The Coode Street Podcast

In the second of two podcasts recorded at the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, Gary and I are joined by Ellen Klages, Karen Lord, and Nalo Hopkinson for a discussion on writing, cover art and many other things. As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast!

With the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts in full swing, Gary called in with Andy Duncan and Karen Joy Fowler to discuss genre, short stories, writing novels, Andy's first short story collection in eleven years, The Pottawottamie Giant and Other Stories, and much more! As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast!

With the Gene Wolfe event about to hit full swing in sunny Chicago, all sorts of fun things are happening in the windy city. This morning (Perth time) our good friend Peter Straub was visiting Gary's  stylish Chicago pied-à-terre, so we fired up the podcast and had a pre-dinner chat about literary boundaries, modern horror, writing, Caitlin Kiernan and much much more.  As always, our thanks to Peter for joining us. We hope that you'll enjoy the podcast. Next week: ICFA!

This week we're joined by Pulitzer Prize award winning critic Michael Dirda to discuss his new book on Conan Doyle, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Gene Wolfe and the golden age of story. As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast!

Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Dirda recently reviewed Keith Roberts' magestic novel, Pavane, in The Washington Post, describing it as a fix-up novel, a term coined by the late A.E. van Vogt. The review sparked a conversation about fix-ups, what they are and where the term comes from, and how terminology forms in the SF field. It's digressive, unresearched, and un-factchecked, but at least it's not talking about awards. As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast.

And then we rambled... After several weeks hosting some wonderful guests, this week Gary and I just fired up Skype and rambled away about stuff: the Nebulas, some old Hugos, whether having a Golden Age at all is a good idea.  While we apologise for the self-indulgence, we nonetheless hope you enjoy the podcast.  Only ten more till the big one!

This week Gary and I are joined by Campbell Memorial Award winning author Barry Malzberg to discuss the Library of America's American Science Fiction Nine Classic Novels of the 1950s, how the '50s were the last "Hot Time" in science fiction (or not), and other matters science fictional.  As always, we hope you enjoy the discussion.

This week we invited award-winning actor, broadcaster, editor and writer Ellen Kushner to join us to discuss the excellent audiobook adaptation of her novel Swordspoint, which was recently released by Audible, her thoughts on the rise of audiobooks, and her many other projects.. The Witches of Lublin (Audible); and the audiobook of Swordspoint (US information; UK information). We would like to apologise for the audio quality of some of the podcast, which is a little below what we'd normally hope for.  Our primary recording of the 'cast failed, but we were saved by our newly installed backup recording system.  We continue our hunt for improvements, but in the interim thank Ellen, and look forward to seeing you all next week.

This weekend Gary and I discussed the Locus Recommended Reading list (very briefly), Gwenda Bond's wonderful news, Saladin Ahmed's new novel, subgenre's and answered a lot of reader questions from Twitter. As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast!

This week Gary and I start off discussing aspects of compiling 'best of the year' anthology, touch on genre drift and blur, move on to a few recent stories we've greatly admired, and then invite Sophie back at the very end of the 'cast for a quick chat about her recent reading. As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast.

This week we're delighted to welcome Cheryl Morgan back to the podcast after too long an absence to discuss the Hugo Awards, graphic stories, semiprozines, fancasts and all sorts of interesting eligibility questions, as well as the Science Fiction and Fantasy Translation Awards. As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast, and will see you next week!

This week Elizabeth Hand joins us to discuss her two new novels, Available Dark and Radiant Days, as well as much more. As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast!

For the first regular podcast of 2012 Gary and I answer listener "Cam from Canada's" questions about Gene Wolfe (or try to), foreshadow some stuff for future episodes, briefly discuss Hugo nominations opening, chat about John Crowley's work and some other stuff. As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast!

With New Year's Eve beckoning, but just out of reach, Gary and I fired up the pod one last time for 2011 to discuss Rusty Hevelin, the memory of the field, the year we had, and all sorts of other things. On a serious note, we would like to deeply and sincerely thank everyone who appeared as a guest, commented on the blog, tweeted or blogged about the podcast, voted or  nominated it for an award, said something nice about the podcast in passing in an elevator or at the bar - basically, everyone who has responded to it in any way. This first full year of podcasting has been a constant joy, surprise and delight and we'd like to thank all of the Coode St Community and wish you all a safe and happy celebration and the best year ever for 2012  (except for Mayans, who might be in for a bit of a torrid time).

As we observed last year, the day after Christmas is a special one, dedicated to winding down after a day of feasting and gift giving, laughter and merriment. Things slow down – unless you have a taste for the mega-discount sales – and people tend to relax with family. This morning, Perth time, at least, a bunch of participants in Australian podcasting joined together to record The Second Annual Boxing Day Super Mega Podcast. Participating were: Alex, Alisa, and Tansy from Galactic Suburbia; Ian and Kirstyn from The Writer and the Critic; and Gary and I from The Coode St Podcast. Sadly, Grant from Bad Film Diaries couldn't make. What we ended up with was seven seven people talking, in a fairly organised manner about their highlights of 2011 and what they’re looking forward to in 2012.  Because I was doing the engineering  for this there was a stuff up and the first 20 minutes of the podcast were lost forever.  Alex and I did a quick do-over and new intro which we think works pretty well.  Eithe

This week Gary and I discuss, among a handful of select boutique subjects influence, copyright, and the current discussion over the World Fantasy Awards.  As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast. See you next week!

With the holiday season upon us, Gary and I invited novelist, comics and TV writer (notably for Doctor Who and Action Comics) and long time podcast listener Paul Cornell to join us on the podcast to discuss all sorts of interesting things in what proved to be a very enjoyable conversation. As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast and will see you again next week!

With many thanks to young Sophie for joining us last week, Gary and I fired up our microphones and chatted about a veritable miscellany of SFnal stuff, including audiobooks, recommended reading, and such.  As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast. If all goes to plan, we'll be back next week with Paul Cornell. NB: My apologies for a technical hitch about an hour into the recording.  You'll know it when you get to it.

This week Gary and I decided to vary things a little, inviting my ten-year-old daughter Sophie to join us to discuss a younger reader's view on story, character and such. It makes for a very different Coode Street podcast, but we hope you'll enjoy it, as always. Normal programming will resume next week!

Things are still a little wobbly because jetlag and such, but Gary and I fired up Skype this morning and spent some time talking about the ways information gets used online, the SF Encyclopedia, when it's a good time to do a "Best of" collection and I spent a little time raving about Patrick Ness's  A Monster Calls.  As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast!