Serve It Cold
Presenting “Serve It Cold” from Ronnie Blackwell!
Detective Jonny C. Speed’s life can’t get much better. He’s booked into the French Quarter’s most luxurious guesthouse, and his day job as convenience store manager is 104 miles behind him in Catherine, Mississippi. He’s already taken care of one pro-bono missing persons job since he’s been in New Orleans, and his paying client’s cheating wife is a beautiful and very accommodating exhibitionist. Are things too good to be true? Of course they are. Jonny starts to worry when his client turns up dead, but when the suspects start dropping, Jonny and his crack team of beauty queens, recovering addicts, professional athletes, computer hackers, and pampered dogs find themselves caught in a twisted scheme of revenge that threatens to turn the town of Catherine inside out.
May 29th, 2007 at 1:42 pm
Suprizingly good! Caught and kept my attention from the beginning. Looking forward to more episodes!
June 1st, 2007 at 12:35 pm
I’ve got my pod-catcher set to download daily! I’m loving the characters!
June 4th, 2007 at 10:04 am
[…] sent new stats from the podcast and Serve It Cold is now up to 144 subscribers! Keep up the great work, everyone! Tell all the […]
June 5th, 2007 at 12:18 pm
Good stuff. Fun story, quality character development, and –perhaps most important in this era of podcasted books– good reading/role playing by the actors (readers?). The cast inject their readings with just enough emotion to engage the listener, but stay within ‘reading aloud’ ranges instead of the cringe-inducing, over-the-top voice acting that seems to be plaguing so many podbooks these days. (I’m looking at you, xxN. Great stories only take you so far…)
Looking forward to more chapters. Keep up the good work!
~imp~
June 13th, 2007 at 5:24 pm
Thank you for the great feedback on the audio, Imp! We’ll be sure to pass your praise on to our cast. And we think they did a great job, too, but they would be the first to say that it was Ronnie’s writing that made it easy.
We are really glad that you are enjoying the story, too. There is a whole lot more of great story to come so keep up your subscription!
Martha
June 27th, 2007 at 7:00 am
I love Helen!! Love her voice, her “dialogue”, and her attitude. Great concept for the mandatory “recap”. We eloped down to New Orleans, so I love to hear the accents and slangs. You’ve captured the flavour of that area for me. Thanks, brings me back.
Churchie
July 11th, 2007 at 12:00 pm
Great storyline with vivid images. I can see “Serve it Cold” as a screenplay or even as a “radio show” on Sirius or XM.
John P.
July 17th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
you put the wrong esp up you put 8 up and listed it as 9
July 17th, 2007 at 4:32 pm
Matt, thanks for the catch. Podiobooks is getting that fixed as soon as possible. I apologize for the mix up. It was entirely my fault.
July 17th, 2007 at 6:03 pm
its all good lol I did not catch it till I was on the bus lol
thought ok just need to let them know
July 18th, 2007 at 2:56 pm
the pronounciations are a little off (at least according to my New Orleans roots living in NOLA since age 5 in 1984)
ursulines is said ‘ur-sa-line’
chartres is said ‘char-ters’ (cha sound not sha sound, we may be french but we don’t speak it right)
and the legal age to drink is 21 in louisiana (has been so since 1996, unfortunately it changed a month before i turned 18)
… other than that the book is great, accents are dead on for south MS and the sound effects really put you in the story, can’t wait for the next episode
July 18th, 2007 at 2:57 pm
one more thing, i have a weekly nola podcast and would love to stick a short promo for your book in next week’s episode, how can i get in touch with you?
July 18th, 2007 at 5:27 pm
Mike, for promos just jump over to http://dancingcatstudios.com/promos/. We have three different flavors, G, PG-13 and R depending on the amount of cussin’ going on. Also, all the DancingCatStudios contact info is at http://dancingcatstudios.com/about/.
If you are interested in contacting the author, you can find a link to his blog on DancingCatStudios or just go here: http://www.ronnieblackwell.com/Wordpress/. Ronnie will be more than happy to hear from you.
Thank you so much for the feedback–it’s good to know that most of the accents are right! Also, we are really glad you like the book. Tell all your friends–oh, wait, you already did on Blogging New Orleans! Tell ‘em again!
Best wishes
Martha
September 9th, 2007 at 12:28 pm
What has happened to the episodes? Podiobooks lists to episode 13 yet I have had to go to the dancing cat studios website to get the follwoing 2 episodes. Is there a problem getting the episodes to podiobooks.com?
September 13th, 2007 at 1:14 am
I apologize for the interruption to the Podiobooks site updates. Technical difficulties that we tried to anticipate (and miserably failed at) before traveling to Japan for three weeks. Episode 15 will be posted to Podiobooks this coming weekend and we expect to be back on a weekly schedule by next weekend.
Again, my apologies. And thank you very much for staying subscribed!
Martha
September 13th, 2007 at 12:34 pm
Thanks for resuming the feed, I’m enjoying the story so much I searched it out at the source to stay up to date. I was concerned that other listeners might not take the same level of trouble and be left missing out on the story.
September 18th, 2007 at 1:10 pm
You guys are doing a rocking-good job! The “what came before” segments are WONDERFUL and almost as much fun to hear as the story itself! Thanks for all the hard work!
September 24th, 2007 at 11:36 am
I just want to echo LinBob’s message. Dancing Cat Studios has done an incredible job with my book. Thank you much, guys.
September 25th, 2007 at 5:13 am
It has been our very great pleasure!
September 27th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
I want to be the first member of the Martha Holloway Fan Club!!! Love you Gal. Hope you had a great time in Japan.
September 27th, 2007 at 6:39 pm
Hot dog! I have a fan! Thank you, Churchie!
We had a great time in Japan. We just thought that there would be Internet everywhere. Boy, were we wrong! The last 11 days we were suffering serious ‘net withdrawal symptoms. I didn’t get email back until I was in the airport waiting for the plane to fly me home!
But I have to say that being incommunicado was a terrific way to kill the stress and relax.
Hope you are enjoying the resumption of Jonny C.
M
November 12th, 2007 at 6:48 pm
Next to Nina Kimberly, this is my all-time favorite podnovel. It has gotten better every week. Great job!
November 14th, 2007 at 6:01 am
Due to a hardware failure in our main production computer, Serve It Cold episode 22 will be delayed. The iMac suffered a logic board failure early this week, and needs to go into the shop for a few days. The good news is Martha backed up all the data before the system failed. Once we get the machine back we will start cranking out the episodes again.
November 19th, 2007 at 6:26 am
Waiting patiently…okay, maybe not so patiently. Waiting with much checking back and sighing. Don’t you just hate computer failures? We are all slaves to the machine. I’ll be here when you get sorted out!
November 19th, 2007 at 6:41 pm
Churchie, I hope you were able to download the latest episode today. We got it posted to DancingCatStudios.com and Evo posted it to Podiobooks.com late last night. It’s a good one! and they just keeping getting better from here to the end.
Barry, Thank you very much for the compliment. To be favorably compared to Nina Kimberly is high praise indeed! I couldn’t ask for better. I hope we live up to your expectations!
Enjoy!
November 20th, 2007 at 12:08 pm
Martha Holloway no worrys things brake. sometimes on there own and some times we brake then.
but glade you got back up and running and glade you back up the flies
December 5th, 2007 at 6:16 am
I quite like tis story, it’s subtly engaging and from the beginning basted me with suffficient intrigue that I’ve eagerly listened to subsequent episodes. Ronnie Blackwell certainly knows how to tell a good story and I look forward to further submissions.
However, I also think the piece has a few shortcommings. Firstly, I have found a few of the essential characters lack a little dimention; nothing too blatant mind you, just enough so they rest precariously against the strength of the more weell developed characters. Secondly, the accents and colloquialisms from some of the characters are woefully short of what ‘I’ consider legitimate. This is just that little bit more unsettling. I don’t want to necessarily pander to racial or cultural stereotypes, but given the particulars of this story, the expectation of a cetain degree of authenticity concerning vanacular is not out of the question.
I would like to make it clear that I believe this is a shortcoming of the audio production rather than the author, and this in no way diminishes my opinion of the authors work. In fact had the reading been performed by a sole person, I would probably have been a lot more forgiving (Scott Sigler). Nevertheless, it has detracted from my enjoyment of this audio-book, so I think it is only fair to mention it.
December 6th, 2007 at 6:01 pm
Jim,
We’re really glad you are enjoying Ronnie’s story. We loved Serve It Cold from our very first reading. Our goal in publishing it as a podiobook has been, from the very beginning, to get Ronnie’s novel the wider audience it deserves. Podiobooks.com has clearly helped us do that.
I’m sorry that you feel some of the voices we used for the minor characters detract from the story. We are constantly looking for ways to improve our audio quality and will certainly bear your critique in mind going forward.
Please keep an eye out for the next Jonny C Mystery, Spite, coming soon to Lulu.com.
Thanks!
December 12th, 2007 at 11:07 pm
I LOVE this story. The story itself is great, as well as the writing, but I’ve also really enjoyed the production- really well done. I love Johnny C.’s humor; for some reason, in my mind, Mr. Blackwell has taken on his characteristics! Maybe I’m too involved…;).
December 23rd, 2007 at 3:15 am
Really enjoyed this story. Martha and her team did a great job with the production and Ron did a great job creating engaging and amusing characters that really came to life. I’m hoping we’ll be seeing more from both Dancing Cat Studios and Ron Blackwell.
December 27th, 2007 at 5:03 pm
Katherine A. and Chris, thank you for the positive feedback. Yes, yes, yes! There will indeed be more from both Ronnie Blackwell and DancingCatStudios. It’s even quite likely that we will produce Ronnie’s next Jonny C mystery, Spite, as a podiobook. We aren’t quite ready to go into the studio and record the new novel just yet, though! In the meantime, visit the DancingCatStudios.com site and check out our Projects page: http://dancingcatstudios.com/projects/ There are a couple in the list that I think you might enjoy. Well, thank you again! And here’s wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
January 10th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
Ronnie Blackwell’s private eye, Johnny C (or Jonathan Creedmore Speed if you prefer) is definitely not your run of the mill Phillip Marlow/Michael Shayne/Richard Diamond character. He is much more interesting. Serve It Cold was one of the best examples of detective fiction I’ve ever had the pleasure of taking in. And Dancing Cat Studios did a great job is presenting the material. The production values as well as the voice acting was excellent.
February 12th, 2008 at 8:17 pm
Great book, great production! For what it’s worth, I cleared a Lawrence Block novel off my mp3 player to make room for Serve It Cold. Good, dry humor and complex plot. I’ll listen to it again to fill in the parts I missed. More by Blackwell!
February 17th, 2008 at 10:11 pm
Whoa! Lawrence Block! Thanks, Bill. And thank you, Zack. I am thrilled that so many listeners found the people who inhabit my head entertaining. My wife, Lin, and I are busy on the final edit of the next Jonny C novel, Spite. And we’re heading to Northern Virginia at the end of the month to see if we can convince Dancing Cat Studios to sign on for another round of sex, and drugs in the cradle of Rock and Roll.
Thanks again for all who subscribed to Serve it Cold.
Take Care,
Ron
March 7th, 2008 at 10:19 am
Was worried that I wouldn’t find another audiobook to keep me sane at work - after many missed the mark. What a great surprise to have this book in the Podiobook.com lineup. I enjoyed everything about this story and look forward to more from Ronnie Blackwell and “Johnny Speed”. Ronnie, your storytelling trapped me into a world I did not expect to find myself and I thank you very much for the ride.
I also appreciate the Dancing Cat Studio for incorporating additional sounds and effects into the story as supporting elements rather than trying to overwhelm the listener. Many podiobooks suffer from inappropriate music and effects which combine in horrific cacophony making it impossible to follow the author’s intentions. So thanks very much for that.
June 6th, 2008 at 6:30 am
I just loved that book.
The accents took a lot getting used to, as I’m German and used to Brits shouting at me very slowly ;-), but once I got into the cadence, it was great and lend a great authenticity. I’m quite sure that I wouldn’t have enjoyed the book as much without them.
Perhaps, if Ronnie would be so very kind, he could plug in text versions of the chapters, as Mur Lafferty did with her “Playing for Keeps”? I would like to look up the spelling of the more interesting dialect words o;-)
And I do have to praise the recaps at the beginnings of the chapters. That was a novelty and it served well to get me into the spirit of the setting.
The story was great, too. I’ve rarely read/heard such a good detective story. The plot is intricate, but not convoluted, nor does he have to pull hats out of rabbits to provide a satisfying solution.
The characters are bursting with life and what more can you say?
I would like to donate via Podiobooks, but as I said, I’m German. PayPal is out of the question for privacy considerations (to say the least) and mailing money is impossible over such a distance. Ronnie, would you get into trouble if I sent you some of my favourite coffee (Cuban Turquino)? If so, I could certainly find another that you’d like (even Kona).
June 10th, 2008 at 8:38 am
Hannelore,
Thanks for listening! I would love to taste some Turquino, but I think the state department might not like it. And like to send you some sample text of the book so you can read what the actors are saying, but your email address is blocked on the site.
Just email me at Blackwellr@comcast.net and we can figure out what to do.
Ron
July 29th, 2008 at 7:47 am
Absolutely loved, loved, loved this story. The characters are extremely well drawn out and highly engaging. The underlying sense of humor totally meshes with my own. One of the most outright fun stories I’ve had the pleasure of enjoying in quite a while. As a bonus, Dancing Cat Studio’s production is just wonderful. I was all set to beg for more Johnny C stories but was thrilled to learn there’s already a sequel. Yay.
July 29th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
The characters were rich and colorful. I loved the undertone of humor throughout the book. The ending was delightful. I have only one complaint. When are we going to hear more from Jonnie Speed??????.
August 8th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
This is an absolute MUST LISTEN. Blackwell is a very talented writer–you will enjoy this story immensely.
August 27th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
Samantha,
I’m so glad you liked the humor in Serve It Cold. Not everyone gets it. In fact some people may be surprised that there WAS humor in Serve It Cold. I hope you like my new book, SPITE. It’s available in regular old book form from Lulu.com, as a Kindle book from Amazon.com, and most importantly- the guys at Dancing Cats are now working on the podiobook edition. Stay Tuned.
August 28th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
Kevin,
Thanks for the compliments. To answer your question check my answer for Samantha. We’re working as hard as we can to get Spite rolled out in as many venues as possible. Lulu.com is the only place to buy a hard copy right now. It will take weeks for the book to crawl through the distribution center. Dancing Cats is hard at work turning my unruly prose into a screen play, and they are all pacticing their East African and Hawaiian accents. But of course, the real challenges come with our everyday Mississippi talking.
And yes, I’m already working on book 3 of the Jonny C series.
Take care,
August 28th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Lea Anne,
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I’m so happy that you liked our work.
Ron
(yes, Martha, I did just spell my name three different ways in three posts)