BROADCASTS.com

In which the team try to pin down the essence of genre: what differentiates it from a style; who makes them and how it affects our reading experience.\xa0 We go on to discuss the benefits and problems with blurring those boundaries.\xa0 Actually, for the first fifteen minutes we try to stop Mattie playing SW:TOR and attempt to discuss a series of books that none of us has actually read - but\xa0then\xa0we get on topic.\xa0 Honestly.

The conversation was to have gone on for a good twenty minutes longer but technical difficulties plagued us in the latter part of the episode.\xa0\xa0On the plus side, all being well you will be hearing a little more from Scrolls 'somewhere' on the Geek Syndicate Network this month.

Genre Blends that we recommend, but didn't have opportunity to discuss properly (or at all in some cases) include\xa0Artemis Fowl, the 'Jon Shannow' books, The 'Pax Britannia' series,\xa0Coraline, The 'Merrily Watson' series, 'The Tales Of The Otori' series,\xa0The Fifth Child, The 'Shadows Of The Apt' series, and\xa0Cloud Atlas.\xa0 You should google them if they are unfamiliar to you, track down copies and read them.\xa0 I would also heartilly recommend reading a short story by William Hope Hodgeson called\xa0The Derelict.\xa0 It's about a 'ghost' sailing ship, yet has an old-world sci-fi vibe more in line with The Thing than The Fog.\xa0 You can read it for free\xa0online\xa0but I particularly enjoyed the full audio dramatisation from\xa0Audio Comics\xa0in their Horrorscopes series.\xa0 You should definitely give some of those a listen.

As a hobby, both Phil and Dion have been entering a Flash Fiction competition on the writer Lily Childs' blog.\xa0 These are stories of no more than 100 words, so easy to flick through, tricky to write.\xa0 As a tenuous link to encourage people to go take a look (and potentially join in) I offer you my own little genre blender 'Bete Noir.'\xa0 We post our stories in the comments section, so you'll need to scrolls down the page to find it.

Finally, regarding Jeffrey Kacirk's Forgotten English calendar mentioned near the beginning of the podcast.\xa0 The words I was supposed to fit in to conversation was 'Good Man's Croft.'\xa0 You won't hear me getting it into conversation for technical reasons that I won't bore you with.\xa0 The episode as a whole, though,\xa0 may be considered to be a practical modern-day demonstration of the phrase.

Hopefully we'll meet some of you lovely people at the SFX Weekender in February.\xa0 Until then, keep reading.