Rite Gud

Welcome to Rite Gud. The podcast that helps you write good. I’m RS Benedict.

We’ve been putting out this podcast for five years now, and it has been quite a ride. I’ve been genuinely surprised by the outsized response we’ve gotten. We’ve made a lot of friends and a lot of enemies. We’ve triggered multiple tempests in multiple teapots, without even meaning to. We’ve been a part of changing the conversation in speculative fiction, and giving dissatisfied writers room to express dissent. We’ve been a part of the formation of some exciting publications: Blood Knife, Seize the Press, and, most recently, Typebar.

But lately, it has been a struggle to meet our deadlines. I’ve been looking forward to each next episode with less energy, and more of a sense of panic. I feel like I’ve said everything I can say about the fetid cesspool that is the sci-fi/fantasy scene. Everyone who called us nazis over the squeecore episode has gone on to defend a prominent sci-fi magazine’s acceptance of a short story by an actual neo-nazi. Everyone who called us predators for making fun of fanfiction is currently defending–or at least trying very hard not to talk about–Neil Gaiman. The machine chugs on as it ever did, the same old bullshit and the same old problems and the same old people and the same old excuses. It’s like a Cybertruck. There is no fixing it. Just make sure you’re too far away to catch any shrapnel when the thing finally explodes.

Lately, I’ve been focusing on writing a big beefy novel, and I’ve been publishing in the non-fiction realm, and that has been a breath of fresh air. It didn’t hit me how toxic SFF was until I worked outside of it with non-fiction editors at places like the New Haven Independent and Fangoria–established publications with a sense of professionalism. It has been wonderful, and I’m a lot happier for it.

Right now, I have a lot going on in my life–professionally, creatively, and personally. I have a lot of projects I’d like to work on. All of that work takes a lot of time and energy, and I find I have less and less to give to the podcast. Matt, our producer, has stepped up to take on the lion’s share of editing lately, and I really appreciate that–I could not have done this without him. But even with Matt’s immense work, I feel like I’m being pulled in too many directions at once.

Right now, I’m going through an exhausting but wonderful process of redefining myself. I’ve come to realize that I’ve spent too much of my life trying to live up to other people’s expectations of me–either trying to meet those expectations, or trying too hard to rebel against them. But really, the healthiest thing for me is to ignore them. That’s hard to do when you have to release content to a regular audience, especially when an online audience is shaped by algorithms, and performative social media clout-chasing, and all of the other weird facets of internet culture. And I’m not blaming our regular listeners for that. I appreciate your support, and I’m genuinely really happy that there are people who care about what I have to say. But I’m going through a lot right now, and it’s something I’d prefer to handle privately.

We hope you’ve enjoyed our podcast these past few years. We hope we’ve inspired and energized you. We hope we’ve sparked a conversation and made it safer for people to speak their minds. We hope we’ve played some role in changing things, at least a little. And we hope those of you listening will keep the ball rolling.

Thank you for supporting us. Now and forever, keep writing good.

About Rite Gud: R. S. Benedict is an author, appearing in Fantasy and Science Fiction and Gardner Dozois’ The Very Best of the Best: 35 Years of The Year’s Best Science Fiction. Matt Keeley, founder of Kittysneezes, is producing Rite Gud for KS Media, LLC. Rite Gud is a Kittysneezes production. 

The Rite Gud theme is by OK Glass. Follow them on Twitter, YouTube and Bandcamp, and at OK.Glass.

The post Gud By by Matt Keeley appeared first on Kittysneezes.

There are many podcasts about writing, but how many are there about wellness? Approximately a million billion. And they all want you to know: you’re doing everything wrong, and you should buy my product. Tan your taint! Eat raw bull testicles! Wake up at 4am every day! In this episode, Kurt Schiller joins us to talk about the hellish wellness industry and the siren song of creative self-destruction.

About Rite Gud: R. S. Benedict is an author, appearing in Fantasy and Science Fiction and Gardner Dozois’ The Very Best of the Best: 35 Years of The Year’s Best Science Fiction. Matt Keeley, founder of Kittysneezes, is producing Rite Gud for KS Media, LLC. Rite Gud is a Kittysneezes production. If you have questions, comments and concerns, email ritegud – at – kittysneezes – dot – com. Rite Gud is also on Patreon, at patreon.com/ritegud. Patrons receive access to the official Kittysneezes Discord, exclusive episodes and more.

The Rite Gud theme is by OK Glass. Follow them on Twitter, YouTube and Bandcamp, and at OK.Glass.

The post Take Gud Care of Yourself (or: A Cure for Wellness) by Matt Keeley appeared first on Kittysneezes.

In this podcast, we tend to focus on the craft of writing: handling character, setting, theme, and so on. But there’s another side to writing, the business side. We acknowledge it but don’t talk about it a lot on this podcast, mostly because, to be perfectly honest, I’m not very good at it. I make very little money doing this. I have a day job for a reason. I am terrible at the self-promotion writing hustle. And I think it would be irresponsible and dishonest of me to offer advice at something I am genuinely terrible at. But the grindset is real and inescapable if you ever plan to write for money, and it’s foolish to ignore it, so here to talk about it in this episode is horror author Kyle Winkler.

About Rite Gud: R. S. Benedict is an author, appearing in Fantasy and Science Fiction and Gardner Dozois’ The Very Best of the Best: 35 Years of The Year’s Best Science Fiction. Matt Keeley, founder of Kittysneezes, is producing Rite Gud for KS Media, LLC. Rite Gud is a Kittysneezes production. If you have questions, comments and concerns, email ritegud – at – kittysneezes – dot – com. Rite Gud is also on Patreon, at patreon.com/ritegud. Patrons receive access to the official Kittysneezes Discord, exclusive episodes and more.

The Rite Gud theme is by OK Glass. Follow them on Twitter, YouTube and Bandcamp, and at OK.Glass.

The post Do the Hustle! by Matt Keeley appeared first on Kittysneezes.

Many writers dream of moving to one of the big cool culture cities to make it. New York. L.A. Portland. Seattle. Increasingly, Austin. But not all of us can live there, for whatever reason. Some of us live in itty bitty rural hamlets, and we’re happy there. Some of us live in cities with a terrific cultural scene, but the city gets overlooked for being in a landlocked state. And some of us live in terminally uncool towns like Albany. But it’s not impossible to thrive as a writer outside of New York City. You can, and should, still pursue your art, wherever you live. Joining us from Tulsa, Oklahoma, is Cassidy McCants, editor of Apple in the Dark, member of the New Haven Independent Review Crew.

About Rite Gud: R. S. Benedict is an author, appearing in Fantasy and Science Fiction and Gardner Dozois’ The Very Best of the Best: 35 Years of The Year’s Best Science Fiction. Matt Keeley, founder of Kittysneezes, is producing Rite Gud for KS Media, LLC. Rite Gud is a Kittysneezes production. If you have questions, comments and concerns, email ritegud – at – kittysneezes – dot – com. Rite Gud is also on Patreon, at patreon.com/ritegud. Patrons receive access to the official Kittysneezes Discord, exclusive episodes and more.

The Rite Gud theme is by OK Glass. Follow them on Twitter, YouTube and Bandcamp, and at OK.Glass.

The post Escape From New York by Matt Keeley appeared first on Kittysneezes.

What’s in a name? A lot, really. That’s why they’re so hard to come up with. Parents agonize over picking the right baby name for their children. We gave up on naming this podcast. And as authors, sometimes it’s hard to come up with a good name for your character or your imaginary monster, or your fake magical bullshit. So in this episode, a writer named Karlo Yeager Rodriguez from a podcast named Podside Picnic joins us to talk about names.

About Rite Gud: R. S. Benedict is an author, appearing in Fantasy and Science Fiction and Gardner Dozois’ The Very Best of the Best: 35 Years of The Year’s Best Science Fiction. Matt Keeley, founder of Kittysneezes, is producing Rite Gud for KS Media, LLC. Rite Gud is a Kittysneezes production. If you have questions, comments and concerns, email ritegud – at – kittysneezes – dot – com. Rite Gud is also on Patreon, at patreon.com/ritegud. Patrons receive access to the official Kittysneezes Discord, exclusive episodes and more.

The Rite Gud theme is by OK Glass. Follow them on Twitter, YouTube and Bandcamp, and at OK.Glass.

The post The Glup Shitto Episode by Matt Keeley appeared first on Kittysneezes.

About Rite Gud: R. S. Benedict is an author, appearing in Fantasy and Science Fiction and Gardner Dozois’ The Very Best of the Best: 35 Years of The Year’s Best Science Fiction. Matt Keeley, founder of Kittysneezes, is producing Rite Gud for KS Media, LLC. Rite Gud is a Kittysneezes production. If you have questions, comments and concerns, email ritegud – at – kittysneezes – dot – com. Rite Gud is also on Patreon, at patreon.com/ritegud. Patrons receive access to the official Kittysneezes Discord, exclusive episodes and more.

The Rite Gud theme is by OK Glass. Follow them on Twitter, YouTube and Bandcamp, and at OK.Glass.

[Photo credit: www.nicolassolop.com with alterations]

The post Self-Publishing with Evan Dahm by Matt Keeley appeared first on Kittysneezes.

I can show you the world. Shining, shimmering splendid. Tell me, writer, now when did you last read a worldbuilding guide? In this episode, returning champions Karlo Yeager Rodriguez and Simon McNeil join us to talk about worldbuilding.

Image by Eric Horwitz.

About Rite Gud: R. S. Benedict is an author, appearing in Fantasy and Science Fiction and Gardner Dozois’ The Very Best of the Best: 35 Years of The Year’s Best Science Fiction. Matt Keeley, founder of Kittysneezes, is producing Rite Gud for KS Media, LLC. Rite Gud is a Kittysneezes production. If you have questions, comments and concerns, email ritegud – at – kittysneezes – dot – com. Rite Gud is also on Patreon, at patreon.com/ritegud. Patrons receive access to the official Kittysneezes Discord, exclusive episodes and more.

The Rite Gud theme is by OK Glass. Follow them on Twitter, YouTube and Bandcamp, and at OK.Glass.

The post Against Worldbuilding by Matt Keeley appeared first on Kittysneezes.

In this episode, we’re talking to Matt Wolfbridge about his new online magazine, Typebar. We discuss how and why he put the magazine together, the grim state of internet-based publishing, and typewriters.

Typebar Magazine

“Don’t hate me because I’m rich!”

Wingspan and Post-Capitalist Forms of Competition

Just my typewriter

Abridged Thoughts

The Blood Knife episode

The Seize the Press episode

About Rite Gud: R. S. Benedict is an author, appearing in Fantasy and Science Fiction and Gardner Dozois’ The Very Best of the Best: 35 Years of The Year’s Best Science Fiction. Matt Keeley, founder of Kittysneezes, is producing Rite Gud for KS Media, LLC. Rite Gud is a Kittysneezes production. If you have questions, comments and concerns, email ritegud – at – kittysneezes – dot – com. Rite Gud is also on Patreon, at patreon.com/ritegud. Patrons receive access to the official Kittysneezes Discord, exclusive episodes and more.

The Rite Gud theme is by OK Glass. Follow them on Twitter, YouTube and Bandcamp, and at OK.Glass.

The post I Just Wanted a Website That Was Fucking Normal by Matt Keeley appeared first on Kittysneezes.

We’re back from our brief sabbatical with an all-new episode to discuss the most important work of utopian–or dystopian, depending on your interpretation–fiction of the past decade: i Pony: Blueprint for a New America by libertarian presidential candidate and boot model Vermin Supreme.

About Rite Gud: R. S. Benedict is an author, appearing in Fantasy and Science Fiction and Gardner Dozois’ The Very Best of the Best: 35 Years of The Year’s Best Science Fiction. Matt Keeley, founder of Kittysneezes, is producing Rite Gud for KS Media, LLC. Rite Gud is a Kittysneezes production. If you have questions, comments and concerns, email ritegud – at – kittysneezes – dot – com. Rite Gud is also on Patreon, at patreon.com/ritegud. Patrons receive access to the official Kittysneezes Discord, exclusive episodes and more.

The Rite Gud theme is by OK Glass. Follow them on Twitter, YouTube and Bandcamp, and at OK.Glass.

The post i Pony: Blueprint for a New America by Matt Keeley appeared first on Kittysneezes.

Howdy, Matt here! As you may remember from last month’s episode, Rite Gud is taking this month off. We’ve taken out one of our book club episodes from behind the paywall to share with you all. We’re looking at the Ionesco’s Rhinoceros with Simon McNeil, recorded in August of last year. If you like this and want more, the Book Club is available for $3 patrons..

This week, Kittysneezes is also proud to present the Infinite Danger podcast by KasmKave. Infinite Danger is a podcast chronicling the wildly successful Canadian action TV classic, Danger Bay. All 40-plus seasons of it. Join your host Will, as he breaks down each episode of the adventures of aquarium policeman Grant Roberts and his children Nicole and Jonah in the trillion-dollar franchise which continues to define the city of Vancouver culturally, economically, religiously, and geopolitically. You don’t need to be familiar with the series, Danger Bay, to enjoy the podcast.

Infinite Danger is available, much like Rite Gud, wherever you get your podcasts, and to whet your appetite, we’ve included the first 10 or so minutes of the first episode, “The Sea Pup: Should I Be Worried” at the end of this one.

Check it totally out!

Links:

About Rite Gud: R. S. Benedict is an author, appearing in Fantasy and Science Fiction and Gardner Dozois’ The Very Best of the Best: 35 Years of The Year’s Best Science Fiction. Matt Keeley, founder of Kittysneezes, is producing Rite Gud for KS Media, LLC. Rite Gud is a Kittysneezes production. If you have questions, comments and concerns, email ritegud – at – kittysneezes – dot – com. Rite Gud is also on Patreon, at patreon.com/ritegud. Patrons receive access to the official Kittysneezes Discord, exclusive episodes and more.

The Rite Gud theme is by OK Glass. Follow them on Twitter, YouTube and Bandcamp, and at OK.Glass.

The post Based & Rhino Pilled by Matt Keeley appeared first on Kittysneezes.