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Joshua Alan Doetsch

~ Author & Scrivnomancer

Joshua Alan Doetsch

Tag Archives: audio fiction

Penny’s Dreadful Delight & The Scary House That Was Not Haunted

03 Sunday Apr 2016

Posted by scrivnomancer in Uncategorized

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audio fiction, children, Christopher Walken, Closed on Account of Rabies, Edgar Allan Poe, fear, Iggy Pop, parenting done right, Penny, penny dreadful, Poe, spooky stories, The Raven, The scary house that was not haunted, The Tell-Tale Heart

Gavin-Friday-Closed-on-Account-of-Rabies

I’ll say it once, I’ll cackle it a thousand times: children are far better at processing fear than adults. They are afraid of more things — everything is so big and new — but they deal with the fact that something scared them better than an adult. We just forget that.

Case in point.

Two good friends of mine from back up Chicago way, Val and Allen, were on a family road trip through the south and made a one night stop at my place on Friday. I was eager — EAGER! — to show off my spooky cabin-ish house.

Val and Allen brought their not-quite-four-year-old daughter Penny. Penny liked the skulls and decor. She liked the woods and singing frogs outside. Penny was very keen on seeing our fireplace in action, so I started a fire up, we procured beverages, and gathered front of the cheery roar.

We all listened to some Edgar Allen Poe audio fiction.

Now this is the point. Val and Allen present the world in a very straightforward manner to little Penny. And, with a little reassurance, she takes it all in very well. When she asked me how my adopted cat lost her eye, Val and Allen had me tell the disturbing story to her straight.

And so it was with Poe.

We started with Iggy Pop reading “The Tell-Tale Heart”. Penny was frightened and fascinated by Iggy’s eerie voice. She wanted to know every detail about “the man with the one eye.” We filled her in.

Then Christopher Walken read “The Raven”. Penny sat next to me, again hooked on the spooky cadence, with me giving her the occasional play by play and answering questions. “Oh! The raven is in his house?” “Why does he keep saying that?”

My literary partner was three years and some change, and I don’t remember having as much fun listening to Poe.

The little one went to bed, head full of dismembered bodies, evil eyes, and ill omens. And how did it effect her? The next day she asked her dad to tell her again about the raven and the man with the one eye. I think we formed some good brain wrinkles that night.

When they got back home, Val and Allen asked Penny what her favorite part of the whole vacation was. She said, “The scary house that was not haunted.”

 

I Eat Raven Brains

14 Monday Oct 2013

Posted by scrivnomancer in Uncategorized

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"The Mulligan", Alphabet, Amanda Gowin, anthologies, Anthony David Jacques, audio fiction, Axel Taiari, Bob Pastorella, Booked podcast, Booked. Anthology, Caleb J Ross, Cameron Pierce, Carnival of Lost Souls, Chris Deal, Christopher J. Dwyer, Craig Clevenger, Craig Wallwork, David James Keaton, Fred Venturini, Gordon Highland, horradorable, Kevin Lynn Helmick, Lit Reactor, Livius Nedin, M is for..., Mark Rapacz, Matthew C Funk, Michael Paul Gonzalez, Nik Korpon, Nikki Guerlain, Nox Arcana, Paul Tremblay, Pela Via, Richard Thomas, Robb Olson, Sean Ferguson, Seth Harwood, TW Brown, voice acting

LickShadow

Raven brains and lunch boxes, that’s what you’ll get in my story “The Mulligan” featured  in The Booked. Anthology, brought to you by those wicked lit-jockeys over at The Booked. Podcast. It’s a motley collection of authors doing untoward things with words. Here’s a little audio taste of my story:

Have a taste for more? Head to store at http://www.bookedpodcast.com/ (and get 50% off with the code: LR50). Read some twisted tales and join the October-long discussion.

Over the summer, I participated at the anthology’s release party, where I signed books, and read a new story, “Alas.” Give a listen to the Booked Live Event.

Booked

Remember Chumbawamba? No reason

04 Thursday Dec 2008

Posted by scrivnomancer in Uncategorized

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audio fiction, dad, halloween, justice league of america, neil gaiman, norway, the graveyard book, the nightmare before christmas

I was arrested on charges of journal neglect.

And conspiracy to commit journal neglect.

And general slothdom.

And polygamy. But those charges were dropped as authorities discovered that my wives were all well over the legal age, and all in my head. Too soon?

I agreed to a plea bargain. This includes regular use of this blog as well as other stipulations, like riding a bike from Chicago to New York next September (more on that in a future post).

In the time between posts, we’ve gone all the way from pumpkin patch season to It’s-colder-than-a-witch’s-mamary-gland season.

Some highlights:

A Parrot-Head Looks at Fifty
My Dad had his 50th birthday bash in October. It was quite the revel. Drinks and family and friends and a live band, and various forms of tropical dress. You could read the happy and the celebration written on his face (he deserves more good-spiritted debauchery more often). I got to wear my pirate hat which makes me happy (this sentence might imply that I get to wear it rarely…but that’s not true…I’m wearing it right now…ask me what else I’m wearing…).

By the bye, if you happen to be reading this and you have pictures of that night, and you emailed them to me, then I would be in your debt. If you’re reading this and you do not have those photos, then no worries. If you have the photos but are not reading this, then I guess you won’t get the message. If you are reading this and you have the photos, but suddenly stopped reading, then


Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book, and Ghost Stories by Fire Light

On October 2nd, I was able to go see Neil Gaiman do a reading from a chapter of his latest book, The Graveyard Book. T’was a good reading. T’was a good book (sweet and macabre…like me). And t’was just the right time of year.

Hungry for more, my brother (Nick) and I began holding audio fiction sessions in the backyard, on the deck, by the woods. We’d ignite the fire pit, drink Dunk n’ Donuts coffee and/or hot cider laced with rum, puff a cigarillo or two, and listen October themed fiction and audio performances from my iPod’s growing library (it’s a hungry little bugger).

Our friend, Dori, joined us one night and, to our surprise, really liked it. He had never listened to a single, solitary bit of audio fiction…and he was hooked after one session, practically begging us to continue after we were ready to quit. I mean he’s really Jonesing for this sh!%. It’s refreshing, actually, in this age of multi-multi-multi-mind numbing media—crack for the ears, heroin for the eyes—how excited he was to discover this new form of entertainment, noting how vivid the visuals came to his mind while he stared at the fire, how rejuvenated he felt after listening to a story, how meditative the experience was.

So he made it a pretty regular habit—stories by the fire—occasionally pausing the pod to hear the coyotes going nuts, likely over some kill, in the not too distant distance.

Score one for literacy.

Being read to is a very special ritual. Too many give it up after childhood.

Got Spandex?

For Halloween, a dozen friends and I hit the bars dressed as the heroes in the Justice League of America. As luck would have it, the first bar had Batman’s entire rogues gallery of villains. We got to threaten and shit-talk each other for hours. Awesome.

More photos to come, but here’s a peek:


Pre-Nativity Night Terrors

My article about The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D found a home over at Killer-Works. It’s a great site and email newsletter on all things frightening and strange. Go check it out.

Trading My Pirate Hat For a Viking Helmet?

I’m applying like crazy for writing jobs. If my debt is the Nothing—then I am Atreyu, holding on to a tree, feet off the ground, trying not to get sucked in. Still, I’m holding out on hope for a job that actually interests me and uses some of the skills I spent all that money to get he documentation that says I have them. The latest job submission was to a video game company in Norway. They liked my resume and writing samples enough to send me a little writing test. I sent that off to them on Friday. We’ll see what happens.

Bookmarks, bookmarks, bookmarks

Some internet bookmarks of interest:

Kick-ass interview with Alan Moore.

Custom keyboards for the eccentric typist.

The best coffee in the world comes from cat skat.

Novelist strike!?!?!?


Coffin shelves (consider this on my Christmas list).

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