Friends, Romans, Countryfolk: Lend us your ears

Hi folks,

We hope that you have had a great week! Today is a bit of a long one, so grab a cup of tea (or beverage of your choice) and let’s get straight into it!

Firstly, we have a much-anticipated announcement: Cry Havoc! Ask Questions Later will be launching publicly on 1st June 2023. We are incredibly excited about this show, and can’t wait to begin to share it with you all.

Cry Havoc is a 20-episode, scripted dramatic comedy about power, politics, romance and deadly consequences in Ancient Rome. A light-hearted look at the political turmoil in the city after the death of Julius Caesar, Cry Havoc is the latest Rusty Quill Original show.

Julius Caesar is dead, but the two men who are now running Ancient Rome can’t stand to be around each other. Gaius Octavius (played by Harry Roebuck) – Julius Caesar’s adopted son and chosen heir – is a stressed control freak with zero people skills. Mark Antony (played by Kazeem Tosin Amore), as charismatic as he is irresponsible, is the popular “man of the people”. When the powerful Queen Cleopatra of Egypt (played by Lara Sawalha) turns up unexpectedly, the pair must scramble to ensure this key alliance remains in place. Rome may not have been built in a day, but this fragile coalition could crumble at any minute…

Cry Havoc was created by David K Barnes, who you may recognise for his work on Wooden Overcoats and Doctor Who Redacted, amongst others. It is directed by award-winning film director, Amani Zardoe and features the work of talented team of writers including Octavia Bray, Rafaella Marcus, Tom Crowley, Sarah Shachat, Maud Dromgoole, Rhys Tirado, Grace Knight and Robert Valentine.

While the public feed officially launches on 1st June 2023, we’re very excited to say that Patreon subscribers at the Rusty Knights and Rusty Nobles tiers will now get early access to episodes 48 hours before everyone else, meaning episode 1 and 2 will be shared here on 30th May. Patreons will also get early access to our Backstage series, where creators, writers, cast and crew will be discussing how the show was made, introducing the actors, and discussing the historical context that underpins the main plot. The first episode of this will be shared on Patreon for Rusty Knights and Nobles on 9th June. These backstage episodes will be exclusive to Patreon while the main series is running, then shared onto the Cry Havoc feed after the show’s finale.

We’ll be announcing this publicly tomorrow, so please treat this as Patreon-exclusive news until then.

If you can’t wait, we’ll be sharing some trailers in the lead-up to the first episode. You could also check out our other forays into historical fiction, albeit more serious in tone, with our shows Trice Forgotten, a piratical adventure created by Nemo Martin, and Outliers, which was made in collaboration with Historic Royal Palaces. David K Barnes actually featured as a guest writer in season 1 and 2 of Outliers, writing the episodes The King’s Sister and Mehmet and the Wild Boy.

The exciting news doesn’t stop there today as we welcome The Westside Fairytales to the RQ Network! Demons, desperate souls, and eldritch horrors, The Westside Fairytales are strange and varied original stories that will linger long after you've finished listening, written, read and produced by Tyler Bell. We were lucky enough to interview Tyler about the show, exclusively for Patreon subscribers!

Tell us who you are and a bit about The Westside Fairytales

My name’s Tyler Bell and I’m the host, writer, creator … basically one-man army behind The Westside Fairytales, an award-winning podcast of horror and dark fiction stories. I started this podcast in December of 2016 while working 12-hour night shifts at a warehouse, and that’s sort of the aesthetic of the show. My work is focused largely on blue-collar people living in places a lot of people don’t think about, who deserve to have their stories told.

Basically, our motto is “we’ve written a story for you,” particularly if you’re not the sort of person who usually gets to see yourself on screen, in a book, etc. Some of my favorite characters I’ve written are hospice nurses, agave farmers, and a maintenance guy on a spaceship. They’re the sort of people I talked to most often when I was a crime and courts reporter at small, local newspapers throughout the U.S., and the type of folks I served with as an infantryman in the United States Marine Corps.

There are incredible stories everywhere, ultimately, and plenty of them are scary as hell.

What got you into podcasting?

I’m a storyteller, and I needed an audience.

The thing about the modern publishing industry is, basically, if you want to write horror and get published, you better be born well-connected or be ready to spend thousands of dollars and years of your life kissing ass. Being a broke nobody from the Westside of Cincinnati, I needed a different way.

In the years leading up to me starting The Westside Fairytales, I’d worked a number of jobs that required hours upon hours of road time each day. I killed those blacktop hours by listening to basically any podcast that ended up on my feed, and that’s when I discovered audio dramas.

I had already written novels and short stories that were just waiting for an audience, so I figured I’d put a few of my short stories out into the world where people could find them. Fast-forward to now, and I have a book of short stories available on Amazon called “The Eyes Beneath My Father’s House,” and a debut novel coming later this year.

What are you most proud about The Westside Fairytales?

Without a doubt, the thing I’m most proud of regarding The Westside Fairytales is the general sense of growth it’s brought me as a person. I jumped into podcasting blind, having only the most rudimentary knowledge of sound recording from journalism classes I took in college and quite literally zero understanding of audio production. So, I brute-forced it.

I read manuals, made mistakes, watched tutorials and put out some of the most booger-sounding episodes you’ve ever heard, but eventually I got the swing of things. Now, every episode sounds better than the one before it. I now consider myself on equal footing with the best in the business, but my work sounded like crap when I started. And I’ll probably say the stuff I’m making now sounds like crap four years down the line, but that’s the nature of growth.

Along with my growth in audio-production came growth as a writer, and as a person. I built up a wonderful, growing fanbase who have all been amazingly supportive through the years. They’ve also had an active hand in shaping the feel of The Westside Fairytales (though they might not know it), because I’m always listening to their suggestions and their praise and using those words as a light in the darkness. Every year we grow, every year we get better, and I couldn’t be more proud of that.

Thank you for reading all this and, as we’re always saying on the Westside, Stay Safe Out There.

You can find The Westside Fairytales wherever you find podcasts, or on the Rusty Quill website. If you enjoy the show, please consider leaving a review or rating, as this is the best way to support a show!

Finally – oh, pompoms! This week’s Friday bonus for Rusty Knights and Nobles is a collection of outtakes from Hartro’s most vicious, offensive and creative curses and “swears” from Compulsory Film Appreciation.

Have a good week all!

The Rusty Quill team