This is part two of the interview I did with Bryan and Abbie of the Fullcast Podcast. My thanks go out to them for making the experience so enjoyable.

Hey, everyone. Yesterday I had the pleasure of sitting down (digitally speaking) with Bryan Lincoln and Abbie Hilton of the Fullcast Podcast. They wanted to talk with me about my short stories and the podcasts I’ve made of them. We talked about what it’s like working with voice actors, where to get good music and sound effects, and how I put it all together, amongst other things. We had a really good time. So good — in fact — that we talked long enough to make it a two-parter. So, here I present you with Part One of my interview with Fullcast. I hope you enjoy it…

Hello, everyone, Justin here. I finally was able to finish the podcast version of my latest short story, “The Dame Wore White.” This story has yet to find a home in print, but I’m trying, and I’d appreciate some crossed fingers on its behalf. I hope you enjoy this audio presentation. My deepest thanks go out to the kind folks who lent their vocal talents, making this much better than it had a right to be. The cast is as follows:

Justin Macumber – Narrator
James Durham – Sal
Philippa Ballantine – Aubrey (AKA The Dame)
Terry Mixon – Marlo
Xander Snyder – Big Red & Security Thug
Ryan E Stevenson – Joey & Serving Droid

And, last but not least, let me thank my brother Scott for the artwork that graces this story. Scott’s been doing cover art for me for awhile now, and he tops himself with every new effort. Thanks, bro, for everything.

That’s it! Please let me know what you think!

Wow, I’m inspired today. I love thinking in drabble terms. Writing teachers always emphasize economy of words, but drabble takes that to a whole new level. I wonder how this will leak over into my novel and short story writing…

Anyway, here’s another one. I have to give a shout-out to the TV show “Supernatural” for inspiring it. Thanks, Kripke.

THE END OF THE ROAD

The steering wheel was stubborn beneath his hands. He pulled one way and then another, but his path didn’t change. His road only went forward.

“Please, let me go,” he said, tears burning beneath his eyes.

The woman in white beside him didn’t move, didn’t react. Like the road, her path didn’t waiver. For a moment she vanished, the leather seat beneath her lifting unburdened, but then she reappeared. Her face was as grim as the grave.

“Take me home,” she whispered. “Take me to the end of the road.”

But she had no home, and now neither did he.

Hey, everyone, I thought I’d try something a little different today, so I’ve sat down and written a drabble story. For those who don’t know, a drabble is a story that is 100 words long. No more, no less. If you want to learn more about it, head on over HERE.

Anyway, here you go. I hope you like it.

THE GUN

“C’mon, little girl,” the bandit said. “Lower that piece. You ain’t no killer.”

Calie was only a child. She’d been minding the sheep when the first shot rang out, and then watched in shadow as outlaws took everything worth carrying before leaving. One bandit had stuck around, for reasons she didn’t want to ponder.

They hadn’t found her daddy’s gun, though. When Calie snuck in and grabbed it, its smooth sandalwood handle burned against her palm.

The bandit spit on the ground. “You won’t shoot me. You can’t.”

The gun thundered, making him a liar as well as a murderer.

… since I last made an update on my writing. I guess when you’re hip deep in it it’s easy to forget others aren’t deep in it with you. So, here is where I am.

“Digital Decay” is to the point where I’m ready to start the agent/publisher hunt. After finishing my initial editing pass I handed it off to a team of beta readers, and after I got all the feedback they had for me, I began yet another editing pass. I was about two-thirds the way through it when I realized that a particular character’s motivation just wasn’t jiving. I needed him to do something, but there wasn’t a logical reason for it, yet if he didn’t then most of the story would unravel. So, I got my podcast co-hosts on the horn and asked them to help me suss out a way to make it work. Thankfully, they did. Together we came up with everything I needed, and I was able to finally pull it all together. It wasn’t easy, or even close to it, but I think the story is much more exciting and interesting now. Let’s hope the folks in the publishing industry feel the same way.

My short story “The Dame Wore White” has been sent off to two different places for two different purposes. The first place was the Writers of the Future Contest. Last year I got Honorable Mention, but this year I want to place. “Dame” is my strongest short story yet, so I have high hopes in that regard. The second place was “Asimov’s Science Fiction” magazine. “Asimov’s” is a long-running and highly regarded publication, and it would thrill me beyond measure to be between the covers of an issue.

Lastly, I’m about to start work on the audio version of “Dame.” I wanted to get this done last month, but work on “Digital Decay” prevented it. Now, though, I have the time and opportunity, so I’ll hopefully get it done this week. If not, then definitely next week. I got some pretty good voice work on it, and I think you’ll enjoy it. And then I’ll get to work on the audio version of “Dark Running.” That one is… a harder one. It’s a very different story than others I’ve written, and the audio demands are greater. But, I think I’ll be able to pull that one out too. Look for it in three weeks or so. After that I’ll be all caught up, so far as getting my short work in audio form. That will be a load off.

And… yep, that’s it. Between shopping “Digital Decay” around, waiting to see how “Dame” is received, and doing podcasts of “Dame” and “Dark Running,” I’ve got a pretty full plate. That doesn’t mean I’m not already thinking about my next novel. Originally I’d planned on writing a prequel novel to my short story “Pirates of the Crimson Sand,” but now I have a new idea that’s bitten into me even harder. I can’t tell you much, but I *will* leave you with a teasing tidbit. The title is “A Minor Magic.”

Thanks for stopping by, and please come back soon.

Love.

I know I said I’d try and post up a music entry at least once a week, and it seems I failed to keep that up right from the start. Such is me and my wondering brain…

This week I present a song from one of my favorite musicians of all time – Joe Satriani. Joe (or Satch) is a guitarist without peer in my opinion, at least so far as rock music is concerned. There are a lot of instrumental guitarists out there, and some of them are probably more technically proficient than he is, but for my money none of them has his combination of heart, technique, and soul. He isn’t about an endless procession of scales or hammer-ons. He doesn’t play songs that are one long solo. He’s about songs with power and skill, but also with melody. I love his work, and I celebrate his entire catalog.

This song, “Home,” is from his self-titled CD. I love it. The first time I heard it was as I was driving, and I had to pull over because it was so damn powerful. I makes me sad and happy all at one. I wish this video was of him performing it, but this was all I could find. I hope you enjoy it.

CNN has an article up on their site right now that I can wholeheartedly agree with. And, might I say, it’s something I’ve been saying for a long time. You can read the article HERE.

As a person who values the English language, it tears me up when I see people treating it as though it didn’t matter. It does, people. It’s how we communicate, share ideas, express ourselves. And, when it comes to the written word, I think we should be especially vigilant in not only how we use it, but how well we use it. I know people think these days that because our lives are rushing by us at a hundred miles per hour we should let the occasional typo slip by unremarked upon, but what happens when one becomes two, and two become twenty? What then? How far down the slope are we willing to slide before the written word no longer has meaning? How long will it be until texting becomes the norm, and lengthy prose is shortened to an unintelligible (unless you’re still a teenager) string of abbreviations? There is a wall, folks, a wall between us and barbarism, and proper language usage is one of the bricks in that wall. Let it break, and soon after all the rest will crumble too. Don’t let our language go gently in that goodnight, my friends. Be vigilant, be vocal, be corrective. Help me stomp out the tyranny of the typo once and for all.

Thank you…

If someone were to ask me who my creative heroes were, who inspired me and made me want to be a storyteller myself, I could rattle off a laundry list of names for them. People like Robert Heinlein, Joss Whedon, Stephen King, Gene Roddenberry, and Bill Willingham would all feature very highly on that list. Each one of them has impacted me creatively, sometimes personally. But, there is one person above all others who shaped me and helped make me who I am today, and that person is George Lucas.

Yeah, yeah, I know. Everybody hates the guy now. Once upon a time he was the god all geeks worshiped, but after the prequels (and really, I think starting with “Return of the Jedi”) his star fell from the cultural firmament, and he became a bit of a joke. Now most people say his name with scorn, if not outright hatred. You won’t get that from me, though. No sir. All you’ll get from me is love and appreciation for the man.

You see, I will never forget that it was George Lucas’ original “Star Wars” that first hit my young brain and woke it up to the possibility of myth and story. I remember watching the movie as a child, marveling at the space battles, the sword fights, the music, the emotion, the drama. I remember the fear I felt at seeing Vader walk into that smokey spaceship corridor, the elation at Luke’s swing over that chasm, the childlike affection for Princess Leia. I was five years old when “Star Wars” came out, and I was never the same afterward.

And then came “The Empire Strikes Back,” which took everything I loved about “Star Wars” and rose them to new heights. I wasn’t as big a fan of “Return of the Jedi,” but I still appreciated the story Lucas was telling, and watching Anakin redeem himself was the perfect end to the trilogy. But the train didn’t stop there. After that came an endless procession of comic books, video games, and novels. The Star Wars universe had no end to it, and I found myself exhilarating in so much of it. Whether it was the “Knights of the Old Republic” games, or the Thrawn trilogy, or the “Dark Empire” comics, there was always something new for my creative spirit to hold close and draw strength from, and none of that would have been possible if it weren’t for what Lucas created. Say whatever you like about how he handled the prequel trilogy, none of that takes away from the fact that the man created an entertainment empire (pardon the pun) that has thrilled and excited hundreds of millions of people for over thirty years. Not many people can make that same claim. He is the wellspring from which all this started. I owe him more than I can ever say. I am who I am — for better or worse — because once upon a time George Lucas wrote the words, “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…”

Happy Birthday, George. I hope you have many more to come.

I love the guitar. I always have. Especially the acoustic guitar. Of all the musical instruments out there I think it has the most versatility, the most range. It can sound so hopeful and joyous, yet it can plumb great depths of pain and sadness. There are so many ways of altering its tone, from different string sizes and materials, to how the body is shaped and where the sound holes are placed. An Ovation sounds different from a Takamine, which sounds different from a Martin. And don’t even get started with the differences between a 6-string and a 12-string, or we’ll be here all day. No other instrument can match it.

I used to play guitar, once upon a time. Never all that well, mind you, never passed the level of a newbie picker, but I enjoyed it. I even learned to play a few songs, like “Silent Lucidity” and “More Than Words.” Of course, all I could handle were the rhythm parts. The solo or feature work would always be outside my range. Perhaps if I’d played it more, put more of my focus on it, I could have become better at it, but that’s the problem when want to explore multiple forms of art. At some point you have to choose which one you’ll make a career out of, and which will always remain a hobby. For me, writing prose won out. After a time I gave up the guitar entirely, gave away my last acoustic, and moved on. Now the closest I get is playing Rock Band on the Xbox. Surprisingly enough, it’s a satisfying experience, scratching my musical itch just enough. I do miss it though, sometimes awfully bad. The feeling of playing a song you wrote… Eh…

But, even though I don’t play anymore, my appreciation for the guitar burns just as brightly as it ever did. I especially enjoy instrumental songs, be it of the electric or unplugged variety. To express that love I think I’ll start posting videos of performances that I find moving. Hopefully you’ll feel the same way. I might only post them once a week, or I might do it daily. I don’t know. Music is a central part of my life, though, and I want to share it with the people who care and who are interested. If that’s you, then let’s go…

First up – Antoine Dufour. This is him performing his song, “Glimmer of Hope.” I’m not a fan of many of his songs, but this one… this one blows me away. I can’t listen to it and NOT feel inspired. It’s just beautiful, and his technique is impeccable. Enjoy.