Leo X. Robertson's Blog, page 2
October 1, 2018
New Losing the Plot, with author Darrin Doyle!
Listen here!
Darrin Doyle has lived all over and worked all kinds of jobs. He has an MFA in fiction from Western Michigan University and a PhD from the University of Cincinnati.
He is the author of the novels Revenge of the Teacher’s Pet: A Love Story (LSU Press) and The Girl Who Ate Kalamazoo (St. Martin’s), and the short story collection The Dark Will End the Dark (Tortoise Books). Currently he teaches at Central Michigan University and lives in Mount Pleasant, Michigan with his wife and two sons.
We talk about his latest short story collection, Scoundrels Among Us (Tortoise Books)—as well as the merits of writing for yourself, living in different cultures, and Sturgeon’s Law!
Darrin’s links:
As always, if you’re a reader, writer, creative type, someone with something to say, you can always get in touch with me using losingtheplotpodcast [at] gmail [dot] com. I look forward to hearing from you!
Not only does Marshall, who provided Losing the Plot’s intro music, have a recent album out with Captain Crook Records, he has more exciting stuff in the pipeline! Keep an eye out for him in future and remember you heard him here first!!
September 24, 2018
New Losing the Plot, with Willie Davis!
Listen here!
Willie Davis is a highly accomplished author, with work in The Guardian, Salon and The Kenyon Review among others. He’s the winner of The Willesden Herald Short Story Prize and The Katherine Anne Porter Prize. He teaches English at Kentucky State University.
We talk about his novel “Nightwolf” (out with 7.13 Books), Kentucky, killing your darlings and Zadie Smith.
Willie’s links:
Website
Twitter
Goodreads
As always, if you’re a reader, writer, creative type, someone with something to say, you can always get in touch with me using losingtheplotpodcast [at] gmail [dot] com. I look forward to hearing from you!
Marshall, who provided Losing the Plot’s intro music, has a new album out! Check out “MARS HALL” at Captain Crook Records!
September 12, 2018
New Losing the Plot, with Scott Hadley!
Listen here!
Scott Manley Hadley is an author, blogger and book reviewer—and Losing the Plot alumnus! We talk about poetry, happiness and Pierce Brosnan.
His debut poetry collection, “Bad Boy Poet”, is available for preorder now.
We talk about his blog post on turning 30, which you can find here.
His blog here.
YouTube channel here.
Find his book reviews on Open Pen here.
Check out his first Losing the Plot episode here.
As always, if you’re a reader, writer, creative type, someone with something to say, you can always get in touch with me using losingtheplotpodcast [at] gmail [dot] com. I look forward to hearing from you!
Marshall, who provided Losing the Plot’s intro music, has a new album out! Check out “MARS HALL” at Captain Crook Records!
September 7, 2018
New interview on Kendall Reviews!
Hello again!
Here’s the interview I mentioned in my post yesterday about all the flurry of my latest news
Love the formatting with the images and gifs!
Many thanks to Kendall Reviews for the opportunity–hope you enjoy reading!
Cheers :D
September 5, 2018
All of the news!
As is so common in the writing world, nothing happens for a long time and then loads happens at once.
Here’s what I’ve been up to of late:
I was on the Horror with Marchese & Buller podcastI woke up at 04:30 this morning to appear on the Deadman’s Tome podcast. Which explains why we talked about moon Jedis, Scandinavian hallucinogenic mushrooms and washing feet, among other things!(On both these podcasts, we discuss my upcoming release, Jesus of Scumburg [Hindered Souls Press, Dec 25th 2018])Steve Pool interviewed me on my own podcast, Losing the Plot! It was his much-appreciated suggestion, and we had an interesting chat thanks to his efforts and well-considered questions.Kendall Reviews will feature an interview with me some time this week (no sign yet, but I’ll post about it when there is. Do check out the site in the meantime!)Unnerving and Deadman’s Tome had sales recently, which I’ve tweeted about etc. before, though I think they’ve ended now. Still, as good a time as any to check out the content from these great publishers!The Anti-Austerity anthology, which I had a piece in with many other talented writers, reached #4 on Amazon for fiction anthologies. And Penguin-published author Kit de Waal bought a copy too.I’m somewhat keen to reassure the writers reading this that news comes and goes in waves, and that I’ve been quietly writing and submitting and chatting to folk for months nay years to make this kinda stuff transpire. But the main point of the post is, 1) Check out all this great stuff and support these cool people, and 2) This is far from the last you’ll hear from me!
August 30, 2018
New Losing the Plot—with ME!!
I’m a Scottish process engineer and writer, currently living in Norway. Guest interviewer Steve Pool (episode 31) talks to me about politics, writing motivations and parents reading to you before bed (when you’re little.)
My links:
“Every Hour Was Witching Hour” on Every Day Fiction:
Steve’s “Losing the Plot” episode
As always, if you’re a reader, writer, creative type, someone with something to say, you can always get in touch with me using losingtheplotpodcast [at] gmail [dot] com. I look forward to hearing from you!
Marshall, who provided Losing the Plot’s intro music, has a new album out! Check out “MARS HALL” at Captain Crook Records!
August 27, 2018
Anti-Austerity anthology now available!
Exciting news today!
The Anti-Austerity Anthology is now available!
I’ve been waiting a long time for this one—I have a story in it, and it contains work from many other authors whom I admire, including M. J. Black, Andy Carrington, Rupert Dreyfus, Rebecca Gransden, Jay Spencer Green, Chris Harrison, Ruth F. Hunt, Mary Papastavrou, Riya Anne Polcastro, Mike Robbins, Harry Whitewolf—AND MORE!
With a foreword from superstar journalist Steve Topple!
Plus, proceeds from this book go to food bank charities. That’s pretty great, right?
Here’s the link to purchase—I’ve ordered my copies and can’t wait to see how the final product of this one has turned out :)
August 24, 2018
New Losing the Plot, with Danger Slater and Madeleine Swann!
Losing the Plot returns with a two-for-one extravaganza chat! LTP alumni, Madeleine Swann and Danger Slater, talk to me about the indie author life, internet obsessions, the housing market in Norway—and how to make your own cult!!
You can hear AND see the second part of this chat over on Madeleine’s YouTube channel
Links to stuff we talk about (across both my episode and Madeleine’s):
Last Podcast on the Left (NXIVM episode)
ContraPoints (discussing Incels)
Listen to their first LTP episodes here:
Danger’s Links:
Madeleine’s links:
As always, if you’re a reader, writer, creative type, someone with something to say, you can always get in touch with me using losingtheplotpodcast [at] gmail [dot] com. I look forward to hearing from you!
Marshall, who provided Losing the Plot’s intro music, has a new album out! Check out “MARS HALL” at Captain Crook Records!
August 16, 2018
New story of mine published today!!
Please check out “Every Hour Was Witching Hour” over at Every Day Fiction!
SO–this was a dream I had!!
I was in a YA film where this guy was trying to hide a young woman he was in love with, in his family home, in the past. This was the exact thing he explained to the young woman, and what happened.
Since that’s the only scene of the film I “saw”, I don’t know how the rest of it panned out, so I just gave the scene a new context so it would work as a piece of flash fiction. Maybe I’ll write the rest of that YA film someday :D
Today’s writing advice? Take a nap :P
August 13, 2018
Author profile: Øyvind Harding
I was browsing books in Outland Oslo, one of my favourite bookshops, when I discovered “Martian Dictator” by Øyvind Harding.
A Norwegian guy is writing sci-fi in English?! I have to meet him!
(As you probably know, I often interview people on Skype for my podcast–but I rarely get to meet authors in person.)
Well I got in touch with him through his website and it turned out that he didn’t live too far from Oslo city centre–so we met for a drink and a chat about writing and books.
Here’s what I learned about Øyvind:
He wakes up at half past five in the morning to get in his writing time, given that he’s currently working two jobs!In a year he reads about 100 books a year, all science fiction in the last few years.He recommends Martha Wells’ Murderbot Diaries series, Iain M. Banks’ Culture novels and the work of Joe Abercrombie.He’s very much in support of manned missions to Mars, but not so optimistic about what will happen the first time humanity gives it a shot (as his novel shows!) but he reckons we’ll crack it the second time (maybe :P)His next book, The Smuggler, is due out at the end of the year. Here’s where you can read a free sample.Check out Martian Dictator–and why not meet an author near you? :P
