Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Before you ask, no, I didn’t purposely make you wait extra long for this episode because of all the cliffhangers in the last one. Honest. To do so would make me an overly evil bastard and, as my grandmother might have told you, I am nothing, if not angelic and considerate of everyone’s feelings.

Now don’t you feel better knowing that?

In this episode we finally find out what has become of Jim Bob and we learn a bit more about Bobby John. We also have a new character show up to make things interesting.

A couple things

As many of you know, the auction for “The Boom Effect” took place on February 27, 2010 to raise money for a trust fund for Tee Morris’ daughter, Sonic Boom. The auction was a HUGE success taking in over $8,000 and I’m very pleased that “GalaxyBillies” was part of that. Our winning bidder for the character spot should show up in the next episode; I’ve got an idea that I think will really be awesome that I’m working on right now. I’m not going to reveal who the winning bidder is (yet), but I think he’ll be great.

This does pose a minor problem, however. It may mean a 3-week delay before the next episode of “GalaxyBillies”. I beg your patience while I put this together.

I also posed the question: “Do you, my listeners, want to be called anything?” For example, Christiana Ellis had “Casey’s Cadets” for “Space Casey”. If you have ideas/suggestions, send them my way. I know it’s been done many, MANY times before, but I think it could be fun.

Finally, I need your help. I need comments and feedback, as always (iTunes, the website, email, voicemail), and I also need you to spread the word. I’ve seen a few of you bring up the podcast on Twitter which I REALLY appreciate. Thank you and keep it up.

Tags: Christiana Ellis, Galaxybillies, Michell Plested, philippa ballantine, space casey, the boom effect

As much as I’d like to assert that my work life, home life and writing are all in a harmonious balance, the truth is that more often then not they clash.

The battle for supremacy may not even be the toe-to-toe trench fighting for my available time or attention. Sometimes it’s an emotional thing. If I’m having a bad day at work it gets really tough to distance myself from that enough to write anything that isn’t tainted by those events. The same holds true for commitments outside of the work day.

I’ve been doing Scouts AND Cubs since September. That dedicates a minimum of two nights per week every week to them. I enjoy doing it but it cuts into all the other things I have to do. Last month was particularly grueling because not only did I have the weekly meetings, I also had two winter camps. That means I lost 14 days to those committments. That’s half of February that I didn’t have the time or juice to spend on other projects.

I’m hoping to get that all back this month.

I’ve heard and said that it’s all about balance. Sometimes you simply can’t help but be out of balance and juggling things is the only option. I’m still juggling a little but the balance is coming back. The realization that I can’t always have all the time I need to get things done is a tiny bit liberating. I just don’t want to let down those people I’ve made commitments to.

Personal Update

I submitted a partal of my fantasy novel and one of my short stories last week. That gives me four things out in the wild right now.

My auction items did well for ‘The Boom Effect’ and you will hear the results of those in ‘Get Published’ and ‘GalaxyBillies’ going forward.