Short Story Radio Update

About a year ago I wrote this post about Short Story Radio, a new web-based radio station operating from the UK and devoted to recording and broadcasting original short stories.

Since then, I'm pleased to say, Short Story Radio has gone from strength to strength. The website now looks more professional, and they are starting to pay writers of stories featured on the site. Here is an update I received recently from Ian Skillicorn, the station manager...

Over the past year we have been developing relationships with writers and many writing organisations. The latest additions to the website are recordings from three winners of the New Writing Partnership's Escalator Prize, for writers in the East of England. This summer we redesigned the website and added some new features.

I am pleased to tell you that we are now in a position to pay a writers' fee for stories that will appear on the site. At present we are approaching writers ourselves rather than taking unsolicited stories, but hope to be able to have an open submission round in the near future.

Our next project is a series of short stories that have been recorded specifically for hospital radio and will be available to hospital radio stations around the UK and beyond. The first four stories will be available for radio, and on our website, later this month. They are by award winning writer Sue Moorcroft, whose stories have appeared in many national magazines, and are read by Tamara Kennedy, whose acting career includes 14 years in Take The High Road and roles in Taggart and Monarch of the Glen.

In addition, I noticed that Short Story Radio is currently running a competition for a short story of under 3000 words in one of the following categories: drama/romance, historical fiction/memoir, humour, magic realism, mystery/thriller, science fiction.

The first-prize winner will get their story professionally recorded for broadcast on Short Story Radio, a free website worth 250 UK pounds (around $400), and five CD copies of their story for personal use. The closing date is 31 October 2008.

There is an entry fee of 8 UKP (around $14) per story in this competition, which in my view is a bit on the steep side. However, stories for Short Story Radio are recorded by professional actors, and I guess their services don't come cheap!

If you enjoy writing - and reading/listening to - short stories, Short Story Radio is well worth checking out.

Joanne Harris Interview on WritersFM

As mentioned recently in this blog post, Joanne Harris is the latest big-name writer to be interviewed on WritersFM, WCCL's Internet radio station for writers.

Joanne Harris is the British author of around a dozen novels, the most famous of which is Chocolat, which was also made into a film starring Juliette Binoche. Her latest novel, Runemarks, published in August 2007, is her first book for children and young adults. Her official website is at www.joanne-harris.co.uk, or clicking on any of the links from her name in this post will take you to the Wikipedia article about her.

The WritersFM Interview with Joanne was conducted by the station manager, Karl Moore, as usual. The interview runs to about an hour and is entertaining as well as being informative. As you might expect of a former school-teacher, Joanne is a clear and articulate interviewee.

Fans of Joanne Harris will particularly enjoy listening as she talks about her various books, and Chocolat in particular. As mentioned previously, I've only read one Joanne Harris novel so far, Gentlemen and Players, but I definitely plan to read some of her other books now. Actually, though, I thought the last twenty minutes or so of the interview were the most interesting, where Joanne talks about her writing methods and offers some tips for aspiring novelists. I recommend having a pen and paper in hand when listening to this!

To hear the interview, you can either wait for it to come around on the station's normal rotation, download it as a podcast, or (probably the easiest option) stream it from the radio station's Podcasts page. As with all WritersFM broadcasts, you will need to have a broadband/DSL Internet connection.

Happy listening!

What would YOU ask Joanne Harris?

My colleague Karl Moore of the online radio station WritersFM needs your help!

He has managed to line up an interview with the British author Joanne Harris this Thursday, 20 March. And he has asked me to put out a request to readers of my blog for any questions he can ask her.

For those who may not know, Joanne Harris is the author of around a dozen novels, perhaps the most famous of which is Chocolat, which was also made into a film starring Juliette Binoche. Her latest novel, Runemarks, published in 2007, is her first book for children and young adults. Her official website is at http://www.joanne-harris.co.uk/, or clicking on any of the links from her name in this post will take you to the Wikipedia article about her.

I must admit that I haven't read Chocolat or seen the film. I did, however, read her more recent novel Gentlemen and Players on holiday a couple of years ago. I enjoyed reading it, although I guessed the "surprise twist" about a quarter of the way through! If you haven't read it, though, I do recommend it as an enjoyable thriller with some memorable characters and a good evocation of life at a minor English public school. I've put a link to the relevant page at Amazon.co.uk below...


Anyway, if you have any questions you would like Karl to put to Joanne Harris, do drop him a line. Write to him at karl AT karlmoore.com (changing the AT for the usual @ sign). Put his name ("Karl Moore") in the subject line, to avoid your email being blocked by his spam filters.

If you want to listen to the interview, it will be online at WritersFM on Friday 21 March, or very soon afterwards. And if you'd like more info about WritersFM, please see my recent blog post about the radio station.

Happy listening!

UPDATE! - I've just heard from Karl that unfortunately he has the flu, so his interview with Joanne has had to be put back to next Friday (28 March). So you still have time to send him any questions you would like asked! I'll let you know on this blog when the interview is available on WritersFM.

WritersFM: Internet Radio by Writers, for Writers

I haven't mentioned WritersFM on this blog for a while now, so for the benefit of new readers especially I thought it was time I said a few words about it.

WritersFM is the online radio station for writers run by my publishers, The WCCL Network. It is one of the range of free services for writers provided by WCCL, which also includes my forum at www.mywriterscircle.com and the Smart Writers e-mail newsletter.

WritersFM broadcasts a mixture of interviews with successful writers and laid-back music. The chief interviewer and station manager is my colleague Karl Moore, the author of several non-fiction books himself.

Authors interviewed on the station so far include US writer and writing teacher Randy Ingermanson, former British health minister turned author and broadcaster Edwina Currie, historical novelist Bernard Cornwell, copywriting guru Joe Vitale, biographer Lucinda Hawksley, first-time novelist Jeff Phelps, children's author and illustrator Stephen Jackson, and many others (including yours truly!).

You can either just tune in to WritersFM and listen to whatever happens to be playing at the time, or download individual interviews as podcasts (though note that these are BIG files!). In addition, you can stream the most recent interviews directly from the WritersFM website without having to download them. You do need to have a broadband (DSL) Internet connection in order to listen to WritersFM.

I have one other reason for mentioning WritersFM just now. Karl is currently looking for more writers to interview on the station about their work. If you're a reasonably well-known author (i.e. if you stopped ten people at random on the street, there's a chance that at least one might have heard of you!) do drop Karl a line if you'd like to be interviewed. Or alternatively, if you happen to know a well-known writer and are able to put Karl in touch with him/her, again he would be delighted to hear from you. Please write to karl AT karlmoore.com, and put his name ("Karl Moore") in the subject line to avoid your email being blocked by the spam filters.

P.S. Karl is also looking for potential new guests for his other Internet radio station Self Dev Radio - so if you know any self-help gurus (or are one!), please get in touch with him also.

Short Story Radio Open for Submissions

Short Story Radio is a new Internet radio station seeking short stories to be professionally recorded and broadcast via the website. Here's an extract from an email about the service I received from the station manager, Ian Skillicorn:

We invite writers to submit previously unpublished stories and we choose a selection of the best to be recorded and broadcast on our website. All our chosen stories are recorded by professional actors; with music added for extra atmosphere, each recorded story is brought to life by our creative team.

There is no fee for submitting a story and recording and transmission fees for chosen stories are paid for by shortstoryradio.com.

Stories are available to listeners for six months and the writers of chosen stories receive a profile in the Our Writers section of the website. Visitors to shortstoryradio.com are increasing every week. We have had over 40,000 visitors to the website since we began in 2006. Many of our listeners are fellow writers and we also have thousands of English Language students from around the world who like to listen to our stories to practise their listening comprehension skills, while being entertained at the same time.

I checked out the website myself. I'd have to say I don't think it looks as professional as WCCL's Internet radio station WritersFM, but when I tried listening to some of the stories I was favourably impressed. Short Story Radio uses a neat little online audio player which seems to work very well, and the recording quality of the stories is excellent.

One thing that did concern me a bit was that writers do not get paid for having their stories broadcast on Short Story Radio. I asked Ian about this, and he replied as follows:

I appreciate your query about fees for writers. We aim to provide a platform for writers to have a professional broadcast of their story that otherwise would not be possible, which is why rather than offering a fee, we are covering all costs including bandwith, recording, editing, music clearance etc. With all these associated costs it simply wouldn't be possible to pay for stories and keep the website going. However, as we grow we do hope to explore commercial opportunities for the stories, through which everyone involved could be paid royalties.

So there you are. If you're looking for a platform for your short stories and don't mind not getting paid, Short Story Radio is worth checking out. Submissions are being accepted from now till September 12 2007 - here's a direct link to the submissions page. Although in general I think writers should be paid for their efforts, I can understand that funds may be tight at the moment. Hopefully as the service becomes more established, Short Story Radio may be able to start offering payments to their writers.

Review of WritersFM

My colleague Ann Isik has written a great review of the Internet radio station WritersFM. You can read Ann's review by clicking this link.

WritersFM is one of the family of websites for writers operated by my publishers, WCCL. Others include this blog and my forum.

As well as explaining what WritersFM is about, Ann has provided commentaries on many of the interviews broadcast by the station (and available as podcasts). Here's what she says about the interview with Stephen Jackson, for example:

Stephen Jackson is a children's author and illustrator. He describes the journey to publication of MirrorWorld, an illustrated story book and adventure game written for nine to eleven year olds. The work was five years in development. The goal is to help a character called Seymour save the planet with a miraculous mirror (supplied with the book). Stephen describes his exciting UK book signing tour.

In a way, then, Ann's article isn't just a review, it can also be regarded as a listener's companion, providing additional details about the interviews so you can see at a glance which ones might be of particular interest to you. There is also a list of citations - a bibliography, if you like - for each of the interviewees mentioned, so you can find out more about them and their publications.

Ann has done a great job with this review, which is beautifully written and meticulously researched. If you're at all interested in WritersFM, I strongly urge you to check it out.

Bernard Cornwell Interview on WritersFM

As mentioned recently on this blog, Bernard Cornwell is the latest big-name writer to be interviewed on WritersFM, WCCL's Internet radio station for writers.

Bernard is a prolific and popular British historical novelist. His best-known books feature the adventures of Richard Sharpe, an English soldier, and are set in the Napoleonic era. Many of the books were filmed for a TV series starring Sean Bean as Sharpe, produced by Central Independent Television for the ITV network. Other series written by Bernard Cornwell include 'The Starbuck Chronicles', set during the American Civil War, and his latest series 'The Saxon Stories', set in 9th century England.

The WritersFM Interview with Bernard was conducted by Karl Moore as usual, via the phone to Bernard at his home in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The interview runs to about an hour and is entertaining as well as being informative (it's actually the first WritersFM interview where I've laughed out loud in several places!).

Fans of Bernard Cornwell's books will particularly enjoy listening. Historical fiction isn't really my thing, but I was still fascinated as he talked about how he wrote his first novel. I won't spoil the story here, but it begins in the least likely way imaginable, with an American travel agents' trip to Northern Ireland. Bernard's story contains coincidences and strokes of fate (I won't say luck, because Bernard clearly grasped the opportunities fate threw at him) so amazing that if you read them in a book you would dismiss them as utterly implausible - yet in Bernard's case they actually happened. The story of how he met his agent is pretty amazing too, and reveals the importance to a writer of being persistent!

You can either wait for Bernard's interview to be broadcast on the station's normal rotation, download it as a podcast, or (probably the easiest option) stream it from the Podcasts page. And if you'd like to find out more about Bernard, check out his web page at www.bernardcornwell.net - not, as you'll hear explained in the interview, .com!

Syd Field Interview on WritersFM

As previewed recently in this blog, Hollywood screenwriting guru Syd Field has just been interviewed on WritersFM.

As usual on WritersFM, the interviewer is Karl Moore. He asks Syd a range of questions, some of which were sent in by members of my forum. I was pleased that I also got two of my own questions answered!

Syd comes up with with some great advice for would-be screenwriters. One thing that particularly interested me is where (quite early on in the interview) he talks about the most common mistake made by aspiring screenwriters. This may not be what you think, and it really is essential knowledge for screenwriters.

Listeners also get to hear some very interesting information about trends in the movie-writing business - in particular, how these days several writers are often engaged to produce their own versions of a movie script before yet another writer is engaged to cobble the best bits together to create the final 'Frankenstein script'. I'm not sure if the latter is an official term or not, but it might explain the variable quality of some recent Hollywood releases!

The whole interview is about half an hour long. The sound quality isn't quite as good as some other recent WritersFM interviews, but as Syd himself points out, he and Karl were about 5,000 miles apart at the time. It's still perfectly listenable, and you can either wait for it to be broadcast on the station's normal rotation, download it as a podcast, or (probably the easiest option) stream it from the Podcasts page.

If you would like to find out more about Syd, the best place is his web page at www.sydfield.com. Finally, if you're interested in screenwriting, don't forget that WCCL produce the unique 'Write a Movie in a Month' course. More info about this, including how you can get a $20 discount and three extra bonus items from me, can be obtained from this post on my blog.

Coming Soon on WritersFM

Two of the biggest-name writers yet are about to be interviewed on WritersFM - and YOU can help choose the questions they are asked!

First up is Syd Field, an American writer who has become one of the most popular screenwriting gurus in the movie industry. Syd has written several books on the art of screenwriting (see, for example, the link below), and holds workshops that help aspiring screenwriters to produce the kinds of screenplays that will sell in Hollywood. Syd's ideas about what makes a good script have become highly influential on Hollywood producers, who have increasingly used his ideas on structure as a guide to a proposed screenplay's potential.




If your interests include screenwriting, you MUST listen out for this interview. And if you have any suggestions for questions that WritersFM host Karl Moore should put to Syd, you can raise them via this topic on my forum.

The other forthcoming interviewee is Bernard Cornwell, the prolific and popular British historical novelist. Bernard's best known books feature the adventures of Richard Sharpe, an English soldier, and are set in the Napoleonic era. Many of the books were filmed for a television series starring Sean Bean as Sharpe, produced by Central Independent Television for the ITV network. Other series written by Bernard Cornwell include 'The Starbuck Chronicles', set during the American Civil War, and his latest series 'The Saxon Stories', set in 9th century England.

This interview should be essential listening for any aspiring novelists, and historical novelists in particular. Again, if there are any questions you would like Karl to put to Bernard, you can suggest them via this topic on my forum.

Finally, just a reminder that you can listen online to the most recent WritersFM interviews (including my own!) via the new LivePlay feature on the WritersFM Podcasts page. You can also download podcasts of all past interviews from this page.

More About WritersFM

Doh! I've just discovered that some of the info I provided here yesterday about Internet radio station WritersFM is incorrect, or at least out of date.

The good news is that you DON'T always have to download podcasts before you can play them. The latest interviews on the WritersFM podcasts page can be streamed directly from the website. Just click on the interview you want to hear from the list near the top of the page (headed 'Liveplay - Stream Our Recent Interviews'), and away you go.

As well as the new interview with me, the following interviews can be streamed from the WritersFM podcasts page: biographer Lucinda Hawksley, top copywriter Joe Vitale, former British politician turned broadcaster Edwina Currie, and US writing guru Randy Ingermanson (creator of the 'Snowflake Method' of plotting).

Other interviews are listed further down the podcasts page. You will need to download and unzip these before you can play them, as I described previously.

The other good news is that you shouldn't need a broadband/DSL Internet connection to listen to the streamed interviews. A good dial-up connection should be OK, though obviously the quality will be better with broadband.

Happy listening!

My New Interview on WritersFM

I've just been interviewed by Karl Moore for the Internet radio station WritersFM. It was my second interview for them. The earlier interview was actually the very first one on the station, and there were one or two issues with the recording quality. We did the new interview via the Internet telephony service Skype, and it came out very well indeed.

If you've already heard my earlier interview on WritersFM, don't worry. In the new interview Karl asks a completely different set of questions. So you'll hear me talking about my new courses 'How to Win Contests' and 'Essential English for Writers' (which is due to be published soon). Plus I offer some advice on writing a book, and the best way to start making money from freelance writing.

Karl asked how I advertise my writing services, and what my most unusual writing jobs ever were (hear him go into subdued hysterics as I talk about this!). The interview also touched on a few more personal topics, including other careers I might like to have pursued if I hadn't become a writer (I don't think you'll guess the first one in particular). The whole thing is interspersed with some excellent music.

You can catch my interview on WritersFM's normal rotation, or download it as a separate podcast. It's about an hour long. Even in its zipped form the podcast is over 50 MB in size, so it's best if you have a broadband connection. Listening to WritersFM also requires broadband.

Finally, just a reminder that WritersFM is always on the lookout for more writers to interview. You don't have to be famous, just have enjoyed some success in the writing field, e.g. a book published or a script performed. If you're interested, send Karl an e-mail at karl-at-myhelphub.com (change the -at- to the usual @ sign). Tell him a bit about yourself and your publishing history. If he feels you would make a suitable interviewee, he will get back to you to arrange a time. Interviews can take place over the phone, on Skype or in person, so it doesn't matter where in the world you live.

Have You Discovered Internet Radio Yet?

In the last year or two I've become a big fan of Internet radio. I even bought a separate Internet radio receiver, so I that can listen to my favourite stations from around the world anywhere in the house via our wireless broadband network.

So I very much enjoyed reading the article by Miranda Sawyer about Internet radio in last Sunday's Observer newspaper. You can view the article by clicking on this link, but you may need to register (which is free) before you can read all the content.

In her article Miranda explains that she has been listening to Internet radio virtually non-stop for the previous week, and she begins entertainingly by listing some of the weirder offerings she discovered...

Over the past seven days, I've checked out Sahaja Yoga Radio (ooble-booble happy hippie sounds); Mouseworld Radio ('The Disney Vacation Station', a housework fave); A Fistful of Soundtracks (tunes from films and TV, surprisingly listenable); Sirens of Song (only plays music made by women, for gender-sensitive ears) and Radio DavidByrne.com (sample track: Jimmy Durante singing 'It's My Nose's birthday').

Sorry I've not hyperlinked these, but you should be able to find the stations easily enough via search engines if you're interested. Miranda recommends Live365.com as a great resource for discovering Internet radio stations that appeal to you, though she warns that there is a lot of advertising to wade through on the site.

The article also lists some of Miranda's favourite Internet radio stations, and one of these I was pleased to see is a favourite of mine as well. Radio Paradise broadcasts from Paradise, California, and describes its style as eclectic rock radio. You'll hear current and older tracks from both well known and obscure artists here. The emphasis is on soft rock, but every so often the station throws in a bit of jazz or even classical. I've discovered a number of bands and artists I like through listening to Radio Paradise - Porcupine Tree, Mostly Autumn, Hooverphonic and Riverside, to name a few - and it has jump-started me into buying modern music again.

And, of course, there is WritersFM, WCCL's Internet radio station for writers. There's a growing range of in-depth interviews with writers on the station, including top copywriter Joe Vitale, former British politician turned broadcaster Edwina Currie, US writing guru Randy Ingermanson, and many others (including myself, of course!). Do tune in if you haven't already. You can also download the interviews separately as podcasts if you like.

You don't need expensive software to listen to Internet radio. Windows Media Player (bundled free with most versions of Microsoft Windows) or the free RealPlayer will do just fine, though you will need a broadband Internet connection in most cases. So why not read Miranda Sawyer's article, check out a few Internet radio stations, and join the growing band of Internet radio aficionados!

Could You Be a Radio Host?

My publishers, WCCL, who already run several online radio stations including WritersFM, are setting up a brand new radio site online - and they're looking for a host.

They say: "If you've got a sharp wit and a knack for banter, and would be interested in wasting a little time all in the name of good fun, then why not get in touch?"

There's no fee, unfortunately, but it should be an interesting and enjoyable part-time project to be involved with (and, of course, it would make an impressive addition to your CV/resume). You can be based anywhere in the world, as radio interviews are normally conducted by phone or VOIP.

My colleague Karl Moore is heading up this project. If you're interested, drop him a line at karl-at-myhelphub.com (change the -at- for the usual @ sign) and tell him a bit about yourself. Karl will share further details of the project with you directly.

Happy Birthday, WritersFM!

Yes, it's true! WCCL's free Internet radio station for writers, WritersFM, is one year old this week.

I had the honour of being the radio station's first interviewee, and still hold the record for the longest interview at around 120 minutes. I conducted the interview over the phone, and my ear hurt for several days after that call! Nevertheless it was great fun to do, and you can still download my interview as a podcast if you wish, or catch it on the normal rotation. Incidentally, as it was the station's first interview it doesn't have quite the same high production standards as more recent ones, so in the next few months the station manager Karl Moore has asked to interview me again.

Of course, since my original interview many others have been added. They include US writer and writing teacher Randy Ingermanson, former British health minister turned author and broadcaster Edwina Currie, copywriting guru Joe Vitale, biographer Lucinda Hawksley, first-time novelist Jeff Phelps, children's author and illustrator Stephen Jackson, and many more. You can either just tune in to the station and listen to whatever happens to be playing at the time, or download individual interviews as podcasts. Note, however, that you will need to have a broadband Internet connection in order to listen to WritersFM.

Finally, just a reminder that WritersFM is always on the lookout for more writers to interview. You don't have to be famous, just have enjoyed some success in the writing field, e.g. a book published or a script performed. If you're interested, send the station manager (and interviewer) Karl an e-mail at karl-at-myhelphub.com (change the -at- to the usual @ sign). Tell him a bit about yourself and your publishing history. If Karl feels you would make a suitable interviewee, he will get back to you to arrange a time. Interviews can take place over the phone, on Skype or in person, so it doesn't matter where in the world you live.