New Year... New Format

Is this the end of Tales?

No, not really. I'm thinking of it as moving out of the basement and getting more serious about things.

We will continue under a new name - a Gallery of Curiosities. We're already settling into our new home at http://gallerycurious.com.

If you are subscribed, you will not be dropped. The RSS feed will remain the same and continue.

We are buying new original stories, but are still digging through our favorite online public domain sources too. Our slush readers are already chained to special desks bolted to the floor in the Gallery's attic and being offered meager bowls of gruel only after they finish reading down their daily piles.

And come Christmas, we will probably find out way back here, to where we started, on the sooty cobblestoned streets of New Babbage.

See you soon, at the new Gallery. We've collected such odd things for you to ponder.

Christmas Eve Broadcast 2015

Christmas in New Babbage. What could possibly go wrong?

Sir Emerson and the Squire entertain a strange customer at the Gangplank on Christmas Eve and present new original stories of holidays in the city… with urchins. Make a cup of hot chocolate and gather your friends around the radio for a really old fashioned Christmas in New Babbage. Broadcast times are 1pm and 7pm Thursday, Dec. 24th, PST (California) time,  courtesy of Radio Riel Steampunk, or set your podcatcher to grab it off iTunes to listen whenever you are. http://steampunk.radioriel.org

If you like what we're doing, give us some stars on iTunes. Is anyone listening at all? We really don't know beyond our avatars sitting around in pixel bars while our real selves are hundreds and thousands of miles away, getting quite drunk. We are here we are here we are HERE!

This will probably be the last broadcast in this format. Kevin thinks there's a void for steampunk fiction out in podcast land, and he's loony enough to try and fill it. Here's looking forward to the New Year with vintage and original weird fiction and steampunk tales for you to enjoy! 

Test of the Magi by Emerson Lighthouse
Sir Emerson - Emerson Lighthouse
The Squire - Martin Malus
Nicholas - Mavromichali Szondi
Johnny Dawkins - The Radio Riel Intern

A Clockwork Christmas Secret by Nyree Rain
Reader - Fauve Aeon

Spare a Penny written and performed by MacKnight Culdesac
The Urchins - The Cabbits

The Christmas Penny written and performed by Maxwell Grantly
(Free picture book available on iBooks, get it for your kids!)

Additional music: Jon Sayles, Kevin MacLeod
New Babbage Shore by MacKnight Culdesac

Production: Kevin Frost
Skype Conference Call Engineer: Gabrielle Riel
Runtime: 58:19

Temporary upload to Soundcloud at
https://soundcloud.com/tenkism/tales-from-new-babbage-2015-christmas-eve-broadcast

Call for Submissions

Trolling through public domain archives for good stories is depressing work. Too long, too dull, too racist... you get the picture. And it takes time. So. To get the show out of hiatus, maybe I should be considering.... original work! Here is the official *drumroll* CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS.

The Christmas Broadcast on Radio Riel is a long tradition in the Steamlands and I don't want to skip that one. I'm looking for holiday stories that are specific to New Babbage or the environs, no longer than 3500 words. I will pay 2 cents USD a word (converted to linden dollars if you are in Second Life) for stories I use.

For the regular shows that are produced for the rest of the year, I am looking for weird fiction not set in modern times. It doesn't have to be steampunk era, but that is a plus. I would also consider sci-fi or post-apocalypse scenarios that have appropriate technology. Holiday specific stories that are a little less than weird (i.e. Valentine's Day) would also be welcome. For these stories I will pay 1 penny a word USD up to 5000 words, for stories no longer than 7500 words.

Story length is restricted to keep within an audio format of less than one hour.

You will retain publishing rights to your story. I get the right to hand it off to a reader of my choice for audio production which will be broadcast on Radio Riel and available for free download on iTunes. 

My geemail handle is mr.tenk, send submissions to that inbox. Put "TfNB SUBMISSION: Story Title" in the subject bar.

Christmas stories to be considered for this year should be submitted before November 30th, 2015.

Thanks for your support of the show and the city over all these years. Here's to more stories to come!

-Mr. Tenk

We're on iTunes!

Now you can subscribe to Tales on iTunes and never miss another one of our highly irregular broadcasts, or catch up on the ones you missed for a fine literary interlude for your next road trip, even those painfully self conscious early ones. Oh, wait, they are all like that...

Search for Tales From New Babbage in the podcast section of the iTunes store. Note that more than one may pop up, as Radio Riel was uploading them before I figured out how to do it myself. Click on the image of the clocktower in the hazy green smog to get the full series!

 https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/tales-from-new-babbage/id909961660?mt=2

Boxing Day Broadcast 2014

Young Ben is a City Messenger, and he is so glad that Christmas is over. Join him at the Messenger Depot on Perdido Street as he presents three seasonal stories from New Babbage.

The City Messenger by Abbey Hood, read by Bookworm Hienrichs.

Be Careful What You Wish For by Ceejay Writer, read by Ianone Constantine.

A Gift of Clarity by Loki Eliot, read by Loki Eliot.

Brother Lapis was played by Jon Sayles, who has a really nice archive of royalty free classical guitar music he has played at jsayles.com.

Additional music by Kevin MacLeod.

Produced by Mosseveno Tenk in the wee dark hours of Christmas morning, which is why it was important that Ben was was played by Steadman Kondor, an Australian.We had quite a time filtering out the noise of his neighbor's Christmas BBQ.

Picture credit: Kimika Ying.

The Story of the Inexperienced Ghost

“Are you a member?”

We return to Brunel Hall to hear Mr. Victor Mornington, the steamlands’ most famous hotelier, read The Story of the Inexperienced Ghost by H.G. Wells. Grab a drink, turn down the lights, and get comfortable, because story night is Serious Business in New Babbage.

Listen live, Sunday, August 17th, on Radio Riel Steampunk at 1pm and 7pm PDT. Social listening gatherings will be held at Brunel Hall in the Academy of Industry sim in Second Life. 


download link:
https://archive.org/details/TfNB16-TheStoryOfTheInexperiencedGhost 

first publication: The Strand Magazine, March 1902

Reader: Mr. Victor Mornington

Intro/Outro: Miss Garnet Psaltery

Music:

Dark and Stormy Night written and performed by MacKnight Culdesac

Tranquility, Reawakening, Clean Soul written and performed by Kevin MacLeod.

Additional music provided by MusOpen.org

Produced by Mosseveno Tenk

runtime 41:00

Christmas 2013 - To the North!

Christmas in New Babbage - What could possibly go wrong? Mr. Mornington glories over the success of Brunel Hall Hotel during the holiday season, while across town at a rival bar, the Squire tries to balance the books after putting on a feast to match the Brunel's buffet. Junie Ginsburg reads a truly horrible children's story by Willa Cather, and Mr. Pearse himself tells an unusual arctic tale by the famed Madame Blavatsky. Original music by Babbage residents MacKnight Culdesac and Canolli Capalini. What a year it was!

Listening party today at noon PST at the Babbage Palisade tinker camp. 
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Babbage%20Palisade/34/195/94

Stream host: Radio Riel Steampunk http://steampunk.radioriel.org

Download: https://archive.org/details/TfNBChristmas2013

Christmas at Brunel Hall
written and performed by Vic Mullins.
Music: Winter Bells and Winter Psalm by MacKnight Culdesac.

The Strategy of the Were-Wolf Dog by Willa Cather.
First published in Home Monthly, December 1896
Reader: Junie Ginsburg
Music provided by MusOpen.org public domain classical music. 

From the Polar Lands, A Christmas Tale by Helena P. Blavatsky.
From the collected works of H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 13.
Reader: Edward Pearse
Music: Fluidscape by Kevin MacLeod


Music Box pieces: JeTaime, Daisy, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, Silver Bells, Silent Night, Fugue in D, by Canolli Capalini.

Additional material written by Kevin Frost.
Runtime 47:30

Produced by  Mosseveno Tenk on December 26th of 2013.

The Novel of the White Powder

What is in that white powder my brother is taking? 

Tonight, Junie Ginsburg tells a tale that HP Lovecraft said "approaches the absolute culmination of loathsome fright.” The White Powder by Arthur Machen is what we are listening to tonight on Tales from New Babbage! Gather around the hearth at The Gangplank in Clockhaven, or tune into Radio Riel Main or Steampunk to listen where ever you are, but you might not want to listen to this one alone.


download now at https://archive.org/details/TheNovelOfTheWhitePowder



Mr. Machen was born in Wales and became enamored with mysticism and the occult at an early age. The Novel of the White Powder was part of The Three Impostors, a novel composed of a number of interwoven tales, in 1895. The novel and the stories within it were eventually to be regarded as among Machen's best works. However, following the indecency scandal surrounding Oscar Wilde later that year, Machen's association with works of decadent horror made it difficult for him to find a publisher for new works until later in his career. Publisher John Lane, wary of the atmosphere, asked Machen to censor his manuscript. Barring the omission of one word, Machen refused to comply.

First publication:1895
 Reader: Miss Junie Ginsburg
Intro: Mr Announcer & MacKnight Culdesac
Outro: Miss Penny Dreadful
Music: Earth Prelude, Decline, Ghostcalypse 3, Martian Cowboy, The Dread, Bent and Broken, and Arcane, by  Kevin Macleod 
Production: Mosseveno Tenk runtime: 47:55

The Phantom Coach

Tonight, the sultry Scotsman of New Babbage, Victor Mornington, reads a ghostly tale of the northern moors. The Phantom Coach by Amelia B Edwards is what we're listening to tonight at 7pm PDT at the Muirsheen Durkin Pubic House!

Download link:
http://archive.org/details/ThePhantomCoachByAmeliaB.Edwards

Miss Edwards was a journalist, novelist, egyptologist and suffragette. She traveled extensively with only a female companion in an era when  male chaperones were considered socially and physically essential. She was also an early advocate for the preservation of archeological sites from the ravages of development and tourism.     

First publication: Christmas 1864, in All the Year Round
Reader: Mr. Victor1st Mornington 
Intro: Mr. Osgoode Underby
Outro: Miss Garnet Psaltery
music: Kevin Macleod
production: Mosseveno Tenk
additional material written by Mosseveno Tenk and Kris Law
runtime: 45:45

The New Accelerator

Yes indeed, these are pushful pushful days we live in. If only there was a way to find more time. Tonight, Emerson Lighthouse reads The New Accelerator by H. G. Wells, first published in The Strand magazine in 1901.

Come listen at the Red Dragon in Babbage Square at 12 noon or 8pm PDT (California time), or listen where ever you may be by tuning your media player to Radio Riel Steampunk.


Host: Osgoode "YoYo" Underby
Reader: Emerson Lighthouse
Outro: Reliable Barthelmess
Promo: Byron Wexhome
Music: Ishkari Lore, Opium, Ghostcalypse 6, Himalayan Atmoshpere, Gypsy Shoegazer, Fluffing a Duck, Myst, composed and performed by Kevin MacLeod and available at incompetech.com
Production Engineer: Mosseveno Tenk
run time: 38:59

Download link:
https://archive.org/details/TheNewAcceleratorByH.G.WellsRadioRiel

The Red Haired Girl

Good help is so hard to find, but what do you do when your family is complaining about a maid that you don't remember hiring? Tonight, New Babbage's favorite red, Junie Ginsburg, reads The Red Haired Girl, by Sabine Baring-Gould (1834-1924).

Sabine was an eclectic scholar and folklorist whose best known work is the hymn Onward Christian Soldiers. Oddly, he is also noted for writing The Book of Were-Wolves, the 16 volume The Lives of the Saints, and the popular  Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, which was an overview of medieval superstition.

Join us at noon SLT (California time) at the Gangplank in Clockhaven or at 8pm at the Bucket of Blood Public House in New Babbage, where you can get a nice stiff drink to ward off the chill of the night. Show will be broadcast over Radio Riel Steampunk

download link:  http://archive.org/details/TfNBTheRedHairedGirl

Host: YoYo Underby
Reader: Junie Ginsburg. 
Music: Music for Funeral Homes Part 11, Phantasm, Gagool, Investigations, by Kevin MacLeod
Outro: Bookworm Heinrichs
Music: New Babbage Shore by MacKnight Culdesac.
Production: Mosseveno Tenk
additional material written by Kris Law and Mosseveno Tenk
Runtime: 35:00

The White Ship

Tonight on Radio Riel Steampunk, an early work from H. P. Lovecraft's Dream cycle stories. Sit back, relax, and have your squire bring a coal from the stove to spark the hookah.

This story was first published in the November 1919 issue of The United Amateur. We regret that we can only select stories of Lovecraft that were published before 1923, as later works are not clearly in the public domain in the United States.

 Listening party at 7pm SLT (California time) at Ahab's Tavern on the Iron Bay waterfront in New Babbage.

download link

Intro/Outro: Vic Mullin
Reader: Byron Music: Music from Cloud 9, by Valentine Wolfe
Outro Music: Merry Go by Kevin MacLeod
Post-production: Mosseveno Tenk
runtime 20:25

Christmas 2012 - Dreadful Little Men

Imps. Gnomes. Elves. Call them what you will, there is something sinister hiding behind those pointy boots and jingle bells. For those of us that have had actual dealings with the wee, we know the truth. For our audio yuletide greeting this year, we present three tales of Christmas, each with a dreadful little man.

Vic Mornington reads Charles Dicken's other Christmas redemption tale, The Goblins that Stole a Sexton, which originally appeared in 1863 as part of The Pickwick Papers.

Junie Ginsburg reads A Christmas Fantasy, with a Moral, by Thomas Baily Aldrich, which first appeared in volume 43, issue 2 of The Century in 1891.

Emperor Ezra Crumb II reads 'Twas a Night Before a New Babbage Christmas, adapted from the Clement Clarke Moore poem by Salazar Jack, from Tales of New Babbage, Vol. 1, which was published last year at this time.

Deck the Halls, O Little Town of Bethlehem, Greensleeves, Edelweiss, We Three Kings, and We Wish you a Merry Christmas, and Silver Bells were arranged and performed by Canolli Capalini, some of which are available at Capalini Fine Furnishings in Babbage Canals.

Mysterioso March, The Path of the Goblin King, Moonlight Hall, Pop Goes the Weasel, Hidden Agenda, Wizardtorium, and It Came Upon a Midnight Clear written and performed by Kevin Macleod, and are available at his website at incompetech.com.

Additional material written by Kris Law and Mosseveno Tenk.

runtime 47:19

download link:   
http://archive.org/details/TheRadioRielPlayersPresentTalesFromNewBabbageChristmas2012

Listening party at the Tinker Camp outside the city gate tonight, 5 pm SLT (San Francisco Time).  Stream will be broadcast on Radio Riel Steampunk. 
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Babbage%20Palisade/39/203/94

We currently have a Kickstarter campaign to get Volume 2 of Tales of New Babbage, an anthology of original stories based out of our steampunk city, to press. The more we finish with, the more we print. Please help!

Christmas Broadcast from New Babbage

Yes, Steampunks, there will be a Christmas broadcast tomorrow, December 24th. The cylinders have been graven and copied and set by special messenger to Radio Riel. Join us live in world at the tinker camp outside the city gate for a story and a cup of cheer. The sofas have been carted out, the 'nog is aged and spiced, and a bonfire piled high. See you there tomorrow.

To get to New Babbage, register for a free account in Second Life. Once your avatar rezzes, open the map and search for Babbage Palisade, and join us at the bonfire.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Babbage%20Palisade/39/203/94

A Man of Science

Ghosts, revenge, skeletons in the closet? Is it October yet? Tonight, our favorite lowlander, Victor Mornington, reads A Man of Science by Jerome K. Jerome. First published in The Idler, an illustrated monthly of literature and humor, in September of 1892. Keep the brandy carafe near, you might need just a nip before this one is over.

Tune in to Radio Riel Steampunk or Radio Riel Main at 7pm Pacific (California) time to listen live,  or log into Second Life and come have a virtual beer with us at The Gangplank in New Babbage. Tell them Tenk sent you.



Reader: Victor1st Mornington
Narration written and performed by Junie Ginsburg
Jungle Oil ad written and performed by Emerson Lighthouse
Credits: Byron Wexhome
Music by Kevin MacLeod, available at incompetech.com
Post-production: Mosseveno Tenk
Run-time: 25:00

Download link:
http://ia601605.us.archive.org/3/items/TheRadioRielPlayersPresentTalesFromNewBabbageAManOfScience/Tfnb8AManOfScience.mp3

The Adventures of Phineas Frakture

Phineas Frakture, an itinerant New Babbager, checked in this morning with some exciting news:

"Starting today...The Adventures of Phineas Frakture has been picked up as the first Steampunk weekly series on BigWorldNetwork.com! Every Wenesday, a chapter will be released and can also be downloaded on iTunes (coming soon). This story was originally on my website for a week, but was taken down when the contract went through...sorry if anyone was trying to find it."

Subscribe or download at bigworldnetwork.com/PhineasFrakture.html

Grimm Tales: The Robber Bridegroom

In 1812, the Brothers Grimm published the first edition of Household and Children's Tales. 200 years later, these same tales, half remembered from our own childhood readings, still haunt the dark corners of our minds. To celebrate the 200th anniversary the book that evolved into Grimm's Fairy Tales, we proudly present one of the grimmest of those stories. As gruesome as this tale is, it was not removed from the final editions, perhaps for its value as a cautionary tale.


Download link
Reader: Satu Moreau
Intro/Outro: Junie Ginsburg
Music: Sneaky Snitch and Darkest Child by Kevin MacLeod
Post-production: Mosseveno Tenk
runtime: 11:40
Radio Riel airdate: Feb. 5, 2012


Listening party tonight at 6pm Portside Books in Port Babbage. See you there.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Port%20Babbage/60/113/106

Download link

Download the Christmas episode now at

http://ia600800.us.archive.org/25/items/TheRadioRielPlayersPresentTalesFromNewBabbageTheChristmas2011/ChristmasInNewBabbage2011.mp3

Rightclick, save, yeah, this is the 21st century. You know how to do that by now.

Christmas Ghosts & Fairies

Christmas in New Babbage, when the city is covered in snow, and we gather around the hearth for the very Victorian custom of telling a ghost story on Christmas Eve.

Stargirl MacBain reads The Christmas Fairy of Strasburg, adapted from the German by J. Stirling Coyne (1803-1868).

Victor1st Mornington reads The Ghost of the Blue Chamber, by Jerome K. Jerome, from Told After Supper, 1891.

Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, O Christmas Tree, Fugue in D Minor, Kling Glöckchen, White Christmas, arranged and performed by Canolli Capalini, from the Capalini Fine Furnishings Music Box Collections.

Fairy Tale Waltz, Isolated Harp from Danse Macabre, Ominous Gloom, written and performed by Kevin MacLeod.

Outro: Ianone Constantine

Additional voices recorded in the city's numerous pubs and bars.

runtime: 30:21

Download link will be provided after the broadcast.

Listening party will be held Sunday, Dec. 25th, at 7pm Pacific at the transient camp in Babbage Palisades. Dress warm. 

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Babbage%20Palisade/42/173/94

If you need more New Babbage fix until the next show, we proudly present 2 original volumes now available online:

Tales of New Babbage, a collection of original short stories written by the residents of New Babbage, in traditional paperback format, shipping now from Babbage Fiction Press.

The Clockhaven Chronicles, 1st edition, an illustrated steampunk adventure, in electronic format from Pennygaff Publishing, and also on Amazon and Barnes&Noble. 

Happy Christmas, and keep building!

Foreign Ports

Three tales tonight of the sort that sailors bring home from their voyages abroad.

The Basha's Gorilla, by William Patterson White (1910). Read by Byron Wexhome. Additional voice by Rowan Derryth. White was best known for writing cowboy adventure stories in the early 20th century.

Voyage Eastward, from the Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen, 1895 edition, by Rudolph Erich Raspe. Read by Emperor Ezra Crumb the Second. The tales of Baron Munchausen were first translated into English in 1785 from an anonymous collection in German. Baron Munchausen was an actual 18th century nobleman and his stories should be assumed to be absolutely reliable and true, despite the fact that many are based on folktales that were circulating well before his birth.

Davey Jones's Gift, by John Masefield. Read by Victor1st Mornington. First published in Country Life, November 11, 1905. Masefield's aunt thought little of her nephews addiction to reading, so she sent him off to train for a life at sea to cure him of it. He became a Poet Laureate and one of the greatest nautical storytellers of all time.

Sound effects collected on location in Zanzibar Town and New Babbage.
Music, Ibn Al-Noor, and Narcissus, by Kevin MacLeod.
Production: Mosseveno Tenk
Radio Riel airdate: June 26, 2011.
Runtime: 39:25

Direct link at http://ia600602.us.archive.org/1/items/TheRadioRielPlayersPresentTalesFromNewBabbageSeaStories/TalesFromNewBabbage-ForeignPorts.mp3

Tune in at http://music.radioriel.org

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