08-25-12 UPDATE:Podcast Update:Time to Read Episode 60: Tim Powers, 'Hide Me Among the Graves'
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Here's the sixtyth episode of my new series of podcasts, which I'm calling Time to Read. The podcasts/radio broadcasts will be of books worth your valuable reading time. I'll try to keep the reports under four minutes, for a radio-friendly format. If you want to run them on your show or podcast, let me know. I'll be in LA again next week, so expect the next one next Sunday.
My hope is that in under four minutes I can offer readers a concise review and an opportunity to hear the author read from or speak about the work. I'm hoping to offer a new one every week.
08-22-12: SF in SF Panel from 07-07-12 with Terry Bisson, Richard Kadrey and John Shirley
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"..they did Jimmy Olsen that, didn't they?"
—John Shirley
The conversation was in progress when I started the tape; you couldn't keep them from talking! John Shirley was telling us about his work on the latest installment of The Crow, a graphic novel set in Japan. I'll have to warn listeners that this recording definitely earns the "Explicit" tag from iTunes — early and often.
As it happened, the comic and graphic novel world was very much the topic of conversation, as Richard Kadrey chimed in with his experiences having the Sandman Slim work adapted into the format. It sounds sort of like something from one of the novels, alas.
Regardlesss, this is your chance to hear three greats of the genre talking in an intimate setting about the finest points of writing, the ins and out of the life of writers who manage to do just that — make a living from writing. You can hear this conversation by following this link to the MP3 audio file.
08-20-12:A 2012 Interview with Brian Castner
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"My goal in writing the book was to write it as it felt."
— Brian Castner
Brian Castner is instantly engaging in person. He's very straightforward, easygoing articulate — everything you'd expect having read 'The Long Walk: A Story of War and the Life That Follows.' And while it is tempting to think that an author has said everything he needs to in the book, talking to Castner in person brought forth many relevant revelations.
Now, it might seem obvious that he wrote the book to mirror his experience; but how he went about doing that is not in the book itself, and it is definitely worth hearing about. We talked about his visual aids for putting together the narrative as well as his personal experiences both at home and in the war. While I don't think we covered much that was in the book directly, what we did talk about gives it a new perspective.
What interested me were the implications of what he described both at war and at home. At war, he talked about the incredible difficulty of doing even the simplest thing, and this led me to intuit that there was a level of well-intended bureaucracy at work. Of course the best intentions never guarantee the best results. And at home Castner found solace but not the sort of simple solutions that one hopes for. The book, the man and his experiences are a lesson in mixed messages and results.
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Mary Robinette Kowal Reads "Evil Robot Monkey" at SF in SF on April 20, 2013 : "...not that there's anything remotely Regency about evil robot monkeys..."
05-06-13: Commentary : Glennon Doyle Melton Suggests 'Carry On, Warrior' : Fighting for Life in the Too Much Information Age
05-04-13: Commentary : Reasons Not to Leave the House, Reality Check : The Truth Hurts Edition: 'Down the Up Escalator' by Barbara Garson, 'The Wolf and the Watchman' by Scott C. Johnson,'The Book of Woe' by Gary Greenberg, 'Confessions of a Sociopath' by M. E. Thomas
05-01-13: Commentary : Mario Guslandi Reviews An Emporium of Automata by DP Watt : "...from the bizarre to the grotesque, from the baroque to the uncanny..."
Agony Column Podcast News Report : : Rick Klaw Reads at SF in SF on April 20, 2013 : "...those are the kind of people that don't get work anymore..."
04-29-13: Commentary : Ben Katchor Catalogues 'Hand Drying in America' : Subversive Cities of the Heart
04-27-13: Commentary : Mark Morris Introduces 'Toady' : A New World of Horror
Agony Column Podcast News Report : : Thomas Frank from The Easy Chair and Harper's Magazine: TV's DC Fantasies : "... basically, everyone is corrupt ..."
04-22-13: Commentary : Danielle Trussoni Maps 'Angelopolis' : The Afterlife of Angels
04-17-13: Commentary : How Not to Leave the House : Reach for the Recycling
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Matt Richtel, Sophie Littlefield and Terry Bisson at SF in SF on February 9, 2013 : "You cannot do this all day long." Sophie Littlefield
04-16-13: Commentary : Stephen Kessler 'Scratch Pegasus' : Lens of Language
04-08-13: Commentary : Ruth Ozeki Clocks 'A Tale for the Time Being' : Reading is the Future
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2013 Interview with Ruth Ozeki : "...through the act of writing, she would somehow conjure the reader into being..."
