Casting Pods

The Casting Pods one year anniversary episode, recorded at the Foyle’s Short Story Festival at Foyle’s bookshop, Charing Cross Road, London. I begin by talking about my novel Silence, for which I’m having a book launch soon and the publicity I’ve been doing recently. The festival was excellent and I travelled down with my partner and son, staying in a hotel. So this episode is a hybrid of the travelogue and book events episodes. Includes my speech and some mingling with publishing people and writers. Next event is at Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park which I will also record.

Eight Hours short story collection was recently released and this show is a compilation of the recordings I made at the Cardiff book launch in Waterstone’s, The Hayes, Cardiff. I met the lovely writing twins, Cathryn and Lindsey Davies, who write as one under the name CL Raven. I’ve chatted to them online but this was the first time we’d met in real life. The podcast includes an interview with the twins and our speeches and celebrations at the launch. How exciting!

I travel to London again and meet David Freedman who runs the Meet the Author website. One video interview with him, a change of clothes and another video interview this time in my publisher’s office. Also being interview is Nick Griffiths, author of In the Footsteps of Harrison Dextrose. He carves a face on a melon to use in place of his own head. Great fun.

The last instalment of our holiday in Egypt. We say goodbye to the sphinx, see a camel having a poo, spend lots of money in a bizarre bazaar and fly home. I sprained my ankle recently and edited this show to relieve the boredom of daytime TV.

The momentous occasion of me learning that Legend want to publish my book ‘Silence’. I travelled to London for a meeting with Tom, my publisher, then later in the evening I was on a panel of authors at an event in Kensal library. There was free wine which unfortunately meant I missed my bus home. I’m glad I’ve got this recorded, and hope you enjoy listening.

More on our holiday in Egypt, including a visit to the step pyramid, another sphinx and the sound and light show with cold beer and bagpipes. Also in this show I talk about my latest news in that next week I’m off to London to meet with my publisher and discuss my novel. Wh-hoo!

The content of the show was recorded when I went to the Bournemouth Literature Festival for an erotic writing workshop with Mitzi Szereto. I’ve edited it over the Christmas holiday and recorded the introduction on Christmas Day. This show includes an interview with Mitzi and a short extract from my erotic short story that won the third prize in the competition. I rate the show as PG due to its non-graphic but slightly adult content. Next show will be more from Egypt.

More on our holiday in Egypt, lots of shopping, at the bazaar and the jewellers, some lazy times and I found internet access with iced coffee. Including a trip to the Cairo museum, papyrus making, lunch on the Nile, and a visit to the hanging church and the citadel of Saladin. Plus quite a few complaints about the heat.

After a long delay, the seventh show is ready, featuring my flight to and arrival in Cairo. An exhausting day of pyramids, the sphinx and a boat in the middle of the desert. I learned to haggle and used an Arabic word excessively – imshee.

The final instalment of my trip to Paris, EuroDisney in all its commercial splendour, and the wonderful feeling of coming home. While I was away, the weather in the UK was terrible and there were floods which worried me. But I’m home now and everything is okay (except for a damp patch on the bedroom ceiling).

The Fifth show of Casting Pods features performances of the choir in Notre Dame and the Madeleine. I became a Harry Potter widow and admitted to my addiction to the internet. Also in this show, various samples of Paris toilets, a trip up the Eiffel Tower, fifteen flavours of slush and my huge bottom up a climbing wall. Not to be missed!

Fourth show of Casting Pods, featuring the anticipation and arrival in Paris, and the first rehearsals of the choir in Notre Dame. I am very proud of my son for singing his best and we’ve had a fab time in Paris doing touristy things and indulging in a mission to get an English copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows on the first day of publication.

This show is dedicated to an interview with author Sarah Mussi, and a break from my usual chat and music. We touch on subjects as wide as global debt, poverty, racism and the slave trade, as her book is a modern action adventure in which a teenage boy investigates his African roots. Sarah’s book, The Door of No Return was recently published by Hodder and has some rave reviews on Amazon, in The Times and on Waterstones’ website. I feel privileged to be Sarah’s friend and to have been able to interview her about her writing.

My weekend with my writing buddies, begins with a rant about the bombs and bad weather that nearly stopped me from going. Hilarity and serious conversations around books, writing and writers.

This is my first show so let me know what you think. There is some music on it and some laughing. Lots of talking, funny stuff and serious. An introduction to me. See the website for more at www.castingpods.co.uk. I have posted a transcription of the podcast there so you can read it while you listen.