What New Devilry Is This?

I’m not an all out technophobe but I did come to social media party late. Facebook, Twitter and blogging were something that other people did. As an author, however, I soon came to appreciate the boon these forms of communication were and became more and more interested in the more technical aspects of their application. Now I would regard myself as more clued-up than most but there are still some quite common internet-based mediums that I have as yet to conquer. Up until very recently, I was a Skype virgin and while I watch a great deal of material on YouTube I’ve never actually uploaded anything for others to experience.

One area that has caught my imagination of late is podcasting. My first instincts regarding podcasting – when I first heard of it – were that it would struggle to generate wide appeal. Perhaps I was thinking of radio as a form, struggling to retain its audience in which most people would agree is a largely visual culture. After a little poking around the subject I came to realise that podcasting is a great deal more popular than I initially gave credit.

My first experience of the format related to a short story competition that I entered. Literary Agent Peter Cox (who famously secured a £2.8 million publishing deal for Michelle Paver’s Wolf Brother) ran a competition advertised through his ‘Litopia’ writing community. Peter records a daily podcast for Litopia, which is an excellent source of inside information on publishing and insights regarding writing and the book industry. I was fortunate enough to win the competition and as part of the prize, Peter read my short story out on his podcast and then provided a thirty minute critique of the piece. The Litopia podcast has a wide following and is a popular source of information for aspiring writers. Through Litopia I started to appreciate the advantages of the format. If you’re an aspiring writer then perhaps the Litopia Writers’ Colony is for you. You can check out their site here.

Last week I was lucky enough to be asked back to The Independent Characters – Warhammer 40K podcast. Carl Tuttle and Geoff Hummel run a tight ship over there and offer in-depth interviews, reviews and play-testing round-ups of new releases from Games Workshop. One of the most fascinating sections of their shows is their Forbidden Lore feature, in which the pair offer insights and discuss responses to new Black Library releases. Last week Carl and Geoff discussed my novel Legion of the Damned and asked me to join them to share some of my experiences in writing the book. It was great fun and both Carl and Geoff were gracious and knowledgeable hosts. I encourage you to check out the podcast, which can be found at the link below. Check out the full show to see what The Independent Characters are really about and where they are coming from in terms of Games Workshop products. If you wish to specifically check out The Legion of the Damned section of the show, then it comes in at the 02:41:15 timestamp.

The Independent Characters Warhammer 40k Podcast – Episode 53