Update - Podcasts and Stories and Stuff

I've been busy.  Too busy to post much.  (I've had lots of ideas to post, and have done partial drafts on some posts, but too busy to follow up.)

I figured it's time for an update at least....

The Podcast

I was well ahead of schedule before Christmas, but stuff happened.  Many of my well-laid plans went bust.  (For instance, my lovely attic recording studio was made useless by someone, somewhere in the neighborhood, having some kind of machine or furnace or something that resounds off the roof.  I'm hoping it's heating related and will go away when the weather gets nicer.)

So I spent much of the past month scrambling to keep ahead of deadlines, and rebuilding my recording space.   Here it is:

The sound quality is not as good as I'd like (too much resonance) but the frustration level is much much lower.  I have worked out all the little details to minimize the effect of manic cats and furnaces.

Sometime in the wee hours of this morning, I'll be posting a new episode of Reading in the Attic.  It'll be the second of seven parts of my light winter thriller Harsh Climate.  (It'll be the sixth actual episode of the podcast._  Check it out!  It's like free audio books!


As for Fiction

Pretty much every series on the docket is pushing and shoving to get out.  We'll see if improving my sound workflow frees up more time for getting back into writing. 

I have also been having great fun working on them with variations of Story Games, but nothing I can translate to a sane blog post yet.  This will be upcoming.

The only thing really new is in regards to the Serial.

Doing a podcast, of course, inspires me to take it up again, because it's so suitable.  I have been mulling what I want to do with the Misplaced Baroness.

I have to admit, I'm thinking of rewriting it from scratch.  Along the same general lines, but pulling out a few threads and weaving in a few new ones.  (Another alternative would be to weave it in as a part of a single story with Misplaced Hero -- creatively fun, but I have some reasons for not wanting to do that, which I may talk about later.)

The other factor -- the bigger one and also even more of a complication -- is that my recent fascination with the Orphans on a Train genre stems from a story I want to write in that universe.

It would be a different kind of story, though. Well, the same kinds of plots and things, but it would be a children's story, and it would have more of a "novel" kind of pace than the others, which intentionally have a comic book or movie serial kind of pace.

There is also the question of when it takes place.  Because Rozinshura makes an appearance, and I have to decide whether it's filling in a little socio-political backstory (I think it takes place in the country Antonio comes from) OR if the other stories provide a little background for it.

Frankly, I think that time in that universe is not 100 percent straight forward. I think it has that lovely movie and tv show facility of all stories kind of taking place in simultaneous time, and that history can reset itself or jump back into and out of various timelines.  (You know, like The Simpsons does.)

All I do know is that I have an orphan named Amelia, from the wild west of Freedonia, who for the past few years has had all of her many relatives fighting over custody of her -- all except for the ones she most likes and the one she most fears.  Now, after some disastrous financial shenanigans and other grand drama among the battling relatives, suddenly nobody wants her. They all want to dump her on that one relative -- a poor relation -- who made it clear from the start that she hates kids.

And the one family she wants to join -- lots of kids, lots of fun at all times -- is heading overseas for a year studying ruins in some dangerous foreign country.  They'd love to have her, but can't do it old chum.  You wouldn't believe the paperwork, and they're leaving tomorrow.

What is a poor orphan to do?

So, the creativity Chez LaGuire is flowing just fine.

Also, I have perfected the art of roasting spiced nuts. (And roast beef sandwiches au jus with horseradish sauce on flaky crispy stretchy home made hard rolls, and also shrimp cocktail.)  Have some nuts before you go:

See you in the funny papers.