The Classic Tales Podcasts and Audiobooks

I love The Classic Tales, but I only have an iPad. I’m on the road, and I’d like to download an audiobook for the ride home. Does this sound familiar? Now, with a little help from some friends, you can download any title from The Classic Tales website without a computer. Let’s face it, iPads, iPhones and iPods are great, right? But when it comes to audiobooks and music, Apple doesn’t like you to get your stuff from anywhere else. And so if you try to download an mp3 file, or an m4b audiobook file while using Safari on your iOS device, it will start streaming it in a window. No download options available. Nope. And even if you could download it, iTunes won’t recognize it. Now, with a little finagling, we can set it up so that you can buy an audiobook from The Classic Tales website , download it and play it on your iPad, iPhone or other iOS device. These are the two things we’ve got to do: Download the file and Play it. Now, to do this, we need to pick up a couple apps at t

During the month of November, we have all been enjoying stories from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle .  These are the first three stories in the series, Silver Blaze , The Yellow Face , and The Stockbroker's Clerk .  B.J. knew we hadn't had mysteries in a while, and we needed a break from all the horror stories.  I am delighted, as I truly enjoy following Holmes and Watson on their adventures.  All of these stories are masterfully written.  They are complex, witty and often break the pattern of a basic mystery. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born in 1859 in Scotland.  He was a multi-faceted man.  After a rough childhood dealing with an alcoholic and insane father, he was educated at a Jesuit school in England, where he had trouble adjusting to the rigid lifestyle. About these experiences, he wrote, "Perhaps it was good for me that the times were hard, for I was wild, full blooded and a trifle reckless. But the situation called for energy and

What better way to cap a Halloween Scare Fest than with a strange murder confession from Edgar Allan Poe , as B.J. Harrison brings us " The Cask of Amontillado ," a tale of murder by wine. Or rather, the promise of wine. As you may remember, this was the first story B.J. recorded for The Classic Tales Podcast . If you still have your old audio copy , it should be fun to compare it to today's production so you can see how far B.J. has come. " The Cask of Amontillado " is one of Poe's most popular stories, published in 1846 in the magazine Godey's Lady's Book , which was at the time, the most widely read magazine.  Many critics consider this a 'perfect' story.  It may well be the perfect crime, unless the whomever Monrtesor is telling this story to goes to the authorities! In looking around the web for interesting takes on this story, I ran into two different productions.  One of them is a rap song , evidently produced to get school

As some of you may know, one of  B.J.'s many talents is scenery sculpture and scenic painting.  And Halloween is showtime!  Here are some pictures, plus a little narrative from our guide through literature about B.J.'s latest  adventure outside books!  He promises more when the park opens tonight. Hands down, my favorite is the blue gargoyle which so freaked out the patron! Here is B.J.:  Well, here are some photos of some of the work I'm doing right now. Apart from the Classic Tales Podcast, David Copperfield and another audiobook I've commissioned, I'm working at Evermore Theme Park. This is preliminary work for a 30 acre theme park, which will be the largest Haunt in the US. It will be in Pleasant Grove, Utah. A good friend of mine, Cory Clawson, sculpted these pieces. They are cast of fiberglass and polyurethane. I painted the gargoyles to look like blue granite. The shrouded woman has a bronze patina. The client wanted them to look really aged. I us

B.J. Harrison and The Classic Tales continue the Halloween Fright Extravaganza this week with a Bram Stoker 's short story called "The Squaw."  B.J. found this story when he picked up a book of short stories on a recent trip to the Shakespearean Festival with his wife.  I wonder if they slept that night. It is a story of a couple in the midst of their honeymoon who join forces with a colorful American cowboy in their tour of Germany. Jokes turn into accidents, and accidents engender thoughts of hate and revenge in the mind of a black cat. By the time the party tours the medieval torture chamber, tensions run very high, indeed. You know Bram Stoker best as the author of Dracula , the vampire who wanted to move from Transylvania to England.  But if you are a fellow avid listener of The Classic Tales, you also know him as from his short tale,  Dracula's Gues t . Dracula's Guest was originally slated to appear in the novel, but was cut and later released a