Today, J.C. chats with longtime friend and social media maven & author C.C. Chapman about C.C.'s new nonfiction book, Amazing Things Will Happen.

In many online circles, C.C. is known for his positivity and relentless work ethic. In his new book Amazing Things Will Happen, C.C. explores the tricky subject of self-improvement and embracing change. In this conversation, J.C. and C.C. chat about the book's approach to guiding one's life toward achieving goals and dreams — and not merely settling for current circumstances, as so many of us do.

It's a terrific conversation that goes to some very fun, funny and positive places.

Links mentioned in this episode:

• C.C.'s personal website
• Learn more about Amazing Things Will Happen at the author's website
• Amazing Things Will Happen reviewed in the Washington Post
• The Cleon Foundation

Today, J.C. chats with authors and entrepreneurs Collin Earl and Chris Snelgrove. These two ultracreatives are the brilliant minds behind The House Of Gray audio and serialized ebook experience, and the YA series Harmonics.

In this conversation, Collin and Chris share this history and inspiration for The House of Gray, and how it made the fascinating shift from podcast novel to serialized ebook. They also discuss why they embraced the fascinating (and ultimately savvy and profitable) approach to selling the story as serialzed ebooks.

J.C. also asks Collin and Chris about their affordable turnkey ebook and audiobook production company DarkFire, which J.C. uses to format and release his 7th Son ebooks.

It's a terrific chat with two incredible storytellers. Enjoy!

Links mentioned in this episode:

• Collin Earl's website
• The House of Gray at Amazon
  
• Harmonics at Amazon
• DarkFire Productions
• Podiobooks.com

It’s the listener mailbag episode! In this episode, hosts Steve Peters

Links mentioned in this episode:

• J.C. Hutchins eBooks (They do make a good Holiday gift!)
• Eating KFC Is A Christmas Tradition for Many Japanese
• Fourth Wall Studios Lays Off Staff, Halts Production (LA Times)
• RVC (Rides.tv)
• Orbiting the Giant Hairball by Gordon McKenzie
• Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
• Cryptomicon by Neal Stephenson
• Galveston by Sean Stewart
• Pattern Recognition by William Gibson
• The Stand by Stephen King
• The Coffin Dancer (a Lincoln Rhyme Novel) by Jeffery Deaver
• Old Man’s War by John Scalzi
• The Age of Spiritual Machines by Ray Kurzweil
• Pet Sematery by Stephen King

Some of you know that I've been hard at work pretting a revamped version of my site — which is this new shiny site you see here. Part of this revamp required making tweaks to my podcast & RSS feed.

This post is to test the website's ability to properly syndicate a podcast episode. Pay no attention to it.

Today, J.C. chats with author, musician and new media entertainer Mark Yoshimoto Nemcoff. J.C. and Mark are longtime pals and collaborators … and as this conversation illustrates, both are big fans of the timeless Pink Floyd 1979 album, The Wall.

Mark recently wrote and published Tearing Down The Wall: The Contemporary Guide to Decoding “Pink Floyd – The Wall” One Brick at a Time, a masterful book-length examination of The Wall, and its remarkable meanings.

In this chat — which is Mark’s first interview about the book — he shares some of the unique and powerful insights he discovered while writing the book, such as the deep importance of specific lyrics, literary and cultural references hiding in plain sight … and much more.

It’s an incredible conversation, and an even better book. Tearing Down the Wall is now available for purchase in all major online retailers. Check the links below to get your copy.

Get your copy at:

• Kobo
• iBooks
• Nook
• Amazon

More links:

• Mark’s personal website
• Links to songs from The Wall

Today, J.C. chats with Haley Moore, an incredibly talented transmedia storyteller who specializes in creating artifacts — physical items — from fictional worlds. Haley is presently promoting “Laser Lace Letters,” a Kickstarter project.

“Laser Lace Letters” is a series of tangible stories where the audience becomes steampunk detectives on the trail of a string of mysterious disappearances. At the heart of each story is a beautiful, laser cut cameo handmade in felt by artist Haley.

It’s a fascinating narrative of a steampunk world, all delivered through physical objects: letters, pages torn from diaries, newspaper clippings, sketches and more. Hiding within the items are clues to solving the disappearances.

Links mentioned in this episode:

• Haley’s Laser Lace Letters project on Kickstarter
• The project’s website
• Clockwork Watch
• Haley’s personal website

Evan Jones

Evan Jones (Stitch Media) joins us to give an update on the important court decision in Stitch Media’s interactive tax credit case, a followup to what we originally discussed in Episode 14. Very valuable, insightful discussion, regardless of where you live and work.

Links mentioned in this episode:

• Stitch Media
• Blackout Haunted House
• Haley Moore’s “Laser Lace Letters” Kickstarter
• No Mimes Media

This is only a test.

Michelle Senderhauf (Dogtale Media) and Dave Walker (Synth-Bio Productions) join Steve and J.C. this week to talk about emergent, boutique transmedia companies, the challenges they face, and the solutions they deliver.

In this special episode, co-host J.C. Hutchins chats with narrative designer Chris Dahlen about video game writing, transmedia storytelling and “Mark of the Ninja,” an XBox Live game that Dahlen recently wrote. If you’ve ever wanted to learn about the unique narrative opportunities and challenges found in creating video games, this interview is a great primer.

The conversation takes a fascinating twist as Dahlen also shares his experiences as a transmedia storyteller. Dahlen helped craft a key component of the out-of-book experience for J.C.’s novel “Personal Effects: Dark Art.”: the online persona of character Rachael Webster. Dahlen discusses how writing Rachael became something more creatively rewarding than he ever expected. We also discuss lessons learned.

Links mentioned in this episode: