Category Archives: Great Hites

Great Hites Stories

A Busy Theremin Week

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Three bits of theremin-related news popped up this week:

Don’t Mind Me

My short fictional tale of the effects of excessive theremin-playing is now available at Great Hites for you to read or to listen to as part of the podcast. The advantage of the podcast is that, not only do you get to hear my dulcet tones reading it (oh deep joy), but it is backed by some reasonably subtle theremin effects, hopefully adding to the atmosphere. It’s a fair bit less serious than my last GH story, but I’m quite happy with it. Whilst you’re there, check out the other stories and vote for your favourite.

The Beat Frequency Theremin Method

Experimental thereminist and Lunacy Board collaborator, Gordon Charlton (a.k.a. Beat Frequency) has released a rather special double package that incorporates both his treatise on experimental theremin playing, “The Beat Frequency Theremin Method”, and his debut solo album “The Chordless Chord” for the bargain price of only £8. The book is an interesting read for anyone interested in making electronic music, or in the experimental process, and not just budding theremin players. The order form is available on his blog along with video clips and an online preview of the book.

Hands Off 2009

It really doesn’t seem like two years since the last Hands Off event, but here we are. This time round there are no workshops and no concert, with the event being a completely different beast. The aim this time is to use the combined theremin might of those attending (around only 20 in total – a select bunch), along with whatever additional noise-making equipment we can get hold of, to craft an album within two days. I believe the idea will be to split into smaller groups to work on pieces, recording them as we go, before picking the best to go together on an album. Given that the Lunacy Board managed to pull of an album in a single day, I don’t think this is an impossible task and wouldn’t be surprised if we got a double CD out of it. Time will tell. What will be interesting is the mix of people attending, from instrument builders and experimentalists through to classical theremin players – it is certain to feature lots of strange and unusual stuff. I’m looking forward to this, but it’s not until the end of August, so the wait begins here…

Wearing my pen out

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Great Hites

You’ll no doubt have seen my previous posts about a couple of my short stories that have been included on the ‘Great Hites‘ podcast. There is a section for voting on the site and I’m pleased to say that my first two efforts both came in first place on the list, so I must be doing something right.

To celebrate the podcast’s first year of existence and to secure a wider audience, Jeff (top man and head of the ‘secret council of three’) has recently announced that future poll winning entries at Great Hites will be eligible for inclusion in the forthcoming Great Hites Anthology (name to be confirmed – Jeff is still looking for suggestions) . This ‘Greatest Hites’ will be available through podiobooks.com, which has a fairly large audience. I’m delighted to say that, as the ‘winning’ story in the anniversary week, “To The Clouds” will be the first tale in the anthology. Since writing that, I have submitted another two stories, so this seems like a good time to provide a quick summary of recent writings.

Update

I have created a page with links to all my online writings that I will update regularly. It is linked from the front page of this blog and can be found here.

Great Hites – Short Stories

GH Week 51 “Anthropomorphism”
Gregory and Friends
What can you do to squeeze the last drop of earning potential from something? Anthropomorphise it!
GH Week 52 “It has been a year, what have I done with myself?”
To The Clouds
One man’s view of the historic R34 airship crossing of the Atlantic.
GH Week 53 “My mind has been going places without me lately.”
Don’t Mind Me
The theremin is a mysterious-sounding instrument, but does it affect more than just sound waves?
GH Week 54 “A pound of flesh”
Fido
A touching tale of man’s best friend.
GH Week 55 “Robots, they are all robots!”
The Robot Band
If money was no object, what would the band be like?
GH Week 56 “Missing link primate likely to stir debate.”
Signal
A tragic loss sends Maart miles from home, but his return years later holds some surprises in store.
GH Week 57 “Running Shoes”
Running Shoes
A seemingly minor change to the law has major implications. A barefoot world.

"To The Clouds" – A life changed by the R34 Airship

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R34 at Mineola

Life can take you on interesting detours.

I sat down a couple of nights ago to write the next episode of ‘Some Other Scotland‘, only to find myself some time later digging through the internet for every scrap of information I could find about the R34 – the first aircraft to make a return Atlantic crossing. Why? It all ties in with the first ‘spin-off’ story from SOS, and I was checking some facts from the past before including them in the main podcast so that I wouldn’t end up contradicting myself when I come to writing the off-shoot. It seemed like a logical course of action.

What I ended up with, in conjunction with the latest prompt from Great Hites, was a short stand-alone story providing background for the main character of that story. It is, in effect, a spin-off from the spin-off.

This new story tells the tale of one year in the life of a rigger on the R34 airship, which was based at East Fortune, not far from North Berwick. As it stands, there is no direct link with the podcast story, but the forthcoming special episode will tie the two together.

Pay a visit to Great Hites’ latest episode to read the story or listen to me reading it, along with a number of other short tales read by their authors. Great Hites celebrates a year or podcasting short fiction this week, so drop by and show your support!

Great Hites

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Great Hites

The short story I mentioned in the last post has appeared in Episode 51 of the Great Hites podcast which features short stories based on a common weekly theme. I have enjoyed several of the stories featured over the last few weeks that I’ve been following it, and the prompt for the latest week, “Anthropomorphism”, inspired me to pen a short tale of (perhaps) the world’s first marketing department.

It has been a nice little departure from the ongoing saga of twists and turns at Some Other Scotland, light-hearted with a tang of cynicism. Next week is the first anniversary of Great Hites, so I hope to submit something to that episode too, though that will depend on whether I get this week’s SOS completed in time.