Tales from the Trunk

This time around, I’m delighted to welcome back to the show Megan E. O’Keefe (@MeganEOKeefe) to talk about her brand new book, The Blighted Stars, out May 23rd from Orbit Books! In between saying “spaceship books” a lot, we talk about some things that got left out for the betterment of the book, some beloved tropes, and what else you can look forward to from Megan!

Things we mention in this episode:

Megan’s previous episode

Val’s last episode

K.B. Wagers’ last episode

Jaime Jones’ cover

The Archive Undying, by Emma Mieko Candon

Friends at the Table (of course)

The Imperial Radch Trilogy, by Ann Leckie

Ninefox Gambit, by Yoon Ha Lee

Velocity Weapon, by Megan E. O’Keefe

The Scorched Continent Trilogy, by Megan E. O’Keefe

The First Omega, by Megan E. O’Keefe

Cormac McCarthy

Philip K. Dick

Terry Pratchett

Final Fantasy XIV

The Bone Shard Daughter, by Andrea Stewart

Megan’s website, insta, twitch, and github 

State machines

Pico air monitor

Micropython

Purple Air Dev

Ludum Dare

Johnny 5

Seek the Light, on Megan’s itch

This episode’s reading carries a content warning for discussion of online harassment. If you would like to skip the reading, fast forward to timestamp 0:17:25 from the start of the reading.

This time around, it’s my absolute delight to welcome to the show Brandon O’Briend (@therisingtithes)! Brandon reads from their story, “Content is Cuisine,” before we launch into a wonderful conversation about the intersection of poetry and game design, how recipes and poems are alike, and how H. P. Lovecraft was accidentally kinda hip-hop.

Things we mention in this episode:

Suzan’s episode

Mike’s episode

Speculate!

Valerie Valdes

Girl By Moonlight

Iori Kusano

Jeoi Gawain Lin

FB moderation expose

Sin-eater

All Our Yesterdays

The Moon Wants Me To Leave You

Anteater tumblr post

Can You Sign My Tentacle?, by Brandon O’Brien

Interstellar Flight Press

Uncanny Magazine

Lovecraft’s cat (CW: racial slurs)

Sarah Gailey’s Personal Canons Cookbook

Shing Yin Khor

“Trust the Process,” by Hilary B. Bisenieks

Elgin Award

Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

Gregory A. Wilson

Blades in the Dark

Slugblaster

Lasers & Feelings

Evil Hat Productions

Friends at the Table (of course)

The Rookie

“Call ACab,” by Sam Stone

Sam Waterston

Aaron Sorkin

The Newsroom

Nickel Creek

Pavement

“Spit on a Stranger,” by Nickel Creek

Brandon’s insta and newsletter and website

Fiyah

This episode’s reading carries content warnings for implied child abuse and violence. If you would like to skip the reading, please skip forward to the 0:21:00 mark from the start of the reading.

This time around, it’s my pleasure to welcome Ladz (@LadzWriting) to the show! They join us to talk about their forthcoming debut novella, Ice Upon a Pier, releasing April 11th, 2023, from Robot Dinosaur Press!

Things we mention this episode:

Robot Dinosaur Press

The Chipped Cup Collective

Sarah Loch

Rekka

Merc Fenn Wolfmoor

Andi C. Buchanan

Just Like Home, by Sarah Gailey

Dark Souls

The Last Podcast on the Left - Richard Kuklinski

Disney World

Ryszard Kukliński

Tales of Symphonia

Natuto

Greenpoint (NYC)

Aleta Perez

Last Call, by Elon Green

The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer, by Philip Carlo

Ladz’s blog

Terry J. Benton-Walker on Ladz’s blog

“Problem for Tomorrow’s You,” by Ladz on itch.io

Better Call Saul

Darkest Dungeon II

Frostpunk

Light novels

Bakemonogatari

Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust

Vampire Hunter D (light novels)

Poppy Z. Brite

Gormenghast trilogy, by Mervin Peake

Leech, by Hiron Ennes

Edward Gorey

The Hobbit cover Smaug

Sarah Gailey’s original River of Teeth map

Ice Upon a Pier cover reveal on Sarah Gailey’s Stone Soup

The Balde Between, by Sam J Miller

The Sleepless, by Victor Manibo

The Bruising of Qilwa, by Naseem Jamnia

Ladz’s insta, blog, and newsletter

Join me again in two weeks, when my guest will be Brandon O'Brien!

This episode’s reading carries a content warning for ableist themes around deafness. If you would like to skip this, skip ahead to the 11-minute mark to bypass the reading.

This time around, it’s my pleasure to welcome fellow gremlin Suzan Palumbo (@sillysyntax) to talk about…something. Suzan reads their trunked story, “Fricatives,” which leads us into a discussion about walking away from stories we’ve written that aren’t ours to tell. And then bagged pickles. We do get things back on track, amazingly, and have some great conversation about the place of emotion versus professionalism in writing, the current discourse around so-called “artificial intelligence” (large language models), and the baseball of crying.

Things we mention this episode

“Every Day is Halloween,” by Ministry

Joyce Carol Oates

“Apolépisi: A De-Scaling,” by Suzan Palumbo

Welcome to the Black Parade, by My Chemical Romance

Give Up, by The Postal Service

Plans, by Death Cab for Cutie

Pickle tweets

Shut the fuck up Friday

Friends at the Table

“Bloody Therapy,” by Suzan Palumbo

Shimmer

Elise Tobler

John Wiswell

Personal Canons Cookbook

Miri’s episode

Clarkesworld AI submissions

1. D. Perry’s Resident Evil novels

Harley Quinn

Poison Ivy

“Soup Boys” and “NYC Cops” by Heems

“Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell,” by Das Racist

“Douen,” by Suzan Palumbo

Skin Thief: Stories, by Suzan Palumbo

dave ring

Cult of the Lamb

“Temple,” by River Boy

Interview with the Vampire

Tell me I’m Worthless, by Alison Rumfitt

Sergei Prokofiev

Romeo and Juliet Suite, by Sergei Prokofiev

“The Death of Tybalt,” by Sergei Prokofiev

Suzan’s insta, mastodon, and website

Join us next month, when my guests will be Ladz and Brandon O’Brien!

Hello, and welcome to season five (5) of Tales from the Trunk, where it’s my distinct pleasure to welcome Dr. Malka Older to the show to talk about her brand new novel, The Mimicking of Known Successes, out in just a few days on March 7th, 2023 from Tor dot com publishing! Malka reads us a couple of excerpts from the book, and then we geek out about putting puns in books because we can!

Things mentioned in this episode:

Infomocracy, by Malka Older

Tor.com Publishing

Brent Lambert

NaNoWriMo

Juliet Kemp’s episode

The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles, by Malka Older

The Archive Undying, by Emma Mieko Candon

C.L. Polk’s recent book tour

Even Though I Knew the End, by C.L. Polk

Malka and Cee’s event, March 9th, 3:00 pm Pacific at Loyalty Bookstore

“Narrative Disorder,” by Malka Older

…and Other Disasters, by Malka Older

Daniel Jose Older

Meru, by S.B. Divya

The Terraformers, by Annalee Newitz

A Scatter of Light, by Melinda Lo

Malka’s mastodon, insta, and tumblr

Join us again in two weeks, when I’ll be talking with Suzan Palumbo!

This time around, to close out our fourth (4th!) season, it’s my pleasure to welcome Aimee Ogden (@[email protected]) to the show! Aimee reads from her delightful trunked YA novel, Starstruck, which leads us into a lovely conversation about lesbian radishes, the exhausting nature of submitting work, and short fiction magazines we love.

Things we mention this episode:

Aimee Kuzenski’s episode

Network Effect, by Martha Wells

Gregory A. Wilson

Beauty heart (watermelon) radish

Cat Valente

Tamora Pierce

The Wings of Fire series, by Tui T. Sutherland

Redwall series, by Brian Jacques

Diggers, Guards! Guards!, Hogfather, and The Last Continent, by Terry Pratchett

“The Cold Calculations,” by Aimee Ogden

Be the Serpent

Sarah Gailey’s Personal Canons Cookbook

Skies of Wonder, Skies of Danger, edited by John Appel, Mary Agner, and Jo Miles

Mary Robinette Kowal

F&SF

Clarkesworld

Ann Leckie

Analog

Translunar Traveler’s Lounge

Friends Journal QSFF issue

Emergent Properties, by Aimee Ogden

“A Love Letter Written at the Heat Death of the Universe,” by Aimee Ogden

The Deadlands

Shimmer

Fireside

Augur

Local Star, by Aimee Ogden

“Flower Daughter, Soil Seed,” by Eugenia Triantafyllou

“Sturgeon Moon Jam,” by Jennifer Hudak

The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart, by Stephanie Burgis

Everything Everywhere All At Once

My Neighbor Totoro

Aimee’s website

Join us again next month, when our guests for the start of season 5 will be Malka Older and Suzan Palumbo!

This time around, it’s my joy to welcome back World Fantasy Award winner and fantastic human being C.L. Polk (@[email protected]) to talk about their newest novella, Even Though I Knew The End. After hearing an excerpt from the book’s first act, we get into its unexpected origin story, the things we write for our nine (9) goblin friends, and an introduction to Cee’s other books!

Things we mention in this episode:

The Kingston Cycle and The Midnight Bargain, by C.L. Polk

Detroit Red Wings

Chicago Blackhawks

Supernatural

AO3

Hardboiled fiction

The Magicians

Discord

Guy Noir, Private Eye

A Prairie Home Companion

Phillip Marlowe

Raymond Chandler

An American Werewolf in London

Hermie (Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer)

The Witching Hour, by Anne Rice

Masters of Magic

Dragon Age

Dragon Age: Absolution

The Spare Man, by Mary Robinette Kowal

The Lady Astronaut series, by Mary Robinette Kowal

Cee’s website

Groundhog Day

Join us again in two weeks, when my guest will be Aimee Ogden!

This time around, it’s my delight to welcome Juliet Kemp (twitter @julietk, mastodon @[email protected]) to the show! They read from their trunked sci-fi novel, Between Stars, Between Minds, which leads us into a discussion of messy first drafts, lived-in science fiction worlds, and finishing a four-book series.

Things we mentioned in this episode:

Chipped Cup Collective

Andor

Friends at the Table

Austin Walker

A More Civilized Age

“Blocking,” by Juliet Kemp in Strange Bedfellows

Angry Robot Books

The City Revealed, by Juliet Kemp

Ocean’s series

Alien Quadrilogy

Lois McMaster Bujold

Terry Pratchett

Macey’s Murderboard method

“Monday,” by Hilary B. Bisenieks

LiveJournal

Lockie Hunter

A Starbound Solstice, by Juliet Kemp

“At the Lighthouse Out by the Othersea,” by Juliet Kemp

Our Flag Means Death

Black Sails

A League of Their Own

The Hands of the Emperor and At the Feet of the Sun, by Victoria Goddard

Flotsam, by R.J. Theodore

Juliet’s website

Join us next month, when I’ll be talking to C.L. Polk and Aimee Ogden!

It's awards time again! A full transcript of the show is included below.

Hello, and welcome to Tales from the Trunk: nominating the works that did make it! I’m Hilary B. Bisenieks.

Friends, it’s been another amazing year for science fiction, fantasy, horror, and beyond, and I’m here once more to let you know about some of the amazing works by my fantastic guests, which you can nominate for this year’s awards!

Andi C. Buchanan, who joined us in April of 2022, has a number of eligible works including their novel, Sanctuary, and the essay “Human not machine: how autistic writers are writing new space for themselves.”

A link to their eligibility post is included in the show notes. https://andicbuchanan.org/2022/12/18/2022-publications/ 

C.L. Clark, who just joined us in December, is eligible in most novelette categories for "Your Eyes, My Beacon: Being an Account of Several Misadventures and How I Found My Way Home," published in Uncanny May/June 2022

Amanda Cook, who joined us in June of 2022, has six stories eligible for short story categories: “The Impossible Task of Bringing Water,” “Germinating Everyday Magic,” “Weaving Serenity,” “Lily and Ink,” “Print a Soul in Six Easy Steps, a Primer by Clover Silverbrook,” and “When Dreams Do Show Me Thee.” 

A link to her eligibility post is included in the show notes. https://acooksbooks.com/2022/11/28/babys-first-awards-eligibility-post/

Marion Deeds, who made her debut on this show in May of 2022, has an eligible novella, Comeuppance Served Cold, which you can hear an excerpt of on that episode, along with an eligible novel, Golden Rifts.

Ruthana Emrys, who appeared on the show in July of last year, has an eligible novel, A Half-Built Garden, and her column, Reading the Weird, is eligible for Best Related Work.

A link to her eligibility post is included in the show notes. https://twitter.com/R_Emrys/status/1592598551364005888

Sarah Gailey, this show’s patron saint, joined us again last year in support of their eligible novel, Just Like Home. Among their other eligible works are their newsletter, Stone Soup, and their original comic miniseries, Know Your Station.

A link to their eligibility post is included in the show notes. https://sarahgailey.com/awards-eligibility-2022 

Victor Manibo, who joined us in December of 2021, is eligible for his debut novel, The Sleepless.

Freya Marske, who joined us in October of 2021, is eligible in the various novel categories for A Restless Truth, the excellent sequel to her 2021 debut, A Marvellous Light.

Sam J. Miller, who joined us last January, has an eligible novella, Kid Wolf and Kraken Boy, as well as a collection, for such awards as have categories for collections, Boys, Beasts & Men.

Scientist, and definitely not a multi-colored beetle, Premee Mohamed, who last joined us in August of 2021, is eligible for Best Series for the first time for her Beneath the Rising series, which concluded with eligible novel The Void Ascendant. She also has several eligible short stories, including “All That Burns Unseen.”

Her eligibility post is included in the show notes. https://www.premeemohamed.com/post/2022-eligibility-post

Aidan Moher, who joined us back in October after far, far too long, is eligible with Fight, Magic, Items for Best Related work. He’s also eligible for Best Fanzine for Astrolabe, and for Best Fan Writer for his work all over the place.

Aidan’s eligibility post is included in the show notes. https://astrolabe.aidanmoher.com/p/2022-award-eligibility-hugos-nebulas

Hailey Piper, who joined us to open season four of the show back in March, has an eligible short story, “We Frolic Within the Leviathan’s Heart,” a novella, Your Mind Is a Terrible Thing, and a novel, No Gods for Drowning.

C.L. Polk, who will be returning to the show next month, has an excellent eligible novella, Even Though I Knew The End.

dave ring, patron saint of queer small-press publishing, is eligible for Best Editor, short form, for his work on Baffling Magazine as well as many other fine publications. His work with Marianne Kirby on Neon Hemlock Live is also eligible for Best Related Work.

A link to dave’s eligibility post is included in the show notes. https://www.dave-ring.com/news/2022/11/18/2022-eligibility-post

Valerie Valdes, who joined us again this past August, is eligible for Best Novel (Science Fiction, where applicable) for Fault Tolerance, for Best Series for Chilling Effect, for Best Short Story for both “Team Building Exercise” and “Working from Home,” and for Best Semiprozine for Escape Pod, which she edits with Mur Lafferty.

Val’s eligibility post is linked in the show notes. http://candleinsunshine.com/news/awards-eligibility-for-2022/ 

Fellow Warren Wilson alumnus Fran Wilde has various short stories eligible but is most excited to be eligible, for the first time this year, for Best Editor, Short Form, for her work at The Sunday Morning Transport!

John Wiswell, excellent human being, has many, many eligible short stories, including “D.I.Y.” and “Demonic Invasion or Placebo Effect?”

John’s full eligibility post is linked in the show notes. https://johnwiswell.substack.com/p/all-the-short-stories-i-published

Finally, I have 100% more eligible work this year than last! In addition to this very show, Tales from the Trunk, which is eligible for Best Fancast and other podcast and audio categories, I also published a game, All Our Yesterdays, which is eligible for the Nebula Award for Best Game Writing.

Thanks so much for tuning in, and thank you to everyone who nominates and votes in any of our genre’s awards! That’s very cool of you.

Join us again next week, when my guest will be Juliet Kemp!

Tales from the Trunk is mixed and produced in beautiful Oakland, California.

Our theme music is “Paper Wings,” by Lillian Boyd.

You can support the show on patreon at patreon dot com slash trunkcast. All patrons of the show now get a sticker and logo button, along with show outtakes and other content that can't be found anywhere else.

You can find the show on Twitter and Tumblr at trunkcast, and I tweet and tumbl at hbbisenieks.

If you like the show, consider taking a moment to rate and review us on your preferred podcast platform.

And remember: don't self-reject.

This time around, it’s my distinct pleasure to welcome a fellow podcaster, Annalee Newitz (@annaleen), to talk about their forthcoming novel, The Terraformers, out January 31st, 2023, from wherever fine books are sold! We get to hear an excerpt from the book that leads us into a great discussion about transit gays, flying moose romance, and robot trans culture, among other things.

Things we mention on this episode:

Tumblr

Mastodon

I-5 cattle ranches

Dune, by Frank Herbert

Friends at the Table

Jeffrey Tumlin

Plate tectonics

Chuck Tingle

Michael Hobbes

Maintenance Phase

If Books Could Kill

Freakonomics, by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, by Yuval Noah Harari

Charlie Jane Anders

Our Opinions are Correct

The myth of progress episode

Brad DeLong 

Four Lost Cities, by Annalee Newitz

Annalee’s website and tiktok