The Writer and the Critic

On this episode of The Writer and the Critic, Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond spend a little time talking about gender and reading in response to feedback received from one of their lovely listeners. Be warned, there may be some unqualified generalisations scattered about and there is definitely some drawing of disturbing stick figures. Kirstyn apologies for her barely suppressed laughter and also for the fact that listeners cannot see the horrified expressions on Ian's face -- or the disturbing stick figure -- that inspired said laughter. She trusts that listeners can use their imagination.

Around the 19:20 mark, the pair turn their attention to Kirstyn's recommended book for the podcast, The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. This review by Abigail Nussbaum is mentioned, as are the usual spoilers. Discussion of When Gravity Fails by George Alec Effinger begins at 56:25. Again, spoilers. Skip ahead at will.

But don't forget to check back in around 1:34:50 for some (very brief) final remarks.

Next month, Ian has picked Bad Power by Deborah Biancotti, while Kirstyn has chosen Sea Hearts by Margo Lanagan. Read ahead and join in the fun!

This month on The Writer and the Critic, Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond invite award-winning UK author Robert Shearman to chat about his recent adventures at the Adelaide Writers' Week and the New Zealand International Arts Festival, as well as his ongoing and insanely impressive -- or impressively insane? -- One Hundred Stories project. Hilarity ensues. Highly personal details about Ian's sleeping habits are disclosed. Rob explains why he writes like an uber-caffeinated monkey. Kirstyn edits none of it out. Mwaohahaha.

Around the 27:15 mark, the conversation meanders over to Rob's recommended book, Hope: A Tragedy by Shalom Auslander. Despite the fact that it's quite a new book, the trio are relentlessly free and easy with the spoilers, so skip ahead if you'd rather not hear how the book ends. Or begins. Or what happens in the middle.

They then move on to discussing the two official podcast books: Houses Without Doors by Peter Straub (beginning at 1:00:30), picked by Kirstyn, and Queenpin by Megan Abbott (1:31:30) which was Ian's recommendation. Yes, it's another looooong episode. You're welcome!

Tune back in around the 01:53:45 point for final remarks (and possibly some out-of-tune singing).

Next month, Ian has recommended When Gravity Fails by George Alec Effinger while Kirstyn has picked The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. Read ahead and join in the spoilerific fun!

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Vale Paul Haines

Paul Haines, a well-known and much-loved member of the Australian spec fic community, passed away on Monday 5th March, 2012. Paul was a generous, funny and all-around amazing human being, as well as being an astonishingly good writer – truly, one of our best. He will be sorely missed by those who knew him and by those who only met him through his words. Paul’s work is dark, disturbing, confronting and, more often than not, piss funny to boot. If you’ve not yet had the pleasure, please track down his collections:

Thank you, Paul. Travel safe.

On this episode of The Writer and the Critic, Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond proffer a correction from Cheryl Morgan in regards to Hugo Awards eligibility before entangling themselves in more culturally appropriative knots sparked off by some very interesting feedback from Karen Lord. They also announce a list of giveaway novels in order to bribe listeners into recommending original, self-published eBooks for their newly named eBook Extravaganza ... so follow them on Twitter and start recommending!

During discussion of The Silver Wind by Nina Allan (beginning at 35:30), Ian mentions this review by Martin Lewis while Kirstyn quotes from this piece by Sofia  Samatar.  The conversation then turns to The Courier's New Bicycle by Kim Westwood at 59:45 wherein this review by Cheryl Morgan is mentioned.

Tune back in around the 01:43:00 point for final remarks.

Next month, Ian and Kirstyn invite UK author Robert Shearman onto the podcast. (You may remember a discussion of Rob's most excellent story collection, Everyone's Just So So Special, on Episode 12. If you don't remember, go back and listen to it right now!)  Rob has recommended Perfume by Patrick Süskind for everyone to read, while Ian Mond has picked Queenpin by Megan Abbott and Kirstyn has chosen Houses Without Doors by Peter Straub. Read ahead and join in the fun!

On this episode of The Writer and the Critic, Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond announce a New Idea for a future episode of the podcast. They would like to spend an episode reviewing a handful originally self-published eBooks as recommended by their listeners. Whether this ends up being a Good Idea or a Bad Idea will largely depend on listener participation, so get listening and get participating. There may even be prizes involved ... more info on this next month once they work out what potential prizes they actually have to offer! After a discussion about their current (e)reading habits and changes in book buying practices, the duo then move onto talk about the two books chosen for the podcast this month.

A lengthy discussion of and around -- and around and around -- Redemption in Indigo by Karen Lord begins at 18:30 with the conversation about  Zoo City by Lauren Beukes starting at 01:07:30. Yes, it's a long podcast this time. That's what happens with books that are interesting, intelligent and inspiring.

Tune back in around the 01:57:20 point for final remarks.

Next month, Ian has recommended The Silver Wind by Nina Allan while Kirstyn has picked The Courier's New Bicycle by Kim Westwood. Read ahead and join in the fun!

In their very last Writer and the Critic podcast for 2011, your hosts Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond ramble only briefly before leaping boldly forth into their discussion of the selected novels, both winners of the Orange Prize for Fiction in their respective years. As usual, there are significant plot spoilers for both books, so take heed of the timestamps if you wish to avoid them.

Discussion of The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht begins at 05:15 and includes references to a review by Philip Hensher at The Telegraph as well as this one by Ruth Fowler at the Huffington Post. At the 35:15 mark, the two then move on to We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver. Kirstyn quotes from this Guardian article by Lionel Shriver and recommends the newly released film starring Tilda Swinton -- but only if you read the book first!

If you've skipped ahead, please come back at for final remarks at 01:21:40.

Next month -- next year! -- Ian has picked Redemption in Indigo by Karen Lord while Kirstyn has chosen Zoo City by Lauren Beukes. Due to their hectic end of year schedules, neither of them have actually had a chance to read their own recommendations yet so they're each looking forward to finding out what they themselves think . . .

Happy New Year!

This month on The Writer and the Critic, your hosts, Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond, find themselves in the native habitat of fellow podcaster John Richards -- one of the mighty Boxcutters team and co-writer of the soon to be screened ABC comedy series Outland.  The three chat about why television kills your dreams and whether Ian is a better co-podcaster than Josh Kinal.

Ian and Kirstyn would also like to congratulate all the recent World Fantasy Award winners announced in San Diego last month. In particular, their warmest wishes go to Nnedi Okorafor, who won Best Novel for Who Fears Death (featured on The Writer and Critic in Episode 11), and friend of the podcast and Galactic Suburbian, Alisa Krasnostein, who received the Special Award Non-Professional in recognition for her fabulous work with Twelve Planet Press. Yay Alisa and Nnedi!

The two official books for this month are Room by Emma Donoghue -- Ian's pick -- and The Secret History by Donna Tartt -- chosen by Kirstyn. As usual, there are plenty of spoilers -- including revealed endings! -- so for those of you who wish to skip over a particular book, discussion of Room begins at 22:15 while The Secret History starts at 41:10.

John Richards has chosen Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture by Douglas Coupland for this episode and discussion of the book commences at the 1:09:40 mark. The three self-confessed GenXers also talk generally about the 1990's, generation x and the alleged end of history. Appropriately, they seem a little jaded. And old.

Wander back at 1:28:35 for some brief but witty final remarks.

The books for next month will be We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver (chosen by Kirstyn) and The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht (Ian's pick), both recipients of The Orange Prize.  Don't worry, there will be a return to a greater speculative fiction emphasis in 2012 -- that's a promise!

P.S. Kirstyn apologises for the sketchy sound quality on Ian's mic this episode. Even if he does deserve it.

P.P.S. Kirstyn also apologies for the tardiness of this podcast. She was away for more days than she was home in the past couple of months. She definitely deserved that!

On this episode of The Writer and the Critic, your hosts, Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond, decide to eschew their normal thirty-odd minutes of waffle and plunge straight into a discussion of the two titles at hand, Bluegrass Symphony by Lisa L. Hannett and Everyone's Just So So Special by Robert Shearman. As both books are short story collections and also very new releases, there are no spoilers as such. But here are the time stamps anyway: 03:00 for Bluegrass Symphony (yes, that's three minutes -- they really meant it with the eschewing) and 33:00 for Everyone's Just So So Special. Final remarks kick in around 01:21:00.

Kirstyn would like to disclaim that she is a judge for both the Australian Shadows and the Aurealis Awards this year, for which Lisa Hannett's stories are eligible, and therefore needs to stress that her opinions of the collection as expressed on this podcast are solely her own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the judging panels for either award. Ian would like to disclaim that he loves Rob Shearman just so so much, and is therefore incapable of holding any objective opinion of his work. So there's that.

The Karen Joy Fowler story that is tangentially mentioned can be read online over at Subterranean Press, while Rob Shearman's insane One Hundred Stories project lives here.

Next month, Ian and Kirstyn invite John Richards from Boxcutters to be their special podcast guest. John has chosenGeneration X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture by Douglas Coupland as for everyone to read, while Ian has selected Room by Emma Donoghue and Kirstyn has recommended The Secret History by Donna Tartt. They will most likely be back to their usual spoilerific form, so read ahead and join in the fun!

This month on The Writer and the Critic your hosts, Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond, briefly discuss the results of the 2011 Hugo Awards -- Ian was right! -- as well as the heartening increase in diversity of the nominated works in response to some listener feedback. Buoyed by his success in predicting that Connie Willis would take home the Hugo for best novel, Ian makes another silly startling prediction about the future of books and awards. Mention is also made of Jo Walton's excellent retrospective series in which she revisits the results of past Hugo Awards over at Tor.com.

They then turn their attention to this episode's featured books, We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson and Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor. Kirstyn mentions this thoughtful essay about Jackson and her work by Joyce Carol Oates. This lengthy review of the Okorafor novel by Paul Di Filippo is taken to task for being just a little bit patronising and somewhat missing of the point. The rather harrowing Washington Post article that inspired Okorafor can be found here. For those wishing to avoid spoilers and skip ahead, discussion of We Have Always Lived in the Castle begins at 14:30, while Who Fears Death starts around 52:50.

Ian and Kirstyn would like to warn listeners that Who Fears Death deals explicitly with rape, female genital mutilation and sexual violence. Their review of the novel in this episode naturally involves frank discussion of those same subjects.

Some very brief final remarks can be found at 01:29:30.

Oh, and look, the episode of the Outer Alliance podcast is now live! OA host Julia Rios invited Ian and Kirstyn along to have a Writer and the Critic style discussion, with the recommended texts being Horn and Bleed by Peter M. Ball (chosen by Ian), "Nightship" by Kim Westwood (chosen by Kirstyn) and "The Behold of the Eye" by Hal Duncan (chosen by Julia). They talked for over three billion hours. Thankfully, Julia managed to edit the conversation down into a very succinct podcast of around two hours. She is a genius!

Next episode will focus on two short story collections: Bluegrass Symphony by Lisa L. Hannett (chosen by Kirstyn) and Everyone's Just So So Special by Robert Shearman (Ian's recommendation). As both of these collections are fairly new releases, Ian and Kirstyn intend to go light on the spoilerage, but still encourage you to grab yourself copies of these fine volumes and read ahead.

The winners of the 2011 Hugo Awards will be announced on 20 August, so this month on The Writer and the Critic your hosts, Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond, are looking at the books which have been nominated for Best Novel. Two of the nominees have already been featured books on this podcast: Feed by Mira Grant was discussed in Episode 2 and Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis in Episode 7. While you will need to go back and listen to those episodes for detailed reviews, Kirstyn and Ian do take the opportunity to finally read and respond to listener feedback from Cat Sparks in regards to Blackout/All Clear. The difference between a primary and a retrospective reading experience is examined and the duo muse on why Connie Willis is too often the subject of unfair personal attacks. The name of the beautifully horrific Willis short story that Kirstyn couldn't remember is "All My Darling Daughters".

Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold is also a Hugo nominee, but Ian and Kirstyn have decided not to read this book themselves, as it's part of the Vorkosigan saga with which they have not been keeping up. Tut. Tut. Tut. However,  Tehani Wessely of Fablecroft Publishing, one of their wonderful listeners, has provided a passionate and spoiler-free summary of why she believes Cryoburn should take home the gong. Thanks, Tehani!

Ian and Kirstyn then move onto an in depth discussion of the remaining two nominated titles: The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin and The Dervish House by Ian McDonald. Further information about the fascinating legend of Mellified Men, as featured in McDonald's novel, can be found here. If you wish to skip ahead avoid the many, many spoilers -- including the endings of both books! -- discussion of The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms begins at 26:30 while The Dervish House starts around 53:30.

But listen in again at the 1:21:10 mark for some final remarks about the Hugo Awards and which book(s) should win -- and also for a shock! horror! confession from Ian! Seriously, you will be aghast.

Finally, the Department of Cross-Podcastination is pleased to announce that Kirstyn and Ian were recently interviewed at length by Julia Rios from the Outer Alliance podcast. Julia adopted the format of The Writer and the Critic, with the recommended texts being Horn and Bleed by Peter M. Ball (chosen by Ian), "Nightship" by Kim Westwood (chosen by Kirstyn) and "The Behold of the Eye" by Hal Duncan (chosen by Julia). The Outer Alliance episode should be up on the site by the end of August, so catch up on your reading and add the podcast to your feed.

Next episode, The Writer and the Critic returns to its roots, with a discussion of just two recommended books. Ian has picked the recently published Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor while Kirstyn has chosen a beloved classic, We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson.

Read ahead and join in the spoilerific fun!

This month on The Writer and the Critic, your hosts Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond navigate their way to the cosy, cat-populated abode of their special guest, Melbourne author Cameron Rogers. They talk about the troublesome life of Cam's (second) debut novel, The Music of Razors, and what he's been doing with himself since its publication, and move on to discuss a variety of topics ranging from from karma collectives to the reasons why sometimes you really do need to turn down a three-book contract. There is also wine and gingerbread men. Angry gingerbread men.

Cam has recommended World War Z by Max Brooks for his book this month which results in a lively debate about zombies, cultural authenticity and gender disparity. Kirstyn made a spreadsheet -- no, really, it's far more engaging than it sounds! For those wanting to skip ahead and avoid spoilers, discussion about World War Z begins at 30:50 and ends around 56:00.

Attention is then turned to the official podcast books: Eclipse 4 edited by Jonathan Strahan -- selected by Ian -- and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins -- Kirstyn's choice. (For those playing at home, the actress who has been cast as Katniss Everdeen in the film adaptation of The Hunger Games is Jennifer Lawrence; Kirstyn regrets her mental blank during recording and hopes this saves you all from yelling Jennifer's name at your iPods or iPod-like devices when it comes up.) There are many, many plot spoilers so if you want to skip ahead, discussion of Eclipse begins at 56:00, while Hunger Games starts around 1:30:10.

Check back in at the 01:47:50 for some possibly amusing final remarks and apologies to Cat Sparks for failing to respond to her feedback yet again. Next episode, Cat, that's a promise!

Next month's Writer and the Critic is a Hugo Awards special. The awards will be announced on 20 August at Renovation, so Ian and Kirstyn will be reading and discussing two books from the final ballot: Dervish House by Ian McDonald and The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin. Two other nominated works have been previously discussed on this podcast: Feed by Mira Grant in Episode 2 and Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis in Episode 7. (The fifth Hugo nominated book is Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold, but Ian and Kirstyn have decided not to discuss this as it is part of the Vorkosigan saga with which they have not been keeping up. Listener feedback and opinions from those who have read Cryoburn, however, will be most welcome!)

Read ahead and join in the spoilerific fun!