On Wednesday, 29 October, Jim Kloss, founder of Whole Wheat Radio, mentioned my website - www.cacopeland.com - on his daily morning show. Not only did Jim mention the site, he went on to read my two paragraphs “About the Author,” read and talk about NaNoWriMo, and then he proceeded to read the entire text of Letters from the Heart 11 - on-air, live to all his listeners.
I listen to Whole Wheat Radio, and have for several years, because I really like the mix of music and WWR’s mission.
Our “mission” is what we’re passionate about. And have been passionate about during the 6+ years we’ve been on-the-air and on-the-internet. Much of that mission is currently facilitated by the founder of WWR, Jim Kloss. But, noted in the mission itself, one of Jim’s goals is to see Whole Wheat Radio function outside of his involvement as a self-sufficient independent “online collaborativewiki radio station.” Several of the mission statements are rooted in that goal.
Support independent musicians by airing their music and providing an open wiki platform for pages related to their music at no charge to musicians, fans or the general public.
Remain a grassroots volunteer and donation-funded, non-commercial, non-grant-based, non-google-ad-based, non-hyped website and webcast where the focus is on personalized and mutual appreciation between musicians and fans and not just between “product” and “dollars.”
Involve an “open to all who contribute content” internet community in the day-to-day operations and decision making of the audio webcast and the wiki in order to foster a sense of ownership and pride and insure the healthy survival of Whole Wheat Radio beyond the involvement of the founder.
Educate musicians about the PRO (Performing Rights Organizations) and other entities which control royalty collections from webcasts such as Whole Wheat Radio with the goal of creating a 100 percent Royalty Free webcast that benefits musicians outside the realm of financial royalties and introduces them to the power and reach of the internet while attempting to empower them rather than leach off their talents.
Create a new paradigm of appreciation for musical creativity and discovery that prioritizes artistic expression, communication and connection within the musical community over “the biz” while at the same time demonstrating that such an organization can be run competently and with fiscal responsibility.
Demonstrate open financial accountability by making all donation income and expense records (except names or personal information) available for online inspection by the public.
Provide a working model for others who are interested in fostering a noncommercial, nonhyped, fiscally sustainable internet-based collaborative to support working independent musicians.
I want to take a moment to Thank Jim and the Wheatheads (Whole Wheat Radio listeners), some of whom expressed their support of my participation in NaNoWriMo this year. Jim was not as interested in some of my science fiction work (which is fine), but he liked the Letters from the Heart and was excited to hear about my upcoming project for NaNoWriMo - the memoir about my grandparents’ farm, the title of which is Shady Rest.
Please support independent musicians and visit Whole Wheat Radio. Listen and join in on the live collaboration to meet some of the other wonderful people there.
I really enjoyed hearing Jim talk to me, about me, and reading my writing to others. It was fun. (Let’s do it again…)
I made the decision, last night, to put my current novel on hold for the month of November. The writers I respect (look around, you will see about whom I speak) have talked about NaNoWriMo for the past couple of years and now that I am trying to play in that sandbox, I am doing NaNoWriMo this year.
I hear you asking, “What?” … “Why?”- so here is the answer.
What is NaNoWriMo?
National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.
Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.
Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It’s all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.
Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that’s a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.
As you spend November writing, you can draw comfort from the fact that, all around the world, other National Novel Writing Month participants are going through the same joys and sorrows of producing the Great Frantic Novel. Wrimos meet throughout the month to offer encouragement, commiseration, and—when the thing is done—the kind of raucous celebrations that tend to frighten animals and small children.
In 2007, we had over 100,000 participants. More than 15,000 of them crossed the 50k finish line by the midnight deadline, entering into the annals of NaNoWriMo superstardom forever. They started the month as auto mechanics, out-of-work actors, and middle school English teachers. They walked away novelists.
So, to recap:
What: Writing one 50,000-word novel from scratch in a month’s time.
Who: You! We can’t do this unless we have some other people trying it as well. Let’s write laughably awful yet lengthy prose together.
Why: The reasons are endless! To actively participate in one of our era’s most enchanting art forms! To write without having to obsess over quality. To be able to make obscure references to passages from our novels at parties. To be able to mock real novelists who dawdle on and on, taking far longer than 30 days to produce their work.
When: You can sign up anytime to add your name to the roster and browse the forums. Writing begins November 1. To be added to the official list of winners, you must reach the 50,000-word mark by November 30 at midnight. Once your novel has been verified by our web-based team of robotic word counters, the partying begins.
Listen in, Join in, Contribute, Tell JC Hutchins “THANKS!”
About J.C.
J.C. Hutchins has written for The Palm Beach Post, the Cincinnati Enquirer, the Lexington Herald-Leader (Ky.), and Wizard: The Comics Magazine.
Specializing in features and entertainment reporting, Hutchins has interviewed comic book industry icons such as Alan Moore, Will Eisner, Warren Ellis, Kevin Smith, Mark Waid and Neil Gaiman. During a 2001 controversy sparked by B.C., a popular newspaper comic strip, one critic considered Hutchins’ feature on the topic “the single best piece of journalism generated by the controversy.”
J.C. Hutchins left the journalism business in 2002 to write his 7th Son thriller trilogy. 7th Son is the most popular podcast novel series in history, and has featured cameos by science fiction/horror icons Nathan Fillion, George Romero, Richard Hatch, Alan Dean Foster, Kevin J. Anderson and others. In March 2007, the novel was featured in The New York Times.
About 7th Son
The President of the United States is dead. He was murdered in the morning sunlight by a four-year-old boy…
So begins 7th Son, the chart-topping, genre-bending audiobook thriller trilogy by J.C. Hutchins. Called “the best thriller you’ve never read,” the series is renowned for its plot twists, everyman characters and cliffhangers. The series has nearly 40,000 listeners worldwide, and was featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post and on the cover of Blogger & Podcaster magazine. The first book in the trilogy, Descent, will be released in bookstores everywhere Fall 2009 by St. Martin’s Press.
7th Son chronicles the story of seven strangers who are assembled after the assassination of the U.S. president. They quickly discover they all appear to be the same man … with identical childhood memories.
Unwitting participants in a human cloning experiment, these “John Michael Smiths” have been gathered to catch the man who murdered the president. Their target? The man they were cloned from; the original John Michael Smith, code-named John Alpha.
“Please Seat Yourself,” Chloe read the sign. As she looked around the room again, she said, “Please seat myself where?”
As if in response, a waitress in a light brown dress trimmed in white, bustled by saying, “Sorry, dear. Very busy this morning with registration and all,” refilling a coffee cup and turning to attend to another table, “Keep an eye out. I’m sure someone will leave shortly.”
Again, as if on cue, the four people at the second table from the door, on her right, began shoving their chairs back and standing, scooping up backpacks and piles of books. Never meeting their eyes, Chloe began walking slowly in the direction of the table. During her wait, she saw the custom here included waiting patiently for when a table’s occupants make ready to leave, then casually meander toward the table to claim it. After staking the claim, the new occupants bus the table and clean up while they await the waitress to notice the pile of dishes and come by to take their order. Chloe sets her backpack in a chair and wipes out another before sitting.
Beginning to stack the dishes, Chloe looks toward the door to see a girl, about her age with blonde hair and green eyes hovering near the sign, obviously looking for a place to “seat herself.” Feeling generous, she stands and begins waving the girl over.
Beth, having walked in just as the brown haired girl, before her, took the only available table, looks about the cafe in vein, and curses her luck. Just about to give up on the idea and find somewhere else to have her morning coffee, she spots the girl standing and waving her over. Looking around to verify that she is the target of the wave, Beth walks over to the table, “Are you waving at me?”
“I’m alone. If you’d like to share this table, you’re welcome.”
“Thanks a bunch. I’m Beth.”
“Hi Beth. My name is Chloe.”
Beth drops her books into another chair and wipes out the last before sitting and helping Chloe clean the table.
The dishes piled at the edge of the table, Chloe begins, “Beth, is it? That’s a lot of books. Have you already registered?”
“Yeah. I just got out. I was in line at five thirty this morning. If you are not there first thing when the doors open, you might as well plan on the whole day. Is this your first time?”
“Yep. I am scheduled to register in the morning. You say to get there early? The notice I got said to be there by nine, so I had figured if I got there by eight thirty, I’d be OK.”
“Nah. I’d suggest you get there as early as you can. Once the doors open, all bets are off and appointments are just suggestions anyway.”
“Thanks a lot. I’ll do just that,” looking around, Chloe continues, “I just wish I could get some coffee.”
“You said it. Without my coffee, I am barely a person.”
“Excuse me. Are you about to leave?”
Beth and Chloe look up to see another girl, about their age, struggling to get her straight black hair out from under the strap of her, obviously overloaded, backpack.
Chloe says, “I’m sorry. What did you say?”
“I’m sorry to interrupt. I was just asking if you were about to leave. I see the dishes and there is no other place to sit, so…,” trailing off, the new girl leaves the question hanging in the air.
Chloe looks at Beth and raises her eyebrows. Beth catches the unspoken question and nods. Chloe drags her backpack out of its chair and drops it on the floor by her feet, “We’ve only just arrived ourselves, but you are welcome to join us, if you’d like.”
“Oh! If you’re sure it’s alright.”
“We’ve only just met. I’m Chloe. This is Beth.”
“Thank you, Chloe. My name is Drusilla, but my friends call me Dru.”
Sitting in the offered chair, Dru half waves across the table, “Nice to meet you, too, Beth.” Looking from Chloe to Beth, “What does a girl have to do to get a cup of coffee in this town?”
The waitress in the light brown dress hustles up to the table, scoops up the pile of dishes, and taking a rag from her apron, gives the table a quick wipe.
“Hello dears. Will this be together or separate?”
“Together,” Dru announces to the stunned silence of Beth and Chloe, “It’s the least I can do to thank you for sharing the table.”
“What can I get you?”
The emphatic plea erupts in unison from the trio, “Coffee!”
“Coming right up,” the waitress snickers as she turns and heads for the kitchen.
The trio stare at each other for a second and burst out laughing.
Dru looks from Beth to Chloe, “OK. I’ll start with the obvious. What’s your major?”
Beth pipes up first, “I’m a psychology major.”
Chloe bursts out, “No Way! I’m registering tomorrow as a psych major.”
Dru looks between Beth and Chloe again, “What are the odds? I just completed my registration. You’ll never guess.”
Beth and Chloe, in unison, “Psych?”
“Yep.”
Awed silence covers the table, for a moment, at their realization.
The waitress hurries up to the table, places a cup on a saucer in the middle of the table and fills it with coffee, before dropping a spoon next to it and hurrying away.
The trio stare at the cup, the steaming coffee still threatening to slosh over the edge as it rocks back and forth in the cup.
Tentatively, Dru offers, “Um, maybe I should have said separate?”
Recently on TeeBeeDee (www.tbd.com), We had a writing assignment to use the “micro-fiction” style represented by the site, sixsentences.blogspot.com, and compose stories about any topic but only comprising of six sentences.
Here is my offering.
Loving to banter about all manner of topics, I always looked forward to the times when my friends would gather together just to hang out, because “just hanging out,” would begin innocently enough, but after a few drinks would always end up at the same destination, banter.
Tonight’s banter centered on which of their senses would be the most devastating to have to live without, as if one were just switched off without preamble, warning, or preparation and what that would mean, having to make it through the rest of their days with only the other four.
His first thought, echoed by Katy and George, was that though strides have been made, that in this visual oriented society, their sight was the most precious of their senses and even the exercise of blindfolding someone demonstrated, immediately and unequivocally, how lost most of us would be without the use of our sight.
Sam and John made an excellent point that if the sense of touch were suddenly ripped away, even the most basic of feelings, such as the touch of a child’s hand or the hug during a time of sadness or even the gentle kiss of a lover would be forever lost, not to mention the ability to function with most devices in the modern world that require a modicum of fine motor control.
Janet, alone, proposed that we consider, though not customarily included in the five senses, the “sense of self” that, if removed, would render any of us naught more than an automaton or mindless drone without a will of our own, moral guidance, purpose, or perhaps even a soul.
With the sounds of the street, the invisible people engaged in their myriad of unknowable conversations, the traffic dancing along to its own beat and rhythm and the jazz rising from the bar below my loft apartment, I had to agree with Mary that, though a loss of sight would be crippling, it would be the loss of sound, conversation, poetry, stories and music that would not only quell the imagination but also the enjoyment of life, as well.
Roger has disappeared. I am sure I told you about Roger, First Lieutenant Smith. He has saved my ass more than once. You met his wife Paige at last year’s picnic … no, wait, I dreamed that. Anyway, Roger’s wife is Paige and they have a house near Buckhead, North of Atlanta.
Roger was cashing in some leave time to go visit his wife and their little girl, Beth. He was on a chopper headed for Dobbins Air Force Base, when something happened. At first, I thought it was just a drill, then I thought it was just a communication snafu, but I just got out of a radiation safety meeting, I guess the rumors are true and some sort of nuclear incident happened.
We heard only one report after Roger crashed, I am transcribing it here for you, so Paige will know.
My chopper suffered a catastrophic failure while en route to Dobbins AirForce Base. As the pilot attempted to retain control of the aircraft, I heard him attempt to radio in that he detected an EMP just prior to complete failure. I was the only survivor of the crash. It took me 6 hours, on foot, to reach Dobbins.
Once I arrived, I found the base unguarded. All power systems had failed and no electronic device or computer would operate. Having suffered a broken arm in the crash, I reported to the infirmary to seek a medic. I found no medic, so I fashioned a sling and rested to await evac.
When it became clear that no evac was coming, I struck out and found the base’s occupants dead. All buildings beyond the offices and infirmary were destroyed or burning. All aircraft were either damaged beyond flight or simply nonfunctional. After exploring the entire base, I found that Naval Air Station Atlanta and Lockheed Martin were likewise deserted of living personnel, with their facilities likewise damaged or destroyed.
Returning to Dobbins, I found that someone had an old truck - a 1965 Ford - that, because of its lack of computer systems, was still functional.
Once this letter finds you, grab a few things and get out. Call Paige to see if they need anything.
Head towards the hills. Stay safe.
More information: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10052966-93.html
On Saturday, the National Association of Broadcasters withdrew their opposition to the Webcaster Settlement Act, currently under consideration in the US House of Representatives. As a result, the bill passed in the House by a unanimous vote.
The Webcaster Settlement Act would allow Internet radio stations to negotiate with the music industry for a lower rate than Congress mandated last year.
Tim Westergren, founder of Net music service Pandora, said he was
elated about triumphing in the House, which came after traditional
radio broadcasters withdrew their opposition.
Dennis Wharton, a spokesman for the National Association of
Broadcasters, said Saturday night that Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.)
had met with representatives of the group and addressed some of their
concerns.
As a result, the NAB dropped its opposition in the House and will not
oppose the bill when it moves to the Senate for a vote, either Sunday
or Monday.
The day was busy, so I did not have a great deal of energy left to devote to Chapter 8.
I managed to get a little more than 650 words down as a beginning, though.
I am hoping to finish it tonight or this weekend.
Many Thanks to the first readers who have requested “the story so far.”
I look forward to your comments.
My day job is a Technical Services Manager for an Architectural Steel manufacturer in Columbia, SC. I have 16 years of experience in Systems/Network Administration, Project Management, Messaging/Groupware Administration, Security Analysis, and IT Business Analysis.
During the Summer of 2007, my family spent 5 months in Nairobi, Kenya while my wife did research for her PhD in Medical and Cultural Anthropology. While we were living in Kenya, I realized an unfulfilled need to write. So, I began one project and planned another: the first is a fantasy/scifi novel I have been tossing around in my mind for some time and the second is a memoir of my grandparents and their farm. This site represents my strides at becoming a writer - Someday on par with Mur Lafferty, JC Hutchins and Scott Sigler.
The one important thing I have learned over the years is the difference between taking one's WORK seriously and one's SELF seriously. The first is IMPERATIVE and the second is DISASTROUS.
This blog represents my light hearted steps toward a writing career. Don't worry, I haven't given up the day job, yet.
J.C. Hutchins has written for The Palm Beach Post, the Cincinnati Enquirer, the Lexington Herald-Leader (Ky.), and Wizard: The Comics Magazine.
So begins 7th Son, the chart-topping, genre-bending audiobook thriller trilogy by J.C. Hutchins. Called “the best thriller you’ve never read,” the series is renowned for its plot twists, everyman characters and cliffhangers. The series has nearly 40,000 listeners worldwide, and was featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post and on the cover of Blogger & Podcaster magazine. The first book in the trilogy, Descent, will be released in bookstores everywhere Fall 2009 by St. Martin’s Press.
