Thanks, Fictional Cafe coffeeheads, for your words of appreciation for “Captain Blackwell’s Prize” this past week. We even got a shout-out from the founder of Podiobooks, who is currently in Bangkok! So without further adieu, here is Episode 2; next week, Episode 3, and the week after our interview with the author. If you just can’t wait to continue, please visit Podiobooks to download the entire novel [and please be sure to show your enjoyment by tipping Ms. Ulett]. Please click on the arrow below to listen to Episode 2 of “Captain Blackwell’s Prize.”

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With the beautiful, haunting notes of Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Suite No. 1 for Unaccompanied Cello”, author V. E. Ulett introduces the podcast of her novel, Captain Blackwell’s Prize. Set around the turn of the 18th century, it’s the story of an English wooden fighting ship during a period when England, France and Spain were often at war with each other. The author has done a magisterial job of capturing the nuances of speech and sailor slang, as well as the sights and smells and drama and danger from days over 200 years ago. The title is a double entendre: in those times, the word “prize” was used to describe the booty captured during warfare. In Ulett’s story, it refers to a shipment of gold captured from a Spanish ship, but also the capture of a beautiful Spanish lady….

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This is the third and last excerpt episode of “The Leviathan Chronicles.” If you like what you’ve heard so far [and we’ve been getting rave reviews from other listeners already!], we encourage you to go to Podiobooks and download the entire podcast. The story [so far] is a total of 26 episodes. It’s an easy download to iTunes, with one caveat: the episodes may download for play in reverse order. This is a shortcoming of iTunes – we’re still trying to find the workaround for this. If you do, please let us know so we can share it with other listeners! A final word: The author, Christof Laputka, clearly spent an immense amount of his own money producing “The Leviathan Chronicles.” Please, please tip him. You’ll be hard pressed getting more enjoyment from your five bucks.  And…

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As promised, here is episode 2 a three-part excerpt from “The Leviathan Chronicles,” a full blown media extravaganza of a podcast. You really won’t believe your ears. We’re posting the first three episodes this week, Monday through Wednesday. If you find yourself hooked, as we did, you’ll want to go to Podiobooks.com to get the rest of the episodes. Here’s an overview from the podcaast website: “The Leviathan Chronicles is a revolutionary science fiction audio drama podcast featuring the voices of over 60 actors, professional sound effects and an original music soundtrack. Think of it as a blockbuster movie for your ears! There are 25 episodes in Season 1, and 13 episodes in Season 2 as well as several Special Edition Episodes – all available for FREE. You can download each episode here on the website or on iTunes….

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As promised, today we begin a three-part excerpt from “The Leviathan Chronicles,” a full blown media extravaganza of a podcast. You really won’t believe your ears. We’ll put up the first three episodes this week, Monday through Wednesday. If you find yourself hooked, as we did, you’ll want to go to Podiobooks.com to get the rest of the episodes. Here’s an overview from the podcast website: “The Leviathan Chronicles is a revolutionary science fiction audio drama podcast featuring the voices of over 60 actors, professional sound effects and an original music soundtrack. Think of it as a blockbuster movie for your ears! There are 25 episodes in Season 1, and 13 episodes in Season 2 as well as several Special Edition Episodes – all available for FREE. You can download each episode here on the website or on…

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Editor’s Note: Back in 2014, we published an excerpt from James D. Best’s novel Jenny’s Revenge, the story of a jilted lover out for blood… literally. A seasoned writer, James has made his foray into audio books, and as big proponents of this ever-growing method of experiencing literature, we are excited to share a few chapters from another of his installments in the Steve Dancy novels: Murder at Thumb Butte. Without further ado, here are a few snippets from Best’s scoundrels and scalawags of the old west. * * * Murder at Thumb Butte Chapter 1:   Chapter 13:   Chapter 22:   *** James D. Best is an accomplished writer of western tales, most notably his Steve Dancy novels: The Shopkeeper, Leadville, Murder at Thumb Butte, The Return and Jenny’s Revenge. He blogs about…

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