Sam Sykes – author of the Aeon’s Gate series and the newly released “The City Stained Red” – is a distinctive…
2015 February
[Featured Image is “Pillars of Creation” by roald92 on DeviantART] Guest Host K.C. Wayland – creator of the amazing and award-winning…
Few people have impacted the world of audio theater in recent years like this week’s Guest Host, K.C. Wayland. Back in 2009, while the most of the world was just waking up to podcasting and the notion of audiobooks (and “Walking Dead” was still a year and a half from its debut), KC was writing and producing the award winning “We’re Alive” audio drama series, a tale of survival set against the backdrop of a zombie apocalypse. The superior production, performance, and storytelling of “We’re Alive” raised the bar on audio entertainment and inspired a renaissance of tales told through the “theater of the mind”.
That alone would make this a spectacular 20(ish) minutes, but wait… there’s more. My co-host for this episode is none other than the creator of the remarkable “Leviathan Chronicles” audio drama, Christof Laputka! With these two storytelling maestros together in the virtual RTP studio, you KNOW this is going to be a fabulous discussion. Tune in as we explore the distinctions between literary and audio storytelling, crafting action scenes in audio drama, killing characters, sensory challenges in audio drama, and more.
E-books, audiobooks, websites, podcasts, transmedia, social media, Scribd, WattPad… compared to just a decade ago, the ways to tell a story have multiplied exponentially. Readers (or listeners) can not only find the stories they want with a click of the mouse, but they can also find the authors themselves, creating a whole new dynamic of fandom.
As formats and delivery models transform and evolve, the question has to be asked: Has the ancient craft storytelling – an instinct hard-coded into the DNA of every human being – been changed as well? And if so, how? And, more importantly, what should an author know in order to tell their stories in this ever-shifting terrain?
Joining me to help address this question is Cat Rambo, Joe Bonadonna , Michael A. Armstrong, and Janet and Chris Morris, veteran tale-weavers straddling the traditional and the modern. Together, we set out to examine the “new” storytelling models, discussing ebooks, audiobooks, mobile technologies, episodic and serial storytelling, and more.