Podcasts about westerns

What makes a story timeless? Why are millions of people consuming 90-second "micro dramas" while classic films continue to inspire generation after generation?In this conversation, Jon Harris sits down with Wade Stotts of The Wade Show to discuss everything from rescoring Buster Keaton silent films to the collapse of modern entertainment. Together they examine why short-form content is reshaping attention spans, how Hollywood abandoned moral storytelling, and what families can do to cultivate a love for great art.The discussion also explores classic television, Westerns, Buster Keaton, the rise of Chinese-produced micro dramas, and whether our culture can recover an appreciation for beauty, craftsmanship, and stories that endure.Topics include:- Why Buster Keaton remains one of cinema's greatest artists- The explosion of Chinese micro dramas- How technology is changing the way we consume entertainment- Why classic Westerns communicated timeless moral truths- The rise of the anti-hero in modern storytelling- Raising children to appreciate great films and television- Can Hollywood recover, or is a new cultural renaissance needed?If you enjoy conversations about Christianity, culture, history, and the arts, subscribe for more episodes of Conversations That Matter.00:00 Introduction and meeting Wade Stotts01:08 Rescoring Buster Keaton films for a modern audience05:01 Hollywood family history and classic cinema06:59 The rise of Chinese micro dramas and "brain rot" entertainment10:44 Why attention spans are collapsing13:56 Politics, podcasts, and the culture of sensationalism15:21 Raising children on timeless films and television18:53 Why classic Westerns taught moral lessons20:20 The hero, the anti-hero, and the decline of the Western22:00 Can timeless storytelling make a comeback?Jon's Music: jonharristunes.comTo Support the Podcast: https://www.jonharrismedia.com/support/Become a Patronhttps://www.patreon.com/jonharrispodcastSubstack: https://substack.com/@jonharris Follow Jon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jonharris1989Follow Jon on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jonharris1989/Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/conversations-that-matter8971/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

In this 43rd episode, Alan continues a (fingers crossed) monthly series of episodes featuring the comic book genre assigned to that month. Which makes this episode a discussion of ... Western comics! He and Kirk Spencer talk Lone Ranger, Kid Colt, Red Wolf, Jonah Hex ... and MORE!!!How did Kirk become such a big fan of Westerns? Which Western characters are his favorite? And why does the Professor rank so high on Kirk's wife's list of his friends?Listen to the episode ... and FIND OUT!!!Click on the player below to listen to the episode: Right-click to download episode directly Promo:The Fanholes PodcastSend e-mail feedback to relativelygeeky@gmail.com  You can follow the network on Twitter @Relatively_Geek and Professor Alan @ProfessorAlan You may also subscribe to the podcast through iTunes or the RSS Feed. 

Crime and Westerns on a MondayFirst, a look at the events of the day.Then, Crime and Peter Chambers starring Dane Clark, originally broadcast  July 20, 1954, 72 years ago, Donald Sloane, Embezzler.  A bank teller steals money from his accounts, but leaves $28,000 behind!Followed by Crime Classics, originally broadcast July 20, 1953, 73 years ago, The Death of a Picture Hanger. The Ford brothers are hired to kill Jesse James, and they do just that. Then, Frontier Gentleman starring John Dehner, originally broadcast July 20, 1958, 68 years ago, Mighty Mouse. A story about five holdup men outside Laramie, Wyoming Territory, and Kendall's attempt to have them arrested. Followed by Gunsmoke starring William Conrad, originally broadcast July 20, 1958, 68 years ago, Marshall Proudfoot.   Chester's father is in Dodge to visit his son, the Marshal! Parley Baer plays the roles of both Chester and his father! Finally, Claudia, originally broadcast July 20, 1948, 78 years ago, Naming the baby. Kathryn Bard and Paul Crabtree star.Thanks to Debbie B. for supporting our podcast by using the Buy Me a Coffee function at http://classicradio.streamIf you like what we do here, visit our friend Jay at http://radio.macinmind.com for great old-time radio shows 24 hours a day

We've got something new for you this week, The Genre FilesTim and Andrew select their top 10 films of a specific genre and we're starting with the Western.Do you agree with our choices? Do you have a top 10??Send your Negligent Discharge to Licence to Podcast on Facebook, X and Instagram or email hello@licencetopodcast.com

Drama and Westerns on a WednesdayFirst,  a look at this day in History.Then, Rogers of the Gazette starring Will Rogers Junior,  originally broadcast  July 15, 1953, 73 years ago, Jimmy Reynolds. Jimmy Reynolds, a poor teenager, has been arrested for drunkenness. Will tries to keep Jimmy from being made an "example."Followed by The Roy Rogers Show, originally broadcast July 15, 1954, 72 years ago, My Little Buckaroo. Roy and Dale find a young French girl with amnesia atop the Empire State Building. Then, Fort Laramie starring Raymond Burr,  originally broadcast  July 15, 1956, 70 years ago, the Old Enemy. A trooper from out of Captain Quince's past, named Patchen, joins the troop and creates problems. Followed by Gunsmoke starring William Conrad, originally broadcast July 15, 1956, 70 years ago, Letter of the Law.   Marshal Dillon is forced to evict a reformed gunfighter named Brandon Teak from his land. Finally, Claudia, originally broadcast July 15, 1948, 78 years ago, Leaving the Hospital.  Kathryn Bard and Paul Crabtree star. Thanks to Bill B for supporting our podcast by using the Buy Me a Coffee function at http://classicradio.streamFind the Family Fallout Shelter Booklet Here: https://www.survivorlibrary.com/library/the_family_fallout_shelter_1959.pdfhttps://wardomatic.blogspot.com/2006/11/fallout-shelter-handbook-1962.html

Horlicks: It makes a grand Summer drink for kids that makes them big and strong. It's nourishing and easy to digest. Down in Pine Ridge, Lum and Abner's picture show…

After a long night, Casey is near sleep, but takes the time to listen to a friend who has just been burglarized. The only thing taken was the babies piggy…

An intriguing story of the stocks of passion, and the bonds of death. After a tough day at work, a Manicurist and a barber talk about living a better lifestyle.…

as George and Gracie enjoy breakfast, they watch their neighbor. George gets onto Gracie about her excessive snooping. She complains that George isn't as romantic to her, as the neighbor…

Netflix loves its Westerns. This week, it released a new adaptation of Little House on the Prairie. Beginning in post–Civil War America, the series follows Charles and Caroline Ingalls, their daughters Mary and Laura, and their dog Jack as they leave Wisconsin, travel to Kansas, and attempt to build a new life on the prairie.The pilot we watched is called “Independence.” On the pod, we break down each of our pros and cons, from the scenery and CGI to how well Pa plays the fiddle. We discuss this adaptation's main changes, the history behind the story, and the setup it presents for the future.Tune in to hear our full breakdown and rating. Welcome to Today's Episode!

What's the difference between a bundle, a box set, an anthology, and a collection? How can being part of an anthology be creatively interesting and useful for marketing? With Jamie Ferguson In the intro, Amazon Kindle increases the 70% royalty share; audiobook marketing tips (Voices by InAudio); The Builder's Creed [Seth Godin]; Future Vision XPrize; Researching the dark side of travel [Anna Sayburn Lane]; Photos from Bruges @jfpennauthor; Bones of the Deep: A Thriller – J.F. Penn. Today's show is sponsored by Bookfunnel, the essential tool for your author business. Whether it's delivering your reader magnet, sending out advanced copies of your book, handing out ebooks at a conference, or fulfilling your digital sales to readers, BookFunnel does it all. Check it out at bookfunnel.com/thecreativepenn This show is also supported by my Patrons. Join my Community at Patreon.com/thecreativepenn Jamie Ferguson is a fiction and short story author, editor, and publisher, with over 20 anthologies and multiple ebook bundles through her own press. Her latest book for authors is Bundle Up! A Practical Guide to Anthologies and Box Sets That Sell. You can listen above or on your favorite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript is below. Show Notes The difference between bundles, box sets, anthologies, and collections Why a multi-author project means lots of people promoting the same book, not just you How to find and pitch for anthology opportunities, and what editors look for in a contributor Contracts, rights, and royalty splits explained for short fiction Why Kickstarter and special print editions are changing the anthology game Inkwren, the publishing management tool Jamie built for backlists and anthologies You can find Jamie at JamieFerguson.com. Transcript of the interview ith Jamie Ferguson Jo: Jamie Ferguson is a fiction and short story author, editor, and publisher, with over 20 anthologies and multiple ebook bundles through her own press. Her latest book for authors is Bundle Up! A Practical Guide to Anthologies and Box Sets That Sell. Just for context too, one of my short stories, “The Dark Queen”, is in the Amazing Monster Tales: Into the Briny Deep anthology. So I'm excited to talk about this today. Welcome to the show, Jamie. Jamie: Thanks for having me, Jo. Jo: Lots to talk about. But first up— Tell us a bit more about you and how you got into writing and self-publishing. Jamie: Well, I wanted to be a writer since I was at least six, maybe before then. So it was just something I always wanted to do, but I always did it on the side. I had a year, many years ago, where I was really busy with work, and I just felt like I didn't write anything the entire year, and I thought, “I'm going to give it up.” Then the next year—that was 2011—I started seeing more about self-publishing, and that really invigorated me and made me feel like, “No, why am I giving up something I've wanted to do since before I went to school?” So I got back into a novel I had worked on years before. I went to a writing workshop with Dean Wesley Smith up in Oregon, back in the day, and then I had my energy back. I've been writing ever since. Still on the side, unfortunately, but someday. Jo: Hopefully! Tell us a bit more about what kind of genres you write. Because balancing your own books with also doing these anthologies and things is quite difficult. Jamie: Yes, it definitely is. I'd say I primarily write contemporary fantasy, but I'll write anything in any genre if I'm really excited about it. I also have a soft spot for Westerns. They take a little more time because I like to research all the facts, but those are really fun to write. Creating anthologies on your own is actually quite a bit of work. One of the things I also do is work with two other authors, DeAnna Knippling and Tami Veldura, and create more anthologies with them. That's really fun because then we can each take a different piece. There's also always somebody to talk to, as opposed to doing it on your own. Jo: Let's start with the terminology, because I definitely struggled with this, and I think people still do. We've got bundles, we've got box sets, we've got anthologies, we've got collections—and are these in ebook, audiobook, or print? Can you start by explaining what all of these words actually mean? Jamie: Yes. In my book I actually use the term “multi-author collection” or “multi-author project”, because there are so many different permutations and it does get confusing. From my perspective, I think of a bundle as a collection. It could be a collection of ebooks. Technically it could be a collection of print books, although people generally use “box set” for that—but then a box set can also be a box set that's all ebooks. An anthology, I usually use for something that's a collection of short stories where there's an editor who's actually edited all the stories. I have had stories in anthologies where somebody didn't edit them, and they would technically be called a curator. So it is definitely confusing. I have not done anything with audio collections, but that certainly is another area that I actually think is pretty interesting. Jo: I also think that a single author… so I've done a short story collection, but an anthology is multiple authors. Is that right? Jamie: Yes. Jo: I think when I came into the indie space, there were a lot more multi-author… we all called them box sets back in the day, when it was just ebooks, right? And now we can actually do boxed sets with boxes through things like BookVault. So it feels like the term “box set” has also gone out of fashion. So if people listening are thinking of doing any of this, you do have to figure out what is the thing you might be signing up for. So let's talk about the multi-author projects, as that's where you specialise. What are the benefits for an author to be involved in a multi-author anthology project? Jamie: The biggest benefit is that you are one of multiple people promoting the same project, whether it's print or ebook or whatever. If I put out a short story collection on my own, I'm the one promoting it, and maybe I can get a couple of other people to write about it, but it's really just me. If I'm part of an anthology with 15 other authors, that's 15 other people who are promoting the same project. That's more newsletters, more Facebook posts, maybe something on their Patreons, whatever it is. You get more synergy, and you get more touch points with potential readers. Then hopefully that translates into sales as well. So that's definitely the biggest part of it—the promotion. Then I also personally really enjoy these types of collections because it's just fun to work with other people. There's a nice energy when everybody's like, “Oh, I put this in my newsletter, and I put this here, and I put this here,” and you feel like you're part of something bigger than just your own piece. Jo: What about the creative benefits? Especially with short stories, often people will write them for a collection or for an anthology project. Jamie: Yes. I've definitely written some stories that I never would have thought I'd write, because somebody I knew asked if I would be interested in being in their collection—whether it's an ebook bundle or a print anthology. So at least for me, that's been really fun. One of the ones that stands out is that I was asked to be in a dinosaur collection once, and I was like, “I don't write dinosaur stories.” And then I did. I set a dinosaur story in London, and it was really fun to write, and I never would have come up with that in a million years. Jo: Let's say we've got 12 authors. They've all written short stories, and now it's in this anthology. But what is the market for these kinds of things? Have you found that there is a readership for short story anthologies that carries over to the author's longer work? Jamie: There is. I like to think of it as: if I have a story in a collection or an anthology—whether it's one I'm editing or somebody else is editing—that's one more place for people to find me. A lot of times anthologies will take reprints as well, like your story. “The Dark Queen”—that was a reprint. We asked if you'd be interested in participating in the Amazing Monster Tales series. And I actually really like printing stories again that have already been published, because there are a lot of stories out there that can be hard to find. Or if it's an older book. I have one author I've known for, like, 30 years. I reprinted one of her stories that was originally published in, I think, 1999, and the anthology it was in was out of print. You couldn't find it, and it was a fantastic story. So it's fun to be able to give new life to those stories and give them more opportunities, and also just have more ways for people to find you. Jo: Yes, I definitely think it's a long game. I don't think appearing in a short story anthology in one particular month is going to mean that your whole back collection just sells, right? Jamie: No, definitely not. It's more about avenues to be found. I know there have been some anthologies that have made quite a bit of money, but in general you're probably not going to make as much money, but you will have those extra places for people to find you. Jo: I always feel like yes, there is maybe a small amount of money, but it is more about almost a marketing thing in itself. So let's say an author is listening and they're like, “Do you know, this sounds like a great idea.” How can they pitch for things like this? How do they find out about opportunities, or get noticed to be asked? And what are the expectations for them? Jamie: The biggest thing is networking. There used to be a couple of opportunities where you could make people aware that you had stories that you were interested in potentially having picked up for something. I'm not aware of anything like that now. When I create a collection, I have a mailing list that I send out, and it includes authors I've published before. It includes a couple of extra people who somehow found my mailing list. And I'll publish, like, “Here's what I'm doing.” There are also authors I've met at writing workshops. I've been able to read some of their work, I'll approach them and say, “Hey, I really liked such and such a story. Would you be interested in writing for this?” Then there are a couple of other websites, like Duotrope, and places that advertise markets and calls for submissions. Jo: Yes, I've found them also on small presses that do these kinds of projects. They often put up one call for submission a month or something, and you can write for their particular thing. In general, the short story markets are the places to keep an eye on. Jamie: Yes, definitely. Jo: If an author wants to pitch to have their story as part of an anthology, do you want to know things like platform, or is it just the story itself? Jamie: I personally look at the author's platform. I do make exceptions—there are actually two authors I've worked with a couple of times who don't have websites. They are people I know personally and they are very, very good writers, so I'll make an exception for things like that. But otherwise, if somebody submitted a story to me and I didn't know that person, I would check out their website, I would check out their social media, I would see what else they had done. Part of what you're doing when you're creating a collection is thinking not just about how you, as the person organising this, will promote the collection, but how the authors who are participating will help promote it as well. If it's somebody who has a lot of fans, even if they're not very active on social media, that can help a lot too. There are a lot of different factors, though. Jo: So then talk us through the project timeline. How long do things take, and what sort of involvement do the authors have along the way? Because it's a lot to juggle. Jamie: Yes, it is a lot to juggle. I can give you an example with the Monster Tales series. We'll come up with an idea, and we also like to try to get the artwork done early on in the process. We don't need it that soon, but it's really great to have that taken care of. We'll contact authors. I think for this one we used my mailing list, but we've also contacted a number of people individually that we know who write the style of stories we like. Then, as the submissions come in, we usually wait until we have a nice chunk of them to start going through, and then we'll pick some right away. Sometimes it'll be like, “Oh my gosh, of course we want this story,” and we'll wait to fill out the other slots. Then we'll negotiate sometimes. Sometimes it's like, “I want this story.” “Well, I want this other story.” And we have to figure out how the word count works. Once we finalise the stories, then usually what happens with that anthology is that DeAnna—who is a very, very good editor—will make the first editing pass, and then I'll make the second. And now Tami's involved, so Tami will make the third, and then we'll iterate. Once all three of us have gone through the first time, then we'll send the story back to the author for edits. So the most the author has to do for most of the process is just wait for us to edit their story, and then work on their edits and get them back. Then, once we get closer to launch, we'll give them information about what we're going to do. For example, we're going to launch the next issue with a Kickstarter. So our authors know that we have a Kickstarter coming, and we'll give them more information as we get closer to the actual launch date. Jo: So how long might an author expect before their work is out there? Jamie: It really varies. I've had some collections published very quickly—let's say a couple of months. Some have taken longer just because somebody ends up having some life issue and things get delayed. So I'd say ideally it would be more like three to nine months. Jo: Yes, I think… depending on the— Jamie: —collection and the complexity. Jo: Yes, exactly. Jo: And you did mention word count there. Just give us a range of what word count you like to get. Jamie: So these days I'm shooting for between 75,000 and 80,000 for the total word count for a collection. That includes the stories, but it also includes the opening, the introduction. For one we're working on now, we're going to have some interstitials, where we have little bits of things we're going to write in between each story. So that's the overall size of the collection. I'll keep track of the word count as the stories come in, and then as we edit the stories, sometimes they grow, sometimes they shrink. Sometimes that's a big enough difference where we're like, “Okay, we need one more story to fill it in.” But that's the target. Jo: And how much for each individual story? Jamie: That varies. I've done a bunch of different things. These days, what I'm advertising is between 3,000 and 8,000 words. I also always tell people: if you're outside this range on either side, just check with me, and if it's something that's really an excellent fit for the book, I'll make an exception. The one that's coming out, I think we have a 1,500- or 2,000-word story that was just amazingly perfect for what we wanted. There was another story, actually I think it was the issue that you were in, that was at least 12,000 words, but it also was a perfect fit for the theme. So I will make exceptions, but within reason. I wouldn't put a novella inside an anthology, because then you'd have a 22,000-word story next to a 3,000-word story, and I personally feel like that's really jarring for the reader. You don't want to go from something super short to something super long. It just doesn't feel like it flows well to me. Jo: No, absolutely. Jo: We'll come back to the making of it because you mentioned some really interesting things there. But just on the contractual side—a lot of indie authors don't necessarily do any publishing contracts for their work, unless it's signing the terms and conditions when uploading on Amazon or Kobo. So tell us a bit about the contract side. What rights are we talking about here? Any red lines in contracts around this kind of thing? Jamie: For contracts, I would recommend people read Kristine Kathryn Rusch's posts on this. She is way more informed about this than I ever will be, so when I have questions, I'll look at her posts. I've asked her a couple of questions. What we're doing for the Amazing Monster Tales… this is the first time that I've actually had authors sign contracts. Prior to this, I've used PubShare, which handles royalty splits and all of that, and that was really great. We want to do direct sales and Kickstarters and have lots of other options. So we did put together a contract this time. I'd have to pull it up, but I think we asked for first worldwide rights in English—I'm getting the terminology wrong here—but that was basically it. Jo: Or, I guess, reprint rights if the story's already been licensed. Jamie: Correct. We have two contract templates, one for original stories and one for reprints. We made sure to make that distinction, because it is definitely a distinction. In the book by Kristine Kathryn Rusch—it's called Closing the Deal… on Your Terms—I highly recommend that for anybody interested in learning more about contracts. Jo: Yes, that's great. And just for people listening: when you said you didn't have contracts before, you just used PubShare. So in that way, the author still retained the rights and you just split the royalties—it was more of a co-writing thing. Jamie: Correct. When you publish stories through PubShare, the author signs an agreement with PubShare, and then I, as the editor or organiser, would also sign a separate agreement. So each of us has an agreement with PubShare. We don't have agreements with each other, if that makes sense. Jo: Yes, so it's very different to move into Kickstarter. So tell us about what you're now moving into. Jamie: Well, Kickstarters are a new world for me personally. I have many friends who have had Kickstarters. I've supported Kickstarters. I watch them. But it's something where I'm very happy to have two partners who have done Kickstarters before. I'm not sure how many Tami's done—I think Tami's done the most at this point. So this is all new to me. But it's very exciting. At this point we have a backlist, so part of the plan, for the Monster series, is to offer issues one through four as part of the rewards when we launch issue number five. That's really exciting, because I never had a backlist like that before. Jo: Yes, and in fact the money is in the backlist, as ever, and those add-ons or bundles as part of Kickstarter are great. So are you going to do special print editions, or is it digital only? Jamie: We are talking about special print editions. You mentioned BookVault earlier—we've been looking at BookVault. Our other anthology series that hasn't come out yet will also launch with a Kickstarter. It's dragon-themed, and Tami actually did the cover work, which is beautiful. BookVault just gives you so many options that we never had before, so I'm very excited about that. Jo: Yes, I think it's a really good idea. I did gorgeous hardbacks for my solo author collection, so I think it's a great idea. So from the publisher side, let's come back to that. You've mentioned you have to write things like an introduction and interstitials, and you're trying to balance the stories. What are some of the other things that people might think about if they want to organise their own anthologies? Jamie: Oh gosh, where to start? There's the basic setting up of the anthology, so you have to define the table of contents. You might get a bunch of stories that are really awesome, and you might have to tell somebody who has a wonderful story—and maybe even who's a good friend of yours—that you're going to pass on it because their story doesn't fit with all the other stories. Every time I have to do that, I feel kind of bad. But being on this side, it's really interesting to see how you can tell which stories fit together and which don't. There's also the editing process, which can be a lot of work. Part of what I like about working with Tami and DeAnna is that DeAnna really loves editing. I feel like I'm a good editor, and I can do it, but for me it's more of a job. For DeAnna, she loves it, so she does the bulk of the editing, which is great. When I do it on my own, I feel like it's a task I have to do. There's lots of cat-herding. Sometimes people take a while to get their edits back. Sometimes they have life events, and you have to delay things because you're waiting on them. There are all the little tiny pieces of organising things—like, if you're reprinting stories, you need to make sure you get the copyright attribution correct. A lot of times I'll have to go and look up where something was originally published. An author might say, “Oh, it was published in this year,” and I'm like, “Okay, actually it was published in this other year, by this other publication first.” So I'm trying to be organised there. henT one of the things that very infrequently—I think it's only happened to me twice—every once in a while, you're in the middle of editing a story and you have to pass on it, even though you've already accepted it, because the editorial vision and the author vision for the story are not the same, and you can't reconcile that. Jo: I think that's really interesting, because so much of what you're talking about there—you mentioned vision—it's almost taste. You're saying which stories fit. It's not just a case of, I don't know, a pirate anthology and then picking 10 stories about pirates, right? You seem to be thinking about this in a more artistic way. So can you talk a bit more about that? How do you decide on a theme, and then how do you know that a story doesn't fit? Jamie: In the beginning, I was not this selective. In the beginning I'd say, for example, “Hey, I'm putting out a collection about fairies. Give me a fairy story,” and that was it. As I've edited the stories, it's become easier to see how things fit. So, for example, if I have 10 stories in an anthology and I have an 11th story, and they have different tones—let's say the 11th story is really funny and all the other stories are very serious—then that would be a fit thing. That's not necessarily taste; it's just that you don't want one funny story if everything else is really dark and scary or serious. As far as picking a theme, the theme could be very broad. With this dragon anthology we're working on, we decided we wanted it to be called A Hoard of Books. So the theme was: has to have dragons, has to have books, and that's pretty much it. And then we were like, “Let's just see what we get.” We were very surprised at what we got. We thought we'd have more serious stories, and it turned out most of them were very light-hearted and really fun. And we're like, “You know what? That actually changes the way we're looking at the whole series,” because we did not expect that. With the monster series, we'll pick a theme. So, for example, the next issue is Monsters in Love, and for those it's more like, let's just see what happens. Sometimes I'll have a more specific theme. The next anthology I'm publishing on my own is called Fairy Bargains, and I wanted people to obviously have fairies, but I wanted there to be something related to the mythology and lore of having a bargain with a fairy—and there's a lot of stuff about that. So for some things like that, when I put out a call, I'll provide information. I might say, “Here's a link to a Wikipedia article. Here's some mythology that might be helpful for you,” just because I want things to stick a little bit more to the theme itself. Whereas with Monsters in Love, there's a very wide range of stories, and that was very fun to work through. Jo: Oh, yes. There's a lot of monster, on the spicy side as well. But were you doing a clean Monsters in Love, as opposed to in lust? Jamie: Yes, this is a clean one. That's pretty funny. But boy, when you give authors the room for these types of things, you get all kinds of stories, and it is super fun to work with those collections. Jo: As you're talking, I definitely want to do more short stories. It's really interesting, because you can actually generally get paid more for a first print—first print rights on a short story—but I often want to just publish it myself. Then I was really happy to be in yours, because it was a reprint anyway. So I was like, well, there's absolutely nothing to lose if it goes in as a reprint. So these things can be really interesting. Talking of the finance from your side of things: you have a small press and you're doing this publishing yourself, but you're paying all these authors and doing a lot of work. So how does it work as the publisher, in terms of these anthologies, financially? Jamie: With the ones we've published so far, because we've gone through PubShare, it's been a royalty split. As the editors, we would take a percentage, and then we pay for the artwork, and of course all of our time. I think what we were doing there was saying 70% of the royalties would be split equally between all of the authors and the stories. So, for example, if I had a story as well, I would get part of the author split—the same percentage as everybody else in the collection—in addition to the editor split. For what we're doing now, we've changed this a little bit, and I believe we said 60% goes to the authors, and then we're going to keep a share of the proceeds for the business because we want to be able to pay for the artwork out of the business account. We want to pay for advertising, whatever we need to do—like setting up our store, or if we wanted to invest in anything, we want to be able to do that as the business, as opposed to it just being us doing this on our own. We're just trying to treat it a little bit differently. Jo: And I know it's so much work—a crazy amount of work. How many anthologies and books do you have to do in a year to make it worthwhile financially? Jamie: Oh, I don't know. I would say, unless you get an opportunity—like, for example, to have an anthology in a story bundle or something like that—you may not break even. But if you're going to do this, do it more for the marketing, do it more because you enjoy it. Now, going forward, I think that will change, because we are looking at Kickstarters, we are looking at direct sales. We're very motivated to try to make this more of a business thing than a fun side project. So, ask me in a year. Jo: Yes, hopefully more. I do think Kickstarter is great for short stories. I actually buy quite a few collections on Kickstarter. I think they're actually really hard to discover through, say, Amazon—it's a place that is quite hard to identify short stories. Whereas I've found I've bought collections on Kickstarter because there's so much more of a sales page—there's so much more rich media that tells me how I'm going to feel about the stuff. I've bought short story anthologies and collections from people I don't know. So I think it's a really good thing to do. There is an audience there. Jamie: Yes, definitely. And it does feel like the anthologies on Amazon don't sell as well—you don't make as much as you used to. I've been doing this for, well, gosh, 10 years now, and I feel like the sales numbers on Amazon in the past year were noticeably lower than they would have been six or eight years ago. So I am very excited about Kickstarter. Plus, Kickstarter just feels really fun. You're not just throwing your book up; you also have all the extra stuff with the page, you have the rewards, and it just feels really exciting. Jo: No, I agree. I really love it. I didn't do it for a long time, and now I just love it. Jo: So, staying with the publisher side of things— Any practical formatting and production tips? Because in these types of projects, all kinds of people just send you different stuff. Jamie: I have a style guide. So whether it's me or it's the group project, once all the edits are complete, I'll do a formatting pass, and I'll make sure I use curly quotes and the same em dash format and everything, just so everything in the book is formatted the same way. Every once in a while there's an author who has something particular that they want, and I can work around that, and that's fine. I also work with a lot of Canadian authors, and I'll let them keep their Canadian spellings. I don't think everybody does that, but I feel like that's their voice in a way, so I don't correct those. I might check some things there. I think the formatting is important—it makes things look better if everything has the same style. Then I use Vellum, which makes things really easy. I love Vellum. Because I publish so many authors at this point, I have a Vellum file where I store their biographies and their links, so when I publish a new anthology I'll just go grab, say, Jo's “about the author” page from that collection and put it into the new file. Then I also track when the last time was that I checked with the author about their biography. If it's been more than a year, I'll check in with them and say, “Hey, do you have an updated biography you want me to use? Here are your links—do you have any different links now?” So that makes it a lot easier from the formatting standpoint. Jo: And you mentioned Vellum—having done box sets on Vellum, you can just drag a whole book in there if you want to do a three-book box set, or three short stories, whatever. It's much easier to just drag things in, and it makes it easier to format. So I would say to people: you don't need to worry too much about that. There are lots of things that can help you. But even with doing the print stuff for the Kickstarter—people have opinions, don't they? So in terms of authors' opinions and managing—you mentioned herding cats—how do you manage all of that side of things? Jamie: I haven't actually had a lot of trouble with that. The authors I've worked with seem to feel like they gave me their story, and then once the edits are out of the way… I haven't had anybody have any issues with the covers. Usually they love the covers, especially for the Monster series. So, no problems there. Jo: Oh, that's good. Well, I would say a tip would be to make sure you're communicating, if you're somebody who's organising. So talk a bit about communication. Jamie: Communication is very important. What I try to do is send regular updates, especially if I'm in the middle of edits or working on something and I'm not ready to launch. I'll send an update email out to the authors and just say, “Here's what's going on, here's what the plan is.” Or if the plan has to change, if the launch date has to change for some reason, I'll let the authors know about that. Actually, with the upcoming Monsters in Love issue, we were originally not going to do a Kickstarter. That was a late decision, so I contacted all the authors and said, “We've changed our plans. We're going to launch this with a Kickstarter. Please confirm that you're okay with this.” One author was not comfortable with the Kickstarter idea, so he pulled his story, and then we found a replacement story for that. But I just feel like the communication piece is really essential. It's really important for the authors to know what's going on. Jo: Yes, absolutely. So, we've talked about how marketing is a good thing, in terms of there being lots of people marketing. How are you effectively marketing these kinds of books, as the premise is quite different to a single author project? Jamie: Right. There's the usual—write a release post, write posts on social. I do additional things, so I'll publish what I call a story spotlight for each story in the anthology. That's just where I talk a little bit about the story, I provide an excerpt, and then I provide the author's bio and links to find them. Those are really great, because they're very quick to put together. The hardest part is getting a short excerpt that shows enough about the story to be engaging. But that really isn't that much time, either. Then those are also nicely evergreen. I've actually searched for authors before, when I'm trying to research them for an interview, and I've found my own spotlight posts and my own interview posts with authors come up at the top of the list, which is kind of funny. I also do interviews with as many of the authors in a collection as are willing to participate. Sometimes people just don't have the time—I don't make this required—but I usually get 80 to 90% of the authors participating. So, for example, this year I'm in a couple of bundles on StoryBundle, and I'm doing interviews for people there. It's also really fun, and you're not paying for advertising—you're just creating something that the authors are excited about and they want to share. So it promotes the collection, but it also promotes the author, which I find really nice. It's a nice networking thing too, and I'm happy if someone wants to interview me. It's like free publicity for each person, in addition to the collection. Jo: I love that you've used the word “fun” quite a lot, which I find amazing. You're obviously a super collaborative person. I've co-written a number of books— I've been part of some collections, and I really think that there are two personalities. One is like me, where we really love the creation stuff and the publishing stuff, but we're hyper-controlling. And then someone like you—you're very collaborative, and you're doing such a great job. To people listening, I would say: if you're more like me, don't organise an anthology. What you want is Jamie, or somebody who actually finds it fun to organise a big group of authors. Jamie: Yes. It is definitely interesting working with other partners in this, because when I publish an anthology on my own, I make all the decisions. I pick the artwork, I pick the theme, I do everything, I decide the table of contents. But when you're working with other people, you do need to negotiate. So we've had a couple of times where it's like, “I want this story.” “Well, I want this other story, I don't like the story that you want.” And so we have to barter, in a way. Aside from that, it is nice, because you get to split up the tasks. I could focus on things like the organising—I do the Vellum files, I do the final cover and everything. For the Kickstarters, actually, Tami's got more expertise, so Tami's going to be working on the Kickstarters for our collections together. If I had to do all this on my own, it's a ton of work. It's a ton of work. So it is nice to split it up. Jo: And of course, one of the things is managing so many moving parts—and you've actually built a tool to manage all this. So tell us a bit about that tool, and how it might be useful for people with big backlists as well as anthologies. Jamie: I built what I think of as a publishing management application. The original idea is that, for years and years, I wanted a software tool that would do catalogue management, because I was managing my own catalogue, and I was also managing—at this point I've published at least 20 anthologies, so that's a lot of authors. Then last summer, I had an author who I'd published a number of times, who was going to, I think, WorldCon, and she asked if I could give her covers for five anthologies she'd been in, so that she could make some promotional material. I was like, “Oh, sure, I can do that.” And then I was like, “Well, wait a second—is this in Notion?”—because I started trying to use Notion last year—”or is it in a spreadsheet?” It turned out her information was in, like, three different places, and I had to work to pull it together. And then I was like, “You know what? That's it. I'm just going to finally write this application.” So Inkwren manages your stories. As an author, I can manage my stories—I can track which are published, which are drafts, which are just ideas. I can track my publications. From the publisher standpoint, it's really helpful, because I can track each anthology I've published and what I'm working on. I can track the edits, I can track the contracts. I can upload contract templates—so we talked earlier about the original and reprint contract templates that I use. I upload those, and they have placeholders in them. When I generate the actual contract, the author's name will replace the placeholder—I'll have the text “author name” in the contract template, and it'll get replaced by, like, “Joanna Penn” or whatever. So that saves a lot of time. Then I also added in task tracking, because I started to feel like, well, now all my stuff is in one place, but my tasks are somewhere else. So now I can associate tasks with a publication. For example, for the book I'm working on right now, I know which tasks I need to do for the cover, and which for the interior, and everything. I have a template of tasks. Then I can also track tasks related to promotions. For example, the story bundle I'm promoting right now, I have a task for each interview I'm doing with the authors, and I have a calendar view. I can see when I'm going to publish them and know that they're all spread out. It saves me so much time, and it's so much easier. Jo: I do think building tools when you actually need the tool yourself is very useful. Just say the name again, and spell it out for people. Jamie: It's Inkwren. My own personal publishing company is Blackbird Publishing, and I wanted something related to birds and writing. So I came up with Inkwren, which is I-N-K-W-R-E-N, and it's just inkwren.com. Jo: And it is available for other people to potentially buy and use? Jamie: Yes, it is. Jo: Well, I think that's super useful, because it's very hard when people are starting out and they think, “Oh, I've only got one book—why would I need any kind of tool to manage it?” But over the years, your backlist grows, especially with short stories. So I love that you've built this, and there's probably more that you can add over time as you expand the business yourself. So much potential. So we are at the end. Where can people find you and your books and everything you do online? Jamie: My author website is JamieFerguson.com. And then, obviously, I mentioned Inkwren earlier. My publishing company is BlackbirdPublishing.com. And then the projects I'm doing with Tami and DeAnna—we have a couple of websites, but the easiest way to find us is our press, which is BorogrovePress.com. Jo: Fantastic. Well, thanks so much for your time, Jamie. That was great. Jamie: Thanks, Joanna.The post Bundles, Box Sets and Anthologies With Jamie Ferguson first appeared on The Creative Penn.

Britt stops in for a visit with the Harcourt brothers, a scrappy pair but when they need to, they can lay aside differences to unite for a good cause. They…

Hosted by Ernie Whitman, the Jubilee gets kicked off by Louis Jordan and, Pistol Packing Mama. Crooner, Faye Carrol sings, My Devotion. Ernie reads from the mail bag. Louis Jordan…

It's the end of the 1949 season, and as a bookend for the year, Jack takes time to give credit and honors to all of his cast members and writers.…

Travis Hopson talks with Mackenzie Foy, star of the new Western thriller THE ISOLATE THIEF, about her first Western, shooting off guns for the first time, and starring alongside Sean Bean!THE ISOLATE THIEF is in theaters July 10th.All of this and more can be found at www.punchdrunkcritics.com!Subscribe to Punch Drunk Critics on YouTube:    / @punchdrunkcritics1  Follow Punch Drunk Critics on Twitter:   / pdcmovies  Follow Punch Drunk Critics on Facebook:   / pdcmovies  You can also subscribe to our podcast Cinema Royale anywhere you get your podcasts!#MackenzieFoy #westernmovies #seanbean

Note: If this seems like a repeat, it is… sort of. It's almost identical to the audition show (The Death of David Malone), although there are some minor differences, and…

Perry Mason, Della Street, and Paul Drake continue their ruse of making a movie. They are really just filming the crowd, to check for reactions, in hopes of identifying their…

Matthew Harffy and Justin Hill are back with a packed episode: first, a candid catch-up on where their writing is at right now, and then a deep-dive listener Q&A that covers some of the biggest questions in historical fiction writing.Matthew has just delivered his Roman novel to his publisher. He's also completed a short story for the forthcoming Stamford Bridge anthology (told from a woman's perspective, covering just a few hours of the battle's aftermath). And he has fresh news: his publisher wants more books!Justin, meanwhile, has delivered his Stamford Bridge short story (after several extensions and a structural breakthrough involving flashbacks), received enthusiastic feedback from his agent on his new contemporary novel, and had his Games Workshop/Black Library pitch approved. It's all happening.The Q&A is a wide-ranging conversation that will resonate with writers and readers alike. Listener Trish Smith fires off a series of brilliant questions: when do you know a story is finished? Do you listen to music when you write? Who do you write for? What does "killing your darlings" really mean? And can you write about something you've never experienced?Listener questions from Matt Muller and Chris Hind take things further: how do you convey the scale of mass combat when your protagonist can only see six feet in any direction? What do authors consistently get wrong about fighting? What's the single best battle scene either of them has ever read? Is there a line between historical fiction and fantasy, and have either of them been tempted to cross it? Can a D&D campaign feed directly into a novel? And is there really an appetite for more Westerns, and if so, why won't publishers touch them?It's a conversation about craft, perseverance, landscape, archetypes, and why Jack Reacher is basically a knight errant.Support the show and unlock exclusive bonus episodes: https://www.patreon.com/cw/RockPaperSwordsPodcastFind us everywhere: https://linktr.ee/RockPaperSwords

Comedy and Westerns on a FridayFirst, a look at the events of the day.Then, Granby's Green Acres starring Gale Gordon and Bea Benederet, originally broadcast  July 10, 1950, 76 years ago, Granby Plants a Crop. What to plant? Corn? Wheat?Followed by Have Gun Wlll Travel starring John Dehner, originally broadcast July 10, 1960, 66 years ago, Five Days to Yuma.  Paladin is hired to deliver a British prisoner named Jeremy Thompson to the Carson City jail. Jeremy's drunken mother proves an unexpected problem. Then, Lux Radio Theater, originally broadcast July 10, 1939, 87 years ago, Ruggles of Red Gap starring Charles Laughton and Charlie Ruggles with Zasu Pitts. A proper British butler finds himself achieving a sense of equality in the wild American west. The last show of the season. Finally, Lum and Abner, originally broadcast July 10, 1935, 91 years ago, Lum and Abner Get Into an Argument.  Lum is planning to start Screen-O games at the Pine Ridge Planetarium. Lum dissolves the partnership. He will own all the movie theatre, Abner will own all the Jot 'Em Down Store! Thanks to Debbie B. for supporting our podcast by using the Buy Me a Coffee function at http://classicradio.streamIf you like what we do here, visit our friend Jay at http://radio.macinmind.com for great old-time radio shows 24 hours a day

Opening and closing credits are snipped. We find Doctor Danfield talking with his secretary Rusty Fairfax, when a student from one of Dan's classes interrupts. Rusty's moment of jealousy is…

Horlicks: Have a desire to quit smoking? Horlicks can help. Often those quitting can put on weight, just take a healthy snack in the form of Horlicks tablets to cope…

In the Anderson home, mom has had a hard day and is a little frustrated with the kids. Jim notices, and wants to lend a hand by hiring a housekeeper…

The owner of a jewelry store reports to Joe Friday about theft of his expensive merchandise. Could it be an inside job? His account of the robbery leads Joe on…

Join us as we navigate through the latest movies, series, and the cultural debates that split audiences and critics alike. From the World Cup's impact on cinema attendance to quirky films like Nirvana, the Band, The Show, The Movie, and the latest Harlan Coben adaptations, this episode is packed with insights, humor, and passionate film discussion.In this episode:The influence of major events like the World Cup on cinema-going habitsThe peculiar charm and critique of Nirvana, the Band, The Show, The MovieThe latest stream-based thrillers and Westerns, including Last Stand of Ellen Cole and I Will Find YouThe ongoing battle between big screen experiences and streaming convenienceFan interactions and hilarious reviews, including a viral comment about our boredom levelsThe nostalgic love for classic films like The Great Escape and Jurassic ParkThe influence of social media on film choices and streaming ratingsNirvana, the Band, The Show, The Movie – a documentary style indie comedyLast Stand of Ellen Cole on Prime VideoHarlan Coben's Netflix adaptationsEvil Dead Burn TrailerKingpin (1996) starring Woody Harrelson and Lynn ShaneTosin: Twitter | LinkedInShaun: Twitter | WebsiteHolly: Twitter | InstagramTimestamps:00:00 - Welcome to Netflix versus Cinema: Stream or Screen?00:27 - Introducing the hosts and their cinematic battlefields00:55 - The heat is on: Recording amidst the summer scald01:36 - World Cup's ripple effect on local events and cinema attendance02:28 - Shaun's recent cinema viewing and the peculiar Invitation (or Invite) movie03:48 - Holly's cinema adventures and the quirky indie Nirvana, the Band, The Show, The Movie05:23 - At-home viewing round-up: Amazon and rewatching classics06:04 - Why some films demand multiple viewings and others don't07:02 - Favorite repeat films: The Great Escape and Jurassic Park critiques07:49 - Streaming platform deep dive: Primitive Wars and the Vietnam-meets-Dino flick08:52 - The impressive acting performances and Lynne Shane's filmography10:09 - The fun of classic Bond characters and memorable villains' quotes11:06 - The Canadian DIY documentary comedy Nirvana and its wild premise12:37 - The inventive, madcap adventures from jumping off CN Tower to Marty McFly homages14:50 - The emotional undercurrent beneath seemingly silly stunts: male friendship and nostalgia16:24 - The irony of the film stolen use from Back to the Future and its homage layer17:35 - Comparing the humor and chaos of Nirvana to Jackass and exploration of Canadian humor18:34 - The cultural jokes, Canadian drinks, and native humor woven into the film19:30 - Our overall review: a high three out of five, worth a watch on TV20:22 - Shaun's current streaming picks: The Last Stand of Ellen Cole — western meets real estate drama21:56 - Holly's Netflix binge: the Harlan Coben universe and its comic convolutions22:37 - The typical Coben formula: secrets, lies, and convoluted plots23:45 - Comparing the recent I Will Find You with other Coben adaptations30:00 - Fan feedback and hilarious commentary on our "bored" expressions41:32 - The new blockbuster Evil Dead Burn and upcoming horror releases45:01 - The challenge of casting authentic Polynesian characters in animated films46:40 - Wrapping up: Is cinema still king or are streaming services the new rulers?Enjoy the episode and keep the conversations going — cinema or streaming, what's your pick?

Crime and Westerns on a WednesdayFirst, a look at the events of the day.Then, The Whisperer starring Carleton Young, originally broadcast  July 8, 1951, 75 years ago, First Show of the Series.  The Whisperer is a brilliant young attorney with a secret identity. He tackles the plans of Scurelli to sell marijuana to the unsuspecting youth of the city.Followed by The Roy Rogers Show, originally broadcast July 8, 1954, 72 years ago,The Spell of Indian Magic.   An elderly Navajo is dying from an Indian curse (the curse must be from Haiti as the curse sounds very much like voodoo). Actually, the old man is killed by an evil spirit named Wonga.Then, Fort Laramie starring Raymond Burr, originally broadcast July 8, 1956, 70 years ago, The Talented Recruits. Feeney and Merriweather, a medicine hawker and a Shakespearean actor, join the army and find out about soldiering the hard way.Followed by Gunsmoke starring William Conrad, originally broadcast July 8, 1956, 70 years ago, Passive Resistance.   Two cattlemen slaughter the herd of sheep owned by Gideon Seek, then burn down his house and wagon and finally shoot him. Gideon is a peaceable man who won't even identify his tormentors. Finally, Claudia, originally broadcast July 8, 1948, 78 years ago,  Visitors and Gifts.  Kathryn Bard and Paul Crabtree star.  Thanks to Debbie B. for supporting our podcast by using the Buy Me a Coffee function at http://classicradio.streamIf you like what we do here, visit our friend Jay at http://radio.macinmind.com for great old-time radio shows 24 hours a day

A man claiming to be an important figure from South America shows up on the doorstep of George Valentine. All he wants to do is find a particular person, and…

Horlicks: If your youngster doesn't like milk, or just can't drink it, try Horlicks. It has all the good stuff to help kids grow big and strong. And kids love…

This Week for your Daily Ratings Movie News: Some major directors are talking major westerns. Obsession hits a milestone for an indie film. Quentin Tarantino might do a movie sooner than we thought, and Heat 2 heats up.   - Check out all our Movie Scores on the site! - Support the Daily Ratings and become a Producer now! - Here are all the new movies out now! - Shop our store for all the Daily Ratings gear!

Devin & James are back in the Den with another trip (and we mean TRIP) around the world with a look at STRANGE INTERNATIONAL WESTERNS. America may have cornered the market on the genre of its own invention, but artists from around the world have always found inspiration in Wild West mythologies, and we have picked out a few of the wildest, weirdest, and downright most bizarre Westerns from around the globe.We start in 1964 Czechoslovakia with Oldrich Lipsky's highly-stylized musical satire on classic cowboys and capitalism, LEMONADE JOE. We couldn't ignore Italy, so next we look at the dreamlike nightmare that is Giulio Questi's Spaghetti Western, DJANGO KILL... IF YOU LIVE, SHOOT!, featuring Tomas Milian. Then we come closer to home with Alejandro Jodorosky's midnight masterpiece from Mexico, EL TOPO. We jump back across the pond to discover an underappreciated 1970 gem from the New German Cinema Movement, Roland Klick's DEADLOCK (co-starring a very sweaty Mario Adorf). Next we jump continents, and decades, for 2007's wild and unwieldy SUKIYAKI WESTERN DJANGO, an ultra pop culture-infused oater from Japanese visionary, Takashi Miike. Finally, we take a ride with Kim Jee-woon's incredible South Korean Kimchi Western, THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE WEIRD, his 2008 tribute to Sergio Leone set in 1930's Manchuria that feels more like a true Western than a lot of modern Westerns. Saddle up and keep your wits. It's gonna get weird.

first, a classic moment from a vintage Amos and Andy episode from the late 1920s. The announcer, Bill Haig reports technical difficulties, and an organ interlude is presented instead. When…

In a previous episode a tale of Kenny Andrews, and how he ended up in an insane asylum was told. Due to audience request, his saga is continued to report…

Horlicks: Superior over all other malted milk products. Only the best, most choice products go into the ingredients of Horlicks. Let's see what's happening in Pine Ridge. Lum was devastated…

The stage coach trail is wild and uncivilized in the areas around the town of Flat Rock. Just when the stage is being ambushed, the bandits are interrupted by Wild…

Rolling back the clock a few days, we find Rochester doing some house cleaning when his work is interrupted by his gal Suzy. Jack is in the other room, giving…

Well known and loved host of the quiz show, Information Please, is today's host. Clifton Fadiman calls on the orchestra to play a jazzy version of, Polly Wolly Doodle. Responding…

Only a few Westerns contain explicitly Jewish stories or themes, and very rarely do Old West tales involve identifiably Jewish characters. Yet Jewish contributors have shaped the Western—once Hollywood's most popular genre—ever since the silent era, both onscreen and offscreen, and some filmmakers have sought to infuse the genre with a distinctly Jewish sensibility. In Chai Noon: Jews and the Cinematic Wild West (University of Wisconsin Press, 2025), Friedmann engages with larger themes of Jewish identity in popular film, including depictions of race, ethnicity, and foreignness. He also identifies similar concerns within the invention and creation of the imaginary West writ large in American culture. The juxtapositions prove to be both unexpected and intuitively understandable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Only a few Westerns contain explicitly Jewish stories or themes, and very rarely do Old West tales involve identifiably Jewish characters. Yet Jewish contributors have shaped the Western—once Hollywood's most popular genre—ever since the silent era, both onscreen and offscreen, and some filmmakers have sought to infuse the genre with a distinctly Jewish sensibility. In Chai Noon: Jews and the Cinematic Wild West (University of Wisconsin Press, 2025), Friedmann engages with larger themes of Jewish identity in popular film, including depictions of race, ethnicity, and foreignness. He also identifies similar concerns within the invention and creation of the imaginary West writ large in American culture. The juxtapositions prove to be both unexpected and intuitively understandable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/jewish-studies

Only a few Westerns contain explicitly Jewish stories or themes, and very rarely do Old West tales involve identifiably Jewish characters. Yet Jewish contributors have shaped the Western—once Hollywood's most popular genre—ever since the silent era, both onscreen and offscreen, and some filmmakers have sought to infuse the genre with a distinctly Jewish sensibility. In Chai Noon: Jews and the Cinematic Wild West (University of Wisconsin Press, 2025), Friedmann engages with larger themes of Jewish identity in popular film, including depictions of race, ethnicity, and foreignness. He also identifies similar concerns within the invention and creation of the imaginary West writ large in American culture. The juxtapositions prove to be both unexpected and intuitively understandable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-studies

The area from Ohio to Illinois is largely an unexplored wilderness. An American frontiersman takes a wife, and strikes out to make a home. At the same time the government…

Audio has Good quality. A brief telling of the fall of the house of Romanov, the last Russian Tsar. Rasputin had held the royal family captivated, and reliant on his…

Westerns on a FridayFirst,  a look at this day in History.Then, Gunsmoke starring William Conrad, originally broadcast  July 3, 1954, 72 years ago, Word of Honor.  After treating a wounded man, Doc gives his word of honor not to reveal the identities or hiding place of his criminal patients.Followed by Have Gun Will Travel starring John Dehner, originally broadcast July 3, 1960, 66 years ago, Dad Blamed Luck. Jamie Howard, inveterate gambler and part time horse thief, hires Paladin to regain his lost gold mine. Then, Lux Radio Theater,  originally broadcast  July 3, 1939, 87 years ago., Border Town starring Don Ameche, Joan Bennett, and Claire Trevor.  A Mexican lawyer, disbarred when he opposes the upper class, vows to become rich and rise above his humble background. An adaptation of the 1935 motion picture that starred Paul Muni and Bette Davis. Finally, Lum and Abner, originally broadcast July 3, 1935, 91 years ago, Lawyar Visits Lum. After lecturing Abner about signing a paper without thinking about it, Lum does the same thing with Mr. Ferguson, Squire Skimp's lawyer!Thanks to Bill B for supporting our podcast by using the Buy Me a Coffee function at http://classicradio.streamFind the Family Fallout Shelter Booklet Here: https://www.survivorlibrary.com/library/the_family_fallout_shelter_1959.pdfhttps://wardomatic.blogspot.com/2006/11/fallout-shelter-handbook-1962.html

A woman is alone on her farm with her mentally challenged son, and fears for her safety. With her husband long dead she worries that her brother is ineffectual to…

Carlton Bricker puts in some extra words to let listeners know how to send for their photo of Lum and Abner. Down in Pine Ridge, the whole town has gathered…

The kindly old investigator wraps up the mystery today. Mr. Keen and Mike Clancey have been investigating the death of Donald Traviss. Mr. Keen has his eye on two suspects,…

Gracie chats with her neighbor about surprising George for his birthday. When George arrives home, he complains about things missing from his wallet. When he finds the items in Graci's…

Cynthia Brown has a story to tell Archie about her friend, Doris who was killed. A man who is at a party in Nero's office is the one Cynthia is…

Carlton Bricker gives a quick reminder of how to send for a photo of Lum and Abner. Today in Pine Ridge Lum and Abner talk about the money they got…

The delightful Millie De Chirico returns to the show once more to talk with Brian and Phil and this time it's about the New Beverly Calendar for the month of July 2026 - which is packed with good stuff! Featured this month are tons of can't miss gems from Nicolas Cage to HEAT, to Tangerine Dream, Cocteau, Westerns and other classics plus so much more! As mentioned on the episode, check out Millie's new Patreon show Our Fu**in House with her friend and former I SAW WHAT YOU DID Co-Host Danielle Henderson here: https://www.patreon.com/cw/OurEffinHouse And her other regular pod DEAR MOVIES, I LOVE YOU here: https://www.exactlyrightmedia.com/dear-movies-i-love-you Check out all things New Beverly here: https://thenewbev.com/ Have A look at what's Happening at The Vista/Video Archives Cinema Club Here: https://ticketing.uswest.veezi.com/sessions/?siteToken=20xhpa3yt2hhkwt4zjvfcwsaww If You Enjoy the show, You can help support us at Pure Cinema by going to: https://www.patreon.com/purecinemapod Brian's Directed By shirts can be found here: https://www.teepublic.com/user/filmmakershirts

Ana Nogueira (Supergirl) discusses pitching open writing assignments, setting a reasonable goal, the Westerns that inspired Supergirl, the core of Kara Zor-El, her favorite brainwash, and lots more.Dead Pilots Society returns live and on demand Sunday July 12, 3-5pm, at the Elysian Theater in LA! In Dead Pilots Society, scripts that were developed by studios and networks but were never produced are given the table reads they deserve.The July 12 show features Weekly World News by Michael Colton & John Aboud (Home Economics) and Fangirl by Claudia Lonow (How to Live with Your Parents [for the Rest of Your Life]).Cast includes: Brennan Lee Mulligan (Dimension 20), Alex Moffat (SNL; Bad Monkey), Rich Sommer (Mad Men), Jackie Tohn (Nobody Wants This), Isabella Roland (Dimension 20; Sex Lives of College Girls), Rekha Shankar (Dimension 20; Star Trek: Starfleet Academy), Fred Melamed (Barry), Zac Oyama (Dimension 20), Jessica Lowe (Minx), James Adomian (Krapopolis), Courtney Pauroso (Jackass Forever), and more.GET TICKETS NOWNo Notes is Sunday July 19, 7pm, at the Dynasty Typewriter Theater in LA!This is a new staged show in which great pilot scripts are adapted for the stage and performed by brilliant casts.The July 19 show features two comedy scripts:The Survivalists is by Kashana Cauley (The Great North; The Daily Show), based on her novel about a Brooklyn lawyer who falls in love with a coffee roaster/survivalist.Suckers by Eden Dranger (Beavis & Butthead) & Daley Haggar (The Big Bang Theory) is about 20-something vampires.Starring Molly Quinn (Castle), Justin Kirk (The Burbs; Weeds), Cooper Tomlinson (Obsessed), Kira Kosarin (The Thundermans), Sarunas Jackson (Insecure; Clipped), and more to be announced!GET TICKETS NOWTHE WRITERS PANEL IS A COMPLETELY INDEPENDENT PRODUCTION.Follow and support the show by subscribing to Ben Blacker's newsletter, Re:Writing, where you'll also get weekly advice from the thousands of writers he's interviewed over the years, as well as access to exclusive live Q&As, meet-ups, and more: benblacker.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Horror Short Film Director Roundtable is one of the most important things that we did at the Portland Horror Film Festival. It provided an elevated platform for horror short filmmakers. Oftentimes, this is ground zero for original horror ideas. Unless you are a Hollywood nepo-director, short film creation is where you learn your chops. I wanted to give these creatives an opportunity to share their experiences in making movies, both good and bad, so that we can all learn a little more about the craft. Life as a short filmmaker can be an experience in the shadows. Your films are rarely seen outside of film festivals, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. This is where most creative minds hone their crafts. Take a simple concept and do it well. Do you have something scary or funny to tell? Is there an idea that has been lurking in the back of your brain that you have to give life to? A short film will give you the opportunity to learn production, editing, budgeting, and team management. It also places you in a community of people who are open to sharing their work with one another. That’s where the round table fits in. After our discussion, I told the group that, even though I wanted this discussion to be a forum for them to share their wins and losses with each other, I selfishly set up this talk so I could learn more about horror moviemaking. Nine years in on being a small horror press journalist, and I still feel like I am only scratching the surface about what a director has to do. Just how do you do it? These discussions give me more talking points and access to better questions to ask. The Portland Horror Film Festival is one of the best curated horror film festivals in the country. Not only do Gwen and Brian Callahan select some of the best horror short films for their festivals, but they also provide opportunities for short film alumni to showcase their feature films. One of the questions I asked in our roundtable discussion was, “How many of you are looking to be feature film directors?” All of them raised their hands (with the exception of Patrick Hogan, who has already directed a feature film). For these directors, here is some encouraging data. This year alone had FIVE directors who previously presented short films at either PHFF or the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival and later had their feature films shown at these festivals. Here are the PHFF Alumni filmmakers who presented a short film and then a feature: Anthony Cousins: Short Films – “The Bloody Ballad of Squirt Reynolds” and “Every Time We Meet for Ice Cream Your Whole Fucking Face Explodes” to Feature Films – Frogman (2023) and Frogman Returns (2026) Jeff Ferrell: Short Film – “Morella” to Feature Film – The Demonatrix (2026) Levi Buchannan: Short Film – “We Said Forever” to Feature Film Sitra Achra (2026) Krsy Fox: Short Film – “What the Spell” to Feature Film – Big Baby (2026) Masaki Nishiyama: Short Film “Smahorror” to Feature Film “The Invisible Half” (2026) Zack Ogle: Short Film “We Got a Monkey’s Paw” to Feature Film – It Needs Eyes (2025) Craig Ouellette: “Str$p” to Feature Film – Straight on Til Morning (2025) Andrew Bowser: Short Film – “Little Willy” to Feature Film – Onyx the Fortuitous and the Talisman of Evil (2022) Izzy Lee: “My Monster”, “Dark Signals”, “Rehomed” to Feature Film – House of Ashes (2024) Kenichi Ugana: Short Film – “Visitors” to Feature Film – Love Will Tear Us Apart (2023) Alice Maio Mackay: Short Film – “The Serpent’s Skin” to Feature Film T-Blockers (2023) Matthew John Lawrence: Short Film “Larry Gone Demon” to Feature Film – Uncle Peckerhead (2020) Justin Harding: Short Film “Kookie” to Feature Film – Making Monsters (2019) The PHFF Horror Short Film Director Roundtable Recording: Here is the roundtable discussion. It’s all about the lessons learned. The good, the bad, and the ridiculous. My past experience doing these round tables sometimes put the filmmakers on the spot, and I didn’t want this to be a “stump the directors” exercise. I prepared them with the following questions: Apart from financing, what was the biggest challenge in making your movie? What was the most interesting thing you learned while making this film? How many of you are filmmakers as a second career? What remains a mystery to you as a filmmaker that you think might be answered by one of your peers in this discussion? What piece of advice do you have for your fellow directors? This group really got into the discussion, and had the festival not started up, we could have gone on for quite a while longer. I had a great time, and I believe they did as well. The Horror Short Film Director Roundtable Films: Blindsided Directed by P. Patrick HoganStarring Crystal LoverroPortland Horror Film Festival: Winner of the Devil’s Discord (Best Sound Design) A blind schoolteacher struggles to survive through a nightmarish night when an alien spaceship crashes and unleashes a monstrous predator. This unique horror short film features an all-low-vision cast and places the audience in the POV of a blind protagonist who is only able to hear what happens around her. Director Statements: “Blindsided is a riveting short horror film that takes a unique narrative approach, providing audiences with an immersive glimpse into the harrowing experience of Maria, a blind woman confronting the most terrifying ordeal of her life. The horror remains unseen, both to her and the audience, heightening the suspense and reminding us that sometimes, the most terrifying things are the ones we don’t see coming… This is an innovative short film that ventures into uncharted territory within the horror genre. The narrative unfolds in a tranquil neighborhood, abruptly disrupted by a crashing alien spacecraft and the horrifying monster it unleashes into the night. However, what sets this film apart is the unique perspective from which the story is told – the POV of Maria, a blind schoolteacher living alone. Maria’s desperate struggle to evade the otherworldly predator, guided solely by what she hears, will provide an experience unlike any other horror short. Additionally, to promote diversity and inclusivity, in conjunction with our Disability Authenticity Consultant Vanni Le and Casting Director Danielle Pretsfelder Demchick, all the characters in the film are played by low-vision actors, placing the spotlight on the often-overlooked talent within the low-vision community. We are very proud of Blindsided and look forward to enjoying it in theaters with an audience who doesn’t know what they are about to experience.” Scullion Written and Directed by Trevor GracianoStarring: Whitney Garner as “Samantha”, Cody Parr as “Greg”, and Jim Close as “The Maid” A playful couple test their household chore habits and unknowingly summon a vengeful presence. Director Statements: “We all carry habits inherited from our parents into adulthood. I grew up in a religious household where some of those habits were helpful, but many were not—and they've lingered in ways I don't welcome. Some habits fade with time, while others remain, quietly shaping us in the background. This film explores the struggle to break free from those ingrained patterns, and the imaginative consequences of what happens when they refuse to let go. *It's really just about how to load the communal dishwasher correctly.” Worst Thing You’ve Ever Done Directed by PJ GermainWritten by Autumn Palen and PJ GermainStarring: Brady Gentry, Benjamin Nowak, Bix Krieger, Charlie N. Townsend, Cailyn Rice, Ethan Ahn, Emma Smith Watts, and Erin Rae Kykendall HIGH SCHOOL REALLY SUCKS… and no one knows that better than best friends Aaron and Keith. So when they set out to crash the last graduation party of the summer, emotions fly high, and the culture clash of teenagers finds them playing a simple game that has dire consequences. Director’s Statement: “Before he passed, screenwriter Gil Dennis told me during my time at AFI, “Write what hurts.” That idea has stayed with me; it's the compass I use when choosing the stories I want to tell. When I first read Autumn Palen's original draft of Worst Thing You've Ever Done, it hurt. It transported me back to moments in my own adolescence; memories filled with shame, ridicule, and isolation. But what floored me was its third-act twist. It was something I'd never felt so viscerally in a short script. I knew I had to direct it. What began as a contained character piece evolved into something more personal. I rewrote the script to reflect my own lived experiences, with every character, every event drawn from real moments that left a mark. I wanted to take a character that I felt so intertwined with, and make him someone that the audience would really relate to before reaching the moment where everything changes; the blood-drenched punchline to the twisted joke these high school kids played on each other. I set it during the 90’s, as it was a period of transition for me as an 80’s kid, being on the cusp of the old and new world. I needed the film to be an exploration of adolescent loneliness which dealt with the complexity of the friendships and social hierarchies that often defined who we were at that fragile age. We weren’t quite kids anymore, but we weren’t adults yet either, so how did we approach the consequences of reckless behavior? My team and I knew that casting would make or break the film. To capture that truth, casting was everything. I reviewed over 6,000 submissions, narrowing it down to a callback of who I thought could embody the characters. I needed authenticity, so at that callback, I ditched the script and asked actors, in character, to describe moments like first dates or getting asked to prom. It revealed who leaped from the page and became real. A week before we were to start shooting, my original cinematographer had to back out due to a conflict with the TV series he was currently shooting, and months of planning began to crumble. In the days leading up to whether or not we were going to cancel the project entirely, my long-time collaborator and cinematographer Jeff Billings took on the task. We shot the film over 3 tireless days, and as any director knows, you plan as much as you can; however, the plan eventually goes out the window. So I played a game of pivoting and being malleable myself in order to get what we needed to tell the story. The film is a testament to all the parts working together for a singular goal, and my hope is that when that first music cue drops, the audience is strapped in and ready to ride the roller coaster to that final frame.” https://vimeo.com/1071562836/377ba7d361?fl=pl&fe=cm Cat and Mouse Written and Directed by Brady CatesStarring: Halima Kamara as “Michelle”, Collan Simmons as “Felix, and Ron LaprechtEdited by Luke Oleen Junk, and Hayley Frederick Michelle is caught in a killer’s sadistic and carefully orchestrated game. With danger closing in at every turn, Michelle must outwit and outlast her relentless pursuer. But as the night goes on, unsettling clues reveal that all may not be what it seems. This time, it's the mouse's turn to catch the cat. My Severed Arm Written and Directed by Casey de FremeryStarring: Olivia Rose Prince as “Sidney”, Ryan Romine as “Mason”, and Julia Linger as “Commercial Model”Portland Horror Film Festival: Funny Bone Award for Exceptional Horror Comedy A woman tries to escape a serial killer using DIY videos, but the internet won't stop trying to sell her things first. Director’s Statement: “My Severed Arm is a horror-comedy about a “final girl” who, after fleeing into a cabin in the woods, discovers that her greatest threat isn't the machete-wielding slasher outside—it's the barrage of unskippable ads and paywalls blocking her access to life-saving information. Trapped, bleeding, and desperate to repair the tools around her, she turns to YouTube—but instead of help, she's ambushed by holographic tutorials and polished commercial spokespeople invading the cabin like digital ghosts. The film began with a thought I couldn't shake: what if you had to listen to ads when calling 911? It was a joke at first, but one that felt eerily plausible five minutes into the future. I've learned so many practical things through platforms like YouTube, but over time, that access has been buried beneath monetization schemes, misinformation, and endless self-promotional detours. This story is my response to that frustration—exaggerated into a literal life-or-death scenario. Stylistically, I wanted to evoke the stark, grim energy of Evil Dead or Cabin in the Woods, but undercut it with the absurdity of consumer culture leaking into every moment. That blend of horror and comedy, physical space and digital intrusion, is what drives the tone. At its core, My Severed Arm is about survival—both in the horror-movie and digital sense. It's about what happens when urgency meets algorithm, when access to knowledge is shaped by incentive structures that don't care if you bleed out. The film asks: what good is information if it's hidden behind paywalls, pop-ups, and promo codes? But more than anything, I want the audience to laugh, cringe, and feel that creeping recognition that this isn't the future – it's the now.” Into The Stand Directed by Mackenzie Hamilton and Taylor FuchsWritten by Mackenzie HamiltonStarring: Sarah Rich as “Quinn”, Ariana Raygoza as “Rosa”, and Nick Dietrich Tree planters Quinn and Rosa return to camp for another summer in the wilderness. Rosa is newly sober, and Quinn is quietly anxious about how she'll handle the camp's hard-partying culture. At the welcome-back party, Rosa is tempted to drink, prompting Quinn to intervene. Shaken, Rosa heads into the forest to clear her head, but doesn't come back. When Quinn goes after her, she's met with eerie signs: strange noises, a mangled deer, and an odd light deep in the woods. As the forest closes in, Quinn questions if there is something else out there. Director’s Statement: The woods have always haunted me. Growing up in rural Vancouver Island, I would often cut through forest trails to reach friends’ houses. When it was night, we would meet in the middle of the trail to keep each other safe. Thankfully, we always found each other, but I frequently wondered what if we didn't? What if something else was out there, waiting in the darkness of the woods? Into the Stand is inspired by the many times I scared myself on those trails, letting my imagination run wild. Now that I'm older, my fears are centered around more tangible things, like navigating how to let go of people you love when you can't control what they're going through. This story is deeply informed by themes of sobriety, codependency, and how the urge to help someone can sometimes lead you somewhere dark. Ultimately, Into the Stand is a fun horror made in the community I grew up in with friends who helped bring it to life. My husband and I co-directed this short film, transforming the woods on my parents' farm into a tree-planting camp, and had a blast turning a familiar place into something eerie and cinematic. It's a scary film that is personal and full of heart, and I'm overjoyed to be telling stories in the places that shaped me. –Mackenzie Hamilton and Taylor Fuchs Nurture Written and Directed by Nick SnyderProduced by Sam SnyderStarring: Travis Bilenski as “Ren, and Kailey Rhodes as “Rose”Portland Horror Film Festival: Winner – Goule D’or Best Short On a remote Oregon farm, a couple grieving from a miscarriage finds hope in a mysterious flower. But as it heals her, the flower takes root in him. Nurture is a dialogue-free folk-horror fable about love, grief, and the consequences of taking too much from nature. Director’s Statement: NURTURE marks my return to narrative filmmaking after years of honing my craft in visual effects, motion design, and commercial work. Inspired by the Pacific Northwest and the quiet mythology of its forests, this dialogue-free folk horror short explores grief through the lens of a nature curse. Where grief deepens love and a curse demands sacrifice, NURTURE examines the dangerous hope that something broken can be restored without cost. Other Notable Horror Shorts from the Festival: There were 48 short films shown at the Festival, selected from over 500 submissions. Here are a few notable and favorite films that were also showing at the festival. Famous Directed by Rosita Lama MuvdiWritten by Jordan MonaghanStarring Jordan Monaghan “A young woman desperate for social media fame exploits her father's death to go viral. But the volatile world of internet stardom pushes her to the edge.” Punchy and poignant. Famous taps into the darkest desires of influencers desperate to get likes. Just how far will you go for a few more “likes and subscribes”? Jordan Monaghan chases likes the wrong way in “Famous” (2026) Favela Amarela (Brazil) Written and Directed by Nicolas Lobato and Tiago TuchuStarring Richard Abelha, Giselle Batista, and Sai “A student from the favelas of Rio de Janeiro joins the local drug militia to pay for college and uncovers an NGO linked to powerful politicians that hides dark rituals devoted to the King in Yellow.” I won’t be surprised if this stunning short film also plays at the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival. It is saturated in Brazilian culture, mixed with a heavy application of Cosmic Horror. Favela Amarela (2026) Wall Udder Written and Directed by Alexandra HaydenStarring Kevin Grady, Sawyer Fuller, and Bries Vannon “A dissatisfied woman confronts repressed feelings of malaise after her partner comes home smelling like milk.” Hysterically gag-inducingly funny! There is a double-punchline gag that brought the house down. Part of the Shorts Gone Wild block at PHFF, where the festival screens the zaniest submitted shorts. This did not disappoint. Ewwww! Who wants some milk? “Wall Udder” (2026) Tooth-Hurty! Directed by Jude MadonnaWritten by Katie SmallStarring Katie Small, Jude Madonna, Brook Hogan, and Tommy HardenPortland Horror Film Festival Winner: Abby Normal Award: For the exceptionally weird and disturbing “Lucy is a people-pleasing writer-photographer whose dream of being an artist remains just out of reach. A comment from her boyfriend about her teeth triggers Lucy to make an appointment for a dental checkup for the first time in years with the mysterious yet heavily advertised Big Smiles Dentistry.” Super clever! There should be more horror movies about trips to the dentist. This made my toes curl and had me in stitches, as well. Say Ahhh! Katie Small in “Tooth-Hurty!” (2026) CHÄIR Directed by Chris McInroyWritten by Chris McInroy and Carlos La RottaStarring Carlos LaRotta, Kim Lowery, and Chloe McInroy “Carl just wanted to sit down. The chair had other plans.” I am always a fan of Chris McInroy. He and Carlos do a crazy short film every year. I am in awe of how these guys make deadpan, silly, and super-gory original content. It won’t be long before they release a greatest-hits compilation, and I will be in line to buy it. This spoof on Ikea furniture assembly is a tribute to all of us who have struggled to assemble the Scandinavian furniture at home. Carlos LaRotta contemplates his struggles putting a chair together in “CHÄIR” (2026) The Bones Exist Directed by Kelsey Bollig and Matthew DuVallWritten by Matthew DuVallStarring: Alex Pena as “Manny”, Siya Maleki as “Diego”, Jack Campbell as “Don Rob”, Michael Manzako as “The Boy”, and Alex Bankler as the Utah Raptor.Portland Horror Film Festival Winner: Tompe L’oiel Award for Best Special Effects In the unforgiving wilderness of 1850s Alta California, a dwindling group of gold prospectors encounters a feral boy who forces the men to confront the horrors lurking in the woods and the sins of their past. This combines two of my favorite genres: Dinosaurs and Westerns. Perhaps not done since The Valley of Gwanji, The Bones Exists shows plenty of raptors hunting cowboys and does so convincingly. Bonus points for showing the most current understanding of raptors as feathered dinos. Munch Munch! “The Bones Exist” (2026) Flush (France) Written and Directed by Raphaël TreinerStarring Eléonore Gurrey as “Marianne” and Christophe Ntakabenura as “Ben” Abominable plumbing and violent deaths. MARIANNE, extremely pregnant, and BEN, a plumber and one-night stand, team up to survive an epic night and face the monsters of a building beset by an unknown evil. I am a sucker for the Trapped in a Bathroom trope, even going so far as to host a Crypticon horror panel on the topic. This film goes to the top (plumbing) shelf. This is Cosmic horror that brings all the icky, goopy, nasty elements you might expect from this theme is on full display. To think that an effective little romance element managed to sneak into the plot, and you have something unusually effective. I love it when the French go weird. Eléonore Gurrey and Christophe Ntakabenura are unlikely allies in “Flush” (2026)