COUNTDOWN TO PAPER: DAY 6

Welcome to Day 6 of the “Ghost Radio: Countdown to Paper” event! Our celebration of the mass market paperback release of Leopoldo Gout’s hit horror novel Ghost Radio. Today we give you a preview of a potential Ghost Radio podcast.  And make sure to read to the bottom of the post for a chance to win some exciting PRIZES!

We’re always looking for ways to expand the Ghost Radio experience.  The blog has been hugely successful.  Its daily readership goes way beyond our wild expectations.  And we’d like to continue this momentum.

One of the ideas we’re toying with is a Ghost Radio podcast.   Like the blog, this podcast won’t be limited to information on the book, but will cover a range of material.  We’ve yet to decide if this is a direction we wish to take.  But we’ve created a tentative show open to whet your appetite.  It’s still a bit rough, but it gives you a feel of what the open for such a show might sound like:

Let us know what you think?  Is another media podcast something you think you need?

CONTEST INFORMATION!

Each day of this event we offer the chance to win prizes. Every winner will receive autographed copies of both the hardback and paperback editions of Ghost Radio. But they will also receive a special bonus surprise tied to the day’s theme. This could be additional books, DVDs, CDs, audio books, or maybe something even more exciting. So what are you waiting for? Enter today’s contest now.

Here’s all you need to do to enter today’s contest:

Just send an email to ghostradioinfo@gmail.com, and put “COUNTDOWN TO PAPER – DAY 6″ in the subject line, and  “Ghost Radio”  in the body of the email.  Or just use the contact form below:

Name(required)

Email(required)

Website

Message

This contest closes on March 13, 2010. Winners will be chosen at random, and notified the following week.

And don’t forget to check back to tomorrow for another day of this exciting event, and another chance to win PRIZES!

If you’ve missed any of the COUNTDOWN TO PAPER event you can catch up here.

COUNTDOWN TO PAPER: DAY 5

Welcome to Day 5 of the “Ghost Radio: Countdown to Paper” event! Our celebration of the mass market paperback release of Leopoldo Gout’s hit horror novel Ghost Radio. Today Leopoldo looks at the mysterious Toltec civilization. And make sure to read to the bottom of the post for a chance to win some exciting PRIZES!

One of the greatest assets to any writer is a mystery.  Whether that mystery be large, like the meaning of life; or small, like a missing set of keys, their ability to drive stories is virtually identical.  They don’t merely aid in creating narrative, they serve as the most functional armature for building narrative upon.  The mystery has done for writing what the post and lintel did for architecture.   But if writers see mysteries as an asset, readers see them as almost a necessity.

You’ll rarely find a successful novel, from the most high-minded to the most mercenary, that doesn’t have a mystery at its core:  Some question that author hopes to examine if not fully answer.

Ghost Radio is a novel full of mysteries from murders to missing radio shows to the mystery of the afterlife itself.   But one of my favorite mysteries that Ghost Radio tackles is the mystery of the Toltecs.

Unlike other ancient civilizations, the Toltecs have become more mysterious by the decade.  Once believed to be an actual ancient people of central Mexico, now more and more historians have come to accept that they may simply have been a mythic creation of the Aztecs.  And, because of this unclear history, they have become utilized by all types of people for all types of purposes.  The Toltecs seems to serve a function similar to that of the druids of ancient Britain:  A mystical group upon whom we can project our own ideas and feelings.  A new age catchall, if you will.

But I didn’t want to use the Toltecs that way in Ghost Radio.  I thought they deserved better.  So I sought to use them in a way that was both more mysterious and more surprising.  You’ll have to read the book to find out more.   But, if you’re like most readers, I think you’ll find it a mystery worth exploring.  And I hope you enjoy what I did with it.

CONTEST INFORMATION!

Each day of this event we offer the chance to win prizes. Every winner will receive autographed copies of both the hardback and paperback editions of Ghost Radio. But they will also receive a special bonus surprise tied to the day’s theme. This could be additional books, DVDs, CDs, audio books, or maybe something even more exciting. So what are you waiting for? Enter today’s contest now.

Here’s all you need to do to enter today’s contest:

Just send an email to ghostradioinfo@gmail.com, and put “COUNTDOWN TO PAPER – DAY 5″ in the subject line, and  “Ghost Radio”  in the body of the email.  Or just use the contact form below:

Name(required)

Email(required)

Website

Message

This contest closes on March 13, 2010. Winners will be chosen at random, and notified the following week.

And don’t forget to check back to tomorrow for another day of this exciting event, and another chance to win PRIZES!

If you’ve missed any of the COUNTDOWN TO PAPER event you can catch up here.

COUNTDOWN TO PAPER: DAY 4

Welcome to Day 4 of the “Ghost Radio: Countdown to Paper” event! Our celebration of the mass market paperback release of Leopoldo Gout’s hit horror novel Ghost Radio.  Today we look at pioneer of paranormal radio.  And make sure to read to the bottom of the post for a chance to win some exciting PRIZES!

One of the key components of Ghost Radio is a late-night paranormal radio show.  Such radio shows have been a programming fixtures for decades.  The show of this type that’s probably most familiar to today’s readers is Art Bell’s Coast to Coast Am.  And our Mexican readers are probably familiar with similar show called “La Mano Peluda” (The Hairy Hand).

But decades before either of these shows aired, there was a radio personality who pioneered this format.  His name was John Zimmerman, better known to his listeners as “Long John Nebel” (pictured above).  On various radio station in the New York City area, he broadcast an over-night radio show discussing the paranormal from the mid-fifties till the late seventies.

We could try to explain what his show was like.  But wouldn’t it just be better to give you chance to listen to it yourself?  We thought so.

So today we’re dipping deep in the Ghost Radio archives to give you a taste of John Nebel’s show.  And it’s quite a special one.  This broadcast is from February 1, 1958 and features an interview with Award Winning Science Fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke.  In this conversation, Clarke discusses his theories on UFOs.  We hope you enjoy it.

CONTEST INFORMATION!

Each day of this event we offer the chance to win prizes.  Every winner will receive autographed copies of both the hardback and paperback editions of Ghost Radio. But they will also receive a special bonus surprise tied to the day’s theme.  This could be additional books, DVDs, CDs, audio books, or maybe something even more exciting.   So what are you waiting for?  Enter today’s contest now.

Here’s all you need to do to enter today’s contest:

Just send an email to ghostradioinfo@gmail.com,  and put “COUNTDOWN TO PAPER – DAY 4″ in the subject line, and “Ghost Radio”  in the body of the email.  Or just use the contact form below:

Name(required)

Email(required)

Website

Message

This contest closes on March 13, 2010.  Winners will be chosen at random, and notified the following week.

And don’t forget to check back to tomorrow for another day of this exciting event, and another chance to win PRIZES!

If you’ve missed any of the COUNTDOWN TO PAPER event you can catch up here.

COUNTDOWN TO PAPER: DAY 3

Welcome to Day 3 of the “Ghost Radio: Countdown to Paper” event!  Our celebration of the mass market paperback release of Leopoldo Gout’s hit horror novel Ghost Radio. And make sure to read to the bottom of the post for a chance to win some exciting PRIZES! Today Leopoldo talks about the importance of music in the novel.  Take it away, Leopoldo:

Any novel that deals with radio will inevitably focus on music at one point or another. Ghost Radio is no exception.  Music is at the core of the novel, and plays an important role in the lives of its main character.  The characters mediate their attitudes toward love, friendship, loss and death through music.

Music also plays a role in the novel’s plot. Music is present in each important point in the characters’ lives.   And at the center of the plot lies the song “Kill the Poor” by the seminal American Punk Rock band The Dead Kennedys.  Some readers have been confused by the choice of this song.  Unsure what it has to do with the novel’s plot and themes.  I suggest those people read through the lyrics again.  The song is actually deeper than its initial impact may suggest.  For example, while listening again you might ruminate on the multiple meanings of the word “poor”.  But the song’s basic theme is in the novel as well … if you look for it.

But in addition to using music in these direct ways, I also attempted to echo music in the novel’s structure.  In many ways, Ghost Radio owes more structurally to symphonies and record albums than it does to novels.  And, like a symphony or album, many of its sections offer pleasures when they’re enjoyed on their own as well as part of the whole.  In fact, I suggest that if readers wish to read the novel a second time, they read the chapters in an order of their own choosing.  The novel’s “exploded narrative” offers special pleasures when enjoyed this way.

CONTEST INFORMATION!

Each day of this event we offer the chance to win prizes.  Every winner will receive autographed copies of both the hardback and paperback editions of Ghost Radio. But they will also receive a special bonus surprise tied to the day’s theme.  This could be additional books, DVDs, CDs, audio books, or maybe something even more exciting.   So what are you waiting for?  Enter today’s contest now.

Here’s all you need to do to enter today’s contest:

Just send an email to ghostradioinfo@gmail.com,  and put “COUNTDOWN TO PAPER – DAY 3″ in the subject line, and “Ghost Radio”  in the body of the email.  Or just use the contact form below:

Name(required)

Email(required)

Website

Message

This contest closes on March 13, 2010.  Winners will be chosen at random, and notified the following week.

And don’t forget to check back to tomorrow for another day of this exciting event, and another chance to win PRIZES!

If you’ve missed any of the COUNTDOWN TO PAPER event you can catch up here.