Reader Question Wednesday #3!

Happy Reader Question Wednesday! We had four questions this week... all from the same person... but that's okay. That's nearly 35% of our readership. (Okay, not really. But I'm really bad at math and prone to hyperbole.)

Anyhow - thanks for the questions! I've set my Pandora radio to a "music to blog to" station, so let's get right down to it. Answers will come in the order the questions were received:


1) What DOES Jason want for his upcoming birthday, now that you mention it?

Jason is a little busy right now, as he is getting married in a little over two weeks - and has been extremely busy pulling together all of the last minute details. However, I made a few not-so-subtle threats that I would make up a birthday list for him that included expanding his Precious Moments collection - aka, horrifying figurines of sad-eyed children. And no one wants that.

(Did you know that there's actually a Precious Moments chapel? And it's in Missouri... where Jason happens to be from. Connection? You decide.)

Unfortunately for me, my threats worked. Here's his actual birthday list:

"Jason's greatest desire, of course, is for world peace and understanding, so if you can hook that up, that would be great. As an alternative, funny t-shirts from www.thinkgeek.com are always welcome."


2) What's the timeframe on the podcast? When can I expect to hear an episode, in other words? I'm droolin' here!

Well, wipe yourself off. That's unseemly. And may I remind you that patience is a virtue?

I would love to say that you would be able to download an episode by Labor Day... but I've always been one for unrealistic dreams. (Ergo, I'm writing scripts for an audio drama podcast.) But if we manage to pick up the pace again after Jason and his lovely bride are married and sufficiently recovered from their wedding... I would hazard a guess that we will have the first episode sometime this winter. Watch the blog for a casting call sometime in the near future if you'd like to audition to be a part of it!

3) So what sort of music would Alex listen to? How about Viper? What's on their most-frequently-played list?

I've been racking my brain all day to come up with something to answer this question, and I'm embarrassed to say that I haven't been able to pin Alex down. I'm hoping Jason has some ideas - and that he might post them.

Viper, though... assuming you could even find his apartment, and then crack his encrypted files to get to his music collection - would probably have the following playlist:

• When he's hacking a government agency or financial institution, I think he plays electronica á la VNV Nation or something that makes him feel powerful.
• I think he has a special playlist for "the ladies" that includes Barry White, among others. He hasn't played anything off this list in at least two years.
  
• But I really think what he loves to listen to when no one else is around... maybe not even Alex... is anything off of Dr. Demento's playlist. If you go back far enough in the archives, there's even a song called "If You're a Viper" ... coincidence?
  

(Actually, yes. Totally a coincidence... but cool, no?)

4) What's Alex's sign anyway?

I'm thinking Taurus. Alex is a little slow to act at the outset of our story ... but once he sets his mind to his task, he displays an inordinate amount of perserverance.


Thanks for the questions! As always, feel free to ask us questions or make comments at any time.

Questions, anyone?

It has come to my attention that we have a handful of new readers here at podcast-blog-central. Either they're just telling me this to be nice - or to placate me - or to stop me from talking about the podcast already -- or they actually are reading.

So... in honor of our new readers, and because I'm in the mood for it, I'd like to announce that Wednesday, July 15, will be the next installment of Reader Question Wednesday.

Ask us anything... about the scripts, the storylines, the characters, the blog, what Jason wants for his upcoming birthday, my favorite color, how to conjugate a particular Russian verb... whatever. We'll answer it. Please send us your questions in a comment or via email. We'll answer them in one fell swoop next Wednesday, much like we did in this post.

Or I will, since Jason didn't really agree to this. But hey, that's how I roll, baby.

Reader Question Wednesday -- #2!

I've been out of town for the last several days, and Jason has been busy writing a script, so we've been a little lax on the blogging front lately. Our apologies.

However, as promised... this is Reader Question Wednesday. We only had one question for this installment, from my (ahem) best friend whom I have known for nigh-upon 20 years or so. While I am grateful that she is being totally supportive by reading the blog -- she is also corny as the corned beef on my favorite sandwich. (And of course, I adore her and say that with complete and utter love.)

Her question: I'd really like to know how you (and your theoretical podcast) feel about Peter Paul Rubens, the 17th century Flemish painter.

Because I am thorough, I dug up a little information on Rubens. Here are some interesting facts that I learned:

• His birthday is the day before mine.
• He spent time in Antwerp, my favorite Belgian city.
• His painting, Massacre of the Innocents, currently holds the record for bringing the highest price at auction of 49.5 million pounds in 2002.

I visited Belgium last year and fell head-over-heels in love with the country and all things Belgian. So yeah, Rubens is cool by association - even though he did not in fact inspire a tasty sandwich.

Now, since no one else asked a question, I'm going to make a couple up:

What sound recording equipment will you be using for the podcast?

That's a truly excellent question, River. Unfortunately, we don't know yet. We have been doing some limited research, including picking the brains of friends who have experience in audio recording and editing, but at this point - we're still on the clueless side of the spectrum. If anyone out there has any ideas for the best way to record a multi-voice audio drama without losing the "drama" part of that equation, and keeping in mind we can only pay our actors in Chicago-style pizza and beer, please contact us and let us know.


Do you have any theme music?

Not entirely. I've messed around with a couple sample tracks that we could possibly use for opening and closing credits, but we're still far away from a final version. I happen to live with a pretty stellar musician and composer, and he has agreed to help out with the music - for which I am eternally grateful. He will also receive pizza as payment. And if it's really good, I might even do the dishes.


River, I've been dying to ask ... are you single?

Well, aren't you sweet? I am not currently commited to anyone. Thanks for asking.


We'll announce another Reader Question Wednesday sometime in the future. Please feel free to send your questions anytime, and we'll be sure to include them. Otherwise, we're just going to make up questions again, and nobody wants that.

Name That Show!

Here's a hypothetical situation for you all to ponder...

Suppose you're writing this podcast. (I know - this is a stretch, but work with me here.) It's somewhere between an urban fantasy/alternate history/buddy story kind of thing where an ordinary guy finds himself in an extraordinary situation. With me so far? I don't think I'm giving away too much to say that said situation involves a bit of magic, ancient forces that shape and hold reality together, and a twisted version of the hero's journey.

The question we have for you is this: What would you call it?

We've been writing scripts for several months now. We know our characters pretty well, have a fairly good idea of how the story ends, and we've even started exploring theme music. But we don't have the foggiest idea what to name the show. And we need ideas.

This is where you come in, dear readers. Please help us out by suggesting a name or names for our show. We can't guarantee that we'll use any of the suggestions - but we will seriously consider all of them - and if your idea is the one we go with, then we will write you into one of the scripts as a character that Alex meets on the road. That doesn't mean you'll be doing the voice, necessarily -- but you will be guaranteed fame among our 7 other listeners.

So leave us a comment or two. Help a couple of struggling writers out, yo.

And announcing the next installment of Reader Question Wednesday a week from tomorrow - on April 22. Send us an e-mail or drop us a comment with your questions about anything - podcast-related or not (there is a precedent now), and we'll gladly answer them. Well, we'll answer them... "gladly" is a relative term.

Reader Question Wednesday! - #1

Hello and welcome to our first installment of Reader Question Wednesday! Thanks to everyone who contributed. If you missed out on asking a question, no worries. While we can't guarantee that every Wednesday will be Reader Question Wednesday, this is certainly a tradition that we wish to continue.

Without further ado ...

First, questions answered by me:

We'll start with the all-important Reuben-related questions first. Priorities, and all that.

So, at what age did you actually encounter your first reuben sandwich? Was it love at first bite?

Honestly, I can't remember the first Reuben (and yes, it is capitalized) - but I do remember that I didn't like it. It's an acquired taste. Yes, I am from a large Czech family who eats sauerkraut at every meal, but I didn't enjoy any of the ingredients until I did my study-abroad in the Czech Republic back in college (lo, these many years ago...) I learned to like rye bread and sauerkraut over there (and beer, incidentally) and it just seemed right and proper that I should fall in love with Reubens. My grandfather would be proud.

I cannot believe I just answered a question about the evolution of my love for a sandwich.

If a sandwich consists of turkey, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and brown mustard can it still legitimately be called a reuben? If not, how narrow is the definition of a reuben? Is it the thousand island dressing? The corned beef? The Rye?

No! Impostor! Infidel!

*ahem* I mean, no. A reuben is corned beef, swiss cheese, sauerkraut, and a touch of thousand island dressing between two lightly-grilled pieces of rye (ideally marble) bread. We will accept no imitations. While I still haven't found the perfect "10" - the best one is at Irv's Deli in Fremont, Nebraska. I found my #9 there about 12 years ago. Although Irv calls it "special dressing," not thousand island - so maybe that's the key.

And now, the questions that are not Reuben-related:

So, are you actually creating a backstory "Bible," to flesh out and keep track of the details you know but haven't used yet (i.e., Alex's 2nd grade teacher's name)? Or is this backstory just theoretical?

We don't really have a "Bible," per se -- but we do have copious amounts of shared Google docs with lots of story trivia that are ridiculously disorganized. Occasionally I have to refer to older summaries to remember things like, "How old is Alex again?" and "Did Jason really think that idea would work?" I'm actually quite impressed that we're able to recall quite a few obscure details at will. I think it's a hallmark of the geek brain. "What episode did we discover the identity of the 5th Cylon?" is about the same kind of question as "When did Alex move to Omaha?"

Is this tacit permission to shout out if the backstory's too unwieldy? :)

Sure. Did you actually want us to do anything with that information, though? :)

Did Jason ever bring his two good ideas last week?

He brought one pretty spectacular idea, so I let him off the hook for two. One word: Carnies.


And now, Jason's contributions to Reader Question Wednesday:

Jason, weren't you supposed to finish those tweaks to Episode 2 last month?

Actually, given the recent additions we've made to the story, many of the tweaks I was supposed to make to Episode 2 are now moot. So it's actually a good thing that I didn't do them then, because it would have been wasted effort. Ah, I love the smell of a rationalization in the morning. It's the smell of victory.

So, are you two writing in coffee shops? (I'm at least assuming you're not recording there, though that could be HILARIOUS, frankly.) Or over reubens?

Great question. Our first podcast meeting was at a sandwich joint, and I think we've been back there two or three other times. We've also met at...another sandwich place, and two (I think) coffee shops. The majority of our recent meetings have been at one of our homes, though. We prefer to have the following easily to hand when we're writing together:

• Free outlets for our laptops
• Caffeine
  
• Potato chips (most recently the Lays kettle chips which are oh my god good)
  
• Wi-fi so we can a)Look up interesting things like a hacker name generator, and b)Easily share our updates via Google Docs in realtime.
• Enough space to actually spread out a bit.
  

These limitations aren't huge, but they do narrow the field quite a bit, location-wise. One of the coffee shops we met at was fantastic in every way *except* the last one - we were so crowded there that it just didn't work. Though we did get some funny looks that afternoon when we did our first off-the-cuff dialogue for Episode 1, Scene 1.

Thus far, there have been no reubens in the creative process.

Is there going to be some kind of casting call for your loyal followers to participate in the podcast when it gets around to recording time?

Well, I keep telling River that she can do *all* the voices, but she refuses. So...yes, we will be soliciting voice talent when we get to the recording phase. No word yet on how the casting process will work, but my guess is that bribes will be both accepted and encouraged.

Who is the better lover, Batman or Superman?

Batman.

Why?

I really think Larry Niven covered this ground fairly well in 1971.


Thanks again! We'll announce the next Reader Question Wednesday soon. Meantime, comment or e-mail us to ask a question. It will most likely appear in a future installment.

The Death Star and the creative process

Highlights of my script-writing adventures this week:
1. Getting to look up the 10 most awesome movie explosions. (They're not what you might think - although #1 was the Death Star. I totally called that one.)

2. Getting to use a "What's your motorcycle gang member name?" generator to come up with a character name. I'm not sure if I'm glad that "Strangle Face" was the best one of the bunch - but whatever. I haven't been to Sturgis lately, so I'm not up on the lingo.

3. Learning that writing an action sequence with nothing but dialogue and sound effects is a heck of a lot harder than I thought. But fun. Totally fun. I almost wish we recorded the first read-through. We do this to time the episode more than anything else -- but there are 5 characters in the scene and only 2 of us, so hearing us bounce back and forth between characters can be pretty funny. And totally embarrassing... so maybe I should take back the whole "let's record this" thing.

Jason and I had a great writing meeting this afternoon, and both of us agreed that the podcast is regaining some of its original momentum. I think we've found a pattern that really works for us. We trade off bringing either a Really Good Idea or the script from the last meeting's Really Good Idea. This week it was my turn to write the script, and Jason's turn to bring the Really Good Idea. Mission accomplished. Now it's on Jason to flesh out the next script, and I get to relax and imagine for a while. It's a good trade.

Meanwhile, while he's busy writing dialogue -- I'd like to announce our first "Reader Question Wednesday" - wherein we answer questions that you either leave in the comments or e-mail us. There are already a couple of them floating around to get us started -- but if you have a question other than "When is the podcast coming out?" (Answer: We don't know. Soon. Quit asking.) then please, send it on in. We'd love to hear from you!