Flying Island Press
EMBARGOED UNTIL 7/3/10
Press Contact – Scott Roche
sroche@flyingislandpress.com
(336) 462-9676

Enjoy Your Sci-fi and Fantasy How and Where You Want

Beginning July 4th, science fiction and fantasy fans will be given a
new place where they can discover authors and stories they’ll be able
to enjoy wherever they go. Flagship, the new e-zine by publisher
Flying Island Press, will soon be releasing these stories in formats
for the Kindle, the iPad and iPhone, and other electronic readers.

Flying Island Press also recognizes the increasing popularity of
podcasts and other forms of audio fiction. So, in addition to the
e-zine, an audio version will be available to listen to on any MP3
player. Stories they release will be available both in text and in
audio, allowing the consumer to choose their preferred version.

Zach Ricks, managing editor for Flagship, had this to say. “I wanted
to hearken back to what some have called the Golden Age of Science
Fiction.” It’s his hope that “FlagShip will be a place for
optimistic, entertaining fiction.”

Each issue will cost $1.99 for the text version or the audio version
or get both for just $2.99.

Issues will be available starting July 4th, 2010 at
http://flyingislandpress.com/flagship

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!

I will be dropping a Tales of the Children story tomorrow, a story written and produced by Dan Absalonson.

I edited it down to 5-6K, I believe. It was definitely the longest story in the web-a-thon (Matt read seven stories I believe during his live show). I was very happy with the response I received from people about the story.

Flash forward to Friday, April 10th. The text that follows if from Matt’s website:

I’m very pleased to announce the release of “The Sovereign Era: Year One,” an anthology of seven tales written by authors who are pretty well known in certain circles — folks like J. C. Hutchins, Mur Lafferty, P. G. Holyfield, Nathan Lowell, Matt Wallace, J. R. Blackwell and Jared Axelrod!

This collection has its origin in the all-day web-a-thon I produced on the occasion of the Swarm Press release of “Brave Men Run — A Novel of the Sovereign Era.” On that day, I read each of these stories live on streaming video… but they’ve never been seen in print until now.

As of right now, the collection is available on this site in a bundle of eight DRM-free e-book formats and from Amazon.com for the Kindle. Soon enough, it will also be available in paperback in every online bookstore you’d care to patronize. To be honest, if you like e-books, I encourage you to purchase it in that format, since the authors involved stand to earn more of a percentage from each e-book sale.

In “Hazy Days and Cloudy Nights,” we’re seeing a little of what happened in the months before the Sovereign Era began. The Sovereign Era’s beginnings are depicted in “Brave Men Run — A Novel of the Sovereign Era.” I hope you’ll purchase “The Sovereign Era: Year One” and take in seven different glimpses into how things went in the months that followed. On behalf of the authors and cover artist Jeffrey Himmelman, I thank you very much!

For those of you that haven’t read Brave Men Run, it feels like a teen movie mixed with a superhero novel… The Breakfast Club and X-Men all rolled into one. Please go check out the anthology, and listen to or read Brave Men Run.

As for The Sovereign Era: Year One – electronic versions are already available for the book, and the print version should be out in a few days!

My good friend Patrick McLean over at The Seanachai (How to Succeed in Evil, Flinchy and the Mexican Show Truck) is doing his last episode of his podcast live on Stickam (link to the show will be posted as soon as I get it). The live show will be on Wednesday, March 24, at 9:00 pm Eastern time.

As a good Irishman (at least a 1/4 of me, anyways), I’ll be helping him bring The Seanachai to a fitting end. He’ll be sharing a true story of gun play, injury, and I’m sure he will deliver it with the humor and style that has made The Seanachai one of the best fiction/essay podcasts ever produced.

Join us for the fun.

• On Wednesday evening I did a live reading of Tabitha Grace Smith’s Tales of the Children story, Love’s Sacrificial Song, on Stickam.com
  • It was my most popular live show so far, with over 200 people attending at least some part of the two hour show.
  • We had a live interview with Tabz after the reading.
  • We rolled out a brand new element to the Stickam Live Show… the DYH Drinking Game!

• Later that night, Angel Between the Lines released my story, Exit Strategy, as a nearly hour-long full-cast audio drama.
  • From the description on the ABTL website: From Ocean’s 11 to the Italian Job there’s no lack of criminals in fiction, but Johannes Cordner needs the best. The puzzling twists and turns aren’t just keeping the audience confused. Can the criminals break into Wolfram & Hart’s law offices without getting caught? And what exactly are they stealing?
  • As always, Tabz has delivered a great production. And since this is my first fiction to hit the podosphere since May, I hope you’ll give it a listen.
• On Thursday, ABTL and Murder at Avedon Hill fan Dan Shaurette wrote a great feature story on me and Murder at Avedon Hill. It must have taken Dan HOURS to write that up, and I’m honored.
• On Friday, ABTL released the .pdf of Exit Strategy.

What a great week (other than my laptop dying, which is another story altogether)!

Thanks again to Tabz and ABtL for such a great time. And for those that missed the live show, the audio version of Love’s Sacrificial Song will be released before the end of the year.

I wrote a long short story called “Exit Strategy,” which will be released in audio format over at http://angelbetweenthelines.com – possibly today!

Exit Strategy is a heist story set in the Angel Between the Lines television show universe. While it is fan fiction to a certain extent (one minor character appears from the Angel universe), it is a story that requires no knowledge of the Buffy or Angel television shows. I really enjoyed writing the story, and as soon as the podcast episode is released I’ll post here to let you know.

Stickam Live Show: Tonight, 9:30 pm Eastern

The live shows just keep getting better and better! Last week we had Philippa Ballantine’s wonderful story, “Love and Fire.” The turnout wasn’t as high as previous shows (post-Halloween blues, maybe?), but we had a great guest appearance at the end of the show: Pip called down from her castle (a library) in New Zealand, waving and yelling “Hullo over there!”

This week I expect a larger audience, as we have a story from Tabitha Grace Smith, one of the forces of nature behind Buffy Between the Lines, Angel Between the Lines, Gilligan’s Island Between the Lines… okay, maybe not that last one. But with fans like hers, I expect Stickam to ROCK tonight! Tabz wrote a long story as well, called Love’s Sacrificial Song.

If there are any questions from the chat I’ll be taking them once again, so come on out and join in the fun.

The President of the United States is dead. He was murdered in the morning sunlight by a four year-old boy.

With those first two sentences, J.C. Hutchins announced his arrival to the world of podcast fiction. And on October 27, 2009, 7th Son: Descent hits bookstore shelves and on Amazon.com.

Go here to read more about 7th Son: Descent.

This is the one I’ve been waiting for… I love Scott Sigler’s books, and J.C.’s first book with Jordan Weisman, Personal Effects: Dark Art was a lot of fun, but 7th Son redefined storytelling for me, and on a weekly basis it made me want to be a better writer.

And finally, if it wasn’t for J.C. I don’t think I would have podcast Murder at Avedon Hill. So learn about 7th Son if you haven’t given it a try. And if you enjoyed his podcast and want something to read while I’m editing Murder at Avedon Hill, BUY THIS BOOK.

And actually, if you haven’t listened to 7th Son: Descent, J.C. has started releasing the new version of the 7th Son: Descent podcast (based on the print version of the novel).

Music – David Beard – Jack’s Anger

It’s a live interview, with a chat area for people to ask questions, and a call in number if you want to be on the show.

Come on out and hear me chat about Tales of the Children, about the Parsec Award nomination, about the upcoming book release, etc.

Rhonda Carpenter does a great job interviewing her guests. It should be a lot of fun!

Personal Effects: Dark Art is coming out on June 9th. You can pre-order here. Watch the video below to see why.

I’m in awe. And I get to see J.C. in a week. Huzzah!

Nina Kimberly is being published by Dragon Moon Press, so I’m even more invested in this novel’s success! If you follow me on Twitter, follow along on Friday for an opportunity to have one of the last remaining copies of MaAH (the self-pub version) signed and mailed out to you that same day! (oh, and did I say it would be free?)

Get on board, and defeat those sparkly vampires!!

This is the second and last episode I’ll be posting in my feed. Ep. 78 is a discussion of point of view in fiction. Please visit the The Dead Robots’ Society website for more info (and to get the .pdf I created for the discussion) on this episode and to subscribe!

This is the first episode where I appear as a regular host. Ep. 77 is an interview with Nathan Nowell, author of the Share Series. We focus on podcasting your fiction, contrasting our styles and explaining the decision process one should take before podcasting their novel.

Later this week I’ll drop ep. 78 of the DRS podcast in this feed. If you want to listen to more of the DRS podcast and/or subscribe (to get future episodes), please visit The Dead Robots’ Society website!

Last week I co-hosted/was a guest on DRS and we chatted about something I know a little about… self-publishing. I also talked a little about signing with Dragon Moon Press, so if you are interested, the episode can be found here.

Patrick McLean released Pt. 4 of “Flinchy and the Mexican Show Truck” over on The Seanachai. This is the last episode of ‘season’ 1. Season 2 is already in the works (probably out no earlier than the end of February).

I don’t want to clutter this feed with more non-MaAH episodes right now, so please head on over and give all four episodes a listen on Patrick’s site, or subscribe to The Seanachai. It is one of the best podcasts in production today, so you might as well give it a try!

Patrick McLean released Pt. 3 of “Flinchy and the Mexican Show Truck” over on The Seanachai. In all honesty, this is the best of the three episodes so far… in the zone

I don’t want to clutter this feed with more non-MaAH episodes right now, so please head on over and give Pt. 3 a listen on Patrick’s site, or subscribe to The Seanachai. It is one of the best podcasts in production today, so you might as well give it a try!

Patrick McLean released Pt. 2 of “Flinchy and the Mexican Show Truck” over on The Seanachai. Flinchy makes his first appearance (the one and only Tee Morris), as does my wife Liza, playing herself (and she has the best line in the whole darn thing).

I don’t want to clutter this feed with more non-MaAH episodes right now, so please head on over and give Pt. 2 a listen on Patrick’s site, or subscribe to The Seanachai. It is one of the best podcasts in production today, so you might as well give it a try!

Right now, Brave Men Run is at #65 overall on Amazon.com, and while we were listening it rose to #3 in Action and Adventure! Holy crap!!

The stories by the podcast authors were all wonderful. For those that missed it, there is a rumor that these stories will make an appearance in some form… soon.

And then, as a surprise, Matthew read the first chapter of his next novel, Pilgrimage.

I was very proud of the event, how my story was received, and how gracious Matthew is as human being. Thanks to everyone that attended, and that showed support for independent fiction!

Now, go buy Brave Men Run and let’s take BMR to #1!

Link to you tube video describing what a podcast is:

Onthepodcast: Special Episode – Raleigh Write 2 Publish Panel

NC State professor & author Stacey Cochran moderated the Raleigh Write 2 Publish – Panel Discussion:
Podcasting, Blogs, and Self-Publishing: New Ways to Reach Audiences With Your Book with authors P.G. Holyfield, Mur Lafferty, and Elisa Lorello. This panel took place at Quail Ridge Books on Saturday, May 17, 6:30 PM

Stacey Cochran:
http://www.staceycochran.com/

Mur Lafferty
http://www.murverse.com

Elisa Lorello
http://kairoscalling.blogspot.com/

http://jchutchins.net

We discussed podcasting, his recording set up, awesome news from the Hutchins command HQ, and I even got to speak to several of the clones.

Apologies in advance about the audio quality. Skype had major sound quality issues during the interview (pops and drops).

Episode 1 of the Murder at Avedon Hill podcast will be released Friday, June 8 — sweet.

• Intro
• Interview
• Promo – Jack Palms II – This is Life
• Promo – Give Us a Minute
• Promo – Nina Kimberly the Merciless
• Outro

Music in this week’s podcast:

• Shira Kammen – Magnatune.com
  • Shetland Set – Wild Wood

So for three months I blogged a couple times a week as Dr. Lui Jiandan, better known as Jian, the crazy but brilliant Chinese geneticist from Ancestor.

It didn’t turn out to be the easter egg for Scott’s fans that Scott hoped it would be (only a few found it), but it was a lot of fun for me, and a good exercise as well. Read the blog in reverse if you want to see Jian’s descent into madness leading up to the start of Ancestor.

http://godmachinist.blogspot.com/

Scott Sigler’s Ancestor Blog – http://ancestornovel.com/blog

Special Guest: J.C. Hutchins (for the hundreth time, thanks J.C. for reading Scott’s part in this story).

Yeah, I’m taking the easy way out this week. Next time (T-Minus 1) will be new fiction. Promise.

Apologies for the sound quality. I was going to redo my lines with the new equipment, but after the time I lost with Audition over the last two days, I was left with using the older version of the story.

Show Notes:

• Intro
• 2:30 – Promo for Scott Sigler’s The Rookie
• 4:00 – Death, Taxes, and Scott Sigler
• 28:30 – Final comments

Music in this week’s podcast:

• Heaven’s a Lie – Lacuna Coil
• Shira Kammen – Magnatune.com
  • Rafe’s Waltz – Castle of the Holly King
  • Shetland Set – Wild Wood
• Additional background music – Kevin McLeod – Incompetech.com

Matthew’s description of his podcast:

“Every life is a mosaic of moments… the stories, confessions, and formative times that make us who we are. On Five Minute Memoir, listeners share vignettes from their own experience… and so reveal the common threads connecting us all.”

Episode 3 is my recollection of a formative day during my young life, where I learned that ‘larger than life’ has more than one meaning… and that politicians never stop being politicians… ever.

If I had given this a name, it would have been called “No Virginia, there isn’t a Santa Claus” (even though I know there is a Santa Claus… no, really, there is).

Head on over to J.C. Hutchins 7th Son website to listen to the short version of the skit, which he dropped into his podcast feed on Friday. The long version of it is there as well, in the Download Center area of his site. Again I’ll be playing a version of it in next week’s podcast, and will talk more about the great podcasters that contributed their time and energy during the Christmas holiday on this silly little creation.

I sent the soft copy to a couple of podcasters and received positive feedback… and J.C. Hutchins liked it enough to agree to ”play” Scott Sigler in the podcast version of the story. I sent the audio version of the story to Scott in November… and today he dropped it in his feed!!

The name of the story is Death, Taxes, and Scott Sigler. I’ll be playing a version of it in my own feed probably next week, but if you can’t wait, please download it from Scott’s site and give it a listen (and if you like it, please comment about it on Scott’s site).

Ah, a good day…

Along with Christiana, I joined Steve Eley (Escape Pod, Podholes) and Neil (the Borderline podcast) to watch one of my favorite all-time movies, The Princess Bride.

So if you have a copy of The Princess Bride and want to play along, download the podcast from Christiana’s site. It was a lot of fun for me and I hope to do this again real soon.