Hey, out there!

I’m hoping to have a podcaster meetup at Max Lager’s Woodfired Grille in Atlanta! There’s a giant gear on the side of the building! What could be better? If you’re going to Dragon*Con (or even if you’re not), let’s hang out! Comment if you’re going to be there, or heck, just show up!

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Agent Darren Freeman prepares to defend himself from an assailant with deadly magic! William Avon Young’s sharp features were so perfect for this role. I couldn’t be more pleased with the results! Thanks also to Brooke Fox for her great skills as producer! We couldn’t have done it without you. The photo was shot in the Princess Theatre in Decatur, AL, and we’d also like to thank their incredible staff for letting us work in there.

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This photo introduces Zach Ford as the Hangman, alongside Kelsey Prater reprising her role as Astrid Blauvelt. Zach’s unearthly good looks and Kelsey’s perfect understanding of Astrid really stitched this picture together in a way that no one else could. Thank you so much to our producer, Brooke Fox, for coordinating this shoot!

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This photo features Ashton Hill playing Agent Isabelle Carriker. Ashton brought her striking looks and charming smile to our little project and absolutely demolished it! The rest of our crew, especially Renée White and producer Brooke Fox deserve a big thumbs up for this as well. I couldn’t do it without you!

Stay tuned, folks. We’ve got a lot more on the way.

So I realize that it’s only polite to say that we’ve been nominated for a Parsec Award for Best New Speculative Fiction Podcaster/Team. This comes right on the heels of the podcast community busting our goal for buying my son an iPad by 200%. I’m honestly a little overwhelmed, and I’m sorry it took me so long to post this update.

The Gearheart is our first podcast. It’s a little rough around the edges, and we’ve learned a lot that we look forward to applying going forward. I don’t mean to say that I don’t want to win a Parsec. I absolutely do. I’m just trying to say that you, the listeners, have made this project a success. When things got rough, you were there for us. Every time one of you tells us that you recommended our story to a friend, you helped build a better environment for me as an author and Renée as an actress. You rewarded our efforts to create a soundtrack and wallpapers with lovely compliments, and made us want to work that much harder.

In other words, this finalist nomination is just as much for you as it is for us. Pat yourselves on the back and keep your fingers crossed. No matter what, though, this is already so much more than we’ve asked for, and we’re very proud.

(Also, throw a little love to Starla Hutchton of The Dreamer’s Thread! We contributed to each other’s podcasts, and it’s hard to want to compete with her after all the favors she did for me!)

As the title might indicate, I’m blown away.

Sometimes, being the parent of a special needs child is like floating through space. It can be cold and lonely, you feel like you can’t breathe, and there’s nothing out there but the blackness. Normal parents have trouble understanding you. They hear about things– like when you have to take the schools to court to get a decent education– and they say, “Really? That all seems like a lot. Your son is so sweet. He seems very smart.”

That’s right. You have to take the school system to court to get them to provide even the most basic of services for children with autism. Just ask any parent of a special needs child. The experience is almost ubiquitous.

Sweetness, intelligence and a good heart don’t get you everything you need. Family can only go so far, as they will also feel the strain of care. Leaning on them day in and day out feels wrong, and it’s easy to find yourself caught up in despair. There is no time to rest– there is never a day when you can look at your child and think, “Yeah. I’m totally doing enough for this child. I’m not a failure.”

Last night, I decided on a whim to ask the community for help. At 9:00pm Central Standard Time, my post appeared. Within six hours, the goal was met. Six hours. I didn’t even have time to crack open a book before it had been filled halfway. It’s full now; I’m going to leave it open for tax and apps, but I want to make my gratitude clear.

I don’t know what to say. I may be stuck in space, but the stars have come out with blinding effulgence.

Thank you. I love you all.

A few days ago, a colleague forwarded me a story about children with autism using the new iPad to communicate. For those of you not familiar with the DynaVox picture-to-speech device, it’s insanely expensive, and most people can’t get one because their insurance doesn’t cover it. Lo and behold, I found that a lot of parents with autistic children are interested in the iPad. Please see the articles here, here and here. You’ll notice a lot of references to the Picture Exchange Communication System– that’s the therapy that has been recommended to us for home use. I’ve linked the Wikipedia article for your perusal.

My son is 3 now, and he has a lot of work ahead of him. His communication impairments are severe, and it takes constant vigilance on our part to help him learn to speak. As of this moment, he mostly echoes what is said to him in the hopes that we will give him whatever he wants. If we are lax in our teaching methods at all, it starts a cycle of immediate regression. You can imagine how it feels to see him just locked in his own world, unable to respond to most external stimuli, and how I would do anything to help him adapt to our world.

A lot of you have asked how my son is doing ever since my post shortly before episode 27. I just want you all to know he’s improving, and we’re starting to get a handle on the scope of his disability. There isn’t a lot of hard data on autism, even though it’s one of the fastest-growing diagnoses in the world. That means that there are a lot of quacks out there who are more than willing to make a buck at the expense of your child’s health. Originally, I just dismissed this iPad thing as a fad.

Then I gave my kid a DS to play with.

It was incredible. He held the pen like a pro! You can see the gears turning, and I hope the possibilities are present in your mind. To you, he may just look like a normal three-year-old… but I guess that’s the point, isn’t it? Just like a normal boy. I wanted to cry.

There aren’t a lot of accessibility apps for the DS, as you can imagine. With its giant hinge, it’s not exactly made for toddlers. To make matters worse, his therapy, the only therapy that has worked so far… comes out to $24k per year, with no insurance coverage.

I never meant to ask you all for help. I wanted to make a product I could sell you instead. But here I am, asking if you will ChipIn to help us get an iPad for my beautiful son. I promise to post videos of his brilliance.

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Jonathan stands before a field of enemies, prepared to strike a bargain with the devil inside. Lane Fox captured this brilliantly. I couldn’t have asked for a better model!

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It is my pleasure to offer up another wallpaper starring Brooke Fox as Cog. I like the motes of dust in this one. It also features the incredible work of propmaker Ben Hummel, who I cannot thank enough for making that sword.

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This excellent gentleman posing as Augustus is Chandler Hayes, globetrotter, graffiti artist and Renaissance man. Chandler and I have been great friends for a long time, and we were both so excited for the opportunity to collaborate on a piece. We shot this at the “GIANT!” warehouse and concert venue in Decatur, AL with permission from Aaron McDaniel. Thanks a ton, Chandler and Aaron!

Thanks also to Brooke Fox, who continues to produce these wonderful shoots for us.