In the first episode of season two, I have the pleasure of speaking with writer, editor, and playwright May Ngo. I talked to May about the process of writing her first novel, the whiteness of crime fiction, the traumas of academia, and how pregnancy is a Tower moment. 

May is a writer, editor and former academic with a PhD in anthropology. She is Australian of Teo Chew Chinese-Cambodian descent currently based in Prague, Czech Republic. She has been commissioned to write audio dramas, reviews, essays, editing, research, and copywriting as well as other creative collaborations. 

You can find more of her work at mayngo.net

To read the transcript, go to the episode page here.

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In this Halloween special episode, I am in conversation with Bryanna Harbeke. Her debut modern Gothic thriller, Are You There, Sloane? is about two girls, one living, and one dead, working together to solve a mystery so they can move past their traumas and inhabit their own worlds.

One Halloween night, six friends decide to take a moonlit walk through the woods.

Only five come back.

BookTok influencer Keeks said of this novel that “I had to get up and take breaks because I was actually scared”, and “the twists and turns were absolutely unmatched”. One reviewer said that she “[couldn’t] wait to share it with her mystery book club”, and another reviewer said that she “wanted to cancel wine-nights with my friends to continue reading and figuring out the whole story and everyone’s little secrets”.

🏰 The appeal of dark academia and Gothic horror.
🦇 Processing trauma by writing genre fiction.
🎓 The complexity of higher education and dropping out of graduate programmes. 
🌈 What it means to be your own publicist when you're actually an introvert writer.

Bryanna's ceremonies for writing are:

📚 Having a towering TBR pile to commune with at all times. 
💤 Immersing in a project then taking deep rest. 
⚗️ Alchemizing autobiographical details.
⚰️ Learning about how death is understood in different occult and religious traditions.

B.K. Harbeke was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA. She has bachelor’s degree from UCLA in German studies, and a master’s in British/American literature from the University of Zurich. She loves Tarot, witchcraft and anything to do with the Occult. She currently lives in Zurich with her husband and ragdoll cat. And yes, she would spend the night in a haunted house.

Find her at https://www.instagram.com/bk.harbeke.writes/ and https://linktr.ee/bkharbeke.writes

To read the transcript, go to the episode page here.

In this episode, I was in conversation with Matilde Pratesi, author of Caledonia Novel Award-shortlisted Pig, about big passions, the animal channel that opens up during the writing process, and the strange experience of having her dreams come true. 

We talked about:
💘 Romantic female friendships that can turn toxic.
🐷 Writing from the perspective of a neurodivergent character with a passion for pigs.
🖊️ The possibility of fiction to rewrite narratives of repression.
🌈 Writing about gender and sexuality.

Matilde's ceremonies for writing are:
⚡Finding an animal channel.
⚗️ Using writing to alchemise her inner and outer worlds.
🗂️ Researching everything there is to know about pigs.

Matilde grew up in Italy and moved to London in her early twenties. Once there, she immersed herself in the literary community, writing in forums that met online and around the pub table, taking courses in local community hubs and working men’s colleges.

After postponing the second year of her MA in Creating Writing at Birkbeck University of London because of the onset of the Covid pandemic, she decided to try her hand at writing a novel.

If writing fiction fills up her evenings and weekends, it’s copywriting for the advertising industry that fills up her weekdays. And when all the writing has been done, she enjoys exploring the countryside around London with her wife and daughter.

Her Twitter handle is @1Matilde.

To read the transcript, go to the episode page here.

In this episode, I was in conversation with Mimi Zacharia, writer and gymnast, about the power of imaginary worlds when dealing with intergenerational trauma, and how writing a novel is like performing the perfect backflip.

We talked about:
🔥 Using obsession to guide your fiction
😱 What happens when your entire novel draft is destroyed
📖 Writing the book you need that doesn't yet exist

Mimi's ceremonies for writing are:
🌠 Conferring with her ancestors to share their stories
🌲 Being in community with like-minded writers at home and in the forest
🤸🏽 Perfecting her backflip

Mimi Zacharia was a toddler when her displaced Palestinian parents moved to England via Lebanon escaping civil war. As she grew up, her obsessive reading habit became a way of dealing with intergenerational trauma, and eventually she started to write about her experiences. 

More recently, throughout the Covid-19 lockdowns, Mimi spent months imagining she was somewhere more exciting. This led to her creating a bucket list of things she’d love to achieve once restrictions were lifted, which included learning to backflip, performing at a spoken word event, and getting published. She took online writing courses that fit around her family within working-from-home hours, and wrote a book that incorporated her gymnastics hobby. 

Mimi lives in South London with her family, performs at spoken word events, and attends regular backflip workshops. Follow her on  Instagram, TikTok and Facebook all at: @mimi_zacharia_author. 

To read the transcript, go to the episode page here

In this episode, I was in conversation with Stephanie Edd, writer, artist, kitchen witch, and author of the anti-noir, The Clear Case.

We talked about:
💀 The perils and pleasures of loving genre fiction
⚡️ Writing without financial or institutional support
📖 Balancing writing with other demands

Stephanie's ceremonies for writing are:
🖋 Taking field notes on everything
🍓 Eating delicious snacks

Stephanie Edd is  a writer, content producer, and artist in a variety of mediums including paint, ink, and kitchen witchery. She unites her love of art, film, and prose to craft fictions that are sensual, visual, and analytical in historical, noir detective, urban fantasy, and speculative genres. Her historical short story about post-mortem photography, Behind the Dark Slide, was published in the 39th issue of The Berkeley Fiction Review. She graduated from UC Berkeley with an English degree and continues to haunt the San Francisco Bay Area.

I recently had the pleasure of editing Stephanie Edd’s novel, The Clear Case, a sharp, colourful, novel that trades in subversion to gently critique the noir tradition. It’s also a dreamy read with lush period details, and elegant plotting. If you love crime fiction, but despair of outdated tropes, this clever anti-noir is for you.

The Clear Case published in ebook and paperback November 1st 2023. Follow her on TikTok @stephanieedd for noir and booktok content. Subscribe to her newsletter at stephanieedd.com and follow her on twitter and instagram @stephaniejedd.

To read the transcript, go to the episode page here.

Welcome to season one of Ceremony, a podcast about storytelling, seasonality, rituals, and dreaming new worlds into being.
To read the transcript, go to the episode page here.