Charlotte Readers Podcast: Landis Wade

Author and host Landis Wade is a recovering trial lawyer who starts each day walking Gus and Lori, two rescue dogs named after characters from Larry McMurtry’s classic western, Lonesome Dove. When he doesn’t have a dog leash or a keyboard in his hands, he’s probably holding a fly-rod, a golf club, or a cold beverage at a Carolina Panthers or Charlotte Knights game. Add to that a digital podcast recorder and the recovery from trial work is almost complete.

In this episode, Landis reads The Cape Fear Debacle, his story about an ill-fated trip with his father and brother down the mighty Cape Fear River. The year was 1969, America had just landed men on the moon and anything seemed possible. This story won first place in the Pamlico Writers Club 2017 nonfiction contest and appears in the anthology Reflections: Images and Memories.

Also in this episode, Landis discusses the origin and goals of the podcast. The mission for the show is to showcase talented Charlotte area authors and those who visit the Queen City and connect them to listeners by having authors read and discuss their stories and poetry. Most of the time, the show will have complete stories and poems. You know, the kind that have a beginning, a middle and an end. But don’t worry, because many good stories and poems start close to the middle, where the action is. Authors tend to skip “Once Upon a Time” and start with that “Dark and Stormy Night.” Much of what will be read on this show will be just that, stories and poems that pull you in from the beginning and don’t disappoint. Sometimes, authors will read excerpts from their books. And sometimes, there will be a mix, where an author reads shorter works along with one or more book excerpts.

Finally, in this episode, Landis lays out the Season One line-up. The show will have eleven authors read and talk about their work in Season One. They come from different backgrounds and vocations and use different writing styles. Some are emerging writers. Others have been writing for years. All have had their work published in one form or another and have won various awards and contests. There will be mixed genre in varied forms: short stories, flash fiction pieces, essays, reflections, poems, memoir pieces and novels that include fiction, memoir and non-fiction. And humor, too.

Landis has been writing all his life. That’s what lawyers do. But he had a revelation in his mid-50s when he realized it was more fun to write about conflict than to experience it. And so, while still practicing law, he began his writing career by writing for fun, starting with a Christmas story he wrote for his family about a lawyer who saves Christmas, which was published a year later.His third book—The Christmas Redemption—won the 2018 Holiday category of the 12th Annual National Indie Excellence Awards.

Landis looks forward to bringing great authors on the show to give voice to their written words.