My new ‘This&That’ online radio show with Trans-Atlantic station Keltic Radio.

They say writers need to market themselves.

‘Right,’ says I, ‘I’ll think outside the box and find new ways to help myself and others. Why not scare the living crap out of myself by doing a live radio show online then? Yeah, sure why not?’

I shake for a full hour before, during and after my new online radio show on Mondays 4pm GMT and 9am MT (The Trans-atlantic Radio station is based in Calgary, Canada). This means most of my Monday is spent talking to myself.

‘You can do this. You can do this,’ I repeat over and over. ‘This is not the end of the world.’

I’ve christened this new shaking venture “This&That”. It is an online, live and recorded radio show. I know —- madness!

I aim to do ‘This and That’ on basically whatever interests me. It’s music, chat and escapism for an hour, with interviews on all things inspiring, with books and authors thrown into the mix for good measure.

Everything about it takes me out of my comfort zones. It has me talking live to a global audience. It has me moving material from all sorts of formats to make them playable, I form a playlist of country and western and Irish music (my own eclectic mix), broadcast live and record and create a playback facility.

‘Sure no bother,’ says I.

I’m fully procrastinating and need many listeners to make the procrastinating worthwhile. Although it’s not fully a writing podcast, I aim to feature writers and their books and it is available as a one hour playback show. I aim to feature Irish writers or books with an Irish interest especially as they will merge well with the station and the large established listenership.

For eg, the chatty and talented Orla McAlinden is on with me on Monday 27th talking briefly about her new short story anthology ‘Full of Grace’. Please listen in live on Monday 27th at 4pm GMt on Keltic Radio.

If you’d like to be involved I can interview writers and promote your books and/or writing lives without us meeting face-to-face. It is all online and easy peasy. (Promise)

Please get in touch with me on sharontwriter@kelticradio.ca or sharontwriter@gmail.com and we can organise a pre-recorded non-stressful interview. I know many writers aren’t into the shameless self-promotional activities and I get that, but with my online radio show;

• We can practice your radio 10 minute slot together.
• It will an enjoyable, relaxed experience and you can cut your teeth on radio interviews with me – for FREE (I am an amateur too and learn with you).
• You can listen back to yourself and decide if you wish to go ahead with airing it.
• You get FREE promotion and it doesn’t require a big PR budget or personnel. You simply contact me and we see if we can work something out together.
• I give you a copy of your snippet on the show and you can share it as much as you like (of course I’d also like for people to promote my show).
• If your book has Irish connections I can add its details to my #Indulgeinbooks lists.
• If you like you can also do an online tweet-chat on my hashtag #WritersWise.

Here is a recording of one of the shows and it should give you a flavour of what #ThisandThat is all about. Please remember this is all new to me and it is early days for me in this new venture.

Don’t forget to listen in and get touch with me if you’d like to feature on the show.

‘This and That’ with Sharon Thompson on Keltic Radio