We're lying, but that's ok

In part two of the three part writing mini-series, Ludlow and JS discuss the process of revision. Next week: Writing the OtherExplicit Content: May contain mature language or themesProduction: Maxwell GarietyMusic: The Silent Grove by AxletreeLicensed under Attribution 4.0

What's involved in getting a finished manuscript into the hands of readers? Today, JS and Ludlow talk about publishing paths and the behind the scenes in getting a novel reading for reading. There may be more involved than you think!

Explicit Content: May contain mature language or themes

Production: Maxwell Gariety

Music: The Silent Grove by Axletree

Licensed under Attribution 4.0

JS Gariety reads a chapter from her newly released novel "The Weight of Gold." She and Ludlow Adams discuss some of the book's themes.

Explicit Content: May contain mature language or themes

Production: Maxwell Gariety

Music: The Silent Grove by Axletree

Licensed under Attribution 4.0

Show Notes:

Buy The Weight of Gold now!

The Witcher, Superman, and now head of Amazon's Warhammer 40k universe--Henry Cavill has had a lot going on lately. Today we chat a bit about this king of nerds.

Explicit Content: May contain mature language or themes

Production: Maxwell Gariety

Music: The Silent Grove by Axletree

Licensed under Attribution 4.0

What's the purpose of genre? Does it mean something different to authors than it does to readers?

Ludlow Adams and JS Gariety discuss genre as a tool and how they each are using genre in their own projects.

Explicit Content: May contain mature language or themes

Production: Maxwell Gariety

Music: The Silent Grove by Axletree

Licensed under Attribution 4.0

Show Notes:

The Sign of the Seven trilogy by Nora Roberts (horror romance)

*Since recording this, the Hogwarts Legacy game has come out. Please see the show notes.

Warning: this is a painful topic. Yep, we're talking about JK Rowling. The idea of separating an artist from their contribution get's a lot more complicated when that artist is still alive and profiting. Is it even possible?

Ludlow Adams and JS Gariety open a dialogue about this difficult and uncomfortable question.

Explicit Content: May contain mature language or themes

Production: Maxwell Gariety

Music: The Silent Grove by Axletree

Licensed under Attribution 4.0

Show Notes:

NY Times article from 2020

Should You Play Hogwarts Legacy If You Care About Your Trans Friends? By Stacey Henley

*Notes post-release:

There was some "we'll have to wait and see how bad it really is" in this podcast. Well, since recording, the game has come out, and the unfortunate update (if you haven't heard) is that it's pretty bad. Actually worse than early reports seemed to reveal.

This response to the trans character, Sirona Ryan.

A review that suggests the game isn't that great, anyway.

And the antisemitism? It's proving to be A LOT more overt than initial reports suggested.

And here's a quote from Charlie Jane Anders's email newsletter that hit my inbox last week (this, for me, sums up pretty well the struggle with separating JK Rowling from her work that we discussed in this episode):

"...she's gone to great lengths to make her art inseparable from herself. Other authors seem to fade into the background a little bit more, especially as their books and adaptations get more and more prominence. I know tons of people who obsess about Murderbot, but who don't know that much about Martha Wells, for example. JK Rowling made a choice to center herself in the discussion of her work, starting with how her "rags to riches" story was used to market her novels...

"We really need to stop turning authors into celebrities, y'all. It's toxic and shitty, and leads to bad behavior at least some of the time. One of the many problems besetting the publishing industry is this star system, which turns a handful of authors into supergods, and keeps everyone else, even pretty successful authors, in a lesser category. Even if someone wrote books that are really, really good and they're selling like hotcakes, let's reserve resist the impulse to turn this person into the One True Author To Rule Them All. Especially when there are so many authors — including marginalized authors — who deserve even a tiny fraction of that level of hype."