Convention season is upon us and like many authors, I’m scheduled to appear at several conventions and conferences during the summer and fall of this year. One of the items I pack when I travel is a DAP, a Digital Audio Player. I like to keep my music and podcasts separate from my phone so that I don’t drain my phone battery and gain a better quality of sound. I don’t upload audio books, although that certainly is an option, I tend to prefer books on my ereader when traveling. If there is one constant of being on the road, there are always plenty of wait times involved. Waiting for a flight, long hours of driving on the road, standing in line to listen to a favorite author read, or just something to be mellow within the hotel room are all times when a DAP makes life more comfortable.

This year, I’m trying out a Hidizs AP60 player. Not only does it have a decent quality of sound, but it has Bluetooth capabilities that allow me to patch into my car stereo. I prefer it to my old Apple iPod Touch both in sound quality and size. I also love not having to deal with iTunes. I pair it up with Media Monkey to organize my music library and Stitcher to keep me up to date with podcasts. The unit has a comfortable weight, a sturdy casing, and an easy to read display.

I have discovered several new podcasts to listen to this fall and I thought that I’d share them with you. Some of them are craft related, some are about marketing tips, and others are author interviews that touch on the writer’s inspiration. All are free to download and in my opinion, of excellent production values.

Grammar Girl
“Mignon Fogarty is the founder of the Quick and Dirty Tips network and creator of Grammar Girl, which has been named one of Writer’s Digest’s 101 best websites for writers multiple times. She is also an inductee in the Podcasting Hall of Fame.

Grammar Girl provides short, friendly tips to improve your writing. Covering the grammar rules and word choice guidelines that can confound even the best writers, Grammar Girl makes complex grammar questions simple with memory tricks to help you recall and apply those troublesome grammar rules.”

Creative Writing Career
“Turn writing into more than a hobby, make it your career. Stephan Bugaj (Pixar’s Brave, Wall-E, The Incredibles), Justin Sloan (Telltale’s Game of Thrones, Walking Dead, and Minecraft: Story Mode), and Kevin Tumlinson (Citadel, Lucid, The 30-Day Author) give you their advice on writing for books, movies, video games and more, and occasionally try to sound smarter by having on amazing guests.”

Reading And Writing Podcast
This is a podcast featuring interviews with authors from many different genres. At a glance, I noted several authors that I would love to listen to in my own genre, so I have cherry picked this one for the authors that interest me. On the website, the podcaster has listed all the interviews by genre, so it is easy to find authors in the genre you love to read.

Write Now With Sarah Werner
I am fascinated by Sarah Werner as a podcaster, she has quite a strong work ethic! Werner records two regular podcast series, the “Write Now” and one called “Coffee Break”. Both are well produced and feature both writing topics and interviews with authors. She has a third audio project called “Girl In Space” which is a science fiction serial. All three projects can be found at the same URL and all are free to download.

Very Serious Writing Show
“Writing advice from people who know and people who don’t. Practical skills meet ridiculousness as I talk with some of the best writers who are willing to actually be on this show with me, and get their input on how to live the writer life.”

I am intrigued by this podcast with a humorous bent, but I believe it may not be producing new episodes at this time. The last time stamp I saw was from last year. Still, the samples I listened to are good. I’m willing to listen to the back catalog for now. Maybe they will return!