Welcome back for Episode 37 of Speculate! The Podcast for Writers, Readers and Fans.  In this episode we conclude our series of shows on the work of Mark Hodder with a discussion of some of the specific writing techniques used in his book The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack, looking at how the use of characters as foils, attention to theme, meditations on empire and other aspects of writing make Strange Affair such an interesting and enjoyable book…and how aspiring writers can learn to apply these techniques in their own work.  We’ll be taking a break next week, but if you enjoy what you hear don’t forget to check back in two weeks for an interview with artist Todd Lockwood, and be on the lookout for our interview with Brandon Sanderson.  Until then, thanks as always for listening, and please continue to spread the word about the show!

(Side note: As you’ll hear at the end of this week’s show and will be seeing in more detail in an upcoming post, Speculate! is eligible for nomination in the Best Related Work category of the Hugo awards.  Obviously there are a lot of worthy candidates to be nominated for something like this, but we thought you might not know if we didn’t say that we’d love to join that list.  So if you’re a member of last year’s, this year’s or next year’s Worldcon, please head over to the official site before March 11, 2012 and consider nominating us (and others of the many choices in all the categories) in the Best Related Work category…and thanks!)