Tactical Highlighter #12

No excuses for this week, I’m just plain late.

The writing front went pretty well this week. I finished the first draft on my Tony Cello story this week. I also have a decent title for it now: The Transported Town. It’s a bit Philip K. Dick considering it’s a paranormal mystery, but Philip can infect my titles with awesome any time he feels like.

I also started plotting for Terms of Service. I had originally wanted to do a full length novel of it, but based on my experience during NaNo, I’m not sure what I have right now can actually be stretched out to novel length. I may go with a ten part serial (20K total according to my current theory) instead.

• Atoms, Motion, and the Void did a story awhile back called Dinner in the Dark by Sherwin Sleeves. AMV is a public access radio program produced in New Hampshire. Their release schedule is a little odd, but Sherwin is an incredible story teller with an amazing voice. I’m very grateful to Braindouche for introducing me to this podcast. The story itself is a melancholy look at the past and the confusion that comes with the passage of years and the cultural myth that’s built up around it. But you can enjoy it without putting all that thought into it.
• Dunesteef: Final Exam by Edward McKeown. Excellent nostalgic science fiction piece with more than a little 50s era nostalgia. There’s also a hilarious intro by Rish and Big, and a bit of discussion about optimistic SF. If you’re interested in optimistic SF, you should definitely give Shineanthology a looksie. Optimistic SF is not my bag of rice, but it might be yours.
• Poul Anderson’s Security … read by Gregg Margarite, one of my absolute favoritest LibriVox readers ever. This is a great story, and a really great reading. Despite the fact that it was written in 1953, the story is pretty good about not being misogynistic.
• Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, read by Karen Savage. This is one of my favorite books ever, and I’ve listened to this version of it at least five times this year. Karen Savage does a brilliant job of reading it and if you have any interest in Jane Austen at all, you should definitely listen to this version.