Venturing into Podcast land

Over the past six months, along with my amazing producer Sam Loy, I have been recording a podcast.

It tells, in truncated form, the story of the German resistance to Hitler, and calls on the research I have done for my book TREASON.

The process has been fascinating for someone like me, who did not know what was involved. 

First, the scripts had to be written, edited, debated, settled.

Then, we recorded. We did this for a morning a week over about 3 months.

With the words recorded, Sam would work on the sound edit, which included writing music, sourcing sound effects and music, mixing – and a lot more that I don’t understand. 

He would send a first draft, and I would provide feedback, and then a final draft would emerge.

I had to select a podcast platform, and after research I chose Buzzsprout. I’ve been very happy with their service. With their help, I am now on all the hosting platforms.

As well as sound, a podcast needs graphics, and I engaged my friend and design guru Mike Vernon – known for his MakeBooks Australia business – to produce artwork for the podcast. He has done a great job, producing generic artwork as well as artwork for each episode.

Selling a podcast is pretty hard. I had great help from my daughter Georgia, who researched an approach to this, and filmed and edited a number of film clips for promotion.

We released a trailer in late June, and then on 6 July dropped the first three episodes – 1, 2 and 3. The fourth went out on 13 July, and they’ll be once a week from now on.

The 80^th anniversary of the July plot is upon us, and this seems a fitting tribute to mark the occasion.

Mothlight

My third book of poems, Mothlight, has now been published.

Mike Vernon has done a wonderful job with the photographs through the book, making it a beautiful production.

Here are some things that others have said about it – for which I am very grateful:

    In 'Mothlight', Brian Walters reveres both the natural world and the power of the clear poetic line. One poem at a time, he edges us closer to seeing, to captivation, to wild play, to progress. At a time of renewed environmental awareness, this collection invites the reader to do the only thing that is left for us to do – a gentle moving through the world.

–      Amanda Anastasi, poet

 

    I love these poems, the surprise of them, the wideness and range of vision, the delicate precision of the lens shifting from the personal, the heart, to the glory of the world. The exultation and celebration of the natural world is a constant and marvellous echo of Hardy. There is too, a similar humane heart.

–      Helen Elliott, literary critic and writer

 

    A Brian Walters poem is a walk in fair weather and good company in the high country in winter; it is an act of kindness and courage you wish had been your own. His voice is a forest of Old Testament timbers—the Cedars of Lebanon transposed well south and reborn as a sclerophyll woodland. His lines are an elegant eucalypt elegy, a vote of thanks, a currawong choir.

    –         Mark Tredinnick, poet

 

I will be reading my poems at the Poeticas gig, 2 pm this Saturday 27 August 2022 at the Northern Arts Hotel – 359 Barker Street Castlemaine. 

It would be great to see you there!