June is Audiobook Month!

So, I've been wanting to write something since I got back from APAC on the 30th. But, if you've read this blog at all, you'll know that I've been struggling with fatigue for quite some time now (which also explains why there were no posts at all last month...), so it's taken me this long to get the combination of spare time and gumption to sit down and start typing. Funny how going from mostly frozen food to cooking completely fresh, every single day, after working a full day in the office, kinda sucks up your energy and time, isn't it?

Anyways, as the title says, June has been designated "Audiobook Month", by our benevolent overlords at the APA, so I'm finally using this as an opportunity to get off my butt and post some Audiobook stuff! So: what am I up to? Well, this weekend, I actually got back into my studio and recorded the first three chapters of A Multitude of Monsters (the next book in the Ebenezum series, after A Malady of Magicks). You just know it's a good sign when even listening back to the raw session had me chuckling. I'm planning on writing some posts detailing my process as I go through recording the book, so those of you who just can't get enough touring of sausage factories, buckle in.

Also, after uploading my new demo excerpts to ACX (and other places, like my website, of course), I got contacted by a couple of authors who liked what they heard, so I've got two very different follow-ups after Multitude is done.

The first book I'll be tackling after I get my latest Wuntvor fix is Knights: The Heart of Shadows, by Robert E. Keller. This is a series (I'm coming in at the third book) that is definitely High Fantasy, aimed at perhaps a bit younger crowd, which follows the journey of a young man plucked out of obscurity to train as a Divine Knight because of his ability to access a little understood power known as the Eye of Divinity. It should be a fun contrast from the Ebenezum books--almost the flip side of those stories--where I get to play the full gravity of the fantasy setting as opposed to poking gentle fun at it. No enchanted chickens or Brownie Power here!

Then last, but very definitely not least, I'll be narrating When The Dead, a very serious post- (and maybe "during-") apocalyptic novel by the surprisingly hilarious Michelle Kilmer (seriously. Just tossing jokes back and forth with her has single-handedly doubled the number of tweets in my till-now-neglected Twitter account). What really intrigues me about this one is that it starts with the same perspective that made The Walking Dead so compelling (to me): that, in a zombie apocalypse, it's not so much the zombies you want to watch out for as your fellow survivors. And there's a nice departure from the mainstream (if that term really applies to zombie stories), in that these survivors do what most of us would really do in that situation: they hole up in their apartment building, with neighbors they barely know, and hope to ride the disaster out. Nope, no possibility of crazy interpersonal drama with life-and-death stakes there at all, amiright?

Well, that means it's time to close out this journey (I swear, the reason I don't post as much as I plan to is that every darned post turns into a freaking novel!) by passing on an audiobook you might want to check out. Your first Just-Add-Caffeine-endorsed link is to a 2014 Audies finalist in the Audio Drama category: The Fall of the Kings, by Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman, read by a full cast. From the AudioFile review: "the third installment in Ellen Kushner's Riverside series is flush with all the intrigue, sex, and politics of its predecessors." If that doesn't intrigue you, well, you're probably reading the wrong blog. Til next time--listen to some good books!

On top of the table, all covered with dice...

So, many thanks to the folks out there who have given "A Malady of Magicks" a shot. It's pretty awesome to check in on my ACX dashboard and see actual sales. I sincerely hope you enjoy my take on the story and characters.

But I'm writing this post about something else near and dear to my heart: table-top gaming. One of the things that I remember fondly from my childhood is that, every so often, my parents and I would take a night to sit at our dining room table and actually play a game together: Monopoly, Sorry!, Scrabble (sorry, Mom, that one was never my favorite), even once in a great while, Risk. Growing up as an only child, and a shy, geeky one at that (remember, kids: this was before being "geeky" had any cultural cachet whatsoever), I didn't have a ton of friends I could do that with, so I enjoyed it for that reason--and I also think it helped me feel closer to my parents, too. Now, sure, I was never going to get them to play D&D, or Avalon Hill's Magic Realm, but I'm pretty sure I got them to play at least one round of the original Dungeon.

That formative experience led to a lot of hanging out in game stores in my teenage years, and to a little too much take-home pay being spent on employee discounts during my brief stint in retail (at a game chain whose name I can't recall now). It's also why I instantly fell in love with Wil Wheaton's web series "Tabletop", on the Geek and Sundry channel at YouTube. Wil gets guests together around a (gorgeous) game table, breaks out a different game each episode--some more "mainstream", some slightly geekier--and basically has a blast playing the game, tossing jokes around, and (unfortunately for him), generally losing. If you haven't seen the show, you owe it to yourself to check it out. It is honestly one of the shows Alisha and I enjoy watching the most out of all the TV and web series we follow.

The show, along with the rest of Geek and Sundry (which was started by Felicia Day, of  The Guild fame), has been sponsored by Google up to now, as part of Google's efforts to encourage the creation of great YouTube content. Apparently, that sponsorship is ending, and Wil has taken to Indiegogo to fund development of Season Three of Tabletop.

I'm proud to be supporting that effort, and I hope at least some of you will consider doing the same.

Play more games!