Podcasts and other things you should check out...

I'm often asked who I'm listening to, reading and watching so I thought I'd take a minute to give credit where credit is due. Check these out for yourself, you'll be glad you did.


I spend a lot of time driving, so I tend to listen to a lot of audiobooks, podcasts and audio dramas. However, as I'm a huge fan of horror (and zombies in particular), you may find my selections a bit specific. In no particular order;


For zombie news, movie reviews (not always zombie movies), views, interviews and some very cool original music, Corey Graham and the "Midnight Corey" podcast is among the best of the best. You can find the cast at his site as well as on iTunes. Corey is also undertaking all aspects of the creation and filming of his first (and I'm sure not the last) independent film as well as posting vblogs in a sort of "running documentary" detailing his experiences from start to finish on his film. You can find those vblogs on his site as well as on You Tube.

If you like horror, check out my friend RootRot's (that's MrRootRot to all you twitiots out there) blog and his all-new companion podcast at The Witch's Hat. RootRot is one of the true pioneers of horror podcasting, once helming the Midnight Podcast, and knows his blogging and casting well. News, reviews, guest contributors...if it's going on in horror, or if you want to see some rather genre-educated fellows speak their minds in articles, reviews and debates, look no further.

For the very best in horror audio drama, movie and book reviews, horror-related parodies of classic rock tunes and a healthy dose of creepy, "jus' folks" wisdom you need to check out Dr. Puss over at the Library of Horror and the Library of the Living Dead. You'll find forums, news and links to his fantastic podcasts as well as information on his two publishing imprints (of the same names as his casts). The Good Doctor is shambling in more directions at once than a hungry zombie in a room full of Mensa members (get it? Hope so.), but he keeps it together admirably.



To hear one man's tale of his struggle for survival in the middle of the zombie apocalypse, you need to go to my good friend David Maynard's (Undead Muffin to you zombie fans) site and immediately start listening to Among the Dead . Follow Simon Richards as he fights his way through the dead and living alike to get back to his beloved Old Kentucky Home.




Like comics, fantasy/sci-fi/horror movies and all things appropriately geek? You do? Great. For news, reviews and interviews check out McPierce at the Little Dead podcast and get your geek on.

Love zombies? How about sci-fi? What's your feelings on mechs (...you know, mechs? Giant robot battle machines? No? Really? Well, don't sweat it, you'll like these...)? If any of these things trips the trigger on your plasma cannon or fuels your zombie chainsaws, check out Jake Bible's "Dead Mech" audio drama (and soon to be hardcopy novel) done completely in the drabble style (...you know, drabble? Fiction in exactly 100-word chunks? No? Well... aw screw it, you'll like it.). Check out the rest of his stuff while you're at it, just politely refuse if he offers you a cup of his wussy coffee...

Another great zombie audio drama comes from the folks at the "We're Alive" site. You'll be hooked after the first installment. They were on hiatus for awhile but started back up again last moth. The story so far is many, many hours long and is well worth catching up on.

Check out James Melzer for his audio dramas (and more) "The Zombie Chronicles" and his more recent novella, "Hull's Landing". He's quite the talented fellow.

If your tastes run more to fantasy and alternate planes, do go check out" The Byron Chronicles "by Eric Busby, brought to you by the good people at Darker Projects. This is definately quality audio drama. And while you're there, check out another fine zombie audio drama from Darker Projects, "Autumn".

No matter what kind of fiction you prefer, you can find a lot of it at podiobooks.com and similar sites, all free for the downloading. Serialized works, novels, anthologies and non-fiction works are just sitting there, waiting for you to put them on your mp3 player. I highly recommend them.

There are so many more fine podcasts and audio dramas out there, all handcrafted by their creators' hard work completely free for the downloading. Sorry if I missed anyone. I feel that podcasts and Creative Commons licensing of intellectual properties is the frontier of modern fiction and creative endeavor. And thanks to the likes of Scott Sigler, this "free entertainment" has now crossed the threshold into a fantastic direct marketing and advertising opportunity for unknown and semi-known authors alike, giving them the ability to have their work out there for public consumption and build a listener/readership at little cost to them and free for listeners/readers while still being protected by their Creative Commons. If you're not a listener, you'd do well to give podcasts and audio fiction a shot.

That's all for now. Happy reading/listening. And, just write, damn it.