Thereby Hangs a (Pod)Tale

The other day, I was searching online for podcasters who interview SF authors, looking for ways to get the word out about my new books. (This in addition to the fine work my newly retained publicist is doing.) I didn’t find what I was looking for, but I did discover a plethora of fiction podcasts—basically radio plays for the internet age. This is a whole world I knew nothing about! I started listening to one called We Fix Space Junk, written by Beth Crane of the UK. The episodes are short, witty, and lots of fun. In a blipvert between episodes, she said she’d be appearing this Sunday (i.e., yesterday) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at a podcasting festival called PodTales.

It turned out PodTales was a free, open-to-all podcast festival—and best of all, it was happening just down the street at Lesley University. I putted down on my moped and spent a fun afternoon talking to podcasters about their shows—and listening to a panel on story structure, where I learned that the process of writing 20-minute podcast episodes was pretty much the same as the process of writing thousand-page novels. I even ran into someone from my church, who (I learned) has started his own podcast of stories for young kids (Moosiverse).

In the space of four days, I’ve gone from complete ignorance about this burgeoning art form—I didn’t even know I had a podcast app on my phone!—to boasting a full slate of podcasts I’m eager to try. Here’s a screenshot of my to-listen shelf in Podcast Addict on my droid phone.

By the way, if you hear of any podcasters looking to interview writers, please let me know!