The Thirteenth Hour Podcast #95: “Elminster at the Magefair” by Ed Greenwood Part 3 of 3

Episode #95:  Forgotten Realms “Elminster at the Magefair” by Ed Greenwood Part 3 of 3

https://archive.org/download/Podcast95_20170520/Podcast%2095.mp3

Today’s episode is #3 in a three part telling of a fantasy short story by Ed Greenwood about Elminster the mage from the TSR Forgotten Realms anthology Realms of Valor. In this episode, Elminster meets his match and is helped by a friend.  There’s also an afterword that talks about how Ed Greenwood and many others created the Forgotten Realms universe – essentially an open source multisite project spanning decades.

Found this funny picture with a quote from our man of the hour.  I guess when you have lived 5 centuries, it’s easy to be zen about such things.

As always, thanks for listening!

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• Website: https://13thhr.wordpress.com
• Book trailer: http://bit.ly/1VhJhXY
• Interested in reading and reviewing The Thirteenth Hour for a free book?  Just email me at writejoshuablum@gmail.com for more details!

 

 

The Thirteenth Hour Podcast #94: “Elminster at the Magefair” by Ed Greenwood Part 2 of 3

Episode #94:  Forgotten Realms “Elminster at the Magefair” by Ed Greenwood Part 2 of 3

https://archive.org/download/Podcast94_201705/Podcast%2094.mp3

Today’s episode is #2 in a three part telling of a fantasy short story by Ed Greenwood about Elminster the mage from the TSR Forgotten Realms anthology Realms of Valor. In this episode, we find out why his going to the mage Con creates such havoc.  My daughter refers to him as a “trouble maker.”  But he’s sufficiently well known, trouble maker or not, to have his own wikipedia entry, where you can learn about him and his creator, Ed Grrenwood: 

This illustration is from the cover of a companion to Realms of Valor, called Realms of Magic.

As always, thanks for listening!

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•  Signup for the mailing list for a free special edition podcast, a demo copy of The Thirteenth Hour, and access to retro 80s soundtrack!
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• Listen to Long Ago Not So Far Away, the Thirteenth Hour soundtrack online at: https://joshuablum.bandcamp.com/  Join the mailing list for a digital free copy.  You can also get it on CD or tape.
• Website: https://13thhr.wordpress.com
• Book trailer: http://bit.ly/1VhJhXY
• Interested in reading and reviewing The Thirteenth Hour for a free book?  Just email me at writejoshuablum@gmail.com for more details!

 

 

The Thirteenth Hour Podcast #93: “Elminster at the Magefair” by Ed Greenwood Part 1 of 3

Episode #93:  Forgotten Realms “Elminster at the Magefair” by Ed Greenwood Part 1 of 3

https://archive.org/download/Podcast93_201705/Podcast%2093.mp3

Today’s episode is a three part telling of a fantasy short story by Ed Greenwood about Elminster the mage from the TSR Forgotten Realms anthology Realms of Valor.  He’s apparently a kind of Gandalf -like figure in the Forgotten Realms D and D world.  In this episode, he goes to a wizards’ convention, and trouble finds him.

This picture by Ned Dameron shows Elminster and his travelling companion and bodyguard, Storm Silverhand.

As always, thanks for listening!

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

•  Signup for the mailing list for a free special edition podcast, a demo copy of The Thirteenth Hour, and access to retro 80s soundtrack!
• Follow The Thirteenth Hour’s instagram pages: @the13thhr and@the13thhr.ost for your random postings on ninjas, martial arts, archery, flips, breakdancing, fantasy art, 80s music, movies, and pictures or songs from The Thirteenth Hour books.
• Listen to Long Ago Not So Far Away, the Thirteenth Hour soundtrack online at: https://joshuablum.bandcamp.com/  Join the mailing list for a digital free copy.  You can also get it on CD or tape.
• Website: https://13thhr.wordpress.com
• Book trailer: http://bit.ly/1VhJhXY
• Interested in reading and reviewing The Thirteenth Hour for a free book?  Just email me at writejoshuablum@gmail.com for more details!

 

 

The Thirteenth Hour Podcast #92: “The Bargain” by Elaine Cunningham Part 2 of 2

Episode #92:  Forgotten Realms “The Bargain” by Elaine Cunningham Part 2 of 2

https://archive.org/download/Podcast92_201705/Podcast%2092.mp3

Today’s episode is part 2 of the fantasy short story from the TSR Forgotten Realms anthology Realms of Valor, “The Bargain” by Elaine Cunningham.  It centers around a half elf character called Arilyn Moonblade and her companion, Danilo Thann, and in the episode, we learn why the story is called as it is.  If you missed the previous episode, here it is.

As always, thanks for listening!

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•  Signup for the mailing list for a free special edition podcast, a demo copy of The Thirteenth Hour, and access to retro 80s soundtrack!
• Follow The Thirteenth Hour’s instagram pages: @the13thhr and@the13thhr.ost for your random postings on ninjas, martial arts, archery, flips, breakdancing, fantasy art, 80s music, movies, and pictures or songs from The Thirteenth Hour books.
• Listen to Long Ago Not So Far Away, the Thirteenth Hour soundtrack online at: https://joshuablum.bandcamp.com/  Join the mailing list for a digital free copy.  You can also get it on CD or tape.
• Website: https://13thhr.wordpress.com
• Book trailer: http://bit.ly/1VhJhXY
• Interested in reading and reviewing The Thirteenth Hour for a free book?  Just email me at writejoshuablum@gmail.com for more details!

 

 

The Thirteenth Hour Podcast #91: “The Bargain” by Elaine Cunningham Part 1 of 2

Episode #91:  Forgotten Realms “The Bargain” by Elaine Cunningham Part 1 of 2

https://archive.org/download/Podcast91_201705/Podcast%2091.mp3

Today’s episode continues the theme of the last two weeks – reading aloud a fantasy short story from the TSR Forgotten Realms anthology Realms of Valor.  This one is called “The Bargain” by Elaine Cunningham and centers around a half elf character called Arilyn Moonblade and her companion, Danilo Thann.  Here a pic of the two striking heroic poses, painting by Fred Fields:

So, like the last two weeks, listen along as I continue to butcher the names left and right and try to avoid putting in running commentary when I don’t understand something. I’m getting a bit better.  I think if I had started with stories like these when I was a kid instead of books that just had cool covers, I might have made out better with fantasy in general.

To be continued next week!

The first page of the story had this title illustration by Ned Dameron.  He did a number of illustrations for the Dark Tower books if that name rings a bell.

As always, thanks for listening!

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

•  Signup for the mailing list for a free special edition podcast, a demo copy of The Thirteenth Hour, and access to retro 80s soundtrack!
• Follow The Thirteenth Hour’s instagram pages: @the13thhr and@the13thhr.ost for your random postings on ninjas, martial arts, archery, flips, breakdancing, fantasy art, 80s music, movies, and pictures or songs from The Thirteenth Hour books.
• Listen to Long Ago Not So Far Away, the Thirteenth Hour soundtrack online at: https://joshuablum.bandcamp.com/  Join the mailing list for a digital free copy.  You can also get it on CD or tape.
• Website: https://13thhr.wordpress.com
• Book trailer: http://bit.ly/1VhJhXY
• Interested in reading and reviewing The Thirteenth Hour for a free book?  Just email me at writejoshuablum@gmail.com for more details!

 

 

The Thirteenth Hour Podcast #90: “Dark Mirror” by R.A. Salvatore Part 2 of 2

Episode #90:  Forgotten Realms “Dark Mirror” by R.A. Salvatore Part 2 of 2

https://archive.org/download/Podcast90_201705/Podcast%2090.mp3

Today’s episode continues where we left off last week (in the reading of “Dark Mirror” by R.A Salvatore from the anthology Realms of Valor) as Drizzt, the dark elf, and his magic panther with the unpronounceable name continue their travails to free a band of prisoners from some bad, bad creatures.

So, like last week, listen along as I continue to butcher the names left and right and try to avoid putting in running commentary when I don’t understand something.  But, the great thing about this story is that although it starts off simple enough, like a traditional fantasy story with the bad guys (orcs) and the good guys (human farmers), it becomes less and less clear as the tale progress who the good and bad creatures actually are.  I feel like if I had read more of this breed of fantasy story when I was a kid, I might have had a better time with the genre in general.  Oh well.

Apologies for the audio quality on this episode.  I had a lot of trouble recording for some reason.  The only way to get rid of the weird buzzing in the background was to try to clean up the audio enough it softens parts a bit too much.

I finally found the artist, Todd Lockwood, who did the great picture, entitled “Orc King,” from last week’s show notes.  Click on the full picture below to go to his website:

The first page of the story had this title illustration by Ned Dameron, which makes a little more sense this week than it did last week.  He did a number of illustrations for the Dark Tower books if that name rings a bell.

As always, thanks for listening!

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

•  Signup for the mailing list for a free special edition podcast, a demo copy of The Thirteenth Hour, and access to retro 80s soundtrack!
• Follow The Thirteenth Hour’s instagram pages: @the13thhr and@the13thhr.ost for your random postings on ninjas, martial arts, archery, flips, breakdancing, fantasy art, 80s music, movies, and pictures or songs from The Thirteenth Hour books.
• Listen to Long Ago Not So Far Away, the Thirteenth Hour soundtrack online at: https://joshuablum.bandcamp.com/  Join the mailing list for a digital free copy.  You can also get it on CD or tape.
• Website: https://13thhr.wordpress.com
• Book trailer: http://bit.ly/1VhJhXY
• Interested in reading and reviewing The Thirteenth Hour for a free book?  Just email me at writejoshuablum@gmail.com for more details!

The Thirteenth Hour Podcast #50: Reading of Robert Browning’s Poem “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came”

Episode #50: Storytime Reading of Robert Browning’s Poem “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came”

https://archive.org/download/13thHrEps16On/Podcast%2050.mp3

Last week, we read the Old English fairy tale, “Childe Roland.”  This week, I’m reading aloud the Robert Browning poem, “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came” which was the inspiration for Stephen King’s Dark Tower series.  It’s quite different from the fairy tale and from King’s books, though it shares the dark psychological bent he gave his long magnus opus.  I found it a difficult poem to read.  Couldn’t quite get into a good rhythm, so there are parts that seem more staccato than I would have liked.  It seemed more like one of those works that tries to evoke a series of feelings and images rather than telling a narrative tale.  It reminded me of the Coleridge poem, “Kubla Khan” (In Xanadu did Kubla Khan / A stately pleasure-dome decree …).  

You can find an interpretation of Browning’s poem on Sparknotes.  One of the takeaways of the poem is there is always sacrifice in the single minded devotion to a goal and sometimes that leads to some culture shock when others can’t quite understand what the goal was all for.  Logan from The Thirteenth Hour figures that at the end of his own long quest, as mentioned here.

Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, by Thomas Moran (clicking on the picture takes you to the Wikipedia entry to this poem).

If you don’t know the story of Roland a la Stephen King, I highly recommend reading them or listening to the audio books (which are excellent).  The first novel, The Gunslinger, has a great opening line.  Below are some pictures from the novels in the series.

The beginning of The Gunslinger …

Susannah Dean takes aim with Roland’s revolver, by Ned Dameron.

Jake Chambers and Oy on the attack, by Michael Whelan.

Jake and Roland at the clearing at the end of the path, by Michael Whelan.

As always, thanks for listening!

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•  Signup for the mailing list for a free special edition podcast and a demo copy of The Thirteenth Hour!
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• Website: https://13thhr.wordpress.com
• Book trailer: http://bit.ly/1VhJhXY
• Interested in reading and reviewing The Thirteenth Hour for a free book?  Just email me at writejoshuablum@gmail.com for more details!