Not too long ago, author John Scalzi posted on his blog about a new website he was helping to launch: ficlets.com. (See my earlier TeleRead post about it.) The purpose of ficlets.com is similar to a well-known writing exercise in which one person writes part of a story, and then someone else gets to continue it. Ficlets uses a content management system to extend and expand this exercise: each ficlet is a maximum of 1024 characters in length, anyone can write a sequel or prequel to any ficlet, and any ficlet can have as many prequels or sequels as people want to write. All ficlets are released under a creative commons license to make sure that people have the right to continue what is written or make use of it in other venues.
Since the site’s launch, there have been literally thousands of ficlets, and many interesting and amusing stories that have come out of them. I have even taken advantage of the creative commons license to read some of these ficlets aloud as podcasts.
Now, I am delighted to announce that on Saturday, June 9th at 7:30 p.m. Eastern/4:30 p.m. Pacific, I will be conducting a live call-in talk radio interview with ficlets.com site administrator Kevin Lawver on my books-and-writing-related talk show, The Biblio File. The topic of the interview will be what ficlets.com is, where the idea came from, and how it has been doing so far. After I finish my prepared questions, I will bring in any callers for a panel discussion.
Anyone who wishes to call in to the show to listen or participate will be welcome to do so. Here’s how.
If you just want to listen, you can do that via streaming audio from the Biblio File page itself, while the show is airing. Also, the complete show will be downloadable as an MP3 file (you can also use RSS to syndicate it to your podcast-sync software of choice if you like) starting about half an hour after the show ends. No registration of any kind is necessary to listen.
If you would like to listen and have the opportunity to converse with other listeners and submit questions via text chat, you can register at talkshoe.com (it’s free) and download their Java-based text chat client, which includes the ability to listen via streaming audio at the same time.
If you would like to phone in and listen that way, as well as having the opportunity to ask a question on the air, you can register at talkshoe.com and phone in to (724) 444-7444. (It is a Pittsburgh number, so it will be a long-distance call for most people.) You will be asked for the show’s ID number, which is 7022, and your PIN number, which you set when you register. You can phone in with or without also using the chat client, though you should use the chat client if you wish to be able to signal that you would like to be unmuted to ask a question. (You can also phone in via Voice Over IP applications, for free, which I cover in detail on the tutorial page mentioned above.)
For more information on connecting, see my TalkShoe guide page.
Finally, if you will not be able to participate live but would still like to submit questions, post a comment to this entry or email me. I can’t promise I’ll ask all questions that are submitted but I will try to ask any good ones.
