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Okay you know what, I do have another thing to add about audio fiction and how important it is, especially now. You know, during *gestures broadly around*

The thing about audio fiction is that they can't take it down.

Books can be pulled off the store shelves and publishers can flat-out refuse to give space to new ones that don't fit their side of the current political climate. Video streaming services can and already have gone even further by entirely scrubbing media they don't like from the only places that had rights to distribute them -- if not for piracy, shows like Infinity Train would be gone gone. I expect we will see much more of this type of behavior in coming years.

With audio fiction podcasting, the default is a decentralized, self-published, free to access platform. They can't very well take down a whole hosting service, and any show they go after can just be re-uploaded under a new RSS feed. (If you're a creator, please look into the basic principles of self-hosting, just in case.) Although we probably won't need to take any of those measures, because since there's no money that capitalists can extract from this art form,

They don't even know we exist. Be as queer as you want. Be as progressive and inclusive as you want. Be as anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, anti-racist, anti-fascist as you want. Tell stories that are important, that people with power wouldn't want you to tell. They won't find us, not here.

Peace and love on every planet. And fight until we get it.

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moonbase theta, out sketchdump, featuring:

moon husbands

oh god mechanical arms are difficult to design and also I'm not sure this is actually my mental image of Wilder but close enough to start

L'Anglois siblings with facial features stolen from all my most french-canadian friends and the shittiest little "this is my first time through a testosterone puberty but even though it's scrappy as fuck it's still gender-affirming" beard still in early stages of growth for Michell

the firm belief that Ashwini would get on the right hormones to grow a goatee if ze didn't come with those hormones factory installed

and a Nessa that might not be my mental image of Nessa either but also a start

not that there will necessarily be more. but.

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Carmilla music you say?

I do! Music for Re Dracula's adaptation. :)

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Carmilla E10 is here!

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Writing vs Playing

I think this might be a good place to talk through this.

Last year, I started taking a workshop class for composing. It was intentionally brutal. The goal was to create a new piece every week and to listen critically to the other people in the class and give and receive feedback.

Given how much music I can put out when I'm working intensely that doesn't sound too hard, but I failed. I made it through about 16 weeks of a year-long class and then life got life-y in about six different ways and I fell too far behind to keep up so I dropped out.

But I got so much out of those first few months that a) I'm trying the class again this year (we're on week 11) and b) it completely changed the way I do the music thing.

It's the difference between writing and playing.

For most of the time I've been doing this, unless it was for some out-there experimental thing with no set rhythms or intentions, I've written everything out in notation first. That hasn't been a bad thing. I'm comfy there, and I think pretty securely in notation, so the process was something like this: Write out an idea in pencil. Flesh it out in notation software. Bring the notation over to Reaper. Add instruments to make the midi noisy Adjust and spice to taste. Mix. Revise. Mix. Music.

And it worked nicely, but the speed at which this class had and has me working means I couldn't take all that time. The process became this. Pull up Reaper and make there be a piano. Play things until an idea is solid. Play more things around it. Play. Play. Mix. Music.

I don't know that the music is better this way. I think it's a bit more free, and I definitely write Different music this way but "better" is a word I'm uncomfortable with.

I do know two things though.

It happens faster. I can write one of these class pieces in 2-4 hours, the morning of a Saturday, and be finished.

The fact that I'm Playing makes it fun. Like, not just Enjoyable, but Fun. The act of creating a thing with the brain plus making a thing with the hands all smooshed together is a spicy, excellent brand of fun!

I'm thinking of this partially because as I go back through the Carmilla music, this is the first show where I wrote this way. I don't know if anyone else can hear the difference, but I can feel it.

I got to Play.

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I also love how audio fiction has always been a highly experimental medium, and likely always will be.

Financially, it has a low barrier for entry, a low point of diminishing returns, and a relatively small potential market. It's basically impervious to being taken over by giant studios - even the "big" networks like RQ would be considered indie in the film or game dev industries. With the exception of the BBC, they tend to dip their toes into audio fiction, figure out quickly that, although it's beloved by its fans, there isn't that kind of money in it, and proceed to leave us alone forever.

Then there's the fact that it propagates largely by word of mouth. Audio dramas owe everything to obsessive nerds forcing nearly everyone they know to listen to that podcast they just discovered.

So it's more about the thing being actually good, plus a decent amount of luck and persistence.

There's no optimally marketable success formula being relentlessly enforced by gatekeeping jellybean-counters because they don't exist here. So people make whatever they want. So it draws people to it who are looking for something different. And the cycle feeds itself, and the medium gets weirder (in a good way).

It may very well ALWAYS remain the wild west of storytelling.

So listeners tell your friends about that podcast!

And creators, make the weird thing! There are no rules! It can be an hour long or Breaker Whiskey short, or Re:Dracula all over the place length. It can be another tape recorder framing or another voicemail framing or basically just an audiobook. It can be any genre or blend of genres. This creative space gives us the opportunity to be our own target audience in a way rarely found elsewhere.

If you enjoy the thing you're making, odds are somone else out there will enjoy it too. I've already found this to be true, and my time as an audio fiction creator is still just beginning.

Peace and love on every planet, y'all!

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Spring Break and Musical Shenanigans

Since I have a little more time than usual this upcoming week and since Carmilla is in the middle of release I think it's time I put the soundtrack album(s?) together. Currently I'm thinking of making two since it's an overwhelming amount of music but we'll see how it goes.

It's been a while since I got to toss new music out into the world so I'm really excited!

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Carmilla E9 is here! You thought you were done hearing Jonny Sims play a doctor, didn't you.

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Episode 8 is here!

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Happy Audio Drama Sunday! I hope everyone is taking care of themselves.

@vestaclinicpod Episode 19 - Trouble Some: The first of this season's episodes inspired by a listener submission, and also our first Dr. Xaelest Adra episode! And it was so good!! I absolutely love how we slowly learn more about the patient and its species as the case notes unfold. We also got a tiny bit more info about Xael herself, from her response to exam re-sitting to recollections about Pasiphae. I want to know more though, like what was the examiner's feedback?? And poor Xael, not having a special boy like Sec to help out! ���️

@hinaypod Episode 52 - Pangalan (Name): It was very interesting to hear the Benefactor's perspective of Manfred's story about Clarence Thompson, and the moment that made the Benefactor choose to erase his face and name. I'm kind of glad we're starting to get some warmer weather here because the thought of what was in that blizzard is a little terrifying. The descriptions we've heard so far make it feel like some kind of divine retribution, but also the actual punishment here seemed way too...meticulous for a god.✨

@forgedbondspod - Chapter 11: It's wedding time!! It was so sweet hearing Aph and Ares getting ready together. And again how excited Aph (and then Ares) was about the knives Hephaestus made for them. I wanted to strangle Zeus the whole time he was talking, ngl. Their vows were lovely, though Aph crying made me so sad. 💍

@kingmakerpod Chapter Twenty-Eight - In With the New: I think I've said in the past how I was curious about Holzmann's plans, and boy was that curiosity fed with this episode! I'd have to go back through the episodes, but is this the first one without an appearance from any of our main trio? It was an absolutely wild day, so many assassinations and machinations. And then the weapon reveal! Things are getting serious... 💎

@monkeymanproductions' Waiting For October S1 Episode 5.5 - Grey: I really like how these monologues sometimes involve bigger scenes. With Charlene and Auncle Lantern, it felt like we were the trainee and part of the new crop, both of which I loved. But with Raven, Frederick, and now Grey, we also get to hear them interact with other characters and parts of their world. It was also very cool to hear more about Grey's life, as well as the different things weres need to consider for city living vs. forest life. 🎃

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I'm enjoying Re: Carmilla, even though so far it's mostly been Laura saying, "I know I'm Victorian, but man my straight platonic heterosexual friend sure is intense." while Carmilla is actively kissing her.

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New episode alert!

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there is no soul of an artist that distinguishes them from some 'non-artist' category of person that could simply never comprehend what it is like. anyone can make art. you should know this by now. from ratatouille

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Oooh sounds like I should do some shopping Friday!

2025 Bandcamp Friday Fiction Podcast Catalogue

Bandcamp Friday means artists on Bandcamp get more out of your purchases. Support your favourite fiction podcasters and get some crisp audio in the process.

Dates

(Starts at midnight, runs all day)

Friday, March 7th (UTC-08:00)

Friday, May 2nd (UTC-07:00)

Friday, August 1st (UTC-07:00)

Friday, September 5th (UTC-07:00)

Friday, October 3rd (UTC-07:00)

Friday, December 5th (UTC-08:00)

Fiction Podcasts

Anamnesis (Full Audio Drama + Soundtrack)

Awake (Full Show)

Camlann (Season 1)

The Dungeon Economic Model (The Complete Series)

Folxlore (Part 1 • Part 2)

Generation Crossing (Full Narrative Album)

Inn Between (Season 1 • Season 2 • Season 3)

Old Gods of Appalachia (Season 1 • Season 3)

Sidequesting (Season 1 • Season 2)

The Tower (Part I • Part II • Part III)

What Will Be Here

Podcast Specials

The Deca Tapes (Puzzle Box)

The Dungeon Economic Model (Halloween Special)

Leaving Corvat (TEMPLE OF SLEEP)

Welcome To Night Vale (Live Shows: Condos • The Debate • The Librarian • The Investigators • Ghost Stories • All Hail • A Spy in the Desert • The Haunting of Night Vale)

Where The Stars Fell (The Christmas Chronicle)

Podcast Music

The Adventure Zone

Aftershocks (Soundtrack)

Alice Isn't Dead (Music From)

All My Fantasy Children

Among The Stars and Bones (OST)

ars PARADOXICA (When I'm Not Here • Electric River (End Theme))

The Ballard of Anne & Mary (Soundtrack)

The Big Loop (OST: FML • The Fugue )

Camlann (Keep the Fires Burning: The Original Soundtrack)

The Deca Tapes (OST)

The Department of Variance of Somewhere, Ohio (OST: Season One • Season Two)

Dreamboy (Silent Night, Holy Night)

The Dungeon Economic Model (Royal Musical Accompaniment • Chill Beats to Build Profitable Dungeons To)

Eeler's Choice (OST)

The Fall of the House of Sunshine

Folxlore (Music To Dance With Your Inner Demons To)

Friends At The Table

Gospels of the Flood (Soundtrack)

Greater Boston (Soundtrack, Seasons 1-3)

The Grotto (Soundtrack)

Hello From The Hallowoods (Starcrossed Gods OST)

It Makes A Sound (Wim Farros: The Attic Tape)

Kane and Feels (OST: Volume 1 • Volume 2)

Lake Clarity (OST)

Leaving Corvat (Re-mastered soundtrack)

Liars & Leeches

The Lost Cat Podcast (Musical Features)

Malevolent

Midnight Radio (OST)

Mockery Manor (The Music Of: Season One • Season Two • Season Three • A Midwinter Night's Dream)

Neoscum

Nowhere, On Air

Old Gods of Appalachia (What is Sung Under The Mountain Vol. 1 • The Land Unknown (Theme) • The Bride • Familiar & Beloved)

Our Fair City

The Pasithea Powder (Theme • Mary Ann • Odysseus)

The Penumbra Podcast

The Polybius Conspiracy (OST)

Re: Dracula (Concept Album)

ROGUEMAKER (Soundtrack)

Rogue Runners (OST)

Skyjacks (Call of the Sky)

Station Blue (OST)

The Strange Case of Starship Iris

This Planet Needs a Name (Albums: The Nameless Songs - Landing - Growing - Shifting)

The Tower (Original Score: Part I • Part II • Part III)

Unplaced (Soundtrack)

Unseen (Soundtrack)

Where The Stars Fell

WOE.BEGONE

Wolf 359 (OST: Volume One • Volume Two • Volume Three)

Zero Hours

Additions encouraged.

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40 auditions in the first day, yall have no chill and I respect that deeply

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WAITING FOR OCTOBER! Season 1 Episode 5 "Home Again” is out now! "After their last adventure, Yvonne and Karo need a quiet night in. But there’s too much to think about and talk about while they wait for dinner to arrive." 🏠

Find us in your podcast apps or at https://monkeymanproductions.com/waiting-for-october/

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Time Sometimes Gives Presents

I started writing music for Carmilla last May. Now as the episodes come out I'm listening to some of it for the first time since I tossed it to Tal. I think episode 5 was in June. That's 9 months ago now and a lot of life has happened since. I forgot So Many Things!

I forgot how sweet and innocent the love theme was when it started.

I forgot the weird carriage music.

I forgot how early on I got to hint at the sorrow and weirdness.

I forgot that part where the violin gets higher and higher until it umm... yeah... musical climax anyone? It's as close as my Ace heart usually gets.

This is a whole different kind of fun!