Believe it or not, this one might actually be funny.

The Squirrel Bait Podcast, Episode 5

I’m not promising anything though…

At least you don’t have to hear me talk very much.

Posted on Oct 28.06 to Episodes | No Comments »  

(Far too long) [a]fter I posted my concept of Casting The Roles For 7th Son, people are finally starting to really think about it.  I can’t think of a reason that someone with deep pockets wouldn’t want to take this project to the large or small screen.  I’m sure it has a lot to do with the hype around JC’s promo and the wrap-up at the end of Chapter 7.  I was excited to hear that a big name actor would be involved by reading TSSF (that means The Story So Far, for all of you non-clones).  We’ll just have to wait and see who it is, because JC is being a bigger tease than the head cheerleader on Prom night.  It is not possible for me to be more excited (for the next chapter, not taking JC to Prom…jeez!).

In fact, JC even specifically sited my blog about this specific concept back in June, which was AWESOME!

Specifically, The House Of The Harping Monkey has a thread discussing this exact same topic.  Since my post back in May, I’d like to think that it planted the seed of thought.  First JC Hutchins psy-jacked me, then I psy-jacked Chris Miller, and all of our minds continued considering this all-important issue. I’m just glad that I’m not the only one thinking about this.  It doesn’t matter who you picture in your head when you are listening to the story.  There are no wrong answers, but it’s a really interesting consideration.  Not surprizingly, the same concern I addressed in my post regarding the difficulty of having one actor play all the clones was reiterated in the thread at Harping Monkey.

If only a Hollywood would wake up and smell the Devlin…

Posted on Oct 27.06 to Technology | No Comments »  

“Pact Of The Fathers” by Ramsey Campbell

“IV” by Chuck Klosterman

Posted on Oct 26.06 to Life | No Comments »  

The Podcast Pickle is also holding a writing competition where you submit a short story or skit no longer than 5 minutes in length. I submitted a horror story that was just barely within the PG-13 guidelines. I was 1 second shy of the maximum length as well. I’m just pushing the proverbial envelope all over place. Check out the mp3 when you get a chance, and let me know what you think.

Here’s the scoop: It was released from me to The Podcast Pickle under the Att-NonC-NoD 2.5 Creative Commons License. Oh yea, and I used some amazing tunes in the public domain from Peter John Ross.

Posted on Oct 23.06 to Projects | 1 Comment »  

I stumbled across an interesting little podcast/website that holds a competition where you write a 100 word story about a given topic. Since I’m always looking for comething creative to do, I thought I’d give it a shot.  To enter, you submit your entry via email in text as well as audio mp3. Sounds like fun. The topic this week is A Halloween Story. Below is my submission, along with an mp3.

He asked his sister what the topic was this week. Receiving the answer, he sat down and began writing. He was a flurry of pencil on paper. Images of picnics, barbecues, and baseball games filled his head. A creative little story was produced, about a boy who had proudly drilled a hole in his hot dog. Given to his sister to review, she laughed until tears streamed down her face. He walked out of the room with his head down in shame when he realized his mistake. “Oh,” he told his sister. “I thought you said ‘A Hollow Weenie Story.’”

Posted on Oct 23.06 to Projects | 1 Comment »  

Someone Google Frank Zappa and tell me if he is still alive.

The Squirrel Bait Podcast, Episode 4

Those Fraggles take a lot of shit from the Gorgs…

…but they don’t take American Express.

Posted on Oct 20.06 to Episodes | 2 Comments »  

This episode is disgusting. Don’t listen to it.

The Squirrel Bait Podcast, Episode 3

I think I said 1 Billion, 650 Thousand…it should be 1 Billion, 650 Million…

I’d fix it, but no one is listening anyway.

Seriously, I didn’t mean for the Episode to be this gross.

Sorry.  The truth ain’t pretty.

Posted on Oct 14.06 to Episodes | 1 Comment »  

7th Son - Book 2: Deceit!

Ok folks, the ride has begun again! Step right up, hand the nice Carnie your ticket and keep your hands in feet inside the ride at all times. Get ready for some loopty-loops and corkscrews, and you’ll likely loose your lunch.

We’re up to Episode 4 already, where the clones dive into some really heavy shit. I have a few thoughts that I haven’t organized yet (and likely never will). So here they are in all their unedited glory.

1) The Voice Acting.

Personally, I think that the voice acting is better. J. C. got a voicemail on the Clone Line last Episode stating that he should work on delivering the voices more consistently. I think the problem (if there is one) is not that the voice acting is bad, just that there have been so damn many characters talking throughout these first few episodes of Book 2: Deceit.

The episodes have had a lot of dialogue lately? True.

But for good reason. We’ve been promised that it’s all leading somewhere worthwhile!

If you can keep the characters straight, you’ll notice that they are quite consistent. Specifically, you can hear the softer consonants and slightly lispy (?) voice of Father Thomas more clearly and consistently. In fact, the slightly different cadence in the vocal delivery makes me think that J. C. Hutchins may have changed his recording method.

I’ve often wondered if he records the dialogue for each voice all at once to “stay in character”. I think that would be a good idea if you are decent at maintaining the production quality when splicing together the “narrator” with the “characters”. I’ll have to remember to ask some podcasters if this is a common practice.

Maybe it’s because there has been more dialogue lately (or because I am, as usual, overanalyzing every f’ing thing) but I think this might be the case. You can notice it frequently when the voice is transitioning from character to narrator just before J. C. says “he said” or something similar.

As a sidebar, I’d like to add this…I occasionally listen to this podcast with a friend of mine from work who fancies himself somewhat of an amateur writer. While discussing this story and writing in general, he pointed out that “Man, this guy sure says ‘he said’ a lot…” I’d like to say I’m thankful that J. C. doesn’t feel the need to pick a million different verb phrases other than “he said” when closing each volley of a conversation. An author brave enough to use “he said” effectively keeps the conversation going (very important for a story with so much dialogue!) without complicating the delivery with distracting alternatives. Sure, use them if there is a literary necessity, but it’s the dialogue that’s moving the plot forward right now. I think it proves the authors confidence in the STORY instead of proving he has a thesaurus. In addition, the guy who said that kinda smells like mothballs anyway, so what can you expect?

2) The Glyph

I think I heard somewhere that J. C. is a graphic designer. I wonder if he designed the glyph used in the latest Episode. I’ve been thinking about that image all day and while I was in my…uh, “secondary office” (a.k.a., sitting on the crapper) I began thinking more of some of the back story.

Remember when the clones were first considering the Alpha -> Omega idea? First you see A = A with a U in the middle if you flip it over. A’s and U’s all over the place…AU? AU ROOKMAN POSSIBLY? I’m convinced that dirty old bastard will be playing a bigger part, but do you think it’s possible that sly ol’ J. C. was dropping that hint subliminally to get us thinking about that the crotchety old oil tycoon? Time will tell.

3) The Rookie

Sigler’s new podcast has started too, and I can’t wait for Sunday to get here. It all started with Ancestor. Since that book came out, I always listened to it while mowing the lawn and doing yard work on Sundays. I haven’t had a chance to listen to this yet, but I’m excited for the weekend (excited for yard work even?!?) so I can check out this podcast too.

Posted on Oct 11.06 to Technology | No Comments »  

Interrobang bang bang…

The Squirrel Bait Podcast, Episode 2

Onion rings, pink Nissan’s, hockey, and oh, yea…Ringo Starr and Warner Chappell are douchebags.

Hey, does this Interrobang make my episode look fat ‽

Posted on Oct 07.06 to Episodes | No Comments »