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Please Enter “Another Kingdom”
I hope you’ll give a listen to my new fiction podcast, Another Kingdom, performed by my actor pal Michael Knowles and posted here at Ricochet. It’s the story of a failed Hollywood screenwriter who walks through a door and finds himself a murder suspect in a bizarre fantasy world. There’ll be a new episode every Friday — and if you pump it up by subscribing to Another Kingdom on iTunes and giving it good reviews, we’ll even do a second season… and a third.
I’m especially fond of this story because it was sort of a gift. For months, I’d been working on a different story called The Golden Stranger. And it just wasn’t coming together somehow. l had a full draft I didn’t like, and kept writing and rewriting outlines that simply would not work. Then, one day, as I was sitting and gazing into space trying to figure out how Stranger could be saved, a whole new story, Another Kingdom, came to me in a single stroke — bang!
I couldn’t believe it — I couldn’t believe such a complete vision would just drop into my mind like that. I hurried to my computer to write some of it down, to make sure it wasn’t one of those alluring concepts that trail off into nothing once you try to work it out. Sure enough, it was all there, born full-blown like Athena from the head of Zeus, as people used to say when they knew who Athena and Zeus were!
The story is a fantasy adventure, not a political tract in the least, but it’s full of enough politically unacceptable observations (also known as “the truth”) that I think it will have a special appeal to Ricochet types. Also — if I say so myself — I’m pretty sure it gets cooler and cooler as it goes along, so it’s sort of perfect for a serial podcast.
But I’ll let you be the judge of that! So please listen and leave comments. I’d love to get your feedback as we go forward.
Published in Podcasts
If you replace the English accents with an “urban” patois you could call it Another Blingdom.
I’m so excited to listen to this. Any excuse for new fantasy in my life, and what a neat idea.
Can’t wait for more episodes, the first one was amazing.
I’ll be spreading this one around to friends and family.
Listened to the first episode today. Knowles really does do a pretty good job, and the writing is great (I especially liked the banter at the restaurant). I’ll be glad to have this as a bit of a break in the normal podcast lineup. Keep em coming!
I enjoyed the first installment. For some reason, I kept thinking about Sunset Boulevard when I was listening. Can’t wait to hear the next episode. Knowles does a great job with all the characters.
Enjoyed the first episode! You should write a story about what the world looks like if liberals get everything they want: no genders, everyone living in urban centers, religion pushed to the edge of society, etc.
The first episode was great and I’m looking forward to the next one. In fact, it prompted me to go over to Audible and drop a credit on “Werewolf Cop.” No more Klavanless Weekends for me for a while!
There is a former Poet Laureate etc. etc. In Congress Assembled etc. etc. (or whatever the US title is) by the name of Ted Kooser. He decided to distill his writing wisdom into a volume called The Poetry Home Repair Manual. (I reviewed it here many years ago and there is a link to the book on Amazon from there.) One of his points or suggestions was that one’s first line of a poem is the author’s invitation to the reader to come in, to keep reading. That first line, that opening, should capture the attention of the reader. It should make them want to come in, make them want to lose themselves in the work, make them want to forget they are reading (or listening) and thrust their imagination into the scene so they see and hear and smell the things around them that are really just words on a page or in the air.
I tried listening to Another Kingdom. But the opening bored me and I stopped it. I will try to give it another listen and stick it out when I have a bit of time. I generally like fantasy and your writing, but it was just too slow for me that day.
Just heard ep 1 and thoroughly enjoyed it. Michael Knowles is the reader but that is unmistakably Drew’s “voice.” The story skews to the male side, like something out of “Heavy Metal” but I’m sure great twists are in store. I was expecting a kind of radio serial treatment conjuring up The Shadow et al., which would be fun, but this is more like an audio book. Anyway, terrific entertainment in the Klavan mold.