The Agony Column has a couple of interviews from SF in SF:
Pat Murphy |MP3|
Carol Emshwiller |MP3|
You can subscribe to the feed at this URL: http://trashotron.com/agony/indexes/tac_podcast.xml
Posted by Charles Tan
The Dragon Page Interviews Laurell K. Hamilton
The latest Dragon Page Cover To Cover podcast features an interview with Laurell K. Hamilton (Blood Noir).
You can download the |MP3| directly or subscribe to the show’s XML feed:
http://www.dragonpage.com/podcastC2C.xml
Posted by Charles Tan
NPR: Paolo Bacigalupi
Time Traveler reads for Scatterpod: Dark
Michael Bekemeyer of Scatterpod has started a new themed series for the show called Scatterpod: Dark. As you can imagine these tales concentrate on the darker side of human nature. Some of the shows are non-fantasy horror stories, but they often have a fantasy element.
The third and most recent installation features a Science Fiction story called Ice Planet written by Michael. The story is read by none other than myself, The Time Traveler. Although I host my own show, but with the exception of one short flash fiction, this is my first tour of duty as a narrator. When Michael sent me the story, I couldn’t refuse. It was reminiscent of the kind of stories that appeared in the pulp magazines like Planet Stories (with some added expletives).
You can download the episode here.
You can subscribe to the Scatterpod by pasting this line in your favorite podcatching device:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/scatterpod
or 
YakiToMe – a text to speech service with a podcast option
Just the other day I was reading a rather long blog post from TheFix-Online.com (a review of Subterranean Online’s Spring 2008 issue) when I suddenly got tired of looking at my monitor. I really wanted to finish reading the review, but I had a few pressing household tasks I needed to do, and I knew if I didn’t finish reading the review right then, I’d never get to it again. So, I wondered, is there a way to get this into my ears instead?
47 seconds later…
There was!
I found this…
YakiToMe is a web-based text to speech service that will turn any block of eText into a computer voiced MP3. Even better, it can podcast that article, book or story right to your MP3 player!
Check out the two samples I made for public consumption (both are just a couple excerpted paragraphs so as not to ruffle any copyright feathers). And FYI, you can make much longer files!
Sample 1: From TheFix-Online.com a review of Subterranean Online’s Spring 2008 issue
Here’s the original eText review.
Here’s the unique YakiToMe link for it:
|FAIR USE TheFix-Online.com’s review of Subterranean Online’s Spring 2008 magazine|
Direct download |MP3|
Podcast feed:
http://www.yakitome.com/cgi-bin/rss.py?uID=7206633907&sID=16083&aID=16688
Sample 2: From The Sacramento Bee‘s website, an article about Robert Silverberg
Here’s the original eText article.
Here’s the unique YakiToMe link for it:
Direct download |MP3|
Podcast feed:
http://www.yakitome.com/cgi-bin/rss.py?uID=7206633907&sID=16085&aID=16690
Subsequent fiddling with the service show that you can get better voices too. Cool huh?
Posted by Jesse Willis
Review of Enna Burning by Shannon Hale
Enna Burning
By Shannon Hale; Read by Cynthia Bishop and the Full Cast Family
8 CDs – 8.5 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Full Cast Audio
Published: 2007
ISBN: 9781934180198
Themes: / Fantasy / YA / Magic / Fairy Tale /
First, I have to say that I LOVE Full Cast Audio. They always do family-friendly books and they are always unabridged. They do an excellent job.
Enna Burning is the sequel to Goose Girl, Shannon Hale’s novelization of the classic fairy tale (also on audiobook by Full Cast Audio). However, you do not need to read/listen to Goose Girl to enjoy Enna Burning”. Hale does an excellent job of giving just enough background to ensure that the reader knows what is going on.
The story is well paced and full of action. The cast of actors does a great job of keeping the feel of the book and keeping the listener’s attention.
Izzy, the “goose girl”, is now princess and her friend, Enna, has gone home to the forest to take care of her dying mother. Enna’s mother dies before the book starts, but she is still in the forest, taking care of her older brother, Leifer. Leifer finds a long-hidden piece of vellum that teaches him to magically work fire. He struggles to control this power as it slowly consumes him. Finally, he uses his power to save their country of Bayern from the invading country to the South, but the fire destroys him.
Enna’s curiosity gets the better of her, and she, too, reads the vellum, telling herself she won’t ever follow the path her brother chose. But her need to help Izzy and save Bayern from being destroyed soon cause her to take a path not of her choosing.
The story is well paced and entertaining. It is written for the Middle Grade/Young Adult market, but is a great story for all ages. I highly recommend both the book and the audiobook.
Posted by Charlene C. Harmon