Aleen talks to Marisa McClellan about audience-building in this one and then she and I and ponder the balance between how much an artist really has to engage with their audience in order to keep them interested and keeping yourself safe and sane in the face of the dark side of engagement.
You can listen to the podcast below or on the episode page where you can see the show notes and also subscribe.
I still have to write a detailed post about my writing residency at Surel’s Place. But if you’re curious about how it went and about artist residencies in general, then listen to this episode. I go into some of the ups and downs I experienced as well as the general benefit of getting away, even for a short while, to concentrate on your art.
You can listen to the podcast below or on the episode page where you can see the show notes and also subscribe.
While I was at Surel’s Place doing my residency I interviewed Jodi Eichelberger, the residency’s program director. Jodi is a fascinating person and I enjoyed getting to know him while I was in Boise. Especially since we have a friend in common!
Jodi’s path to being a local arts superstar does begin in Idaho, but it took him through Portland, OR, New York City, and Reykjavik, Iceland. He’s done musical theater, puppetry, and steampunk coffee delivery by bicycle. Like I said, fascinating.
You can listen to the podcast below or on the episode page where you can see the show notes and also subscribe.
Thanks to my wonderful friends and fans I’ve raised half the money I need to go to Egypt! YAY! You are all so awesome and amazing and thank you so much! Here, have one more exclamation point!
Can’t stop pushing the fundraiser now, because there’s a big deadline coming up.
I need to pay the tour company on March 1 to ensure I have a spot (tour is in May). That means I need to get to $3,500 in the fundraiser since I have about $1,000 of my own money saved. Once I pay for the tour I can concentrate on raising the other $1,500 for flights and other needs.
So, another $1,000 in 20 days. Let’s do this.
My first goal is to get to $3,000. When I do I will finally do the thing I’ve been threatening to do since this adventure started: watch The Gods of Egypt.
I got through Exodus: Gods and Kings without too much lasting psychological damage, so I feel I can handle this. I’ll have help, though.
Poet and provocateur Scott Woods has agreed to do a livetweet watch of the movie with me. If you’re not familiar with Scott’s work, you should at least read his review of GoE, which I pointed to way back when I first posted about this garbage fire of a movie. If you read his piece and watch my video about it, you’ll get an excellent sense of what our color commentary is going to look like. You’ll also understand why doing this is a huge sacrifice. Bless you, Scott.
After we watch the movie, we’re going to do a reaction video wherein he will try to hold back laughter as I scream from my fetal position under a table WHY! WHY GODS WHY!?
You know you want to see this.
And you can once we hit $3,000. To make that happen faster you can donate to the fundraiser and/or you can share stuff about it all over the Internet. Either one helps!
The direct link to the YouCaring page is here: https://www.youcaring.com/ktempestbradford-1014406
Or you can share one of the videos I’ve made about the book or about the fundraiser, including this new one in which I sing:
Thank you again to all the folks who have already helped me get to this point. My first newsletter is coming this weekend, as well as backer rewards such as free fiction! Folks on Patreon: Same!
Those of you who were fans of the JEMcast will loooove this episode. In it, I interview and Aleen and I talk about writer Kelly Thompson, who wrote the Jem & the Holograms comics plus several others (including, at this current moment in time, Captain Phasma, Ghostbusters: Answer the Call, and Hawkeye). We do go on about Jem-related stuff in this episode, yes, but talk about a bunch more! Such as writing within existing worlds, being a fan who then gets to write for the thing they love, how to organize your day if you’re a freelance writer, and imposter syndrome.
This is a long episode, but I hope well worth it!
Also: JEM. WHO IS TRULY OUTRAGEOUS. Just like Kelly.
You can listen to the podcast below or on the episode page where you can see the show notes and also subscribe.
I interview Nilah Magruder, who is a visual artist and a writer. Her two most recent books, a children’s picture book and a graphic novel, were both written and illustrated by her, which I find super impressive. Also, Nilah is amazing and smart. In this episode we talk about how some writers can benefit from thinking like artists and the origin story of Nilah’s book How To Find A Fox.
I also talk passionately about how important it is for young artists to not be told No or You Can’t Do That and what happened to me when I heard that kind of thing.
You can listen to the podcast below or on the episode page where you can see the show notes and also subscribe.
(art by Nilah)
This was the first episode recorded while I was at Surel’s Place. I talk a wee bit about the residency, but the majority of the ep is about how cross-pollination is essential to creativity. We get into it in terms of art, writing, music, of course, and also technology.
I mentioned the auctions we did to support the Interfictions anthologies and doing so made me long for the days of putting together artists and artisans with pieces of fiction and watching what happened. I also had an idea for the Interstitial Arts Foundation that we should try to foster this kind of thing on a consistent basis. If I had the time, if all the volunteers had more time… man.
Maybe I’ll make time at the end of next year when things calm down a bit.
Until then, you can listen to the podcast below or on the episode page where you can see the show notes and also subscribe.
When I hit my first funding goal on my Egypt Research Trip fundraiser I promised to do a livetweet rewatch of The Prince of Egypt and then make a video comparing it to The Ten Commandments. I’m still working on that vid, but I was inspired to make this one first!
I love PoE more and more each time I watch it. And I discover new wonderful, subtle things woven into it each time as well.
I hope you enjoy this (admittedly long) video and look forward to the next one. If I hit $1000 on my fundraiser I’ll livetweet while I watch Exodus: Gods and Kings. You want me to rip that movie to shreds, don’t you? Well, as of this moment I’m less than $200 from that goal…
In this episode Aleen and I talk about the value of travel and research trips for creative people. About how getting outside of your normal life–even if you go just 2 hours away–can feed your muse. I talk about how my trip to Europe this year gave me unexpected inspiration, and about how I need to visit places in order to really know how to describe them.
And jumping off that, this is a tiny reminder that I am still trying to raise money to go to Egypt next year for research. If you want to support me and my work, you can donate to the fundraiser via YouCaring. You can also support me by supporting my Patreon. Even $1 a month helps.
You can listen to the podcast below or on the episode page where you can see the show notes and also subscribe.
In this episode I interview writer and game designer Monica Valentinelli and Aleen and I talk about creativity and role-playing games. Monica gets into some cool stuff about ways game writers can be creative within an existing system and franchise, and also about how she got into writing for games. It’s a really great conversation.
You can listen to the podcast below or on the episode page where you can see the show notes and also subscribe.
