by Lorie Lewis Ham
For anyone who doesn’t know me, I have been publishing Kings River Life Magazine for nine years, and before that I published five mystery novels. KRL not only publishes local pet and arts articles from our area near Fresno, California, but half of our issue each week is mystery–related reviews, giveaways, short stories, author interviews, and more. Our latest adventure is a mystery podcast!
Over the last several years, I discovered podcasts and I found that I love them! I feel that in many ways they have taken the place of radio, with the added benefit that you can find things that specifically interest you, plus you can take them with you in your car, on your phone, and so on. There are podcasts for any interest.
So how did I get from podcast fan to creator? KRL started a YouTube channel a few years ago after I discovered some amazing web series and vloggers (video bloggers) and I thought about how cool it would be to make my own web series. But the expense and skills for that seemed too much for my non-existent budget and time, so I gave up the idea for the most part.
A couple of years ago a new idea started to sprout. I couldn’t do a web series, but what about a podcast? Was that something more doable? So I learned more about how podcasts are made and a little more about what kind of podcasts were already out there. My husband has worked in radio for a long time, and for the last several years his primary job has been producing radio programs, so right there I had an edge. I had a built-in, free editor for the podcast.
Next, I considered what exactly the podcast would be.
I checked around for other mystery podcasts and learned that most of them focus on author interviews and reviews, so that was already covered, and we do all of that at KRL too. Here is where an idea bloomed. KRL covers local theater, and my kids are involved in local theater, so I have a lot of theater connections. What about having local actors read short mysteries? That’s when things started coming together! We put out the call for short stories, and then started auditioning local actors. Early on, I also got the idea of having them read the first chapter from mystery novels and put the word out on that.
Next, we needed some sort of theme song. For much of my life I was a singer and I made three CDs of mostly original material. One song, written by a friend, had a bluesy, old-time radio kind feel. I’d already recorded the music so I asked the friend’s permission and we were a go. “The Blues” became our theme song. I also wanted an official announcer, continuing to go for the old-time radio-show feel. I reached out to a longtime friend and he said yes! Our announcer is Jim Tuck, and he has not only done a lot of local theater, but he’s been a radio and commercial voice actor for decades!
The rest has been learn as you go.
The stories came out shorter than I expected when recorded, and at first I thought maybe we should go for longer, but shorter really seems to work well and is less of a time commitment for the listener. Some of the early ones are only ten minutes long, but we now average anywhere from 15-25 minutes, which I think is a good length. We are experimenting with some this year that are a tiny bit longer, but nothing is long.
I needed to figure out where to host the podcast (even if I wanted to put it on KRL, I still needed a host) and ended up with Podbean, which hosts one of my favorite podcasts. Beginning costs were also very low, which is another plus! And it has a great look and is easy to use, always a plus for me. While their prices have gone up a bit and I have considered other hosts now I know more, I’ve stuck with Podbean because I honestly don’t have a single complaint about them. They’ve been great.
We also had to sort out recording the podcasts. We have been lucky that many of our actors have access to ways of recording on their own, but we also have a place where we record here in town. I researched the right microphone and program for recording the podcasts on my end. We use Audacity, which is free.
In June of 2020, we will have been going for two years! Hard to believe. I’ve been so happy with the stories and the performances! One of the biggest surprises for me has been realizing that I had to become a director! Not only do I have to listen to auditions and decide what voices work best for each story, but I have to work with the actors to determine how we want each story performed. That has probably been the hardest part of all of this.
Other things I’ve had to learn along the way include how to get our podcast on the various platforms beyond Podbean, and I think we’re on most of them now. Among the most popular ones we’re on are Apple Podcasts, Google Play, and Spotify.
We have had no trouble at all finding enough short stories and first chapters, and I think so far we have offered a wonderful variety. While many are more on the cozy side, we have had several PI stories, some spooky ones for Halloween season, a serial killer, and a few that feature pets. We have also been blessed by some amazing writers, including Cleo Coyle, Kate Carlisle, Donna Andrews, Dennis Palumbo, Connie Berry, Jeri Westerson, Ana Brazil, Alan Orloff, Peter DiChellis, and so many more!
I’m really proud of what we have managed to do. Great stories, great acting, being blessed with an in-house editor—all of the pieces have come together so well, and I look forward to what the future holds. I’d love to do a full-on radio mystery drama, but we’ll see. We’re also looking at doing some mystery TV commentaries.
The hardest part has been getting our audience to find us, and as any author out there understands, it can be a challenge. But we’re growing bit by bit.
For the writers out there, we’re constantly looking for short stories; reprints are okay. Length at the moment is around 2,000 words, but we have done some less, and some a little more. We are open to any type of mystery story, just not any that use strong language or graphic sex.
You can submit your stories/chapters and ask questions by contacting us. You can also subscribe to our podcast newsletter to keep up with the latest podcast news or simply subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play or Podbean.
If you have been following me and following KRL over the past many years you’ll know online I am known as Mysteryrat! It is my email, my Twitter, and the name of KRL’s mystery section. What better name to use than that! So Mysteryrat’s Maze Podcast was born! Oh, and if you are wondering where Mysteryrat came from to begin with, I write and love mysteries, and I used to rescue pet rats!
Lorie Lewis Ham invites writers and listeners to check out her podcast website, submit, and keep following. She has more mystery podcast ideas brewing for the future, so stay tuned. Check out Kings River Life for even more mystery fun.