Butterflies Like Jewels
For your entertainment I’ve posted my latest short story as a .mp3 file.
This is not a HALO story. It is a noir fantasy with a nod to H.P. Lovecraft.
This story appears in Elemental: The Tsunami Relief Anthology: Stories of Science Fiction and Fantasy. If you enjoy this story consider purchasing the book; all profits go to the victims of the 2004 Southeast Asian tsunami.
Please right click the link below and “Save target as...”
Butterflies like Jewels
(Note: this is s 32 Mb download)
Special thanks to Syne Mitchell --my wife and a damn fine writer in her own right (she also has a story in Elemental)—for all her expertise in setting up this website and the recording.
This is not a HALO story. It is a noir fantasy with a nod to H.P. Lovecraft.
This story appears in Elemental: The Tsunami Relief Anthology: Stories of Science Fiction and Fantasy. If you enjoy this story consider purchasing the book; all profits go to the victims of the 2004 Southeast Asian tsunami.
Please right click the link below and “Save target as...”
Butterflies like Jewels
(Note: this is s 32 Mb download)
Special thanks to Syne Mitchell --my wife and a damn fine writer in her own right (she also has a story in Elemental)—for all her expertise in setting up this website and the recording.
posted by Eric Nylund at 5:53 AM
14 Comments:
It's on the way. =)
That was really great. The visuals were easy to come by and I wasn't once confused about the happenings of the story. I might have to buy that book now.
Hol-leee SHeet! Syne Mitchell is your wife?!?
I love her stuff!
:-)
That was wonderful!
It was actually my first time "reading" a book by listening to it, and it was better than I'd thought.
I'll have to check for that book next time I'm at the store.
Apologies to everyone: blogger hiccupped and the site was down for a few hours today.
Nikoda, David—Thanks. If there is a huge demand for this kind of stuff I was toying with the idea of recording one of my older, out of print novels for public consumption. That’s a lot of work, though; so I’m weighing the pros and cons carefully.
Neuraljazz – yes. Lucky guy, I am.
--Eric
(Response... To the response. Yeah.)
In all honesty, I, personally, wouldn't recommend spending all that time to record your older books.
But that's just because I have them and can read them myself much quicker than I can listen to them.
Not that I wouldn't download them if you did it anyway. ;D
I've tried many times to listen to audio stories, but to no avail. They just can't grip me like reading it can, unfortunately. Any chance of a PDF or text document? What I heard was great so far, but I have a hard time picturing things from spoken word with no visuals, so the audio read-throughs do not grab my attention well.
Oh thank goodness. I thought you blocked me out of here yesterday.
That story is colorful, I'm about to 'hear' it again to make sure I got all the vividness. That's hard to do, to put so much visual in there. I could hear the leather bag opening, I think. Might take me a while to get through your story with my imagination. I sure hope it comes in the mail for the weekend.
I really like this part the best though, hey call me emo, whatever. "all profits go to the victims of the 2004 Southeast Asian tsunami"
David -- I’m glad you have all my earlier works, but something like A GAME OF UNIVERSE which is out of print and goes for about $20 used most people have never read/heard. *shrugs* Like I said, it might turn into a pet project, might not. It’s a heck of a lot of work.
Coweh—no can do on the .pdf or .doc file. The print rights are tied up in the book presently, and besides, I’m trying to drum _up_ business for the charity antho :)
I'd probably listen to an entire book if it was read by someone with a slightly higher voice. I had to equalize Butterflies quite a bit to get to a point where I could listen to it and actual words came out. It still didn't feel so hot on my inner ear, though, so I was sea sick the whole time. *laughs* Thankfully, it was worth it, but that was only 30 minutes. I don't think I could listen to you read any longer than that.
I personally don't like the idea of listening to books. It takes away from the reading experience. I tried it once when I found I had no time to read and listened to these tapes in the car, and I tell you, it is not fun. I mean, if everyone drove well, maybe, but there is no way I can focus on the reading and drive at the same time, and i wouldn't simply sit down and listen to it while doing something else.
Just my thoughts.
I like the idea, I like the story,but I can't stand having books read to me. HOWEVER many people prefer it this way. Might as well outreach a whole new audience of potential consumers 8-)
I must say, that was the best listening material I had for my morning commute in a long time... Thanks!
I've read a few of your books previously (most recently finished Signal to Noise) and loved them all! Can't wait for Gears of War either :)
Greetings, Mr. Nylund.
I have JUST finished listening to this .mp3 file. Heh, yeah, I know, "late" is an understatement, but I'm glad that I made the time to listen to it.
I enjoyed it. You might be interested to know that the part of me that seemed most "into" the story was my nose. Imagining the smells really helped me to gain a greater sense of immersion while you narrated.
You touched on a subject that I would love to talk with you about more, but it would be to such an extent that it would take a long, long time. The idea of plausible "reality-navigation" via conscious thought, the overarching relevance of the human heart in comparison to the dwindling relevance of the human intellectual capacity, and the death of imagination being an unavoidable casualty of the (what are ultimately) fear-motivated actions by man to try to maintain control over his universe.
This was an intriguing and inspiring piece of conceptual matchmaking that I'm very glad you shared with us, particularly in audio form -- I don't know that I would have enjoyed it as much if I merely read it.
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