Somebody Write This

"Her peers join forces with a soldier and an extremely burned-out Manhattan ambulance paramedic to fall in love with a beautiful young woman." Whose peers? Is everyone trying to fall in love? And what is the title referring to? Author Justine Manzano helps us work all this out! Follow her work at justinemanzano.com or @justine_manzano on Instagram and Twitter!

"A pop star finds her love in a confused girl through drastic measures." What kind of drastic measures? Why is the girl so confused? And what on earth is that title about? Fortunately, our guest Katie Ahnberg is here to help us sort this out! Follow her on Instagram at @things.katie.did.

"A small-time bank robber and Woody Harrelson fulfill the promise to their recently deceased best friend in Russia." What? What is Woody Harrelson doing in our story? And in Russia? And with that title? Well, thank goodness we have Lorien Megill to help us make sense out of this wild beginning. Check out Lorien's blog at https://101digressions.wordpress.com/

"A small town sheriff fights through grief and trauma to regain her mythical shark." Where is this shark coming from? Is the trauma shark-related? And... what do we even do with the title? Fortunately we have Jake White to help us flesh this out, and he's no stranger to following through on wild ideas. Make sure to check out his fantasy serial A Many Tale at www.amanytale.com to see how he does it himself, and follow along on Instagram @a_many_tale.

"In order to pursue the Holy Grail, an ecstasy dealer must put aside their differences." Differences with whom? Is this the literal Holy Grail? And who on earth is this cabinet minister who's never been released? Jennie's sister, Katie Castaldi, joins us to figure out what in the world's going on with this story. Check out Katie's nail wraps at girllookatmynails.com!

Due to tech difficulties, we have no new Somebody Write This podcast this week... but we DO have an exclusive sneak preview of a new podcast by our co-host Hannah: The Bot Canon, in which she gives artificial intelligence the opening of a classic work of literature and lets it complete it. This first episode features a rewrite of J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit," so give it a listen and subscribe to the official podcast to hear new episodes weekly!

"A London gangster is transformed into a celebrated actor when he makes his way to London with revenge on his mind." Isn't a London gangster already in London? How does he become a celebrity? And whose father's artistic work is at stake here? Thankfully we have horror author/podcaster Jack Pierce with us to work through this plot! You can find him @jackpiercebooks on social media, and be sure to check out his podcast Terror Trax!

Note: Hannah's nice mic died before this recording and she didn't notice it -- fortunately her crappy earbud mic picked up all her audio! She'll be back next episode with nice clean audio again :)

In this week's bonus episode, our last guest Connor talks more about country music as a storytelling platform, adapting those stories to other media, and how country music connects to oral storytelling traditions. Plus, we get a fun follow-up listener note on our "Major Struggling Holiday Traditions" episode -- turns out we may have taken more inspiration from real life than we knew!

"An aging gambler on a losing streak who lives with her longtime boyfriend Francis changes the course of history in 1800s England." Who is this aging female gambler in 1800s England? How is Francis important to this story? And who on earth is Homer? Thank you to Connor Adamson for joining us and working through this wild story! You can check out Connor's writing about film on the Flickchart blog: https://www.flickchart.com/blog/author/jedi8246/

"A painter's muse must survive a wild 24 hours during which a journey quickly turns into a settling of old scores." What old scores need to be settled? Is the painter part of this wild 24 hours too? And is the muse named Quint or Britt? Our author guest Kit Falbo is with us to help pull out the pieces of this story! You can find him at kitfalbo.com and find his books on Amazon.