I know what you’re thinking, another blog post so soon? I’m full of surprises that’s for sure! Well this one is a little off-piste for us. But it’s absolutely worth sharing.
By now you’ve been introduced to Fio, my new Publishing Assistant, who’s made a fantastic start so far. He’s definitely the right fit for Curious King – all the right kinds of nerdy and a genuine self-starter!
As it’s Friday I wanted to introduce one of Fio’s personal projects (and one of the reasons I hired him after meeting with him), which horror fans and audio fans among you might like! Fio and his partner Georgia Cook (illustrator and writer) have produced their own audio drama in podcast form. All off their own back, and raised the funds via a Kickstarter to start the first season (pretty badass if you ask me).
Here’s some more information from Fio, about the making of Holmwood and why he thinks it’s cool!
“Hi everyone, thank you so much for the warm welcome to CK. I really do feel like I’m where I belong!
Let me tell you more about the journey of The Holmwood Foundation. First off, I’m a big fan of Dracula, as is my partner, Georgia Cook who co-created and wrote the story with me. When we first met it’s one of the things that connected us. We are both writers for Big Finish Productions, and have worked on a variety of IP audio drama shows for them, including Doctor Who. Back in 2020 we started developing an idea for a Dracula sequel. We thought there could be more story to tell, and as the world is rife with Dracula adaptations, why not a sequel that was a lot more true to the original novel origins? We kept putting it off until we realised that maybe it would work as an audio drama instead of a novel, and so Holmwood was born.
But once we had the idea we had to form a crew. We found our amazing actors, Rebecca Root – a super star in her own right, and Seán Carlsen, a wonderful Welsh actor we knew from Big Finish Productions who already enjoyed the work we had written for him. Then we found our Crew. Kat Armitage is our Script Editor, known for working at Big Finish, Theatre and BBC Audio Dramas, Benji Clifford is our incredible Sound Designer and our Director Samuel Clemmens is best known as the son of legendary writer Brian Clemmens who made The Avengers TV Series – and he also plays one of our characters, Arthur Jones.
They were all so excited to join the project, and we are incredibly lucky to have them on board.
With our cast and crew organised, it was time to fund the project. We decided to use Kickstarter, and self-funded the original 40 minute pilot as a proof of concept so they could help us raise the money for the next six episodes. It was a lot of money, but it was money that would pay all our cast and crew a living wage. Otherwise it just wasn’t going to happen.
We began the Kickstarter, and as it is with most crowdfunders, it was a very scary four weeks – a tremendous start, a muddy middle and then a terrific end, as we crossed the funding target with 28 hours to spare. We were elated, and that also meant we had six more episodes of Holmwood to make!
Schedules were set up, new cast members to hire, and scripts to finalise, but we’ve been letting all our backers know every step of the way. As of June 10th this year, these new episodes have started to air bi-weekly on all podcatchers, or sent to our backers for early ad free releases via our Patreon or local file. As of this post we’ve only got two episodes left before we end our first season, and the reactions have been terrific, and we hope to finish the story, as we have two more seasons planned.
Season Two will be up on Kickstarter again later this year. If any of this interests you, please check out our show. We’d love to finish the story.
It means a lot to me, and to my partner Georgia, that the story has resonated with so many people, it’s given all the right spooks and tension, but also a focus on queer voices that in the current world is much deserved. Thank you again Anthony for wanting to share it with you all today! “
How cool is that? For any fans of audiobooks/horror and the like, I strongly recommend you give the first episode a listen. It’s professionally produced with genuine working actors and the story is a gripper.
It’s genuinely amazing to see people try and follow their passions and doing everything they can to make it work. Hats off to you Fio and I’m looking forward to the next release Tuesday at 11am!
That’s all for now campers. Update next week regarding Legend!
