We're joined by fellow Midwesterner Scott Mitchel May to discuss the categorization of Ohio, the twisted origins of some Arthurian legends, allowing readers to feel uncomfortable, and finding out twists as readers do. We also get a sneak preview of his debut novel Breakneck: or, it happened once in America, discuss the pros and cons of trying to plot map and how expectations within the publishing industry have changed from decades past to the 2020s.

Scott Mitchel May is a writer living in Madison, WI. His short fiction has been published in many literary journals including The Maryland Literary Review, HAD, W&S, Maudlin House, Bending Genres, and Rejection Letters. He was the winner of the 2019 UW-Madison Writers' Institute Poem or Page Competition in the category of literary fiction, and his unpublished novel, Bridgeport Nowhere, was shortlisted for the 2022 Santa Fe Writers' Project Literary Award. His debut novel, Breakneck: or, it happened once in America, was published by Anxiety Press in late April 2023. He is also the author of the novelette, All Burn Down, forthcoming in October 2023 from Emerge Press, and his second novel Awful People: a ghost story is coming in early 2024 from Death of Print Books. He holds a GED from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction and a BS in English Literature from Edgewood College. He tweets @smitchelmay.

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Intro/Outro music: www.bensound.com

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