Tag Archives: Murder and Mystery in the Last Frontier Podcast

Fatigue

Fatigue looms front and center in my life right now. We have less than two weeks to go until the end of the season at our lodge. Mike and I will stay here until mid-January, and then we plan to take a vacation and return by mid-to-late February. I don’t care about a vacation; all I want to do is sleep!

I have so many projects I’m excited to start but no energy to begin them. Lately, I’ve been fighting to keep up with my weekly and monthly deadlines – my blog posts, podcasts, and newsletters. I’m disappointed I haven’t spent more time editing my wildlife book or writing on my next novel. My publisher is annoyed I haven’t put more effort into promoting my last book, Karluk Bones. Once our fall season ends and I sleep for 48-straight hours (just kidding – I think) and stamp out my fatigue, I will have the energy to write and edit my books, and yes, I will try to sell my latest novel.

I began my podcast, Murder and Mystery in the Last Frontier, this past summer, producing two a month. At the same time, I cut back my blog posts to two a month. So far, I am happy with this arrangement. I think I was beginning to get bogged down by writing four blog posts a month, but I look forward to doing them every other week. Podcast episodes require a great deal of work, but I still find them fun to do, and I am reaching a new audience. The newsletter is still my most time-consuming project every month, but I’ve gotten faster at writing them, and I am slowly learning how to write non-fiction – It’s not easy!

I know many of my blog post readers have never listened to a podcast, so here’s an excerpt from a recent episode. Just hit the arrow to play it.

If you’d like to hear more, follow this link: https://murder-in-the-last-frontier.blubrry.net

Let me know what you think. I know a true-crime podcast is not for everyone, so I understand if you aren’t interested in it.

I haven’t had a chance to thank many of you for buying Karluk Bones. I appreciate you, and I hope you enjoyed the adventure.

In my next post, I will discuss tanner crabs, often called snow crabs. I hope you’ve found my crab posts informative. I’ve enjoyed writing them and have learned a great deal about king crabs, commercial king crab fishing, and the laws (or lack of) governing the fishing industry. It seemed as if every time I started a post, I realized I had enough information for two or three articles. The deeper I dug, the more fascinated I became about king crab and commercial king crab fishing industry.

As always, thanks for reading, and take a minute to leave a comment and say hi. Hearing from you will erase my fatigue in a flash.


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Robin Barefield is the author of four Alaska wilderness mystery novels, Big Game, Murder Over Kodiak, and The Fisherman’s Daughter, and Karluk Bones. You are invited to watch her webinar about how she became an author and why she writes Alaska wilderness mysteries. Also, sign up below to subscribe to her free, monthly newsletter on true murder and mystery in Alaska, and listen to her podcast, Murder and Mystery in the Last Frontier.

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Mystery Newsletter

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Murder and Mystery in the Last Frontier

I am excited this week to announce my new podcast: Murder and Mystery in the Last Frontier. As many of you know, I have been writing a mystery newsletter for the past three years about murder and mysterious disappearances in Alaska. A few of my newsletter subscribers encouraged me to start a podcast, and while I initially laughed at the idea, the seed took root and began to grow no matter how hard I tried to stomp on it.

At first, I didn’t believe I could upload a podcast with our slow satellite internet, but once I learned I could upload from the middle of the wilderness, I began to research what was involved in producing a podcast. Would it be expensive? Was the technology learning-curve too steep, and were my vocal skills up to the challenge?

I read everything I could find about starting a podcast, I listened to podcasts about podcasting, and I joined podcast support groups where I could ask questions. I spent less than $200 on a microphone and other necessary gear, bought audio editing software for another $100, and I signed up for a site to host my podcast.

Everything I am learning from this venture is new and challenging, and I love it all so far. I carefully chose a good microphone and headset and bought reasonably priced audio editing software that has proven to be easy to use. I also like the Hindenburg Journalist software because if I decide to take my editing to the next level, I can easily upgrade to a pro version. I chose Blubrry.com to host my podcast, mainly because it offers a free website for my podcast and all the tools I needed to learn how to publish the podcast and upload it to Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, and other platforms.

Do I know what I am doing yet as a podcaster? Nope, not even close, but I am trying not to be hard on myself. My podcast is far from perfect, but I have plenty of room to grow and improve.

The big question is, why do I want to spend money and countless hours I don’t have to tackle yet another project? The answer to this question is simple. I hope to introduce myself and my writing to more people. If they like my podcast, perhaps they will want to sign up for my newsletter and read my books. Podcasting is an experiment for me, and I will try it for several months. If I find my podcast requires too much time with too few payoffs, I will quietly back away from the microphone and return to what works.

The downside to starting a podcast is time. As you know, there are only so many hours in the day, and I do have a hectic regular job. If I want to podcast, something must give, and unfortunately, for now, I have decided to cut back on my blog posts. Right now, I write one post a week, so for the next few weeks, I plan to scale back to two posts a month, and I will alternate weekly between a podcast and a post. Once I streamline my podcast editing, perhaps I will have time to return to a weekly post schedule.

I’ve published my first podcast episode, and you can find it here. I’m working on my second episode, and it will be available in a few days. If you enjoy my podcast, please go to Apple Podcasts and leave a comment so that other listeners can find me. If you would like to listen to all my podcast episodes, don’t forget to subscribe.

Please let me know what you think of my podcast.  A few of my blog readers have been with me since I started this blog, and I appreciate you and value your opinions! Thank you for your support!


Robin Barefield is the author of three Alaska wilderness mystery novels, Big Game, Murder Over Kodiak, and The Fisherman’s Daughter. To download a free copy of one of her novels, watch her webinar about how she became an author and why she writes Alaska wilderness mysteries. Also, sign up below to subscribe to her free, monthly newsletter on true murder and mystery in Alaska, and sign up for her podcast, Murder and Mystery in the Last Frontier.

Mystery Newsletter

Sign Up for my free, monthly Mystery Newsletter about true crime in Alaska.