Results tagged “podcasts”

The other day I was lucky enough to be able to sit down and Skype with Mur Lafferty, author of several podiobooks, including the award-winning Wastelands and Playing for Keeps, a full-case audio drama, The Takeover, and several other podcasts and columns. Her novel Playing for Keeps is now in print and will hopefully be followed by much much more.

We talked a lot about her Heaven series, The Takeover, and about breaking in and living the the writing life. I’ve written more than a few times about Mur’s work (which you need to listen to, I’m not playing anymore).

So without any further adieu, my conversation with Mur Lafferty…

More Mur:
All things Mur: http://www.murverse.com
Her print novel: Playing for Keeps
Her Podcast: I Should Be Writing
The AudioDrama: The Takeover
The Heaven Series (also on iTunes and hopefully coming to the bookshelf soon)
Look, I Googled her for you: Mur’s Googleverse

While on tour for the release of his newest book The Gypsy Morph, Terry Brooks took some time to speak to the Santa Cruz public radio station KUSP in a live weekly show—and it has now become a podcast. Terry talks about how he got started as a writer, his Shannara series, the graphic novel and much, much more!

Check it out here.

I’ll have a few more thoughts on these in a bit, but for now, here are your 2008 Parsec Award Winners! If you want to see all the nominees you can check out my earlier post.

Best Speculative Fiction Story (Short Form)

Best Speculative Fiction Story (Novella Form)

So if you aren’t familiar with the Parsec Awards-they’ve only been around since 2006-here’s the low down from Parsec’s Site:

Mur Lafferty, Michael R. Mennenga & Tracy Hickman founded The Parsec Awards in 2006 to celebrate Speculative Fiction Podcasting, under the banner of Farpoint Media.

Podcast shows are nominated by fans, and finalists are chosen by a yearly steering committee. Those finalists are then voted on by an independent panel of judges from outside of podcasting. Awards are given in several categories ranging from content to audio quality.

[Kyle’s Note: If you’re a fan of podcasting and haven’t checked out Farpoint Media yet, you’re missing out. They are a group of independently produced podcasts (most of which specialize in SciFi and Fantasy) who have come together to form what they call “The Indie Podcast Network.” The shows are fun, informative, and just generally some of the best things to happen to my iPod since time began. No joke.]

The winners will be announced during this year’s Dragon*Con in Atlanta, which means this weekend.

Just a few quick words before I plunge you head first into the nominees. First, I have tried to tell you in previous posts how very very good Mur Lafferty and Scott Sigler are. If my yammering on and on about them isn’t enough to convince you, then hopefully the nominations here will be. Between them, they have 8 nominations (Mur: 3 & Scott: 5) this year. If you still aren’t listening to them (assuming their genres are of interest to you) then you’re missing out big time. I’m trying to help you here, I really, really am.

More after the jump…

Karen Marie Moning is giving readers the chance to read three free excerpts from her forthcoming novel, Faefever before it goes on sale September 16th. This is the third installment of Moning’s New York Times bestselling Fever series staring MacKayla “Mac” Lane (Darkfever and Bloodfever were the first two installments).

Read the Prologue and Chapter One by clicking on the animated book image below (click here if you cannot see the flash animation).

This is Moning’s second offer of free content for fans in August. A full audiobook podcast of Darkfever, is already available at www.darkfeverpodcast.com (and of course iTunes and Podiobooks).

Get your own - Open publication

I love audiobooks. I don’t know if it’s that I love having something read to me because it hearkens back to an older storytelling tradition, or if perhaps I enjoy listening to other character interpretations besides my own, thus allowing me to focus on other aspects of the story, or if I’m just lazy.

In any event, I go through a lot of audiobooks in a year, so I’m always on the lookout for something fun and entertaining. So, finding out about Podiobooks a couple years back was a big deal for me. Since that time I’ve been able to “discover” several authors that I might not have otherwise stumbled across; authors like Scott Sigler, Cory Doctorow, Mur Lafferty, and Patrick McLean (whose How To Succeed in Evil should be in everyone’s audiobook queue).

Previously, I mentioned some Fantasy titles you should check out on Podiobooks.com or iTunes or directly through the particular author. Now, I want to share some of my favorite Science Fiction titles. Go forth and discover some new (or new-to-you) greatness out there…there is, apparently, a lot of it floating around (Yeah internet!).

So, without any further adieu, my SciFi podiobook recommendations:

I am a firm believer that it’s the little things in life that make it so much fun. Things like discovering the a good author before anyone else or getting a great deal on something for which you know you should have paid more.

And that’s why I love Podiobooks.

If you aren’t familiar with Podiobooks they are the new frontier in independent publishing. Any author with a microphone and a manuscript is able record and syndicate their work to the masses. If you like a story, you can make a donation to the author. Podiobooks.com states that at least seventy-five percent of your donation goes directly to the author. It’s a winning situation all the way around.

Of course, some are better than others, but thus far I’ve been able to find quite a lot of quality work over on the site.

Interested in discovering the next great audiobook? Want to test drive it first before slapping down your payment? If so, then here’s a list of a few of the titles you might want to try (You can download any of these titles, in their entirety, from either Podiobooks.com or through iTunes):

Bantam Dell has officially launched the audiobook podcast of New York Times bestselling author Karen Marie Moning’s Darkfever. This the very first joint effort between Bantam Dell and one of its authors to release the full version of a book for free as a podcast. The book will be presented in its entirety, with four episodes per week available for download. Darkfever is the first book in Moning’s Fever series which features protagonist MacKayla “Mac” Lane, a woman who possesses the gift to see beyond the world of man and into the dangerous realm of the Fae.

Visit www.darkfeverpodcast.com for full details.

An ancient Tibetan form of meditation? The name of a new hybrid vehicle? A new nightclub in the heart of Manhattan? The middle name of an astronaut? These were some of the interesting answers people gave to this question:

“What is Suvudu?”

If the answer is none of those given, then what is the answer?

Suvudu is a new website catering to news from all sci-fi and fantasy creative media—books, audiobooks, gaming, manga, comic books and movies! Content will include podcasts, videos, reviews, interviews and original blog posts, all brought to you by some of the best talents in the sci-fi, fantasy, graphic novel and gaming industries.

Imagine the San Diego Comic Con—but on a website all year round!

Sounds great, right?

That’s just the beginning. Sci-fi and fantasy fans will also play a role in Suvudu. Visitors are encouraged to comment on the posted content, contribute information they deem pertinent, and send in suggestions to make Suvudu the best it can be. Links to offsite blog and website content will be highlighted. As a community sharing and growing with one another, every relevant bit of news will have benefit—given voice on Suvudu for those who would hear it.

Suvudu will grow over time. In the coming months Suvudu will not only be a news blog but will evolve to include a library of free science fiction and fantasy books, advanced reads of forthcoming projects, exclusive looks inside the creative process of the publishing world, and incorporate a forum for like-minded fans to converse with one another.

So what is Suvudu, you ask? It is many things. But it is also a beginning—thrusters given life for the launch!

Welcome to Suvudu!