Announcement: The Official SFF Chronicles Podcast!

[elvet]

I watch a lot of British TV and movies. There are more than a few times I've had to use subtitles. I think some Scottish accents can be hard to understand, though they are my favourite to listen to, as are Welsh ones.

 

[alexvss]

Calling all Chronners!

From January 2022 Chrons will have a new string to its bow as we enter the world of podcasting with the launch of the official SFF Chronicles Podcast!

The show will be hosted by Chris Bean (@Phyrebrat) and me. We will initially release a season of twelve monthly episodes, with each episode focusing on a single piece of work from the SFFH (we're not forgetting Horror!) genres. Each episode will feature a special guest to enrich our conversations and bring something new to the party. As it stands we feel that a season of twelve episodes will allow us to explore four fantasy works, four SF works, and four from horror. The focus will be on writing and books, but I have a feeling that we’ll branch into films and TV territory as well.

We’ll also try and focus on some of the commercial and technical aspects of writing, and perhaps weave in a feature for Challenge entries. Chrons has always had such a rich writing culture, and we want to support that and grow it where we can.

This is something that we’ve wanted to do for a while for various reasons, and we’ve been squirreling away for a few months to try and figure out a way to make this work. We’re now at the stage where we feel we are ready and able to create something that is worthy of the Chrons name and that would be enjoyed by the community.

Chrons has been a source of immense inspiration, support, an outlet for creativity and a hub for networking and creating new friends and contacts. It certainly helped me in my own writing and publishing journey, and there are many others who will no doubt say the same. So we envisaged this podcast as a way of thanking the Chrons community and giving something back we can all enjoy, and also to inject a new and different type of energy to it, which might spark new conversations and bring new people to the site.

For now, we are approaching guests and curating content for the first season, and also building the look and feel of the podcast. Chris or I will post updates here as we get them, and post links to episodes as they are released, starting from the new year. I'm sure there will be questions and comments, so please ask away, and we'll do our best to answer them, though please do bear with us over the next few months as we bring everything together.

We'd also like to thank Brian Turner for giving us the freedom to run with this; everyone at Chrons owes Brian a debt of gratitude for bringing us (all 20,000 of us!!!) together, so we will try and do you and everybody else at Chrons proud. Thanks also to @HareBrain and the other staffers for their support.

We hope that everyone will listen in, enjoy it, support it and spread the word. Viva Chrons!

Great! I'm really looking forward to this!

Just thinking out loud, have you thought about consulting forumites on the content of the episodes? Maybe polling or something like that.

And, also, save some episodes to talk about short-story markets and short-lenght craft! Don't forget we poor short-fiction writers

 

[Parson]

Pod Cast addict here. I'm so ready to hear this.

 

[Dan Jones]

Great! I'm really looking forward to this!

Just thinking out loud, have you thought about consulting forumites on the content of the episodes? Maybe polling or something like that.

And, also, save some episodes to talk about short-story markets and short-lenght craft! Don't forget we poor short-fiction writers

We're definitely thinking of ways of engaging with Chrons members. The short story writing is a good idea, we'll think how we can incorporate that into some of the episodes.

 

[Bren G]

Can't wait! Woot!

 

[Ray Zdybrow]

Can't wait/about time. Podcasting is the blogging of our age nyet?

 

[Dan Jones]

Can't wait/about time. Podcasting is the blogging of our age nyet?

I'd say so, but compared to blogging podcasting is still relatively nascent. I think there are fewerthan a million podcasts out there, compared with something like 600million blogs. So it still feels like we're getting on at the ground floor, almost.

Of course, as a writer, it's not like I think the written word is obsolete!

 

[Luiglin]

Excellent, great idea @Dan Jones and @Phyrebrat. Not into podcasting but will look forward to listening to Chronners rather than just reading

 

[Luiglin]

I watch a lot of British TV and movies. There are more than a few times I've had to use subtitles. I think some Scottish accents can be hard to understand, though they are my favourite to listen to, as are Welsh ones.

The only time I've had an issue with an accent is from playing an online game called PlanetSide. The outfit I played with had a range of nationalities including English, Dutch, Scottish, Welsh, Swedish, French, Portuguese and Japanese. Well all played on voice chat and the only one all of us had difficulties with understanding was the Geordie (from Newcastle, England)

Forgot to add and he was the outfit commander and thought it hilarious

 

[Dave]

the only one all of us had difficulties with understanding was the Geordie (from Newcastle, England)

That's allrite, @Phyrebrat hez that covered!

 

[Luiglin]

That's allrite, @Phyrebrat hez that covered!

@Phyrebrat are you Newcastle way then? You didn't used to play PlanetSide did you?

And to balance things up, I'm a proud Black Country Mon, aye I and doubly of owa accent/slang. Dow yow dare say that I'm a Brummie. I live on the right side, I mane the left, of the M5

Black Country Alphabet Song

 

[Phyrebrat]

@Phyrebrat are you Newcastle way then? You didn't used to play PlanetSide did you?

And to balance things up, I'm a proud Black Country Mon, aye I and doubly of owa accent/slang. Dow yow dare say that I'm a Brummie. I live on the right side, I mane the left, of the M5

Black Country Alphabet Song

No, but my family (very large) is all from Newcastle and Sunderland and I've spent a lot of time there; summers with my gran, even moved there in between houses.

But of course I do like a bit of Geordie patois.

If we ever get Irvine Welsh on, we might need @Abernovo or @Venusian Broon to come and translate.

 

[dask]

Sounds cool. I've never listened to a podcast. You just go to a website and click play or do need an app or something?

 

[Dan Jones]

Sounds cool. I've never listened to a podcast. You just go to a website and click play or do need an app or something?

We'll be sorting out the distribution and hosting over the coming weeks but it won't be difficult to access. Most people access them via podcast apps like Castbox, Spotify etc.

 

[Phyrebrat]

Also, point of clarification for some who aren't particularly familair with podcasts:

They're not videos. Some podcasts are videoed but typically (and basically) they are just a digital sound file that is hosted on a server then streamed or dowloaded for later play, to a raft of different devices.

And free. Mostly. Some end up having extra episodes and content paid for via Patreon (for example), but we're not making any plans in that direction. I've never had to pay for a podcast.

 

[alexvss]

Also, point of clarification for some who aren't particularly familair with podcasts:

They're not videos. Some podcasts are videoed but typically (and basically) they are just a digital sound file that is hosted on a server then streamed or dowloaded for later play, to a raft of different devices.

And free. Mostly. Some end up having extra episodes and content paid for via Patreon (for example), but we're not making any plans in that direction. I've never had to pay for a podcast.

It's basically radio. But it's streamed online instead of on broadcasting.

 

[dask]

Streaming is just listening to or watching something online isn’t it? Or is it something more? I really don’t know.

 

[Dan Jones]

Yes you could stream a podcast. You can also download them and listen to them offline. I tend to listen to them if I'm out for a run or doing household chores.

 

[Guanazee]

I havent yet gotten into podcasts but I'll check this one out. Might be fun to have a MG SFFH episode. MG has come so far in the past few years.

 

[Dave]

@Dan Jones @Phyrebrat

I was just replying to another thread about Twitter - and I thought that maybe you should resurrect the old #SFFChrons hashtag on social media to promote this? If we got everyone on Chrons with a Twitter account to Tweet the same announcement about the podcast, using the hashtag, all at approximately the same time then you just might get it to trend for a while.