Podcast appearances and mentions of George Guidall

Today I stumbled in to Blood Music, a very interesting sci fi novel written by Greg Bear and narrated by George Guidall. This book sunk its scientific fangs into me quick, and kept me hooked through most of it. It is a bizaar take on hard science fiction that delves into the quantum realm, with quite a bit of body horror. Is this now the most interesting hard sci fi book I have listened to? Stay tuned to find out! Support us: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/kotplpod Join us: https://www.facebook.com/KnightOfThePagelessLibrary/ Critisize us: kotpl.pod@gmail.comMusic: The Descent OST

The Tarks were attacking, the bosomy princess was clinging to him in terror, and Harold Smith realized he was at the end of his plot-line. What a dilemma! And what an opportunity!! The Blonde From Barsoom by Robert F. Young, that's next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast, with at least one lost vintage sci-fi short story in every episode.Special thanks to Josh Jennings who bought us $25 worth of coffee! Josh had this to say, “Your podcast has - in the course of the week or so since I discovered it completely at random - become one of my favorites. As a sci-fi fan (and writer), and a literary audiophile, I'm getting all the itches scratched at once! Your narration is a downright pleasure - your voice has hints of the great George Guidall and that god among audiobook readers, the late Frank Muller, and yet is its own sublime signature unto itself. Thank you for doing what you do, and I hope you continue for many years to come. And now, enough from me…back to the podcast.”Josh we are so thankful for you, the coffee and the comment! To even be mentioned in the same sentence with two of the greatest audiobook narrators of all time, George Guidall and Frank Muller is as great a compliment as a narrator could ever hope to receive. I am truly honored by your kindness and will work hard to live up to such high praise. Thank you Josh.Buy Me A Coffee https://www.buymeacoffee.com/scottsVWe appreciate all those who have supported us by buying us a cup of coffee. Another way you can support our podcast is by buying merch from our store which has all new designs and products vastly superior to what was in the store previously. Check out the new designs and if there's a design that you'd like to see let us know and we'll see what we can do. We'd like to ask you for a favor, go to the store and pick out your favorite item, then post that item on your favorite social media site, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, whatever works for you. The thought of thousands of our listeners posting all over the internet, that would be amazing and thanks in advance for all of you who do it. Visit the store by clicking on the link in the description and please let us know what you think, scott@lostscifi.com.Merch - https://lostscifi.creator-spring.com/This is the first story we've ever narrated by Robert F. Young. Young was born in June 1915 in tiny Silver Creek New York on the shore of Lake Erie. The population of this tiny little town when he was born was about the same as it is today, 2,600. The little-known author wrote for more than 30 years and he wrote until he died in 1986. He penned almost 200 short stories and is perhaps best known for the story, “The Dandelion Girl”. We narrated this story because it's different, as you are about to find out, and because we are always looking for authors that we haven't featured previously.Our story can be found in the July 1962 issue of Amazing Stories magazine, open your copy to page 62 for, The Blonde From Barsoom by Robert F. Young…Next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast, A short story of a grisly ride through a blizzard with a corpse! The Last Drive by Carl Jacobi.https://www.facebook.com/TheLostSciFiPodcasthttps://twitter.com/lost_sci_fihttps://lostscifi.creator-spring.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

George Guidall once again enchants listeners with his performance in this 19th audiobook in Craig Johnson's Longmire series. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile's Robin Whitten discuss this new title that dives back into a 70-year-old crime involving Longmire's grandfather. Guidall's rich, weathered tones continue to be the perfect match for the series characters. Listeners learn more about Longmire's family history, Wyoming's government and financial structures, rules of law in the Wild West, and Longmire's current love life. In this captivating audiobook, Johnson's atmospheric storytelling and Guidall's masterful delivery engage from start to finish. Read the full review of the audiobook on AudioFile's website. Published by Recorded Books. Find more audiobook recommendations at audiofilemagazine.com Support for AudioFile's Behind the Mic comes from Dreamscape Publishing. Dreamscape is an award-winning independent publisher and multimedia studio that is committed to producing a diverse catalog of high-quality audiobooks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The meat of this episode is our Know your Narrator chat with Sara Hillis, she features long time, legendary narrator, George Guidall. And we touch base on taboos in Literature including 50 Shades of Grey and Love Times Three. Plus, we talk to Bill Shackleton about the bookmobile.

Chris and Mike discuss the HUGE news from Simon & Schuster that George Guidall will not be narrating the audiobook of Code Red and instead it will be read by Steven Weber. Here's our take. Please subscribe, rate & review using ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or your favorite podcasting platform. You can find us online at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ThrillerPod.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@ThrillerPodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. This episode is made possible thanks to our fantastic Patrons! For less than the price of a novel a month, you can help us keep the show going and get access to exclusive content and signed book giveaways! Become a Patron today at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Patreon.com/ThrillerPod

Golden Voice narrator George Guidall compellingly narrates Craig Johnson's latest Longmire mystery. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile's Robin Whitten discuss this long-running series, which Guidall has voiced from the very beginning. Walt Longmire awakens in the street in the middle of a blizzard, remembering nothing of his past. Now he has to piece together who he is, and why he's in Fort Pratt, Montana, site of an infamous Native residential school that had devastating impacts. Guidall's grizzled voice fully embodies Longmire's struggle to make sense of his situation. Read the full review of the audiobook on AudioFile's website. Published by Recorded Books. Find more audiobook recommendations at audiofilemagazine.com Listen to AudioFile's fifth season of Audiobook Break, featuring Bram Stoker's DRACULA, read by Gildart Jackson. Support for AudioFile's Behind the Mic comes from PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE AUDIO, dedicated to producing top-quality fiction and nonfiction audiobooks written and read by the best in the business. Visit penguinrandomhouseaudio.com/audiofile now to start listening. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chris & Mike (plus Sherri!) pull back the curtain and chat with George Guidall - the voice of Mitch Rapp! Please subscribe, rate & review to all seasons of No Limits using Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcasting platform. You can find us online at ThrillerPod.com and on Twitter or Instagram @thrillerpodcast. This episode is made possible thanks to our fantastic Patrons! For less than the price of a novel a month, you can help us keep the show going and get access to exclusive content and signed book giveaways! Become a Patron today at Patreon.com/ThrillerPod. Disclaimer: This podcast is not affiliated with Brad Thor or Simon & Schuster. The music soundtrack is Honor Bound by Bryan Teoh. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Avuncular, husky-voiced George Guidall as the 5-year-old protagonist of Stephen Harrigan's audiobook seems an unusual choice—until you hear his engaging performance. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile contributor Sandi Henschel discuss this story inspired by a true event, where a leopard escaped the Oklahoma Zoo in 1953. The 70-year-old Grady McClarty relates the story from the point of view of his 5-year-old self, and Guidall's sensitive performance makes for a memorable audiobook. Read the full review of the audiobook on AudioFile's website. Published by Random House Audio. Find more audiobook recommendations at audiofilemagazine.com Our Audiobook Break podcast is in its 3rd season, and this time listeners are journeying to Pemberley with narrator Alison Larkin as our guide. Enjoy Jane Austen's PRIDE AND PREJUDICE with new chapters each week, free on the Audiobook Break podcast. This episode of Behind the Mic is sponsored by the audiobook editions of Sherryl Woods's Sweet Magnolias series. With the new season available to watch now on Netflix, now is the time to listen to the entire Sweet Magnolias audiobook series, all brought to you by Dreamscape Media. For more information about Sweet Magnolias, please visit www.Dreamscapepublishing.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In This Episode: When it comes to real estate investing, how many times have you heard or thought “it's not the right time” or “prices are too high right now” or “there are just no good deals out there”? According to this week's guest, the problem isn't that there are no deals out there, but rather when you are used to finding them in a certain way and they disappear, and you don't have other skill sets or ways to branch out and find them differently, it will appear that there are no deals. You need to change your approach. Jim is joined this week by real estate investor Chad Clark. Chad worked in corporate America until he realized that doing the same thing as everyone else would get the same results. He knew he didn't want that outcome for his family; he wanted more. As a father of 10 children, he knew that a family more than twice the size of the average American family needed twice the income. So he got to work. He transitioned into the real estate industry with his oldest son and has since grown his team to 16 people, branched out into other areas within the industry, and is making continuous growth and expansion in his business. He is on the show this week to share how he and his team have maximized opportunities and increased revenue. If you are looking to break away from the herd and start becoming more involved in real estate over the next 12-24 months, you won't want to miss this episode. Chad is sharing what the real estate market actually looks like right now, as well as some of the exciting opportunities he has seen in the industry that you might be able to get behind. Hear how even in the real estate space he's setting himself apart from the herd, and his advice to help you innovate, earn, and grow in this lucrative industry.   Book Mentioned in This Episode: The Go-Giver by Bob Burg:  https://thegogiver.com/   Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It by Chris Voss and Tahl Raz: https://www.amazon.com/Never-Split-Difference-Negotiating-Depended/dp/1847941494   Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae by Steven Pressfield (Author), Audiobook narrated by George Guidall - https://www.audible.com/pd/Gates-of-Fire-Audiobook/B0078TAKKG   Follow along with this episode on YouTube   Connect with Jim Oliver: Join our Community:  https://community.createtailwind.com Facebook: CreateTailwind & Jim Oliver Website: CreateTailwind.com YouTube: createtailwind.com LinkedIn: Jim Oliver

Narrator George Guidall performs Book 17 in the Sheriff Walt Longmire series with all of his masterful storytelling talent on display. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile's Robin Whitten discuss how George's familiarity with all of the characters helps listeners feel like they know them, too. The sheriff and his partner-in-justice, Henry Standing Bear, are requested by Tribal Police Chief Lola Long to investigate death threats sent to her niece, a talented basketball player. They also are called upon to look into past disappearances, and the story draws attention to the true tragedies of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. A standout in the series for story and performance. Read the full review of the audiobook on AudioFile's website. Published by Recorded Books. Find more audiobook recommendations at audiofilemagazine.com Support for Behind the Mic comes from Naxos AudioBooks. Today we celebrate the birth of H.G. Wells and encourage you to discover, or re-discover, these science fiction classics through the talents of narrators Roger May, Daniel Philpott, and Jonathan Keeble, keeping Wells' imagined future alive for a new generation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Narrator Edoardo Ballerini steps into big shoes to narrate Daniel Silva's Gabriel Allon series. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile's Robin Whitten talk about Ballerini's takeover from the previous series narrator, George Guidall, and how Ballerini has found his own voices for the many characters. In the midst of the pandemic, Allon takes on the evil Russian empire, which is undermining democracy while blatantly robbing its own people. It's a compelling spy story performed by a talented narrator, making for a totally engaging listening experience. Read the full review of the audiobook on AudioFile's website. Published by Harper Audio. Find more audiobook recommendations at audiofilemagazine.com Today's episode is sponsored by Graphic Audio, A Movie in Your Mind featuring dramatized adaptations of Comics like ARCHIE, DARK HORSE, VAULT, DYNAMITE and more. Save 55% Off your first order with coupon 55LISTEN only at GraphicAudio.net Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Hidden Palace, written by Helene Wecker and narrated by George Guidall is the much anticipated sequel to The Golem and the Jinni. The Hidden Palace [Libro.fm] / [Audible] / [Overdrive/Libby]   The Golem and the Jinni [Libro.fm] / [Audible] / [Overdrive/Libby] / [Episode 14]   Our Favorite Audiobooks of 2020Episode 85

AudioFile is excited to announce three new Golden Voice narrators for 2021 — Cassandra Campbell, Michael Crouch, and Soneela Nankani. AudioFile’s Robin Whitten tells host Jo Reed about this lifetime achievement award that goes to the stars of the narrating universe. AudioFile has bestowed the Golden Voice prize on just 34 voice artists, including George Guidall, Bahni Turpin, Simon Vance, Edoardo Ballerini, Julia Whelan, and Scott Brick. The award celebrates an artist’s iconic role in the field of narration and honors those who have made significant contributions to the audiobook art form. Robin and Jo each share thoughts and clips from two Golden Voice narrators who helped them discover the joy of listening to audiobooks decades ago -- narrators Simon Prebble and Barbara Caruso. Find the complete list of AudioFile’s Golden Voice narrators on our website. Support for our podcast comes from Oasis Audio, publisher of Heavenly Mortal a suspenseful story of the battle between light and darkness by Jack Cavanaugh Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Who was Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky? Why did he have such an important influence in world literature? How is his work still revered and interpreted today? Why is Russian literature of the 19th century still on many best-seller lists?Katherine Bowers is an expert in Russian literature and culture. Her research interests include genre, narrative, and imagined geography. Her first monograph, Writing Fear: Russian Realism and the Gothic (University of Toronto Press, forthcoming), examines the way Russian realist writers used narrative models from European gothic fiction in their work. Dr Bowers is the Vice-President of the North American Dostoevsky Society and serves as a Member-at-Large on the Executive Board of the Canadian Association of Slavists.Dr Bowers's monograph about the influence of gothic writing on Russian realism is in press. Her new book project is about science fiction, Arctic space, and alternative temporalities.Dr Bowers is actively involved in Dostoevsky studies. She edits the blog of the North American Dostoevsky Society, The Bloggers Karamazov. In 2021 a new volume she co-edited with Kate Holland will be published: Dostoevsky at 200: The Novel in Modernity. Additionally Drs Holland and Bowers have received a SSHRC Insight Grant (2019-25) Digital Dostoevsky, a digital humanities research project investigating Dostoevsky's corpus.Websites: https://cenes.ubc.ca/profile/katherine-bowers/http://blogs.ubc.ca/cp150/Audio Played: “Crime and Punishment at 150? – interview with Katherine Bowers on University of British Columbia Faculty of Arts Spotlight page, 19 Oct 2016""Irvin Weil, a professor emeritus from a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Slavic Languages""Anne Hruska, lecture at University of Berkeley""Reading from Crime and Punishment, by George Guidall, Audiobook Classics on Youtube""Joseph Frank, American literary scholar and leading expert on Dostoevsky from Stanford University archives"

A captivating collection of fiction from one of the world's most beloved writers, introduced with a foreword by Booker Prize-winning author, Marlon James. With a writer as prolific as Neil Gaiman, where do you begin? Or how do you know what to try next? Spanning his career to date, this collection of ambitious, groundbreaking and endlessly imaginative fiction will be your guide. Curated within this book are nearly fifty of Gaiman's short stories and novellas, interposed with excerpts from his five novels for adults - Neverwhere, Stardust, American Gods, Anansi Boys and The Ocean at the End of the Lane. It is both an entryway to his oeuvre and a literary trove Gaiman fans old and new will return to time and again. Start where it suits you. There aren't any rules. NEIL GAIMAN. WITH STORIES COME POSSIBILITIES.

Chris and I share our final updates on the #RoadtoTotalPower by previewing the upcoming virtual book tour, sharing our reflections on the free 1-hour teaser of George Guidall's audiobook, and finally, we dig into real-world research regarding the vulnerability of America's power grid. Please subscribe, rate & review using Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcasting platform. You can find us online at MitchRappPod.com and on twitter @mitchrapppod. And as always, “Just let Mitch be Mitch.” This episode is made possible and kept ad-free thanks to our fantastic Patrons! For less than the price of a novel a month, you can help us keep the show going and get access to exclusive content and signed book giveaways! Become a Patron today at Patreon.com/MitchRappPod. Disclaimer: This podcast is not affiliated with Vince Flynn, Kyle Mills, or Simon & Schuster. The music soundtrack is Guerilla Tactics by Rafael Krux.

George Guidall is one of AudioFile’s original Golden Voice narrators, and he was honored with the accolade two decades ago. He continues to prove his talents with more than 100 AudioFile Earphones Award-winning audiobook performances ranging from science fiction to histories to spy thrillers. George is excellent at pacing his narrations, getting every emphasis of the author’s intent just right in dialogue, internal monologue, and descriptive text. He was honored with the Audio Publishers Association Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015. On today’s episode, host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Robin Whitten discuss George Guidall’s narration of THE PALADIN, David Ignatius’s new thriller. George gives a flawless performance, elevating the finely tuned novel into one that grips the listener. Former CIA officer Michael Dunne becomes the agency’s scapegoat when a project goes wrong, and he is out for personal vindication. Published by Recorded Books. Find more audiobook recommendations at audiofilemagazine.com Support for Behind the Mic comes from Oasis Audio, publisher of the complete Edgar Rice Burroughs Authorized Library and the all-new Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For our weekend grab bag we're joined by special guest Sunny Merry, co-host of the The Mocktale Hour, a new podcast "for the sober-curious and the alcohol-free." Before talking to Sunny, Antoinette follows up on her social distancing bonus episode with news of changes to the rules for visiting certain Austin parks, and she and Lucas discuss Lucas' message to his fellow white people from yesterday. Next, Sunny Merry joins OTW to talk about her new podcast, The Mocktale Hour. Sunny helps us explore sobriety in this age of quarantine, the challenges facing those in alcohol recovery, and we hear about how she's been spending her shelter-at-home time (hosting a socially distant yard sale is involved!) You can find The Mocktale Hour on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and Spotify, and be sure to say hi on Instagram and Facebook, too!Looking for more on alcohol and COVID? Check out "The Dangerous Rise of Drinking Culture in Quarantine" by Penny Guisinger in The Temper, and "Are You Drinking Too Much in Quarantine?" by Korin Miller in Prevention.We close out every Friday by sharing what we're listening to, reading, and watching to stay grounded during this unsettling time: * Antoinette's been cooking of late, and recommends trying out this Chocolate Crazy Cake and the vegan recipes over at Thug Kitchen. * Sunny and her fam have been watching Upload on Amazon, a satire that is even keeping her teenagers engaged. * Meanwhile, Lucas, who continues to have trouble sitting down to read during quarantine, is giving audiobooks another go. His first listen? Stephen Harrigan's history of Texas, "Big Wonderful Thing," narrated by George Guidall.Finally, if you've been finding OH THIS WORLD useful and would like to help us keep going, consider supporting us on Patreon. Neither of us is looking to make money off this enterprise, but we are trying to get to a point where the podcast pays for itself. Thanks for your support! As always, let us know what you're up to this weekend. We're on Twitter & IG @OhThisWorldPod or drop us a line at ohthisworldpod@gmail.com.Stay safe and healthy this weekend!This episode was recorded on Friday, May 8, 2020.

Narrator George Guidall bestows his abundant gifts on this sprawling audiobook about the history of Texas. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile’s Robin Whitten talk about Stephen Harrigan’s audiobook, which covers thousands of years of history and the people—famous, the infamous, and the obscure—who made Texas what it was and what it is today. Guidall’s melodious tone serves the outsized events and unusual folklore of the Lone Star State. By turns travelogue, political treatise, and thoughtful guide to personalities, this audiobook leaves the listener fully satisfied. Published by Recorded Books. Find more audiobook recommendations at audiofilemagazine.com Support for Behind the Mic for AudioFile Magazine comes from Naxos AudioBooks. Naxos AudioBooks says, discover the people and the stories behind classical music new & old with Naxos at classicalmusicpodcasts.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We brought our good friend Robin Whitten from Audiofile Magazine on to run through their (and our) selections for the best audiobooks of 2019. Take a listen! The Best Audiobooks of 2019 Akin by Emma Donoghue, narrated by Jason Culp   Full Throttle by Joe Hill, narrated by Zachary Quinto, Wil Wheaton, Kate Mulgrew, Neil Gaiman, Ashleigh Cummings, Joe Hill, Laysla De Oliveira, Nate Corddry, Connor Jessup, Stephen Lang, and George Guidall.   The British Are Coming by Rick Atkinson, Narrated by George Newbern   The First Conspiracy by Brad Meltzer, Narrated by Scott Brick   Charlotte's Web by E. B. White, Narrated by Meryl Streep   The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman, Narrated by Michael Sheen   Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid   The Aye-Aye and I by Gerald Durrell, narrated by Rupert Degas   A Dream About Lightning Bugs by Ben Folds   Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir   Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey, Narrated by Xe Sands   Run Away by Harlan Coben   The Testaments by Margaret Atwood, Narrated by Ann Dowd   An American Sunrise by Joy Harjo

Though Halloween inspired today’s audiobook pick, these 13 dark and creepy stories will linger much longer than one all hallows eve. Host Jo Reed and AudioFile editor Robin Whitten discuss Joe Hill’s new short story collection—and the star-powered cast of narrators. Published by Harper Audio. Find more audiobook recommendations at audiofilemagazine.com. For more free audiobook recommendations, sign up for AudioFile Magazine’s newsletter. Join New York Times bestselling author Patti Callahan for a seven-part original podcast – Behind the Scenes of Becoming Mrs. Lewis – and explore in depth the improbable and beautiful love story between C.S. Lewis and Joy Davidman. Learn more at www.becomingmrslewispodcast.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We get in the Halloween spirit with horror and sci-fi author Joe Hill, who’s thrilling short story collection FULL THROTTLE is on-sale now! Subscribe to the podcast here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/harp%E2%80%A6nts/id806303320 Joe chats about how his family would record audiobooks for each other, that time his Dad let gross-out make-up legend Tom Savini babysit him on the set of Creepshow, what actually scares him, and more. Plus, Joe plays a gruesome edition of the Self-Awareness Game, and answers a question from the dreaded Harper Audio Grab Bag! Buy FULL THROTTLE with it’s all-star audiobook cast including Zachary Quinto, Wil Wheaton, Kate Mulgrew, Neil Gaiman, Ashleigh Cummings, Joe Hill, Laysla De Oliveira, Nate Corddry, Connor Jessup, Stephen Lang, and George Guidall : https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062956644/full-throttle/

Join host Jo Reed as she talks with one of the greats in the world of audiobooks, George Guidall. Hear what drew him to the world of audiobooks, highlights from his impressive career, and what he's loved about narrating the series that listeners adore. He has won accolades including AudioFile Earphones Awards, Audie Awards, and the APA Special Achievement award. George has narrated more than 1,700 audiobooks over his long career. He has come to appreciate the depth of the narrator-listener connection through talks at local libraries, where he hears from listeners the impact his narration has had on them. For more reviews of audiobooks narrated by George Guidall, visit audiofilemagazine.com. For more free audiobook recommendations, sign up for AudioFile Magazine’s newsletter. Join New York Times bestselling author Patti Callahan for a seven-part original podcast – Behind the Scenes of Becoming Mrs. Lewis – and explore in depth the improbable and beautiful love story between C.S. Lewis and Joy Davidman. Learn more at www.becomingmrslewispodcast.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With so many historical mysteries to choose from, why does Alan Furst’s WWII noir make the AudioFile Favorites list? Host Jo Reed and Robin Whitten talk about the appeal and compare two versions of the audiobook. In Paris in the late 1930s, journalist Carl Weisz takes over an antifascist newspaper and is swept deeper into the international émigré community and the increasing danger of work for the Resistance. This 2007 spy novel has two audiobook versions—unabridged read by celebrated narrator George Guidall and a powerful abridgment, narrated by Alfred Molina. Published by Simon & Schuster (Alfred Molina version) & Recorded Books (narrated by George Guidall) Find more audiobook recommendations at audiofilemagazine.com. For more free audiobook recommendations, sign up for AudioFile Magazine’s newsletter. Support for Behind the Mic with AudioFile Magazine comes from Paperback Classics, a new imprint from Oasis Family Media, bringing the best vintage pulp paperbacks to audio, including the 1960s cult-classic series Dark Shadows. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s as much about the language in Saul Bellow’s 1970 novel as it is about the philosophical, and what better narrator to handle Bellow’s complex characters, ideas, and luscious layering of words than AUDIOFILE Golden Voice George Guidall? Arthur Sammler is a Polish refugee—a Holocaust survivor with only one good eye. But that doesn’t keep him from seeing. Guidall portrays the septuagenarian Sammler as an observer of the human condition. He calls himself a “registrar of madness.” He worries about everything from human optimism to human suffering. He is “sorry for all and sore at heart.” Sammler’s encounter with a pickpocket, his anxiety about his daughter, his other familial concerns—Guidall recounts them all. But it’s Bellow’s language that resonates in his expert performance. Published by Blackstone Audio. Find the full review of MR. SAMMLER'S PLANET at audiofilemagazine.com. For more free audiobook recommendations, sign up for AudioFile Magazine’s newsletter. On today’s episode are host Jo Reed and AudioFile Magazine Founder and Editor Robin Whitten. HarperCollins Leadership feed your inner drive to grow as a leader, with audiobooks that activate the leadership potential inside everyone. Learn more at www.harpercollinsleadership.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

George Guidall is honored as a Golden Voice, AudioFile's lifetime achievement honor for audiobook narrators. George was one of the first narrators to be named a Golden Voice, and his audiobook work has elevated the art form for more than 30 years. George is a consummate storyteller. He astutely understands an author’s approach and delivers the essence of the written work. At the same time, his warm, intimate voice fully engages the listener in international thrillers, literary fiction, or history. Browse his full audiography, and explore his AudioFile profile page. Essential Listens: GABRIEL ALLON series WALT LONGMIRE series THE HOUR I FIRST BELIEVED For more free audiobook recommendations, sign up for AudioFile Magazine’s newsletter. On today’s episode are host Jo Reed and AudioFile Magazine Founder and Editor Robin Whitten. Support for AudioFile’s Sound Reviews comes from Oasis Audio, home to The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers, read by LeVar Burton and nominated for the 2019 Audie Awards Audiobook of the Year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We’re featuring AudioFile Magazine’s list of the Best Mystery & Suspense Audiobooks of 2018. Listen in as we discuss these compelling audiobooks and share clips from KINGDOM OF THE BLIND and THE DEATH OF MRS. WESTAWAY. Many of these Best of 2018 picks have been featured in detail in earlier podcast episodes—dive back into our archive to discover more about them. AudioFile Magazine’s Best Mystery & Suspense Audiobooks of 2018 DARK SACRED NIGHT by Michael Connelly, read by Titus Welliver, Christine Lakin, published by Hachette Audio DAY OF THE DEAD by Nicci French, read by Beth Chalmers, published by Harper Audio KINGDOM OF THE BLIND by Louise Penny, read by Robert Bathurst, published by Macmillan Audio LETHAL WHITE by Robert Galbraith, read by Robert Glenister, published by Hachette Audio THE DEATH OF MRS. WESTAWAY by Ruth Ware, read by Imogen Church, published by Simon & Schuster Audio THE OTHER WOMAN by Daniel Silva, read by George Guidall, published by Harper Audio Explore ALL of the audiobooks in AudioFile’s Best of the Year Ezine with sound clips and narrator videos at https://www.audiofilemagazine.com/bestof/. On today’s episode are Robin Whitten, Founder and Editor, and Michele Cobb, Publisher at AudioFile Magazine. We are giving away audiobooks from Libro.FM, Audiobooks.com, and Downpour on Twitter — visit us there at @audiofilemag and look for the #podcast for your chance to download your picks from our Best Of lists. For more free audiobook recommendations, sign up for AudioFile Magazine’s newsletter. Support for Behind the Mic comes from Grammy Award-winning publisher Hachette Audio, home to works by James Patterson, JK Rowling, Joel Osteen, David Sedaris, David Baldacci, Elin Hilderbrand, Michael Connelly, and many more bestselling audiobooks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Follow Sheriff Walt Longmire across the remote Mexican desert as he pursues the kidnappers of his beloved daughter Cady. Baddest of bad, drug lord Tomas Bodarte unleashes a landslide of challenges for Walt to overcome. Signature quirky characters of Craig Johnson’s long-running series abound, and the smart dialogue entertains throughout. Golden Voice George Guidall delivers each character and harebrained situation with aplomb. If you’ve only seen the “Longmire” streaming series, the Johnson-Guidall audiobook versions will totally engage you. For more free audiobook recommendations, sign up for AudioFile Magazine’s newsletter on our website. On today’s episode are Jo Reed and AudioFile Magazine editor & founder Robin Whitten Support for Behind the Mic comes from Grammy Award-winning publisher Hachette Audio, home to works by James Patterson, JK Rowling, Joel Osteen, David Sedaris, David Baldacci, Elin Hilderbrand, Michael Connelly, and many more bestselling audiobooks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As Three-Time Audie Award Winner for Best Audiobook Narration, George Guidall has completed narrations for over 1600 unabridged titles. His narrations of classics like Crime and Punishment, The Iliad, Don Quixote, and Les Miserables, along with many popular best sellers, have set a standard for excellence recognized throughout the audiobook industry.

This long-running thriller series by Daniel Silva features spymaster Gabriel Allon. And the audiobook features master narrator George Guidall. One of AudioFile’s Golden Voices, he rips through German, Russian, and Israeli names with ease and keeps the tension high. THE OTHER WOMAN does not disappoint. For more free audiobook recommendations, sign up for AudioFile Magazine’s newsletter on our website. Hosted by: Jo Reed and AudioFile Magazine founder and editor Robin Whitten. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Craig Johnson, author of the Walt Longmire Mysteries, previews his upcoming novel, "Depth of Winter;" talks about the real-life inspirations for his characters; the Netflix show "Longmire;" and the audiobooks narrated by award winner George Guidall. From the Western Writers of America Convention.

The Golem and the Jinni is a literary fantasy novel written by Helene Wecker, narrated by George Guidall, and published by HarperAudio. Our discussion is spoiler-free. The Golem and the Jinni Start your free trial at Audible

Guest host Brian Slattery sat down with actor George Guidall to talk about Long Wharf Theatre's upcoming production of The Chosen, a play adapted by Aaron Posner from the novel by Chaim Potok, and the questions it raises about Jewish culture and who gets to define it.

The co-creator and co-writer of the #1 international hit podcast Welcome to Night Vale and New York Times bestselling co-author of the novel of same name, Jeffrey Cranor, dropped by the show to talk about the importance of collaboration, deadlines, and bad writing. In addition to producing and touring with the theater ensemble The New York Neo-Futurists, the playwright and author tours with live shows for the Night Vale Presents production banner, co-created with Joseph Fink. Night Vale Presents now produces four podcasts that regularly sit at the top of the charts — including Within the Wires, also created by the author — and recently published two volumes of episode transcripts that include extras for fans of their original show. Welcome to Night Vale has been described as “NPR meets The Twilight Zone,” a sci-fi broadcast about a small desert community where strange mythologies abound, and all conspiracy theory is potentially real. If you’re a fan of The Writer Files, please click subscribe to automatically see new interviews. If you missed the first half you can find it right here. In Part Two of this file Jeffrey Cranor and I discuss: The power of productive procrastination How ‘making the familiar strange’ produces great writing Why it’s really hard to be good all the time How the battle against expectation can surprise readers The art of great audiobooks as performance Listen to The Writer Files: Writing, Productivity, Creativity, and Neuroscience below ... Download MP3 Subscribe by RSS Subscribe in iTunes The Show Notes Audible is Offering a Free Audiobook Download with a 30-day Trial: Grab Your Free Audiobook Here – audibletrial.com/rainmaker Welcome To Night Vale Welcome To Night Vale on Facebook Night Vale Presents Jeffrey Cranor on Amazon Jeffrey Cranor’s website NY Neo-Futurists Theater Company Jeffrey Cranor on Twitter Kelton Reid on Twitter The Transcript How #1 Hit Podcast Welcome to Night Vale Co-Creator Jeffrey Cranor Writes: Part Two Voiceover: Rainmaker FM Kelton Reid: And welcome back to the Writer Files. I’m still your host, Kelton Reid, here to take you on yet another tour of the habits, habitats, and brains of renowned scribes. In part two of this file, the co-creator and co-writer of the number one international hit podcast, Welcome to Night Vale, and New York Times best selling co-author of the novel of the same name, Jeffrey Cranor, returned to talk to me about the importance of collaboration, deadlines, and bad writing. In addition to producing and touring with the theater ensemble, The New York Neo-Futurists, the playwright and author tours with live shows for the Night Vale Presents production banner, co-created with Joseph Fink. Night Vale Presents now produces four podcasts that sit atop the charts, including Within the Wires, also created by the author. They’ve recently published two volumes of episode transcripts that include extras for fans of their original show. Welcome to Night Vale has been described as NPR meets The Twilight Zone, a sci-fi broadcast about a small desert community where strange mythologies abound and all conspiracy theory is potentially real. In part two of this file, Jeffrey and I discuss the power of productive procrastination, how making the familiar strange produces great writing, why it’s really hard to be good all the time, how the battle against expectation can surprise readers, and the art of great audio books as performance. If you’re a fan of the Writer Files, please click subscribe to automatically see new interviews as soon as they’re published. If you missed the first half of this show, you can find it in the archives on iTunes, on WriterFiles.FM, and in the show notes . This episode of The Writer Files is brought to you by Audible. I’ll have more on their special offer later in the show, but if you love audiobooks or you’ve always wanted to give them a try, you can check out over 180,000 titles right now at Audibletrial.com/Rainmaker. The Power of Productive Procrastination Kelton Reid: That’s cool, I like that. Do you lean into procrastination or do you kind of have some tricks for beating it? Jeffrey Cranor: Oh, I definitely lean into procrastination. I’m really bad at procrastination. I think the number one thing that helps me with procrastination is allowing myself to put something off, as long as I am doing something else productive in its stead. I think that if I find myself, I don’t know, spending too long, just like, “Oh, you know what? I’m just going to hang out and play a game while listening to a podcast,” or something, like really unproductive things. Not that those are bad for you, but over too much time, they do become unproductive because they’re taking away from writing time or actual work. But I think there’s always some business to be done as a writer. For Joseph and me doing Night Vale Presents, there’s a lot. It’s a business, right? So we do have to respond to emails, and do make decisions, and go back and forth. A lot of times I’ll take some time away from writing to just get myself in front of a computer, do those little things. Return some emails, check everything, play the game of, Can I get to inbox zero? Stuff like that. Those are good procrastination things, because they’re in front of the computer, which is where you should be writing. They’re still kind of writing, even if they’re not finishing the novel or the new episode, but just kind of get your body into the framework of what you should be doing. Those are the main things. Because sometimes, I don’t know. Sometimes you just look at your computer from 20 feet away and you’re like, “I don’t want to go near that thing. I just am not feeling it. I don’t want to do that.” Kelton Reid: Yeah, and your brain likes those little victories, doesn’t it? I think Austin Kleon, and I’m sure lots of other people, call it productive procrastination, where you’re just switching modes so your brain can focus on something else in the background, do that incubation stuff that it likes so much. Cool, man. I’d love to pick your brain a little bit about creativity if you’ve got some more time. Jeffrey Cranor: Sure. How Making the Familiar Strange Produces Great Writing Kelton Reid: How do you define creativity in your own words? Jeffrey Cranor: I think it’s just, for me, it’s about original expression. Creativity is, I guess, a combination of finding your own voice within the confines of everything else that helped to shape it. So I think, for me, creativity is walking that balance of creating an original thing, something that is all yours, but using all of the tools and all of the components and tropes and devices that have come before. It is kind of like recycling, in some ways. You’re taking old soda bottles and melting them down and repacking them as something else. I think you can’t be truly creative without having consumed a lot of other art in the past. You have to have a lot of that experience and know how to make a certain thing. But there’s always a part of you that is truly unique and original. Everybody grows up differently. We may have a lot of similar experiences, but everybody has their own unique take on the world. Creativity, to me, is taking your standard mystery novel or your standard sitcom, or whatever your real, like set structure, and then adding your own unique viewpoint inside of that whenever you write that yourself. I think, to me, it’s building out structures that are familiar, and then finding a new way to present them that the people haven’t done before. Kelton Reid: Yeah, yeah. You definitely do that with Welcome to Night Vale, and I’ve heard it described as NPR meets The Twilight Zone. It definitely has that. Has anyone ever used the adjective phantasmagoric? Jeffrey Cranor: I don’t know. Kelton Reid: Okay, good. Jeffrey Cranor: Yeah, that’s good. Kelton Reid: I want to be the first. Jeffrey Cranor: Do it. Kelton Reid: I don’t know why it came to mind, but it’s got those elements of the Theater of the Absurd meets kind of like X-Files, and then procedural, and then beautiful, small-town NPR stuff, which is all just an amazing remix of stuff we know, but it’s so different. It’s truly brilliant. Sorry to digress there back to that. When do you think you feel the most creative? Jeffrey Cranor: That’s a really good question. I feel the most creative … The cheeky way of saying that, I think, is after I’ve created something really good, then I look back and say, “Oh, I was in a really creative mood! I was really, really feeling it then.” It’s a little bit true that a lot of times I don’t know how creative I feel until later, after I’ve made a thing. Then I can look back on it and sort of feel that. Because some days, I don’t know. Some days I feel like I just created lackluster garbage. That’s harsh, that’s not what I meant to say. Some days I feel like I created something that just isn’t as special as other days. Then, when I go back and look at it later, I’m like, “Oh, this is fine. This is good. This is completely usable. I like this.” And feel like, “Oh, I was feeling very creative.” Some days you feel like, “Man, I’m really killing this!” And you go look at it later and you’re like, “Wow, this is completely overwrought. Super overwritten.” It is a little tough. I think usually the feeling itself of feeling creative usually happens about half an hour to an hour into working on something. It usually, if I feel myself on a roll … A couple days ago I really cranked through like 6,000 words, and I did it over a course of a long stretch of an afternoon. I just felt, “Man, I’m really, really working through this. This is flowing really, really well. Man, I just had a really good joke to insert into this paragraph,” and, “Oh, this really feels good.” A lot of it is just getting into a rhythm, and if I can get myself into the rhythm, I’m feeling very creative. Now, whether or not that stuff is any good I’ll know a few days later when I go look at it again. Kelton Reid: I think sci-fi author Andy Weir had a very similar thought on it, and it was just that he looks back on these … He just makes sure that he writes it. He doesn’t always feel awesome when he’s writing it, but looking back, it didn’t matter. That those things were equally as important to the process. That’s cool. Do you have a creative muse at the moment? Jeffrey Cranor: I don’t. Oh, no. I really don’t. I try to put myself in an environment that feels ergonomic and positive, like a good energy. I just finished setting up an office space. We have a guest bedroom that’s pretty large and it faces out towards the trees and the hills out here in Hudson Valley, New York, so I have a really nice view of the mountains from where I sit, which is really great. It provides a nice thing of every now and then you just look up and you’re like, “Oh, look, there’s a blue jay! That’s really great. I think for me, my muse is mostly just having a positive environment. It’s very hard for me to write when I am traveling. We tour a lot for Welcome to Night Vale. In tour times, Joseph and I have gotten to the point now where, we have written things on tour, but on tour we’ve learned to not pretend like we’re going to get anything done when we’re traveling. Because when you’re on an airplane, airplanes are inherently uncomfortable and stressful. It’s hard to sit and write in that little tiny cramped seat where somebody leans back into your lap. Hotel rooms, equally so. Especially when what you’re doing is touring, so you arrive at a hotel at three in the afternoon. You have an hour and a half before you then have to go the theater and do soundcheck. Then you’re backstage at a theater, and while you’re not on stage the whole time, you’re just around a bunch of people and eventually you’re going to have to pack everything up, Maybe go out and meet fans. By eleven o’clock that night you’re like, “Well, I got to go to sleep and get up at nine in the morning and do this all over again.” It’s really hard to find that time to be like, “I have this really relaxing positive environment to really focus.” Yeah, so my muse is quiet and peace. Why It s Really Hard to Be Good All the Time Kelton Reid: Nice, nice. What do you think, in your estimation, makes a writer great? Jeffrey Cranor: Doing it a lot. I think more than anything else, that’s it. I remember reading … Oh, God, I’m going to forget the name of it … Steve Martin’s last book, basically his memoir about his stand-up career. He has some moment in it where he talked about doing stand-up comedy, and he didn’t do it for very long and he was great at it. But he did talk about the idea of greatness. He says if you’re naturally inclined to comedy and you’re really good at it, you will find that it becomes easy to be great. What’s really hard is being good all the time, because in doing your stand-up act, you can’t just be great and have a great show and then the next night be okay. Everybody there needs to laugh. That’s the whole point of your job. So you need to find a way to be good all the time. I think that comes from constant experience. In fact, when I’ve gone to see stand-up comedy … I remember going one night to the Comedy Cellar in New York City, and I remember the night that I was there there was some really great comedians. Aziz Ansari performed, and Amy Schumer performed that night. This was a couple years ago. They were great. I really love them. They’re super funny. But I remember at the end of the night, the last comedian was a guy named Allan Havey, who I’ve never seen in person before but I knew who he was. He’s in his 50’s, if not 60. He’s been at it since I was a kid. I remember him on Short Attention Span Theater and Comedy Central when I was in High School. He was amazing! I think what made him amazing wasn’t the jokes, because if you’re going to ask comedians of that night to write down their jokes, I’m probably gravitating towards Aziz Ansari and Amy Schumer, and just the quality of the craftsmanship of the joke. But what made Allan Havey great is that he could tell you any joke and it would have been brilliant, because he knew how to work the crowd. He was doing a full-on performance. I think that’s the sign of a really, really great comedian that can do that night after night, no matter the crowd that he’s in. He knows what people are saying and what people are doing, and how to use their energy back at them. I think with a writer, while it’s not performative, I think being able to write all the time and publish as much as you can, even if it’s just a blog, even if it’s just jokes on Twitter, just getting something out there and constantly making a thing is really, really vital. I think when you do that a lot, you get really, really good at it. Even if you’re not making best selling hits, right? Even if you’re not creating the next Gone Girl, or Between the World and Me, or something. You are still creating great things that people will truly enjoy reading. Kelton Reid: Those authors wrote some bad stuff at the beginning. All writers do. Jeffrey Cranor: Sure. Kelton Reid: To start out, it’s that iterative process. You got to ship to know what you’re dealing with and forge that. Jeffrey Cranor: It’s a very hard career to come at late. I mean, most careers are hard to come at late, but it’s not one you can easily fake. It’s like weight lifting. You can’t just suddenly be an offensive linemen. You really have to work for years and years to do that. Kelton Reid: That’s crushing my dream, but yeah, no, it’s true. The overnight successes we hear about in any of the major writing fields, so often have cut their teeth, even if they’re just the best selling debut novelist in their 40s or 50s, they cut their teeth in writing, but maybe not in a way that you might imagine it. They weren’t writing novel after novel. They might have been copywriters, or journalists, or playwrights, or whatever. But you see that so often, that kind of, “Oh, overnight success! Debut novelist! Jeffrey Cranor: Nope! And sometimes, even if it’s a very first novel they’ve ever written, which there’s a lot of people who, in their first novel, have a huge success with it, but I would also counter that, yeah, just like you said, they’ve probably done a lot of other things prior to that. In addition to that, I bet that novel took a lot of iterations to get right. Kelton Reid: Absolutely. Jeffrey Cranor: There’s just a lot that goes into it. Kelton Reid: So many novels start with a short story, or just an idea, and obviously become take on a life of their own. We will be right back after a very short break. Thanks so much for listening to The Writer Files. This episode of The Writer Files is brought to you by Audible, offering over 180,000 audiobook titles to choose from. Audible seamlessly delivers the world’s both fiction and nonfiction to your iPhone, Android, Kindle or computer. For Rainmaker FM listeners, Audible is offering a free audiobook download with a 30 day trial to give you the opportunity to check them out. Grab your free audiobook right now by visiting Audibletrial.com/Rainmaker. I just hopped over there to grab Stephen King’s epic novel 11/22/63, about an English teacher who goes back in time to prevent the assassination of JFK. You can download your pick or any other audiobook free by heading over to Audibletrial.com/Rainmaker. To download your free audiobook today, go to Audibletrial.com/Rainmaker. How the Battle Against Expectation Can Surprise Readers Kelton Reid: Do you have a couple favorite authors sitting on your nightstand, or playing in your headphones? Jeffrey Cranor: Let me try to answer that. I’m going to turn to my left and look at my shelf. I do. One of my favorite authors is a playwright named Will Eno. I love Will Eno’s work, and I feel like, when we write and when we first start really getting into writing, or a style of writing, we like to emulate other writers, and Will Eno’s a person I think I’ve always wanted to emulate. He writes plays, he writes dialog plays, but he also has a whole bunch of monologue pieces. The first of those that I read was a play called Thom Pain (based on nothing), and it is a solo performance. It was originally performed in New York by the actor James Urbaniak, who’s been on Welcome to Night Vale since, which is really exciting for me. Will Eno’s work has this ability to be, when you look at it on a page, it’s very simple. The writing structure is simple, but it’s deeply poetic, and very introverted, and it uses the audience really, really well. He’s very confrontational without saying controversial things. There’s some of that in there, but mostly he just always, always makes the audience battle against expectations. He does some really fascinating things with his writing in Thom Pain. There’s a moment when he asks a member of the audience to come up on stage, “I need you for something. Just stand right there.” Then proceeds to continue out the rest of the show without ever using them. So just leaves the person on stage throughout the rest of the show without anything to do, always expecting something about to happen. It’s kind of, you’re used to the improv comedian or the magician needing a volunteer to come up and do a thing, and then you find yourself never used again, and it becomes this really amazing thing for the rest of the audience to watch that happen. Another writer I really, really love is Helen DeWitt. She wrote one of my favorite books of all time, called The Last Samurai. Do you know this book? Kelton Reid: I do, yeah. It’s one I found when I was in creative writing school, and I think it had a limited release, right? Then it went out of print and then it came back. They republished it recently. Jeffrey Cranor: Oh, it might have. I have no idea. I bought it way back in 2003, I think. But yeah, I didn’t know if it went out of print or not. I found out after I read it back then that it was big, hot stuff in the literary world. As in like, here’s a first time novelist and here’s this brilliant novel. All these publishers really want it. And it took her a long, long time to write a second book. Last Samurai, I thought, was so beautiful and immersive. I think it does a similar thing to what Will Eno does, which is to create a fairly simple vocabulary, a fairly simple language. Describing things in not lavish detail, but in enough detail to allow you as the reader, or the viewer in the case of Will, to build out your own world. Some of the really heartfelt moments, or the really scary moments in both of those writers’ work is what they’re not telling you, and what they’re not revealing. Anyways, but yeah, I felt Last Samurai was absolutely beautiful and stunning. Kelton Reid: For sure. Jeffrey Cranor: I just read last year, for the first time, If On A Winter’s Night A Traveler by Italo Calvino. It was brilliant. I’ve never read Calvino’s work and I finally got around to reading it, so I can’t claim him as a favorite author, but that was one of the best things I ve ever read, and it’s tremendous. So welcome to me finally discovering Italo in 2015. Kelton Reid: Yeah, Calvino’s fantastic. And so is Helen DeWitt, and I look forward to checking out the other author you mentioned. Do you have a favorite quote? A lot of writers have a quote just kind of floating over their desk somewhere, or memorized. Do you have one you want to share with writers? Jeffrey Cranor: I do. I guess people still do this with email. I don’t know if you do this with your email or anything. I don’t really notice signatures on email anymore because Gmail usually truncates that stuff, but back in the day people kind of devised a personalized signature at the bottom of their emails and a lot of times it would be a quote. Especially all of my writer and theater friends would have a quote from somebody at the bottom. My friend Joey Rizzolo, who was a member of The New York Neo-Futurists theater company, had a quote at the bottom of his. So when you’d get an email from Joey Rizzolo you’d have the email, and he’d just put ‘Joey,’ and then at the bottom, it would have this quote. The quote said, “We’re writers. Why are we always quoting some other writer? We’re writers, after all. -Joey Rizzolo.” That’s my favorite quote. Kelton Reid: I hope Joey hears this and takes a bow. Jeffrey Cranor: It’s tremendous, and it was so good I wanted to steal it and knew that I couldn’t, and that made me sad. Kelton Reid: Love it. It’s too meta, so I’m going to have to steal it and put it over my desk now. The Art of Great Audiobooks as Performance Kelton Reid: I know we need to wrap here pretty quick. I got a couple fun ones for you. I have this question; do you prefer paper or eBook? I guess I should add, or audiobook? Do you have a preference? Jeffrey Cranor: I love audiobooks. I’ve always loved radio. I’ve always loved listening to things. I hope that’s not heretical to say, but I love audiobooks. There’s a real distinct art to them. I’m much more willing to give up on an audiobook then I am on a printed book, because a printed book, it’s all your fault if you can’t get it right. Whereas the audiobook, sometimes they just don’t translate well for me. Sometimes the performance is just not quite there, or the book doesn’t work as an audiobook. I think, guaranteed, getting a good quality is going to be much better in a book book than in an audiobook, because there’s just so many other moving parts to audiobooks. I just love them. It’s so great when you find great narrators, like Robertson Dean, or George Guidall. There are just so many really good narrators out there that do a fantastic job. Definitely prefer a printed book over an eBook, just because it’s more lasting. It feels more memorable to me. There’s the physical weight and the touch of the pages. I don’t even think I’m being romantic when I say that, I think that’s just physiology. I just think your body is more likely to hold on to information that’s tangible, that you’ve actually touched. That being said, I’m not opposed to eBooks. I travel a lot, so I definitely have to go eBook quite a bit. That’s fine. They’re great. They’re super excellent for travelling, because I don’t have to have five pounds of books in my bag. Kelton Reid: Yeah, yeah. Hybrid medium is the message. Jeffrey Cranor: Add Marshall McLuhan to my list of people I really love as writers. Kelton Reid: Oh, yeah. The Medium is the Massage. Jeffrey Cranor: Yes. I have that book, too. It’s great. Kelton Reid: My mom recently gave me a vintage copy of that, and I was like, “I think they spelled it wrong. Oh wait, that was intentional.” All right, if you could choose one author from any era for an all-expense paid dinner to your favorite spot in the world, who would you choose and where would you take them? Jeffrey Cranor: That’s a great question. I feel like I might I would one of two things. Partially, there’s a person like Will Eno that I just mentioned a little bit ago, who’s living, not that far from my own age, maybe we’re ten years apart. That’s somebody that I just think, professionally, I would just love to meet, because he’s had such a profound influence on my life. That being said, I don’t know how comfortable I am with meeting people I’m a big fan of. There’s a lot of people I enjoy meeting that I really appreciate their work, but sometimes when you reach the level of “I’m a fan of you,” you just can’t not have shake-voice when you do actually meet them. So I feel like maybe that would be counterproductive. I would be really interested in someone like Jane Austen, if only for the fact of, you have a person who managed to write quite a bit given the time-frame she wrote in, but did not write for a very long time. I think I’m always curious about the level of writing that she was at, which was, we’re talking the upper echelon of Western writers. She was absolutely brilliant. And of that era, there’s so little known. There’s a lot know, but there’s so much that’s been repressed about women’s histories in the history of humankind, and I think that we’re missing so much of her story because we didn’t canonize women the same way we did men. Like, any average man from then. Some just spare Earl or Viscount gets pages in an encyclopedia, and there’s so many women who did not. I think we’re missing a lot of her life, and I would be very interested to know more about her, and more about her writing process, and about who she was during that era. Kelton Reid: Interesting. And where would you go for dinner? Jeffrey Cranor: That’s a great question. Oh, man, there’s a really great restaurant and brewery in Athens, New York, called Crossroads that I really, really enjoy. They always have really excellent stuff, so maybe we’ll go there. My knowledge of restaurants in England is much more limited. Kelton Reid: I skipped over one earlier, but maybe before we get to your writing advice for fellow scribes, you could tell us how Jeffrey Cranor unwinds at the end of a long writing day.? Jeffrey Cranor: I’ll tell you what I did last night after the end of a long writing day, which was, my wife Jillian had gone to the store and got some food, and I finished up right around the time she got home and started making dinner, so I went upstairs and helped make dinner. Chopped up some peppers, and grated some cheese, and made some bread. We poured some wine and had a go at making a flourless chocolate cake, which we hadn’t tried before. I think we over baked it a little bit, but for the most part came out really tasty. It wasn’t super dense, which was really great, if only slightly dry on top. That was a problem. But yeah, cooking and having wine, or a bourbon, something like that. I can’t do that every night, make a flourless chocolate cake and throw back a bunch of wine, stuff like that. I think cooking, having an evening to just cook and have nice food, and things like that, is one of my favorite things to do to unwind. Kelton Reid: Well, to wrap it up here, do you have some advice for your fellow writers on how to keep the ink flowing and cursor moving? Jeffrey Cranor: I think you have to make opportunities for yourself. Self publish, self produce whenever you can. Always give yourself a reason to have to make a thing. Not just you want to make a thing, but make a path that you have to make a thing. If you have a blog, tell people that you put out a new post every 48 hours. At noon every other day, or at Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at three PM, you will have a brand new post about this subject. Make those paths for yourself. Make yourself have to make a thing. When you do that, you feel like you are indebted to more than just yourself. I think that’s the number one thing. Kelton Reid: Lock, stock, and barrel with Jeffrey Cranor, best-selling author, co-creator Welcome to Night Vale and Night Vale Presents worlds. Lots of stuff going on to find out there. Is the best way to connect with that world at welcometonightvale.com? Jeffrey Cranor: I think that’s the best way. Also, we put a lot of updates on our Facebook page and Twitter account, too. Look for all that there. Kelton Reid: I will link to all of those in the show notes. Congrats on the new show Within the Wires, which is fantastic. You can find those wherever fine podcasts are consumed. Does that sound awful? Jeffrey Cranor: That’s great. Wherever you get podcasts. iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever. Kelton Reid: Yeah, absolutely. There’s so much out there to find. What’s your next stop in the live show, the tour? What’s next for you? Jeffrey Cranor: We just started a Europe tour. We’re two shows in. I’m not on that tour yet, but they just did a show in Paris on Monday night and a show in Madrid last night. Tomorrow night they’ll be in Cologne and going on over to Stockholm, Oslo, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Berlin, Munich, Prague, Warsaw, and then I’m going to join up on October 20th in Dublin. We’re going to go to Dublin, Brighton, London, and Manchester to close out the month. Kelton Reid: Amazing. Amazing. Jeffrey Cranor: It’s really exciting. Kelton Reid: Seems like you have fans all over the world, and congratulations on all of your successes. I really appreciate you chatting with us about your process. Feel free to come back any time. Jeffrey Cranor: Thanks so much, Kelton. Kelton Reid: Thank you so much for joining me for this half of a tour through the writer’s process. If you enjoy The Writer Files podcast, please subscribe to the show and leave us a rating or a review on iTunes to help other writers find us. For more episodes, or to just leave a comment or a question, you can drop by WriterFiles.FM. You can always chat with me on Twitter @KeltonReid. Cheers. Talk to you next week.

What a brilliant bit of satire.

This was the previously "LOST" episode.  The first one we ever did.  The show was still called "Paul The Book Guy".  This was our FIRST effort at doing the podcast.  I am re-releasing the original 3 lost episodes now to iTunes.  Hope you enjoy them! This week we discussed William Shatner's autobiography, The Darktower series by Stephen King, Paul announces the death of George Guidall prematurely, we chat about It's Superman by Tom De Haven (narrated by Scott Brick) and introduce the first Bathroom Bible ever... The Book Of Secrets! We hope you enjoy listening to our FIRST EVER EFFORT at podcasting, which thankfully was not lost, and has since been recovered. Cheers!Released June 1st, 2011 Find out more on the Book Guys Show website. Send us your feedback online: https://pinecast.com/feedback/bookguys/6588b301-7b1a-4ca4-9694-399f1cc0fef0