Click for Source Image By Graeme Stirling
Fire on the Mound is a novel with a difference. With the help of a narrator, animator and composer, this high fantasy tale has been turned into a free podcast now numbering 42 episodes across 2 seasons. Last month, we caught up with author and producer William J. Meyer and quizzed him on his characters, views on contemporary publishing, and how he hatched his novel (see what we did there?) idea.
Fire on the Mound is a novel with a difference. With the help of a narrator, animator and composer, this high fantasy tale has been turned into a free podcast now numbering 42 episodes across 2 seasons. Last month, we caught up with author and producer William J. Meyer and quizzed him on his characters, views on contemporary publishing, and how he hatched his novel (see what we did there?) idea.
Click for Source Image IWG: First of all, what made you decide to go for the podcast format?
Well, I wasn’t having much luck with agents or publishers, and my primary goal was to share the novel I had written, but I wasn’t interested in self-publishing a physical or e-book. As I was seeking out alternatives, a friend at work suggested I record the book as a podcast. That idea intrigued me, and I had just started listening regularly to podcasts, so that serialized delivery format seemed like a fun, creative prospect. I had some experience with radio plays, having written and directed such a show for college radio, so I decided I would blend the sound effects and music of radio drama with the single-voice narrator of an audiobook. I called the project a “podcast novel,” not realizing the term was already in use. But it’s essentially a serialized audiobook.
IWG: It certainly looks more interesting than your average genre novel when presented this way. Are you getting a good response from the preview?
Thank you. When I was refining our animated trailer I sent it to directors and motion graphic artists for their opinions, and they helped me tighten it up a bit. They were complimentary about the structure and the art of it, and I’d say everyone that’s seen the trailer seems to like it, but it hasn’t been seen by that many people yet, so I certainly thank you for helping us on that front!
IWG: What’s involved in producing this sort of work and how can people get their hands on it?
The podcast is available through iTunes, as well as the book’s official site, FireontheMound.com. You can subscribe via iTunes or RSS, or just grab the mp3s to listen as you wish.
As far as producing the podcast, vocal artist Steve Rudolph read and recorded the book in his home studio, starting with some broad direction from me. He would do three or four chapters at a time, and then I would give him the next batch while I started editing his work into 30-minute episodes. Occasionally there would be scenes that needed some directorial massaging, for creative or continuity reasons, and Steve would re-record them. At first we both lived in Madison, Wisconsin, and I would just jaunt over to his house and pick up the files. Then we’d chat about Doctor Who and have a cookout! But once I moved to LA, we started collaborating over the Internet.
Which is how the composer William Seegers and I worked together on this project. I’d ring him up and describe a creature or situation, plus he read the whole book to get a better understanding of the characters and the world. Collaborating with Will was another joy, he really could visualize the book quite easily. I would say, “such-and-such army is at the top of a mountain, and this other army is at the bottom, and the sun comes up behind the first army, and then they play their own theme!” Then soon after there would be a music cue in my inbox fulfilling my ramblings. It was uncanny. His work hit the mark so quickly, it gave us plenty of time to chat about Star Trek, and storytelling in general.
For sound effects, I would listen to the spine of the episode and decide where I wanted them, and how they could affect the pacing of voice and music. I knew right off I didn’t want to be literal and, say, create foley for every single action like footsteps, opening doors, putting on clothes, or whatever. Instead, I went for a more atmospheric approach, as though directing the listener’s attention only to certain details that I believed heightened the emotion of the scene. Listen over here, now listen over there. It’s much more subjective.
IWG Note: The Fire on the Mound website library includes behind-the-scenes videos detailing the creative process
Hasbro and Lego concept artist Brian Ellis did all the drawings for the trailer. We discussed how he would approach them as multiple layers so I could manipulate them in After Effects. It was a real thrill as Brian is the first person, other than myself, to draw these characters, and his interpretations were a joy to see develop. I especially like his wistful version of Pekra, the main character, as seen in the close-up at the end of the trailer, when Pekra sees a corrupted version of his dead father.
Well, I wasn’t having much luck with agents or publishers, and my primary goal was to share the novel I had written, but I wasn’t interested in self-publishing a physical or e-book. As I was seeking out alternatives, a friend at work suggested I record the book as a podcast. That idea intrigued me, and I had just started listening regularly to podcasts, so that serialized delivery format seemed like a fun, creative prospect. I had some experience with radio plays, having written and directed such a show for college radio, so I decided I would blend the sound effects and music of radio drama with the single-voice narrator of an audiobook. I called the project a “podcast novel,” not realizing the term was already in use. But it’s essentially a serialized audiobook.
IWG: It certainly looks more interesting than your average genre novel when presented this way. Are you getting a good response from the preview?
Thank you. When I was refining our animated trailer I sent it to directors and motion graphic artists for their opinions, and they helped me tighten it up a bit. They were complimentary about the structure and the art of it, and I’d say everyone that’s seen the trailer seems to like it, but it hasn’t been seen by that many people yet, so I certainly thank you for helping us on that front!
IWG: What’s involved in producing this sort of work and how can people get their hands on it?
The podcast is available through iTunes, as well as the book’s official site, FireontheMound.com. You can subscribe via iTunes or RSS, or just grab the mp3s to listen as you wish.
As far as producing the podcast, vocal artist Steve Rudolph read and recorded the book in his home studio, starting with some broad direction from me. He would do three or four chapters at a time, and then I would give him the next batch while I started editing his work into 30-minute episodes. Occasionally there would be scenes that needed some directorial massaging, for creative or continuity reasons, and Steve would re-record them. At first we both lived in Madison, Wisconsin, and I would just jaunt over to his house and pick up the files. Then we’d chat about Doctor Who and have a cookout! But once I moved to LA, we started collaborating over the Internet.
Which is how the composer William Seegers and I worked together on this project. I’d ring him up and describe a creature or situation, plus he read the whole book to get a better understanding of the characters and the world. Collaborating with Will was another joy, he really could visualize the book quite easily. I would say, “such-and-such army is at the top of a mountain, and this other army is at the bottom, and the sun comes up behind the first army, and then they play their own theme!” Then soon after there would be a music cue in my inbox fulfilling my ramblings. It was uncanny. His work hit the mark so quickly, it gave us plenty of time to chat about Star Trek, and storytelling in general.
For sound effects, I would listen to the spine of the episode and decide where I wanted them, and how they could affect the pacing of voice and music. I knew right off I didn’t want to be literal and, say, create foley for every single action like footsteps, opening doors, putting on clothes, or whatever. Instead, I went for a more atmospheric approach, as though directing the listener’s attention only to certain details that I believed heightened the emotion of the scene. Listen over here, now listen over there. It’s much more subjective.
IWG Note: The Fire on the Mound website library includes behind-the-scenes videos detailing the creative process
Hasbro and Lego concept artist Brian Ellis did all the drawings for the trailer. We discussed how he would approach them as multiple layers so I could manipulate them in After Effects. It was a real thrill as Brian is the first person, other than myself, to draw these characters, and his interpretations were a joy to see develop. I especially like his wistful version of Pekra, the main character, as seen in the close-up at the end of the trailer, when Pekra sees a corrupted version of his dead father.
Click for Source Image IWG: What are your views on the state of this particular genre at the moment? Do you think it’s gone stale to some extent?
I don’t think fantasy has gone stale, no. It seems to me to offer an endless multiverse of storytelling opportunities, once you realize you don’t need to be fettered by what’s gone before. Which I’m still learning.
IWG: How about the publishing industry in general? Do you feel that there are more obstacles than stepping stones for writers at the moment? What do you think about the quality control problem of direct publishing?
My focus has been doing my best to learn how to tell better stories. Whether it be a novel or a screenplay, I’m just working on growing as a writer. Perceptually, it seems the digital era has broken all barriers, up to visibility. It’s still a challenge for the indie writer to find their audience. Which was the primary impetus in creating our animated book trailer, hoping that would be seen and shared by folks who might be interested in our adventure.
Quality control. Well, it’s something I struggled with in the podcast -- certainly from a technical standpoint. I did the best I could within my means, and tried to learn from the experience for the next thing, whatever that is. As far as how this affects listeners or readers, all I can do is project my own experience as an audience member of indie creation, which is to say I look for a clarity of intent and a passion for storytelling and that usually carries me past grammatical errors, audio glitches, or what-have-you.
IWG: How do you see the business at large five to ten years from now, and how do you hope your projects will fit into this?
I’ll hazard a guess and say the business will move more and more toward discreet delivery formats as well as content, epitomized in a consumer economy founded not on owning incarnated art like books and discs of one format or another, but rather in participating in a lattice-work of experience and co-creation based on end-user customization. You won’t own anything, but you’ll buy the right to experience it for a limited time. At first this will be gimmicky, like “you want Luke Skwalker’s lightsaber to be gold instead of blue? Tap here.” Then you sit back and Luke has a gold saber for all of A New Hope. This sort of thing is happening already in truncated form with the whole “second screen” experience Disney is experimenting with. The consumption of media of all types will begin with branded intellectual property, but end with user manipulation, within an ever-expanding boundary.
Let’s say I’m working on a pirate story. Now the user can decide to experience the story I want to tell, in opposition to a choose-you-adventure model, from the point of view of the ship’s cook. Instead of reading the book or watching the movie from a more-or-less dispassionate third point of view, the user is linked to the content from an experiential vantage point as defined by the creator. How is this different than a game? I feel like the hybrid nature of future storytelling media will confuse nearly all classifications, but I do know the audience will always want to be led through a story by what they perceive as author intent. In the pirate example, this might mean never directing the narrative, but rather experiencing the milieu as the tale unfolds from a chosen in-world set of parameters. You won’t just have access to the smell of the sea, or the motion of the ship, but also the socio-economic status of the cook. His memories, his life, pre-programmed, define his witnessing of, say, the captain’s brutality. This would be different than if the end-user were “reading” the novel from the point of view of a galley slave. I really do think the business will shift from one-way consumption to two-way co-creation, but there will always be an emphasis on being guided. Prose can and will assimilate the emergent narrative technique from the gaming world.
How do I hope my projects fit into this? I’d love to do an electronic version of Fire on the Mound that’s more than simply copying and pasting its text into an e-book. One where there’s a map of Naosaleyn, the island of the story, so readers can navigate and experience the story from a geographical vantage point, one not bound by linear prose, chapter by chapter, but one led by an almost atlas-like approach, as though you were bound by the same rules of the world as the characters themselves. You would know what they knew, travel as they travel, but have the option at any moment for omniscience. Right now an e-book user can change text size and font. That’s nothing.
I don’t think fantasy has gone stale, no. It seems to me to offer an endless multiverse of storytelling opportunities, once you realize you don’t need to be fettered by what’s gone before. Which I’m still learning.
IWG: How about the publishing industry in general? Do you feel that there are more obstacles than stepping stones for writers at the moment? What do you think about the quality control problem of direct publishing?
My focus has been doing my best to learn how to tell better stories. Whether it be a novel or a screenplay, I’m just working on growing as a writer. Perceptually, it seems the digital era has broken all barriers, up to visibility. It’s still a challenge for the indie writer to find their audience. Which was the primary impetus in creating our animated book trailer, hoping that would be seen and shared by folks who might be interested in our adventure.
Quality control. Well, it’s something I struggled with in the podcast -- certainly from a technical standpoint. I did the best I could within my means, and tried to learn from the experience for the next thing, whatever that is. As far as how this affects listeners or readers, all I can do is project my own experience as an audience member of indie creation, which is to say I look for a clarity of intent and a passion for storytelling and that usually carries me past grammatical errors, audio glitches, or what-have-you.
IWG: How do you see the business at large five to ten years from now, and how do you hope your projects will fit into this?
I’ll hazard a guess and say the business will move more and more toward discreet delivery formats as well as content, epitomized in a consumer economy founded not on owning incarnated art like books and discs of one format or another, but rather in participating in a lattice-work of experience and co-creation based on end-user customization. You won’t own anything, but you’ll buy the right to experience it for a limited time. At first this will be gimmicky, like “you want Luke Skwalker’s lightsaber to be gold instead of blue? Tap here.” Then you sit back and Luke has a gold saber for all of A New Hope. This sort of thing is happening already in truncated form with the whole “second screen” experience Disney is experimenting with. The consumption of media of all types will begin with branded intellectual property, but end with user manipulation, within an ever-expanding boundary.
Let’s say I’m working on a pirate story. Now the user can decide to experience the story I want to tell, in opposition to a choose-you-adventure model, from the point of view of the ship’s cook. Instead of reading the book or watching the movie from a more-or-less dispassionate third point of view, the user is linked to the content from an experiential vantage point as defined by the creator. How is this different than a game? I feel like the hybrid nature of future storytelling media will confuse nearly all classifications, but I do know the audience will always want to be led through a story by what they perceive as author intent. In the pirate example, this might mean never directing the narrative, but rather experiencing the milieu as the tale unfolds from a chosen in-world set of parameters. You won’t just have access to the smell of the sea, or the motion of the ship, but also the socio-economic status of the cook. His memories, his life, pre-programmed, define his witnessing of, say, the captain’s brutality. This would be different than if the end-user were “reading” the novel from the point of view of a galley slave. I really do think the business will shift from one-way consumption to two-way co-creation, but there will always be an emphasis on being guided. Prose can and will assimilate the emergent narrative technique from the gaming world.
How do I hope my projects fit into this? I’d love to do an electronic version of Fire on the Mound that’s more than simply copying and pasting its text into an e-book. One where there’s a map of Naosaleyn, the island of the story, so readers can navigate and experience the story from a geographical vantage point, one not bound by linear prose, chapter by chapter, but one led by an almost atlas-like approach, as though you were bound by the same rules of the world as the characters themselves. You would know what they knew, travel as they travel, but have the option at any moment for omniscience. Right now an e-book user can change text size and font. That’s nothing.
Click for Source Image IWG: Lastly, can you give us a quick outline of the plot / characters etc. and tell us why, in your opinion, this is worth checking out?
Ah, back to Fire on the Mound! Yes, the book is about Pekra, a young boy of the deer-like species called the Gaewyn. He is expected to succeed his father as the healer of their small village. But Pekra considers purposely failing his trials or running away, anything to avoid the responsibility that will soon be thrust upon him. When Pekra’s father dies from a poison contracted during the last war, Pekra reluctantly befriends his father's killer, and is swept up in a supernatural struggle to claim the legendary power of the cottonwood tree, the first child of the god Ura. That’s a quick overview. I think it’s worth checking out because I’ve attempted to foreground the relationships between parents and children, not just Pekra and his mother and his father, but each of the main characters has a parental relationship central to their journey, and I think most everyone can find at least one familiar-looking relationship in the book. But all of it is set against a background of myth and adventure, and the fantasy is used to heighten those relationships and put them to the test. As I think any good story is a blend of the familiar and the unfamiliar, it was my intent to write Fire on the Mound along those lines.
For free episodes and more info on Fire on the Mound, follow these links:
Book Trailer: https://vimeo.com/89735262
Official Site: http://www.fireonthemound.com/
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/fire-on-the-mound/id550939832
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FotMound
Twitter: https://twitter.com/FotMound
Ah, back to Fire on the Mound! Yes, the book is about Pekra, a young boy of the deer-like species called the Gaewyn. He is expected to succeed his father as the healer of their small village. But Pekra considers purposely failing his trials or running away, anything to avoid the responsibility that will soon be thrust upon him. When Pekra’s father dies from a poison contracted during the last war, Pekra reluctantly befriends his father's killer, and is swept up in a supernatural struggle to claim the legendary power of the cottonwood tree, the first child of the god Ura. That’s a quick overview. I think it’s worth checking out because I’ve attempted to foreground the relationships between parents and children, not just Pekra and his mother and his father, but each of the main characters has a parental relationship central to their journey, and I think most everyone can find at least one familiar-looking relationship in the book. But all of it is set against a background of myth and adventure, and the fantasy is used to heighten those relationships and put them to the test. As I think any good story is a blend of the familiar and the unfamiliar, it was my intent to write Fire on the Mound along those lines.
For free episodes and more info on Fire on the Mound, follow these links:
Book Trailer: https://vimeo.com/89735262
Official Site: http://www.fireonthemound.com/
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/fire-on-the-mound/id550939832
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FotMound
Twitter: https://twitter.com/FotMound
Keep an eye out for our upcoming review of Fire and Mound, only on I'm With Geek! Go and show William J. Meyer your support.
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
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