Be mighty, and keep your axes sharp!
Something a little different this time…
Because “The Hidebehind” was the first episode of Not About Lumberjacks with a male narrator other than me, I chat with Defender Radio’s Michael Howie about what it was like to work together on the story’s production.
It’s a glorious tale of friendship, creativity…and majestic beards!
(Also, you should totally follow Michael on Twitter and Instagram.)
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It’s been a bit quiet out here in the forest. The change in schedule has meant I’ve not been updating monthly…or even every other month. But deep in the timber, things are moving.
While I have stories I can fall back on at any time, I have a small pile of new stories in progress. (I even have an audio drama idea knocking around in my head.) Progress on this draft of the novel is showing some light at the far end of things. I’m typically most productive in the fall and winter, but it feels like the log jam is about to break open this summer.
I’ve always been a confident writer, but Not about Lumberjacks has made me a sharper writer. I miss regular updates.
Despite the Texas heat preparing for battle, I look forward to the coming months.
A real book inspired “The Art of the Lumberjack.” That book? The Sport of Falconry.
According to the inscription, the book was given to me by my father on January 11, 1975.
This four-and-a-half minute episode is about how a book I’ve had for 41 years led to one of the best short stories I’ve ever written…
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A year ago, I posted the first Not about Lumberjacks story. In honor of the show’s anniversary, I keep with tradition and refuse to even mention those foul-mouthed tree droppers!
When Erik Nilsson has a minor heart attack and is told to take some forced time off of work to recuperate, he finally reads a book left to him by his father much earlier in life. What he finds hidden among the pages changes him forever…
Content Advisory: Mention of suicide by shotgun. Overbearing parent (mother). Protagonist dealing with a medical issue (a minor heart attack).
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Credits:
Music: Ergo Phizmiz and Broke for Free
Story and Narration: Christopher Gronlund
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One year ago today, I posted “Gutterball” on this site.
This weekend, I will post the 14th short story, here — a new story entitled “The Art of the Lumberjack.”
I planned to write only a couple new stories in the first year of Not about Lumberjacks, but I ended up writing more. The list:
One can argue that “Pride of the Red Card” was also new — it’s a mostly fictional monologue based on a couple essays.
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I started Not about Lumberjacks because I’d drifted away from short fiction. Last year, I wrote more short fiction than planned because I left myself no other option.
I knew by starting this show that I’d have to do the work. So…
Thank you to everyone who’s listened to or shared the show with others. It’s not uncommon to put 20-40 hours into an episode, so it means so much to me that people enjoy what I’m doing.
Here’s to another year!
As far as I can remember, “Shadow Dancers” was the first story I wrote around the time I was 20 and decided to make writing a serious pursuit.
I talk about those early days of writing and how this is one of the few stories my father read before he died. He wasn’t keen on the idea of my giving up studying biology to write, but this story changed his mind.
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On June 7, 2016, I gave a talk to the Podcast Dallas Meetup about podcasting fiction.
If you come here for the stories and this doesn’t sound like your kind of thing, I understand. But if you’ve wondered what all goes into creating an episode of Not About Lumberjacks, this is a little peek behind the curtain.
I’m making the talk available as an audio file for those on the go, but if you’d like to hear the talk while also looking at the accompanying slides, here it is:
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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.