09-26-12 UPDATE:Podcast Update: Time to Read Episode 67: D. T. Max, 'Every Love Story is a Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace'
Click image for audio link.
Here's the sixty-seventh episode of my new series of podcasts, which I'm calling Time to Read. Hitting the one-year mark, I'm going to make an effort to get ahead, so that podcast listeners can get the same sort of "sneak preview" effect that radio listeners get each Friday morning. And yes, I know this means I have one more to go this week — and here it is!
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.
09-28-12:A 2012 Interview with Michael A. Lewis at the Capitola Book Café
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"...maybe we could carry on what Abbey has said before us..."
—Michael A. Lewis
Michael Lewis and I have been talking about 'The Environmeddlers' for a long time now, but never in this sort of setting, that is; formally, in an interview. Better still, in front of an large audience at Capitola Book Café. Had we notified folks through the Sierra Club, we might have overflowed.
There would be some environmental justice in that. Michael's book may have a strong environmental message, but it's no polemic; it's a paranoid thriller that pits high-tech against high-concept. Sure, we may need to bring to bear the tools of the digital age to fight for what I guess I would call environmental justice. But as Michael points out in our conversation, one does not solve a problem by adding more of what's problematic in the first place.
Instead, one harkens back to fight more with less. Still, if you are using storytelling to make your point, it's nice to live in an age when you can use enough of the tech to make your story accessible. Michael and I talked about Lulu, self-publishing and the perils and promise of POD. You can hear the conversation by following this link to the MP3 audio file.
09-27-12 UPDATE:Podcast Update: Time to Read Episode 66: Michael A. Lewis, 'The Enivronmeddlers'
Click image for audio link.
Here's the sixty-sixth episode of my new series of podcasts, which I'm calling Time to Read. Hitting the one-year mark, I'm going to make an effort to get ahead, so that podcast listeners can get the same sort of "sneak preview" effect that radio listeners get each Friday morning. And yes, I know this means I have one more to go this week — and here it is!
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.
The sixty-sixth episode is a look at Michael A. Lewis, and 'The Enivronmeddlers.'
09-27-12:Roz Kaveney Reads from 'Rituals' at SF in SF, September 15, 2012
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"Have you actually lived for thousands of years and retained that much capacity for trust?"
—Roz Kaveney
Roz Kaveney is about to go from being a name you know to being a voice you know; both as audio, and as a novelist, with her new book, 'Rituals.' In one of those incidences of kismet that don't happen often enough, she happened to be in town while I was honored to host and moderate SF in SF; Kaveney was joined by Malinda Lo and Cindy Pon for a star-studded night of SF and Fantasy.
Kaveney's name is known to you because she's worked with John Clute on the mammoth and literally genre-defining 'Encyclopedia of Science Fiction.' It does not get any classier than that. Kaveney has edited numerous anthologies and written lots of critical appreciations genre fiction.
"You don't know what your parents have going on, and all of a sudden it affects your life."
— David Rich
David Rich is not the man you might expect if you read 'Caravan of Thieves.' He's soft-spoken and direct, a bit introspective. He brings with him years of experience from Hollywood, and a quiet intensity that shows in his novel.
Apparently.
Of course, if you meet him or hear him after you read 'Caravan of Thieves,' all bets are off. The world we see in his first novel is a huge machine that moves like lightning and can snap off your hand before you realize there's nothing but a blood-spurting stump at the end of your arm. That world is convincingly created and maintained for every word on 296 pages.
I was fortunate enough to have David Rich drive down to Santa Cruz to speak with me at KUSP about his first novel and the experience that went into creating it. To my mind, it makes more logical sense to start as a writer of novels and then move into the screenwriting world. But Rich moved in the opposite direction, a fascinating journey that many writers might think they would love to make. After all, the man got to write episodes of MacGyver; now, he's written a kick-ass novel of suspense. You can hear him talk about moving from one world to the next by following this link to the MP3 audio file.
New to the Agony Column
09-18-15: Commentary : William T. Vollman Amidst 'The Dying Grass' : An Epic Exploration of Simultaneity
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with William T. Vollman : "...a lot of long words that in our language are sentences..."
09-05-15: Commentary : Susan Casey Listens to 'Voices in the Ocean' : Science, Empathy and Self
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Susan Casey : "...the reporting for this book was emotionally difficult at times..."
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
