When you're creating your world and bringing it into a story, how much do you let show? Guest John Hartness joins us to discuss balancing the off-page and on-page elements, and how that balance might shift based on what kind of a world you're working in and what sort of a story you're telling. How do you ensure that the worldbuilding serves a purpose and serves the characters?

In this episode, you'll also get a peek behind the publishing curtain! John discusses running Falstaff Books, a publisher known for making space for authors at "the weird kids' table." That ethos translates into his work as an editor and publisher, and it's led him to think and talk about worldbuilding in different ways than when he's writing his own works!

Sidebar: It's Hugo Award nomination season! If you're a nominating sort of person and you enjoyed the podcast in 2023, we'd love your consideration for Best Fancast.

[Transcript TK]

Our Guest: John G. Hartness is a teller of tales, a righter of wrong, defender of ladies’ virtues, and some people call him Maurice, for he speaks of the pompatus of love. He is also the award-winning author of the urban fantasy series The Black Knight Chronicles, the Bubba the Monster Hunter comedic horror series, the Quincy Harker, Demon Hunter dark fantasy series, and many other projects. He is also a cast member of the role-playing podcast Authors & Dragons, where a group of comedy, fantasy, and horror writers play Dungeons & Dragons. Very poorly.

In 2016, John teamed up with a group of other publishing industry ne’er-do-wells and founded Falstaff Books, a small press dedicated to publishing the best of genre fiction’s “misfit toys.” Falstaff Books has since published over 50 titles with authors ranging from first-timers to NY Times bestsellers, with no signs of slowing down any time soon.

In his copious free time John enjoys long walks on the beach, rescuing kittens from trees and playing Magic: the Gathering. John’s pronouns are he/him.

We've talked before about the difference between aesthetic-driven genres, like sci-fi and fantasy, and structure-driven genres, like mystery and romance. So what happens when you want to build a world just ripe for all your favorite romance tropes? How can your world create the obstacles to your characters getting their happy-ever-after? Guest Gwenda Bond joins us to talk about the love of worldbuilding and worldbuilding for love!

A lot of writing romance means dealing with reader's expectations in a slightly different way than some other story-types. How useful are the sub-genre distinctions that might shape those expectations -- fantasy romance, romantic fantasy, fantasy with romance, romantasy, paranormal romance -- from the writer's perspective? And why are some SFF readers still worried that sex and romance might get cooties on their genre? In this episode, we look at how romance can hybridize with so many different forms and flavors of fantasy writing, and what choices writers make when directing the reader's attention more towards the romance or more towards the fantasy.

Sidebar: It's Hugo Award nomination season! If you're a nominating sort of person and you enjoyed the podcast in 2023, we'd love your consideration for Best Fancast.

[Transcript TK]

Our Guest: Gwenda Bond is the New York Times bestselling author of many novels, including the first official Stranger Things novel, Suspicious Minds, the Lois Lane YA series, and the romantic comedies Not Your Average Hot Guy, The Date from Hell, and Mr. & Mrs. Witch. She has a number of forthcoming projects, including a magical art heist book, The Frame-Up. Her nonfiction writing has appeared in Publishers Weekly, Locus Magazine, Salon, the Los Angeles Times, and many other publications.

She co-founded and chairs the nonprofit Lexington Writer’s Room, and lives in a hundred-year-old house in Lexington, Kentucky, with her husband, author Christopher Rowe, and a veritable zoo of adorable doggos and queenly cats. Visit her online at www.gwendabond.com or join her newsletter at www.gwendabond.substack.com.

When you've put your heart, soul, blood, sweat, and tears into building a world -- what happens when you then have to leave it behind? Most SFF authors will, at some point, close up their work in one world and start building a new one, but that comes with its own set of challenges! You know the old world so well; it's become comfy and familiar. The new world still has all its work yet to be done, and while it has the shiny lure of new discoveries, it also may seem daunting to start the process of figuring out how a world works all over again.

In this episode, Fonda Lee and Melissa Caruso re-join us to discuss shifting focus from one world to another! Where do you start? How different do you need the world to be? We also chat about not just the mental challenges of clearing out one world to make room for the new one, but the emotional challenge of pulling yourself away from a place you love and know so well!

Our Guests: 

Melissa Caruso writes books of murder, magic, and mayhem. Her published fantasy novels include the Swords & Fire trilogy (THE TETHERED MAGE, THE DEFIANT HEIR, THE UNBOUND EMPIRE) and the Rooks & Ruin trilogy (THE OBSIDIAN TOWER, THE QUICKSILVER COURT, THE IVORY TOMB), all from Orbit Books. Her debut novel was shortlisted for the Gemmell Morningstar Award in 2017, and her books have received starred reviews and made countless Best Of lists. Melissa is a tea drinker, larper, and mom, and lives in Massachusetts with her video game designer husband, two superlative daughters, and assorted pets.

Fonda Lee is the author of the epic fantasy Green Bone Saga, consisting of the novels Jade City, Jade War, and Jade Legacy, along with a prequel novella The Jade Setter of Janloon and a short story collection, Jade Shards. She is also the author of the science fiction novels Zeroboxer, Exo and Cross Fire. Her most recent work is the fantasy novella, Untethered Sky.

Fonda is a winner of the World Fantasy Award, the Locus Award, and a five-time winner of the Aurora Award (Canada’s national science fiction and fantasy award), as well as a multiple finalist for the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award, and the Oregon Book Award. Her novels have garnered multiple starred reviews and appeared on Best of Year lists from NPR, Barnes & Noble, Syfy Wire, and others. Jade City has been translated in a dozen languages, named to TIME Magazine’s Top 100 Fantasy Books of All Time, and optioned for television development.

She has also written acclaimed short fiction and been an instructor at writing workshops including Clarion West, Viable Paradise, and Aspen Words. Fonda is a former corporate strategist and black belt martial artist who loves action movies and Eggs Benedict. Born and raised in Canada, she currently resides in the Pacific Northwest.

When you're creating tomes of information about your world -- spreadsheets of demographics, maps at every level of geography, tomes of lore -- how do you keep tabs on it all? How much can you keep in your head, and how much has to be written down, codified, and carefully tracked? In this episode, we explore our tools of worldbuilding.

We use all sorts of different methods and platforms, some of them physical and tangible, others entirely digital. From nebulous notions of "the world is like this" to a fully indexed world bible, the methods vary! Like so much else in writing, this isn't a thing where there's One Right Answer that will Unlock the Mysteries of Successful Publishing: it's all about finding what works best for you, your habits, your preferences, and even for individual projects.

In other news: If you're a Hugo-nominating type person, you've got til the end of January to become a member of Glasgow 2024! (If you weren't a member of Chengdu 2023, that is; if you were, you already have nominating privileges!) We think we had a pretty great year in 2023, and if you think so, too, we'd adore it if you became a member and thought of us when nominations open.

Why do we worldbuild the way that we worldbuild? The start of a new year seems like a great time to take a zoomed-out view of how we do this thing that we do. In this episode, we consider, contemplate, and cogitate on the major concepts that guide our worldbuilding. Why is it important to us? What parts of it are important for us, and help us find our story and develop our characters?

Too, how do we worldbuild in a way that reflects the glorious weirdness of humanity? How do we ensure that our cultures don't seem like monoliths? How do we show individuality within the collective?

And since it's resolution time, we also share some of our goals, intentions, hopes, dreams, and aspirations around worldbuilding and writing!

In this final episode of 2023, we have a momentous announcement!

Rowenna Miller is stepping down as a full-time co-host of the podcast, because... well, life! It happens to us all sooner or later. But fear not! Rowenna will still be joining us from time to time, and she's still working with us on the Traveling Light anthology.

And we're welcoming an amazing, fantastic, glorious new co-host! Please give your attention and accolades to Natania Barron!

Who's Natania? Well, listeners may remember her from Episode 72: This is Cerulean, Right?: Fashion, Politics, and Power. Natania is a fantasy author, fashion historian, Arthuriana expert, and all-around awesome person!

So as we say farewell to Rowenna as a full-time host and welcome Natania, we also discuss the very concept of eras, epochs, and other meaningful periods of time. What gives an era its flavor, its vibe, its aesthetic? How much of it gets defined by a ruler, a dynasty, or celebrity figures? How much of that is real, and how much is illusion or a carefully crafted fiction? When it comes to your worldbuilding, do your characters think they're part of a defined period? Are they trying to consciously create one? Do they look back to an idealized past? And how do you communicate that to a reader?

Join us for the discussion and get to know our new cohost Natania!

[Transcript TK]

It's another listener Q&A episode! Many thanks to the folks who submitted their questions!

In this episode, we tackle some things that can block and stymie your worldbuilding, how to approach research that's not really in your preferred milieu, and some details about how we interact with our guests.

Also, learn what your hosts' favorite holiday pies are! No one asked us that, but we're telling you anyway.

[Transcript TK]

Worldbuilding is great! You get to make all the choices! On the other hand... you have to make all the choices.

"Choose, don't presume" has long been our ethos on this podcast, but does choosing always mean making the weirdest possible choice? Does every choice have to Make A Statement? Does an "anything goes" approach to worldbuilding actually make things harder than setting some boundaries for yourself?

In this episode, we talk about how we decide where to focus our worldbuilding energy, making sure the worldbuilding serves the story (even if that means flavor, not plot!), and how to untangle your worldbuilding when it's perhaps gotten away from you a bit.

[Transcript TK]

Everyone knows that writing is writing. And everyone knows that authors are super great at finding things to distract us from our writing. But under what circumstances is not-writing essential to writing? Guest Mur Lafferty joins us to explore the underpinnings of the writing process!

From research and concept-noodling to moodboards, playlists, and other creative expressions, what non-writing things feed into our writing? How do we know when we're doing something productive and when we're distracting ourselves? And how can worldbuilding, itself often a non-writing piece of writing, benefit from our other non-writing time and activities?

[Transcript TK]

Our Guest: Mur Lafferty is the author the Midsolar Murders series, Solo: A Star Wars Story, the Hugo and Nebula nominated novel Six Wakes, The Shambling Guides series, and several self pubbed novels and novellas, including the award winning Afterlife series. She is the host of the Hugo-winning podcast Ditch Diggers, and the long-running I Should Be Writing. She is the recipient of the John Campbell Award for best new writer, the Manly Wade Wellman Award, the Best Fancast Hugo Award, and joined the Podcast Hall of Fame in 2015, its inaugural year.

When the glorious hero calls for his allies to follow him into battle... why should they? And how can that hero convince them? In this extremely-niche-themed episode, guest Anna Smith Spark joins us to explore the interplay of language and leadership!

In fiction, we love a great, rousing speech -- but how realistic is that stirring moment? (And do we care if it's realistic, or do we follow the Rule of Cool?) What's left when you take out the flattering lighting and the emotionally manipulative musical score? Well, you've still got language -- and language can do a lot, not only for your character dynamics, but also to reflect the values of the society you've built. And maybe it's the place of speculative fiction to investigate the virtues and truths that just might be worth dying for.

Bonus: Because Cass did promise there would be handouts: a rhetorical analysis of the St Crispin's day speech, courtesy of Cass's mentor, Ralph Alan Cohen. And if you really want to hear Cass give the speech... you can.

[Transcript TK]

Our Guest: Anna Smith Spark lives in London, UK. She loves grimdark and epic fantasy and historical military fiction. Anna has a BA in Classics, an MA in history and a PhD in English Literature. She has previously been published in the Fortean Times and the poetry website www.greatworks.org.uk. Previous jobs include petty bureaucrat, English teacher and fetish model.