Re-Creative is live!
Check it out and let us know what you think!
Re-Creative is a podcast about creativity in which creative people from all walks of life talk about the art that inspires them. Mark gets the ball rolling by discussing the impact the original Star Wars movie had on him as a boy.
This coming Wednesday, March 15th (the ides of March!), the first episode of Re-Creative drops at one minute past midnight.
Re-Creative is a podcast I’m hosting with fellow writer Mark Rayner, author of Alpha Max and The Fatness, to name a few of his several books.
I’ll let Mark explain the concept:
The show is very much like show and tell for creative adults to explain what piece of art blew their mind. And of course, what blows a person’s mind at eleven years of age will be very different from what does it at seventy.
In essence, the podcast is about re-creating that magical moment when inspiration happens.
I love the concept. It allows Mark and I to talk to a wide range of creative folk about all kinds of art and creativity, from books to music to paintings to movies to television shows to you name it. We have learned so much already. Both of us, after talking to one of our guests, have run out and bought and read a book or listened to a piece of music or watched a movie we’d never seen before… or that we needed to see again.
Mark is a terrific co-host. I approached him about co-hosting this podcast because frankly I thought that as a university professer he’d be flush with cash and kind of innocent and gullible so that if I needed any start up funding for the podcast I could count on him to kind of chuckle awkwardly and fork it over. And yes, that is absolutely happening, which is great, but that’s not the best part. The best part of having Mark as a co-host is that he’s charming and knowledgeable and engaged and funny and co-hosting this podcast with him is an amazing amount of fun. (And he can take a joke!)
I’m enjoying this opportunity to dust off my radio-making skills and even showcase a bit of original music as beds and themes.
We already have twenty amazing episodes in the can. Starting this Wednesday, March 15th, we’ll start Season One, dropping one episode per week. I hope you join us for Episode One of Re-Creative: Arts that Inspires, in what promises to be a terrific, entertaining, and dare I say it revelatory journey over the next twenty weeks.
And that’s just the beginning.
I just posted Chapter Four: Friends Like These of the podcast version of my novel A Time and Place up on Podbean. The entire podcast (so far) is available via the big purple link below. Check it out by following the link at the bottom of this post, or at various places throughout.
A while back I promised to explain why I’m posting it as a podcast.
A few reasons.
Number one, I’m about to launch another podcast with my friend and fellow writer Mark Rayner, author of such fine fare as The Fatness and Alpha Max. (More about that podcast later, in another post.) Investigating how best to launch a podcast, I came across Podbean as a potential hosting service but wanted to try it out first. How though?
It just so happened I have all the audio files for A Time and a Place right here on my hard drive, originally created for the audiobook version. So I thought what the heck, I’ll put it up as a podcast, see how that goes.
And I have to say that it went pretty smoothly, in terms of the mechanics of turning it into a podcast. Podbean is pretty user friendly.
But why turn a book currently for sale into a free podcast?
For a few reasons.
Number one, I first published A Time and a Place in 2017. It has sold fairly consistently since then, but sales have definitely dwindled in all its various forms, mainly because of next to zero visibility. I don’t do any paid advertising for it because it’s not worth it for just one book (ideally you want to have a series in place. I’m working on that.)
So it’s not like I would lose any money by podcasting ATAAP for free. Sure Podbean costs a bit of money, but I’ll be paying for it anyway, for the other podcast Mark and I will be doing. If anything, podcasting A Time and a Place could conceivably make me money by increasing visibility for the book. For instance, if someone listens to a few episodes and decides they don’t want to wait around for the next chapters (which drop once per week). Or someone who listens and just wants to show their support by purchasing a copy in some form.
It’s also potentially monetized because I’ve placed a sort of “tip” jar on the podcast home page. (It ain’t easy to find, but it’s there at the bottom. Just look for the word “Donate.”) If you do opt to donate, thanks! (You will, very likely, be the first to do so.)
It’s not like I need the money. But creators like me do need to be careful about giving our art away for free. It potentially devalues not only our art but all art, no matter the medium. Ideally, when we do give it away for free, we do so strategically, to generate further interest in our product(s). To quote author Cory Doctorow, my problem isn’t poverty, it’s obscurity. (It’s less of a problem now for him than it is for me).
So how’s the ATAAP podcast going so far? From the beginning of my writing journey I resolved to be honest and transparent about the whole process. Same holds true for this podcasting venture. Four chapters in there have been a total of 78 downloads. 41 for chapter one, 21 for chapter two, 11 for chapter three, and 4 for chapter four. It’s been downloaded from Canada, the United States, Australia, France, England, and Russia. 70.0% from Google Chrome, 10.0% from Podbean, 10.0% from Podcast Addict, and 10.0% from Spotify.
If you’re one of those listening, I hope you’re enjoying it.
Chapter Three of my podcast version of A Time and a Place is up! This says Chapter One below, but you can actually check out the first three chapters here:
For reasons I will elaborate on in a later post, I’ve decided to podcast the audio version of A Time and a Place. One chapter at a time, possibly with supplemental material, entirely for free, every two weeks.
The audiobook version is still for sale in various venues. That way if you can’t wait for the next chapter, you can just purchase it. It’s also a means to support the book financially should you so choose.
But if you don’t mind one chapter at a time, you’ll find it here, and on various other podcast platforms, such as Spotify, once I get those set up.
In the meantime, here is the first chapter.
Hope you like it:
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