All Hail the Arbiters!

Hi.

Just wanted to plug a big event from my benefactors at Prometheus Radio Theatre: the final episode of "Contents Under Pressure," the six-part series finale of The Arbiter Chronicles has been posted, and is available for free download from the Prometheus site, or via iTunes subscription!

I celebrate this for two reasons. First, without ruining your enjoyment of it one iota, it's a solid finish that marks a genuine passage into a new age for the survivors, uh, characters. Everyone involved delivers a terrific performance. Its creator, Steve Wilson, wisely left himself enough latitude to return to the Arbiter Universe in the future with more stories, at his leisure. I think you will want him to do so.

But not right away. Why?

That's the second reason I celebrate this event. With the deck clear of Arbiter, the return of SuperHuman Times is imminent! Imminent, I tell you! I'll keep you posted as "Once Upon a Times" comes together. As much as I enjoy listening to and chatting up Arbiter, I've missed hearing my stories brought to life by my gifted friends. I hope you have, too.

Stay tuned. (Can't wait? Relive old Times here now!)

-- L.

PS: The photo above is of some of the gang shortly after the troupe won its 2003 Mark Time Award Silver Medal. You've heard many of them in Times episodes. In case you care, the batting order, from left, bouncing between "rows", is: Eli Senter, Steve Wilson, Beatrice Kondo, Renee Wilson, Renfield, Scott Farquhar, the Head of Cindy Woods, John Weber, Cindy Shockey, June Swords and, in the front, Ethan Wilson. I grabbed this from the website and am using it without permission, because I took it, so there!

No New Times Yet, BUT...

Hi.

Well, I'm writing new SuperHuman Times episodes in hopes that Steve Wilson and Prometheus Radio Theatre will still be standing after the mind-blowing finale to The Arbiter Chronicles (starting this week). But while you're patiently waiting on me, I have great news.

When you get around to listening to Steve's words (while breathlessly awaiting mine), you can do so at the all-new Prometheus website, which you can find here. (NOTE: Although we're still very much with the good folks at libsyn, this site replaces the previous one we had with them.)

If you haven’t checked it out already, please do so before we settle in and mess up the nice, new space. And while you’re there, listen to the new Arbiter episode. Or enjoy some old Times.

Thanks.

-- L.

Whither Season Two?

Okay. So if you’re reading this, I’m going to assume you’re wondering what’s going on with Season Two of SuperHuman Times. Or you couldn't get in to any screenings of The Dark Knight.

When we last left our everyday heroes and villains, we’d completed four episodes of the planned six-episode season. But that last episode was released nearly two months ago. Wha’ hoppen?

The answer can be summed up in five words: The Arbiter Chronicles Season Finale.

Briefly, Steve Wilson’s been busting his artistic and technical balls to create a mammoth showstopper that will blow away everyone who hears it. Understandably, this means Times episodes must wait until his deck is clear.

When will that be, you may ask? Well, it could be as late as this fall, in which case the last two episodes I’ve written for Season Two will become early episodes in Season Three – yes, Virginia, we will be making more of these.

Just to give you a quick review/preview of what to expect, we have a nifty, dark supervillain-centric tale coming up, as well as a return case starring the ladies of Tzone Defense Security, and one – possibly two – tales from the notebook of Times reporter Kevin Dunbar, the first character I created for the series and one to whom I’m eager to introduce you, along with Mnemonica the memory lady, Rei Shinozaki (a comic-book artist with a secret), soldier/scientist Rhett Corsair and many others.

During this hiatus, I’m also thinking of adding a couple of minor improvements to the Times website, including – maybe – PDFs of our production scripts that let you see the blueprints we follow for each story. Let me know if you’d be interested in something like that and I’ll spend more money with Go Daddy to make it happen.

So that, in a proverbial nutshell, is where things stand. I will keep you posted as events warrant. In the meantime, I learned tonight that Prometheus Radio Theatre scored MULTIPLE submissions -- not nominations; if we're lucky, that comes later -- in the 2008 Parsec Awards (after winning one trophy last year). Funny thing is, we have no idea who actually submitted us for consideration. We'll find out if we actually win anything at Dragon Con. But for now, at least somebody out there likes us -- and if it’s you, thanks!

If it's not, use this time to hit libsyn and listen to our previous stories so that you, too, can keep up with the Times!

-- L.

So, Where’s Season Two Already?! / Hello, Minneapolis!

Oi! Where’s the much-ballyhooed Season Two of SuperHuman Times?

Good question. That’s why I thought it was time to post a good answer. I hope this will do.

That answer, in a word, is time. Bear in mind that, as much as we love doing audio theatre, everyone involved with Prometheus has day jobs. That leaves only select evenings and weekends for us to produce these shows. Not a lot of time, but we all treasure it.

And when we do get the time to make them, the Times episodes take a back seat to the group’s flagship show, The Arbiter Chronicles, of which I’ve written much in the past. There are big doin’s afoot in Steve Wilson’s Arbiter-verse, and he’s channeling his Herculean efforts into getting the next story, “Foundation and Desire,” into the can so that he can share them with his large and eager audience. It was recorded in a marathon session on Super Bowl Sunday and is set to air – four months of evenings and weekends later – in early April. See what I mean about time? Anyway, keep checking libsyn.com for it. You won’t be disappointed.

After that comes the next Times, “Dashing,” the three-parter I’ve been crowing about for damn near a year. I can’t wait to find out who Steve casts in it, and I hope you’ll hang around to hear them.

In the meantime: I recently learned that the Times pilot, “True North,” will be airing on March 16 on Great Northern Audio's Sound Affects, KFAI-FM’s “audio playground” hosted by Jerry Stearns of the Twin Cities (where Prometheus won its Mark Time Award in 2003). If anyone reading this discovered Times through Sound Affects, please email me and let me know you’re out there. And, of course, let me know if you want to hear more stories. We certainly have more to tell.

Time permitting, that is.

-- L.