Gruelling Schedule

Posted on July 2, 2009 by Mick

It has been a busy week for writing, with a new episode of ‘Some Other Scotland‘ and two new short stories.

Over at Great Hites episode 59 you will find “Kelvin’s Last Message”, a tale of two UFO hunters trying to follow a pattern of sightings and ending up getting more than they bargained for. The prompt this week was “It is verboten”, which had me struggling for a while until I remembered that ‘verbo’ is a word that appears on my mobile phone’s predictive text when I try to type in ‘tesco’ (the biggest supermarket chain in the UK, for those unfamiliar with it). Upon further investigation, I found that the keys used to spell ‘ten’ could also spell UFO and the idea came from that. I like the idea that so much can change at the delicate interface between man and machine.

Although I didn’t set out to create another spin-off from SOS this week, this could be read as one, given what we know about unusual flying contraptions in that world. It is open-ended enough that it could foreshadow what is coming in SOS, but don’t hold your breath – the story changes tack every week, so anything is possible.

The 100 Word Podcast features my story “Gruel”, taking the run of animal-related diseases we’re in the midst of and extrapolating a little, where eating meat becomes a game of chance with more serious consequences.

Don’t forget to vote for your favourite stories at both GH and 100WS!

The first of the Great Hites Anthology episodes will be coming out fairly soon, so I have done a couple of short promo recordings to (hopefully) help Jeff reach a wider audience. One was just me chatting, whilst the other was a collaborative effort with Norval Joe, another Great Hites regular, and was really quite fun to do. I’ll certainly be including it within the SOS feed as well as linking to it from here once Jeff is ready to launch.

Therapy Session

Posted on June 25, 2009 by Mick

Great Hites episode 58 is ready to view and download now. My story this week is more of a short character study than previous entries have been, dealing with a single woman struggling to come to terms with bereavement despite her familiarity with helping others do so.

Although it is a stand-alone story, it is set in the ‘Some Other Scotland‘ world and features Sarah Fullarton, a minor character we last saw back in episode 2 of SOS. It takes place at her home shortly before the events of SOS.

The latest prompt at Great Hites is “arriving at the airport”, probably the most open-ended prompt for several weeks, and will almost certainly end up being related to SOS as well.

Ida the Fossil

Posted on June 12, 2009 by Mick

There’s another of my short stories available to read or download and listen to over at Great Hites this week.

This one sets up a tale of lost love, interplanetary travel and homecoming around the recently discovered primate fossil, claimed by many to be the ‘missing link’. Does it seem like I have a thing for ancient, advanced civilisations? You might think so.

There is some very subtle sci-fi background music in this latest tale. It comes courtesy of The Lunacy Board, and is called “Japan In A Trashcan”. You’ll find it on our third album, the entirely instrumental Stockholm, which is available to buy on CD or as a digital download. Follow the link for most information about the album, a couple of samples of other tracks and an order form.

There’s also a new episode of ‘Some Other Scotland‘ ready for download. There seems to be a link between Charles’ letter and another letter written to William Wallace – interesting, since around 400 years separates them. We also learn a bit more about the object Razer found in the underground tunnel.

Vote!

The Euro elections may have passed, but there’s still plenty to vote for. Both ‘Great Hites’ and ‘Some Other Scotland’ feature polls that affect future episodes – if you are enjoying either of these podcasts, please take the time to vote and make your choice count!

Elvis Lives!

Posted on May 26, 2009 by Mick

Yet more podcast short fiction from the Bordet pen. This one is a very short tale for the “100 Word Stories” podcast. It was based on the prompt “Elvis drives a bus” and goes somewhere along the road of trying to explain just how that could happen.

Obviously, it takes place in some other reality. It isn’t the ‘Some Other Scotland’ world, though there is some common ground. It’s based on Elvis’ Scottish roots, it’s fun and it only takes seconds to read. Alternatively, download the whole podcast and enjoy a barrage of stories with roughly the same theme, albeit with very different approaches.

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

Posted on May 11, 2009 by Mick

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!

Masters of Song Fu – Hanging up that hat

Posted on May 1, 2009 by Mick

For the first time since it started, ‘Masters of Song Fu’ has been won by a challenger – well done Molly! They have already announced the date for sign-up for the next round, but I think I’m going to take a rest from the Fu for a while.

I need to devote more time to the Some Other Scotland podcast for a while, as Song Fu deadlines meant that podcast episodes have slipped back. I have a special non-story episode coming up soon (after episode 10 launches) that will deal with some questions I’ve had about the story. That has yet to be recorded, so please feel free to send questions and/or feedback to me at mickbordet {at} gmail {dot} com and I can reply on the podcast.

When the podcast started, I hoped to be able to expand the world with a few spin-off stories giving some background to certain characters or events – short tales that would stand on their own as well as giving more depth to the main story. I have come up with a rough plan for the first of these, though it has turned out to be a bit more ambitious than originally planned because it will be more of an audio drama than the main podcast. More news on that as I settle the thing down in a script.

I’ve also completed a short story for possible inclusion on another podcast, so details of that will follow if it comes into being. If it doesn’t I may just post it here instead.

All of this writing and podcasting activity does NOT mean that the music has been abandoned, though. There are a couple of possible guest appearances in the pipeline, a Lunacy Board session of some sort is long overdue and I have a few half-completed songs still kicking around from the FAWM challenge that need to be finished off. At some point soon I’ll also revisit the Song Fu material I have amassed and combine it into an album, though there are some parts to be re-recorded with the luxury of no deadline, as the originals make me cringe in several places. Finally, I have a top secret plan for a podcast-related musical piece that will surface at some point and, who knows, maybe one of these days I’ll get round to sorting out the pile of Dunoon songs.

Some Other Scotland – An Alternative Now

Posted on February 4, 2009 by Mick

I mentioned this project in passing a while ago, but since I’ve just completed the third episode, now seems like a good time to let you know a bit more about it.

Some Other Scotland is a podcast novel. Huh? In effect, it is simply a book read in weekly episodes, not unlike a radio show. There are quite a few of these about if you look around the internet, but I like to think this one is a little different from the rest.

Why?

Rather than the more rational method of writing, then editing, a book before reading it and broadcasting the podcast, Some Other Scotland is much more immediate. It is based on a week’s news in Scotland. Every day I pick out one item of news that I think could be interesting to incorporate into the bigger story, then I post a poll at the end of that week. Listeners (YOU!) can vote for the feature story. This feature will appear in some major way in the following week’s podcast, though altered in some way. This creates an alternative Scotland, full of ‘paths not taken’. For example, in the most recent episode, a mansion on a West Coast island was burnt down in the real world, but in Some Other Scotland, the fire came to nothing, stopped by a new character to the story.

The first few weeks have run without much to join each story thread together, but as new items crop up in the news, changes in direction become apparent, and already I have a general plan for the larger plot.

It is my intention to run this until the end of the year, unless the story draws to a natural conclusion before then. In the meantime, please visit the link above to sign up for the podcast feed, or you can stream the story from the little widget on the right hand side of this page.

Your feedback would be very welcome.

Mick Bordet

Very Much So

Tag Archives: Some Other Scotland