**WARNING: This is a long one. And also, I get kind of sappy. So, please, bear with me. **

“The word “community” is derived from the Old French communité which is derived from the Latin communitas (cum, “with/together” + munus, “gift”)” – Wikipedia

Yesterday, the inestimable Jenny Hudock blogged about the first six weeks of the Creative Alliance. TCA is a great bunch of people, and the things the group has managed to do together in that fairly short period of time is pretty impressive. And it’s just the beginning!

What her blog really called to mind for me were all the things the various online communities I belong to, or have belonged to, have given me. When I was very little, we had a computer that I’m pretty sure we only used to play Pong. And maybe Frogger, but I think that was too advanced for my age at the time. I remember being more interested in painting and climbing trees and various other pursuits that intrigued my 7 year old mind.

Several years later, when I was maybe 14, my father got a used HP (I think from someone who he’d done some construction for) and we got AOL. That would have been around 1995. I did the whole chat room thing, and had fun with it. I even met someone that I had met online IRL! (No horror stories about axe murders here, but that’s all I say about that.) A few of my friends had the internet at that point, and I knew a couple of people who were really into being online… but it still wasn’t something we spent a lot of time doing or talking about, on the whole.

It was a couple years after that, when I returned from my all too brief sojourn to Niagara University, that I dove completely into the vast world wide web. I was still with AOL then, still doing the chat room thing, and even met several more people from cyberspace in the meatspace (I got this term from the hilarious Chris Hardwick, of the Nerdist podcast, and I love it). It was around this time that I started looking for writer’s groups online.

In high school I had had my English teachers and the people of Literary Magazine (I was a member in junior high, and all four years of high school as well) to talk about writing with, and to share my work with. In college (for the year I was there) I had a poetry circle I went to. But after that, I didn’t have a local group of peers to share my writing with, and be creative with. And for most writers, at least from what I’ve witnessed, and for me in particular, interacting with other imaginative people and sharing work helps keep those delicious creative juices flowing.

So it began with Triggerstreet. I had seen an interview with Kevin Spacey (who I’ve always had just a little crush on… I think it’s the dimples) where he mentioned starting this website for screenwriters and filmmakers, and I thought ‘Gee that sounds interesting!’ So when the site launched, I joined up and starting reading the scripts people were posting. Some were great, some were good, and some were all kinds of terrible. But something about the ease and approachability of it all made me think I could do it.

So I took a random thing I’d written in high school, mostly for the amusement of me and my friends, and turned it into a screenplay. I wrote it in Word, because I didn’t have any screenwriting software back then, and the formatting was kind of off (though not too bad, considering). And I just slapped it up on Triggerstreet, no beta readers or anything. Some of the reviews I got were just mean, but those were the minority. Many were very helpful in their critiques, and some were incredibly encouraging, despite what was likely a very bad first draft. I know I broke quite a few of the rules of screenwriting. But with the feedback that I got, I went and re-wrote it. And reposted it. And received feedback. And re-wrote. And re-posted. Repeat.

The people there were really great, and when they set up forums I started getting to know some of the people whose work I admired. I made some really good friends with some really talented people. I’m still a member at Triggerstreet, though I haven’t been active in years. I don’t know how the site may have changed, since I don’t spend time there. But if you’re interesting in screenwriting or short filmmaking I’d say check it out. The people were always very cool, and at the very least you get free access to thousands of scripts and short films and it can help you learn what works and what doesn’t in those arenas.

I have since lost contact with many of the people I became friends with there (though not all of them). And I miss them, even the ones who I knew only by a first name, or a screen name. Sabine, Jonathan, George, Ron, Austin, Jolene, PJ… wherever you are, I hope you’re well and wish I could find you! Through that site, and those amazing people, not only did my work get better and my ability increase, but I learned about other sites and communities. A sort of domino effect took place.

From Triggerstreet, I joined Zoetrope, and a Yahoo writing group that has since petered out but was a great help to me. It was in the forums on TS that I followed someone’s link to a blog about horror films. In that blog was a link to a list of horror websites. And on that list was a link to a forum of fellow horror fans. There weren’t many members. The site was fairly new and there were maybe 25 people there when I signed up. Even with the small group I was a little intimidated about jumping into discussions at first. Some of the people there had come over from yet another site, and had known each other there for years. So I was a smidgen shy. But about a week after I signed up, another member signed up and since he was new now, I felt totally comfortable talking to him. His screen name was Deanrockon.

I became really good friends with Deanrockon and several other people on that site. In fact, about seven months after our first online hello, Dean and I decided to meet in person. About three months after that, I packed my bags in NY and he came to move me down to Georgia with him. On our way, we stopped at NJ’s Chiller Theatre convention and met some of the other awesome people we’d only known as screen names until then.

That was in 2004. Since then, Dean and I got married (it’ll be 4 years in November). My maid of honor was a woman who has become a sister to me… and one I met in person for the first time at that Chiller. In 2006, when Dread Central broke from that other site, I went happily with them and have enjoyed every minute of working with them and writing reviews and all the other coolness that comes with being able to write about my favorite genre.

And through them, and the people I’ve met there since then, I’ve learned about other communities. Like the podcasting community. And though we’ve only just become a part of this amazing community, it’s already been incredibly rewarding. I’m getting to know wonderful people like James and Jenny, my other fellow TCA members, and a bunch of other crazy talented and fun people. I’m getting to share my work, which I love, and getting to share in theirs.

The online community as a whole, and the specific communities I’ve mentioned above, has given me so much already. And I am eternally thankful and grateful for that. My love for and belief in this community is part of what led me to suggest Dean and I try this crazy thing we’re trying. I’m counting on this community I’m proud to be a part of to help us fund Blood & Dust, to help us realize this dream we have. And it’s a scary prospect, to rely on a vast community of people who I may never see face to face (although I sincerely hope that’s not the case). But I’ve seen what we can do. And I have faith.

That definition I started this whole thing off with? The Latin has the right of it. This togetherness is a gift. I want to keep giving. I hope you do too.

XXX ~M

So, here’s the thing: as long as it took me to write this last story, it almost didn’t get written. Morgan, in fact, initially refused to let me write it… for inclusion in the podcast, anyway. My original pitch for Material Components, you see, was actually a little bit different from the finished project… and here I suppose I should say: if you actually intend to listen to the podcast, now’s the time, ‘cause it’s about to get spoily in here.

The original idea was this: two teenaged losers who are into magic wind up getting their hands on the real thing and come up with the brilliant- sarcastic usage here- idea of shooting up their high school and then bringing everybody back as zombies as the ultimate form of revenge for the ostracism they faced in their day-to-day lives (Note: this is not the source of the outbreak in Blood and Dust. Or maybe it kinda is. Or is entirely. I really don’t know, the zombies don’t tell me these things). Morgan immediately put the kibosh on this. To her, like I’m sure it is to thousands of others and maybe even to you, the subject of school shootings is a hot-button, nigh-unapproachable subject. It’s a matter that shouldn’t be trivialized, and I hope I haven’t done that here.

In fact, this story is a very personal one for me. Parts of it are almost autobiographical- I was one of those unlucky kids that faced the trials of the high school bully, and I definitely felt the dark gravity of the whirlpool of despair that Eli gets pulled down into. When you’re up against a situation like this, when the faculty seems unwilling to get wrangled into the situation and the safety of home is miles away both in the real world and in your heart, you go to some bleak, black places. You contemplate both methods of self-defense and revenge. Now, for whatever reason, one day this campaign of violence that I found myself embroiled in for months just… stopped. I didn’t ever really find out why. But in a way, I found out why it started, years later.

I was at a restaurant with my father one day, and had excused myself to go to the restroom. As I was washing my hands, the bathroom door opened, and in walked my worst nightmare. I found myself alone in the bathroom with this guy who had made my life a living Hell for so long. Who had driven me to thoughts of suicide, or, matter-of-factly, worse. I thought, given our interaction in the past, that this could only end one way. But instead of the daydreams I had put together in my head of “if I ever see that guy again,” this guy apologized. He told me he was a fucked-up human being at that point in his life, and he asked for my forgiveness. And instead of giving in to those fantasies of vengeance I’d concocted in my head in all the years prior, I swallowed my fear and my pride and I gave it. And as schmaltzy as it sounds, we shook hands and he walked away, and I never saw the guy again.

Now, I tried to leave the interpretation of the story open to the listener; that either Eli and his father, Matthew, were both touched and doomed by the power of the book and the dark forces it brought them into contact with, or they were both just two unbalanced people brought over the edge by the circumstances of their lives. There is no actual evidence of magic in the story, other than the results of Eli’s belief in it. It’s entirely possible that the darkness that Eli eventually succumbs to comes from within him rather than without.

That being said, my first pitch obviously wasn’t so deep, which is why Morgan initially rejected it. She thought, perhaps rightfully, that someone might get the wrong ideas from it, and be influenced to take the resolution of matters like this one into their own hands. Having experienced the feeling of being backed into such a corner myself, I hope that people get the right idea; that violence, no matter how seemingly justified at the time, should never be considered as a viable solution to violence. If you bring force to bear, you will only wind up bringing more force home to roost.

In the end, I’m glad she let me develop and go ahead with podcasting this story. I think that there are certain subjects which should be handled with care- but as a writer, I don’t think I should ever be forced to consider a subject completely off-limits. So I posit this question to you: are some tales best left untold? What topics, as an audience / reader, do you think should be taken off the table? And if your answer is “nothing”… tell me why.

Thanks for your time, folks, and we’ll catch you the next time the moon comes up.

-Dean Sasser

Dean@trickstermoon.com, Dean Sasser on Facebook, @Deanrockon on Twitter

Promo: Dark Journeys

Songs: Dark Matters – David Emeny

 

 Episode 06 - Material Components [00:58:57m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

So, while Dean and I love each other very much we don’t always agree on everything. I would wager most couples who are together for longer than six months would say the same. Recently, we were discussing the project and our vision for Blood & Dust and discovered one of those things we don’t agree on… What makes something a horror movie?

We have both been horror fans for a long time and we both love the genre. But our ideas about what is or isn’t a horror movie can differ greatly. So, in preparation for this podcast I sent out a call… on Twitter, Facebook, DreadCentral.com, and DeadRobotsSociety.com… and asked others what they consider horror. We got some really interesting responses.

Terry Mixon of the Dead Robots said horror “twists the normal and expected and makes it terrible and fearful.” Tee Morris says horror is “the unknown…on an adrenaline rush”. JD Sawyer differentiated between horror and terror, stating “Horror deals with things that should not be. Terror deals with immanent threats to life and limb.”

I particularly liked what Metamor City’s  Chris Lester had to say. “Horror explores the battle against evil, death & the unknown & usually has implicit assumptions about how we should face them. The evil is often supernatural but not always, & may come from outside or from within. Catharsis is usually the story’s goal.”

And that’s just the beginning of what people had to say. Clearly, horror is subjective. Anything can be horror, if it scares you. The Dead Robots’ Society recently asked me on the show to discuss this particular subject  as it pertains to writing– make sure you check out that episode either in our feed or at www.deadrobotssociety.com. We recorded this episode before that appearance actually, but do to some technical difficulties it took a little while to get this ready to go.

Anyway, it became clear that my view on horror is very broad and inclusive… if something is good and dark then I tend to claim them for us. And by us, I mean horror. So far this week I’ve claimed PG Holyfield, Tee Morris  (check out his latest offering on Erotica Ala Carte  if you don’t believe me), Dan Sawyer and Phillippa Ballantine.

Dean was a little more narrow in his definition. So we had a good old time debating what was horror and what wasn’t. Silence of the Lambs, American Psycho, Aliens… how did we classify them? Listen and see! And be sure to chime in with your thoughts on what we did or didn’t get right.

I hope our discussion enlightened you a little, and gives you a little insight into what we have planned for Blood & Dust.  

Sin-scarily,

Morgan Elektra

Promo: Cybrosis

Songs: Dark Matters – David Emeny

     It was supposed to be a simple thing. Morgan was going to do a straight read of the short story that she’d written, and I was going to edit out the coughs and the lip-smacks and the occasional flubbed line followed by delicate strings of profanities, and sit back and take it easy on this one. But then, she made a suggestion: “Why don’t we add in some bar noise in the background?” An easily-filled request, sure, and it was a good idea. This was a good twenty-minute story, after all, and just that simple little element would help ground the listener with a sense of time and space. Plus, I know exactly how easy it is to get lulled into a stupor by the rhythm of words, regardless of their quality, and before you know it, you’ve just listened to the past five minutes of a podcast without actually absorbing a single word that’s been said. That extra “sweetener” would help to get your brain’s attention right back in its seat where it should be. So I went to www.freesound.org and typed in “bar ambience”, and within seconds, I had several loops to choose from. Simple.

   Only, nothing’s ever simple with me.

   See, once I added in the bar noise, I realized how easy it was to identify the loop I’d selected as a loop. And there was this mention in the story of a tv playing in the background- only, it was hard to find anything long enough to be looped in that wasn’t also copyrighted. So we decided to change the noise of the tv to the noise of music from the sound system. And once that was done, I realized- it sounds like a bar, but it sounds like an empty bar. So I thought, why not add the sound of a chair scooting back right about here? And Morgan said, “Well, if we’re gonna do that, why don’t we put in the sound of the door opening over here?” And by the next time I let her listen to it, I’d downloaded about twenty-five sound effects for use in this one story. And those I couldn’t find, I’d Foleyed. I had the attack scene (spoiler!) layered in no less than seven separate simultaneous tracks. In short, I went wa-a-ay overboard.

   It’s very easy to think, “If I don’t go overboard, I’m going to go down with the ship.” In other words, if you don’t make it shine, nobody’s going to notice it. But the simple fact is, not every podcast out there is The Leviathan Chronicles. The majority of people out there are relying on the strength of their narrative to draw you in, and this time around, I had failed to do just that- to let my wife’s story come to life and breathe. So, after a week-and-a-half of editing the piece into the aural equivalent of a Michael Bay movie, it took me another week to simplify it back to a place where it was good solid sonic entertainment without sounding like I opened up the file in Audacity and dumped in everything in the drawer – which is why it took us so long to get this one out to you (Next time, I’m just going to tell you the dog ate my homework). I like what came out at the other end, and I hope you do, too- but rather than live on hope alone, I invite you to drop us a note and let us know how we’re doing. ‘Cause after all, if we’re not giving you what you want, it’s all just so much sound and fury.

   Thanks y’all,

Dean Sasser

ATTRIBUTION INFO FOR THIS EPISODE:

Certain sound effects used in the creation of this episode were provided by soundsnap.com and through the Freesound Project . All other sound effects were created using purchased sound effect libraries, or were created in-house.

Music for this episode was provided courtesy of the Podsafe Music Network at musicalley.com . The artists and songs used in the creation of this episode are:

David Emeny: DARK MATTERS

Candye Kane: I’m A Bad, Bad Girl

Carey Bell: Let Me Stir In Your Pot

Kelly’s Lot: Woman’s Love

Bree Demoss: Something New

Delilah Why: How Was I

You may be asking ‘Why are these crazy people podcasting? What makes them think they can do something like this?’ I know we ask ourselves that sometimes. So in Episode 02 we wanted to talk about the shows that first got us addicted to this crazy fun medium, and the people behind our favorite podcasts. This episode ran a little long because we were so enthusiastic about our podio-heroes and while I know we couldn’t be quite as eloquent as we would have liked, I hope you can hear and understand the love we feel for this people and shows they put out. Below is a little breakdown of the podcasts we talk about on the show (times listed are approximate).

*What favorite podcast list would be complete with mention of the Queen of Podcasting, Mur Lafferty?

3 min 15 secs – Zombinc Promo, courtesy of www.murverse.com

*Horror fans around the world should not miss Pseudopod.

9 min 15 secs – Pseudopod promo from www.pseudopod.org

*The one that started me down the rabbit hole, Metamor City.

13 min 45 secs – Metamor Season 2 promo from www.metamorcity.com

*The podcast with the Hollywood level production quality – The Leviathan Chronicles

18 min 45 secs – Leviathan Chronicles promo from www.leviathanchronicles.com

*Two of Dean’s fanboy favs, Comedy Death Ray Radio & The Uncanny X-Cast

*The tongue in cheek fantasy of How to Succeed in Evil

35 min 15 secs – How to Succeed in Evil promo from www.succeedinevil.com

*The ultimate, the amazing, the FDO! Scott Sigler.

41 min 30 secs – Ancestor book promo courtesy of www.scottsigler.com

*Tee Morris, the life of seemingly every party, and the mind behind Morevi and the Billibub Baddings series.

46 min 35 secs – Bird House Rules promo from www.teemorris.com

*The nicest guy in podcasting, JC Hutchins. There are not enough words to express how wonderful this guy is.

52 min 32 secs – 7^th Son: Descent promo courtesy of www.jchutchins.net

*I would listen to Phillippa Ballantine read me obituaries, or travel guides. And her writing is breath-taking!

57 min 47 sec – Digital Magic promo available on www.pjballantine.com

*Murder at Avedon Hill is a thrilling mystery. And I love PG Holyfield’s voice, as you will hear.

1 hr – Murder at Avedon Hill promo from www.pgholyfield.com

*A true Goddess of comedic timing, Christiana Ellis has multiple projects, all worth listening to.

1 hr 6 mins – Nina Kimberly the Merciless promo from www.christianaellis.com

*Nathan Lowell’s amazing Solar Clipper series has hooked Dean and me completely.

1 hr 17 mins – Quarter Share promo available from www.solarclipper.com

Of course, there are a lot of other podcasts and podcasters out there in all genres who are amazing and worthy of your adoration. You should Google shows like PC Haring’s Cybrosis, The Byron Chronicles, Michele Bekemeyers’ Trapping a Duchess, The Dead Robots Society, J Daniel Sawyer’s Antithesis Progression or Matt Wallace’s Failed Cities Monologues. There is a world of amazing content out there and we are proud to be venturing out among it, and aspiring to be in the same realm as the greats we have mentioned.  

Sin-scarily,

Morgan Elektra

Promo attribution list:

SFX (Freesound Project)

1)  Phone “beep”

      By HardPCM (http://www.freesound.org/usersViewSingle.php?id=205819)

            Chip001.wav (http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=31841)

2)  Phone ring / hang-up & dial tone

    By morgantj (http://www.freesound.org/usersViewSingle.php?id=27178)

            telephonering.mp3 (http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=59738)

            telephone.mp3 (http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=60755)

3)  Knife slashing noise

   By Abyssmal (http://www.freesound.org/usersViewSingle.php?id=307822)

            slashkut.wav (http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=35213)

Music

1)      orchestral_10_unnamable_L1 – Dynamedion – Soundsnap

2)      MUSICAL HITS ORCHESTRAL GLOCKENSHPIEL DARK DRAMATIC 01 – SFX Bible – Soundsnap

3)      dark_matters  – David Emeny – Podsafe Music Network

It seems like everyone has a podcast these days. If you look on iTunes, or any other catcher really, there’s podcasts for everything under the sun. I figured it wouldn’t be…. couldn’t be… that hard for us to do one. Boy, was I underestimating people! Our introductory episode, in which the Mister and I introduce ourselves and talk a little about our love of horror and what we’ll be doing with the podcast, wasn’t even easy to RECORD. He and I kept going off on tangents, or sitting there staring at each other and not knowing what to say. Minutes of dead air! It was not pretty. But finally we managed to do something that was at least semi-passable, and the Mister was able to edit it together fairly quickly.

And then came our trevails…

Having never done a podcast before, we then had to figure out how to export the file from the program we used to record it (which shall remain nameless), which we only realized would not save files as MP3 after we spent better than an hour recording, and into Audacity. Once that was done and we had our spiffy MP3 ready, we faced the dubious task of setting up a feed. Despite having bought Podcasting for Dummies, and googling the hell out of ”creating a podcast feed”, neither myself, the Mister, or our dashing Webmistress could figure out what it was we were doing wrong. We could generate something that looked similar to the xml code the various sites said we were supposed to have, but it kept coming up errors! I swear, I’d about decided that what we needed was not Podcasting for Dummies (which is really a very good and helpful book), but Podcasting for the Completely Retarded: The Foam Helmut & Drool Cup Edition.

Luckily, between the three of us and with some help from my favorite Speed # 9 (aka the wonderful and webtastic Jon Condit) who does amazing things with the Dread Central site and with no small thanks to several websites, we managed to get the code written and uploaded and ready to go!

So, here are the steps we followed and sites we used, should there be anyone else out there who is as technically challenged as I turned out to be and needs some help.

Once you have your MP3 file all edited and ready to go:

1. Upload the MP3 file to your host/server of choice

2. Go to www.podcastblaster.com and sign up, it’s free and instant.

3. Fill in the information regarding your podcast, including the URL for the MP3 you uploaded. Once you’re done filling in all the info, save. Podcastblaster will generate the XML code with the info you put it, so make sure it’s all correct! 

4. Download the xml file from the site. Make sure you save it somewhere where you can easily find it.

5. Upload the xml file to your host. And viola!

Yeah, really simple when I say it all out like that right? And now we KNOW it is. But getting to the point that our brains understood that knowledge was quite a journey!

Thank goodness we got there. Check out our Podcasts page to listen to the final product. Despite the ups and down it took to get it finished, I hope you enjoy it. Please feel free to let us know what you think. There’s more to come!

xxx!

Sin-scarily,
Morgan Elektra

If you’re interested in starting your own podcast, check out the sites below:

http://www.podcastblaster.com/

http://www.podcast411.com/howto_1.html

http://www.sweetwater.com/feature/podcasting/howto.php

http://www.amazon.com/Podcasting-Dummies-Computer-Tech/dp/047027557X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263357834&sr=8-1