Forward to 2018, and we set a possible date of late January/early February. I was planning a book release for January, the fifth book of the Refuge series. Not my most popular series, but the people who like it seem to really like it. I filled out the interview form they would post and checked out my equipment for my second ever podcast. Now, I’ve done one in the past, an interview on the changing landscape of publishing hosted by Moses Siregar. My friends Kevin J Anderson and David Farland were also featured on that cast. We had a lot of problems on that one. Firstly, my computer didn’t link properly, or Skype wasn’t connecting, or something, and I had to attend by phone. Then the roofers I didn’t know about showed up (I rented, and the landlord made no mention of putting on a new roof) and we had the sound of men scrapping the old tiles off. Still, it went forward, and I think it went well, all things considered.
Now I have my own house, and anyone on my roof during a podcast is an intruder, and will be dealt with as such. I was ready to go on. I had my expensive gamer headphones that I never use, my camera plugged in, all tested and working. I connected to Raphyel through Google Hangouts and his smiling face appeared on my screen. On his end, nothing. I brought out another set of headphones and a separate mic, and still, nothing. Finally I got my camera working, and the other hosts were on. I could see them. Eventually I could even hear them, but they still couldn’t hear me. Great, I thought. Raphyel handed me an opportunity and I blew it. The clock was ticking. I was supposed to go on at 10 PM, Abby and Scott, the co-hosts, were ready, and I was dropping the ball. There was some message about my mic being blocked. Finally, I unplugged my mic and headphones, and everything worked. Unknown to me, the camera had a mic in it, and it connected up just fine.
So we were off, at 10:30PM. Since the podcast wasn’t live (something I didn’t know when I first logged on) we were fine, and I found out that I wasn’t the first person who had problems getting on. But it was happening. The podcast wasn’t all about me. They had other segments, news, opinions. I thought all of the hosts were interesting people. I wouldn’t mind hanging out with them at Cons. After the initial problems it went very well. Maybe I might be invited back, if I promise to keep my tech simple.
I hung out with the team for about a half an hour after the cast, just talking. I have to be glad I don’t have a lot of internet friends I can sit and talk to online, or I wouldn’t get anything done. Facebook is bad enough. So, go check out my friends’ podcast and site, Stories for Nerds, for all the latest news in books, movies and sports. Well, maybe not sports. But all the stuff we nerds like.
Coming soon, Theocracy: Book 2. Also, I will be starting a Youtube channel with travel videos, movies of my workspace, and lots and lots of cats. I will be travelling to Nevada, to travel around that state, Utah and Arizona, filming my travels to put on the you tube channel. Stay tuned.
