Dan McGirt World Audiodrama Debut at The Drama Pod

Greetings, Loyal Reader!

Today I am pleased — and more than a bit terrified — to announce the Dan McGirt world audiodrama acting debut in an episode of Off the Cuff produced by The Drama Pod.

Loyal Reader Tim Heffernan and the gang at The Drama Pod, based in Australia, have dedicated themselves to “the resurrection of radio drama.” I know what you’re thinking — wouldn’t they need to resurrect radio first? As it turns out, no — thanks to the magic of the Internet, which functions like a super radio tower with a broadcast range of infinity, you can hear their radio drama without a radio!

The Drama Pod have produced quite a few clever and entertaining audiodramas you can hear at their website or download to your mp3 player — all for free!  Most are fairly short listens — perfect for your commute. My personal favorites so far are The List and The Game Show (which you should listen to in that order).

One of their ongoing shows is Off the Cuff, in which unsuspecting guests are asked to star in a production without the benefit of a script — instead making up your lines as you go along. At the risk of permanent damage to The Drama Pod’s sterling record of success, Tim recently invited me to be a guest victim star on OTC. Thanks to Tim and the rest of the talented cast (or should I say, the talented rest of the cast) I had great fun recording my show. (I even got my own theme song out of it!) I hope you’ll enjoy it too.

You can hear the results for yourself at The Drama Pod — and let me know if I should stick to the writing!

Best regards,

Dan McGirt

Jason Cosmo Podcast Audiobook to Come

Greetings, Loyal Reader!

Just a quick update. Despite my best intentions, the conclusion of Rainy Daze remains unwritten. I have been sidetracked by other obligations and continue to be. I hope to see daylight and finish the story soon. I don’t think I’ll have time to squeeze in a Halloween story before Halloween either.

Once I do wrap up Rainy Daze it will be time for the final push on the manuscript of the next Jason Cosmo novel, Noble Cause. I pretty much suspended work on Noble Cause at the beginning of 2009 to focus on getting Hero Wanted finished, edited, produced and on sale now wherever fine fantasy novels are sold.  That doesn’t mean the story hasn’t been percolating in my head. I will probably do some significant revising once I get back to it. I’ll have to see how the existing text has aged these last few months.  My back of envelope calculation is to be ready for editing and proofreading by early next year (January/February) and looking at a summer release. I’ll keep you updated as those plans gel. This is, after all, the Jason Cosmo Update.

In the meantime, I’ve decided it is long past time I got on the podcast audiobook train. After studying the examples of podiobook pioneers like Scott Sigler and Seth Harwood, I’m convinced this is something I need to do. My plan will be to record the full text of Hero Wanted, as read by me, and release it in a series of free weekly podcasts. I am persuaded that this will help me connect with many more potential new Loyal Readers (or, Loyal Listeners, I guess they’ll be), perk up my print book sales, and have fun doing it.

Obviously that is two major projects on the horizon: write and publish Noble Cause, record and produce Hero Wanted. I do not know yet what the time frame for the podiobook will be. I just bought a pro-quality microphone and a copy of Podcasting For Dummies and I’ve got a good bit of learning to do before I launch that project in earnest.  For now, writing Noble Cause will be the first priority, but stay tuned!

Best regards,

Dan McGirt