about me on his website: http://tweepsofinterest.blogspot.com/

Friday, May 28, 2010

Stories of Dan Episode 02 - My Last Day

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It's Police Captain Matt Selznick's last day on the job, and he's going to make sure he ends his career on a high note. Rather than staying at his desk, he goes out in the field impersonating a criminal transporter to pick up a bad guy and bring him in for questioning. Sounds simple right? If only it had been.

Promos played at the end are for these fine authors:
J.R. Murdock
Nathan Lowell
Michell Plested
David J. Williams

Attributions:

Music Used was "Fresh Deep Drum and Bass Vol. 2" by DJ Krauss found here: http://www.archive.org/details/FreshDeepDrumandBassVol.2

Sound Effects provided by The Free Sound Project here: http://www.freesound.org/

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

A New Promo for my Short Stories Podcast

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I cut a new promo for my short stories podcast, have a listen. Please feel free to play it on your podcast, and let me know so I can promote you as well.

Monday, May 17, 2010

My New Twitter Hashtag #FeedbackFriday

I'm trying to start a new #hashtag on Twitter, to get more people to leave podcasters feedback on their work. It looks like @rosewillscharms beat me to the punch in starting this hashtag, (and strangely used it for the first time the same day I came up with it) but I'm going to try and make it popular and help it be used for a specific purpose in the podisphere community. It's a lot like the hashtag #FollowFriday, and can easily go in conjunction with it. I call it #FeedbackFriday. All you do, is go and find the webpage for a podcast episode you enjoyed, and leave the podcaster a comment. Then tweet something like this
I left my feedback for @PatrickEMcLean here: http://bit.ly/aVOgNA Now you go and do the same. #FeedbackFriday
Don't forget to put the #FeedbackFriday hash tag in your tweet, and you're set. I hope you all start to leave feedback for all the comment and feedback craving creators out there, I know I'd love some :)

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

P.G. Holyfield's Amazon Rush

I really hope you enjoyed my first podcast episode, it was a blast to write and produce. I'm already editing the audio for the next one, and you'll see it drop in the feed later this month. But right now, I'd like to point your attention once again to P.G. Holyfield. His debut novel Murder At Avedon Hill is hitting Amazon.com on Saturday, May 15th, at noon Eastern time. I would love for everyone that wants to own the print version of the book to head on over to Amazon and pick up a copy. He's hoping you'll all buy it on that day at noon in an attempt to push it up the charts by having as many people purchase it as possible, at the same time, on Amazon.com. By doing so, we can push the book up the charts and increase its exposure in the short term.
Read more about it in his blog post, "The Amazon Rush Event"

So there's a book recommendation, one which you can preview in its entirety as an audiobook on his site, and podiobooks.com

Until then, keep an eye out right here, and on twitter for my next podcast short story, "His Last Day."

Friday, April 30, 2010

Stories of Dan Episode 01 - Big Axe, Small Hands

Download the mp3.
Download the promo.
(Right-Click, Save Target As...)


Join Halvard the Halfling as he journeys to find the way of the warrior, running into trouble along the way, and meeting races he's only heard tell of in the story told around the community fire in his small village. I would love any comments you have! Thanks for listening.

Promos played at the end are for these fine podcast authors:


Attributions:


Sound Effects used:
http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=15294
http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=34174
http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=76456
http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=50881
http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=76256
http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=81904
http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=82667
http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=34872
http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=23387
http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=33206
http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=33850
http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=65733
http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=65734
http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=54
http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=84741
http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=27359
http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=33941
http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=27858
http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=51460