Part of my life as an author is presenting PowerPoint webinars for various groups. I “met” Kathy MacLellan while presenting to Capital Crime Writers (based out of Ottawa, Canada) and asked to hear more about her podcast and what was involved in preparing one (who knows, maybe I’ll give it a whirl one day!). In the meantime, here’s Miss Maple, er…Kathy!
I read my first Agatha Christie, The Pale Horse, when I was ten years old. Once I got over my disappointment that it wasn’t about horses, I was hooked. I’ve been reading mysteries ever since. They’ve sustained, comforted, and stimulated me through a busy lifetime of work as a mom, puppet-maker, performer, and writer. With my husband and partner, John Nolan, I created and toured puppet shows across Canada and elsewhere for 40 years. I also wrote plays, episodes of CBC children’s TV shows like Mr. Dressup and Under the Umbrella Tree, and scripts for our own company, Rag & Bone Puppet Theatre.
We sadly paused touring and live performances during the pandemic, but we enjoyed having time at home to explore new interests. John learned how to record and stream our shows, and I began to imagine stories set in our neighbourhood. Like Christie says in the Miss Marple stories, anything can happen in a village. And what mysteries lurk in the bland underbelly of a quiet suburb? I tried not to be discouraged by how long the journey to publication can be. I wrote for fun, and just hoped that someday other people could enjoy the stories too. Then one day, John suggested we do a podcast. I loved the idea. I’m a big fan of audio books, and he’s very interested in sound production. Podcasts are very popular, and a quick and easy way to reach listeners.
I want these stories to have a strong sense of place, so I begin with settings, including bits of history. Then comes the plot, which I write and rewrite until I have an outline. I do a messy first draft, feeling my way through characters, descriptions, and dialogue. I try not to obsess about word choice until subsequent drafts. I also get some early readers to give me comments and suggestions.
Before we record, I practice reading out loud and trying different voices for each character. In our basement studio, John listens on headphones and stops me every time I pop a “P” or lose the friendly, intimate but interested tone we’re striving for. Then he takes a week or two to edit, add sound effects, and choose music. We’re planning to add his voice in upcoming episodes, a style called “duet narration”, but for now we decided to have just my voice for all the characters. It’s more of a storytelling style, and what people who listen to audio books expect.
We chose Buzzsprout to host our podcast. It connects us to Apple, Spotify, and Google, and we can watch the progress as more and more people tune in. We have four episodes up now and plans for six more. It’s fun to see the number of downloads creeping up to more than 260 so far, and to see that we have listeners from all over the world. After 40 years of performances for kids, we’re reaching a new audience and it’s a bit of a thrill.