Attention, book lovers!

The agony of editing!If you enjoyed our interview with Kieran Mathers about his forthcoming fantasy novella, The Darkness Embraces, you might be wondering what happened to the new series of articles we promised you, charting his journey from first draft to publication.

Well the good news is, they’re already happening! But as we’ve decided to draw Impossible Podcasts to a close this year, you’ll find them at Bell, Book & Candle – the blog about reading, writing and the life in between, managed by our Stories In Print editor, P.G. Bell. The column, called ‘Mundane Adventures’, is updated every Saturday morning and is already proving popular as Kieran wrestles with the challenges of getting a book ready for market – from misunderstandings with his cover artist to rising above the sea of rubbish straight-to-Kindle titles. It’s fascinating and insightful stuff but don’t take our word for it – check out Part 1 and Part 2 for yourself. And we can promise some fascinating twists and turns in the next few weeks!

Friend of the podcast, Simon Kurt Unsworth

Meanwhile, Simon Kurt Unsworth’s occasional column ‘The Bellows’ also has a new home at Bell, Book & Candle. The World Fantasy Award-nominated author is preparing his own novel for publication, but it’s a very different journey to Kieran’s. P.G. will be re-posting the first four instalments over the next few weeks to bring new readers up to speed, before starting on the brand new material.

Lastly, P.G. recently announced that his blog is going to host a brand new podcast of its own. If you enjoyed our interview with Philip Reeve, you’ll want to hear Bell, Book & Podcast – a monthly interview with a notable writer, editor or publisher. The first instalment is due out in July, so keep those ears peeled!

If you’ve ever wondered how words get out of a person’s head, onto the page and then onto bookshelves, Bell, Book & Candle is worth a look.

Welcome to the new site!

Impossible PodcastsWelcome to the brand new Impossible Podcasts website!

We hope you like the changes – they’re designed to be pleasing on the eye and easy to navigate. We’ve got a glut of exciting new content coming up over the next few days, from new articles through to our Asylum of the Daleks preview. Stay tuned, and let us know what you think!

Remember, we’d love for you to get involved with the show, so if you’d like to write for us or Skype in on a discussion, get in touch!

There are loads of behind the scenes benefits to the new site. But here are some of the changes we’ve made that will directly impact you, our faithful audience… Continue reading

Review – Browncoats Mix Tape – Adam WarRock

What happens when space cowboys meet gangsta rappers? Something amazing, that’s what! Resident über-nerd Olivia Cottrell dons her headphones and brings us the lowdown on a highly unlikely mashup…

The internet is a wonderful place for creativity. Especially in terms of fandom: all kinds of talented, creative people use the genre shows, comic books and video games that they love as raw material to express themselves in media that you would never expect in a million years. So it is with the small but growing genre of ‘nerdcore’ rap artists – musicians who (truer to the roots of hip hop and rap than their more mainstream contemporaries) use the genre to talk about the things that are important to them. It’s just that these things happen to be the aforementioned comic books, TV shows, and video games. While doing so, they often articulate wider points about life in general. So it is with Adam WarRock’s newest offering, The Browncoats Mixtape, based on Firefly.

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Author Interview – Simon Kurt Unsworth – FantasyCon 2011

Hundreds of fantasy, sci-fi and horror fans descended on Brighton last weekend for the British Fantasy Society‘s annual convention. Our reviews editor, P.G. Bell, was one of them.

There are lots of good reasons to attend the annual FantasyCon. Free wine is one. The chance to meet your favourite writers and publishers in the flesh is another. And that’s why I was there. (Well, also for the free wine. But definitely not for Saturday night’s tentacle burlesque show. Honest).

I got to chat with World Fantasy Award nominated writer Simon Kurt Unsworth, who was in town to launch his new book, Quiet Houses. (If you haven’t heard our review of Quiet Houses yet, you can download it here). He told me how the book came into being, how a series of long bus journeys led to him becoming a writer, and why he likes his characters to be “baffled”. Click the link below to hear the full story, and read on after the break for some photos of the launch and the rest of the weekend!

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Seven Ways the Doctor Could Cheat Death in ‘The Wedding of River Song’!

Caleb Woodbridge looks ahead to ‘The Wedding of River Song’, considering seven possible (or impossible!) ways to cheat death when you’re a Time Lord!

Theories covered include:

  1. “I woke up and it was all a terrible dream”
  2. It’s the Doctor’s ganger!
  3. It’s the Tessalecta!
  4. “Regeneration juice” and other technobabble
  5. “Time can be rewritten”
  6. “To be fair, the universe did blow up”
  7. The love of a good woman?

Listen to the evidence for and against each one, let us know your predictions, and check back in a day or two’s time for our commentary on the finale!

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Doctor Who – Moffat Bingo – Play Along At Home!

What better way of celebrating the return of Doctor Who this weekend than by saluting our Ming-Mong-In-Chief? How, we hear you ask? Why, by downloading these exclusive Moffat Bingo cards of course!

Moffat Bingo couldn’t be easier to play. Simply print out the cards below (there are three different arrangements in total) then sit down with a pen, a friend (you do have one of those, right?) and the latest episode of Doctor Who. Then cross off each trope as and when it appears in the story. Easy! The first person to complete a line of five squares wins. See if you can get a full house (crossing off every square on the card) over the course of the series.

Our thanks go to podcast listeners Kevin Greenan, Fiona James and Jon Rook who suggested suitable Moffatisms over at our Facebook page, and to Anna Bell for her help in designing the finished cards.

Check back after tonight’s broadcast for some insights from the man himself, as we bring you highlights from the recent ‘Let’s Kill Hitler’ preview Q&A, with Steven Moffat, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill.