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| I decided that the Magic of Eyri Podcast is going to take December off as a “holiday” break. December is usually rather crazy and I’ve been thinking of giving myself a bit of a rest anyway. However, I won’t stop working on episodes. After This Wednesday’s episode (”Every Which Way But Uth”), the next episode will be released on the first Wednesday in January.
The month off from releasing episodes will help me built up a bit of a buffer so that I’m not worrying about releasing episodes week by week. My goal is to have at least two episodes totally finished by the first of the year, if not more (or at least some more scripts finished). I’ve been going full throttle on my free podcast since last Spring, so I figured I’ve earned a break. The less stress around Christmas, the better. I am looking forward to giving myself a bit of a breather–in a way, it is a Christmas present to myself. I may take that time to re-record episode 001 (”A Shameless Summer“) as well. It could certainly benefit from it, as I’ve become much better at producing episodes since then (if I do that, I’ll still keep the original version online, so one can compare and contrast).
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And here’s your weekly round-up of my various writings running wild around the back alleys of the Internet:
Mirrored from Daniel J. Hogan. If something doesn't look right or show up, view the original blog post. Feel free to comment here or on the original post | |
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| Like any good webmaster, I check my visitor data pretty regularly. Over the past few months I’ve noticed some thing interesting–I get way more downloads of the Magic of Eyri Podcast in China than in the United States.
My stats, let me show you them:
 Numbers don't lie--China uses more of my bandwidth. Yes, I have more page views and hits in the U.S. of A than anywhere else, but the bandwidth usage in China is nearly twice the amount of the USA. I brought this up with some writer pals at ConClave back in October, and one mentioned that fantasy stuff is really popular in China right now. I mentioned this to a friend, and she asked a Chinese student she tutors and the student told her that podcasts are a popular method for learning English.
Oh boy.
I am equally amused and concerned that there might be scores of folks in China (or other places) learning English via my horrible Michigan accent, silly voices, made up words, and amateur voice acting. If you’re ever toolin’ round Shanghai and hear someone talking like this, then I’m probably to blame.
Mirrored from Daniel J. Hogan. If something doesn't look right or show up, view the original blog post. Feel free to comment here or on the original post | |
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| A busy week, but I got a bunch done. Episode 014 of the Magic of Eyri Podcast is online, so set yer phasers to DOWNLOAD.
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The big news of this past week is that the first draft of my next novel, working title Night of the Lonely Werewolf, is done. Yep, all 94,000+ words of it are finished. I opted to print the dang thing out (all 499 pages of it, double-spaced at 12 point font) as I go through the editing process. I’m glad I went this route, because I’ll at least have a hard copy of the first draft, and I like taking notes as I do that always important first read-through. I may need to invest in more red pens.
 I'm oldschool. Markin' up the paper with a bunch of red marks. This is the novel I started for last year’s National Novel Writing Month (aka NaNoWriMo). Not happy that it took me almost a year to write the last 44,000 words after cranking out the first 50k in less than 30 days, but “thems the breaks.”
“Life happened” right after the holidays last year and I fell off the writing horse for a few months–but I dusted myself off and get right back on, spurs an’ all. Getting that first draft finished is key, after that, things kind of fall in place. But reaching that final goal of a workable first draft–no matter how good or bad it is–is super important.
I didn’t want to become a writer with a few half-finished novels lying around, so I’m happy that I soldiered on and finished this thing. The interesting thing is that I got some of my better ideas after that six month dry spell, life’s funny that way. I actually enjoy editing my novels and watching it change into something even better.
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And here’s your weekly round-up of my various writings infesting other parts of the Internet:
Mirrored from Daniel J. Hogan. If something doesn't look right or show up, view the original blog post. Feel free to comment here or on the original post | |
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| My first two articles as Lansing Restaurant Examiner are online. Here’s the first, it is about the cappuccino at Restaurant Mediteran. My second story is about the yummy pumpkin bisque at Soup Spoon Cafe.
Some more great news: I am now doing a weekly column about fantasy hockey for the hockey blog IllegalCurve.com. My first column went online today. They pop up every Monday at noon (I turn them in Sunday night-ish).
I know what you’re thinking: where can I get an awesome hat like this dude? How the heck can he do all of these side things, along with his other freelance work, the podcast, his in-progress novel and his day job?
Answer: I’ll make it happen. There will be a bit of a learning curve as I get used to these added duties, but I think once I get in the habit things will get smoother. Also, as a person who works better under pressure and with deadlines, this will strengthen my time management skills.
I’m already getting better–I set up a Google doc today to act as a note pad for my hockey column during the week. I read about hockey daily anyway, and this way I’ll have a running tally of news and ideas–unlike last night when I had to spend a lot of time looking for stuff while working on my first column.
My second Examiner story went way smoother today as well. I made the mistake of using the advanced publishing tool for the first story and it resulted in way more work than I needed to do. Heck, I wrote all of the Soup Spoon story and started a new story tonight while at the laundry mat. I’m confident I’ll do fine.
Mirrored from Daniel J. Hogan. If something doesn't look right or show up, view the original blog post. Feel free to comment here or on the original post | |
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| Great news today as I found out I was accepted to be the Lansing Restaurant Examiner for Examiner.com.
For those unfamiliar. Examiner.com is a network of local bloggers that focus on a certain topic for each city. These bloggers are usually based in or near a big city. Michigan has sections for Detroit and Grand Rapids, but not Lansing specifically–however, there were a few I saw.
They proudly display ads on the site asking folks to apply to be an Examiner of whatever topic they wish. So, being the crazy ambitious person I am, I filled out a form and pitched bloggin’ ’bout restaurants in our fair capital city.
I’ll post a link to my page once it gets set up, which could be a few days. They ask that I aim for three to four posts a week, but they can be short–between 250 to 500 words. Heck, I write more than that in Twitter updates on any given day. The goal here is frequent, short posts. I can do that. I enjoy dining out and any of my friends know I’m a big foodie. Also, I have prior experience writing about such things thanks to my freelance work with Capital Gains. However, my style for Examiner will be a bit different than how I write for Capital Gains. I’m going for more of a loose, witty, goofy style for Examiner. I try to keep the Capital Gains stories a bit more on the serious side, to match the style of the rest of the website.
The other interesting thing is that the Examiner stuff is done pretty much without a net (my first post will be reviewed however), so it’ll all be on me in regards to editing and style (which isn’t any different than this blog post).
Yes, I get paid. My payment is based on traffic (page views, subscribers, etc).
I’m excited. I’m not expecting to make any a bunch of money doing this, but the way I look at it, I dine out any way, I might as well get the writing experience and exposure. I learned about Examiner via my pal Kevin, who is the Chicago Comic Books Examiner. I love his funny style, it is something I want to try and emulate–which I think would make my subject more fun to read about over more traditional restaurant reviews.
Mirrored from Daniel J. Hogan. If something doesn't look right or show up, view the original blog post. Feel free to comment here or on the original post | |
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| Fire up them .MP3 players kiddies, episode 013 of The Magic of Eyri Podcast, “Fight!,” is now online. Check it out: http://magicofeyri.com/2009/10/013-fight/
This episode, and the next two, have plenty of action. Uncle Shameless dukes it out with the bounty hunter Zeroth. Good times are had by all. Uh, well maybe not.
In Fistful of Dollars costume news, my metal chest plate is finished, mom mailed me my vest and scarf and I picked up some cigars last night (don’t tell mom). I did buy a hat yesterday, but after getting it home I hated it and realized it just wasn’t going to work. Sigh. That’s $10 I’ll never see again. I’m going to suck it up and buy a nice felt hat for around $30. At least it is something I can wear after Halloween. It won’t be 100% the same as Clint’s, but it will be close enough.
I will do a proper blog update about the progress of the costume later.
Mirrored from Daniel J. Hogan. If something doesn't look right or show up, view the original blog post. Feel free to comment here or on the original post | |
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