ThrillerCast Episode 9 - The Trent Jamieson Episode

A supersized Christmas Eve special episode today, featuring a review of Trent Jamieson’s new urban fantasy thriller, followed by an interview with Trent himself. We get a good insight into bookselling as part of the interview, as Trent works in a bookshop.

Click here to download the episode!

Alan’s review of Death Most Definite

Interview with Trent Jamieson

Brisbane as a place and a character

Do people plan to write thrillers?

Trent’s favourite reads

Trent on mythology

Where does the Death Works series go from here?

Trent on working in a book store and the nature of returns and the shelf life of books

Selling books that cross genre

Reading broadly

Trent explains what a Psychopomp is in the Death Works universe

We discuss in detail the nature of writing in first person present tense over third person narrative, and why writers might use it

Learn more at http://www.trentjamieson.com/

ThrillerCast Episode 8 - Escapism in Fiction- Realistic Writing vs Fantastic

Click here to download this episode!

Show notes:

Halloween chat - Dave and Alan talk about what they’re doing and what Halloween writing projects they have on the go. (Hereby showing how our podcasts are about a month and half behind!)

Other good Halloween reading:

Felicity Dowker’s lesbian zombie story in Scary Kisses, from Ticonderoga Press.

Jim Bernheimer’s zombie power story in Horror, Humour and Heroes anthology.

Joe Konrath’s indie Kindle book Draculas (by Blake Crouch, Joe Konrath, Jeff Strand, F. Paul Wilson.)

We go on to talk about the nature of ebooks, and authors self-managing their own ebook publishing and sales.

Ebooks outselling print books at Amazon and the various ereaders starting to crop up in regular stores.

The spread of ereaders in the public domain.

William Gibson and how he doesn’t write sci-fi any more because we live in a sci-fi world.

Is old sci-fi disappointing now because we’ve surpassed the ideas of the old SF stories?

What about adventure stories? Do they hold up to the test of time?

Main topic: Escapism

Alan’s blog post about escapism in genre fiction.

Helen Lowe and The Heir Of Night blog book tour.

Why do SF writers enjoy writing in the genre.

Anne Hamilton’s post about SF being worthless due to being escapism.

Is contemporary non-genre fiction actually more escapist than fantasy or science fiction?

Does being a writer spoil the reading (escapist) experience?

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ThrillerCast episode 7 - The Kent Holloway interview

 Click here to download this week's episode. (Kent had some minor audio issues, but it's still a great episode!)

Our writing projects at the moment - David’s Dane Maddock short story and Alan’s psychic octopus short story.

Interview with Kent Holloway, author of the Enigma Directive series:

Primal Thirst

Cryptids and other mythological beasties.

The trouble with mermaids.

The nature of the US imbalance between the sex and violence it shows in modern media.

The Seven Realms thriller writers anthology, themed on the short story, “The Most Dangerous Game”, by Richard Connell. (The anthology is due around the middle of 2011 and will feature stories by Kent, Alan and David, as well as Rick Chesler, whom we interviewed in episode 4.)

Kent’s new project – a “rural fantasy” series called “The Dark Hollows”, based on the Appalachian myths and folklore of the eastern seaboard of North America.

Kent’s website - http://www.kenthollowayonline.blogspot.com/

7 Realms Publishing – http://www.sevenrealmspublishing.com/

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Don't forget to send us an email if you have any questions or if there's anything you'd like to hear us talk about on the podcast. Also, if you've read a good thriller lately and you want to ring in and review it on the podcast, drop us an email about that too.

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ThrillerCast episode 6 - Writing a thriller, part 2

Click here to download the episode.

Continued from Episode 5, David and Alan continue to talk about the process of novel writing.

From concept, to notes, to plans, to writing.

The dreaded procrastination.

The second draft.

Fleshing out the initial story – edit or add?

The invaluable beta readers.

David and Alan extol the virtues of a good editor.

Writing workshops and crit groups. The essential need to have input and help with your work.

An invitation to ThrillerCast listeners to be a part of the podcast.   

(And stick around for the out-take after the end credits!)

Coming up next week- ThrillerCast interviews Kent Holloway, author of the Enigma Directive series.

ThrillerCast Episode 5 - Writing a novel

Click here to download this week's episode.

Show notes:

David talks about a new thriller he’s been reading.

Then the rest of this episode is all about the process of novel writing:

Alan and David talk about their current writing projects.

The process of starting a new novel and the methods they employ.

How to build a story around a character, a MacGuffin, a plot idea, etc. What comes first?

The character’s journey. Do they need redemption, or just a journey?

The overall process of the novel – what are the major events needed to make a novel length story interesting and keep people reading.

How do we plan and how much do we plan?

To be continued next week!

ThrillerCast Episode 4- Rick Chesler Interview

This week, Alan and David interview Rick Chesler, author of Wired Kingdom.

Click here to download the episode!


Our first author interview!

Alan talks about finishing the first draft of his third novel.

David talks about working on a new novella, written in first person.

David and Alan talk about narrative Point of View (PoV) – 1^st person, 3^rd person, omniscient, etc.

People and books mentioned in this section:

Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

Suzanne Collins’ latest series

Robert Jordan

George R R Martin

Followed by:

Interview with Rick Chesler, author of Wired Kingdom.

http://www.rickchesler.com

Twitter: @rickchesler

We talk about Rick’s new book, author promotion and the struggle of the rising writer getting noticed.

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Be a part of ThrillerCast

If you'd like to hear us discuss any particular topic on ThrillerCast, be sure to email us your suggestions. We're happy to hear from listeners and we'll always try to talk about the things you want to hear.

Also, you could be a part of ThrillerCast yourself. We're into the idea of people dialling in and joining us on the podcast to review a book they've recently enjoyed. So, read any good thrillers lately? If you have and you want to be on the ThrillerCast delivering your review, send us an email and we'll get in touch. Your review doesn't have to be really professional or very long - we just want to hear from people chatting about books they've enjoyed.

Send your suggestions and requests to review to thrillerpodcast@gmail.com and we'll take it from there.

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ThrillerCast Episode 3- Does Size Matter?

NB: This episode was recorded in two seperate sessions a week apart. See if you can spot the continuity error!

In this episode, Alan and David discuss novellas and the relative merits of various story lengths.


Download the Episode Here

In this episode we discuss:


Our current works in progress.


The nature of selling fantasy – can you only sell big fat trilogies in today’s market?


Ebooks and the rise of the novella.


Do horror and sci-fi allow for standalones while fantasy expects big fat trilogies. Are fantasy novels leaning back towards standalone volumes?


POD while you wait kiosks allow for more variety in book lengths and shorter books more prevalent again.


Classic age novella - Conan, H P Lovecraft.


The thriller genre grew from short pulp novels, like Chandler, more like novellas than novels as they are considered today.


Marketing – thick spines on bookshelves. Publishers promoting big fat trilogies to monopolise shelf space.


The craft of writing and the advantages of the novella length for worldbuilding.


Young Adult fiction is similar in length to novella, so has similar appeal.


What makes good Young Adult writing?


Novella length work finding new life being published by small press.


Coeur De Lion’s X6 Novella anthology.


Twelfth Planet Press publishing novellas and novelette doubles.


The novella as a “gateway drug” to discovering new authors.


The Legends novella anthologies from Robert Silverberg.


Thriller anthology – Warriors.


Alan’s serialised novella, sci-fi fantasy noir thriller, Ghost Of The Black: A ‘Verse Full Of Scum.


New technology allowing authors to showcase themselves, especially making novellas available to readers that might lead to more interest in the author’s print published work.


Listen to the end for a feline out-take!


Next episode we have an interview with Rick Chesler, author of Wired Kingdom. Don’t forget to subscribe!

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A Little Something to Tide You Over Until the Next Episode

Joanna Penn of The Creative Penn interviewed Alan about his books, and ThrillerCast gets a mention!

ThrillerCast Episode 2

In the second episode of ThrillerCast, Alan and David discuss ebooks and how the publishing industry is changing, and a little bit about building an online profile as a writer.

Click here to download the episode.

Episode Notes - Here's what we discuss in this episode:

The ebook revolution

- Various ereaders and ebook formats

- The cost of Kindle books internationally

- The affordable Kindle


Using ebooks to explore new authors.

Indie authors getting a start with ebooks.

How do indie or small press authors get noticed? (Success story- Boyd Morrison)

Engaging online to build a profile, both for ebooks and print books.

The changing face of promotion – are in-store signings still relevant?

Established authors using ebook technology and rights to release their own work without publishers. (Dean Koontz, David Morrell)

Are print books on the way out?

What’s the future for books and ebooks?

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ThrillerCast Episode 1

In the first episode of ThrillerCast, Alan and David discuss what constitutes a thriller, and what common threads run across genres.

Click here to download the episode.

Episode Notes - Here's what we discuss in the first episode:

About our work.

- Alan – RealmShift & MageSign

- Dave – Novels and Into The Woods historical novella

What makes a book a Thriller?

- Timing, sense of pace, race against time

- Fast story, no slow exposition, “real page turner”

- MacGuffin

- Confrontation, action

- Competing groups, individuals

- Suspense

Thrillers not filed as thrillers

- Alan's books as dark fantasy thrillers

- Starfish, by Peter Watts

- Michael Crichton as thriller writer or SF writer?

- Genre/thriller crossover in book and film