The Bright Child
A new fantasy novel on Podiobooks.com by Tommy Wallach. We present The Bright Child:
The Bright Child is a fantasy novel in the mold of Philip Pullman or C.S. Lewis. Parker Sante, a chubby eighth-grader whose best friend is the view out his attic window, has recently been kicked out of his high school for almost killing another boy. His mother doesn’t know what to do with him, and is ecstatic when he is accepted to a new private school that promises to be one of the best in the country, Bright Child Academy. The family moves to Yreka, a small suburban town
in the Pacific Northwest, so Parker can attend. Finally, he’ll be able to start fresh.Unfortunately, everything is not what it seems at Parker’s new school. There is the bully Chuck Armstrong, who terrorizes Parker at every turn. Then there is the mysterious principal, Mr. Stennis, and the secret ‘advanced’ class he teaches after school. Not to mention Mr. Bobcat, the old man across the street who’s always calling out to Parker as if they know each other. And strangest of all, there is the strange boy that Parker meets one day after school, who claims to be his shadow.
The Bright Child follows Parker and a huge cast of friends and enemies as he embarks on an adventure that will take him from this world to those beyond. Learn about the powers of the shadowmancers, the mysterious disapperance of Parker’s father, and why Bright Child Academy might just be the most sinister school in the history of the world. Discover how Parker Sante, an average overweight kid flunking history, might just become the savior of not only humanity, but a mysterious hidden race that moves among us: the shadows.
July 9th, 2007 at 11:07 pm
I’m loving the book!!! I cannot WAIT for the rest of it!
July 11th, 2007 at 3:24 pm
got off to a very interesting start…need more book!
July 20th, 2007 at 2:27 pm
Great Start!!! Don’t be a pod fader keep those episodes coming!
July 31st, 2007 at 9:54 am
Great start-off storyline and your voice is perfect for telling the story!
more…more…MORE
August 7th, 2007 at 1:41 pm
good book where is the rest!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
August 7th, 2007 at 1:43 pm
i dont think podiobooks should be allowed to pulish books that are not complete it is too annoying
August 7th, 2007 at 3:40 pm
Should be allowed? Interesting opinion, Man u. And I’m sure others share your opinion. But there is a much larger number of folks who enjoy listening as the author is finishing.
Here’s a suggestion to make everyone happy: take a look to see if the book is complete or not BEFORE SUBSCRIBING. If it is, go for it. But it if says “in progress”, maybe you should wait?
August 10th, 2007 at 1:26 pm
I reloaded chapter six. Still messed up.
August 11th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
Tommy,
I’m enjoying the story quite a lot — I’m a big fan of Lewis and so far I’m not disappointed. I’m not familiar with Pullman. Can you recommend any of his works?
In response to your request, I just dropped $5.00 into the PB paypal link for The Bright Child. If you’ll permit me to offer a bit of advice, there’s no reason to be so defensive when asking for support. I found your comments about libraries to be a bit odd. I see nothing wrong with reading books, or downloading podcasts, for free. If that bothers you, you may want to reconsider your decision to release work under a creative commons license.
One last note: one or two of the chapters prior to number 6 also had some mixing problems between transitions. That is, there were sections of narration between scenes where I suspect you intended music to be. On the whole, though, a good story with good narration.
Regards,
Jason
August 11th, 2007 at 2:55 pm
I am unable to download the prologue and chapters one through four. Five, six, and seven are intact.
August 11th, 2007 at 8:35 pm
I agree with Barry. The new version of chapter 6 contains the same errors with spurious narration between scenes.
August 20th, 2007 at 10:09 pm
Download from iTunes ….all chapters download great. Would love more of the book or where to purchase the audio for iPod download. Tnx.
August 22nd, 2007 at 12:34 am
test
August 22nd, 2007 at 12:39 am
Hey Everybody,
Sorry it’s taken me so long to comment. This page has been giving me problems, and refusing to publish my responses. Anyway, thanks so much for your support. I hope you’re still enjoying the book.
To respond to a few things specifically. I’m well aware of the sound issues. This is what I get for depending on Garage Band. It lost my files and so replaced them with others (very strange). Anyway, everything should be fixed within the next couple days.
Also, to answer about the money. I hope I didn’t come across as greedy, but I don’t think it’s fair to insinuate that I’m questioning the Creative Commons License. I put my stuff out there for people to ACCESS for free. I want people to be able to read it whatever their economic status. That being said, what I create is as much a commodity as a television or a refrigerator, and I think that, should people enjoy it, they should put some money in the hat. $5 is less than the price of a drink here in LA, and close to a third of a movie ticket. It ain’t much. Speaking of which, I really would like to thank you heartily for sending money my way. Again, I don’t think you’re a bad person if you don’t…mostly.
As for the question of serializing a book, such a process has a very distinguished lineage. If it’s good enough for Dickens, it’s good enough for me.
Thanks again so much everyone. Please please tell your friends to subscribe. Visit my new daily blog at www.tommywallach.wordpress.com, and check out my weekly YouTube songs (just type my name in to YouTube). Also, you can friend me at MySpace. Thanks!
Tommy
August 22nd, 2007 at 2:55 pm
Am I missing something? My downloads go from Chapter 1 to Chapter 7. Today there is an “episode 9″. What happened to Chapter 8, and why is 9 an episode rather than a chapter?
August 22nd, 2007 at 2:58 pm
I should add, that I just got my ipod on Sunday and am LOVING it! I came across the Bright Child while exploring itunes, and what podcasts are. I am listening to the book every morning during my walk, and I’m enjoying the story immensely! Thanks for sharing your work.
August 27th, 2007 at 5:07 pm
I am really enjoying the book so far. I did have three of chapter 6, and a skip from 7 to 9, but cancelling the subscription, deleting from iTunes, then re-subscribing fixed things.
I do understand the request for donations. Many authors ask for support if the novel is enjoyable to the listener. Unfortunately, your method was very off-putting. I hope you’ll consider a different, less argumentative approach in the future.
August 31st, 2007 at 12:14 pm
Love the book so far!
Hoping for more SOON!
September 5th, 2007 at 9:34 pm
I subscribed to “the Bright Child” some time ago and I think it is good. You had that sound problem but you fixed it, which is okay. Hey, nobody is perfect; your writing is great and I liked your reading, I didn’t mind that echo much.
I keep waiting for the next episode, hoping that it will come soon. (In fact, I just can’t wait. The story is too good. When will you upload chapter 9 AKA episode 10? and I want to learn how to build a shadow light!)
September 14th, 2007 at 7:27 am
Almost a month with no update and no explanation? The story is very interesting and I’m dying for the next chapter! Please give us more soon!
September 15th, 2007 at 7:49 pm
I agree with Irene’s comment about the length of time between updates.
Regarding the above discussion of the economics of podcasting and “commodities”, I believe that Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show, Wonder Audio, and James Patrick Kelly’s StoryPod on Audible could serve as a guide to the “fair market value” of a fiction podcast. These venues offer text and audio fiction from established authors and range from $2.50 for Card’s magazine-style downloads to $17 for 13 weekly podcasts from Mr. Kelly. I continue to maintain that Mr. Wallach should follow these models if he feels that he is not being adequately compensated under the Creative Commons license.
From this perspective, my previous donation of $5.00 would seem right in line with the market value for the episodes posted so far, especially considering that the audio downloads mentioned above are usually quite a bit longer than the chapters in The Bright Child. I will be willing to donate more when a few more chapters of the story become available.
Regards,
Jason
September 29th, 2007 at 9:40 am
PLEASE!!! another chapter soon. I’m going to forget what the book is all about if we wait much longer. Seriously, just love the story line!
September 30th, 2007 at 5:24 pm
ARRRGGGGgggghh!
At least talk about the delay or something, don’t just leave us hangin…
September 30th, 2007 at 10:21 pm
Actually folks, this book had been halted by the author. Seems the story was not completely written and he will not be continuing. I had hoped he might make a post here to explain that to his listeners, but that didn’t happy.
We’ve removed the book from the “Searchable” list. You can keep your subscriptions if you like, as there is always a chance he’ll come back and finish the book. A little encouragement directly might help that, but I make no promises.
Evo
October 2nd, 2007 at 6:40 am
That’s pretty uncool considering I actually donated.
October 2nd, 2007 at 10:02 am
Irene,
No worries. I’m happy to reverse the transaction.
E.
October 3rd, 2007 at 8:46 am
That’s alright, please just apply it to The Immortals (Tracy Hickman) instead. I appreciate your flexibility. What do you need to know to make that switch?
October 3rd, 2007 at 3:38 pm
I think you need ban the author from the site. An excellent book to turn around and discontinue publishing. Time for him to get a real job. Of course you need to be responsible for that.
October 4th, 2007 at 4:30 pm
This has been a joy to listen to. Unfortunately, the author is a bit obsessed with money vs his writing. It is obvious you are young and irresponsible. Not to finish a book. Shame! To bad, you had great potential as an author. As an editor for major book company looking for talent - Mr Wallach - You loose!
October 9th, 2007 at 6:53 pm
It seems preposterous that Sandy is an editor; usually only people with the ability to spell are allowed to be editors.
-”to” instead of “too”
-”loose” instead of “lose”
-various grammar problems
-various punctuation problems
I am sad that Tommy has discontinued the story. Sandy, please refrain from acting like you are in a superior position from which you may criticize those who actually have talent. Usually books are complete before publishing companies consider them. I doubt Tommy discontinued writing the work because of a lack of donations.
October 25th, 2007 at 11:48 am
I find this becoming typical of late with authors of poscast audiobooks. This guy is not the first to do this. The autor Charles Sheehan Miles author of Republic has done the same thing. His book is already published. He got to the cliffhanger part of the book and stopped the episodes. Forcing you to purchase the book at $16.95 to find out what happened. Now I usually donate $9.99 to authors I like on Podiobooks, Sigler, Harwood, Route 66, Black Jack Justice, the Red Panda, etc. I would have donated the same to Tommy the flake, and Charles the flake who did not finish their committment to their readers or listeners. Much to my dismay these books are still up on Podiobooks for others to still download and get upset when they are not finished. When a podcast is not updated for 45 days it should be removed, period. Otherwise it has been used as a free advertising vehicle to sell a harcopy book by the author. My two cents.
October 26th, 2007 at 8:29 am
Anthony,
I definitely understand the frustration. It’s possible that some of the authors how have abandoned their book may be trying to force a purchase, but I know that’s certainly not the norm. Every author that starts knows that we expect the book to finish, and all of them know that we don’t fund any donations unless they do.
Internally, we’ve discussed implementing some system to put books “on hold” once a certain amount of time has passed between episodes. While it’s easy enough to program, there have been plenty of times where that would have been the wrong thing to do. So I’m hesitant.
Right now, we keep track of “slow” titles and then reach out to the author to see what the status is. If they say it’s coming, we hold off on taking action. If things have happened in their life to cause them to put it on a longer delay, we make the book inactive so that no new folks can subscribe. Right now, that’s the best we can do.
October 28th, 2007 at 2:45 pm
Evo, Is there an address to contact Tommy Wallach to encourage him? His sites are all down as far as I can see. Let us know thanks!
October 29th, 2007 at 3:44 pm
John,
I do have an email, but as much as I’d like him to come finish the book, it’s a breach of privacy for me to give it out.
I did a little googling and discovered he has a Myspace account. Maybe that’ll work?
Google ‘tommy wallach bright child’ and you’ll find it.
October 31st, 2007 at 7:50 pm
your book is my favorit sence brave men run. hurrey and do another episode. i don’t want your book to be like seeds of the mockina and have one episope per year.
November 12th, 2007 at 6:15 pm
Nice John,
I guess not everyone is as smart as you. So, I have a learning disability and have to rely on audio. It is “preposterous” you are so stuffy and can not see through my anger. I don’t care how how “gifted” this author is. It is about being responsible. He does not deserve his talent with behavior such as this! Looking at his so called web sites all I could see is that he starts something and never finishes. Go ahead critique this also.
Oh well. get a life!
December 8th, 2007 at 3:33 am
GREAT!
This book had so much potential. I am very disappointed. Was there not enough interest? I would think the “author” would have the decency to at least lend a bit of explanation to the readers that are interested.
@ John. Get a life and stop being one of those pious critics that feel the overwhelming need to explain to everyone on the web how smart you think you are. I bet even someone of your “grand” stature has the occasion to make a mistake or two.
December 11th, 2007 at 7:52 am
Folks,
Tommy has been having trouble posting to the blog. Seems the system keeps flagging his posts as spam. Unsure why that is, but you may be interested in his reply. I present it here, unedited:
—-
Hello Everyone,
I apologize for taking so long to write a response. As many of you may appreciate, life is complicated, and things happen that render podcasting fantasy novels trivial. I don’t mean to belittle what I or any of the other authors do here, but for reasons more personal than fiscal, other things have taken priority in my life.
First of all, to defend against a bit of defamation. I am 24 years old. I have written four complete novels. I have had two major agents, including ICM, which is the agency that represented F. Scott Fitzgerald, and many other great authors in the last six decades. I have written numerous short stories and articles, and had them published in major magazines (Tin House, McSweeney’s, ReadyMade and others). I am not an amateur. I am not lazy. I write for two hours every day, and have for the last six years.
I stopped writing this book because it was making me unhappy. I don’t typically write genre fiction. As a child, I loved science-fiction and fantasy, but these days, I find it escapist. In a world with so much television and film, so much fantasy, I think literature should aspire to more. Much work on this site does. I am not trying to denigrate what anyone is doing. I still have a soft spot for genre fiction. But it wasn’t inspiring me. I felt like I was writing for no reason that mattered. So I stopped, and started work on a book that truly interests me.
Again, I apologize sincerely for not talking to you about this decision. However, I would like to say this: I don’t care about money. That’s so unbelievably ridiculous, it insults all of us. No one who writes professionally cares about money. (The other work I do is as a professional musician; a song/video of mine was recently featured on the front page of YouTube (which is a site that pays nothing, in spite of the fact that my video received over 150,000 views), which was part of my distraction from TBC, along with applying to graduate schools, and personal issues). However, if you expect to read books being written for no money, you do have to create a new set of criteria. I realize it’s frustrating to get involved in a story and not get an ending. However, this is the price you pay for getting entertainment, entertainment that requires hours of thought, work and dedication, for no money. I do not feel obligated to you, because I have not received a single thing from you. I received far more frustrated emails after I stopped than friendly emails while I was writing. Just so you know, I have not received a single cent for the 35,000 words of fiction I presented on the site. I am not greedy. I am not lazy.
So there you are. Believe me when I say that I’m sorry to those of you who truly loved the book. I hope someday to return to it. But you will not make me feel guilty for my decision. And perhaps, next time you think to malign someone creating art for your benefit, you might consider that it is the responsibility of those who appreciate art to help support it, not just with money, but with respect.
Tommy Wallach
‘The Bright Child’
—–
December 19th, 2007 at 4:43 pm
It was a good start. I shared it with some of my students. Hope you can finish it someday.
December 30th, 2007 at 5:57 pm
Thank You Mr. Wallach.
I understand your frustration. I wish I had your ability and talent. Unfortunately I have to depend solely on others talent. FYI If you published your book in print or on audio tape I would purchase it. Thank you again for responding. It meant a lot. ….. Sandy
February 9th, 2008 at 8:53 am
I’m caught in the story too! And I would gladly pay for the whole audio book. Put it on Audible.com if you want big money?
April 2nd, 2008 at 11:48 am
Sandy, Rob,
Sorry for being an ass; I was frustrated. If there was anything incorrect in what I said, I apologize for that as well. It was a defense for Tommy in the guise of an attack; probably not the best way to goad Tommy into completing the book.
May 30th, 2008 at 4:26 am
John,
Thanks for being a “stand up guy”. Sorry I snapped at you. I wish there was a way to get him to finish the book too. It’s like reading half way through a novel only to find you bought the one copy with blank pages in the 15th chapter. Frustrating.
I think that Tommy most likely became disinterested, moved on to another hobby, or has a serious case of writers block. What a drag. Oh well. There’s a ton of very talented writers and I shall move on.
Cheers.
July 23rd, 2008 at 3:01 pm
As a person who is writing a novel, has been published, and has spent ALOT of time conversing with VERY popular authors (Piers ANthony, Robert Jordan, etc) I find his excuses lacking. Piers Anthony currently writes TWO books a year, if not more. Because of a falling out with a company, he has seen his once AMAZING career dwindle to having to put his own books on a print on demand site he backs.
I admire authors like him for working thru those issues (personal like his wife having open heart surgery, etc) and still providing a product to fans who have come to expect it from him. He sees little to no profit from his recent book, but still published it as to finish the series he promised to finish. A promised word means more than a beg for money.
So, in the end, I am VERY disappointed, and will NEVER support anything from this author again. I hope he takes this chance to not look at this as an attack, but realize if you want to be a big boy (popular author) you sometimes have to stick through a piece you don’t like anymore. Stop begging for money and complete a book. If you truly have written 4 complete books, publish one here. Then maybe some of “your word” will be credited to you. So far all people have seen is the LACK of a complete book, and that says a thousand words more.
September 22nd, 2008 at 5:53 pm
Just for Kim, should she ever returned:
What an unbelievably ignorant comment. Did you even read my message? And don’t compare me to Piers Anthony and his writing. This may come as a surprise to you, but being able to vomit out 200,000 words of genre fiction a year is not the end-all, be-all of literature. Same goes for Robert Jordan. And you are totally wrong; Piers Anthony has made LOTS of money off of his writing, and you can bet that if he hadn’t, he wouldn’t be doing it. He can afford to work for nothing now, because he’s made his money, and has his fans. I have a few dozen people on here (many hundreds on YouTube, or in the fiction I’ve placed in national journals), who aren’t respectful and who don’t offer any money.
In short, I stopped posting on here because of people like you, Kim. Thank you for making me regret my decision even less.
Tommy