We're calling this week and next week "Dragon*Con Delays". Because of the travel involved and the reduced recording time, you'll get Show #277A this week, and Show #277B next week, and we'll return to a regular schedule the week after.
Discussion: Michael S talks about the great stuff at GenCon, and about the podcasting hazards that con travel present, given that everyone and their grandmother will be heading to Dragon*Con. Mike S talks about some of the D*C panels he'll be on,
Interview: Michael, Summer and Michael talk with Austin Grossman about Soon I Will Be Invincible, and he tells us how the book came about. Basically, mainstream literature would be far better if everyone in the stories had superpowers, and combining comic book stories and prose storytelling styles seems to be where more stories are waiting to be told.
Story Craft Discussion: Bill Morton from The Dragonlance Canticle asks for some advice on handling the writing of a story whose timeline jumps around. Michael and Michael also talk about using magic systems, and how to think about not overusing magic in the worlds you build.
Submitting Listener comments: If you have any suggestions or comments, please let us know!
Can you do a 3-minute audio book review? Here's what we're looking for:
- Book title, author, publisher, cost
- Must have been published within the past calendar year
- Why did you like the book?
- What about the book will you remember a year from now?
- Why do you want to recommend this book to other potential readers?
Promo: Variant Frequencies
hey guys, great show!
a few comments:
-Summer said something controversial! WOW! 😛
-the info about activities in conventions is great for aspiring writers and fans alike. I was always interested in how they operate for writer-guests like micheal and newsformats liek dragon page
-austen was a really modest guest, i have read his book and will say that he also played on literature's strengths instead of relying on comic book lore to care the piece. The characters have time to reflect and have a points fo view...where in comics are mostly a third-person short story with large bits of action. In the future, it woudl be neat to hear from other writers in the comic book field that also write literature fitction if possible(greg rucka, warren ellis, etc etc).
-Magic is so tricky and personal to the reader's tastes...take the fire and ice series from rr martin...barely a whiff of magic through-out the books and its wildly popular. Then take a Raymond fiest's or Jordan's books which literally explode with high magic, also wildly popular. I think it has alot to do with personality types of teh reader...alot of fantasy today employ's a science fiction style magic system. This is where the magic is based on conditions and has rules. David farland's world is a great example...alot ofwhat Mr. stackpole has done is similiar. Now take classic tolkien and cs lewis...high magic is power and a mystery to the reader. This style is going out of flavor as the world advances and we become a more secular-minded readership. We, as readers, demand more reasons for things. If there is a magic plague, the readers will wonder where it came from and how it was caused...the writer had better deliver....OR ELSE!
thanks again, ill stop rambling now...