Post contributed by Catherine Lowe
As we all know, 2020 has brought a lot of hardships, struggles, and unprecedented times to people around the world. For Space Mantis Podcast creator and author Laura Morrison, she knew it was time to bring something different into the literary world. Before the publication of her new book “HOW TO BREAK AN EVIL CURSE”, set to be released by Black Spot Books in 2021, Morrison recently released the first episode of a new literary podcast SPACE MANTIS on September 5th 2020. Recently, I had the opportunity to “meet” Laura virtually and ask her all of the important questions about this new endeavour.
It seems like there aren’t many podcasts available to listeners that focus on telling a story in a way that seems reflective of a play (different character voices, sound effects, etc) without the luxury of watching the narrative unfold in front of your eyes. What inspired you to do this with Space Mantis?
When I started Space Mantis, I had listened to a lot of nonfiction podcasts, but I hadn’t listened to many fiction podcasts (besides Night Vale). So, I didn’t realize I was doing a thing that was outside the norm, I guess. Once I’d thought of the concept, though, this style of conveying the story was really the only way to do it, as I think people will agree if they listen to it.
Can you tell us about what Space Mantis is about?
Sort of. There’s a big twist that happens a few episodes in that makes it hard for me to say too much without getting into spoiler territory, but I’ll give this a try. The general concept is that there was a sci fi show called Space Mantis, and it was a huge hit, but out of the blue it got cancelled. There was a big uproar among the fans; petitions were signed, studio execs were emailed, all that jazz. But to no avail. Space Mantis was over.
That’s the background that the narrator gets you up to speed with in the first few minutes of Episode 1, which opens with the narrator finding a mysterious box of unreleased Space Mantis DVDs on her porch. Along with the DVDs is a note telling her that she cannot share the video with anyone else. But she’s really excited and can’t keep it to herself, so she decides that though she can’t show the video, she can probably legally get away with sharing the audio, so she starts the Space Mantis podcast. For a few episodes, things go according to the narrator’s plans—she plays the shows and narrates along the way. But then, things start to get weird. And that’s where my explanation has to stop.
Are there any aspects to Space Mantis that separate it from other podcasts with similar themes?
While the podcast is definitely part space opera, there’s a whole other side to it that’s more mystery than sci fi. It is equally (and maybe even more so) about the narrator, the Space Mantis fanbase, and how they deal with all the mysterious stuff that starts to happen when the narrator starts to share the DVDs on her podcast.
You mentioned that as the podcast is streamed, both the narrator and the listener discover strange voices might be at play behind the episodes and the series itself. Can you tell us more about this?
The only thing I can really say about this is that though at first it might seem to be a pretty straightforward story about a narrator sharing the audio of a TV show, once listeners get a few episodes in, they’ll see that things start to get weird. If I explain the weirdness, that’ll ruin the surprise, though, unfortunately.
You also mentioned that you have a diverse group of people from many nations around the world contributing to Space Mantis. What pushed you to include so many people from different cultures and locations?
That’s a bit of a roundabout story. So, a few years back I wrote my novella, Come Back to the Swamp, for a novella contest (Come Back to the Swamp was only a runner up and not a winner in the contest, but has since been published with Black Spot Books, and is also available as an audiobook which you can find on Audible). A few writer pals I had met online were also participating in the writing contest, and we all acted as beta readers for each other. In Come Back to the Swamp, the main character is obsessed with a space opera called Space Mantis. The people who were beta reading Come Back to the Swamp kept coming back to me with comments about how Space Mantis sounded cool and would be a good story. We started to brainstorm a bit, and I stared to write scripts, and my beta readers volunteered for roles. A lot of the people who volunteered just happened to be from countries all around the world. So, it’s not so much that I sought out an international cast but that the international people were the ones who were willing to donate their time to the project. Even for those of us within the US, we’re scattered from coast to coast. It would be an awful headache if we were all trying to record together from across time zones, but since we all record our lines separately on our own time, it works great.
Is there anything else you would like readers and potential listeners to know about Space Mantis?
I’d just like to say that you should definitely go to the website and check out the Meet the Cast section. Nearly all the people who have helped to make this podcast a reality are writers, artists, podcasters, or musicians with their own personal projects. Give their work a look. They’re all amazing.
