Out of Sorts

January 1st- “The Things” by Peter Watts breaks both visitor and audio download records for Clarkesworld. I continue to be humbled when I take a glance at the numbers.

Some lovely comments on the site included:

Janbo sez: My first visit to Clarkesworld, and I get to hear an excellent audio rendition of a story by one of my favorite writers. Containing my joy will be difficult. Thanks to Kate Baker for the subtle, deliciously inflected reading. I will return — with any luck, accompanied by monetary support for this fine website.

and

Zontar sez: Wow! I’ve heard some good audio fiction before. I’ve heard audio fiction that expanded on favorite, even beloved works of art or literature. But this is the first time that I’ve heard (or read) a story that actually improved–*fixed*, even–the work from which it stems!

January 15th- Clarkesworld Magazine releases the second audio fiction of the month, “All the King’s Monsters” by Megan Arkenberg.

January 25th - The Dunesteef Audio Fiction Magazine released “Excision” for which I did a character for the story.

February 1st – My gig as Podcast Director for Clarkesworld Magazine keeps getting better and better. We released the audio podcast, Torquing Vacuum by Jay Lake! I have a ribbon I received at the Anticipation WorldCon workshop that says, “I Ain’t Jay Lake”. Tis true! I am not Jay Lake, but I got to narrate his work and that is pretty fantastic!

February 15th – The second podcast of this short month is “The Language of the Whirlwind” by Lavie Tidhar.

This whole podcasting thing continues to be surreal. It never gets old and I love having the ability to put my dramatic interpretation on these fantastic stories. As always, while the numbers are showing substantial growth on Clarkesworld with downloads, I always appreciate comments. What did you like about the story? What didn’t you like about the narration? Constructive criticism is always welcome along with flowers and chocolates.

Don’t forget to tell a friend if you like the podcast. You can download the podcasts directly from the site, via the RSS feed, and subscribing via Itunes. I am sure we’re available through other means as well. Speaking of the Itunes subscriptions, if you like what you’ve heard, rating the podcast and leaving comments there too would be awesome. It takes less than a minute to rate the ‘cast and a little more to give a small review.

I eagerly opened the Hugo nomination packet that came in the mail a few weeks ago. As I flipped through the pages, my confidence began to fade. Thoughts like: “How can I possibly give each field a fair evaluation when I haven’t read nearly the amount to make a qualified decision?” or “What works even qualify as a novelette or novella?” or “Where can I find a comprehensive list of everything that’s available?”

As I found myself putting the nomination form aside, those same thoughts evolved into: “I will just have to catch up on everything that was published in 2009, to make the best decision possible.” and “I have to culminate a list of everything that people are putting up for consideration and read it.” and “I shall take note of editors and word counts and artists and…”

The nomination form quickly got buried with the burden of my now self-employed, full time, non-paying job of “Nominatrix Extraordinaire”. For the last twelve days, I couldn’t even tell you where the form went. Sure, I read some books, but they were books I had already decided I wanted to read. I was not as successful coming up with anything else of note.

Then a few days ago, a writer who I was lucky enough to share critiques with at Worldcon sent out a note. Addressed to ‘Devotees of Science Fiction and Fantasy’, it warned of the same mental stagnation that I was experiencing.The email also pointed to an article written by my fellow colleague at Clarkesworld Magazine, Cheryl Morgan. While Cheryl’s point is directly aimed at getting more women on the ballot, I think she nails it on the head that women tend to sabotage themselves when it comes to making decisions of this nature. Granted, this isn’t all women, but it looks like a good portion of the female population tend to crawl inside their own heads. This is not a reaction to fear, but I am clearly one of those women who like to make informed and qualified decisions. The nomination portion of the Hugo Awards does not fit into my orderly world of control.

…reading “everything” is impossible. You just have to look at what you have read and seen, and judge whether you think any of it is good enough to be nominated.

“Really? It’s that easy?” Yep. It is.

Don’t worry if you don’t have views in every category either. If you haven’t read any novellas in the past year, leave that section blank.

But…but!!!

I know, this goes against everything single deep-seated desire to fill in every line in every category. I’ve had to train myself that it is necessary and indeed, appropriate in some cases to skip things with which I’m not famliar.

So my lovely ladies of the universe, go vote. Read Cheryl’s post as to why it is imperative that you do.  Time is running out on the new supporting memberships, so if you can’t get to it, consider becoming a supporting member in order to vote on the forthcoming short lists.

If you are still gung-ho about being “informed” here are a pile of links to peruse with some ideas for the up and coming awards season.

• Cheryl Morgan – Hugo Voting on the Cheap (This has some great info on award-eligible women in the SF/F field)
• Rachel Swirsky – Nebula Nominations (I think most of these suggestions can be used in Hugo eligibility as well.)
• Mary Robinette Kowal – Hugo Eligibility Post
• John Scalzi – Hugo Eligibility Post
• Cheryl Morgan – Hugo Post
• Cheryl Morgan – Australian Artists
• Neil Clarke – On the Importance of Showing Why Semi-Prozines Should be Supported and Valued (Links to sites eligible for the Semi-prozine Hugo Award)
• John Klima – On Why the Hugos are important for both the writers and fans of SF/F
• The Hugo Recommend Live Journal Community
• Paul Cornell’s Comic Recommendations
• Best Fan Writer Recommendations
• Charlie Stross – Hugo Eligibility
• Beneath Ceaseless Skies Hugo Recommendations
• John Joseph Adams – Hugo Eligibility

If there are more links which point to either eligibility or recommendations, please feel free to leave them in the comments. I will add them to the post.

Also – I didn’t want to leave this post without a gratuitous pimp for Clarkesworld Magazine which is eligible for the Semi-Prozine category. I love working for this magazine as the Podcast Director and would love to see it recognized.

1105 downloads in 5 days.

Record breaking viewer traffic.

Numerous RTs on Twitter.

John Scalzi pimped it and Metafilter picked it up, other sites are linking.

The feedback on the various sites have been humbling.

Most importantly — a Mr. Peter Watts even enjoyed it.

I am on cloud nine.

I have one of the best jobs, ever.

My friend Pete wanted to promote the reading I did for Peter Watts on his site, which he’s just relaunched. He asked me if I had any pictures of me podcasting and I realized that I didn’t.

So here they are! Big blue eyes!

So I can’t really contain my excitement on this one. Peter Watts is one of the nicest people I’ve had the pleasure of meeting.  I got to briefly chat with him after a reading he did of “The Things” at Worldcon. He had only read part of the fantastic story but it was too late. I was hooked. I wanted more.

As I say in the few minutes before the story gets going on the podcast, you can imagine my utter delight and many squees when Neil told me we were putting up the story for January. What a way to start 2010!

Without sounding like a total fangirl here, this story is awesome on so many levels. With anything in the written or spoken word, your imagination has to do all the work. Once the writer and/or narrator start laying the canvas, it’s ultimately how you arrange the paint in your head. The artists give you the broad strokes. This story is almost an Alfred Hitchcock approach to imagery, by dancing around the grotesque, your mind is left to make up the difference. Wholly more terrifying in parts if you ask me. Words cue mental pictures and depending on your life experiences, there are moments within “The Things” which send shivers up your delicate spine and invite introspection.  Peter has the gift of making me question what it really means to be human.

I hope you’ll go read or listen to this month’s Clarkesworld Magazine. You won’t be disappointed. As always — please leave comments on both stories and podcasts. If you are an audiophile, please consider subscribing to the Itunes feed or Podcast Alley.

As I’ve also mentioned, we’ll be putting out two podcasts a month now. Aren’t you excited now? I know I am!

I like to say that I have one of the best jobs in the world. I do. Oh, how I do!

The Things by Peter Watts

All the King’s Monsters by Megan Arkenberg

Lucius Shepard: An Expatriate Writer of Exotic Tales
by Jason S. Ridler

Video Game Sci-Fi Comes of Age
by Brian Trent

2009 Reader’s Poll and Contest
by Neil Clarke

So I was updating all of my pages on my site today. I just wanted to give you the impressive count of podcasts/specials I’ve done for 2009.

For Clarkesworld Magazine:

• Stories read: 8 out of 12 eligible published stories for 2009
• Authors: Desirina Boskovich, Ekatarina Sedia, Nnedi Okorafor, Nick Mamatas, Sarah Monette, Kij Johnson, Cat Rambo, Richard Parks
• Words read: 37,000 words

For 2010 – Neil Clarke and I’ve planned on doubling the podcast output. Released on the 1st and 15th of every month, it’ll add more content for you to enjoy. Some will be read by me, and others will be read by their authors.

For Escape Pod:

• Stories read: 5 since July 2009
• Authors: Genevieve Valentine, Nancy Kress, Nick Mamatas, Katherine Sparrow (Joint reading with other narrators), James Patrick Kelly
• Words Read: 19,000 words

For StarShipSofa:

• Stories and Poems Read: 8 since January 2009
• Authors: Ted Kosmatka, Mark Rich, Tim Pratt, Mike Allen, Charles Saplack, CL Holland, Aliette de Bodard
• Words Read: 15,000 words

For Fantasy Magazine

• Stories Read: 1 for podcast promo CD
• Author: Jessica J. Lee
• Words Read: 2000 words

For Mythic Delirium:

• Poems Read: 4 poems
• Authors: Holly Dworken Cooley, Lindsey Nair, Constance Cooper, Ann K. Schwader
• Words Read: 700 words approx

For Peter Hodges:

• Stories Read: 3
• Words: 10,000 words

For A Magazine Which Shall Remain Nameless Who Had Me Do Three Stories, promised to post them and then they disappeared:

• Short Stories Read: 3
• Words Read: 15000 words

Total For 2009

• Stories and Poems Read: 29
• Words Read: 98700 words

Holy crap! That isn’t even counting the other projects I had relating to voice over work, including company training videos and phone greetings.  You do realize that around 100K words is a standard science fiction/fantasy novel length. I read a whole book to you guys! Man, my lips are tired! :)

When you break it down, it’s a little over 2 narrations a month. Hourly commitment to a standard 5000 word story is about 3-5 hours after recording and editing, some were longer and some were most certainly shorter. So if I were to guestimate the amount of time it took over the year to podcast, it would be upwards in the 150-200 hours range. 100 hours would be if they all took 3 hours to complete. Again, some where really short, others were all nighters.

This is just mind boggling to me. The average cost and industry standard for a narrator to complete an audio book is around $150.00 – $300.00 per finished hour. Sometimes, depending on who you are, a famous actor or something) You’ll get paid a lump sum to read a popular book. So if I treated this as an actual business, and expected compensation from my clients, I would have made, (we’ll go with 20 hours of finished audio here) $3000.00 on the low end and $6,000.00 on the high end of that price range.

Haha – well here’s to volunteer work. May 2010 prove to be a little more fruitful in the terms of compensation. Mama wants a new MacBook Pro.

**Granted, I’m not going to say that I wasn’t compensated this year for some of the work I did. So thank you to those (you know who you are) who did. The whole narration compensation discussion is definitely a topic I will be bringing up later. There are some things I’ve learned which makes me kinda mad.

I have realized that in the hustle and bustle of the past and forthcoming holidays, that I have neglected to mention that I have new narrations! I have been absolutely wonderfully lucky to have read for some of the best in the SF/F field and I hope the requests keep coming! I love doing this stuff!

Instead of getting a Google alert that mentioned Jon and Kate Plus 8, I actually had some good plugs on various blogs and sites for this week regarding some recent podcasts. Here are the most recent offerings:

“The Uncanny Valley” by Nick Mamatas was posted three weeks ago on Escape Pod.
“After the Fire” by Aliette de Bodard was posted two weeks ago by StarShipSofa.
“Pirate Solutions” by Kathryn Sparrow was posted last week on Escape Pod.
“Night in Dark Perfection” by Richard Parks was posted yesterday on Clarkesworld Magazine.

I’ve also turned in readings to Mike Allen over at Mythic Delirium (2 poems), the good folks over at Dunesteef Audio. (They have the most fun with their recordings!) and I have two left to get done for Escape Pod and StarShip Sofa. Once those are posted, I’ll update the site.

A funny story regarding the “Pirate Solutions” story over on Escape Pod. I had sent two versions of the short narration to Jeremy Tolbert. One with my normal American accent and one with my best attempted English Accent. What’s a pirate story without an English accent! (I’m looking at YOU Johnny Depp.)  I figured if he thought the accent didn’t fit with the rest of the readers, he could with my normal husky voice. He ultimately chose the English accent. As I was surfing the mostly (*gasp*) positive comments on the EP forums, a member by the name of Yaksox posted: Can we have the English woman read more stories, please?

Buwhahah!

In Other Podcasting News:

StarShipSofa is also taking nominations for the Sofanaut Awards, so if you haven’t gone over to nominate your favorites, take a few seconds to do so now!

I’d also like to shout out the wonderful thing Tony C. Smith & writer Larry Santoro are doing to raise money for Spider and Jeanne Robinson in their time of need. StarShipSofa is releasing a free original audio story from Larry. You can purchase the ebook via Paypal or a credit card starting at 2.00 GPB ranging up to 100 GBP if you would like to contribute more to Spider and Jeanne as they continue her treatment for cancer.

I am also going to shamelessly and most enthusiastically plug the Clarkesworld Magazine Citizenship Drive. We’re still aiming for 400 new citizens by the end of the year and if you suddenly looked up at your calendar and were like, HOLY CRAP IT’S ALREADY DECEMBER, you have a little under a month to get in those donations. All it takes is $10.00. Higher donations have some nice incentives. Plus you get to be my minion. Clarkesworld is a labor of love that runs on book sales from its yearly publication and donations from you. So thank you if you’ve already donated!

That’s all for now! We now return you to our normally scheduled program.

Hey boys and girls!

Just wanted to let you know that I’ve done another narration for the good ship Sofa. I was very privileged to read “After the Fire” by Campbell Award nominee and Writer’s of the Future Winner, Aliette de Bodard.

This is one of my favorite stories so far! I do hope you’ll drop by StarShipSofa and give it a listen!

As always, comments and suggestions are always appreciated!

Hey you!

Yes, you.

 Do you have $10.00? You do?! That’s excellent news! For just $10.00 (or more), you can become one of my loyal subjects in the Clarkesworld Magazine Citizenship Drive! We’re hoping to hit 400 new citizens by the end of the year and we need your help. The details of what your donations will count towards can be found on that link. Clarkesworld Magazine depends on support from the SF/F Community to keep running and bringing you stories from both established and new authors.

I also want to surpass Princess Cheryl in her minion count  so far as well, and I can only do that with your help! I have one donation to her eight. Help me overcome her tyranny! ;)

Thank you in advance for supporting something that means so much to me. I have thoroughly enjoyed joining the staff at Clarkesworld. Anything you can do is much appreciated!

Can I pass out now? I don’t think I’ve been this busy narrating for a very long time! Not that I’m necessarily complaining. It’s a nice warm feeling throughout my whole body when people like what they hear and want more! On that note, on my second month on the job with Clarkesworld Magazine - I’m narrating a story by Cat Rambo! Please go take a listen if you have some time to spare.

The other content this month is well worth a look as well!

The Mermaids Singing Each to Each
by Cat Rambo

Brief Candle
by Jason K. Chapman

The Fantastic Spectrum of Elizabeth Hand
by Jason S. Ridler

Modern Genetics in the World of Fiction
by Roger Moraga