Podcasts: Mostly SFFAudio in the past few months, but I also appeared on Hugos There again, and I've recorded on a new-to-me show that should be released soon.
Nov. 29: "The SFFaudio Podcast #658 – READALONG: Dancing Aztecs by Donald E. Westlake" with Jesse, Paul Weimer and Scott Danielson. Westlake has written some science fiction, but this is a crime caper, one of my favorite standalone Westlake novels. In fact, I went so far as to compare Westlake's affectionate character sketches to Jane Austen's characterizations. Others compared this to the movie "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World."
Dec. 6: The SFFaudio Podcast #659 – AUDIOBOOK/READALONG: The Shadow Of The Vulture by Robert E. Howard" with Jesse, Connor Kaye, Alex (from Pulp Covers), and Chris Schweizer. Not a Conan story, this is 16th-century historical fiction, but it does introduce Red Sonya of Rogatino, who was later repackaged into the Conan comics and movies
Jan. 3: "The SFFaudio Podcast #663 – AUDIOBOOK/READALONG: Murder In The Gunroom by H. Beam Piper" with host Jesse along with Paul Weimer. A pleasantly competent mundane mystery by a writer better know for SFF, which reminded me of some of Rex Stout's non-Nero Wolfe standalone mysteries.
Panel on Video: In November 2021, I appeared again on Seth Heasley's Hugos There podcast, except that this time, it was a panel video recording. I thought it was also a podcast, but I can't find that in his feed. You can watch the recording on his Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/posts/2021-hugo-for-58465159 or on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TkggnYzvKU&t=61s .
This panel on "2021 Hugo Nominees Best Dramatic Presentation (Long)" was a lead-up to the Hugo Awards voting, which was late this year due to the pandemic delaying WorldCon. On the panel with me, discussing the Hugo finalists (they were all movies) from 2020, were host Seth Heasley and Juan Sanmiguel, David Agranoff, Nana Amuah, Paul Senior, Steve and Marshall from Androids & Assets, Josh Ziefle, and Lori Anderson. For my favorite, I went back and forth between "Palm Springs" and "Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)" ("The Old Guard" is what won). I think I settled on Palm Springs there, but Birds of Prey ended as my top pick on the ballot.
WorldCon
Speaking of the 2021 WorldCon, I went in-person to DisCon III in D.C. Attendees were required to be masked and show proof of vaccination, which was certainly reassuring. If I recall correctly, about 2,600 people attended, and about 25 attendees and staff reported COVID symptoms afterward, but many appeared to have contracted it before, and it definitely wasn't a super-spreader event. I attended many interesting panels, and I went to the Hugo Awards ceremony with a couple of my Skiffy and Fanty friends. I also took a lot of photos at museums and parks, which I posted to Twitter and may eventually upload to Flickr.
Flash Writing
ArvanEleron hosted another Infernal Salon on his Twitch channel, inviting numerous writers and other creatives to participate in a prompted writing session. They all had individual prompts and had about half an hour to write, and then read their creations. The audience also received one prompt ("Ruins are ruins for a reason") and several people, including me, submitted pieces that Arvan read onstream. The name Infernal Salon is from the fact that the writing prompts were taken from the Negocios Infernales card/writing game by Carlos Hernandez and C.S.E. Cooney. The event was a fundraiser for Worldbuilders.
This time I wrote prose. I didn't think it came together quite as well as my poem, but Carlos and CSE and chat all liked it a lot. The audience pieces start at about 2:06:00, and mine is from 2:12:05 to about 2:14:55.
"Ruins are ruins for a reason"
The mock chapel ruins had always bothered the silent ones. A ruined church was one thing, that was right and proper. But to take the green meadow between the big house and the forest and build a ragged stone corner on it, with an unfinished steeple? What sense did that make?
But they liked the treacherous spiral stair. At night, they would creep from their shaded swards to nestle in those gneiss niches.
When the sun shone, children might play as knights and ladies, cowboys and Indians, astronauts and aliens, repurposing the purposeless ruins as castle or fort or moonbase as desired.
When the ruins were moonlit, their watchers mostly saw courting couples, playing at being scared and then taking comfort in each other.
Once in a while, a curious soul would wander alone among the shadows, by day or night, fleeing noisy company or simple seeking a mood. The silent ones loved best to watch these loners, wondering at the moods crossing their faces. Sometimes they helped to set those moods, sometimes they reinforced them ... sometimes they swallowed them up!
When this had happened a few times, the chapel ruins became less popular with the children, and were forbidden by their parents, even though no bodies were ever found. Only a few courting couples with very particular tastes kept frequenting the ruins.
Ghost-hunters began to haunt the ruins. Nobody mocked them anymore, except from a very safe distance.
Twitch Gaming
Because people's lives have been complicated, and some of us have also had hardware woes, the ShadowCrew hasn't played in The Dragon of Icespire Peak campaign on ArvanEleron's Twitch channel since mid-October. I should probably watch the last episode before resuming my Tabaxi bard character, Grace of the Refreshing Breeze, hopefully later in Feburary. Here's the playlist:
However, I have played D&D a couple of times in a new campaign! Well, it was supposed to be a one-shot, but we've played two sessions so far, and are hoping to wrap it up on Friday, Feb. 18. It's a module by Critical Crafting called Midwintär’s Mourning. ArvanEleron GMed for Shaun Duke (of Skiffy and Fanty), PrinceJvstin (from so many things!) and me on the Sunday of WorldCon (in person! It was AMAZING to play D&D in person again!) and then we streamed on his channel for part 2.
I am playing Vivian the Victorious, a halfling fighter. battlemaster specialty.
UPDATES:
Part 3 of Midwintär’s Mourning was played on Friday, Feb. 18! Between my character, Shaun Duke's tiefling bard, Sir Reginald Bartholomew III, and PrinceJvstin's dragonborn cleric, Elurian Bluewater, we resolved the adventure satisfactorily.
On Feb. 22, I guested for the first (but hopefully not last) time on Continuum Drag, a podcast "exploring the forgotten and little seen sci-fi television of yesterday." I really enjoy Luke and Jordan's wryly affectionate takes on old shows. We discussed episodes 9 and 10 of "Kolchak: The Night Stalker." This show from the 1970s features Carl Kolchak, an investigative reporter who keeps running up against stories with supernatural aspects. Naturally, I had a great time discussing "The Spanish Moss Murders" and "The Energy Eater" with Luke and Jordan.
On Feb. 14, I returned to SFFAudio to discuss "The Seascape Tattoo" by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes with Jesse, Paul Weimer and Scott Danielson. Set in the world of Niven's "The Magic Goes Away," this 2016 entry was far less impressive than the stories that started the series, but we still enjoyed an interesting discussion.
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