310MB.
2/23/2004
Agh. I just realized that I posted this info on Needcoffee, but didn't do it here. Senility is a bitch.
I've posted the audio files for both Love Letters and Mystics on the site. Just go to the Store and follow the links to get to either project's audiobook.
Or hell, I'll just give you direct links, shall I?
Love Letters Unsent - The Audiobook (complete)
Mystics on the Road to Vanishing Point - The Audiobook (in process)
I checked with Cory Doctorow to see if he minded me hosting the Down and Out audiofiles on here, but he hasn't responded. So if you want those, keep fishing on Gnutella.
So there. Go nuts. And once you're nuts, read the latest microfictions and get more nuts.
-Widge
310MB
2/12/2005
Ever run into those situations where "If I had known you were coming, I would have baked a cake"?
This is one of those. The site is being reworked because the amount of stuff I've been doing has grown considerably since I first launched this puppy. But ah, you see, Ken "Boss" Plume was nice enough to spotlight Desolation over on the IGN FilmForce Shopping Guide...so how cool is that?
For those of you who might wander over here from that, to avoid you running into the orange cones and hardhat areas of the site, I say to you: hiya. Here's some easy links.
Want to sample the new book? Check out the first story here.
Want to buy the new book? Or the old book for that matter? Be my guest.
Want to read some more free stuff before (hopefully) buying something? Okay, no problem. Online Microfictions here and Online Shared Universe stuff here.
Want to just hang out with a bunch of weird people? Doesn't get much weirder than here.
I think that about covers it. Thanks for stopping by. Rock on toast.
-Widge
310MB
2/10/2005
Just finished working on Overkill for the night. Now the book is exactly 25,000 words. So we've moved well away from novelette, deep in novella territory, headed down the turnpike to novel. So that's kinda cool. Just thought I'd share before I face plant on the keys.
-Widge
310MB.
2/9/2005
A couple of quick things.
First, I went on a tear over at the One Tusk LiveJournal, doing three bits in two days. I have three still percolating in my head, so that's going to see some activity for a while.
Second, people keep sending me info about podcasting. They're just kind of poking it at me. They're teasing bastards, they are. My first thought was to bring Widge Goes Off out of mothballs. Then, because I have ambition with no sense, my next thought was to create the Needcoffee News Network...ten minute weekly program where you cover everything you need to know about pop culture quickly, efficiently, and with a broad sense of humor.
Then, luckily, something about driving to go pick up an order of hot wings in the rain brought me back to my senses. The whole reason WGO went into retirement was because I'm not enough of a name to wangle the WGO gig into a WGO gig on real radio. Now, this podcasting thing basically gives you virtual syndication like "real radio," but then there was the big reason I stopped: time. Each Monday night was spent creating, editing and publishing WGO. That was a Monday night that I couldn't work on other things. And basically, Dark Blue Monstropolis took the place of WGO on my plate...not that other things haven't piled on top of it. Right now I've got enough writing to take me through 2005, easy. Maybe if I ever shake this day job virus, I'll try again. But for now...it's on hold. Like so many other things.
In other news, I'm reworking this site a little bit so I can cram all of the additional content I've created on here so it's a little easier to get to. Also, mucking around with some other things to improve the site. So we'll see.
Not creating any more audio for the time being in order to facilitate this. Again, spinning plates. Spinning plates.
-Widge
310MB.
2/6/2005
Completely off the subject of books, your friend and mine, JM "Tuff Diddy" Tuffley is letting me have my own show on his righteous internet radio station, Radiowerks.
I've always wanted to be on radio. I have a face for radio, after all. In fact, my two year-plus run of Widge Goes Off was an attempt to get some attention for myself that I could try to turn into a radio gig. And we see where that ended up. I still think an entertainment radio talk show would do well, and I'd love to do one, but there's just not enough hours in the day to pursue that.
However, I dig the hell out of all kinds of music, and this show, "Widge's Sonic Emporium, Menagerie and Lawnmower Repair," is something I've had on my plate for a few years now. The format is pretty simple: there's a theme for each episode and you don't know what the theme is until you show up. It could be all-jazz, it could be all-world music, it could be all "I really feel like breaking shit" music. It's two hours with very little of me other than editing and compiling.
The first show is Sunday, February 13th at 9PM EST. It's a double bill, with episodes one and two playing back to back, so you get a full spectrum of stuff. I'm happy as hell to get the chance to do this. Go to Tuff Diddy's site and shower him with affection, why don't you?
-Widge
310MB.
1/23/2005
The first book is in. And it looks pretty damn sharp, if I do say so myself. So boing--the gates are open.
I believe it's still propagating to the various places to purchase it, but in the meantime, feel free to grab your own copy here.
Now please tell 99 of your closest friends. Or enemies. I'm not picky.
In other news, Sunday Before You is about two-thirds of the way compiled. And damn, I'm tired.
-Widge
302MB.
1/11/2005
Still waiting for the first book to come in. So stand by. In the meantime, while all three of you are waiting...
I know that some of you are hearing from brick and mortar stores that they can't be bothered to order Mystics for you. There's a Barnes & Noble I know of that's sold close to forty copies of the book, making me probably the best seller they've got that isn't a "name"--you know what I mean, Rowling, King, DaVinci Code Guy, Snicket, those folks. This is not an ego thing for me to mention this--I'm a shmoe--I'm just amused that they would be able to move that many copies and they still can't be bothered to stock it. They've been getting the books directly from me.
So the first thing I'll tell you is to look for smaller, indie bookstores who actually, you know, give a shit about your business and want your money.
And if it helps, I did some checking on the BookSurge site and found some additional sources for the book:
If you're dealing with a brick and mortar store, arm yourself with the ISBN number (0972516409) and tell them that the book can be ordered through Books in Print, Whitaker UK, CBonline (for the Netherlands), the Dutch Library Association, and El Corte Ingles (for Spain). And of course, the thing is it's available online from Amazon, directly from BookSurge, and Alibris. And of course, if you're in the New York area, Jigsaw carries the book.
Oh, and bingo: here's Amazon UK and Amazon Canada as well.
And here's a bonus: since I would like to make these lazy bastards look like fools, if you go into a brick and mortar store and get the runaround while trying to buy Mystics, contact me and provide me with the store information and the story of what happened. Then if you still want to order the thing, you can do so directly from me and I'll eat the shipping. Bear in mind, if you're outside the United States and you try this stunt, don't expect overnight delivery. It's called "shoestring media" for a reason, right?
Okay, well, we're still waiting.
-Widge
302MB.
1/6/2005
The book is ready to be ordered, but I'm not giving you a link because I'm waiting for my test copy to show up so I can make sure it doesn't suck. Call me paranoid.
Also, Mystics has been sent over to the Google Print people. You can read more about that initiative
here. They're in the process of scanning it in now.
And in other news, I'm more than halfway done compiling the content for Sunday Before You. I should hopefully have
that locked down in another month or so. I can't remember if I've said this already, so I'll say it again: the plan is to
do a limited print run of seventy-five copies. So just be aware: while it won't sell out the first week or anything like
that, it will sell out.
I'm also working concurrently on what will be the project after Sunday. I won't say more now, but it will be
another bound book probably about the same size as Desolation. If I play my cards right and don't become a slackass,
I could have four new titles out this year.
And lastly, Dark Blue Monstropolis has come alive again,
so enjoy.
I'm going to go sit under the mailbox now.
-Widge
12/7/2004 Here's a small version of the cover--so it's not the clearest thing in the world--but there it is,
bar code and all. Special thanks to Marilyn Dillon over at Three
Moons media for her help and sanity in getting this put together. If you need to get published, she can help you and
she's highly recommended.
Must finish proofing so we can go to press. I am a happy bastard.
-Widge
11/22/2004 Okay, let's see. First up, I did update Dark Blue Monstropolis
with the end of Chapter 3. The coda still needs to go up, but we've also got our first spinoff story from Tee Quillin.
And I think that's cool as hell, personally.
Next, Mystics is available for sale in New York City. Jigsaw, your one-stop shop for shoestring media, has copies. Click on the link to go find them, but if
you're in the Big Apple, go by there and grab a copy. If nothing else, stop in since, you know, I can't because I'm
geographically challenged. Benjones is cool as hell for carrying the book and the whole concept of the place sounds ideal.
So there you have it.
Last, Desolation's cover art is done, I'm just in the process of formatting it. Once I have it all set and I know
it's not going to get fucked up in the transfer to the book, then I'll post it here.
-Widge
10/28/2004 Ladies and gentlemen, we have ISBN.
Magnificent Desolation's number is 0-9747440-6-9.
Jesus Christ, have you ever seen a sexier number in your life?
I didn't think so.
-Widge
10/21/2004 Warren Ellis, one of my literary guardo caminos, has pointed out the Live Journal RSS feed...which I
knew about but then forgot about. Kind of like what I do with my name a lot. So for those of you who have a newsreader
and want to see the latest microfictions as they hit, use this.
-Widge
10/20/2004 Let's see, where are we now? Well, Magnificent Desolation has been sent off to the folks at
Three Moons to prep for publication. So it is locked and loaded. I'm beginning work on the cover art now so we might actually
make the end of the year on that.
Then it's locking down Sunday Before You and getting that ready to go. I'm looking at maybe doing a 75 copy run
on it.
In the meantime, I now have ten microfictions up on the One Tusk LiveJournal, one of which wound up on Warren Ellis' Strange Machine stunt. If you haven't checked out the parade of stuff that wound up there, I urge you
to do so.
Dark Blue is still in a holding pattern, simply because there aren't enough hours in the day. I think there wasn't
a single night last week I didn't wind up falling asleep at my desk. I'm a sad bastard.
More news and macinations as time permits.
-Widge
09/13/2004 Dragon*Con was a success. Sold a few books, the reading went well. Took a whole lot of prep time
to get ready and then to recover, but so be it.
And dammit, I still can't get Welsh's accent right in performance. If I was smooth, I'd play it off that I was doing that
so when you find out where he's actually from it's a surprise. But no. I am the antithesis of smooth.
In other news, though, Down and Out is back in production after waiting to get some reference material from
eBay. Let's just say I owe Royal Dano an apology.
-Widge
08/22/2004 Getting ready for Dragon*Con along with everything else happening has been sapping my will to live.
But hey, here's a bit of good news. I think it's cool anyway.
You can search the novel on Amazon now.
Work on the audiobooks crawls along--I had to pause in my Magic Kingdom efforts because I needed a bit of reference
that just showed up. But it's happening. Stay tuned.
-Widge
07/24/2004 Well, I can barely believe it myself, but it's apparently true.
Desolation is, for all practical purposes, done.
I finished "The Excavation" the other night and so far it's passed inspection. Now all that remains is to compile the
stories in their proper order, give copies out to advance readers, work on cover art and other such tidbits one needs to
get a book printed, get the comments back and submit the thing for publication.
All of that's a freaking joy because it's the writing that's the hard part. The best part, yes, but the hard part too.
So I'm happy as hell. That's Book #2 almost in the can.
-Widge
07/21/2004 The Internet Archive is a very interesting place. They accept audio from all takers, so I've posted
Love Letters on the site
here and the first disc of Mystics
here.
As I stated below regarding Down and Out, it's easier to post the audiobooks disc by disc. Otherwise, as I learned
with Love Letters, the thing gets too big and unwieldy.
I'd love to make the texts of my books available on the Archive, but they pull from Gutenberg, and Gutenberg states that
self-publishers aren't allowed, since they're not "bona-fide." While I appreciate the idea behind that, which is
probably that if you allowed
everybody to publish whatever the hell they wanted, you'd have...well, the Internet...I find it amusing that the word comes
from the Latin meaning, "in good faith."
I guess in the purest sense of the term, then, I'm not a bona fide publisher since I sure as hell don't have any good
faith in the industry as a whole. If I had the time, I'd start my own archive that could cover those of us disgruntled
bastards who actually have faith in their writing, rather than in an industry that has in their best interests to convince
people that Dan Brown is a god. No wonder people read less for pleasure than they used to, if they think
DaVinci Code is the best the world has to offer.
There you go. Free idea. The Internet Bastard Archive. Anyone need a hobby?
-Widge
07/04/2004 Well, sorry I haven't checked in here. I've been busy with a few different things. I did send out
an update via e-mail to all "subscribers," so if you want to get those make sure you sign up by sending an e-mail to
"subscribe @ needcoffee.com" and we'll hook you up with all the latest One Tusk madness. Or you can always latch onto the
Needcoffee RSS news channel. I post everything but
the Live Journal (see below) there.
But for those of you who wander in through here, here's the latest:
DreamCon was a crapload of fun. I read the short story "Kora" from Magnificent Desolation and the first chapter
of Dark Blue Monstropolis, although as I mention on that
site, I did screw up Welsh's accent. Had it fine before I stood up to read and then it went to shit. So, sorry about that,
those of you who showed up. And I did better audience-wise than some other authors there, so that's kind of good for the
old ego. We've posted the Needcoffee.com photo galleries online here. And incidentally, the second chapter of DBM is now up and complete. I've already started
work on the third chapter, so that should calm those of you whackos who actually want to see more.
The Writings section of the site now lists all the
new stuff. So rock on.
Also, I've started slowly but surely putting together an audiobook version of Cory Doctorow's Down and Out in the Magic
Kingdom. Why? Well, because it has a Creative Commons license attached that lets me. And because you know how I've always wanted to get into
the audiobook business, despite the fact I think I sound about as appealing as a moose being bludgeoned to death by
Charles Nelson Reilly. I'm posting the files as I finish them on Gnutella (search for "magic kingdom down" and that should
probably locate them) and I'll post them to the Internet Archive when I'm done with each disc's worth of reading.
New One Tusk Live Journal is operational. You can read
the ground rules in the site's info, but this is basically me, my Sidekick, my Sidekick's camera attachment, and time to
kill. "MicroFictions" is a term so cool, I wish I had coined it, but instead I'm just borrowing it.
That's about it. The last short story, which is more difficult to manuever than I thought, is almost finished. I'm
working through the second disc of the Mystics audiobook. More when it comes to me.
-Widge
05/29/2004 Looks like I will be making an appearance at
DreamCon in Jacksonville the weekend of June 11-13 along with some
of the Needcoffee crew. They've got me down for a reading...what I'm going to read is still up in the air. Whether I
actually read any of Dark Blue Monstropolis or not
depends on whether or not I can master Welsh's accent by the time the Con arrives. Oh boy.
-Widge
05/27/2004 Sending a copy of Mystics off to get scanned in by the Xerox Corporation for the Amazon
"Search Inside the Book" program. Why the hell not. It's not like you can't already use Google, since the thing's on this
site as a PDF, right? So that should be interesting.
Another interesting thing: when you use a gnutella client to search for your book(s), and you find them residing in the
share directories on other peoples' hard drives. Right now, I wobble back and forth between the reason being (A) they actually
like the stuff and want to share with others as I've mentioned on here or (2) they think it's all absolute rubbish but are
the type not to be arsed to remove trash from their share directory.
Like I said, I wobble.
And when I'm not wobbling, I remember to tell you on this site that I updated Monstropolis a few days back
over on this site.
-Widge
05/16/2004 The rewrite on one story is finished and now I'm going to write "The Excavation," a weird little
sci-fi ditty that I've had in my head for a while now. If it works, I'll include it in the book. If it doesn't, hell, I
might just post it here: "Boys and girls, this is what a short story that sucks looks like."
Of course, now that I've told you this, I'm sure if it does make it into the book I'll get e-mails: "Should've posted it
on the site, muchacho."
Great.
-Widge
05/08/2004 The first part of Chapter 2 is now online.
Also, all the Magnificent Desolation short stories are finished with being edited before I send them out for
advance readers. All that's left is to do a rewrite on one and write another one from scratch. Fun marches on.
197 MB.
-Widge
05/02/2004 All of the first disc of the Mystics audiobook is now available through Gnutella. So those
of you who have been waiting until you could get a full disc, go nuts.
187 MB.
-Widge
04/22/2004 I do humbly apologize. I've been so damn busy with everything I neglected to mention that the
new site is now online. I won't rehash everything that
that's about here. Feel free to go check it out for yourself.
Also my buddy Ken has clued me into how to kill background noise, so I've been reformatting the Mystics audiobook
stuff I've done thus far.
Finished editing a second draft of a book--not mine--that I hope to publish one of these days.
Things are rolling, just never quickly enough.
Server's up to 176 MB.
-Widge
04/2/2004 For those of you who don't like messing with Gnutella, I have extra bandwidth...and I've decided to
share.
If you go to the Writings page, you'll see links to the
files that comprise Disc 1 of Love Letters. Download with my blessing and under our
Creative Commons license.
If you do file sharing on Gnutella or any other network, and you have the hard drive space, go ahead and stick these in
your Shared folder if you'd be so kind.
And if you like what you hear and you think it's worth some coin, throw some
in the hat. Or not. I'm easy.
159 MB of files on my Gnutella server. And the new website's coming. Fear it, baby.
-Widge
03/21/2004 Okay, so, now that Mystics the novel is online, I'm currently working on Mystics the
audiobook. As I get the tracks finished and edited, they'll be posted to Gnutella in MP3 form. I'll give a yell here when
each disc is finished and uploaded in case you want to get it in stages, or if you just want to snag it as it goes online,
keep a "Mystics on the Road" search handy.
132 MB of files on my Gnutella server. People are already downloading this stuff. This is good.
-Widge
03/15/2004 Even more.
The novel, Mystics, is now online as well. And posted to Gnutella. So enjoy.
-Widge
03/14/2004 More.
I've posted HTML and text-only versions of Love Letters. I'm amazed the lineation survived the translation into
both, but I think they should be somewhat manageable. Enjoy.
And yes, I'll be building a page outside of this journal where you can find all of this. It all just takes time. Oy.
-Widge
03/13/2004 Okay, the onslaught continues. In addition to
the PDF I announced below, I've posted the entire two-disc audiobook of Love Letters onto
Gnutella. So if you're running Limewire or Bearshare or something similar, you should be able to find it. Search on
"Love Letters Unsent." If you download
it, do me a favor and share the thing as well. You have my permission, as detailed on the
Audio License page.
In fact, it's a little different than the license I released the book itself under. If you'll notice this license
says you can alter the audiobook files just so long as they're distributed under a license like the original one. So turn it
into a twelve-inch dance remix for all I care, just don't make any money off of it. And send it to me. Just so I can be
amused.
Why am I not simply posting the files on this site? Well, because that eats up bandwidth...and if the number of times
it's been downloaded even while I was prepping the files are any indication, it would slurp up all my bandwidth in a hurry.
In other news, for our international visitors, I've been getting e-mails from people trying to find out about shipping
the books to reach you guys. It is expensive, and strangely, some places are more expensive than others--going to the
same country. So for your convenience, here's a list of some of the places that carry it online. Compare and contrast.
If all else fails, contact me through the website.
-Widge
03/07/2004 Long time no read. I've been busy behind the scenes, as always, with the two new projects as well
as becoming inspired by something I've read recently.
If you haven't already, check out Craphound, Cory Doctorow's website
for his literary works. In a nutshell, he's giving his stuff away online. He's made both his novels and other bits available
online for free. Sure, you can still buy physical copies of his books, but the content is out there for you to snag at
will.
Mad, is he? Well, he might be mad but his Amazon sales rankings are better than mine. So to hell with it, I'm going to
try a bit of madness.
So, under a Creative Commons license--which
basically means you can distribute it to your heart's content so long as people know it's mine, you don't make any money
off of it, and you don't mess with it--here is my out of print first poetry chapbook,
Love Letters Unsent to People Unmet. Currently it's in PDF form, I'll probably cook up some
other versions just for the hell of it.
And hey, even if you don't like the book--or especially if you do like it--and you fileshare, download it and stick it
in your shared directory. Let's spread the word. It's online now, might as well.
More online content is coming. I just figured we'd start with Love Letters since that's how all this started
anyway. And hey--if you like the book, you can throw some money in the tip jar here.
Doctorow doesn't have one because he doesn't want to compete with his publisher. Let's just say I had earnest conversations
with my publisher and he's fine with it.
So...this should be interesting.
-Widge
302MB.
281MB.
279MB.
271MB.
271MB.
271MB.
254MB.
247MB.
244MB.
244MB.
231MB.
217MB.
211MB.
204MB.