Hey friends:
Thanks for reading! Here’s an update on the road ahead.
With the imminent completion of the third serialized Bassanda novel, NEW WORLD A-COMING (US W Coast and Bassanda in the Progressive 1930s and 1960s), I am planning to take a pause in generating new prose content. I have already begun plotting the fourth, WRESTLING THE DRAGON (1936-45, Spanish Civil War to VE Day), but I am wanting to take the time to further work on some of my own writerly skills, both having to do with advance-planning (e.g., to use writers’ jargon, “plotting” rather than “[seat-of-the-]pantsing”), but also having to do with writing in other registers—most notably, comic ones. I have a few ideas, particularly informed by Terry Pratchett and my greatest single hist-fiction influence, George MacDonald Fraser’s “Flashman,” but I need to take some time to let them germinate.
Nevertheless, the Bassanda content will continue, still appearing via the smithscribe feed, but also replicated in other media! For quite some time I have been reflecting upon how a Bassanda podcast might work, particularly in light of (a) the fact that I’m an avid podcast listener—and competent producer/showrunner, see SOUNDING HISTORY and VOICES FROM THE VERNACULAR MUSIC CENTER—(b) that I have a lot of experience at radio/audio/voiceover production, and (c) I’m interested in a stream which is friendly to those who have more time for listening rather than reading. I’ve created a few pilot episodes, which were essentially audio/voice/SFX versions of chapters from the Bassanda Correspondence, but—while I think they work—that approach feels a little bit redundant and a little bit pedestrian. “Audio novels” are great, but it’s a lot of work, for both producer and listener, to slog through creating and/or listening to between 58 and 62 +2000-word chapters per novel.
So instead, I’m thinking of a single-weekly podcast drop (probably Sunday 3am), a rotation that is lighter than but roughly analogous to my schedule to date, and still friendly to both weekend readers/listeners and the Monday-morning commuting crowd. Episodes would be relatively short—15:00 minutes or less, roughly the duration of my own morning exercise session—and, instead of simply replicating the written texts, they would be a somewhat looser, more reflective, and more craft-oriented “take” on each novel, chapter by chapter. So, for example, I’d commence with a 15:00-minute episode talking about the inception, conception, framing, language, time period, content, and intent of Chapter 1 of THE GREAT TRAIN RIDE, “PART ONE: From the Bibliotheque to Bassanda: Recruiting with the Colonel and the General, Paris 1906,” and then match with a repost of said chapter[s]. Week-by-week, a couple of chapters at a time, I’d use the podcast to review and reflect, providing a kind of “reader’s guide” or introduction to the material, its goals, writing challenges, and discoveries.
I could see this, in the future, expanding a good bit, to include conversations between myself and the other members of the Consortium, about our own “takes” on the Bassanda project, and to others in its orbit, either inspirations for characters within the world, or other fellow travellers. And even expanding again, to friends and colleagues across the planet who work in similar world-building/spec-fiction/creative “imagineering” kinds of ways, both in prose and in other media. I can see directions in which it can lead, and they feel energizing and intriguing.
My hope, then, would be that the podcast could be informal and organic, more thoughtful and conversational than narrative, and provide both enrichment for those who are already reading or re-reading, and also perhaps a hook or two to draw in new readers. I’d also hope that, through the use of a dedicated email address and hashtag, it would encourage those reading and listening to interact with the Consortium, with their own questions, insights, and ideas: it would be great to have the conversation operate in a more multi-directional fashion.
So, that’s what I’m thinking for a next-stage in Bassanda Correspondence output: the “Bassanda Podcast,” as companion to and enrichment for the novels, and as a space for reflection, and conversation, between and among all of us who are interested.
What do y’all think? You can reply/comment here, or on Twitter / Threads / Bluesky: search #BassandaPodcast, send to BassandaPodcast@gmail.com, or find me @ChrisSmithMuso. I’d love to hear from you!