Are you a fan of podcasts?  If you are the prey of lengthy commutes or are caught on the crowded mass transit lines, you might already enjoy dissociating from your surroundings through podcast episodes.

My podcast listening infatuation began in December 2009, when I received my hot pink 8GB iPod from my hubby for the holidays.  iTunes became my best friend, as I scoured the feeds for interesting podcasts.  At that point in time, I was most interested in fitness and bodybuilding, so I maxed out my iPod’s storage capacity with bodybuilding wrap-ups, fitness exercise demonstrations, and the latest gym rat gossip.

M.E. with her Beloved iPod

Depending upon my latest interests or career focus, I subscribe and unsubscribe from feeds that have been recommended via my trusted podcast buds.  Since I am currently focused upon honing my craft and exploring the writing biz, I have been inundating myself (and my poor hubby) with all the writing podcasts I can find.  Even if you do not have an iPod or similar gadget, you can still listen to these casts through iTunes or the links listed below.

This week, I’ll share my present collective Top Five Faves:

The Secrets (Archive) – by Michael Stackpole – “Tips about the Craft of Writing”

I Should be Writing – by Mur Lafferty – “The podcast for wannabe fiction writers”

Adventures in SciFi Publishing – “The podcast for science fiction and fantasty writers (and readers).”

The Thinking Atheist – “A former Christian of 30 years (and former religious broadcaster) finally started “thinking” for himself, ultimately rejecting the world view and lifestyle he’d once assumed as truth.”

Super Human Radio – by Carl Lenore – “Radio show dedicated to fitness, anti-aging, human performance, fitness and nutrition.”

Periodically, I will be reviewing some of favorite podcasts in my Saturday Reviews installments.  If you have any podcasts that you would like me to listen to and review, please leave a comment below.

And I was interviewed by Mur Lafferty for the Angry Robot podcast – where I ramble on about Camera Obscura and being a secret agent… erm.

New story should be up at Chizine soon. I’ll post as soon as it goes up!

Image via http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:EscapePod.jpg

Once again, I have been released. This time it was to narrate a Vylar Kaftan story called Disarm. It’s a story about life after alien invasion. It’s post-war, so there’s some PTSD involved as well as the not-often contemplated mundanities of rebuilding civilization to accommodate the new order. It’s a little sad, a little hopeful, and a little bit of a commentary on human nature. I described it earlier in the week as “Think District 9, but with the humans being cared for by the aliens after they make a successful takeover.”

It may not be my very best narration work, but I think it’s solid and worth a listen.

• Get it here: http://escapepod.org/2011/06/02/ep295-disarm/
• Run time: 31:41
• Host: Mur Lafferty

"I for one welcome our new alien overlords." Image borrowed from http://mattymatterson.blogspot.com/

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Here it is. Afterwards I tell some more about the process.

The three boys stared at the top of a small hill. “Let’s play King of the Hill here,” said Jim. “Are you sure it’s safe,” stammered Hank. “We’ll do fine. Nothing to fear,” said Peter trying to calm Hank down. “You sissy,” Jim said, “Let’s just see who reaches the top first!” Peter suggested they use the ball he took with him. “How are we going to use your ball,” Hank asked. “Simple,” answered Peter, “if you have the ball you stay put and pass the ball to someone else.” “Whatever,” said Jim impatiently, “Let’s play ball!” “But how do we start,” asked Hank. “Good question,” said Peter, “I suppose we throw it in the air and let fate decide.”

And so they did. Jim leaped high up in the air and snatched the ball. “Not fair,” cried Hank. “Don’t be such a crybaby. Start walking,” Jim shouted. Hank ran straight to the top, but Peter was smarter and stayed at the bottom. And indeed, Jim passed the ball to him. While Hank came running down in disappointment, he almost dropped the ball after it was thrown in his direction.

“Clever, clever,” said Jim, “you’re trying to confuse us.” Peter just ignored him. While Hank wasn’t sure what to do next, he heard the others shout in excitement: “Give it to me, give it to me!” Since Peter had been so nice to him, Hank threw the ball to Peter, who immediately passed it to Jim. “Finally,” Jim shouted in relief, “Don’t think I’ll give to you, silly doofus!” Jim launched the ball behind him, where Peter received it with a big smile.

He stood on top of the hill.

I based this story largely on conversations I can’t help but overhearing between playing children near the flat where I live. Kids are loud when they play together.

I decided to do the setup through conversation, since I had just listened to an episode of the “Writing Excuses” podcast, Writing Excuses 5.38: Dialog with John Scalzi and to Mur Lafferty’s excellent podcast “I Should Be Writing,” episode 202 – Being Smart/Howard Andrew Jones Interview. John Scalzi offered some solid insight on how to approach dialogue and Andrew offered some good writing tips, which he had learned through bitter experience. One of those tips was that before you write a scene, decide what each character is supposed to do (to accomplish) before you start writing. This way you know where to go, even if you get bogged down by storytelling tangents. And boy, if you’re creative, you go on quite some tangents.

Enough about that. I had some problems too.

The problem to tackle first was how to keep it entertaining. I decided to approach it as a sporting match, a game, which makes sense, since king of the hill is a game to begin with. There had to be cunning, but also logic and clarity, and it shouldn’t be too involved, because I wanted to use only a short time to do the writing.

I decided to use psychology as the strategy for the game. Jim wants to win by force and doesn’t think highly of Hank. Peter takes advantage of that and the situation, to get on Jim’s nerves. Effectively, Peter makes use of mistakes made by the other two.

The second problem to deal with was a language barrier. I imagine myself speaking English pretty well, but in reality I have little incentive to improve my English, not surrounded by English speakers and having to use English daily. Sometimes I only know a word in my native language (Dutch). Google Translate for iPhone and iPod Touch to the rescue. The iPhone app (2x on the iPad) even offers alternatives to the translation given. It also has a speech interface, which doesn’t always work.

It meant I had to work around my limitations by keeping the language more simple than a native speaker or even English-as-a-second-language (ESL) speaker probably would do. The reason I do my writing in English is because it’s the language of the Internet. I guess I should use what little vocabulary I have to the best of my ability. I’m sure I’ll get better at it over the years.

The text was written and edited in iA Writer on the iPad, which uses Dropbox syncing to store text documents. Since my iMac has Dropbox as well, I could easily drop the text into this blog post.

Thanks for reading and until next time. If you have any tips, tricks or other advice, feel free to add it as a comment. You can also tell me how awesome you think I am. Nothing wrong with stroking my ego and give it a boost. Hahaha!

2006-06-09 - Episode #4

I finished creating the sound file for episode 4 of my podcast today. I will enhance it tomorrow, and next Friday I’ll be publishing it. Most of it is dedicated to this new piece I wrote, called The Hunger. This is very different from my recent work and some of it is more classical in nature.

2006-06-19 - That’s it…

…I’ve had it with reality. I’m going to surround myself with surreallity from now on

2006-07-17 - Just Checking My Podcast

I’m just checking my podcast after it downloaded to my iTunes.

I had a busy day at work and I’m probably going to sleep early today. I haven’t slept very well the last couple of days. We have guests from Naharia since Thursday, and both me and my wife feel worn out.

Hopefully that war situation thingy would resolve itself sooner then later…

I would like to thank everyone who e-mailed or PMed me. I’m far from the center of this war thing, but it’s always nice to know that you care

2006-07-18 - A Waste Of A Day

I was going to start working on a new podcast episode today, but I’m so exhausted I just didn’t have the energy. Between my day job and not getting enough sleep because of our guests from Naharia, I don’t have much energy for anything. I’ll probably do something during the weekend. I want to finish the new episode early this time so that I could work on the full version of a composition I introduced on episode 4 of The 16th, called The Hunger. I’m going to expend it to a full length CD.

2006-07-21 - GD20 and Other Stories…

I started working on my August 16th podcast today. One of the things I wanted to do is to include an old recording I did back in 1992 of my wife singing. I found the recording, digitized it into my computer and created a completely new piece of music around it. When I was looking for this recording, I came across some old cassettes I recorded around that time and decided to digitize one for my podcast. I chose a 1991 recording I made called GD20. I recorded this using a 4 track tape recorder and some of the tracks where recorded backwards. After digitizing it, I played it backwards just to see what it would sound like and I uncovered a complete Jazz tinted solo I did. This was all recorded live. Back then I didn’t use computers and my music was much more avant-garde then what I do today. It was interesting listening to the old tapes and I think I’m going to incorporate more of my old music into my podcasts.

2006-07-21 - Some text from the new podcast I’m working on…

Words – what are they but a reflection of reality?

Words – they melt into meaning, and out of meaning. They are a reflection of reality, but not reality itself. They are our own vision of reality since reality is not reflected in words, but words are reflected in reality.

Words are our way of representing realty. They are what we see as reality but not reality itself.

2006-07-24 - A new podcast idea

I have been thinking of starting a new podcast alone the lines of my pilot for the 102fm broadcasting school. I’ll play some music I like, talk some nonsense in a funny voice and be an annoying Guy altogether

This is going to be in Hebrew and it’s going to be called “Dr. Wound”.

I purchased “Tricks of the Podcasting Masters” by Rob Walch and Mur Lafferty recently. I believe this book would be of tremendous help for me in starting my new podcaster career

2006-07-25 - Second Life

I decided to sign up for a Second Life account

I’m still learning my way around there. I told myself I’d spent an hour a day there, and I already run a half hour overtime on my first day there. This “place” is so much fun. I’m expecting hours of fun exploration in there. If anyone is interested in befriending me, I’m called Bluesmoke Hextall over there

2006-07-26 - Just Came Back From Second Life

I’ve spent some time in Second Life, trying to learn how to get around. Here is how my SL charecter look like:

Bluesmoke Hextall, first screen capture from Second Life (click to enlarge)

My name there is Bluesmoke Hextall

That’s it for this time. I’ll be posting more excerpts from my old blog next week.

Her advice to those who would like to emulate that success?  Unless you’ve already garnered your listening audience, don’t count on being able to do the same.  It’s the old story of working for years to become “an overnight success”.  I’ve heard a few interviews wherein the writer is asked how it feels to be an overnight success and the obvious joke follows.

The bottom line here is that there is no magic bullet, no guaranteed get rich quick scheme, that will gain you fame and fortune with your writing.  You have to have talent.  You have to have tenacity.  And it helps to have a little luck.  Mur has the first two in spades, and seems to do a pretty good job of making her own luck.

Now, Mur’s project by no means makes her a giant financial success, and I don’t mean to imply that she has stated otherwise.  I have found her to be very down to earth and pragmatic in her interviews, and a delight to listen to as a story-teller and vocal talent.  She sounds like someone with whom I would like to sit down and share a drink, maybe swap a few anecdotes, and in all honesty, hope to glean some valuable “how-to” advice from.  And it doesn’t hurt that she and I seem to share a love for the martial arts, either. 

But my big take on all the hoopla around her Kickstarter project is this - with the publication industry changing so quickly and radically, today’s writer can no longer be ONLY a writer.  Today’s writer must be an entrepreneur as well, willing to take the time necessary to put together a simple business plan, and then take some chances to put it into place.  The technology is changing, the industry is changing, and it looks like there are more opportunities for the enterprising writer / businessman (or woman) to get their foot in the door than ever before.

Here’s hoping I can get my act together in time to take advantage.

I think I giggled out loud with joy. It was a fanboy moment.

My friend Nick recommended I Should be Writing to me a few years ago. The name struck me; I’d said the phrase a thousand times. I gave a listen, and never turned back.

Mur is definitely a gifted writer. Her story concepts, in particular, are awesome. Playing for Keeps follows a group of friends with truly mediocre superpowers. Marco and the Red Granny features the most creative use of synesthesia I’ve read since Alfred Bester’s The Stars My Destination. But all this I learned later.

What kept me listening to her podcast is the fact that Mur is real. She talks – frankly, but professionally – about the frustrations of dealing with the publishing industry. She holds herself accountable to her listeners, admitting when she doesn’t follow her own advice. She admits when she’s a noob. Somehow, she manages to write, take care of her family, and then do several podcasts and blogs in which she discusses how to juggle writing, family, and other projects.

And she often repeats that phrase I need to hear again and again: you’re allowed to suck. She reminds me that I don’t need to nail it the first time every time. She reminds me that they key isn’t to only write good stuff: it’s to write, and keep writing.

Preachers could learn from her humility and willingness to get personal. Perfectionists like myself could learn some grace. And we could all learn perseverance from her.

I appreciate what you do, Mur. Thanks for the encouragement and inspiration.

Evo Terra, progenitor of Podiobooks.com. Image via Wikipedia

For all the enjoyment I’ve received from Podiobooks.com over the recent years, I would be doing it a great disservice if I didn’t mention what a great resource I think it is for entertainment and encourage you to try it out.

Antiquated media juggernauts are collapsing all around us, trying to find their way in the electronic age. In their wake, new media offerings are springing up and poising themselves to take over. I’ve mentioned before how I think Scrub Club Records and others like them  is making huge moves to do this on the music side. On the literary side Podiobooks.com seems to be taking lessons from the publishing dinosaurs breathing their last and doing everything right to remain standing while the pubs fossilize into the past. The old school players were busy fighting among themselves and wasting time not coming up with efficient print-on-demand systems; not agreeing on a common format for the eBook market (this disagreement still rages on after more than a decade — come on idiots, books are all made on paper, it’s not that hard to just agree that all eBooks should be PDFs and get on with your lives!); and not figuring out that electronic publications should be priced less than half of their print counterparts.

While this has been going on, Evo Terra and the new media moguls have been going a different route. They started with manuscripts that didn’t gain the attention of the big publishing houses (not astonishing since big pubs only put out about 35 books per year and 80%+ of those are repeat authors). They weren’t bad, and they certainly had audiences waiting for them, they just lacked big-name backing and someone with foresight. So these geniuses said, “I want to get my book out there, I don’t care if it sells, but I’m a storyteller with something to say. So I’m going to record myself reading my book in episodes and release it online for free and see if I can generate some attention with it.” And you know what? They did.

My personal exposure came one day when I was thinking about all of the free independent music out there and I started wondering if anybody was doing something similar with audio books. A quick Google search later and I was at the doorstep of Podiobooks.com. I was a little unsure how to find something good, but the risk was nil since everything was free. So I jumped into the sci-fi section and came across Phil Rossi’s Crescent. I was blown away. That something this good should be out there for free was staggering. Phil’s voice was entrancing, his story engaging, and I think I listened to the whole thing in the course of three or four days. From a recommendation on Crescent, I moved on to J.C. Hutchins‘ 7th Son trilogy and found myself again blown away. I think that led to Mur Lafferty‘s Playing for Keeps, Scott Sigler‘s Ancestor (and all of his other titles), P.C. Haring’s Cybrosis, Jake Bible’s Dead Mech and several more leading to where I am now — Nathan Lowell’s Trader Tales series which has me gripped to the point that I don’t know how to start my car if I don’t have my MP3 player with me so I can listen to the next chapter.

And they’re all free! Podiobooks.com provides a donation button for you to give what you can if you like what you’ve used. When I started, I was way too poor to donate, but I’m at a point now where I can afford some money here and there and I am going back through and leaving donations in the hopes that every little bit helps raise up the site and the authors.

I’m not saying there aren’t mainstream media sources out there worth enjoying. However it is SO refreshing to see that while the biggies fight amongst themselves for scraps and ignore the bigger issue, someone is out there doing good work for us common folk in a big way. Please — go to Podiobooks.com and try out some of the wares. Please donate where you can to help these authors get what they deserve. And most of all, PLEASE spread the word of this amazing resource. There’s still time to be an early-adopter so that you can be cool when your kids come to you in 10 years raving about the audiobook they got from Podiobooks.com. More than that, you will be better off and your friends will thank you for getting them in on this amazingly apt use of digital distribution.

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yesterday that prompted a “DOH!” moment, the likes of which I haven’t had in quite some time.  And believe me, I’ve had some real moments, let me tell you. 

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am a huge proponent of podcasting, especially for writers.  It provides a fantastic opportunity for people to get their name out to, and interact with a public that would otherwise be oblivious to the talent of some great writers.  Probably the best known example of this is Scott Sigler, who went from a talented no-name wannabe author to a New York Times bestselling author in a matter of a few years.  How’d he do it?  In a word – podcasting.  Scott put out a series of incredibly entertaining “podiobooks” for free and built up a following that was simply too large for the publishing houses to ignore.  Now, he’s finding the traditional publishing route to be too limiting, and has founded his own small press imprint, “Dark ∅verlord Media” aimed at producing books for established online personalities.  Talk about giving back to your roots.

So what does this have to do with the link that Mr. Husum sent me?  Well, it seems that Mur Lafferty, another well-known author and podcaster, has found another way to break into writing.  You see, Mur didn’t have the same level of success that Scott did.  While her free podiobook “Heaven” series is still an amazingly popular download, she was unable to convince a publishing house to fund putting them into print.  None of them seemed to think that she could convert her numbers from “free download listener” to “paying book purchaser”.

So in what I consider to be a phenomenal example of “screw you”, Mur decided to take her project to Amazon’s Kickstarter site.  Kickstarter is a direct patronage site where people can post their ideas and request funding for same in exchange for various levels of compensation.  Sort of like a poor man’s version of “Shark Tank“.  Mur decided that she would request funding so she could at least publish the series as an e-book and a limited POD run.  This was evidently not designed to be a huge project, just something so she could afford some cover art, and a starting fund for the formatting and publishing of the e-book.  She wanted $2000.

The month-long Kickstarter project launched on March 12 and ran until April 12.  I suppose she thought a month would be enough time to scrape together enough support to garner her $2k goal.  Her posted comments showed that she launched at 8:51AM on March 12.  At 9:55AM her top-tier reward slot was purchased at $999.  At 10:15, the $2k goal was reached.  By midnight of the first day, she had gotten $5000.

Are you sitting down?  When the project closed on April 12, Mur Lafferty (aka “Might Mur”) had received $19,370.00 in funding for her project!  $19,370.00!!

Now this is an extreme case of an overly successful project, and is the exception rather than the norm.  But holy crap!!  $19,370.00!  

So of course the gears are turning.  I now have a new bullet point in “The Plan“.  After I get a good start at podcasting my novel (Half Past Midnight), I think I may look at setting it up as a Kickstart project.  After all, if I manage to gain a following through the podcast, then maybe I can get some patronage for funding it for publication via someplace like Telemachus Press.  I know this – if I don’t ask, I definitely won’t get it.

Goodmorning lovely people. This morning, I was on Twitter and came across this fantastic tweet and blog post from former agent and author Nathan Bransford about getting your creative project funded as an independent, and wanted to share the info with you.

The company is called Kickstarter  and in a nut shell, it’s a website where creatives and supporters come together to try to fund a project and make it a reality. Creatives post information about their project, ask for a specific amount of money via pledge levels, and set a deadline for funding. If they meet their funding goal by the deadline, they get the money, if not, no money is exchanged. Very cool, right?

Couple things I noticed: 1) Projects range from books to music, movies, and art installations, and 2) Most people are asking for under $10,000 although I did see a project for $54,743 get funded.

Don’t be shy, but definitely be smart. Read Nathan’s post from independent author Mur Lafferty about how she successfully campaigned to get her book published: http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2011/03/how-to-use-kickstarter-to-fund-self.html

Just goes to show, once again, how there’s always more than one way to skin a cat:)

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/31661

Hear it free at Hub- http://www.hubfiction.com/2010/09/new-hub-podcast-serial-by-mur-lafferty/

It’s become a cliche by now- people always want to know where writers get their ideas, and writers never know what to say. They joke that they buy them at a store, or get them from a guy in Poughkeepsie. The people always seem very impressed that such a wonderful idea would come from such a creative mind. But really. We do know where ideas come from, but that’s like saying “where do you buy all of your clothing?” You buy some things from one store, wacky t shirts from cons, fun socks online, and more. All sorts of places.

Ideas do have a generation point, though, and I simply call it a “what if.” For me, it’s triggered by something slightly odd, and then I take it as far as I possibly can. I’m offering my latest novella, Marco and the Red Granny (available via audio at Hub magazine and via Kindle and Smashwords in ebook form), up as a subject for idea generation.

Fact- writers, while creative individuals, stimulate the imagination, not the five senses. More than one person can view a painting, or taste a pastry, or hear music, or watch dancing, but writing, and reading, are solitary. And although you can use eyes and/or ears to take in a book, the true beauty of the art takes place in your head, not on the page you’re looking at. No one wants to watch a writer create. The closest thing we get to pleasing audiences is live readings, and even then we rarely get to read the whole work. Sometimes this makes me bitter.

So when President Obama was having his big inauguration hurrahs, I heard a news report on a nobody fashion designer who was an overnight sensation because Michelle Obama chose his dress to wear to one of the balls. And I imagined being the name someone shouted out when someone cried out “who are you wearing?” But no one can wear a novel.

Or can they?

So that was my trigger, my “what if” moment. What if you could wear a novel? not wear it like making a dress of the paper from a book, but to experience the novel in a dress as if you could experience a painting screen printed onto fabric. Well, we couldn’t do it, but probably some alien people could. Then my mind concocted Marco, a down and out artist, who couldn’t get a break. And the break was a literal ticket to the moon, to get a patronage from these aliens who had created the new cultural artistic hub of humankind, Sally Ride Lunar Base, nicknamed “Mollywood.”

So yay. I had Marco, bitter and hungover and not sure why he got called on to get a patronage while he’s at the low point of his career, on a shuttle. I wanted his seat companion to be an irritating old woman, and I based her on a woman I once sat next to on a plane who took my “leave me alone” headphones to mean “Please touch this woman on the arm to get her attention so you can tell her the important news that a Macy’s is coming to Raleigh.” But I after they talk a while, I realize I want this woman to be more than she appeared, something that you don’t expect from a little old lady.

What if she were violent? No, better, famous for her violence. A reality show star. A gladiator? On the moon, the low gravity would allow for a little old lady to excel in hand to hand combat.

And the Red Granny was born.

Introduce some aliens who view art and reality shows – anything that creates passion within the human soul – on equal footing, and I had a story.

Ah yes- one more weird trigger. Remember that Marco was hungover during his shuttle flight? Well, the shuttle does a short jump to the moon, and I remembered beloved SF author Douglas Adams’ character from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Ford Prefect, suggesting that beer cushions the systems of people who are transferred through space. I used that, and then the Red Granny said the throwaway phrase about the Alcoholic’s Guild and how she hoped the wouldn’t find out that hangovers were removed by shuttle jumps.

Whoa. Alcoholics Guild?

Incidentally, this is why I can’t be an outliner. Because stuff like this doesn’t come to me when I outline. I have to be writing and have a character say something throwaway and then realize they are mentioning things that will change the course of the book. My ideas work like Dominoes- I get an idea and push one over, and then follow the stream of falling bricks to see where it goes.

So that’s where ideas come from. Mine, at least. For this novella, at least. What about yours?

You can listen to the audio from when Mur was a guest of Blog Host, Gail Z. Martin’s Ghost in the Machine podcast here:  http://www.audioacrobat.com/play/Wy6cjX0k

I love audiobooks.  I can read and drive at the same time.  How cool is that?  I use my commute time to “read” whenever I can.  So I was drawn to this Audible offer and used it to snag a free audiobook of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson.  It’s immensely popular and supposedly quite good, so it seemed a good choice.  It’s eccellently read (performed, really) by Simon Vance who also read Dune (with help from other voice talents), an audiobook I got from iTunes a while back.  Good reader.  GwtDT has been good so far.  Unabridged, of course, so some of the descriptions get lengthy, but good.  Detective-type stories tend to make good audiobooks.

My intention was to get my free download and then dump the audible account before I started getting charged for it, a perfectly legitimate use of a trial offer.  I didn’t want to pay $16 a month for one audiobook a month.  Not a terrible deal, in the long run, but I didn’t really want to pay it.  So I got GwtDT and set about cancelling.  The site asked me why and I chose the “reducing expenses” option since it fit the best.  So the site made a counter-offer: three months membership for under $8 a month, still one download a month and a discount on other purchases.  $8?  I do like my audiobooks…  I took the deal.

I now have an index card taped to my monitor reminding me to cancel in May.  If I get sufficient use out of the membership, I may rethink that.  That’s why they offer it, I guess.

Make sure you go by http://audiblepodcast/isbw for our free audiobook! And check out I Should Be Writing, too.

*Find “I Should Be Writing” and all other Mur-related news at the Murverse.  If you’re a writer or a podcaster and don’t know who she is, you should.

Day 9 was chockablock with meetings at my office.  Okay, I admit it, I just wanted to use the word “chockablock.”  There it is again.  Chockablock.

Earlier this week, the mother of one of my colleagues passed away after a long illness.  A colleague offered to send flowers on behalf of our agency, so on my way to the office I stopped for cash (do any of you still carry cash?  other than the odd coin at the bottom of my purse, I pretty much never have it) in order to make my contribution.  I heard the siren song of the Starbucks right next to the cash machine, so forked over two bucks for a cup of coffee I could’ve made myself at home.

At a stoplight on the way to work, I saw a new guy holding a new sign requesting money (I’m still not sure where Mike has gone).  His sign read, “No B.S. — I’m just broke.”  Remembering that, for once, I had cash in my wallet, I rolled down the window and passed the guy a few bucks.  “I’m just being honest,” he said, folding the money into his pocket and jiggling his cardboard sign.  “I’m not going to make up some sob story about why I’m out here.”

Arriving at my office, I immediately gave my ten dollar contribution to the flower fund (so I wouldn’t leave the office without doing so, which is my usual forgetful habit), and walked into a meeting with my student intern.

Spread across the conference room table were raffle tickets and a brochure with a toddler’s beaming, towheaded visage staring back at me.  “My honor society is selling raffle tickets to raise money for this foundation,” she said, gesturing toward the brochure.  “It provides financial assistance for parents of children being treated at Duke and UNC hospitals.”

The foundation is called Me Fine, and you can read all about it here.  After you do that, you can thank God that your own children are healthy.  Next, you can open up your wallet and give whatever cash remains to support families of children who aren’t.  Then, you can kick yourself for buying a two dollar coffee at Starbucks this morning.

Or, anyway, that’s what I did.

At the end of Day 9, my husband and I attended an event called Ignite Durham with friends.  This website can describe the event far better than I can, but it was a presentation by 14 different speakers, each of whom had 5 minutes to talk about their chosen topic.  Speech topics ranged from “How Not to be a Dorky Parent, ” to “Where Have all the Honeybees Gone?”, and the event was nothing short of inspirational.  My favorite speaker was Mur Lafferty, a local writer whose talk was entitled “How to Write a Book Even if You have a Real Life.”  Check out her website here.

Day 9 was fine.

Now, though, I have to get back to my real life.  As always, I want to thank you sincerely for showing up.

1) Show Intro “Welcome to Completely Comics Episode 6: Completely On Location. Moonlite Comics can be found on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Moonlite-Comics-Models/113887098642832?ref=ts

2) Update with the guys

• Troy news
  • ‘Forge’ story
  • The Cape Podcast mention and news www.thecapepodcast.com
  • Walking Dead began in Cynthiana, KY
• Will news
  • No TV or Internet in the Mitchell household. Much watching of Scott Pilgrim and how I Met Your Mother.

3) Comic Book News

• News of the week from comics
• Multi-Media comic related news

4) Review of Playing for Keeps audio novel found at http://www.podiobooks.com/title/playing-for-keeps and Union Dues podcasts found at http://escapepod.org/index.php?s=Union+Dues

5) Wiki of the Week: Voicemail feedback from David Glanzer from the San Diego Comic-Con found at http://comic-con.org/

6) Muy Bueno and honorable mentions

7) Contact Information: Email us at completelycomics (at) gmail.com or call in and leave a voicemail at 641.715.3900 and enter extension 694617#

Help out the show by buying any of the mentioned comics via this affiliate link: http://www.mycomicshop.com/?AffID=637329P01

Click Here to hear the show!

I Should Be Writing

Her podcasts on writing are informative. I’m listening to one as I’m writing this post and she’s talking about blogging and about what to write on blogs.

That’s been something I’ve wondered about for this blog. Should it be personal? Should it be much more objective, focusing on careers or advice?

Go check it out.