Happy Thanksgiving, listeners! We're thankful for you and your love of short stories.

This week we're discussing "Homesick" by Sarah Gailey. Homesickness is a perfect theme for the holidays and this story perfectly depicts the longing for home... perfect if you are a selfish, violent psychopath! Listen up to hear, another story that suggests that humans are not capable of living lives of peace and generosity. Blame our inherent evil or blame our love of whale song --either way, this is a story of being given the chance for paradise and f**king it up again!

Check out all the story links at www.keepitlitpodcast.com and join us on Instagram @Keepitlitpodcast and on Twitter @keepitlitpod

Intro & Outro music:

"grapes_-_I_dunno" by spinning merkaba/ccMixter

Licensed under Creative Commons: Free for commercial use with attribution

http://dig.ccmixter.org/free

Cover Art by Jake and Sydney Herrick

This week we read the clever and thought-provoking piece, All the Mermaid Wives by Gwendolyn Kiste. It's an amazing tale that effectively combines the feel of a 1950s advertisement/classroom filmstrip with a modern, twisted mermaid story. On this important election day, this piece will have you reflecting on the nature of freedom, gender, power, oppression, and the damaging effects of forced assimilation. Not bad themes to have on your mind as you head to the polls. Hope you enjoy! We love you... but we'll love you more if you vote!

Check out all the story links at www.keepitlitpodcast.com and join us on Instagram @Keepitlitpodcast and on Twitter @keepitlitpod

Intro & Outro music:

"grapes_-_I_dunno" by spinning merkaba/ccMixter

Licensed under Creative Commons: Free for commercial use with attribution

http://dig.ccmixter.org/free

Cover Art by Jake and Sydney Herrick

Keep It Lit hits the road this week on a special sister edition of the pod! Cooley goes back home to the beautifully manicured sprawl that is Plano, TX and is joined by her two crazy sisters, Alison and Becca. In this episode they discuss toilet seats, stinky smells, fruit-shaped body types, and William Faulkner's tale, "A Rose for Emily." It is totally fitting because one sister is getting married and the other is thirty and single!! Win win! Give it a listen to hear their take on this Southern Gothic master....piece of hair. See what I did there?

Check out all the story links at www.keepitlitpodcast.com and join us on Instagram @Keepitlitpodcast and on Twitter @keepitlitpod

Intro & Outro music:

"grapes_-_I_dunno" by spinning merkaba/ccMixter

Licensed under Creative Commons: Free for commercial use with attribution

Cover Art: Jake and Sydney Herrick

As part of our special doubleheader, we are bringing you a lighthearted, if not somewhat mean-spirited, examination of Edogawa Ranpo's weird, weird, weird story "The Human Chair." Inspired by his love of Edgar Allen Poe, Ranpo crafts a truly unique and gross tale of voyeurism, eroticism, and creepy dude-ism. There are some real problems with this narrative, but is it a result of sloppy translation or odd writing? We may never know. Nonetheless, it resulted in fun for us as we mock it's flaws and shiver at its grotesqueness. Added bonus: We tell you all the pods we love to listen to besides our own. 

Check out all the story links at www.keepitlitpodcast.com and join us on Instagram @ Keepitlitpodcast and on Twitter @keepitlitpod

Intro & Outro music:

"grapes_-_I_dunno" by spinning merkaba/ccMixter

Licensed under Creative Commons: Free for commercial use with attribution

http://dig.ccmixter.org/free

Cover Art by Jake and Sydney Herrick

This week Cooley and Herrick discuss Gabriel Garcia Marquez's short story "One of These Days." It's a powerful little gem of a tale that explores the nature of power in a subtle, quiet GGM kind of way. If you want to skip ahead to the story discussion it begins around 54 minutes in -- Yep! There is a lot of small talk this week. We discuss yet another ridiculous high school dress code incident, explore middle school sexual politics via a story about a young Cooley, and read some powerful and clever tweets about the Kavanaugh hearings. All the while, we're sipping classic Mexican Martinis and hoping for better days ahead. 

Check out all the story links at www.keepitlitpodcast.com and join us on Instagram @ Keepitlitpodcast and on Twitter @keepitlitpod

Intro & Outro music:

"grapes_-_I_dunno" by spinning merkaba/ccMixter

Licensed under Creative Commons: Free for commercial use with attribution

http://dig.ccmixter.org/free

Cover Art by Jake and Sydney Herrick

If you're a fan of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale (or even if you're not) you're sure to love her short story Freeze-dried Groom from her 2014 short story collection Stone Mattress. 

This week, Cooley is busy getting essays scored and grades in the book like the kick-ass teacher she is, so Herrick is joined by her friend, Jean, in discussing this quirky tale that begins with the dissolution of a marriage and ends in at least one murder! While the tale begins with mundane observations on the cold weather and the quality of Sam's scrambled eggs, it quickly reveals itself to be a story of multiple duplicities that keep piling up until it is clear that no one is quite what they seem.

This is an extra long pod as this story merited lots of analysis and we still barely scratched the surface. Give it a listen and then try to find a friend so you can unpack it even more. Margaret Atwood does not disappoint!

Daily Dystopias: kids flying drones, kids driving tiny Teslas, kids wearing "magic" necklaces

Check out all the story links at www.keepitlitpodcast.com and join us on Instagram @ Keepitlitpodcast and on Twitter @keepitlitpod

Intro & Outro music:

"grapes_-_I_dunno" by spinning merkaba/ccMixter

Licensed under Creative Commons: Free for commercial use with attribution

http://dig.ccmixter.org/free

Cover Art by Jake and Sydney Herrick

Aha! I tricked you by naming the episode after liquor. You probably think we used SoCo in this week's cocktail, but no! Cooley created a much more clever drink called Bailey's in the Woods. Isn't she clever?! (read the story people!)

This week's episode is filled with murder and mayhem and many unlikeable, ridiculous characters. We're discussing the fabulous and memorable Southern Gothic "A Good Man is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor. It is the story of dysfunctional family that thinks being trapped together on a long car ride is the absolute worst, but, believe or not, there are things more terrifying than countless rounds of "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall." If you have this harrowing of a car trip you should at least be rewarded by John Candy and Marty Moose from Wally World at the end! Amiright? Sip some Baileys and enjoy this darkly comic story. 

Cooley and Herrick discuss the timely and thought- provoking story, "I've Seen the End of the World Baby; It's Murder" by Tara Isabella Burton. Did hookups between a feminist writer and a vacuous f**kboy cause all the apocalyptic events of 2016? Even if you don't care, you'll still enjoy this reference-heavy story that miraculously ties together Wagner, T.S. Eliot, American Psycho, David Bowie, Brexit, Charlie Sheen, Hugo Boss, Prince, Greek mythology, and the 2016 American Presidential election. Intrigued?! Press "PLAY!"

Herrick and Cooley enter the unexpectedly sexy world of the 19th century Louisiana housewife via Kate Chopin's steamy short story, "The Storm." This piece has it all -- heaving bosoms, driving rain, clothes blowing on the clothesline, near-forgotten passions and sweet but oblivious spouses. Love yourself some religious allusions mixed with sexy, sexy time? Wish more people worked discussions of True Blood into conversation? Love to sew like a motherfucker? Or just want Herrick's recommendations for great television shows that feature Timothy Olyphant? You've come to the right place! 

Intro & Outro music:

"grapes_-_I_dunno" by spinning merkaba/ccMixter

Licensed under Creative Commons: Free for commercial use with attribution

http://dig.ccmixter.org/free

Cover Art by Jake and Sydney Herrick

It's a Double-header! Today Cooley and Herrick are together again, discussing two very short, but very powerful stories, "Palm Tree Bandit" by Nnedi Okorafor and "Evil Robot Monkey" by Mary Robinette Kowal. And don't worry, we have cocktails for each! So, whether you're in the mood for a Nigerian fable of empowered, wine-drinking women or the poo-flinging fun of a cyborg ape, we've got a tale to scratch that itch! 

"The Palm Tree Bandit"

"Evil Robot Monkey"

Intro & Outro music:

"grapes_-_I_dunno" by spinning merkaba/ccMixter

Licensed under Creative Commons: Free for commercial use with attribution

http://dig.ccmixter.org/free

Cover Art: Jake and Sydney Herrick