My Tuesday round up was quite successful last week, so here’s another one. If any of you have blog posts or articles that you think would be useful for next week’s roundup, feel free to send me the links and I’ll give them a read.

This week The Creative pen discusses the benefits and fallbacks of voice technology with Bradley Metrock, The KOBO writing life podcast talks about the making of the movie version of The House With a Clock in its Walls, which sounds fabulous and has been added to my TBR list.

Podcasts

What if the future is voice first? What if people ask AI assistants like Alexa or Google Assistant to find them a book to read? What if the primary consumption of books is in audio format, not print or ebook? I talk about these questions and more with Bradley Metrock.

In this episode, Rene from PR sits down with the cast and crew of the recent film The House with a Clock in its Walls (based on the novel by John Bellairs) to learn about their experience working on the movie and their favourite books. Rene chats to director Eli Roth about his experience directing a fantasy/horror movie geared towards a family audience, actor Owen Vaccaro about working with successful actors Cate Blanchett and Jack Black and music composer Nathan Barr, about incorporating old school horror-flick sounds into the movie’s score.

What are scene and story climaxes? Why do you need them? In this episode, I talk about the decisions your characters make, as well as the actions they take, when faced with a dilemma. You’ll hear Matt Bizzel’s horror short story, “A Window Out: Or, the Accidental Death of Frank Ortiz” and my analysis of the scene. The editorial mission encourages you to collect examples of these critical decisions and actions by reading and watching stories—and from your own life.