Tag Archives: self-employed

Episode 12: Mur Lafferty, Author and Podcaster

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Mur Lafferty is one of the first podcasters I ever listened to. When I decided to take a crack at writing again, I stumbled across Mur’s podcast I Should Be Writing and downloaded as much of it as I could – which is a lot of episodes. Just recently, Mur recorded her 250th episode – and that’s not counting all the extra episodes she’s done.

I Should Be Writing is for people who want to be authors what I hope my podcast is for people who want to follow their passions. Though she has a strong genre focus, Mur interviews authors who have secured themselves publishing deals for any works, asking them about how they write and how they got published. Not only that, Mur gives all us wannabes a little moral support by talking about her own progress to published authordom.

That’s right; Mur Lafferty is also an author, with two novels (one published and one self-published), a series of novellas and a raft of short stories – not to mention another novel coming out next year via publisher Orbit Books!

But not only is Mur a podcaster, she’s a podcasting professional. On top of I Should Be Writing, Mur is the senior editor of the science fiction short story podcast, Escape Pod (for which she also writes and narrates) and host of the official podcast of UK publisher Angry Robot Books.

So I just had to interview her about how she gets it all done!

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Episode 6: Leigh Dall’Osto, Plan B Cafe

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The common trend in career changes is people giving up their old job in order to focus on what they love to do. While opening and managing a cafe might seem about as far removed from politics as you can get, Leigh Dall’Osto opened Plan B Cafe in order to keep doing what she’s always wanted to do, even when political avenues closed on her – help bring the people in her community, the town of Edmonton (around fifteen kilometres south of Cairns), together.

In my second location recording, I had the chance to sit down with Leigh at her cafe and talk about just how a cafe can help people get to know others in their own town – and what some of the surprises along the way have been!

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Album cover for Level 2, by Miracle of Sound

Episode 5: Gavin Dunne, Miracle of Sound

I didn’t think I’d be able to say this with only four episodes of this podcast under my belt, but I am very pleased to be able to mark my guest for episode 5 off my wish list:

Gavin Dunne, Miracle of Sound. Image sourced from the Miracle of Sound profile on Last.FM

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present for your listening pleasure, Gavin Dunne, the one-man band known on the Internet as the Miracle of Sound!

Gavin sat down with me over Skype on Thursday evening, Ireland time (which translated to before sparrows, Cairns time) to talk about how he went from the frontman of a band that broke up on the verge of hitting it big to a full-time, self-employed musician with a dedicated fan base that stretches across the world!

Gav was a pleasure to chat with, and had plenty of stories and insights on what it takes to become your own personal success story in the Internet age. Plus it was fun to geek out with him about games toward the end! Listen and enjoy!

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Episode 3: Mal and Amy, KerSplatt! Comics & Collectables

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I bring you two interviews for the price of one download; a great pair of interviews with Malcolm Semmens and Amy Milligan, owner-operators of KerSplatt! Comics and Collectables, Cairns’ only dedicated comic book store and fast becoming a second home for the geek population of Cairns!

Amy Milligan and Mal Semmens.

I ask Mal and Amy just how much work they’ve done to turn a random idea into an operating business, how they balance selling their hobby and indulging in it – and in what new ways opening and managing a shop can actually be fun!

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GTRF! Episode 4: The Marcus Herstik Interview

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In early 2012 I was playing with the idea of podcasting after a friend introduced me to LibriVox and recording public domain texts for the hard of hearing. I decided to start my own podcast, Get Talking, Rob Farquhar! (this was when robf.com.au was called, Get Writing, Rob Farquhar!) by reading my own work and the things I wanted to read – but then came Episode 4, and everything changed…

This time around I decided to try something different from reading a story: Conducting an interview. And who better to start with than the guy I pay the monthly ‘Net bill to?

Image by Marcus Herstik

In all seriousness, Marcus Herstik is not only the man behind the company that hosts this very site, he’s a self-employed digital entrepreneur who’s been taking these touch economic times in stride. Not only that, he’s one of the most solid cats I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing. In this interview, I ask him about how he got to where he is today and what advice he’d give to people who are still trying to figure out their personal definitions of success (like me).

Marcus, thank you once again for your time, your willingness to be the subject of my first recorded interview and – well, for being so damn cool in general!

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