Sundered

Okay, people, off we go on the second adventure: Sundered Prelude 3: “Steel Drum”, Part 1.

Meet Vid, a disenchanted young man living a hand-to-mouth existence in a settlement struggling for survival. When he witnesses an extraordinary phenomenon from a far-off mountain, he and his two close friends set off on a dangerous journey in the desperate hopes of bringing a glimmer of hope to their community’s black future.

This is a long one, nearly 35 minutes of story.

No promos this week, but I spend a minute before the episode talking about all these contemptible delays, and my hope of getting my act together for the future.

“Steel Drum” will continue (but not conclude? Hmm…) next episode.

Thanks for listening! Drop a line and say what you thought once you’ve had a listen!

 Standard Podcast [36:50m]: Play in Popup | Download

May 7th, 2008

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Update the Second: Episode 3 (Prelude the 2nd, Part the 1st) has been recorded and is in post-production. Really. Would I lie to you?

Update: Things were touch-and-go for a while there—especially Sunday night when the fire reversed itself and made a beeline straight for the town—but thanks to some heroics on the part of the firefighters (nearly 800 of them), and the cooler weather on Tuesday, the fire was turned away and at last the mandatory evacuations clearing out so much of my town were lifted. The fog which rolled in in the night has signaled the end of that fire, and none too soon, say I. Please accept my apologies for all these delays—you people deserve a more regular schedule, and I hope to be able to give that to you. Some day. In the meantime, I’ll put the next episode together, and hope that it will be up this weekend. Thanks to everyone who made a comment or sent an email with well-wishing. I really appreciated each one.

The original post:

Well I arrived home yesterday to something like hell.

(View from my backyard Saturday afternoon pointed north toward the San Gabriel mountains)

Reports were lackadaisical. No big deal. Expected containment within 24 hours. Yadda-yadda. Then things turned nasty after nightfall, as the fire turned direction, headed straight toward the foothill town of Sierra Madre:

Nasty. I didn’t sleep for most of the night as the traffic outside my house resembled rush hour, the city in which I live declared a state of emergency, and 300 homes were evacuated.

At the present moment, we are still in an unseasonable heat spell (temperatures are expected to drop 30 degrees Fahrenheit by mid-week), over 400 firefighters and a number of air support are on the scene, more evacuations are anticipated, and ashes are raining down everywhere.

Even if I felt up to recording the next episode, I don’t think that the constant roar of helicopters flying back and forth over my house would permit it. Sorry, guys. I will get the next episode up as soon as this all settles down (let us hope, for so many reasons, that this is sooner rather than later). It’s looking like a three-week gap between episode 2 and 3. That’s quite a spell. Sorry.

I’ll let you all know how things progress.

April 27th, 2008

3 comments

Hey everyone,

I’m away for a couple of days on some business, which means episode 3 will be recorded sometime this weekend and debut some time (earlier) next week. Look! See how a podcast novelist can cause delays beyond your wildest imaginings! Be impressed by a podcast novelist’s almost complete lack of organizational ability!

The upshot of this is that I get to polish the next story, to make it even more tense and suspenseful. This one takes place almost entirely at night, and the night can be a most unsettling place.

See you on the other side…

April 25th, 2008

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Hi everyone!

Sundered Preludes episode 2, the concluding part of “Traits”, is live at last (after yet more technical problems and wrangling, grumble grumble grumble…)

Our narrator, the man with no name, confronts Tek, the formidable leader of the marauders, and sets into motion a chain-reaction of twists and surprises which will end in tragedy.

Our promo this episode is for Pip Ballantine’s new podcast novel, Chasing the Bard. Its official site: http://www.chasingthebard.com.

Call the kooky Wastes Line and leave a voicemail: (206) 888-2899!

Will I be able to get the next episode out in less than two weeks? Stay tuned!

 Standard Podcast [29:13m]: Play in Popup | Download

April 12th, 2008

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My goal with Sundered is to eventually reach a weekly schedule. A new episode every seven days.

Eventually.

In the immediate foreseeable future, I anticipate dropping a new episode every 10-14 days. With this in mind, I hope to get episode 2, the concluding part of “Traits”, in the feed by the early part of next week. I hope you’re all okay with that timeframe.

This weekend, I’ll be upgrading this site to the newest version of WordPress and all the latest corresponding plugins. If all goes smoothly and painlessly, you won’t even notice it happened. However, if there is any oddity on the site in the next few days, that will be why. If anything odd happens when you come visiting, please let me know! Only with your help can I win the war against the bug onslaught.

Catch you all on the other side.

UPDATE: I’ve just recorded episode 2, the conclusion of “Traits”. It should take me a couple of evenings to edit it together. Look for it very soon!

April 4th, 2008

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Couple more things to add to the shows notes, as it were, for the recently-posted episode:

The awesome music in the podcast is written and performed by the amazing Justin R. Durban, with vocals by the equally-amazing LindsayAnne Klemm. You can find out more about Justin and his music (and through it, LindsayAnne) at http://www.justindurban.com.

The commanding presenter for Sundered is the wondrous Alan Bainbridge. His website is http://www.voxjunction.co.uk.

If you like what these people have done, please tell them so!

Sundered has a voice mail line! Call in to the official Wastes Line (oh, I slay me) at 206-888-2899.

March 27th, 2008

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Can my eyes be deceiving me? Is this actually content, genuine content, that I see?

Yes indeed, people, here at last is the first episode of Sundered, Part 1 of Prelude One — Traits.

Introduce yourself to the world of Sundered as an exhausted stranger, stranded in the wastes, rolls into the unappealing settlement called Liss … and meets a mysterious woman who will set his life on a strange, dangerous new path.

This is a long one, people — over thirty minutes of pure story!

I just endured two days of seemingly unsolvable technical issues with the mp3 encoding of this file. Will the delays and stumbling blocks never cease? I seem to have found a workaround to the issue that was troubling me. Please, if you experience trouble with the file, with the feeds, or anything, let me know and I’ll get on it!

Special thanks to Nathan Lowell for generously giving some of his time helping me solve my technical issues. Nathan has an awesome series of four trillion podcast novels at: Durandus.org. Check them out, and tell him Raphael sent ya!

Promo (and pimping) in this episode: Scott Sigler’s INFECTED. Go to: http://www.scottsigler.com and http://infectednovel.com and learn why the entire human race is DOOMED!

Thanks for listening, and for your patience. You people rock!

 Sundered Prelude 1 Part 1: Play in Popup | Download

March 27th, 2008

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Hey everyone,

Episode 1 of Sundered—Prelude 1 Episode 1—Episode 1 of Prelude 1 of the Sundered experience—The first part of the prelude of the… oh, heck, the first episode of Sundered is in post-production now. All material has been recorded and the edit is largely complete.

Unbelievable as it may seem—and impossible as it may be to believe someone who has yet to follow through on his promises—the actual first bona fide for-real no-kidding honest-to-god episode of Sundered will drop this weekend.

Honest.

No fooling.

Scout’s honor!

Look for it!

Update: It’s nearly done; I’m about 85% through editing. I worked until 1 A.M. last night and just didn’t quite get there. The consolation I offer is that it’s a long one, with at least 25 minutes of pure story. I’ll get this baby into the feed absolutely as soon as possible!

March 21st, 2008

3 comments

Hey everyone,

This last weekend, finally back at home with my equipment, I recorded some test runs on the first episode of Sundered. I’ve got the technical side of the equation down pat; I think you’ll all find the quality pretty good. I tried two different approaches to the actual spoken performance, and learned a lot from the (somewhat painful) experience.

None of this really matters to you, I know. But the result of this test run is that I will be shortly recording the first episode, and if I don’t get the performance exactly as I want it … I’ll release it anyway. One way or another, the first episode should be up in a matter of days.

Also in a matter of days is another significant event in the podcast novel sphere. Crime novelist Seth Harwood’s first novel in print—the stylish noir caper Jack Wakes Up—is making a run for the Amazon.com charts, and he needs all our help to get there. Now I know that most of you have a vested interest in seeing the world of podcast fiction be as successful as possible, to make it a viable venue for top-notch writers to continue to release and promote free audio fiction. If crime fiction is your cup of tea, do consider participating in what Seth is calling Palms Sunday, and make the traditional print world sit up and take notice!

You can learn more about Seth and Palms Sunday at http://sethharwood.com.

March 12th, 2008

3 comments

Hi everyone,

As I race to sort my situation enough and hottail it back to my recording rig, here is a PDF sneak peek at the first Sundered Prelude, “Traits”. A listener (prospective listener? Reader?) had suggested the idea of a written sneak preview, and I’m only too happy to oblige. I hope it whets your appetite until I can knock this baby out in bona fide audio format.

Enjoy, everyone!

click to download Sundered Prelude One “Traits” sneak preview

February 18th, 2008

5 comments