Mick Bordet
  • Home
  • About
  • Short Stories
  • Newsletter
KEEP IN TOUCH

Music

  • The Deserters Eclectic band from the West Coast of Scotland, featuring Mick on guitar and yobstick
  • The Lunacy Board Progressive skiffle-rock Duo featuring Mick on guitar and theremin

Podcasting

  • Every Photo Tells… Fortnightly short story podcast inspired by a photograph that changes every month.
  • Some Other Scotland Mick’s regular podcast series about advanced hidden civilisations, mysteries and clan wars in an alternative Scotland.
  • Wiener Blut An old café, an even older legend and a new threat. Mick provides voice work and music for this podcast.

Writing

  • 100 Word Stories Weekly 100 word short story podcast based on a changing prompt where Mick has a number of stories.
  • Great Hites Weekly short story podcast based on a changing prompt where Mick has a number of stories.
  • Katharina Maimer Mick’s EPT Co-host and writing collaborator.

Facebook

Posts tagged Some Other Scotland

« Older Entries

Glimpses

Nov20
2011
Leave a Comment Written by Mick

A few months ago the team at Podioracket launched an anthology podcast featuring writers of Podiobooks.com stories. This is the second of these collections they have produced, though this one differed from the first by showcasing stories that were spin-offs from existing podiobooks.com titles. The idea is to give people a taste of some of the books available on the site, perhaps interesting them in tales that might not otherwise have appealed to them based solely on their descriptions. I thought this was a great idea, having already written a number of stories in the same world as “Some Other Scotland“, and knew straight away what to write.

In the early days of SOS, I wrote a short story that appeared at “Great Hites” called “The Cave pt1″. It was prompted by the ‘polar bear’ news item that came up and was set about 4,000 years ago, providing an outside view of a historic meeting. There was always going to be a second part to the story and ‘Glimpses’ provided the opportunity to tell the rest of the tale. This new story is set in the same time period and focuses on a meeting between the clans and the advanced civilisation featured in the main storyline. Throw in a mind-controlled polar bear and some bad attitude and you know that it’s not going to end in cuddles. If you haven’t been following SOS, then this story gives you a flavour of the main story, but if you have then this is probably the most ‘essential’ of the Spin-offs I have written.

The story has been available in audio form at Podiobooks for months (there is an audio promo below), but has just been released in eBook format. You can find it in a range of formats for all e-readers, or to view on your computer, at Amazon(for Kindle users) and Smashwords(in many formats).

You can find out more about the book on Goodreads or Shelfari – please leave a review if you enjoy any of the stories. We really want to get the news out there about the collection.

Until the end of December, sign up to my newsletter to receive occasional news about my writing and music, and you will receive a voucher code to enjoy a copy of the Glimpses eBook for free. That’s 11 great short stories that will introduce you to new worlds and new authors, without spending a dime/penny/cent.

Glimpses Promo [ 0:53 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Posted in Featured, Podcast, Short Stories, Writing - Tagged eBook, Glimpses, podioracket

Some Other Podcast

Feb02
2011
1 Comment Written by Mick

Some Other Scotland
Between Every Photo Tells…, Wiener Blut and numerous other activities, my attention to Some Other Scotland has been spread rather thin of late. Okay, very thin. I am in the process of sorting this out.

First of all, a new episode of the podcast series was posted yesterday and it features something that was set up back in episode 4. Admittedly, because of the nature of the podcast and its audience-influenced plot-lines, at that time I had no idea what it was set up for, but once I did, it was just a matter of sitting on it until an appropriate time. The pace will be stepping up a gear or two over the next few episodes, as a result of this event. I have already started writing the next episode, so keep an eye on Twitter and Facebook for updates.

Polls

There is a new poll, ready for you to vote on. In the past I had to rely on third party poll sites that were either awkward to work with or didn’t do what I want them to do. The new, integrated poll fits the design of the SOS site, lets me include links on each poll item so that you can visit the original news items before making your informed decision to vote for the three things you’d like me to inflict on the characters. The new system even lets me provide a poll archive, so clicking on the ‘Polls‘ menu item will show all the polls from the past. Unfortunately this ability will only be available from this week’s poll onwards, but I hope you find it useful.

Wiki

Over on the SOS Wiki page, there have been a number of additions to bring the wiki up to date with the plot, such as discovering the name of the ‘Sidhe‘, adding in new locations, characters and items of technology. There was a spam attack on the wiki a few weeks ago, which slipped past because of some settings that have now been changed. It is a really useful resource for listeners of the podcast and don’t forget that anyone can register as a user there and make their own additions to the information there.

Subscribe!

There are a number of existing spin-offs that I will be dropping into the feed as well, in between regular episodes. In the past these have been spread around all over the place, but I am keen to bring them all into the main feed. For a while there has also been the ability to choose a special feed, for example if you are a podiobooks.com listener, but would like to grab all the spin-offs to enjoy. It was never very clear how this works, though, so I have added a Subscribe page that lists the special feeds you can access along with a nice shiny iTunes button to press if all that sounds too complicated and you just want to listen to the whole podcast.

Some Other Scotland
Posted in Podcast - Tagged Podcast

Every Photo Tells… Podiobook

Aug04
2010
Leave a Comment Written by Mick

Every Photo Tells… is joining the ranks of podiobooks.com from next week (11th August 2010). The stories there are the same ones from the EPT website, though they have been re-ordered a little so that two-part stories are all presented back-to-back, presented as ‘Book 1′. The main site will continue as before, bringing new stories inspired by photographs, but those won’t appear at Podiobooks.com until another 6 months have passed and they will become ‘Book 2′.

Appearing on podiobooks will, we hope, bring in some new listeners as well as potentially some new authors too. The podcast is taking a break for August (there will be a photo and a single story, but no guest writers) whilst we get the podiobooks version completed, then will return in September. Over this period I’ll be working hard on ‘Some Other Scotland‘, so you can expect that to return to a much more regular schedule – Episode 20 has just been launched and there is plenty more to come.

Posted in Every Photo Tells..., Podcast - Tagged Podcast

Question Time

Apr15
2010
Leave a Comment Written by Mick

If you are interested in what goes on behind the scenes to put together an episode of ‘Some Other Scotland‘, you may like to visit two blogs that have been running interviews with podcasters over the last few months.

First of all, Rich at Random Pimpage has a series called “8 Questions”, where he asks 8 simple, if sometimes a little bizarre, questions to a number of people from the world of podcasting. Since this tied-in with the launch of Every Photo Tells…, you’ll find Katharina’s and my answers together at the site.

On the subject of Every Photo Tells…, we’re now into our third month of photo-inspired stories and already up to episode 8. So far there have been tales of love, assassins, pirates, monsters and even a classic whodunnit. There is plenty more to come!

More recently, a more detailed set of questions were put to me about writing and podcasting by Odin at his View From Valhalla blog. His questions go into depth about writing podcast fiction, techniques and equipment for recording and the goals of podcasting. Since he has had a number of people answering his questions in this “How I Do It” series, I would recommend it as a great introduction for new podcasters to pick up tips from those of us who have been through the learning experience already. My answers can be found right here. Incidentally, Odin also runs a regular review of podiobooks, so if you are enjoying ‘Some Other Scotland’ and would like to delve into other podcast fiction, he has some good recommendations for you to try out.

Posted in Every Photo Tells..., Podcast, Writing - Tagged Every Photo Tells..., Podcast, studio, Writing

I Should Be Writing

Dec10
2009
Leave a Comment Written by Mick

I Should Be Writing

Mur Lafferty, author of “Playing for Keeps” and the “Heaven” podcast series amongst other things, has recently posted an article written by me on her “I Should Be Writing” blog.

The blog is the companion to her regular podcast aimed at new and aspiring writers, one that has provided a great deal of help and inspiration to guide me on my way. The article deals with the particular challenges of writing an ongoing piece of interactive fiction like “Some Other Scotland” and how I keep track of where it is going and ensuring it stays on course.

It is aimed at fellow writers, but if you are interested in a behind-the-scenes look at the SOS podcast, you might well find it interesting even if you’re not a writer. Do take the time to check out Mur’s own podcasts at the site; they are quite different to SOS, but you’re sure to find something of interest.

Posted in Podcast, Writing - Tagged Writing

Great Hites Catch-up

Dec10
2009
Leave a Comment Written by Mick

Somehow I have managed not to mention a whole truckload of things in the last month. Rather than off-load them all at once, I’ll stick up a series of short posts to get back on course.

First of all, since I last posted, there have been another two stories posted to Great Hites, both ‘Some Other Scotland‘ spin-off tales.

GH Week 66 “Wearing sunglasses in the early morning.”
Breakfast Hat [sos]
Sometimes people just don’t want to be found. This is a short tale about what happens to Razer between wiping out the Empire State Building and finding himself in deep water.
GH Week 67 “A man with a duck-headed cane is at the door.”
Hide and Seek [sos]
A detective is sent on a chase that can’t end well. It is a longer tale set during the Second World War, giving the full story of the detective mentioned by Erica in Episode 16 of SOS and the previous attack on the ‘Merk’.

Since these are spin-off, they will both appear in the main SOS podcast feed in the future.

In addition to those, I recently included a 100-word story in the SOS feed that was to have been submitted to the 100 Word Stories podcast. It also gives more information about the first attack on the ‘Merk’ in a highly-condensed form.

There was also a bonus prompt for Great Hites recently for a 100-word story, written with a tight deadline, on the subject of “Spicy Mustard”. Like “Kelvin’s Last Message”, this is set in the future of SOS and may never come to pass. I will post the link to this when it becomes available.

Finally, just a reminder that there is a link on the right of this page that will take you to all my short stories, headed “Mick’s Short Stories“.

Posted in 100 Word Stories, Great Hites, Short Stories, Writing - Tagged Great Hites, Writing

Waltzing With Werewolves

Jul29
2009
Leave a Comment Written by Mick

Wolf

This week’s Great Hites episode includes the biggest number of stories to date, with a number of new authors joining in and existing authors pulling out all the stops to make this a really good stepping-on point if you’ve never visited the site before.

The prompt for the stories was “Silver Bullets; the real reason that some cowboys carried them” and as you can imagine this has resulted in a number of werewolf-westerns as well as a few more unusual approaches. There are 12 stories in total, so Jeff has split it into 4 chunks, but it is all well worth a listen or two.

Two of the stories are mine: “Waltzing with Werewolves” is a 100 word love story set to music in a sort of spoken-song format, whilst “Silver Solves The Dilemma” is a fairly traditional western tale, but with werewolves and a somewhat skewed moral code.

Incidentally, the introduction music for each part that Jeff talks over is the theremin solo from The Ballad of Rufus Amos Adams – the country song I wrote some time ago for the Masters of Song Fu. Follow the link for the whole song.

Over on ‘Some Other Scotland‘ this week, the action heads over the Atlantic to New York where the final scene shows how the influence of the story is reaching far beyond the shores of Scotland, with some devastating consequences. I was delighted to have Philip ‘NorvalJoe‘ Carroll join me as the guest voice for Razer’s American friend Kyle, who provides him with a place to lay low for a while. The two of us also concocted the creepy promo for Great Hites that you’ll hear in the same episode, which was fun to put together.

Live Interview and Chat

Finally, I have been invited to do a live interview and call-in chat with Podioracket.com on BlogTalkRadio on the 10th of August. I will have more information about this shortly, but in the meantime, visit this link to set an email reminder of when the show will be broadcast.

Posted in 100 Word Stories, Great Hites, Short Stories, Writing - Tagged Great Hites, interview, Norval Joe, Podcast, podioracket, radio, The Ballad of Rufus Amos Adams, Waltzing with Werewolves, Writing

Take It Away!

Jul27
2009
Leave a Comment Written by Mick

Piano Keys

Over at Great Hites, my story “Take It Away” has proved reasonably popular amongst the people who take the time to vote. It tells of a great pianist who returns to his old school, whereupon he sits down at the old wreck of a piano he last played in his youth. The music teacher who stands watching him is surprised by the result.

This coming week is going to see a bumper Great Hites episode, with 12 stories being included, no doubt due to the prompt being related to cowboys and werewolves. More details when the episode is posted online, but I wrote two stories for the prompt, one of which just so happened to also fit the prompt for 100 Word Stories this week, which was “The games we play”. That means you’ll be able to read and/or listen to one of my stories from next week’s Great Hites in advance. It is called “Waltzing with Werewolves” and is in a spoken-song format with musical accompaniment.

Some major changes are afoot in the world of ‘Some Other Scotland‘ later this week, with something that will force the plot out into the public view in a rather impressive fashion. I’m keen to get another interlude episode out this week as well, so keep an eye on the website.

Finally, I have had some great support from Seth Harwood, author of “Jack Wakes Up”, following his appearance on the live Podioracket talk show. He has very kindly played the promo for SOS on the latest episode of his “Hot Tub” podcast, side-by-side with one for Arlene Radasky’s book “The Fox“. Arlene has been a strong supporter of SOS from early in the life of the podcast and I’ll be talking a little about her book in the next Interlude episode.

Posted in Great Hites - Tagged Great Hites, Seth Harwood, songs, The Fox, Waltzing with Werewolves, Writing

The Cave and Podiobooks

Jul22
2009
Leave a Comment Written by Mick

Caves

My latest short story to appear at ‘Great Hites’ is called “The Cave“. It is another short spin-off from ‘Some Other Scotland’, taking us back to the events (thousands of years ago) that set in motion much of what is taking place with Harald and Razer in the story at the moment. Remember the seemingly innocuous comment about cloning polar bears back in episode 8? Well, this story returns to that topic. The events mentioned here will be covered in SOS, though from a different perspective. This story is subtitled “part 1″, as there is more to tell about what happened in the cave…

The short stories will be taking a break from linking to SOS for a couple of weeks, covering different topics for a while. I don’t want to go overboard with SOS and make you all sick of it!

Podiobooks

Welcome to new visitors coming here from Podiobooks.com. The version of the story on podiobooks does not include the news items or the extras I include in the main podcast feed, the spin-offs and Interludes, just the story itself. I was delighted to gain over 100 new listeners within the first three days live at podiobooks, putting SOS into their top ten for this month, alongside some of the big names in podcast fiction. If you are enjoying the story on podiobooks, please do take the time to rate the podcast and leave a comment, as well as stopping by the main SOS website to vote in the poll. Follow @SOScotland on Twitter to be notified of news, poll postings and new episodes.

Finally, I was interviewed recently about SOS by Rhonda Carpenter of Podioracket, a podcast that covers everything new in the world of podcast fiction and features interviews with authors, news, competitions and promotional details of new books. If you are enjoying SOS or Great Hites, I would recommend paying them a visit for lots of ideas for what to listen to. I’ll put up a direct link to the interview when that episode comes out.

Posted in Great Hites - Tagged Great Hites, podioracket, Writing

Dandelions Of Memory

Jul10
2009
Leave a Comment Written by Mick

Airship? Not exactly.

No, it’s not a UFO or an airship – it’s the blimp flying over T in the Park, just down the road.

This week’s Great Hites story is ready and waiting to be read and/or downloaded. It is called “Dandelions Of Memory” and is another ‘Some Other Scotland‘ tie-in, probably the most direct so far, featuring Erica at the airport before heading off towards Skara Brae. Go and have a listen and don’t forget to vote for your favourite!

My 100 Word Story last week had the most votes (thank you to all who enjoyed it enough to vote for it), so I got to choose the topic for this week, which is “Shrouded in mist”. I had no great plan for the topic, it is simply what I saw when I looked out the window at the time. However, it did result in me writing the shortest SOS spin-off so far. I’ve had something of a Harald special for this week of writing and both that story and my next Great Hites story give a little more background to him, tying into him being the focus of the latest SOS episode.

There is a new episode of ‘Some Other Scotland’ ready for download, the topic this week being ‘Ghost’. Please have a listen and don’t forget to vote for the future plot twist! On the SOS site you’ll find a couple of audio promos for the podcast, set to some Song Fu tracks from the past. If you have a podcast or can use them in any way – please do! Let me know what you do with them, too.

Finally, I have just had confirmation that SOS will soon (17th July) be available at Podiobooks.com – probably the best online source of free podcast stories, with all sorts of things available there, including several that have gone on to become published novels. They are very focused on the story, so the version of SOS that will appear at podiobooks will lack the news items and any other chat from me, having only the story itself. Note that subscribing to the podcast there will not include ‘Interlude’ or ‘Spin-off’ episodes which can only be downloaded from the main SOS site, but if you want to hear them you can still just download those individual episodes.

Posted in Great Hites - Tagged Great Hites, Writing
« Older Entries

Archives

Recent Posts

  • Autopsy of a Lollipop Lady
  • Glimpses
  • Creativity and Marketing Models
  • The Highland Coo Song
  • eBooks
  • Comical
  • Tryptophan Synthetase and other Songs
  • Some Other Podcast
  • A Year of Stories
  • A Share of the Golden Age
  • More from Vienna
  • Wiener Blut
  • We walked in the cold air…
  • Introducing “Rubbing Pennies”
  • NaNo Begins

Featured

Donau Blues Cover
Donau Blues

Tags

computer concerts Deserters Difficult Second download drums Eponymous Debut Frank Zappa funny Great Hites guitar improvisation instrument instrumental Jethro Tull Jonathan Coulton keyboard Lee Newe live looper Lunacy Board mixing mp3 NaNoWriMo obituary Podcast recording review scotland Sean de Florette Some Other Scotland Song Fu songs songwriting Stockholm studio synth theremin The Unofficial National Anthem Track of the Week video vocal website Writing yobstick

EvoLve theme by Theme4Press  •  Powered by WordPress Mick Bordet
Very Much So

Back to Top
Podcast powered by podPress v8.8.10.13