What is a Podcast?
There are a bunch of definitions of “podcast,” but the one I like the best is “Playable On Demand Broadcast” aka “podcast.” Essentially, it is an audio file that you listen to for free on a website or download as an .MP3 and listen to on your computer later (via a program like iTunes or Windows Media Player) or on the .MP3 player of your choice (iPod, Zune, etc.). You can even burn the .MP3s to a CD and listen to the podcasts in a CD player (like in a car for example).
This website is set up so that you can listen to each episode on the website itself or that you can subscribe to the website’s “feed” (an ever growing list of what I put online) using the iTunes Subscribe button or the orange RSS square button. By adding the website’s RSS feed to your favorite RSS grabber (Google Reader, for example), you’ll automatically see when a new episode is uploaded and you’ll never miss an episode.
If you subscribe to the podcast via iTunes, the episodes can be downloaded automatically to your library. You can also search for the podcast in the iTunes Store, just type Magic of Eyri in the search bar (episodes can be listened to for free).
To manually download an episode: Right click on the Download link in the episode’s post (also called show notes). Choose Save Target As or Save Link As from the mouse menu. Then choose where to save the .MP3 on your hard drive.
Podcast Alley has a forum set up with lists of different software that can be used to enjoy podcasts, based on different platforms (Mac, PC, etc).
This podcast is an audio dramatiztion of my novel, The Magic of Eyri. It will include different actors, sound effects and music–so think of it as an old radio serial, and keep coming back for “our next exciting episode.” My release schedule is every other Sunday night, starting on April 12th, 2009. This means two new episodes a month. The lenght of the episodes will be around twenty minutes, depending on how I want to end the episode.