Videos

Voice Acting for Avery Cates

The Terminal StateWell, Avery Cates #4, The Terminal State is heading for bookstores this summer, kids, and we’ve been working on a web site for it, which is always fun. I need a little help and have decided to make it a little contest; members of the super-secret Street Team got an early wink at this, but now that they’ve had their head start (I’ve already got a couple of pretty kick-ass submissions) I’m opening it up to any one:

The web site will  include some videos I’ve been working on. The videos are tiny little clips representing 4 characters from the book. The voices for these videos are placeholders. I tried to give them some flair, but I can’t help but wonder if they could be better. I figured, why not crowd-source it?

If you’re interested, I’d like to invite anyone who wants to to submit a recording for one or more of the videos. If you think you can give it a real performance, here’s what to do:

1. Surf on over to

http://theterminalstate.com/voiceswanted.html

2. The scripts and videos for each character are there. The way the voices are in the videos are a guideline–feel free to experiment and be creative, but of course I do want something in the same ballpark.

3. Record yourself and send it to me (to mreditor@innerswine.com – please send ONLY to this email) either a WAV or MP3 file as an attachment, or as a link to the file on another server where I can download it (FTP sites are fine as long as you can give me access to them). Feel free to apply effects if you want.

4. Include in the text of your email explicit permission for me to use your voice on the web site. I’ll give credit, though I haven’t decided how yet.

If any of the entries are good enough, I’ll use them on the site. This will be entirely up to my discretion, so it’s 100% my sensibility. Feel free to pass this on to anyone if you think they’d be interested, it’s not a secret. I just wanted to give y’all first crack at it if you wanted. Have fun!

The Plot of The Electric Church in 1 Minute

In order to celebrate and promote the release of The Eternal Prison across the pond in the U.K., I’ve created some new videos giving the plots of The Electric Church and The Digital Plague in about one minute, as a refresher course for folks who are thinking about buying The Eternal Prison. Here’s the first one, The Electric Church in One  Minute:

The next one, The Plot of The Digital PLague in One Minute, will follow later this week. Enjoy!

Curses! Reading Again!

When I appeared on that panel last week as a last-minute replacement, I had occasion to contemplate the fact that my prose is littered with foul language. Once again I shared a stage with folks whose writing was glaring in its lack of expletives, making me feel like a dirty boy when I read. As often happens when I am shamed publicly, I decided to make a video about it, so I give you CURSING WHILST READING:

Enjoy!

Catsgiving

Yup, a new video, because The Duchess went to The Ancestral Home for Thanksgiving, leaving me alone with four cats and a bar stocked full of booze. I’m not responsible for my actions under these circumstances, so I made a video about cats. Apologies in advance.

Yes, I am ashamed.

Exhausted, New Video, and a Calendar

Hey there – I’m exhausted. Spent Sunday racing around New York trying to support my wife, The Duchess, as she ran the NYC marathon. We’d planned to meet her at miles 6, 11, 17, and 23. Due to startling incompetence (centering on my failure to look at the Sunday subway schedule) we missed her at miles 11 and 17, when apparently she was begging total strangers to hold her as she wept. The Duchess has done 7 marathons and runs every day, but this year she suffered a bad calf pull a few weeks ago and her training has been an uphill battle. but she finished! And I have been manfully keeping my whining about how exhausted I am to a minimum.

As you all certainly have heard through the massive media coverage, the Avery Cates books are being re-released as mass market paperbacks. The Electric Church MM dropped on 11/1, and The Digital Plague will hit the stores on 12/1. So, yesterday I decided I had to mark the occasion with a quick little video (It’s less than a minute long!):

Now that’s quality stuff. I tried for a fast-paced quick-cut thing, and I hope it isn’t too fast. Anyway, just for fun. Feel free to tell everyone you know.

Finally, I got this in the mail yesterday:

That’s the Stephen King Library Desktop Calendar 2010, in which I have a brief essay in the month of August. This was edited by the great Jay Franco, and other contributors are Peter V. Brett, Gary Jansen, and Jae Lee, among many others. It is a beautiful and useful thing, and I’m proud to be a part of it.

New Ridiculous Video

As I continue to be charmed by my own video-making, I’ve come to realize the only way to categorize these vids is with the term ridiculous. I think you’ll agree.

This time around, I’m discussing that peculiar horror: Reading from your books in public. This bizare promotional ritual has always been a source of adventure and humiliation for me. So it’s perfect for a video!

Lemme know what you think.

New Video

It’s appropriate that I post this week’s video today, since last night I went out for drinks with the annoyingly talented Sean Ferrell and my uber-Agent. We writers managed to drink Janet under the table, which is no small feat, and while I am a bit, um, slow this morning, it was a fine evening at a great bar (The Old Town Bar on 18th street in Manhattan – one of my faves).

Naturally, a video concerning the uses of booze in writing and how to survive seems appropriate today. I have much lore about booze to share. Why keep it to myself? So, without further ado, here’s the new video:

Enjoy. Please drink responsibly, which involves inviting me along and paying my tab.

The Futility of Writing

Ah, another week, another video. I’m having far too much fun with these. This week, we’re discussing the futility of your artistic and financial literary dreams:

As always, tell the world and let me know if you have any comments as feedback is always appreciated!