Adventure! – DreadPennies: The Mind of Graham Bradley

Who’s in the Guild?

Got a piece of reader mail that I’ll answer on the pod, but here’s a glimpse for you who check out the site. The ongoing audio story on the DreadPennies Adventure Hour is THE GUILD OF ELDRITCH ADVENTURERS. It’s basically The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen with American literary protags instead of European ones.

Chapters 1 and 2 are available on the podcast, which you can subscribe to with the following links:

Google

Apple

Spotify

The characters from chapter one were pretty much all from THE WIZARD OF OZ, with a late appearance by Hester Prynne from THE SCARLET LETTER. Chapter two takes us to Lake George in New York, which was the site of a battle in the French and Indian War. That’s where we meet two new characters, Natty Bumpo and Chingachgook. They’re from James Fenimore Cooper’s THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS.

The movie from the 90s with Russell Means and Daniel Day-Lewis was a really good adaptation of the book. (They played Chingachgook and Natty, respectively.)

I considered adding in Uncas, but I felt like that would crowd the roster, so I only brought Chingachgook and the Hawk.

I’ll reveal more really cool characters as the story unfolds.

Introducing the Next Podcast Adventure! #GEA

It’s not much, but the title text is set up, and I like how it came out. Might do some final tweaks before the cover art hits the world. Still drafting the latter half of the chapter list (7 in total) but they’ll hit the airwaves soon.

Make sure you’re subscribed to the DreadPennies Adventure Hour podcast! While I’m in between Adventures, I post updates and reader mail. Drop me a line on Instagram, and be sure to subscribe to the GBR YouTube channel.

HOMEWORLD is now live on your podcast machine! Listening is mandatory.

It’s finally ready! I’m excited to share this one with you. I mostly recorded it on my phone in my car whilst parked at work before my shift. Good acoustics in there, better than in my office, and doing it in chunks helped me to get the pacing and intonation right.

I’ve had this story swimming around in my head for years and years, so to finally have it out in the open is a relief. I hope you guys like it.

Patreon is here, to back the podcast financially.

WITH ANSWERABLE COURAGE is all finished and ready for listening

As I am frequently wont to do, I have ignored this website. It’s been a busy few weeks leading up to Thanksgiving. I had to choose between the day job, getting the podcast finished, and then blogging about getting the podcast finished, so you can guess which one got punted.

Episode 1: https://anchor.fm/dreadpennies/episodes/5-With-Answerable-Courage–Part-1-em0nf7

Episode 2: https://anchor.fm/dreadpennies/episodes/6-With-Answerable-Courage–Part-2-emavk0

Episode 3: https://anchor.fm/dreadpennies/episodes/7-With-Answerable-Courage–Part-3-emllmc

Episode 4: https://anchor.fm/dreadpennies/episodes/8-With-Answerable-Courage–Part-4-emvv6i

Subscribe to the Patreon for the behind-the-scenes content.

Check back in next month for another adventure!

State of the Dread: November 2020

The Podcast

The DreadPennies Adventure Hour is underway! Thank you guys for the response on SLEEPLESS HOLLOW. It was a lot of fun to record. This month the adventure is WITH ANSWERABLE COURAGE. Here are the links to the podcast on the big three platforms. Subscribe and enjoy!

DPAH on Google

DPAH on Spotify

DPAH on Anchor

The Artwork

The #DrawEveryDay campaign continues. I was able to knock out Inktober (because I’ve kind of been doing it all year) and had a lot of fun with it. Check out my Instagram and hit the follow button.

The Writing

The main focus of my writing is to generate content for the DPAH podcast. I have some chapters to edit for WAC, so I’ll take care of those over the next week or so, and then I’m into editing the Adventure for December. I need to roll back the drawing and get back on the writing so that I don’t record more than my buffer has in store.

The Reading

WINTERDANCE by Gary Paulsen, THE THIEF by Megan Whalen Turner, and OVERSTATED by Colin Quinn are on the list of good books I’ve read in October. One is a nonfic about sled dogs, one is a really great fantasy caper, and one is a comedy roast of all 50 states.

Now I’m delving into some classics, like 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA because I haven’t touched that one in years. Jules Verne in one of the earliest voices in sci-fi and worth the attention. As for audiobooks, I’m doing a lot more podcasts right now, so I’m only picking at the odd book here and there.

The Rest

That’s about it, really. Just enjoying the seasons and trying to find ways to spend better time with my kids. You should too. Tune into the podcast, see you out there!

New Episode Monday! SLEEPLESS HOLLOW # 4 0f 4

This is it, gang! The end is here! Where did Josie end up? What do Silas and Kay do? Does Ichabod get away with it?

Find out in episode four!

And here is some artwork 🙂

Josie watches Silas die in 1776. I drew this one on a sketchbook in a pickup truck during a night shift.

The gang heads out into an exciting new future.

The latter part of the book didn’t have as much art as that middle part. 2019 threw a wrench in my plans pretty hard, what with family trials and the like, so I had to pare back the roster.

Hopefully in the future I can illustrate a few more pieces and release an “author’s preferred edition” or something. For now, I have plenty to get around to.

Episode one is here.

Episode two is here.

Episode three is here.

Find the show on Spotify, and tell your friends to subscribe!

Available on Apple Podcasts as well!

Behind-the-scenes podcasts are available to Patreon backers here.

Thank you everyone for tuning in this month! Next week, WITH ANSWERABLE COURAGE kicks off!

New Episode Monday! SLEEPLESS HOLLOW, part 3 of 4!

Episode 3 gives us chapters 11-15, including the incredible chapter 14, “The Woman In White.” This is perhaps the most action-packed chapter of the whole book.

(But don’t worry, episode 4 will have all of the really satisfying endings.)

And now, the artwork!

The Woman in White brings the ghosts of Brom and Katrina to meet Crane.

Crane tells Brom and Katrina that he’s going back in time to undo the *Legend.*

The fully-armed Headless Horseman runs interference for Crane.

Left side of a two-page spread called “The Horseman’s Menagerie.” Silas protects Josie from the ghosts of savage animals, as the Headless Horseman rides into battle on a newer, more vicious mount.

The right side of “The Horseman’s Menagerie.” Kerstan gets in on the action, and Kay goes ‘full metal awesome’ while trying to take down the Horseman.

Episode one is here.

Episode two is here.

Find the show on Spotify, and tell your friends to subscribe!

Available on Apple Podcasts as well!

Behind-the-scenes podcasts are available to Patreon backers here.

Tune in next week for the exciting conclusion!

New Episode Monday! SLEEPLESS HOLLOW, part 2 of 4

Here it is, folks! Episode 2 is live, and that puts the first ten chapters of SLEEPLESS HOLLOW onto the airwaves.

https://anchor.fm/dreadpennies/embed/episodes/2-Sleepless-Hollow–Episode-2-ek9c5q

I didn’t post about this last week, so here’s the art from these chapters:

Silas watches over Sleepy Hollow from the high school.

Silas jumps into the resurrection machine with Crowe.

Part 1 of a 2-page spread, the soon-to-be-Headless Horseman charges Silas…

You can find episode one here.

And the first behind-the-scenes audio episode (28 mins) is available for backers on my Patreon page!

Thanks everyone! Tell your friends!

State of the Dread: October 2020

Hey gang! Sorry this one is a week late, that has been life in a nutshell. Lots going on!

The Podcast

The biggest news of it all: the Brother Trucker Book Club has wrapped up for now (I haven’t ruled out future episodes, but it’s not on the docket for the foreseeable future.) Schaara and I batted cleanup last week and the final episode went live with much success.

BTBC: Apple Spotify Anchor

And of course, the DREADPENNIES ADVENTURE HOUR is up and running! With an audio performance of SLEEPLESS HOLLOW by yours truly! You can now get the entire audiobook for free by subscribing to the podcast. Tell your friends about it, and please consider backing the Patreon! Behind-the-scenes episodes will post on Fridays.

DPAH on Google

DPAH on Spotify

DPAH on Anchor

Also, Welcome To The Faro will conclude this month as well. We’re almost to the end of my mission. Plenty of great listening out there for you!

WTTF: Apple Spotify Anchor

The Writing

This has taken a backseat what with having to record audio for the podcast, but since I just finished the final episode of SLEEPLESS, the next three weeks are focused on finishing the script for WITH ANSWERABLE COURAGE, which will launch in November.

The Artwork

Once again, I am participating in Inktober! Check out instagram.com/dreadpennies for my daily entries. I’m behind by a day, but I’ll catch up.

I want to address the so-called controversy surrounding Inktober this year. Apparently someone has beef with Jake Parker, the founder, and tried to get his forthcoming book canceled over it. I don’t know the details of this beef, and I’m not going to dig it up. The beef has entered the legal arena and I assume will be settled there. For the time being I continue to support Jake Parker as I have for years, given my familiarity with his good work and the work of his good colleagues, such as Will Terry.

It concerns me that this trend of accusing, dividing, and taking sides based on Internet Hype has reached this specific realm of public creativity, especially seeing as how it coincides with an attempt to hijack Inktober and replace it with a very similar idea controlled by someone else. (There’s a new hashtag circulating, I’m not going to say what it is, but it’s a clear attempt to steal the success Jake has had, and it’s annoying to say the least.)

I’ve seen this play out in a number of other areas over the last several years; somebody makes something, it becomes a success, somebody else hijacks it and turns it into a shadow of its former greatness, and we’re left muttering over how “X used to be cool.”

Kind of like how “Honest Trailers” used to be funny, before it started parroting dumb cultural talking points from the public sphere. I don’t want to see that happen with Inktober so I’m going to wait for all the fact to come out, and, like I said, continue to participate in the meantime. High school is over, you guys. Let’s act like it.

The Reading

Hoooo boy, my reading took a huge kick in September, haha. Mainly because I wasn’t listening to anything, I was training for my new position at work. I think I read maybe 2 or 3 books in the whole month. Things are picking up now, though.

The Rest

That’s about it. I’m adjusting to the physical nature of the new gig, mainly how I come home sore and exhausted everyday, but my pants are all a little looser and will continue to do so. Kind of awesome how I got this job right around Pie Season, I don’t have to worry about gaining 20 pounds this year.

That’s it, get back to work.

State of the Dread: September 2020

Check out the mascot! This should be a “football and school are both back” month, but because some twit back East had to eat an undercooked bat, here we are, uncertain of our otherwise certain things.

The Podcast

I’ve finished recording all episodes of Welcome To The Faro. It’s been a great trip down memory lane. Now I get to focus on my next project, the DreadPennies Adventure Hour.

The Brother Trucker Book Club is still in production, but I can’t say it will last forever. One of my biggest weaknesses as a content creator is that I try to do too much and end up burning out.

As much as I have loved reviewing books on the pod, I may just switch to another, simpler format for that later. Once the DPAH launches I want it to be my flagship production. Speaking of that…

BTBC: Apple Spotify Anchor

WTTF: Apple Spotify Anchor

The Writing

As much as it pains me to do this, I will not be releasing a physical book in 2020. But! I will still be publishing. WITH ANSWERABLE COURAGE will be the second story on the DPAH podcast, broken into episodes all throughout November.

This has become necessary as a result of stuff in my home life and my day job. My career was affected by Big ‘Rona and that’s forced us to take on a bunch of other stuff at once. I will spare you the details.

Suffice it to say that if I tried to finish all the art that I want in that book, it wouldn’t be good, and some would be left out. So I want to take my time on it. I can still record the audiobook for the podcast, and meet the 2020 deadline.

The physical book will come out in 2021, fully illustrated. After all, the Pilgrims set sail in 1620, but the First Thanksgiving was in 1621. That way I hit both dates!

The Artwork

I finished my series on Presidential Puns. That actually got me a paid gig designing a logo for an old friend, so that’s cool. Exactly what I’m into. Make sure you’re following me on Instagram to see what I draw every day.

The Reading

You can expect me to slow down a little on this too, as I am not going to be plugged into my phone as much, listening to books all day long.

That said, I am being more picky about my reading in general, and more nonfiction is taking the stage. Maybe I’m just getting bored with so much genre fic, very little of it transcends its peers.

I like to be blown away when I read something.

The Fitness

I’m still doing push ups. I’m about to get a much more physical position at work, so the burn is going to be legit. All the rust and cobwebs will be gone by the end of September. I seriously cannot wait.

The Rest

Be excellent to each other. And stand up for yourself a little more. Let people know that you love them, but they don’t own you. Own yourself.