I’ve been talking about myself almost exclusively for a while now, and I think it’s time to talk about something else, so that I can come back in the next post and make it all about ME ME ME again, and you’ll think it’s fresh and new. But what could be as fascinating as my creeping word-count and unchanging Sunday long runs?
It’s been a while since I last posted about the podcasts I’ve been listening to. Last time, I posted about some good podcast fiction; this time, I thought I’d talk about the non-fiction podcasts that regularly show up on my iPhone.
I’m not much for video podcasts, because I usually listen to podcasts during interstitial time, like walking to the train station or driving alone from point A to point B. Those are not good times to watch videos. When I’m not in motion, I’d generally rather do something other than watch videos on my laptop (if I had time for video podcasts, I could watch TV, too). But there are a couple that I’ll make an exception for, because they’re short and generally pretty interesting.
Author, podcaster, and former pro wrestler Matt Wallace has put out 10 episodes of his “Kill the Feed” video blog message to the nation, the world, and the legion so far; he seems to be on a brief hiatus, but I’d lay good odds he’ll be back soon. He starts with a healthy rant about something that’s gotten under his skin, then talks about his writing, generally all in less than 10 minutes. His short fiction has been podcast all over the net, and his short story collection, The Next Fix, is available for the Kindle. I read The Next Fix a little while ago, and if you like your fiction dark and bloody, you need to check it out.
Podcasting pioneer, novelist, and geek fu master Mur Lafferty’s I Should Be Writing podcast is a regular source of inspiration. Lately, she’s taken to adding short videos to her ISBW feed, which are a nice addition to the regular format. They’re short and funny, and supplement — rather than replace — the usual ISBW audio episodes. (FYI – if you’re a fan of Mur’s Heaven series, she started podcasting the final chapter, War, just last week in her main feed. The first episode is very promising.)
Back in the realm of audio, I recently came across Tee Morris‘s The Survival Guide to Writing Fantasy, which seems to be on a bit of a break. The most recent episode is from Jan. 2009, but was a terrific interview with Scott Sigler about how he wrote Contagious in five months at the same time that he was going through a couple of personal tragedies. I’m looking forward to catching up on the older episodes.
Author J.C. Hutchins has his first novel in print coming out tomorrow — Personal Effects: Dark Arts (and yes, I preordered my copy and will be eagerly awaiting my little box of horrors from Amazon) — and has two separate podcasts promoting it. In Hey Everybody!, Hutch updates us about how his promotion efforts are going and what else is going on in the world of Hutch, and usually has an interesting interview with another author or artist. He’s also podcasting Personal Effects: Sword of Blood, a novella that’s a prequel to PE:DA, which is, let me tell you, pretty damn suspenseful.
Dan Carlin puts out the fantastic Hardcore History podcast every month or so, giving us an in-depth essay (usually 45 minutes to an hour) on a wide variety of people and events. I recently came across his bi-weekly Common Sense podcast, on politics and current events. Show 151, about the decline of print media, I thought was particularly insightful compared to most of the discussion of the issue on the net (or in the dead-tree press, for that matter). Unfortunately, I often find myself agreeing with Dan, which makes it hard for me to say convincingly that the podcast is interesting and entertaining whether you agree with him or not, but it is, or at least it should be. He’s a bright, well-informed guy, and I hope his audience continues to grow.
That’s all I’ve got for tonight. I hope you find some of these podcasts interesting. I’ll probably do this again in another month or so, when I get bored talking about myself again.
The Unfocused Life 