Put on your grass skirt and coconut brassiere, it’s time for another Link Luau.
From the How to Make My Day Dept.
Over at SFF Audio a few weeks back, three very nice people saw fit to devote a fair amount of time to heaping praise all over “Assam & Darjeeling”.
Click here to listen to the squee-worthy episode. They cover a lot of interesting topics in each show, so it’s well worth subscribing to.
Take Your Pick
It’s official. “Assam & Darjeeling” is now available for your iPad. Just search for it in the iBooks store. In case you’re keeping track: You can now read it in paperback, hardcover, on your Kindle, iPhone, iPad, or listen to the free audiobook. Hell, ask me nicely and I’ll pop ’round and act it out in your basement, den, or rumpus room.
A few people have asked and yes, there will be an iBook/iPad version of Matters of Mortology as well. Look for it sometime around Hallowe’en.
Correction
Apparently some crazy person snuck in and added a few lines of insanity to one of my recent posts, promising a new book this summer.
The aforementioned lunatic has been apprehended and is currently locked in the basement awaiting extradition to the attic.
So. No new book this year. We apologize for the inconvenience.
The Intermittent Wossname
For those of you who are wondering about the new baby, those darn eyes appear to be getting bigger and bluer by the day. It’s hereditary so there’s probably nothing to be done. She’ll just have to learn to live with ‘em.
From the Like I Don’t Have Enough to Do Dept.
I’ve never gone in for National Novel Writing Month. When it rolls around each year, I’ve always got a project in the works and don’t want to slow down or take a month off. Also, a month seems like a very short amount of time to, y’know, write a whole damn book. But it’s what all the cool kids are doing these days.
As it stands right now, I just might find myself in a spot to participate this year. It’s a hard call. I really ought to kickstart “Pantheon” once again — woefully neglected during all the new babyness of the past few months — but there’s a faint echo in the back of my head that could turn out to be a very nice little book, something that’s possible to crank through in a month. Especially if I break the rules a teensy bit, which I just might do.
And I very much like the idea of having something new this year.
(I know, I said no new book this year. But we’ll see…)
Spreading the Good News
But if you’re hankering for something new to read from Your Obedient Savant, might I recommend a semi-steady diet of short, easily consumed pieces from The Gospel of Thomas? Each episode is lovingly prepared and served up piping hot. And our handy downloadable PDF provides carry-out curbside service to keep pace with your modern on-the-go lifestyle.
We’ve already got a handful of episodes out there, with a lot more in the works: Everything from poetry to plays to short stories to odd little things that don’t quite fit anywhere else. In addition, I’ll be giving listeners sneak peeks (sneak listens?) at a brand new Jee story as well as sections from my new novel “Pantheon” in progress.
Exciting stuff.
Broadcast News
And speaking of Listening to Things That Sound A Lot Like Me, there’s been a big surge in listeners to all of my podcasts/audiobooks.
Since October of 2009, “Assam & Darjeeling” has seen over 14,000 downloads from all around the world. We’ve only been tracking for a year or so, but the book has been out there since 2007 — which is when it was first offered as a free audiobook/podcast download on iTunes. So it’s safe to assume that those numbers are potentially much, much higher.
Unfortunately, the data for “Matters of Mortology” appears to be corrupted and I don’t have entirely reliable data to share. I’m just going to say “lots and lots” of people have been downloading it since 2008 when it first launched. But don’t let that stop you from giving it a listen (iTunes or RSS).
My latest podcast is an anthology show called The Gospel of Thomas (which you should already know about from reading the blurb above, unless you weren’t really paying attention). It’s been running since May of this year, with approximately 1,000 downloads so far. You can subscribe to it on iTunes as well or listen via RSS.
Yay. Aren’t numbers fun?
The Book of Love
A few weeks back I had this idea that it might be fun to start up an online book club — just a little group of us getting together online to chat about a book or two. I put out a few feelers and enough people chimed in with some interest, so we took the plunge.
Our first book is Kij Johnson’s excellent The Fox Woman and the conversation’s just getting started over in our new Forums section.
Even if you’re a little bit behind, it’s not too late to pick up a copy of the book and join us. Glad to have you along.
(And we’re looking for other books to read in our next round, so throw one of your own favorites into the mix.)
“She is Theology in Flames”
Imagine you’re best friends with the reigning mad genius of comicdom, the author of seminal works that, twenty odd years later, continue to dominate best seller lists and inspire generations of new readers, artists, and writers… Best friends with a self-proclaimed magus who stages public workings, exploring and exposing the parallels between quantum physics and the Kabbalah, among other topics… And imagine he sets his sights on your life story, tracing your own winding path up the Tree of Life, eavesdropping on your (albeit a mad enterprise in it’s own right) wooing of the moon goddess Selene.
“Unearthing” — Alan Moore’s latest work (and possibly his latest working, I can’t quite say) employs all of his storytelling magic (literally) in the exploration of his boyhood chum Stephen Moore (no relation). A study in the evolution of a powerdork (not a pejorative term, I assure you), “Unearthing” moves through the strata of human existence — from the physical to more ethereal realms.
The piece hinges on a late-night invocation of the goddess Selene — a startling and puzzling episode late in the story that exposes more questions than it answers. Whatever might have happened on that night in Alan Moore’s Northampton flat, it’s clear from his account that something most certainly happened — a shared numinous experience that not even drugs or insanity can explain away.
It’s an amazing work, difficult to classify and certainly not something that every listener will find accessible. Like his other workings, Alan Moore so densely layers the images and language in “Unearthing” that a single listen leaves you with anecdotes and impressions, whereas repeated playings deepen the experience to the point where you occupy the mind of each Moore in turn — the lonely wandering in search of his goddess . . . and the acute observer chronicling the journey, even as he drifts from the role of spectator into that of participant.
“Unearthing” serves as the latest layer in Alan Moore’s exploration of the mystical levels of consciousness. Glimmers of it appear in his early work on Swamp Thing, complimented by brief flashes in Watchmen before he picks up momentum in his masterpiece From Hell. For a shorthand overview of his creative and magical mindset, there is the excellent “Mindscape” documentary (available on iTunes and Amazon).
But the purest expression of his mystic evolution and exploration is found in his “workings” — verbal performances to which the label “spoken word” does not do justice. Most of his previous workings are available on CD either through Top Shelf Publishing or for astronomically ridiculous prices on eBay.
Fortunately, “Unearthing” is much easier to get a hold of. You can either spring for the deluxe, limited edition box set from Lex Records or download the stripped down audio version from iTunes.
This is at the top of the list, hands down. It’s a hard show to describe to people, but it’s somewhat accurate to say it’s a superb melding of the sensibilities of This American Life with content from that Science class you never went to in college. Outstanding stuff. The hosts/producers Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich have a lot of fun with the material and it’s hard not to get caught up in it all. I’ve been listening to this one for over a year and every time there’s a new episode, my little geeky heart just leaps for joy. And, unlike other shows, this one has a considerable shelf life; the reruns are just as good the second and third time around.
This show drives me to work every Monday morning. The classic panel show format is a lot of fun and host Peter Sagal has a quick, clever mind. His rotating panel of guests always seems to be having way too much fun taking apart the newsmakers of the week. My personal favorite is Paul Provenza but they’re all lots of fun chasing after jokes together.
This is the only terminal podcast in the list. For twelve episodes back in 2006, writer Ken Hollings unpacked the period of time running from 1947 through 1959. It’s a fascinating tour of the emergence of UFO culture, conspiracy theory, B-movies, and the psychedelic generation. Great, great stuff and lots of fun listening to Hollings make subtle little connections underlying seemingly unrelated facets of what he calls the “American Half-Century”.
I only recently ran across the storytelling collective called The Moth but it’s rapidly become a favorite. The premise is pretty simple: Each week they publish a new episode in which someone tells a true story (without notes) in front of a live audience. The stories run the gamut of emotion, from the hilarious to the heartbreaking. And there’s nary a sour note in the bunch. 
If I had a talk show, I’d interview all my heroes — writers and comics artists and comedians and musicians and magicians and directors — no matter how obscure. And, during every interview, I’d be a quivering mass of fanboy joy.
Kurt Anderson’s got a great show on Public Radio and I was a very happy man when they made it available as a weekly podcast. As a free-form exploration of the Arts and Culture, you can’t do much better than this. He brings in great guests to chat — musicians and writers and artists from across the spectrum — but the backup segments are always interesting and compelling. This is a show that invariably sends me to the Web so I can look up some book or album they mentioned and add it to 
The title says it all, really. I ran across Mur Lafferty on Twitter one day last year. Her longstanding podcast is a staple for aspiring writers. She does great interviews and isn’t afraid to spend time discussing her own career ups and downs as well. She’s the purple-haired Queen of Podcasting, a real capital-w Writer, and a true trailblazer for writers exploring audiobooks as a channel to publishing.
One of the best things about this show is the format. The host — known only as FNH — usually starts things off with a historical exploration from the 20′s and 30′s, before treating everyone to a piece of music or popular song from the period. Each episode ends with the main feature, typically a story from Lovecraft or a related author. Best of all, the podcast is open to submissions — listeners are encouraged to send in stories of their own, or their own productions of a Lovecraft classic.
This is the gold standard. Ira Glass and his team put out great stories consistently, week in and week out. Even though it’s completely free (as are all of the ‘casts I’ve mentioned here), I was happy to make a donation last year to help keep the podcast version going. And I’ll do the same again, whenever they ask.
I used to work on a shipping/receiving dock. My day consisted of opening cardboard boxes. My coworkers were, with a few exceptions, a completely different form of life than anything I’d experienced before. They spent their nights out drinking, smoking, doing all sorts of recreational pharmaceuticals and (to hear them tell it) going home with whatever female was willing enough (or inebriated enough) to let them into their bed. They staggered into work and spent the day doing as little as possible while recounting their escapades, before heading out to do it all over again.