The April Roundup is for breaking in a new set of earbuds or million-dollar Beats (depending on your level of fancy-pants), with a handful of picks that will fill your listening card with stories, soundbites, and words of wisdom from author, teacher, and mentor, Tom Spanbauer.
#Stories
Podcasts are all the rage these days, so I appreciate a curated list that appeals to my writer/reader self. Bookriot’s recent post on 25 Outstanding Podcasts for Readers includes Storynory, which “brings you a new children’s audio story every week….classic fairy tales, new children’s stories, poems, myths, adventures, and romance” (fun times for kids).
Also listed is The New Yorker Fiction Podcast. I’ve been listening to this one for a while, having heard several episodes on repeat (like the one where “David Sedaris reads Miranda July”).
#SoundBites
A website that archives sound bites (for purchase) ranging from traffic noises to chopping vegetables (I’m not kidding!), SOUND SNAP boasts:
“200,000 sound effects and loops. Unlimited possibilities.”
Good stuff for padding a movie or even a podcast with auditory atmosphere, or if you’re creating an audio version of an essay. But this kind of resource, as Joan Dempsey reminds us in her tweet (where I found the link), is also great for writers in the midst of creating a story on paper.
I’ve been known to take long walks in the north woods and record the entire experience from the sound of feet on gravel to the racket of grasshoppers hidden in prairie grass and wildflowers. I keep these recordings as research in case my memory fails when I sit down to revise my novel that is set in the north woods. But I can’t record every sound I might need. So this link is gold.
You can look up anything. And you should! One tiny sound bite may be all you need to rejuvenate an old draft or start a brand new story.
#Spanbauer
So, bookmark those first two links, but get over to this next one right away for a beautiful interview that honors an amazing writer, teacher, and mentor from Portland, Oregon: Tom Spanbauer.
“It’s through the personal…through the people that surround you and how you talk and how you live and how you love each other that will create the art.”
~ Tom Spanbauer
This is a long listen, full of Spanbauer’s own words of wisdom, and it’s as entertaining as it is inspirational. The interview incorporates music as well as tiny love letters from his students; when you reach the end you’ll feel contented, full of love for the work and for the power of community.
What’s on your list of links this month?
After the bell rings, nobody cares about history or “the best possible answer” or the speech due tomorrow. The school door slams behind him, and at fourteen it’s Mountain Dew and the candy store and slow walks home where he talks big. Curses loud, trying on his size, your reminder that Words are power, use them wisely pushed aside. Until his best friend rams into him in fun, and soda spills on his brand new sweatshirt. The mother of all swear words flies, and yeah, he feels the power. They laugh; he grins, pelts his friend with a piece of sour candy and pops another in his mouth.
