Podcasts

A podcast for literary fiction discussions of short stories and novels.

The Rat King | Kerry Cullen | Literary Roadhouse Ep 64

May 11, 2016 Maya Goode Weekly Short Stories 0:36:24 0 Comments

Discussion Notes: The Rat King

Find this weeks story here: The Rat King

Next weeks story is Attitude Adjustment by Tim Gautreaux

Rated: Adult themes without Adult Language

Well… this was an odd one for sure. Surprisingly or perhaps not surprisingly, Maya was the only one who enjoyed The Rat King. This story, about a woman who finds herself drawn to the rat king, lent itself to interesting discussion. In this episode, we discuss the structure, characterization, lesbian drama and the juxiposition of these two very different relationships.

Don’t forget to rate the story! We rated it a 4.9, for the history of our goofy system, see Anais’ post “Read Short Stories or Ray Bradbury Cries.” On a scale of 1-6 Bradberries, how do you rate The Rat King? Tell us in the comments below or via voicemail, and we will give the final tally on the next episode. We are also in desperate need of iTunes reviews. Please search Literary Roadhouse in iTunes and leave reviews for all of our shows.

The Bradbury Challenge

Backing Up – Bradbury Challenge Ep 15

May 2, 2016 Maya Goode The Bradbury Challenge 00:43:34 0 Comments

Rated: Explicit for language

I am really behind in the editing of the Bradbury challenge so please be patient as I roll out several episodes this week. We are trying to remedy the situation and you can help! We started a Patreon campaign to raise funds to hire an audio editor so the shows will be out on time, with hire quality and we’ll be able to launch several new shows. Please read the details of our campaign here.

In this episode, Maya discusses revising the color of color for submission to a literary journal. Gerald talks about the ways he backs up his writing, and Crissy wrote despite being seriously ill and feeling depressed.

This Weeks Writing Prompt:

There are two children in the woods looking at the stars.

 

Literary Roadhouse Discussions

Literary Roadhouse Discussions with Karan Bajaj

May 1, 2016 Maya Goode Literary Roadhouse Discussions, Monthly Bookclub, The Bradbury Challenge, Weekly Short Stories 00:46:13 0 Comments

Karan Bajaj

Guest: Karan Bajaj

Rated: Clean

This week we have a treat for you! Literary Roadhouse  Discussions in a new intermittent extra podcast where we discuss literature and writing with authors and other literary figures. Our first guest is Karan Bajaj.

Karan Bajaj is a #1 bestselling Indian novelist with more than 200,000 copies of his novels in print, both optioned into major films. Karan’s first worldwide novel, The Yoga of Max’s Discontent, will be published by Random House on May 3rd’ 2016. The book, called “The greatest adventure of our Generation” by The Daily Telegraph was inspired by Karan’s one year sabbatical traveling from Europe to India by road and learning yoga and meditation in the Himalayas.

During our discussion, we dove deep into how travel and adventure affects his writing. His own spiritual hero’s journey and the reflections seen in his novels and the four one plan that Karan lives by; where he works a normal job for 4 years and then takes a 1 year sabbatical to refill his well of spirituality and creativity. This a wonderfully interesting discussion on writing, reading and life, we hope you enjoy it.

The Yoga of Maxs Discontent

THE YOGA OF MAX’S DISCONTENT will be published worldwide by Random House on May 3, 2016. The book is about a Wall Street investment banker who becomes a yogi in the Himalayas and is both a page turning adventure through the hidden underbelly of India and a contemporary take on man’s classic quest for transcendence.

The book is receiving excellent advance reviews with The Daily Telegraph calling it “The greatest adventure of our generation” and Sharon Gannon saying it’s “A superb meditation on effort and grace, on the level of Herman Hesse and Victor Frankl,”

Karan is also a yoga instructor and you can get a free meditation course, a Quit Sugar in 7 days nutrition guide, a yoga flow video course and other gifts when you order your book today. Details at www.karanbajaj.com/yogamax

Learn more about Karan:

Website: www.karanbajaj.com
Twitter: @realkaranbajaj
Instagram: realkaranbajaj
Facebook: www.facebook.com/author.karanbajaj

Literary Roadhouse DiscussionsIf you enjoyed this extra content, please support our Patreon campaign. We would love to add Literary Discussions to our regular podcast line up but are struggling with the audio editing. Just as the great painters and writers of old relied of Patrons to produce their art, every dollar of support will get us closer to hiring someone to do the audio editing. An audio editor not only would improve the audio quality but would help up launch three planned future shows. www.patreon.com/literaryRoadhouse

 

A podcast for literary fiction discussions of short stories and novels.

A Handful of Dates | Tayeb Saleh | Literary Roadhouse Ep 63

April 26, 2016 Maya Goode Weekly Short Stories 0:39:47 0 Comments

Discussion Notes: A Handful of Dates

Find this weeks story here: A Handful of Dates

Next weeks story is The Rat King by Kerry Cullen

Rated: Clean

This weeks story was about at it’s essence a coming of age story. We follow as a young man’s vision of his grandfather is changed and he develops a deeper understanding of write and wrong. Maya, Gerald and all liked the story a great deal, while Anais and Rammy came down the middle. This story reminded Maya of the history of how conquered people are treated by conquerors. It also prompted a discussion of what is moral and how morality is tied to economics.

Don’t forget to rate the story! We rated it a 4.9, for the history of our goofy system, see Anais’ post “Read Short Stories or Ray Bradbury Cries.” On a scale of 1-6 Bradberries, how do you rate A Handful of Dates? Tell us in the comments below or via voicemail, and we will give the final tally on the next episode. We are also in desperate need of iTunes reviews. Please search Literary Roadhouse in iTunes and leave reviews for all of our shows.

Literary Roadhouse Discussions

We Launched a Patreon Campaign!

April 16, 2016 Anais Concepcion Weekly Short Stories 0 Comments

Literary Roadhouse Launched a Patreon Campaign!Literary Roadhouse is now on Patreon! For those of you familiar with Patreon, great! Check out our profile at patreon.com/literaryroadhouse

Patreon lets fans directly support their favorite content creators, such as podcasters! Literary Roadhouse is free to our listeners, but unfortunately not free to create. Through Patreon you can pledge a monthly financial contribution to keep the podcast going and growing. It can be as low as $1 a month, or as high as your wallet and heart allows.

We’re ambitious. We want to grow. We have three new shows we want to produce, but we need a little help to reach our goal. We currently publish 9 episodes a month, which means Maya and Anais spend 60 hours each month sound editing. We want to grow to 16 episodes a month across 6 shows, but need a little boost getting there. Hey, maybe we can even hire a professional sound editor too! Dream big. And monthly contributions, even small ones, help us reach our goals and create better podcasts for you.

And if you prefer to make a one time contribution, you can sign up, pledge the amount you want to donate, then cancel the monthly pledge. Don’t worry about hurting our feelings by canceling a pledge, we know it’s a one-time donation and greatly appreciate it.

As a monthly patron you would have access to our Patreon activity feed where we will post special, patron-only content, such as patron-only conversations with the hosts, and sneak peeks behind the scenes.

Just to be clear, we are not charging you for our podcasts, and we don’t plan on ever doing so. Our shows are still free to anyone who reads.

If you love what what we do as much as we love doing it, help us keep doing it. And thank you.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

A podcast for literary fiction discussions of short stories and novels.

Ghost Birds | Nicolas Pizzolatto | Literary Roadhouse Ep 62

April 15, 2016 Maya Goode Weekly Short Stories 0:36:46 0 Comments

Discussion Notes: Ghost Birds

Find this weeks story here: Ghost Birds

Next week’s story is A Handful of Dates by Tayeb Saleh

Rated: Clean

Everyone liked this weeks story but Maya had issues with the 1st have of the story. Ghost Birds is about loss and fear of loss explored through the eyes of a man who uses extreme sports to overcome his inner demons. It touched on interesting and important ideas with strong themes of feeling alive, order and fear of death. Maya’s main problem with the story ended up almost being a deal breaker as she felt the story ended and then started again. While Anais thought the 2nd half of the story wasn’t as strong as the first, it didn’t take away from her enjoyment. Gerald and Rammy both enjoyed the story as well attesting to it’s strengths. Ghost Birds is an interesting tale, told in an unconventional way with thought provoking ideas.

Don’t forget to rate the story! For the history of our goofy system, see Anais’ post “Read Short Stories or Ray Bradbury Cries.” On a scale of 1-6 Bradberries, how do you rate Ghost Birds? Tell us in the comments below or via voicemail, and we will give the final tally on the next episode. We are also in desperate need of iTunes reviews. Please search Literary Roadhouse in iTunes and leave reviews for all of our shows.

The Bradbury Challenge

Short Versus Long Fiction – Bradbury Challenge Ep 14

April 11, 2016 Maya Goode The Bradbury Challenge 00:39:36 0 Comments

Rated: Explicit for Adult Language

Last week Crissy was sick and while we recorded the episode is late so you are getting two stories this week. Gerald finished the penultimate story in his archetypes collection and he is very happy with the depth of his story. Maya questions whether her story is actually a story. Please comment and let her know whether you would consider it flash fiction or slice of life prose. Despite her illness, Crissy got some good writing done after feeling inspired by Norwest Con.

We discussed short versus long fiction and how the Bradbury challenge is allowing us to play with our writing. Both Crissy and Maya have had the experience of having a short piece end up being part of a novel, while Gerald finds the two art forms quite different.

This Weeks Writing Prompt:

A thank you note from someone you don’t know.

 

Literary Roadhouse Podcast

Drone | Hari Kunzru | Literary Roadhouse Ep 61

April 6, 2016 Maya Goode Weekly Short Stories 1:00:13 0 Comments

Discussion Notes: Drone

Next week’s story is Ghost Birds by Nicolas Pizzalotto

Rated: Clean

As Anais was editing this weeks bickering, she realized that we’ve hit the old married couple phase of our podcast. Drone is excerpt of an upcoming novel that gave Rammy pause. We spent a good deal of time discussing whether it should qualify as a short story. I was right of course 😉 Set in a future India, this story touched on economic disparity, religion, and genetic modification.

Anais appreciated the clever writing and nods to Indian culture and current politics. Maya loved seeing a post apocalyptic science story set outside Europe or the US and populated with people of color. The story had interesting vocabulary in addition to science fiction terms which disrupted his reading experience.

Don’t forget to rate the story! For the history of our goofy system, see Anais’ post “Read Short Stories or Ray Bradbury Cries.” On a scale of 1-6 Bradberries, how do you rate A Handful of Dates? Tell us in the comments below or via voicemail, and we will give the final tally on the next episode. We are also in desperate need of iTunes reviews. Please search Literary Roadhouse in iTunes and leave reviews for all of our shows.

Literary Roadhouse

Your Heart is a Muscle The Size of a Fist by Sunil Yapa Literary Roadhouse Bookclub Ep 4

April 1, 2016 Maya Goode Monthly Bookclub 0:53:20 0 Comments

Discussion Notes: Your Heart is a Muscle The Size of a Fist

Next Month’s novel is The Sellout by Paul Beatty

Rated: Clean

Michael La RonnThis month author Michael La Ronn joins us to discuss Sunil Yapa’s novel, Your Heart is a Muscle The Size of a Fist. In addition to being a poet and author of fantasy novels, Michael is a host on the To Be Read Podcast.

Your Heart Is a Muscle the Size of a Fist is a fiction novel set during the 1999 WTO protests in Seattle. With a small cast of characters, Sunil Yapa successfully examines the events of that eventful day as well as touching on themes of family and community. This debut novel successfully breaks rules in an engaging and rewarding way. Michael fit right into the Literary Roadhouse with his insightful in-depth analysis. Anais considered the politics of the novel interesting but wonders how it would be received by less liberal audiences, while Michael and Gerald found it balanced without the common political novel missteps.

If you have any suggestions for the new bookclub please let us know in the comments. We also have a voicemail system on the website; if you would like to leave a voicemail and perhaps have us play your comments about this book, please click the green bar that says voicemail. We air the first Friday of every month and discuss the books on twitter using #LRHBookclub

The Bradbury Challenge

When The Voice Isn’t Right – The Bradbury Challenge Ep 13

March 31, 2016 Maya Goode The Bradbury Challenge 0:42:38 2 Comments

This week Maya struggled with what to do when the voice isn’t right. When the voice isn’t right, she finds it almost impossible to move forward. Gerald will set a story aside and work on something else when confronted the problem. But Crissy likes to move forward and fix the voice in revision.

Maya likes the idea of switching to additional projects but a crucial problem for her is a block against working on another project when she still has a fear of not finishing projects. Both Gerald and Crissy offered solid advice on learning to work on multiple projects at the same time.

They also discuss writing accurately when dealing with race, timelines, or legal procedure. Maya writes characters with diverse backgrounds and is contemplating a police procedural. Surprisingly, all three hosts find visualizing timelines through drawings or charts helpful for keeping the details straight. Maya and Gerald also plan to use their personal networks to have their work checked for inconsistencies.

This Weeks Writing Prompt:

Picture a hierophant with swords around its head come to collect a woman. Why?

 

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About Literary Roadhouse

Literary Roadhouse is a literary podcast where avid readers and aspiring writers read and discuss short and long fiction.
Read deeply.