Insider Podcast Number Three is now available for your downloading and listening pleasure!  January 5th was the fifteenth anniversary of Searcher and Stallion, and in celebration, we’re listening to the first half of "The Mu-Light Shift," by Wayne Tyler.  And, of course, a "flash preview" from an upcoming episode.

Special thanks to Scott Howard for providing me with a flight case to take my equipment on the road with me when I travel.  I’m on the road a lot lately for work.  I have portable gear for composing and recording music now, and  I needed a way to lug all of it around safely.  Scott provided what my wife is now calling the "techno-suitcase."  I can record any time, anywhere!  Bwahahahaaaa!  Except when I’m working.  And actually flying around.  Okay, I don’t have much in the way of time, but even a couple of hours a few nights a week, adds up.

Apologies for letting the show slip so much lately.  We’ve been producing new material, but slowly, as usual.  But we’ve let the web site slide, too.  We really should stop in once in a while and say "hi," but we’ve been, let’s face it, neglectful in our public relations duties. 

So, okay, as long as I’m here typing, what’s new with the show?  We recorded narration for Episode 4 a few weeks ago.  Scott’s performance just gets better and better.  Then we had to cut out several passages to make room for the story to breathe.  It hurt to do that.  There were lots of cool little lines, sometimes whole paragraphs, that didn’t make it.  We’d already eliminated everything that wasn’t essential to the story, during the writing and editing phase.  All we had left to cut were descriptive passages that add a textured beauty and detail to the narrative.  The show would be richer if we could have kept them.  Even so, the story sounds tighter without the "fluff."

Then, we put strategic pauses back into the story, building the poetic pacing that separates this show from all the others.  It’s more art than science, and we’re pretty picky about it.  It’s not uncommon for the three of us to bicker about 1.5 seconds vs. 2 seconds — in dozens of instances throughout the show.  What’s fascinating to me, though, is that we bicker less now, because that pacing has become second nature.  For the most part, we know and agree on how long to pause where.  I’ll say, "Put a pause there," Scott will say "2 seconds," and Garth has already done it before we can get the words out — working in perfect, Borg-like unity!

And now, the audio "text" of the episode is timed out and ready for music.

The first story wraps up in Episode 4, so when this one’s done, the whole story is ready to go.  Still a lot of work before we’re there, but the end is in sight.  And, you’ll be pleased to know, Scott caps it off with a classic Searcher and Stallion ending scene, full of intrigue and mystery.