Orson Scott Card – The Virtual Memories Show

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“I feel like the soul of writing is character, and the writers I admire the most are those who can evoke characters who are nothing like themselves.”

Myke Cole joins the show to talk about military fantasy and his fantasies about the military, his journey from IT to CIA to merc to Coast Guard to fantasy writer, his biggest nerd-out author moments, how he came up with his “Black Hawk Down Meets The X-Men” Shadow Ops series, what PTSD feels like, the importance of having a plan for crisis management, reconciling his art, politics, job, and readership, and more! Give it a listen! And go buy his Shadow Ops books, starting with Control Point!

“I take a tremendous amount of pride in being a difficult person to kill.”

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Unfortunately, before you can get to it, you’ve gotta wade through nearly 15 minutes of intro! It’s almost Marc Maron-like! If you wanna get past me talking about getting stood up by a publisher and discovering that I’ve become an anecdote in a business book (as well as my Myke intro), then skip to the 14:30 mark! Now go listen to the show!

“Intelligence, at its root, is breaking the laws of other countries and stealing their shit. I understand it’s necessary, but it’s not nice and it’s not ethical.”

Enjoy the conversation! Then check out the archives for more great episodes! You might like:

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About our Guest

As a security contractor, government civilian and military officer, Myke Cole’s career has run the gamut from Counterterrorism to Cyber Warfare to Federal Law Enforcement. He’s done three tours in Iraq and was recalled to serve during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

All that conflict can wear a guy out. Thank goodness for fantasy novels, comic books, late night games of Dungeons and Dragons and lots of angst-fueled writing.

Credits: This episode’s music is Nothing’s Gonna Bring Me Down by David Baerwald, used with permission of the artist. The conversation was recorded at a friend’s apartment in NYC on a pair of Blue enCORE 200 Microphones feeding into a Zoom H5 digital recorder. I recorded the intro and outro on a Heil PR-40 Dynamic Studio Recording Microphone feeding into a Cloudlifter CL-1 and a Mackie Onyx Blackjack 2×2 USB Recording Interface. All processing and editing done in Adobe Audition CC. Photo of Myke Cole by me.

Virtual Memories – season 2 episode 15
Scott Hoffman – Hassling The Hoff

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“When people talk about the death of books, they couldn’t be more wrong. Physical books may exist the way vinyl records do, for collectors or fanatics, but people read more today than they have at any time in history.”

It’s time for a new episode of The Virtual Memories Show!

“I think that the New York publishing industry has missed a large section of readership. For a long time, they always thought ‘those people’ didn’t read books.”

Our latest episode features a conversation with Scott Hoffman, co-founder of Folio Literary Management, about his transition from Washington, DC lobbyist to New York literary agent, the fate of the mid-list author, why zombies are hot, his agency’s e-publishing initiatives, the importance of globalization and developing markets for authors, the likelihood that the Random House / Penguin merger will go through, the diminishing relevance of publishing’s gatekeepers, the explosion of the YA market, and why he now reps much more non-fiction than novels.

“You get stabbed in the back just as often in publishing as in Washington, DC, but in publishing it’s with a cocktail toothpick.”

We also talk about the most important books in Scott’s past, and how some of his adolescent faves did or didn’t hold up.

Enjoy the conversation!

Photo by Amy Roth.

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About Our Guest

Scott Hoffman co-founded Folio Literary Management in 2006. Scott has served as Vice-chairman of the board of SEARAC (the only nationwide advocacy agency for Southeast Asian-Americans), a board member of Fill Their Shelves, Inc., a charitable foundation that provides books to children in sub-Saharan Africa, and a member of the Metropolitan Opera’s Young Associates Steering Committee. Before entering the world of publishing, he was one of the founding partners of Janus-Merritt Strategies, a Washington, DC strategic consulting firm. He holds an MBA from New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business, and a BA from the College of William and Mary.

The Virtual Memories Show is on iTunes! If you’d like to subscribe, visit our iTunes page!

If you’d like to check out past episodes, you can find us on iTunes or visit the Podcast page for all our back episodes, as well as e-mail signup and tip jar! And why don’t you friend the Virtual Memories Show at our Facebook page? It’d make my mom happy.

Credits: This episode’s music is the end credits for 28 Days Later by John Murphy. The conversation was recorded in Mr. Hoffman’s home in New York City on a pair of Blue Encore 100 mics, feeding into a Zoom H4N recorder, and I recorded the rest on a Blue Yeti mic into Audacity. All editing and processing was done in Garage Band.

Tag: Orson Scott Card

Episode 196 – Myke Cole

Podcast: Hassling The Hoff