Crewcast Radio

News about NEM: Crimson Shores, the next Spinward Fringe novel and what I'm doing to prepare, and a special hello to Triton-Con Cardiff. 

This is the narration for the latest blog post on www.randolphlalonde.com where I talk about the release of the first Spinward Fringe Audio book!

In this episode, Ray and Randolph talk about where we left the characters of the Spinward Fringe series in Broadcast 9, and outline a few important facts so you can rip into Spinward Fringe Broadcast 10: Freeground and by fully prepared. There are no spoilers in this for Broadcast 10, so you can listen without keeping your finger near the pause button!

In this, the second part of the Dark Arts Podcast (ignore the intro, it's part 2 of 2), We turn the tables so Ray is bringing up high and low points from the book. In the later part of the podcast I bring up what I'll be up to next in the Spinward Fringe universe and allude to some changes that will be coming to Crewcast Radio in February 2016. There were a few light spoilers in the first part of this podcast, but there are definitely huge spoilers for Dark Arts in this one, so if you haven't red the book, please turn away. Thank you for listening, please leave comments and support for Dark Arts below, we absolutely love permanent commenting! RL

Dark Arts was just released in time for Halloween! Ray and I take time to sit down and discuss the history behind the book, characters and events within. It becomes a lot of fun as we explore all that within a great conversation. This is the first part of two.

  It’s been a long time, but I’ve returned with two co-hosts! Luke Alberton joins me for a special episode of The Spinward Fringe Podcast where we discuss the most recent book, Broadcast 8: Renegades, the future of the series, and what I’m writing right now, Brightwill. We are temporarily joined by Aurelius, my roommate’s dog. He pops up a couple times, then lets out what sounds like a short death-squeal when Luke motions for the pup to go back upstairs. The dramatic dog ended his appearance and pouted for the rest of the podcast.    Also discussed are other podcasts including An Axe To Grind, more Spinward Fringe / Brightwill podcasts, and Thumbscrew Cinema, a feature podcast coming soon.    Thank you for joining us, please leave a comment or two!   RL

If I had a time machine I could go back and post this episode on time. Sadly, I don't have the power to manipulate that wobbly wobbly... time-y wimey... stuff, but it's a double episode so that should count for something (I hope). We have Andy, Randy, Sylvie and Stephanie talking about time travel through the ages - but mostly from film and television. You'll hear names like Quantum Leap, Stargate SG-1, The Time Machine, Looper, and give some directions to some of the more obscure time-traveller fiction out there. We have a few laughs along the way, which is a must for any time travelling team, and end on a few suggestions that we hope you find thrilling. Thank you so much for listening! [Obligatory excuse for the lateness of this episode: The studio was water logged, and it took over two weeks to rebuild upstairs. I finished this evening and was finally able to edit and convert the episode. Again, so sorry for the lateness!]

Yes, we skipped Episodes 11 and 12, they're forthcoming. Why? They're currently on the backup drive, and we're in the process of rebuilding the studio in a new room, so it'll be a couple days before I can edit and release those. Luke Alberton from an Axe To Grind and his friend Chris recorded an extra news episode after helping me clear everything out of the studio, which had to be abandoned when the foundation began to leak. We talk about that mini-flood, Google's move to enforce safe image search, new news from the next Star Wars movie, and season 6 of Sons of Anarchy. We round the episode out by reviewing the new Simcity. It's an episode with a different tone and some lively conversation. Sylvie, Stephanie, Randy and Andy return next week with our Time Travel episode.

In this episode I reinforce my goals for this year, setting expectations for Broadcast 8, 9, and I talk about what it took to responsibly step back and figure out when those can be expected. We also had a major incident in studio involving some water, so the computer we normally use for podcasting is not available. We recorded on a Mac Mini and use a Cloudkicker tune for the temporary entry theme. Luke Alberton, from another podcast: An Axe To Grind, co-hosts this episode with me as we talk about my month off, a couple adventures, and what lies ahead. Yesterday Crewcast Radio obtained permission to use the music of Amanda Palmer so we are pleased to present Want It Back, a track from her latest album: Theatre Is Evil.  Thank you so much for listening!

This is our first real geek news episode, and it begins with a segment I (Randy) would like to call; "Leave It All In" or, "They Had No Idea I Was Rolling," or something like that. For the first time in studio, Sylvie, Stephanie and Randy are joined by Andy, a time-travelling, kick-ass commenter who happens to be anchored in our time thanks to our limited technology. We wanted to talk about time travel, but there was so much important news to share instead, so you get the play by play of an interesting month in excellent Geek Entertainment news and all the round table commentary that comes with it. Actually, our table is square, but since there's no video for this, or any episode, I hope you won't notice the difference. We also take a moment to talk about how our media is packaged these days: Are the super-pack DVD+Blu-Ray+Digital+Special Features discs and their variations worth it? I (Randy), begin with an apology to Stephanie, and we launch into news topics ranging from Star Wars, Disneyland, Clerks 3, Ke

In this double episode, Stephanie, Sylvie and I take our first run at a discussion about women in contemporary North American fiction. I like to think that we did well in this episode discussing heroic women in fiction as well as a range of other related topics including prejudices and double standards. This was originally going to be a split episode, but it became plain to me (Randy), that this episode had to stay in one piece because we get a little serious about things and we come to a conclusion that I think requires the proper context. Ultimately, our discussion took a life of its own and went in an unexpected, but interesting direction. The topic was much larger than we could have contained in the time given, so I'm sure we're going to revisit this topic in the future from a different angle. Thank you so much for listening, please share your comments on this topic and our approach and / or conclusions. I'm begging here, we want to hear from you.

This episode is all about the glorious entertainment coming in 2013. We discuss things we're looking forward to this year in entertainment and share the dates of notable movie and television premieres, so if you don't have the time to go in search of entertainment in 2013, let us do the work for you! Thank you for listening!

Sylvie, Stephanie and Randy return after a hiatus with our likes and dislikes in film and television for 2012.  It's a celebratory episode because there were many great things about 2012, so this episode is largely positive.   We've changed to a half hour format, and we'll be back with a new fix every Wednesday, thank you for listening!   Our theme music is provided by Incompetech, and the tune is called Pinball Sprting.

In this interview conducted by Luke Alberton on behalf of Indie Author Land Randolph Lalonde discusses Spinward Fringe, how he relates to readers, whether or not there's a character in the series that represents him directly, as well as Broadcast 8 and another project that's still a closely kept sectret. Special thanks to Indie Author Land for prompting this interview, and to Luke Alberton who conducted it!

We catch up wish Sylvie, Stephanie and Randy as they recover from the various ailments that kept us away from our microphones for so long. We start by talking about what we plugged in to while we were immobilised, and move on to some big news in Geekdom that we missed such as…   The Blu-Ray version of Season 1 and 2 of Star Trek The Next Generation, Sherlock BBC season 2 on Blu-Ray and Netflix, The Young Indiana Jones and why you should get your set NOW if you want one.   We go into the big shifts in the Science Fiction world recently, like Disney purchasing Lucasfilm (Star Wars, Indiana Jones). We take positive and negative sides of the issue and discuss good and bad points of one of the biggest franchises of all time being bought by the largest children entertainment company in history.   Other side-topics include: Geriatric Indiana Jones, errors in Star Wars past (including the 'Han Shot First' issue), ET, National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), I Dark Overlord, and much more…

This broadcast is all about Spinward Fringe Broadcast 7: Framework. Sylvie and I delve as deeply as we can into the book, discuss some controversial parts, and answer many, many questions directly from readers. There are also a few serious behind the scene moments, and tales of scenes that were cut entirely. The best thing about this episode? You guys. This e pisode exists because there was a serious demand for it, and you gave us some fantastic questions. So many, in fact, that we'll do another Q&A about Broadcast 7 if we get a few more.  MASSIVE SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't read Spinward Fringe Broadcast 7: Framework, then you're going to want to skip this episode entirely. We take the gloves off and get right into the details. Thank you for supporting this book, and for listening to Crewcast Radio. We're having so much fun, and there's so much more to come!

In this mini-episode, I talk about the hiatus we've taken, when we're coming back and what we'll be doing when we do. I also play some Bif Naked and almost get into a religious argument with myself about the Holidays. Want to know what happened to us and the plan for the near future? Here it is! Thank you for listening! Randy

In this special episode of the Spinward Fringe Podcast, I announce the release date of Spinward Fringe Broadcast 7: Framework (that's November 21, 2012), and a SPECIAL SURPRISE for everyone who takes the time to listen. I talk about what this book means to me and thank the people who made it what it is, as well as the folks who have supported me for so long. You'll also find the details on where you can get the book, what formats it's available in, and info on the collected Rogue Element Trilogy in print. Thank you so much for your support over the years, and I hope you enjoy listening as well as reading. RL

Stephanie, Sylvie and Randy talk about NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). We go into what it is, what it's like to write 50,000 words in a month, what it takes, and, since all three of us are veterans of the event, we impart some helpful advice.  For a basic tour of NaNoWrimo, the events, where to go to sign up, and a few interesting insights into a writer's brain, this is a great episode.  So far, Sylvie is behind in her word count, and Randy is joining the "Oh Shit Brigade" off with a bang by joining NaNoWriMo on the 15th of November, half way in to the event. That's a promise to writer 50,000 words in the second half of the month. We'll get an update on his progress next episode!  Thank you for listening!

This is the good stuff! Things start off with a Broadcast 7 update Sylvie and I (Randolph Lalonde), talk about finishing Broadcast 7 and some of the notes that typically get passed between a writer and their editor near the end of a project. We also discuss some of Jacob Valance's journey from Broadcast 1 to Broadcast 7 (without spoiling anything in Broadcast 7). We shed a little light on which characters are largely focused on in this book, and discuss some of the benefits of writing a series, as well as final polishing required to finish Broadcast 7 off. We take a moment to answer the question; "Do I need to read the Expendable Few to know what's going on in Broadcast 7?" and we continue on to talk about the language and style in that book. The topic of the discarded draft of Broadcast 7 comes up right before we talk about National Novel Writing Month a little. There are a few nuggets in here, and some insider peeks at what writing this book was like. Thank you so much for listening, the new season of The S