Give Me, Great Me, Goals, and Goodies

Here's what's going on with Jeff lately...

Why, hello! I’m going to try to do some of these semi-regular wrap-ups of what I’m up to on this little stack of subs o’ mine. Despite what my besky brain sometimes tries to tell me, I have a lot going on, but if a tree falls on the internet, does it even rizz? Yes, yes, I apologize for saying rizz. Never again, this I vow.

My audio fiction podcast Greater Boston is still in a bit of a hiatus, although we released a Halloween episode every week of October, which was a fun if challenging project to do. My story was about zombies on the Red Line, which I used as a metaphor to talk about crumbling transit infrastructure, because, you know, a good zombie story is all about what’s really wrong with society, which is why The Walking Dead sucks so hard. Also it gave me an excuse to have the undead moan “traaaaaaaaaaains.” A dad joke, perhaps, but one I couldn’t resist.

Even more pressing though, we released two "Thanksgiving” crossovers with Give Me Away this week, one of my favorite fiction podcasts by one of my favorite writers (Mac Rogers) from one of my favorite production companies (Gideon Media). Mac wrote the first one, and I produced it. Alexander Danner and I wrote the second episode and Alexander produced it.

Our shows are very different. If you don’t know, Greater Boston is a Dickensian tale of an alternative Boston where the Red Line has become its own independent city, and a group of refugees squats in an abandoned amusement park. Give Me Away begins with an alien craft landing on earth, but it’s not an invasion story. The aliens are political prisoners, and they’re trapped without a consciousness, screaming, bodiless, in agony. Scientists discover that they can infuse a consciousness into willing subjects one at a time, freeing the refugees - but will people be willing to do that?

While vastly different concepts, the folks at Gideon and I marveled at how much in common our shows had, specifically the yearning and drive to try and do better for humanity while trying to recognize the humanity in each other.

These wouldn’t be the best places to begin either show, but if you want a slow introduction to what we’re all about, I also recommend them. They’re fun character studies and hint largely at the larger worlds contained in each.

Meanwhile, over on Infinite Mixtape, we’re twenty-five songs in and going strong, with track 26 coming out later today. Catch up with the whole thing below, and if you like being introduced to new music, maybe give the Mixtape a follow? Until the end of the year it’s going to be nothing but 2024 songs. After that, we’re going places!

Further on the writing front, I’ve been working on my novel, since I gave myself a goal of getting a complete rewrite done this year. I’m about two-thirds of the way done with a month to go. Yieks! Still, that’s considerable progress, especially since I’ve trimmed 15 thousand words out of the thing and identified some major issues to fix.

Is there a novel writing workshop type of thing on Substack? There should be. It’s hard to find anyone willing to sit through a whole book and give advice. Most writing groups are monetized garbage I find.

I heard back with positive feedback for my pilot to the Austin Film Festival submission. I provided them with Gumshoe, the first episode in sci-fi detective story with some light time travel elements. The feedback was mostly warm, they just took issue with the premise. I’ll take it, although I’m not sure what to do about the premise. The premise is the premise! Either you buy it or you don’t! Still, it’s good feedback to consider.

Like I said, lots of irons in the fire! What’s been up with you all? Read any good books lately? Listened to any good music? Seen any good movies? Don’t be a stranger.