Episode 63 – Stupid Reviewer Tricks

Click here for Direct Download

Dave chats about our writing collaboration and our process of working together on a novella.

Dave talks about his new online project with Greig Beck and Sean Ellis - http://www.thrillercentral.org

Alan talks about the Dark Fiction news and review site he set up with Felicity Dowker and Andrew McKiernan - http://www.thirteenoclock.com.au

 Dave gets to talking about how many writers are lacking in a links page on their site. Alan talks about his links page and how he also has a page of links to good markets for writers. Those pages are here:

http://www.alanbaxteronline.com/links/

http://www.alanbaxteronline.com/markets-writers/

Dave goes on to talk about a great review he got for Buccaneer, and why it was such a great review.

This leads us to talk about the nature of when your work is ready for publication or for sending to publishers.

Promo- The Roundtable Podcast

We then talk about stupid reviewer tricks and when the pure gold this is a reader review turns out to be a problem.

This is the blog post Alan talks about writing after the insane “Whispernet” review: http://www.alanbaxteronline.com/idiot-reviews/

Here’s the website of terrible reviews: http://leasthelpful.com/

Here’s the review of Slaughterhouse Five that Alan read out: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/19/dumbest-book-reviews_n_1610332.html#s1111698&title=SlaughterhouseFive_by_Kurt

And another site you may enjoy: http://best-review-ever.blogspot.com/

After we have a good laugh at the expense of several terrible reviews, we chat about what makes a good review, and how easy it is.

.

Episode 19 – Reading & Writing

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THIS EPISODE!

 We talk about ThrillerCast being nominated for a Parsec Award for Best New Podcasting Team, and Alan’s short story “Declan’s Plan”, published by Wily Writers, is up for a Parsec for Best Short Story.

http://www.parsecawards.com/

"Declan’s Plan" by Alan, short story podcast (read by Philip Pickard) - http://www.wilywriters.com/blog/?p=2154

Which leads us to talk about podcasting short fiction and what are other good fiction podcasts.

Alan's favourites:

Escape Pod sci-fi fiction podcasts – http://escapepod.org/

Podcastle fantasy fiction podcasts – http://podcastle.org/

Pseudopod horror fiction podcasts - http://pseudopod.org/

Wil y Writers spec fic podcasts - http://www.wilywriters.com

Alan then talks about writing for the Machine Of Death anthology and the concept behind the book.

http://machineofdeath.net/

David talks about his new book, Quest, and his novella, The Zombie-Driven Life, which is available now on Kindle, Nook, and Smashwords:

http://davidwoodonline.blogspot.com/2011/06/apocalypse-arrives-few-weeks-late.html

Then Alan reviews The Intruders by Michael Marshall:

http://www.amazon.com/Intruders-Michael-Marshall/dp/0061235032/ref=tmm_mmp_title_0

Then David reviews C J West’s The End Of Marking Time:

http://www.amazon.com/End-Marking-Time-CJ-West/dp/097677884X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1308536084&sr=1-1

We go on to talk about the necessity of small press in publishing books that are hard to categorise or cross genres in unusual ways.

This leads us to talk about what we read when we write. Can we read fiction when we write fiction? What type of fiction do we read when we write?

Alan mentions Dead Red Heart, that features his story, "Punishment Of The Sun" - http://www.amazon.com/Dead-Red-Heart-Russell-Farr/dp/0980781310/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1308536377&sr=1-2

We talk about the importance of reading when it comes to being a writer, and the influence of the things we read on the things we write.

Dave mentions the new James Bond novel by Jeffery Deaver, Carte Blanche - http://www.amazon.com/Carte-Blanche-James-novel-ebook/dp/B004ZKVERE/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1308537016&sr=8-2

.