July 4th Revisited – Patrick Henry’s “Give Me Liberty”

I recorded this a couple of years ago and like to pull it back out for new listeners around July 4th.

On March 23, 1775, at St. John’s Henrico Parish Church in Richmond, Patrick Henry spoke to the House of Burgesses. His speech changed the minds and hearts of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and became a beacon of freedom for all of America.

Happy Independence Day, everyone.

Thank you to Nathan Lowell for his introduction at the beginning of this audio file. Be sure to check out his Golden Age of the Solar Clipper novels over at Podiobooks.com.

The image is a cropped image from Peter F. Rothermel’s “Patrick Henry Before the Virginia House of Burgesses,” from 1851. The photograph of this painting is released on Wikimedia Commons as a public domain work.

Balticon 44 Review – Glorious… ity… ness. Yeah

Normally I would record this, but work this week has been crazy and it’s already been almost a month since Balticon ended. So here’s the brain dump. I hope you enjoy it.

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Balticon 44 was simply… glorious.

Thursday:

Drove to Hunt Valley, MD, a little northwest of Baltimore. The trip up can be best summed up in two parts. Part 1 was the 6 hours it took me to drive from Charlotte to I-66 around 30 miles to the west of DC. Part 2 was the 3 hours it took me to drive the last 85 miles. These two parts were broken up nicely by a young bear, probably four or five months old, trying to cross the interstate. I avoided the bear and I believe he made it back to the woods. I could just imagine the other young bears saying “Do it. Do it. You wuss. What are you, a fawn?”

But arrive I did, and after relaxing for a bit in the hotel room, the greatest roomies in the world, Chooch and Viv, arrived. If you listened to the interview I did with them on Into the Blender, you know how much I love these guys. And our friendship only grew stronger through the weekend, even though I snored loud enough for Viv to yell at me to roll over (from the other bed, of course). And since Patrick McLean didn’t arrive until Saturday night, I had a bed to myself for the first two nights (always a bonus).

Friday:

Friday I spent my first hour at a dealer table, trying to sell Murder at Avedon Hill (and other wonderful Dragon Moon Press titles). I would have stayed longer, but I had my reading at 5 pm (I’ll be releasing the audio from the reading soon). I figured five people would be there at most, considering Mur Lafferty and Jonathan Maberry had readings at the same time.

But to my wondrous surprise, the room was pretty full–so everything after that was, again, bonus. I was a little worried because I only had my iPad, and all I had was my novel on it (available on the Kindle for $2.39 people! ); I was afraid people might be a little tired of me reading from that, but Tee Morris was in the audience so I pulled him up to the front and read 40 minutes from a chapter that featured Father Jorrus (the vampire hunt). He voiced Father Jorrus and everyone seemed to enjoy the reading.

When I was done I went to the end of Mur’s reading, two rooms down from mine, and she had a full room as well! Podcast Novelists for the win!

Later that evening I was on two “live show” panels. The first was for Geek Radio Daily. Billy Flynn and The Flynstress were there of course, with me and Podcasting’s Rich Sigfrit. We talked about the convention, did segments on gaming, new media, and focused on Murder at Avedon Hill, which again, was a bonus. They played the NSFW promo I did for the book release with Mark Yoshimoto Nemcoff, which got a lot of laughs. Hell, I was happy just sitting between the Flynstress and Rich, listening to his impressions… actually, I was just happy sitting beside the Flynstress. I just noticed that they haven’t released the audio from the Live Show. Hope it wasn’t lost like the live show at Dragon*Con last year…

The last event for Saturday was a Live Into the Blender, which is Chooch and Viv’s show. Christiana Ellis and Command Line (Thomas Gideon) were also on the panel. We talked about movies, the ongoing trend of remakes/reboots, and gaming as well. I got to share my story of Patrick McLean trying out Red Dead Redemption at my house, which included him shooting my horse multiple times just for fun.

Saturday:

…was a busy day. I was on an expanded panel that Paulette Jaxton and I did last year called “Herding Cats,” which was about producing a multi-voiced podcast novel/audio drama. As expected, I had the most voice actors of any podcast represented on the panel.

Later that evening was Book Launch party for Murder at Avedon Hill. I was proud to share the evening with Nathan Lowell and Patrick McLean. The party room was full, and instead of simply schmoozing with everyone (which was our plan), someone suggested that we read from each other’s books. Nathan and I read from Patrick’s book, Patrick read from Quarter Share, and then Nathan Lowell read the prologue from Murder at Avedon Hill. Hearing one of the great voices of podcast fiction reading my prose was a highlight not only of Balticon but of my short history as a writer. It was a wonderful event, and more than one attendee came up to me on Sunday saying that they thought we should “take our act on the road.” Too bad Nate lives in Colorado, or I’d like to.

My only regret from the launch party? We had a room full of podcasters, and no one recorded the event.

After the launch party we had the New Media costume party, hosted by my roomies Chooch and Viv. It was a lot of fun, and for the first time I spent money and wore a killer costume.

Sunday:

Sunday turned out to be a great day as well. I had the pleasure of interviewing Artist Guest of Honor Howard Tayler, which I released earlier this month. Later that afternoon I was on a panel that turned out to be the most fun of any panel during the convention. It was a music panel called “From Story to Song.” It featured readings from five authors, and songs sung by various filk singers, songs about the author or inspired by fiction from those authors. I got to do a five minute reading in front of around sixty people that had never heard of MaAH:

[flash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwhxCavPtWg w=480 h=385]

And then Kim Fortuner sang the “Damn You Holyfield” song:

[flash http://www.youtube.com/v/7-xdUS_RgBg w=480 h=385]

To say she rocked it doesn’t do her justice. And on top of that the last reader was Convention Guest of Honor Tanya Huff, which made the panel even more special.

Later Sunday night came what has become a yearly event, the live Evo at 11 podcast.

(more…)

MaAH Special Edition: Interview with Howard Tayler

Balticon was wonderful–best convention I’ve ever attended. One of the many reasons for this (which I’ll detail in an upcoming audio update) was the forty-five minutes I got to spend with Howard Tayler. Howard is the creator of the Schlock Mercenary web-comic, a host on the Writing Excuses podcast, and the Artist Guest of Honor at Balticon this year.

We talked about storytelling within the medium of ‘sequential art,’ Writing Excuses, pacing within different mediums, and a little about the talk Howard gave at Balticon on education and on becoming a better creator, no matter the medium.

Thanks to Howard for being patient with someone that obviously had less than a good grasp of web-comic terminology (I referred to panels as boxes throughout the interview ).

Promo at the end of the episode is for Prisoners of the Alliance.

Balticon

Are you coming to Balticon? If so, please stop by and see me at one or more of the following events!

Friday, May 28th

Reading – 5 pm – Pimlico Room
Into the Blender Live Show, 11 pm – Chesapeake Suite

Saturday, May 29th

Nanowrimo for Noobs – 3 pm – Chesapeake Suite
Herding Cats – 4 pm – Chesapeake Suite
New Media Author Book Launch event – 8 pm – Chesapeake Suite

Sunday, May 30th

Evo@11 – 10 pm – Chesapeake Suite

In addition to this, I’ll be in the Dealer Room at the Dragon Moon Press table at various times during the weekend.

And the winners are…

I held my drawing this evening during a live stream on Stickam. We gave out fifteen prizes to people that supported me and Murder at Avedon Hill this weekend during the Amazon Rush. I wish I could have given everyone a prize, but as it is I believe I spent more on prizes than I will probably make in royalties

People who purchased a print version, a Kindle version, and/or wrote reviews on Amazon and sent me an email about it were entered. Here are the winners (and what they won), based on numbers called out by my Vanna White in the Chatroom, Mistress Jett!

Rob Stauffer – MaAH Mousepad
Joe Mieczkowski – MaAH Mousepad
Kristin Mayo – Signed copy of Murder at Avedon Hill
Tim Dodge – The Rookie signed by Scott Sigler
Shawn Murphy – POD version of Mur Lafferty’s Playing for Keeps
Beth Case – MaAH Mousepad
Cathy Monblatt – MaAH Mousepad
Cliff Lowe – POD version of Mur Lafferty’s Playing for Keeps
Kevin Crosby – Signed copy of Murder at Avedon Hill
Michell Plested – Samson CH700 Headphones
Paul Fischer – MaAH Mousepad
Scott Roche – MaAH Mousepad
Terri Flynstress – Signed copy of Murder at Avedon Hill
Ed Parrot – Matthew Wayne Selznick prize pack – BMR, The Sovereign Era- Year One, Anyman: The John Smith EP from CD Baby.
Michael Spence – Framed Study, acrylic/water color, the initial painting that was a test for the original POD cover of Murder at Avedon Hill.

A lot of these folks will be at Balticon, so they’ll get their prizes there. The rest will have their prizes sent to them through the mail. Congrats to those that won prizes; you made this weekend an unforgettable one for me, that’s for sure!

Amazon Rush Schwag Drawing

I’m doing fun stuff with the kids today (since I was a little busy yesterday ). I’ll be doing the giveaway drawing tonight at 9:30 pm Eastern time. I’ll start up a livestream, so if you want to watch, come on over!

Amazon Rush Current Results

We have certainly rocked it today, people!!!

This is where we are right now:

#1 on the Movers and Shakers List (all books),
#3 in Hot New Releases, Fantasy (General),
#10 in Hot New Releases, Fantasy
#16 Overall, Fantasy (General)
#30 Overall, Fantasy
#274 in Fiction

So far we have 14 reviews on Amazon for the print version of the novel, and five more on the Kindle page. These help out a book’s place on Amazon, so please add a review if you purchased the novel!

Thanks so much for your generosity and support for me, for this novel, and for podcast fiction authors everywhere. I’d love to have one more push tonight, but whatever happens for the rest of the night and tomorrow, this has been a successful launch in my mind, that’s for sure!

Amazon Rush Schwag

During the Amazon Rush (book URL http://tinyurl.com/maahamazon ) anyone that emails me at pgholyfield@murderatavedonhill.com with a copy of either an Amazon book or Kindle receipt will be entered in a drawing for prizes including a copy of the book, original artwork, mouse pads from zazzle.com, and a pair of Samson headphones.

You will receive multiple entries if you do multiple things. If you purchase the print copy you will get 2 entries in the giveaway, the Kindle version will get one entry in the giveaway, and a review on Amazon will get you 2 entries (so 4 total if you leave a review on the print and the Kindle version of the book!

I will be accepting entry emails until midnight, and will do the drawing tomorrow!

Tune in to the live show at stickam.com/pgholyfield for news, a live reading from the book and the prize drawings, starting at noon eastern standard time.

Okay, here’s the prize list so far:

• 3 signed copies of Murder at Avedon Hill
• 6 signed MaAH mouse pads
• an original piece of artwork (from the original cover of MaAH)
• 1 each signed (personalized if they want) paperback copies of “Brave Men Run – A Novel of the Sovereign era” and “The Sovereign Era: Year One” plus a credit to download the entire “Anyman: The John Smith E.P.” album in MP3 format from CD Baby.
• 1 copy of The Rookie by Scott Sigler
• 2 copies of the POD version of Playing for Keeps by Mur Lafferty
• a pair of Samson CH7000 headphones.

Interview on Into the Blender Podcast

Last week I sat down with Chooch and Viv (two of my favorite people in the world) and we talked about the Launch. The conversation moved into many different areas not covered in other interviews, so give it a listen.

Into the Blender is a podcast about blended families, geek culture, and it is a wonderful listen month in and month out. Go check it out!

You want to give the novel a try?

Attached to this post is a .PDF of the prologue and first six chapters of Murder at Avedon Hill. And frankly, if you aren’t hooked by the end of the prologue, I’ve failed you (… believe me, I didn’t fail you. ). Podcasters, please grab and drop in your feed. Everyone, please send to everyone you think might be interested.

We’ve got less than 24 hours until book launch. People are already buying the kindle version, which is awesome to see, but let’s wait until tomorrow at noon eastern so we can make the biggest splash on Amazon!

Amazon Rush Flyer

Are you spreading the word?

Are your friends confused about the Amazon Rush?

Can you tell I’m just writing text here so the image below will appear underneath the thumbnail image, and not be pushed out to the right and off the screen?

The attached flyer explains what we’re trying to do on Saturday. Please grab it, post it and/or send it to everyone you can. Spread the word!

The link to Amazon is live. The book CAN be purchased now. But if you can, please wait until Saturday at noon Eastern to buy the ten copies you plan on purchasing.

MaAH – Interview on Jack Mangan’s Deadpan podcast

Tonight we have one of my favorite interviews ever, with one of the great gentlemen of podcasting… Jack Mangan. Enjoy.