Dragon Ore, the exciting conclusion of The Dawning of Power trilogy, is now available as a free audiobook. It is also available on Podiobooks.com, iTunes, and Zune Marketplace.

Download Dragon Ore - free audio book

If you haven’t listened to Book One: Call of the Herald yet, get it here

Inherited Danger, Book Two of The Dawning of Power trilogy is now available as a free audio book, which is read by the author. This audio book will soon be available on Podiobooks.com and iTunes.

Download Inherited Danger - free audio book

You can also check out the maps here

If you haven’t listened to Book One: Call of the Herald yet, get it here

 

 Inherited Danger - Prologue: Play Now | Play in Popup

Call of the Herald, Book one of The Dawning of Power trilogy is now available as a free audio book, which is read by the author.

Audio book versions of Inherited Danger and Dragon Ore will be available in the near future!

Download Call of the Herald - free audio book

You can also check out the maps here

 

 Call of the Herald - Prologue: Play Now | Play in Popup

 

 Call of the Herald - Chapter 1: Play Now | Play in Popup

Tia Nevitt has been kind enough to feature The Dawning of Power on her Fantasy Debut blog. Thanks Tia!

You can check it out here:

http://fantasydebut.blogspot.com/2009/02/discovery-showcase-dawning-of-power.html

iPhone and iPod Touch users can now purchase The Dawning of Power eBook directly through the iTunes AppStore for only $7.99.

Link to iTunes App Store

New fantasy fiction delivered through the latest technologies.

MobiPocket, Kindle, and PDF versions available as well.

If you need to add Code39 (3 of 9) barcodes to your Crystal Reports or any other document, click the link below:

http://www.brianrathbone.com/wordpress/how-to-add-barcodes-to-crystal-reports-for-free/

Kindle owners can get The Dawning of Power from the link below.

The Dawning of Power (The World of Godsland)

The Dawning of Power eBook is now available for $7.99 at Mobipocket.com and other eBook retailers. You can get your copy here:

The Dawning of Power eBook

Wordpress is a powerful blogging platform in its native form, but with some plugins and tweaking, you can really make your blog kick butt. Here are 10 ways to make your Wordpress blog better:

1. Make it fast! - Wordpress is dynamic and database driven. This is great except when you get a massive wave of traffic. Generating a dynamic page takes resources, and your web server can easily get overwhelmed. Nobody likes a slow loading site. The solution is to use a plugin that will cache your dynamic pages to static html and then only update them on a periodic basis. This will greatly reduce page load times and will increase the amount of load your Wordpress site can handle. I use WP Super Cache.

2. Provide a static home page. Blogs are great, but they don’t always make great homepages. Recent versions of Wordpress added the ability to assign a static front page. Just create your page in Wordpress, then click Settings and then Reading. On the Reading Settings page, select a static page for Front Page Displays. Now Wordpress can serve as a traditional website AND a blog!

3. Make it search engine friendly. Enable permalinks (Settings / Permalinks) and change the Common Settings to use Day and Name. Use a Wordpress SEO plugin. I use All in One SEO. Use Google Webmaster tools to identify any problems, especially duplicate content and duplicate META tags. Use your keywords in your page and post titles. Submit site maps to popular search engines. I use the Google XML Sitemaps plugin to create my sitemaps.

4. Encourage your readers to contact you. Avoid using mailto: links as contact links. Many people do not use mail clients any more, and mailto: links only confuse webmail users. A better solution is to use a contact form. Several Wordpress plugins exist for this purpose, but I use Enhanced WP-ContactForm.

5. Allow readers to subscribe to comments. You can bring your readers back to your site if they know when you or someone else has commented on a post that they have subscribed to. I use the Subscribe To Comments plugin.

6. Make it easy for readers to share your site with others. I use the WP-EMail plugin to make it easy for readers to email my pages and posts to their friends. I also use the Add Me Dichev plugin to provide social bookmark buttons (including Digg and Facebook) at the end of each post.

7. Use Feedburner to your advantage. Though Wordpress offers RSS2 support by default, it’s hard to beat the features Feedburner brings to the table. Once you create a Feedburner feed for your site, your can use the FeedBurner FeedSmith plugin to redirect your RSS2 feed to your new Feedburner feed. When this is done, you can add high-profile links where readers can subscribe via an RSS reader or even by email! Now that’s powerful. Also be sure to set up ping sites in Feedburner so content syndications sites will be notified when you post new content.

8. Make it easy for readers to link back to you. I use the Link to Me Textbox plugin to provide preformatted HTML links that readers can copy and paste into their own sites.

9. Tweet your blog posts. Twitter is gaining popularity, and the Twitter updater plugin automatically updates Twitter as you work on your blog. With a little work, you can then push these updates from Twitter to Facebook, MySpace and other sites.

10. If you offer files for download (and you should offer a free download of some sort), then you can use the Wordpress Download Monitor plugin to create your downloads, manage download pages and catagories, and you and your readers can see what’s popular based on how many times items have been downloaded.

Now go trick your blog!

Did you find this information helpful? I’d love to hear what other Wordpress users think of these tips.

*NOTE* The date for this event has been changed. Sorry for the inconvenience.

On Tuesday, December 9th, I will be signing copies of The Dawning of Power at Fireside Books and Gifts in Forest City, NC from 5pm to 7pm.

If you’ve never been to Fireside Books, this would be a great opportunity to check out a wonderful local book store and to chat with me. I hope to see you there!

Brian

I have posted some free fantasy artwork for download.

You can find more information here:

http://www.brianrathbone.com/wordpress/free-fantasy-art

or you can download the zip file here:

Free-Fantasy-Art.zip

If you like these, and you would like me to post the layered Photoshop files, just send me an email or leave a comment.

These two are my favorites:

Free Fantasy Avatars - I like to dabble in graphic art, and I’ve decided to give away some of my creations. You may use these in any way that you would like. If you are willing to link back to this site, that will be appreciated.

Download Free Fantasy Avatars Pack 1

Free Fantasy Avatars Pack 1 Preview:

Thanks for checking out Free Fantasy Avatars Pack 1. Be sure to check back. I may add more in the future.

Out of the house, across the yard and a patch of stonedust and we were there. Poppop’s barn. Inside waited a bizarre but familiar mixture of smells: freshly shaken straw, sweet-feed, coffee and the smell of one of Mommom’s homemade cakes.
On an old trunk he sat quietly, a glowering giant with nary a word to say. He didn’t look up; instead, he just opened his thermos and poured some coffee into the cap. Brad and I waited, sometimes quietly, sometimes patiently, but rarely both. Either way, Poppop always did the same thing. After rooting around in his thermos-case and pretending that he couldn’t find anything, he’d pull out a nicely wrapped piece of cake. It was one of the rare occasions when the quiet-giant spoke, “Here, kitty kitty.”

The barn cats were rarely far away, and they never missed a chance to get the little crumbs of cake he tossed to them. Brad and I would wait our turn. When he thought we’d shown sufficient patience, he would turn to us as straightfaced as ever. We’d just grin back and wait for him to hand us the other pieces of cake mysteriously waiting in his thermos-case.

His breaks didn’t last long, and he’d soon be busy with the business of training standarbreds. With a steady and quiet hand, he worked his art. He’d spend much of his day in a jogcart, circling the half-mile training track. When Brad and I were small, he’d let one of us sit on his lap, but as we got older things changed. One day we came out to find that he’d bolted a board to the back of one of the jogcarts, which created a place for Brad to sit on one side and for me to sit on the other. We’d ride around for hours while Poppop half-hummed, half-sang the same tune, “Ei dee di, ei dee di.”

As time passed, Poppop began letting us drive while he sat on the board; it was fun, and, at times, terrifying, but there was something about connecting with the horse, communicating through the leather lines. The sound of hooves on stonedust, the feeling of gliding and bouncing along, birds singing from the hedgerows, and rabbits darting through the fields made it seem almost magical at times.

It was during one of those times that I was driving; Poppop rode silently on the board. I counted off each lap, knowing we were supposed to go five miles. I was proud that Poppop let me drive, but I wondered if I really had what it took, if I was ready. Brad was older, better, and seemed to have a natural skill with the horses. I spent a good amount of my time just trying to avoid being bitten or stepped on. When I reached the tenth lap, I knew it was time to turn the lines back over to Poppop; walking the horse from the track to the barn required more skill than did jogging around the track. But when I turned, he was gone, his decision already made.

I slowed the horse and looked around, but I saw no one. I was on my own. As I made the turn and slowly walked the horse up the curving path, past tractors and fenclines, I was filled with a mixture of fear and pride. I approached my grandfather’s barn determined to prove he’d been right. I’d seen horses balk at the barn door, refusing to go from light to dark, as if there were some invisible barrier, but I got lucky and the horse simply walked in and stopped at the first set of crossties.

I climbed from the seat, hung the lines, and helped get the horse unhooked. Poppop moved with practiced precision and led the horse into the wash-stall. He never said a word about it. There was no need. I knew.

I’m glad to have pictures like this one. Thanks to Brad for scanning them.

<Added Pictures. See comments>

Weary Don at Brandywine

I’m chillin’ with Darth Vader, and Laurie is strutting her short shorts.

Short Shorts rule, and leave it to me to hog the spotlight only to suddenly realize I’ve eaten something I shouldn’t. Note Jeremy levitating in the back.

The Dozer at Brandywine

I’ve always found the paranormal intriguing, and when I heard a paranormal convention was taking place in Hickory, NC, it seemed like a fun way for Tracey and I to spend a Saturday.

After some interesting presentations and lectures, we split up into groups and investigated the school buildings known as the Salt Block. It seemed a good place to do our first ghost hunt, since the buildings are well maintained and not creepy at all.

Teamed up with Shannon Sylvia from Ghost Hunters International, her husband, Patrick Burns, and Eric Singleton, our group began our investigation. There were a couple times when the building made old building noises, but things were otherwise pretty quiet. After filming a single green light on a K2 meter for 30 minutes, I began to think we were going to have an uneventful evening. When we moved to the auditorium, things did get interesting . . .

Eric had been with us all along, and his walkie-talkie had been behaving itself, but it started occassionally issuing bursts of static once we settled in the auditorium. As we did an EVP session, the static grew more frequent until it could no longer be ignored. Oddly, it rarely occurred when someone was speaking, and seemed to almost be happening in response to our questions. What ensued was an interesting and thought provoking bout of Q and A with a walkie-talkie.

If you are interested, I have posted audio I captured in the auditorium. This audio was captured on a miniDV camcorder that was placed in an empty seat. The audio is relatively quiet, so I amplified it. You may notice some spots where the audio has been quieted. These are places where I was speaking close to microphone, and I didn’t want it to blow anyone’s ears out. Other than that, this audio is pretty much straight off the DV camera.

While I can’t say this is evidence of paranormal activity at the Salt Block, it certainly was an interesting experience.

 

 Haunted Hickory Ghost Hunt: Play Now | Play in Popup

There once was a rooster. He was good rooster. I wrote a story about him, and though we don’t see him any more, we still hear the calls of his descendants in the woods.

A Rooster’s Tale

Several years ago, my wife and I moved to the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in western North Carolina. The variety of wildlife that visits our back yard has been a constant source of excitement and intrigue. Still, I was surprised and a bit skeptical when my wife told me that she had seen a chicken in the driveway.

I laughed and told her that it was probably a wild turkey or pheasant, but as it turns out, she was right. A poor bedraggled soul of a chicken sought refuge in the tranquility of our back yard. He was shy at first and would run away whenever we emerged from the house, but over time he became friendly–I suspect it had something to do with the corn and fresh water we produced.

We didn’t want to become too attached to our new feathered-friend, and we simply referred to him as “Chick Chick”. Quite imaginative, eh?

It was a pleasant and amusing surprise when Chick Chick decided to stay with us for the winter. He spent much of his time on our back porch, sleeping on the welcome mat–much to the chagrin of our two indoor cats. He would even tap on the glass door with his beak when we were late delivering his breakfast; this was later replaced by his clarion call from our welcome mat.

One day, in early spring, I noticed something running around the yard. I looked out to see one of the neighborhood cats chasing Chick Chick. I shooed the cat gently from the yard and stood for a moment enjoying the day. Chick Chick wandered around aimlessly, and all seemed well. A moment later, though, a large red-tailed hawk swooped through the air, barely missing its prey–Chick Chick. The hawk perched in a nearby tree, and I shooed it away as well. Chick Chick cowered behind me and followed me as I walked. I couldn’t blame him; it had been a rough day.

Chick Chick became part of our daily lives and never ceased to entertain us, and it surprised us both that we could enjoy his company so much. His place in our lives became even more apparent when he disappeared. No note, no long goodbyes, he was just plain gone.

After several weeks, we began to give up the hope that our beloved Chick Chick would ever return. I tried to convince my wife that he had run off with the circus, or that maybe he had found himself a hen. Despite her characteristic optimism, she feared the worst, and we shared a moment of silence in Chick Chick’s memory.

When three months had passed, I no longer looked for Chick Chick in the woods, nor did I expect to see him when I walked by the door. I was startled when I noticed several large, dark shapes darting around the yard. At first, I could not tell what kind of creatures they were, but then I got a better look. They were baby chickens–five of them. I thought for a moment that a local farm must have had an escape, but then I saw something that brought tears to my eyes–Chick Chick!

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, and I wasn’t absolutely certain that this chicken was THE chicken, so I ran into the garage and grabbed a cup of corn. When I shook the cup and called for him, Chick Chick came a running, clucking happily all the way. It was a joyous reunion, and I was thrilled to give my wife the good news.

Chick Chick and his hen bring the family by for some corn and fresh water just about every day; each visit warms our hearts and lightens our souls. It is nice to realize that sometimes those silly things we tell ourselves when faced with grim possibilities, can actually be true.

One of the first questions a budding podcaster is faced with is what equipment to buy. There are a few budget rigs that others have spec’d out, but I decided to try my own combination.

Microphone: Heil PR-40 Dynamic Studio Recording Microphone

Shockmount: Heil SM2 - Champagne Finish Spider Shock Mount

Firewire interface: Yamaha GO46 Mobile Audio Solution

Recordings done on Apple Powerbook G4 using Garageband (packed with as much RAM as it’ll hold)

Editing done on Windows PC using Audacity

For intro, outro, and scene breaks I use a Yamaha MIDI keyboard that I’ve had for many years. It’s a YPP-15

Add a Mic Stand, Pop Filter, and XLR Microphone Cable and you’re ready to record.

I still need to do some additional soundproofing, but it’s all working well so far.

When it comes time to put my podcast on the web, I use the wonderful Podpress plugin by Dan Kuykendall at MightySeek

Podpress is a plugin for the popular WordPress blogging system

Have fun podcasting!

This video was shot on my back porch. We have several feeders, but this one has always been in a favorite spot.

 

 Ruby throated hummingbirds: Play Now | Play in Popup

Beyond the Veil is a short story I wrote a while back. It’s quite different from my novels, but it seemed like a good way to test out my podcasting rig and get some practice. Comments are welcome.

Brian

You can download the PDF version here:

Beyond the Veil PDF

Audio short story below:

Duration: 28 minutes

Download size: 68MB

or click play button below to listen now.

 

 Beyond the Veil: Play Now | Play in Popup

I’m off to finish setting up the new website.