Alien Beer

In this episode of Rosedale Pub, Alyssa meets True Colorado, a regular, who tells a rather tall tale.I wrote this story in a café in Broad Ripple, a pretty part of my city. I was drawn to the cafe when I spotted a trans flag hanging from a balcony nearby. The café was open air, since one side of the building opened with garage doors. I sat at a table by myself with my laptop, tarot cards, and my coffee, and came up with "Tall Tale", set in my new Rosedale Pub series.

I can't stress enough how much I've missed writing somewhere other than my home office. Sure, my home office is comfortable and has everything I need. But a change of scenery provides a sense of being away from household worries and work, and that gave my creativity a big boost. And I daresay the sense of freedom that came with my away mission was good for the soul.

Dear listeners, I am so excited to share with you this, the first chapter of Trans Witch: College of Secrets, as read by Danielle Muething! I can't express how happy I am with Danielle's narration, both in quality and consistency, and how thrilled I am with the way she brought my characters to life with her voice acting. Please enjoy this sample chapter, and I hope you'll check the audiobook out on Audible!

Well, dear listeners, this is it, the last episode of The Multiverse Blues. It's been an amazing ride for me. I hope it's been as much fun for you, since you're still here listening to this. I'll go on the record as saying that I don't have plans for a sequel to this story, but you never know. I'm sure some of these characters will show up in the next project, which will also be about wayfarers traveling between the worlds.

Have you enjoyed the story? The Multiverse Blues is now a BOOK. Check out Amazon for ebook and paperback versions, with more availability coming soon.

In the final episode of The Multiverse Blues, Jules faces down two armies which threaten the lives of the refugee Tristellians, and the Theta Earth concert crowd that might get caught in the crossfire. How can Jules stop the oncoming slaughter?

Surprise! This isn't a bonus episode, but this is usually an off week for the Alien Beer Podcast. Next week, on May 15th, 2021, the last episode of The Multiverse Blues will air. On that same day, the paperback and ebook versions of that saga will be released on Amazon! So, to get you ready for the transition to a new story, I thought I'd air this, the first episode of Rosedale Pub.

Rosedale is a pub between the worlds, a liminal place where travelers from anywhere in the multiverse may rest and mingle. The Road outside, as Bilbo Baggins knows, can go anywhere, and you have to be careful when you set your feet upon it, because who knows where you'll end up. Only thing for sure is, at the Rosedale Pub, you'll hear travelers' tales.  This first episode is an introduction to that place. So pull up a barstool and have a drink. All are welcome at the Rosedale!

Pre-Order The Multiverse Blues ebook!I began The Multiverse Blues as a serial, with only a vague notion of where it would end up. I can own up to not being much of a planner when it comes to writing novellas and novels. I come up with a concept, some characters, a goal, and just start writing. After awhile, patterns emerge, and I'll come up with plot points that definitely need to happen before the end of the story. Often, I'll arrange these in order and end up with a more organized plan, and that plan becomes more and more like an outline the closer I get to the end of the story.

This was my method with The Multiverse Blues as well, but I played it a lot looser than usual until the very end. Writing this story has been exciting for me, because I often didn't know how things would turn out until I wrote them. And sometimes I left myself really tough situations to work out for next time. But one advantage of taking a year to write this story, one chapter every couple of weeks, is that I had a lot of time to think about what came next.

This is the second to last chapter of The Multiverse Blues. The heat is on, and Jules and their friends are going to have to think fast and use their heads and hearts to figure it all out.

In the penultimate chapter of The Multiverse Blues, Dionne and Lee help Jules rescue Tristellians enslaved by the Arch Authority, using a method unique to Hope's Tour.

Characters are people too! At least, inside my mind, they are. When I bring characters from one story into another, I find that I still have a mental model of that character pretty much ready to use, even if it seems strange to put them in a new situation cold. It's been fun to have Lee and Dionne from my other novel, Reality Check, appear in The Multiverse Blues, even if they're not the main characters this time around.

In this chapter of The Multiverse Blues, Jules meets up with old friends, makes some new friends, and comes up with a rescue plan.

Goodbyes are hard for me.  As I write this introduction, I've gotten a bit ahead on the writing for The Multiverse Blues. I am about to start the last chapter, as a matter of fact. I've spent nearly a year telling the story of Jules and Hope's Tour, and I can tell you listeners that I'm going to miss these characters when I'm done. Don't fret, you'll still have four more chapters to listen to after this one. But then we'll be done, and I'll have to move on to something else.

If all you know of my writing is this podcast, you're in luck, I have ten published novels, six of which are also in audiobook format, if you aren't much of a reader. Road Ghosts is an especially good deal, because it contains three novels and short story in one audiobook.

Plans are going forward to create an audiobook for my latest novel, Trans: Witch: College of Secrets. I'll have more news about for you that in future episodes.

This episode of The Multiverse Blues tells the story of the Arch Authority catching up to Hope's Tour, some difficult decisions, and the beginning of what comes next.

A very central character of The Multiverse Blues is Hope, the delphine diva from another dimension. In this, the spring of 2021, I'm starting to regain a feeling of hope. My home has been finally been restored after the October sewage disaster. The lovely weather invites me to venture outside these four walls and see the wider world. I even have my first Covid vaccination scheduled for the end of the month. It almost seems symbolic that a book that I poured my fear, frustration, and even anger into in the fall is now in my hands and is being read by other people. It's like I can let all that horror go, fluttering away on the winds. Trans Witch: College of Secrets is what happens when I take unmanageable emotions and forge them into something positive. If you get a chance to pick up a copy from Amazon or Barnes and Noble, I want you to get that feeling of hope and release as you read it.

This week on The Multiverse Blues: Jules and the crew of Hope's Tour make bold plans to get from the world of League, across the neighboring dimension of Arne, to end up at their destination: Erde, Harlan's steampunk homeworld.

I enjoy writing episodes of The Multiverse Blues much more when Jules is with the rest of the crew. Which is why I'm pleased to tell you that they rejoin Hope's Tour in this episode, swapping stories and making plans.

A common theme in many of my stories is the concept of "found family". I only found out recently that it's often a feature of The Heroine's Journey. It turns out, many of my novels follow The Heroine's Journey. Jules wouldn't care whether you called them a Hero or Heroine, their only disagreement might be with whether they're actually heroic. Impostor syndrome is a thing, and anyone who knows me will understand that the heroes of my stories often feel less than heroic; and that comes from an honest source.

Speaking of the Heroine's Journey and found family, I have just released the Kindle ebook of my new novel, Trans Witch: College of Secrets. The paperback edition is due out any day now. It's a story about a wizard school for the rest of us. You can guess for yourself what that means.

Last time on the Multiverse Blues. Jules escaped capture, leaping through a portal that landed them in their home universe of Beta Earth. Seeking safety for baby Lucy, they find themselves in a heated confrontation.

Before I begin, I'd like to give you a bit of trivia. "The Dionnes" that Jules and friends talk about in The Multiverse Blues are none other than the characters of the same name from my science fiction novel, Reality Check. Also in Reality Check, a medic named "Bask" tends to Lee in a lunar transport vehicle; that's a sneaky cameo of the Transit King from my Tipsy Fairy Tales books. I have so far resisted the strong temptation to include Bask, the Transit King, in The Multiverse Blues. I make no promises about chapters after this one; I may yet give in.