The Seanachai is written, produced and voiced by Patrick E. McLean.
Seanachai? (short answer) The site is named after a Gaelic word for storyteller. (It is also further evidence that Gaelic is little more than English after you’ve had three more than too many.)
Seanachai (long answer) In Ireland, in the days before books and printing, there was a class of people called Seanachai. These folks made their living by traveling from village to village and telling stories. Sometimes they would spin tales from the great tapestry of folklore that comprises the mythology of Ireland and other times they’d just repeat the gossip from the next town over.
As romantic as that might sound, it’s not the wonderful part. The wonderful part is that centuries later, when Gaelic was being systematically suppressed, people calling themselves Seanachai would travel from town to town seemingly for the sole purpose of carrying on the ancient tradition of telling stories. At night they would loiter in the pubs and spin their yarns (now that’s a living!) but during the day (I’m guessing more towards the afternoon) they would gather the children, lead them off into the countryside to teach them the Irish language and culture in secret.
The McLuhan is the Message Yeah, yeah, McLuhan whatever. (and if you don’t know who he is, he’s the man who said the “Medium is the Message” which set up me up nicely for that spooneristic subhead. The impact of which has been greatly lessened by all this senseless parenthetical explanation.)
Anyway, the point I was hoping to get to in that last paragraph is that some stories are better in the telling than they are reading. And technology has evolved to a point where we can eliminate the whole publishing hierarchy and get back to a more oral tradition. It’s not exactly a new medium, but it sure does feel like I’m playing with live ammunition.
With this line of thinking the name Seanachai seemed perfect for the kind of storytelling and writing I wanted to play with.
Why are you doing this? As Stephen King said, “Talent in cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.” This is my woodshed. I’m busting my ass in public for two reasons. First, writing is hard and lonely work. And the people who listen to the podcast and write in really do keep me going through the hard parts. Secondly, I’m hanging all this stuff out here in the hopes that people with large bags of filthy monies will have heightened interest in some of my other projects/ideas
Are you available for freelance? Yup.
How about voice-over work? Yup, again.
Do you still do advertising? Never for cheap. What I seem to be doing a lot is help companies figure who they are and how to tell their story. Critical stuff. The ad work I do falls out of that. Because, if a company is full of crap, any advertising or design they do is going to be awful.
Lately, I’ve taken to calling it content-based marketing. I help companies get their story straight. And then I make sure all their communications deliver that story — and the information people are looking for.
What about How to Succeed in Evil?
It’s got a whole ‘nother site devoted to it. But basically, I’m cranking my way through the second draft of a How to Succeed in Evil novel. Which is why my Seanachai output has dropped a bit. Most all of my writing time is going to the novel . See http://www.succeedinevil.com for updates.