Podcasts and Other Goodies - Hall

For this blog I though I would share with you some of my favorite writing podcasts. These are all free subscriptions, and very easy to access, even for the luddite-minded, like me.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about - first you need to download iTunes. Go to iTunes.com and find the appropriate iTunes for your machine and away you go. I've had iTunes on my computer for years and always listen to free radio. I've purchased dozens of songs for 99 cents and also spend a lot of time listening to podcasts.

When you have iTunes on your machine, get online, click on podcasts along the left, then click on podcast directory along the bottom and you'll be greeted with hundreds and thousands of free things to listen to.

Here are a few 'writing' podcasts that I never miss:

1. It's always good for writers to listen to stories and I love Stuart McLean's Vinyl Cafe stories, but often I'm just getting home from church and making lunch when they're on the radio, so I end up missing them. I now have subscribed to the podcast, so I can listen to them any time I want to.

2. CBC's Between the Covers podcast is a re-broadcast of the radio show and features Canadian stories read by Canadians

3. CBC's Writers and Company features interviews with Canadian authors and is always interesting.

4. NPR Books is a rebroadcast of National Public Radio (U.S.) broadcast on books and book news. I try not to miss it.

5. Popular author Dean Koontz has an interesting podcast. Just do a podcast search for Dean Koontz. Try doing a podcast search for any of your favorite authors and you'll be surprised at what you find!

6. Writers on Writing comes from the University of California and is a wonderful broadcast of interviews with authors and agents.

7. A fun one is The Writing Show with Paula B. She features SUCH an array of all-things-writing. Recently she featured a panel on the pros and cons of self-publishing which was quite eye opening.

8. A lot of the major publishers, Random House, Harper Collins, etc, feature podcasted first chapters of their newest releases.

Well, these are only a few. If you do a podcast search using the word 'writing' you'll come up with hundreds of things to listen to. Literally! You can listen to them right on your computer, or if you have an iPod, you can plug them in and your daily constitutional becomes that much more interesting.

Linda