Halloween Halloween Trick or Treat...

I usually don't post too many family pics on my blog, but it's Halloween and it was a fun day.



Gosh I hate Dora. Halloween song is still stuck in my head.

Here are pics from the day. I have loverly children. I'm biased though.

This is Samantha, 4, Cinderella through and through.











This would be Alex, 9 1/2 months old. She was going to be a Virginia Cavalier cheerleader, but we opted for the bunny. Hopefully the cheerleader outfit will still fit her next year.







We met Riley while we were out. Riley is in Sam's pre-school class, and we had no idea she lived just a few blocks away from us. Happy times were had by the kiddies.







This is what makes life worth living, in case you didn't know...

First Nanomonkeys podcast is up!

The first episode is up on the Nanomonkeys podcast site! Chris talks about getting started, and Mur and Chris interview Chris Baty, founder of NaNoWriMo! Great stuff.

NaNoWriMo Podcast - The NaNoMonkeys

I am breaking into podcasting in a great way... on the coattails of others, of course! I helped organize a NaNoWriMo support group at the House of the Harping Monkey website (or at least started a thread on the forums :) ) and when Mur Lafferty stated she wanted to do something for NaNo on her I Should Be Writing podcast, I suggested to both podcasts that they join forces (since they already know each other) and do something for the month of November.

The result is a NaNoWriMo podcast called "The NaNoMonkeys" Throughout the month of November we'll be posting daily 5 minute episodes meant to support those going through NaNoWriMo. In adition I am doing interviews with NaNoWriMo participants, including J.C. Hutchins and Lonnie Ezell, to discuss their NaNo plans an their methods of coping with a 50,000 word deadline!

I'm just thrilled to be working with Mur, Chris Miller and K.J. Johnson. I'm still learning all this stuff (how to do interviews, editing sound files, etc.), and you'll just love hearing my flu-affected voice on some of the interviews I've done so far.

You don't need an iPod music video

Here is a short music video by Canadian band Uncle Seth, mainly meant to break the myth that you need an iPod to listen to a podcast.



I want to make sure no one will get scared when I start releasing podcast content. :)

Tag in the Seam Podcast

One of the great pleasures of Dragon*Con was learning about Tag in the Seam. Billed as the "Don\’t Believe the Hype! A Podcast for Women" podcast, Leann sells herself and her podcast woefully short. Her marketing tagline should be "Women had better appreciate this podcast. Men sure will."

Leann, like my wife, is the type of woman that George Hrab is singing about in "Brains Body Both." She has a great sense of humor, is intelligent as hell, and as she explains in one of her podcasts (about how geeks don't really know how to flirt), "I think she's perty." (Clair (Leann's fiancee), feel free to punch me on the arm when I see you next year at D*C. I'm sure my wife Liza will once she reads this). Her take on topics such as the Bride gene, PMS, laser treatments, the lost art of the pick-up line may masquerade as "podcast content for women," but in actuality she is speaking to the men of the world-- to men like me, who see a lot of her in their own spouse/significant other; to men who just don't understand certain things about women and will stop say "Oh, now I understand" several times during her podcasts; and to men that will simply fall for the cool girl that likes geeky goodness.

All you have to do is listen to the episode called "The Survival Guide to Cohabitating with the Modern Day Geek" to understand that she may be trying to help the women of the world 'recognize' and 'learn to love' the geek in all men, but in reality she is speaking to the men in the world, confirming that there is hope for the geekiest of us all. (Ok, that was over the top, I know. But this episode is freaking hilarious, and if nothing else, it is the first podcast my wife ever listened to that made her laugh... for that alone I will be eternally grateful to Leann-- I can now prove that listening to podcasts isn't a complete waste of my time).

If you don't have 40 minutes for that podcast, just listen to the first 5 minutes of Tag In the Seam Episode 10: Welcome to Hormone Hell - if that doesn't hook you, nothing will.

Great content and great production values can be found in every episode, and both have improved with each new episode. Give it a try.

Short Story on the Misfit Brew podcast, Episode 16

I recorded a character study for Mick Bradley's Vegas After Midnight RPG setting and it was played on his Misfit Brew podcast in September. I forgot to post about it here (which was stupid of me). After all, it is the first of many steps that I will have to take in order to take over the podcasting world... muwahahahaha (evil laughter).

The story gave me a chance to work on my vocals (in preparation of doing Murder at Avedon Hill as a podcast novel), to work with music files from the great website Magnatune.com, and to continue learning how to edit and lay down tracks in Adobe Audition.

Finishing the Novel, Vegas, and Preparations for NaNoWriMo

October is going to be a busy freakin’ month. I’m in the process of editing the novel, which has to be done by October 25th. I’ve added 4 short scenes to the book, one to add one more ‘action’ sequence and the others to show a little bit more about the main protagonist’s motivations. Now I’m going through my print copy, marking up the margins and deleting everywhere I can (I’ve got to get the word count down). Once that is done, I’ll apply the edits to my soft copy and then hopefully have the 20th-25th for one last read-through and edit.

While this is going on, I’ll be finishing the map I’ve been working on using CC3. I’ve got most of the main elements completed, but I still have a lot to do to make it shine.

Sunday I leave for Las Vegas. It’s the same conference I went to last year (a users’ conference for a software company… my real-life job is training people how to use this company’s software). But this year my wife Liza is coming with me, so it will be a lot more pleasant than last year’s event.


But that will take away a good five day chunk of time from me and the novel. In addition, I will be working with Mur Lafferty of the I Should Be Writing podcast and Chris Miller of the Round Table podcast (and others) doing work with the upcoming NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). I’ve got an idea for a story that I’ll do for NaNo; the goal is 50,000 words in 30 days.

This is why the novel HAS to be finished and sent off by the end of the month.

Wish me luck!