On August 8, 2008 or 08-08-08, Tee Morris and Phillipa Ballantine are hosting an event they call “Double Trouble”. I have been following both authors for quite a while and I am a fan of their work. I am also a fan of new-media; something they are both very involved in.
Those two factors alone are enough for me to want to support their efforts. Add in the fact that both write a mean tale and I’m more than sold.
For those of you who haven’t heard of “Double Trouble” before, it is Tee and Pip’s run at Amazon on August 8th, 2008. They are asking us to go onto Amazon.com and order their books on that day starting at 8:00 AM EST.
I took the opportunity to ask them a few questions about “Double Trouble”. Please read on for their answers and let’s show them some love on August 8th.
What are you trying to accomplish with “Double Trouble”?
TEE: I don’t really think we’re out to send the industry a message or anything. I believe, outside of Pip and myself selling a few truckload of books, we are out to show the power of the Web 2.0 community. Not just podcasting. Not just blogging. The whole Web 2.0 initiative, especially when you are active in the communities out there. But we’re also looking to make an impression with these two new books and these works that we believe in.
Oh yeah, and we’re out to have a really good time! This is going to be fun.
PIP: I just wanted to have a decent birthday honest! I never quite foresaw that everyone was going to be so supportive and run with this. It just started out as a playful promo but it has certainly snowballed- and I am fine with that. For me it is about reaching out across the oceans and finding a way to interact with my readers, and make new ones. Yes, Web 2.0 is definitely something we kiwis can get behind!
What are your books about?
TEE: The Case of The Pitcher’s Pendant is my second Billibub Baddings Mystery, and it is set at the beginning of the 1930 baseball season. Billi is approached by the manager of the Chicago Cubs. He is curious about a new team in the league that is playing baseball_exceptionally_ well. what happens next…well, it’s in the book. 🙂
PIP: Digital Magic is set in our near future, and is about the fight to bring magic back to the human realm after the Fey world slipped away from ours. It is also the continuing story of one Fey trapped here with us humans. It is set in England and for the first time, New Zealand. I think the world that best describes it is cyber-Fey.
Where can people find you in the Podosphere and Internet?
TEE:
On the pod:
The Survival Guide to Writing Fantasy — http://teemorris.com/blog/
MOREVI: Remastered — http://morevi.net
Billibub Baddings and The Case of The Singing Sword — http://podiobooks.com/title/billibub-baddings-and-the-case-of-the-singing-swor
On the net:
Tee Morris — http://teemorris.com
Imagine That! Studios — http://imaginethatstudios.com
PIP:
On the pod:
Chasing the Bard at www.chasingthebard.com
Whispers at the Edge http://www.whispers.libsyn.com/
Erotica a la carte http://www.eroticaalacarte.com/
On the net:
www.pjballantine.net
What do you need us to do to support “Double Trouble”?
TEE: Talk to friends about it. Point your blogs, your friend’s blogs, and blogs that you follow to go to http://teemorris.com/billipodcast and http://chasingthebard.com to download the first book, to download the free PDFs and to be there on 08.08.08 beginning at 8am PST to place their orders for our books. Proudly display our sidebar artwork for Double Trouble by downloading the DT artwork on our respective sites.
Basically, let people know this date is happening!
PIP: What he said! (I think the uber-nemesis makes a great uber-PA)
Just who the heck are you, anyway?
TEE: I began my writing career in 2002 with the award-nominated historical epic fantasy, MOREVI: The Chronicles of Rafe & Askana. I podcast that novel in order to promote its sequel. LEGACY OF MOREVI. MOREVI went on to become the first book podcast in its entirety and was nominated for a 2006 Parsec for Best Podcast Fiction. Podcasting MOREVI also led to the founding of Podiobooks.com and Podcasting for Dummies from Wiley Publishing, co-written with Evo Terra. LEGACY OF MOREVI: Book One of the Arathellean Wars (a finalist for ForeWord Magazine’s Best Science Fiction of 2005).
In between print titles, I explore the possibilities of podcasting. I host The Survival Guide to Writing Fantasy (found on http://www.teemorris.com/blog/), a show about marketing and self-promotional concepts for published and soon-to-be-published authors. In 2006, I appeared in the podcast anthology VOICES: New Media Fiction (edited by Mur Lafferty) with “Asleep at the Wheel” and brought Billibub Baddings and The Case of The Singing Sword to the podosphere in 2007. I can also be heard alongside Chuck Tomasi and Earl Newton in Podcasting for Dummies (hosted at http://ForDummies.com). My latest project is Morevi: Remastered (on http://www.morevi.net), an unabridged version of his first podcast with guest voices and a few extra production surprises.
Next on my list is a podcast of LEGACY OF MOREVI and writing EXODUS FROM MOREVI: Book Two of The Arathellean Wars (2009).
PIP: I’m a writer and librarian from Wellington New Zealand. I started writing seriously about ten years ago, though I have been doing it practically all my life. My first novel Weaver’s Web was epublished. Chasing the Bard was published in 2005 and went on to be nominated for the Sir Julius Vogel Award- which is the New Zealand Hugo Award.
I turned Weaver’s Web into a podiobook in February 2006- making me NZ’s first podcast novelist. Shortly after I finished that I start Whispers at the Edge, the Parsec nominated podcast about my life as a writer on the edge of the map. I started Podcasting Chasing the Bard in March of 2008, and in addition I have been having a lot of fun as Askana Moldarin in Morevi Remastered, as well as parts in Metamor City, Murder at Avedon Hill and Astral Audio Experience.
Next on my to do list, is a short story erotica podcast, and early next year I am planning to podcast my fantasy novel set in a 1920s New Zealand, where magicians rule.
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Good luck Tee and Pip on August 8th, 2008. I, for one, will be going to Amazon to order both books (sorry Tee, but I won’t be giving either of you the edge in this particular contest).
Thank you so much for showing the love on your blog for the Dwarf Detective and the Fey Trickster! Hard to believe this promo unhatched barely two months ago is now five days from the posting of this comment. Thanks again for the support, and we hope to see you on Amazon at 8am PST-USA on 08.08.08.