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This week Justin and Terry talk about their experience with taking the spark of a story and fanning it into the blazing flame of a novel. We hope you enjoy it!

We also discuss Justin’s new chapbook release!

This week’s promo – The Leviathan Chronicles

Well, I, Justin, have taken my first step on the road to controlling my own destiny. Tonight I finished putting together a chapbook and Kindle version of my short story “Pirates of the Crimson Sand.” If you would like to read it, or purchase a copy, please go to my website. I hope you do, and I really hope that you like it. Thanks.

From the blog of Tobias Buckell:

I’m blazing to finish a story I owe, and need to finish up. Mainly I’m trying to lay down a solid draft, and to do that I’m just writing it out and not bothering to get stuck on details that need clarified. I used to just create a bracket and note inside, but Paolo Bacigalupi once taught me the trick that journalists use to make these notes easily findable: TK.

For example, you’re writing along and hit a note that isn’t important to the plot or anything that is a detail that does need to be added in. Instead of stopping to figure it out, or research it, you write something like “He jumped into the [TK make/model of car] and slammed the door shut.” The ‘TK’ is a somewhat statistically improbable letter combination, so you can, in draft, just do a find for TK and work your way through in a later draft fixing little things.

A lot of writers ask me how you keep your butt in the chair, or dodge writers block. The use of little tricks like ‘TK’ as well as skipping scenes you don’t want to write until you have a better idea later are neat tricks.

Some writers can’t move on, it’s part of their process to get all the details just right. That’s cool too.

But sometimes, you can’t know the details until you’ve written out a draft and the way in which everything sits around that blank spot allows you to realize that ‘oh, X is the solution’ and easily write it in.

Thus, I’ve made lots of little TK notes to myself today.

Good advice, Tobias!

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This week the Dead Robots hunker down in the studio to talk about some feedback that has been building up. We talk about books on writing, listeners helping listeners, and what folks have to say on iTunes. Enjoy! And send more feedback!

Also, if you’re interested in reading any of the books we mentioned during this episode, please visit our Book Store link. There you will not only find books about writing, but also works that people we’ve interviewed on the show have for sale. Please take a look, not only for the great items, but also because it will help us fund the podcast.

Picture from ROFL RAZZI

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This week the Dead Robots sit down and talk with “Jack Wakes Up” author and podcasting luminary Seth Harwood to talk about his writing, his podcasts, and how he sees the publishing industry. It was a fun discussion, and we’re all fans of his more than ever.

Seth’s website

Seth’s Twitter

We also have our discussion of The Strain. Enjoy!

And our next book discussion will be about Jeremy C Shipp’s novel, “Vacation.”

Promo #1 – Xtreme Dungeon Mastery

Promo #2 – Erotica a la Carte

Harvard Business Review Link!

For everyone interested in what the future of E-Books might look like, click on the link and give it a read. And then, let us know what YOU think!

Thanks to @protomedia for the link.

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Hey, folks, Justin here. I’ve been talking about doing an audio version of my short story series for months now, but finally it’s coming out. This is part one of the four-part series “Tales of the Breaking Dawn: The Ties That Bind,” a science fiction story about the star-freighter Breaking Dawn and its crew. I hope you like it. For a first attempt, I think I did fairly well, but I’m kinda biased. Please send me feedback letting me know what you think. My email address is justin@justinmacumber.com

Also, so that everyone else who worked on it gets their proper kudos, here is the cast list:

Justin Macumber – Narrator
Kimi Alexandre – Captain Jessica Quimbly
Terry Mixon – Boo
PG Holyfield – Cam
Ryan E Stevenson – Ferron
J Daniel Sawyer – Jack
John Mierau – Duka
James Batchelor – Dock Robot

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This week the Dead Robots are joined by A Lee Martinez, who had the pleasure and honor of being our very first interview way back in episode 8. We talk about his latest work, what he’s learned, and why sequels are evil. Enjoy!

A Lee Martinez’s website

Twitter Account – @ALeeMartinez

This week’s promo – V & A Shipping

Hey, everone, this is Justin. Well, it looks like the Dead Robots’ Society will be represented by two hosts this year. Both PG and I will be attending. I believe he said he would be on some panels for the podcasting track, but sadly I won’t (made my plans too late, darn it). If any of you are going to be there, please let us know and maybe we can schedule a lunch or something. I got to meet one of our listeners last year, and I’d love to do it again. Send us an email or a tweet! I’ll have my iPhone with me, so you know I’ll be checking my email and Twitter on a near constant basis.

Anyway, good luck to everyone who’s going, and be safe.