Troll Jammies: Tactical Highlighter #7

NaNo is going fairly well. As of this writing, I’m at 15721 words and my OpenOffice.org Calc sheet shows my average per day at just above 2245. I haven't started writing for today so that's why the numbers may not add up.

Unfortunately, that pace throws off my listening because I don’t have as much capacity for listening to stories if I’m working hard on stories. It’s an emotional thing rather than a time issue. So, this week’s Tactical Highlighter is a bit light and it’s being posted later than I hoped. I had wanted to start posting these on Saturdays or early on Sundays to give people a bit more time before the work week to download the stuff I’m talking about. It’s looking like that won’t happen during November. We’ll see how things work out for December.

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, Peanuts is one of my favorite comic strips, and Norm Sherman is one of my favorite podcasting voices. Too bad there’s nothing that combines those three things together! Oh, I’m a failure at being a tease. Here’s The Great Old Pumpkin by John Aegard. It’s definitely the best thing ever. I usually delete an episode of whatever I’m listening to right after I finished listening to it. For this one, I listened three times in one day, and I’m sure it won’t be deleted anytime soon. The introduction and outro are every bit as entertaining as the story and I laughed bunches.
Jennifer Hudock, author of the Goblin Market podcast, posted up a short story podcast based in the universe of James Melzer’s Invasion storyline. I’m not familiar with James Melzer’s work, but if Jennifer’s story is any indication, I’m sure it’s wonderful. Not appropriate for children, probably ok for most adults.
There’s another great Dead Robots Society interview up. It includes some talk about Scott Sigler’s book deal and where he sees the future of publishing, and some hints about a business plan Scott is using for his self-published books. I think Scott has a great idea and if you have an interest in self-publishing, you should definitely listen. DRS’s interview with Philippa Ballantine and Dan Sawyer (who wrote Cold Duty, a story I reviewed for Dear Editor) is also quite good, but it’s more entertaining than informative from a new media perspective. Ugh, I hate saying “new media” about as much as I hate saying “social media.” Someone needs to invent a name for it that doesn’t make you sound like a sleazy douche bag when you use it. Enough with the ramble though.
On the subject of Dan Sawyer, his second launchcast for Down From Ten is really good for writers. It’s been awhile since I wrote the note to myself to mention this, so I don’t remember the exact topic, but if you’re a writer, please listen in. I’m sure part three is excellent too, but I haven’t listened to it and part one was more entertaining than informative. Entertaining is good, but I generally stick to linking fiction for entertainingness.