My Writing & The Best of Old Time Radio

My Writing & The Best of Old Time Radio

James Duncan
Fun!, Short Stories

Over the past several weeks, a number of people who have read or have heard me read aloud some short stories from my upcoming collection of fiction, What Lies In Wait, have commented that the stories would make intriguing radio plays and they remind them of those old time radio shows that aimed to give listeners a late night chill. There’s likely a good reason for this, as old time radio has long been a quiet passion of mine. Over the years I have been listening to a wide variety of suspense, mystery, horror, and crime radio programs from the 1930s through the late 1960s, using the Old Time Radio Internet Archive, which has hundreds if not thousands of episodes available for streaming or downloading. To say they have affected my storytelling in recent years is probably not giving them enough credit, as I’ve become absolutely fascinated with the eerie tension within these stories

If you like podcasts like Serial, or if you are an audio-book junkie, you’ll love some of these old programs, and many are complete with their original commercials for everything from Wheaties to wine, coal to car batteries, and even U.S. war bonds. I throw them on my iPod and ride the subways of NYC listening to some of the best actors and writers to ever lend their talents to radio, people like Ray Bradbury, Humphrey Bogart, Vincent Price, Dorothy L. Sayers, Lucille Ball, Orson Welles, and many others. Below are my Top Five favorite programs that I highly recommend for all of you out there. 

Writing Progress Report: January

Writing Progress Report: January

James Duncan

The first month of the new year has been productive, even if my submission output to magazines and agents has remained minimal (something to fix this next week). So far this year I have:

1. Completed a full revision of my hardboiled dystopian mystery Reaper City, cutting it down from 109,000 words to 103,000 (after having cut it down from 130,000 last spring). This book has been in the works since 2007 so I’m hoping that this revision will be the one to finally earn the book a home somewhere.

22 Steps to Self-Editing a Book While Eating Thai Food in Chuck E Cheese

James Duncan
Writing Advice, Fun!

Self-editing is one of the most widely discussed “craft” topics for writers and everyone has their own B.S. methods and tricks. Most of the tricks are just common sense, such as AVOID IT AT ALL COSTS, because you will never not ever catch all of your own typos, but you can try! (And you should try…nothing is worse than typos. Not taxes, not typhus, not anything.) Here are a few things I suggest.

1. Oh god, just hire someone else to do it. They’re probably better at it than you. No, not probably, they are. I just read six websites that all said something like “The author is the best person to edit their own work” and that’s such a load of garbage. You are certifiably the worst, because you know the material too well. Find someone who doesn’t know it at all.

2015 Resolutions: A Year of Sundays, Shopping Bags, and Positivity

James Duncan
News & Updates, Fun!

Ah, resolutions…that list of promises we make to ourselves that we damn well know we won’t likely keep...and yet sometimes they do work out. Last year’s list of resolutions (which disappeared when I transitioned websites) went pretty well actually, aside from my promise to do more overseas travel. That didn’t quite happen, but with some bumps while transitioning from 9-5 work to freelance, that was expected. But overall, my own resolutions went well even if 2014 was rather dour overall. Not the worst year I’ve ever had, but far from the best.

Somehow this rebirth into 2015 feels extraordinarily promising. It’s the most positive and ambitious I’ve felt in early January since the beginning of 2011, when I first moved to NYC. I have writing projects to work on, I’m feeling healthy and upbeat for the first time in ages, and most of all, I’m putting the old problems where they belong: in the rubbish bin with NYE party hats and dried up Christmas trees. This year is all about breaking new ground, starting new traditions, and saying yes to having fun. In that spirit, here are some goals I plan to keep.

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