Issue 58 - Rod Faulkner Sees the Genius in Short Sci-Fi Films
Hello, everyone.
I’m going to introduce this week’s FutureX podcast in a moment, but first, I want to celebrate a few things about writing novels.
They tell writers not to read reviews, because reviews can sting. On the other hand, Oscar Wilde said something like “the only thing worse than bad publicity is no publicity.” For better or worse, I do read reviews. I’ve gotten some good ones (and a bad one), but the best so far have come from the Midwest Book Review, which reviews books for libraries. They called Surrender a “masterpiece of science fiction.” You can see a few of their quotes on the book page on the FutureX site.
Earlier this week, I completed the first writing pass on the sequel to Surrender, called Resist. It’s a big hunk of a manuscript that I will be working on later this month and next, and get it to my editors by September. I’m aiming to publish it in the first quarter of 2024.
I’m Interviewed on Beyond the Pen
I’ve been doing a lot of podcast interviews lately in support of Surrender, but I think this one, at Beyond the Pen, is one of the best. The hosts, Mack and Chelsea, chat a bit before bringing me on, and it’s clear they are curious about the book and did read it closely, because they ask the deeper questions about why it came into being and what my working process is like. At the end of the interview, they ask me to share something I’ve never revealed to anybody on any other interview. I rose to the challenge.
This Week on FutureX
In this week’s episode, you’ll meet Rod Faulkner, self-professed Blerd, (Black nerd) founder of The7thMatrix and host of EYE ON SCI-Fi Podcast. He’s a lifelong lover of science fiction and fantasy.
In the interview, Rod talks about building his community of science fiction fans online and he shares his enthusiasm for short-form filmmaking.
The most unique and original science fiction and fantasy narratives, in my opinion, are being told by independent filmmakers in the short film space. I’m attracted to that medium because they only have a few minutes to tell their story. It forces them to be succinct. It forces them to make bold choices about how they convey the narrative that they’re trying to tell audiences.
-Rod Faulkner
Rod points out that one of the great things about short films is that by pretty much the first minute, you’ll know whether it’s for you or not.
A filmmaker he recommends is Anthony Ferraro. Anthony specializes in making instructional videos for DIY-ing genre film shorts. Here’s Anthony’s YouTube Channel.
Where to Find the Show
Listen to The FutureX Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Transistor.fm or wherever the finest podcasts are distributed.
Thanks for reading and listening, and I’ll see you here next week.
Lee
