Rish performs the P.G. Wodhouse's 1925 ghost story "Honeysuckle Cottage."
Crime writer James Rodman's luck changes when he inherits his aunt's haunted house . . . but so does his writing.
Download the episode by Right-Clicking HERE.
Support me on Patreon HERE.
Logo by Gino "Coneysuckle Hottage" Moretto.
Not too long ago, a friend of the Dunesteef, Jonathan Wilson, contacted me, asking if I had any lines in stories for him to voice, since he missed those old days where we would have folks send us lines for characters in full-cast stories. I don't tend to use any other voices in my stories (though I'm occasionally tempted with female characters), but I told him Big might have a slot or two for him on his show.
Not to be deterred, Jonathan has made his own show, written his own stories, and has been releasing them over on YouTube. And now the worm has turned, as I'm voicing a couple of characters in Jonathan's story "Vega." It's about a military listening post that gets a message from outer space, originating in the Vega star system.
I just watched it and . . . holy Aerosmith video-era Alicia Silverstone, he seems to have made some kind of animated motion comic, using uncanny valley A.I. character images that move their mouths when there's dialogue. It's not like anything I've seen . . . and to my horror, I realized that Specialist Donaldson kind of looks like me, facial hair and everything!
The future is here, kids.
Check it out AT THIS LINK, if you dare.
Rish talks about his longest work, the newly-released book "Balms & Sears." He talks about the idea behind it, the reason it got so long, and the many challenges of producing the audio.
Already up on Amazon, the audiobook version of my novel "Balms & Sears" is finally available on Audible.
As you know (Diane), B&S tells the tale of Alec Ewell, who is a Balm, and has the ability to heal people who are injured, or sick, or suffering. Alec just can't help using his power, prompting his grandfather to move him to a new town, like the one in Colorado they just arrived in. Gramps wants the boy to keep it a secret, to leave well enough alone, and just try to be a normal boy...something Alec finds impossible to do.
I do the narration/performance, and it's the longest work I've ever managed. It took me a while to get it out there, trying to get it perfect . . . when I was fully aware it could never ever be.
To my delight (and hopefully yours as well), the final edit ended up at a very unusual/pleasing number:
Anyhow, art is never finished, it simply escapes, and you can buy it HERE!
So, here we are, the last segment of the 2019 "Lara & The Witch" novella.
Lara Demming has been targeted by a supernatural enemy, and what's worse, he now knows where she is.
Here's a link to the Collection Volume 1 audiobook, now available!
If you want to download the episode, Right-Click HERE.
If you want to support me on Patreon, click HERE.
Logo by Gino "You're In Wood Stands" Moretto.
So, a year ago, I created my list of goals/New Year's Resolutions for 2024. I did a couple of blog posts looking at how I was doing, but I should've done it more often (because out of sight is out of mind, and I am completely out of mind). But the year is done, and so, let's see how I did.
1. Exercise 222 Days
Hmm. I managed to exercise 301 days in 2024. By my math, that is 135% of my goal. Not bad, kid.
2. Put out 5th audio collection
Sure, that one's done. And it's available to purchase AT THIS LINK.
I got the introduction from Big, so that means it's all on me.
3. Release "Balms & Sears" novel
Yes, and it was more work than I've ever done, both in the writing and the recording/editing, on a book.
You could buy it HERE. If you wanna.
4. Clear out my room . . . a bit
Epic fail.
5. Finish "Melancholy Christmas Night" story
Yep, finished it in February.
6. Write "Sins of a Sidekick" novella
Yep, that one too.
7. Write 10 stories (and finish them)
1. Melancholy Christmas Night
2. I Got A Secret
3. The Day Before The Day Before Christmas
11. The Grand Tour
12. The Last Christmas
8. Put out 10 episodes of The Podcast That Dares Not Speak Its Name
Yes, I did get ten episodes out in 2024. On my Patreon. All the more reason you should go HERE.
9. Sell Trypticon
Nope. I only went to four or so toy sales the whole year, and the one I took the big Transformer to, nobody was interested.
10. Avoid retail price, wait for clearance
I didn't avoid it completely, but wow, way more than had been my track record. Except for at Ross toward the end of the year, I'd say I bought fifty to sixty percent fewer toys in '24 than in '23 or '22. Oh, and even though it was my goal last year and not this year, I bought so few G.I. Joes in 2024 that the number could be rounded down to zero.
11. Do 3 things that scare me
a. Putting out physical copies of my books scares me, so I think this qualifies.
b. Applying for a new job, even though I didn't think I was qualified for it ABSOLUTELY counts.
c. And along those lines, having to be an authority figure, having to tell homeless people not to lie on the floor, having to confront troublemakers, that has been scary to me, and it still scares me, but it's going to get easier the more that I do it.
Unca Marshal and Cousin Rish over at the Outfield Excursions have reviewed the Roger Corman, er, "classic," THE TERROR, starring a pre-fame Jack Nicholson and a post-fame (sorry) Boris Karloff. A lost French soldier encounters a spectral babe, a witch, a bird of prey, an old and paranoid Baron, a dude who becomes a dummy, and a Dick Miller on his way from a lonely stretch of beach to a castle and back again. I'd tell you the name of the director, but I only have so much space on my blog.
Check it out HERE.
Better late than never? Rish looks back at his 2024 goals, and sets new ones for 2025.
It took a minute, but I got the audio version of the Lara & The Witch: Volume I collection finished and out there. I went through the first four stories like a fine-toothed comb, cutting out mouth sounds and finding a couple of flubs I had previously missed (I published "Here To Help" in 2024, so I skipped that one, for better or worse), so it took quite a while longer than the text version, but it's out there now, if you want to listen to it.
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| Shrooms . . . they're supposed to be shrooms |
As I've said before, it includes the first five stories (chronologically): "Like A Good Neighbor," "You're In Good Hands," "Made Just For You," "The People We Touch," and "Here To Help"* and comes to just over ten hours of audio, which ain't too shabby.
In listening through these, I discovered a couple changes I wanted to make, and came up with a couple of ideas for new stories (currently writing a Mother's Day tale, and trying to determine the fate of the little glowing ball Lara gets in "Made Just For You," since it never reappears). Trouble is, once those are done (as well as "Accept No Substitutes," which I still don't know how to end), they will all fall between the fourth and fifth stories in this collection, so what's a boy to do?
In the meantime, feel free to buy the collection on Audible HERE, and if you do, I'll make putting out the next stories more of a priority.
*There's also a little bonus extra called "A Short Interlude" in between the second and third stories.
I have a Facebook friend who flogs his books on the site as relentlessly as I flog my-- Er, he does it as relentlessly as any author I've ever seen, posting about one book, then the second, then the third, and back to the first again, almost like he's got it set up to do automatically (and maybe he does). I am not thrilled with this, but I recognize that it is an important and vital thing for indie- and self-publishers to do.
So, let me once more plug "Balms & Sears," my novel about the teenager who has the power to heal. You can currently find it on Amazon HERE.
But Big did send me a square version of the cover art to use for the audiobook, so I got started on that. I took a screenshot as I was uploading files (the darn thing doesn't start with Chapter 1, but with a prologue, so the automatic numbering was screwed up from the start.* But that won't stop me.
I'll have it finished and completely uploaded by the end of the month. And Audible has been good (recently) at getting these books available for purchase quite quickly after submission. The final runtime will be just over eleven hours . . . can you imagine?
Oh, but I still have to come up with a five minute sample for it. Hmmm.
*Meaning, I had to change Chapter 1 to Prologue, then Chapter 2 to Chapter 1, and so on. I thought I was clever, though, by creating twenty chapters, then changing the LAST one to the missing chapter, and pushing Move Up fifteen or so times until the renamed chapter was where it was supposed to be. It's tedious work, but it's still end level Tetris compared to actually editing these chapters.
Rish talks about his car problems, and shares the third segment of his "Lara & The Witch" story.
Lara Demming has started to mistrust Holcomb and her power over her. Does her magical pendant work or not?
Buy "Lara: Volume I" at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CVKZX9S9
To download this episode, Right-Click HERE.
