September 7, 2019

By Popular Demand, Another Penumbra Podcast

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Audio Arts, Podcasts

Here’s another audio arts work from our friends at Penumbra, this one a scary, futuristic drama, Second Citadel: The Battle At World’s End. As the title implies, it’s a gripping tale: Two giants bearing broken swords Stood by a river’s bend Whose water fell straight down to Hell: They battled at World’s End. Listen here to Episode 1. If you like what you’re hearing, be sure to visit the Penumbra website for more episodes, to buy some great swag, and don’t pass up the opportunity to become a supporting member on Patreon for a mere pittance.

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August 17, 2019

“Juno Steel,” A Great New Audio Arts Adventure

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Audio Arts, Audio Arts, Member Writing & Art, Podcasts

We’re delighted to introduce Penumbra Podcasts to Fictional Cafe – especially upon learning we’re all more-or-less Boston creative types. Penumbra is making truly excellent podcasts, or audio arts as we like to call them because that term brings out the multiple dimensions of this work: excellent scripts, high-quality studio recording and mixing, and really delightful foley work (sound effects to you listeners). But let’s hear what the Penumbra people have to say for themselves: “We’ve always loved stories, whether they be science fiction, swashbucklers, high fantasy, horror, or mystery. We grew up passionately reading, watching movies and TV, and playing video games. But eventually we started to notice that a lot of the stories we consumed were the same ones over and over again, and we got tired of it. “Why did every boy and…

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July 13, 2019

Ruby Fink is Our New Associate Editor, Audio Arts

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Audio Arts, Member Writing & Art, News

We’re very pleased to announce Ruby Fink’s promotion to Associate Editor of Audio Arts. Ruby began working with Fictional Café in the fall of 2016. We published her “Mickie McKinney, Boy Detective,” podcast series, which she wrote, directed and managed to get produced by bribing the actors with pizza. “Mickie” ran serially on FC in 2017. Ruby studied Film Production at Chapman University’s Dodge College, with a minor in Narrative and Dramatic Literature. She has her own production company, Faux Fiction Audio, in L.A. We offered Ruby the podcasting baristaship shortly after running the Mickie McKinney series, and since then she has been a major FC contributor and collaborator. She has brought us – and you – audio works from Jack J. Ward’s Electric Vicuna Productions, Kennedy Phillip’s “Magus Elgar,” M. “Josh” Donnelan’s “Six Cold Feet,”…

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June 8, 2019

An Interview with Ana Clements, Voiceover Artist

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Audio Arts, Interviews, Member Writing & Art, Video, Web Video

Creating an audiobook is hard work. Maybe harder than writing, but it’s similar, too, in that the work must go through several revision cycles. You can simply listen to a recording to catch errors, or you can listen and follow along in the manuscript or the book. But neither is a guarantee you’ll catch all of the audio flubs. As with a book manuscript, you’ll need to review it again and again. Believe me. So it wasn’t until I was listening to the sixth audio revision of my latest novel Anarchy that I noticed a particular character’s voiceover just wasn’t quite good enough. The character was Miss Caitlin Dugan in Chapter 7. (By the bye, that chapter is entitled “A Reading at the Fictional Cafe, a doubly fictional coffee house in New York City, which…

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March 30, 2019

“The Maltese Goddess” Part 2

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Audio Arts, Audio Arts, Podcasts

Saturday Night at the Podcasts As promised, here’s the second episode of ZBS Media’s incredible noir detective opera. If you missed Part 1, you should definitely click back through the slider on our home page and listen to it first. There is one more episode, which will “air” here next week. Or, as we used to say in radio, “same time, same station.” As we did last week, we’re also posting the Introduction as a separate audio file. There’s a technical, not aesthetic, reason for this. Because “The Maltese Goddess” was produced in 3-D sound, these episodes are large files. So large, in fact, that they exceed WordPress’s size limit. But through the miracle of audio editing technology, we were able to separate the intro from the story itself and . . . Voila! Here…

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March 1, 2019

The Weekend Podcast: “Anna Schutz” by Dean Peterson

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Audio Arts, Member Writing & Art, Podcasts

We have a terrific new audio arts program for you tonight. It’s the story of an enigmatic young German woman named Anna Schutz and an American GI named Oli, who has a really bad case of depression. Or, in the author’s words: “A white-clad phantom seen running through the woods in Germany . . . a warren of abandoned tunnels under an American base . . . a forgotten clinic once used by the Nazis . . . one soldier’s obsession to solve a fifty-year old murder before his suicidal plans go any further. Listen to the madness unfold in Anna Schutz. “It’s like Jarhead meets The Shining.” We are providing the first six chapters to whet your appetite for this strange, enchanting ghost story, narrated with great empathy by the author. And speaking of the author, please be…

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October 30, 2018

Tonight: ZBS Presents All Hallow’s Eve!

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Audio Arts

All right, then, you radio zombies! Halloween has arrived and with it the last six episodes of ZBS Media’s “90-Second Cellphone Chillin’ Theater.” If you enjoyed Nights One and Two, Monday and Tuesday, you’re sure to enjoy night three. But if you haven’t heard Night One or Night Two and are just arriving here tonight, you can still click back and listen to a dozen more episodes from last night and the night before! Isn’t technology wonderful? “Ghouls Galore” “Betty Big Boobs Meets Vinnie The Vampire” “(Diva #1) Divas Of The Dark” “Sad Regrets Of Cowgirl Clem” “Shameful Wanda & Her Wicked Wereass” “The Secret Smile of the Moaning Lisa” “The Box” We at the Fictional Café, along with the gang at ZBS Media, hope you’ve enjoyed our Halloween celebration. Many…

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October 29, 2018

Another Night of Halloween PodioFun

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Audio Arts, Audio Arts, Podcasts

Following last night’s premier podcast, here are eight more Halloween treats from ZBS Media’s “90-Second Cellphone Chillin’ Theater.” You podcast lovers might recall “Saratoga Noir,” which we re-podcasted here a few months ago. Tomorrow night, Halloween, we’ll present the final eight episodes, for a total of 24. Do we deliver great content or what? “Zombie Al’s Big Night Out” “Dixie Doodle, Girl Geek, in ‘Totally Flat Busted’” “When the Wolfling Learns to Whistle” “Eating Crackers in a Crypt” “Dixie Doodle, Girl Geek, in ‘My Boyfriend’s Back’” “Drooling Doreen” “Revenge of the Tooth Fairy” “Loathsome Sally Under the Texas Moon” That’s all, folks! We hope you enjoyed and if you did, check in tomorrow night for the final eight episodes of “90-second Cellphone Chillin’ Theater.”

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October 28, 2018

Trick or Treat? Three Nights of Halloween Goodies for You

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Audio Arts, Audio Arts, Podcasts

Thanks to our friends at ZBS Media, we present three nights of Halloween audio fun: “The 90-Second Cellphone Chillin’ Theater!” These are ghoulishly fun little podio stories created to get you in the mood for Halloween. Tonight we offer you the first eight, plus eight more tomorrow night, and eight again the Halloween night. We hope you enjoy them, and if you do, please write a Comment for us the share with ZBS. If you love audio stories, we encourage you to visit the ZBS Media website. It’s an audio treasure trove! “The Okie Dokie Swamp Thingie” “Hotel Catatonia” “Don’t Eat on Twilight Street” “The Monkey”s Magic Eyeball” “Don’t Eat at Igor’s” “The Sweet Scent of a Succubus” “Frankenstein’s Finger” “The X-Filings Dental Case”

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September 7, 2018

Friday Night is Gumshoe Night Again: “Saratoga Noir”

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Audio Arts, Audio Arts

Ruby Fink, our Audio Arts Barista, and I were talking recently about great detective podcasts and we both agreed that “Saratoga Noir” was one of the best ever. And since it’s Friday night, our traditional audio arts/podcast evening, we’re rolling that tape again. Here’s the first episode of ZBS’s “Saratoga Noir,” featuring one of the world’s greatest, most humorously cynical and yet endearing gumshoes, Danny Boyee. Please click on the arrow below to listen to Episode 1 of “Saratoga Noir.” If you want to listen to the entire story, they’re all here at the Café: https://fictionalcafe.com/saratoga-noir-2018s-first-audiobook/ https://fictionalcafe.com/saratoga-noir-podcast-episode-2/ https://fictionalcafe.com/saratoga-noir-five-new-episodes-tonight/ https://fictionalcafe.com/5-audiobook-episodes-saratoga-noir/ https://fictionalcafe.com/saratoga-noir-episodes-8-14/ https://fictionalcafe.com/saratoga-noir-thrilling-conclusion/ Enjoy, with another big thank-you to our friends at the ZBS Foundation! Please visit their site. It’s a treasure trove of audio delights.

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