Originally published at LonPrater.com. You can comment here or there.

1) Check this right here out! My first podcasted story is going to be “Prelude to a Theme by Dougie Franz” and that ain’t all!  It is going to feature some awesome backdrop music, as arranged by Michelle M. Welch.  The process of figuring out what program to use, and then how to use it was really just karma for all those times so many years back when I got impatient with people for not understanding computers.  Now the stuff going on baffles even me.  Regardless, I soldiered on, with help from Michelle and I think my story will be the one premiering the podcast antho on 28 October.  Check it out!

2) Being a bear of very little brain (not to mention lazy and helpless in the face of 21st century technology), I finally got around to putting a story on Anthology Builder, the neat little site that lets you build your own book of short stories to order run by the energetic and savvy Nancy Fulda.  In a few months, I’ll probably have another one up there, once the exclusivity period is up.

And enough tooting my own horn.  Let me toot the horns of some friends:

3) Ken Scholes has a great sequel out to his first book LAMENTATION.  It is called CANTICLE, and I’m enthralled with it.

4) Nathan Schoonover has exciting news:  A&E will be airing the first two episodes of the ghost-provoking show he’s a part of, EXTREME PARANORMAL, this Halloween season.  October 19th and 26th–SET YOUR TIVOS, or watch it live! Click that link to see the preview and show website.

5) Serial fiction is cool again!  Fans of Jay Lake’s MAINSPRING and ESCAPEMENT should go check out what’s brewing at Subterranean.

6) I already mentioned how awesome it all was before, but it bears repeating:  Jaime Lee Moyer won a prestigious Ohio literary prize a while back. I got to go see her accept it and read from the winning work Wednesday night.  Go Jaime!

Originally published at LonPrater.com. You can comment here or there.

* Received penultimate copy of Talebones today.  ::glumness is::   Gonna take my time with it this time around, rather than jumping right in like I usually do.

* After hearing Punch Brothers last year, I made a note to seek out the band its prime mover had spawned from,  Nickel Creek.  Got a hold of some of the CDs and I was able to give a devoted listen during my workout today.  Wow!  These are people who know every single sound their instruments can make, and use that knowledge to take you on an ecstatic emotional romp.  Talk about lifting my spirits–there are songs and crescendos on here that had me shouting out and scaring the other people–not to mention groundhogs–on the path.  (Those who know me know I’m what they call fairly inhibited about responding to music.)  And at the other end of the spectrum, there were songs of such despondence I had to really focus on keeping my pace up.    I’m pretty sure Nickel Creek will be a heavy hitter on my playlist when I finish this novel and start mulching for the next one.

* Seeing forward motion in my emails for Triangulation: Dark Glass and Tales Out of Miskatonic University makes me happy.

* Due to a near-mutiny inducing snafu involving a flubbed iTunes download of Spongebob’s The Yellow Album, I find myself with two free song downloads, and no idea what I should get.  What two songs would you pick for me?