05-29-13 UPDATE:Podcast Update: Time to Read Episode 99: Kate Atkinson, 'Life After Life'
Click image for audio link.
Here's the ninety-ninth episode of my series of podcasts, which I'm calling Time to Read. Hitting the one-year mark, I'm going to make an effort to stay ahead, so that podcast listeners can get the same sort of "sneak preview" effect that radio listeners get each Friday morning.
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 ninety-ninth episode is a look at Kate Atkinson and 'Life After Life.'
"I think you have to be willing to change your characters...and change them in profound ways."
— John Langan
It was a rush to talk with John Langan after reading his collection of short stories 'The Wide Carnivorous Sky and Other Monstrous Geographies.' You can't help but read this book and not only enjoy the hello our of the writing but think that here is a man who thinks a lot about the horror genre and great writing, then manages to write both. It's not easy.
It's one thing to experience a writer's voice in print, especially when that writer is as chameleonic as Langan. It is quite another to hear him speak with both enthusiasm and wit, and offer the kind of insight you see in his fiction as he analyzes that fiction. Langan teaches, and you can hear that in his replies to my inquiries. As we discussed how he creates his work, wand what he values in writing, I felt like the stud\ent who takes up the popular professor's time at the lecture.
This is not to say that Langan lectured in reply to my questions, but rather when he speaks there's a lot to be learned. We talked about writing in the second person, the horror genre in general, putting together various stories in the collection, why he writes long and how he created 'House of Windows.'
What mostly comes through in this conversation with John Langan is a combination of curiosity and passion for his work. Langan wants to believe in horror as a genre capable of producing world-class literature, and the best way for him to do so is to write these stories himself. 'The Wide Carnivorous Sky' is proof he can. To hear him speak, follow this link to the MP3 audio file.
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09-05-15: Commentary : Susan Casey Listens to 'Voices in the Ocean' : Science, Empathy and Self
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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
