A classic Christmas story, short and sweet, slightly revised and performed by members of Casa Sawyer.  May your holiday be filled with warmth and delight.

To kick off the Antithesis series, I’m bringing you a story that’s just at the edge of what Sculpting God normally deals with. Still a bedtime story for adults, this one tells the story of Mondu, a pawnbroker on a nature preserve in the Amazon rainforest, and a customer who walks into his store and turns his life upside down. When you’re looking for excitement, or an escape from boredom, be careful what you wish for. You might get The Man In The Rain.

There remain six more stories in the Sculpting God anthology - at least, those are the ones that are written so far - and we will be returning to those in early September.  However, to fill the mid-series gap, later this week we’re going to step a little bit outside the normal faire for an interesting little thriller called “The Man in the Rain.”

Coming this week!

You’ve heard the story of Adam and Eve? Don’t be so sure. The Bible doesn’t tell the whole story, but if you look closely you see where something has been removed. First, God creates “man” male and female, and then, a few verses later, he creates woman again, this time from Adam’s rib. Where did the first woman go?

If you’ve ever read the Babylonian Talmud, you know. She was kicked out of the Garden of Eden for not being properly defferential, and she went on to become quite notorious in her own right. A sexual predator, a dark goddess, a spurned woman, and the first feminist, this is her story in her own words.

Lilith.

Guest voices this week:
Stephanie Sawyer
Kitty Nic’Iaian

Promos this week:
Hutchins and Harwood explain why you have only three days left to buy Scott Sigler’s excellent novel Infected

Here, at long last, is the conclusion to We Create Worlds. I had intended to release this over a month ago. Unfortunately for all of you (but fortunately for me), I was asked to write a screenplay. The resulting effort, Down From Ten, is a science fiction/mystery miniseries which my producing partners and I are now seeking funding for. It may even make an appearance as a miniseries at a future point in this podcast. You can read more about what the writing entailed at www.jdsawyer.net

Thank you all for your patience in hanging around the feed. Please spread the word - more episodes are coming.

Enjoy!

This time, it’s very much a case of blown deadlines for the sake of a god product. It’s also, I’m sure you’re thinking, better late than never. This story turned out to be a difficult one to produce, simply becasue I hadn’t looked at it in a number of years. When I did, I realized that it wasn’t up to snuff for Sculpting God. “No problem,” I thought, “A quick rewrite will fix that.” Well, the quick rewrite wound up stretching to six weeks, and this little bugger of a story turned out to be a very difficult nut to crack.

However, crack it did, and here you are - the meat of the walnut, as it were.

This is the story of Rick. He’s a scurrilous, irascible scoundrel, with a heart of gold. Not in the sense of being warm and fuzzy and good underneath, but in the sense of having a heart totally devoted to gold. His favorite goldmine is his shop, an entertainment venue where he vends virtual reality and manufactured novels to his latter-day escapist customers. He runs a tidy shop, he keeps his customers happy, and he always knows the right party to hit to find a pliable college girl with more cocaine than sense. Life is good. But life has a way of doing unexpected things, and the world has a way of changing around the most adaptable people.

So, please step into Rick’s parlor. Don’t mind the bell on the door or the old fashioned cash register. Buy a manufactured novel, fresh from the computer, a first edition. Sit in the easy chair or lay out on the sofa. Strap on a helmet and a skinsuit and take a swim on Europa. He can be trusted, really. It says so on the door. He’s completely upfront with his advertising. In ten foot high letters, right above the shop front, he tells you what they do in his place:
“We Create Worlds.”

And he does it on the cheap.

Be in touch soon
-Dan

Merry Christmas/Solstice/Haunnaka/New Year’s/Saturnalia/Bacchinalia/Random Day Off Work!

So, the episode due this week has been delayed. I haven’t looked at the story in a few years, and discovered that it needed a major rewrite, which has taken me in some unexpected directions. Between that and the ramp-up for the Seminar I’m teaching at the end of January, I haven’t had time to record.

However, there are a few hundred of you out there now, and I can’t just leave you with an empty feed, so there IS a podcast this week. Take a listen - I think you’ll get a good smile to tickle the cockles of your geeky hearts.

Special thanks to Jonathan Coulton for making so much excellent podsafe music!

Special thanks to the Reason Driven Podcast and to the Going Linux podcast for running our promo.  Enjoy!

So, please spread the promo far and wide, and tell your friends and lovers and enemies.

More soon…

This episode contains terrifying elements, and is best suited to audiences over age 10.

Content advisory: Suitable for all ages, though not necessarily intelligible to prepubescents.