It’s great to here that you will be bringing the show back and as I said I hope it comes back in the same style it went out with all those loooong months ago LOL.

Warm Regards,
James

I wont go so far as to say you have “let the fans down” but I would say you have let yourself down, you had a really solid ahem foundation for a great story and now you have let it just fade into the memory, I mean if you do ever manage to get another ep out I’m wuite sure mostly everyone will have to relisten to maybe the previous 2 or 3 ep’s before listening to the new one as it has been soooooooo bloody long since the last.

I do hope you get your podcasting act together as I look forward to the return of FETIDUS and hope it comes back with the same style ans panache that has gone before it.

A saddened fan.

Furthermore, you handled this well. It can be difficult to deal with angry fans and I often see authors either ignore them or sink to their level. You did neither. Kudos again.

Lastly, I wouldn’t be opposed to your accepting of a sponsor. Many less well produced podcast novels have them and we all put up with it. You deserve to get paid for this type of creative endever. I’m also slightly selfishly motivated in my suggestion of this. I hope that this will be a nice long story. I also hope that it will give birth to many other tales and spinoffs. I would love to hear the history of this universe. Accepting a sponsorship would certainly make it easier for you to produce without hurting your wallet.

Keep up the excellent work. I, and your other fans, await the next episode.

-mars

Thank you, sir! Spoken by the master himself! I really appreciate your comments and your support… especially the things I’ve learned from you, both directly and indirectly.

I think that one of the best pieces of wisdom that you ever gave me regarding podcasting was to be myself — which you reiterated in your comments here. I completely agree with that. Podcasting something like this — when you put so much time and effort into it — doesn’t leave a lot of room for a false persona. I’m not a good faker anyway, so it saves a lot of hassle just by being myself. Besides, the audience is smart enough to see right through any facades I might be tempted to put up.

Anyway, I’ll be the first to say I’m still learning, and yes, I totally understand where Shane is coming from. I’ve thought something similar about some writers I really enjoy. I was ticked off at Alan Dean Foster for a couple of years because he took so long to get back to the Pip and Flinx series. I even wrote him. Although, admittedly, I didn’t say, “F* you, Foster!”

I just appreciate that some of my listeners have caught the FETIDUS bug and I’m honored and blown away they are investing in it. I will try my best to satiate their appetites!

By the way, speaking of classy, you have won the appreciation and loyalty of your fans for your awesome story, podcast and by being who you are.

Best, James

If I’m ever lucky enough to win an award someday, I plan on quoting from the most scathing review of MaAH during my acceptance speech. Something along the lines of “horrible writing, and even worse voice-acting…” It didn’t anger me (much)… it made me work even harder.

We chatted a lot about this very thing (meeting audience expectations re: a release schedule) before you got started. This stuff is hard. Even with your years of audio editing and music experience (which I certainly didn’t have when I started this podcasting thing), it takes so much time to create this type of podcast novel.

The “straight read” podcast novelists set the weekly release standard, and they worked (and continue to work) very hard to meet that standard. But considering the production time it takes to create an episode of something like FETIDUS or MaAH or Metamor City, or any of the other podcasts that are more audio dramas than author reads… there needs to be a different set of expectations. I know that a lot of my listeners were patient and stuck with me… and what ended up as an average of an episode released every three weeks or so. I know others stopped listening but have come back to listen to the whole novel since it is now completed. And there are some that left and have yet to come back. And like David wrote, most of the people that took part in the “Damn You Holyfield!” meme were fans that understood what it took for me to produce MaAH.

All you can do is be honest, communicate what’s going on as often as possible, and when you don’t meet a deadline you’ve stated in a previous podcast, you bite the bullet and say “My bad!”

Keep up the great work here James, and keep being the person you are. I doubt I would have responded with the class you did. But come to think of it, I met you at Balticon and I know you have more class than I do….

BTW, I really do appreciate all my listeners. I’m amazed at the diversity of people that I’ve discovered are listening to FETIDUS. And I bet there are more people who are upset at me (or at the very least, annoyed), like Shane, that the episodes take so long. So I respect where he’s coming from, but I can’t say it much better than I did in my response to him.

And yes, the episode is coming soon! Thank you, man, for your support! I can’t wait to share it with you guys. The parts I have completed are creepy and delicious in all the ways I was hoping for, so be warned, this is one you’ll want to sit down for, turn the lights low, and hold on to something — or someone — very tightly.

You handled that with true class. I have to say that I think fans don’t always truly grasp how much work goes into a production like you put out. Even a stripped down podcast takes a lot of time and yours would be the exact opposite of stripped down. It would be a symphony rather than the guy on his porch playing a recorder. While the guy with the recorder might be really good and fun to listen to, the preparation for a performance between the two does not compare.

And while I said a “Damn You, Holyfield!” to P.G. like many people, that was all in good fun. This was more along the lines of some of Sigler’s fans. You’re a good guy and let it roll off (as you should), but I’m a fan and think that guy was way out of line. And I’ll never give you an “F* you, Durham!”

I will , however, remind everyone to be patient. It’s for a good cause because “After all, FETIDUS is all about helping people…isn’t it?”

The most ire I can muster up right now is “Hurry up, James! We’re waiting!” And believe me I’m itching for a new episode. And I don’t mean itching in the same way as Art is, thankfully.