Saint Nickanuck of the Tundra

Playing for Keeps, Mur Lafferty’s brilliant debut novel that sets the entire superhero genre on its ear, goes on sale tomorrow on Amazon. Go buy it then. It may cure your maladies, purify your genes, or give you honest-to-goodness superpowers. Or, failing that, it’s an excellent book and an imperatively entertaining and thought-provoking read.

There’s also an amazing amount of free Playing for Keeps related content that Mur has made available, as a run-up to the book’s release:

• Still uncertain if the novel is a worthy purchase? (Oh, it is!) The full book, including all of the comic book-style covers from it’s initial podcast run, as well as an all-new short story, are available as a free pdf download.
• The Playing for Keeps music video that I discussed previously has been released. Sadly, Mur did not recieve enough entrants to spur her to dance for the camera, but plenty of people did send in clips… including me. You just know you want to see me, uh, dance, or something…
• Last and most certainly not least, Mur revived the Stories of the Third Wave fan podcast, which can be found on the Playing for Keeps website and feed, and has been putting out content for the last several weeks. Episodes include imaginings of what different radio shows might sound like during the daily commute in Seventh City, as well as original fiction set in the Playing for Keeps universe from J. C. Hutchins and Matt Wallace, and the Seventh City version of existing podcasts. Mur generously invited me to contribute, and I decided to riff on NPR’s Faith Matters program and explore how the existance of heroes in the world of Playing for Keeps might impact on exisiting religious faith, and perhaps create new belief systems entirely. I’m pleased with the result, and invite you to check out that episode as well as all the amazing content that has been contributed.

Playing for Keeps. Be a Hero of the 25th, and buy it tomorrow. YES.

I have a select few moral imperatives. Topping the list is this: no dancing. Oh, sure, slow dancing with a partner is wonderful, but frenzied, bouncing public epileptic fits are a thing that I just don’t engage in. I have been frequently told that I am “awkward,” “gangly,” or “silly-looking” whenever I’ve attempted said spectacle in the past. Furthermore, I recognize this to be true, and beyond that, completely agree with Stephen Fry’s cogent analysis on the ridiculousness of the current social role of group dancing.

That said, there is something that I will break this moral imperative for.

As previously noted, Mur Lafferty’s excellent novel Playing for Keeps is being published by Swarm Press, and will be released on August 25. If you’ve listened to the podiobook (and if you haven’t, for all that is good and right in the world, why not?), you know that Beatnik Turtle created the theme song Playing for Keeps just for that production. As a way to promote the book’s release, Mur has decided to put together a music video for the song, starring… you.

The details are here, but the summation is this - if you want to participate, drop her an email, and she’ll respond with a 20-30 second portion of the song for you to create a video segment of. Dancing, lip synching, or creating a skit are all fair game - the more creative and entertaining, the better. But what’s in it for you, you ask?

If your segment ends up in the final video, you’ll win one of many fabulous prizes, including books from Swarm Press, Beatnik Turtle CD’s, and a Flip camera! You will also have helped do a great thing to promote an awesome book, and become a bonafide interwebs video celebrity in the process. Finally, if enough people participate, Mur will contribute her own dancing video to the effort… and she says, she’s “the geek who doesn’t dance.”

So get the details now, as this is time sensitive - all entries need to be in by August 15. And aren’t you the least bit curious to see what I’ll come up with? I know I am…

In need of something to do this Sunday? Hungering for some new fiction? It turns out that I have a suggestion for you.

Matthew Wayne Selznick’s Brave Men Run: A Novel of the Sovereign Era is an excellent tale, summed up best by Matt himself as a “teen movie / comic book mash-up,” ala the X-Men meet The Breakfast Club. From the website:

“Brave Men Run” is the story of Nate Charters. Born different, unsure of his origins, he’s an outcast at Abbeque Valley High School, a self-proclaimed “boy freak” with few friends and low self-esteem. When the Sovereign Era dramatically dawns, Nate finds himself in a quest to discover the truth: is he more than he seems, a misfit in a miraculous and powerful new minority… or something else entirely?

The book was among the first free serialized audiobooks on Podiobooks.com (where it still remains available), and was a finalist for the 2006 Parsec Award for Long Fiction. On this Sunday, July 13, Brave Men Run will see print release in a high quality, trade paperback edition from Swarm Press. To both celebrate this momentous event and promote it’s availability on Amazon.com that day, Matt is holding an eight-hour video Book Release Web-a-thon starting at 10:00 EST. During this event, he will be reading original short stories set in his Sovereign Era universe by several top podcast authors (including Mur Lafferty, Matt Wallace, and J.C. Hutchins, to name a few), along with giving live updates on the progress of the novel on Amazon’s sales charts. More details can be found at the official website, as well as Mur’s excellent interview with him for I Should Be Writing.

Tune in to the video Web-a-thon on Sunday, order a copy of Brave Men Run on July 13 on Amazon, and you will be rewarded with wonderful tales! ’nuff said.

Yeah, I’ve got a couple of con recaps pending, but I figure I’ll work backwards from a con that hasn’t quite, uh, happened yet - namely, Dragon*Con.

The Parsec Awards, now in their third year, are presented to honor the best in podcast-delivered speculative fiction. From the official website:

Dedicated to rewarding excellence in various aspects of Speculative Fiction Podcasting, the Parsec Award is available for Sci-fi & Fantasy Original Content, podiobooks and a variety of other categories dealing with the new frontiers of Portable Media.

The 3nd annual Parsec Awards will be held at the Dragon*Con convention held August 29 through September 1, 2008.

Mur Lafferty, Michael R. Mennenga & Tracy Hickman founded The Parsec Awards in 2006 to celebrate Speculative Fiction Podcasting, under the banner of Farpoint Media.

Podcast shows are nominated by fans, and finalists are chosen by a yearly steering committee. Those finalists are then voted on by an independent panel of judges from outside of podcasting. Awards are given in several categories ranging from content to audio quality.

Nominations are currently open to the public until June 15, so if you have a particular speculative fiction podcast that you would like to suggest, swing by the site and give them a nod. The official site has information on all aspects of nominations, the awards process and the people behind it, as well as the results from both the 2006 and 2007 awards. Video from the 2007 awards (in which, for the morbidly curious, I may be seen as a presenter for the Best Gaming Podcast) is here.

And finally, if you prefer to hear more about the Parsecs in audio format, check out the straight-up promo by 2008 steering committee head Doug Kress, or the hilarious promo done by J.C. Hutchins and Scott Sigler.

No, I haven’t forgotten about a RavenCon recap. There were several requests for me to make my presentation on “The New Red Deaths” available, which I intend to do once I get the citations in order, and the recap shall wait for that to be completed.

That noted, Balticon 42 starts in just a few short days! The new media track has grown once again this year, to be even more of a lumbering Elder God-spawn of a beast, which is definitely a good thing. Also in the “good things” category, the science track has also expanded to include two new members - Laura and myself! Clearly, you now have no arguable reason not to stop by the Marriott Hunt Valley Inn if you are in the Baltimore area this weekend.

Laura will be rocking out with a couple of space related talks, among other things. As to my own schedule:

• Meet the Scientists Social (Friday, 10pm, Salon A) - Really, there’s got to be a better title for this informal gathering. That said, there’s a damn fine mix of science-y types, from a paleontologist to a local mechanic who mods vehicles (including the Toyota Prius) to run completely on battery power, so the combination of characters and conversation is sure to entertain. And there’s always the Sexy Women In Sci-Fi panel (including Laura, for her “obviously” expert opinion - 11pm, Garden), or the 80’s Party/New Media Meet and Greet (11pm, Chesapeake Suite) to escape to, if things are slow…

• Live! Takeover! Audio Drama (Saturday, 1pm, Belmont) - This is the live debut of the first two episodes of Mur Lafferty’s new audio drama. What is it about, you ask? Check out a familiarly-voiced promo (guess who the other voice is there for bonus XP) and the freshly-launched website for details. I have the pleasure of voicing Phil, the boss. He cares. Really.

• Infectious Diseases (Sunday, 4pm, Salon A) - I need your help with this one, people. See that title? It’s a bit… vague. So here’s a question, for anyone interested and willing to answer - what should I talk about? Horrible emerging infectious diseases? A follow-up to my Red Deaths exploration? Or, should I just take the plunge and go with all things SYPHILIS? Let me know!

• Live! Mr. Adventure (Sunday, 8pm, Chesapeake Suite) - It’s the next episode after the live RavenCon recording! The dastardly villain I’m voicing, Michael Aztec, is setting his evil master plan into motion. What will our heroes do?!?

• Video Podcasting 102: What’s Out There (Sunday, 10pm, Chesapeake Suite) - I’m on this panel because I am a selective consumer of video podcasts. Or maybe, because I’m a clown and there to entertain. Yup. I’m betting on the latter.

It’s going to be a brilliant time - join us if you can! And, let me know - what infectious thing should I talk about?

Realizing that this will only interest me, and possible amuse someone else, I’ll post the long-neglected Balticon 41 recap “in my own words”: It happened, and was good. There was great fun, some chaos, but overall a wonderful time! w00t, and all that.

And if you really want to hear it in my own words, I’ll direct you to episode 41.48 of the Balticon Podcast, where Laura and I were interviewed on the final day of the convention about many things, both astral and infectious. It’s still quite the good listen, and just may whet your appetite for Balticon 42.

Mur Lafferty will be having a book signing event this coming Saturday, May 10, at Constellation Books in Reisterstown, MD. Festivities start at 3:00 PM, and will include a live recording of her award-winning podcast, I Should Be Writing. It looks to be an awesome time, so I heartily encourage anyone in the Baltimore and DC metro areas to stop by and meet Mur, and pick up a print copy of Playing for Keeps (if you have not already done so, for some negligent or shameful reason).

Frequent readers of this space will already have heard from me about Mur’s authorial excellence, as exemplified by her novel Playing for Keeps, and her Heaven series of novellas. Constellation Books is a great independent bookstore that has a particular love of genre fiction, and recently celebrated its one-year anniversary.

Make plans to come out and join in the fun! Directions via Google Maps are here.

And as Mur said, if you stop by, you just may learn something cool…

And lo, there was great rejoicing throughout the whole of creation, for today Wasteland is released!

Wasteland is the fourth season of Mur Lafferty’s continuing Heaven series of novellas, following up on the excellent previous entries of Heaven, Hell, and Earth. The story of the first three novellas follows best friends Kate and Daniel, who after their untimely deaths, come to discover that heaven is a far different thing than they expected it to be. It seems that the afterlife is a connected patchwork of the gods and myths of every human belief system, and events are in motion to bring about the end of not only the earth, but the balance of heaven and hell as well. Daniel and Kate soon realize that whether they like it or not, they have a pivotal roles to play in what is about to unfold, and the decisions they make will determine the fate of all reality.

Sounds suitably epic in scope, eh?

While I won’t spoil the specifics of the first three parts of the series, I will say that this tale has been both riveting and brilliant from the start, and has continued to reach a new level of awesome with each episode. Having just digested the entirety of Wasteland, I am pleased to report that it only gets better. The official blurb:

Daniel has been forced from the afterlife to be exiled in the wasteland, with nothing but his misery and Kate’s dead body. But he is not without power entirely, and he begins to make his way in this world that looks less like a wasteland and more like another world. But the volatile power of the wasteland still touches this new world, and Daniel and his friends must not forget the trouble facing Heaven and Hell.

In Wasteland, Mur dials everything that’s made this series superb up to 11. The core of Heaven has always been how Kate and Daniel’s deaths and new roles in the afterlife have forced them to re-examine who they are now (and were in life) as individuals, as well as the truth of their relationship with each other. Season four finds Daniel finally coming to terms with past failures and his present role, and it’s great to see the resumption of his growth into a more assertive and likable person. Mur explores darker and more complex themes in this outing, and watching what Kate and Daniel discover they are capable of when faced with blind, powerful injustice is both exciting and a bit shocking. That said, Wasteland is also the most humorous entry thus far - I had a true “laugh out loud” moment at least once in every episode. Also, there’s plenty of action, including some awesome “vehicular” combat, and more than a few pleasant surprises along the way.

Bottom line: Wasteland, as with the previous seasons of Heaven, is highly recommended. All four novellas are available for free in audio format via podcast at Podiobooks.com, and Wasteland is also being released as daily episodes on Mur’s shiny new website, the Murverse. For more information, check out the Murverse Heaven project page.

For Heaven’s sake! What the Hell are you waiting for? The Earth to dry up, and transform into a Wasteland?

Your Next Fix is coming.

Parsec Award-winning author Matt Wallace is legendary for his science-horror-fiction work in the podcast realm, both with the acclaimed novel The Failed Cities Monologues, as well as excellent short pieces released through the Variant Frequencies podcast. Some say that once you listen to his work, you get hooked…

…and it’s time for you to get your Next Fix. The Next Fix is Matt’s first print short fiction collection, and is available today for pre-order from the Apex Book Company as either a trade paperback or a limited edition hardcover. Each copy of the latter will be personally autographed by Matt. I don’t think he’ll be using actual blood, although he has promised to craft an original dirty limerick if requested.

Matt’s work is delicious, fantastic stuff, and if you are a fan of edgy scifi-horror, then I guarantee you will find epic greatness contained therein. But, don’t just take my word for it - here’s some verbal testimony from some of the best authors of podcast fiction.

Go there, take your hit, and order it now!

I had the pleasure of attending the Farpoint Convention for the first time this past week. Though personal circumstances permitted me to only attend part of the con, what I was present for was an excellent time.

Farpoint bills itself as a “science-fiction media convention,” meaning that it’s focus is on genre television and film in terms of its main guests and panels. Normally, this is not the type of con I’m greatly interested in going to, as it represents a side of fandom that I’m less involved in. However, Farpoint has been expanding its new media track of late, and several friends who are podcasters and authors attended and were involved therein. It also has the advantage of being a smaller gathering, compared with the absolute zoo that is Dragon*Con, or tamer chaos of Balticon. As a result, the panels were cozy and relaxed, and the after-hours socialization was brilliant. If I were to attempt to list all the wonderful people I got to hang with, I will invariably leave someone off, so to everyone I reconnected with or met for the first time - it was awesome to see you all!

I was able to make three of the panels, all of which were highly entertaining:

• New Media Author Readings - This was the last panel of the track for Saturday afternoon, and featured readings and discussion from four exceptional new media authors. These included the original founder of Farpoint, and current architect of the new media track, Steven Wilson (of Prometheus Radio Theater), who read from his novel Taken Liberty; Tee Morris (of Imagine That! Studios, and numerous podcasts, novel series, and projects) orating from Billibub Baddings and the Case of the Singing Sword; and J. R. Blackwell (of the 365 Tomorrows flash fiction project) and Jared Axelrod (of the Voice of Free Planet X and Aliens You Will Meet podcasts), both of whom spoke from stories-in-progress. The panel was an entertaining hour of storytelling, and a great way for me to start the con.

• Sci Pie - This was the showcase panel of the track on Sunday morning, and an interesting idea. Devised by Paul Fischer and Martha Holloway (of the ADD Cast and the Balticon Podcast) along with Tee Morris, Sci Pie was conceived to be a segment conducted regularly at conventions, where guests at the con are interviewed and pie is eaten. The intent is to record these live and release them as a video podcast series. Despite some communications issues and guest illness, the hour came off rather well, with actress Erin Gray (most remembered for her roles on Buck Rogers in the 25th Century and Silver Spoons), podcaster Marc Bailey (of Grailwolf’s Geek Life), and author Terry Lee Rioux (author of the Deforest Kelley biography From Sawdust to Stardust). Tee did an stellar job of assembling the accompanying visuals, including the incorporation of an excellent introduction to video podcasting by Earl Newton (of Stranger Things). The dessert involved was a wonderful pumpkin cheesecake and a delicious gluten-free pecan pie, provided by “Mrs. Command Line.”

• What’s On Your Mind? Blogging, Audio Blogging, and Podcasts - Some excellent discussion was engendered on this, the last new media track panel for the con. Participants included Thomas Gideon (of Command Line), Paul Fischer, Steve Kramer and Lisa Mendel of The Secret Frequency, and Michele and Brian of the Galactica Quorum. Afterwards, J.R. and Jared spontaneously orchestrated the following image:

L to R: Paul Fischer, Martha Holloway, J.R. Blackwell (standing), Heather Bailey, Thomas Gideon, Steve Wilson, Tee Morris, Jared Axelrod, Laura Burns, myself, Marc Bailey

Finally, I met two people for the first time who deserve particular mention. The first was Marc Okrand, who I was introduced to by Marc Bailey (clearly, there’s some sort of “Marc” club thing going on) as the con was winding down on Saturday. Okrand is the inventor of the Klingon language and the author of the Klingon Dictionary, among many other accomplishments. While my Star Trek geekery of days gone by has long since waned, the sheer academic coolness of his contribution to Trek lore is such that this was a definite “squee” moment. The second person was Brand Gamblin of the Calls for Cthulhu video podcast series. Calls for Cthulhu is hilarious fun, and it was great to meet the main architect of the show and find him to be a nigh-scary fit into our podcastery collective. Brand currently plans to do a live episode at Balticon… attendance on my part will be quite mandatory.