First: You can go listen to “Milkboy” right here!

As I mentioned last time, I finished putting “Milkboy” together last week.

On Tuesday, I listened to “Milkboy” with my wife. This story turned out so well…especially for a 5,500-word story written one week, and then recorded and put together the following week.

I’m not sure I’ll ever see another two-week turnaround on a Not About Lumberjacks episode, but it felt great! It would have been soooooo easy to skip October when I realized “Godspeed, Crazy Mike” was taking longer than planned.

Background Sound

There was a little problem when listening to “Milkboy” on Tuesday: background sounds were light. Music and sounds seemed distant. The story sounded great, but it became clear to me that something was wrong.

I figured it out on Wednesday. I’m still getting used to a new editing process, and…I leveled out the narration track after I’d already already put in all the sounds. So…when the narration track increased in volume, all the background tracks needed to be increased.

A quick fix, and I’m happy to report that a test listen to the opening in our living room on Wednesday (with two fans running, and the dishwasher chugging away in the kitchen), confirmed everything came through loud and clear.

Promoting Milkboy

I’ve largely been taking a social media break this month (well, a break from Facebook and Twitter). I say “largely” because I broke the break a few times to promote things friends were up to. I’d have liked to promote “Milkboy” more, but I still tested an idea that works with the theme of Not About Lumberjacks and sharing a bit of what upcoming stories are about.

Granted, the new opening line ended up being, “This is a story about the shittiest thing my friend Mark and I ever did to our best friend, Tim,” but this line hints about two friends creating a fake online persona to mess with another friend.

In the future, I’ll probably use a thicker marker and then include a short description about the story on the other side. (In the case of “Milkboy”: “When two friends use a bulletin board system to create an online persona to tease their best friend, they get more than they have coming to them for their deception.”)

I like the look of a little round of wood placed somewhere outside. (And to keep them varied, it means varying our outdoor activities as well.) My wife took several different versions of this piece, and I like them all.

Bonus: these can either be given away to fans of the show or…just tossed into the fireplace when cooler weather arrives.

I already look forward to November’s pieces. I’m seeing canoe paddles and bald cypress knobs…

Milkboy’s Release

“Milkboy” was released on Saturday. Thank you to everyone who’s listened. It had it’s best first day of downloads of any episode of Not About Lumberjacks.

I’ve shared before that that show usually gets 45-50 downloads in its first week. (And I’ve also shared that most people would not put in 40-60 hours an episode for something that might top out between 200-300 listens in time.)

I almost hit 45 in a day, and it’s at 50 downloads right now.

More than that, though, around its release — other episodes have seen about 45 listens. Slowly, people are making their way through stories on the site, and that’s cool.

Also cool was zipping over to my friend Tim’s place on his birthday Saturday.

I’m not kidding when I say “Milkboy” is based on a true story. Tim in “Milkboy” is my real-life friend…and our friend Mark and I really did create a fake online persona on a bulletin board system in the late 80s/early 90s to mess with Tim.

(I’m happy to report we’re all still friends.)

“Milkboy” was written as a birthday gift to Tim, and without giving too much away, I’m glad my wife and I showed up at Tim’s place right when the story really takes off. It was a blast listening to the ending with Tim and his wife.

Bonus: I also got to see this butthead for the first time in over a year and a half (stupid pandemic!)

So Now What?

With “Milkboy” out there, up next is the behind-the-scenes episode supporting the story. It’s written, but still needs to be recorded.

And I’m happy to report November’s story is in the works. (It has the potential to be one of the most NOT Not About Lumberjacks story yet…)

What a busy week it was!

Monday found me up late, chatting with the hosts of the Canadian Politics is Boring podcast about Canada’s big election last week. (I came in at the 4:24:00 mark and chatted [mostly] about healthcare for about half an hour.)

Speaking of Canadians and podcasts, Michael Howie did a stellar interview with Tomm Moore, one of the directors of Oscar-nominated Wolfwalkers.

But What About Milkboy?

It was a busy week at work, with this coming week looking even busier. Which meant I wanted to get as much done on “Milkboy” as possible so I can release it on Saturday, October 2.

I’m happy to report it is finished! (Well, I still have to do the bloopers, but that doesn’t take very long.)

Because of some road construction in our area, we were pretty much locked in for the weekend…so I put it to good use and finished what might be the most involved story I’ve put together for Not About Lumberjacks.

Just Write!

The past handful of stories on Not About Lumberjacks were started with no endings.

I had no idea where I was going, but I started with the the challenge of releasing another episode.

It’s safe to say the last block of stories are among my favorites, and “Milkboy” is no exception.

I’ll be honest: I thought it would be a cute enough story, but kind of something not living up to recent episodes.

In its own way, “Milkboy” is one of the best things I’ve released on the site.

Yes, it’s beyond stupid, but it ended up going in directions I didn’t plan, and in the end it’s quite a heartfelt little tale.

I can’t wait to release it on Saturday.

Okay…I’m wiped out…so…time to sleep!