Well, P.G. Holyfield had his “Damn you, Holyfield!” and now I guess I have my “F**k you, Durham!” And yes, I take that as a compliment… twisted though it is… This is how it all happened. A FETIDUS listener by the name of Shane wrote me a decidedly terse note on the FETIDUS website, and I wrote him back. Here’s the exchange for your enjoyment. [ Language warning for my readers sensitive to the F word! ]

As posted by Shane:

“I love Fetidus. But you know what I am really fucking sick of.  You expect an invest from us. But you’re not invested in us. You take so god damned fucking long to release new episodes and we’re invested in the story.

So fuck you. I am cutting my feed from Itunes and will sign up again maybe in a year. When I am positive that all of the episodes have been released and I don’t have to wait so long.

This is really not fair to your fans.”

My response:

Hey Shane,

Wow, man, I almost don’t know what to say! First, I’ll take your post as a profoundly twisted compliment, so thank you, sir! I guess P.G. Holyfield had people tell him, “Damn you, Holyfield!” and now I guess my version of it is “Fuck you, Durham!” — although perhaps for different reasons. But I’ll take it as a good thing anyway. And I’ll just add this:

1) I deeply appreciate all my listeners. I try to say that as often as I can, and I hope that’s coming across. Getting to know some of them has been one of the highlights of producing FETIDUS. When someone transitions from being a listener to a full-fledged “fan,” I can’t say how awesome that is, and how much I appreciate it! It’s humbling and amazing. You guys completely blow me away!

2) You’re right, it does take a long time to release new episodes. As far as I know, I’m the only podcast novelist who is also writing all his own music for the episodes, and you know I have multiple voice actors as well, etc… this is basically a totally custom audio drama including all the music, and I don’t exactly have a staff, other than the split personalities in my poor, demented, contortionist mind. Plus I want to make sure each episode has a certain minimal level of quality. In fact, if I did it to the perfectionist level I wanted to, the episodes would take far longer to release!

So, yes, that all takes time, more time than I would like it to. But alas, this is how I’m doing it. Since FETIDUS is free, and I also have to make a living, have other creative projects going on, and more importantly I have a family I love spending time with… it’s the reality of the situation. As you know, I don’t charge for FETIDUS, don’t have any sponsors and thus far have refused any sponsors or ads, and I haven’t asked for donations (and I don’t plan to). So when you factor in the time it takes me to produce it, FETIDUS is costing me a huge amount of money. And I wish I could work on it full-time. I believe the way I’m doing it will eventually be worth it, and more importantly, I’m enjoying the hell out of it, and hope my listeners are too, even at the expense of torturing them with long waits in between episodes.

Now, in between episodes, it’s not that I forget about FETIDUS, or just ignore it or the listeners. I’m constantly trying to work on it, but I have other obligations in life, as I’m sure you do. For one, I have to make the money to make the time to work on it, so unless you want to write me a really big fat check to cover all my expenses, this is the only way I can do it.

Other podcasters struggle with the same issues, as I’m sure you know. They have different ways of dealing with it, all of which are completely understandable. For example, they may choose whether or not to include some of the production elements I’ve chosen to include. Some take sponsors. Some have a volunteer or a paid assistant helping them, or even a team or partners to work with. Some have real budgets. Some have big (or not-so-big) publishing deals and this is part of their critical marketing effort for their book launch (and I have supported more than one podcaster in that situation). Some are passionately trying to get that magical “big book deal.” Some are experimenting by charging for content. Some strip down the production to the bare minimum (quite effectively, I might add). Some secretly have a slave clone of themselves working night and day, etc., etc… In fact, I know of some podcasters who think I’m insane that I write my own music for FETIDUS and I’ll frankly, happily concur. But since I love doing it this way, I’ll continue investing the time.

3) Finally, how can I say this except, thank you for listening! I totally understand if you want to hold off until the whole project is done. I get where you’re coming from, and I’m honestly thrilled to hear you’re so pissed off at me that you’d let me know. I guess I must have done something right, otherwise it wouldn’t have been worth your time to contact me. And I sincerely wish you didn’t have to wait so long as well. In the end, I hope it will be worth the wait, and you come back to experience the full story. I just wish you didn’t cut the feed before episode 8, because things are about to get even more juicy.

Best Regards,
James Durham

P.S.: And by the way, cool artwork on your site! (I clicked there from the link you provided on your name.) Nice work, man!

> Click here to read the original exchange on FETIDUS.ORG

And now, for Episode 7 of FETIDUS: The Damned Heir! Please check out this thrilling episode! I didn’t have enough time before heading up to Balticon to announce it here on my personal website. I was literally scrambling at the very last minute before jumping in the car and cruising up to Baltimore (well, technically, Hunt Valley)! My wife and son were so patient with me as I wrapped up the finishing touches for Episode 7, but I think the extra effort was worth it.

Episode 7 is special in a couple of ways — first, because Matt Selznick finally makes his appearance as one of the characters, and he does a fantastic job. Second, because I actually sing in this episode. Yes, my singing voice! There’s a song near the end of the episode where I experimented and recorded my own voice, which is a FETIDUS first. I hope you enjoy it! I continue to experiment with the type of content and production I throw into FETIDUS, which is one of the reasons I love working on the project so much.

Finally, another bit of news: I finally released a 60-second verison of promo 1 of FETIDUS, which you can download here.

Check back soon, or subscribe for free via RSS or via email, since I’ve got some exciting developments cooking in both podcasting and film scoring!

Woo-Hoo! I just found out today that FETIDUS hit page 5 of the featured podcasts in iTunes Literature! Feels good to be in such great company! The undead are cheering!

Now, you might think this is a silly thing to celebrate, but the truth is, it gives me a great excuse to say THANK YOU to everyone who has joined with Art Blanchard and entered the fetid alleys of Washington DC of 2034, to set some things right and help the innocently damned! Each month, our audience has been growing — we’ve had thousands of downloads, and we’ve only just begun! Six episodes in, and the best is yet to come!

Thank you also to the great cast — you’ve done a fantastic job! I encourage all our listeners to go and support their work! Check out the FETIDUS cast page and please take the time to check out the talented people involved with FETIDUS!

For those that haven’t subscribed yet, please do so! You can subscribe in iTunes by searching for “FETIDUS” in the iTunes store, or try clicking here on this link.

Thank you all again, and I can’t wait to bring you Episode 7!

Best,
James

I was thrilled to have an interview about FETIDUS with the great team of Shannon and Matt over at Seattle-Geekly last week! They had a special zombie episode and I was honored they’d call me and ask about my take on zombies, among other things, to add to their massive zombie special. Their podcast continues to surprise me with how much content they cover, and they managed to put quite a bit of our lengthy conversation and some excerpts of my music in there! Thanks, Shannon and Matt! In our discussion, I geekishly wax verbose on the five types of zombies in the FETIDUS universe, as well as some of my influences and thinking processes as I developed FETIDUS. Check out the interview in Seattle-Geekly episode 12! Click here for the show notes and click here for the huge MP3 file, or you can subscribe to Seattle-Geekly in iTunes.

Hello everyone! I just posted a “special music episode” of FETIDUS over at FETIDUS.org and it’s a wee bit relevant for this website as well. Visit the FETIDUS.org version of this page or feel free to download the music below. Here’s the text from the other page:

I have something special here for you, folks! I’ve taken some of the music I’ve written for FETIDUS and put together 13-14 minutes of excerpts for your listening pleasure. They’re not final versions, but they’re close enough to give you a good feel for how the soundtrack is shaping up, and to give you a tasty morsel of that special FETIDUS atmosphere. Enjoy! And let me know what you think! Please, download it, close your eyes, and enter into the world of Art Blanchard and FETIDUS.

Special Music Episode 1:
00:00 – Intro from James
Music Excerpts:
03:09 – Retribution
05:07 – Mahrud Movement #9
08:15 – Deathsquad Reaper
09:34 – Intense Cogitation
11:27 – Activation by 5
12:42 – KA Texture
13:45 – A Slow March Through Hell

Thanks for listening! If you enjoy this special music episode, please share it!

Click below to listen to FETIDUS: The Damned Heir – Music Excerpts 1:

Download audio file: “FETIDUS: The Damned Heir – Music Excerpts 1” (30.7 MB)

Yes! Episode 6 of FETIDUS: The Damned Heir is now posted over on the FETIDUS website! I’m very excited about this episode, especially because so many of the cast had parts in this one. Almost everyone is there… Prebble Ramswell, Jose de la Mar, Patrick Nugent, Liliana Ayende, Bob Holmcrans, Sara Barrack and Valerie Durham — so it was really fun to edit, and quite the learning experience as well. The whole cast did a great job! Thank you, guys! You can read about the cast on the FETIDUS cast page. They are a wonderful group of people to work with, and I can’t wait to bring you more of their performances. I’m having the best time working on FETIDUS, and if you haven’t checked it out yet, I invite you to give it a try. After all, FETIDUS is about making the world a better place, isn’t it? Well, you’ll see…

Originally posted back on March 20th, I would be remiss in my newly minted duties to this personal website if I didn’t announce that Episode 5 of FETIDUS: The Damned Heir is now LIVE over at www.fetidus.org.

But now that I have announced it here, the hungry appetite of this website is now satisfied, albeit temporarily. In fact, if you subscribe to this blog, you will get all sorts of interesting updates… not just about FETIDUS, but about all of my other creative mayhem, commentary and cognitive diversions. And there are some things I’m positively certain you will be absolutely thrilled to know about.