My latest freelance piece for Lansing Capital Gains is now online–it is about the website LifeInLansing.com.  This was a fun story to work on, as it was great to see these folks doing what they can to help promote events around town. I turned in my next assignment this week (on deadline–bam!), a tour of some of Lansing’s world food restaurants.  It is by no means a “Best Of” list, just a quick informational piece. It was a tasty piece to “research,” and I have the extra pounds to prove it.

I also updated my Writing Samples and Resume pages.

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In Halloween costume news, I swung by a local costume shop–one of the mega costume stores that appears in early September and disappears on November 1st, like some kind of costuming Bringadoon.

My plan for the moment is go as The Man With No Name character from thee Fistful of Dollars trilogy.  The main thing I need to pull this off is the trademark poncho Clint Eastwood wears.  Thankfully, they had ponchos (not the exact design, but that’s OK), so that part is taken care of.  Next, I need to find a decent looking gun with a hip holster, and a hat.  I can get the Eastwood squint/scowl down, no problem–and I’ve already been working on the voice (which I use for the Magic of Eyri podcast).

All in all, this should be an easier task than last year’s Ghostbuster costume.

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

It interesting where the Internet leads us some times.

I saw a Twitter update by @gmcalpin (writer and artist of one of my favorite webcomics, Multiplex) about the metal band Mastodon allegedly scoring the upcoming film Jonah Hex (based on a comic). It lead to an article on Ain’t It Cool News (movie rumors and such).

I read the article and was amused, I enjoy Mastodon but realized I don’t own nearly enough of their music. I hopped over to YouTube and watched a few music videos and also listened to some other songs, sampling cuts from the albums Leviathan and Blood Mountain.

Realizing I still had an online gift certificate from my birthday, I decided to buy a Mastodon album (along with Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon on vinyl). But I couldn’t decide which to get–then a friend commented on my Facebook page that Crack the Skye was nothing short of amazing (a friend whose opinions I hold in high regard).

So, I ventured back to YouTube to listen to a few cuts from Crack the Skye and read a few online reviews. I quickly decided on ordering the album–and when it comes to bands like Mastodon, I really prefer having the original CD over .MP3s (because the music is complex and/or layered–things that can get lost when compressing music to .MP3s).

After clicking Finish My Order, I sat back and thought “What the heck just happened?” Over the span of maybe twenty minutes, I went from reading about Mastodon scoring an upcoming film to buying one of their albums, mainly on a whim.

It was an interesting string of events: I read the article, listened to songs online/watched videos, got a recommendation from a friend who lives in another city, read reviews and purchased an album. All without leaving my seat.

I guess this shows you can’t underestimate the advantages of people talking about your stuff on the Internet.

Also: My latest article for Lansing Capital Gains is now online.  It is about the Soup Spoon Cafe, a very tasty restaurant (good coffee too).

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

Penguicon starts today, my schedule is behind the cut below.  I'm on a bunch of panels, but thankfully my schedule isn't that crazy--I actually have some gaps and my first panel isn't until 6 PM tonight (although I'll be there way in advance so I check in and relax...speaking of, I still have packing to do and other prep stuff, oy). Don't forget--I'm giving out free CDs with the first three episodes of the Magic of Eyri Podcast.

In freelance news, my latest article for Lansing Capital Gains is online--featuring an interview with everyone's favorite goblin author, Jim C. Hines (jimhines ), oh and the other fellow in the article is the bass player for the band I'm in (I'm the drummer). Jon wasn't originally in the article, but one of the folks I interviewed moved out of state after I turned the piece in, so we had to quickly find a replacement. Thankfully, I remembered that Jon had spent some time in D.C., so I was able to interview him ASAP (the article is on Michiganders who left the state for work/school and then came back).

Additionally, I was contacted yesterday about taking part in a local teen writing workshop. I don't know all the details yet, but I said I would be glad to help out--I just hope I can fit it into my schedule. I think my role would be to help the kids learn about the 'writing process.' Sounds like fun, I have a few ideas to make things interesting. The main thing I'll stress is don't worry about the first draft being perfect, that's what the later drafts are for.

( click to read my panel schedule )

The headline speaks the truth.  My first freelance article for Lansing Capital Gains was published today, marking my first ever pro sale (15 cents a word). 

It isn't fiction, but it is step in the right direction--getting paid to write.  And better still, they gave me another assignment last night:  a story on a used music/video game/movie store that has video game nights and Lansing's gamer community (video games, not card/board/or RPGs).

In the fiction arena, there is this science fiction short story contest I'm considering writing a piece for.  But, I have less than a month to put together an 8,000 word story and it is a bit outside of my usual style: realistic sci-fi (at least in the sense of space travel) that promotes good things about space travel and science (so, no science run amok stuff here).  I'd like to give it a shot, but between all of the podcast stuff I'm setting up and working on that new freelance piece, I don't know if I'd have the time.  BUT, if I get an idea I'm sure I can crank something out.  Inspiration has a way of firing me up.

RE: the podcast stuff, I picked up my copy of Podcasting for Dummies from Everybody Reads Bookstore (recommended to me by the creator of this podcast), which I had special ordered.  I'm certainly glad I did, I'm not even done with the first chapter and it has given me a few helpful tips.

I think for episode #2 (which I almost have the script done for) I will record everything separate in GarageBand, save each file to the Loop Library (thus writing each track to disc) and then put everything together in a new GarageBand file.  Having already found where the Loops are stored, I can back those up (they are .aif files). This should also make putting together an epsiode easier to run in GB, as I won't be recording stuff, just adding Loops to the timeline.

Another interview finished for my freelance article. I took care of that tonight at good ol' Gone Wired Café. This interview was especially interesting, as I interviewed someone who has been interviewed on not only Fox News but CNN when she lived in Washington D.C. Hopefully, I didn't come off as too amateurish (something I'm still a bit nervous about).

I'm getting better at this non-fiction/journalism/article thing, even though it is still a far cry from writing fiction (especially when the fiction I write usually contains talking animals or made up creatures).

interviewing people I don't know is good for me on a few levels. It forces me to contact them in the first place and forces me to talk to someone I don't know face to face for a while. All of this is kicking me out of my comfort so a bit, which is good.

I'm eager to get working the article itself, now that my interviews are pretty much finished. I would have started tonight, but between the interview and band practice, I didn't get home until almost 10 and then I worked out for a bit. I'm very tired. My change in diet (more veggies and fruit) seems to be working a bit, I'm not as fatigued as much during the morning/afternoon. So far I'm being pretty good about keeping tabs on what I'm eating (dinner was a bowl of fresh fruit at Gone Wired).

I think I'll experiment with lentils for dinner tomorrow night (before heading to a friend's for our weekly group viewing of LOST).

The interviews for my freelance piece on 'boomerangs' (people leaving their homes, moving somewhere and then eventually moving back) are coming along nicely.  Two are done so far (including an email interview with everyone's favorite author of all things gobliny and princessy, jimhines ) and my next is scheduled for tomorrow evening.

I'll confess that I am rather envious of these folks: having the courage to leave the state and their families behind and trail blaze in different state.  I've toyed with the idea myself, but so far have lacked the courage (or even just a reason, I s'pose).  Still haven't heard from one of my potential interviewees, but I'll try contacting her again soon.  Even if i can't meet up with her, I'll have three interviews to pull things from, which should be plenty for a 1,000 word article.Part one of Neil Gaiman's Batman story, "Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?" comes out tomorrow and I can't wait. (and so does the next iss of Hellboy: The Wild Hunt, which I also can't wait for since it was s'pose to come out LAST week).