The Exploding Typewriter: Pulp Writers on Writing Pulp

Since I started my new job back in September, I’ve had a regular commute for the first time in five years. At my old job, my commute was usually a five minute walk or as much as half an hour when driving to my furthest school. Now my shortest commute is forty minutes and the longest is about ninety. So I’ve started to listen to a lot of podcasts.

And while listening to them, I kind of wanted to do it myself. I had a very brief show a while back on Japanese films, but the show didn’t end up working out the way I wanted it to. So I knew I wanted to do a show, and I knew I wanted it to have something to do with my writing, but being in Japan, it’s difficult to have a regular co-host and I’m not as entertaining doing a one-man show.

That’s when I remembered that I have gotten a lot of questions over the years about how to write. And I noticed there weren’t that many podcasts out there on the subject—a lot of them had ended. So I decided to do a writing podcast, specifically one on writing pulp. And instead of having one co-host, I’d have rotating co-hosts. Each episode would run for roughly an hour or so (sometimes more, sometimes less) and I’d sit down with a fellow pulp writer and we’d focus on one topic.

About a month ago, I sent feelers out to several people within New Pulp about this and got a lot of positive responses. Almost everyone I approached was interested in being on the show, some for more than one episode. I’ve compiled a nice backlog of episodes so far and am scheduling other recording sessions as well.

And now I can finally announce that the show is live. If you head on over to The Exploding Typewriter, you can listen to the first episode of the series, featuring a discussion with Tommy Hancock about defining pulp and New Pulp. The show has been submitted to iTunes, but still waiting for them to accept it. In the meantime, you can listen to the first episode on the site and also find the show’s Twitter account. If you like what you hear, please be sure to share it with others or write in to the show. And if you’re a pulp writer interested in discussing a topic, by all means get in touch with me!