Normally, I break everything up. I’ll record all of the lines for each character in a batch. For example, I’ll record all of Steve’s lines. Then I’ll start over and record all of Uncle Shameless, Zeroth, etc.

I then tend to do the Narrator lines last. I do not read straight out of the book. I adapt everything to document that resembles an audio drama script.

I put all of the sound files for each character into a folder, and when I assemble the episode in GarageBand, I follow the script and drag the files in that I need and edit accordingly.

I did it this, in part, to ‘stay in character’ the whole time. I voice act for multiple characters that a) sound different and b) talk in different styles/mannerisms–I do Steve a bit higher pitched and winy/sarcastic, while I slur and stumble my words with Uncle Shameless.

I decided to give recording ‘live’ a shot after being on a podcasting panel at Penguicon a couple weeks ago. My co-panelist mentioned that she did everything that way. I figured after 24 podcast episodes and 13 episodes of LansingNext, I certainly had the chops to try.

I’m glad I did. The process went very smoothly, and I was able to carry energy all the way through, because I wasn’t starting and stopping along the way. This was probably one of my better recordings, especially when it came to the Narrator lines (which I’m trying to make more ‘energetic’).

The real test will be in the editing. Will this make chopping an episode easier? Most likely. I just hopes it makes it faster. Episode 025, “Pirates!,” will be available on June 2nd at magicofeyri.com.

- This week’s episode of LansingNext: 012 “Of Moose and Mentor.”

- This week’s special episode of the Magic of Eyri Podcast, “Adapting a Novel to a Podcast.” This was a panel talk I did at Penguicon last weekend (which I still need to write about, sigh). Joining me on the panel is the super-talented Mary Robinette Kowal.

- Oh, and that podcast made it on BoingBoing. Woo hoo!

- I threw together a story for Examiner about where to celebrate Cinco de Mayo.

- And lastly, this week’s development stories for Capital Gains. One. Two. Three. Four.

Have a fun weekend.

I’ll do a more in-depth post this week (sometime over the next few days), because i am exhausted.

Some quick hits–

-I recorded a couple of the panels I was on: “Humor in Sci-Fi/Fantasy” with Jim C. Hines and Brian Briggs, and “Adapting Your Novel to a Podcast” with Mary Robinette Kowal.

-I had the pleasure of meeting and chatting for awhile with author and all-around-awesome-person Cherie Priest. Thankfully, I was able to get a copy of her steampunk novel, Boneshaker in the Dealer’s Room (which has been on my “to-read” since it was released) and have her sign it before I left.

-I bought my new favorite tshirt (from David Willis at shortpacked.com).

what a weekend!

Building a Healthier Lansing – a feature article for Capital Gains about the Power of We and AmeriCorp doing it what they can to make Lansing a healthier city.

Last week’s development stories for Capital Gains (I write four a week):

• Entrepreneur Institute Moves to 1,000 Sq Ft Space in Downtown Lansing
• Replay Entertainment Exchange Thriving, Expands Space
• The Tin Can Opens in Downtown Lansing
• Cravings Popcorn Moves to Old Town

Here is a nice bio that Capital Gains wrote about me to announce my taking on the development writer role.

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Now, onto the aural realm:

Last week’s episode of The Magic of Eyri Podcast.

Last week’s episode of LansingNext (featuring  Julielyn Gibbons and myself)

]]> http://danieljhogan.com/home/2010/02/23/last-weeks-articles-and-more/feed/ 0 http://danieljhogan.com/home/2010/01/25/talking-about-copyrights-self-internet-guerrilla-marketing/ http://danieljhogan.com/home/2010/01/25/talking-about-copyrights-self-internet-guerrilla-marketing/#comments Mon, 25 Jan 2010 13:31:48 +0000 Daniel http://danieljhogan.com/home/?p=485 By the Glory of Google, I found audio of me talking about copyrights and self/Internet/guerrilla marketing at last year’s Penguicon.  These were recorded by, and feature, Rick “The Time Traveler” Jackson, who is also president of the Science Fiction Oral History Association.  The audio is hosted on Rick’s website, Brain Plucker.

Copywhat? Copyrights! Open Source Licensing in Literature – we chat about copyright issues, especially when it comes to Internet.

Show notes and Listen :: Download

Selling Your Soul – Marketing Your Work on a Limited Budget – we chat about marketing your own stuff while trying not to break the bank (features Jim C. Hines and David Crampton)

Show notes and Listen :: Download

Guerrilla Marketing — The Art of Self-Promotion – along the same lines of the panel above, but touches on other marketing ideas (features Michael “FREON” Andaluz).  I found this one via some sort of MP3 grabber site (and was alerted by Google), so I have the audio hosted on my site, as I can’t find an entry for it on any of Rick’s websites.

Download

(all audio recordings are © 2009 Rick Jackson)

Give these a listen and enjoy!  I love being on panels and talking about these subjects.  I’ve certainly learned plenty about promotion over the past few years.

This episode, and the next two, have plenty of action. Uncle Shameless dukes it out with the bounty hunter Zeroth. Good times are had by all.  Uh, well maybe not.

In Fistful of Dollars costume news, my metal chest plate is finished, mom mailed me my vest and scarf and I picked up some cigars last night (don’t tell mom).  I did buy a hat yesterday, but after getting it home I hated it and realized it just wasn’t going to work. Sigh. That’s $10 I’ll never see again. I’m going to suck it up and buy a nice felt hat for around $30. At least it is something I can wear after Halloween. It won’t be 100% the same as Clint’s, but it will be close enough.

I will do a proper blog update about the progress of the costume later.

GarageBand makes it pretty easy to create and tweak your own effects.  It reminds of a time when a friend told me about a digital effect pedal he got for his guitar, he said getting the pedal set his learning guitar back by a year due to spending all of his time playing with the pedal’s effects.

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Friday night was the Ignite Lansing event here in town.  It was an amazing sight, but sadly I was stuck at work and wasn’t able to watch any of the presentations.  I had a break and was able to swing by for a little bit as things got started.  Seeing lots of creative people in one spot was great.

The event was held at what used to be the Temple Club–an old church that was turned into a music venue.  It was a great place to see a show: I saw Electric Six there twice and both were fantastic shows. However, the Club did not survive and Lansing lost of its unique (and honestly, best) music venues.  Currently it is being turned into office space, and while I’m glad the building is going to be used again, it isn’t the same.

The word on the street is that Ignite Lansing 3.0 will take place in March.  I’m considering signing up to do a presentation on podcasts.  You suggest a topic and people vote on the topics they want to see–if you win, you have to give a presentation on that topic in five minutes, using twenty slides.  Lots of pressure, but I think I could do it.

http://magicofeyri.com/2009/09/fantasy-writing-panel-podcast/

The panel featured Jim C. Hines (Goblin Quest series, Stepsister Scheme, Mermaid’s Madness), Phil Kline (Curse of the Kitsune) and myself.  It runs about 49 minutes and is worth a listen–especially when Jim starts talking about his werewolf-muppet story.

The audio quality is not on par with my normal episodes, as I just set up a recorder on the table and let it go, but I did what I could in GarageBand to make it a little better (tried to cut out some of the long pauses too).

Joining me in splendid 64 kps glory are Jim C. Hines and Phil Kline.  I haven’t listened to the audio yet, but I’m sure it turned out just fine (or fine enough for this purpose).

I’m curious how this will turn out and if people will like it or not. This will not be a regular feature, but I know people do enjoy this sort of thing (listening to writers talk about writing)–otherwise no one would ever attend any of the panels I’m on. I keep meaning to record non-podcast stuff to have at the ready if I ever need filler in case I don’t have an episode ready or something comes up (illness, vacation, pirate-ninjas).

Regular transmission of episodes will continue on September 27th.

Starting with the next episode, things really start kicking into high gear, action-wise anyway.  And we’ll meet some new characters too.

Event this Tuesday: I’m going to be part of the Fantasy Author Panel at the Delta Township District Library. Join Jim C. Hines, Phil Kline and myself as we rap about writing fantasy fiction. FREE. 6 PM to 8:30 PM.

We will be signing and selling books afterwards…well, I won’t be selling books, but I’ll be giving out free podcast CDs.  I may only put the first few episodes on there and make them audio CDs instead of .MP3s. We’ll see.

I recorded a single line incorrectly for this episode, forcing me to go back and rerecord it, which threw off my editing schedule and caused me to work on this episode until last night. I’m never waiting until the last minute again. But it is done, huzzah.

This episode introduces Robin Hudson (of Angle Between the Lines and other podcasts) as the voice of Eira, the pelican healer.

I also dedicated this episode to Les Paul, who passed away this week. His pioneering of multi-track recording and audio effects led the way for the non-linear audio software we use today (GarageBand in my case).

I plan on having the last installment of my Chicago Comic Con blog up later today.

I wore my Ghostbusters costume at Motor City Comic Con while promoting it there and that helped a bunch (people asked for photos and I gave ‘em CDs or cards), but I can’t take my proton pack with me on the bus to Chicago, nor do I think it would survive the trip – I could still wear the flightsuit, but I don’t think it is worth it without the proton pack.

I’m not going to bother explaining how a thirteen year old is able to update a website while in a far away fantasy world, because there are other examples of people doing this.  It also gives me something to update in between episodes, and since my episodes are on a bi-weekly schedule (every other Sunday, Ep009 goes online this Sunday), I’m always worried about losing listeners.

And honestly, I’m having fun with it so  far–and it doesn’t cost me any thing, so why not? I’m still figuring out which direction to take it in (like do I reply to people or not, are the updates Magic of Eyri canon, etc), but I think it’ll just boil down to what I have time for and, more importantly, just having fun.

Last year, I took the train with my then girlfriend, L –we picked up a bus in East Lansing (at the train station, I think) and then took that bus to the train station in…uh, Kalamazoo I think. The bus trip was bad enough, with people having to stand in the aisle the whole way. The high point of this was one of the people standing was a very obviously hung over gentleman, who appeared to be on the verge of vomiting at a moment’s notice (I offered him my seat but he declined, saying that standing was better for him).

On top of this, I caught a cold the night before and was terrible shape for traveling. I spent the layover time at the next stop in a near-comatose state. The train ride wasn’t any better, as L and I couldn’t find seats together. And there was the whole riding backwards on the train thing, which did not sit well with me at all (I was sitting in the opposite direction the train was going).

Upon hitting Chicago, I was in even worse shape, allowing me to make a terrible first impression on L’s friend we met after dinner and would be staying with (the plan being, I go to the comicon with my friends and L spend the day doing what she wanted, both of us meeting up afterwards). This was Thursday night.

Friday morning, after a fantastic evening of night sweats and fever, I pulled myself out of bed and managed to make it to the nearest CTA train station–how, I don’t know. The con was fun, but when you have a fever and feel like you’re going to pass out at any moment, spending hours walking around a large convention center loses its appeal rather quickly.

I linked up with my friends, whom have moved out of Michigan in recent years, and did my best to enjoy the con. The plan was to grab dinner together that evening, attend a reading/Q&A by Warren Ellis (one of my favorite comic book writers) and hang out afterwards.

Well, that didn’t happen. I survived the afternoon at the con–barely. I almost left at one point, but since neither L nor her friend were home, I didn’t really have a choice. I had to forgo the traditional White Castle dinner in favor of something a little more pleasing to my weakened state (Subway, I think, so barely). I think I made it about 30 minutes through Warren Ellis’ reading before I hit rock bottom.

A couple of panicked phone calls later, I was on my way back to L’s friend’s house and so were L and said friend (forcing the two of them to leave a party or something). I was promptly pumped full of cold meds and put to bed.

Saturday started out great—and quickly got worse. I felt better at first, but after L and I trekked downtown to see the museums and such (Saturday was spend time with the girlfriend day), I was hardly able to stand. Needless to say, our museum outing was short lived. But here’s the best part:

L’s friend worked for the Obama campaign. And after we got back to L’s friend’s place (we had a spare key), she called us and invited us to the Taste of Chicago festival downtown, where Stevie Wonder was the guest. This would have meant getting back on the train to downtown, and standing outside in a 100 degree (give or take) sunny weather around thousands of people. L and I passed, opting to recover (she was exhausted as well, having spent the previous day downtown with friends).

The next day, we find out that had we gone, L’s friend could have gotten us into a private show put on by Stevie Wonder for Barrack and Michelle Obama.

Yes, that’s right. L and I could have met the now President and First Lady. And part of me thinks that if I had just taken some DayQuil, I might have been up for going.

(for the record, L’s friend had no idea–or at least gave us no prior indication–that this would happen, if she had said there would have been even a maybe chance, I would have cowboy’d up and went–and in some bizarre alternative reality, passed my plague on to the then presidential candidate, which would somehow cause him to lose the election. But, I digress).

That Sunday, the last day of Wizard World, I survived the outing but didn’t stay the whole day–and couldn’t because L and I had to catch the train back to Michigan. Catching our train was another bit of fun, as we had a hard time figuring out where to go inside Union Station. Yes, we almost boarded the wrong train.

So here I am, a little over a year later, and I’m toying with heading back.

I’m thinking of taking the Mega Bus time, which is faster than the train and way cheaper. And since I’m going solo this time (L broke up with me back in January), I figured why not? The Mega Bus gets my mom’s seal of approval and because of Chicago’s great mass transit system, all I have to do is hop on the Blue Line train after the bus drops me off at Union Station in downtown Chicago (seriously, their mass transit system rules–get with it Michigan) and I’ll be at the convention center around lunch time.  The ease of the mass transit system was something I really enjoyed last year.

Financially, I can make it work ($28 round trip on the Mega Bus is great) — and since I’m going there to promote the Magic of Eyri Podcast (give out cards/CDs) and myself, I can write off some of the expenses.

But I’ll have to watch my spending at the con itself (I think only having one bag to carry everything for the weekend in will help with that).

And honestly, I want a redo because last year was so horrible. I’m hoping that whatever is in my system at the moment (some kind of Black Lung/Bronchitis thing), will be under control by then (I’m on a new run of antibiotics so, I’m sure I’ll be fine).

But this time I’m going loaded for bear: bringing cold stuff just in case.

For me though, going to the con isn’t really about buying comics (or promoting myself)–it is to see my friends and to spend a fun weekend around like-minded people. As I’m getting older, I’m realizing I probably won’t have too many more chances like this down the road to have a carefree weekend with old friends (but I hope I’m very, very wrong).

As my dad likes to say, life is about ‘nuggets’ — little events or moments that may seem insignificant in the big picture, but make life all the more interesting.

Speaking of — both Gary Coleman AND Todd Bridges of Diff’rent Strokes are guests this year. How can I NOT go?

Well, after some trouble shooting and hair pulling, I solved the problem (and was glad I did before deleting my FeedBurner feed). I had the settings set to only include the last 5 posts in the syndication feed.

Yeah. I’m a moron.

Anyway, it is set to a much higher number now, so that should not be a problem. My apologies to those that this snafu caused any problems for.

I did the same thing to the feed for my blog. Sadly, I deleted the FeedBurner feed for my blog first, as a sort of test…and only realized afterwards that this wasn’t the problem. Well, I have the FeedBurner feed up again and everything will be fine…I just might have to go back and recode some of the FeedBurner buttons that show my blog subscriber stats.

I’m still very upset with myself for making such a dumb mistake in the first place. Live and learn I guess. And it could have been WAY worse.

And some good news–I was checking my Lulu sales today and three copies of The Magic of Eyri were bought in the past week. 2 downloads and 1 print copy–which was ordered in the U.K., very neat. Counting a sale right after my appearance at PenguiCon, that puts me at 4 copies sold in the past month. That’s really great, looks like the podcast is paying dividends.