Podcast One Episode Review: New Fiction Writers

So, I’ve been so busy trying to get my MA and then MFA done that I’ve really slacked off in being part of the podcast community. I missed the early days of podcasting when people would jump on each other’s shows and really get involved with promoting, listening, and commenting on each other’s shows. Thankfully, Podcast Junkie (Megan), started a new Facebook group called Podcast Community to help recapture that feeling.

In honor of that I decided to start writing up some reviews of the various podcasts I’ve learned about through the community. These are going to be based on listening to the “latest” episode when I visit their website. Hopefully this helps spur some interest and helps readers find some new podcasts to join, comment on and enjoy. If you are a podcast listener make sure to hug your favorite podcaster (and by hug I mean leave a comment, review or email).

Podcast One Episode Review #3 – New Fiction Writers
Episode Reviewed The Order of the Benevolent Souls, Part 1 by Duane O’Shaunnessy

Where to listen:
iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/podcast/new-fiction-writers/id380856699?mt=
Website: http://newfictionwriters.com/

New Fiction Writers is a great place for a mix of general discussion about writing and audio fiction. It’s also a fantastic place for new writers to get their stories out to a larger audience. I really love the idea that they’re open to almost any genre.

The episode I listened to started with the hosts bantering about writing, and their lives (which for this episode took up about 20 minutes). For those who may not be interested in the banter it’s easy to fast forward through to get to the story.

Now, I can’t speak to all of the stories, since I’m only listening to one episode, but I really loved “The Order of the Benevolent Souls” by Duane O’Shaunnessy. It really came to life thanks to the talents of the reader, J.G.Langejans. There were a couple of flubs that missed the edit, but on the whole the editing was very well done. I loved the musical touches. A bad narrator can kill a great story, but J.G. did a fantastic job with this great vampire tale (which has some great touches/ideas that were new to me).

I highly recommend the podcast if you’re looking for some new fiction! Or if you’re a writer who is looking for a new place to submit your own stories (submit here: http://newfictionwriters.com/content/submit-story)

Other recommendations:
Listening Order: Unless it seems to be a connected story, most recent and go back.
Average Episode Length: Anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour.

Podcast One Episode Review: The Masked Marauder Matinee

So, I’ve been so busy trying to get my MA and then MFA done that I’ve really slacked off in being part of the podcast community. I missed the early days of podcasting when people would jump on each other’s shows and really get involved with promoting, listening, and commenting on each other’s shows. Thankfully, Podcast Junkie (Megan), started a new Facebook group called Podcast Community to help recapture that feeling.

In honor of that I decided to start writing up some reviews of the various podcasts I’ve learned about through the community. These are going to be based on listening to the “latest” episode when I visit their website. Hopefully this helps spur some interest and helps readers find some new podcasts to join, comment on and enjoy. If you are a podcast listener make sure to hug your favorite podcaster (and by hug I mean leave a comment, review or email).

Podcast One Episode Review #2 –Masked Marauder Matinee

Episode Reviewed “Iron Horse and the Rescue in the Rails”

I really appreciate podcast fiction (after all my first podcast is podcast fan fiction), so I was happy that the next podcast in line to review was podcast fiction. It’s what I call audio drama lite, it’s a story read (this episode by the author himself) with some sound effects and music put behind the words.  Masked Marauder Matinee offers what they call “urban myths of mysteryadventure, and intrigue to captivate your mind.”

Iron Horse, a very pulp like character, was very intriguing, but I was lost at the beginning since I hadn’t read the shownotes first. I think a nice introduction of the concept of the story may have helped. Once I figured it out, I really enjoyed the story (lots of shooting, fighting). I think the strength of the story was the dialogue (not that there’s a lot of it).

There were some very nice editing choices in this and some ones that kind of threw me off. I did love the atmospheric choices (bullets, etc), but some of the human sfx (like the yelling) was a bit out of nowhere. I think most of my qualms about it would have been assuaged if the sounds/music had started out at the beginning of the story.  I was also a bit confused because the episode just kind of cut off at the end.

I really enjoyed that the episodes were short (apparently there’s a lot of cliffhangers in other episodes). Gives you enough of a taste of a story to really get into it, but also helps keep someone who can be as ADD as I am interested.

Iron Horse isn’t the only story on the website/podcast. There’s several other intriguing series that I can’t wait to listen to, like Lady Raven. I also love that the stories are available in text form as well as the audio book versions.

All in all I give it a big thumbs up for concept and 3/4ths of a zombie thumb for execution.

 

Where to listen: 
iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-masked-marauder-matinee/id535274487
Website: http://maskedmaraudermatinee.com/

Other recommendations:
Listening Order: Given the nature of the serialized story, I’d start with episode one and move forward.
Average Episode Length: about 10 minutes

Podcast One Episode Review: Time Shifters Podcast

So, I’ve been so busy trying to get my MA and then MFA done that I’ve really slacked off in being part of the podcast community. I missed the early days of podcasting when people would jump on each other’s shows and really get involved with promoting, listening, and commenting on each other’s shows. Thankfully, Podcast Junkie (Megan), started a new Facebook group called Podcast Community to help recapture that feeling.

In honor of that I decided to start writing up some reviews of the various podcasts I’ve learned about through the community. These are going to be based on listening to the “latest” episode when I visit their website. Hopefully this helps spur some interest and helps readers find some new podcasts to join, comment on and enjoy. If you are a podcast listener make sure to hug your favorite podcaster (and by hug I mean leave a comment, review or email).

Podcast One Episode Review #1 – Time Shifters Podcast
Episode Reviewed “Sure he’s rich, but does he have a podcast?”

If you’re a sci-fi/genre TV or movie fan, this is probably a podcast you’ll really enjoy. One of the things I enjoyed about this episode was the hosts banter included a catch up on their real lives (I personally love the “these folks are my friends” kind of podcasts). The hosts also discuss recent news. In this episode they discuss the Viacom craziness, which I thought was a surprising choice, but I enjoyed that because it does relate to folks who enjoy genre TV as much of it is on cable. They also geek out about Voyager (again, not quite what I expected, but really cool).

After they discuss their personal lives and the news, they go into what they’ve been watching. I love shows like this because, again, it feels like I and my friends sitting around talking about the TV shows we love. I think my one criticism is that this show would benefit from timestamped show notes so I would know when to skip certain parts of shows I’m not watching yet or am behind on.

All in all I give it a real thumbs up for some great geeky information, news and that roundtable feel.

Where to listen:
iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/time-shifters/id360286864
Website: http://www.jonja.net/podcast/

Other recommendations:
Listening Order: Start with more recent episodes and work backwards if needed.
Average Episode Length: about an hour