08-25-12 UPDATE:Podcast Update:Time to Read Episode 60: Tim Powers, 'Hide Me Among the Graves'
Click image for audio link.
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.
08-21-15: Agony Column Podcast News Report : Senator Claire McCaskill is 'Plenty Ladylike' : Internalizing Determination to Overcome Sexism [Incudes Time to Read EP 211: Claire McCaskill, Plenty Ladylike, plus A 2015 Interview with Senator Claire McCaskill]
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Emily Schultz Unleashes 'The Blondes' : A Cure by Color [Incudes Time to Read EP 210: Emily Schultz, The Blondes, plus A 2015 Interview with Emily Schultz]
07-05-15: Commentary : Dr. Michael Gazzaniga Tells Tales from Both Sides of the Brain : A Life in Neuroscience Reveals the Life of Science
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Michael Gazzaniga : "We made the first observation and BAM there was the disconnection effect..."
04-21-15: Commentary : Kazuo Ishiguro Unearths 'The Buried Giant' : The Mist of Myth and Memory
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Kazuo Ishiguro : ".... by the time I was writing this novel, the lines between what was fantasy and what was real had blurred for me..."
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Marc Goodman : "...every physical object around us is being transformed, one way or another, into an information technology..."
Agony Column Podcast News Report UPDATE: Time to Read Episode 199: Marc Goodman : Future Crimes: Everything Is Connected, Everyone Is Vulnerable and What We Can Do About It
