Note from Carolyn
/She says that the recordings might be getting better as they go.
What's Next?
/While we’re waiting on Death by Cliche, I thought I muse a bit on what’s next. I know I’ve charmed all of you with my comedy, but I haven’t actually written much comedy. I was thinking about taking the Echoes of Heaven short stories, starting with Ulcer, and serializing them. They tell a complete story, one that problaby barely qualifies for a novel’s word count (certainly novella). If you like them, I might start the Echoes of Heaven novel. It’s serious as well and I think it’s one of the best things I’ve done (it would be hard to judge it compared to my book that’s sitting on an editor’s desk at Tor right now, of course).
So how do you feel about some serious fiction next?
A Poll Thread
/Okay, I was talking with Carolyn tonight. Evidently the last two recording sessions have a bad noise ratio as well. She would like to know whether or not you’d rather us produce those or if you’d rather wait for us to re-record them around the end of the month.
I’ll try to get a sample from her.
Movement
/Evidently the sound quality on Ep 7 was really bad. I received a copy today and managed to listen to it on my iPod Touch. The quality is below our normal standard, but at this point I know you just want the update. I’ve sent the list of editing typos, as we call them, to Carolyn. I hope to hear something of an update tomorrow.
Update
/Carolyn discovered a major chunk missing out of the file at the last moment. So I don’t have a draft yet. Just letting you know where things are.
A Delay
/I haven’t gotten a draft of Episode 7 yet. Carolyn says there are more than the usual amount of sound problems. She hasn’t given me a really good idea of where we are with it, but she was going to try to get me a draft by tonight. That didn’t happen, so the problems must have taken longer to fix than she expected.
So. Here’s the best case scenario I think is achievable. She gets me a draft tomorrow while I’m at work. I come home and listen to it, spot all the editing “typos” as we call them. Then I give her that list. Tuesday she corrects them and gives me a final draft while I’m at work. I listen to it that night, do the ID3 tags, and post early Wednesday morning. That’s the best scenario, not a promise.
I know she’s been working hard on it because she goes on vacation this week and she wanted to get ahead before that. We’ll keep you posted on how things develop.
Death by Cliche--Episode 6
/At long last. The sixth episode, almost 11 hours late. :)
I apologize for the delay. Carolyn hasn’t told me why the delay happened, but she does these the week before they release, so she had to do this one over Christmas Eve and Christmas. I don’t know her plans for New Years. <cough>
The episode proper starts at 2:32, for those of you who are sick of hearing the party introduced.
Mirrors:
Update
/Some of you are probably wondering where Episode 4 is. Monday is our official update day, I’ve just been posting earlier than that. This time we discovered some sound quality problems with the last two chapters (we did that recording during a storm). After deliberation, I decided that while the quality is a bit less than other posts, it’s not bad enough to have a significant negative impact you listening experience. I’ve decided to post it as is. We might rerecord it later, but I decided that giving it to you with just a little noise was better than delaying.
Expect the post in about 25 minutes.
Final Redoubt Press
/Just a reminder. If you like Death By Cliché, and you’re a gamer, you’ll love our serious gaming products. Go to finalredoubt.com to see what we have. Check out one of our short stories (start with Ulcer), or pick up The Echoes of Heaven Campaign Setting in the game system of your choice. If you’re a 4th edition player, then Critical Matters is a must. I’ll leave you with quotes from reviews of The Echoes of Heaven Campaign Setting.
“. . . if I had to recommend one single line that didn’t make the list, this would be it.” —Jeramy Ware, 2007 ENnies Judge
“. . . Stunning . . .” —Nicholas Caldwell, www.Guildcompanion.com
“. . . Fantastically interesting . . .” and “. . . I’m calling it 4 1/2 stars and rounding down.” —Andrew Branstad, RPGNow Staff Reviewer
Update on Print Version
/I did some research today. I’ll probably need to use Lulu or a like service to produce a print version of Death by Cliche. We don’t have the kind of vast market that allows the big publishers to produce mass market paperbacks (there’s a reason they are call “mass market.”) So right now the two possible versions appear to be:
Trade Paperback: $14.99
Hardbound: $29.99
I’ll keep you apprised if anything changes.
Right now the book is back from the editor and in proofing.
We're Having a High Download Volume
/Things as still downloading, but it’s moving a touch sluggish. Thank you for your patience. And your interest.
About buying books.
/Okay. So a lot of people are talking about buying books. We’re going to TRY to get this up and a available by christmas, but honestly, I don’t see how that can actually happen. Most likely, we’d be able to get copies ready for purchase on Lulu in January for you to buy with your Grandma money. We’re going to try, though.
Thank you so much for your interest. I did not expect to be barraged with requests to buy the book on the first and second episode. I am so very flattered.
Bob
Head's Up
/Official release for Episode 2 is Monday. I might drop it a few days early to test the load of the smaller Episode 2 file on the server (it isn’t a double length ep). I also increased connections between the web software and the database, which might have been some of the bottleneck.
The bottom line is, I might have all you all try to download at once before release, to see how we hold up.
Bob
So maybe I was wrong.
/I looked at the report data for Tuesday and we had a LOT of downloads. So the downloads Monday night might have looked small, but if they all happened at once, that might have taken down the server. I’ll talk to my server people asap and continue keeping an eye on it.
And thanks for making the audiobook such an instant success.
Site Problem
/The site went down a bit tonight and I had to reboot it. I don’t THINK it was from too many downloads, but I’ll keep an eye on things going forward. I’ll let you know if we end up needing to make any changes to the way we’re serving up files.
Introducing: Death by Cliché
/Final Redoubt Press brings you episode one of our new podcast audiobook, Death by Cliché. This introductory double-length episode will be announced officially on Monday, but for you fans who are already watching this site, you can download it tonight.
Without further ado. Death by Cliché.
