This time around, it’s my pleasure to welcome Ruthanna Emrys (@R_Emrys), who joins us to talk about her new novel, A Half-Built Garden, which comes out on July 26th from Tor Dot Com publishing. We talk about ecological sci-fi, the things that got left on the cutting-room floor, and Ruthanna’s current reads.

Things we mention in this episode:

Winter Tide, by Ruthanna Emrys

David Bowie

The Innsmouth Legacy series, by Ruthanna Emrys

Seanan McGuire

Field Guide to Invasive Species of Minnesota, by Amelia Gorman

Light From Uncommon Stars, by Ryka Aoki

Ruthana’s Patreon

Reading the Weird on Tor.com

Anne M. Pillsworth

The City We Became, by N.K. Jemisin

Tune in next time, when my guest will be Miri Baker!

This episode carries content warnings for mentions of parental death, terminal illness, serial killers, and feelings of powerlessness. Additionally, the reading from this episode contains an overall sense of tension and dread. If you would like to skip the reading, you can skip forward 18 minutes from the beginning of the reading to bypass it.

This time around, we’re joined once again by the incomparable Sarah Gailey (@gaileyfrey) to talk about their incredible (and incredibly terrifying) new book, Just Like Home, available July 19th wherever fine books are sold! Sarah tells us about the staggering number of rewrites that this book went through and what was learned along the way.

Things we mention this episode:

The Luminous Dead, by Caitlin Starling

The Southern Reach Trilogy, by Jeff VanderMeer

Flowers for the Sea, by Zin E. Rocklyn

Queen Amidala

Magic for Liars, by Sarah Gailey

And then a skeleton popped out

The Death of Jane Lawrence, by Caitlin Starling

NetGalley

Eat the Rich, by Sarah Gailey and Pius Bak

The Echo Wife, by Sarah Gailey

“The Foundations of Decay,” by My Chemical Romance

The Great (TV)

Veep (TV)

Number One Fan, by Meg Elison

Misery

Empire of the Wild, by Cherie Dimaline

Sarah’s website and Insta

Stone Soup newsletter

Kompromat

Join us in two weeks, when my guest will be Amanda Cook!

Update: I've fixed some issues with the audio mixing for this episode that should make it easier to listen to now.

This time around, it’s my absolute joy to welcome Michael R. Underwood (@MikeRUnderwood) to the show! Mike reads from his trunked novel, The Broken Summit before (and after) we have a conversation about the intersection of writing and tabletop roleplaying, the life of a content creator, and some excellent advice about shaping your career goals.

This episode’s reading is 17 minutes long and carries content warnings for themes of war and imperialism.

Things we mention on this episode:

Friends at the Table

The Adventure Zone

The Quiet Year

The McElroys

Thirsty Sword Lesbians

Tom Clancy

Angry Robot Books

Penguin Random House

Hot Wheels boosters

Chilling Effect, bu Valeria Vlades

Yoon Ha Lee

River of Teeth, Taste of Marrow, and Magic for Liars, by Sarah Gailey

Sarah’s Star Wars tweets

Genrenauts series, by Michael R. Underwood

Monster of the Week

Tortall setting (Tamora Pierce)

Blue Rose (RPG)

3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons

Shadowrun 3rd Edition

Sorcerer

Dogs in the Vineyard

Apocalypse World

Blades in the Dark

GenCon

Indie Press Revolution

DriveThruRPG

Creative Commons

Game Jam

Open Game License

Powered by the Apocalypse

Speculate!

Fagin 

NaNoWriMo

Anamnesis

Mage: The Ascension

White Wolf Publishing

The Game Master’s Apprentice

ConFusion

Friends Journal Quaker Spec-Fic issue

Clapcast

Clarion West

Cassie Alexander

Better-Faster Academy

Dear Writer, You Need to Quit, by Becca Syme

The Nebula Awards

George R. R. Martin

Twitch

Elden Ring

TikTok

Maya MacGregor’s TikTok

The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester, by Maya MacGregor

Hank Green

Celebromancy series, by Michael R. Underwood

Citizen Sleeper

Dungeons and Dating series, by Katherine McIntyre

Mike’s Twitch 

Val’s Twitch

Hades

Karen Osborne’s Twitch

Join us again next month, when my guests will be Sarah Gailey and Amanda Cook!

This time around, we're joined by author Marion Deeds (@mariond_d) to talk about her new novella, Comeuppance Served Cold, a wonderful alternate-history fantasy-noir out now from Tor.com publishing. Marion talks about baking versus cooking when working on books, and we muse on the current golden age of SFFH novellas.

Things we mention this episode:

Story Hour

Laura Blackwell

Helen Crawford-White

Tor Dot Com

Queen of Swords Press

Neon Hemlock

Hugo ballot

Premee Mohamed

The Poppy War, by R.F. Kuang

Victories Greater Than Death and Dreams Bigger Than Heartbreak, by Charlie Jane Anders

Our Opinions Are Correct

Be The Serpent

Marion’s Facebook and Blog

Fantasy Literature dot com

Falstaff Press

Aluminum Leaves, Copper Road, and Golden Rifts, by Marion Deeds

Kat Hooper

Kate Lechler

Alix E. Harrow

This time around, we're joined by Andi C. Buchanan! Andi reads from their trunked YA steampunk novel, which leads us into a great discussion about steampunk, accessibility, well-intentioned white people (like us), and their brand new book, Sanctuary, which came out earlier this week from Robot Dinosaur Press!

Show notes coming soon!

This time around, it's my absolute delight to welcome Maya MacGregor (@Maigheach) to the show to talk about their brand new book, The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester, which releases this May!

Things we mention in this episode:

Jennifer (Macey) Mace's appearance on this very show

Look to the Sun, by Emmie Mears

The Man in the High Castle, by Philip K. Dick

The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Dune, by Frank Herbert

Dune (2021 film)

The Death of Jane Lawrence, by Caitlin Starling

Pine, by Francine Toon

The Woman in White, by Wilkie Collins

The Hidden Life of Trees, by Peter Wohlleben

Pretty Little Liars 

The Books of Earthsea, by Ursula K. Le Guin

Charles Vess 

Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy, by Gabriella Coleman

Anonymous 

This Is How They Tell Me The World Ends, by Nicole Perlroth

Nina Niskanen 

Animal Crossing: New Horizons 

The Forgetting River, by Doreen Carvajal

Conversos 

Maya's Insta and TikTok 

And of course, Maya's cats, Tara:

And Willow:

Stick around next time, when I'll be joined by Andi C. Buchanan!

It's my absolute delight, this time around, to welcome our very own composer, Lillian Boyd (@herelieslill), onto the show. Lillian reads her short-story-that-should-be-a-novella, "Inside Job" (cw: gore, skip forward 10:15 to avoid) before we just go off on an extended tangent about horror movies, noir, pulp, and being as thoroughly on our bullshit as is possible.

Things we mention in this episode:

Rank and Vile

Tetsuo the Iron Man

28 Days Later

My appearance on Rank and Vile

The Reinvented Detective, edited by Jennifer Brozek and Cat Rambo (2023)

Raymond Chandler

Guy Noir: Private Eye

A Prairie Home Companion

Nick Danger

The Firesign Theater

Clive Barker

Nightmare Alley

Guillermo del Toro

Magic for Liars, by Sarah Gailey

Nick and Nora

Humphrey Bogart

Farewell, My Lovely, by Raymond Chandler

H. P. Lovecraft (notable racist)

Scrip

Neuromancer, by William Gibson

Blade Runner

The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde

"Panama," by Van Halen

Terry Pratchett

Good Omens, by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

The Discworld

The Bromeliad

Hogfather, by Terry Pratchett

The Long Goodbye, by Raymond Chandler

Chandler's cat letters

Guards, Guards! by Terry Pratchett

Carpe Jugulum, by Terry Pratchett

Neil Gaiman

Ichabod Crane

Michael Kane

Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser

Sandman, by Neil Gaiman

"The Book Job," The Simpsons season 23, episode 6

"Falafelosophy," Arthur season 14, episode 4a

"Neil Gaiman! What are you doing in my falafel?"

Alanis Morisette

Amanda Palmer

Tori Amos

Fiona Apple

"Silent All These Years," by Tori Amos

Where's Neil When You Need Him?

The Crüxshadows

Mirrormask

"Mr. Sandman," by The Chordettes

"Enter Sandman," by Metallica

Hot Topic

"Cry Little Sister," by Gerard McMann

The Lost Boys

Voltaire

Ego Likeness

The Velocipastor

"Toasty"

Siouxsie and the Banshees

Daybreakers

Placebo

"Running Up That Hill," by Placebo

"Running Up That Hill," by Kate Bush

Velvet Goldmine

"20th Century Boy," by Placebo

"20th Century Boy," by T. Rex

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

Queen of the Damned

Twilight

Failure to Adapt

The baseball scene from Twilight

Underworld

Blade 3: Trinity

Triple-H

House of Wax

Friends at the Table: Sangfielle

The VVitch

Sarah Gailey's appearance on Episode 1 of this very show

Hailey Piper

Unfortunate Elements of My Anatomy, by Hailey Piper

Trouble and Her Friends, by Melissa Scott

The Mountain Goats

Alien Vs. Predator

Fireside Quarterly, June-July 2021

The Rank and Vile list

Bride of Frankenstein

And Now the Screaming Starts!

Candyman II: Farewell to the Flesh

The Crow: Wicked Prayer

Brainscan

Videodrome

Audition

Lillian's Twitch

Hair Metal

"Dream Warriors," by Dokken

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

The Books of Earthsea, by Ursula K. Le Guin

Charles Vess

The Farthest Shore, A Wizard of Earthsea, and The Tombs of Atuan, by Ursula K. Le Guin

Keebio's Iris keyboard

Pictured above: my personal Iris keyboard (rev 2b, Kailh speed copper switches, Matt3o DSA Nerd keycaps)

Bán Dénes, mrzealot

Ergogen

Ghost in the Shell

Data

Hako Royal True switches

Hellraiser

Lillian's website, soundcloud, and reedsy

Join us next month, when my guests will be Maya MacGregor and Andi C. Buchanan!

Welcome to season 4! This time around, Hailey Piper (@HaileyPiperSays) is leading the way with an appearance in support of her forthcoming novella, Your Mind is a Terrible Thing, which comes out May 7th, 2022! Hailey brings us some fantastic words to live by as an artist, and I hope we can all hold on to this throughout the coming year and beyond: "be brave: let it be weird."

Things we mention in this episode:

The 2021 Bram Stoker Award ballot 

Star Wars 

NaNoWriMo 

Off Limits Press 

Queen of Teeth, by Hailey Piper

"Recitation of the First Feeding," by Hailey Piper in Unfortunate Elements of my Anatomy 

The Shape of Water 

Tales from the Hood 

This Appearing House, by Ally Malinenko

The Fervor, The Hunger, and The Deep, by Alma Katsu

HMHS Britannic, sister ship to the Titanic

RMS Lusitania, not the sister ship to the Titanic

Wrath Goddess Sing, by Maya Deane

Stokercon 

No Gods for Drowning, by Hailey Piper

Other Terrors, edited by Vince A. Liaguno and Rena Mason

Stephen Graham Jones 

S. A. Cosby 

The Book of Queer Saints, edited by Mae Murray

Eric LaRocca 

Joe Koch 

Hailey's website and insta 

Laura Lockwood 

Stick around next time, when my guest will be none other than our own composer, Lillian Boyd!

For the final episode of our third season (wild, right?), I had the absolute delight of having Ivy Noelle Weir (@ivynoelle) on to record one of the most chaotic episodes, energy-wise, possibly ever in the history of this show! Ivy reads from The Archivist, the original title of the novel that became her and Steenz's graphic novel, Archival Quality, which leads us into a great conversation about how the transition from prose to comics came about, as well as Ivy's recently-released and forthcoming graphic adaptations of several works of classic children's literature.

Things we mention in this episode:

R. K. Duncan 

Magic: the Gathering 

The Mütter Museum 

The Clarion Workshop 

The Death of Jane Lawrence, by Caitlin Starling

"The Raven," by Edgar Allen Poe

The First Unit 

Eastern State Penitentiary 

Gritty 

The Phillie Phanatic 

Pennsylvania politicians convicted of crimes 

Steenz 

Neil Gaiman 

The Valkyries 

Tini Howard 

Vita Ayala 

The Eisner Awards 

Oni Press 

Eat the Rich, by Sarah Gailey and Pius Bak

Bountiful Garden, by Ivy Noelle Weir, Steenz, and Kelly Williams

Rumiko Takahashi 

Junji Ito 

Hellboy, by Mike Mignola

Molly Knox Ostertag 

The Prince and the Dressmaker, by Jen Wang

The Magic Fish, by Trung Le Ngyuen

Tidesong, by Wendy Xu

Gotham Academy, by Becky Cloonan and Brenden Fletcher

Batman: The Animated Series 

Nintendo Switch 

Death Cab for Cutie 

Looks at the camera like I'm on The Office 

Broadchurch 

The Fall 

Maus, by Art Spiegelman

Barefoot Gen, by Kaiji Nakazawa

Anne of West Philly, by Ivy Noelle Weir and Myisha Haynes

Anne of Green Gables, by L. M. Montgomery

The Secret Garden On 81st Street, by Ivy Noelle Weir and Amber Padilla

The Secret Garden, by Francis Hodgson Burnett

The Secret Garden (1993) 

Anne with an E 

The Library of the Dead, by T. L. Huchu

TikTok 

My Year of Rest and Relaxation, by Ottessa Moshfegh

Eileen, by Ottessa Moshfegh

Shirley Jackson 

Witch Hat Atelier, by Kamome Shirahama

Bravo 

The Bachelor 

Yellowjackets 

John Waters 

Ivy's TikTok and website