All posts by jdsawyer

After a childhood in academia, J. Daniel Sawyer declared his independence by dropping out of high school and setting off on a series of adventures in the bowels of the film industry, the venture capital culture of silicon valley, surfing safaris, bohemians, burners, historians, theologians, adventurers, climbers, drug dealers, gangbangers, and inventors before his past finally caught up to him. Trapped in a world bookended by one wall falling in Berlin and other walls going up around suburbia and along national borders throughout the world, he rediscovered his deep love of history and, with it, and obsession with predicting the future as it grew aggressively out of the past. To date, this obsession has yielded over thirty books and innumerable short stories, the occasional short film, nearly a dozen podcasts stretching over a decade and a half, and a career creating novels and audiobooks exploring the world through the lens of his own peculiar madness, in the depths of his own private forest in a rural exile, where he uses the quiet to write, walk on the beach, and manage a production company that brings innovative stories to the ears of audiences across the world. For news and free stories, sign up for his occasional newsletter. Or find his contact info, podcasts, and more on his home page at http://www.jdsawyer.net

Hiatus Updates

Hey everyone –

Due to some unforeseen production hiccups, some involving my own life, some the lives of our rocking cast members, DF10 isn’t finished yet and there hasn’t been an episode in seven weeks.

This situation is now about to change.

In my hot little hands are two near-complete episodes – 19 and 20. 19 will drop tonight. 20 will drop either Friday or Saturday. If all goes well, I’ll be able to drop two more episodes next week, and then the final 3 the week after.

For those of you waiting eagerly for Free Will to return, don’t worry — it’s coming too. I’m making good progress on the manuscript and am anticipating a relaunch date of May 1 – enough time for me to get the book done and get enough audio pre-produced that I can keep up even with Balticon and other early summer craziness coming up.

My many apologies for the delays – I hope the story turns out to be worth the wait!

-Dan

Falling Down

As I sat in this chair this morning prepping the next round of episodes for Down From Ten after a longer-than-intended Christmas hiatus, I got the news that Tee Morris’s wife died yesterday, leaving Tee and his five-year-old daughter, affectionately known as Sonic Boom, behind.

You that listen here regularly know Tee from his starring role as Amos in Down From Ten, or perhaps you heard his voice as Marian’s boss in Predestination or from the Predestination exit interview, but the story of Tee Morris is quite a bit more colorful. Tee invented podcast fiction, co-founded podiobooks.com, and is thus created the industry which launched the careers of myself, Chris Lester, Philippa Ballantine, Nathan Lowell, Scott Sigler, Christiana Ellis, Mur Lafferty, Nobilis Reed, and many others. He’s also directly helped many of us, and many others, with encouragement, advice, and lending his voice to our worlds. He’s also become a good friend to many of us, apart from a professional association.

Odd as it sounds, there are three things in this modern world that are more expensive than any other – being born, dying, and death. Natalie Morris’s death was sudden and unexpected, but it has left Tee with a raft of expenses he must meet immediately, and this as an unexpectedly single parent. Because of this, I have a special request for you – if you were planning on sending me a tip in the next week or three, send it to Tee instead.

Below you’ll find a widget for the chip-in account that Philippa Ballantine has started to help get Tee and Sonic Boom through the crisis time to calmer waters. Please click on it and toss a couple bucks in if at all you can.

Special Christmas Episode Goes Live


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Happy Christmas, everyone!

Sometime in November, new cast member Andrea Fender (playing the as yet unnamed “moon girl”) contacted Dan after her first recording session and said something along the lines of “That was fun! Let’s do some more!”

Since Dan didn’t have any more of Free Will written at the time, it was decided that a holiday themed poetry reading, to be posted on Christmas eve, like a Christmas present, would be just fantastic.

Which is just what they did.

Directed by: Andrea Fender

Performed by:
Andrea Fender
Dan Sawyer

Works performed:
The Ballad of Blasphemous Bill – Robert Service
The Cremation of Sam McGee – Robert Service
A Visit from St. Nicholas – Clement Clarke Moore

Music used:
Jingle Bells
Carol of Bells
Away in a Manger