The Enthusiasticast

I was recently a guest on a weekly book loving podcast that exists "at the intersection of fandom, criticism and cultural gluttony" according to Mark and Jon, the show's hosts.

The Enthusiasticast is almost 50 episodes mature now and I've been listening to it for a while, continually entertained, informed, and, well, made enthusiastic about a good number of books.

Yes, Mark & Jon are just two more guys to blame for that "to read" pile which is "too high." But what can you do? Their passion for sharing great books is contagious.

Thus, I was quite delighted to be asked to be a guest on this week's episode.

Episode 47 features a discussion about podcast fiction (in which we talk about Terry Fallis, the recent Canada Reads winner for his novel The Best Laid Plans, which began life as a podcast) We also talk about several other great authors whose work we discovered through podcast fiction, such as Mathew Wayne Selznick, Scott Sigler, Seth Harwood and Mur Lafferty.

But the main reason I was there was to pump a novel and an author whose work is still mostly undiscovered (at least, outside of the Sudbury region) and, in my mind, deserves a lot more attention.

Canadian author Sean Costello is one of the most talented thriller writers I have ever read, and his most recent novel, HERE AFTER, is among the top 10 books I've read in the past decade. 

Take a look at an article I wrote for The Mark News at the beginning of 2010 and you'll see that both Terry Fallis's The Best Laid Plans and Sean Costello's Here After made the list of my top 10 titles worth reading from the first decade of this century.

Here After is, simply, the tale of a quest for a missing child, embarked upon by a grief stricken man who recently lost his own ten year old son. It's a non-stop roller coaster ride of grief, suspense and gripping action which plays beautifully upon the most common of a parent's worst fears.  But you can also listen to me rave about it in audio form. Maybe it'll convince YOU to check the novel out.

Check out The Enthsiasticast podcast (you can also download episodes via iTunes), but don't say I didn't warn you about how addictive Mark & Jon's enthusiasm for books can be . . .