Be mighty, and keep your axes sharp!
Keeping true to the spirit of the site, the following is not about lumberjacks.
http://www.canoekayak.com/skills/lessons-from-the-trail-chop-firewood/#chQQISUG9glidIyl.97
Seriously — were this about lumberjacks, travel down river would be on a log flow and not in a canoe.
There is no beard matted with maple syrup, and no red flannel to be seen.
Just good axe skills for your next camping adventure…
On June 7, I gave a talk to the Podcast Dallas Meetup group about podcasting fiction. I shoot for a talk a year at the group because I’m happy we have a local podcast community that can sustain monthly meetups. But I also like the group because, at times, podcasting can feel like you’re standing on the side of the road with your thumb out, hoping to get someone’s attention.
One of the points I made in Tuesday’s talk was the importance to ask yourself what you’ll do if nobody shows up…if you launch a show and only 10 people listen? I mentioned this because it’s always a possibility, but also because I think it’s a good way to be sure you’re doing the show that’s most important to you. If you’ll do it no matter what, that’s the show you should be doing!
I’ve never hitchhiked, but I’ve picked up my fair share of hitchhikers (including a guy who was convinced he was The Nanotech Christ — who wanted me to drive him up near the Red River for his “final battle”). While I’ve not picked up a hitchhiker since meeting my wife in 1992, I’m glad I got to meet interesting people on the road.
In much the same way, I’m glad I made the decision to release my first show 6 years ago because I’ve met some great people along the way. One of those people is Rick Coste.
Rick is one of the main reasons I started Not About Lumberjacks. I loved the quality of his old show, Evolution Talk, and vowed to focus on a show with solid production values. In turn, Not About Lumberjacks hit Rick in such a way that he put Evolution Talk aside and started The Behemoth. He enjoyed that so much that he has a new show called Scotch coming in July. (And he’s already working on another audio mini series that he’ll launch in November!)
During my talk to the Podcast Dallas group, shortly after the slide about what you would do if nobody really showed up, I shared this slide:
That’s Rick’s show, The Behemoth, highlighted right next to some of the biggest shows out there. (Not just in the audio fiction category — but all podcasts.) I’m happy it was highlighted because I’m happy to see a friend get attention for their efforts, but also because it made the point I mentioned in my talk: What will you do if no one shows up?
Rick and I chat frequently in email — and when he planned to set Evolution Talk aside, he asked me what I thought. I told him that I’d miss Evolution Talk, but that it seemed like he really wanted to tell stories. I mentioned that if I had a Patreon following that was paying for an existing show like his that it would be hard for me to stop that for something new. I even ran the, “What would you do if nobody showed up…” question by him.
Rick’s answer:
I’ll do the 20 episodes that make up The Behemoth no matter what…
That matters so much.
Putting together a fiction show is definitely a challenge. It can be time consuming (I think I put 30 hours into this episode). Once you start, you need to finish (you can’t stop an ongoing story like you can a weekly show about random things). And you do all this knowing that no one may show up and listen.
It’s not the logical choice of show to produce.
But you do it because it’s worth it.
If you’re lucky, you meet some great people along the way. As you’ve seen, it’s also possible to slowly build toward getting some attention.
But even if none of those things happen, you’ve still made a complete thing.
I can think of worse things in life than that.
It’s a noble thought, a person coming up with something completely on their own with no outside forces influencing them.
Talk to the greatest creators and they will have a list of people who inspired them.
Even when we find our own way and develop a voice that even inspires others, somewhere deep down are things that came before us. So I thought I’d share the inspirations behind Not About Lumberjacks.
My friend Larry was the first person I know who listened to fiction podcasts. While visiting him, once, he said, “I know science fiction isn’t your thing, but I think you’ll like what Escape Pod is doing with storytelling.”
He was correct.
It was 2005, and one of my favorite things ever recorded had recently come out. But is was so much more than a mashup of Lovecraft and It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown — it was something new to me.
Sure, I’d heard of podcasts, even though they were still in their infancy in 2005. And I’d even listened to books on tape. But the thought of someone recording short fiction and putting it online — and even better: having people show up?
That’s inspiring stuff that was not lost on me.
During that visit, Larry also played some Scott Sigler stuff for me. That was the big thing he wanted to show me: a novelist who had tried going the traditional route, not had the best of luck, and decided that he may as well record his own stuff and release it for free.
An entire novel…for free. Crazy talk?
At the time, and even today, it’s a concept that would make many writers cringe. But there was an appeal to me: if one finds themselves in a situation where they are willing to release their work into the wild, why let another person or group do it for you? Why not do it on your own?
Today Scott Sigler is doing better than most writers. And it all started recording his novels himself and putting them out there for people to listen to.
It might seem strange citing one’s own work as an influence, but I make no secret that I’m a dyslexic who grew up terribly embarrassed to read things out loud. When I decided to record my first novel, it was harder than public speaking and performing. Some lines were read a dozen times to get through without stumbling, which is still something that happens to this day.
But I did it.
And people showed up. (In fact, I don’t promote Hell Comes with Wood Paneled Doors — and haven’t since 2011 when I finished it — but it still gets about 3,000 downloads a month.)
Hell Comes with Wood Paneled Doors proved to me that I could do it. I still occasionally hear from people who thank me for reminding them how much they love their own dysfunctional families, or that listening to the story was a welcome break on their morning commute.
That’s never lost on me…
Sherman Alexie and Jess Walter’s Tiny Sense of Accomplishment is the podcast that makes me drop what I’m doing and listen when I see it’s been downloaded to my phone.
Two good friends — both accomplished writers — chatting a little bit about whatever they want, answering questions about writing, interviewing creative people, and reading their works in progress. It’s their readings that inspired Not About Lumberjacks the most.
There is a rawness when they read their works in progress. I prefer reading fiction than listening to it, which is perhaps a strange confession for someone creating audible stories. But I would have no problem listening to Alexie and Walter read even half-finished stories all day.
In a handful of days, I’m releasing the second episode of Not About Lumberjacks. I look forward to it because it’s a bit different than the fiction I normally write.
Getting On with James Urbaniak is to blame for that.
James Urbaniak’s podcast is a shared fever dream delivered in first person. A mash-up of his friends’ writing and his voice acting, the result is always a bit strange, often funny, and sometimes even heart-wrenching.
It’s Urbaniak’s show that made me consider taking some old essays and smattering them with fiction. I rarely pull from my own life in the fiction I write, so it allowed me the chance to do something new.
I’m so pleased with the first result that it’s hard not to post the episode early.
I have another podcast, a weekly show I do with a friend. We’re approaching 150 episodes, so obviously it’s something I enjoy doing.
My first podcast was a fiction-based thing. (The best place to listen to that is the Podiobooks version). A friend had been telling me for years: “You should release your first novel as a podcast.” Five years after he started encouraging me, I finally did it.
I’m fortunate to live in the Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex, where we have a rather large podcasting community. We have a monthly meetup that’s always great, and 3/4 of the founders of Podcast Movement live in the area. (Podcast Movement is the world’s largest conference devoted solely to podcasting.) While the conference is moving to Chicago in 2016, the first two years have been in the area. In August, I attended Podcast Movement 2015.
Before attending the conference, I knew I was ready to do a solo show — but I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. I had ideas, of course, but nothing solid. During Roman Mars’s keynote talk (Roman Mars is the main brain behind 99% Invisible), he said he would love to see a show like his…but focused on video games. For a little while that weekend, I thought, “Okay, what about a podcast like 99% Invisible [a show that looks at architecture and design and the subtleties behind their creations] but about books?” The more I thought about it, though, the more I thought, “I’d love that show, but it would take too much time from writing books and the other things I do.”
Then I bumped into somebody who was familiar with my first podcast. They asked me if I’d recorded any other books. I told them I planned to record a novella I wrote at some point, but that I hadn’t recorded any other fiction. When I walked away from the chat, all I could think about was podcasting more fiction.
Two of my favorite podcasts are Getting on With James Urbaniak and A Tiny Sense of Accomplishment. Urbaniak’s show consists of first-person audio dramas written by cool people (and performed by Urbaniak), and A Tiny Sense of Accomplishment is a show featuring Sherman Alexie and Jess Walter talking about writing. One of my favorite things about A Tiny Sense of Accomplishment is when Alexie and Walter read works in progress (that takes guts).
Thinking about these two shows and the urge to record more fiction, I knew by the end of the weekend at Podcast Movement that my solo show would be me reading short stories I’d write.
There are a number of short fiction podcasts out there, most of which are written by various people. There are also quite a few ongoing podcasts written and performed by those writing the stories. But there aren’t many shows with short fiction all written by the same person. I had my idea — now all I needed was a title.
I’d like to say there’s a reason behind the name, but there’s really not. I can’t remember a particular thing I saw, heard, or read that made me think, “lumberjack.” I just thought it would be funny to have a show with the title and run with a lumberjack aesthetic — all while saying, “It’s not about lumberjacks.”
But Christopher, you have mock endorsements from lumberjacks on the website. You have a whole hipster, lumberjack look. This is at least a little bit about lumberjacks.
No it isn’t.
(I never claimed to have a refined sense of humor; in fact, this was my favorite news headline from last week!)
So now you know almost all I know about Not About Lumberjacks.
I already want to release episode two (it will take patience to keep to a monthly schedule). I have an idea for a five-minute show in between episodes that discusses the stories behind the stories. Mostly, though, I’m just happy to return to short stories.
In recent years, all fiction I’ve written has been novel-length work. I’ve missed short stories; this is a great chance to get back to one of my favorite things in the world.
Thanks for coming along.
This is mostly a test as I begin building the page. But it is not without a point.
Lumberjacks cut things down.
Writers build things up.
I am a writer, not a lumberjack.
And I look forward to the day when this site becomes a forest of stories so large that people can get lost in the tales I tell.