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General Shaw's wife Patsy says Margaret's ass is too big. Also Deane Wheeler with Don Berman and Wes Hurlford debuts a new song, Sign up for a Backstage Pass and enjoy a 30,000 plus hour archive, Phil's new podcast, Classic podcasts, Bobbie Dooley's podcasts, special live streaming events and shows, and oh so very much more…See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

South Park's new season is finally here! We discuss the crazy premiere, Parker and Stone's SDCC panel and answer some questions including "what are our favourite South Park songs?", "does South Park appeal to younger viewers in 2025?" and more.LISTEN on Spotify - spoti.fi/4fzFQbj LISTEN on Apple - apple.co/4fCJmBvWATCH on YouTube - bit.ly/southparkpodcastSupport the Four Finger Discount Network for EARLY & AD-FREE access to every show we produce, as well as 100 hours of exclusive content! Join the FFD family today at patreon.com/fourfingerdiscountCHECK OUT OUR OTHER PODCASTS:Four Finger Discount (Simpsons) - fourfingerdiscount.com.auThe Movie Guide with Leonard Maltin - themovieguidepodcast.comSpeaKing Of The Hill - spreaker.com/show/speaking-of-the-hill-a-king-of-the-hill-The One About Friends - spreaker.com/show/the-one-about-friends-podcastTalking Seinfeld - spreaker.com/show/talking-seinfeldSaturday Night Dive (SNL) - spreaker.com/podcast/saturday-night-dive-an-snl-podcastThe Office Talk - spreaker.com/show/the-office-talk-podcast

Part Two of Emerelda Wheeler and Wes Hurlford from our curator, archivist and friend to all, Rory MacLeod. Tying it all together is the tortured Deane Wheeler. Sign up for a Backstage Pass and enjoy a 30,000 plus hour archive, Phil's new podcast, Classic podcasts, Bobbie Dooley's podcasts, special live streaming events and shows, and oh so very much more…See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Meet Tricia Copeland. She is an award-winning author of books for youth and young adults. Mostly she writes fantasy books, but as we learn during this episode, she also does write some romance books.   Tricia says that as a child she hated writing. Even so, she went to school and eventually she went to college where she received a degree in Microbiology. She also attained a Master's degree. She then went to work for a chemical company. After four years she found herself beginning a journey of technical writing and writing patterns and supporting materials.   After a few years Tricia became a stay-at-home-mom for a time. She tells us how she loved to tell stories and entertain her children.   We learn how she wrote her first fiction book series in 2015-16 about her time facing anorexia. In real life, she faced this and overcame it. She then began writing fantasy youth books and realized not only that she could write, but that she did not hate writing at all. She has written several series and has plans for more.     About the Guest:   Tricia Copeland is the critically acclaimed and award-winning author of Kingdom of Embers, To be Fae Queen, Lovelock Ones, and Azreya, Aztec Priestess, and dozens of other titles. She is the host of the Finding the Magic Book Podcast who weaves magical stories about love, courage, and finding your passion.   Tricia began her author journey with a women's fiction series, the Being Me series, which is an adaptation of her experience with anorexia. Afterwards she quickly pivoted to her favorite genre, fantasy. Her young adult fantasy series highlight themes including resilience, perseverance, faith, loyalty, trust, friendship, family, and love. They include the Kingdom Journals and Realm Chronicles series that find witches, vampires, and fae fighting an evil spirit determined to end them all. She tempers the high stakes drama in these books with her fun rom coms in the Perfect romance series.   Tricia Copeland believes in finding magic. She thinks magic infuses every aspect of our lives, whether it is the magic of falling in love, discovering a new passion, seeing a beautiful sunset, or reading a book that transports us to another world. An avid runner and Georgia native, Tricia now lives with her family and four-legged friends in Colorado. Find all her titles including contemporary romance, now penned under Maria Jane, young adult fantasy, and dystopian fiction at www.triciacopeland.com.   Ways to connect with Tricia:   https://triciacopeland.com https://www.facebook.com/TriciaCopelandAuthor/ https://www.instagram.com/authortriciacopeland/ https://twitter.com/tcbrzostowicz https://www.tiktok.com/@triciacopelandauthor https://www.youtube.com/@triciacopelandauthor https://www.amazon.com/stores/Tricia-Copeland/author/B00YHN5Q4G https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14055439.Tricia_Copeland https://www.bookbub.com/authors/tricia-copeland     About the Host:   Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog.   Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards.   https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/   accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/       Thanks for listening!   Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!   Subscribe to the podcast   If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset .   Leave us an Apple Podcasts review   Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts.       Transcription Notes: Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.     Michael Hingson ** 01:17 Well, hello everyone. We're really glad to have you here, wherever you may happen to be listening in from. We're really glad that you're listening to unstoppable mindset. I'm your host, Michael hingson, and our guest today is Tricia Copeland. Tricia is a prolific author. I use that word absolutely without any any concern, a prolific author of children's books, especially in the fantasy world. So she has been doing this a while and and also has an interesting story just of her life to tell. So we're going to go into all of that and delve in and see where we go. So Tricia, I want to welcome you to unstoppable mindset. We're really glad you're here.   Tricia Copeland ** 02:05 Thank you, Michael, I appreciate you having me, and I do want to make a little edit to that intro. Okay, go ahead. My books are young adult to New Adult books, so ages 13 plus mostly, all right,   Michael Hingson ** 02:19 so young adult to new adult. All right, that's fair. So how do you feel that your books fall into the range of things like the Harry Potter series and so on, sort of the same age groups,   Tricia Copeland ** 02:40 right? Genre adjacent, I have a series, The Kingdom Journal series, which includes three witches that have to break a curse on the witch lines. So the witches have to find each other as well as figure out how to break the curse using various forms of magic. So not really the same as Harry Potter, but definitely with with the witches, and the kind of contemporary world that Harry Potter is. But actually, I won't say that, because I haven't I think Harry Potter is mostly in the contemporary world, right? I didn't read all the books. I have to admit that he's   Michael Hingson ** 03:18 somewhat in the contemporary world, but, but I was thinking more of from a standpoint of the same type of age group.   Tricia Copeland ** 03:25 Yes, I think a younger reader. I think people started reading Harry Potter maybe around 10 or 11. And these books have older teenagers to start, age 1718, so 13 Plus is a good indicator. I think the other   Michael Hingson ** 03:42 thing I would observe about Harry Potter is that there are a lot of people who aren't necessarily teenagers or young adults, including me, who have read them and enjoyed them. I think that that Harry Potter certainly brought an interesting dimension to reading for teenagers especially, and hopefully young adults, because a lot of people did catch on to them, and they they had a great theme, and you do some of the same sorts of things by virtue of the fact of what you're writing and who you're writing it for,   Tricia Copeland ** 04:17 right? They definitely caught adult eyes and hearts and minds too   Michael Hingson ** 04:23 well, tell us somewhat about the early Trisha growing up and so on. Love to learn a little bit more about you, and then we can talk about whatever we feel is relevant to talk about the early Tricia,   Tricia Copeland ** 04:35 right? Well, I grew up in rural South Georgia, small town in south Georgia, and always loved reading and hiking and the outdoors, and very quickly, knew that maybe I didn't want to be in a small town forever. So I went to college in Atlanta, and I got a degree in microbiology, and from there, I got a master's. Degree, and I started my career in Central Research and Development at a chemical company, a large chemical company. So I was looking at making chemicals from microbes. And that was very exciting. That was my dream job that I'd always wanted. So that was very cool to be able to achieve that goal, and I actually didn't like writing until I started doing more technical writing with papers and patents.   Michael Hingson ** 05:29 Technical writing can be boring, but people could make it more exciting than oftentimes they do. I would say I've had to do some of it. I understand   Tricia Copeland ** 05:39 well, you have to like the topic, right? If you don't like the topic, you're not going to like the paper,   Michael Hingson ** 05:45 right? But also, I think that a lot of technical writers write and it's all very factual, but I think even in technical writing, it would be better if writers could do some things to draw in readers. And I've always felt that about textbooks. For example, my master's degree and bachelor's degree are in physics, and I've always maintained that the the physics people who write these books, who are oftentimes fairly substantial characters in in the genre, if you will, or in the field, could do a lot more to interest people in science and physics by rather than just doing these technical books, telling some stories along the way, and bringing people in and making people relate more to the topic. And they don't do that like I think at least that they should.   Tricia Copeland ** 06:36 I guess that can be said, maybe for every technical Yeah. Area,   Michael Hingson ** 06:43 yeah, it would be nice if technical writers spend a little bit of time, but of course, then the other side of it is that the industry doesn't want that. So what do you   Tricia Copeland ** 06:54 do? It may be a catch 22 on that one   Michael Hingson ** 06:56 might be, but that's okay. So how long did you stay working at the tech at the chemical companies and so on?   Tricia Copeland ** 07:06 I was in the lab for four years, and then I moved into the patent Legal Group. So I began my career as a Patent Agent, and now that's what I do for a living. My day job is that I help clients draft and file their patent applications.   Michael Hingson ** 07:22 So you have your own business doing that. I do, yes, oh,   Tricia Copeland ** 07:28 well, I write by day and I write by night.   Michael Hingson ** 07:32 Yeah, well, that can be pretty exciting, though. You get all sorts of interesting things to write about. I   Tricia Copeland ** 07:40 do I meet a lot of cool people that are inventing cool things.   Michael Hingson ** 07:44 So here's the question, do you ever find that what you write about during the day influences you, and you want to use some of that, or the general concepts of some of that, at night, when you're doing your your fiction writing?   Tricia Copeland ** 07:58 I haven't done that yet, I did write one dystopian fiction about a viral pandemic, and that touched on a little bit of my background in microbiology and genetics, but not anything that my clients have done   Michael Hingson ** 08:19 well. So you got into the patent field when you when you started doing that initially, were you doing it for a company, or did you just leap out on your own and start to have your own business?   Speaker 1 ** 08:30 Yes, I was doing that for a company. Okay? And how long did you do that? I was at that company   Tricia Copeland ** 08:35 about a year and a half. And at the time, we lived in Pennsylvania and outside of Philly. So then we had a job change, and we moved to Denver, so I took a little time off to be with my kids before I started my business.   Michael Hingson ** 08:53 So how long ago did you start the business?   Speaker 1 ** 08:57 In 2012 so 13 years doing it a while? Wow,   Michael Hingson ** 09:01 okay, and obviously you're having some success because you're still doing it.   Tricia Copeland ** 09:05 I am. Yes, I love helping my clients, and feel like I can definitely give them a value add   Michael Hingson ** 09:14 if you're not giving something away. What's probably the most interesting patent that you helped somebody work on attaining   Tricia Copeland ** 09:24 I will say, I worked with an inventor a year ago, and amazing man, he had had his career in education and teaching, and he developed a set of blocks to help people or Help kids. I should say, learn the parts of speech so you could put the together, the blocks, whether it was a subject, verb, pronoun, noun, adjective, adverb, and I learned parts of speech that I never knew existed from helping them with this application, and I was very excited. To help him get his patent. That's kind of cool.   Michael Hingson ** 10:04 Yeah, I am fair. I'm not sure I know all the parts of speech, but I remember being involved in high school well and in elementary school and diagramming sentences and learning a lot about the different or a number of the different parts of speech. Not sure I necessarily remember all of them extremely well, so I probably split infinitives and well, what do you do?   Tricia Copeland ** 10:28 Yes, I hated sentence structures.   Michael Hingson ** 10:35 Well, so what got you started then, since you were writing patents for people and so on, and helping people in securing patents. What got you then started in dealing with fiction writing, right?   Tricia Copeland ** 10:49 Well, when my kids were very young, I was a stay at home mom, and most of my days were spent chasing them around, occupying them, entertaining them, shuttling them from one place to another. So I realized in the evenings I was bored. I did my mind didn't have enough to occupy it. And I was about, I think it was about 38 and, you know, looking at my 40 year old birthday and thinking, huh, well, and I maybe it was like my 20 year high school reunion. I don't know why it coincide coincided, but I started thinking about my early college years I developed anorexia, and thinking about that time in my life and how poignant it was that I was able to recover from that disease and really gain some life skills from that experience. So I started a story that was a fictionalized account of my experience with anorexia and recovering for anorexia. So my first series, called the being me series, is a four book series about a character named Amanda who develops anorexia and then is able to recover.   Michael Hingson ** 12:01 So what caused if you understand, or, man, I don't know a lot about anorexia, Anorexia, and probably have some misconceptions about what I'm about to ask, but what, what caused it? Why did you develop that condition?   Tricia Copeland ** 12:16 Well, there's a lot of I mean, it happens differently for a lot of people, I think anorexia is a lot about control and having control over your environment. And I got there was a number of factors that I was depressed and not happy about not feeling like I was achieving, maybe what I should be achieving, and instead of someone might have turned to alcohol or drugs to alleviate those stressful feelings. I channeled all that into Okay? Well, if I'm just thin and if I just look good enough, then everything will be fine. And obviously, once your brain starts to get in that cycle, it just compounds on itself. You can't stop yourself from thinking that way. Yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 13:05 and what helped you get out of doing that? Was it writing or what? What really caused you to realize that ain't the way to go?   Tricia Copeland ** 13:16 Yeah, I almost died. That was it very it was a low point. And really, you know, if I didn't do something different, if I didn't let people help me do something different, I would not have made it. So really, you know, a lot of that is like educating people how serious eating disorders are, as well as how helpless sometimes the person that is experiencing them is in being able to help themselves.   Michael Hingson ** 13:48 And you said that this happened somewhat in your your college years.   Tricia Copeland ** 13:53 Yes, I was 20.   Michael Hingson ** 13:56 Were there a lot of pressures were, were people criticizing you in any way that helped contribute to it, or was it sort of really   Tricia Copeland ** 14:04 internally? Part of it was internally. Part of it was, you know, what I thought people's expectations I was in. I was at a engineering school and I was a biology major, so maybe that wasn't the best place for me. Everybody was very high in performing. Yeah, yeah. There are many, many factors, I think, and just my my brain that was not processing things, maybe as realistically as they could have been processed.   Michael Hingson ** 14:33 But what you eventually did about it was to write a series about it, so clearly you were able to move beyond it, and then, if you will, talk about it,   Tricia Copeland ** 14:45 right, right? So I went into inpatient recovery, and then was able to get the help that I needed with therapist and psycho psychiatrist and support groups, and that was a big help. And then, yes, 20 years later, I. Wrote a series about it.   Michael Hingson ** 15:02 Well, that's pretty cool. And again, it's I'm always one who admires people who are able to and willing to talk about things. I went to an event last year was the Marshfield, Missouri Cherry Blossom Festival, and the Cherry Blossom Festival, which happens every April, is a celebration of American history, and they'll bring people in who have some relationship to an historic event, or who have relatives who were so for example, the great grandson of President Grant was at this event, but one of the people who was there was a former secret service agent who rode in the car behind John Kennedy when he was in Dallas and assassinated, and it took him 45 years to get to the point where he could come out of his experiences enough to start to talk about it, and I just have always admired people who do that. For me, being in the World Trade Center on September 11 and getting out, I never really viewed it as all that traumatic, but I guess it was, but my way to deal with it was, and I realized it much later, but we had so many newspaper reporters who wanted to know about the blind guy who got out of the World Trade Center. I talked about it, I mean, answered everyone's questions. And that was ironically, I love to pick on the media, but ironically, it was the media that really probably helped me move forward from September 11 the most.   Tricia Copeland ** 16:41 Yeah, I can imagine that was a lot of processing that you were able to do, as you talked about it.   Michael Hingson ** 16:48 People asked all sorts of questions, some really good questions, some not so good questions. And we got to observe all sorts of different types of press people. We had one Italian film crew who came to our house, there were 13 people, most of whom didn't really seem to do a whole lot, but they were there. And then there was a Japanese crew that came. And I think there were two people. It's just amazing what you see and what you learn. And for me and my wife, both now my late wife, but both, both of us love to observe and study and really think about what all these people are doing and how they do it, and we use it as ways to help us learn more about things, if you will, studying and being a student. I think of life as always an important thing,   Tricia Copeland ** 17:39 right, yeah, and I guess everybody reacts different to trauma and how you can process that everybody needs a little bit different. But yes, if you could look at things through a learning lens, that can definitely help too.   Michael Hingson ** 17:52 So you wrote the being me series. How many books are in that series? Four books, four books. Okay, and so, how long ago did you write those?   Tricia Copeland ** 18:03 I published them between 2015 and 2016   Michael Hingson ** 18:07 Okay, did you self publish or I do? Yes, you still do. Okay, great. Well, all right, and then what? What made you decide to then continue and start going into sort of teenage and so on, fiction and fantasy and so on, right?   Tricia Copeland ** 18:31 I realized that I just loved writing, and it was something that I didn't want to stop doing. So when I looked around for my next genre to write in, it was very obviously fantasy. For me. I read fantasy from a very young age. I loved Merlin and King authors legends and the Lord of the Rings and all of those books as a young person and a young adult, and that's just what I wanted to write. So my first book, interestingly enough, my editor sent it back to me and said, This is not fantastical enough. You need to make it more paranormal. So it took a minute to make that switch. What   Michael Hingson ** 19:15 book was that   Tricia Copeland ** 19:16 that is drops of sunshine and it is mirrored off an experience I had. I was a camp counselor at a camp for the blind when I was in I guess after my freshman year of college, and the campers in my story have these extra sensory skills where they can read people's minds. That was the paranormal aspect of my book, and that's not known in the beginning the story to our main character, and then she discovers that these kids have this special talent, and that was how my fantasy books started out. Mm, hmm.   Michael Hingson ** 20:00 Then where did it go from   Tricia Copeland ** 20:01 there? Then I jumped into the witches with the kingdom Journal series. I developed a character that was a vampire or is a vampire witch hybrid, and so she has a vampire mother and a witch father, but she doesn't know who her father is. She's never met him. And to make things a little bit harder, vampire witch Hyderabad are not allowed, but either the witch lines or the vampires, so both the vampires and the witches got together and said, these beings are too dangerous. We're not going to allow them in our society. And if she's discovered, then she'll be killed. That was the first character, Alina, and she's and to give her just a little more stress, I put her in a human High School, so now she pretends, you know, can't pretend to be a witch. Can't pretend to be a vampire. She needs to be human too. And, yeah, so that was a really fun book to write, and that's the series where the trinity of witches has to come together, so she has to find the other two witches of the Trinity, and they each get to tell their story in the books too. So that's why it's called the kingdom journals. It's a little bit of a journal format, so each character gets to tell their own story as well as telling the overall plot line of the series. How   Michael Hingson ** 21:19 do you come up with these characters and create these stories? I mean, it's very imaginative. I wouldn't have thought of it. How do you, and I'm sure other people say that, but how do you create the characters? How does all that   Tricia Copeland ** 21:32 work? Yeah, I set out, funny enough, I set out to write a vampire series that was my vampire is my favorite fantasy characters. And I thought, Okay, I'm gonna write a vampire series. It's not you don't want to do it too far out from what most people write or most people think of vampires. But I wanted my vampires to be a little bit different from the other vampires and other series. So I had this idea of making the vampire witch hybrid and her set in a human High School, and what would that look like? And then the challenge? I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with the challenge, but somehow I came up with this curse, and the curse was on the witch line, so it very quickly morphed into more of a witch book and the magical side of things, but the vampire characters are still there, and I explore them a little bit, although not as much as the witches.   Michael Hingson ** 22:27 Do you find that the characters essentially tell you what they want to be and who they are and why they do what they do. How much are the characters involved in your writing process? I've heard other authors say that that in some of the fiction things, the characters really create the story   Tricia Copeland ** 22:47 they do. I feel like my books are very character driven. So how I usually start with the idea for a character and think of their personality, their challenges, what I want, what themes I want to show with that character and then build the world sort of around that character. So it shows those themes and those character traits and what they're overcoming, either in their personal life or in their their physical life, right? But I do have characters that go off script. In the second book, kingdom of darkness. I have a character who we're not sure if he's a good guy or a bad guy. The main character thinks that he may be trying to delude her into thinking he's good when he's not really good. But I wrote him so well, like he was so nice that I couldn't make him a villain. So he became, I rewrote the story a little bit. I'd written it in my mind, I guess, but I rewrote it a little bit. So he did end up being a villain. And then somehow he got his whole own book, so he gets to star in his whole book after that.   Michael Hingson ** 23:54 And does he stay a villain? No, he   Tricia Copeland ** 23:57 didn't stay. He didn't was never, I mean, I kind of wrote it so the main character thought he was a villain, but in the end, I didn't make him a villain.   Michael Hingson ** 24:06 Well, I like books like that. I yeah, I think that most creatures are generally pretty nice.   Tricia Copeland ** 24:14 We would hope so,   Michael Hingson ** 24:16 although I don't know that that bears necessarily are overly generally nice to people, but, you know, who knows? Yeah, that doesn't mean they're evil either. Well, no, yeah.   Tricia Copeland ** 24:27 I mean, they're just living their life, right? That's they need their food sources. Is just like we need our food sources. So   Michael Hingson ** 24:35 I'd rather not be their food source, though, but that's okay, right?   Tricia Copeland ** 24:39 Yeah, and I don't know. I do struggle with, like, evil or antagonistic characters, because I'm, I don't like the idea that there's a character that is purely evil for no reason. So that is, that's always a grapple in an author's mind. I think,   Michael Hingson ** 24:56 well, and you know, I'll go back to Harry Potter. Modern Of course, we have Lord waldemart, who was definitely evil. But even so, the way she created the characters and the way she crafted the books, which probably in some ways, are similar, just in a process of what you do, it's not necessarily overly graphically evil. Even if there's evil, it isn't so graphic that you you you become totally adverse or against it. Evil or bad things are there, but it's all on how you present it. That's why I like books that are essentially puzzles, if you will, because they leave a lot of things to your imagination, and they give you the ability to as a reader, think about it, but as a writer, you also are essentially drawing the reader in to where you want the reader to go, but, but they're puzzles, rather than just some graphic thing, talking about all these horrible, mean, nasty things that a character may do.   Tricia Copeland ** 26:08 That's true, and it's all perspective, right? So the quote, unquote villain in my series is out to destroy all the vampires. But then you meet vampires that are good vampires, right? And you think, Huh, well, maybe this one vampire shouldn't be destroyed, because this vampire is not acting in a mean or hurtful way. So many sides to those questions,   Michael Hingson ** 26:33 yeah. Well, so the Kingdom series. How many books are in that one?   Tricia Copeland ** 26:38 There are four books in the main series, and there's a prequel to that series, okay?   Michael Hingson ** 26:45 And then what happened? What happened after that series?   Tricia Copeland ** 26:48 So in the finale, kingdom of war, my witches were going to have this huge battle against a vampire army that the evil witch created to, you know, battle the good witches. Yeah, she put which souls in the vampires. So that made them sort of like super vampires. But anyway, my witches needed an army, and I thought who would be a good character to be, to have an army that can come help the witches. So, yeah, the beings I thought of were fairies, and I created a queen Titania, is her name, who had an army who would come help the witches battle these vampire witch soul hybrid be. And when I created her, she just kind of took on her own character, and I quickly morphed that into what was her backstory, what were struggles? Where was she living? Where would the spay army come from? And that is what kind of launched my realm chronicle series, that the finale is coming out next month. Well,   Michael Hingson ** 28:10 that's that's pretty cool, and that that answers, again, the question we talked about earlier. The character actually took over, if you will, the writing, which is always cool, because that really shows how deeply you're invested in the characters and you let them have their voices, right?   Tricia Copeland ** 28:26 And I couldn't really give up the characters from my kingdom Journal series. They not, you know, not to give too much away, but they do complete their first quest and but this evil witch who's trying to destroy the vampires is still out there somewhere, so I couldn't completely let them go. So the witches from my kingdom Journal series come into the round Chronicles series, and the fairies and the witches are continuing to help each other.   Michael Hingson ** 28:56 Well, that's cool. Well, it's kind of neat to even though it's a new series, and I assume you can read one without reading the other, but still, it's neat that you, you follow on and help to craft and expand the world.   Tricia Copeland ** 29:11 It's been a lot of fun. And I, you know, selfishly, I didn't want to let go the characters. I felt like they had a little bit of story left in them, and I was able to do that through the round chronicle series. And yeah, it it was a lot of fun for me to   Michael Hingson ** 29:26 write. And now, of course, the question is, will there be a lot more story with them, which is part of the adventure that will come next? Right?   Tricia Copeland ** 29:33 Yes, I'm, I'm thinking of that. I put my characters through a lot. So after I finished the finale, I felt like I just had to let them rest. I'm not really sure if I will continue with those same characters or or either pull out some different characters from that book to have their own stories. Yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 29:54 well, it's, it's going to be an adventure. No question about. It   30:00 definitely so   Michael Hingson ** 30:04 with your books. Do you have themes in your books? That is, are you? Are you trying to convey messages? Do you have themes and things that you want people to think about as they go through reading your books?   Tricia Copeland ** 30:16 I do. I feel like I like that in the book, and so I kind of embed that in my books too, but it's really more about what is the character grappling with. Not only, like I said in their physical world, maybe Queen Titania is the first female queen in her realm, and some of the old guard, other monarchs are not sure that a female should be able to rule, So that's sort of an out, outside challenge. But she also has inner conflict and challenges where she's not really trusting that she really can do it and she's really supposed to do it, and should she, you know, hand the crown to someone else who may be older or wiser or and so it does she have faith in herself. You know, would sort of be that theme there. And so each of the books have, I mean, it's not like I say, hey, the theme of this book is you need to believe in yourself, yeah, but just showing that the character arcs and how they overcome their challenges.   Michael Hingson ** 31:22 How do you again create those? How do you work those in what? What's the process that allows you to to put those themes in and and add them to the book and bring that value out? Right?   Tricia Copeland ** 31:37 I guess it's just how, the way I the challenges I choose to put in front of my characters and showing them fail at times, and showing them I do write first person, so you're getting a very up close view of what the character is thinking and feeling at all times. So I think that helps with a little bit of that, knowing that the character is struggling with whatever their um, XYZ, inner, inner turmoil that they're struggling with. And then, you know, just having other characters bounce things off of them, because the character themselves might not realize, hey, I I get anxious when I'm not in control of situations. So, you know, somebody might say, Hey, you're doing this again, stop.   Michael Hingson ** 32:29 That's why we have editors,   32:30 right,   Michael Hingson ** 32:33 and other people to help well, so you are you, but you clearly talk with your characters and you let them have a voice, which is, I think, something that adds a really great dimension to the writing that you do. And I think it's very important to do that.   Tricia Copeland ** 32:51 I hope so. I have very detailed character sheets for each of my characters. I create much bigger back stories than, probably, than really makes it into the books, just to be able to know, like, how my characters will react in situations, what their growth needs to be, where areas that I want to show that growth, and what's most important in their values, And how would they react to all the different challenges?   Michael Hingson ** 33:24 What caused you to bring fairies into it again? I think that's pretty imaginative. You were writing about witches of vampire. Fairies are are different. How did that come about?   Tricia Copeland ** 33:34 Honestly, I was at a book event, and a person was walking around with these postcards, and they were trying to get authors to write a short story for an anthology, and it had to be a fantasy genre, and it had to be a character with a mental health challenge. But the image on the postcard was of a fairy, and she was hunched in a meadow in these grasses, and she looked kind of anxious or scared, maybe even a little timid or worried. And I thought, Oh, that's a cool image. It was very striking with the green grass and her fairy wings and just her eyes were like had just a lot of feeling behind them. So it caught my eye. I never thought I'd write about fairies. I was looking for the Army for my witches, and I thought, well, you know, the fairies could be like the characters the witches go to. So it was just kind of happenstance that I happened to see this fairy character on a postcard and think, Huh, I could, you know, the fairies could be the answer.   Michael Hingson ** 34:44 And turns out, they were, they were Yes. So are all fairies girls? No, okay.   Tricia Copeland ** 34:51 I mean, fairies are much like humans in my world, except that my fairies have wings. They in. Middle Earth, which is just below earth. So they share our same bedrock. It kind of mirrors our Earth in my world. And they have rings where they can come back and forth between the fae and the human realm, and they live in our contemporary times. I like those themes of there might be witches, there might be vampires, there might be fairies that walk alongside us every day, and we don't know it.   Michael Hingson ** 35:24 And do they know Bill Bo Baggins, since we're talking about Middle Earth, just   Tricia Copeland ** 35:29 they do, well, they might have read the book. I don't know that they met him personally.   Michael Hingson ** 35:35 Yeah. Well, that's, you know, another, another story, but it's but it's cool. What other kinds of characters are you thinking of for maybe future books, outside of witches, vampires and fairies,   Tricia Copeland ** 35:49 right? So I won't give too much away, but no, in order to perform some of the spells that they need to perform in, I guess in two of my books in this series, to be a Fae legend, which is the third book of the series, and to be a Fae which is the finale, The last book of the series. My witches and fairies need to perform these spells. So they need a great amount of power or energy, and they have to assemble different kinds of beings. And in the finale, they have to assemble 12 different kinds of beings. If you try to make a list of different kinds of being, you actually in ones that the witches and the fairies could find in the human realm, like so I had an elf and the werewolves and nicks and selkies like so the Nicks are shape shifters that shift into fish, and then the selkies are shape shifters that shift into now I'm blanking not walruses seals, sorry. So yeah, I had to go find all these different characters. So all of those characters are in this final book, and I I'm thinking of maybe some of those characters that can form a new series.   Michael Hingson ** 37:11 So are all trolls, mean, nasty creatures, or, do you know yet,   Tricia Copeland ** 37:16 in my series, they are depicted as that? Yes,   Michael Hingson ** 37:21 how about gnomes? I don't have any gnomes. Well, there's another one for you to look at down the line. Might be. It might be interesting to see where that goes. Of course. Yep, so you but you have a variety of characters, and I think it's it's great when you have a rich culture of a lot of different characters. And of course, there are all sorts of potentials for conflict or for different creatures to work learn to work together too,   Tricia Copeland ** 37:56 right? The Fay historically have not worked with other beings or creatures. They very much kept to themselves and had primary purpose. They think their primary purpose is to protect the humans from all the evil spirits. So that has been their focus historically, and they've shunned other groups of beings based on whether they thought they were descended from the Creator, who's sort of like their god or the creator or the evil one, right? So the Fae believed that the vampires and werewolves, for instance, were created by the evil ones, so they shouldn't associate with those types of beings, and there's a lot of learning in there. I guess you could say it, are we going to partner with these beings, and how? What does that look like? And is that really okay? And can we choose a different path than what our predecessors have chosen?   Michael Hingson ** 38:59 And I guess it's sort of pretty clearly, is that they somewhat do that.   Tricia Copeland ** 39:06 Yes, they do. And Titania, our main character, is very much the Herald for that type of behavior and that type of community and that type of acceptance   Michael Hingson ** 39:23 well. So your next year, your book will be out in July, and then where do you go from there?   Tricia Copeland ** 39:31 Yes, so like I said, I'm tossing around ideas for fantasy characters. I also write in the romance genre, so generally, I'll write a fantasy, and then I'll write a romance. I'll switch back and forth between writing those. The past year and a half, I guess I've been focusing on finishing this fantasy series, so I have two romances now queued up that I'm excited about writing, and we'll get to those first. I   Michael Hingson ** 39:58 think, hmm. What romances Have you written already?   Tricia Copeland ** 40:03 So after the being me series, I started the perfect romance series, which the first book was a little bit different from a typical romance. It has five parts, and it's the same main character, but based on decisions at different times in her life, her life goes off in a different way. So you see her go to France and fall in love with the French man, or you see her take a job in New York City and fall in love with a investment banker. And so you see her in different stages of her life, having made different decisions, but still finding happily ever after. So that kind of kicked off that. And somebody, somebody called it speculative romance at one time, and it's more like make your own story or choose your own ending type of book. But from there, I initially thought I would write like a full book showing each of the happily ever afters with that same character, but I wrote one book showing one happily ever after scenario, but then decided that I would look at all of her friends lives so they all met in college, and they were in this one sorority together. And so I write different books showing the different friends love stories. So I've written perfect. Was the first one perfect, always with Chloe. And then Brie book is a close as close to perfect. And this is still set in Lexington, Kentucky. And then the last one is perfect office pack, which is a enemies to lovers, office romance.   Michael Hingson ** 41:51 Now, do you put a lot of sex in your books? I   Tricia Copeland ** 41:54 don't know. My books are what's called closed door or fade to black, so you'll see some kissing, but not much more than that,   Michael Hingson ** 42:03 and that's fine. And the reason I asked that question was to get to the whole issue of so many people when they're writing, just have to make everything so graphic. There's got to be all this sex and all this other stuff that they put in them. And my view has always been, is that really necessary? And I gather you, you're essentially saying the same thing. And again, it's like detective stories. I love to read a lot of detective stories, but I like the detective stories most that are puzzles. That is, I want to figure out who done it. I don't need all the graphics of how somebody got murdered, or what happened. It happens. You don't need to put all that graphic stuff in to get to dealing with the puzzle. And it's the same thing with sex. You really need all that. Like a lot of comedians, it's all the shock stuff. They got to have all these horrible words, swear words, and everything else but the best comedians, I think most people, if they really study it, will agree, are the ones that tell stories without all that dirty and sex stuff in it.   Tricia Copeland ** 43:12 And that's what I like to read and what I like to watch, too. But there are definitely people that enjoy different types of books. Yeah, there are, yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 43:21 yeah, I hear you, but I, I would prefer to be able to use my imagination in various things. So one of my favorite detective stories or Characters of All Times is Nero Wolfe, written by Rex Stout, because he he writes in a way where you don't see all the graphic and don't need to see any of the graphic to get the entire picture. He describes enough so you know what's going on, but he doesn't deal with it in a way that would How do I put it? Offend anyone?   Tricia Copeland ** 43:59 Right? And I would probably argue that mystery books are would be the hardest to write, I think, because you have to give enough clues throughout so that the reader doesn't think, Oh, I would have never thought that was the villain, but you don't want to put too much in. So it's so obvious who the villain is, right? So I think it's the ways those authors weave those stories are very intricate and thought out and multi layered and impressive to me   Michael Hingson ** 44:34 well. And the reality is that sometimes, and again, I'll use Rex Stout as an example, when you find out who did it, or who the bad person was, and Wolf explains it clearly, all the clues were there, but it would be really hard for you to put it together. Now, there have been a few times where there were things that he didn't tell you, that if you if he had said those. Because during the book, you might have figured it out, but mostly the clues are somewhat there, but it is so subtle that I doubt very many people would figure it out, which   Tricia Copeland ** 45:14 is, yeah, definitely.   Michael Hingson ** 45:17 It makes it so much fun. When that happens, it is. So you're, you're still deciding what you want to do for your next series of books, or what, what the next realm will be, if you will,   Tricia Copeland ** 45:31 in the fantasy genre, yes, I'm still deciding which way to go with my next characters.   Michael Hingson ** 45:38 Yes, right, but you're going to probably do some romances before you go into those. I   Tricia Copeland ** 45:43 am, yes, I was just writing a newsletter to my subscribers. In the last book, I had subscribers pick names for my characters. And so in this book, I thought, You know what? I don't like this character has has only been introduced and very briefly in one of the books, and so she doesn't have a lot of backstory. And I thought, You know what, I can just ask my readers, where do you think she should live? What are her hobbies? What does she like to do? What's her favorite book genre? I thought that would be a lot of fun for my readers to direct some of that.   Michael Hingson ** 46:18 And what kind of answers did you get? Did you get a lot of feedback?   Tricia Copeland ** 46:22 Like I said, I Well, with the names one when? So I'm just sent out the poll today, new one, but for the name ones, yeah, I would. I got like 100 answers. And then I thought, you know, next time, I won't do the names, because sometimes names are so personal and can vote like a lot of emotion that people get very heated about people's names.   Michael Hingson ** 46:47 Now, do mostly women answer? Do you get both sexes answering your questions? It is   Tricia Copeland ** 46:52 mostly women, but definitely, maybe 10% male, I would think. And actually, I feel like I have more interaction, and that's mostly on the fantasy side, but I feel like I actually have sometimes more interaction. Maybe, I don't know, maybe this get more passionate about fantasy?   Michael Hingson ** 47:13 Yeah, probably so. But you know, there's, there's something to be said for reading a good romance book. I like cozy mysteries as well, and a lot of those are really combinations of mysteries and romance, and the mystery part is oftentimes more straightforward, but it's just the whole book and the putting the entire book together that makes it so much fun.   Tricia Copeland ** 47:41 Yeah, those can be a quick, you know, kind of feel good read. I yeah for that genre, yeah, and   Michael Hingson ** 47:49 there's nothing wrong with that. It's good to have feel good books occasionally,   Tricia Copeland ** 47:54 too. I am all for feel good everything, yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 47:58 Well, when I travel, I like to read on airplanes, and I like not to work and do reading that's really related to work, because going and coming from events is really the time that I get to have the most down time once I get somewhere I am on until I am on the airplane coming home. And so it is the way to relax. So I enjoy reading things that will allow me to relax when I'm going and coming from trips or from events, which is so important, I think, to be able to do and I think people should do more of that. It's always worth slowing down some and really letting your mind just wander.   Tricia Copeland ** 48:38 Yeah, plane trips are my favorite, because that's I do the same thing. I read on the plane, and I listen to audio books mostly if I'm home, when I'm exercising or when I'm doing chores. But to be able to sit down and read doesn't happen that often.   Michael Hingson ** 48:56 What do you like to read most from audio books? What? What genre?   Tricia Copeland ** 48:59 Um, exactly what I write, fantasy and romance.   Michael Hingson ** 49:03 What's your favorite fantasy books   Tricia Copeland ** 49:06 I just finished, and I'm so behind because I don't read fantasy when I'm writing fantasy. So I just finished Holly Black's, the folk of the air series, the cruel prince, I think the cool prince, the wicked king and the queen of nothing. I think they're the three books in that series. So that was really good series. And I'm writing Emily's wild encyclopedia fairies right now. So I just started that get   Michael Hingson ** 49:33 a little bit more information on those fairies for a future book. Right? That's that's kind of important to do. So do you produce with I've asked a number of people this, and I'll ask you, do you arrange for audio books to be produced from your series?   Tricia Copeland ** 49:53 I do both my fantasy series, The Kingdom journals, as well as the realm Chronicles. I have audio books. Four. I'm a little bit behind in the realm Chronicles. My Narrator had some health problems, so I'm switching narrators. But my new narrator, Tina walls, wolsen craft, yes, I think that's how you pronounce her last name, she will be working on the fourth book in the realm Chronicles series in September. So I'm hoping that will come out in October, and that will be my, my eighth audio book.   Michael Hingson ** 50:23 And where can people get the audio books?   Tricia Copeland ** 50:26 So the kingdom Journal series is on all platforms, and then the realm chronicle series, the newest series, is on Audible. Okay,   Michael Hingson ** 50:37 so and again under your name for the author?   Tricia Copeland ** 50:42 Yep. Tricia Copeland, author, the Kingdom Journal series. The first two books are female character, so and now I'm blank. I can't believe I'm blanking on her name. It'll come to me in a minute. Yeah. So I had a female narrator for the first two books, and then the second two books are male Lee main characters. So Dan Delgado did the narration on those and then Jillian Yetter, who was the most amazing narrator for Titania. She even had pink hair, just just like Titania does, a hold of the the cover of the book has Titania is pink hair. So that was really fun to work with her, and we won an award for the second book in that series, to be a fake guardian   Michael Hingson ** 51:26 in audio book. Oh, cool. What was the award? It   Tricia Copeland ** 51:29 was independent book publisher Association, young adult fantasy, Silver Award.   Michael Hingson ** 51:35 Oh, cool. That's exciting. It's always good to have awards. Have you run other awards along the way?   Tricia Copeland ** 51:40 I have several Colorado independent book Publishers Association for the first book, kingdom of embers, in the kingdom Journal series, as well as several the global Book Awards for to remember it to be, to be a fake queen, which is the first book in the kingdom journals and as Ray at my Aztec mythology.   Michael Hingson ** 52:06 So how many books have you written all together?   Speaker 1 ** 52:08 Next month's book will be 23 Wow.   Michael Hingson ** 52:13 That is really exciting. Well, I know we're putting in the show notes, the picture of the book cover for the next book. And as I mentioned earlier, if you want to send us other books that you think people ought to read, we'll put those pictures in the the notes as well. I'm glad to have all the pictures you want to share.   Tricia Copeland ** 52:31 I will definitely share them. Thank you. Well,   Michael Hingson ** 52:34 so is there anything else you'd like all of our listeners and viewers to know or to think about going forward,   Tricia Copeland ** 52:42 right? Well, if you go to my website, which is triciacopeland.com,   Michael Hingson ** 52:47 and Tricia is T, R, i, c, I A, Copeland, C, O, P, E, L,   52:53 a n, d, l, a n, d.com.com,   Tricia Copeland ** 52:56 yes, if you go there, and if you just want to get a trial of my books. If you subscribe to my newsletter, then you can read a free short story fantasy as well as a free short story romance.   Michael Hingson ** 53:07 Oh, okay. If people want to reach out to you, what's the best way to do that,   Tricia Copeland ** 53:13 they can reach out on direct message, on social media, or my email is Tricia T, R, i, c, I a@triciacopeland.com   53:21 too. Okay,   Michael Hingson ** 53:24 then people can, can reach out and and they'll, I'm sure, have all sorts of ideas for you.   Tricia Copeland ** 53:31 I love ideas, and I love talking to readers about my books.   Michael Hingson ** 53:36 Yeah, I I've written three, and I love getting comments and feedback from people, because I get new ideas and new thoughts. And mine are really all about helping to inspire people and so on. So it's it's always good when people have their their observations, whatever they are.   54:01 I agree.   Michael Hingson ** 54:03 Well, anyway, I want to thank you for being here. This has been a lot of fun, and I really value your time being here, and I hope people will reach out and and also, more important, get your books and read your books and review them. One of the most important things that all of us who are authors will tell anyone is, please review the books. Please go to places like Amazon and Reddit and so on and review the books, because those reviews are are viewed and paid attention to by so many people. So giving an author, a great review is always a wonderful thing to do.   Tricia Copeland ** 54:44 We do appreciate those and thank you so much, Michael for having me.   Michael Hingson ** 54:48 Well, it was my pleasure, and I want to thank all of you for listening and watching today. We really appreciate it. If you've got any thoughts, I'd love to hear from you, please email me at Michael H i. M, I, C, H, A, E, L, H, I, at access, A, B, A, C, C, E, S, S, i, b, e.com, but also go to our podcast page, www, dot Michael hinkson.com/podcast, you can see all of our podcasts there, but they're also available wherever you're listening to podcasts and and you can find the most anywhere podcasts are available. If you know anyone who ought to be a guest that you think would make a wonderful guest, and you'd like to have them tell their stories and Tricia you as well, I would really appreciate you introducing us, because we're always looking for more people to have on the podcast, and so please don't hesitate to reach out and don't hesitate to provide introductions, but again, give us a five star review here on unstoppable mindset. We value your reviews greatly, and we really appreciate you doing it. So I want to thank you, Tricia again, for being here. This has been fun, and I think it's really important that people do get a great sense of what you're doing, and I think we've done that, and we're really anxious to see where you go from here.   Tricia Copeland ** 56:08 Thank you so much, Michael, I so appreciate it.   Michael Hingson ** 56:15 You have been listening to the Unstoppable Mindset podcast. Thanks for dropping by. I hope that you'll join us again next week, and in future weeks for upcoming episodes. To subscribe to our podcast and to learn about upcoming episodes, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com slash podcast. Michael Hingson is spelled m i c h a e l h i n g s o n. While you're on the site., please use the form there to recommend people who we ought to interview in upcoming editions of the show. And also, we ask you and urge you to invite your friends to join us in the future. If you know of any one or any organization needing a speaker for an event, please email me at speaker at Michael hingson.com. I appreciate it very much. To learn more about the concept of blinded by fear, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com forward slash blinded by fear and while you're there, feel free to pick up a copy of my free eBook entitled blinded by fear. The unstoppable mindset podcast is provided by access cast an initiative of accessiBe and is sponsored by accessiBe. Please visit www.accessibe.com . AccessiBe is spelled a c c e s s i b e. There you can learn all about how you can make your website inclusive for all persons with disabilities and how you can help make the internet fully inclusive by 2025. Thanks again for Listening. Please come back and visit us again next week.

It's the Best of Wes and Emerelda from Rory MacLeod! Deane Wheeler's wife Emerelda and the musician he reps, Wes Hurlford in various, stupid adventures! Sign up for a Backstage Pass and enjoy a 30,000 plus hour archive, Phil's new podcast, Classic podcasts, Bobbie Dooley's podcasts, special live streaming events and shows, and oh so very much more…See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week we continue our August celebration of our favorite interviews and themes—and this week we're going back to two authors who inspired us so much for their advocacy, their championing of non-mainstream characters, and their commitment to the hard work of speaking truth to power. Both of these heartfelt, brave authors had a lot to say about the kinds of characters they want to see in books, why representation matters, and how standing up for what they believe in isn't so much a choice as a way of being in the world. Very inspiring to bring Maggie Tokuda-Hall and Lee Wind's voices together in this week's round-up. Maggie Tokuda-Hall is the author Also an Octopus, illustrated by Benji Davies, The Mermaid, The Witch and The Sea, Squad, illustrated by Lisa Sterle, and Love in the Library illustrated by Yas Imamura with more books forthcoming. She lives in Oakland, California with her husband, son, and their objectively perfect dog. Lee Wind is a storyteller out to engage, empower, and hold safe space for communities. He is the Chief Content Creator for the Independent Book Publishers Association and the author of multiple books, including the nonfiction titles No Way, They Were Gay? and The Gender Binary Is a Big Lie, the novels Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill and A Different Kind of Brave, and social justice and Queer-history themed picture books. Lee's popular blog is I'm Here. I'm Queer. What the Hell Do I Read? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Dialogue Doctor Coach Laura Humm sits down with author Danielle Bonneau to talk about Danielle's work in progress. They focus on an important scene in Danielle's work in progress. After talking about high lighting and other editing tools, they get into the characters emotional flows and wants/needs at the turns in each scene. For more on the craft of writing, come to https://dialoguedoctor.com/

Dean Cain joining ICE upset some people, Eli Zaret joins us, Marc Maron mad at Joe Rogan, Howard Stern's staff, Andy Green quits the internet, Breezy Bowl brawls, Maz roots for his hot takes, and we call Fred Haise to eulogize his Apollo 13 commander James Lovell. Thomas A. Mazawey wrote off Riley Greene and the Detroit Tigers. The Tigers won today and Greene homered. Some people are saying that Maz is rooting for his hot takes to be correct. Eli Zaret drops by to chat Tigers, Matt Vierling's injury, Boston Red Sox Roman Anthony's new deal, gambling killed a TikTok star's child, Sydney Sweeney controversy, Justin Verlander's 3,500 strikeouts, the Detroit Lions latest preseason game, WNBA dildo-tosser on the loose, a new purple dildo attack, Caitlin Clark reverse-racism and more. Jim Bentley is practicing his field goals. Chris Brown in town led to some Breeze Bowl brawls. Fat chicks love Brown. Diddy is ready to give back to the community as an anti-abuse advocate. Down goes NASCAR driver Connor Zilisch. He hurts himself celebrating his victory. The Montana bar quadruple murderer has been caught. The city of Chicago needs money. Some people are saying everyone there is getting robbed or shot. Donald Trump wanted to nail Emma Thompson. The Cincinnati brawl victim still looks like awful, but she's raking in that GiveSendGo cash. RIP Jim Lovell. We connect with fellow Apollo 13 astronaut Fred Haise to eulogize the Commander. The Howard Stern news is still circulating. What will become of the bloated staff? Lawyer Jennie Lynnie May joins OnlyFans after joining her daughter's channel. Annie Charlotte is raking it in with her two vaginas. Superman Dean Cain is getting crap from celebrities for joining ICE. We watch Corey Feldman perform ‘Characters' live. Marc Maron is popping off against the Rogan-sphere. He has a new special out on HBO. Hey Kate Gosselin… why you look different? Fox 2 reporter Jessica Dupnack posts a pic that sent the Boner Army into a stampede. There was a CDC shooting. Andy Green has shut down his Twitter and YouTube accounts. Deadheads know how to rally around a GoFundMe If you'd like to help support the show… consider subscribing to our YouTube Channel, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter (Drew Lane, Marc Fellhauer, Trudi Daniels, Jim Bentley and BranDon).

o be honest, we have no idea what this show is about. Image is of an African wildcat. Sign up for a Backstage Pass and enjoy a 30,000 plus hour archive, Phil's new podcast, Classic podcasts, Bobbie Dooley's podcasts, special live streaming events and shows, and oh so very much more…See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week, Steph and I talk about books with memorable characters who we will never forget!Books We've Been ReadingYou Belong HereDon't Forget the GirlRecursionDoll PartsHoney and SpiceDo What Godmother SaysBooks with Memorable CharactersJunieRemarkably Bright CreaturesDissolutionThe Paper PalaceAn Inconvenient WomanNone of This is True Check Out My Stories Are My Religion SubstackCheck Out Author Social Media PackagesCheck out the Bookwild Community on PatreonCheck out the Imposter Hour Podcast with Liz and GregFollow @imbookwild on InstagramOther Co-hosts On Instagram:Gare Billings @gareindeedreadsSteph Lauer @books.in.badgerlandHalley Sutton @halleysutton25Brian Watson @readingwithbrian

From Joker to Siddarth Abimanyu to the arse hole who committed genocides, people have been romanticizing these characters so in this episode Haashiraamaa Senju and Uchiha Madara discuss this culture in detail.

The Tower of Nero, ch. 21 to 25 This week on Unwise Girls, we open the prison bars of mediocrity into the holding cell of pretty good to discuss what exactly Rick is cooking up for Apollo and friends. Characters that should've been introduced three books ago? Yep, check. Nero being such a good villain that he truly makes the previous ones feel like total side quests? Absolutely, absolutely. Buff lion men all oiled up and sweaty, panting and shit about how much they want to take your... immortality? I think something like that happened. Come back next week for The Tower of Nero, ch. 26 to 30! Check out our Patreon! (https://www.patreon.com/unwisegirls) Follow the show (https://twitter.com/unwisegirls) Join our Discord! (https://discord.gg/XnhhwzKQ8d) Hosted by Jacqueline (https://twitter.com/swampduchess) and Jane (https://twitter.com/janeyshivers). Edited by Jacqueline. Cover art by Vera (https://twitter.com/Innsmouth_Inn). Intro/outro: "Super Mariocean" by spacepony (https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR01147) This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

We chop it up with random facts, 501 jeans talk, Shit Quiz and a visit from Backham. Find our Patreon page HERE.Join the How 'Bout This Discord server to be part of the conversation.Spark Podcast Network.Executive Produced by Jason Geary, Karl McConnell and Rik Brown.Produced and Edited by Jason Geary.Music by THE Robbie Ellis. Check him out on Spotify here.  ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

We finish our deep dive into Ardyn and talk about his stories end. We also dive into the different endings that the DLC and book provide. Make sure to follow us on Twitter at @FFLorecast. Want to suggest a future topic for us on the show? Email us at ⁠fflorecast@gmail.com⁠ Live every Wednesday at 8pm est/5pm pst on ⁠twitch.tv/benoftemeria⁠ New episodes Every Friday! Robot Radio Network Discord: ⁠https://discord.gg/AW5Wc4kgZb⁠ Ben and Friends Podcasting Discord: ⁠https://discord.gg/DmPZ2NHhFx⁠ Patreon: ⁠patreon.com/FinalFantasyLorecast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Holistic guru Deanne Wheeler hosts Celebrity Rehab. Written by Rory Macleod.Sign up for a Backstage Pass and enjoy archives, Phil's new podcast, Classic podcasts, Bobbie Dooley's podcasts, special live streaming events and shows, and oh so very much more…See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode Clayton is afraid of Tony the Llama, Barney is afraid of Tony the Llama, Coral is afraid of Tony the Llama, and Randy is afraid of Tony the Llama. The Plot... Thickens!

AP correspondent Ed Donahue reports on stamps in Britain honoring an iconic comedy group.

Who is the sexiest cartoon character? The Thursday crew decides who reigns supreme in the world of animation

Dr Elcott and his “blended one” Gloria Grover fight to keep Elcott The Next Step on the platform. Sign up for a Backstage Pass and enjoy archives, Phil's new podcast, Classic podcasts, Bobbie Dooley's podcasts, special live streaming events and shows, and oh so very much more…See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week, Gravy is excited to share a special episode from a show we think you'll love: Culinary Characters Unlocked. Hosted by David Page, the creator of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, the show highlights bold food makers whose stories might surprise you.  In this episode, we meet chef Marisa Baggett, a Black, Jewish, female sushi chef whose journey began in a Mississippi café where she'd never even seen sushi before. One question from a customer launched her into a new world, eventually leading her to train at the California Sushi Academy and write two cookbooks that make sushi more accessible to home cooks everywhere. Marisa's story is one of passion, persistence, and breaking expectations—both cultural and culinary. We think you'll be as fascinated by Marisa's story as we are.  If you like what you hear, tune in every Tuesday for new episodes of Culinary Characters Unlocked. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

P&C drink and review a single-hop beer from Brookeville Beer Farm, then Crowhill quizzes Pigweed on the most important characters in English literature. Crowhill combined replies from both ChatGPT and Grok to create a test for Pigweed. The prompt read as follow: "Please give me a list of the 30 most important characters in English literature. By important I mean they have made a lasting impression on the culture, they're cited, they're imitated or referenced in other works, and so on. Please exclude the Bible. Please give no more than two characters from any given author. Please list the character, the author, the book in which the character appears, and a brief description of the character." Pigweed does a great job guessing characters from Shakespeare, Austen, Bronte, Conan Doyle, Orwell, Dickens, Twain, Orwell, and others. The boys also give an update to their "have we reached the end of woke" show. More at ... https://www.pigweedandcrowhill.com/https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYAjUk6LttQyUk_fV9F46R06OQgH39exQ#literature #authors #English

The Dooley's final report, live on location at THRE as the men at Western Estates admit they want to live in Bobbie's ass. Steve Bosell also guests. Sign up for a Backstage Pass and enjoy archives, Phil's new podcast, Classic podcasts, Bobbie Dooley's podcasts, special live streaming events and shows, and oh so very much more…See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Join us as our guest, Adam, shares his family's magical experience on a 5-night Bahamian sailing aboard the beloved Disney…

Milton and Kaleb explore how to authentically portray characters whose experiences are completely outside your own. They discuss the crucial role of script analysis in understanding what kind of person your character is within the specific world of the play. Kaleb shares his current challenge, balancing the playwright's thematic intentions with finding the character's personal motivations. They examine practical techniques like taking your character to imaginary places outside the play and how sometimes a single powerful image can unlock an entire performance without needing to experience every detail of the character's background.

In this sermon, Curtis looks at two more characters and their response to the moment of crisis in Israel: David and Jonathon

Welcome to Flava Breakfast's Off the Record - an online exclusive, too spicy for radio! For more, follow our socials: Instagram Facebook TikTokSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's part two of The Best of Erica Dorton, the part witch headmistress of Steve Jr and April Jr Bosell's middle school. Sign up for a Backstage Pass and enjoy archives, Phil's new podcast, Classic podcasts, Bobbie Dooley's podcasts, special live streaming events and shows, and oh so very much more…See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

There's a new most powerful AI model in townApple is trying to make a ChatGPT competitor.And OpenAI? Well.... they're in a capacity crunch.Big Tech made some BIG moves in AI this week. And you probably missed them. Don't worry. We gotchyu. On Mondays, Everyday AI brings you the AI News that Matters. No B.S. No marketing fluff. Just what you need to know to be the smartest person in AI at your company. Newsletter: Sign up for our free daily newsletterMore on this Episode: Episode PageJoin the discussion: Thoughts on this? Join the convo and connect with other AI leaders on LinkedIn.Upcoming Episodes: Check out the upcoming Everyday AI Livestream lineupWebsite: YourEverydayAI.comEmail The Show: info@youreverydayai.comConnect with Jordan on LinkedInTopics Covered in This Episode:OpenAI Study Mode in ChatGPT LaunchGoogle Gemini 2.5 Deep Think ReleaseGemini 2.5 Parallel Thinking and Coding BenchmarksGoogle AI Mode: PDF and Canvas FeaturesNotebook LM Video Overviews CustomizationMicrosoft Edge Copilot Mode Experimental RolloutOpenAI GPT-5 Model Launch DelaysApple Building In-House ChatGPT CompetitorMicrosoft and OpenAI Partnership RenegotiationAdditional AI Tool Updates: Runway, Midjourney, IdeogramTimestamps:00:00 AI Industry Updates and Competition03:22 ChatGPT's Study Mode Promotes Critical Thinking09:02 "Google AI Search Mode Enhancements"10:21 Google AI Enhances Learning Tools16:14 Microsoft Edge Introduces Copilot Mode20:18 OpenAI GPT-5 Delayed Speculation22:42 Apple Developing In-House ChatGPT Rival27:06 Microsoft-OpenAI Partnership Renegotiation30:51 Microsoft-OpenAI Partnership Concerns Rise33:23 AI Updates: Video, Characters, AmazonKeywords:Microsoft and OpenAI renegotiation, Copilot, OpenAI, GPT-5, AI model, Google Gemini 2.5, Deep Think mode, Google AI mode, Canvas mode, NotebookLM, AI browser, Agentic browser, Edge browser, Perplexity Comet, Sora, AI video tool, AI image editor, Apple AI chatbot, ChatGPT competitor, Siri integration, Artificial General Intelligence, AGI, Large Language Models, AI education tools, Study Mode, Academic cheating, Reinforcement learning, Parallel thinking, Code Bench Competition, Scientific reasoning, Chrome, Google Lens, Search Live, AI-powered search, PDF upload, Google Drive integration, Anthropic, Meta, Superintelligent labs, Amazon Alexa, Fable Showrunner, Ideogram, Midjourney, Luma Dream Machine, Zhipu GLM 4.5, Runway Alif, Adobe Photoshop harmonize, AI funding, AI product delays, AI feature rollout, AI training, AI onboarding, AI-powered presentations, AI-generated overviews, AI in business, AI technology partnership, AI investment, AI talent acqSend Everyday AI and Jordan a text message. (We can't reply back unless you leave contact info) Ready for ROI on GenAI? Go to youreverydayai.com/partner

The story revolves around the adventures of the Green Hornet, a daring young publisher who takes on racketeers and saboteurs. The narrative unfolds with an investigation into sabotage, leading to a confrontation with antagonists and a thrilling chase. The themes of danger, mystery, and the quest for justice are prevalent throughout the dialogue.TakeawaysThe Green Hornet is a daring character who challenges criminals.The investigation reveals layers of sabotage and conspiracy.Characters display a mix of bravery and fear in dangerous situations.The threat of exposure looms over the Green Hornet's identity.The narrative builds tension through confrontations and chases.The importance of teamwork is highlighted between Britt Reid and Kato.The story showcases the struggle between good and evil.Mystery elements keep the audience engaged and guessing.The dialogue reflects the era's style and character dynamics.The resolution emphasizes the consequences of crime and justice.

Not another death in comics? Don't worry there's always the Replacement Character! In this episode, we dive into some of our favorite stand-ins and successors from DC Comics, Marvel, and other publishers. Plus, Bryan shares stories from his first-ever San Diego Comic-Con, and we talk recent reads including Superman, Justice League Unlimited, The New History of the DC Universe, and Ultimate Spider-Man: Incursion.   You can follow us on Bluesky @comicsdiscourse114.bsky.social, Instagram: @comicsdiscourse114, Threads: @comicsdiscourse114, and Facebook: Facebook Comics Discourse 114 Also, please leave us a 5-star review at your favorite podcast platforms.  

Send us a textIn this week's episode please join Matty and Mo as they give a review over the Top Ten Fire Powered Characters of Anime! We love our hot headed fire wielders, breathers, and benders with their assertive and spicy personality that they bring to their shows! In this list we see who can take who of fire wielders!! Wanna see what we put on the list?? Listen to find out!!Join us next week when we review Terra Formers!!Support the show

In this week's episode, I take a look back at the challenges of finishing my STEALTH & SPELLS ONLINE LitRPG trilogy. This coupon code will get you 50% off the audiobooks in the Malison series (as excellently narrated by Brad Wills) at my Payhip store: MALISONSUMMER50 The coupon code is valid through August 18, 2025. So if you need a new audiobook this summer, we've got you covered! TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Updates Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 262 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is August 1, 2025, and today we are looking at how I finished my LitRPG trilogy at long last. Before we get into that, we will have Coupon of the Week, a progress update on my current writing and audiobook projects, and Question of the Week. First up is Coupon of the Week. This coupon code will get you 50% off the audiobooks in the Malison series (as excellently narrated by Brad Wills) at my Payhip store: MALISONSUMMER50. And as always, we will include the coupon code and the link to my Payhip store in the show notes. And this coupon code is valid through August 18th, 2025. So if you need a new audiobook this summer, we have got you covered. Now let's take a look at where I'm at with my current writing projects. As I mentioned in previous episodes, Stealth and Spells Online: Final Quest, the final book in the Stealth and Spells Online trilogy, is finished. You can get that at Amazon and Kindle Unlimited. It is doing slightly better than the previous two in the trilogy, which makes it the bestselling book in the trilogy so far. So thank you all for that. My next main project is Ghost in the Siege, which will be the sixth and final book in the Ghost Armor series. I am 53,000 words into that as of this recording, which puts me about halfway through, give or take. I'm also 6,000 words into Blade of Flames, which will be the first book in my new epic fantasy series that I will begin once Ghost in the Siege is out. In audiobook news, Shield of Power--recording for it is underway. That will be excellently narrated by Brad Wills and hopefully that will be out in probably towards the end of September sometime, if all goes well. 00:01:49 Question of the Week Now let's move on to Question of the Week, which is designed to inspire enjoyable discussions of interesting topics. This week's question: what is your favorite book you've read in 2025 so far? No wrong answers, obviously. The inspiration for this question was that June 30th was the halfway point of the year, which naturally inspires both reflection and some mandatory bookkeeping. Mary says: Witch Hat Atelier Volume 13 by Kamome Shirahama (which I probably mispronounced). After having read the rest of the series, of course. Juana says: Hidden Nature by Nora Roberts. Jonathan T. says: The Genesis Enigma: Why the Bible is Scientifically Accurate. This book is like my favorite nonfiction book so far of the year, while my favorite in the fiction category is likely Hardy Boys Casefiles: Dead On Target. Roger says: Just finished the latest in the Magelands Series, The Lost Ascendant. Really good, but a long series-even longer than yours, Jonathan. Gary says: It wasn't published in 2025 (I'm tragically behind the times) but Murtaugh by Christopher Paolini. Lynda says: Sunset by Sharon Sala. Denny says: Not sure if Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archives: Wind and Truth counts. It was released in December of 2024, but it's the newest book I've read. John K. says: My favorite book so far is by new indie author, J.L. Odom, By Blood By Salt. It's in line with apparently my favorite genre of MC called (I can't tell if this is disparaging or not) “competency porn” where the main character is well, uber competent. For myself, I think my favorite book of the year so far for 2025 would be The Icarus Coda by Timothy Zahn, which wraps up his excellent Icarus sci-fi mystery series after 25 years. So I definitely recommend you check out the Icarus series if you get a chance and if you're looking for other interesting things to read, apparently we have a few recommendations for you as well. 00:03:29 Main Topic: How I Finally Finished the Stealth and Spells Online Trilogy Now let's move on to our main topic this week. How I finally finished the Stealth and Spells Online trilogy with the last book, Stealth and Spells Online: Final Quest. I'm very grateful to everyone who read the trilogy and enjoyed it. All told, it took about 10 months to write Stealth and Spells Online: Final Quest, from September of 2024 to July 2025, when I finally published it. So that's a lot longer than it takes for me to usually write a book. So what took so long? Well, a lot of things went wrong. Let's look back. Towards the end of 2022, I decided I wanted to try something a little different, so I settled on LitRPG, which seemed promising because it's pretty popular. For the story, I had an idea of a software developer who was fired from a virtual reality MMORPG once he realized it was dangerous and how he starts playing the game to uncover the proof he needs of the corporation's evil plans. I also had why I thought would be a clever idea. The game would be based on my Frostborn books. Like, it's set 700 years in the future and some interstellar scout discovered the Frostborn books on a wrecked colony ship, and then the evil corporation built the game around them. I decided the game would be called Sevenfold Sword Online, which meant it was the logical name for the series. So I wrote Sevenfold Sword Online: Creation and published it in February of 2023. And alas, it didn't do particularly well. A couple of problems became immediately apparent. First, and perhaps foremost, the title was causing confusion. People assumed it was connected to my Sevenfold Sword series and was in some way a sequel to that series, which it wasn't. Second, people were confused and wondered if the Ridmark Arban and Calliande Arban NPCs in the game were the actual characters from the Frostborn, Sevenfold Sword, and Dragontiarna books. They weren't. But in comedy, there's a saying that if you have to explain the joke you've already lost. I suppose a parallel conclusion would be that if you have to explain the characters are NPCs in the game world based on your books 700 years in the future, then the concept of the book is probably a bit too abstract. Second, the book didn't really appeal to a majority of my regular readers who prefer epic fantasy from me. Case in point- when I published Half-Elven Thief in December 2023, in its first month it did 66% of what Stealth and Spells Online: Creation has done in the entire three and a half years it has been available, and I'm recording this on August 1st, 2025. So in its first month, Half-Elven Thief did two thirds of what Creation did the entire three and a half years it's been published. In its lifetime, Half-Elven Thief has sold 250% more than Stealth and Spells Online: Creation, and it's been out for ten and a half fewer months than Creation. Clearly, the majority of my regular readers prefer epic fantasy over LitRPG. Despite these setbacks, I continued onward and published Sevenfold Sword Online: Leveling in February of 2024. It did slightly worse than Creation. So for the rest of 2024, I on and off tried a bunch of things to improve how the series fared. To avoid confusion, I changed the title from Sevenfold Sword Online to Stealth and Spells Online, which it currently is. I redid the cover art, I changed the description, all the usual things for improving a series, and none of it ever really worked. I could never quite turn a profit when advertising the book. During these experiments, I realized I had fundamentally misread the LitRPG market because the three most popular kinds of LitRPG are: 1. Portal fantasy, when the protagonist falls through a portal and ends up in another world that runs on MMORPG style rules for whatever reason. 2. Isekai. The character dies and is reborn in a world that runs on MMORPG style rules. You'll see this in books with titles like I Died and was Reborn as a Level One Healer, something like that. 3. System Apocalypse. The world ends and is recreated as a living MMORPG, usually overseen by an all powerful “game system” (hence the name). The system can be created by gods or incomprehensibly powerful space aliens and is often malevolent. Dungeon Crawler Carl, where Earth is destroyed and remade into an MMORPG system as part of a sadistic alien game show is probably the most well-known example of this particular subgenre. The problem is that Stealth and Spells Online fits into none of these popular subgenres. I joke that I tried to write a LitRPG, but it ended up as a sci-fi thriller. I mean “software developer fighting sinister corporation's evil plans” is a sci-fi cyberpunk story, not a LitRPG. So I was trying to tell a story ill-suited for that particular genre, like attempting to write a cozy contemporary mystery in the format of an epic Arthurian fantasy quest. Like that idea could potentially work, but it probably wouldn't. With that realization, I had three choices about how to proceed. 1. Leave Stealth and Spells Online unfinished and never speak of it again. 2. Unpublish Stealth and Spells Online and never speak of it again. 3. Find a way to finish Stealth and Spells Online in a satisfactory fashion with a single book because I didn't want to write a long series that sold poorly. I disliked Options One and Two, partly for reasons of professional pride and partly because it's bad to get a reputation in the fantasy genre for leaving series unfinished. You don't want to leave readers hanging longer than is necessary. The tricky part for Option Three was I had originally planned Stealth and Spells Online to be like seven or eight books, and I was only two books into what I had outlined for the story. An additional, potentially major real life problem was that the Stealth and Spells Online books sold badly enough to seriously tank book sales in the month they were released. Like both February 2023 and February 2024 were some of my weakest sales months in the past decade. So that meant I needed an outline for the final book that would discard all the planned subplots and focus entirely on the main plot. I also needed to write the book as a side project and not a main project because I knew it probably would not sell well. Ideally, it would come out in the same month as a much stronger seller like one of the Shield War books. So in October of 2024, I started chipping away at what would become Stealth and Spells Online: Final Quest at 500 words a day. I would write 250 words before going to the gym in the morning and then 250 more words after dinner. During the normal workday, my main focus was on whatever book in the Shield War, Ghost Armor, Cloak Mage, and Half-Elven Thief series I was writing at the time. (As I've said before, having five unfinished series at the time is way too many, which is why I spent summer 2025 trying to get that number down.) But I did my 250 words in the morning and my 250 words after dinner almost every day. I just kept chipping away at it. Finally, in July of 2025, I was very nearly to the end of the book. After I published Shield of Power, I decided I was far enough along to make Final Quest my main project. Turns out I actually was pretty far along, since I only needed to write 3,000 more words to finish the book. Two rounds of editing and some new scenes later (I added a bunch of stuff since I thought the original ending was incomplete) and I published the book in July of 2025. It turned out reasonably well. People seemed to like the ending and find it satisfactory (at least those who read it). Final Quest sold slightly better than its predecessors. But to be honest, Shield of Power has generated sales in its first three days equal to what Final Quest did in its first two weeks. So I'm grateful for everyone who read the trilogy or listened to the two audiobooks. I'm really grateful that you read it or listened to it and enjoyed it. But in all honesty, I'm glad to be done with the trilogy. I've always been kind of sad when I finished my other series, especially the big ones, but with Stealth and Spells Online, I'm just relieved to be done and that I don't have to think about it very much anymore. It's easier to promote a finished trilogy than an unfinished series. Probably I'm going to make the first book free every three months, run some ads to it while it's free, and that will be that. I just signed up with C.J. McAllister a few days ago to do the audiobook version of Final Quest (and he did a very good job on the first two books in the trilogy), so eventually we'll probably have a Stealth and Spells Online: The Complete Trilogy audiobook, since audiobook bundles always do well and I expect a complete trilogy audiobook bundle would likewise do well. Amusingly, I realized that to finish this book, I essentially followed my own advice that I've been giving for years. I always say on this podcast and my blog that you can finish a novel if you just keep chipping away at it and small efforts add up over time. Final Quest turned out to be about 117,000 words, and I mostly got there 500 words at a time. Do I regret writing Stealth and Spells Online? No. But obviously if I had to do it all over again, I would definitely do some things differently. Will I ever return to writing in the LitRPG genre? Probably not. I listed all the popular subgenres of LitRPG earlier, and while I don't have anything against any of those subgenres, I just don't have any particular interest in writing a story that revolves around those tropes. For all that my books tend to be escapist, I always need to have at least a touchstone of reality in them so they make sense to me. Characters like Wire, Admiral Winterholt, and Alexander Maskell could definitely have their real-life (even contemporary) equivalents. LitRPG story tropes in general seem to be about a flight from reality. There's nothing wrong with that, of course, but it's not something I'm really interested in writing. I mean, I designed the Andomhaim setting in Frostborn around people who traveled from Sub-Roman Britain in the 500s A.D. to a world where magic is real, so that way I could make real-world historical references. I think if pressed, I could write a pretty good novel in the genres of epic fantasy, science fiction, mystery, thriller, and romance. But I'm not at all sure I could write a good book in the LitRPG subgenres I listed. Honestly, maybe I'm just too old for it. I don't think I encountered an MMORPG for the first time until I was, I think 24 or 25 years old, and I've never actually seriously played one, so it definitely wasn't a formative experience for me the way it was for many LitRPG authors. In fact, if I'm remembering it right, my first serious encounter with an MMORPG was in fact at work when I got an IT support ticket about network throttling, complaining about how long a World of Warcraft update was taking to download. So that is how I finally finished the Stealth and Spells Online trilogy. And once again, thank you to everyone who read and listened to these Stealth and Spells Online trilogy. I hope you found it enjoyable. So that is it for this week. Thank you for listening to The Pulp Writer Show. I hope you found the show useful. A reminder that you can listen to all the back episodes at https://thepulpwritershow.com. If you enjoyed the podcast, please leave your review on your podcasting platform of choice. Stay safe and stay healthy and see you all next week.

SummaryIn this episode of the Watch That Jawn podcast, hosts James and Mary delve into the latest installment of the Jurassic franchise, 'Jurassic World Rebirth.' They reflect on the nostalgia of the original Jurassic Park, discuss the evolution of dinosaurs in film, and analyze the plot and character dynamics. The conversation touches on themes of family, action, and suspense, while also highlighting Scarlett Johansson's performance. The hosts share their thoughts on the significance of dinosaurs in storytelling and the overall impact of the film. In this conversation, Mary and James review a recent Jurassic Park movie, discussing the various themes of adventure, survival, and the ethical implications of science. They explore the dangers posed by dinosaurs, the dynamics of family relationships in crisis situations, and the moral dilemmas faced by characters in pursuit of profit. The conversation culminates in their ratings and final thoughts on the film, emphasizing the entertainment value despite its flawsTakeawaysJurassic Park remains a beloved classic for many.The evolution of the Jurassic franchise reflects changing cinematic trends.Family dynamics play a crucial role in the Jurassic films.Scarlett Johansson's character adds depth to the story.The portrayal of dinosaurs has shifted from realistic to fantastical.The film's action sequences are both thrilling and suspenseful.Nostalgia for the original films influences audience expectations.Character motivations often reflect broader themes of exploitation and greed.The film's title 'Rebirth' suggests a new direction for the franchise.The hosts' personal experiences shape their views on the film. The adventure begins with the team collecting samples from dinosaurs.Flying dinosaurs are considered the most dangerous due to their predatory nature.Survival situations often lead to unexpected sacrifices.Family dynamics play a crucial role in crisis situations.The ethics of science and profit are questioned throughout the film.Characters often face moral dilemmas in their pursuit of success.The film's portrayal of dinosaurs shifts from thrilling to monstrous.Entertainment value can outweigh a film's shortcomings.The importance of character development is highlighted in their ratings.The conversation reflects on the overall experience of watching the film.Chapters00:00 Introduction to Jurassic World Rebirth02:49 Nostalgia for Jurassic Park05:39 The Evolution of Dinosaurs in Film08:31 Plot Overview of Jurassic World Rebirth11:35 Character Introductions and Dynamics14:39 Discussion on Dinosaurs and Their Representation17:09 Scarlett Johansson's Role and Impact19:53 Family Dynamics and the Mosasaurus Attack24:49 Fear of the Ocean's Giants25:30 Family Dynamics in Jurassic Park28:02 Parental Responsibility in Fiction28:55 Nostalgia for Childhood Dinosaurs31:28 The Thrill of the Chase37:03 Survival Instincts in Crisis40:17 The Dangers of Flying Dinosaurs46:35 The Reality of Animal Behavior50:27 Predator and Prey Dynamics51:02 Family Dynamics and Decision Making52:26 The T-Rex Encounter54:35 Character Development and Backstory56:41 The Ethics of Dinosaur Ownership57:22 Corporate Greed and Morality59:20 The Evolution of Dinosaurs01:02:41 The Shift in Genre01:04:33 Final Thoughts and RatingsSpoiler Alert: We discuss the episode thoroughly, so please watch before tuning in.

Sermon from August 3, 2025; 6:00pm.

On today's episode, Sam and Morgan discuss Scotland, cookies, and talking things into reality. We also dive into A Theory of Dreaming by Ava Reid, the second novel following A Study of Drowning, which we read and discussed two years ago in episode 90. In this episode, we explore whether this book needed a sequel or if it would have worked better as a standalone. Trigger Warnings: Suicide, Death of a Parent, Sexism, Classism, Violence, Sexual Harassment, War, Sexual Assault, Mental Health, Depression, Drug Abuse, and Anxiety.   About The Novel: Return to the immersive, lush, and dreamlike world of the instantly bestselling dark academia fantasy A Study in Drowning as the aftermath of their first discovery pulls Effy and Preston on a final adventure and brings their haunting love story to its end in this stunning sequel and final book in the duology. All stories come to an end. Effy learned that when she defeated the Fairy King. Even though she may never know exactly what happened at Hiraeth, she is free of her nightmares and is able to pen a thesis with Preston on the beloved national fairy tale Angharad. She has finally earned a spot at the literature college, making her the first woman in history to enroll. But some dreams are dangerous, especially when they come true. The entire university—and soon the entire nation—is waiting for her to fail. With the Fairy King defeated and Myrddin's legacy exposed, Effy can no longer escape into fantasy. Who is she without her stories? With Effy under threat, Preston is surprised to discover a rage simmering inside him, ringing in his ears like bells. He begins to dream of a palace under the sea, a world where he is king—visions that start to follow him even in waking. As the war between Llyr and Argant explodes, Effy and Preston find themselves caught in the crossfire: Effy losing her dreams and Preston losing himself in his. Are dreams ever truly just dreams?   Want to check us out please click here!

On this week's TrekRanks we get up-close and personal with some of those off-beat, hard-luck, put-upon characters with a deep dive on the “Top 5 Sad-Sack Characters” in Trek. It's a celebration (mostly!) of those maybe slightly out-of-place characters who sometimes deservedly and sometimes undeservedly get a bad reputation. Our panel of host Jim Moorhouse and experts Claire Little and Rick Everson have a fun time breaking this one down with some deep cuts and top shelf choices! Episode Rundown: Diagnostic Cycle: We tell you the etymology of the terminology sad-sack before diving in the topic to get a full understanding of this topic. Prime Directive: Each guest on this week's panel reveals exactly how they narrowed down their list and made their final choices. The Order of Things: All the picks are revealed with the TrekRanks' original “Five words and a hashtag” summary, along with one episode that helps frame their choice. Secondary Systems: For a few extra picks that just missed our final list. Regeneration Cycle: The panel recaps their picks and we dissect some of the interesting statistical anomalies that arose from the discussion. Temporal Inversion: We flashback to a previous episode of TrekRanks and relay some of the feedback received from listeners. If you have your own picks you would like to relay to us, please hail us at 757-828-RANK (7265) and record your own personal TrekRanks log to let us know your Top 5 Sad-Sack Characters. (Or you can record it yourself and just DM us @TrekRanks.com on Bluesky.) Your comments could be used as part of a Temporal Causality Loop on an upcoming episode (and might get you a chance to be a guest on a future episode, too). And don't forget to check out TrekRanks.com for our entire back catalog of episodes and a detailed rundown on every episode of Star Trek ever.      

Send us a textIn this emotional installment of “Characters From Corporate.” A Man from Houston shares a confession that unpack the darker sides of Black masculinity and ambition in corporate America.The first story comes from a 38-year-old engineer who admits to bullying his team, only to face a heartbreaking wake-up call when one of his direct reports attempts suicide. He reflects on how his trauma, fear, and need to survive shaped his toxic behavior—and wonders if it's too late to change.Eric and Stu don't hold back in their responses. They offer tough love, practical ideas for accountability, and a few sharp laughs along the way (including a nudge to "cut the check").

The story of the original Bob Banana…a talk show host on WQQQ. Sign up for a Backstage Pass and enjoy archives, Phil's new podcast, Classic podcasts, Bobbie Dooley's podcasts, special live streaming events and shows, and oh so very much more…See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Notes and Links to Jordan Harper's Work           Jordan Harper is the Edgar-Award winning author of THE LAST KING OF CALIFORNIA, EVERYBODY KNOWS, SHE RIDES SHOTGUN and LOVE AND OTHER WOUNDS. Born and educated in Missouri, he now lives in Los Angeles, where he works as a writer and producer for television. Buy She Rides Shotgun   Jordan Harper's Author Page for Goodreads   She Rides Shotgun Review from Kirkus Reviews   Buy Tickets for She Rides Shotgun At about 3:30, Jordan talks about wanting a bullet wound of a main character to be a visceral and realistic for the reader  At about 4:30, Pete shares a perhaps apocryphal story of a damning way that Sicilian Mafiosi would kill At about 5:20, Jordan further explains a piece of the book that explains an interesting connection to gun violence At about 6:00, Pete references Mario Puzo and his research for his Mafia writing in asking Jordan about his own research for She Rides Shotgun At about 8:25, Jordan shares interesting insights into ways to jumpstart research through using RICO files At about 10:50, Jordan describes his philosophy on realism, and gives credit to Chuck Palahnuik's approach and advice At about 13:10, Jordan specifies Slab Town in his book as an example of a possibly unrealistic place that is provided evidence of realism and describes his view on violence in his writing At about 14:40, Jordan riffs on John Wick and the “ziplessness of the violence”  At about 16:00, Pete quotes a wise writer friend about noir and horror, etc., and how they are the venues for so much important and brilliant contemporary writing; he also means to shout out Jordan's incredible recent short story, “My Savage Year” At about 18:00, Jordan talks about “A Violent Masterpiece” as a title of a future book, and its genesis, as well as connections to escapism   At about 21:20, Jordan talks about a shift in subject manner in his latest work, in a more macro-/government At about 22:55, Jordan replies to Pete asking about what it's like to see the movie version of She Rides Shotgun in the theater; he quotes Jill Ciment in describing the wonder of having your writing adapted to the big screen  At about 24:50, Jordan provides a summary of She Rides Shotgun At about 27:00, Jordan talks about the book's protagonist, Polly, and the ways in which she's been “oppressed” At about 29:00, Jordan talks about ideas of hate, oppression, intolerance, fascism, and free speech as connected to Nazism and hate At about 30:40, Pete compliments the “fish out of water” balance that Jordan uses with Polly, and Jordan responds to Pete's question about the idea of “gunfighter eyes”-attributed to Polly in the novel At about 32:40, Pete and Jordan provides a little exposition for the novel, particularly with regard to the father and daughter relationship, or lack thereof At about 33:40, Pete connects a flashback scene into the novel to a great and intense story by William Carlos Williams, “The Use of Force” At about 34:20, Jordan responds to Pete asking about what keeps Polly with her father, even when she is-especially at the beginning-scared of him/by him At about 35:40, Jordan reflects on a mindset towards pain, and how this mindset manifests in the book At about 37:40, Pete and Jordan reflect on the book's time lapses and standout flashforward and time compression At about 39:10, Jordan highlights both the book and the idea of The Lie that Tells the Truth, and an important bear makes a cameo At about 41:00, Jordan talks about "complicating the machismo” by making the bear an important part of the novel's storyline At about 43:50, Pete reflects on the bear's significance and connection to the high school world; Jordan reflects on seeing himself in Polly, and how readers' comments made him reflect  At about 46:00, Jordan recounts how a change in POV in the drafts of the book changed the book's effects At about 48:55, Pete and Jordan reflect on the traumas in Polly's short life At about 52:15, Pete lauds Jordan's epic opening to the book- he reads the part about “Crazy Craig” and Jordan responds to Pete's questions about the deified Craig and some chill-inducing lines At about 53:45, Jordan references great friend and great writer S.A. Cosby in talking about “Old Testament”/ “New Testament” writing  At about 56:10, Pete and Jordan reflect on Detective Park's “buzz” from the life of an investigator; Jordan cites ridealongs with LAPD or LASD as writing fodder  At about 59:20, Jordan talks about the nuances of creating a “complex character” and dispenses some valuable writing advice  At about 1:04:25, Jordan responds to Pete's question about what it is like to see his words acted out on the big screen in the hands of skilled actors  At about 1:06:25- Pete reminds listeners to get their tickets to see She Rides Shotgun on the big screen          You can now subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, and leave me a five-star review. You can also ask for the podcast by name using Alexa, and find the pod on Stitcher, Spotify, and on Amazon Music. Follow Pete on IG, where he is @chillsatwillpodcast, or on Twitter, where he is @chillsatwillpo1. You can watch other episodes on YouTube-watch and subscribe to The Chills at Will Podcast Channel. Please subscribe to both the YouTube Channel and the podcast while you're checking out this episode.       Pete is very excited to have one or two podcast episodes per month featured on the website of Chicago Review of Books. The audio will be posted, along with a written interview culled from the audio. His conversation with Hannah Pittard, a recent guest, will be up in the next week or two at Chicago Review.     Sign up now for The Chills at Will Podcast Patreon: it can be found at patreon.com/chillsatwillpodcastpeterriehl      Check out the page that describes the benefits of a Patreon membership, including cool swag and bonus episodes. Thanks in advance for supporting Pete's one-man show, DIY podcast and extensive reading, research, editing, and promoting to keep this independent podcast pumping out high-quality content!     This month's Patreon bonus episode features an exploration of flawed characters, protagonists who are too real in their actions, and horror and noir as being where so much good and realistic writing takes place.     Pete has added a $1 a month tier for “Well-Wishers” and Cheerleaders of the Show.     This is a passion project, a DIY operation, and Pete would love for your help in promoting what he's convinced is a unique and spirited look at an often-ignored art form.    The intro song for The Chills at Will Podcast is “Wind Down” (Instrumental Version), and the other song played on this episode was “Hoops” (Instrumental)” by Matt Weidauer, and both songs are used through ArchesAudio.com.     Please tune in for Episode 288 with Camille Adams, who was born and raised in beautiful Trinidad and Tobago. Camille is a memoirist, a poet, and a nature writer, and the author of the explosive memoir How To Be Unmothered: a Trinidadian Memoir. The book was a finalist in the Restless Books Prize in New Immigrant Writing 2023, and it is out on August 19, the same day the episode drops.     Please go to ceasefiretoday.org, and/or https://act.uscpr.org/a/letaidin to call your congresspeople and demand an end to the forced famine and destruction of Gaza and the Gazan people.

Episode 198.) The Fantastic Four: First Steps Movie Discussion Once again here is our run of show courtesy of AI. They thought it was Fantastique…0:00:03 Long Lost Heroes Podcast and the Fantastic Four00:05:02 Family, Cinema, and the Role of the Fantastic Four00:08:12 A Detailed Discussion on the Reception and Analysis of the Marvel Cinematic Universe00:11:52 A Detailed Discussion on the Reception and Analysis of ' Galactus'00:21:57 Impact and Interpretation of Space Exploration in 1960s Cinema00:24:01 A Detailed Discussion on the Performance and Storytelling of the Marvel Movie00:30:02 A Detailed Discussion on the Characters and Storytelling of 'The Silver Surfer'00:36:06 Representation of Jewish Characters in Media and Their Impact00:42:18 Role and Plot of Doom in the Marvel Universe00:46:27 Artistic Aspects and Reception of a Marvel Film00:47:38 Presentation and Functionality of Superpowers in Cinema00:49:08 A Critical Discussion on the Success and Critique of the Fantastic Four MovieRemember to Subscribe on iTunesSubscribe on SpotifyPlease leave us a rating or review.

How To Sell A Service No One's Heard Of: Storytelling Strategies For Innovative Offers When you're offering something that's new to your audience—whether it's brand new to the world or simply unfamiliar to your audience—you face two major challenges: they're confused about what you offer and they don't see the value of the service. In this episode of the Strategic Storytelling podcast, I will show you how to use story—not fluff, not oversharing personal problems—to create clarity, establish relevance, and communicate the impact of your offer. You'll learn: The three reasons prospects get confused about a new service (#3 is the most common reason for offering any service) Real-world examples of small businesses solving this problem through stories (including those who should be using stories more than they are) A five-point checklist to craft stories that educate and convert (not just any story will work) If you're a service-based solopreneur or small business owner launching something innovative—or reintroducing an offer that's being overlooked—this episode is for you. Resources:  Downloadable Workbook: Cast the Characters in Your Business Story – Learn how to build strong stories using four essential roles: hero, guide, obstacle, and cheerleader. Click here. Work With Cathy: Want help crafting a story that clarifies your unique offer? Click here to get started.

The Best of Erica Dorton Part 1. From Rory MacLeod. Dorton, the headmistress of the middle school attended by Steve Bosell's children, communicated with parents by calling late at night and breathing into the phone. Sign up for a Backstage Pass and enjoy archives, Phil's new podcast, Classic podcasts, Bobbie Dooley's podcasts, special live streaming events and shows, and oh so very much more…See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Bobbie and Steve Dooley are dealing with a protest against them at the Western Estates security gate. Don Berman's past as a kid show host haunts him. Sign up for a Backstage Pass and enjoy archives, Phil's new podcast, Classic podcasts, Bobbie Dooley's podcasts, special live streaming events and shows, and oh so very much more…See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Phil interviews Deane Wheeler who's making changes at Wheeler Resort. Gloria Grover also guests. Interviews with people who've survived a zombie. Sign up for a Backstage Pass and enjoy archives, Phil's new podcast, Classic podcasts, Bobbie Dooley's podcasts, special live streaming events and shows, and oh so very much more…See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Steve Bosell, whose ancestors owned a plantation in Louisiana, travels to Bananaland. Drs Tarner and Sadler remember when Phil was 300 lbs. Sign up for a Backstage Pass and enjoy archives, Phil's new podcast, Classic podcasts, Bobbie Dooley's podcasts, special live streaming events and shows, and oh so very much more…See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.