Wallaceburg writer launches podcast, new website

Wallaceburg writer and veteran journalist John Gardiner has launched a brand new website to help promote his creative writing and his literary collection, Memories for Sale: Tales From a Small Town.

Included on the website is a podcast, Stories for the Soul, and a blog, Notes From the Basement.

The podcast features a new recording of one of Gardiner’s original short stories each week.

“These aren’t stories from my book,” Gardiner said, in a press release.

“These are unpublished, original pieces of fiction that I’ve written over the years. The stories average about 30 minutes in length and offer a brief chance to escape our crazy world and let your imagination carry you away.”

Gardiner describes his writing as “emotional thoughtscapes” – stories that create powerful emotional images in the reader or listener’s mind.

“They are usually about ordinary people dealing with ordinary situations in their lives… things like aging, coming of age, serious illness or even death, plus some funny stuff about growing up in the 1960’s or volunteering at Little Theatre,” Gardiner added.

The one-time editor of the Wallaceburg News, the Wallaceburg Community News and cktimes.ca has also included a new ‘blog’ on the website.

“A blog is really what we used to call a column,” he said.

“I’ve written thousands of them over the years and people really seem to enjoy them, so I thought I’d do a little writing again.”

Since retiring from the news business, Gardiner has devoted himself fulltime to his creative writing career, publishing his literary collection and going on the road to promote it and sell books.

When the pandemic hit, it brought his efforts to a complete stop, but he has continued to work tirelessly on his goal of getting his writing out to a wider audience.

At the beginning of April, he started reading complete short stories on Facebook Live and read about 60 unpublished, original short stories before ending the readings in the middle of November.

“They were very well received,” Gardiner said.

“So I knew I needed another vehicle to present them – that’s what the podcast is all about – a new vehicle for my stories.”

For more details, visit: https://www.johngardinerstories.com/

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