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Wow…with all of the new podcasts I’m following now, it’s already grown difficult to keep up. Which is absolutely fantastic news and one of the very things I was hoping for when I started this blog focusing on writing podcasts in the first place. It seems like so much has happened since the beginning, only two short months ago.
First off, several of the podcasters I was already following before I started these updates have graciously communicated back and sent me even more podcasts to follow. It’s a great commentary on the community out there. I listen to each and every one of them on a weekly basis and keep notes so that I can give a short review of the content along with my links here in these summaries.
But allowing a full week to pass before posting each summary is causing a couple of problems, I think. One, it’s too long since I’ve listened to some of them to give a front of mind review, and I have only my notes to rely on. Two, I do consider these links a service to the writing community (those of you who have found me by now, anyway). When I started down this writing path, these podcasts (along with the blogs I follow) quickly became my online and daily classroom for news and training on writing, publishing and agents.
Therefore it seems to me like I should provide the links more often if I can, if any of you are using my summaries for quick access to the wealth of information out there yourselves.
So…I am strongly considering changing this update to be bi-weekly or perhaps even more frequent. Instead of a Monday update only, perhaps a Tuesday and Thursday update, or maybe three times a week. I haven’t decided for sure yet, but just a heads up for anyone that comes here each Monday looking for the update. The schedule may be changing a bit.
Okay, enough of my ramblings – on to the links:
(NOTE: due to volume, I am also changing the format this week as an experiment. Rather than the bullet list I typically provide, I am going to give each podcast a header and then add the links to their episodes underneath, since several had more than one update this week – thanks podcasters!)
Writing Excuses
Perhaps the podcast in my list that focuses most on the craft of writing. Each episode seems to deal with some aspect of craft. There aren’t as many interviews as some of the others in my list.
6.2 Internal Motivations – discusses character motivations. What makes your characters tick? How do you show it to the reader?
I Should Be Writing
Mur’s podcast always feels very personal. She usually starts with an update on her own work, how her week is going, things like that. Then she typically does an interesting interview. I also enjoy her feedback shows and the Good Cop / Bad Cop routine she does with Matt Wallace, though that part of her site has moved under a pay area, and I’ve decided to keep these reviews focused only on free podcasts, at least for now.
ISBW #206 – DIWhine/John Picacio Interview – Mur starts with some news about the perils of Do-It-Yourself publishing, then has an interesting interview with science fiction cover artist / designer John Picacio. They talk about what goes into designing a cover and the issue of “white-washing” covers, which I’d never heard of and assumed was some sort of art approach, rather than what it turned out to be – a form of racism that sometimes crops up in book covers in certain genres. Very interesting.
The Writing Show
This show is now all “Slush Pile Workshops”, which consist of Paula Berinstein reading and critiquing works submitted to her, as an agent perhaps would off their “slush pile”.
Slush Pile Workshop #15 – Three interesting short stories are read. They all sounded well-written, for the most part. Also, in the very beginning, Paula discusses some Rhetorical Devices and points out a few I found particularly interesting and use myself in my writing, thought I didn’t know the official names of them until she mentioned them: Epizeuxis and Scesis Onomaton.
Writers on Writing
This podcast is a recording of a radio show run by two women at UC Irvine. The interviews are always very professionally done and interesting.
Catherine Friend and Caitlin Kelly – these authors are interviewed separately, each with compelling topics for their non-fiction works, Catherine Friend on Farming, Sheep and Wool and Caitlin Kelly on working retail in the mall.
If You’re Just Joining Us
Jon Armstrong gives us lots of interesting author interviews.
M.D. Lachlan – the author discusses his new novel Wolfsangel, a re-invention of the werewolf myth with ties to Norse mythology. He also discusses moving from comedy writing to fantasy writing, and the differences between them.
Adventures in SciFi Publishing
This podcast interviews authors, holds contests and generally has news focusing on the SciFi and Fantasy genres.
AISFP 122 – Michele Lang – an interview with Michele Lang, author of Lady Lazarus. I particularly enjoyed her recommendations of her agent, Lucienne Diver of The Knight Agency, an agency that just happens to be located here in Atlanta (thought I’m not sure Lucienne herself is here). She sounds like just the type of agent I’d like to work with. Couple that with the fact the agency is physically in Atlanta and hmmm…. perhaps Ms. Diver should be expecting a query from me soon ;-)
AISFP 123 – Gastreich, Chambers and Wood – Interviews with several authors who have published with Small Presses. Discussions of their work and the difference between small press publishing and self publishing.
Authors featured:
M.C. Chambers
Karen Gastreich
Jonathan Wood
Books on the Nightstand
All writers should be reading. A lot. This is a great podcast for readers, which makes it a great podcast for writers. Also, readers are your customers, aren’t they? You should understand them as much as possible.
BOTNS Podcast #132: Books for Gay Pride Month – Ann Kingman reviews The Book Expo of America, and both Ann and Michael Kindness review a list of LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) fiction.
Chat Broome
This is a neat little podcast if you’re looking for short updates. It’s not always strictly writing related, but the podcaster Iain Broome, is himself a writer and he does discuss writing on most of the posts.
June 7: iBehaviour – Iain discusses Apple’s recent announcements and talks about how behaviors are led by those are the forefront of change.
June 9: Ready to Launch – Just start. Do good work, of course, but don’t spend ages and ages getting it right before releasing something into the world. Sometimes you have to let your work fly off on its own, like releasing a dove into the air.
June 10: The Thinking of Paul Davis – Valuing different types of minds and different types of thinking.
NOTE: The main page for each podcast I follow is linked in the Podcasts section of links to the left, underneath the Blogroll.
Chris Negron 