You see, if you've read any of the DEAD books you've most likely noticed that the chapters tend to round-robin between three groups of characters and scenarios: Chapter 1 with one group, Chapter 2 with the next, Chapter 3 with another, Chapter 4 back to the first, and so on. This is actually a pretty sweet way of organizing a story, William Gibson used to do it in his cyberpunk books and while it kind of drove me nuts at first eventually I came to appreciate the technique as I got to watch the stories start to come together and affect each other in really interesting ways. And DEAD does the same thing, but in the interest of avoiding spoilers I shall shut the hell up about those.
But when it comes to reading the books aloud in front of a mic, the last thing I want to worry about is switching between entire scenarios, each with its own tone and cast of characters, with every chapter. So for every book since the first we've found it far easier to track each section as if it were its own novella. This makes—hopefully—for better flow, consistency of character, and so on. It also means, inadvertently, that those of you who listen to the special edition versions of the first three books (available soon!) will probably have a clearer picture than I'd care to admit of both my process and progression as a narrator.
So yeah, we're back to the part where I finished the second section of DEAD: Confrontation last night (The Geeks storyline if you must know.). And while I can't claim to be a Fair Witness here, I am of the opinion that this book is far and away the best work I have done to date. Pretty good feeling, and I hope you will agree. And of course stick around for the next one.
(PS: Yes, I know I began this with the promise of something other than DEAD talk, but just roll with it if you will. I'm new at this.)
