BooksInMotion.com, a publisher we clearly don’t link to enough, is having a:
“Incredible 40% Off St. Patrick’s Day Sale!”
Now through St. Patrick’s Day (March 17, 2010) get 40% OFF your purchase of library, retail and downloaded audiobooks at BooksInMotion.com. Use coupon code “PADDY” at checkout. Offer not available for rental orders.
[Thanks to Erik Burggraaf for the tip!]
Posted by Jesse Willis
Jack J. Ward, of The Sonic Society podcast points me toward this new blog that reviews audio drama.
It’s called Audio Drama Review, and the reviewer blogs under the name “AudioDramaReviewer” – hey are you sensing a pattern here?
Audio Drama Review’s moto is:
“Reviews of Audio Drama, Radio Plays, old and new. Current companies and shows both professional and amateur.”
If you’re a fan of audio drama you should definitely check out this new blog!
Already reviewed are:
–Lightning Bolt Theater Of The Mind
My favourite part about this new blog is that the reviewer is taking the time to pointing out how much the website for each show sucks (or doesn’t). Making a decent show isn’t enough, it has to be accessible too!
Posted by Jesse Willis
Today’s Wall Street Journal, page A1 (the front page), has a well written article by Barry Newman on modern audio drama entitled: Return With Us to the Thrilling Days Of Yesteryear—Via the Internet. It is subtitled “Fred Greenhalgh’s Audio Dramas Hark Back To Radio Golden Era; It Sounds Like Snow” and thus you know the subject of the piece is Fred Greenhalgh (who we had as a guest on SFFaudio Podcast #039). It details Fred’s new project with the Mad Horse Theater Company, to create an audio drama production of the novel Open Season by Archer Mayor. You can read the entire article HERE. There’s also an accompanying video…
Here is the pilot episode of the Joe Gunther Open Season series |MP3|
And here’s a bit more video showcasing how it was made:
For more details visit the Final Rune website HERE.
Posted by Jesse Willis
If you’re anything like me you’re more than twice as happy to find a small gem to share with a friend than to revel in the worship and praise of something that is already well advertised. Agora is a recently completed movie in the marketplace of filmed ideas.
The posters to promote the film read: “FREEDOM” “PASSION” “POWER” “AMBITION”
After seeing the movie I can see why the marketers have labeled the characters with the abstract nouns that they did. Freedom, Passion, Power, Ambition. All are probably better at getting more bums in theater seats that the words that I’d like to see on those posters: “HISTORY” “PHILOSOPHY” “SKEPTICISM” “SCIENCE” – I think these words would be more in keeping with the true intellectual spirit of the film – it is a movie about all four of those things.
The audiobook, on the other hand, has yet to have any art made for it because it isn’t completed yet. Underway at LibriVox.org, is an unabridged, multiple narrator reading of Hypatia by Charles Kingsley. This is a historical novel based on the very same life of scientist and philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria. And here’s where you come in. The project is still in need of narrators and proof listeners. To get involved head on over to the LibriVox Forum reader thread or the LibriVox Forum proof listener thread and help bring the story of Hypatia back to life.
Posted by Jesse Willis
Infinivox has announced the Table of Contents for The Top Ten Tales of Science Fiction #2. Can’t wait!
“Erosion” by Ian Creasey
“As Women Fight” by Sara Genge
“A Story, with Beans” by Steven Gould
“Events Preceding the Helvetican Renaissance” by John Kessel
“On the Human Plan” by Jay Lake
“Crimes and Glory” by Paul McAuley
“Mongoose” by Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear
“Before My Last Breath” by Robert Reed
“The Island” by Peter Watts
“This Peaceable Land; or, The Unbearable Vision of Harriet Beecher Stowe” by Robert Charles Wilson
We spent an hour talking to Allan Kaster about the first Top Ten Tales in SFFaudio Podcast #36. Great stuff!
Via [SF Signal]
Posted by Scott D. Danielson
Brian Price, of Great Northern Audio, has written an essay over on the Audiobook DJ blog entitled Public Allan Poe. In it Price discusses the ubiquity of audio dramatizations and audiobooks based on the fiction of Edgar Allan Poe. His thesis seems to be that because Edgar Allan Poe stories are such a hot property and don’t have any licensing costs associated with them that producers of modern AD based on original scripts are finding it hard to compete. Sez Price:
“From the independent audiobook writer/producer vantage point the public domain is tough to compete against. If I write, produce and try to distribute an original piece and a perspective buyer goes on-line and sees my title and then sees The Tell-Tale Heart he or she is 90 percent of the time going to buy what they’ve heard of. New writers have a hard enough time battling the likes of Stephen King without fighting his Uncle Edgar, as well.
He’s right, of course, but it isn’t all thorns and tears. Price also points out how good most of those adaptations are. One thing he doesn’t consider is that for every version some audio producer creates of an Read the whole essay |HERE|.
Posted by Jesse Willis