Sunday, September 05, 2010

Rip Through Time

Some breaking news. I revealed something about the secret project I worked on this past summer in a previous post. It was a serial time travel story conceived by David Cranmer and executed by several guest writers, including me. The first installment of “A Rip Through Time” is now up online at Beat to a Pulp. This opening segment is by Chris F. Holm, so I hope you’ll check it out. My piece follows Chris’s in the story sequence. I had a lot of fun with my part, and from what Chris says here he had a lot of fun as well.

In other news, I’ve been kindlizing some old pulp stories, Doc Savage and The Shadow, for listening to on my Kindle while I make my commute to school. A problem was that the Kindle’s volume output was not enough to overcome the travel noise at much above 40 MPH. I first hooked up a set of speakers to the Kindle and used a cigarette lighter plug-in to power the whole thing, but this was pretty awkward and still didn’t produce enough volume to cover all contingencies. I finally bit the bullet and went to Mobile One on Saturday and had them put in a new radio/CD player for me with an auxiliary port, which I can plug the Kindle into directly so that it plays through my radio speakers. This is working out well. My 2005 Scion didn’t come with an auxiliary port, and I was needing a new CD player anyway so I killed two birds with one stone.

And speaking of Kindle and ebooks, sales have fallen off dramatically, (shall I say, precipitously), on my western collection, Killing Trail, so if you are hungry for some shoot outs and shoot-em-ups, please give the collection a try.


And for a final note for today, The Lovely Lana is running a contest over at her blog where you can pick up one of her great photos. Check it out.
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31 comments:

Jodi MacArthur said...

The story is a clever collaboration. Chris did a wonderful job, excited to see where you take it.

Evan Lewis said...

Have you heard the Doc Savage radio shows? The Thousand Headed Man is available for free download here:
http://www.archive.org/details/otr_docsavage_thousandheadedman
and Fear Cay is here:
http://www.archive.org/details/otr_docsavage_fearcay

Harry Markov said...

I will definitely try to read the first installment. Time is an issue of course [to-do list as well].

Will do a report on your experiment and the sales?

Deka Black said...

I need a E-reader of some type. Now. read on the PC screen is not big deal for me, but.. sometimes i like to read in another spots.

the problems is my e-library is in jpg (scans) and pdf. I believe the Kindle do not read this formats...

the walking man said...

I'd ask for your old radio but I really need your speakers since I blew three of my four out blasting Canned Heat. Going to go give the first installment a read.

sage said...

I didn't realize you can listen to books on kindles... on your books, do you do the reading? I often listen to books on an ipod at the gym--I get them via a subscription at audible.com

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

My car has a dock for my iTouch, and wow, is it loud! Haven't tried listening to a book yet, though.

Issa's Untidy Hut said...

Doc Savage and the Shadow on the way to work ... oh, man, you are so rocking out!

Speaking of which

@ The Walking Man - I have some serious, serious respect for anyone who blows speakers out to Canned Heat boogie!

Charles Gramlich said...

Jodi MacArthur, thanks, and thanks for dropping by. I’m interested in seeing the whole story together. I want to know how it ends now.

Evan Lewis, I have some of them. I don’t have these though. That would be ideal for listening to. I don’t have an MP3 player or IPod but will eventually get one of those. Thanks for the links. I’ll mark them down.

Harry Markov, I did a report about two weeks after the experiment with Killing Trail started. I’m gonna do another one at around 6 months I figure. Depends on how much change there is.

Deka Black, the kindle will show pictures but only in black and white. The cover and inside illustrations to “killing Trail” are all Jpegs. As for PDFs, it will read them but the font size is very small, at least on my Kindle 2. I’ve actually taken some PDF files and converted them to just text and then sent them to Kindle. I can read those a lot easier than PDF.

Mark, I had blown speakers in my last car but the scion has a pretty good set. Canned heat eh?

sage, you have a choice of male or female voice and both are somewhat mechanical sounding. I actually think it works OK for the Shadow and Doc Savage books but I don’t know if I’d want to listen to a nuanced book in audio with it. I haven’t tried downloading any actual “audio” books for it so I don’t know what that experience is like.

Alex J. Cavanaugh, yeah, I can crank it up pretty good. I like these docs and auxiliary ports. Great idea.

Don, well on occasion I do listen to my Type O Negative and Rammstein CDs on my new player. :)

BernardL said...

With the commute time you have, your investment was a definite necessity.

Michelle's Spell said...

Hey Charles,

I'll definitely take a look! Happy Labor Day!

nephite blood spartan heart said...

I usually have to have my audio books louder than the wife and kids like me to.

BStearns said...

Very cool Charles. I will head over there immediately and check out that project. Looking forward to it!

L.A. Mitchell said...

oooohhh, time travel. Can't wait. Headed there now...

Ron Scheer said...

Be careful with that audio books deal. I realized after listening to a couple novels while commuting that it was scarily like getting lost in a cell phone conversation while driving. The commuting time began passing by pleasantly - I stopped caring about the other drivers - but my reaction times slowed way down.

jodi said...

Charles, can I buy your book on Ibooks? Right now, I'm heading over to Lana's!

pattinase (abbott) said...

Great idea. Interesting to see how the style changes as the author does.

Charles Gramlich said...

BernardL, yep, I definitely think so.

Michelle, and to you. Take care.


David J. West, when Lana is in the car we always listen to music. Pink Floyd for the most part!

Bryan, It’s pretty cool for sure.

L.A. Mitchell, definitely right down your alternate reality eh? :)

Ron Scheer, that’s part of the reason for listening to simple works like The Shadow or doc Savage. I don’t think I’d want to try something complicated or some nonfiction that way.

jodi, I don’t know. I don’t even know what Ibooks is. If it has access to Kindlized works or Barnes & Noble, there is Killing Trail, Chimes, and Swords of Talera all available as ebooks.

pattinase, yeah, I didn’t try to maintain Chris’s style, although I tried to keep in general to his characterization.

j said...

I'm glad you both enjoyed your part in the project!

My husband questioned me recently about the Kindle. It may be on his Christmas list.

Barrie said...

I've always wondered what it would be like to write in collaboration like that.

Unknown said...

Congrats to you and Chris. Glad you've got your Kindle worked out enough to listen to the stories above 40 mph.

Charles Gramlich said...

jennifer, I'm enjoying my Kindle. Have to say. It won't replace books for me but it compliments my reading nicely.

Barrie, fortunately, David was a kind taskmaster and did a good job in guiding us through.

Gaston Studio, I used it for the morning commute this morning and it was perfect.

Lana Gramlich said...

Kudos on the story, hon and I'm glad you replaced your car stereo. Thanks for the shout out, too. You're very sweet.

ivan said...

Leonard Cohen, before he became really famous, was one hell of a cult novelist.

There is a chapter in his "Beutiful Losers", of him being pleasured by somebody while driving his car-- and at the moment of crisis, the car crashing right through a billboard.
I hope this never happens with you and your kindle. :)

Heff said...

A contest ? I'm IN !

Heff said...

A contest ? I'm IN !

laughingwolf said...

YAY!

will read more asap...

Charles Gramlich said...

Lana, thankee sweetums.

IVan, my Kindle doesn't pleasure me in that way fortunately. I did like Beautiful Losers quite a lot.

Heff, cool. I talked up metal in class today and dissed Jazz.

Laughingwolf, no prob.

Erik Donald France said...

Cool idea, the collaboration~~~ must get to it!

Makes a lot of sense to bite the bullet on speaker items to beat the traffic noices, especially for longer commutes. I didn't even know Kindles had an audio function, but that also makes sense. (Last library I worked at, books-on-cassette were still the rage for travelers and commuters)

BStearns said...

When is yours portion going to be posted? I want mooooore!

Charles Gramlich said...

Erik, I'm using it more for it's audio function right now than just reading on it. It helps the commute go easier.

Bryan, I'm not sure. As soon as I hear the details from David I'll let everyone know.