Listen to me on Functional Nerds

Unbelievable but true, you can listen to me spout (occasionally) along with the Functional Nerds at http://functionalnerds.com/2010/04/episode-007/. Listen to us talk about: Hulu's new subscription service, books, TOR turning 30, slushpiles, and much more...

It was a fun experience, and my very first podcast.

You may ask me, "Why? Why? Oh dear (deity of choice)...why?"

Why do a podcast? Well, because my confused friend, it is good to be part of a community and to talk about those things we hold dear to our nerdly, artistic, little hearts.

Functional Nerds Podcast

So, a little bit of excitement for me is that later this week I'll co-star as a new Third Nerd for Patrick Hester's Third Nerd Army on his and John Anealio's Functional Nerds Podcast. It's just a one shot thing, but maybe if I behave myself and laugh at their jokes and say how clever they are they'll ask me back (or maybe they won't if they read this...hmm...).

If you haven't checked out their new podcast yet, they talk about all things of Nerdly goodness, there is focus on Apple products and a fair amount of talk on music. They also spoke so highly of new author Blake Charlton's first fantasy novel Spellwright that I decided to check it out and was very pleasantly surprised (he has a free excerpt to read on his website—recommended read for most any fan of fantasy).

I don't know what we'll speak on yet, but it is bound to be a varied list.

Anyways, I look forward to the podcast, and hopefully manage to come off as somewhat coherent. But we'll see.

Excerpt from Chronicles of Hestea Hammerblood - Epic Fantasy Novel

Ok, here goes. At long last I'm sharing some of my epic fantasy novel (cue fanfare...aaand cut! That was cheesy. Let's just get to it):

In the land most call Molroun, the evil Sacraith are a fanatical group bent on all out domination. Invading by sea they are a Dark Brotherhood dedicated to the dark arts and their evil god. They sweep into Molroun with their massive forces; destroying and subjugating with sheer force of numbers and arcane magic. In their wake lay devastated lands, near and far, their people enslaved and ruled in fear by their new dark masters.

Some say they have lain in wait for centuries building strength and plotting their rise; a shadow on the world growing in darkness. Others think them to be a sign of another Great Destruction as told of in myth.

Either way, as word spreads of their plague upon humanity, pockets of resistance begin to form in Molroun and other lands. While some of these pockets are turned against their own and some are destroyed, others grow to be sizeable forces to challenge their oppressors. And from these trials a warrior of legend will rise from the destruction.

Read the excerpt here: http://clifton-hill.blogspot.com/p/chronicles-of-hestea-hammerblood-epic.html

As I write this post, part of me is screaming, "No, don't share. It's dangerous. Dang-er-ous! Someone will copy my brilliance and all my hard work will be for naught!"

Problem is that I need to shut that part of me up.

Choose your Poison - How do you choose new books?

An age-old question posed by aspiring author Patrick Hester on his blog: How do you know what to read?

It sparked some thoughts so I had to reply, click over to read his blog and my reply:

I'm the same way. I get very nervous choosing a new book to read. I don't like to start something and have it turn out to be a dissapointment. I've gotten lucky plenty of times, and in the case of "Song of Ice and Fire" it was by a store clerk recommendation. I didn't know the guy, but he had such an apparent affinity for the WoT books (of which I was purchasing one at the time) that I thought, "Maybe he knows what I like."