As you likely know by now, I have teamed up with Red Tash and Kat Bradbury to create a Kindle Vella science fiction adventure serial, under the collective pen name of Kaye Elsie. It's called "SPI Girls Kick Ass!" It's like Charlies Angels meets The Matrix. This week’s podcast is chapter 3 of that serial, the first chapter I personally wrote, starring my character Jaxa. She lives in a Star Trek-inspired virtual world, holding a double job: Jaxa works as a maintenance officer, but she also works f...
Sep 30, 2021•10 min
For this episode of the Alien Beer Podcast, I thought I'd do something a bit different. The story I have for you is another one of my Bradbury Challenge stories. I was in a rather experimental mood when I wrote it. Perhaps some of you will recognize the format. Rather than spoil it here in the introduction, I'll save my explanation for after the story is done being told. I'll also add a content warning: this story contains a loss of agency. See you after the end. (after text, highlight to read) ...
Sep 16, 2021•15 min
Before we drop in on the inter-dimensional Rosedale Pub, I have a secret to tell you. Well, it's not such a secret anymore, but I have been working on a secret project with my friends Kat Bradbury and Red Tash. We're testing the waters of the Kindle Vella platform with a collaborative serial called SPI Girls Kick Ass! It's like The Matrix meets Charlie's Angels, and we're very excited about it. I hope you'll check it out at sillyhatbooks.com/spi . The first three episodes are free! Okay, this is...
Sep 02, 2021•16 min
This week at the inter-dimensional Rosedale Pub, Alyssa encounters a strange knight on a strange quest as she walks along the Road. Don't laugh, but the idea for the knight in this story originated as a character I played in a Bunnies and Burrows play-by-email roleplaying campaign I was in ages ago. A friend suggested that I need to urge you good listeners to check out my eleven published novels, seven of which are also in audiobook form. You can find them on sillyhatbooks.com/fiction . Hint: Ro...
Aug 19, 2021•19 min
This week at the inter-dimensional Rosedale Pub, some technology malfunctions in a wondrous way, an infamous character returns, bearing a great treasure, but also needing help. Trust can be a difficult thing in a liminal space like the Rosedale. Dear listeners, thank you. The Alien Beer Podcast recently passed 5,000 downloads! What does this mean? Well, it means that each episode has been downloaded over 80 times, on average. It means that my podcast is in the top 50 percent or better. But these...
Aug 05, 2021•21 min
I was honored to be a featured guest at InConJunction Science Fiction and Fantasy convention over the recent July 4th weekend. I was anxious about being around many people in person for the first time in 16 months, but I think I did better than I expected at that. One of the presentations I gave was on using randomness as the seed for a story. I called it "Storymancy" because often I get elements from divinatory sources: Tarot cards, for example. Or I'll look for ideas from the next three songs ...
Jul 22, 2021•20 min
You may know that this podcast is named after my short story collection, Alien Beer and Other Stories. You may also know that I've already read every one of the stories in that book to you on this podcast. However, I do have a secret cache of stories I wrote in 2019 when I attempted the Bradbury Challenge. Ray Bradbury famously wrote, "Write a story a week for a year. It's impossible to write 52 bad stories in a row". My author friend Kat Bradbury inspired me to do this when she took it up herse...
Jul 08, 2021•7 min
I deal with grief and other hard emotions, in part, by channeling that energy into something else. Writing can be therapy for me; for example, Trans Witch was written during a time of great stress and distress for me. The result wasn't a big block of angst or gloom and doom, but a peek into a world where hard things can be overcome, and love wins out in the end. This story comes in the wake of losing one of my best friends. Stella was always my buddy, from the very first day she came into my lif...
Jun 24, 2021•24 min
Sometimes, it's hard to let people go. It's hard to accept that someone you once shared something special with has moved on, especially when you haven't. In our visit to the inter-dimensional Rosedale Pub this week, we'll meet someone who's been led there by one last hope of making things work with their special someone.
Jun 10, 2021•16 min
In this episode of Rosedale Pub, Alyssa meets True Colorado, a regular, who tells a rather tall tale.I wrote this story in a café in Broad Ripple, a pretty part of my city. I was drawn to the cafe when I spotted a trans flag hanging from a balcony nearby. The café was open air, since one side of the building opened with garage doors. I sat at a table by myself with my laptop, tarot cards, and my coffee, and came up with "Tall Tale", set in my new Rosedale Pub series. I can't stress enough how mu...
May 27, 2021•20 min
Dear listeners, I am so excited to share with you this, the first chapter of Trans Witch: College of Secrets, as read by Danielle Muething! I can't express how happy I am with Danielle's narration, both in quality and consistency, and how thrilled I am with the way she brought my characters to life with her voice acting. Please enjoy this sample chapter, and I hope you'll check the audiobook out on Audible!
May 21, 2021•14 min
Well, dear listeners, this is it, the last episode of The Multiverse Blues. It's been an amazing ride for me. I hope it's been as much fun for you, since you're still here listening to this. I'll go on the record as saying that I don't have plans for a sequel to this story, but you never know. I'm sure some of these characters will show up in the next project, which will also be about wayfarers traveling between the worlds. Have you enjoyed the story? The Multiverse Blues is now a BOOK. Check ou...
May 13, 2021•20 min
Surprise! This isn't a bonus episode, but this is usually an off week for the Alien Beer Podcast. Next week, on May 15th, 2021, the last episode of The Multiverse Blues will air. On that same day, the paperback and ebook versions of that saga will be released on Amazon! So, to get you ready for the transition to a new story, I thought I'd air this, the first episode of Rosedale Pub. Rosedale is a pub between the worlds, a liminal place where travelers from anywhere in the multiverse may rest and...
May 06, 2021•21 min
Pre-Order The Multiverse Blues ebook!I began The Multiverse Blues as a serial, with only a vague notion of where it would end up. I can own up to not being much of a planner when it comes to writing novellas and novels. I come up with a concept, some characters, a goal, and just start writing. After awhile, patterns emerge, and I'll come up with plot points that definitely need to happen before the end of the story. Often, I'll arrange these in order and end up with a more organized plan, and th...
Apr 29, 2021•19 min
Characters are people too! At least, inside my mind, they are. When I bring characters from one story into another, I find that I still have a mental model of that character pretty much ready to use, even if it seems strange to put them in a new situation cold. It's been fun to have Lee and Dionne from my other novel, Reality Check, appear in The Multiverse Blues, even if they're not the main characters this time around. In this chapter of The Multiverse Blues, Jules meets up with old friends, m...
Apr 15, 2021•18 min
Goodbyes are hard for me. As I write this introduction, I've gotten a bit ahead on the writing for The Multiverse Blues. I am about to start the last chapter, as a matter of fact. I've spent nearly a year telling the story of Jules and Hope's Tour, and I can tell you listeners that I'm going to miss these characters when I'm done. Don't fret, you'll still have four more chapters to listen to after this one. But then we'll be done, and I'll have to move on to something else. If all you know of my...
Apr 01, 2021•16 min
A very central character of The Multiverse Blues is Hope, the delphine diva from another dimension. In this, the spring of 2021, I'm starting to regain a feeling of hope. My home has been finally been restored after the October sewage disaster. The lovely weather invites me to venture outside these four walls and see the wider world. I even have my first Covid vaccination scheduled for the end of the month. It almost seems symbolic that a book that I poured my fear, frustration, and even anger i...
Mar 18, 2021•16 min
I enjoy writing episodes of The Multiverse Blues much more when Jules is with the rest of the crew. Which is why I'm pleased to tell you that they rejoin Hope's Tour in this episode, swapping stories and making plans. A common theme in many of my stories is the concept of "found family". I only found out recently that it's often a feature of The Heroine's Journey. It turns out, many of my novels follow The Heroine's Journey. Jules wouldn't care whether you called them a Hero or Heroine, their on...
Mar 04, 2021•16 min
Last time on the Multiverse Blues. Jules escaped capture, leaping through a portal that landed them in their home universe of Beta Earth. Seeking safety for baby Lucy, they find themselves in a heated confrontation. Before I begin, I'd like to give you a bit of trivia. "The Dionnes" that Jules and friends talk about in The Multiverse Blues are none other than the characters of the same name from my science fiction novel, Reality Check. Also in Reality Check, a medic named "Bask" tends to Lee in ...
Feb 18, 2021•22 min
Last time on The Multiverse Blues: Jules got cleaned up and Jimmy gave them new clothes to wear, and Jules got to see a bit more of the mysterious disconnected Earth where her new friend lives. A surprise interdimensional visitor overnight causes Jules to flee through yet another portal, to yet another unknown destination, which will be revealed in today's episode.
Feb 04, 2021•15 min
Before I begin this episode, I'd like to let you know that the world of Erde, as mentioned in The Multiverse Blues, was first featured in my stand-alone science fiction novel, Reality Check. It's the steampunky "silly hat" world that Lee visits. Reality Check is possibly my single most popular book. I want you to also know that the world of Erde is the world of my Trans-Continental series, where Ida and Duffy have their steampunk adventures. Please do check out these books and more on my website...
Jan 21, 2021•18 min
Well, we made it. Yup, the terrible year that was 2020 is over now. I started this podcast before Covid-19 was even a worry, back in February. The rest of the year, reading my stories to you was a lifeline that made me feel just a little more connected to the world outside my house. And then, in October, I needed a break from The Multiverse Blues. I had a few personal disasters, some of which continue to cause me daily difficulty even now. But in November, I wrote a whole novel, one that tells t...
Jan 07, 2021•14 min
Well, here it is, my wonderful listeners: The End This is the last story in my Alien Beer and Other Stories collection. I'm going to be totally transparent with you: I'm not sure where I'll go from here. One thing is certain: I will continue The Multiverse Blues, reading each chapter to you here on the Alien Beer Podcast. Once that's done? I'm not sure. I have some other stories I could read. I could start a new serial. I could write a new series of short stories just for the podcast. As I said ...
Dec 17, 2020•30 min
Before I introduce this episode, I have some news for you. First of all, you may have noticed the absence of The Multiverse Blues after Chapter Sixteen. I decided to take a hiatus on that, as life had gotten to be extremely stressful. Since this is being recorded towards the end of 2020, I think you know what I mean. On top of the pandemic and the terrifying uncertainty of the election, I had some personal issues going on, over and above the anxiety and depression I struggle with every day. Of n...
Dec 03, 2020•8 min
Here's another rather personal story involving a mirror. Okay, I'll admit it, I've got an irrational fear of seeing myself in mirrors in the dark. To try to exorcise that a bit, I decided to make the fear more tangible in a story. The result was bought by James Ward Kirk, and published in his Indiana Horror Anthology 2011.
Nov 19, 2020•8 min
This one was hard to write. Not technically hard, but emotionally. It was for the Iron Writer Challenge, March 2017, and here are the elements: "Antigonish" (poem) restricted to the first verse only; Another person’s dream that you are envious of; A hangman’s noose; Will you never leave me? I couldn't help but write this story, even though hurt to do so; it demanded to be written, given those elements.
Nov 05, 2020•5 min
This one has an odd history. I wrote it in 2011, and it was picked up, with contract, for an issue of a well-respected horror magazine. The issue it was due to come out in never happened, and eventually the rights reverted to me. I'll admit, I sat on this one for years on the hope that the issue might someday come out, but it's been almost 6 years now, so I'd rather the story saw the light of day than to continue to wait expectantly in the dark.
Oct 22, 2020•14 min
For the the Iron Writer Challenge 77, I threw down in another Grudge Match. I wrote along with Jordan Bell, against Mathew W. Weaver and Maureen Larter. Once again, my team was defeated, but we all made some great stories in the heat of battle. Our elements were: A Suit of Armor; A Pitcher’s Mound; Gluten Free; Locke’s Socks.
Oct 08, 2020•5 min
After an attack on Hope interrupted the show on Delta Earth, the crew of Hope's Tour were forced to flee the Harmony Theater in their tour bus. Will Jules and the crew be able to outrun the agents of the Arch Authority and get off-world somewhere out of their reach?
Oct 01, 2020•19 min
"Hunted" came to me in September 2010, and though I've never managed to publish it before now, it became the seed for the first of my Tipsy Fairy Tales, Blue Spirit. Having written the Road Ghosts Trilogy, I decided I needed a new direction, since I felt Brett's story had been told well enough. I wasn't quite ready to leave that universe, however, so I thought about minor characters I wanted to explore more, Skye came to mind immediately. She was funny, she had deep issues, and she'd been touche...
Sep 24, 2020•11 min
