It gets into some of the behind the scenes things that didn’t make it into to book, and some of the inspiration behind it.

If you have questions but won’t be available for the show, send them to me (hittman@davehitt.com) and we’ll try to answer them.

If you haven’t listened to the novel, but intend to, please note that this is likely to be full of spoilers.

Episode 16 – Catherine and Chris make perpetrations for the final battle, while a new threat captures the attention of the public.

Episode 17 – The Final Episode.  Chris and Catherine throw a party.

Jehovah’s Witnesses teach that oral and anal sex, even between married people, is wrong, because gay people do it.  (Gay people also kiss and hold hands, but somehow that doesn’t count.)  This is one of their many doctrines that have changed back and forth over the years.  Sometimes it’s a disfellowshiping offense, sometimes it’s not.  I’m not sure of their current stance on it, but whatever it is, you can be sure it will change in the future.  (JWs scorn other churches that make changes in doctrine, but changes in their doctrine are “new truths” to be celebrated and embraced.)

Since JWs are programmed to self-censor anything from outside their organization, I’ve created this piece for them.  It  consists entirely of watchtower quotes, read verbatim, over sexy music.

JW_Porn Left click to play, right click to download.  NSFW.

The text came from this page.   The music is “Perfume” by the group “Adult Only.”  You can find the real thing here.

Episode 12 – Vampire Lore. Catherine gives Chris a bit of training.

Episode 13 – Consummation. Finally!

Episode 14 – The One Law. Catherine ponders the implications of breaking The One Law.

Episode 15 -  – Bloody Amateur. The newest vamp makes a mess of things.

You can find it here.

From the land down under -  The Cubby House Podcast.

And from the land right here – Podioracket.

Episode 7 – This Old House – Catherine finds a new place and settles in. Eddie gets even, then wishes he hadn’t.

Episode 8 – Welcome. Go Away! Welcome. Catherine welcomes Chris into her home. She’s threatened by one group of vampires in The City, then welcomed by others.

Episode 9 – The Truth that Leads to Eternal Life. Catherine offers Chris eternal life, and gives him a small sample of the pleasure it entails.

Episode 10 – Decisions, Decisions.  Chris makes his decision.

Episode 11 – The conversion.  Some conversions are harder than others.

When I first wrote this book I gave the Thompson’s infant a different disease, a real illness I thought required a blood exchange shortly after birth.  I later discovered that in the 80s, when the story takes place, transfusions weren’t used as treatment.  Getting trivial facts right is very important in fiction, otherwise the story is ruined for anyone who spots the mistake.  I searched for other illnesses (and they had to be genetic, so the parents knew it was coming) that would require a newborn to get blood transfusions, but couldn’t find one.  So I invented one, but was having trouble coming up with a good name for it.

I had been listening to Scott Sigler’s “Infected.” Scott used the names of well-known podcasters for past victims of his disease, and it brought a smile to my face every time he did it.  And considering that “Infected” (and the sequel, “Contagious”, which is a New York Times Best Seller) are about ghastly diseases, I thought naming the illness after him would be a great inside joke.  I sent him an e-mail asking permission and received a one word reply: “Cool!”

And thus “Sigler’s Syndrome” was born.

Blood Witness is now available at PodioBooks. The episodes are identical to the episodes in the RSS and iTunes feed; the only difference is that the closing comments have been removed from the PodioBooks feed.

You want more horror? Perhaps you’d like to mix up your listening with some mystery. Of course you can’t go wrong with Science Fiction. How about some Fantasy? Or maybe some Non-fiction? They’ve got it all. And their quality control is very picky, so you can be sure whatever you try will sound great. When you’re done with this week’s episode of Blood Witness and crave more, head over to Podiobooks.com.

Thanks to Taliesan Meets The Vampires for mentioning, and recommending, Blood Witness.

Henchmen: as mentioned in the closing comments, here’s the URLfor hotlinking to the 30 second BW Promo: http://tinyurl.com/cgt7hr. Usually hotlinking is a bad thing, but in this case, go for it. You’ll also find the promo as the last entry in the RSS feed, so you probably already have it.

Well, the first of the volunteer henchmen.  You’ll see some others on the list, but two of them are to my stuff, so they don’t count, and the other two were recruited.  I asked long-time friend Johnny Virgil, who does  15 Minute Lunch, for help with the graphics and he recruited Pete Pallidino of the Badless for the theme song.   But Gene was the first one who volunteered, instead of reacting to my badgering.

He does not just one, but five different podcasts, covering a variety of subjects.  They’re all worth a listen.  You can find them all here.

Thanks Gene.

Note: This episode contains a very explicit sexual scene.

The first episode was released today. Did you love it? Hate it? Are you enthusiastically ambivalent about it? Leave a comment and let me know.