StoryHack Podcast

A couple of weeks ago, Daniel made the journey all the way out to beautiful StoryHack Studios for an in person chat. Not that Skype is bad or anything, but it is always much more fun to do these in person. Daniel's the founder of the Hugo-finalist podcast Dungeon Crawlers Radio. Today, his debut novel is officially released, so...

Another author interview! This time I had a chance to meet Carl Hackman, who before becoming a published author had a number of adventure careers.

Some interview notes:

[0:13] - Off continent? Out of the country anyway. I'm a doofus

[0:33] - 3 things about Carl

[1:14] - Carl laments not tuning up a guitar to make this a musical interview

[1:40] - Carl fled the rat race all the way to the Dominican Republic, where he now resides

[2:33] - How Carl got into animal rescue

[3:45] - Choosing the Dominican Republic

[4:25] - Carl has jumped out of more helicopters than you

[5:30] - Carl's writing process

[6:50] - The neighborhood dog choir

[7:30] - Gerald

[9:41] - What Carl's working on now

[10:05] - Carl's literary favorites

[11:30] - When Carl started writing

Aside: I love how Carl pronounces "Jaguar"

[12:40] - What Carl is reading now

[13:20] - The story of getting published

[14:30] - Immortal Works is awesome

[16:00] - Juggling ideas

[17:00] - Scrivener

[17:45] - What should I have asked?

[18:20] - Helicopters

[19:00] - Wrapping up

If you want to learn more about Carl:

http://www.carlhackman.com/

Carl's Youtube Channel

Gerald - Carl's book on Amazon

Carl on twitter

Carl's Facebook

Carl's Instagram

Earlier this week, I took a break from reading down the slush pile to visit with Caryn Larrinaga, author of Donn's Hill. I met Caryn this year at LTUE.

Some notes from the interview:

(0:00) Larringata Larrinaga. Apparently I am an idiot. Or maybe it's just that so many people get my last name wrong that I subconsciously want everyone else to suffer the same indignity

(0:40) 1st thing: Donn's Hill

(1:09) 2nd thing: Her shorter works, wherein Caryn refuses to give spoilers

(2:37) 3rd thing: Gaming event for charity with Caryn  (& some lesser authors) at Paragon City Games in Draper, UT on March 30, 2017

(3:30) Cthulu Yahtzee & other great tabletop games, including the panda one

(6:10) The secret thing about Caryn that nobody knows

(7:22) How Caryn got into ghosts

(9:30) How Donn's Hill came to be

(11:24) Caryn's writing process

(14:30) Hiring a developmental editor

(16:00) Getting a publisher

(17:50) What's next?

(18:55) The 27 hr day

(19:30) League of Utah Writers (Caryn will present at the spring conference on April 8)

(21:30) Cats are not hobbies

(23:00) Conferences and events

If you want to learn more about Caryn, check out her website, browse her book on Amazon, or follow her on facebook or twitter. You can also hear the first chapter of the audiobook for Donn's Hill on her publisher's website.

I'm calling this the StoryHack Podcast, Episode #1. However, don't hold me to any sort of schedule for releasing more of these. I have no plans for regularity. That being said, it was a lot of fun, and I would like to do more author interviews in person.

Cutting now to the chase, I'd like to introduce my first live author interview. I recently discovered David J West. Somehow, I had been following him on twitter for a while now, but I'm not sure how he got there. After we "met" on twitter, I decided to check out some of his fiction. After greatly enjoying a couple of his works, I decided I needed to meet him. Fortunately, he lives less than an hour away. So I used this interview as a pretext to meet him face to face.

David writes great action adventure/horror/western stories.

And like I said, this was my first live interview so I was a bit nervous. Hopefully I didn't step on David's responses too much.

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Download (~32 mb)

We talk about his journey to getting published, David's literary likes, writing process, Orrin Porter Rockwell and historical context of David's westerns, ranking gunslingers by body count, writing soundtracks, Conan and other Robert E. Howard works, and whatever else struck our fancy.

Stuff I learned about myself: I need a less cumbersome mobile rig if I ever do this again. Also, I need to stop saying "okay" so much.

If you'd like to learn more about David, here are some useful links:

David's Amazon Page

David's Blog

David's Twitter