Bryan Does Books

22/03/2024

I verified that June is Audiobook Month! Whatever shall we do?! :D

June is Audiobook Appreciation Month. American Libraries compiled a list of stats celebrating the month and the format.

09/03/2024

Intimidating! Exploring RPG settings to conceptualize storytelling differently. DUNE has novels covering over 20,000 years of narrative history 🥴😵‍💫 How do you even maintain "protagony" (I made that up) or moralistic threads? It's fascinating but crazy!

06/03/2024

Right!? So how much fun is NASA!? 😍🤩 They wrote their own adventure for D&D in a 44-page PDF providing maps and back story. Yeah! Gimme magic spells and laser beams 😊

https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble/multimedia/online-activities/the-lost-universe/

( If you're into this stuff, there's a chance you can make this compatible with Piazo's Starfinder or Starforged or Mothership game systems.)

Download NASA's tabletop role-playing game adventure, The Lost Universe.

03/03/2024

I miss the old book catalog pages with mini reviews and summaries! They blasted your eyes and mind like colored confetti and brought such daydreams of being dazzled and entertained and smart!

25/02/2024

Dear Wolf

21/02/2024

Woo-hoo! Since I'm hailing from Maryland...

17/02/2024

I must remember as I polish up some remastering techniques...

06/02/2024

So far so good. This week is for purposely simple illustration and prepping for the next Solo RPG system. Check my site on Friday for more about how I'm giving up some control.

31/01/2024

Didn't read voice for this guy, his loss :) but what a trip his writing is!!! If you liked Ready Player One, some 80s throwback friendliness, some Dan Brown treasure hunt style puzzling, dashes of tech talk, slipping time like Interstellar, and a manageable cast of characters (too many and I'm mired down), then give Patrick Cumby a go. Intelligent and pleasant page turner in GRONE and this latest title is already in my 💸 basket; it's a stand alone novel within the same Universe/canon and that's a big plus for me. I'd LOVE to chat with you about it when you're done! :)

IN THE DEEP EXPANSE OF THE KNOWN ARC, AN ANCIENT COSMIC MYSTERY HAS AWAKENED…Jan January, bound in servitude to the Olid Ring Guild, finds himself ab...

29/01/2024

This month, I'll be exploring Solo RPGs and how they can help creatives plot experiences and arcs they can then colorfully stretch into written stories and prose - tonight, RPG Alone Among The Stars gives me a planet (of four cards) on which I discover underwater life and their potential rivals: intelligent plants - with a message....

18/01/2024

Space travel resources:
https://www.theplanetstoday.com/index.html Find out where planets are today or when ever.
https://www.heavens-above.com/planets.aspx Find out how far from Earth they are should your rocket fuel be a concern.
https://www.symbolab.com/calculator/physics/acceleration?calculator Find out what speed your ship will achieve for Constant 1g acceleration.

You're welcome? :D

16/01/2024

Wife and I put a respirator mask on our one year old girl to relieve some congestion. Not a fan. This came to mind...

She'll be fine. But I'll be over here.

30/12/2023

Since backing Mark Landon Jarvis's series Endless Temptest on Kickstarter, I've found some graphic novels tempting to back. Pictured is Future Tales, which exploits the end of life copyrights on fairytale characters - Red, Lox, Cinder, Jack, and others resist a future of alien invasion soldiered by baddies clad in W.O.L.F. suits.

You seemed to be interested before in some graphic novels. Gotten anything good? Gotten anything bad? 🫣

27/12/2023

For me, it's always fun to spend Christmas swag. On. Something completely unusual earlier in 2023, we talked about the best selling books from around the world. This is the collection of best selling north american books. A simple internet search will get you similar graphics for Europe and Asia and South America and Africa. 😊

Get inspired!

14/12/2023

I hope I'm this lucky next year. Goodreads tells me that this year, I read 4,832 pages among fifteen books! Did you know you could follow me there? You should!

12/12/2023

From mom's 1915 book of poetry for children, the original (before it was set to music). It's very pleasant, and it might surprise you. 😊

05/12/2023

My 45-minute Fiction short read:
His Last Companion, by poet Sophia Conway

https://tinyurl.com/8xswj2jc

Available at Audible and where fine audiobooks are sold! Follow the link to check out a sample.

Check out this great listen on Audible.com. Alone for so long, the last man alive is about to have one final visitor.... Isaac lived on after others passed. He survived humanity’s demise and is now prepared for the ultimate journey. He isn’t surprised to see Death approach, nor the pro...

05/12/2023

Let's say you wanted to make a story about organized criminals who make clones of people to carry out crimes or can disguise themselves with DNA of innocents or use hyper-targeted medical assassinations - *This* is how something that far-fetched would begin. And it happened today. 😃 This theft is just a piece of a puzzle, but what could the puzzle look like?

A little theft of data that can be held and copied, shared and sold, and cross referenced later at medical test sites, DNA sites and whatever government databases store matching info. A pithy 14K people provided access to Millions, perhaps through a phishing scam or weak passwords....

The writing part of my brain is fascinated by crime like this because of the slippery slope of what negatives it can lead to. It's worth exploring but can no longer be stopped - the solution is behind us unfortunately: Never put DNA submissions online; keep it physical. But that ship sailed with user consent.

"The Cloud" is just another person's computer. It's never, ever safe.

17/11/2023

On marketing one's self: They who have nothing to say for themselves will seldom find others to say much for them.

16/11/2023

My dear writers! I think soon I'll have some very good news for you about turn around times, lower costs and something special for the new year that you can be a part of or cheer on!

Though nearly identical in appearance, the lower two columns pictured would NOT pass ACX quality standards whereas the top two columns show the same audition meeting audiobook standards with better sound clarity than ever before thanks to a new workflow I'm experimenting with. And this better output might take me 1/20th the time it used to take!

12/11/2023

I won't be Tasty P Plate from Denver's 2024 Restaurant Week but I thought it would be cool to share with you an example of an elaborate offer Voice Actors can sometimes compete for! Good luck to whomever fits the bill for this delicious I.P.

10/11/2023

If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking. Support indie and self publishing.

02/11/2023

The Prologue and Retail Sample from the Novella. It was a nice dip into drama. It could almost be staged as a play. I'm not paid with royalties on this one but I think the writer put something good out there. :)

29/10/2023

I picked a novella to read - no chapters, no natural breaks. I felt there were four parts and recorded the first two and second two separately; BIG continuity GAMBLE! It's working out well though. Joining the two sessions and balancing things further. Will soon be happy to introduce you to it! I'm not sure how the author will distribute this almost hour-long piece but I'll bring her to your attention :)

29/10/2023

It is important when writing to have a good knowledge of cafes. A good knowledge of cafes begins at home where good writing happens. It's all connected! 😀 I am now an 18/230 man (grams/milliliters) on the advice of a professional coffee roaster and boy has it changed my outlook! Better, open-eyed writing ahead 😏

27/10/2023

Something of mine I'll read for you next month. An excerpt: One of her colleagues, more into the conspiratorial speculation involving aliens already having his imagination primed by the regular appearance of crop circles overseas, was discreetly studying a man in a nearby booth who was studying him and his young friends with less discretion. To him, the man was vividly out of place. He wore gaudy clothes and was more than a day unshaven (which stood in contrast to the crowd of young professionals finishing up for the day) and had a haggard or searching look in his eyes that was difficult to read, but it didn’t convey that he was just finished with work for the day. And upon his table, a simple glass of water.

More: "1 of 3 untitled WIP" at the site.

26/10/2023

PSA Findawayvoices dot com is closing for Voice Artists. That Spotify-owned service is pivoting away from content production and into digital distribution for authors. I have deleted my profile there.

22/10/2023

I'm so incredibly excited to put fantasy on hold for a few thousand pages. I missed the delirium with The Expanse series of books (despite those luscious covers) but feel that I have picked up Peter Hamilton at a good time. 😁

16/10/2023

Just as I was designing a quote for my kids, a reply came in from someone I won't write for saying he respects my choice, enjoyed messaging with me and WILL contact me when a script is prepared (by another writer presumably!) ... The Quote for the kids:

"With Every Person ~ You don't Have to
Be Friends, but do, at Least, Be Friendly."
.. and now I can say that's worked out quite well for me.