A million reasons to be excited

Hi folks,

Wishing you the very best for the coming week from everyone at Rusty Towers!

To begin with, a huge thank you to the Knights and Nobles who joined us for the Live Listen of The Magnus Protocol episode 41 last week! It’s always such a great experience to be able to listen to the episode alongside you all. We are planning more Live Listens as we go through season 2, so keep an eye on our newsletters for updates!

Meanwhile, in this week’s episode, there’s something to keep an eye on. As always, the episode will be available to our early access supporters on Tuesday at 4pm BST, or on the public feed on Thursday at 4pm BST.

In news from the RQ Network, The Program Audio Series hit an incredible milestone last week: 1 million downloads. If you haven’t yet checked out this dark, cyberpunk science fiction podcast, each episode is a self-contained story set in a future in which Money, State, and God have become fused into a single entity called the Program. Creator, IMS, uses this setting to examine the present, and how we may be viewed by future generations. For in The Program, it is not this future that is terrifying – it is our present. You can listen to The Program Audio Series wherever you find podcasts, on The Program website or on the Rusty Quill website.

Next up, the team from The Penumbra Podcast will be launching a brand-new show this week: Thirst. Releasing onto The Penumbra Podcast feed on 10th July, Thirst is a dark horror satire where “Love Island” meets “Annihilation”. You can listen to Thirst when it releases and the rest of The Penumbra Podcast wherever you find podcasts, or on the Rusty Quill website.

Finally, a few weeks ago, we welcomed The Nights End Podcast to the RQ Network. The Nights End Podcast, created by Dissonance Media, is a genre-blurring horror anthology. Hosted by the enigmatic Jimmy Horrors, the slow burn episodes may initially appear standalone, but there is a mystery that links them together…

We were about to speak to the creator of the show, James Barnett, to find out a bit more about the show in this Patreon-exclusive interview.

Tell us who you are and a bit about The Night’s End Podcast. 
I’m James Barnett, but most people in the horror world know me as Jimmy Horrors. I’m the creator/showrunner/producer of The Night’s End Podcast — a dark fiction anthology where every episode showcases a different author's story. Each episode throughout the seasons have woven into them a larger meta-narrative that follows Jimmy and the Listener on adventures through different dimensions. It’s eerie, intimate, and always a little off-balance; just how I like it. 

See more of my work at www.jamesbarnettcreative.com  

Some more of my audio work that I am proud of is the podcast, After the Gloaming (gothic horror audio anthology) and Dream (2023 Halloween Special on the podcast The Other Stories - A Lovecraftian Alice in Wonderland mash up written by Daniel Willcocks). 

What got you into podcasting? 
It started with a love of horror stories and a love of audio stories. The music version of War of the Worlds was in heavy rotation when I was quite young. When I would read novels I would always listen to music. This has always added to the impact of stories for me. Some shows that really encouraged me were podcasts like The Other Stories and The No Sleep podcast. These ones really helped me decide to give it a go myself. I wanted to create something atmospheric and unsettling, but also personal. Audio felt like the perfect medium. Adding an immersive soundscape with appropriate sound effects really helped me bring out the horror in these stories. There’s something uniquely terrifying about a voice in your ear, telling you a story that feels too close to be fiction. That intimacy, that creeping dread, is what pulled me in and hasn’t let go since.  

What are you most proud about The Night’s End Podcast? 
The way it all connects. At first glance, you’re listening to standalone horror stories. But as the seasons go on, the listener follows Jimmy into alternate dimensions in search of these stories, finding friends, and battling adversaries as you go. The slow reveal of what’s actually happening behind The Night’s End is what I’m most proud of. It rewards listeners who look beneath the surface. 

You can listen to The Nights End Podcast wherever you find podcasts or on the Rusty Quill website.

Here is our full schedule for this week:

Tuesday 8th July

The Magnus Protocol 42 – Hostile Workplace (Patreon & Kickstarter Backers) (4pm BST)

Thursday 10th July

The Magnus Protocol 42 – Hostile Workplace (Public) (4pm BST)

Have a good week all!

The Rusty Quill team