Lez Geek Out!cast

Andi and Lise talk about artist and writer Mildred Louis's amazing, fabulous, and Magic Girl Power webcomic, Agents of the Realm, in which five young women at Silvermount College discover that they've each been chosen to protect their world as well as a sister dimension. Volume 1 (the volume currently available and being updated) begins at the start of the college year and follows them as they try to figure out what exactly is going on.

Great characterization, excellent art, fab story about 5 diverse young women trying to figure out how to work together to save their world and still deal with college, family, and relationships.

Find out more about Mildred Louis and her work at artofmlouis.com.

Lise's shout-out: Her first audiobook is ready for public consumption! Lise's Five Moons Rising, narrated by Lori Prince, is ready for listening! Find out more at Audible.com.

Andi also totally shouts-out Lise's first audiobook publication. YAY! She also would like to shout-out the immersive detective game Hunt A Killer, in which you play detective and sign up for a specific murder mystery (all made up; don't worry) and every month you get a new box in the mail with clues: documents, actual artifacts, news reports…you never know! Find out more at HuntAKiller.

https://lezgeekoutcast.files.wordpress.com/2020/06/lgo_80_agents.mp3

Andi and Lise have been working on expanding and decolonizing their media consumption, seeking out more creators of color and more creators who are differently abled, neurodiverse, and from different cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds than they are. They each share some of that media in this episode.

Lise: Binti novella series by Nnedi Okorafor Octavia Butler's Kindred graphic novel adaptation N.K. Jemisin, Inheritance trilogy; see also her short story anthology How Long 'til Black Future Month Movie D.E.B.S., written and directed by Angela Robinson (We talked about this movie in our very first episode!!) Ebony Warriors Studio, cosplay (also find on Instagram)

Andi: Ascension, by Jacqueline Koyanagi N.K. Jemisin, Far Sector comic series Movie Black Panther, directed and written by Ryan Coogler Website Black Girl Nerds (LOL Andi and Lise lost count and Andi did 4 instead of 5); NOTE: website was fine at recording time, but afterward, it appears to be undergoing some work. You can find BGN on Twitter and Instagram, too.

Shout-outs: Lise enjoyed the zombie apocalypse movie Anna and the Apocalypse while Andi was glad for Legends of Tomorrow season 5 this week. https://lezgeekoutcast.files.wordpress.com/2020/06/lgo_79_decolonizing.mp3

Andi and Lise are way into the comic Moonstruck (Image Comics), created and written by Grace Ellis (of Lumberjanes) and illustrated/arted by Shea Beagle. Here, Andi and Lise talk about Volume 1, which collects issues 1-5:

Werewolf barista Julie and her new girlfriend go on a date to a close-up magic show, but all heck breaks loose when the magician casts a horrible spell on their friend Chet. Now it's up to the team of mythical pals to stop the illicit illusionist before it's too late. –Image Comics description

We loved all the rep (including queer, POC, QPOC) and all the different body shapes and all the different backgrounds of the characters. The art is amazing, the story is fun, and the characters will resonate with readers. This comic is excellent for all ages!

Find Volume 1 at Image Comics, other platforms, and your library.

Shout-outs! Lise recommends Avatar: The Last Airbender. All three seasons are streaming on Netflix.

Andi binged the fifth and final season of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. She laughed, she cried, she'll watch it again. Find all 5 seasons on Netflix. https://lezgeekoutcast.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/lgo_78_moonstruck.mp3

Andi and Lise do an "ask us anything" session, answering questions posed to them on social media. The questions deal with life, writing, and lots of stuff in between. Some made them think, some made them laugh, and others made them do both. Thanks all, for your questions.

Lise would like to shout-out Star vs. the Forces of Evil, about a young princess in a different dimension sent to Earth to mellow her behavior. Hijinks ensue! Find it on Disney Plus.

Andi would like to shout-out director Alice Wu's new film, The Half of It, a coming-of-age story in which a young woman works to set up the school jock with the woman she, too, has a crush on. Shades of Cyrano! Find this on Netflix.

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Andi and Lise are super-stoked that F/F book reviewer extraordinaire Tara Scott stopped by to hang out with them as they unpack sex, gender, identity, and representation. And there is always a lot to unpack there!

Tara also highly recommends the forthcoming book (she's a fancy reviewer, so she gets ARCs!) The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea, by Maggie Tokuda-Hall.

Lise offers a shout-out to a cute video game she and her wife have been playing called Terraria.

And Andi finally saw the movie Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) and yes, she loved it. (may be a bit too violent for some)

You can find Tara at The Lesbian Review and Smart Bitches, Trashy Books and at the Lesbian Talk Show, where she hosts the podcast "Les do books."

Find LGO on Twitter! @LGOPodcast And at the LGO website, lezgeekoutcast.com

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This week, Andi and Lise talk writing (since they're writers and all). Specifically, the pitfalls and fun stuff in writing series. Both have series they've written or are writing and they break down some of the things they think about or have thought about as they're writing different kinds of series in different genres. Like, you know, character continuity, plot arcs, world-building, other stuff…like that.

Shout-outs! Lise recommends the animated series Gravity Falls, available on Disney Plus (and also Hulu) while Andi binged Picard, on CBS All Access. Find info about Lise's series at her website, lisemactague.com. Find out more about Andi's at andimarquette.com.

On writing series: Notion Press: How to Write a Great Book Series Now Novel: How to Write a Series, 10 Tips Just Writerly Things: How to Write a Series

Andi and Lise take a show to talk about how they're coping with social distancing, anxiety, depression, and what things are serving as healthy distractions for them. Hit us up on Twitter to let us know how YOU'RE doing and what tips you might have to help others. @LGOpodcast.

Some resources you might find useful (US): National Center for Transgender Equality: COVID-19: What Trans People Need to Know Trans Lifeline LGBT National Help Center Them.us: How LGBTQ+ People can get Help and Resources during Coronavirus (includes hotlines and online mental health resources) National LGBTQ Cancer Center: Coronavirus 2019: What LGBTQ+ People Need to Know National Domestic Violence Hotline (okay if you're LGBTQ+, too, to call)

This week, Andi and Lise watched a throwback film and dug into The Terminator, filmed in 1984. They discuss the portrayal of women, the kind of film it was, the context in which it was made, how a story can be told and moved through available tech at the time of filming, and trailblazing Gale Anne Hurd as producer and what that might have meant to the portrayal of female badasses in movies like this. (You may recognize Hurd's name; she's also the producer of The Walking Dead on AMC.)

Going ol' skool! Original Terminator trailer

More info: Terminator at IMDB The Verge: Gale Anne Hurd on sexism in the industry and mentorship The Hollywood Reporter: reminiscing about The Terminator at 30, with director James Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd, among others Film Goblin: behind the scenes of Terminator

Shout-outs! Lise just finished Rebecca Roanhorse's post-apocalyptic Storm of Locusts, the second in her 6th World Series, and gives it two thumbs up (Andi and Lise talked about Roanhorse's first book in the series, Trail of Lightning, in episode 71!) Andi decided to start watching Amazon Prime's Hunters, which deals with literal Nazi-hunters in the 1970s. She got interested in what the US government was actually doing, letting Nazis into the country after WWII, and is now reading The Nazis Next Door, by Eric Lichtblau.

Andi and Lise dig into multiple Hugo-winner N.K. Jemisin's amazing and multi-layered The Fifth Season (2015), the first in The Broken Earth trilogy. Andi and Lise talk about Jemisin's use of point-of-view for different characters, how their stories interweave with the world-building, and the world-building itself, which they found utterly engrossing and brilliantly presented.

Synopsis, from the site Deadline: The Fifth Season is described as an epic drama set in a world where civilization-destroying earthquakes occur with deadly regularity. A small minority of inhabitants has the ability to quiet these earthquakes, but they also can cause them. The series follows three women, each of whom possesses these special, Earth-controlling abilities: Damaya, a young girl training to serve the Empire; Syenite, an ambitious young woman ordered to breed with her bitter and frighteningly powerful mentor; and Essun, a mother searching for the husband who murdered her young son and kidnapped her daughter mere hours after a Season tore a fiery rift across the land.

Info about N.K. Jemisin's The Broken Earth trilogy NPR: "'Fifth Season' Embraces The Scale And Complexity Of Fantasy" Deadline: "N.K. Jemisin's 'The Fifth Season' Book to be Developed as TV Series at TNT" Info about N.K. Jemisin's The Broken Earth trilogy GQ: "N.K. Jemisin Is Trying to Keep the World from Ending"

This week Andi geeked out about the CW's Nancy Drew, and the Eddie Flynn series of novels by Steve Cavanaugh. She had to do two because Lise has been too busy editing her new manuscript to geek out properly.

Andi and Lise chat about Rebecca Roanhorse's debut novel, Trail of Lightning, the first in her Sixth World series.

"Maggie Hoskie is a Dinétah monster hunter, a supernaturally gifted killer. When a small town needs help finding a missing girl, Maggie is their last best hope. But what Maggie uncovers about the monster is much more terrifying than anything she could imagine." –Simon and Schuster

Roanhorse builds a post-apocalyptic world in what was the American Southwest, populated largely by Indigenous people. In this world of Dinétah, resources are in short supply, and myth and mythical beings roam freely among the humans.

Verge: "Trail of Lightning is a breathtaking Native American urban fantasy adventure" Locus: "Rebecca Roanhorse: From Legend to Fantasy" Lightspeed: Interview with Rebecca Roanhorse Indian Country Today: "Trail of Lightning is an appropriation of Diné cultural beliefs"

Shout-outs! Lise: Sex Education, the series on Netflix (Gillian Anderson, y'all!) Andi: TGIF/Femslash convention in Long Beach