Hello, kittens!
I have an extra special post for you all to feast your peepers on. First of all, I want to congratulate the winner of my First Post Giveaway….Hay Farris!! I’ll track you down and start building you the coolest package ever.
If that’s not exciting enough, I’m a beyond thrilled to have Aaron Mahnke on the blog today! If you don’t know Aaron, not only does he write incredible supernatural thrillers, but he is the creator/host/producer/king of the podcast LORE. (I’ll wait while you frantically listen to all the episodes your day allows. It’s worth it. Trust me. )
LORE is a bi-weekly, super creepy podcast that covers myths, legends, and lore (obvs) from around the world and investigates the spooky truth behind it.
So, without further ado, let us welcome Aaron to our little corner of the graveyard.
1. How did you come up with the concept for the Lore Podcast? Have you always been fascinated with lore?
I planned to write a white paper called “My Five Favorite New England Myths” because this area of the country is just so rich with spooky folklore. I think I got 3 or 4 myths in before I realized that people weren’t going to have time to read it. At least that’s what I assumed. I rarely have time to read things in print. For me, it’s all about audio content. Audiobooks, podcasts, classes, etc. So I shifted the end goal.
I hadn’t even considered the audio as something for a podcast, either. It was just going to be a collection of 5 audio files in a folder that people could download for free. I let a good friend listen to a couple of them, though, and he was blown away. “You need to do a podcast, man.”
The rest is history 😉
2. As both a producer and a writer, how has the success of the show impacted the amount of time you can dedicate to writing? How do you balance the two?
The show has definitely taken over some of my fiction writing time, but mostly because I’m gearing up for a busy October. That’s the month I have two live shows, as well as releasing episodes weekly in celebration of Halloween. After that, I hope to begin the sequel to my recent novel, Grave Suspicion. But yes, balance will be a hard thing to find. Fingers crossed.
3. Are there any topics you started researching for the show but decided to use in a novel instead?
No, but that’s because I started the novel months after wrapping up my most recent novel. Moving forward, though, I see a lot of symbiosis between Lore research and fiction research.
4. What is the average production time for an episode?
From the beginning of research to the exporting of the final episode audio file, about 30 hours. A lot of listeners clamor for weekly episodes, but I’ll be honest and say that it’s a frightening shift. That’s a really tight production schedule, and I would be afraid that quality might take a hit. I’d rather stay bi-weekly and keep the shows at the top of their game.
5. What is your podcast set-up like? (mic, mixer, programs, etc.)
Up until this week (so, through the first 14 episodes), it’s been a Yeti (from Blue), edited in Garageband. I’ve upgraded my mic to a Shure SM7B, that means a mixer (Focusrite 2i4), but everything else stays the same. I also recently built a voice booth for recording, to combat the echoes in my old plaster-walled office. The rest is pure luck!
6. What is your favorite episode so far? Is there any specific tale that has gotten you super freaked out or excited about?
I hear from a lot of listeners that episode 2 (The Bloody Pit) was their favorite. I have to say that Half-Hanged was really fun to write. Mary Webster was such a powerful, sassy, independent woman, and I was honored to tell her story in a new and fresh way. But nothing really freaks me out, honestly. Maybe Echoes and the tales from inside the asylum, but I do alright with the scary tales.
7. With the podcast gaining more and more followers by the day AND a new book out, what’s next?
We’ll see. I have some things in the pipeline, but at the moment I’m not ready to talk about them. Rest assured, if they happen, they’ll be awesome. The newest addition to Lore has been extra, smaller episodes that my Patreon supporters have access to. Info on that can be found over at Patreon.com/LorePodcast
Thank you so much for joining us, Aaron! You can check out Aaron’s novels here and the Lore podcast here.
x,
Jenna