Category: Books

Memories of the Futurecast: Episode Two

Posted on By Wil

Futurecast700px-C Having clawed my way far enough out of fevertown to think and speak (mostly) clearly, I decided to take advantage of the lull in construction next door and record this week's Memories of the Futurecast.

Memories of the Future, Volume One, covers the first 13 episodes of TNG, so each week, I'm choosing something from one episode, and performing an excerpt for you. It will mostly be from the synopses, which is where I think the real humor of the book lives, but from time to time, I may work in some things from the other parts.

Two important things:

  1. This does not mean the book comes out in 13 weeks. It comes out much sooner than that.
  2. These are not excerpted from an audiobook. These are recorded specifically for this podcast. I'm not sure if I'll do a full-length audiobook, yet, but I'm open to the idea.

Episode Notes:

  • The Memories of the Futurecast works hard to earn its [EXPLICIT] tag. You have been warned.
  • I'm not 100% today, and as a result, the podcast isn't 100%, but someday we'll all look back on this and laugh as we flee the planet in a space ship.
  • This week's theme music is used under Creative Commons license from the incredible Coconut Monkeyrocket. You can get the whole thing yourself, as well as a mountain of awesome music, at Comfortstand Records dot Com.
  • Memories of the Futurecast Episode One contains excerpts from the synopsis of Encounter at Farpoint, (Part 2), and Behind the Scenes Memories.
  • This week's episode is twice as long as last week's, and comes in at just over 18 minutes long.
  • Memories of the Futurecast Episode Two weighs in at 8.7MB.
  • Memories of the Futurecast will eat up all your crackers and your licorice.
  • Memories of the Futurecast has Improved Initiative.

Download Memories of the futurecast episode 2

Memories of the Futurecast: Episode One

Posted on By Wil

Memories Podcast Art Holy Crap, I'm doing a weekly podcast again! Welcome to Memories of the Futurecast!

This is going to be fun and awesome: Memories of the Future, Volume One, covers the first 13 episodes of TNG, so each week, I'm going choose something from one episode, and perform an excerpt for you. It will mostly be from the synopses, which is where I think the real humor of the book lives, but from time to time, I may work in some things from the other parts.

Two important things:

  1. This does not mean the book comes out in 13 weeks. It comes out much sooner than that.
  2. These are not excerpted from an audiobook. These are recorded specifically for this podcast. I'm not sure if I'll do a full-length audiobook, yet, but I'm open to the idea.

Episode Notes:

  • The Memories of the Futurecast works hard to earn its [EXPLICIT] tag. You have been warned.
  • Memories of the Futurecast Episode One contains an excerpt from the synopsis of Encounter at Farpoint, (Part 1).
  • This week's episode is exactly 9 minutes long. I considered holding it until 9/9/09, but I was afraid the resulting mathematical nine-ness of the whole thing would be, well, a goocher.
  • Memories of the Futurecast Episode One weighs in at 9.2MB

Download Memories of the Futurecast, Episode One.

my 2009 PAX panel schedule and chapbook announcement

Posted on By Wil

Yesterday, PAX 2009 completely sold out, days before the con even begins. I'm so happy for everyone involved, from my friends who make the show happen, to the over 50,000 gamers who are about to participate in the best three days of the year.

My panel schedule looks a lot like this:

Saturday, 4:00pm – 5:00pm, Serpent Theatre

Pitch Your Game Idea

You’ve got 45 seconds to deliver your idea to our panel of experts. The top three pitches will be picked for prizes and swag! (Please note that this is an open forum — there’s nothing keeping anyone, judges and attendees alike, from stealing your ideas! If you’re not comfortable with this, please don’t pitch your idea!)

Panelists Include: Jeff Kalles, Greg Hjertager, Wil Wheaton

Sunday, 2:30pm – 3:30pm, Serpent Theatre

Wil Wheaton presents: THE AWESOME HOUR!!1

Wil Wheaton first came to PAX in 2007, when he gave the keynote address that your parents won't stop making you listen to in the car. In 2008, he returned for a panel that asked and answered the burning question, "Can Wil Wheaton really be a panel all by himself?" This year, Commodore Wil Wheaton welcomes you aboard the USS AWESOME for 60 minutes of story-telling, lingerie-dodging, mirth-making, myth-making, iconoclasting, and the obligatory burning-questioning … ing.

Presented by Wil Wheaton

I'm also tremendously excited to announce that I was able to put together a limited-edition chapbook of mostly-unpublished short fiction that will only be available at PAX. BEHOLD THE INTRODUCTION!

The Day After and Other Stories

Every year, before the summer convention season gets underway, I pull a few excerpts from whatever I plan to release in the fall, take them to my local print shop, and make a deliberately lo-fi, limited edition chapbook to take with me on the obligatory summer convention circuit.

I’ve done previews of Dancing Barefoot, The Happiest Days of Our Lives, Memories of the Future, and in 2008, I pulled together a sampler that eventually became Sunken Treasure. 

While Memories of the Future is 2009’s “big” fall release, it didn’t make sense to me to release a Memories-based chapbook this summer, because one already exists. 

It looked like there wasn’t going to be a 2009 entry in the traditional Wil Wheaton Zine-like Chapbook Extravaganza, until I realized that I have several pieces of unpublished fiction sitting in my office, just waiting to be published. 

“Hey,” I said to myself, “people keep asking me to write and release fiction, and I’ve been waiting until I have an actual novel to give them. But these things totally don’t suck, and I bet readers would enjoy them.”

“That is an excellent idea, me,” I said. “And have I mentioned how smart and pretty you are?”

“Oh, stop it. You’re embarrassing me,” I said.

Together, myself and I collected some of my (mostly unpublished) fiction and put it into this chapbook, for safe keeping.

Even though this is limited to just 200 copies, it represents a significant step for me in my life as a writer, because it’s the first time I’ve collected and published stories that I made up. (You know, like a writer does.) I hope you enjoy it, and thanks for your support!

Wil Wheaton

Pasadena 

2009

There will be just 200 signed and numbered copies of The Day After and Other Stories at PAX, which I'll have at my table in bandland. Depending on how it sells and the feedback I get from people who read it, I may decide to do a wide release, similar to what I did with Sunken Treasure.

This is the cover for Memories of the Future, Volume One

Posted on By Wil

Memories_of_the_Future_by_Wil_Wheaton

This is the cover for Memories of the Future, Volume One.

I looked at a bunch of different designs (and at least one of them may be a variant cover at some point) but when I saw the comp that ended up leading to this cover, I knew that this was the one I'd want to use, because I just love 1950s and 1960s pulp Sci-Fi covers. For me, they evoke a unique sense of nostalgia that is strangely timeless, and that's something I hope to do with the text in these books.

I asked my friend Will Hindmarch, who did the interior and cover design, to talk about the process a little bit, and here's what he had to say:

We went through a few cover designs before settling on this one. I see it as a mix between classic, pulpy Penguin covers and a bit of modern texture-driven design. The decision not to do an actual fake distressed cover, here, with ragged edges and all that, was deliberate. So it has some of that distressed texture, but it's cleaner than a beat-up, hand-me-down copy pulled out of an attic somewhere. This is some remarkably clean copy you found in a second-hand shop somewhere.

The thing also needed to intuitively evoke Star Trek memories without being too on-the-nose. I immediately latched on to that familiar uniform shape and did two or three variations on that idea. This is the one that Wil grabbed out of my various sketches. We wanted something that sort of looked back but was also sort of about the future, but we needed something that we could riff on for a series of books. So it's got a formula that we can tweak and alter as we move forward. I think, once we have two or three of these covers sitting next to each other, they'll interact in fun ways.

I'm already looking ahead to the imagery for volume two. 

Memories of the Future, Volume One will be released next month. I will announce the exact date soon. A little more information about Memories of the Future, Volume One can be found here.