David Barr Kirtley

Junot Díaz featured in two podcasts

SFFaudio Online Audio

With the recent release of This is How You Lose her, Junot Díaz has been on my mind! Two of my favorite podcasts recently featured interviews with him, from very different perspectives.

KCRW Bookworm
9/17/12 episode: Junot Díaz: This is How You Lose Her
Interview by Michael Silverblatt

Download |MP3|

Junot discusses the success in his career, how being a reader impacted his writing, and then they discuss specific moments from the stories. Look for great moments of insight about internal resistance, honesty, and self-censorship in writing.

I went back and listened to the bits about how important it is to be a reader several times.

“My career as a writer … began far earlier with my career as a reader. I think I’ve learned everything I needed to know from my reading. … My reading backs me up in ways my writing doesn’t.”

Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy
Episode 70: Junot Díaz
Interview by David Barr Kirtley

Download |MP3|

This episode discusses more of the author’s connection to the world of science fiction than the short stories themselves. Included is a discussion of whether or not the recent New Yorker Science Fiction issue will change the world, why science fiction is more relevant to Dominicans than any other form of literature, and his own history in trying to write post-apocalyptic literature. I was ecstatic to hear that his next novel will be post-apocalyptic!

He also discusses Caribbean science fiction and fantasy authors, mentioning Tobias Buckell and Nalo Hopkinson in particular. He also recommends N.K. Jemisin as another “diaspora” writer worthy of reading.

Posted by Jenny Colvin

Volume problems on podcasts, a comparison of two podcasts I listened to today

SFFaudio News

David Barr Kirtley, who puts together and hosts Geeks Guide To Galaxy is responding to my complaint about his podcast being too low in volume.

But his show isn’t the only one I’ve had this issue with. Our most recent podcast, #155, also featured two out of three of us complaining about the volume of the Clarkesworld podcast.

I’ve also complained, by email, to Tevi Troy of New Books In Public Policy about the same issue.

Most podcasts are ok for volume. But there are some that are consistently low.

But to get a sense of what I mean I’ll use the two latest shows as my example.

So, picking on David Barr Kirtley again, I listened to Geeks Guide To Galaxy on my walk home from work today (the episode with Morgan Spurlock) – I could barely hear it at maximum volume. It was raining and there were cars on the roadway and because I wasn’t in front of my amplified speaker system at home I just couldn’t hear everything that was being said, and to make it worse to hear anything I had to jam my earbuds down my ear canals. A podcast should physically hurt me.

Here’s the Geeks Guide To Galaxy file: http://downloads.wired.com/podcasts/assets/underwire/geeksguide57.mp3

Now, compare that experience to the one on my way in to work today. I listened to TVO’s Search Engine. And right away I had my iPhone set to half volume of full, and at that it was plenty loud, loud enough, in fact, so that even set at half volume and with my earbuds hanging loosely over my ears, I could hear everything.

Here’s the Search Engine file: http://feeds.tvo.org/~r/tvo/searchengine/~3/mZBN588091g/801144_48k.mp3

And, incidentally, at home now in another comparison I’ve just made again, I can hear Search Engine from across the room at 3/4 volume through my iPhone speaker. The Geek’s Guide is at full volume and is not loud enough.

Posted by Jesse Willis

SFBRP #134 – A Science Fiction Book Review Podcast Review Podcast

SFFaudio Online Audio

Our friend Luke Burrage, of the Science Fiction Book Review Podcast, has a new episode up (SFBRP #134) that features a discussion of other book reviewing podcasts. Writes Luke:

“This episode I invited Jesse and Tamahome from the SFFaudio Podcast to review other podcasts that review, or at least talk about, science fiction and fantasy novels and other literature. This was inspired by an overcrowded and shallow look at podcasts on a recent episode of the SF Signal podcast that Jesse took part in, and we all agreed we had more to say on the subject.”

Have a listen |MP3|

Podcast feed: http://www.sfbrp.com/?feed=podcast

Here’s what we talked about:
Luke’s been busy, reviewing podcasts about science fiction book reviews, Tamahome comes from Fushigi Yûgi, The SFFaudio Podcast, writing a blog is slower than talking on a podcast, SFFaudio readalongs are like a book club, talking with authors, TOPIC episodes, FOOD in Science Fiction, STUPIDITY AND INTELLIGENCE in SF, chatting about SFF literature, Luke is not much on comics, TV, or movies, Tamahome adds colour, “a three-body problem”, Robert J. Sawyer, rape, Hominids, “copious shownotes”, a movie is a footnote to the book, When Gravity Fails by George Alec Effinger, Children Of Men by P.D. James, I Am Legend, pretending there is no movie, Luke doesn’t totally agree with his own argument, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, “it’s The Matrix problem” (sequels), Blade Runner, destroying the sense of wonder, this is why religions eventually collapse too (drilling down), lot’s of hippies having a rave doesn’t interest Luke (or me), gnosticism shouldn’t or can’t be known, sequel-itis or sequel fatigue, it seems as if the only books on store shelves today are series, SFBRP reviews are about just one book per episode and only books, Luke get’s great feedback, Goodreads.com, Amazon.com, SFBRP community is self serving but with wonderful externalities, Luke’s Creative Podcast, A Good Story Is Hard To Find, Scott D. Danielson, Julie Davis, Eifelheim, Catholicism, spoilers, A Good Story Is Hard To Find may be the best podcast out there, SFBRP is irregular, Serenity, Stories Of Your Life by Ted Chiang, Black Cherry Blues by James Lee Burke, East Of Eden, The Franchise Affair by Josephine Tey, historical fiction, Fantasy, mystery, Quiz Show, “the traces of one reality”, the Writing Excuses guys are three Mormons?, SFSignal Podcast #70 with Jesse, podcast lists with no discussion (and no women), The Geek’s Guide To The Galaxy podcast #42 (an interview with Eoin Colfer), [**Eoin should be pronounced “Oh-Ehn”**], the purpose of sequels is to milk the back catalogue, Isabel Allende, the Douglas Adams estate, The Dirk Gently TV series (trailer), John Joseph Adams, David Barr Kirtley is pretty damn good, philosophy, bring the interviewee into the discussion, sycophantic interviews, Jack Womack, Requires Only That You Hate, The Sword And Laser Podcast is a book club podcast, a casual book club, The Jane Austen Book Club, Rim and Scott, The Geek Nights Book Club, board games and computer games, comics and manga, World War Z, The Lies Of Loch Lamora, The Prince Of Nothing, the Geek Nights forum, “speller and gramming”, Rim and Scott (and Luke) are frequent guests on the Friday Night Party Line podcast, Beyond The Door, The Hanging Stranger by Philip K. Dick, Fair Game by Philip K. Dick and The Garden Of Forking Paths by Jorge Luis Borges, the Lightspeed podcast (has spoiler introductions), Jack McDevitt, “he doesn’t want you to worry”, Minding Tomorrow by Luke Burrage, time travel, Terminal World by Alastair Reynolds, The Things (Sffaudio post) by Peter Watts, Courtney Brown of Emory University, the Science Fiction And Politics podcast, Foundation by Isaac Asimov, “all I’m here to do is make you guys argue”, Janelle Monáe, Darwin’s Radio by Gregg Bear, Dan Simmons (Tam was thinking of Darwin’s Blade), Snow Crash, bringing a different spin, The Kick Ass-Mystic Ninjas, Harry Harrison, spoilers don’t necessarily really spoil anything, medieval Germany, when walking a tight-rope Luke strikes a balance, the Gweek podcast, Mark Frauenfelder has a genuine enthusiasm that’s infectious, Ready Player One, Mur Lafferty’s I Should Be Writing format is broken for me, the Paul The Book Guy podcast, it’s a panel show with sound effects and jingles, the segments are way too brief, “books, audiobooks, audio drama”, “a series of commercials” it’s overproduced, The Skiffy And Fanty Show, John DeNardo, Geek Night’s competition for the worst podcast on the internet, War Of The Worlds 2, “Torture Cinema”, Shaun Duke and Jen Zink, “book mountain”, “this podcast is all about me and my slurpee”, picking crappy movies on purpose, “a little bit shallow”, having a barrier to entry, there aren’t as many podcasts about books as one would hope, SFBRP is highly placed on iTunes, The Dragon Page podcast, Arizona, Web Genie, Adventures In Scifi Publishing, podcasts about publishing don’t interest Jesse, stop sending Luke books to review, the many TWiT podcasts, claims of “we’re not shilling” = shilling, do you need to compromise your art for $50?, professional podcasters provide a service, Microsoft Security Essentials, Microsoft made a product that is free, great, and works?, Leo Laporte is has a genuine personality, Jeff Jarvis, Audible ad segments on TWiT have value (and should be compiled), Andy Ihnatko, Macbreak Weekly, the SFBRP:RP, (Tam forgot to mention Coode Street/Galactic Suburbia)

[**Thanks also to Kate O’Hanlon**]

Posted by Jesse Willis

The SFFaudio Podcast #100 – TALK TO: John Joseph Adams

Podcast

The SFFaudio Podcast #100 – Scott and Jesse talked to John Joseph Adams about his careers as editor, anthologist, and audio fan

Talked about on today’s show:
Wastelands anthology, Book Of Cthulhu canceled, John’s reviews for Audible, Lightspeed Magazine, Joe Haldeman, More Than the Sum of His Parts, I’m Alive, I Love You, I’ll See You, Cats in Victory, Fantasy Magazine, The Dog King, flat fee vs sharing royalties, Locus magazine stats retracted, internet vs print market, Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy #32 discussion – can’t read scifi in the future, David Barr Kirtley, Fantastic Fiction at KGB, Word Wars, The Living Dead anthology, Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History, George R.R. Martin, Brian Dunning the Skeptoid, The Tolkien Professor, The Improbable Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes on audio [Our Review], hard to get all the audio rights, The Living Dead 2 audiobook almost happened, Kitty and the Midnight Hour, Octavia Butler’s Wild Seed, is that John’s picture at lightspeedmagazine.com?, good news — she said yes, swearing is ok, Odyssey writer workshop, Aggie Con, too many writing podcasts?, Jesse doesn’t want to be a writer, reading slush (unsolicited manuscripts), can’t edit yourself, the output of Isaac Asimov, Wastelands modeled after Beyond Armageddon, “anthologies don’t sell”, Brave New Worlds, how about utopian?, role of editor, Passengers by Robert Silverberg, Daemon Knight, to listen to your editor or not, John W. Campbell, The Cold Equations, Flowers For Algernon, Daniel Keyes ignored suggestion, does novel editing still exist?, novels are getting fatter, I Am Number Four — James Frey’s Fiction Factory (James Patterson?), wrong lessons from George Lucas, purpose of scifi?, Harlan Ellison ® is registered, Ben Bova, The Craft of Writing Science Fiction That Sells, Ted Chiang, scifi for schools?, Twilight as homework?, Ray Bradbury, The Pedestrian

Posted by Tamahome

Lightspeed Magazine will have a podcast!

SFFaudio News

LIGHTSPEED MAGAZINE

Lightspeed Magazine is a “new online science fiction magazine published by the award-winning independent press Prime Books” – It’s first issue launches June 1, 2010.

The mag is edited by John Joseph Adams, a big audiobook fan who’s also the host of The Geek’s Guide To The Galaxy podcast and Andrea Kail, a “writer, critic, and television producer who worked for thirteen years on Late Night with Conan O’Brien.”

Lightspeed is set to run a mix of straight up Science Fiction and science articles. But, most exciting of all, was this bit from the press release:

We are also pleased to announce a new member of the Lightspeed team: award-winning audiobook producer Stefan Rudnicki, who will be producing the Lightspeed Magazine story podcast.

Stefan Rudnicki is an independent director, producer, narrator, and publisher of audiobooks. He has received more than a dozen Audie Awards from the Audio Publishers Association, a Ray Bradbury Award, a Bram Stoker Award, and a GRAMMY Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children for The Children’s Shakespeare. Outside of the audiobook industry, he’s probably best known for the dozen books he’s written or edited, from actor’s resource anthologies to a best-selling adaptation of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. He is also president of Skyboat Road Company, Inc., the most respected independent audio production team on the West Coast.

Lightspeed will adapt two of its four stories each month to podcast format. Issue one’s podcasts are “The Cassandra Project” by Jack McDevitt and “Amaryllis” by Carrie Vaughn.

As a special feature of the debut issue, in conjunction with the popular podcasts Escape Pod and Hugo Award nominee Starship Sofa, Lightspeed will present two bonus podcasts: “I’m Alive, I Love You, I’ll See You in Reno” by Vylar Kaftan will appear on Escape Pod on June 1 and “Cats in Victory” by David Barr Kirtley will appear on Starship Sofa on June 15.

Here is Lightspeed‘s complete posting schedule for the June 2010 issue:

June 1:
Fiction: “I’m Alive, I Love You, I’ll See You in Reno” by Vylar Kaftan
Author Spotlight: Vylar Kaftan
Podcast: “I’m Alive, I Love You, I’ll See You in Reno” by Vylar Kaftan (on Escape Pod)
Editorial by John Joseph Adams

June 3:
Nonfiction: “Is There Anybody Out There That Wants to Go Fast” by Mike Brotherton

June 8:
Fiction: “The Cassandra Project” by Jack McDevitt
Author Spotlight: Jack McDevitt
Podcast: “The Cassandra Project” by Jack McDevitt, narrated by Stefan Rudnicki

June 10:
Nonfiction: “The High Untresspassed Sanctity of Space: Seven True Stories about Eugene Cernan” by Genevieve Valentine

June 15:
Fiction: “Cats in Victory” by David Barr Kirtley
Author Spotlight: David Barr Kirtley
Podcast: “Cats in Victory” by David Barr Kirtley (on Starship Sofa)

June 17:
Nonfiction: “Top Ten Reasons Why Uplifted Animals Don’t Make Good Pets” by Carol Pinchefsky

June 22:
Fiction: “Amaryllis” by Carrie Vaughn
Author Spotlight: Carrie Vaughn
Podcast: “Amaryllis” by Carrie Vaughn, narrated by Stefan Rudnicki

June 24:
Nonfiction: “Every Step We Take” by Amanda Rose Levy

Posted by Jesse Willis

The Geek’s Guide To The Galaxy will interview Dan Carlin

SFFaudio News

Damn and blast both David Barr Kirtley and John Joseph Adams!

These two rogues are the hosts of The Geek’s Guide To The Galaxy podcast. I have had good reason to curse them publicly. Their podcast is both a terrific listen week after week, and is often horning in on SFFaudio’s territory (by talking about audiobooks). I’ve held my tongue until this latest incident. These two hoseheads, Kirtley and Adams, have now gone too far! They’ve poached Dan Carlin as their guest for next week’s podcast.

This is a scandalous thievery. We posted our plan to get Carlin a full 4 Hours and 44 minutes before they did!

And so while I cannot possibly condone their unwarranted guest poaching, I cannot also, in good conscience, deny their podcast’s high quality. Thus it is with disgust I must hold my nose and recommend you subscribe to The Geek’s Guide To The Galaxy podcast.

But also let it be know, across the internet, that The Geek’s Guide To The Galaxy is formally ON NOTICE as of right now. You’d better not wander into any dark alleys Kirtley/Adams.

Podcast feed: http://www.tor.com/rss/category/geeksguide

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

Posted by Jesse Willis