Chapters 19-20: Into the tunnels at last

Click here to download Chapters 19-20Book Three is underway. The miners enter the natural cave complex, and it doesn't take long for one of them to dissappear. But is he a victim of Funeral Mountain, or is he working for EarthCore's competition?

• After all the rumors, you finally hear the REAL story on Patrick O'Doyle.
  
• Connell Kirkland is convinced someone is trying to jump the claim -- is he paranoid, or does EarthCore have competition?
• O'Doyle gets called on the carpet for poor security, and he swears revenge on whoever is making him look bad.
• Katarina Hayes discovers that being in charge is not as much fun as she thought.

Scott interviewed on Austincast

Here's a fun interview on the Austincast podcast. Click here to listen in. Austincast's feed is located at http://www.austincast.com/

Dead Pool Stats

Only a few of you have the balls to try and guess my warped mind ("balls" is metaphorical, so you ladies just relax! It's a compliment!). We have 108 entries thus far in this first-of-its-kind audience involvement feature. Those that haven't voted, you suck! Most people think Kayla Meyers will die, at 76 votes, followed by Angus Kool (75), Patrick O'Doyle (60), Randy Wright (59), Sanji Haak (42), Mack Hendricks (41), Sonny McGuiness (36), Connell Kirkland (35), Bertha Lybrand (33), Katarina Hayes (31), Dr. Vernoica Reeves (27).

Chapters 17-18: Take that, recording software!

Click here to download Chapters 17-18
Readers, your wait is over! Chapters 17-18 show the tip of the iceberg that awaits Connel and company.

• Dr. Veronica Reeves discovers the remains of an American massacre.
  
• Sonny McGuiness is the first to slither into Funeral Mountain's deadly tunnels.
  
• Mack Hendricks finishes the three-mile deep shaft.
  
• Angus Kool and Randy Wright run into serious trouble.
  
• Patrick O'Doyle brings in the big guns.

EarthCrack fans - eye candy for your site

Show a little gangsta love for your boy. Throw this little graphic up on your site with link to this page -- help spread the word about EarthCore. I've got 5,500 listeners, can you help me push it to 10,000? You know SOMEONE who would love this free podcast novel, so don't be shy![earthcore]

Chapters 15-16: Busy little bees ...

Click here to download Chapters 15-16Finally, the story has returned! You can all lay off the author, things are back on track. I used a different recording setup on this, and the vocal quality isn't as good, but bear with me -- new home recording rig should have me sound like friggin' James Earl Jones in no time flat.

Angus and Randy are up to no good.

Sonny suspects Angus and Randy are stashing platinum ore, and he sets out to discover their secret.

Bertha Lybrand lays an old-fashioned ass-whuppin on Dr. Veronica Reeves.

Cho Takachi is on the take, but who's paying him off?

Connell pushes Mack and the other miners beyond their limits to finish the mine in time.

Chapters 14-15: Kayla's backstory

Click here to download Chapters 14-15.
It's actually Chapters 14 through half of 15, but don't bitch too loud, another chapter is coming this weekend. Why is Kayla Meyer's so dangerous? Listen to this episode to find out why.

It's DEAD POOL TIME! Look on the right-hand side for the EarthCore Dead Pool. So you think this book is predictable? Bring it on, smart-ass, and put your rep on the line. I will be making fun of all that guess wrong. I'll pick one winner from all correct guesses -- winner gets the full EarthCore Podcast on CD!

Chapters 11-13: A short episode

Click here to download Chapters 11-13.

Hello faithful listeners. A short, 20-minute episode this week. I'll be busy all weekend, but wanted to get you a dose before I left. Next week we'll be back on track, and I'll be shooting for two episodes.

Chapters 8-10 - Funeral Mountain

Click here to download Chapters 8-10.

Sonny McGuiness finds one of the strange, circular knives, just like the one on the EarthCore book cover on the right-hand side of this page -- it instantly draws blood.

Angus Kool's "scientific commando raid" reveals Funeral Mountain's strange composition.

Connell acquires the services of Mack Hendricks, an Australian mine engineer that holds the current world record for mine depth at 2.2 miles ... but EarthCore is going even deeper.

Kayla Meyers is no fool -- she knows opportunity when she sees it. Or hacks it, or steals it, or tortures someone for it ...

Chapter 6 and 7: The Mountain is Hungry ...

Greetings faitful listeners. Sonny now works for Connell, and Connell has the location of the platinum-rich "Silver Spring."

Click here to download Chapter 6 and 7.

Connell assigns Cho Takachi to watch over Sonny, and make sure the old prospector doesn't get out of line.

Angus Young, EarthCore's super-genius, is called back to the home office to work on the project, but he's not happy about it one damn bit.

Your introduction to Patrick "The One-Eared Bulldog" O'Doyle, EarthCore's chief of security with a past shrouded in plausible deniability and black ops.

And your favorite podcast novelist grovels for some measely Podcastalley.com votes -- what can I say? I'm a slut for attention.

Chapter 5 : Herbert gets his

Click here to download Chapter 5.
Greetings faitful listeners. You think your Monday sucks? Try being Herbert Darker, the man who sold out everyone's favorite crotchity old miner Sonny McGuiness. In Chapter 5, Herbert gets to do a little dance with Kayla Meyers, ex-NSA agent and all-around bitch.

Chapters 1-4: Platinum, Cutthroat, Saddlebags & The Whiner

Click here to download Chapters 1-4.

In the prologue, the body count hit three as our hapless geology students ran into something that was not normal, not nice, and carried something really, really sharp. Chapters 1-4 is a 47-minute podcast that really gets the story rolling.

• Chapter One introduces us to Sonny McGuiness, veteran prospector of the American Southwest. A chance meeting with a smelly Deadhead puts him on the path to riches.
• Chapter Two brings us face-to-face with the book's main character, Connell Kirkland. The pain of his past fills his sleep, while a hunger for the next "big find" drives his waking hours.
• Chapter Three reveals the one man that Sonny trusts. That same man betrays that same trust, putting Sonny on a collision course with Connell "Cutthroat" Kirkland.
• Chapter Four shows the first, faint glimmerings of the staggering potential of what Sonny McGuiness finds in dry, desolate reaches of Utah's Wah Wah mountains.

Prologue ... Death from Below.

Click here to download the Prologue
And here we go! EarthCore officially kicks off today with the Prologue. In the Prologue, you get just a taste of the evil buried deep beneath the Earth's surface. Get ready for 'Death from Below.' Next week we slap you upside the head with Chapters 1-4.

Warning! This is not a kid's book -- EarthCore runs the gammut of politically incorrect topics, from language to sex to raw violence.

How to subscribe to the podcast

If you’re using a Podcast client like iPodder, Nimiq or Doppler, this is the address for this feed.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/EarthCore

Copy that address to your podcast application.

Is this really free or are you trying to screw me?

Yes to both questions. This is a free audio book. You can download the episodes as they come out, or subscribe to the Podcast and have the new chapters automatically downloaded to your machine. Let this tale of madness, murder and blistering geothermal heat grace your computer of MP3 player. Some people might not listen, but you and I both know they are a bunch of pussies.

And I am trying to screw you, I'm just not telling you how. It's what I do. Love me for me.

Mandatory endorsement from a famous author

”This novel’s got it all: cutting-edge science; a perfectly-realized setting; terror both plausible and profoundly unsettling. EarthCore is more exciting than a thriller has any right to be!”

Lincoln Child
New York Times bestselling author of Relic, Riptide & The Ice Limit.

Every novel in the world must have a quote from a famous author. It's in the rule book. Look at every book you read, you'll see it's true, and then you'll realize you should never doubt anything that I say. Succumb to my wisdom and you will be so much happier with your life.

If you haven't read Lincoln Child's books, you're missing out. This guy is the aboslute shit.

EarthCore vs. "The Core"

Swank can box. I can’t. My money is on Swank …

I started EarthCore in 1996 and finished it in 1998. It took me two years to find a publisher. AOL/TimeWarner picked up EarthCore in December of 2000, and it took them about a year to finally roll it out as an eBook. The eBook was a promo campaign to gain publicity for the paperback (which never saw the light of day, see “novel history” for more of my sob story).

“The Core,” the movie starring Hillary Swank, was released in 2003. The script was finished on November 13, 2001. So if you think I’m ripping off the movie, kiss my fat ass, I beat those bitches by three years.

Neither “The Core” or EarthCore is really breaking any new ground (no pun intended). There have been several books on the “Journey to the Center of the Earth” theme. The movie and my novel, in fact, have very little in common other than the fact that they take place underground and have the word “Core” in the title. In fact, EarthCore is quite different thanks to killer robots, dismemberments, decapitations, machine guns, actual science, blood, blood & more blood, and a super-hot villainess who dabbles in S&M.

The history of EarthCore

EarthCore was published in 2001 by AOL/TimeWarner’s imprint iPublish. It came out as an eBook, and did rather well, even hitting #1 at Barnes & Noble’s website. EarthCore was due out as a nationwide paperback release in June of 2002. Unfortunately, the post-9/11 recession hit TimeWarner dead-square in the financial nuts. By February, AOL/TimeWarner circled the wagons and cut everything that wasn’t profitable – including the iPublish imprint. The heartless bastards killed my imprint four months before the paperback was due out.

The book was tied up in contractual problems for another year before I officially regained the rights. Since then my agent has been unable to find a publisher.

Now, in a cheap publicity stunt second only to a nude, ball-flapping, Secret Service ducking, 50-yard dash through the White House, I’m releasing EarthCore as a Podcast. You can’t buy EarthCore anywhere, so if you get hooked that’s your own problem. I’m trying to pimp you out here. I want you addicted to this novel. I might fork over the ending early, but only if you put your ass on the streets and start turning some tricks for ol’ Huggy Bear …

What is EarthCore about?

Novel Synopses

Deep below a desolate Utah mountain lies the largest platinum deposit ever discovered. A billion-dollar find, it waits for any company that can drill a world's record, three-mile-deep mine shaft.

EarthCore is the company with the technology, the resources and the guts to go after the mother lode. Young executive Connell Kirkland is the company's driving force, pushing himself and those around him to uncover the massive treasure.

But at three miles below the surface, where the rocks are so hot they burn bare skin, something has been waiting for centuries. Waiting ... and guarding. Kirkland and EarthCore are about to find out first-hand why this treasure has never been unearthed.