That Gets My Goat 109: Do You Believe In Magic?

Big and Rish have been dabbling in magic recently. No, not tarot cards or crystal balls, not Saidin or Saidar, not a fairy godmother or a voodoo priest either. Not even Magic the Gathering role playing games. No, they're getting into that nerdiest of all magics: spreadsheets! Listen in to find out more.



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A List Of The TWSC Word Prompts

We said we'd put it out there for your convenience. Now you can see your three words quickly instead of going back and listening through the whole episode to find them. Who loves you, baby?

Amber MacArthur One-hit Wonder, Something Sinister, Face
Sonny C Outer Space, Desert, Phonograph
Clay Dugger Sylvester Stallone, Andromeda Galaxy, Hallucinogen
Zane Eddy Hatch, Dwarf, Attack
Jon Ross Windshield Wipers, Chew Toy, Brick
Tibbi Scott Planet, Despair, Blender
Marshal Latham Starter, Scarecrow, Castle
Michael Grey Students, Porcupine, Paper Clip
Christopher Munroe Michael Jackson, Explosive, Spook
Rob Broughton Airplane Bathroom, Critic, Flesh-eating Bacteria
Andy Dillbeck Flashcard, Absolution, Puppet
Katherine Inskip Invention, Energizer Bunny, Notebook
Bryan Lincoln Scrapbook, Knife, East
Donovan Cacace Paper Cut, Sasquatch, Jays
Void Munashii Hairpin, Cuisine, Snowman
Gino Moretto Eggnog, Keyboard Necktie, Soil
Josh Roseman Forklift, Knight, Jelly
Sam Schreiber Glove, Island, Retina
Larbi Gallagher Angle, Spear, Orangutan
Daniel Latham Haziness, Wraith, Violet
M. Curtis Nail Polish, Sanitarium, Gelatin
Julia Scott-Douglas Bolt, Hunt, Walkie-Talkie
Justin Kauhl Explosion, Rotting Wood, Death
Joseph Katz Bread, Lozenge, Bachelor Party
George Edwards Sponge, Shorty, Abraham Lincoln
Robin C. Rutan Ventriloquist, Nose, Tornado
Kevin Sargent Defenestration, Arrow, Flashback
Dylan Stone Headphones, Candlestick, Bisque
Bria Burton Violin, Eeriness, Morbidly Obese Person
Beau Hall Rain, Factory, Bandit
Adam Gifford Mermaid, Moth, Night
Christian Thompson Ancestor, Shaver, James T. Kirk
Jennifer Saar Groundhog, Babies, Flatulence
Jennifer Gifford Quiver, Winter, Vampire
JM Perkins Kung Pao Shrimp, King, Gimp
Jose Bill Blade, Vets, Avenue
Ryan Anderson Mercury, Electric Chair, Bomb
William Carey Aurora Borealis, South, Endangered Species
David Kafri Blood, Horse, Gandhi
Amory Lowe Antique, Dozer, Haunting
Austin Malone Trap, Fodder, Squid
Hugh O'Donnell Punk Rock, Mosquito, Craft
Wendy Conroy Vent, Mammoth, Bathtub
Andrew O'Dell Blindness, Crime, Spatula
Big Anklevich Agent, Doppelganger, Avalanche
Rish Outfield Report, Squads, George Lucas
Algar Van Cluth Buttplug, Pencil Sharpener, Avril Lavigne

Rish Performs "No Kinda Life" on Audible

Looks like this may end up being a weekly post type thing, but I suppose that's to be expected, when I signed up for so many projects over on Audible.  And hey, we're all friends here.

A piece I performed called "No Kinda Life" by Ryan King is now available for purchase over at Audible.  It was one of two books (or maybe a novella, since I don't know where you draw the line length-wise) I auditioned for by the author, both set after the end of the world. 

This is pretty much a Western, set in a future Texas, where things appear to have reverted to an Old West lifestyle and mentality.  Texas Rangers are the law in this post-apocalyptic land, and Austin Reynolds, the main character, is the son of a ranger who told him not to go into that line of work, as it's "no kinda life."  Having ignored his father's words, we meet him as he has been called into an isolated frontier town to protect them from the onslaught of ruthless raiders.

My favorite aspect of this story was that the ruins of our civilization are still out there, crumbling and full of secrets, but that the survivors stay far away from the cities, as they fear they're full of ghosts.  He said that some brave souls make their living going into those steel graveyards, to see what kind of treasures they can salvage.  I really dug that image, and seem to recall a movie where that happened (was it TRANCERS?).

The final recording was just under two and a half hours long, but it was fast read and easy to perform.  I got to voice a bunch of characters, from the corrupt mayor, the blacksmith, the bartender, the bloodthirsty raider leader, the love interest (who may or may not be the mayor's personal whore), and the main character, who I decided to use my trusty "Dad voice" to bring to life.

I got the impression this was but one tale in a series, since there was a lot of interesting world-building this story only touches upon, but I haven't taken the time to investigate that.  I've noticed a lot of serieses on Audible, and it would be nice to get a contract to narrate a couple of different ones.  I'm still trying to figure out the best way of recording, though, and it'll be nice when I can stop paying attention to the sound quality, and just concentrate on the performance.

Rish Outfield, Audiobook Boy

Dunesteef: The Drawing of the Three

Recently, the Dunesteef Audio Fiction Magazine announced another story-writing contest (its first since 2011), a short story challenge called the Triple Word Score Contest.  Contestants had to opt-in, and would be given three words (nouns) at random, which they had to base their stories around.

In preparation for this, Big and Rish asked their listeners to send in lists of words, and when all was said and done, there were around four hundred words printed out and sliced into little strips of paper, stuck in a hat, and drawn "live" in the following recording.



Right click HERE to download the episode, select Save Link As, and save the file to your hard drive.

For the actual episode of the show in which it was announced, we just read the finished list, but are providing the drawing here for your listening pleasure.

Be warned: this could be a slightly amusing listen, or dangerously boring.  It's possibly even both at the same time.  But we did our best to make it entertaining, because we care just that much.

Ask Big N Rish A Question!

Hey kids, Rish here.  I was just going over our first-ever That Gets My Goat episode we've recorded outdoors (Big and I decided to record our entire walk around his neighborhood using his nifty portable microphone, and we'll probably get it posted in a week or so), and it occurred to me that it would be fun to do an episode where we answer listener questions.  Big has been pressuring me to do more remote recordings, and I thought this would work.

So, go ahead and ask away.  Anything you've ever wondered about us, our show, the way we assemble things, our creative minds, the editing process, and our deepest secrets?  Ask away here in the comments, on the forums, or Tweet 'em to Big at his Twittah account.  These are questions you'd like to have us answer on the show, and if there are enough of them, maybe we can do it as a regular feature, every six months or so.  We will try* to answer everything given us, but please understand that there are a couple areas we've decided not to go on our various shows.

So, if you want to know which one of Big's kids he loves most, he probably won't be answering that one.

Though I can tell you, with confidence, it's the youngest one.

Rish Outfield, Answerman

*Originally, I typed "we will answer honestly any questions that are asked," but thought better of it.  Sorry.

Rish Performs "The Case of the Vanishing Boy" on Audible

Rish here.  I warned you I'd be doing these posts a lot in the future.  I also warned you not to go out tonight.

So, one of the two first jobs I got doing audiobooks has now shown up on Audible.com.  This is "The Case of the Vanishing Boy" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch.  This is the first story in a series of "Spade/Paladin Conundrum" mysteries that the author has published, and when I first signed on, I was excited at the prospect of being the voice for all of them.

First off, Ms. Rusch is an author I've actually heard of, which probably translates to other people having heard of her and consider themselves fans, which probably further translates to more folks wanting to buy her work than your average self-published writer.  That could be lucrative, as well as fun.

The story is centered around a Science Fiction/Fantasy convention, and the main character, Spade, is the man you'd want to hire to make sure everything goes well.  He's a huge guy with a clever mind, and watches over a convention every weekend to troubleshoot, and occasionally, to solve mysteries.  He meets Paladin, an attractive young woman who also frequents conventions, tracking down stolen merchandise, missing equipment, and in this case, missing persons.

They team up to solve the mystery, and lots of geek-centric fun is to be had. 

Now that I've done a lot of these things, I really appreciate the quality of writing in the story, and the fact that, of the two KKR stories I have produced, there was not a single typo, grammatical error, or nonsense sentence to be found.

Plus, she's a really clever writer, with a very amusing voice.  Rusch is a pretty big name in SF circles (and her husband, Dean Wesley Smith, briefly instructed Big Anklevich in the ways of the Force and that gun kata stuff that was a thing for a while), and her writing sounds really genuine, as though she knows exactly what fan conventions are like, and the kind of people who go to them.  Of course, she also wrote a Sci-Fi murder mystery that felt just as genuine, and I'm fairly sure she's never lived on a space station.

Unfortunately, since it was the first project I started on, and the learning curve has been so sharp, I'm not sure how great-sounding my reading is.  Surely not crappy enough to cause me not to recommend it, but like the very first episode of the Dunesteef we did, I'm haunted by the fact that the sound quality and editing is at a level way below what we'd do nowadays.*

I had a great deal of trouble with this production, and those headaches did pretty much all they could to break my will.  But I'm still doing audiobooks in April 2013, so I guess I got back up again.

Anyhow, the story can be found here:
Case of the Vanishing Boy on Audible.  It's for sale, along with a big chunk of her fiction and non-fiction, and yeah, I get a little portion of every copy it sells.**

I don't know if I am still in the running to record the rest of the stories in this series (my gut tells me I'm not), but if you can't get enough of mysteries among geek culture (especially those read by me), pick it up and tell me what you think.  Who knows, I may be the only one who sees the defects in the file.  And that would be nice.

Rish Outfield, Audiobook Nerd

*To the point that I often ask Big if we can re-do that story someday, knowing what we know now.

**Not that that is why I'm hyping it.  I'll be happy to plug the stories I don't get a percentage of, and I've hesitated to plug a couple that I would be paid for.

That Gets My Goat 108: Her Name Was Veronica

So, Rish was fascinated by the recent "Veronica Mars" Kickstarter project and some speculation that it's either the best thing to happen to Hollywood, or the end as we know it.  Warning: at some point, "Firefly" gets mentioned.

Right click HERE to download the episode, select Save Link As, and save the file to your hard drive.