Brian Hagan's Blog

It doesn’t look too different, but I made some very important updates.

Anyhoo, any of you who have been paying attention will have noticed a dramatic lack of activity around here. I did release a short story a little while ago, a chilling story titled Blood in the Dunes which can be found here.

I also have a new recording studio and a vast backlog of submissions to the podcast, so keep an eye and ear out for new episodes of Evie Reads.

Thank you to everyone who’s stuck with me so far.

Guess what everyone? My talented wife made me new cover images for my short stories! Check these out:

Click on any of the images above to go to their Amazon page where you can get them on Kindle.

After taking WAY longer than it had any right to take, the sequel to The Horrible Plan of Horace Pickle is finally available on Amazon in paperback and on Kindle.

From the back of the book:

Emeril Battles wants to rule the world, but first he must save it – from a hero.

Six months after his encounter with Horace Pickle, August is hitting his stride as a full-fledged hero of Windsmith City, but no one else seems to have gotten the memo. As puzzling events pull him into a new mystery, he finds himself allied with other heroes of the city in a fight to save the world. What he doesn’t know is that he’s not the only one trying to save it, and not everyone has good intentions.

Thank you everyone who has remained patient with me and helped to keep me motivated to make this moment happen! So without further ado, the links, please…

You can The Single Deed of Emeril Battles in paperback here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1448603153

And on Kindle here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07RHGDDJL

Today I sold the last copy of the 1st edition of The Horrible Plan of Horace Pickle. The publishing contract for the book with Fantastic Journeys Publishing has come to its conclusion, and I’ve decided to not renew it. What does this mean for the book? For a time, it may become unavailable online while I decide how I want to go forward with making it available again and what I’m going to do with its sequel. I may self-publish it, or I may try to find a new publisher.

Since it was published, The Horrible Plan of Horace Pickle has sold over 400 copies across the country. I’m excited to see the 2nd edition take form, and I can’t wait to bring you all the sequel soon after that!

I have a ton of news to share with you all, but instead of writing one big post I’ll be doing a few over the coming week. This first post, you may have guessed, is about the podcast and Patreon!

Part of the difficulty with the podcast has been finding sponsors. At the moment, the podcast costs very little to run, but it’s still a non-zero number. At the moment those costs are split almost even between the hosting and paying authors for their work. I can’t pay them very much, and I want that to eventually change. With your support, we can make that happen.

A commitment of $1 a month from just a fraction of listeners will make a world of difference for the podcast and the authors whose work is read on it. In return you get access to transcripts of the podcast, and if you’re feeling more generous you can gain a few extra tidbits as well like the opportunity to watch me record the episodes live (which usually includes a special guest or two–my cats).

All of the money from the Patreon goes to supporting the podcast. I don’t keep a single cent for myself.

Click here and become a subscriber now and share it on social media!

Releasing today is “42 and Beyond” an anthology of science fiction stories inspired by Douglas Adams. My story, Lucky’s Books, appears in the second volume (out of four) in the series. You can get it on Amazon.

The audiobook of The Horrible Plan of Horace Pickle has been available since May and I’m embarrassed that I never announced it!

Also, at the beginning of August, an anthology titled Realm of Magic was published. It contains my story Edna, Grace, and Alan, a story of three witches who have a bit of a… miscommunication.

“What’s going on with the podcast,” you ask? Well it was always meant to take a break around this time of year (July/August), although the break started a bit earlier than I anticipated. Essentially, the five existing episodes are going to be what I’ll consider ‘Season 1’ of the podcast. I aim to make a Season 2. That’s about all I can really share at the moment. If you have a story you’d like to submit and have just been wondering if it’s worth submitting–please send it my way!

Sadly, I just received word that the audio book of The Horrible Plan of Horace Pickle won’t be release for about another two weeks. I’m not 100% what the mix up was with the date originally being set at the 23rd, but, so it goes.

The important thing is that it is happening. It’s just an issue of the release date getting mixed up.

Stay tuned!

Yay, new podcast!

It’s, technically, a day late. That’s still an improvement, I’d like to point out.

Five episodes in and I’m still getting my process nailed down. Episode 4 had a drop in recording quality, I feel, but I tried to bump it back up with this episode. I definitely had fun reading these stories. I tried to not do anything funny with accents or voices this time around, and I don’t think I did anything too crazy in that regard. I’m definitely open to feedback though.

Thanks for listening and please consider sending in a story! A thousand words is less than it seems, but still enough to tell a good story. More to the point, I really want to have other peoples’ stories to read on the podcast! So keep them coming!

Head over to the podcast page to listen or submit.

On a slightly related note, I’ve been considering adding some Brian Reads merchandise. Little things like buttons, patches, and stickers. What do you think?

Sometimes in life you come across things that are completely outside anything your own culture has to offer. Sometimes the experience is bad, but other times it’s very, very good. I hope this is one of those times for you.

I first came across morin khuur, the mongolian horsehead fiddle, a few years ago. Since then I’ve tried to find more music made with it but a lot of the videos and recordings were overproduced (that is, they had background tracks that were just too much). I wanted simple, raw, awesome music.

That’s what you’re about to see. Anton Vdk and his bandmate are amazing, even in rehearsal. Here they play 1. Hartai sarlag (Domog) 2. Khulguud (Hosoo & Transmongolia) 3. Mongol hun (Domog).