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My Official Podcasting Debut

Some of you are familiar with my initial, hesitant steps into podcasting–specifically, that I am podcasting my fiction, starting with Pay Me, Bug! and continuing with The Points Between. It’s been… um… interesting.1 Some of you have enjoyed it, which is kind, but I don’t think anyone can claim that my production values, editing, or basic presentation of each episode have been polished or professional.

Which is one of the reasons why I’m excited to announce that I’m going to be on a podcast that has both polished and professional production values, editing, and presentation. I’m talking about The Roundtable Podcast, a show that “workshops” a story idea from a new, wide-eyed, wet-behind-the-ears author in order to turn it into something they like to call “literary gold.”

I will be playing the role of the new, wide-eyed, wet-behind-the-ears author. I’m recording it this week, and it’ll go up in mid-June. Read on for more information.

The Roundtable Podcast starts with a very cool concept:

The two hosts invite a “mystery host,” an author or content creator who already has some experience in the wild and terrible world of fiction, to join them with a new, terrified babe in the woods.2 The n00b has a story idea–something he or she has been working on, holding close, tinkering with, crouching over while muttering “precioussssss” in the depths of a dark cavern.3 4 5 The n00b, terrified, reveals this idea to the world6 after which the Hosts and the Mystery Host proceed to rip it to shre–

… that is to say, they evaluate the story synopses and suggest ways to improve it, flesh it out, and identify some potential problem areas.

It really is a very cool show. There are two shows a week: one is a 20-minute interview7 with the Mystery Host–you get to meet the successful, professional-grade author, and learn how he or she works, got involved in the business, things they’ve recently done, things they’re about to release. It’s a highly entertaining Q&A session and a very strong episode on in its own right.

The second show is where the n00b–that’s me, in this instance–comes on and describes his story to the panel. They listen politely for 8 minutes, then embark on a flurry of speculation and madcap exegesis where they try to figure out what problems the new author might face, how those problems might be handled, and generally spitball ideas, themes, plot developments, and Other Fun Stuff that the new author can, if he is so inclined, steal outright.

It has quickly become one of my favorite podcasts. Those of you who like podcasts should subscribe to the feed if only to marvel at Dave Robison’s pitch-perfect broadcasting voice,8 but on top of that you get a fascinating look at stories in the earliest stages of life.

The story I’m going to workshop is called “Northlander,” a dark fantasy/murder mystery set in a homegrown world. It was going to be my serial project after I finished The Points Between,9 but I thought it would benefit from this workshop before I spent any time fleshing it out. Spoiler alert: It’s a murder mystery, and due to the nature of the format I expect I’ll be giving away all the secrets on air. Caveat Reader.

I’m recording this week but it won’t go up till June–these guys have been really busy and there are a lot of good interviews and worships up on their site already. Give ’em a spin, and I’ll post more specific information about when my show goes up the closer it gets to broadcasting.

Once again: http://www.roundtablepodcast.com

Footnotes

  1. Are you familiar with the phrase “he has a great radio voice?” Well I have a great voice for reading silently to yourself in a library.
  2. Henceforth referred to as “the n00b.”
  3. Or basement.
  4. Or bedroom.
  5. Or, you know, a brightly-lit, fully-equipped writer’s studio that has the Fung Shuei stamp of approval–it’s entirely possible, but it breaks the mood, just roll with it.
  6. More specifically, the subset of the world that comprises the podcasting audience.
  7. “20 minutes” should not be taken as an exact measurement of time. It’s more of an algebraic placeholder, where “20” is essentially a stand-in for “x,” rather than the other way around.
  8. Which I am totally not jealous of. At all. Not even a little bit…
  9. And it still might be, since the way things are going I’ll be trying to finish Chapter 21 for the NEXT SEVENTEEN YEARS.

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