Books! Music! Podcasts! The Mur Gift Guide!
One thing that’s been awesome about podcasting is I’ve met so many people who are vastly more creative than I am. Several of them have new products out in the past couple of months, and I thought I’d showcase them here – you get great holiday gifts, and my friends get supported. We all win!
Music- I am a huge fan of funny music, also called dementia (after the DJ Dr. Demento), and have been collecting the albums of people like Carla Ulbrich, Throwing Toasters, Devo Spice, and The Great Luke Ski. I was excited when Luke told me about the new MarsCon Dementia three disc album. From the website:
3 years ago we started the MarsCon Dementia Track Fund Raiser CDs, which is set up to raise money to cover the hotel room costs for those acts who are coming in from out of town, as a way to help take care of at least one of the two big costs involved for them to come out and rock the house.
Here’s what we have for this year:
- The Mars Con 2010 Dementia Track Fund Raiser: 3-CD set – $30.00 (An optional MP3 download of all tracks is included with purchase. Price includes shipping)
- The Mars Con 2010 Dementia Track Fund Raiser: MP3 Download Only – $20.00 (Contains all the tracks from the CD version. Length: just under 4 hours)
- We also still have CD & MP3 sets available from 2009, 2008, & 2007’s Fund Raisers.
Speaking of Carla Ulbrich, she recently sent me her new album, Live From Outer Space, which is flat out hysterical. The album as a whole is funny, but the two songs “Duet with a Klingon” and “If I Had The Copyright (on the word f#*%)” make the whole thing worth it.
Books have been coming out, as they seem to keep doing, and they always make fine presents. I can personally vouch for the awesomeness of the following authors:
Courtney Summers: Yeah, that’s right, I’m not only plugging a YA author, but a NON-GENRE author. I’m growing. I read Courtney’s Cracked Up To Be and couldn’t put it down. She writes protagonists that are mean on the surface with depths that are frightening to investigate, but you can’t not. These are not nice protags, and not nice stories, but they’re engrossing. Her new book, Some Girls Are, just came out. I haven’t read it, but if it’s as good as Cracked Up To Be, then you should buy it.
(Just realized that this won’t be out till early January. So buy Cracked Up To Be and then get this one next month)
(Speaking of books that are coming out right AFTER Christmas, when you’re returning the five copies of Dan Brown books your family bought you and you’re picking up Courtney’s book, I might recommend the mid-grade book Nanovor: Hacked! which is the project I busted my ass to write last June. It’s out in early January. A fun read. I’m just sayin.)
And if you’re going to get into some kick ass narrative nonfiction, you can’t go wrong with Wil Wheaton. While I don’t know him personally (crudpuppies), I am a fan of his blog and own his books. I love his unabashed voice as he tells his stories; Wil could make me more interested in the story of him getting a beer with a friend than half the fiction I’ve read.
I was going to plug 7th Son by JC Hutchins and Makers by Cory Doctorow, but Hutch one-upped me and put out a Holiday PDF featuring twelve amazing authors of both fiction and nonfiction. Download this freebie (direct link) and get a sample of 7th Son, Makers, and several other hot books.
Podcasts: And if you’re not looking to buy anything, then may I recommend some festive holiday podcasts? Matt Wallace and Variant Frequencies are podcasting Matt’s novella “Hath a Darkness” set in his brilliantly dark Failed Cities Monologues world in December. And I have the inside word that both the Tor.com podcast and Escape Pod will be running Christmas stories this year (I’m not saying by whom!), so be sure to download those next week. And Grant Baciocco is doing his yearly Advent Calendar video podcast, which is fun and family friendly.
Category: Personal
Thank you for the list Mur. And thank you for promoting us.