Yes, the latest free episode of the Magic of Eyri podcast is now online. I had some fun creating now vocal effects for some of the new characters.  I tell ya, I could spend hours coming up with those things–and I usually do.

GarageBand makes it pretty easy to create and tweak your own effects.  It reminds of a time when a friend told me about a digital effect pedal he got for his guitar, he said getting the pedal set his learning guitar back by a year due to spending all of his time playing with the pedal’s effects.

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Friday night was the Ignite Lansing event here in town.  It was an amazing sight, but sadly I was stuck at work and wasn’t able to watch any of the presentations.  I had a break and was able to swing by for a little bit as things got started.  Seeing lots of creative people in one spot was great.

The event was held at what used to be the Temple Club–an old church that was turned into a music venue.  It was a great place to see a show: I saw Electric Six there twice and both were fantastic shows. However, the Club did not survive and Lansing lost of its unique (and honestly, best) music venues.  Currently it is being turned into office space, and while I’m glad the building is going to be used again, it isn’t the same.

The word on the street is that Ignite Lansing 3.0 will take place in March.  I’m considering signing up to do a presentation on podcasts.  You suggest a topic and people vote on the topics they want to see–if you win, you have to give a presentation on that topic in five minutes, using twenty slides.  Lots of pressure, but I think I could do it.

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That’s right y’all, you can listen to the audio from the panel on Fantasy Writing I was a part of on September 1.

http://magicofeyri.com/2009/09/fantasy-writing-panel-podcast/

The panel featured Jim C. Hines (Goblin Quest series, Stepsister Scheme, Mermaid’s Madness), Phil Kline (Curse of the Kitsune) and myself.  It runs about 49 minutes and is worth a listen–especially when Jim starts talking about his werewolf-muppet story.

The audio quality is not on par with my normal episodes, as I just set up a recorder on the table and let it go, but I did what I could in GarageBand to make it a little better (tried to cut out some of the long pauses too).

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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).

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Yes, the latest episode of my free podcast is online kids: http://magicofeyri.com/2009/08/magic-of-eyri-011-the-trial/

Starting with the next episode, things really start kicking into high gear, action-wise anyway.  And we’ll meet some new characters too.

Event this Tuesday: I’m going to be part of the Fantasy Author Panel at the Delta Township District Library. Join Jim C. Hines, Phil Kline and myself as we rap about writing fantasy fiction. FREE. 6 PM to 8:30 PM.

We will be signing and selling books afterwards…well, I won’t be selling books, but I’ll be giving out free podcast CDs.  I may only put the first few episodes on there and make them audio CDs instead of .MP3s. We’ll see.

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Local cartoonist, Jef Mallet, visited my nearby library (the Delta Township District Library, which has felt like a second home as of late) Wednesday night. Jef draws the nationally syndicated comic strip, Frazz. It is about a janitor at a elementary school–who is actually a gifted song writer, but keeps the job because he loves the kids so much.

Jef started things out by drawing Frazz for us, live, on a large easel. I always like watching talented artists draw in person, it is nothing short of magical. Jef and I have known each other for a few years now–I first met him at a similar event in 2005 in Grand Ledge, although at that event he was talking more about censorship (I think) instead of just doing a general (but still entertaining) overview of what he does.

At that event in 2005, I hadn’t started writing The Magic of Eyri yet (I had ideas, but there were nowhere near what the final novel became). He mentioned writing and drawing a children’s book of his own, so after his presentation, I asked him for advice on starting and finishing a novel (and a sketch of Frazz).

He would tell me later that it was what I asked him that impressed him most, although I can’t remember exactly what I said. I didn’t ask the questions that he typically gets (”how can I get rich by drawing pictures” or along those lines). His advice to me, which is something I still follow, is to “just do it.” He told me that I didn’t want to be 80 years old one day and thinking, “hmm what if I had written that novel.” Jef told me to write it and at least i would know–and who cared if it was good or bad, at least I wouldn’t regret not trying.

Shortly after self-publishing The Magic of Eyri in 2007, I dropped Jef a line, thanking him for the advice, which had driven me to start and finish the novel. We had lunch and swapped books: a signed copy of Magic of Eyri for him and a signed Frazz collection for myself. It was great.

Jef Mallet is one of the nicest and greatest men I have ever known–and one of the things I like most about him is that he isn’t afraid to write ’smart’ humor. He challenges his readers, and he loves doing it.

I love his stories about the comic strip business too. He told this joke about FoxTrot, Bill Amend. Bill used to live in California, but moved to Kansas City–which was where his syndicate was based. The joke went that Bill did this in order to have a whole extra time zone when it came to deadlines. Jef laughed and added that if you knew Bill, such a story wouldn’t be too far from the truth. Jef told this other joke about an artist, who years ago, whenever he’d read about a plane crash in the States, would call his syndicate and say “yeah, my strips were on that plane.”

The interesting thing is that nowadays, Jef doesn’t even have to mail his strips to his editor. He scans them and emails the files. But he added that he’s always up against a deadline–something I can relate to since starting the Magic of Eyri podcast (granted, I’m not doing daily episodes…I don’t even want to think about that).

The other great story he told was of a ‘strip feud (read the comments part)’ with Pearls Before Swine creator, Stephan Pastis. Pastis ran a strip featuring and overzealous cyclist named Jeff (Jef Mallet is an avid cyclist). Jef called Pastis up about the strip and he confused the strip was about Jef–even saying that he added an extra ‘f’ in the name at the last minute.

Jef took the whole thing in stride and in good humor. He kindly returned the favor in a strip after that, referencing Pastis’ previous career as a lawyer. Hilarious stuff.

Seeing Jef again this week was a much needed creative recharge for myself. The next day, I wrote nearly 1,000 words of my current in progress novel, the most I’ve written in one sitting in a long while–and I gotta get this first draft done by October because I want to take a stab at a nonfiction story come this Novembers Novel Writing Month.

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Last night our band, Shanghai Butchers, had a gig at Macs Bar here in Lansing.  They’ve played there before, but not with me as drummer (I’ve only been with the band “officially” since November or December 2008 and have only been playing drums since October).

We opened for Portland punk rock band, Vampire Lezbos.  They are on tour at the moment and stopped at Macs to do a gig. Thankfully, we were contacted about opening for them, because I was excited about doing the gig. Macs is a fun place and I think it is pretty neat to have played a show there.

We did a quick set run through at our practice place and loaded up for Macs, which thankfully was only just down the road. Seeing our name on the sign out front was pretty dang neat, I gotta admit. (click on photos to see bigger versions)

Unloading and set up went smoothly, and we met the guys from Vampire Lezbos.

Due to a snafu, we were told that we’d either be one of two bands playing (the other being Vampire Lezbos)…or one of four. But, it ended up just being the two of us, which was good because the crowd was sparse (but remember, it was a Monday night and MSU isn’t in session).

Our set went OK.  Brian had some issues with his guitar strap coming undone mid-song, and during one song it even pulled his cord out–resulting in some funky feedback as he tried to get it back in (amusingly, a few in the audience thought it was part of the song…)

I think I did alright, all things considered. I messed up a few times, but nothing major. I was dying under the stage lights though, and sweating like crazy–it was hot in Macs to begin with (I think it was nearly 90 outside all day), and the lights didn’t help matters. But between the heat and the drumming, I’m sure I worked off my pre-performance pint of Guinness.

Our set was six songs and after that we quickly tore down so the Vampire Lezbos guys could get ready.  We dashed back to Jon’s (bass) to drop off our gear and then returned to Macs to catch the latter half of Vampire Lezbos’ set–and I’m glad we did, they were great.  I even bought their album.

I told the guys we need to work on their between song banter/song intros a bit…or just get me a microphone. I think the latter option is the favorite for the moment.

While not a perfect performance on our part, it was still a great experience and I hope the first of more to come. Thanks to everyone who came out.

See  more gig photos here.

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