Good Morning Shipmates,
If you are listening to this on Friday, do not worry! I released this on Monday, and the next episode will drop at its normal time— so you should have the episode in your feed as well. This is just a brief hello from me to you: the prospective fan. I have been talking to a lot of people on Substack, Discord, Reddit, and any number of other platforms about the ways to market a book and I am aware that releasing this podcast is quite an unusual one.
Most notably in that it is presented without much explanation. So for the first time on air, let me explain what my handful of Substack subscribers already know: First Last Chance is a book, and not only is it finished but it is also available for sale in a number of formats. You can find it on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Google Play, and many other similar storefronts. It’s in print, ebook, and audiobook form. That’s right! If you had wanted to skip ahead and binge the whole thing at once, you could’ve done so from Day One. Only, I did not do a very good job explaining that on the podcast. Looking at the metrics, it seems like most of the people who consume this product do so by downloading the podcast. I am nearing fifteen-hundred downloads for the podcast, which implies with twelve episodes so far that I am going out to a little over one-hundred people. Of course, it’s the modern internet so the number of bots downloading this could likely be quite high. That’s why I’d like to hear from you! If you are a regular listener to First Last Chance, and we’ve never spoken before, I would be overjoyed to get a comment on any episode, a review on any platform, or even just a brief piece of correspondence sent over Substack or to my business email (all one word) belunetois@gmail.com. As of yet, I have not received any form of engagement with this podcast whatsoever and while it makes me feel incredibly annoying to be the sort of person demanding people click ‘Like’ and ‘Subscribe’ and so on— I also would like to know what people think or if they actually do listen to this show. I’d like to avoid making statements like this on the episodes themselves because I feel like it makes them cleaner and more compact. If I’m doing everything right, you should never hear an ad read nor an engagement reminder during an episode. I may in the future be convinced to add a single sentence of some kind after the credits, but I believe it would be very difficult to persuade me of anything more.
Next, a brief word about AI tools: I have written every single word of First Last Chance with my fingertips pressing the keys of a keyboard. All editorial advice has come from human beings, and I have recorded myself reading this entire book over the course of many hours over the course of many days over the course of many weeks.
And while I fancy myself, perhaps arrogantly so, to be a fine actor I cannot make my voice sound like a woman. With AI, I can, and I have used voice-to-voice technology because I believe it makes the characters come to life in a way they do not in a typical audiobook-- and in a way I cannot afford to on my own. I also fancy myself to be a mediocre but passable composer of music. Once again, despite this I do not have access to a multi-thousand dollar sample library and MIDI is the best I can do. With AI, I have recorded myself playing an aging Korg Triton I have had for about twenty years or so and created much more fully-realized and detailed versions of melodies I composed with these characters in mind. I don’t want to hide this, and while I don’t agree with every criticism of AI I do see how generative AI can produce ugly, crude things that do not spark joy or please the imagination. So if you are wondering why ElevenLabs and Udio are in my credits, and what exactly this means, I hope this explanation has revealed all. Of course, any questions about how I use AI tools can be sent through the afforementioned channels and if there is sufficient interest I will happily make a demonstration episode where I play a little of the music or some of my original voice footage.
Finally, I want to say that the coming chapters are quite comparatively dark in contrast to the more restful recent ones. If you found the beginning of this story quite violent, I assure you that you will soon think of it as somewhat tame. The subject matter ahead is heavy and emotional; themes of power and vengeance that culminate in a tale exposing the horrors of war. For some this could be when the story takes a distasteful turn, but for many I think this is where it will really pick up momentum. It’s an adventure, after all. If you’ve made it this far, I am happy to know you cared enough to try. I hope you’ll join me for the rest of our journey.
Now with all that rubbish out of the way, let’s get underway once more!
