Archive for the 'Sculpting God' Category
October 23rd, 2011 by jdsawyer
Sculpting 
God, the story collection that started it all, is now available for all e-readers. With the original seven stories, plus new behind-the-scenes essays for each story and an introduction about the genesis of the series, this is first of three volumes coming over the course of the next year. Grab it while it’s hot!
A new voice in fantasy, J. Daniel Sawyer has already left an indellible mark on his readers with his trademark tales of human desires and the moral complexity they create.
This unique volume opens with the mythopoeic story of Lilith–an alternate take on creation from the point of view of a woman scorned–and continues across the scope of history from Victorian Scotland to the depths of the Amazon jungle to the far future in stories of creativity, responsibility, determination, and loss in the face of human power and frailty.
From the personal to the cosmic, the Award-nominated author of The Antithesis Progression and Down From Ten brings you a suite of twisty tales in the American Gothic tradition of Flannery O’Connor, Ray Bradbury, and Ambrose Bierce.
Bedtime stories aren’t just for children anymore.
Contains: Lilith, Angels Unawares, The Coffee Service, We Create Worlds, Control Room, The Man In The Rain, and Train Time, plus a new essay, poetry, and bonus material.
Smashwords
Kindle
Nook
XinXii
June 20th, 2011 by jdsawyer
Rick is a scurrilous, irascible scoundrel, 
with a heart of gold—not because he’s warm and fuzzy underneath, but because his heart is totally devoted to money. His favorite goldmine is his shop, where he vends virtual reality and manufactured novels. He keeps his customers happy, and he always knows the right party to hit to find a pliable college girl with more cocaine than sense. Life is good. But life has a way of doing unexpected things, and the world has a way of changing around the most adaptable people.
Step into Rick’s parlor. Don’t mind the bell on the door or the old fashioned cash register. Buy a manufactured novel, fresh from the computer—a first edition. Sit in the easy chair or lay out on the sofa. Strap on a helmet and a skinsuit and take a swim on Europa. He can be trusted. Really. It says so on the door. In ten foot high letters, right above the shop front, he tells you exactly what they do:
“We Create Worlds”
And they do it on the cheap.
You can find the story at Amazon and Smashwords.
—Story Sample Below the Cut—
Continue reading ‘Released: We Create Worlds’
June 16th, 2011 by jdsawyer
Have you ever seen that well-dressed 
man at the airport, or the station, who stands patiently by as if he has all the time in the world? Have you wondered who he was waiting for, and how long he’d stay? Have you ever been that man, stuck in the hours between delay and disappointment, with no way to know if the person you’re waiting for will show? Let fancy take you to the mountains of Northern Italy at the dawn of the 22nd century for the story of a woman and a train–and of a walking stick and the man who owns it, as he waits for Train Time.
You can find the story at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords. Below, you can find a sample.
Enjoy!
—Story Sample Below The Cut—
Continue reading ‘Released: Train Time’
May 22nd, 2011 by jdsawyer
And the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, saying “It is done.”
All the original writing for Free Will is now done. I have a few days of continuity tweaking ahead of me, and then some cutting, but it really is now all over but the shouting.
New equipment for the studio arrives this week, and I’ll be resuming production on everything in two weeks after I give things a proper shakedown and take a day or two off.
What does this mean for you?
Predestination and Free Will paperbacks (and Free Will ebook) in June. New episodes of Sculpting God in June. New episodes of Free Will starting in July, and continuing through to the end of the book.
It’s been a marathon–two years of work plotting and researching, and four solid months of aggregated writing time over those two years.. Final count: 212k words. Manuscript page count: 848. (Don’t worry, that will shrink as I shake out the continuity).
Time to crack the champagne!
May 3rd, 2011 by jdsawyer
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Mondu, once an AI designer 
at the top of the Nigerian IT industry, needed to escape from a life that was eating him alive. He found refuge as a shopkeeper in the depths of the Amazon, at a unique resort. It’s a preserve for all forms of Amazon life–reptiles, mammals, and human and material culture. No modern technology allowed.
It’s the kind of place where some people come here to disappear.
And others come to hunt them.
Also available as an ebook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords.
April 25th, 2011 by jdsawyer
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You’ve heard the story of 
Adam and Eve? Don’t be so sure. The Bible doesn’t tell the whole story, but if you look closely you see where something has been removed. First, God creates “man” male and female, and then, a few verses later, he creates woman again, this time from Adam’s rib. Where did the first woman go?
If you’ve ever read the Babylonian Talmud, you know. She was kicked out of the Garden of Eden for not being properly deferential, and she went on to become quite notorious in her own right. A sexual predator, a dark goddess, a spurned woman, and the first feminist, this is her story in her own words.
Lilith.
Also available as an ebook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords.
April 21st, 2011 by jdsawyer
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When last we left Rick, he was having a pleasant–if confusing–day. But will it last?
Find out, in the conclusion to We Create Worlds.
April 15th, 2011 by jdsawyer
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This is the story of Rick. He’s a scurrilous, irascible scoundrel, with a heart of gold. Not in the sense of being warm and fuzzy and good underneath, but in the sense of having a heart totally devoted to gold. His favorite goldmine is his shop, an entertainment venue where he vends virtual reality and manufactured novels to his latter-day escapist customers. He runs a tidy shop, he keeps his customers happy, and he always knows the right party to hit to find a pliable college girl with more cocaine than sense. Life is good. But life has a way of doing unexpected things, and the world has a way of changing around the most adaptable people.
So, please step into Rick’s parlor. Don’t mind the bell on the door or the old fashioned cash register. Buy a manufactured novel, fresh from the computer, a first edition. Sit in the easy chair or lay out on the sofa. Strap on a helmet and a skinsuit and take a swim on Europa. He can be trusted, really. It says so on the door. He’s completely upfront with his advertising. In ten foot high letters, right above the shop front, he tells you what they do in his place:
“We Create Worlds.”
And he does it on the cheap.
April 7th, 2011 by jdsawyer
Time for a new short story–this one is called 
Angels Unawares. It first appeared as part of the Sculpting God series, which is currently re-podcasting from this blog. It later appeared as part of The Podthology, last year’s anthology of the best of podcast short fiction (along with Cold Duty, available at right, and The Man In The Rain, which which will release in a few days).
Now, to brighten your e-book reader, I give you one of my favorite bed-time stories, complete with a new afterword that tells the story behind the story.
In 1898, a woman’s body was discovered broken and battered at the bottom of a tall sea bluff in Southern Scotland. and the small town she lived in began locking the doors at night. Only one man saw what happened, but he carried the secret of her death to his death bed. Wounded in the trenches on the Western Front, he gives his last confession…
Get it now, DRM free, from Amazon or Smashwords.
—Story Sample Below the Cut—
Continue reading ‘Released: Angels Unawares’
April 5th, 2011 by jdsawyer
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What if somewhere in the universe there was a room, and in that room was a creature, surrounded by screens and dials and controls? In his room, he sees all, knows all, manages all. He directs the thoughts and actions of every being in the cosmos. Would such a creature be God? And what would it be like to be that being, spending your days and nights watching the screens, and managing the affairs of all beings from a control room?
March 10th, 2011 by jdsawyer
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Have you ever seen that well-dressed man at the airport, or the station, who stands patiently by as if he has all the time in the world? Have you wondered who he was waiting for, and how long he’d stay? Have you ever been that man, stuck in the hours between delay and disappointment, with no way to know if the person you’re waiting for will show? Join me in this episode as I take you to the mountains of Northern Italy at the dawn of the 22nd century for the story of a woman and a train–and of a walking stick and the man who owns it, as he waits for Train Time.
February 22nd, 2011 by jdsawyer
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Join me for a conversation with a quaint, friendly man about his unusual abilities. He’s a hospitable fellow who invites strangers into his house for coffee. He is alone in the world, and only wants someone to talk to–but he may just get more than he bargained for one morning, when he has a chat with the UPS man.
Content Advisory: This episode contains terrifying elements, and is best suited to audiences over age 10.
February 6th, 2011 by jdsawyer
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Sculpting God opens with a story of an unusual cliff diving episode. In 1898, a woman’s body was discovered broken and battered at the bottom of a tall sea bluff in Southern Scotland. and the small town she lived in began locking the doors at night. Only one man saw what happened, but the secret of her death is one he carried to his death bed. Wounded in World War One, he gives his last confession.
Content advisory: Suitable for all ages, though not necessarily intelligible to prepubescents.
Personal note:
This was my first ever podcast fiction episode, so it holds a bit of a special place in my heart. Hope you enjoy!
February 5th, 2011 by jdsawyer
The Sculpting God feed broke in a recent wordpress/php update, and the old blog is un-fixable. Therefore, I’m going to be re-casting them on the uberfeed (posting the old episodes without any new edits or news) while I port the old blog over and restore the feed. Look for the first episode tonight or tomorrow.
Thanks to everyone who alerted me to the problem!
March 1st, 2010 by jdsawyer
Free content – particularly in the audio fiction space – suddenly seems a lot less of a perpetual free lunch than it did six months ago, and it’s got a lot of folks freaking out in my corner of the Internet. Providers are dropping like flies this year! Matthew Wayne Selznick and J.C. Hutchins have both very publicly withdrawn from the podcast fiction space, and for the best reason there is: Money.
[Correction: MWS chimed in in the comments to correct my misapprehension of his current attitude toward podcasting, which is considerably more complex than the paragraph above makes it seem. My apologies for inadvertently misrepresenting him.]
The two of them are generation one podiobookers who appeared in the space hot on the heels of the three founders, and seeing them throw in the towel has a lot of other creators wondering: “Are we all just being idiots giving stuff away for free?” And it’s got a lot of fans wondering “What’s going to happen now? Are all my favorite writers going to give up?”
Continue reading ‘If You Build It, Will They Come?’
