Writing Excuses 5.39: Filking and Writing Music with Tom Smith

Filk. It sounds like a bad word. Okay, what it actually sounds like, provided you've fallen in among actual filkers, is AWESOME. It's music named after a typo, and sung around subjects near and dear to genre fans. Tom Smith, filker extraordinaire and musician magnifique, joins Brandon and Howard at Penguicon to talk about writing music, and to talk about the Filk genre in particular. Our only episode with actual music in it, this is the last episode of Season 5, and Tom Smith sends us home with a brilliant little song he made up using requests from those in attendance. Tom, we expect an eventual epic song-cycle centering around "The Wizard of Wheat." Audiobook Pick-of-the-Week: Night Watch, by Terry Pratchett, narrated by Stephen Briggs. Writing Prompt: Tom ended up singing his response to our writing prompt. What can you do with the words "wizard" and "bakery?" Additional References for Filk: The FuMP, Filk resources on the Internet, and (per Tom's suggestion) a YouTube search for Filk. This episode of Writing Excuses has been brought to you by Audible. Visit http://AudiblePodcast.com/excuse for a free trial membership*. *Note: From the Audible website, here are the terms of the free membership. Read the fine print, please! Audible® Free Trial Details Get your first 14 days of the AudibleListener® Gold membership plan free, which includes one audiobook credit. After your 14 day trial, your membership will renew each month for just $14.95 per month so you can continue to receive one audiobook credit per month plus members-only discounts on all audio purchases. A very small number of titles are more than one credit. Cancel your membership before your free trial period is up and you will not be charged. Thereafter, cancel anytime, effective the next billing cycle. Any unused audiobook credits will be lost at cancellation.