A “different” idea for holiday gift giving...

If you’re like me, finding a gift that the adults on your list haven’t already purchased for themselves can be quite a challenge. For me this task can best be described as giving someone the thing they would have bought, had they known about it.

I’ve noticed a resurgent interest in audio of late. Audio books have been around for a while, but iPods and podcasting have made them even more popular. Also, folks who didn’t know what a podcast was a couple of years ago are now regular listeners.

With that in mind, let me share a link and a gift idea with you. Since 1984, the Atlanta Radio Theatre Company has been performing, recording, and broadcasting dramatic audio — fully dramatized, fully sound-scaped audio drama, far beyond the readings and “audio books” you can find in every bookstore. According to their website, “We like to think that what we do is classic ‘old-time radio’, as it would sound with today's technology and dramatic techniques.” I’ve heard them perform, and it is quite a treat.

So, for those on your list who have a computer, an audio player, or an iPod, and who enjoy a good story, you can give the gift of premium audio drama— courtesy of the Atlanta Radio Theatre Company. There’s a link to their podcast on their site, as well as ways to purchase their recordings, in either CD or cassette format.

Sure beats trying to figure out size and color preferences, doesn’t it?

After LibertyCon

Hubby and I arrived home on Sunday afternoon after a couple of evenings in Chattanooga. LibertyCon was so much more literary than the other cons I’ve attended, it just might have been called LiteraryCon. Most of the “name” authors were with Baen books, including Special Guest Travis Taylor, John Ringo, and Julie Cochrane. I renewed my acquaintance with dark fiction writer Chris Barber and her husband, met editor/writer Judith Geary, and met author Stephen E. Cobb and his sister who was being photographer/gopher for him.

While driving home, I asked hubby what he enjoyed most, and although we agree that Travis Taylor may be the smartest person we’ve ever heard talk for an appreciable amount of time, The Atlanta Radio Theatre Company, directed by Bill Ritch, was the most entertaining. Speaking of Travis Taylor, he is not only smart, he is a superman when it comes to endurance. He was scheduled for seven hours straight on Saturday, and he didn’t even take lunch— I watched him scarf down some KFC during a panel and keep on going.

Due to my juggling schedules, I didn’t get a room at the con hotel, so I looked at TripAdvisor.com and found a great hotel at an attractive price near the Con. We stayed at the Wingate Inn, near Hamilton Place Mall. Our stay featured a clean room, a really good breakfast buffet, high speed wireless internet, and not a great view. When I went in the first evening, a glance out the window revealed a giantic Barnes and Noble, so close that it was just about all we could see, which is rather ironic. I went to sell books, because Whiskey Creek Press doesn’t have any distribution to such vendors, so here I go hawking books at the con. The name authors seemed to think it was weird that we hauled our own books and other stuff around, but one attendee thanked me for “doing my job.”

I appreciate the people who came to the panels and “readings.” The people I met did indeed reinforce the idea that LibertyCon is the south’s “friendliest science fiction convention.”