Dracula

Dracula by Bram Stoker is my latest adventure in podcasting. It's going to take a long time for me to read, record and produce it, but as soon as every episode is done, I'll release it into my main feed.

Click the pic to listen live / download

Expect at least one episode a month. When it's all done, I'll release it as one big audiobook, but that won't be for at least a year, probably more, so be sure and subscribe to my main feed in itunes here: Mike Bennett Reads Dracula.

Poacher's Cottage - FREE for 48 hours!

Brrrrrr! Did someone leave a (Microsoft / Mac) window open on a cold winter's night? No, it's just the door to Poacher's Cottage, which has swung open to allow you FREE access to itself and two other tales from the Hall of Mirrors for the next 48 hours!! Grab your ebook freebie now! Oh, and if you leave me five stars and a few kind words, I'll love you forever :-)

Poacher's Cottage and Other Tales at AMAZON.COM

Poacher's Cottage and Other Tales at AMAZON.CO.UK

Back to U&F 2

Back writing U&F 2. I have stop-start periods. I wrote a huge amount when I went down to visit my parents at the start of the month. Then I stopped when I was doing Innsmouth. Now I'm back at it again. I shouldn't stop, as even when the words come slowly, writing makes me happy. No matter what I might accomplish at work in my classroom, I always feel like I've really achieved something when I get 500 - 1000 words done.

I think the reason I stop is because I get into territory I'm unsure about. It's always easier to not write anything than to write badly. But badly written work can always be improved, whereas days without writing are completely beyond repair. I'm sticking to the course from now on: a minimum of 200 words a day. There are no excuses for not doing that much. Anyone can write 200 words a day. And it usually tends to end up being way more than that ... which is nice.

The Shadow Over Innsmouth - Now Live!

My free audiobook of H.P. Lovecraft's The Shadow Over Innsmouth is now live at Podiobooks.com,  iTunes, and for YouTube nuts, it's on there too. Enjoy! And I'd be much obliged if you could leave some stars and a review after you've listened. Many thanks!

Links - Shadow Over Innsmouth at: 

Podiobooks: http://podiobooks.com/title/the-shadow-over-innsmouth/

Podcast RSS feed: http://podiobooks.com/rss/feeds/episodes/the-shadow-over-innsmouth/

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-shadow-over-innsmouth/id624310959

YouTube: Shadow Over Innsmouth Youtube Playlist

Three from H.P. Lovecraft

Still waiting for Podiobooks to release The Shadow Over Innsmouth. So frustrating. It's uploaded, but it's awaiting release, *sighs*. Ahh well, if you share my pain, maybe this will help - a redux of my three other Lovecraft readings, removed from their Sometimes confines and presented as individual story MP3s. Grab all three at The Internet Archive (and if you'd be so kind as to leave a review, I'd be grateful). Click the pic to hit the source.

Innsmouth - In the Queue

Update - Shadow Over Innsmouth is uploaded to Podiobooks and in the queue for release. I'll notify you as soon as it goes live ... or rather, I'll notify people on my mailing list as soon as it goes live. I'll notify my blog a bit later. You know what I'm saying here, eh? eh? Sign up - get it first!

The Shadow Over Innsmouth by H.P. Lovecraft

I haven't blogged anything lately because I've been so busy working on my reading of H.P. Lovecraft's The Shadow Over Innsmouth.

I started the recording two years ago but gave up on it after two episodes because frankly, doing a good job was too difficult / time-consuming for me at the time. However, I recently came upon the old recordings I'd done and listened to them. I was surprised by how good they were, and gave myself a hearty head-slap for not finishing the story off earlier. Then, once I resumed the project, I remembered why I'd abandoned it: Zadok Allen. What a nightmare that guy was to do: a huge monologue in a regional dialect (that, being from England, I've no idea about, but anyway ...)

  Zadok Allen "... the half-crazed, liquorish nonagenarian whose tales of old Innsmouth and its shadow were so hideous and incredible."

It was a total b*stard to do, but I kept at it, and at it, and it, and finally after about seven days of work, at about 01.00 a.m. last night, I finished it.

Then I woke up this morning and realised I had to do a load of re-takes. But generally speaking, it's finished, and I'll be uploading to Podiobooks later today.

Jon Cape has done a series of images based on the story, and the images on this page are just a few of them. A glimpse of the horrors to come in H.P. Lovecraft's, The Shadow Over Innsmouth.

"... lanterns bobbing in the darkness, and horrible croaking voices exchanging low cries in what was certainly not English."

 "... the morbid and horror-infested fabric of the Gilman House"

Zadok: "They'd ruther not start risin' an' wipin' aout human-kind, but ef they was gave away an' forced to, they cud do a lot toward jest that."