Sam Bradley's Writer's Blog

Okay, so my idea of blogging more than once a month hasn't seen fruition. It's that work thing. I also want to give you more content than "what I had for breakfast this morning" (turkey leftovers) and "what I did on my Thanksgiving weekend". Well, actually, that was pretty interesting. The opportunity to write and podcast the story to which the title refers came about more by accident than design - (see the September blog). Basically, Nobilis, of the Nobilis Erotica podcast, asked the four of us in a chat room one night if we would sub for him for an episode in November while he devoted his time to his NaNoRiMo novel. BTW, he finished it today. Congrats, Nobilis! I haven't written much in science fiction or erotica, but thought, "hell, why not?" Nobilis has a large audience and it would help get my name out there for when I *eventually* podcast my novel. Thanks to Nobilis, his wife, Dee, and Michelle Bekemeyer for giving me some feedback on the story. The writing part was easier than I thought ... Then, I found out I have  an obsession. Anyone that has music or sound effects disc from Digital Juice will know what I mean. I decided to fancy up the audio with a few sounds effects ... then a few more ... then a little music .... the next thing I know, I was 24 hours into this production of a very short story and it was starting to sound like Metamor City. Oh well, it was fun and it advanced my learning curve on Audacity. My voice sounded a little like I was on the leading edge of a cold ... it was. So, forgive me for that ... if you even notice my voice, that it. Anyway, it is what it is and it will be out there within an hour of my writing this. I'll post it here as well. Let me know what you think? I'm going back to the novel now ..... Link to Medicop Sam

Hi Gang, Okay, I know I'm way behind on getting this up. Life just got in the way. So, here is Chapter 2 of Wolfgang's story, "Bruno Fenster Saves the World and Still Gets Home in Time for Breakfast". This chapter finds Bruno in the Cafe Lamour meeting a number of interesting characters, getting conscripted into the Army to liberate Urusk, and learning how to tame wild elephants ... all before dinner. The audio isn't perfect, but, hey, it's only the second podcast. I used the same intro and outro as last time and realized that they need to be re-recorded. I have some new equipment and promise to to that for the next one. In the meantime, I want to give a huge shoutout to podcast author JC Hutchins who's podcast novel, "Seventh Son - Descent" just came out today in print. He was somewhere in the high 200's overall on Amazon the last time I looked. You can find it here: . Find him also on jchutchins.net. I was lucky enough to win an autographed copy of this book tonight when he recorded an interview on Podioracket. Check it out! Well, that's all for now. Please take a listen, and please comment. Much more to come as soon as I can get it all recorded. I have a surprise in November as I was asked to put together a guest podcast with an original story. Ta for now --- Sam Link to "Bruno" Chapter 2: http://media.libsyn.com/media/sbradley/STE-034_A.mp3

Direct Link to First Podcast - Bruno Saves the World Okay, this will be a short one because I just wanted to *finally* get this podcast uploaded. Wolfgang has been patiently awaiting his debut and I know better than to disappoint a crazy German. I have to tell you, though, this first one was a bitch! I have nothing but admiration for those podcasters that manage to post polished, seamless, high tech productions! I won't bore you with all the techy complications (of which there were many), but I ended up with a number of different pieces to this file including my intro, the music, Wolfgang's story, my outro, then a promo for the Level Zero Movie with theme song. Lesson number one: use the same mic for all the recorded parts. I used the H2 Zoom for the intro and story, then the Snowball for the outro. Even after using Levelator, the difference in sound quality is obvious. Guess I won't do that again. At least I now know much of what to do differently for the next one. When we get to Chapter 2 of the Bruno story, I have to get Wolfgang to sit still. I didn't realize how sensitive the H2 Zoom mic was, and you can hear the chair squeak and some rustling of papers. I think it was Matthew Selznick that told me to plan on the fact my first 5 podcasts would suck. He was sure right about the first one, but I hope to improve long before Chapter 5! Nonetheless, I feel good about the fact that I created it, and managed to upload it. Now, I just hope someone will listen to it ... other than Wolfgang. Where do I go from here? I have a recording of some first person firefighter stories I need to edit, and will maybe put up for the next podcast. I really hope a lot more EMS folks will contact me with stories to share. Then, there's the next chapter of "Bruno", and I hope to start soon on the novel. That's the project that will be really difficult. I know I can make it simple and just read the dang thing, but I want to add some production value ... somewhere between straight reading and a full cast and original score. I also know once I commit myself to it, I'll have to continue to deliver. But, more on that later. Well, that's it for now. It's late but I promised myself to get this out today ... and I did. Remember, life shouldn't be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but to slide in sideways, chocolate in one hand, a magarita in the other, thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming, "Whoo Hoo, what a ride!"

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LEVEL ZERO - Movie Trailer from Thaddeus Setla on Vimeo.