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.

Dragon*Con

Dragon*Con, the science-fiction and fantasy media conference, took place in Atlanta, GA last weekend. I attended it for the first time and it was simply a wonderful experience. I spent most of my time attending the podcasting track sessions, and got to meet a lot of the podcasters and podcast novelists that I have come to admire over the last year.

For some of my musings on the event, please visit The House of the Harping Monkey website. I was the Round Table podcast's Dragon*Con correspondent and left some voicemails that they released as short podcast "side dishes." Side Dish 5 details my anticipation of the upcoming weekend as I arrive and after Friday's events. Side Dish 6 is the voicemail I left after I returned to Charlotte, NC.

I had the pleasure of interviewing two novelists while at Dragon*Con, Tee Morris, co-author of the podcast novel Morevi, and J.C. Hutchins, author of the podcast novel 7th Son: Book 1 - Descent. They were my first interviews, and they couldn't have been any nicer to me. I'm still in the process of editing the audio, but once I am done the interviews will be released first through the Round Table podcast and later through this site.

The highlight of the entire Con for me (and for many others) was the Live Wingin' It show on Saturday night. Mur Lafferty read an essay that rocked the house, and George Hrab actually did rock the house. Please check out George's website. His music reminds me of a funky Talking Heads meets Frank Zappa meets Bare Naked Ladies.

Here are some photos from the weekend!

Tee Morris during a panel.




















Evo Terra and Swoopy during a panel.













Caroline and Sam Chupp during the gaming podcasting panel.











Gary and the Pickle from Podcast Pickle.






















J.C. Hutchins during a podcasting panel.















Joe Murphy before the Slice of Sci-fi Live podcast.
















Michael R. Mennenga during a podcast panel.
















Mike Stackpole with me.

















Tracy and Laura Hickman agree to a photo. I got Tracy to sign my DL1 D&D module from 1984 soon therafter (YEAH!)














Tracy and Laura Hickman during their DragonHearth Live podcast. I got to play a part in a reading from one of their unpublished manuscripts; this reading was part of their Live podcast from Dragon*Con.










The beautiful and talented Laura Hickman



















My hero, Mur Lafferty



















The Sarge! Tee Morris poses with a Survivalist.















Paul Fischer of the Balticon and ADD Podcasts.


















Tracy Hickman during his Live DragonHearth podcast.















More of Tracy Hickman during his Live DragonHearth podcast.




















The Parsec Awards - A Celebration of Speculative Fiction Podcasting at Dragon*con 2006

Tracy Hickman, Mur Lafferty, and Michael R. Mennenga during the Parsec Awards.
















The Brobdingnagian Bards played during the awards.













The Hobbit-Tossing skit! (Jim VanVerth, Patrick McLean, and Rich Sigfrit.












Evo Terra presents an award.
















Patrick McLean with his two Parsec Awards.




















Patrick McLean and Nic Rummel, writer and artist of the How to Succeed in Evil comic book.













Tee Morris gets played byRich Sigfrit, the Evil Tee.












Wingin' It Live!


Evo Terra kicks things off.



















George Hrab discusses parasitic vertebrates.















Yoda enjoying a drink during Wingin' It.




















Patrick McLean keeping the blood from rushing to his cut fingers during the show.













Scott Sigler with a fan who created a cool shirt. "Contains Mature Situations, Language, and Lots and Lots of Violence!!!"

Word Count and Work Shops

Murder at Avedon Hill Word Count
134,798 / 100,000
(134.8%)

I decided to take a page from Mur Lafferty and add a word count for my novel here. You'll notice that my word count is higher than I really want it to be. I will be doing my best once the first draft is finally done to pare it down to 100,000 words. If I don't succeed, I'll be okay. It's simple economics though-- the more words you have, the more expensive the book will be to print.

I joined the "I Should Be Writing" Writer's Workshop, moderated by Mur Lafferty. I'm posting Roh-Kin out there for people to review. Hopefully I can get some good feedback on the short story.

Dedicating Time

I'm setting aside two to three hours a night to write now. I've got to finish this first draft. Argh.

In case you missed it, I love podcasts. Mur Lafferty is my new hero.

Podcasts:

I Should be Writing
GeekFu Action Grip

I pulled my blog into my main website using a floating frame. I normally hate frames, but this one page looks cool and is integrated into my full site very well. Let me know if you think differently.