Storycomic Weekly Newsletter: October 24th
ALWAYS POSTED A WEEK EARLIER ON PATREON
🚨 Storycomic Patreon Update for Creators 🚨
If you're an author, indie comic creator, game designer, or storyteller looking for more visibility, the Storycomic Patreon is one of the easiest ways to get your work in front of a growing audience.
For just $5 a month (about the price of a cup of coffee), you get some real promotional benefits:
🎙 Front-of-the-Line Recording Access
I’m often booking podcast interviews three months in advance, but Patreon members jump to the front of the line. This is especially helpful if you have a time-sensitive launch, Kickstarter, or new release coming up.
🔗 Permanent Show Notes Promotion
Your website or project link will be included in the show notes of all interviews as long as you’re a member.
📣 Social Media Promotion
We’ll regularly help promote your projects across Storycomic’s social media channels.
And remember, the Storycomic podcast has over 30,000 downloads, so it’s a great way to get your work discovered by readers and fellow creators.
For the cost of a coffee each month, you get promotion, visibility, and priority booking.
If you’re a creative looking to grow your audience, it’s a pretty great deal.
👉 Join us on Patreon and let’s share your story with the world.
Founders Club patrons include amazing creators like:
Higgins802, Von Allan, Stephanie Nina Pitsirilos, Marek Bennett, Donna Carr Roberts, Andrew Gronosky, Simki Kuznick, Simki Kuznick, John Holland, Maureen Devline, Benjamin Hunting, Samantha Kolber, Frank Walk, Mark Bell, Alexis E. Fajardo, and Matt & Therese.
Explore their work:
Samantha Kolber makes the leap from poetry to fiction with What She Stole
In my newest interview, I’m joined by returning guest and friend of the show Samantha Kolber to talk about her debut novel, What She Stole.
The novel follows 17-year-old Eloise Goldstein, who is caught shoplifting at a suburban mall and placed in a security holding room while she waits for her mother. With nowhere to go and nothing to do, Eloise begins moving through the memories that have shaped her: family conflict, school, shame, identity, and her own complicated understanding of who she is. Rootstock Publishing
The book explores memory, survival, compassion, and the stories we tell ourselves to make sense of painful histories. What She Stole has already earned a 5-Star Readers’ Favorite review, which praised Samantha’s character work and sense of place. Rootstock Publishing
Samantha is already well known in Vermont literary circles as an award-winning poet and the owner and publisher of Rootstock Publishing in Montpelier. Her poetry chapbook Birth of a Daughter won both a Human Relations Indie Book Award and the San Francisco Book Festival poetry prize. Samantha Kolber
In our conversation, we talk about writing teenage voice, moving from poetry into fiction, structuring a novel through memory, publishing your own book, and what it feels like to step into a new creative identity.
Frank Osgood builds a troubled moon colony in MoonHogs
In my newest interview, I’m joined by independent comic creator Frank Osgood, creator of the sci-fi series MoonHogs.
The comic follows an alien family who moves to a moon colony hoping for a better life. Instead, they find themselves in a world shaped by organized crime, crooked politicians, corporate power, and interplanetary danger. Younger characters try to carve out their own futures while the adults around them deal with old secrets and the pressures of keeping a family together. GlobalComix
Frank describes the story as a mix of space opera, family drama, and cyberpunk, with inspiration drawn from the visual energy of the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s. GlobalComix
He is also building the project largely on his own. Frank has written publicly about the reality of making comics while working a day job and trying to squeeze creative work into the hours that remain. Reddit
In our conversation, we talk about building believable alien cultures, creating family drama inside a huge sci-fi setting, working independently, drawing from classic genre influences, living in Japan, and what it takes to bring a creator-owned project like MoonHogs to Kickstarter.
Phillip Wolf sends four fearless cats into space in GalactiCATS
In my newest interview, I’m joined by author and filmmaker Phillip Wolf to talk about his middle-grade sci-fi adventure GalactiCATS: Showdown with Pickles and Roaches.
The book follows four feline heroes — Sergeant Smiley, Marble Games, Dixie Brains, and Chunky Monkey — who live on the planet WHISKERS-OU812. Their mission is to stop a cyborg unicorn named Pickles and a mechanical roach named Roaches from powering a machine called the Litter-Vac 3000, which could strip their planet of its cat litter and help the villains build space colonies across the galaxy. Kobo
The premise is wild, funny, and fast-paced, but the story behind the book is just as interesting. Phillip originally began developing GalactiCATS in the mid-1990s, put the project away, and returned to it more than thirty years later. He also drew inspiration from real pets he had adopted over the years. GalactiCATS
Phillip comes to children’s fiction with a background in filmmaking and documentary production, which gives the conversation an interesting visual angle.
We talk about resurrecting old creative ideas, building a strange sci-fi world, writing for middle-grade readers, balancing humor and action, and why some stories are worth coming back to decades later.
Project Update: Still Moving Slowly
It was another slow week on the project side of things.
I didn’t make a whole lot of progress on the Old-Time Radio Fate Core game this week, but the project is still sitting there in the background and I’m continuing to think about where I want to take it next.
At this point, I’m trying not to force it. Some weeks are better for writing and editing than others, and lately there’s just been a lot of other stuff competing for attention.
The good thing is that I’m still interested in the broader Golden Age of Radio sitcom setting direction, and I haven’t lost the thread of what I want the project to become.
So, not much to report this week—but it’s still alive, still in progress, and I’ll keep chipping away at it as time allows.
Book of the Week: Eva and the New Owl
This week’s bedtime story with Iggy was Eva and the New Owl by Rebecca Elliott, part of the Owl Diaries series.
These books are just plain fun to read. They’re colorful, goofy, full of little owl puns, and written in a way that keeps things moving along nicely for a bedtime story.
In this one, Eva gets excited when a new owl named Hailey joins her class. Eva immediately wants to become friends with her, but things don’t go quite the way she expects. Hailey ends up spending time with Eva’s best friend Lucy instead, which brings out a little jealousy and leads Eva to learn that friendship doesn’t have to be an either-or situation.
I liked that message because it’s something kids can understand pretty easily. Making new friends can be exciting, but it can also feel a little strange when friendships start changing or expanding.
Iggy seemed to enjoy all the colorful illustrations and the silliness of the owl world, and it made for a nice read before bed.
The Owl Diaries books are definitely designed for younger readers, but they work really well as read-aloud books too. They’re light, cheerful, and just long enough to feel like a real story without dragging on too late at night.
Overall, Eva and the New Owl was another fun bedtime pick and a nice little story about jealousy, friendship, and learning there’s room for more than one friend in your life.
Personal Update: Broadcast Tests, Politics, eBay, and Winter Prep
This past weekend was a really successful test run of our new broadcast software system, which was great to see after all the preparation that went into it. Everything worked well enough that we’re planning to keep it running again next weekend and continue putting it through its paces.
On the resale side of things, eBay has been really slow lately. I’ve talked with a few other people who sell on eBay, and it sounds like I’m definitely not the only one seeing that slowdown. So for now, it’s mostly a matter of keeping things listed and waiting for it to pick back up.
Political season has also been keeping us pretty busy this year. We’ve had a lot of political advertising going on the air, which always adds another layer of activity to the radio side of things this time of year.
At home, I’ve also been doing more organizing in the basement and general cleanup around the house. A lot of it is just part of getting things in order before winter really settles in.
So overall, it was another week of steady progress in a few different areas—testing new systems, keeping up with the busy political season, and slowly getting the house ready for the colder months ahead.
Things are coming along with the updated setup at the studio
Iggy loves his firefighter hat