More for Your Ears

Lady Reading by Robert James Gordon

It’s always nice to sell a story, it’s a special treat to sell one to a podcast. For years now, I’ve enjoyed listening to the written word as much as reading it. I discovered audio books and podcasts when my kids were little, and my sitting-and-reading time almost entirely disappeared. Conversely, I spent lots of time on mundane tasks like laundry and driving to and from endless errands.*

I found audio books first, on disk, at the library. I dug up my dorky old CD player and it’s dorkier neoprene jog-belt carrier and started listening to books. There’s an art to sweeping the floor and listening to a book, a different kind of focus. But, if you’re busy with the banal jobs of keeping body and soul together, the house clean, and the kids diapered, it’s an art definitely worth mastering. 

I load books onto my iPod now (which is getting old and I suppose one day will be dorky too). I also stay current by listening to just a few of the hundreds (thousands? Millions?) of podcasts out there. I’ve listed some of my favorites previously, here are some new ones that I’ve added to my feed.

Cast of Wonders
And not just because they produced my story! There's a nice selection of excellent stories here as well as links to the Camp Myth novellas. Just because they call themselves a "young adult" podcast, doesn't mean us grownups can't listen to them too.

Toasted Cake
Another Parsec Award winning podcast run by author Tina Connolly. This one specializes in flash fiction - like a little dessert for your ears.

Strange Horizons 

This excellent weekly speculative fiction magazine podcasts selected fiction and poetry read by the talented and satin-voiced Anaea Lay. 

New Yorker: Fiction

Once a month the fiction editors at the New Yorker ask a writer to read one of their favorite stories that has been published in the magazines pages. This is followed by a brief discussion of the story. Good stuff for writers!

Nature Podcast

A free audio show covering the latest in science news. Once a month they read a flash fiction story from the print journal's Nature Futures feature.

Poetry Off the Shelf

One of my favorites. Produced by The Poetry Foundation, this podcast features one or two poems followed by a short discussion. Always lovely and useful.  

Go forth and listen!

 

* When I think back to my college days, I remember spending entire afternoons with friends at our local hole-in-the-wall bar where we would all complain that we didn’t have any time!

Listening to Stories

I listen to about as much material as I read if not more. With two kids and their lessons, a part-time job and a dog to walk, it's the only way I stay current at all.

Listening is different from reading with your eyeballs. But once you adjust to the aural attentiveness required to take in a spoken word piece its delightful to knit or scrub or walk while someone reaches across time and space to tell you a story.

With audio there are three people involved, you the writer and the reader. I great reader can really add dimension to whatever you are listening to, and a not so great reader can make a difficult slog of a great story. It's the price you pay for the extra company.

It feels both modern - with the technology that makes audio books and podcasting so accessible - and primal to listen to a story. Put in your earbuds and join those long gone people who sat around the fire listening to the Illiad, Gilgamesh and Beowulf (all of which you can get as audiobooks by the way).

Mostly, I get audiobooks from the library and load them onto my iPod, but my queue of novels and nonfiction is getting dusty since I discovered so many great podcasts this year. Turns out the Pod-o-sphere is chock full of fantastic genre stories, news and chat. To write great short stories you have to read lots of them. Thanks to these podcasts I've listened to more stories, and to a broader range of stories within the genre, than I could have possibly read this year.

Here's what I've been listening to. It's by no means a comprehensive list, but I still say it's awesome. It's made cleaning the house, running errands and walking the dog immeasurably more pleasant.

STORIES

Podcastle

All kinds of fantasy stories from swords and socerey to slipstream.

Escape Pod

Great science fiction stories in all styles from new and established authors in the field.

Beneath Ceaseless Skies

This one specializes in literary adventure fantasy that takes place on secondary worlds.

Clarkesworld

This online magazine has won the Hugo for best semipro magazine two years running. The stories are fantastic and varied. The first thing I did when I got my Kindle for Christmas was subscribe to this and to Lightspeed Magazine.

Lightspeed

A John Joseph Adams joint this magazine and podcast is combining with its sister magazine Fantasy for double the podcasts and stories.

NEWS & CHAT

SFSignal

Both the website and this podcast are a great source of news about goings on in the genre.

Coode Street Podcast

I really enjoy hearing these two friends chatting about all things science fiction and fantasy. Both Jonathan Strahan and Gary K. Woolfe are award-winning anthologists and editors.

SCIENCE

(File under inspiration. keeping the "science" in science fiction.)

Groks Science Radio Show

The production values are low but the two hosts are great interviewers and often have some big names in science on their show to discuss current science topics.


ON WRITING

Odyssey

Samples of lectures from the Odyssey Writer's Workshop. They don't post very often, but I've listened through their entire catalog and there's a lot of great writing and genre advice. If you can't afford six weeks to attend this workshop, check out their podcast.

Writing Excuses

Fun and chatty with good advice too. Gotta love their motto: "Fifteen minutes long, because you're in a hurry, and we're not that smart."

I Should Be Writing

Another great genre focused podcast. Advice and interviews mixed with writerly commiseration.

So that's what's keeping my ears happy right now. I know there's lots more out there. Tell me about your favorites in the comments and I'll add them on. Enjoy!