Podcast Infection Spreads To Print

UPDATE: The SFGate has a profile of podcasting novelist Scott Sigler that looks at how he’s used free podcasts to promoting his writing career (from Podcasting News).

On 3/27:
Coming April 1st, the successful podcast novel "Infected", by horror writer/podcaster Scott Sigler will be released in print. I am always excited to see podcasters move forward in their successes! Not just excitement for them, but also for the light it brings to the podcasting world.

For the next couple of days, the book is available as a .pdf- for free! There is also an interesting post by Cory Doctorow on the Boing Boing blog about the download and how publishers work in general in promoting book releases. If nothing else, the comments always add to the enjoyment!

If you want to know more about the master of pod-horror, JC Hutchins interviewed Sigler on his latest UltraCreatives interview podcast (which btw is another podcast that you should be listening to, fellow addicts!). He doesn't make Sigler cry, but you are always assured a good time when Hutchins and Sigler are together!

~Dani

New script writing tool for audio cinema writers

Swiped shamelessly from The Sonic Society:

Documentary Film Editor, Radio Play Editor, & Versioning Lead Feature-Rich New Release

September 2007: St. John’s, Canada: Celtx – the first software to integrate the entire media pre-production process – has released a new version (v.0.9.9.5) targeted at improving the user experience for media writers and collaborators.

Celtx now includes two new script editors – a dual column AV editor supporting documentary filmmaking, music videos, advertising, and general AV projects, and an Audio Play editor for standardized radio scripts and podcasts. Also, all script editors now feature Dual Dialogue and reversible, colour-coded Index Cards.

Server side, Celtx sports an innovative new LaTex-powered TypeSet function – for precise industry-standard script formatting. Encryption technology has also been added to protect every upload & download between the desktop and the Celtx server.

New collaboration enhancement tools have also been built into Celtx Web Services. Snapshots are used to track a constantly evolving project, allowing the media creator to revert back to a known state at any time. Automatic Event Notification has also been added to keep project members up-to-the-minute on updates posted by team members.

Celtx also gets a face-lift in 0.9.9.5, with a new Splash Page design to provide direct access to popular script templates, plus a re-designed and re-engineered Project Central project publishing website, to better showcase the work of media creators.


About Celtx
Celtx is the world's first fully integrated software for pre-production and collaboration of film, theatre, radio and AV. It has all the tools media creators need to bring their stories to life – combining intelligent writing and planning tools, storyboarding, and scheduling with internet-friendly technologies. Open source and free to download, Celtx is the most complete media pre-production software program available anywhere, at any cost. Over 100,000 independent media creators in 160 countries create with Celtx.

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Knowing that Jack Ward was an integral part of Celtx's development, it is definitely worth checking out!

Website: http://www.celtx.com

New Fantasy Short Fiction Podcast Coming Soon

Ripping it off from Evo at Podiobooker, because I'm even more lazy than he is!

I’m ripping this off verbatim from Jesse Willis of SFF Audio, partly because I’m lazy and partly because he wrote it so well:

From the people who brought you “Escape Pod: The Science Fiction Podcast Magazine” and “Psuedopod: The World’s Premier Horror Fiction Podcast” now comes…

PodCastle: The Fantasy Fiction Podcast
“PodCastle is the world’s first fantasy audio magazine. Each week we’ll bring you short stories across the spectrum of fantasy from leading authors and new discoveries. Like our sister podcasts, Escape Pod and Pseudopod, PodCastle is entirely free to listen and share.”

The new podcast is still in development, but the main website for it can be found at PodCastle.org. On the site you’ll find a notation saying that the podcast will launch in August (though it may actually be in September).

Like Escape Pod and PseudoPod this will be a paying market for authors and a free podcast for listeners. Flash fiction (short short little stories) will net authors just $20. But $100.00 will be paid for full fledged short stories. If you, like us plan on subscribing to PodCastle, we urge you to send them a few bucks as a show of support. SFFaudio has dug deep into its coffers and made a donation of exactly $100.00 USD through PayPal - so we’re buying the whole world and you that first fantasy tale.

Oh and one last thing. Hey you Fantasy fiction authors, take note, the submission guidelines are already up on the site. So get submitting. The future is sounding FANTASTIC!

Exciting stuff! Writers, get writing!

Fear of Writing

Neat podcast I stumbled upon... oh ok I didn't stumble. It was brought to my attention from a friend of mine, author Jenny Turner. The reason it was brought to my attention is because a short story of hers was read on an episode!

Each month a subject to write about is given, to encourage those who may have wanted to begin writing, but have a fear of actually putting those ideas to paper.

The subject of this particular show was "Free Spirit: You are a gypsy wanderer; your home is a hot air balloon." I think she did a great job, and what an honor to have your story read by an NPR pro!

Direct download:
http://audio.tpr.org/fearofwriting002.mp3

Now I need to work on Jenny to get her other series in podiobook form... ;-)

Fear of Writing is a good podcast as a whole to check out too!

Podcasting from Mars

Shamelessly copied from- well, my own blog actually:

I have a friend. His name is Rick. Rick hosts an awesome podcast called "Variant Frequencies". They began a message board.

I have another friend. His name is Matt. Matt writes a series for Variant Frequencies called, "The Failed City Monologues". He wanted to help give the message board some attention. So he made a proposition.

Matt is cool. Here is the last line of the first fiction ever with my name in it:

"And that's how Dani Cutler, the audio addict with the coolest name in the 'sphere, became the first woman to podcast from Mars."

Wanna see the rest? Of course you DO.

Now, I just need it read by the author....

Make sure you check out, and join the VF message board!