Zulu-5 on the way with "The Family You Choose"

The possible return of "Telaon"

And could there be "The Terran Conspiracy" in the future of Your Humble Award-Winning and Award-Nominated Author?!?

Enjoy!

E-mail the Humble Award-Winning and Award-Nominated Author

Go To the Parsec Awards site

Music by Victor Stellar.

E-mail Carol Meacham

Music is "Station II" by Victor Stellar. 

by Carol E. Meacham

Music by Victor Stellar.

E-mail the Author

The Atrocious Adventure Infosite

Also the entirety of Victor Stellar's excellent song "Station II", included under the Creative Commons license.  Enjoy!

With music by Victor Stellar.

With music by Victor Stellar. 

Keywords if'n you want to look stuff up:

monomyth

Joseph Campbell

Christopher Vogler

the Hero's Journey

Part 16 of The Fall of Avalon.

After this, a hiatus while I write "Tantalus and Sweet Charity".  Plus a shout out for Loreena McKinnett. 

Here's all the URLs associated with the show:

The Infosite at Blogspot

Atrocious Adventure on CafePress

The Avalon Wiki site

E-mail Your Humble Author

Thanks for listening, folks, it's been a blast!

And yes, I am quite proud of that scene with Morgaine.

With news, Christmas post-mortem, and still more news.

Also explanation for not doing the show last week, etc.

Enjoy!

E-mail Carol and express your ire!

See the infosite for info about the mailing list for the Simulated Reality story. 

Part 10 of The Fall of Avalon.

With editorial notes in the credits regarding Zulu-5 in print.

The immediate cause and beginning of the quest.

Enjoy!

The Infosite

New intro music courtesy of Javier Sabadell via the Creative Commons license.  Nice, huh?

Zulu-5 is in the offing. 

Audacity + Creative Commons Music = Promo Goodness!

Arthur and Gwynyver's handfasting goes off without a hitch, but the reception is another matter.  Myrdwyn goes poking about for answers, and Morgaine's wedding gifts are just one more way to cause trouble. 

Also news about the new story "Zulu-5".

I hope.  I'm still having upload problems with the FTP, but I'll try it through the HTML upload. 

Anyway, Willow shows up in this one, and yes that's a reference to the Magic 8-Ball. 

Carol

http://www.myspace.com/auntyproton

That is all.

Gwynyver arrives at Caerlyon and Camlann, escorted by Lucian, Gawain, Tristan and her own company of knights.  The game's afoot!

News about a new story-generating technique, a rant about an apparent collective cognitive dissonance, and the advent of Myspace in my tranquil life.  Enjoy!

Show #41, Fall of Avalon, Part 1

The Fall of Avalon Wiki

Thanks to everyone for listening. 

Tune in for the next show after the hiatus on August 26th, 2007. 

Here's the URLs, and while I'm gone I'll post any and all info pertaining to the next project on the Blogspot infosite. 

E-mail me at hb88@bellsouth.net

The infosite at www.atrociousadventure.blogspot.com

To go to the info site:

www.atrociousadventure.blogspot.com

To e-mail Carol:

hb88@bellsouth.net

Enjoy!

Too much to mention goes on this week, but look for all the easter eggs! 

One chapter to go, and then it's hiatus time!

Let's see here, we've got combat robots, maintenance robots, Xyl and Spryte finally getting into NetSpace, Pepper and the gang finally get somewhere with their raid.  Pepper finds a hidden server vault and upsignals into it and finds something he didn't expect.  Jodo sneaks off to go get his own answers and if Kham had any hair it would be going gray by now.  And Xyl really should know better than to flip to MuSpace in enemy territory. 

The gang is in transit to Tokyo.  Road Trip!  Jodo and Kham's "meet cute" was definitely not a case of two guys meeting over a double mocha latte and the last cherry danish;  Pepper wonders if maybe trusting a robot is the last thing he should do, especially with an antique telescope and a crate full of 250 year old science books;  Xyl tells Gracie they may be looking for Bottled Teen; and Xyl has a religious experience involving a Japanese girl in a synthex bodysuit.

Enjoy!

Uh, let's see.  Mostly just a bit of a three-way showdown between Pepper, Gracie and Gelnick.  Guess who wins.  Wally cops a line or two from "Wargames".  Xyl and Jodo stop ignoring the five hundred pound gorilla.  And Pepper decides it's time they all went back to the world. 

News:  the resolution of the Great Car Debacle of 2007, and yet another week of good times with Ubuntu.  'Nuff said.

Wherein Pepper proves that his claims that the global government is one big conspiracy theory and speculates on the correlation between weapons technology and human nature.  Then there's a big fight with the black helicopter and Jodo gets his elephant -- or rather ELF -- gun.

News about the New Car Saga and Ubuntu follow.

Also, why this came out on Monday and other vaguely annoyed rantings.

Rather long at about 1 hr. 45 minutes. 

Enjoy!

Car News:  No Joy Yet.

Enjoy!

Warning:  Some of this chapter may be offensive to some and very well may squick you into the middle of next week if you have a thing for snakes.  Or really fat people.  Or heights. 

Atrocious Adventure Infosite

Afterward, some random notes about actors who could play various characters in the story, and soundtrack suggestions. 

Enjoy!

A small technical note: 

At the risk of sounding completely full of myself, I get my own podcast and listen to it on my iPod at work.  I recently learned that the weird problems I was having with it were not just me or my wonky IPod.  If you have been having trouble pausing and returning to the spot where you stopped, or watching in horror as your paused show exed out back to the menu or any other such frustrating things, you're not alone.  I have consulted the technical forums on the website for my MP3 encoder, WAV2MP3 (an excellent program!), and implemented a change this week that I hope will fix the problem.  If the problem persists for you, please make sure your iPod's firmware is updated properly.  I shall be doing the same. 

Even more technical note:  They told me to use Constant bitrate for the encoding, as Average bitrate or Variable bitrate may confuse the iPod's hamster-like mind.  That may be the crux of the problem, that it can't figure out where it's supposed to be because it can't handle the constantly changing bitrates.  I switched to Constant.  I hope it works. 

Today's pondering:  Why it's taken 2000 years for the Church(s) to realize Easter eggs and bunnies are pagan symbols, as brought to you by CNN.

Plus a pondering on new cars, old cars, computers, technology and obsolescence.

News about an impending acquisition by Your Humble Writer.  Otherwise, not much else cookin' here. 

This week's rant/opinion:  visual culture and other things we have to look forward to in the future.

Atrocious Adventure Infosite

E-mail Carol

One Laptop Per Child

Plus a bit of a rant and/or speculation on the future of textbooks and computers in schools. 

The Atrocious Adventure Infosite

E-mail Carol

Sequel to Machina Obscura, and if you've been listening for a while you know all about that. 

Atrocious Adventure Infosite

E-mail Carol E. Meacham

Proving the adage "good things come to those who wait", here's nearly thirty meg of Atrocious goodness! 

And starting Sunday... Aquaria. 

Enjoy!

Hello folks. This is Newton, the computer that produces the Atrocious Adventure Podcast. I am sorry to report that my user Carol Meacham has caught one of your organic viruses and is currently attempting to fight off this virus using your primitive human immune system and a lot of very expensive cold medicines. One of the symptoms of this virus is a sore throat. Having just caught this virus on Thursday, by the time she gets around to recording Sunday's show she will probably not be able to talk.

So she has programmed me to give you her flimsy human excuse.

Thus, she asks that you accept her apologies for the delay in getting out the next show. We will get around to it as soon as my user can talk without sounding like a cross between Yoda and the Wicked Witch of the West.

Thank you.

This is Newton signing off.

End of File

Yes, this is it.  The very last chapter of Machina Obscura.  I'm not going to spoil it for you, just go listen to the chapter. 

And for those of you wanting visuals, keep this name in mind:  Steven Seagal.  You'll know who I'm talking about when the time comes.

Program note:  I'll be taking next week off, so go listen to Escape Pod.  The week after that, I'll be doing an Extra podcast.  The week after that, we start on what could be the biggest, messiest debacle of all time -- the podcasting of Aquaria. 

Thanks to everyone who has made it this far.  As long as people keep listening, I'll keep 'casting.

Carol

Atrocious Adventure Publishing

Why two chapters?  Because 14 is really short and I'd be fearing the packs of rabid frogs some frustrated listeners would send my way. 

Some trivia re: these chapters:

If you're looking for a soundtrack for Ch. 14, try "Duel of the Fates" from the soundtrack of Star Wars - The Phantom Menace.  I set it on loop and wrote the chapter listening to that song over and over and over and over...

And the parts of Shiva and Kali were written with the actor who made that sequence of Phantom Menace so memorable -- martial artist Ray Park.  At the time I was writing MO, he was my eye candy.  Go here to see me making an utter fool of myself. 

One more chapter to go...

Also a report on ChattaCon. 

The Atrocious Adventure Infosite

To e-mail Carol E. Meacham

Atrocious Adventure Infosite

The Shop on CafePress

E-mail Carol E. Meacham

Also a polite rant on the subjects of fandom, books, and the state of education in America. 

Enjoy!

Enjoy!

In this week's chapter, Wally and Xyl try to figure out if Gracie really is who and what she says she is. After hooking up with Gracie again, they get attacked by an Aivatar and figure out the real focus of the run.  Let's just say, Searles handed Xyl at least two different lines of hooey.   A lot of other stuff goes on too. 

A how-to on how I publish my books may be forthcoming in the next couple of days, so watch this space.

Atrocious Adventure Publishing

The Shop on CafePress

Your Humble Writer/Publisher

Due to the proximity to Christmas, I may or may not be able to post an episode next weekend.  But if not on Sunday I will endeavor to do so as quickly afterward as possible. 

E-mail your Humble Writer/Publisher

The Atrocious Adventure Infosite

The CafePress Shopsite

Enjoy!

For those of you of a visual persuasion, if MO were a movie the part of Gracie would be played by Lexa Doig, who used to play Romi in Gene Roddenberry's "Andromeda" and now plays Dr. Lam on Stargate SG-1 and is married to Michael Shanks who plays Daniel Jackson on same.  Just imagine her in a short blue tube dress with animated cloud patterns moving across it, with a big fragging particle cannon.  'Nuff Said.

Atrocious Adventure Infosite

The CafePress Shopsite

Your Humble Writer/Publisher

The sequel to MO, Aquaria, is now available on CafePress, but if you wait until the paperwork goes through with my distributor you can order it at a substantial discount through Amazon or through any major bookstore.  So while $18.70 is a damned good price for a book of this length, if you're a real tightfisted Scrooge you'll be able to get it for a little over $12 by ChattaCon from those outlets mentioned above. 

I may do an Extra with an excerpt in the coming weeks, provided I can figure out which of the action-packed, emotionally-charged scenes to depict. 

The Info Site

The CafePress Shop Site

Also, if you're interested in attending ChattaCon...

ChattaCon

Have decided to streamline the administrivia and move it to the end of the show. 

Atrocious Adventure Info Site

The CafePress Shop Site

Know Your Author. 

This is why you should never be bored when you have Audacity, a microphone, and the urge to show off.

'Nuff Said.

The on-air administrivia is getting a bit cumbersome.  I shall endeavor to find a way to streamline it. 

Enjoy!

Atrocious Adventure Infosite

The CafePress Shop

E-mail Ye Olde Writer-Publisher

If you're wondering ...

Although I never mention it in this book, it's late summer of the year 2230. 

The protagonist's name is spelled "Xyl".

A WorkMate is what I imagine PDAs will be in two hundred and thirty years.  Imagine a PalmPilot with a personality and an attitude.

When the story opens, Xyl is in a prison in South Atlantica.  Those of you who have lived or are living in the South may suspect she is in the Atlanta metro area.  You'd be right. 

I'm aiming to put out a chapter each week until we're done.  The Christmas season may scuttle that from time to time, but that's my goal.

Enjoy!

Atrocious Adventure infosite 

Atrocious Adventure Publishing on CafePress

E-mail Carol E. Meacham

Pretty much self-explanatory, though I do a fair amount of talking on this one too.  I think I'm getting into this now, so I'm getting chatty. 

I might do an extra short episode of nothing but me talking about MO and Aquaria before I start in on MO, so watch this space. 

Enjoy!

Atrocious Adventure Publishing

The Shop on CafePress

I have also taken a few astronomical liberties. 

Second half will be posted within a few days.

Oh, and how 'bout that new microphone? 

After "Shepherds" is done I'm planning on doing my first novel, "Machina Obscura".  That one will be a chapter or two a week.  At a total of 58,000 words, it won't take long to do.  It's the sequel that's going to take a while -- "Aquaria" clocked in at 181,300 words and 25 or 26 chapters. 

Should you be interested in purchasing the actual printed versions of these stories, here's the info.

"The Curve of Shadow" -- available only on my CafePress shopsite at www.cafepress.com/lilsputnik or by buying directly from me at a convention.  Next con is ChattaCon in January.

"Machina Obscura" -- available on CafePress but also through most major booksellers including Amazon, Barnes and Nobles, Borders, etc. if you ask them to order it for you.  The ISBN number is 0977773302.  It is easiest to look it up that way since somebody somewhere misspelled my last name wrong.  Usually available for about $10, which is cheaper than on the CafePress site.  Also available from me at conventions.

"Aquaria" -- not available yet, but will be the same deal as with MO, available through most major booksellers. 

A technical note:  I was still getting the hang of Audacity and fiddling with the knobs a bit, so the sound quality is BAD.  Worse than the first time, if possible.  However, if you are listening to this on an IPod you can make it a whole lot better by going to the Equalizer function and hitting the Treble Reducer.  I've done this with my own IPod Mini and it works wonders. 

As explained on the 'cast, this one was an experiment in gender neutral pronouns.  I still don't know if this one works or not.  Oh well. 

For more info regarding Atrocious Adventure, go to www.atrociousadventure.blogspot.com. 

Enjoy!

My name is Carol E. Meacham, I am the author and proprietor of Atrocious Adventure Publishing.  The stories you will hear on this podcast appear in printed form in the anthology "The Curve of Shadow".  You can find the book on my shopsite on CafePress (www.cafepress.com/lilsputnik) or if you happen to attend certain sci-fi conventions in the Southeast you can buy it directly from me.  (Next chance will be at ChattaCon in January, look for me in the dealer's room.)  CoS has three stories total.  If I get a good response I intend to go on to doing my two novels "Machina Obscura" and "Aquaria" a chapter a week until they're all done.  More about those as time goes on.

To see more info regarding all this stuff, go to www.atrociousadventure.blogspot.com. 

Hope you like the show.  And I promise it will get better.