Podcasts about carriger

Mark interviews Gail Carriger about her writing life, her journey through publishing, analytics, the careful curation of her author brand, being a hybrid author and so much more. Prior to the interview, Mark shares comments from recent episodes, a personal update, and a word from this episode's sponsor. Learn more about this self-publishing/WIDE-publishing focused cruise. In the interview Mark and Gail talk about:- How honored Mark is to learn that Gail listens to the Stark Reflections Podcast Gail's branding phrase of "Gail Carriger writes books that are hugs" and the various experiments she's done with that over the years Always being a person who wrote, or had a passion for writing Reading The Lord of the Rings as a child and deciding to craft her OWN ending for the story Growing up in a "commune" environment with a bunch of poets Gail's career as an academic when her first traditionally published book (Soulless) came out and took off The challenge/dare to herself of wanting to write a genre-blending/cross-genre tale of something that she would enjoy as a reader Negotiations taking a long time because Gail dug in her heels on specific contract clauses Her agent investigating a back-door deal with another publisher who offered her 3X the deal the first was looking at and was willing to adjust the right of first refusal clause The vision that the publishers had that Soulless was the beginning of a series (despite Gail believing, when she first wrote it, that it was a stand-alone) Having a two-book contract and then writing a cliffhanger at the end of the 2nd book in order to grease the wheels of a contract for other books Gail's love-affair with spreadsheets and the fact she reads all 56 pages of her royalty reports One of the main reasons she became an indie author was her ability to have direct access to data about her sales and her readers Gail's cautionary note to authors that with a "right of first refusal" a publisher is allowed to take their time with that offer, which can significantly delay an author's forward-movement plans The possible "rights grab" that a publisher might do even if it's not something within their regular publishing plans How growing up Gen-X and being a non-native to computers and the internet has resulted in an abundance of caution about digital, computers, the world wide web, how she is presented on the internet, etc. Gail's recommendation to test the waters in self-publishing with short stories first Nerding out with Mark about the "old days" of self-publishing and podcasting Being a social scientist by training and loving analytics and spreadsheets Pinging her rabid fan base and testing things all the time Gail's A/B testing on whether it's better to put a newsletter signup link at the front of a book or the end of the book, or both Ensuring that her author brand is not diluted with author business stuff that she's known for from other authors and industry insiders Talking to her readers constantly to continue to stay in the loop on insights The importance, when communicating to your readers to use the same language that they're used to Learning that her readers tend to not have a distinction between libraries and bookstores - that many of them see them under the same umbrella of a place they go to see what books are on display Confirming the reports that "word of mouth" is, by a landslide, the way that most readers find out about new books and new authors to read The value of a recommendation from another author in a newsletter or on social media The challenges of book blurbs A podcast that Gail recommends: Reading Glasses - and that authors should subscribe and listen to it in order to understand the language that readers use The deliberate curation and creation of the Gail Carriger persona, including her love of wearing retro outfits The side benefit of being able to be a fan at conventions, etc when "out of uniform" and how she's rarely recognized when not sporting that specific "look" A little bit about Gail's book THE HEROINE'S JOURNEY The next book for writers that Gail is working on called GOING HYBRID, structured to help established and existing traditionally published authors to learn the indie publishing landscape And more . . .   After the interview Mark reflects on several different topics that came up in the conversation, including contract clauses, being incognito, and Gails's suggesting for testing the self-publishing waters.   Links of Interest: Gail Carriger Website ScribeCount (Mark's Affiliate Link) DropCap Marketplace  Use coupon STARK20 to get 20% off Cruising Writers Buy Mark a Coffee Patreon for Stark Reflections How to Access Patreon RSS Feeds An Author's Guide to Working With Bookstores and Libraries The Relaxed Author Buy eBook Direct Buy Audiobook Direct Publishing Pitfalls for Authors An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores Wide for the Win Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books This Time Around (Short Story) A Canadian Werewolf in New York Stowe Away (Novella) Fear and Longing in Los Angeles Fright Nights, Big City Lover's Moon Hex and the City Only Monsters in the Building The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard   Gail Carriger writes books that are hugs, mostly comedies of manners mixed with steampunk, urban fantasy, and sci-fi (plus cozy queer joy as G. L. Carriger). These include the Parasol Protectorate, Custard Protocol, Tinkered Stars, and San Andreas Shifter series for adults, and the Finishing School and Tinkered Starsong series for young adults. Also nonfiction: The Heroine's Journey. She is published in many languages, has over a million books in print, over a dozen New York Times and USA Today bestsellers, and starred reviews in Publishers Weekly, Booklist, Kirkus, and Romantic Times.   The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Gail Carriger has multiple NYT bestsellers and over a million books in print in dozens of different languages. She writes comedies of manners mixed with urban fantasy (and sexy queer joy as G. L. Carriger). She is best known for the Parasol Protectorate and Finishing School series. She was once an archaeologist and is fond of shoes, octopuses, and tea.In this episode, you'll learn:Why analytics for authors are so importantWhat you should be trackingWhere to get your data fromHow data helps you make better decisionLinksGail Carriger's websiteGail's redirection post

Part two of our interview with Gail!Gail Carriger has multiple NYT bestsellers and over a million books in print in dozens of different languages. She writes comedies of manners mixed with urban fantasy (and sexy queer joy as G. L. Carriger). She is best known for the Parasol Protectorate and Finishing School series. She was once an archaeologist and is fond of shoes, octopuses, and tea.In this episode, you'll learn:Why analytics for authors are so importantWhat you should be trackingWhere to get your data fromHow data helps you make better decisionLinksGail Carriger's websiteGail's redirection postTime stamps00:00 – Intro1:53 – Where to start14:04 – Blog tours: are they worth it?17:38 – Is it ever too late to start?20:02 – Don't carry stats in your head30:51 – Which data source changed Gail's life?35:17 – Keep in touch

Part 2 coming next week!Part one of our interview with Gail if you'd prefer to listen to it in two chunks :)Gail Carriger has multiple NYT bestsellers and over a million books in print in dozens of different languages. She writes comedies of manners mixed with urban fantasy (and sexy queer joy as G. L. Carriger). She is best known for the Parasol Protectorate and Finishing School series. She was once an archaeologist and is fond of shoes, octopuses, and tea.In this episode, you'll learn:Why analytics for authors are so importantWhat you should be trackingWhere to get your data fromHow data helps you make better decisionLinksGail Carriger's websiteGail's redirection postTime stamps0:00 – Intro 4:15 – Why Gail loves data6:17 – What should authors be tracking and why?13:06 – data sources20:17 – Preorder launch tracking21:52 – The minimum things you should be tracking26:19 – Cosmo crashes the podcast27:15 – How data informs career choices30:34 – Tools to track 37:57 – Newsletter sign up tracking46:06 – Social media tracking

In this episode we talk to Jeremy Carriger of Short Circuit Electronics.  Jeremy makes some very clever replacement control plates for Jazz basses.  These are not your typical preamp control plates - in fact they are not preamps and are completely passive.  Find out about his unique products and his questionable-at-first product naming conventions.

#116 -  After Matt separated from the Navy and he became increasingly busier with work, being a husband and becoming a father, he quickly started to pack on the weight and hit an all-time high of 220. But the weight wasn't even half the problem. He realized he needed a change when he no longer felt like he had enough energy to keep up with his two daughters. He started running daily because he figured people who run a lot are generally fit. However, even with all that running, he was frustrated by the lack of progress he was making despite his efforts. He finally reached out and jumped into the Forging Elite Fathers and within his first 8 weeks inside the program, he dropped 21 lbs. On top of that, he's running way less. Eating foods that he loves. Spending even more time with his family . And he has even more energy to keep up with his daughters! Oh, and he's the lightest he's been in over a decade! What?!If you're interested in getting support along your health and fitness journey, watch this short 7 min video below and fill out this questionnaire here and I'll be in touch!Click Here to Watch the Video and Access the Survey!Or Just shoot me an email at Kevin@DadBodWOD.net or a DM on Instagram!Links:FREE Dad Bod WOD Community Facebook GroupTen Thousand Apparel CodeL TORRESIce Age Meals Code: KevinTorresIAMBare Performance Nutrition Code: TORRES

Gail Carriger has multiple NYT bestsellers and over a million books in print in dozens of different languages. She writes comedies of manners mixed with urban fantasy (and sexy queer joy as G. L. Carriger). She is best known for the Parasol Protectorate and Finishing School series. She was once an archaeologist and is fond of shoes, octopuses, and tea.In this episode, you'll learn:The differences between The Hero's Journey and The Heroine's JourneyWhy The Heroine's Journey is often looked down on or forgottenThe importance of reader expectationsFind GailWebsite: https://gailcarriger.com/Facebook: https://gailcarriger.com/FBInstagram: https://instagram.com/gailcarriger/Twitter: https://twitter.com/gailcarrigerYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/gailcarriger

Robin Carriger, who runs the DFW REI Club talks about his journey of going from W-2 employee to becoming a real estate investor and how you can get started too!

This week we sat down with wedding planner Kaitlin Carriger, owner and lead planner at It's Kee Events.Kaitlin is incredibly fun and brings a tremendous amount of wisdom and experience to the table. We are so grateful for the time, laughs and advice she shared with us!Here is the advice she would give to any couple planning a wedding and preparing for marriage:1. Set your budget! Know your budget and decide what aspects of the wedding are most important to you. Make sure to add at least $1000 for miscellaneous expenses you didn't plan for (like stamps- this is a great tip!)2. When you're touring venues, ask for layouts. Make sure the space fits your needs.3.  Brides, it's ok if your dress gets dirty! It probably will. Don't let that get you down!4.  Be picky your guest list and your wedding party list! This is your day!5.  If you're getting married in a city, check the events happening in the area (i.e. marathons, sporting events, conferences, etc). It's going to impact travel in the area as well as hotel prices. Again, we are so grateful for Kaitlin hanging out with us! We hope our conversation with her made you laugh and gave you some advice you haven't heard before!If you're in need of a wedding planner to help you, you can reach her at itskeeevents.com or on Instagram at @itskeeevents. Thanks for listening!

Gail Carriger has multiple NYT bestsellers and over a million books in print in dozens of different languages. She writes comedies of manners mixed with urban fantasy (and sexy queer joy as G. L. Carriger). She is best known for the Parasol Protectorate and Finishing School series. She was once an archaeologist and is fond of shoes, octopuses, and tea. Find The Heroine's Journey here Find Gail's fiction books here. Use the promo code PODCAST to get a FREE paperback journal when you order my hardcover journal, A New Way to Journal ($17). Support the show! Go to Patreon to do so. We are opening up all the sprints during the first two weeks of 2022. You can attend AS MANY AS YOU WANT to see if sprints and the CW Sprinting Membership is the right fit for you. Sign up to get the sprint links in your email here.

Gail Carriger and Piper J. Drake discuss cities they have each traveled too multiple times and would like to return to in the future. But first! Where have Gail and Piper been? Each of them shares their experiences getting vaccinated earlier this year. Gail's cities full of memories London, UK Boston, MA USA Florence, Italy Piper's cities full of memories London, UK San Diego, CA USA Philadelphia, PA USA Gadget Picks! Piper pick: Handheld Portable Nebuliser Gail's pick: Seagate Portable External Hard Drive – – –  Special thanks to Kelly for editing this episode! Thanks for listening. Travel smart. Pack the snacks!  – – –  Get your question featured on an episode by saying hi on social media:       Facebook.com/20minDelay      @20minDelay      @PiperJDrake      @GailCarriger Use the hashtag: #20mindelaypodcast

Gail Carriger and Piper J. Drake discuss cities they each want to visit, someday, and have never managed to yet. Gail's someday cities Montreal, Canada Bangkok, Thailand (Gail and Piper are planning to go together in fall of 2022! Check out the planning episodes on 20 Minute Delay) Tokyo, Japan Wellington, New Zealand Piper's someday cities Singapore Cape Town, South Africa Sydney, Australia Do you remember the game that was a sort of precursor to Pokémon Go? Let us know! – – –  Special thanks to Kelly for editing this episode! Thanks for listening. Travel smart. Pack the snacks!  – – –  Get your question featured on an episode by saying hi on social media:       Facebook.com/20minDelay      @20minDelay      @PiperJDrake      @GailCarriger Use the hashtag: #20mindelaypodcast

Gail Carriger writes comedies of manners mixed with paranormal romance (and sexy urban fantasy as G. L. Carriger). Her steampunk books include the Parasol Protectorate, Custard Protocol, Supernatural Society, and Delightfully Deadly series for adults, and the Finishing School series for young adults. Gail is published in many languages and has over a dozen NYT bestsellers. She was once an archaeologist and is overly fond of shoes, octopuses, and tea. Gail is also a keynote speaker at the Colorado Gold. conference in October and is a teaching a master class about her writing guide, The Heroine's Journey.  More: https://gailcarriger.com/ Subscribe here to Gail's newsletter: The Chirrup!  Intro Music by Moby Gratis: https://mobygratis.com/ Outro Music by Dan-o-Songs: https://danosongs.com/

Gail Carriger and Piper J. Drake are planning travel to Thailand, together! They share some of their planning stage thoughts. Where has Gail been? Gail went into a 2 week self-quarantine for family reasons and made the best of it as a writing retreat.  Going to a remote, rural location was a nice change of setting and was great for easing back into travel without risking sensory overload. Planning for Thailand Time of year Priorities: Fruit, Other Food, Points of Interest Key locations: Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Chonburi, possibly Ayutthaya Wardrobe and Laundry considerations Gadgets If there's one gadget Gail and Piper would test run on this trip, what would it be? Gail: probably testing various face masks for travel, as well as wardrobe Piper: Sarongs and versatile scarves – – –  Special thanks to Kelly for editing this episode! Thanks for listening. Travel smart. Pack the snacks!  – – –  Get your question featured on an episode by saying hi on social media:       Facebook.com/20minDelay      @20minDelay      @PiperJDrake      @GailCarriger Use the hashtag: #20mindelaypodcast

Gail Carriger and Piper J. Drake discuss the kinds of keepsakes and souvenirs they like to gather in their travels. Souvenirs: Piper's favorite keepsakes: Pressed pennies Collector coins Fountain Pens Jewelry Gail's favorite keepsakes: Weird regional foods or candies with unique flavors Interesting scarves Locally printed, locally published history books of a place Jewelry What do we do with our keepsakes? Both ladies wear their keepsakes, for the most part, or use them as opposed to acquiring ephemera for decoration at home. Of course, they consume all the tasty food. – – –  Special thanks to Kelly for editing this episode! Thanks for listening. Travel smart. Pack the snacks!  – – –  Get your question featured on an episode by saying hi on social media:       Facebook.com/20minDelay      @20minDelay      @PiperJDrake      @GailCarriger Use the hashtag: #20mindelaypodcast

Gail Carriger and Piper J. Drake discuss a few of the villages, small towns, and rural places of their travels and why the love them. Where have you been? Piper went on a socially distanced getaway! Road trip with Corbin to Getaway House for a tiny cabin and camp site glamping week with private bathrooms in each cabin. Yay!  Village Memories: Piper's remembered places: Chonburi, Thailand Biberach an der Riss, Germany Gail's remembered places: small town on Northern California Coast small town in South of England near Exeter small town in Tuscany and more... Shoutouts Getaway House – – –  Special thanks to Kelly for editing this episode! Thanks for listening. Travel smart. Pack the snacks!  – – –  Get your question featured on an episode by saying hi on social media:       Facebook.com/20minDelay      @20minDelay      @PiperJDrake      @GailCarriger Use the hashtag: #20mindelaypodcast

Gail Carriger and Piper J. Drake discuss their favorite foods to order, so that it comes to each of them. * new episode! Foodie Desires Piper's must obtain: Instant packs of โจ๊ก (Thai Jok, rice porridge) from Thailand พริกป่น (Thai Prik Bon, Thai Roasted Chili Powder) from Piper's stepmother Plant seeds for ผักบุ้ง (Thai Water Morning Glory; Water Spinach) Gail's must obtain: malty tea leaves from UK Tea leaves from Thailand, via California distributor Hale's Blue Boy Sala Flavored Syrup Shoutouts ครัวชั้นสูง - High Zone Kitchen – – –  Special thanks to Kelly for editing this episode! Thanks for listening. Travel smart. Pack the snacks!  – – –  Get your question featured on an episode by saying hi on social media:       Facebook.com/20minDelay      @20minDelay      @PiperJDrake      @GailCarriger Use the hashtag: #20mindelaypodcast

Gail Carriger and Piper J. Drake discuss cities they would love to return to and why. * new episode! Cities of Dreams Piper would like to return to: Tokyo, Japan Wellington, New Zealand London, UK Gail would like to return to: Strasbourg, France Cusco, Peru Barcelona, Spain Gadgets! On her trip to Wellington, New Zealand, Piper came across a surprising gadget. Gail has now seen the picture, but it won't be posted. We'll leave it to your imaginations, dear Listeners! – – –  Special thanks to Kelly for editing this episode! Thanks for listening. Travel smart. Pack the snacks!  – – –  Get your question featured on an episode by saying hi on social media:       Facebook.com/20minDelay      @20minDelay      @PiperJDrake      @GailCarriger Use the hashtag: #20mindelaypodcast

Gail Carriger and Piper J. Drake share podcasts they listen to about travel or while traveling. * new episode! Where have you been? Piper went somewhere! *gasp* Exercising caution and following social distancing considerations for maximum safety. Writing research trip to Deception Pass in Washington state. Key tidbit: Gail and Piper are bereft and will deeply miss Taco Bell's Mexican Pizza as it is retired from their menu. Other Podcasts About Travel Piper's Podcasts Writing Excuses Dear Hank and John Wicked Wallflowers Fated Mates Gail's Podcasts Do You Need a Ride? HistoryExtra You're Dead to Me A Taste of the Past Anthropologist on the Street Gadgets! Piper's rec: Jiffy Pop Popcorn in heavy-gauge aluminum foil pan Gail's rec: Peeps marshmallow treats – – –  Special thanks to Kelly for editing this episode! Thanks for listening. Travel smart. Pack the snacks!  – – –  Get your question featured on an episode by saying hi on social media:       Facebook.com/20minDelay      @20minDelay      @PiperJDrake      @GailCarriger Use the hashtag: #20mindelaypodcast

Gail Carriger and Piper J. Drake share their most horrific hotel experiences. * new episode! Nightmare Hotels Piper shares her worst day job biz trip experience with a hotel and shares an important lesson learned about what to do when the hotel isn't ensuring your safety. She also shares her worst experience at a writerly conference hotel. There was also the instance in which she encountered a Mr. Mime in her hotel room. Gail ponders why a water park would be in the basement of a hotel and air circulation isn't up to the task of preventing that humid locker room smell permeating the entire hotel. She also shares the frustrations of flawed design in a hotel. Lessons Learned: Have your smart phone with you and fully charged.   Special thanks to Kelly for editing this episode! Thanks for listening. Travel smart. Pack the snacks!  – – –  Get your question featured on an episode by saying hi on social media:       Facebook.com/20minDelay      @20minDelay      @PiperJDrake      @GailCarriger Use the hashtag: #20mindelaypodcast

Gail Carriger and Piper J. Drake discuss train travel memories through the years. * new episode! Train Stories Piper has very contrasting train adventure memories. First, she shares her impressions of a childhood overnight train trip in Thailand, traveling with family from Bangkok to Northern Thailand. Then, she shares college late night train rides to visit friends at other colleges. Her favorite memory is her most recent train trip experience from Seattle to Vancouver. Gail has a similar experience with sleeper trains, though her experiences were in Europe. She also shares an experience with a commuter train in Europe in which she and her friends were not the protagonists in the story, in which they brought out the "stinky cheese and smelly meat" in the train car. And, of course, Gail has lived her best live enjoying an incredibly risky street food on a train in Peru. This episode includes a tangent or two to acknowledge how very much both Piper and Gail enjoy a wonderful, pungent, soft, spreadable "stinky cheese" - and are willing to suffer the consequences. Someday Train Trip Wish List Piper's Wishes Rovos Rail to explore Africa Orient Express to explore Europe Gail's Wishes Canada cross-country train California vineyard train trip in steampunk Special thanks to Kelly for editing this episode! Thanks for listening. Travel smart. Pack the snacks!  – – –  Get your question featured on an episode by saying hi on social media:       Facebook.com/20minDelay      @20minDelay      @PiperJDrake      @GailCarriger Use the hashtag: #20mindelaypodcast

Hey Y'all! Welcome to the first episode of The Novel Queers! Think of us as your two queer, excitable friends who want to tell you all about that book we just read. First, we'll give you our book report. Then, we'll take you to book club for a deep dive. Today we cover Marine Biology by G. L. Carriger, a fun little short story about a reluctant werewolf and a lovesick, ex-goth merman solving a mystery involving the Selkie mafia. Citrus: Kumquat (between orange and lime) Sweetness: Salted caramel Gore: Extremely mild Trigger Warnings: homophobia, abusive parent, and werewolf typical violence. Find us on Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram as The Novel Queers. Drop us a line at thenovelqueers@gmail.com

Gail Carriger and Piper J. Drake discuss favorite road trip memories. * new episode! Road Trip Memories Road trips are a big thing for Gail and she has many memories of various road trip memories. Shout out the Carmen.  Piper grew up with a lot of family road trips and tended to visit her friends at other colleges in her college days as well as memories of annual road trips from New Jersey to Maryland for Otakon in order to accommodate cosplay wardrobe and accessory choices, plus con food survival choices. Gail's Most Memorable: New Zealand. Gail strongly recommends exploring New Zealand via road trip in camper vans. Piper's Most Memorable: Arizona to Maryland with Matthew J. Drake, exploring the big truck stop rest stops and convenience stores. Gadget Pick! Best Road Trip Snacks  Piper - Dr. Pepper and Beef Jerky Gail - Cheetos and tea   Special thanks to Kelly for editing this episode! Thanks for listening. Travel smart. Pack the snacks!  – – –  Get your question featured on an episode by saying hi on social media:       Facebook.com/20minDelay      @20minDelay      @PiperJDrake      @GailCarriger Use the hashtag: #20mindelaypodcast

Book Appreciation with Lise MacTague The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 58 In the Book Appreciation segments, our featured authors (or your host) will talk about one or more favorite books with queer female characters in a historic setting. In this episode Lise MacTague recommends some favorite queer historical novels: Alpennia Series by Heather Rose Jones Romancing the Inventor by Gail Carriger See also Carriger's other works Branded Ann by Merry Shannon Raven, Fire, and Ice by Nita Round Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke (no lesbian content) The Temeraire Series by Naomi Novik (no lesbian content) A transcript of this podcast may be available here. (Transcripts added when available.) Links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project Online Website: http://alpennia.com/lhmp Blog: http://alpennia.com/blog RSS: http://alpennia.com/blog/feed/ Twitter: @LesbianMotif Discord: Contact Heather for an invitation to the Alpennia/LHMP Discord server The Lesbian Historic Motif Project Patreon Links to Heather Online Website: http://alpennia.com Email: Heather Rose Jones Twitter: @heatherosejones Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page) Links to Lise MacTague Online Website: https://lisemactague.com Twitter: @LiseMacTague Facebook: Lise MacTague Goodreads: Lise MacTague at Goodreads Podcast: Lez Geek Out (link is no longer valid)

Gail Carriger and Piper J. Drake discuss favorite hotels in their past histories with travel. * new episode! Favorite Hotels of All Time Piper's fav: Siam Kempinski Hotel Bangkok Gail's fav: Adobe on Green Street Inn in Santa Cruz (possibly closed) Honorable Mentions Gail & Piper both mentioned Mandala Bay Gail: Marina Bay Sands Piper: Hotel Monaco Seattle Gadget Pick! Favorite Hotel Provided Items Gail - nicely scented shampoo/conditioner, make up wipes, and whole milk Piper - individually wrapped insect repellent wipes   Special thanks to Kelly for editing this episode! Thanks for listening. Travel smart. Pack the snacks!  – – –  Get your question featured on an episode by saying hi on social media:       Facebook.com/20minDelay      @20minDelay      @PiperJDrake      @GailCarriger Use the hashtag: #20mindelaypodcast

Gail Carriger and Piper J. Drake discuss movies that give a strong sense of place. * new episode! What do Gail and Piper think of when they bring up movies that give them a sense of place? Gail thought of movies with an upbeat, positive ambiance because that's what she loves. Piper thought of places that she wanted to visit after watching particular movies. Both Gail and Piper have lived in different parts of the US and for a time, in different parts of the world, and they have "heart homes" - places they can imagine themselves living in and not just visiting. Movie Shout Outs!  At the top of both Piper and Gail's lists (without planning) is: Under the Tuscan Sun for Tuscany region in Italy Gail also recommended: Crazy Rich Asians for Singapore ด้ายแดงซีรีส์ (Until We Meet Again) Thai drama series for Thailand * Gail has a password protected recommendation list of boy's love dramas for those interested Piper also recommended: ผู้ชายให้เช่า (Boy for Rent) Thai drama series for Thailand บุพเพสันนิวาส (Love Destiny) Thai drama series for historic Thailand * recommend including the search terms "eng sub" for English subtitles Heart Homes For Gail, her heart homes are: Como lake/Tuscany region, Italy Singapore Strasbourg, France For Piper, her heart homes are: Thailand, near Chonburi Copenhagen, Denmark Tokyo, Japan Special thanks to Kelly for editing this episode! Thanks for listening. Travel smart. Pack the snacks!  – – –  Get your question featured on an episode by saying hi on social media:       Facebook.com/20minDelay      @20minDelay      @PiperJDrake      @GailCarriger Use the hashtag: #20mindelaypodcast

Retrieved from the Repository: a lost episode has been recovered for our listeners in which Gail Carriger and Piper J. Drake discussed in-flight entertainment choices. *This episode was recorded in 2017, prior to the current travel advisories and restrictions. Where have you been?  Piper had traveled to the Princeton area for day job and it was relatively freezing as compared to where she lived, at the time, in the Phoenix, AZ area. She encountered a mysterious crate that reminded her of the Predators movie. Main Topic: In-Flight Entertainment Gail and Piper cry watching movies, tv shows, even commercials. They both prefer streaming services for their video entertainment.  Both Piper and Gail use their phones to listen to podcasts. The two of them discuss the pros and cons of in-flight WiFi and whether it's worth it to them. Gadgets!  Gail – iPad and Amazon Prime Video (http://amzn.to/2Ak0PeY) plus a Kindle Oasis for reading. Piper – mini iPad and Drama Fever, Viki (https://www.viki.com/roku) Crunchy Roll / VRV (https://vrv.co/). Writing with a bluetooth keyboard paired with her mini iPad. *DramaFever is no longer available. Shout Outs Legend of Korra Feast of Fiction - https://www.youtube.com/user/feastoffiction Yuri on Ice   Special thanks to Kelly for editing this episode! Thanks for listening. Travel smart. Pack the snacks! – – –  Get your question featured on an episode by saying hi on social media:       Facebook.com/20minDelay      @20minDelay      @PiperJDrake      @GailCarriger Use the hashtag: #20mindelaypodcast

Gail Carriger and Piper J. Drake share books that give them a strong sense of place. * new episode! What do Gail and Piper think of as a book that gives them a sense of place? Gail thought of books that make her want to travel somewhere and particularly thinks of the light of a place.  Piper thought of not only books that made her want to travel to a place, but also books that created the perfect scene that pulled her into the book. Gail and Piper discuss the writing craft aspect of how they think of books and a sense of place, what senses come into play, and how to research for setting. They also discuss ways to research a place when you can't actually go there. Book Shout Outs!  Gail recommended: Lord of Two Lands by Judith Tarr The Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper *Gail particularly referenced The Grey King, the book in this series that was set in Wales. My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell Piper recommended: Psy-Changeling series by Nalini Singh *Piper struggled to remember the first short story that introduced her to this series. The title was “Stroke of Enticement” and was originally in The Magical Christmas Cat anthology. Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao Silence Fallen by Patricia Briggs Gadgets! Piper currently reads with a mini iPad because it's closer to the size and weight of a paperback.  Gail reads on a Kindle Oasis because it is e-Ink. Special thanks to Kelly for editing this episode! Thanks for listening. Travel smart. Pack the snacks! (or the books) – – –  Get your question featured on an episode by saying hi on social media:       Facebook.com/20minDelay      @20minDelay      @PiperJDrake      @GailCarriger Use the hashtag: #20mindelaypodcast

Retrieved from the Repository: a lost episode has been recovered for our listeners in which Gail Carriger and Piper J. Drake discussed travel rewards programs and related credit cards. *This episode was recorded in 2017, prior to the current travel advisories and restrictions. Where have you been?  Piper had traveled and returned from Chicago, but ORD is one of Piper's hellmouth airports. Both Piper and Gail agree the food scene in Chicago is off the charts good. They also agree that when traveling for pleasure and fun, the off-seasons are the times they prefer. Main Topic: What's in your travel wallet? Rewards cards and programs Gail's longest running credit card associated with an airline is with an American Airlines rewards program. But! American shut down their hub that was Gail's preferred home airport. Piper has opinions about corporate cards. She prefers to put her day job business travel on her own credit card(s). For authorly expenses, she has a Chase Sapphire Preferred card and uses the reward points for experiences like a cooking class in New Orleans. For day job and personal travel, Piper is converting to American Airlines Executive Platinum for better miles per dollar value and access to business lounges - which is worth it to her when she travels for day job. Gail has also cycled her use of her American card into a different part of her life. She has moved to a Southwest card, because Southwest is the hub nearest her and the airline with which she books the most flights. She also has the Chase Sapphire Preferred, like Piper. Gadgets! Travel wallets Gail – Trifold men's wallet. http://amzn.to/2yFPW8P Piper – Taxi Wallet. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Taxi+wallet Special thanks to Kelly for editing this episode! Thanks for listening. Travel smart. Pack the snacks! – – –  Get your question featured on an episode by saying hi on social media:       Facebook.com/20minDelay      @20minDelay      @PiperJDrake      @GailCarriger Use the hashtag: #20mindelaypodcast

The premier episode of A Real Bodice Ripper explores The Sumage Solution, the first book in The San Andreas Shifters series by G. L. Carriger. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/arealbodiceripper/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/arealbodiceripper/support

Gail Carriger and Piper J. Drake share their most memorable flights to date. * new episode! Where have you been? Nowhere, because shelter at home. But! Piper and her partner, Matthew, look forward to a new apartment (in the same building) with more space. Gail and her SO explore their neighborhood. Main Topic Piper's most memorable flight - a positive memory of Piper's first experience of Business Class on an international flight (very different from domestic First Class/Business Class). Gail's most memorable flight was very memorable, but not positive. And yet, it was quite the epic journey including a flight on a tiny "prop" plane. Bonus runner up from Piper - tiny plane emergency evasive maneuvers! Gadgets!  Gail – Request to our listeners: the search for a perfect protein bar. What do you recommend? Piper – Face masks, for many reasons. Special thanks to Kelly for editing this episode! Thanks for listening. Travel smart. Pack the snacks! – – –  Get your question featured on an episode by saying hi on social media:       Facebook.com/20minDelay      @20minDelay      @PiperJDrake      @GailCarriger Use the hashtag: #20mindelaypodcast

Retrieved from the Repository: a lost episode has been recovered for our listeners in which Gail Carriger and Piper J. Drake play "Iron Chef" Airport edition at the request of a listener. *This episode was recorded more than a year prior to the current travel advisories and restrictions, and also prior to recent events involving the Romance Writers of America. Where have you been?  Piper was at the Kimpton Hotel Monaco Seattle and discussing the solutions hotel management implements to provide power outlets at the bedside. Gail was at a vintage hotel for a writing retreat. Question for listeners: Do you actually use the clock in a hotel room? Do you trust the clock alarm? Main Topic Challenge from a listener: "Iron Chef" Airport Bodega edition - you have 10 minutes and only an airport convenience store from which to select your entire meal. What do you select for dinner and how do you make it seem maximally palatable? Piper did this at Phoenix Airport, at a convenience store in Terminal B and got lucky, so she also recalled a significantly smaller airport with a limited selection convenience store. Gail goes for the smoothies and looks for SmartWater, then tries for hummus or string cheese and a salty snack of choice. Gadgets! Another listener question: when you travel, is there a thing you collect as a memento of your travels? Gail – silly, quirky shot glasses for her father, but mostly looks for consumables that are unique to the area for others and looks for jewelry or scarves for herself Piper – used to collect shot glasses or challenge coins from military bases, also always on the lookout for souvenirs for friends and family Shout out to fellow author, Myke Cole (https://mykecole.com/) Special thanks to Kelly for editing this episode! Thanks for listening. Travel smart. Pack the snacks! – – –  Get your question featured on an episode by saying hi on social media:       Facebook.com/20minDelay      @20minDelay      @PiperJDrake      @GailCarriger Use the hashtag: #20mindelaypodcast

Connect with Tina: https://firstsda.org https://www.facebook.com/tina.carriger.9 ----- Get Your Free Ebook: thestorychurchproject.com/start Visit the Store: thestorychurchproject.com/store Support on Patreon: patreon.com/thestorychurchproject

Author Gail Carriger sits down with me at the Reading Envy Pub, and we discuss her voracious reading habits, and topics in books ranging from little squiddies to magical chocolate pots. Ms. Carriger must have a happy ending, and Jenny is content with fragmentary reads. Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 191: Stealthy Yet Sparkly Subscribe to the podcast via this link: FeedburnerOr subscribe via Apple Podcasts by clicking: SubscribeOr listen through TuneIn Or listen on Google Play Or listen via StitcherOr listen through Spotify New! Listen through Google Podcasts Books discussed:  The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ KluneMargaret the First by Danielle DuttonSorcery & Cecelia by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline StevermerOn Lighthouses by Jazmina Barrera, translated by Christina MacSweeneyWarprize by Elizabeth VaughanOther mentions:Defy or Defend by Gail CarrigerRomancing the Inventor by Gail CarrigerMeat Cute by Gail CarrigerSoulless by Gail CarrigerThe Lightning-Struck Heart by TJ KluneMiss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ranson RiggsWolfsong by TJ KluneCourt of Fives by Kate Elliot LitHub The 50 Best Contemporary Novels under 200 PagesThe Blazing World by Margaret CavendishMy Enemy the Queen by Victoria HoltA Discovery of Witches by Deborah HarknessShades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette KowalDealing with Dragons by Patricia C. WredeGrace DravenTaji Beyond the Rings by R. CooperThe 5th Gender by G.L. Carriger Earth Fathers are Weird by Lyn GalaWhite Trash Warlock by David R. SlaytonSharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawai Strong WashburnRelated episodes:Episode 015 - The Time for Exclaiming Over Costumes with Jean and KarenEpisode 060 - A Good Era for Communists with Rose Davis Episode 187 - Sentient Snails and Spaceships with PaulaStalk us online:Gail Carriger website (includes more social media links)Gail Carriger on TwitterJenny at GoodreadsJenny on TwitterJenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy

Gail Carriger and Piper J. Drake talk about rituals to remind you that you're home -- or home comforts. * new episode! Where have you been? Or rather, how has it been at home? Piper and her partner rearranged their living room to sacrifice space for better sound buffering as they are each on separate videoconferencing as they work day jobs remotely.  Gail and her partner rearranged their living room to open up more space, but need to set up curtain rods for videoconference background. Main Topic Rituals that remind Gail and Piper of home, that they're home, and what they enjoy now. Gadgets! Gail – Korean Milk Sheet Mask (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07H76M36L) Piper – Epsom salts (https://www.amazon.com/Teals-Epsom-Salt-Bundle-Items/dp/B00RM1ZGTK) Shout out to Piper's singing rice cooker from Zojirushi (https://www.amazon.com/Zojirushi-NS-TSC10-Uncooked-Cooker-1-0-Liter/dp/B0074CDG6C/) Shout out to Etude House's Sheet Masks (https://www.etude.com/int/en/index.php/pack-mask/mask-sheet.html) Special thanks to Kelly for editing this episode! Thanks for listening. Travel smart. Pack the snacks! – – –  Get your question featured on an episode by saying hi on social media:       Facebook.com/20minDelay      @20minDelay      @PiperJDrake      @GailCarriger Use the hashtag: #20mindelaypodcast

Retrieved from the Repository: a lost episode has been recovered for our listeners in which Gail Carriger and Piper J. Drake discuss packing lists and favorite kits. *This episode was recorded more than a year prior to the current travel advisories and restrictions, and also prior to recent events involving the Romance Writers of America. Where have you been? Nowhere! Piper was somewhere in Pennsylvania. Gail was somewhere on the Gold Coast in California. Main Topic Lists of Kits! Packing lists, including kits and really, kits for all the things. Gadgets! Gail – File folders for printed lists, with a zippy top: http://amzn.to/2CgPyex. Apps: Evernote, Stylebook for outfits. Piper – Too Faced Chocolate Bar palette. MAC Rockin’ Rebel and Basic Bitch eyeshadow palettes may no longer be available for purchase. Apps: Google Keep, Asana, or Habitica for lists as things to remember come to mind. Special thanks to Kelly for editing this episode! Thanks for listening. Travel smart. Pack the snacks! – – –  Get your question featured on an episode by saying hi on social media:       Facebook.com/20minDelay      @20minDelay      @PiperJDrake      @GailCarriger Use the hashtag: #20mindelaypodcast

I dive in with one of the best story tellers I know to talk through Southern Illinois lifestyle, his playing career, and a post-grad experience wish we could do ourselves!

Retrieved from the Repository: a lost episode has been recovered for our listeners in which Gail Carriger and Piper J. Drake discuss the best breakfast buffets they've experienced in their travels to date. *This episode was recorded more than a year prior to the current travel advisories and restrictions. Listener Question! Go-to toiletries Piper packs her own shampoo and conditioner, at minimum. Longer trips require more supplies. Gail packs her own facial wash and skin cream, etc. They both pack dry shampoo for certain trips. *Update: Piper now wears sunscreen. Main Topic Best Breakfast Buffets! Gadgets! Shh. Honest confessions of tucking a bit away for 2nd breakfast. Gail - Ziploc baggie. Piper - Hotel napkins. Special thanks to Kelly for editing this episode! Thanks for listening. Travel smart. Pack the snacks! - - -  Get your question featured on an episode by saying hi on social media:       Facebook.com/20minDelay      @20minDelay      @PiperJDrake      @GailCarriger Use the hashtag: #20mindelaypodcast

Retrieved from the Repository: a lost episode has been recovered for our listeners in which Gail Carriger and Piper J. Drake discuss seat choices and the angle of approach. *This episode was recorded more than a year prior to the current travel advisories and restrictions. Where have you been? Piper had been through Orlando International airport and Gail discusses the deplorable lack of caffeine in the terminal she goes through at MCO. Main Topic Seat Preferences! Squatting the Aisle vs. Window Gail is an Aisle only kinda girl. Piper will take the aisle or the window, but prefers aisle for long trips. Shout outs SeatGuru Gadgets! Gail - Clear2Go Water Bottle Piper - BlenderBottle Special thanks to Kelly for editing this episode! Thanks for listening. Travel smart. Pack the snacks! - - -  Get your question featured on an episode by saying hi on social media:       Facebook.com/20minDelay      @20minDelay      @PiperJDrake      @GailCarriger Use the hashtag: #20mindelaypodcast

We're back! Gail Carriger and Piper J. Drake return after an unplanned hiatus due to a myriad of technical difficulties. Main Topic: Turning your travel bag into a Go Bag Gadgets! Gail - Pajama-esque comfy pants and tees Piper - EC30 Clean Body Wash Special thanks to Kelly for editing this episode! Thanks for listening. Travel smart. Pack the snacks! - - -  Get your question featured on an episode by saying hi on social media:       Facebook.com/20minDelay      @20minDelay      @PiperJDrake      @GailCarriger Use the hashtag: #20mindelaypodcast For bonus fun, check out the new YouTube channel for the unedited video of the podcast recording, including all the hand-waving and zany expressions from Gail and Piper. 20 Minute Delay Gail and Piper are Back! and with Video! Subscribe to see any new videos as Gail and Piper record future episodes!

In this mini-sode, Q talks about author Gail Carriger and her series of steampunk/urban fantasy books. Carriger's books cover an alternate timeline of Victorian England. They have adventure, romance, and tea! So much tea!  From her website,  "Gail Carriger has multiple NYT bestsellers and over a million books in print in dozens of different languages. She writes comedies of manners mixed with urban fantasy (and sexy stuff as G. L. Carriger). Her best known books include the Parasol Protectorate and Finishing School series. She was once an archaeologist and is fond of shoes, octopuses, and tea." https://gailcarriger.com/  Do yourself a favor and pick up one of Gail's books!  Peace, nerds! Music: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Les_Sans_Culottes/ Cover image: http://billbeard.net/blog3 --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/uppod/message

Jeff discusses a deleted scene he’s offering this week from his upcoming book Netminder (Codename: Winger #4). He also recommends The Queer Creative Podcast. Will and Jeff discuss the second season of Netflix’s She-Ra and the Princesses of Power as well as Pose, which has just arrived on Netflix ahead of the new season coming to FX in June. Jeff reviews Queer as a Five Dollar Bill by Lee Wind. Gail Carriger talks to Jeff about her new novel, The Fifth Gender and some of the interesting stories about its creation. They also talk about how Gail went from archeology to writing romance, her process for world building and her travel podcast called The 20 Minute Delay. Complete shownotes for episode 189 along with a transcript of the interview are at BigGayFictionPodcast.com. This interview transcript is sponsored by Dreamspinner PressDreamspinner Press is proud to publish Hank Edwards and Deanna Wadsworth’s new book Murder Most Lovely. Check it out, and all the new mystery and suspense titles from your favorite authors like Amy Lane, KC Wells, Tara Lain, and Rhys Ford, just to name a few, and find a new favorite author while you’re at it. Go to dreamspinnerpress.com for everything you want in gay romance. Jeff: Welcome, Gail, to the podcast. Gail: Hello. Thank you for having me. I’m super excited to be here. Jeff: I’m so glad we finally got you on the show because I’ve been, you know, reading since back with “The Sumage Solution” and it’s like, “We gotta get Gail on. We need to get Gail on.” Gail: I am delighted. I am a devoted listener and so I’m quite honored to finally get to be here. It’s great. Jeff: And you’ve got a book coming out or you’ve just had a book come out actually, “The 5th Gender” just released. Gail: I did. Yes, “The 5th Gender,” it’s my like crazy, ridiculous, silly, happy yet cozy murder mystery on a space station with an alien with five genders and tentacles and purple. Jeff: You don’t often get cozy mystery space station together in one package. Gail: It is…it’s great. It was totally one of those spontaneous, I had like a strange thought/dream/idea to do this. And a bunch of us were joking on Twitter about the craziest mashups of genres we could come up with and somebody was like, “Barbarian noir,” and so on and so forth. And I was like, “Well, I wanna do space station, cozy mystery.” And then I started thinking about it and then it happened. Then I was like, “Oh, okay, I’ll write it, I’ll write it.” I was supposed to be writing something else, of course. But sometimes I succumb to the lure of the ooh, shiny. Jeff: And it was a purple shiny too. So how could you resist that? Gail: I could not. And he’s adorable, the alien character. And I, you know, I have a background as an anthropologist. I have an archaeology…couple of archaeology degrees. And so I just love the way if you’re doing an alien character, you can comment on human social structures and culture and interactions. And so I might’ve had a little too much fun with that. Jeff: Well I was actually gonna get into that. I’ll hold that. Because we should at least tell folks, because I want to talk a little bit more about the origin story on this because you wrote about it. So just like, “I had this idea in the middle of the night, and then I tweeted it, and then it was a story,” which I love, but then there’s the fact that you went away to a retreat and worked on it and had to talk to other people about it while you were writing it. Gail: Yes. So for those…I should preface this by saying that for those who don’t know, I have two names I write under. So I write under Gail Carriger and I write under G. L. Carriger and the G. L. stuff has a much higher heat level. So it’s super sexy. And this book, “The 5th Gender” is a G. L. book. So warning for anybody who doesn’t like nooky because one of the things I realized through the course of that particular writing retreat was that if you’re writing about a species with five genders, human curiosity wants to follow them into the bedroom to see what it’s like down there. And so I thought about trying to kind of clean it up a little bit and it just…it didn’t work. So I was like, “Okay, we are going into that realm.” So I was supposed to go on this retreat and write something else entirely, and instead I just spent the entire week writing this book. And one of the funniest stories from that was me being like, “Oh shoot, what does alien jizz taste like?” Because we all know, at least we do if we’ve been reading my San Andreas Shifter series that wizard or mage jizz is fizzy and werewolf is spicy. And I was like, “Well, what do aliens taste like?” And this meant that I literally had to go and you’re never…on a retreat, you’re never supposed to disturb the cooks in the kitchen. But I was like, “If there was ever a question for cooks, this is it.” There is a crazy author running into the kitchen in the middle of them making shepherd’s pie and being like, “Oh, you guys, what does alien jizz taste like? Debate.” So we had a long debate about it and we finally decided, and you’ll have to read the book to find out. Jeff: Yeah, I wasn’t gonna ask you to spoil that, but I do have to know what exactly did the cooks make of this question? Gail: The cooks were quite game actually. I think they were pretty charmed because normally like they’re doing their art form and we’re doing our art form and never the twain shall meet until meal times. So it’s really rare for one of the authors to actually want the cooks’ help on something. So I think they were kind of pleased to be asked. Jeff: That’s very cool because some of them might have been like, “I’m sorry, what?” Gail: Oh, they know what I write. We’ve been going for a long time with the same cooks for a while, so. Jeff: So this group knew you so they weren’t necessarily surprised by… Gail: No. Well, it was a little out of the blue. I haven’t been writing the super sexy stuff for very long. Like normally my questions are like, “What’s the most ridiculously named, you know, Victorian dessert you can think of,” kind of thing. But yes, it was a little different from my usual questions. Jeff: And tell us what this book is about, this cozy mystery on a space station. Gail: Well, the tagline is an alien race with no word for murder has a murderer aboard their spaceship. And essentially the galoi are the aliens in question. And they are these purple…they’re these adorable sort of purple tentacled kind of, you know, High Elf, slightly looking alien creatures. And they are super isolationist. And the only thing that humans know about them is occasionally they will kick one of their genders. It’s always as one of the examples of the fourth or fifth genders and they’re kicked off and they’re in exile, and those galoi, which is the name of this alien race, go and live amongst humans. And humans actually adore them because they think they’re like sweet and cute and adorable. And they have no…they’re pure exiles. So they have no national allegiance, they have no planetary allegiance. And so they make really great attaches. They’re kind of really kind of comforting and lots of different alien races like to be around them. So they often become attaches to like ambassadors and stuff. So a lot of space stations….space stations consider it really lucky if they get one of these. And the main character, Tristol, he’s one of these aliens and he has a mad crush on the human security chief/detective that’s onboard the space station named Dre. But he doesn’t really get kind of like human flirtation and courting rituals. So he’s sort of…the book sort of starts with Tristol trying to figure out what cats are and why you would wanna keep them as a pet because he’s been asked by some human friends to cat sit. And then, of course, the cat escapes and hijinks ensue on the space station because what happens when the cat gets into zero gravity. Nobody wants to find that out. Anyway, and then the galoi are like super xenophobic, so they never reach out to humans. And then suddenly a galoi ship approaches his space station, which is crazy in many, many ways because they shouldn’t be approaching a space station that has an exile aboard it and they never talk to humans anyway. And they have this incredibly complicated non-pronoun language that kind of indicates status and has to do with all of these different genders. And so the humans are kind of panicking and freaking out. They don’t want a war. They don’t know what’s going on. And the spaceship basically says, you know, “We have a murdered galoi and we don’t know what to do. We don’t have security, we don’t have murder investigations. We don’t. So we came to you, violent humans, to figure this out for us.” And of course Dre, the human love interest is the detective. So he and Tristol have to team up because he needs Tristol’s help to explain how the galoi work. And so the two of them gonna figure out who done it and that’s basically it in a very large nutshell. Jeff: How did you go about creating the galoi? I mean, five genders, no term for murder. There’s like so many things that kind of click into this. Is there like…? Gail: I just, so like I said, I have an anthropology background. I mean, archaeology is blank, so obviously the biology and skeletal structures and things is what I mostly studied via anthropology, but you get a lot of like gender studies and cultural representations of gender and all that sort of thing as part of an education in the United States if you do an archaeology degree. And so it’s always been super, super fascinating to me. I have a minor in classical mythology with a focus on gender. It’s just something that has interested me. It’s really hard to tease out in the archaeological record. It’s prone to misinterpretation by archaeologists and historians and anthropologists. So there’s a sort of storied history with our own relationship from a scientific perspective with understanding gender. And so I just took a lot of that both kind of my education and, you know, how the world now is changing. I spent far too much time on Tumblr, so I have a lot of like non-binary and gender fluid and gender queer fans. And so I’ve just been kind of reaching out to friends and acquaintances. One of my best friends in the world is a bioethicist and a medical ethicist. And so she deals with training doctors in how to talk to people appropriately about gender. And so I’ve had all this sort of stuff messing about, and I was like, “Well, a way for me to explore this and have this kind of conversation with myself and the world is through an alien lens.” And so I just…I love thought experiments, and I was like, “So what if we have a race with five different genders and how would their language evolve? How would their culture evolve? How would they treat each other?” Like all of these, you know, archaeological things to think or anthropological things to think about. And then how would humans, even future humans, react when encountering that? And so that’s kind of where the conception started. And then I just made them purple because I like purple. Jeff: Why not? I’m a big purple fan too. Was there a lot of research kind of building this? Gail: Yeah. I actually have multiple blog posts that either I’m releasing them right now or I’ve just released them recently, speaking from the past into the future. But I have a bunch of blog posts about like a bunch of the research that I did and like some book recommendations and stuff like that, both from a fictional perspective and a nonfictional perspective and different blogs and stuff like that. But I like that. I like researching a lot. I try not to rabbit hole too much because the point is to write the actual book. So mostly what I did is I did that intensive week where I sort of just vomited forth this whole book. And then I went back and like teased it apart and looked into different…almost as…I almost treated it a little bit as if it were a nonfiction piece to go back and see what sources do I need to look up, what like different pronoun terms might be being used in hundreds of years, you know, by humans. That sort of thing. And it’s…since both the humans involved… I try to be complex in my races, whether they’re werewolves or aliens in that like…and to not either dystopian or utopianise either race, either humans or aliens. So both races still have issues. Both are still dealing with how the cultures have evolved and all of that sort of thing. So I’m not setting the galoi up as like the perfect model of a possible future. They have a different evolution, a different model. And they’re merely a vehicle for which we can examine perhaps some of our own biases and prejudices now. And that’s getting very, very serious because mostly what I want my books to do is make you happy and cheerful and be excited, delighted. And if it makes you think a little, that’s great. But really I just want to make everybody happy and hopefully Tristol will do that because he’s delightful. I love him. Jeff: What kind of, I guess, beta reading did you do to see how your various fans handle the gender discussion? Gail: Well, I have trans and gender queer and gender bending characters already, both in my main universe and in my traditionally-published books and in all of my…like my independent and my self-published works and in my novellas and stuff. Some of the main characters, some of them side characters. And so I know that they’re open to it, and I also know that the one that, you know, for lack of a better term, I have like a queer-centered, progressive kind of comfort food brand or business model or whatever, however you wanna explain it. And so I feel like most of my super fans are gonna be excited because what they want from me is that comfort, is that sort of upbeat, fun, slightly fluffy, slightly thoughtful, but ultimately, you know, everything’s gonna be all right. I’m never gonna depress you. There’s never gonna be like scenes of torture. It’s never gonna be angsty, you know, all of those things. It’s always gonna be delicious, I guess. Jeff: I like that as a term for a book. That’s just really fun. Gail: Yeah. It’s just gonna be tasty. Yeah. So they know that and that’s the part that they trust and generally I feel like they’re pretty open minded about how I’m gonna go there and explore that. I don’t think I would’ve done this book, you know, five or six years ago because I wasn’t sure. I had to kind of test the waters with the San Andreas books and some of the other stuff. But I think they’re pretty open to it. I don’t know. You never know. We’ll see how everybody reacts. Yeah, so I mean, and I have beta readers and some of them have read it. I was more careful with this book in making sure that like I had sensitivity, what I call delicacy readers. So people within kind of the gender nonconforming community, again, for lack of a better term. That was more important to me really. I don’t wanna offend, although, you know, everybody’s opinion is their own and everyone is entitled to it. So I’m sure if you come to any book with the idea of being offended, you’re probably going to be unfortunately. So, but I did put essentially a naked purple dude on the cover as a kind of like, “Be aware, there’s gonna be sex in this book. We’re gonna go there. We’re gonna go far out there.” Jeff: It’s cozy with sex and it’s funny and it’s sci-fi. It’s got a little bit of everything in it. Gail: Exactly. Jeff: Do you think you’ll revisit this later as like as a continuing series? Gail: I’d love to. Actually, I have another murder mystery and like I don’t consider myself like a mystery writer at all, but I have this thing as a writer where I don’t write a book until I’ve had what I call the epiphany, which is I need to actually see a scene with characters in dialogue. And it might not necessarily be the first scene or whatever, but until I see that I have that crystal moment, I don’t feel like I can write the book. So I have a lot of books that I’d like to write, but I’ve never had the epiphany with. So they’re just sort of sitting there. And I’ve had an epiphany for a second book in this series with Dre investigating another murder and Tristol still there and everything. But I don’t know how people will receive this one, so I don’t know if I will write that one, but it’s definitely there percolating already. So it’s a possibility. Jeff: It’s a possibility. Gail: Yeah. And the universe on the whole, because it is a science fiction universe, actually does have another, of all things, young adult series that’s set at it that’s kind of been on the back burner for a really long time which kind of has nothing really to do with this series except that the same conceits in terms of faster than light travel. And human…like colonization and planetary evolution are the same. And there’s like a couple of crossover alien races, but that’s about it. But it is the same sort of basic far future. Jeff: If you’ve got the universe, you might as well keep using it. So you don’t have to just keep reinventing the wheel. Gail: Precisely. Yes. That’s my feeling. Jeff: What do you hope readers take away from this romp? Gail: Well, like usual, I just want them to be like… My favorite thing is somebody writes to me and says, “You either humiliated me because I was laughing loudly on public transport,” and I’m like, “Yes.” “You kept me up all night.” “Yes.” Or, “You just left me with a big smile.” So that’s really what I genuinely want is a big smile on people’s faces. But it would be nice if people who read it thought a little bit about…a bit more about gender and how we intimately link biological sex with gender and that perhaps that’s not necessarily the…I don’t know, ethical thing to do – that perhaps gender is in fact a social construct. Or cultural construct. It’s something that anthropologists just accept. Like if you’re an anthropologist, you just accept that as a fact. Like we know, we have seen all of these different ancient and modern races or cultures with varying different interpretations of genders and it just…I don’t think it would ever occur to an anthropologist to like not be like, “Yes, gender is cultural,” but it seems that in the world today that isn’t an accepted principle. And so I guess, if anything, I want people to kind of get it, to maybe think a little bit about pronoun use and all that sort of stuff, I guess. Jeff: Now, as both Gail and G. L., you run across a lot of genres. You’ve got your urban fantasy, you’ve got some paranormal. Now you’ve got cozy mysteries in space. Comedy definitely cuts across all of them. Is there a genre you like most? Gail: I would say I have wheelhouses more than anything else. So there’s a podcast called “Reading Glasses” that talks about as readers we tend to have wheelhouses and if you read heavily in romance, you define those often as tropes. You know, like, “I like the enemies to lover,” or whatever. But a wheelhouse kind of has other things. So, and I would say that there are definitely wheelhouses I gravitate to. So I always write the heroine’s journey. I never write the hero’s journey regardless… Again, this is the gender thing, right? Regardless of the biological sex or stated gender of my main character, they’re always heroines’ journeys because a heroine’s journey, it doesn’t matter who’s undertaking it. So I would say that is one of my things. I always do ‘found family’, and I realized recently I had this big revelation that one of the reasons I strongly gravitate to reading gay romance in particular is because found family is a really popular trope within gay romance for obvious reasons because if you come to the queer community, it’s usually partly found family that brings you there because real family rejected you, at least often did when I was younger. So yeah, and I just love that as a trope, for lack of a better word. And so I have found family in my books all the time. I tend to have extremely strong female main characters except when I’m writing gay romance, of course. Yeah, and lots of queer. I was thinking recently that a slogan I really embrace would be queer comfort because I feel like that’s kind of in all of my books even the books that have heterosexual main couples. It’s really hard. At this juncture, I guess you could say that I trust my readers enough to relax and just write what moves me. I wouldn’t have written this book if I didn’t think at least some of them would enjoy it. I mean, what a privilege and kind of a blessing and a joy to get to do that. But it has been 10 years. So it did take a while. Jeff: And you mentioned that you’re not known for mystery, certainly. So you’ve taken this turn now to at least explore it once. Are there other things out there like, going after and trying to write a mystery, that are still things you want to do, things you’re looking at towards the future? Gail: Absolutely. There’s always… Like I adore high fantasy. Obviously, I’m really into world building. And so like I have a young adult high fantasy. It’s actually techno fantasy, kind of like the Pern books or “Darkover.” And so, you know, I’d like to do that. There’s a bunch of stuff that I kind of am excited and interested, and I’m a pretty voracious and pretty wide reader. So I think that makes you, generally speaking, a relatively wide writer. I think it’s unlikely I would ever break the trust contract that I have with my reader base and write anything dark. I certainly would never write anything gritty or gruesome. I don’t like to read that, so I’d never write it. And I think I’m out of my dark phase now that I have left high school. I don’t do the really kind of dark or angsty stuff. I was thinking about contemporary recently actually. And I don’t think I could write contemporary. The moment I start to think about writing something that’s just a contemporary romance or like women’s lit or even something, you know, Heaven forfend, like proper lit fic, it immediately just goes fantastical. I can’t, I have to inject. And if I were to describe myself as anything, it is, you know, science fiction and fantasy rooted, I like the world building a lot. And so I think it’s unlikely that I’ll ever write something that doesn’t have at least that as part of the component. Jeff: So how did you go from studying archaeology and getting these degrees to now becoming full-time author, writing all these books? What was that path? Gail: Oh my goodness. So I’ve two master’s degrees and I was working on my PhD and I always thought I would be an academic. I genuinely love archaeology. I’m one of those incredibly lucky people who left one career that she adored for another career that she adored. So, you know, tragedy of choice. And I was about to do my defense and I was about two years out which would have been my thesis years finishing my PhD. And I always wrote. I just grew up on what essentially amounted to kind of like a hippie commune kind of thing, and surrounded by artists. And the only thing I had learned really from that is that artists never make any money. And so being an author was really a bad idea. So I was like, “Okay, I’ll be an academic because, ooh, profitable.” At least it’s quasi reliable, right? But I always wrote, I just had that need. It’s kind of like breathing or something. And I figure if I write, I might as well submit. And so I was submitting, writing and submitting. And then I wrote “Soulless” as kind of a challenge to myself. I’m a bit of a perfectionist. I have a propensity for rewriting things over and over and over a million times and never actually finishing anything. And so “Soulless” was like, “You will take six months, you will write this weird book.” This was during the paranormal romance and urban fantasy bubble of the late ’90s, early 2000s. And I was like, what I really want from…I want a bunch of things, right? I want women to write funny stuff in genre, commercial genre. And that’s pretty rare. Most of the writers I knew who wrote funny stuff were like Terry Pratchett, Christopher Moore, Jasper Fforde, like a bunch of dudes. And I was like, “Where are my ladies writing funny? Where’s my urban fantasy set in a historical time period?” You know, I wanted all of these things and nobody was writing it. And finally I was like, “Well, that means I have to.” Jeff: Take the challenge. Gail: Take the challenge. And I really did write it as a challenge. And “Soulless” is a mashup. It tends to be what I write, obviously. I mean, I’m here talking about, you know, space, cozy mystery romance. So I obviously like mashing up things. And so “Soulless” is steampunk, urban fantasy, comedy of manners, romance. It’s a bunch of these different things. And I was like, no one will buy this because I had been in and out of the publishing industry and submitting short stories and I was like, “This…it doesn’t have a place in the market. There’s no shelf it sits on, like, no one’s gonna buy this. But I wrote it so I might as well send it out.” And I had one of those slush pile telephone calls from New York where they like…within a month somebody wanted to buy my silly little bit of fluff. And I was like, “No, you’re joking.” And so “Soulless” was a slow burn. It hit the market and it was really word of mouth. The librarians and the independent bookstores were like behind me 110%. They just loved this crazy little book. And I think it was mostly the funny, but you know, super strong heroine and, you know, like gruff, overly emotional werewolves and queer characters from the get go. And it just appealed to, you know, a kind of segment of society. So I was right about to do my defense when “Changeless,” my second book, hit the hit The New York Times and that kind of seed changed everything. It changed marketing, it changed how much money New York was willing to offer me and my partner at the time was like, “I make enough money to support us. Why don’t you see if this…why don’t you take a break from academia and see if this writing thing works?” And I did and I haven’t been back. Jeff: Well done. Ten years on. Gail: Yeah, a lot of it’s serendipity. And a lot of it is good friends. And then a lot of it was also like, I am super…I’m an archaeologist. Archaeologists are like the organizers of anthropology departments. You know, we’re logistics, we get large groups of people into foreign lands and then make them shovel dirt around, you know. We feed them and house them and blah, blah, blah. You know, we’re big on spreadsheets and organizing. So I already had that kind of part of my personality that I think not a lot of authors have. And so when I was successful, I was ready to be like, “Okay, let’s figure out how many books I can write in a year. Let’s figure out, you know, like… I like trad, but maybe this independent publishing thing is interesting. Let me go research that and experiment with that. You know, let’s try this thing.” I’ve always been like that. Even with my traditional publishers, like they would be like, “You sell really good in eBooks.” And I was like, “That’s because I have romance readers.” And they were like, “How do you feel about maybe doing this strange BookBub thing?” And I was like, “I think that’s a great idea. Why don’t we do that?” You know, it’s like I am game. So I think that has also helped is I’ve always been willing to take a risk, partly because I have a safety net. It’s like I can always go back to being an archaeologist. That’s fun too. Jeff: What’s your overall process? I mean, it sounded like, if I understood from our “The 5th Gender” discussion, it almost sounded like you did the first draft of that book at the retreat. Gail: Yeah. I work really well, it turns out, in a competitive environment. I didn’t realize, but if…I really am one of those writers who I’m social in terms of I like to sit across from somebody at a cafe and just type and just the act of having another writer or a bunch of writers around me also typing is really helpful to me. And part of it is kind of looking over and being like, “How many words have you done? Oh shoot.” And then just typing some more, you know. But yeah, so I do this one retreat every year and I know I can do 40,000 words at that retreat, which is either one novella or most of one of the G. L. books. So I usually sort of get prepared ahead of time with that preparation is writing the first 10,000 or just get…I’m an outliner, so I’ll get all the outline ready. I’ll get all the world building ready. And once I hit the ground there, I can just turn out a bunch of words and that’s great. I try to do a couple of other kind of long weekend baby retreats. I’d love to find other week-long retreats. But the style that I like is pretty rare. And the style that I like is just a bunch of writers writing and no workshops or critiques or anything. So I do that and then most of the rest of the time I am not somebody who can handle multiple projects. I learned that about myself the hard way. So I have to be working on one book and then close that book out and then move to another one. And so if it’s an independent project, what I’ll often do, so if it’s something that I’m gonna be self-publishing, I’ll often write the whole thing on a retreat or over the course of a couple of months. And then just put it to bed and then focus on incoming copy edits or a proof pass or writing a completely different project, and let it sleep if I can. I find that that marination really helps. And then I’ll go back and do a reread. And I’m a multiple editor. I think a lot of comic writers have to be because I do passes for like different kinds of comedy. So I’ll do like a word play pass and then I’ll do a sort of a slap stick pass. And then I’ll do like rule of three descriptive passes to try and get as much different kinds of humor back into a book as possible. And so, and then I have an alpha reader or two and they read before it goes either into my New York editor or off to my beta readers. And then I actually hire and use a developmental editor for my independent stuff as well probably because that tends to lean more romantic. And when I first started writing it, I didn’t really think of myself as a romance author. So I wanted to make sure that I was getting kind of the beats right for romance. So I have an editor who specializes actually in gay romance, who reads all of my romances and gives me feedback. And then it goes to beta readers for the Parasol-verse in particular because they’re like, they’re 25 books in that universe and there’s lots of crossover characters. So most of my beta readers are actually just super fans who are obsessed with the universe and have written me like either critical letters about mistakes that I made in terms of like getting character names wrong or eye colors or something. And usually I’ll be like, “You, would you be interested in being a beta reader?” Jeff: Right. Put those people to work. Gail: Exactly. I was like, “If you’re going to do this anyway, how would you like to get everything ahead of time?” And I give them lots of extra perks as well, special editions and stuff. Yeah, so it’s quite a process at this point. But my beta readers are killer. I’ve got just a team of four now and they’re really fast and great. I love them. And then I have a couple of awesome copy editors that I use and then a proof. The Parasol-verse gets a woman named Shelley Adina, who’s a fantastic steampunk author in her own right and a regency and who’s really, really good on the Victorian era. So it gets a world – like historical proofing basically. And then I have a formatter. I’m a big fan of finding people who are really good at what they do and hiring them to do it for me. Like I could change my own oil, I’m sure, but I’d really rather find a good mechanic, you know. And that’s how I feel about the book world as well. So I have a fantastic cover art designer I love working with and I just got to put my team in place and then hope that no one gets sick. Jeff: Right. That’s the key. Nobody can get sick. Not right now. Gail: Nobody get sick. Nobody can leave me. Very floored when that happens. Jeff: So you mentioned that you read a pretty broad swath of stuff. What are you reading right now that you’re loving? Gail: So I just did a reread on Amy Lane’s “A Fool and His Manny,” which because it got nominated for the RITA award and it was one of the few that did that was queer. So I had read it before, I just did a reread on that and I still love it. It’s very cute, and I love Amy. Amy’s one of the nicest human beings in the world. So that was really fun to redo. And I’m a huge fan of Mary Calmes. I don’t know how to say her last name. Jeff: You actually got it right. Gail: Did I? Jeff: You did. Gail: Oh, good. Yes. I will read… Pretty much she’s an auto buy for me. I just find…I know that there are tropes in place that…but I just find her stuff really…she’s a comfort read for me and as somebody who writes what I hope is comforting for others, like I’m always hunting for authors that give me that same sensation. One of my like constant of all things, comfort, reread rotation is Alexis Hall’s “For Real,” which is a fantastic BDSM, but it’s just like, I don’t know what, the writing is so good. And I will reread R. Cooper until the cows come home, the “Being(s) in Love Series,” which I really, really adore. So, which is an urban fantasy basically. Jeff: So you’re a podcaster also on top of all this other stuff. Gail: I am. I know. That is like completely not connected to anything, side project. Jeff: Well, I’m looking at you, I’m reading the website, getting to know kind of what I wanna ask about. I’m like, “A podcast? Wow. Okay.” And it’s about travel hacks called “The 20 Minute Delay.” How did this come about? Gail: So one of the things that happened to me in the course of this career is I went from being an archaeologist, I traveled a lot as an archaeologist, to being an author where it turns out I travel like five times as much. When I was booked, where I’m regularly, I was doing two book tours a year at least. And that was not counting all of the conventions and stuff I was doing. And a book tour is like 10 cities in 10 days. I mean, it’s crazy traveling. So I turned into a frequent traveler and I’m an organizer and I like to hack things and figure out the most efficient way to do everything possible. And I realized I was doing that with travel. And there are two things that I can talk…well, there are three things that I could talk about, books that I love, like literally until the cows come home, food that I love to eat, and travel hacks. And then I met my friend Piper. And Piper has a day job that has her traveling 80% of the time. And she has, if possible, more travel hacks than I do. I was basically like, “Piper, let’s do a podcast. It’ll just be like 20 to 30 minutes and we will just get on and we will chat about a place that we’ve been recently, and some like delicate matter of etiquette when traveling, like whether you recline your seat or not and how you deal with that,” or recently we did a really good one actually on rental cars. I don’t rent a car that often, but Piper does all the time. And she had some awesome tips for like how to get the best rental car and, you know, what apps to use and all that sort of stuff. And then we do a little gadget where we’re just like, we test a gadget, like a new neck pillow or something and then we talk about, you know, what is that little gadget thing. And sometimes it’s just like, I like the snacky bags. Like you should always have at least two plastic snacky bags with you because they just always come in useful. So sometimes it’s a gadget like that, but we have a really, really good time. And I’m a voracious podcast listener. Like when we started, I’m a fan of this show. So I figured, generally speaking, you eventually become a podcaster if you are a big fan of listening to them. Jeff: That’s probably true. And I think for any of our listeners who are, you know, thinking about, you know, their trips to GRL come October, start listening to “The 20 Minute Delay” now to get all your travel situation put together. Gail: Because Piper and I are both authors, like we don’t…we try to couch our tips as much as possible in terms of anybody can use it. But we are both women. We are women who travel alone and we are both authors. So we will tackle things like how to travel with a bunch of books, like how to fly with 50 bucks or what have you. And we also talk about like safety when you’re staying in a hotel by yourself and that sort of thing. Jeff: So what’s coming up for you next this year with the writing? We’ve got “The 5th Gender” out, what’s coming next? Gail: Next, I have the final book in my Custard Protocol series coming out, which is “Reticence.” And that’s book four of the Custard Protocol that comes out at the beginning of August. And that’s actually rounding out the series in the Parasol-verse for a little while, my steampunk universe. I’m not ruling out doing another series in that universe, but I think I’m gonna take a little break. And I’m on proposal for a new Young Adult series. So who knows? It’s traditional, so it could take forever, could suddenly happen. You never know. And then in October I have a special collector’s edition coming out from Subterranean Press called “Fan Service,” which is for my super fans, which has my 2 supernatural society novellas bundled together with an exclusive short story that’s a hardcover fit, super fancy addition that there’s only gonna be 526 of those printed. And so that’s my October release. It’s so pretty. They can be very pretty covers, Subterranean. Jeff: That’s cool. And what’s the best way for folks to keep up with you online so they can keep track of all this? Gail: Well, in addition to everything else, so in case anybody’s in any doubt, I kind of have no life. I just did…this is like what I…like, I listen to podcasts, I read, and I play online, and occasionally I write, you know, because that’s my job. So I am on all the things online. I genuinely like social media. I know. I know, it’s crazy, but you can pretty much find me on any platform that you like. If you google Gail Carriger and then the name of the platform, I will probably pop up. And I try to use the platform in the way that it’s best suited. So, you know, there are pretty pictures on Instagram and there are lots of pinned gorgeous dresses on Pinterest and historical dresses and crazy aliens. And then I also have a newsletter. The newsletter is definitely for super fans. So it’s very chatty and it’s full of like sneak peeks as to what I’m actually writing and not talking about online yet. And I do freebies and giveaways and stuff there. Jeff: We’re going to link to all that good stuff in the show notes, of course, so people can find it easily. Gail, thanks so much for hanging out. It has been so much fun. Gail: Oh, it’s been a real pleasure. I can’t say how delighted I am to be on and I can’t wait to listen to this from the other side.

They finish their analysis of Soulless, by Gail Carriger, and of course are very mature about it. One listener has lovingly said that it is our fault that he read this, the trashiest book he has ever read. We can’t disagree. It’s pretty fantastic.In this episode:Michael declares war on Naboo.They both have glasses on their face.Ethan brings the discussion back to genre.He also taunts Michael by talking about Anno Dracula, by Kim Newman.Michael acknowledges what this book is doing, about vampires and minorities.We have a “Names with Michael” segment!Ethan digresses on Oscar Wilde.This is the Luther that Michael quotes.If you listen closely, about 28:19 in, Michael loses, but Ethan doesn’t catch it. (I doubt Michael even noticed.)The hotness of the protagonist makes Michael mad.Ms. Carriger, you don’t deserve the comparison Ethan makes.Ethan explains why he read all of Twilight.Ethan’s favorite Gothic novelist is Charles Robert Maturin.Everyone is wrong.Yes, they recorded this in March.Their next book will be The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, by Stuart Turton, and rumor has it there will be a guest on! Join the discussion! Go to the Contact page and put "Scotch Talk" in the Subject line. We'd love to hear from you! And submit your homework at the Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch page.Donate to our Patreon!Your Hosts: Michael G. Lilienthal (@mglilienthal) andEthan Bartlett (@bjartlett)"Kessy Swings Endless - (ID 349)" by Lobo Loco. Used by permission."The Grim Reaper - II Presto" by Aitua. Used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License."Thinking It Over" by Lee Rosevere. Used under an Attribution License.

Been there, done that!  But you can't help but think that you could have done it better.  Tips and tricks for optimally re-visiting already trod travel-ground. Time Stamped Show Notes: 0:24 – Intro (Steampunk Girl by John Anealio)    Host Introduction; Gail Carriger and Piper J Drake 1:06 - Gail visits Piper J in Seattle for a local signing 1:33 - PodCon! 2:17 - All the food. Place Pigalle, Storyville, and more! 3:48 - Dealing with TSA shutdowns  - - -  Main Topic - Returning 6:59 - Identifying "worthwhile returns" 7:19 - Piper => Thailand; Travel has changed significantly 9:20 - Intentionally packing "unmentionables" on top of checked bags as a deterrent 10:28 - Piper's things to do differently: pay to have laundry done bring a light jacket (for inside) carry on only (interchangeable clothes) seek out brand new experiences (Elephant Reserve) find and hoard old childhood favorites 17:58 - Gail's romanticized return destinations: don't be sick while there (Lake Como, Italy) for food! (Singapore) get a rialita (Hawaii) eat more localised comfort food, that aren't available elsewhere (Cusco, Peru

 How do you stay awake?  When do you choose to stay awake?  Tricks to accomplishing your caffeine ingestion intelligently while far from home! Time Stamped Show Notes: 0:21 – Intro (Steampunk Girl by John Anealio)    Host Introduction; Gail Carriger and Piper J Drake 1:05 - Piper went to Disney over the crazy-busy Christmas Holiday 2:10 - Disney's Magic-band wrist-bands are near Magic 5:15 - Gail Carriger, Tea on the Go (video on Gail's caffeine process) --> https://youtu.be/IzPzjkfJgRg  - - -  Main Topic - Caffeine Ingestion! 9:55 - Gail's water-boil coil, aka immersion heater: https://amzn.to/2tSdXp0 10:30 - Mug and milk hunting 15:14 - Thou shalt not give the Piper caffeine first thing in the morning 16:50 - after lunch Emergen-C, Airborne, or similar with B-12 in it 17:26 - Gail is opposed to drinking calories - save that for eating! 17:55 - Gail's caffeine pattern; tea in the morning, coffee at noon, afternoon tea 19:05 - pay attention to your travel day's schedule and be aware of how caffeine affects you (time it!) - this helps you plan transitions to local time zones, etc 22:29 - "Toy with yourself!" 23:11 - Be aware of the strength of New Zealander's black tea! - Especially the lovely author Philipa Ballantine    – – –  Gadgets! 23:35 - caffeine on the go  Gail - immersion heater - https://youtu.be/IzPzjkfJgRg Zojirushi mug - https://amzn.to/2EOkkQB  Piper - vitamin pellets that easily dissolve into 500ml water bottles https://amzn.to/2C5zKy9  - - -  28:10 - Outro and thanks to: Producer Matt Special thanks to Dan Sawyer of Artistic Whisper for editing this episode! Thanks for listening; Travel smart and pack the snacks! - - -  Get your question featured on an episode by saying hi on social media:       Facebook.com/20minDelay      @20minDelay      @PiperJDrake      @GailCarriger Use the hashtag: #20mindelaypodcast  

  Transportation from home to any destination requires some form of "last mile" transit.  Gail and Piper discuss tips and thoughts on car renting when that's the choice that's made.   0:23 – Intro (Steampunk Girl by John Anealio)    Host Introduction; Gail Carriger and Piper J Drake 0:41 - Piper has a story, both for Gail and for listeners about a Virginia wedding (including hellmouth travel via ORD) 2:54 - The behaved childhood version of Adam Sandler and his Vegas "Money Man" 3:38 - Frequently flyer shop talk - how to find decent food in Chicago O'hare - just inside of security hidden between separate TSA check points 5:08 - Piper got trapped in an airport elevator 6:40 - Meeting the poor man's equivalent to an "extra from The Sopranos" as he oozes into your seat-space and tries to lift the shared armrest without permission 10:11 - Hotels in Warrenton, Virginia are... questionable - Piper left a rare one-star review after needing to wine-stomp insects in the tub 13:34 - tips for using Yelp/Travelocity/etc to research random hotels before staying - Gail tip: 'sort/search review sites with key terms like "business" as those reviews are often more realistic than a vacationer who stayed at a given location while in an overall good mood'  - - -  Main Topic -> Renting some Wheelz 15:42 -  16:30 - book as small as you think you can manage; gives greater opportunity for upgrade 17:00 - Random rental car discounts abound - Gail gets one for being Sigma Xi 17:36 - if renting and needing/wanting to drop off the car in another state/country reach out and ask the company if they have a car that needs to be returned 18:48 - Try, try, try, to be friendly to the rental agent! 20:12 - Rental car rewards programs 21:48 - Use your rental experience as an opportunity to test-drive a car you are considering purchasing 22:26 - Sometimes it is cheaper to get your rental car from the inner-city area as opposed to the airport rental car center 22:31 - Random Philly soft-pretzels 26:11 - "Even if you only rent once a year the rental company will treat you better just for being 'in their club'"   – – –  Gadgets! 26:24 - car gadgets  Gail - pack with driving in mind if driving 3+ hours               'compressible cooler/thermos https://amzn.to/2XFnrBB               'driving sunglasses https://amzn.to/2VzXWA3  Piper - obtaining GPS via cell phone holder (clip is simplest!) https://amzn.to/2EA6wrx  - - -  30:42 - Outro and thanks to: Producer Matt Special thanks to Dan Sawyer of Artistic Whisper for editing this episode! Thanks for listening; Travel smart and pack the snacks! - - -  Get your question featured on an episode by saying hi on social media:       Facebook.com/20minDelay      @20minDelay      @PiperJDrake      @GailCarriger Use the hashtag: #20mindelaypodcast  

Episode 92: Deb Carriger Interviews Norman And Reg by The Yay w Norman Gee & Reg Clay

durée : 00:01:47 - Un jour une entreprise dans les Landes -

  Travel is enriching and we recommend it. Sometimes one must travel alone. How do you stay safe? Where do you keep your money and documents? What's "SA"?   Time Stamped Show Notes: 0:24 – Intro (Steampunk Girl by John Anealio)    Host Introduction; Gail Carriger and Piper J Drake 0:44 - Newark airport and the attached Marriott hotel  - - -  Main Topic -> Traveling Alone  7:48 - Traveling alone as a woman -> Safely. 8:48 - Ensuring money and ID is safely hidden (away from zippers) 10:02 - Taxi wallets 10:40 - Hiding cash in your bra when out and about 12:17 - Keeping valuable safe (and tracked) in a hotel room to protect from confusion 14:18 - Keep money and ID on you AT ALL TIMES - keep a color copy of your VISA in a separate place from your actual VISA and make sure a trusted person back home has access to a copy of that as well 17:08 - Be aware of stairwells and places without cameras/etc 19:30 - Situational Awareness! (Close your door completely when you leave AND when you go in) 21:30 - Lock all available locks on door 23:15 - Better to deal with a bit of embarrassment than it is to be unsafe -> go to a public space if someone "doesn't pass the elevator test"   – – –  Gadgets 31:36 - Gadget picks and LifeHacker articles  Piper - kobutan -> or -> tactical flashlight       https://amzn.to/2MFhk9I  Gail - poncho for hiding (disguising/hardening your target)      https://amzn.to/2pf4XYY  - - -  30:14 - Outro and thanks to: Producer Matt Special thanks to Dan Sawyer of Artistic Whisper for editing this episode! Thanks for listening; Travel smart and pack the snacks! - - -  Get your question featured on an episode by saying hi on social media:       Facebook.com/20minDelay      @20minDelay      @PiperJDrake      @GailCarriger Use the hashtag: #20mindelaypodcast    

Its undeniable, some people are taller than others. But travel seats are designed with a "one-size-fits-all" mentality. So what is one to do when seeking the relaxation of repose?   Time Stamped Show Notes: 0:22 – Intro (Steampunk Girl by John Anealio)    Host Introduction; Gail Carriger and Piper J Drake 0:45 - Listener question: "What are some tips and tricks for traveling if/when mobility impaired?"  Wooden cane for getting through metal detectors (TSA) Tips for preparing before you arrive (calling ahead, etc) What to do when your health declines in-flight Dealing with seating options Crutches vs Wheel-chairs Medical evac (grievance ticket) Communicate early/often (call) Booking agents are professionals who KNOW the details for you Navigating security with motor chairs (plus potential horror stories) Have a travel companion if you can Anne McCaffrey's "Crystal Singer Trilogy"  - - -  Main Topic -> Seat Reclining    14:18 - Planes, trains, cars, and buses 14:45 - Piper normally does not recline her seats (she is short) 16:07 - Gail reclines slightly when sleeping (and reciprocal relaxing) 18:36 - Considering your fellow travelers complexly (including dogs) 22:56 - Regardless of when, recline slowly (maybe even tell the person behind you) 22:32 - Promise for a future episode topic -> working in-flight    – – –  Gadgets 24:01 - Gadget picks and LifeHacker articles  Gail/Piper - Anker PowerCore Fusion    https://amzn.to/2vXfcof  Gail - back of seat kit 'Baggallini'    https://amzn.to/2BrzJXf  Piper - Travel jacket/sleep pillow -> BauBax Bomber    https://amzn.to/2vWuFFi  - - -  34:14 - Outro and thanks to: Producer Matt Special thanks to Dan Sawyer of Artistic Whisper for editing this episode! Thanks for listening; Travel smart and pack the snacks! - - -  Get your question featured on an episode by saying hi on social media:       Facebook.com/20minDelay      @20minDelay      @PiperJDrake      @GailCarriger Use the hashtag: #20mindelaypodcast    

 Traveling already requires high level packing skills. But what about when you want (aka, NEED) to bring a hat. How do you keep your topper in top condition?   Time Stamped Show Notes: 0:21 – Intro (Steampunk Girl by John Anealio)    Host Introduction; Gail Carriger and Piper J Drake 0:52 - Listener question from the Facebook group Ty akas: "What's the best way to travel with extra ties?"    -Be aware of where the knot sits, fold carefully, and consider some of the special containers the ladies discuss (or a Tupperware containers)  -and don't forget to consider what your ties shape/color/dimensions says about you! – – – 9:15 – Main Topic -> Packing that Hat (and other weirdly shaped stuff) Hat containers? How to protect the shape of your headpiece Wear your fancy as you go Use your significant other as a hatrack Being considerate of your fellow traveler Consider the mateiral of the thing, is it something that can re-assume it's old shape easily? Corset packing Distribute your stuff across both checked and carry-on bags, just in case there are travel whammies Wrap things (even inside your suitcase) in plastic to protect from potential bad weather (and spils) Carry-on Pizza? Request use of the flight closet (in the nicest way you can!) Tips for when mobily impaired Stuff your stuff with other stuff so it keeps it's shape – – – 27:58 – Gadgets! -->  Hat packs  Gail -various hard-sided tupperwares!        Daris: store boxes  Piper - knitted caps        Ravelry: knitting – – – 31:52 - Outro and thanks to: Producer Matt Special thanks to Dan Sawyer of Artistic Whisper for editing this episode! Thanks for listening; Travel smart and pack the snacks! - - -  Get your question featured on an episode by saying hi on social media:       Facebook.com/20minDelay      @20minDelay      @PiperJDrake      @GailCarriger Use the hashtag: #20mindelaypodcast    

Book Appreciation with Lise MacTague The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 23c In the Book Appreciation segments, our featured authors (or your host) will talk about one or more favorite books with queer female characters in a historic setting. In this episode Lise MacTague recommends some favorite queer historical novels: Alpennia Series by Heather Rose Jones Romancing the Inventor by Gail Carriger See also Carriger’s other works Branded Ann by Merry Shannon Raven, Fire, and Ice by Nita Round Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke (no lesbian content) The Temeraire Series by Naomi Novik (no lesbian content) More info The Lesbian Historic Motif Project lives at: http://alpennia.com/lhmp For further information on Lise MacTague see https://lisemactague.com or the show notes for the previous episode of the Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast when she was interviewed. If you have questions or comments about the LHMP or these podcasts, send them to: contact@alpennia.com No transcript is available for this episode. If you enjoy this podcast and others at The Lesbian Talk Show, please consider supporting the show through Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TheLesbianTalkShow

Sometimes you just want to drink and chill with friends. And if your friends are also rabid romance readers, the conversation is bound to devolve into giggling and book talk. So we decided to just cut right to the fun. Join Sheryl and I as we match our favorite tropes and book characters to alcoholic beverages! Listen in to see if we got 'em right!Here's a sneak peek at the tropes, characters, & book series we matched with alcoholic drinks:Best friend's brother + zombiesRegency + virginGay for You + MilitaryArranged marriage + alien-human romanceNon-con + celebritySurprise baby + werewolfEnemies to lovers + fairiesIncestFake engagement + mafiaTeachersPorn stars + blackmailSierra Simone's New Camelot trilogy (Ash & Embry)Ruby Dixon's Ice Planet BarbariansLee Savino & Lili Zander's Draekon Mates (Exiled to the Prison Planet)Emma Chase's Royally Screwed (Prince Nicholas)JR Ward's Black Dagger BrotherhoodSusan Stoker's Delta Force Heroes Victoria Sue's Five Minutes Longer (Talon)Kit Rocha's AshwinKit Rocha's O’Kanes from the Beyond seriesJoan Swan's Shatter (Mitch)Lilah Pace's Asking For It (Vivienne)Eli Easton's Five DaresG.L. Carriger's The Sumage Solution (Max)Sierra Simone's Priest (Father Bell)Jeaniene Frost's Halfway to the Grave (Cat)Tina Folsom's Thomas’s Choice Eden Bradley's Boy (Christopher)Kristen Ashley's Mystery Man (Gwen)Olivia Cunning's Hot Ticket (Jace)Quinn Loftis's Grey Wolves seriesCheck out the show notes at http://bit.ly/GetIn-S1E6 for handy buy links and to meet this episode's guest co-host!#GetInfatuated #InfatuatedPodcastFollow Sue online at @GraveTells on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest

Sometimes you just want to drink and chill with friends. And if your friends are also rabid romance readers, the conversation is bound to devolve into giggling and book talk. So we decided to just cut right to the fun. Join Sheryl and I as we match our favorite tropes and book characters to alcoholic beverages! Listen in to see if we got 'em right!Here's a sneak peek at the tropes, characters, & book series we matched with alcoholic drinks:Best friend's brother + zombiesRegency + virginGay for You + MilitaryArranged marriage + alien-human romanceNon-con + celebritySurprise baby + werewolfEnemies to lovers + fairiesIncestFake engagement + mafiaTeachersPorn stars + blackmailSierra Simone's New Camelot trilogy (Ash & Embry)Ruby Dixon's Ice Planet BarbariansLee Savino & Lili Zander's Draekon Mates (Exiled to the Prison Planet)Emma Chase's Royally Screwed (Prince Nicholas)JR Ward's Black Dagger BrotherhoodSusan Stoker's Delta Force Heroes Victoria Sue's Five Minutes Longer (Talon)Kit Rocha's AshwinKit Rocha's O’Kanes from the Beyond seriesJoan Swan's Shatter (Mitch)Lilah Pace's Asking For It (Vivienne)Eli Easton's Five DaresG.L. Carriger's The Sumage Solution (Max)Sierra Simone's Priest (Father Bell)Jeaniene Frost's Halfway to the Grave (Cat)Tina Folsom's Thomas’s Choice Eden Bradley's Boy (Christopher)Kristen Ashley's Mystery Man (Gwen)Olivia Cunning's Hot Ticket (Jace)Quinn Loftis's Grey Wolves seriesCheck out the show notes at http://bit.ly/GetIn-S1E6 for handy buy links and to meet this episode's guest co-host!#GetInfatuated #InfatuatedPodcastFollow Sue online at @GraveTells on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest

Scent is heavily tied to memory. Disney hacks it with aplomb. Hotels (especially major chains) try. With varying success.  The ladies discuss how to deal.      Time Stamped Show Notes: 0:29 – Intro (Steampunk Girl by John Anealio)    Host Introduction; Gail Carriger and Piper J Drake 1:06 - Piper stayed home -> but still went to a con: Taiyou Con 6:48 - Piper met Yaya Han (an awesome cosplayer) in a bathroom – – – 7:49 – Main Topic -> Hotel Scents! scents come from more than air fresheners and cleaners - many places like Hilton intentionally pump particular smells in be careful of wearing Estee Lauder near Gail lemon-scent does not necessarily mean clean sniff the hotel provided shampoo (etc) before you use it be on the look out for actual name brand toiletries (they're reliably good) don't eat tea Marriott changes their scents frequently Renaissance typically has more subtle scents Pro tip! -> many hotel toiletries have similar shaped neck joints that can join up with better lids from other hotel toiletry You can ask for a "non-scented" cleaning 24-48 hours before check-in Gail prefers to smell edible Shower tabs (with eucalyptus) can help one recover nose-wise Camfir with roller balls are both Thai and California hippy cure-alls – – – 24:40 – Gadgets! -->  Scent game on lock. Gail – Steal toiletry choosedly and use bath bombs!    https://amzn.to/2LmE662 Piper – Aveda Blue Oil (essential cooling oil)    https://amzn.to/2svgUvl – – – 30:03 - Outro and thanks to: Producer Matt Special thanks to Dan Sawyer of Artistic Whisper for editing this episode! Thanks for listening; Travel smart and pack the snacks! - - -  Get your question featured on an episode by saying hi on social media:       Facebook.com/20minDelay      @20minDelay      @PiperJDrake      @GailCarriger Use the hashtag: #20mindelaypodcast  

Hardest thing to pack?  Shoes. But you need them. Often traveling to an event/work/vacation requires more than one kind/type of shoe. What's a shoe whore to do?     Time Stamped Show Notes: 0:22 – Intro (Steampunk Girl by John Anealio)    Host Introduction; Gail Carriger and Piper J Drake 0:48 - Gail went on a writing retreat 1:09 - Traveling with "different" (and/or wrong) personality types 2:15 - How to set yourself up for success when traveling and/or working and/or staying in a hotel with someone new 9:59 - Taking care of yourself by communicating with your significant other/partner – – – 14:47 – Main Topic -> Shoes! Gail's a whore?! (For shoes, yes.) Handling size and weight when packing "Wear your biggest heaviest shoes during travel - so you don't have them taking up all your internal luggage space." Sensible versus impactful Laces are a no. Don't do it. Boots? Fancy time? How to handle smell, cleaning, and storage? Ballet flats - > https://amzn.to/2KpLmh2  Orthopedic inserts? Work out needs? Invest in your shoes. Take care of your body and your joints. Dealing with blisters?  ->  Have shoes to switch to! – – – 35:00 – Gadgets! -->  Shoe tech is real Gail – shoe hack; laundry lingerie bags    https://amzn.to/2rHwWC6  Piper – Fluevog     https://www.fluevog.com/shop/4480-holly-black  – – – 42:10 - Outro and thanks to: Producer Matt Special thanks to Dan Sawyer of Artistic Whisper for editing this episode! Thanks for listening; Travel smart and pack the snacks! - - -  Get your question featured on an episode by saying hi on social media:       Facebook.com/20minDelay      @20minDelay      @PiperJDrake      @GailCarriger Use the hashtag: #20mindelaypodcast  

Traveling interrupts patterns. Gail and Piper give tips and tricks for exercising while traveling - and discuss meeting Kevin Bacon due to good swimming habits! Time Stamped Show Notes: 0:17 – Intro (Steampunk Girl by John Anealio)    Host Introduction; Gail Carriger and Piper J Drake 0:38 - Question from a listener! -> Stress management on the go?    Get your question featured by saying hi on social media:       Facebook.com/20minDelay      @20minDelay      @PiperJDrake      @GailCarriger Use the hashtag: #20mindelaypodcast 3:58 - Punching pillows? 4:39 - Gail's stress management involves water and TV, but not exercise 6:08 - Be kind to yourself! It helps to decrease stress 7:45 - Pop out of your car/airport/whatever for some fresh air to destress and wash away that stale air – – – 8:37 – Main Topic -> Exercising while Traveling Do you book a hotel based on the gym? If so, what do you look for? Pick the hotel that's a 5-15 minute walk from where you need to be specifically to get those extra steps twice a day Bring a dryer sheet to put in the plastic bag with sweaty clothes Swimming! Helps release stress, wakes you up, and stretches How to wash out chlorine Yoga (simple and strength training) 15:29 - Gail met Kevin Bacon due to her healthy swimming habit – – – 20:18 – Gadgets! -->  Exercise helpers on the go Gail – space saving yoga glove (similar to barefoot Jazz "slippers")    -Yoga Paws  -  https://amzn.to/2wiNN35 Piper – FitBit (gamify your life with a basic-level smart watch!)    - Ionic  -  https://amzn.to/2w9Nt6s – – – 26:34 - Outro and thanks to: Producer Matt Special thanks to Dan Sawyer of Artistic Whisper for editing this episode! Thanks for listening; Travel smart and pack the snacks!    

Food is important while traveling.  Many (like Piper and Gail) would even say its the entire point.  Traveling means you're on the move though, so it's important to bring or grab snacks as you go? But there are so many options, what do you being and why? 0:27 - Intro 0:55 - Piper's Seattle Trip 1:45 - Tips for scoping out a new city that you're moving to 2:15 - SeaTac (Seattle airport) hacks 4:30 - Uber and ride-share tips for Seattle 6:20 - tangent about travel reward lounges (To use them, or not to use them?) 8:50 - hotel Monaco (Kimpton) 11:07 - Goldfish, Patricia Briggs, Alpha and Omega series 12:22 - England lets book stores and antique stores have cats/dogs, just like the California bookstore, "The Ripped Boddess" 13:39 - Borderlands bookstore has naked (alien) cats 14:11 - travel snacks!    The ladies discussion includes, but is not limited to: hardboiled egg (touch off custardy, touch of green is overcooked) old and young in different labeled bags (yolk is riskier over time)  jerky (overcorrected for salt, which helps rehydrate after a flight) peanut butter ginger chews black sesame chews quail eggs (in beet juice?!) pickles pickled jalapenos trader joe's olives tiny apples satsumas or tangerines (aka emergency perfume) 26:30 - Gadgets!    Piper - ziplock baggies (sandwich sized and mini's)    Gail - mesh aerated bag (to organize the ziplocks) 29:30 - Outro and thanks to: Producer Matt Special thanks to Dan Sawyer of Artistic Whisper for editing this episode! Thanks for listening and happy travels!  

Join Gail Carriger, Beth Cato and Mindy Tarquini, all wonderful authors of novels filled with wonderous magic and mystery as they discuss their points of view on alternative earth histories where magic, the paranormal or time travel are real. “Why use magic at all?” “How d you know there wasn’t vampires and werewolves running around Victorian England?” “I want to write about airships!” "And that is Steampunk ladies and gentlemen!" "...love steampunk and make it their own!"   This panel was moderated by our friend David Lee Summers!     NYT Bestseller Gail Carriger writes comedies of manners mixed with paranormal romance (and the sexy San Andreas Shifter series as G.L. Carriger). Her books include the Parasol Protectorate, Custard Protocol, and Supernatural Society series for adults, and the Finishing School series for young adults. She is published in many languages and has over a dozen NYT bestsellers. She was once an archaeologist and is fond of shoes, octopuses, and tea. Join the Chirrup for sneak peeks & giveaways! http://gailcarriger.com/chirrup and her amazon page at https://www.amazon.com/Gail-Carriger/e/B002BML6TE/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1520798068&sr=8-2-ent   Beth Cato hails from Hanford, California, but currently writes and bakes cookies in a lair west of Phoenix, Arizona. She shares the household with a hockey-loving husband, a numbers-obsessed son, and a cat the size of a canned ham. She's the author of THE CLOCKWORK DAGGER (a 2015 Locus Award finalist for First Novel) and THE CLOCKWORK CROWN (an RT Reviewers' Choice Finalist) from Harper Voyager. Her novella WINGS OF SORROW AND BONE was a 2016 Nebula nominee. BREATH OF EARTH begins a new steampunk series set in an alternate history 1906 San Francisco. Follow her at BethCato.com and on Twitter at @BethCato and her amazon page at https://www.amazon.com/Beth-Cato/e/B006S84MNO/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1520798286&sr=8-2-ent   Raised by traditional people in a modern world, Mindy Tarquini is a second-generation Italian American who grew up believing dreams are prophecy, the devil steals lost objects, and an awkward glance can invite the evil eye. She’s served as assistant editor with the Lascaux Review, also Spinetingler Magazine, and is a member of the Perley Station Writers’ Colony. Her work has won recognition from the Philadelphia City Paper, the Maui Writer’s Conference, and the Oklahoma Writer’s Federation. A native Philadelphian, Mindy packed up her pizza stone and westward-ho’d. She now resides in Phoenix, where she divides her time between writing and wrestling with her pasta maker. Mindy loves writing heroines with special powers. Alas, she has none herself. Find out more at her Amazon writers page at https://www.amazon.com/Mindy-Tarquini/e/B01DHO8THG/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1520798670&sr=1-2-ent   David Lee Summers is an author, editor and astronomer living somewhere between the western and final frontiers in Southern New Mexico. He is the author of ten novels. His short stories and poems have appeared in numerous magazines including Cemetery Dance, Realms of Fantasy, Star*Line, and The Santa Clara Review. David is also the founding editor of Tales of the Talisman Magazine. When he's not writing, he operates telescopes at Kitt Peak National Observatory. Check out David’s amazon authors page and the ton of great books he’s written! https://www.amazon.com/David-Lee-Summers/e/B003LLIC3C/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1520798827&sr=1-2-ent   Thank you to the panelists, moderator, and the wonderful Tucson Festival of Books! http://tucsonfestivalofbooks.org/   Check out our KickStarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1540288459/help-launch-season-five-of-dnd-journey-of-the-fift Please support our show at  WWW.patreon.com/cppn   The Tea Scouts can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheTeaScouts/

How does one prepare mentally and physically for travel?  Regardless of the reason for taking a trip, necessity, pleasure, work, illness, visiting family - irregardless of any of those reasons it's still important to be properly prepped to make the most of it. Main Topic -> Travel Preparation, the how and why Gadgets -> Face masks!    Gail - soothing infused paper    Piper - Tulasara eyemask from Aveda Special Thanks -> Artistic Whispers Production Inc for editing the audio for this episode AND of course, Jon Anealio for the use of his song "Steampunk Girl"

Join Gail Carriger, Beth Cato and Mindy Tarquini, all wonderful authors of novels filled with wonderous magic and mystery as they discuss their points of view on alternative earth histories where magic, the paranormal or time travel are real. “Why use magic at all?” “How d you know there wasn’t vampires and werewolves running around Victorian England?” “I want to write about airships!” "And that is Steampunk ladies and gentlemen!" "...love steampunk and make it their own!"   This panel was moderated by our friend David Lee Summers!     NYT Bestseller Gail Carriger writes comedies of manners mixed with paranormal romance (and the sexy San Andreas Shifter series as G.L. Carriger). Her books include the Parasol Protectorate, Custard Protocol, and Supernatural Society series for adults, and the Finishing School series for young adults. She is published in many languages and has over a dozen NYT bestsellers. She was once an archaeologist and is fond of shoes, octopuses, and tea. Join the Chirrup for sneak peeks & giveaways! http://gailcarriger.com/chirrup and her amazon page at https://www.amazon.com/Gail-Carriger/e/B002BML6TE/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1520798068&sr=8-2-ent   Beth Cato hails from Hanford, California, but currently writes and bakes cookies in a lair west of Phoenix, Arizona. She shares the household with a hockey-loving husband, a numbers-obsessed son, and a cat the size of a canned ham. She's the author of THE CLOCKWORK DAGGER (a 2015 Locus Award finalist for First Novel) and THE CLOCKWORK CROWN (an RT Reviewers' Choice Finalist) from Harper Voyager. Her novella WINGS OF SORROW AND BONE was a 2016 Nebula nominee. BREATH OF EARTH begins a new steampunk series set in an alternate history 1906 San Francisco. Follow her at BethCato.com and on Twitter at @BethCato and her amazon page at https://www.amazon.com/Beth-Cato/e/B006S84MNO/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1520798286&sr=8-2-ent   Raised by traditional people in a modern world, Mindy Tarquini is a second-generation Italian American who grew up believing dreams are prophecy, the devil steals lost objects, and an awkward glance can invite the evil eye. She’s served as assistant editor with the Lascaux Review, also Spinetingler Magazine, and is a member of the Perley Station Writers’ Colony. Her work has won recognition from the Philadelphia City Paper, the Maui Writer’s Conference, and the Oklahoma Writer’s Federation. A native Philadelphian, Mindy packed up her pizza stone and westward-ho’d. She now resides in Phoenix, where she divides her time between writing and wrestling with her pasta maker. Mindy loves writing heroines with special powers. Alas, she has none herself. Find out more at her Amazon writers page at https://www.amazon.com/Mindy-Tarquini/e/B01DHO8THG/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1520798670&sr=1-2-ent   David Lee Summers is an author, editor and astronomer living somewhere between the western and final frontiers in Southern New Mexico. He is the author of ten novels. His short stories and poems have appeared in numerous magazines including Cemetery Dance, Realms of Fantasy, Star*Line, and The Santa Clara Review. David is also the founding editor of Tales of the Talisman Magazine. When he's not writing, he operates telescopes at Kitt Peak National Observatory. Check out David’s amazon authors page and the ton of great books he’s written! https://www.amazon.com/David-Lee-Summers/e/B003LLIC3C/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1520798827&sr=1-2-ent   Thank you to the panelists, moderator, and the wonderful Tucson Festival of Books! http://tucsonfestivalofbooks.org/   Check out our KickStarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1540288459/help-launch-season-five-of-dnd-journey-of-the-fift Please support our show at  WWW.patreon.com/cppn   The Tea Scouts can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheTeaScouts/      

Jeff & Will start off with updates from the past week. They give a birthday shout out to The Ripped Bodice bookstore, which celebrates its second anniversary on Sunday, March 4. The Book2Pod service is discussed further, including some listener feedback from last week's sample. Book2Pod's Nigel, the British narrator, provided the intro for this week's show. New patron Liz is welcomed. Jeff reviews The Sumage Solution by G.L. Carriger and narrated by Kirt Graves. The guys review of The Fireman's Pole by Sue Brown with narration by Finn Sterling. Poppy Dennison chats about her new Bartlett Boys series as well as the forthcoming re-launch of Coconut Grove, which she co-writes with M.J. O'Shea. She also talks about her entry in the Heart2Heart charity anthology. Complete show notes for episode 125 are at BigGayFictionPodcast.com.

Travelers are constantly bombarded with "Sign up now!" loyalty offers and point earning systems. Are airline offers worth it? What do you get for your loyalty?   Time Stamped Show Notes: 0:11 – Intro (Steampunk Girl by John Anealio)    Host Introduction; Gail Carriger and Piper J Drake 0:34 - Where have the ladies traveled recently? San Diego! 1:16 - Piper's Trip 2:14 - Sparkly floors  2:33 - The PDX carpet 3:02 - The SouthWest airlines cattle call 3:50 - Question for the audience -> Can you walk to San Diego downtown from the airport? 4:23 - Gaslight district and San Diego Comic-Con 5:04 - Balboa park 5:14 - Mysterious Galaxy -> awesome bookstore 6:14 - Seaview -> cute bookstore with cafe near SFO 6:40 - Need listener help: What's the name of the Alice in Wonderland-esque speakeasy behind the brick wall (or bank vault?) covered in ivy in San Diego? 7:53 - military, retirees, and/or vacationers mean... Reader town! 8:36 - cocktails in San Diego; wine in Portland...lulz. 8:52 - Gail pisses off the audience. Wine fight. ("Portlanders claiming they have wine? Lol")  Ready? Fight! 9:32 - La Hoja; full of eclectic restaurants and sea lions 10:17 - Del Mar beach (dog beach) 10:45 - all Piper cares about => dogs and food 11:48 - tutorial on how to kidnap Piper – – – 12:07 – Main Topic -> Frequent Flyer Miles and Loyalty Points 12:35 - Gamified system's help keep you loyal by letting you "level up" your membership 13:20 - The benefits of access to the business lounge (hard boiled eggs and showers) 15:15 - Credit Card multipliers 15:42 - American Airlines has Piper's soul 16:16 - always sign up for the frequent flyer's club regardless of the airline you're flying to ensure entry of you Known Traveler Number (KTN) for ease of travel 16:57 - Gail often goes to unusual locales and has others book her flights, so avid loyalty is difficult 17:49 - Gail's now a SouthWest gal 18:05 - Gail loves the cattle call --> it means faster boarding! 19:39 - http://crankyflier.com/ 21:25 - Be aware of what company has a hub at your local airport, and where other hubs are for that airline (take advantage of that!) 23:49 - Further tease of future episode about Credit Cards to optimize miles' collection – – – 24:29 – Gadgets! -->  Neck Pillows Gail – Pillow's to lean on while you lean back    -Trtl Pillow - http://amzn.to/2EWJN8g      -Travel Mate Memory Foam - http://amzn.to/2HOaLke Piper – pillow to lean forward with    - Inflatable - http://amzn.to/2F25AP5 – – – 31:24 - Outro and thanks to: Producer Matt Special thanks to Dan Sawyer of Artistic Whisper for editing this episode! Thanks for listening and happy travels!  

Gail Carriger and Piper J Drake know how to eek every extra bit of value out of travel; including hotel loyalty points. Earn them? Keep them? Use them?   Time Stamped Show Notes: 0:05 – Intro (Steampunk Girl by John Anealio) 0:30 – Host Introduction; Gail Carriger and Piper J Drake – – – 10:52 – Main Topic -> Hotel Loyalty and Reward Points – – – 27:18 – Gadgets! (what don't we trust the hotel to provide?) Gail – Mug    -http://amzn.to/2EJrzYw   -http://amzn.to/2E5ivf6 Piper – Silicone Owl    -http://amzn.to/2E5iFDe – – – 35:15 - Outro and thanks to: Producer Matt  

On this episode, Norman and I welcome Deb Carriger, actress and director. Deb was a former member of Eastenders and an ACT MFA graduate. Norman, Deb and I talk about current events (the 2018 Women's March, outgoing Senator Flake's calling Trump "Stalin", and Betty White's 97th birthday) - and Deb shares her background and how she feels about the state of the world and theater in the bay.

Gail Carriger and Piper J Drake let the listener in on their secrets for dealing with hotel room food - and most importantly, getting the most out of it.   Time Stamped Show Notes: 0:05 – Intro (Steampunk Girl by John Anealio) 0:31 - Host Introduction; Gail Carriger and Piper J Drake  - - -  7:40 - Main Topic -> Hotel Room Food Optimization  - - -  32:32 - Gadgets!    Gail - Spoon-Fork-Knife combo        "Light My Fire Original"    Piper - Travel Chopsticks  - - -  Secrets of gaining healthy sustenance while traveling... Discussion about optimizing hotel room food and how to get the most out of a room service order without contributing to diabetes or over-indulging in sodium.  

 Hotel rooms are the frequent traveler's refuge. But they're not home. How do you get the most out of your stay? Piper and Gail discuss baby bricks, silk, & more.   Time Stamped Show Notes: 0:05 – Intro (Steampunk Girl by John Anealio) 0:31 - Host Introduction; Gail Carriger and Piper J Drake 0:56 - Where have the ladies traveled to this week? 0:59 - Piper regrettably stayed at a swanky hotel in Princeton, New Jersey that she last stayed at in college (Trenton State). But this time... under construction. 3:45 - Predators, a SyFy movie; and how that applies to Piper's travel whammy 4:43 - "Lobby-Talk" the podcast within the podcast 6:29 - Gail gives a great tip to find out about construction; sort Yelp reviews by date! 7:18 - Discussion of other great pre-trip research resources (TripAdvisor, etc); you can sort by "business" 8:23 - Main Topic -> HACKING HOTEL ROOMS 8:41 - Gail is an unpacker - if she's staying for more than one night 9:26 - This is where "kits" come into play (go back and listen to Episode 5 for more info on them) - they go into their own specific zones that will be common to nearly all hotel rooms regardless of owning/operating company 10:05 - Gail's number one hotel room hack: ironing boards 11:06 - Steam can get wrinkles out of clothes; best to bring them in to the shower area while you shower? 13:01 - Dupione dresses 13:32 - Thai silk suits 14:45 - Iron use tips; don't trust them the way you trust your iron at home (iron a wet hotel washcloth as a test) 15:56 - Piper's bloomers and 'splodin her bag 16:20 - Bring your clothes on cheap metal hangers 17:06 - Create separate areas for dayjob and other work - the physical locations being different help with putting yourself in the right mindset to do that specific kind of work despite being away from your more familiar home setup 19:15 - Designate a "business zone" that will not be contaminated with your other things; itinirary for event, envelope for business expense reciepts, notepad, etc 19:41 - To room service, or not to room service?  Sometimes if you order food for "more than one person" they'll bring you an extra table on wheels 21:42 - "Heads in Beds" and a baby brick 22:56 - At checkin slide your credit card across the counter... followed by your baby brick - and watch it make magic happen 23:41 - The real magic words: "Anything you can do for me would be great." 24:57 - concierge suite access (free bottled water, snacks, and weekday breakfasts which makes life better in general) 25:48 - tipping style and ettiquette is important with the baby brick - don't be obnoxious about it 28:14 - take advantage of social media (particularly regionaly) to compliment good service at chain hotels 29:23 - story-time from Piper - she was booked into a hotel by dayjob and in the middle of the night a strange man started pouding on her door demanding to be let in.  The front desk took the random strangers side... this eventually led to chocolate strawberries - at a different hotel 31:08 - fill out the reiew cards with the positive things that happened to/for you during your stay 33:04 - don't forget, every big hotel chain has a record on you 33:35 - Gadgets!    Gail: "Heads In Beds" by Jacob Tomsky                 "A Reckless Memoir of Hotels, Hustles, and So-Called Hospitality"    Piper: Silk pajamas = protection for your delicate bits from bedbugs 36:45 - bonus gadget -> sleep sacks (they can serve dual purpose as shaws or scarfs) 37:42 - you can check the "bed bug registry" to double check your hotel before your stay 38:11 – Outro and thanks to: Producer Matt &             John Anealio for his song Steampunk Girl    Thanks for listening and safe travels!  

Traveling while hungry is the pits.  And when you're hypoglycemic it can be deadly.  What to do?  Initiate the burrito protocol. Gail Carriger has a love of tasty food.  Even better when its spicy.  Travel requires food that is portable and stores well even at room temperature.  The pursuit of this has led her to develop what is affectionately known as: The Burrito Protocol. Simply put, buy a burrito from your favorite local place and take it with you.  But what about salsa, and beans?  And what container do you place it in?  All this and more - including a story from Piper about how a hard boiled egg traveled across the globe - in this episode of 20mindelay.   - - -  Time Stamped Show Notes: 0:35 – Intro 0:58 - The Burrito Protocol; what meals do you travel with (not snacks) 1:22 - Piper's trip to San Francisco to see Gail and the bay area 2:12 - Airport talk: SFO; including tips for transit from SFO to SF (the airport is actually in Daly city) 3:10 - hotels in San Francisco (library bar at Hotel Rex) 3:37 - SF Marriott Grand Marquis 3:59 - Plot Bunny -> 555 Mission Street's 'Garden of Light' 4:42 - Pilgrimages when returning consistently to a city -> Gail completes a pilgrimage to the the original Twining's Tea Shop (same spot since 1700's) - and - Fortnum & Mason's for a proper spot of tea 6:07 - The Thai 'lol' or "hahaha" -> ' ฮ่าฮ่าฮ่า ' 7:11 - San Francisco food -> San Francisco chowder in an SF sourdough bread 7:56 - Main Topic -> Gail's Burrito Protocol 8:54 - Gail's burrito preferences includes delicious chicken, egg, chile relleno, (and light on the rice) 10:21 - Piper's burrito tends to be machaca (light on the beans) 11:21 - Gail and Piper agree, avoid the mess of salsa, but Gail has a trick for keeping sodium, electrolytes, and taste -> small brineless packages of pickled jalepenos 12:38 - How about the return trip food stuffs? 12:53 - small hummus packs (carbs are easy, vegetables and protein must be hunted and acquired) 13:23 - Piper is protein bar'd out 13:54 - hard boiled egg (and how one traveled halfway across the world) 16:16 - Gail's tip: grab some pre-boiled and pre-shelled eggs from the little store and/or Starbucks at the hotel and take it with you - just in case 17:03 - "Nobody's happy when you feint." 17:09 - Travel gadgets!    17:22 - Piper's = little sandwich baggies    17:45 - Gail's = the burrito protocol carrier, small light insulated bag with small amount of additional storage for utensil and trash baggie 20:09 - Outro and thanks to:             John Anealio for his song Steampunk Girl   Thanks for listening! Please subscribe and look for new episodes every Monday.  

What adventures are there to be had on the Baltic Sea? Culture, food, and fun in cities like Kiel (Germany), Copenhagen (Denmark), Stockholm (Sweden), Tallinn (Estonia), and St. Petersburg (Russia).   Gather amazing experiences and enjoy, until a typo ruins everything. Then, it's a "travel whammy!" In this episode, Gail and Piper discuss recent travels in Europe as well as what happens when your luggage doesn't quite keep pace with you. Also, what's the most versatile garment? The swimsuit.  Why you ask?  Gail shares her tale of traveling to Italy as a young, innocent archaeologist who arrived for a months long stay with only a container full of plastic bags, which is not what she packed for herself. Travel whammies are those moments when what can go wrong, does.  The harder you struggle, the more like quicksand they become.  So what do you do?  First: post to social media.  Second: adapt and overcome.    Time Stamped Show Notes: 0:35 - Intro 0:54 - Where did Piper go? On an 8-day Baltic-sea cruise through Kiel (Germany), Copenhagen (Denmark), Stockholm (Sweden), Tallinn (Estonia), St. Petersburg (Russia) 1:52 - Why? For this: http://www.writingexcuses.com/2017/01/03/an-announcement-and-a-miniature-faq/ 3:12 - Piper tells us about a Marzipan museum 4:31 - Was that Dresden's foo-dog Mouse? 5:24 - Best shoes on a cruise 7:17 - Travel whammies! (When major things go wrong while traveling -> that's a whammy) 7:33 - Gail's first big travel whammy and extra uses for a swimsuit when its the only piece of clothing you have...for months 10:10 - Piper's travel hijinks led to her seat being given away on her international flight, because of a typo 13:09 - Gail teases a JFK story (from when the TWA flight was shot down) 14:34 - Travel gadgets! 14:42 - single packet anti-bacterial WetOnes! 15:47 - "It was someone else's travel whammy!" 15:55 - https://www.mochithings.com/ - to organize your unmnetionables 16:48 -  Outro and thanks to:              John Anealio for his song Steampunk Girl   Episode 3 comes out on Friday, 3 November!  Safe travels till then and thanks for listening.              

Travel is always an adventure, sometimes a travail, and there's always that one airport we can't escape once we arrive. We call them hellmouth-airports. Gail and Piper fly multiple times a month, enough to accumulate little "sometimes" issues and coincidental travel whammies into truly hellish experiences. In this episode our podcasters discuss the horrors of Denver International Airport (DIA), Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD), and Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR), then give tips on how to survive there. What do you do when that short "20 Minute Delay" becomes another 20mindelay which becomes another which... You get the idea. How can one protect their quality of life when trapped in an airport for 8 hours or more - or sometimes worse: when your one hour connection becomes a 10 minute mad-dash? Well you listen to this episode ahead of time of course!    Time Stamped Show Notes: 0:31 - Intro 0:56 - Piper and Gail's go to Jersey; but not together 1:17 - Why Gail travels (author going to conventions like: Steampunk World Faire) 2:16 - Why Piper travels (author and dayjob as a consultant; 50-80% travel) 4:24 - Singing the praises of Philly's airport   '6:39 - Vino Volo; rewards program with $1 wine and free la amuse-bouche 7:32 - Self-care before/during flights (should you drink wine and/or eat sugar?) 9:55 - Geno's cheesesteak as an alternative to the burrito protocol (get it double bagged!) 11:24 - Hellmouth airports 12:09 - Denver (DIA); delay upon delay 13:51 - "tornado shelters" aka the steps down to the hellmouth 15:00 - best spots to eat at DIA (upstairs to get the egg-salad sandwiches that remind Gail of her British mom) 15:48 - Chicago o'Hare (ORD); canceled flight upon canceled flight 16:12 - a sushi debate (safe at airports?) 18:15 - changing gates? time to play Mario Cart 19:58 - catch a breathe of fresh air at the hydroponic garden opposite the USO 21:08 - traveling with steel reinforced corsets (aka "precious cargo") to RT Booklovers' convention 22:28 - What's your hellmouth airport?              Comment on the site              Join the FaceBook group              Say hi on Twitter 22:55 - Nifty travel gadgets! 23:31 - Piper's gadget: download the airline's app that you're flying on to track your gate-changes and take advantage of last minute seat changes (including cheap upgrades) 26:24 - Gail's gadget: tiny tote FOR: extra storage / pillow / great for storing that temperature transition garment and more 29:01 - inflatable what now? 30:54 - Outro and thanks to:              John Anealio for his song Steampunk Girl   Episode 2 comes out on Wednesday, 1 November!  Safe travels till then and thanks for listening.  

Andi had a long chat with steampunk author Gail Carriger, writer of multiple award-winning steampunkish genre fiction that melds not only steampunk, but paranormal, urban fantasy, comedy and dashes of romance. If you’re not familiar with her work, start with Book 1 of her first series (the Parasol Protectorate), titled Soulless. The protagonist is Alexia Tarabotti, a woman of some means in alt-Victorian England who is also a preternatural – she negates supernatural powers because she has no soul. Hence, “Soulless.” She is thus capable of temporarily rendering vampires and werewolves non-supernatural. Carriger is also an aficionado of all things steampunkish and, in particular, the Victorian era. She is currently writing another series that is a spinoff of the Parasol Protectorate, The Custard Protocol, and she is writing a series of novellas that feature as main characters her LGBTQ characters from the Protectorate/Protocol world. The first, Romancing the Inventor, features lesbian character Madame LeFoux (and you can see an interview about that Andi did at Women and Words). Find Gail at the following places: Website Pinterest Twitter (@gailcarriger) Facebook AND catch her Retro Rack Fashion Blog Synopsis of Soulless: Alexia Tarabotti is laboring under a great many social tribulations. First, she has no soul. Second, she’s a spinster whose father is both Italian and dead. Third, she is being rudely attacked by a vampire to whom she has not been properly introduced! Where to go from there? From bad to worse apparently, for Alexia accidentally kills the vampire, and the appalling Lord Maccon (loud, messy, gorgeous, and werewolf) is sent by Queen Victoria to investigate. With unexpected vampires appearing and expected vampires disappearing, everyone seems to believe Alexia responsible. Can she figure out what is actually happening to London’s high society? Will her soulless ability to negate supernatural powers prove useful or just plain embarrassing? Who is the real enemy, and do they have treacle tart? Get This Book on Audible.com | Audible.co.uk | Amazon.ca

**Please visit the show notes for links mentioned and related episodes and blog posts.**  "Remember Me" is one of the greatest Star Trek episodes all time, and Doctor Beverly Crusher is one of Trek's most significant role models—Bev definitely deserved more stories like this. Best selling author and fellow Trekkie, Gail Carriger, joins Jen and Angela to discuss why they love "Remember Me" and admire Beverly as much as they do. The three also chat about other TNG episodes, Gail's books and funny fan girl moments. You don't want to miss this installment of Anomaly! Share it with your friends and rate it on iTunes and Stitcher. Thank you for listening! If you like our show, please rate us on iTunes and Stitcher and share with your friends. Help us improve what we do here, by filling out this survey: survey.libsyn.com/anomaly Your voice matters to us!  Join in the conversation and get your voice heard on Anomaly: Send an audio comment or email to girlygeekz@gmail.com  Call our voicemail line at 432-363-4742  or comment in the show notes at Anomalypodcast.com/Shownotes/ Subscribe to Anomaly and the Anomaly Email list at AnomalyPodcast.com. You can also like us on Facebook and follow us on Pinterest at Pinterest.com/AnomalyPodcast/, Instagram and on Twitter @AnomalyPodcast. Donate: Via Paypal    Show Notes: http://www.anomalypodcast.com/shownotes/tng-remember-me/  

Carriger, Gail. ETIQUETTE AND ESPIONAGE Podcast by Lucie, grade 7, Middlesex Middle School, Darien CT

A review of Log Haven and Ruth's Diner

This episode features our very first interview, and it's with Gail Carriger, a novelist, archeologist, and tea aficionado. She's best known for her Parasol Protectorate series, which is a steampunk comedy romance adventure series featuring the tea-addicted Alexia Tarabotti. You can find out more about her and her works at gailcarriger.com.

AJ has been knitting, and crocheting, and spinning like crazy all week.  There's all sorts of things mid stream and nothign is done!  The family has finally escaped the house and gotten that Mexican dinner,  Joe is corrupting B, and of all people B is the back seat driver!  Even with all the Hijinks and knitting AJ read Soulless by Gail Carriger and reviews it After 5.