Category: Books

this crazy idea is feeling pretty awesome

Posted on 13 February, 2009 By Wil

Not that I’m closely watching the sales figures to see how Sunken Treasure is doing or anything, but Sunken Treasure is doing great, and if the last two days are any indication, my Operation Crazy Idea to release more original material using this kind of POD technology and distribution is going to quickly become Operation Awesome Idea that will let me create more cool stuff for my audience than I ever dreamed possible, and actually support my family doing it. Just less than a year ago, I wondered if I could apply Kevin Kelly’s business model to my work and make a living, and though I won’t know for about a month or so if it’s really working, it has never felt as realistically attainable as it does right now.

I have a lot of Crazy Ideas that have Awesome potential, including more original works of fiction, audio and video projects, and something that I’ve wanted to do my whole life but didn’t think I could ever — well, I’m getting way ahead of myself, but I sure am excited, and I wouldn’t feel this way without your support. So thank you. You who have supported me, however you’ve chosen to do it, you totally rock, and I hope to continue earning your support until they turn the lights out on planet Earth. \mm/

A quick reminder before I get back to work: If you wanted to get the bonus audio content (a live audio performance of See a Little Light, an outtake from Happiest Days of Our Lives, which I included in Sunken Treasure, because it turns out that I liked it a lot, and shouldn’t have cut it from Happiest Days in the first place), get your order in before 3pm Pacific today, because that’s when the download link goes to the Land of Wind and Ghosts. If you pay with an eCheck and it tells you it will take 4 days to clear, don’t worry. Just e-mail me a copy of your receipt (appropriately redacted, of course) and I’ll send you the link. But do it before 3pm Pacific today, because like keys dropped into a volcano, once it’s gone, it’s gone, man.

my newest book: sunken treasure

Posted on 12 February, 2009 By Wil

Thanks to the power of "feature this post" I can keep this announcement at the top of my blog for a few days. Yay!

My newest book, Sunken Treasure, is available now.Everything you ever wanted to know about Sunken Treasure (but were afraid to ask) can be found in this entry. Here's the book's description at Lulu:

Sunken Treasure is a short collection of my favorite
pieces from my books and blog, including a production diary from my
2008 role in Criminal Minds, and excerpts from a collaborative fiction
I took part in called Ficlets. As a bonus feature, it also includes the
never-before-seen script to a sketch I wrote and performed at the ACME
Comedy Theater.

If you ever wanted to know where to start with all my writing, Sunken Treasure is the book for you.

I have created two editions, a US Edition and a World Edition.
They are identical in content, but the World Edition is in a slightly
larger format, so it's $2.00 more. The trade off is that you don't have
to spend a million dollars on shipping if you're not in the US. NOTE: Canadian customers have informed me that, by choosing the US edition, they can save $2 + GST.

sunken treasure goes on sale

Posted on 11 February, 2009 By Wil

As promised, Sunken Treasure is now officially on sale!

I have created two editions, a US Edition and a World Edition. They are identical in content, but the World Edition is in a slightly larger format, so it's $2.00 more. The trade off is that you don't have to spend a million dollars on shipping if you're not in the US. NOTE: Canadian customers have informed me that, by choosing the US edition, they can save $2 + GST. Yay!

Everything you ever wanted to know about Sunken Treasure (but were afraid to ask) can be found in this entry. Here's the book's description at Lulu:

Sunken Treasure is a short collection of my favorite pieces from my books and blog, including a production diary from my 2008 role in Criminal Minds, and excerpts from a collaborative fiction I took part in called Ficlets. As a bonus feature, it also includes the never-before-seen script to a sketch I wrote and performed at the ACME Comedy Theater.

If you ever wanted to know where to start with all my writing, Sunken Treasure is the book for you.

The book is 90 pages long. The US edition is $13 + shipping, and the world edition is $15 +shipping.

Some of you may notice that I missed my noon Pacific release time today by about an hour. That's because, at 11:30 this morning, I got a crazy awesome idea (one in a series, it would seem): As a bonus and a thank you, for the next 48 hours everyone who purchases the book will get to download a live audio performance of See a Little Light, an outtake from Happiest Days of Our Lives, which I included in Sunken Treasure, because it turns out that I liked it a lot, and shouldn't have cut it from Happiest Days in the first place. When you place your order, you should get a thank you e-mail, which will have a link to the file's download location. I'll keep that link alive until about 1pm Pacific on Friday, when it will be sent to the land of wind and ghosts.

I'm super crazy excited that everyone who wants this, no matter where they are in the whole world, has a chance to get it, and I can't wait to hear your feedback.

I know that some of you are interested in the practical nuts and bolts of how this whole thing came together, what it was like to use Lulu, why I'm trying out Lulu, and some other publisher-y things. I've kept a lot of notes about this whole experience, and I'll put all this stuff in its own post, probably next week some time.

binary bubbles!

Posted on 11 February, 2009 By Wil

According to Flickr, about 2500 people have peeked at the cover of Sunken Treasure since I mentioned it on Twitter yesterday. I just love it, and before I release the book at noon Pacific today, I wanted to give everyone who reads my blog a chance to see it (and hopefully get as excited about it as I am) now.

The general consensus is that it's awesome, especially the little binary bubbles. I totally agree, and want to publicly thank and give credit to my pal Matt for designing it.

Edited to add: The release is going to be delayed just a little bit, but when you find out why, I think you'll agree that it was totally worth the wait.

Edited again to add: Yay! It's officially on sale now.

justice is served, edo-style!

Posted on 9 February, 2009 By Wil

I understand that SciFi Channel has just finished serving up a special kind of Justice.

From our first season on TNG, it’s full of growing pains, but it remains one of the most unintentionally hilarious we ever did, and if ever there was an episode worthy of a Riff Track, well, I think this one should get it. Hell, maybe I’ll do it myself.

Anyway, if you’ve just seen it for the first time in recent years or ever, I think you’ll get a kick out of the review/recap that I did for TV Squad:

After dropping some human colonists off in the Strnad solar system, the Enterprise notices a rather nice Class M planet in the nearby Rubicun system, called Rubicun III. Picard sends an away team down to the surface to find out if it’s a good place for some shore leave, and they return with some very good news: it’s clean, it’s beautiful, it’s populated with friendly humanoids . . . and they really like to do the nasty.

“At the drop of a hat,” according to Geordi.

“Any hat,” Tasha says, knowingly.

Picard sends a second, larger team down to the planet to see exactly how many hats they’re going to need. Because every responsible Starfleet parent would want to send their children down to the galaxy’s longest running planetary orgy, he orders Wesley Crusher to see if the planet is a good place for kids to hang out.

[…]

Down on the planet, Wesley is jogging around with his new friends. Unlike the adults, who are busy getting their freak on in Plato’s Retreat, the kids are busy showing off their gymnastic skills. One of the Edo boys walks on his hands! Oh! Wesley got served! But wait! Wesley serves back with some cartwheels and a roundoff, and IT’S ON!

In fact, it’s so on, the girl (who was played by a really sweet girl named Judith Jones, who played my girlfriend on an after school special called My Dad Can’t Be Crazy, Can He?) gets so hot for Wesley, she asks him if he’ll “teach her” how to “play ball.”

Oh, you bet, baby. Uncle Wesley will teach you how to play ball. Why don’t you just slip into this latex bodysuit and put on this wig first, and then we’ll play all sorts of ball, you dirty little bitch.

Uh. What just happened? Sorry about that.

Wesley tells them to get a bat. When they don’t know what it is, he describes Worf’s penis. It’s not awkward at all.

[…]

After extracting a promise that the Edo won’t kill Wesley before sundown, Picard takes Rivan with him back to the Enterprise. Once there, he shows her “god” (this is, quite honestly, a nice little homage to the original series. Whenever Captain Kirk took a hot babe back to the space ship, he showed her god, too. Sometimes, he showed her an entire pantheon of gods. And he never called her back, baby, because that’s just how he rolled, leaving broken hearts all over the galaxy. Awww yeah.) The problem is, god is pissed, and shakes the ship until Picard beams Rivan back down to the planet. Poor Picard, he brought her all the way home, and he didn’t get to drop a single hat.

This review will be in my forthcoming collection of first season reviews, Memories of the Future.

Bonus! If you want to listen to me perform this review, you can enjoy to this audio from the 2008 Phoenix Comicon. Double bonus: you can also hear me read Blue Light Special, from Happiest Days of Our Lives.

Shameless plug: You totally want the Happiest Days of Our Lives audiobook.

Man, that turned into a shameless plug really quick, didn’t it? I mean, it really got out of hand! Brick killed a guy.

“I stabbed a man in the heart with a trident.”

“I saw that!”

Um. Kids, when you start quoting Anchorman and then talk about it in Bob Saget’s voice, it’s time to end the blog entry and just hit publish.