Alasdair Stuart leaps across the Atlantic Ocean to take a seat at the Roundtable and help workshop a story by the host of the New Fiction Writers podcast, Tony Whitford. Tony offers up the tale of a down-on-his-luck government agent who stumbles upon an alien serial killer which proves to be fertile ground for a fabulous discussion. (Also, you gotta check out Alasdair’s Showcase Episode, too)
PROMO: Flying Island Press– http://flyingislandpress.com/
Workshop Episode 5 (Guest Host: Alasdair Stuart)
[caution: mature language occasionally leaps unbidden from our lips (mostly Dave’s)]
Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:04:54 — 59.4MB)
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Don’t forget… you can check out this episode on iTunes, too!
REFERENCE
by ALASDAIR:
- The Doctor Who Role-Playing Game Boxed-Set (check it on Amazon)
- … and coming soon: “Defending the Earth” (here’s the listing on Cubicle 7 Entertainment’s Website)
- Alasdair is the editor for The Hub E-Zine
- AND the Host of the Escape Artists Horror Podcast Pseudopod
- AND you GOTTA check out Alasdair’s blog (bring wine): http://alasdairstuart.com/
by TONY:
- Check out the New Fiction Writer’s Website
- “The Reaper” – Audio Fiction
- “Eat at Joe’s” available on Amazon
Other References…
- “Deep Fried” by Paul E. Cooley (Listen to all four episodes on Paul’s awesome website)
- Mur Lafferty’s “Marco and the Red Granny” on The Hub
- GeekPlanetOnline.com (The Fascination Nation!)
- The works of James Lee Burke (check out his website)
- Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe
Thank you for having Tony Whitford on your #5 podcast to discuss his work in progress, “The Reaper.” Many of us think of Tony as the friend we’ve never met and a mentor. The New Fiction Writers website is a first go-to when the computer is turned on. Appreciate The Roundtable podcasts and all the work you do. I especially like your “disclaimer.”
Thank YOU, Dolly! It was a genuine pleasure to have Master Whitford at the mic… he is a passionate and creative writer and his contributions made for a fabulous episode. This is why we created the podcast after all: to explore the creative frontier with the pioneers who are blazing the trail.
We’ll do our best to keep the discussions lively and the literary gold flowing. 😉
One brief thought. During the podcast Tony said that one of the things he liked about fiction was that anything could happen. He said this in response to Alistair who was trying to make a point that stories should make sense and have logic. I think Tony was a bit too dismissive. Yes, because it’s fiction, and especially because it’s speculative fiction, anything CAN happen. But, just because it CAN doesn’t mean it SHOULD. In fact, for me at least, because speculative fiction can be so broad, one of the things I feel as a writer is the need to work extra hard to give my stories rules, give them limits, even if I never share what those rules or limits are with the readers (though I usually do, at least some of them). If I don’t have rules, then what’s to stop me from having an elder god appear at any moment to end it all? Or an ancient alien race suddenly appear and solve everything? There has to be logic, rules, parameters, whatever, even if they only pertain to this one particular story. If not, you’ve got anarchy.
Unless you’re writing some sort of psychedelic stream of consciousness story, then yeah, all bets are off.
That’s an excellent point. Plus, those parameters define the tension and the stakes within the story arc. If there are no boundaries, then the limitations that create dramatic tension don’t exist either. Even writers like Douglas Adams who push the envelope of the absurd, still manage to establish that tautness amid the chaos.
I don’t think Tony was advocating absurdist fiction so much as the boundless potential of writing in a speculative genre. Championing “the talking tree” may have been an instinctive leap to the defense of that limitless playground, but Alasdair still made his point. 😉