Announcement: The Official SFF Chronicles Podcast!

[Guanazee]

@Dave @Phyrebrat @Dan Jones
It would help to have a SFFChrons Twitter account as well to post announcements, host discussions, and link to podcasts each month.

I'm active in the Twitter writing community, though mostly in the children's market. I'm happy to repost. Interested Chron's members could also offer a short story or first ten pages/query/blurb critique to users (random drawing of one entrant) who follow the account to boost visibility for authors and the podcast. Especially if done when a Chron's author has a new publication.

I have a MG horror short story coming out with Spaceports & Spidersilk next month. I'm happy to announce my story in conjunction with boosting the podcast, if interested.

 

[Dan Jones]

@Dave @Phyrebrat @Dan Jones
It would help to have a SFFChrons Twitter account as well to post announcements, host discussions, and link to podcasts each month.

I'm active in the Twitter writing community, though mostly in the children's market. I'm happy to repost. Interested Chron's members could also offer a short story or first ten pages/query/blurb critique to users (random drawing of one entrant) who follow the account to boost visibility for authors and the podcast. Especially if done when a Chron's author has a new publication.

I have a MG horror short story coming out with Spaceports & Spidersilk next month. I'm happy to announce my story in conjunction with boosting the podcast, if interested.

Good ideas there. Syncing the hashtags should be relatively simple if we schedule it.

We are sorting the format for the episodes, and do want to feature Chrons members writing in some way, or maybe in different ways in different episodes. One possibility could be to have the winner of the 300 Challenge read out during every third episode. On air critiques could be trickier, but we can have a think. I'm trying to get a guest in from the industry (ie an agent, publisher etc) to talk about that side of things also, but no dice so far.

Also can I say how glad I am (and I'm sure I speak for Chris too) at how well this has landed with Chronners. This sort of enthusiastic feedback and willingness to provide ideas is exactly why we thought doing this with the Chrons name would be worthwhile.

 

[Ray Zdybrow]

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

Bah. REAL podcasts are downloads! Kids today eh

 

[HareBrain]

Bah. REAL podcasts are downloads! Kids today eh

And I bet none of them use an actual iPod.

 

[alexvss]

And I bet none of them use an actual iPod.

Is this even edible?

 

[Vertigo]

Bah. REAL podcasts are downloads! Kids today eh

I've always considered podcast to be an unnecessary invented word like "apps" that are just programs (or programmes if you want to be pedantic) or 'the cloud' which is effectively just 'the internet." Okay so it's less syllables to pronounce but so far as I'm concerned podcasts are just audio downloads with a fancy name!

 

[Juliana]

I'd missed the original post! So exciting!! I love podcasts — I listen to them on my dog walks and in the car. I can't wait to hear your lovely accents!

(My own accent nowadays is a mixed-up and rather boringly bland 'overseas Brit', but I found a cassette tape once that I'd recorded as a kid and it used to be a proper southeast London one — I'm from Woolwich originally.)

 

[Parson]

(My own accent nowadays is a mixed-up and rather boringly bland 'overseas Brit', but I found a cassette tape once that I'd recorded as a kid and it used to be a proper southeast London one — I'm from Woolwich originally.)

And how is that supposed to make us born and bred Midwesterners feel? Mush mouth anyone?

 

[Juliana]

And how is that supposed to make us born and bred Midwesterners feel? Mush mouth anyone?

I'll be honest; I can sometimes tell general region apart in US accents, but I find it hard to pinpoint specific accents unless they're VERY distinctive...

 

[Dave]

It would help to have a SFFChrons Twitter account as well to post announcements, host discussions, and link to podcasts each month.

Well, there is one @SFFChronicles but it belongs to Brian who wants to remain "hands-off" in this project. It was mainly set up as a way to contact Brian when the website was down and is dormant. In fact, Twitter will likely delete it if he doesn't use it.

Since Chris and Dan are running this show, they can do as you say using their own accounts.

I'm not involved in this project either, but I'll certainly be listening.

 

[Dan Jones]

It's been about a month since I posted this announcement thread, which I figure is a reasonable amount of time to give a little update on how things are going.

@Phyrebrat and I have been beavering away approaching guests and trying to get the software bits and pieces in position. We've already managed to secure seven guests, which is a brilliant start, and we're hoping to secure more in the new year. We will be recording our first episode later this month, and hopefully we'll manage to get at least another one in the bag before Christmas.

If and when this gets its own space on the boards we'll post the topics and guests ahead of launch so that everybody can read the books involved if they wish to do so, but we remain on schedule for a January launch. I don't want to post any details just yet in case things change, but fingers crossed everything has gone well so far.

In the meantime I won't bombard this thread with every little update; once a month seems adequate for now, and I'll seek to post a thread on episode 1 some time in December.

 

[HareBrain]

We've already managed to secure seven guests

Thank God supplies of gaffer tape weren't held up by that Ever Given fiasco.

 

[Dan Jones]

Are you saying they wouldn't have agreed to do it if I hadn't sellotaped them to my dining room chairs like Eddie and Ritchie did to that burglar in Bottom?

 

[bretbernhoft]

Genuinely looking forward to learning more about SFF literature and what it takes to become a more effective author of said content. I will be paying attention, looking for links to new episodes. Thank you for undertaking this journey.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

Big thanks to @Phyrebrat and @Dan Jones for last night's entertaining and thought provoking discussion. Good fun!

 

[Juliana]

Ooh, I take it recording is underway? Exciting!!! Any idea when the first episode will air?

 

[Dan Jones]

Well it's out of the bag so I guess it's time for a little update!

Yes, we recorded our first interview last night, featuring @Stephen Palmer. I'll hold out on revealing the main books we discussed until December, but for our first session I think it went extremely well. We have a few more additional segments that need to be added to the episode before it can be mixed down fully and made ready for release, but yes, things are well and truly under way.

Ooh, I take it recording is underway? Exciting!!! Any idea when the first episode will air?

I'm still aiming for January as the release date of episode 1. Earlier in January rather than later if all goes well. @Phyrebrat and I will also be recording an "episode 0" which will serve as a kind of introduction to the concept of the podcast and help new listeners understand what we're about, what Chrons is about, that sort of thing. It will also tell people that we will be discussing books fully, openly, and with full and unashamed spoilers, so be warned!

One thing we quickly realised last night is that with the right people you could talk for hours on these subjects (in the end we spoke for around 90 minutes); there's so much to dig into, so there are bound to be areas that we miss, but I'm hoping that we will be able to open a thread for each episode if I'm given my Christmas wish of a dedicated podcast subforum somewhere on the site.

Anyway, we're underway, and we have at least one more guest lined up to record before Christmas, and with any luck we'll be able to book in two.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

Sorry @Dan Jones , had no idea our chat was "embargoed" ! I shall say nothing more...

 

[Dan Jones]

It's not strictly embargoed, I would have posted it next month anyway; the idea is to give each episode a month's notice for the "Reading list" in case people do want to read the books we're talking about (as we do include full spoilers!).

 

[Dan Jones]

Bump time!

Chris and I recorded our second interview earlier this week, with the marvellous @Jo Zebedee. You'll get to hear this in episode 2, which should launch in February.

There's only one item left to record for episode 1, which is the winning entry to this month's 75-word challenge. Oh, you haven't heard? Mosey on down to this month's Challenge to see the lowdown. Assuming that the winning entry is happy to record themselves reading their piece (or have us do it on their behalf), and we can get that done in the first days of January, we should be able to release episode 1 by the second week of January, which was my original plan.

We have a few guests booked up from inside the Chrons community, and plenty from outside it, so I'm hoping there should be enough variety to interest long-standing Chrons members as well as outsiders (and thus grow the site membership). We also have some rather fabulous artwork bubbling away, which hopefully we can show off soon.

We're also planning to release an "episode 0" taster in late December / early January in which Chris and I will talk about our hopes and expectations for the podcast, what listeners can expect, and go through some of the reasons why we're doing it. We'll also offer a short introduction to us as hosts, as the main episodes aren't about us or our work - it's about the guests and featured texts.