podcastle (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} podcastle) wrote,@ 2008-03-12 01:55:00 |
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PodCastle has a feed!
Now that we have an audio file to put out on the feed, we can finally give you a proper podcast feed you can subscribe to, as well as submit our RSS feed to iTunes. (If you don’t know what this means, sit tight and we’ll have some handy tips for you.)
The feed URL, for those of you who want to subscribe immediately, is:
http://feeds.escapeartists.net/PodCastl
We expect to be listed in the iTunes directory shortly, but if you want to start following us in your own iTunes right now, just head over to our website and click the Itunes button.
Right now, we have our first post up on that feed -- a "metacast" from me, including some information about the PodCastle format and teasers for our upcoming episodes. You can listen to it here.
If you'd rather read the text of our metacast instead of hopping over for a list, just take a gander
PODCASTLE METACAST #1
Hello! This is Rachel Swirsky, PodCastle’s chief editor.
People have been asking us when we planned to put up a PodCastle feed. Well, here it is. And as long as we’re putting up a place holder, we figured why not include some teasers about the episodes we have lined up for you over the coming months.
We’re not far from our launch date on April first – yes, we know there’s an irony in launching a delayed fantasy podcast on April fool’s day -- when we’ll be broadcasting an audio version of Peter Beagle’s first published story, “Come Lady Death.”
After that, we’ve got dragons, both western and Chinese. We have rats and dead girls and princesses. We have zeppelins and ghostly husbands and weekdays that can be sent through the mail and magic that’s only magic in a certain slant of light.
We here at PodCastle feel that one of fantasy’s strengths is how many different kinds of fantasy stories there are, from traditional high fantasy, to mythic fantasy and folktales, to dark fantasy and urban fantasy, to dream-like surrealism and the more literary magical realism. At PodCastle, we plan to provide fantasy fiction that excites all these yearnings: from the desire to enjoy vicarious sword-swinging adventures to the use of the fantastic to explore the human mind and experience.
Over the course of our first three months, I’ve put together a kind of tour of fantasy, hitting many of the genre’s highlights. We begin with fantasy staples like personified death, fairy worlds, and dragons that menace villagers and haunt dreams. Then we move into myths and folktales, both new and old. From there we’ll emerge into magical versions of our own world, first epically historical and then quieter, simpler stories of mundane lives laced with a hint – just a hint – of magic. Finally, we’ll move through the other side of realism into mad, surreal visions, like our own world distorted by fun house mirrors.
Who’s bringing you all these stories? Well, you’ve already sort of “met” me – I’m Rachel Swirsky, and I’m PodCastle’s primary editor. I’m reading through the submissions we get and making final story selections -- although some of our first round of stories are ones that Steve bought for Escape Pod before PodCastle was a glimmer in Escape Artists’ eye, and so for a while you’ll be hearing a mix of both our tastes. I’m also working at getting our episodes into the hands of hosts and readers, and I’ll be introducing about one in four PodCastle episodes.
That’s right – PodCastle is deviating from the Escape Artists format by having multiple hosts. We’re excited to bring many voices to PodCastle. Fantasy is diverse, and we want to present it to you with diverse perspectives. My regular co-hosts are my associate editor, Ann Leckie, who is also handling our slush; writer and puppeteer Mary Robinette Kowal; and Summer Brooks of podcasts such as "Slice of Sci Fi" and "The Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas."
We’ll also have guest introductions from authors and fans. Occasionally, you may even hear a certain familiar voice coming through your speakers to let you know, "it’s story time.”
PodCastle episodes will air every Tuesday for your weekly fantasy fix. Additionally, we plan to have bonus PodCastle miniatures at least once a month. PodCastle Miniatures will be short-shorts of two thousand words or less – not long enough for a morning commute, but perhaps long enough for a morning coffee break.
We’ve decided to call our extra-short stories miniatures because according to wikipedia, the word miniature is derived from the Latin minium, red lead, and is a picture in an ancient or medieval illuminated manuscript. We thought it was a good way to describe very short stories with a fantasy theme: a word that indicates brievity, manuscripts, and a medieval atmosphere.
Our first miniature will be coming from the Escape Pod contest for flash fiction under 300 words, which some of you may remember taking over the forums last February.
PodCastle’s web presence is already established. Our official site is http://podcastle.org. You can also chat about us on the Escape Artsists forums at http://forums.escapeartists.info – the same place you go to discuss Escape Pod and Pseudopod. We also sometimes post information of interest to writers at our livejournal, http://podcastle.livejournal.com.
Speaking of writers, we’re always interested in reading submissions. You can find our submission guidelines at our website. We accept stories and queries at submit@podcastle.org (though please do read our guidelines first).
For other types of correspondence, you can reach us at editor@podcastle.org. We are now prepared to hear audio samples, by the way, in case anyone is interested in narrating. We’re also looking for audio editors to help out with our projects. Steve will have more information about that over at Escape Pod.
So, off we go. We’re working hard behind the scenes to launch PodCastle on April 1. Believe me: you can’t be as excited as I am. We’ll all just have to wait a few weeks longer. In the meantime, though, let me leave you with some words from that renowned fantasy genius Dr. Seuss – “I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living.”
You can find a list of the links in this post on our website. See you on April first!
LINKS:
PodCastle official site: http://podcastle.org.
PodCastle forums: http://forums.escapeartists.info
PodCastle livejournal (with slush updates): http://podcastle.livejournal.com
CONTACT:
Submissions: submit@podcastle.org (please read our guidelines first!)
Other correspondence: editor@podcastle.org
Now that we have an audio file to put out on the feed, we can finally give you a proper podcast feed you can subscribe to, as well as submit our RSS feed to iTunes. (If you don’t know what this means, sit tight and we’ll have some handy tips for you.)
The feed URL, for those of you who want to subscribe immediately, is:
http://feeds.escapeartists.net/PodCastl
We expect to be listed in the iTunes directory shortly, but if you want to start following us in your own iTunes right now, just head over to our website and click the Itunes button.
Right now, we have our first post up on that feed -- a "metacast" from me, including some information about the PodCastle format and teasers for our upcoming episodes. You can listen to it here.
If you'd rather read the text of our metacast instead of hopping over for a list, just take a gander
PODCASTLE METACAST #1
Hello! This is Rachel Swirsky, PodCastle’s chief editor.
People have been asking us when we planned to put up a PodCastle feed. Well, here it is. And as long as we’re putting up a place holder, we figured why not include some teasers about the episodes we have lined up for you over the coming months.
We’re not far from our launch date on April first – yes, we know there’s an irony in launching a delayed fantasy podcast on April fool’s day -- when we’ll be broadcasting an audio version of Peter Beagle’s first published story, “Come Lady Death.”
After that, we’ve got dragons, both western and Chinese. We have rats and dead girls and princesses. We have zeppelins and ghostly husbands and weekdays that can be sent through the mail and magic that’s only magic in a certain slant of light.
We here at PodCastle feel that one of fantasy’s strengths is how many different kinds of fantasy stories there are, from traditional high fantasy, to mythic fantasy and folktales, to dark fantasy and urban fantasy, to dream-like surrealism and the more literary magical realism. At PodCastle, we plan to provide fantasy fiction that excites all these yearnings: from the desire to enjoy vicarious sword-swinging adventures to the use of the fantastic to explore the human mind and experience.
Over the course of our first three months, I’ve put together a kind of tour of fantasy, hitting many of the genre’s highlights. We begin with fantasy staples like personified death, fairy worlds, and dragons that menace villagers and haunt dreams. Then we move into myths and folktales, both new and old. From there we’ll emerge into magical versions of our own world, first epically historical and then quieter, simpler stories of mundane lives laced with a hint – just a hint – of magic. Finally, we’ll move through the other side of realism into mad, surreal visions, like our own world distorted by fun house mirrors.
Who’s bringing you all these stories? Well, you’ve already sort of “met” me – I’m Rachel Swirsky, and I’m PodCastle’s primary editor. I’m reading through the submissions we get and making final story selections -- although some of our first round of stories are ones that Steve bought for Escape Pod before PodCastle was a glimmer in Escape Artists’ eye, and so for a while you’ll be hearing a mix of both our tastes. I’m also working at getting our episodes into the hands of hosts and readers, and I’ll be introducing about one in four PodCastle episodes.
That’s right – PodCastle is deviating from the Escape Artists format by having multiple hosts. We’re excited to bring many voices to PodCastle. Fantasy is diverse, and we want to present it to you with diverse perspectives. My regular co-hosts are my associate editor, Ann Leckie, who is also handling our slush; writer and puppeteer Mary Robinette Kowal; and Summer Brooks of podcasts such as "Slice of Sci Fi" and "The Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas."
We’ll also have guest introductions from authors and fans. Occasionally, you may even hear a certain familiar voice coming through your speakers to let you know, "it’s story time.”
PodCastle episodes will air every Tuesday for your weekly fantasy fix. Additionally, we plan to have bonus PodCastle miniatures at least once a month. PodCastle Miniatures will be short-shorts of two thousand words or less – not long enough for a morning commute, but perhaps long enough for a morning coffee break.
We’ve decided to call our extra-short stories miniatures because according to wikipedia, the word miniature is derived from the Latin minium, red lead, and is a picture in an ancient or medieval illuminated manuscript. We thought it was a good way to describe very short stories with a fantasy theme: a word that indicates brievity, manuscripts, and a medieval atmosphere.
Our first miniature will be coming from the Escape Pod contest for flash fiction under 300 words, which some of you may remember taking over the forums last February.
PodCastle’s web presence is already established. Our official site is http://podcastle.org. You can also chat about us on the Escape Artsists forums at http://forums.escapeartists.info – the same place you go to discuss Escape Pod and Pseudopod. We also sometimes post information of interest to writers at our livejournal, http://podcastle.livejournal.com.
Speaking of writers, we’re always interested in reading submissions. You can find our submission guidelines at our website. We accept stories and queries at submit@podcastle.org (though please do read our guidelines first).
For other types of correspondence, you can reach us at editor@podcastle.org. We are now prepared to hear audio samples, by the way, in case anyone is interested in narrating. We’re also looking for audio editors to help out with our projects. Steve will have more information about that over at Escape Pod.
So, off we go. We’re working hard behind the scenes to launch PodCastle on April 1. Believe me: you can’t be as excited as I am. We’ll all just have to wait a few weeks longer. In the meantime, though, let me leave you with some words from that renowned fantasy genius Dr. Seuss – “I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living.”
You can find a list of the links in this post on our website. See you on April first!
LINKS:
PodCastle official site: http://podcastle.org.
PodCastle forums: http://forums.escapeartists.info
PodCastle livejournal (with slush updates): http://podcastle.livejournal.com
CONTACT:
Submissions: submit@podcastle.org (please read our guidelines first!)
Other correspondence: editor@podcastle.org
