From Pages to Airwaves: Embarking on a Podcast Journey

Well, I guess I am going to do a podcast.

At least that is what Esther, the very wise and very capable young woman who is handling publicity and marketing for me, has suggested.

And because she is wise and capable and has not yet steered me wrong, I am going to do it.

My unapologetic purpose in taking on this project is to create interest in and visibility for my books. Esther believes that the best way to do this is to let potential readers know something about the ideas that reside therein.

Wow! That last statement was just the kind of pompous, over-written phrase that I generally cringe at when I encounter it in someone else’s writing. “the ideas that reside therein” … really?

What I mean to say is that I hope my three novels and one work of biographical non-fiction are the stories of characters driven as much by ideas as by plot, without sounding pompous and without being overwritten (thanks largely to work of at least three very talented editors).

What I mean to say (Does that mean that I should have said what I mean in the first place?) …

What I mean to say is that, to me, ideas matter as much both when I read fiction and when I am writing fiction as plot. The best stories, in whatever form, progress logically AND keep readers thinking.

In the first podcast episode, I make the point that my work is influenced by everything that I have been in my life and everything that I am currently involved in (other than this too-often tentative literary project).

I am and have been at various periods in the last 60 years or so (yes 60 years. I am not a young man) A marginal to poor student, a marginal to barely competent athlete, a mostly minor-league journalist, a teacher of English and history (Some days I was really and on other days not so much), and a track and field and cross-country coach.

I live on 25 rock acres of sagebrush and prairie grass nestled on the north slope of a broad valley between the Horse Heaven Hills and Rattlesnake Mountains in the quiet backcountry of southeastern Washington State. My steadfast and uncompromising wife, Tina, and I have managed to raise two daughters, numerous horses, a few cows, numerous goats, an indeterminate number of chickens, and a think a couple of pigs since we moved here on the first day of 1995.

During nearly all that time, I have been a teacher and/or coach at Richland High School, a first-rate public school known as much for its controversial mushroom cloud school symbol (The adjacent Hanford Nuclear Reservation, played a crucial role in the development of the nuclear weapons that older residents believe with some uncomfortable pride - were instrumental in ending World War II) as it is known for outstanding athletics and top-tier academics.

So, what are the ideas that drive the characters in books? I think a thoughtful one will find several philosophical strains.

Hmmm. “Philosophical strains”. I think I’m edging over into pomposity again. I need to stop doing that.

Okay so “philosophical” might be too strong, but whatever…

1. Education and schools. Good for some kids. Adequate for others. Pointless or disastrous for the rest.

2. Rudderless kids need more than academic assistance. The source of their struggles is often spiritual.

3. Effective spiritual guidance comes as often as not from informal, non-institutionalized sources (including other kids).

I need to be careful to be clear here. I am not hostile to public schools or institutions of religion. At most, you might detect a tint of disappointment in the fact that school system and religious denominations often seem to be unnecessarily leaning into cultural norms and political expectations that are counter to their original purpose.

For example, is a school system’s primary purpose to educate or to evaluate?

I think I’ll avoid for now having anything to say about the state of institutionalized religion. Maybe later when I’ve gotten a bit braver.

So… what you find in my books, and subsequently in my nascent podcast is what happens when school, sports, rural living, and a sort of off-the-beaten-track Christianity come together in the lives of young people struggling to make sense of a world in which they do not seem to fit.

Ha. A final English-teacher pomposity: Never end a sentence with a preposition.

Find my books at bruceblizard.com or on Amazon.