Shag carpeting, talking dogs, grizzly bears and Emilio Pucci commercials. Jim Nolan has encountered them all and survived.

These stories, most of which first aired on WBFO Public Radio in Buffalo, relate how his love for his hometown and family was able to overcome the obstacles they set in his way, for example, his father’s scrambled eggs and offer to reveal “the secret of math.”

Warm-hearted and hilarious, Smokey the Talking Dog and other tales from the land of loganberry captures a city and era full of eccentricities, hidden dangers and the best local food east of Kansas City.

As of today I am starting to record Shadowmagic 2 – The Prince of Hazel & Oak – for podcast. It will be out soon! You can see me reading the first chapter on YouTube.

If you’ve not yet listened to Shadowmagic, do it now so you’re all caught up in the story. Or you can buy a physical copy of the book, either in special edition hardcover or now in paperback. This is a listener favorite, so don’t miss it!

Five quiet years have passed in Starland, California since the the time of the Pocket. But when a crazed old man shows up with a warning, Max, Casey, Ian and Sasha suddenly find themselves on the run. Max and Ian go through an Arch back to 1912, where a mysterious Machine is under construction that seems connected to Max’s unremembered secret. Meanwhile, Casey and Sasha follow the old man to the strange town of Arturo Gyp.

But there is more afoot than meets the eye: the enemies of Mr. E — the nefarious Archons — are abroad. And when Max is at last eye-to-eye with his secret, he realizes nothing will ever be the same again …

While you wait, you can prepare by listening to the crash summary of Book One, ‘The Pocket and the Pendant in Twelve Minutes’.

• The Bloodbaths by Steve Libbey, a not-your-run-of-the-mill fantasy quest novel

• You’re Hired! – Interview Skills to Get the Job by Lorne Epstein and engineered by Dancing Cat Studios
• Murder at Avedon Hill by P.G. Holyfield, a near full-cast presentation that’s been long in the making

And that’s just the next three! Lots more coming…

Delivered in a style that pays homage to Night Gallery, Alfred Hitchcock Presents and the old British horror anthology movies of the 1960s, this is a collection of modern gothic tales with a nail of dark humour hammered through its heart. So roll up, ladies and gentlemen, and enter the Hall of Mirrors – if you dare.

This book is slated to go life Monday, October 22nd.

The Cluster is a vast alien machine that destroys starships indiscriminately in its quest for something or someone. Commander John Mark Ellis, disgraced and booted out of the service when he fails to save a merchant ship, believes the key to stopping the Cluster is communication. His mother, Suki Firebrandt Ellis, is an astronomer who believes the very leaders of the galaxy are withholding information about the Cluster. Clyde McClintlock believes the Cluster is God incarnate, seeking retribution. G’Liat is an alien warror whose own starship was destroyed by the Cluster. All together, they set out to solve the mystery of the Cluster before it finds the object of its quest.

Presented in association with LBF Books and Hadrosaur Productions.

“Children of the Old Stars presents an engrossing vision of the future … David Lee Summers has created a fascinating, imaginative, and very entertaining cast of characters and worlds.” S. Derrickson Moore, The Las Cruces Sun-News

“In Children of the Old Stars, David Lee Summers has created a wonderful mix of characters and a gripping plot. From the aliens to the whales of Earth, who now communicate with people, each character seems to come to life from the moment they enter the story.” Kate Hill, author of The Chieftain’s Bride

The autumnal tranquility of Smithtown, Ohio is shattered when Dr. David Bradley arrives home to find that his wife has been raped and murdered by an intruder who has left no clues behind except the words “May Day” painted in lipstick on his victim’s body. When the police later learn that another Smithtown resident has been raped and strangled in her New York City apartment, it becomes frighteningly clear that a cunning serial killer targeting Smithtown women is on the prowl.

Newspaper reporter Sam Middleton is determined to help Detective Roger Hagstrom track down the assailant of his ex-wife’s best friend. Sam can only hope that his estranged wife and teenage daughter are out of harm’s way living hours away in the Columbus suburb of Woodcrest. One terrifying question continues to gnaw at Sam as the mystery unfolds: Who will the killer’s next victim be?

A group house of twenty-somethings in Pittsburg, Kansas is suddenly rocked when jealousy turns to grief and grief turns to streams of water coming from the face of a former housemate. Can Darrah, the itinerant lesbian, find a way to stop the gushing water and save all the house’s wayward husbands and redeem the house? Will infidelity destroy them all? Do any of them ever, ever go to bed. Find out in Casa Del Queso, by Brady Russell.

To that end, I have a few different “ego filters” to scour the blogosphere and notify me if someone new comes along. When they do, I reach out to them and tell them what we’ve got going on. But those filters aren’t fool proof, and directories are another good, if not time-consuming, way to mine for current podcast novelists.

Tonight, I decided to search through Podcasting News. A year or so ago, someone was maintaining a rather extensive list of freely available audiobooks. As you might imagine, out titles made up the bulk. But it had been a while, so I took a peek.

Holy Hanna.

There are a lot of folks out there doing this on their own. I really need to pay closer attention. So being a good little aggregator of content, I took a few hours and contacted each and every one of them. My message is simple: I want your book on Podiobooks.com so it can join the other 100 or so titles we have right now. Wanna play?

So enter phase two of my plan. Some of these folks might need some convincing. And who better to convince them than you, the loyal listening audience. On the surface, my deal looks too good to be true. Free hosting. Free to listen. 75% of donations. No catches. Yeah, sounds fishy to me. But you folks have been here long enough to know that it’s not fishy at all. Just a little crazy. And whole lot of fun.

So with that, I present the list. Here’s everyone I reached out to today. As they get back in contact with me and we start moving forward, I’ll cross them off the list. Not that I’m suggesting you start persuading people to come on board if you see their names her for a while… but if you wanna, go ahead.

• In Seach of #6 by Damon Timm
• Banjo Strings by Larry Winfield – in progress
• Cliff Dreamers by Jacqui Wood – not releasing the full book
• Engines Under Ursus by Martin Brady – coming soon!
• The Earthbound series by D M Arnold
• Hunting Elf by Dave Donelson
• Madie: Life in Bear Country by Marsha Loftis - in progress
• Betrayal by Sandra Schwabshe’s on it!
• Silverlance: The Tales of True Adventure by Peter Thomas Crowell – said “Thanks, but I think I’m sufficiently listed”
• The Naked Raving Empty by Randy Horton

If I’ve missed anyone, please let me know. Better yet, contact that author, tell them about us, and then let me know.

To give you a taste of what he’ll be providing, we present this preview. In this story, a single father gets more than an eyeful of his tattooed neighbors and tries to work things out with his daughter’s mother. Hey… I resemble that remark!

Cory has been releasing his fiction free of charge to the public for quite some time now. His novel, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, has been dowloaded as a free .PDF file some 650,000+ times and has been through at least six printings with Tor books.

Working on that success and also embracing the model of podcasting, Cory has been releasing readings of his short fiction on his own podcast. One of them appears in Voices: New Media Fiction right here on Podiobooks.com He’s decided to step up his game and is currently reading and releasing Eastern Standard Tribe to his listeners.

Cory is of the “record and release” persuasion of authors. He’s a busy guy and doesn’t care to spend a lot of time on the production and polish of his recordings. Hey, if there’s one thing I like about podcasting, it’s the continual proving that there is no one right way.

But the reality is that you listeners have grown accustomed to a certain modicum of production in your podiobooks. We’ve created this new model of books — serializing them — and you seem to like it.

The dilemma – Getting Cory’s book on the site without requiring him to redo everything.

The solution – I’ll do it. I need the practice. And I dig his work. So as Cory releases new episodes on his podcast, I’ll be snagging them, cleaning them up and adding a bit of spit and polish to them for later presentation right here on Podiobooks.com. He’s got four episodes out right now and I’ve just finished the first one. I’m sending it off to him for final approval and then will start on the others.

Now you know!

I’m excited to announce that I am adapting Paul Levinson’s Locus Award winning novel The Silk Code into a podcast novel that will be released through Podiobooks.com . I created a blog page for the project, which you can find [here].

If your are interested in following Shaun as he goes through the trials and tribulations of creating a podiobook, subscribe to his blog. And look for the audio files coming very soon here at Podiobooks.com!

Machine of Death is an upcoming published anthology of short stories edited by Ryan North, Matthew Bennardo, and David Malki !, inspired by this episode of Ryan’s Dinosaur Comics.

We are actively soliciting short story submissions for the book. Submissions are free and open to everybody. Ryan, Matt and David ! will choose their favorite stories from all submissions, and each contributor will receive $45 USD for each story selected for publication.

The book will be available through Amazon or any other retailer. We are also trying to work it out so that each contributor will have the right to purchase copies of the book at cost (with no retail markup), and will be free to resell the book however they like and keep their profits.

The manuscript will also be placed online, in PDF form, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution – Noncommercial – Share Alike 2.5 license. That means people will be able to read, copy, and distribute your story for free, which we hope will expose more readers to the material, and which has proven to be a good method of building awareness and even driving physical sales. There may also be an audiobook version created, which will be placed for free on Podiobooks.com.

The formatting on that last sentence is all mine, as you might have guessed. Well thanks, guys! I’m stoked that you are doing this and that you have decided to make Podiobooks.com a part of the distribution chain!

The entry deadline is March 31, 2007, so get crackin’. Be sure and read the very detailed explanation and submission guidelines for more details. They are very specific in not only what they are looking for, but what they are not. The genre seems to be wide open, so check it out!