eddyfate

Originally published at The Whitechapel Project (for MP3s and polls, click this link). You can comment here or there.

After lots of intense negotiations (okay, after I asked nicely), Rob Justice of the BearSwarm podcast has agreed to host a question and answer podcast with me about Act I of Whitechapel! If you have questions about the story, the writing process, the podcast production, or even just personal questions about me, you can email Rob at whitechapel@bearswarm.com over the course of the next week, and he’ll pepper me with them while I try to answer them with some sort of logic and sanity. We’ll record sometime next week, and it’ll be posted both here and on the BearSwarm podcast sometime in early December.

Looking forward to answering your questions!

Shit be crazy, yo.

Since GenCon, I've been running pretty hard. Getting the second episode of Whitechapel written and up, trying desperately to finish a short story for consideration in an anthology, going to a company retreat for a day, and going to see Alton Brown and Chris Hardwick live all kind of fell in at the same time. (Both shows were awesome, by the way -- just happened to be that the tickets we got months in advance had them both on the same day, so it was a full day going to see them both.)

Somewhere in there, a couple more podcast interviews made their way into the world:

• The Bear Swarm! podcast did an episode with an "interview" with me (really me just talking about Whitechapel and bring a writer in this crazy business of ours).
• The Darker Days podcast had me as a guest host for their eighth episode, as well as doing a lengthy Q&A with me.

In the craziness, I did get a chance to watch the first season of Leverage, which wasn't bad. It took me a bit to get into it (after the really intense drama of Dexter), but when I mentally approached it as "The Italian Job, The Series," my appreciate for it jumped a lot. It's a fun show, and I'm looking forward to season two.

This week, things calm down a bit more, which will be a nice change of pace before they start getting crazy again in October. (Except that I volunteered for a rush company project -- whoops.)

In cleaning out my podcasts today, I realized that I had nearly 30 of them. I thought I would post a snapshot of what I'm listening to. You can find them all in iTunes (I believe).

* The Chris Leavins Story Hour: A new podcast I'm checking out, a spin-off from "Cute with Chris" (below). No rating.

* The Classic Tales Podcast: Out-of-copyright fiction read by a professional reader. It's a great way to catch up on stories you've been meaning to read. Rating: ****

* Cute with Chris: Snarky Canadian runs a cute animal blog and regularly insults his readers. The show's lost focus a bit in the past few months, but some of the sarcastic humor is just great. Rating: ****

* Dan Carlin's Hardcore History: A history podcast covering odd aspects of history. Dan Carlin is an engaging speaker, but his podcast comes out VERY irregularly. Rating: ***

* Decoder Ring Theatre: A fantastic podcast of audio theater set in the golden days of radio, ranging between superhero, detective and sci-fi series. This has never left my podcatcher. Rating: *****

* Escape Pod: Sci-fi short fiction. Not every story appeals to me, and not every one is recorded or read well, but it's generally good quality work. Rating: ***

* Geologic Podcast: George Hrab's personal podcast, which goes between atheism, music and just bizarre and engaging personal stories. Rating: ****

* GOLD: The Series: Gaming video podcast I found via Twitter. Haven't checked it out yet. No rating.

* Hot For Words: Entymology podcast talking about the origins of words. It's expanded to go also into introducing new words, but it's just a fun podcast if you're into word origins. Rating: *****

* How To Succeed in Evil: Patrick McLean did a shorter podcast of his supervillian consultant a while back, and I loved it. He's (finally) gotten a novel done and recorded, and I plan to start listening to this next in my drive to and from work. I expect it'll be as awesome as the original. Rating: *****

* Murder at Avedon Hill: Another podcast novel I found via Twitter. It's a lengthy fantasy/murder mystery. No rating.

* NPR: Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me!: A hilarious news quiz show. I was a fan when it was on NPR, and now it's a staple podcast of mine. Rating: *****

* Onion News Network: Video podcast from The Onion of a variety of fake news shows. Rating: ****

* The Onion Radio News: Audio podcast from The Onion of their long-running fake radio news show. Rating: ****

* The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd: Another staple of my podcatcher, this is a children's show about a time-traveling professor and his crew going after his evil time-traveling counterpart. Very "Rocky and Bullwinkle" meets "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure." Rating: *****

* Scam School: Video podcast of Brian Brushwood, magician and "social engineer," doing brain teasers and close-up magic at bars across the country. Rating: ****

* Sellout: Podcast novel I keep meaning to listen to, but it regularly ends up cut when I need to make room in my iPod or iPhone for something else. No rating.

* Sessler's Soapbox: Video podcast of G4's Adam Sessler, where he rants about things in the video game industry. Rating: ****

* Seth Harwood Audiobooks: Regular podcast of Seth Harwood, author of "Jack Wakes Up" and the other Jack Palms novels. Rating: ****

* Stephen Fry's Podgrams: Stephen Fry's personal podcast. Comes out whenever he damn well feels like it (which isn't often). Rating: ****

* The Stuff of Genius: One of four podcasts that David just turned me on to. Haven't listened to it yet. No rating.

* Stuff You Missed in History Class: Two of four podcasts that David mentioned to me. No rating.

* Stuff You Should Know: Three of four podcasts. No rating.

* TechStuff: Four of four podcasts. No rating.

* Tiki Bar TV: A bizarre little video podcast from Canada about three drunks and their adventures. Rating: *****

* Transformers: Lovingly Reviewed: A brave man who is going through and reviewing (and mocking) every single episode of the original Transformers series. He's about halfway through now. Rating: ****

* Two-Minute Danger Theatre: Another 40s audio theater podcast, but it mocks the format instead of playing to it, and each episode is under two minutes long. Comes in fits and starts, but it otherwise hysterical. Rating: ****

* Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Series: A redub of much-shortened episodes of Yu-Gi-Oh. I've listened to other comedy redubs, but this one seems to have the longest staying power, and is consistently funny (though later on it starts to develop entranched inside jokes, so it's best to start from the beginning). Rating: *****

I spent a few minutes on my podcast talking about my meeting with Dave Arneson at GenCon 2008.

The past month or so has been challenging. Most of it has been revolving around work, my main hobby, or the incredibly murky gray area between them, with a few personal things that have nothing in common with either of the previous two things (except for the fact that I really can't talk about them). This week has been closer to my usual level -- closer to fifty hours a week instead of the seventy hour weeks that have been going on. Plus, work has swung back from "shit that needs to be done" to "shit that's fucking awesome to work on," which always helps. And the haters seem to be growing more and more incoherent and hilariously paranoid, which means it's moved from being sincerely upsetting to something closer to watching your dog try to catch his own tail. Especially when it doesn't have much of a tail. Or neck, for that matter.

So, I figured I would take a moment to do some catching up on my Media Whore segment.

Reading: While in Canada, one of our hosts let me browse through a bookstore, and I managed to pick up a copy of Spade & Archer, a prequel to The Maltese Falcon. Apparently it's still fairly new (the book had a 2009 copyright date), which I take as an indication that Canada likes me. While the book doesn't have as much Archer in it as the title would imply, and the plots are far more convoluted than Hammett did, the writing and feel are very close to the original. I also picked up Black Dahlia by James Ellroy, which I'm still working on. Apparently it surprised Russell that I hadn't read Ellroy before.

Television: Yes, I watched the final episode of Battlestar Galactica. In Canada, even, with about six other people. I've also been watching the first couple of episodes of MI-5 (Spooks in the UK), which is a lot of fun -- a bit like a British version of 24. I've (finally) started watching Burn Notice as well, so apparently I'm on a modern spy kick right now.

Video Games: Not a whole lot, but I am picking up Mass Effect again once in a while. I might poke at another game for a bit in the near future.

Podcasts: I think I stumbled across it by accident, but Two Minute Danger Theatre is an entertaining send-up of old radio serials, and you really can't beat the time investment. I got caught up on the 60+ episodes on my flight to Toronto. I also finished up the first season of The Takeover, which was entertaining.

http://atomicarray.com/scion-aa016

An hour episode about Scion and the Scion Companion, where I pretend to be John. I also flip the hosts off (which is impressive, because I was in a different state at the time).

Edit: Listen after the closing music -- there's an easter egg of when we all just completely lost it before the interview even started.

(This is what happens when you have to work late three days in a row -- I end up regurgitating a ton of entries.)

Atomic Array (Podcast): I've heard about this for a while (primarily from Ed Healy's insistence that I give it a listen). I admit that I was just letting it pool in my iPhone until I got around to it, because the idea of yet another RPG review podcast didn't spark my fire. But when I noticed that there were a lot of products being reviewed that I was actually interested in, I spent the past week catching up. And I admit, it's pretty good. After the first few episodes the dynamic between Ed and his co-host Rone starts to click, and they sound more natural. Each episode is exclusively devoted to one game or product, which actually makes it easy to skip episodes that I'm not interested in, but also gives in-depth treatment to the ones that I am. Each episode has a short segment of Ed reviewing a product that relates somehow to the main theme of the show, and Rone ranting about whatever appears to have passed through his brain before recording time. Once in a while, they have short skits or "phone calls" with related guests breaking up the main interview. And they give away massive amounts of stuff every single episode. If you're looking for an RPG review podcast, pick an episode or two and see if it's to your taste; I think this one will get better as continues.

Labyrinth Lord and Mutant Future (RPG): Labyrinth Lord is, essentially, a free PDF RPG that recreated the original (late 70s, early 80s) Dungeons & Dragons with about 98% accuracy, a self-proclaimed "retro-clone." It's been created via the OGL, and the developers admit that it's primarily to allow new support for the original style of D&D. And it's free. This was the game I cut my teeth on, and I admit to a hankering of nostalgia for a D&D where the PHB, DMG and MM all fit within 160 pages.

But even cooler to me is Mutant Future. Like LL, this is a stab at the original Gamma World. Unlike LL, though, it's not a faithful recreation of the game, as the original GW rules aren't under the OGL. Instead, it's a different version of LL that feels like GW. The two systems are very compatible (and MF even includes an appendix on how to combine the two), but the game is actually something new instead of a mechanical recreation of a previous game. And it has spidergoats.

Just reading over the files made me want to break out the graph paper and notebooks, dig up my dice and run a session or two of old-school fun.

The past week have been a bit like a cartoon coyote: I've been running so hard and so fast that I didn't realize the ground wasn't under me until just now. I conceptually knew it was Friday, but it didn't really sink in that that means it's the end of the week until just now. I've been juggling my usual post-con workload combined with bad planning on my part and a temporary increase in my work responsibilities (which involves playing video games, so I can't complain) while struggling with a mild cold or allergy or something, so it's all been a bit of a blur. Let me catch up on a few things:

* Cruise went well. I had a better time than I anticipated I would, but unfortunately I didn't get to see too much of Mexico, as I had work obligations to fulfill. I did get sick near the end of the trip, but I got over it pretty quick, so I'm not sure if it was sea-sickness, my usual vertigo combined with the rocking of the ship or just something I ate. My biggest regret was having to bail out on a LARP theory roundtable on Friday night to talk over "Killing Sacred Cows" because of said illness. I still end up being a little anti-social on these kinds of trips because I miss my family, and this was a particularly long one, but from an objective (i.e., me not being a whiny bitch) level it was a good time.

* Recently I've been really hooked on the Rain-Slick Precipice games. I didn't expect to like them, but it seems to hit a sweet spot with me between old-school computer RPGs, fast reflexes, inside jokes from a variety of sources, and just plain adolescent vulgarity. The Xbox version of episode two seems a little glitchier than episode one was on the PS3, but when I'm not playing video games for work, I'm pretty obsessed with these right now. (Especially since I'm stuck as hell on Gears of War 1.)

* Finished Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman while I was on the cruise. It was recommended to me after my review of Playing For Keeps (buy it buy it buy it buy it), and there's certainly a similar vibe here, down to a very prominent hero not making an appearance until late in the book. It loses focus a few times, and there are some plot elements that don't seem to be adequately wrapped up, but it was a fun read on the Kindle, and worth picking up if you like superhero fiction.

* Speaking of media, check out the Scam School video podcast. It's tagline is "social engineering in the bar and on the street," and it's a surprisingly entertaining look at card tricks, bar puzzles and other kinds of party jokes. Some of this stuff isn't new to me, but seeing people's reactions and hearing how the various elements are designed to "socially engineer" the audience is fascinating.

* In my gaming life, my new Requiem PC G.T. is settling in nicely. I accomplished my core goal of having a new PC that has lots of reasons to attend the Atlanta game, and a side benefit of getting some decent global play going with him. It's also been entertaining to try to re-learn a game I know very well just from other players. Meanwhile, the victorian age Mage tabletop game is being scrapped and replaced with a modern Mage tabletop game. I have a couple of ideas for characters. I've also been consistently smacking down the urge to run a game of my own.

* I've also been consistently smacking down the urge to write fiction again. Just when I think I have time to spend maybe an hour a week poking at some fiction, something happens to suck up my free time. I know that if it gets too bad I can just re-prioritize and give myself the time to write, but at the moment I've convinced myself that I don't have the time, and that seems to be keeping the muse at bay somewhat. Part of the problem is that I don't know WHAT I want to write -- every time I see a good movie or listen to a good podcast or read a good book, I want to write, but it's a different idea each time. I have about fifteen million worlds kicking around in my head, but I haven't sat down and worked on compelling characters or interesting stories yet. (Part of the problem is that when I DO get a neat story or character idea, I can find more immediate use for that at work.)

The final installation of the Jack Palms trilogy, Jack Palms 3 (retroactively subtitled Czechmate), it actually only about two-thirds as long as the previous two Jack Palms podcast novels. On the one hand, that makes sense, since this is really about wrapping up the loose ends in JP1 and JP2 -- we're not introducing many new characters or plot elements in this one. On the other hand, I think this could have been longer, and that's not just out of a need for more Jack fixes.

Note: Unlike previous reviews, I'm actually going to talk about some minor plot elements. If you don't want to be spoiled, skip the rest of this review. I'm just going to recommend that you listen to it anyway, so go ahead and start downloading it.

Unlike the previous two novels, JP3 doesn't stay with Jack's viewpoint exclusively (which is good, because most of the book it seems like he's unconscious, kidnapped or high). We get to see more of Jane Gannon, Capt. Shaw and those fun-loving Czechs. Once I got used to the structure change, thought, I realized that there were some elements missing -- at one point, Gannon just appears next to the main villain, and how she got there isn't adequately explained. In the previous two books, that's fine -- it's all from Jack's perspective, and Jack is frequently out of the loop, which adds to the feel of the books. With the move to changing perspectives, though, the omission seems odd, and feels like a chapter is missing here and there. (Also, we never actually get to see much of Freeman's perspective, which is another potential source of story fodder in this book.)

The voice actors return for this story, as well as the now-traditional intro song by Madvillain. The production quality is about on par with the previous two books -- not super polished, but far better than a majority of podcasts out there. Between comments from Seth's Q&As and minor references in the novel, there looks to potentially be a JP4, possibly set in Boston, which actually addresses one of my other niggling concerns (i.e., why continually reference his ex-wife if she doesn't ever show up in the span of three books?), but since I'm now up to June of this year and getting ready to start on Young Junius, whether that will happen or not is totally up to Seth.

If you're okay with some lingering subplots and a few rapid shifts in resolution, this is a pretty satisfying conclusion. It hasn't soured me on Jack Palms or Seth's writing, and I do look forward to more -- I just thought that it could have been a little more than it was.

Just finished up listening to the sequel to Jack Wakes Up, and it's a worthy successor. Jack Palms II: This is Life picks up a few months after JWU leaves off. Like the original, it's a series of roughly thirty-minute episodes with Seth reading his book, but this time there are a few guest voices playing some of the main characters (although Jack continues to sound exactly like Seth). There's also a few choice sound effects added into the mix, really ramping up the quality of the audio. I did notice a few more gaffs than in JWU, but I chalked it up to Seth trying to push the boundries on this new book, and they didn't bother me much at all.

The story not only feels like a natural extension of JWU, but it also puts Jack in even more shit than the first book. While I kind of picked out the "twist" ending pretty early on, some of the character changes and events either I didn't see coming, or I hoped wouldn't come because I was empathizing with Jack so much. One thing that I really like about this series is that Jack isn't really the kind of character that just casually pulls out a gun and blows someone away -- he makes mistakes, he freezes up and he sometimes lets his reluctance for bloodshed get him into worse trouble. He's very human, and overall it makes for a very compelling crime story.

The only real complaint I have is similar to the one I had for the first book, only moreso -- there's a lot left dangling, and while JWU kind of resolves most of it to a reasonably satisfactory ending, JP2 was clearly written with a Jack Palms 3 in mind. Expect to have your questions about some major plot elements postponed for the final book of the trilogy. I'd be pissed if it weren't for the fact that JP3 is already done and in my iPod.

Whatever I said about listening to JWU (or buying it when the print book goes on sale in May next year), double that. Unless something goes crazy with JP3, I can only assume it'll be an awesome conclusion to the series.

Yeah, I'm on a podcast kick, but right now it's wonderful to listen to books on my commute, which is about 30-40 minutes each way nowadaya.

Jack Wakes Up is a free podcast novel by Seth Harwood. It's the story of a one-hit action star named Jack Palms who is recently divorced and recovering from a heroin addiction. A request to go out and help entertain a few visiting Czechs ends up with him getting entangled in a mess of drugs, murder and violence involving four conflicting factions in the LA scene. After the podcast, a print novel was released

I haven't had a chance to finish this yet (I'm at the second to last episode), but already I'm hooked. It's very modern noir (and I don't often use that title personally). It's got a lot of gray morality, plot twists and good action that doesn't shy away from bring brutal and gritty. Jack himself is a complicated, intriguing character that has as much of a problem staying on the wagon as he does trying to extract himself from this messy situation. Even his relationship with his 1966 Mustang fastback is intriguing and entertaining, making you wonder how much if it is the car and how much of it is a reminder of a better time in Jack's life.

It's the first in a trilogy of Jack Palms novels, and I'll likely post reviews on the other two as I finish them up.

Playing for Keeps is a superhero novel written by the talented (and amazingly cool) Mur Lafferty. It's about a group of super-powered individuals who aren't powerful enough to be heroes and who aren't bad enough to be villains, so they hang out in a bar and try to make something of their lives with their extremely specialized powers.

But really, it's more than that.

To digress for a bit, I've been a fan of Mur's for a few years now, and we've been acquaintances for a couple of those years (i.e., we keep bumping into each other at cons and we chat online once in a blue moon). Mur has a way of humanizing geek tropes that's always engaged me, so when I heard she wrote a superhero novel, I was intrigued. Unfortunately, her podcast hit right around the time I started working at White Wolf, so I didn't have the bandwidth for the longest time to listen to it, but when I heard it was going to be published, I tracked her down at Dragon*Con and forced her to sell me one [1].

Anyhow, I knew going in that it wasn't going to be as simple as "good guys, bad guys and the other guys," and it isn't. It starts off as an inversion (the good guys are really thugs, and the bad guys are just misunderstood), but by the end the story gets very complicated and you realize that these are just people. Mur manages to take about a dozen complicated characters and give them good opportunities to show their depth in a scant 250 pages that will go by faster than you expect.

But it's not all roses and kittens. The large cast and short length means that some characters do get short shrift, including one of the main villains and a character that is repeatedly implied to be the most important hero in the world. Further, the ending is set up (in typical Mur style) to offer a multitude of future story options, which can leave it a little unsatisfying. There are also a few editorial gaffes that made me cringe, but nothing that I don't expect from a smaller press [2], but most of the problems really are a case of wanting more from this engaging world.

Mur did tell me that she's been given the green light to work on a sequel at D*C, so I'm hoping that PfK2 will fill in some more of that white space and provide another awesome offering of superhero goodness.

Seriously, if you like superheroes and you like good drama with lots of humor and wit, pick this up at Amazon.com. If you can't spend money but you can spend time, pick up the free audio podcast of the book instead.

---

Footnote 1: This may or may not be how it happened.

Footnote 2: Of which I lump just about all RPG companies, by the way, so I'm certainly not going to throw stones

(Note to self: I should try and find/make a Media Whore icon at some point.)

Epic Fu is a short video podcast that talks about what's cool on the Internet -- art, music, technology and the like. It's twice a week (Tuesdays and Thursdays), and it runs about six minutes each episode. At first, I wasn't sure I was going to like it, but it crams a TON of little tidbits into each episode, and I've already found a few cool new websites and music artists that I like as a result. It plays great on my iPhone, and the hostess (Zadi Diaz) is just weird enough to be engaging.

If you're looking for a couple of bite-sized bursts of Internet culture each week, it's worth checking out.

Since I got my video iPod, I've been trying a lot of podcasts. While there are some I delete or follow for only short period of time (like podiobooks), there are many that I follow on a regular basis. I picked the top ten that I listen to (listed here in alphabetical order):

Aliens You Will Meet: An extremely short comedy sci-fi podcast (each episode is under a couple of minutes -- the actual content is usually shorter than the intro and outro). The premise is a precognitive meeting planner giving advice to an intergalactic diplomat in a very Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy style.

Ask A Ninja: Rapidly becoming a classic of the internet, this is the only video podcast feed on this list. A ninja answers viewer emails in a spastic, rambling style that is often only vaguely associated with the original question.

Decoder Ring Theatre: The podcast that got me hooked on podcasts. This is actually two different series -- The Red Panda Adventures and Black Jack Justice. Each are mid-1940s radio series done in the Old Time Radio style, alternating back and forth in six episode blocks; Red Panda is a superhero serial akin to The Shadow or The Green Hornet, while Black Jack is a private eye serial closer to The Adventures of Sam Spade and The Adventures of Phillip Marlowe. While both series start out a touch on the campy side, they actually drift back and forth between witty, comedic banter and darker, more moody drama.

Escape Pod: A podcast of sci-fi and fantasy short stories, read like audiobooks. Each story runs about 20-30 minutes on average, although some have been longer, and sometimes they'll do shorter flash fiction or movie review episodes. It's a paying market, so the fiction tends to be quality, showcasing older stories as well as bleeding edge fiction. The editor does an editorial intro and outro on most episodes, which might turn off some listeners.

NPR: Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!: The weekly podcast feed of the NPR news quiz. Frequently funny, and sometimes downright hysterical. If you like news humor like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, I recommend this.

Pseudopod: The sister podcast to Escape Pod, only covering horror fiction instead of sci-fi and fantasy. It's by a different editor, and as a younger podcast they're just starting to hit their stride, but it's still good fiction. Also, there isn't nearly as much editorializing as EP.

The Butcher Block: This is basically the Jim Butcher Fan Podcast, which means it's basically the Dresden Files Fan Podcast. The host is Fred Hicks, and since he and Jim are friends and both are gamers, it also has a sub-focus on indie RPGs, which makes it doubly entertaining for me.

The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd: Imagine the writer of Rocky and Bullwinkle watching Mystery Science Theatre 3000 and deciding to do a kid's radio show about two mad scientists traveling through time and space to try and thwart each other. It's very silly, but the humor often works on a couple of levels, making it accessible to adults as well.

The Secret World Chronicle: Mercedes Lackey wanted to do a podcast of fiction based off of her City of Heroes characters. The result is a 21st century Wild Cards. With space nazis.

The Secrets: The Podcast for Writers: I debated stripping this off since there hasn't been a new episode in months, but it's just too useful. Michael A. Stackpole puts out an (extremely) irregular podcast of tips and tricks for becoming a successful commercial sci-fi/fantasy novelist. It's a limited focus, to be sure, but the advice in that focus is very thought-provoking.