Podcast appearances and mentions of Diane Duane

Hello, 2025! We are back! And we are joined by episode writers: Diane Duane and Peter Morwood! And we're also joined by Series Creator, Greg Weisman, as usual! We have a lively discussion about Diane and Peter's careers! Life in Ireland! The myth of Cu Chullain and the choices made in adapting this figure into the “Gargoyles Universe” because the mythological version is very colorful. We also discuss many other aspects of the episode, including sound design, the guest cast who took center stage, and the star power of Rory and Molly… and discussion of a couple of spin-offs that... Continue reading

HAPPY BARBCEMBER!!! In our continued efforts to avoid talking about Christmas and the Holidays, we are programming an entire month of Mainframe produced Barbie direct-to-video films. For the first installment, we are establishing the official Bibble Baseline™ and tackling the "classic" Fairytopia - a magical adventure drawn from a sparsely populated, murky forest that has a lot to say about baseball and adversity. Film covered for the podcast was Barbie: Fairytopia. Written by Elise Allen and Diane Duane. Directed by Walter P. Martishius and William Lau. Originally released on March 8, 2005. If you liked what you heard please and wish to support the show, please consider subscribing and leaving a nice review on your podcatcher of choice. Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/CartoonNightPod?s=20 Chris' Twitter: https://twitter.com/Cinemacreep Sylvie's Twitter: https://twitter.com/sylvieskeletons Theme song by https://soundcloud.com/hvsyn Logo designed by https://www.rachelsumlin.com/

Today, for Closing the Distance, Rev. Jeff Meyers talked with Diane Duane about Sunday's sermon, "Why Pray?" #roswellpresbyerian #sermonseries #worshipwithus SUBMIT YOUR QUESTION FOR CLOSING THE DISTANCE AT www.roswellpres.org/events/closingthedistance Special Guest: Diane Duane.

Zoë and Ryan are back this week to check in about the podcast, ~experiences~ and what they are reading! Check out Diane Duane at dianeduane.com Become a paid member of our Substack at bookhoes.substack.com for bonus content, including extended author interviews and access to The Drunken Literate episodes. Linktree: linktr.ee/nycbookhoes Instagram @nycbookhoes Email: nycbookhoes@gmail.com Books Mentioned in the Episode Young Wizards (Series) by Diane Duane Maximum Ride (Series) by James Patterson Witch and Wizard (Series) by James Patterson Percy Jackson (Series) by Rick Riordan Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova The St. Ambrose School for Girls by Jessica Ward Jade City by Fonda Lee Piglet by Lottie Hazell A Certain Hunger by Chelsea Summers White Horse by Erika T. Wurth Bunt!: Striking Out on Financial Aid by Ngozi Ukazu

Containing Matters In which the Captain goes Once more unto the Breach. Timestamps: a brief overview and recommenations of non-literature SF media before 1965 (0:00) personal backgrounds with Star Trek (25:58) Diane Duane background, Star Trek novel history, non-spoiler discussion (47:51) spoiler summary and spoiler discussion (1:20:36) Bibliography: Ayers, Jeff - "Voyages of Imagination: The Star Trek Fiction Companion" (2006) Bacon-Smith, Camille - "Enterprising women: television fandom and the creation of popular myth" (1992) Benson, Michael - "Vintage Science Fiction Films, 1896-1949" (1985) Costa, Jordi - "Hay Algo Ahí Afuera: Una Historia del Cine de Cine-Ficción, 1895-1959" (1997) McGilligan, Patrick - "Fritz Lang: The Nature of the Beast" (1997) Solomon, Matthew (ed.) "Fantastic Voyages of the Cinematic Imagination: Georges Méliès's Trip to the Moon" (2011) Verba, Joan Marie - "Boldly Writing: A Trekker Fan and Zine History, 1967 - 1987" (1996) Wade, John - "The Golden Age of Science Fiction: A Journey into Space with 1950s Radio, TV, Films, Comics and Books" (2019) Diane Duane personal websites: https://www.dianeduane.com/about-the-author/ https://www.dianeduane.com/outofambit/2022/08/30/on-becoming-a-star-trek-novelist/ https://dduane.tumblr.com/post/117189937126/whats-the-name-of-the-book-about-the-spider https://www.tumblr.com/dduane/742571028615725056/the-alien-and-the-pajamas-happened-in-the?source=share https://www.dianeduane.com/outofambit/2006/10/28/star-trek-the-next-generation-where-no-one-has-gone-before/ JM's Star Trek streams on John Gill's channel:https://www.youtube.com/@johngill6290

Special Guest: Diane Duane.

Whoops: hit the publish button early on this one! Enjoy all! That's another body in the marsh! In this episode we wrap up X-COM: UFO Defense by Diane Duane. Kevin loses it and relates Books to Bread. Phil gets very concerned. We have opened up our Patreon so if you are interested in supporting us financially you can do so at patreon.com/pixellitpod. Additionally if you would like to join the community but don't have any coin to spare you can still hop into our Discord! Socials Twitter: https://twitter.com/pixellitpod Instagram: https://instagram.com/pixellitpod Website: https://pixellitpod.com

In part 2 we dive deeper into the spreadsheet-y world of Diane Duane's X-COM: UFO Defense, published by Prima Books. Our hopes for this book are fading fast! Faster than a squaddie surrounded by Mutons! We have opened up our Patreon so if you are interested in supporting us financially you can do so at patreon.com/pixellitpod. Additionally if you would like to join the community but don't have any coin to spare you can still hop into our Discord! Socials Twitter: https://twitter.com/pixellitpod Instagram: https://instagram.com/pixellitpod Website: https://pixellitpod.com

New series! We are starting X-COM: UFO Defense which is a novelization of the original MicroProse game created by the Nick and Julian Gollop. This game ultimately inspired the remake from Firaxis which did away with that pesky hyphen and became XCOM. This novel is written by Diane Duane who has a list of credits a mile long. So strap in, get your laser rifle, and lets hunt some sectoids. We have opened up our Patreon so if you are interested in supporting us financially you can do so at patreon.com/pixellitpod. Additionally if you would like to join the community but don't have any coin to spare you can still hop into our Discord! Socials Twitter: https://twitter.com/pixellitpod Instagram: https://instagram.com/pixellitpod Website: https://pixellitpod.com    

We've got a slightly different episode today and a callback to our very first episode of Casual Trek! We discovered Chris Claremont had written a Star Trek comic and HAD to check it out. So here, in lieu of our normal episodes, we've got a bonus episode where we review and talk about Debt of Honour. I know that's not how honour is spelled on the book but I kept writing it that way and with Claremont as an anglophile, I figure he wouldn't mind. We open by talking about the man himself and a few other things. The actual talk about Debt of Honour starts at 13:41 Ha ha, just kidding, we talk about the credits and get side-tracked, the actual talk about Debt of Honour is 23:03 Talking points include: Sovereign Seven, why is Chris Claremont, a LOT of X-Men talk, The Image Exodus, the Death of Superman, Miles doesn't know how to say ‘kayfabe' understandable fawning over the Simonsons, Legion of Super-Heroes & JLI, Marvel's Star Trek comics, X-Files, Chris Claremont's anglophilia (which is not a shield from bad takes), Samuel Delaney, Diane Duane, RPG novelisations, Kitty Pryde's unfortunate use of slurs to make a point, Cats Laughing, the many kinks of Christopher S Claremont, Psylocke, two time GLAAD award winner Peter Alan David, . Oh, and occasionally Star Trek. Casual Trek is by Charlie Etheridge-Nunn and Miles Reid-Lobatto Music by Alfred Etheridge-Nunn Casual Trek is a part of the Nerd & Tie Network https://ko-fi.com/casualtrek Miles' blog: http://www.mareidlobatto.wordpress.com Charlie's blog: http://www.fakedtales.com

Some people work with partners. And some people like to work with their romantic partner. But whether you're romantically involved or not, there's techniques that could work for you. At WorldCon2019, Heidi Goody led the working couples of Peter Morwood and Diane Duane, plus Delia Sherman and Ellen Kushner in discussing how to maintain working and romantic relationships — with the same person. =============================== Thanks for listening! I'll be back next Monday with more rambling ideas about writing. If you enjoyed this episode, share it with your friends and subscribe! You can find most of these posts over on my Blog (https://morganhazelwood.com) / Vlog/Youtube (https://youtube.com/MorganHazelwood) If you want to connect? Check out my Linktree (https://linktr.ee/morganHazelwood)

Jude wants Pike's... cooking. We compare this episode to its source TOS episode, and the Kirk the world remembers versus the Kirk in actuality. We feint at, and then avoid, becoming an X-Men podcast, AGAIN. There's a sidetrack into Diane Duane at some point, Zathras lost track. Dreaming of Daddy Pike taking a dip in Cetacean Ops. And then we end our friendship arguing about TNG movies. Sorry.Thanks for joining us for this season of Strange New Worlds!Connect with the show at @babylonpodjectHelp us keep the lights on via our Patreon!Justen can be found at @justenwritesAna can be found at @The_Mianaai, and also made our show art.Both Ana and Justen can also be found on The Compleat Discography, a Discworld re-read podcast.Jude Vais can be found at @eremiticjude. His other work can be found at Athrabeth - a Tolkien Podcast and at Garbage of the Five Rings.Music attribution: Space War by IdanKupferberg from PixabayThis show is edited and produced by Aaron Olson, who can be found at @urizenxvii

When we asked Chris Collision (cohost of I Don't Even Own A Television) for his Flashback Summer choice of childhood favorite book, he surprised us with a title we'd never heard of before. And then Diane Duane surprised us with … Continue reading →

Today's Sci-Fi 5 offers you just a peek into the expansive career of fantasy and sci-fi novelist Diane Duane, including her Star Trek credits both in print and on screen. Follow Sci-Fi 5 for your daily dose of science-fiction history. Written by Ashley Thomas Hosted by Earl Green Music by Devin Curry

Today's Sci-Fi 5 offers you just a peek into the expansive career of fantasy and sci-fi novelist Diane Duane, including her Star Trek credits both in print and on screen. Follow Sci-Fi 5 for your daily dose of science-fiction history. Written by Ashley Thomas Hosted by Earl Green Music by Devin Curry

Today's Sci-Fi 5 offers you just a peek into the expansive career of fantasy and sci-fi novelist Diane Duane, including her Star Trek credits both in print and on screen. Follow Sci-Fi 5 for your daily dose of science-fiction history. Written by Ashley Thomas Hosted by Earl Green Music by Devin Curry

Thank you very much to Yama for commissioning this episode!In the remainder of this chapter, we come face-to-face with the Lone One much more quickly than I had expected. I have to be honest, I'm a little disappointed by how that scene went, but there's enough left of the book that I'm thinking maybe Diane Duane can still pull this one out. On a sadder note, it seems we've lost Ronan and I'm super sad about it. But like, he BETTER be actually dead. Thanks for listening!

  Author Diane Duane visits the island to talk about the evolution of Young Adult readerships, nurses with knives and the 21st Discworld novel, Jingo. This season of Desert Island Discworld is brought to you with the kind support of Handheld Press, publishers of fine forgotten fantasy fiction. Visit Desert Island Discworld at http://desertislanddiscworld.com, on Twitter at @DIDiscworld, on Patreon at http://patreon.com/DIDiscworld, or contact us at desertislanddiscworld@gmail.com.    

It's a Qowat Milat road trip! Pack your sword, moisturise your hands and join Anika and Liz as we talk about "Choose to Live"! Actually we did not love this episode and feel slightly bad about it (but maybe the writers should feel worse?) PRESIDENT RILLAK DID NOTHING WRONG, Liz has a powerpoint presentation and an interpretive dance to persuade you if you disagree We are once again calling for the abolition of the carceral state We don't know enough about the Federation OR Ni'Varan justice systems to understand why Michael disagrees with Rillak, and that's kind of a problem We have a lot of complaints about this episode, but we love and adore its depiction of Vulcans Spock's World by Diane Duane, a novel which is unexpectedly relevant to this episode of Discovery Michael has chemistry with EVERYONE and it's a problem (unless you're a multishipper, which we are)

A Voice in the Wilderness p1 S1E16 (20 Jul 94) vs. Blood Oath S2E19 (27 Mar 94)-Kor, Koloth, Kang, Curzon, & Sulu's backstory w/ the Albino is explored in the Michael Martin & Andy Mangels Excelsior novel Forged in Fire (2007)-Before TNG, in the Star Trek paracanon, Klingons were more like TNG Romulans, careful strategists, & Romulans were more like TNG Klingons, honor-bound warriors. For the essential Klingon TOS novel, see John Ford Final Reflection (1984), &, for the essential Romulan TOS novels, see the 5 Diane Duane novels from the 80s & 00s-The failed Uncle Ruckus film kickstarter campaign was in 2013. A revival of the Boondocks is supposed to premiere on HBO MAX in 2022.-The Psi Corps novel Bob intends to eventually read is Gregory Keyes Fate of Bester (1999) -Matt & Bob reference Twin Peaks S3 The Return (2017), Catholic Twin Peaks aka Mare of Easttown (2021), Dexter (2006-13), & The Killing (2011-4)-Matt & Bob ponder the 2-part storytelling in a variety of cartoons-Bob connects the tropes of Halloween (2018), Blade Runner 2049 (2017), & Terminator Dark Fate (2019)

Grail S1E14 (6 Jul 94) vs. Playing God S2E17 (27 Feb 94)-Matt commences his ritual of torturing Bob by reminding him of Friends: The Reunion (2021)-Bob has been reading the Thanos v2 (2017-8) series, which has story arcs by Jeff Lemire/Mike Deodato & Donny Cates/Geoff Shaw & includes the conceit that Thanos tortures random people on earth, confident the Avengers won't notice -Blowback S2 (2021) about US-Cuba relations is the best podcast of the year-Richard Poe did the audiobook for one of the great US novels, Cormac McCarthy Blood Meridian (1985)-Diane Duane's excellent Star Trek novels include Wounded Sky (1983), My Enemy, My Ally (1984), Spock's World (1988), & Dark Mirror (1993)--For a recent critique of meritocracy, see Daniel Markovits Meritocracy Trap: How America's Foundational Myth Feeds Inequality, Dismantles the Middle Class, & Devours the Elite (2019) & a critical interview with the author on The Genn [Loury] Show-Christy Marx, creator of Jem & the Holograms (1985-8), wrote this B5 episode-For some reason Bob goes to The Practice (19997-2004) as the pinnacle of 90s network tv drama, probably because he finds lawyers more interesting than doctors -Bob feels like Tolkein is a bigger influence on B5 than Arthurian legend, but there are many overt Arthurian references in B5 & the spin-off Crusade (1999) -Matt & Bob rhapsodize about David Warner's long career in & out of Trek-William Sanderson plays the hotelier Farnum on the great Deadwood (2004-6) -The B5 novel Kathryn Drennan To Dream in the City of Sorrows (1997) is set on Minbar

On this episode, Jorn and Ja’Jim Look at The Wounded Sky by Diane Duane. Jorn had trouble staying awake to read this and Ja’Jim found…

Actor/Musician/Voice-over Artist Jack Meloche competes against Professor of Music Theory CarlaRose Dubois. Can Jack unseat Shane Miclon from his number one place on our leaderboard and prove once and for all that they have what it takes to defeat a fake professor? Find out on this episode of Balderdash Academy's Head to Head with Coach Steve Corning and Professor Randy Hunt. Jack Meloche Jack Meloche is an actor, musician, and voice-over artist from Southeast Michigan. Jack currently narrates audiobooks professionally and is a 2021 Audie Award finalist. Some favorite credits include: “Spider-Man: The Darkest Hours” by Jim Butcher, “Cuphead in a Mountain of Trouble” by Ron Bates, “The Blue Wings” by Jef Aerts, and “Night Drop” by Marshall Thornton. Look for Jack's upcoming narration in the audiobook editions of “Spider-Man: The Venom Factor" and "Spider-Man: The Lizard” Sanction by Diane Duane. Both are dropping August 2021, and are available for pre-order on Amazon and Audible now! CarlaRose Dubois CarlaRose Dubois is mysterious, hilarious, and the Professor of Music Theory at Balderdash Academy. You can see her in Balderdash Academy and hear her in Balderdash Academy's Teacher's Lounge as Mindy, Animal Control Officer Charles “Boomer” Bumkowski, Tender Vittles, and many more. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/balderdashacademy/support

In today’s podcast Sally shares one of her favourite series of all time: The Young Wizards by Diane Duane. Beginning with So You Want to Be a Wizard, this 11-book series follows new wizards Kit and Nita as they learn new skills and explore a new magical world.

Trek ladies Kavura and Jen review Doctor's Orders by Diane Duane. Hear what it was like when Dr. McCoy, the least likely character to command a starship, gets put in charge of the Enterprise!

The first appearance of the enigmatic Traveler starts the prodigy Wesley story arc. Jimmy Akin, Dom Bettinelli, and Fr. Cory Sticha discuss the insufferable Kosinski, prickly Picard, and how everyone ignores poor Wes. Plus the story behind Diane Duane's script.

The first appearance of the enigmatic Traveler starts the prodigy Wesley story arc. Jimmy Akin, Dom Bettinelli, and Fr. Cory Sticha discuss the insufferable Kosinski, prickly Picard, and how everyone ignores poor Wes. Plus the story behind Diane Duane's script. The post Where No One Has Gone Before (TNG) appeared first on SQPN.com.

Eric and Nic are joined by Jessica Wieszczyk to take a look at the library Book Club Pick, Star Trek: The Next Generation - Dark Mirror, by Diane Duane.

This is it!  The final chapter of The Wounded Sky, read by all three of us followed by a discussion of the book. Thank you so much for putting up with the various delays and we hope you had as much fun listening as we did reading and recording it. Layne appears courtesy of http://thebatmanuniverse.net/ Buy Diane Duane ebooks at bit.ly/EBD50PctSale Feedback is appreciated.  Send comments  to marriedwcomics@gmail.com

This fortnight we’re discussing “Virtual Vandals” by Diane Duane. This is book one of the series "Tom Clancy's Net Force Explorers". Topic 1: Stunted emotional growth. Begins at (1:30), CW for discussion of classism and classist perspectives. Topic 2: Threat of physical harm. Begins at (16:44), CW for vehicular manslaughter, threats of murder. Topic 3: Neurological damage. Begins at (25:32), CW for physical danger, shock, and brain damage. Promo for Garrett Talks to Himself; Spoiler-free wrap-up and ratings: Begins at (36:06). --- If you'd like to make a monthly donation, please check us out on Patreon. You can check out Robin's written review of the book at Reviews That Burn. Find all our links on our LinkTree. Music provided by HeartBeatArt and is used with permission. 

We're almost to the the end of our  Doses of of Star Trek, Daily or otherwise. Maggie and Jon are joined by Layne from Batman Books: The Dark Knight In Prose podcast to read through Diane Duane's amazing Star Trek novel, The Wounded Sky, one chapter at a time, until we have the whole thing read. Jon reads chapter 15, where we say hello to a new universe and goodbye to a crewmember. Layne appears courtesy of http://thebatmanuniverse.net/ Buy Diane Duane ebooks at bit.ly/EBD50PctSale

Wherein we talk a LOT. Jump right to: 1:50 The International Phonetic Alphabet 30:59 Corrections 36:08 Question 1: Computer languages: Are they languages (in a linguistic sense)? They have rules, syntax, even dialects. They can express certain complex ideas better than English, but they cannot (easily) express arbitrary ideas. 44:50 Question 2: What causes a compound word like ‘bluebird' (a bird that is blue) to become bahuvrihi like ‘Blackbeard' (not a beard that is black, but someone who has a black beard)? 58:31 Question 3: If you could snap your fingers and know a new language, what would it be? (Like taking a point in D&D linguistics, you know the language as if you were a native speaker.) No rules, no restrictions (unless you want to pick one per category: real, commonly used; real, uncommonly used; real, dead; fake movie language; conlang). 1:10:55 Last week's puzzler's answer 1:12:50 The new puzzler: Three incandescent lightbulbs in a room, three lightswitches outside the room. You can look inside the room once and only once, after which you must decide which lightswitch controls which lightbulb. Covered in this episode: The IPA (developed by the IPA) ≠ an IPA, although Eli occasionally enjoys the latter too ɹ, ə, æ, ʃ, Ʒ, ŋ, œ Apple's consistent failing of linguists Cursive IPA, which apparently exists How to learn IPA “Bendy banana vowels” Diphthong? Dip-thong? Dip-tong? It's up to you, really Computer languages have semantics but not pragmatics A return of Gricean maxims having relevance (so to speak) Compound words in Dutch versus in English The gradual squishing-together of English compound words “Website” is a single word, congrats to the AP style guide on finally joining the 21st century Grilled cheese is not made on a barbeque Agglutinative vs polysynthetic mostly means “where do you put the spaces” Producer Jenny with the LOTR linguistic hot take Producer Jenny with the (basic) elvish linguistic history Zulu is neat and has interesting noun classes/gender-that-isn't-gender Sign languages are awesome and should have more research done on them!! Also ASL is just a very useful second language in the US This podcast exists because of Diane Duane's Young Wizards series on multiple levels and y'all should read it (or listen! The audiobooks are so good!) Links and other post-show thoughts: IPA chart the Summer Institute of Linguistics cursive IPA totally was a thing typeit.org, and the Patreon Agglutinative vs polysynthetic languages and more! The Elvish languages mentioned: Quenya, Sindarin, and their shared ancestor, Common Eldarin (i.e., basically, “language of the elves”) Native Listening The Car Talk puzzle source Ask us questions: Send your questions (text or voice memo) to questions@linguisticsafterdark.com, or find us as @lxadpodcast on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Credits: Linguistics After Dark is produced by Emfozzing Enterprises. Eli edits, Sarah and Jenny transcribe and do show notes. Our music is “Covert Affair” by Kevin MacLeod. And until next time… if you weren't aware of your tongue in your mouth, now you are :)

Welcome to Library Life. This is a behind the scenes podcast of the happenings of the Westerville Public Library. This episode stars Jonathan A. His book recommendation is So You Want to Be a Wizard by Diane Duane. Check it out here: https://search.westervillelibrary.org/iii/encore/search/C__St%3A%28so%20you%20want%20to%20be%20a%20wizard%29%20a%3A%28duane%29__Orightresult__U?lang=eng&suite=gold

We're back with everyone's favorite inaccurately named Daily Dose of Star Trek!  Maggie and Jon are joined by Layne from Batman Books: The Dark Knight In Prose podcast to read through Diane Duane's amazing Star Trek novel, The Wounded Sky, one chapter at a time, until we have the whole thing read. Layne reads chapter 14, in which the Enterprise crew mulls over how to best play God. Layne appears courtesy of http://thebatmanuniverse.net/ Buy Diane Duane ebooks at bit.ly/EBD50PctSale

We're back with everyone's favorite inaccurately named Daily Dose of Star Trek  Maggie and Jon are joined by Layne from Batman Books: The Dark Knight In Prose podcast to read through Diane Duane's amazing Star Trek novel, The Wounded Sky, one chapter at a time, until we have the whole thing read. Maggie reads chapter 13 in which we find out why God would have need of a starship. Or at least a starship crew.     Layne appears courtesy of http://thebatmanuniverse.net/ Buy Diane Duane ebooks at bit.ly/EBD50PctSale Send feedback to marriedwcomics@gmail.com

We're back with everyone's favorite inaccurately named Daily Dose of Star Trek  Maggie and Jon are joined by Layne from Batman Books: The Dark Knight In Prose podcast to read through Diane Duane's amazing Star Trek novel, The Wounded Sky, one chapter at a time, until we have the whole thing read. Jon reads Chapter 12 as the crew comes face to face with something that may or may not be God and try to communicate with it. You know, the usual.   Layne appears courtesy of http://thebatmanuniverse.net/ Buy Diane Duane ebooks at bit.ly/EBD50PctSale Send feedback to marriedwcomics@gmail.com

We're back with everyone's favorite inaccurately named Daily Dose of Star Trek!  Maggie and Jon are joined by Layne from Batman Books: The Dark Knight In Prose podcast to read through Diane Duane's amazing Star Trek novel, The Wounded Sky, one chapter at a time, until we have the whole thing read. Layne reads chapter 11, it's an absolutely beautiful chapter and Layne reads it wonderfully. That's it.  That's the preview.   Layne appears courtesy of http://thebatmanuniverse.net/ Buy Diane Duane ebooks at bit.ly/EBD50PctSale Feedback is appreciated.  Send comments  to marriedwcomics@gmail.com

We're back with everyone's favorite inaccurately named Daily Dose of Star Trek!  Maggie and Jon are joined by Layne from Batman Books: The Dark Knight In Prose podcast to read through Diane Duane's amazing Star Trek novel, The Wounded Sky, one chapter at a time, until we have the whole thing read. Maggie reads chapter 10 where we learn along with the crew what is going on and the extent of the danger.  We ponder with Kirk the ethical quandries that come with every command decision and hopefully grasp how relevant a book written in the early 80s is so relevant today.   Layne appears courtesy of http://thebatmanuniverse.net/ Buy Diane Duane ebooks at bit.ly/EBD50PctSale Send feedback to marriedwcomics@gmail.com

We're back with everyone's favorite inaccurately named Daily Dose of Star Trek  Maggie and Jon are joined by Layne from Batman Books: The Dark Knight In Prose podcast to read through Diane Duane's amazing Star Trek novel, The Wounded Sky, one chapter at a time, until we have the whole thing read. Jon reads Chapter 9 and things are getting really really weird.  We're talking spontaneously generated landsharks, dream injuries becoming real and Sulu saving the Enterprise by doing something that is literally impossible.   Layne appears courtesy of http://thebatmanuniverse.net/ Buy Diane Duane ebooks at bit.ly/EBD50PctSale Send feedback to marriedwcomics@gmail.com

It's your (increasingly inaccurately named) daily dose of Star Trek!  Maggie and Jon are joined by Layne from Batman Books: The Dark Knight In Prose podcast to read through Diane Duane's amazing Star Trek novel, The Wounded Sky, one chapter at a time, releasing episodes (roughly) once a weekday until we have the whole thing read. Layne reads Chapter 8, where we delve deeper into the Inversion issues and learn that at least one John Denver song is still known by the 23rd century.   Layne appears courtesy of http://thebatmanuniverse.net/ Buy Diane Duane ebooks at bit.ly/EBD50PctSale Send feedback to marriedwcomics@gmail.com

It's your (week) daily dose of Star Trek!  Maggie and Jon are joined by Layne from Batman Books: The Dark Knight In Prose podcast to read through Diane Duane's amazing Star Trek novel, The Wounded Sky, one chapter at a time, releasing episodes (roughly) once a weekday until we have the whole thing read. Maggie reads Chapter 7 where the second Inversion experience is more intense than the first was, to say the least.   Layne appears courtesy of http://thebatmanuniverse.net/ Buy Diane Duane ebooks at bit.ly/EBD50PctSale Send feedback to marriedwcomics@gmail.com

It's your (week) daily dose of Star Trek!  Maggie and Jon are joined by Layne from Batman Books: The Dark Knight In Prose podcast to read through Diane Duane's amazing Star Trek novel, The Wounded Sky, one chapter at a time, releasing episodes (roughly) once a weekday until we have the whole thing read. Jon reads chapter 6, where the crew deals with the aftereffects of the Inversion experience and we learn a little more about the cultural and mating rituals of the Hamalki.  (They're giant glass spider people, it ain't what you're used to)   Layne appears courtesy of http://thebatmanuniverse.net/ Buy Diane Duane ebooks at bit.ly/EBD50PctSale Send feedback to marriedwcomics@gmail.com

Back from the long weekend with your daily dose of Star Trek! Maggie and Jon are joined by Layne from Batman Books: The Dark Knight In Prose podcast to read through Diane Duane's amazing Star Trek novel, The Wounded Sky, one chapter at a time, releasing episodes (roughly) once a weekday until we have the whole thing read. Layne reads Chapter 5, In which the Inversion experience is not at all as expected as years before Kirk would assert that Spock should "Be one with the horse", Jim is one with his ship.  In a far more literal way.   Layne appears courtesy of http://thebatmanuniverse.net/ Buy Diane Duane ebooks at bit.ly/EBD50PctSale Send feedback to marriedwcomics@gmail.com

It's your (week) daily dose of Star Trek!  Maggie and Jon are joined by Layne from Batman Books: The Dark Knight In Prose podcast to read through Diane Duane's amazing Star Trek novel, The Wounded Sky, one chapter at a time, releasing episodes (roughly) once a weekday until we have the whole thing read. Maggie reads chapter 4, in which the Enterprise gets attacked by  Klingons. The only way they will be able to engage the Inversion drive before being destroyed is to destroy the Klingons first. Not to worry, there are only 7 Klingon ships. Layne appears courtesy of http://thebatmanuniverse.net/ Buy Diane Duane ebooks at bit.ly/EBD50PctSale Send feedback to marriedwcomics@gmail.com

Quarantine side project alert!  Maggie and Jon are joined by Layne from Batman Books: The Dark Knight In Prose podcast to read through Diane Duane's amazing Star Trek novel, The Wounded Sky, one chapter at a time, releasing episodes (roughly) once a weekday until everyone has their very own Wounded Sky audiobook! On this episode, Jon reads Chapter 3, where we learn more about the mysterious Inversion Drive and may accidentally learn a little about theoretical physics in the process, as the technobabble deals with De Sitter Space, Megabubbles and other mind-blowing concepts as only Diane Duane can deliver.   Layne appears courtesy of http://thebatmanuniverse.net/ Buy Diane Duane ebooks at bit.ly/EBD50PctSale Send feedback to marriedwcomics@gmail.com

Quarantine side project alert!  Maggie and Jon are joined by Layne from Batman Books: The Dark Knight In Prose podcast to read through Diane Duane's amazing Star Trek novel, The Wounded Sky, one chapter at a time, releasing episodes (roughly) once a weekday until everyone has their very own Wounded Sky audiobook.  An audiobook with very amateur readers with questionable abilities to ape Scottish accents, and sound effects that are all over the place, but you can't beat the price!

Anika and Liz discuss the classic TOS tie-in novel My Enemy, My Ally by Diane Duane, particularly:  Duane's take on Roman culture, and its ties to canon, especially in the wake of Star Trek: Picard Romulan language -- and how the heck do you pronounce "Mnhei’sahe"? Ael: a character we adore beyond reason Liz's elaborate headcanon about Romulan culture and politics in the 24th century Anika's eternal grief at not getting to learn Romulan, when Klingon is on Duolingo Fancasting Ael Liz pitches a loose adaptation for season 2 of Picard The sequels Is Ael a Mary Sue? Do we care? Is it racist to compare your officer to pizza? These are just some of the important issues we cover! Links:  The rec.arts.startrek.fandom post outlining Roddenberry's (alleged) problems with the Rihannsu books Rihannsu on TV Tropes

Sean and Mimi bring in moon cop expert Nik to investigate Space Cops: Mindblast (1991) by Diane Duane & Peter Morwood. Together we analyze the leaky dumps, the dumpy squirts, and the squirty leaks. Contact us: dumpsterbookclub@gmail.comJoin our group on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/276693-dumpster-book-clubListen on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/dumpster-book-club/id1315252726

And so our journeys have brought you, poor listener, to discussion of the Shatnerverse. First, Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens were the ghostwriters/collaborators/spinning-crap-into-clay-ers of the Shatnerverse. Michael Jan Friedman is one person who also wrote Star Trek books, but didn't write these ASCII-compatible abortions so they're in the clear. I apologize for besmirching your good name, sir. While we're talking about Star Trek novel writers; Diane Duane is fantastic and Peter David is pretty cool. Duane wrote “Spock's World,” and “Rihannsu,” which got frequently ripped off in TNG. David wrote “New Frontier,” which used a lot of characters, from the show, including Commander Shel– We'll get to it. Also Victor Milan wrote for both Star Trek and Battletech, so there's a factoid for your next nerd party.

We're talking about the Star Trek tie-ins of our formative years -- the ones we read until they fell apart. And it doesn't quite turn into a Diane Duane book club, but...  Well. Novels we discuss in detail:  The Romulan Way by Diane Duane How Much For Just The Planet? by John M. Ford Survivors by Jean Lorrah The Pandora Principle by Carolyn Clowes The Devil's Heart by Carmen Carter Dark Mirror by Diane Duane (coming full circle!) You don't need to be familiar with these novels to listen to the podcast! How Much For Just The Planet is a classic, but it's also out of print, and retailing for a couple of hundred dollars on Amazon Marketplace -- or, as it turns out, just a couple of bucks on eBay. (Treat yourself. It's amazing.) We also talk about the different needs filled by tie-in novels versus fan fiction, and why more recent Star Trek fiction just isn't doing it for us. 

Josh and Mara head back in time to visit one of the biggest children's fantasy books of the 80s: So You Want to Be a Wizard by Diane Duane. Does it still resonate in 2019 with two grown adults? Find out here! Next month, we will be covering The Penderwicks on Gardam Street by Jeanne Birdsall. Contact us at hfkpodcast@gmail.com or @hfkpodcast on Twitter and Instagram. We're also on GoodReads: www.goodreads.com/user/show/90379252-josh-mara Theme music composed by Ben Ash. Visit him at www.benash.com. Mixing and drums by Chaz Bommarito, guitar by Jakael Tristram.

Happy Pride Month! Jeff discusses the awesome Pride Month video from the NHL. He also talks about all the things that happened during release week for Netminder. Members of the Queer Sacramento Authors Collective had a reading this past week at the Lavender Library and will be reading again this coming week at Time Tested Books. The live streams are available on the podcast’s Facebook page. We talk about the Coastal Magic Convention 2020 lineup of m/m romance featured authors. We review the Elton John biopic Rocketman. Jeff reviews Max Walker’s A Lover’s Game. Will recommends books for Pride month: Pride: The Story of Harvey Milk and the Rainbow Flag by Rob Sanders, Stonewall: A Building. An Uprising. A Revolution by Rob Sanders, The Stonewall Riots: Coming Out in the Streets by Gayle E. Pitman, Stonewall: The Definitive Story of the LGBTQ Rights Uprising That Changed America by Martin Duberman and The Stonewall Reader curated by The New York Public Library. Jeff interviews C.B. Lee about the latest book in her Sidekick Squad series, Not Your Backup. We also discuss the origin of the Sidekick Squad, what C.B. hears from readers and what’s coming up next. Complete shownotes for episode 191 along with a transcript of the interview are at BigGayFictionPodcast.com. Interview Transcript – C.B. Lee This transcript was made possible by our community on Patreon. You can get information on how to join them at patreon.com/biggayfictionpodcast. Jeff: Welcome C.B. to the podcast. It’s great to have you here. C.B.: Hello, thanks for having me. I’m so excited to be here. Jeff: Yeah, it’s very exciting. We got to see you last year at the LA Times Festival of Books for a little, teeny, tiny interview. But we’re thrilled to have you back as we start to talk about “Not Your Backup” which will come out on June 4th, just the day after this airs actually. C.B.: Oh my gosh, that will be really exciting. I actually got to touch the advanced copies for the first time last week at YALLWEST, which due to this fun time jumps of podcasting… Jeff: Well, actually a bit about a month ago. C.B.: Right, right. But, yeah, it was really interesting just to, like, hold it for the first time and see it in print. Granted, the advance copies have typos since, you know, I went through and did all the pass through the typos. But it’s fun, it’s fun. It’s great that, you know, it exists, it’s in physical form, hasn’t quite felt real till now, but now it’s a real book or will be very soon, or tomorrow for your listeners and readers. Jeff: There is something about holding that physical copy, even if you see it, you know, even if it’s on your tablet as an ebook. It’s like there’s nothing like that paperback when it gets there. C.B.: Yeah. Jeff: Now, “Not Your Backup” is book 3 in the “Sidekick Squad Series.” And, for those who haven’t experienced this series or heard of it, tell us what this series is all about. C.B.: Sure, it is about a group of queer teens that take on a corrupt government superhero agency. And they live in this sort of post-dystopian world where superheroes are kind of treated like celebrities. And there’s, you know, shadowy government organizations and mysterious heroes, league of heroes, that kind of dictates who gets to be a hero and who gets to be a villain. And our protagonists all kind of uncover this huge conspiracy, and then they work together to build a resistance and take it down. Jeff: It’s quite the world that you’ve built here. I mean, you hit so many things that are dystopian, U.S. future, superheroes, villains. What was your inspiration for all of this? C.B.: So I’ve always been fascinated by kind of the, like, post-apocalyptic or dystopian worlds. But a lot of the media that I’ve read mostly focuses on kind of the…when you’re in the middle of the disaster, when you’re in the middle of the catastrophe, when everything is going wrong, how are people struggling to survive. So I really wanted to see a world that was…you know, so this is more of like a solarpunk take where the world has started to move forward, where it’s 100 years after all of these disasters have happened – kind of the impetus for the superpowers. And my book is a really extremely intense solar flare that catalyzes latent gene in people. And then after the flare, which knocks out a bunch of nuclear power plants, also, it starts kind of a chain reaction of a bunch of environmental disasters. So 100 years later the governments of the world have kind of shifted and changed, there’s been wars, there’s been fights over resources, so the United States is now part of the North American collective, which is the entire continent of North America, which is now the habitable places. There’s, you know, 24 regions, which is, you know, kind of what’s left of the states. So there’s different areas all across North America, which are now the regions in which people live and, you know, continue to move forward with, like, their amazing technology, and hover tech, and all this amazing, clean technology. But, at the same time, you have all of these like high-tech cities, but outside of those regions, everything else is like the unmaintained lands. So, you know, the government is claiming there’s radiation danger and don’t venture out, but, of course, our heroes are like, you know, what the government tells us isn’t necessarily true. So a lot of…actually, the fun of writing “Not Your Backup” is one of my working titles was “Not Your Road Trip,” because there’s a lot of road tripping in this book. Jeff: Yeah, I noticed. There’s a bit of a road trip in the sneak peek that I got to read too, that they’re out on this road trip, essentially on a mission. C.B.: Right, right. Yeah, there’s the heist in the beginning of the very first chapter. But, yeah, there’s a lot of fun. We get to see a little bit more of the country outside of the cities in this book, so that’s exciting. Jeff: Now, each of the books deals with one of the main heroes, if you will, or the sidekicks, if you will, given the titles of the book, but they’re really the heroes. In “Not Your Backup”, we focus on Emma, who is really the only one of them without the powers. What’s happening to our heroes this time out? C.B.: So at the end of “Not Your Villain,” we have destroyed the registry, which…the big name of everyone who’s ever registered with powers that Captain Orion was planning to use to kidnap people and use for experiments. At that point, our heroes have been looking for the resistance the whole time. And they find a mysterious group that’s been leaving messages on encrypted channels. But then, at the end of the book, they realize that this is actually like a group of nerds that have been joining together to watch movies like “Star Wars,” and “Harry Potter,” and stuff. So they realize that they need to start the resistance. So that’s where we are at the beginning of “Not Your Backup,” where Emma and Bells are back in Nevada, and they are kind of in the midst of this fledgling resistance group – meanwhile, Jess and Abby are at the villain’s guild hideout in the Rockies and they’re trying to corral all the other meta-humans into taking action. So, the beginning of the book, you know, where kind of everyone has different goals, but then they all come together. It’s more about like building the resistance and finding… For Emma, it’s her journey in finding who she is. And, really, she’s a very natural leader, she loves coming up with plans, and she’s definitely a Gryffindor. She’s the first to jump in and try to take action. Her default is, like, fight me. But she also is, as you mentioned, she doesn’t have powers, and so when she’s trying to take a more active role in the resistance, she kind of butts heads with a few of the other members as they have different ideas about who is and who isn’t part of the resistance. Jeff: She just needs to remind them that Batman didn’t have powers either. He just had a really good utility belt and brains. So she could definitely fill that role. What’s been the driving force behind deciding the type of character that you have at the forefront of each book? Because the three books have very different, distinct character types and personalities, and just everything about them is just…they’re just very different from each other. C.B.: So, from the beginning, I wanted to tell this story about, you know, this fun adventure story with queer protagonists. So each book would center on another one of them in the main four. So there’s…and then after “Not Your Backup”, there’s one more book which will be Abby’s story, and so she will round out the quartet. But each of their…you know, they have very different personalities, but it’s been interesting writing their stories because each of them are on their own journey in what makes them a hero and finding how do they define success, and how do other people see them, and how do they see themselves. So, for each story, because we’re moving forward in time, as we get to see who is really, you know… It’s been interesting, because all four books will fit together as a series, but in each book, everyone gets to have their own journey. Jeff: Which I really like because we’ve been introduced to all of them all the way back, you know, back in the first book, but then they get to their own story, which could essentially be read as a stand-alone, if you wanted to, I guess, although reading all of them together is much better. What was the bigger challenge to come up with the trajectory of these four diverse characters or to build this alternate universe of the U.S., or were they kind of equal challenges? C.B.: I feel like the challenge for me is I’m not like a great outliner or I haven’t ever really been a planner. So I’ve always been more of the pantser in the writing style. So when writing a series, when I wrote “Not Your Sidekick,” I didn’t know, up until I think I was about 50,000 words in when I realized that I could not basically solve the problem in that one book, you know, because when I pitched it, it was one book. And then I was like, “Well, I really love all of these characters.” There’s a huge…there’s a bigger story here that I’ve introduced, and I will need more than one book to solve it. And so, from the get-go, I knew the next story after Jess would be Bells because you get into, like, the backstory of the meta-human training and the heroes, league of heroes. And so, I think, overall, just planning a series is really challenging. Some people are great at it, where, you know, they have very detailed outlines, they know, from the very beginning to the very end, what the key points are going to be. And so, as I was writing book 1, I kind of had a panic attack and I was like, “Oh, no, I have to figure out what’s going to happen in each of the books.” And then as I restructured things and then writing book 2 and then 3, it’s kind of come to a point where I’m working on book 4 and now, like, everything that I… One of the reasons why it took me a longer time between book… So “Not Your Villain” came in 2017 and “Not Your Backup” is coming out in 2019. So I didn’t have a book come out last year because I was still working on crafting the storyline because whatever I did or didn’t do in book 3 would determine what would happen in book 4. So everything had to fall into place, and I had to like figure out a lot of stuff. So it was challenging, but I think, you know, it’s still challenging, but that’s part of the joy of writing is to figure out how to tell the story you want to tell. Jeff: If you do a series again, do you think you’ll try to do outlines more in the upfront or now that you’ve had this experience, do you kind of know how to do it and keep your pantser ways going on? C.B.: I don’t know if I’ll ever… Like, I feel like with each book, I’m like, “Oh, do I know how to write a novel now?” But like every book is its own challenge. I do have a better sense of like, okay, you know, how do I plot as a pantser? And then plotting for pantsers, and like learning how to like… For me, I just tend to think of an outline like a road map where I have these destinations I wanna hit, but I’m not committed to – I don’t have to see everything and if I go off track or take a different route, that’s okay as well. So as long as I kind of get the same…like, it’s all in the journey of how I get there, and then the destinations that I pick along the way, if I get to them or not, that’s cool. I kind of have these benchmarks that I want to reach. But I really like thinking of the framework in which I think about my books as a roadmap. So I’ll try to plan out, you know, all the cities I want to visit, but I’m open to discovering places along the way and kind of building up on that. Jeff: How does the pantser sort of method work while you’re world building? Or do you try to, at least, before you start writing, “No. This is my world. This is what’s happened. This is what the U.S. looks like now, and how all that works?” Or does that come organically as you go as well? C.B.: I actually thought like, really early on established the world and what it looked like. I drew a map of which countries were left and which, how, who, what alliances were made in probably much more detail than you’ll ever see in the books because basically I plotted out what happened in that World War III, and what areas were no longer habitable, and all of these things, and all the different lines of, like… I probably spent way too much time figuring out the socio-economic holes, ramifications of which country is now aligned with what country and which countries refuse to join a union or…and they’re all new countries. So there is this whole political backstory of, like, which country fought….you know, which alliance was at war, which alliance and what’s still happening overseas. Some of which you’ll see, but it is the world itself. I’ve always enjoyed world building, and I think it’s really fun to come up with the…I think once I wrote book one where I established, like, how do the powers work. Every power level is different. For example, like the A class, B class, or C class, depending on how…basically, I wanted all the meta-humans in my world to…their powers basically are dependent on…like, they have a limited number of time per day that they can use their powers. So once they’ve used it, then they can’t use it for the next 24-hour period. So it’s a different sort of look at superpowers and abilities because you have to be more mindful about how you use your powers. And so that was an element that I established early on, but overall, I think for me, world building, there are some details I discovered along the way, but I pretty much plotted the world building which is a funny like…and it’s interesting to think about, even though I do consider myself a pantser, how much of this series I did very much envision out from an early stage. So like some of the confrontations and the fight scenes, and the stuff that… I’ve been planning one particular scene in book 3 since book 1, and I didn’t get to do it until… And, so that was like a fun way to be like, “Oh, yes, I’m finally going to like write the scene that I’ve been waiting for.” But I’d had a lot of these moments in my head, and just planning it out and getting the opportunity to like, “Okay, yes. Now, I’m getting to that chapter. I’m getting to the point in the whole series where we’re getting…you know, it’s coming full circle.” So that’s very satisfying. Jeff: It sounds like you’d have a lot of bonus material too if you ever wanted to release it, if all the stuff that you’ve got of the world itself, and the disaster, and how it’s split up. C.B.: Yeah, I mean, potentially, I have a whole timeline that I could release. And then I did these fun… For “Not Your Villain,” I did all the deleted scenes, well, deleted as far as they were cut for length. But I still consider it part of the story, the cannon. So those are an extra that are available on my website. I’ll probably do something similar for Backup, but I’m not at that stage yet. Jeff: Right. It’s good to know about the Villain extras. I’ll be going to check those out. C.B.: Yeah, yeah, they’re fun. They’re all in one PDF. And my book designer, C.B. Macera, was amazing. And she formatted them the same way as the book because we have a lot of extra art as well because she does these amazing, like, chapter headers for each chapter. She’s so talented and amazing designing the covers and the interior of the book, really, you know, capture that feel. And so, “Not Your Villain” actually, in the edits, went from…yeah, it was cut a lot. So, you know, it’s really sad as a writer to kind of see these scenes go, but, you know, as far as, yes, and my editors are great about, like, “This scene is great. But, you know, it kind of slows down the pacing,” or like, “This scene takes us in a different tone or direction, and, like, while they’re great, they don’t fit in the story at that moment and kind of take us away from the main action.” So I understand why they had to go. And, yes, the story is stronger overall, but I like them as an extra. Jeff: Yeah, we’ve all gotten used to those on DVDs over time, so there’s really no reason books can’t have them too. C.B.: Yeah, yeah, it’s a fun extra to have the deleted scenes. Jeff: So you mentioned one more book in the series, the fourth one, is that gonna be it for these heroes? C.B.: Yeah, I can’t say for sure that the door is completely closed. But for this arc, this storyline, that will be the series. It will be completed with Abby’s book. Jeff: We could treat it like the Marvel Universe. Now, if phase 1 is over, and there could be a phase 2 eventually, once you figure out what that is. What got you started in writing? C.B.: I love telling stories. And think I was very young when I tried, like, writing a story for myself. I had an old notebook that I would scribble this adventure story in when I was in sixth grade. And then I’d kind of start and then every recess, I’d pick it up or I’d work on it when I was supposed to be doing homework or stuff in class. And so I’ve always wanted to tell stories. I didn’t really think of it seriously as a career. And then, after college, I went to school for science. And so I was going to get a PhD and do all this stuff, and I, you know, ended up going a different route. And really writing has been a journey where it kind of comes…it ties back to, and I guess like the “Sidekick Squad Series” and the titles were all, you know, the titles are all about, like, hey, I’m not who you think I am, I’m not the person that you’re claiming that I should be or expect me to be. It comes back to where, as a queer woman of color, I didn’t really see a lot of myself in books growing up. And so what I really hoped to write was, like especially when I was writing Sidekick for the first time, I wanted to write a book for my 16-year-old self. So this is the book that I wanted to read. And I wanted it to exist. And so writing…and then I also just like telling stories. So I wanted the story to be fun, I wanted them to be happy and have, you know, there’s drama in them. But overall, I wanted to see kids like myself, and kids who looked like me, and other kids, that reflect the world that we live in because trans kids exist, asexual kids exist, mentally ill kids exist. And there aren’t enough stories where they get to be part of something that’s a superhero adventure, or something fun and fantastic like this. And so I wish that I hope…and I think there are definitely now, in the past, you know, 5, 10 years, there’ve been a lot more stories, and I think that’s great. So I’m just really excited that now people are writing more and more and reading more and more, and there’s a lot of great books to come. Jeff: And one of the things to not…I don’t want to knock the coming out story because those are very important and very needed. But in these books, that’s not really part of it. I mean, this is a much bigger adventure these teenagers are on that just doesn’t revolve around their sexuality so much, that just, there’s so much more going on, which I think is awesome and gives everybody something different to read. C.B.: Yeah, I love that…like, I want us to have the breadth of different types of genres and stories that there are for, like, able-bodied heterosexual people. Like, I want there to be so many stories to choose from. And so, you know…and I really love…I think there’s a lot of power in having joyful stories as well and stories where, yes, sexuality is a part of it, but, you know, who I am is not just my sexuality. Like, every person is multitudes where who you are is made up of so many things like your passions, your dreams, your hopes, your hobbies, your friends. Who you are as a person isn’t just one thing, and we’re all…I love being able to explore that and getting to see… I want people to see that people in the LGBTQ community are like fully nuanced people that get to be complicated and have flaws and go on adventures, or fall in love, or discover more about themselves in the way that all straight people can. Jeff: Well said. I like that for sure. Who were some of your author influences as you got started on your writing journey? C.B.: So I really love the “Harry Potter” series growing up. That’s a huge influence for me. That was one of the first ways I started writing was “Harry Potter” fan fiction because I loved that world so much. And just a lot of…I read so much fantasy like Ursula Le Guin, Diane Duane, Eoin Colfer, like tons of fantasy, Jane Yolen. I started to read a lot more widely. I think when I was a kid, there was a point when I would like go to the YA section and just read like everything in the library. So I would pretty much read everything, but I tended to love fantasy and sci-fi the most. Jeff: Nice, and now you get to write your own. C.B.: Yes. I’m really lucky. Jeff: Is there a genre you want to branch into as you close up the “Sidekick Series?” C.B.: I’m excited to write more fantasy. So the “Sidekick Squad” is more sci-fi, speculative. So I’m working on some fantasy stuff. I’m excited to share it. I have some contemporary stuff. I have a short story coming out next year in the next “All Out” anthology. So that’ll be fun. It’s like a very fluffy high school romance that’s just set in like… The only magic is the friendship and the romance so… Jeff: Aww, sometimes that’s all you need though. C.B.: Yeah, yeah, it’s fun because when I was writing it, I hadn’t written just contemporary in a long time. So that was really fun to try and explore that. Plus, I got to put a lot of puns in there, so it’s all good. Jeff: You seem to travel a lot. I feel like every time I see you on social media, it’s like, “I’m going to this event” or, “Here I am at this event, come see me over here.” What drives you to be out on the road so much? C.B.: So I like the opportunity to see, meet readers. I live in Los Angeles, and I’m really lucky to have the opportunity to go to a lot of events that are fairly local. I also think it’s really important to travel when I have the opportunity to, and I’m lucky that I’ve been able to, and sometimes I will just commit to doing it out of my own pocket because I want to meet readers in those areas. So I love…yeah, I already said it, I love meeting readers. But, especially in places where you don’t get a lot of, you know, LGBTQ resources, or teens don’t necessarily get to see a lot of authors or books with this content come their way and getting to meet teens in, you know, small towns or getting to meet people even though I do a lot of web chats. And so that’s fun chatting with libraries or classrooms through the power of the internet, which is amazing. But, part of being on panels and having these conversations is important to me just because, you know, I get to share with people that might not have heard of my books before or are just learning about it for the first time. And so that’s always a very special moment to me when someone’s like, “Oh my gosh,” like, “This is exactly what I’ve been looking for. I didn’t know it exists, but now I do.” And so that’s very meaningful. And sometimes I get to meet people who have already read the books, and that’s very important to me. And that’s a part of the most rewarding things to me as a writer is knowing that your work has made an impact on someone, whether it’s just making them smile, or, you know, to the depth of having someone like… I’ve cried over several really long emails just because sometimes people are really sweet and talk about like, “Oh, this is my coming out experience”. I want people to see that they’re valid. And so knowing that someone else has read my work and recognize themselves, that’s one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done. I was in Seattle recently, earlier this year, and one of the events I did was with the Seattle Public Library where we went to the LGBTQ Youth Center. And that was really powerful just to, like, hang out with kids and chat with them and what are they looking forward to as far as like, “Hey, what’s powerful to me, what’s fun to me?” A lot of this is stuff that I totally resonate with when they connect with a character on TV or are upset that, you know, that character got killed off in one season or whatever, because of TV. But, you know, it’s always great to chat with people. Everyone’s always going through something. Jeff: Yeah, for sure. So we’ve hinted a little bit about some stuff that’s coming up for you. You’re working on Sidekick 4, you’ve got a short story coming out next year, anything else we should know about? C.B.: I’m also writing the new “BEN 10” original graphic novels with BOOM! Studios and Cartoon Network. So one is already out. It’s called “The Truth Is Out There.” It’s where “Ben 10” is part of the Cartoon Network show where Ben can turn into 10 different aliens. So it’s fun. It’s a fun, middle-grade romp. So I’m doing a number of those graphic novels with BOOM! So those will be available throughout…I can’t recall the dates off the top of my head, but another one is coming out in July, and then one more in October of this year and then the next year, there will be some more coming as well. Jeff: What’s it like writing for graphic novel because, I mean, that’s a different sort of animal, a novel that, you know, is 60,000 or 70,000 words long? C.B.: It was definitely a new experience. It was a lot of fun trying a different medium. Like, definitely writing a script goes differently as far as…and I catch myself like “Oh, I’m being too descriptive. This is literally…the only person who will see this is the artist.” And it’s also a great collaborative process. So it’s really fun to work with the artists and editors and bring together this story that exists in its own medium. It’s not just me, the writer, but what the artist is bringing, and collaborating with them, and getting to like…you know, I’ll write the dialogue and the action. And then they’ll imagine it in a certain way of like, “Oh, I didn’t think of that,” and that’s really fun. I really like the graphic novel format. I’m hoping to do more. I’m really excited to be working on these projects. And, yeah, hopefully, I’ll be able to share more upcoming projects. Jeff: Pretty cool. And speaking of, what is the best way for people to keep up with you online? C.B.: You can always find me on Twitter and Instagram at, C-B-L-E-E_C-B-L-E-E, because it’s double the trouble. My website is cb-lee.com, and then you can find more links to other ways you can connect with me. Usually Twitter and Instagram, where you can find me the most – that’s where you can connect with me. So in my website, it has like fun stuff. I try to update it with writing resources and my upcoming events. And I also have a newsletter, which will have some special tidbits probably like the deleted scenes, which is the very first place I offered the “Not Your Villain” extra scenes. Jeff: Pretty cool. Well, C.B., thank you so much for hanging out with us. We wish you all the success with “Not Your Backup” when it comes out on June 4th. C.B.: Thank you so much for having me. And I really appreciate it. I’m so excited. And I hope everyone enjoys the book. Book Reviews Here’s the text of this week’s book reviews: A Lover’s Game by Max Walker, narrated by Greg Boudreaux. Reviewed by Jeff I was so happy that this fourth book in Max’s Stonewall Investigations series released in audio just a couple of weeks ago. I’ve been eagerly awaiting the final installment of the series and I was not disappointed. The series has been working up to the final showdown between private investigator Zane Holden and the Unicorn Killer. The Unicorn has loomed large over the series–a serial killer that terrorizes the gay community in NYC. The killer’s gone after partnered gay men and Zane’s husband was aomng the victims. In the first book we find out the Unicorn’s returned and now in the fourth one Zane’s obsessed with bringing the reign of terror to an end. At the same time, Zane is preparing for his wedding to Enzo, the defense attorney who captured his heart in that first book. Unfortunately, Zane is so occupied with the case, he’s missing things, like cake testing and venue selection, and he hasn’t told Enzo that he’s even back on it. Zane thinks he’s protecting Enzo by keeping his activities a secret, but Enzo feels it puts him more in danger not knowing. And boy does everything hurtle towards a massive, satisfying conclusion. Max had me super stressed in this installment. He always does a great job of creating suspense. Here though I suspected everything. Is the Uber driver a killer? Is that bottle of wine spiked with something? What does it mean that someone looked at them on the street? Is the person providing information or misinformation? I suspected everything and also never figured out who the Unicorn was ahead of the reveal. I love that! While Zane and Enzo have been featured in the middle two books of the series, it was great to see them returning to the spotlight. Their dynamic as the move towards their wedding date was wonderful to watch. The quiet, sexy moments they share along with their wedding planning and time they spend with Enzo’s family shows their strong relationship and amazing friends. And, man, are there some super sexy times in this book. There’s always steamy scenes in this series, but these were the best yet. Max contrasts these happy times with how they handle the increasing threats–they want to be strong for each other and also do what’s necessary to keep the other safe. They find it’s hard to maintain the balance and that only increases the tension. I both hated and loved what Max put them through because it was so realistic. Is it weird to say that I liked the terrible choices were made? Despite being great at their jobs, Zane and Enzo sometimes do things that are terrible choices and what makes those so good in the story is that I could see myself doing the same thing. These two are flawed and make bad decisions like anyone can. It makes them human. It makes you scream at them to not do something. It makes you cheer when it all works out too. Kudos to Greg Boudreaux. He’s done a great job with this series overall but I have to shoutout his work voicing the Unicorn. It’s a creep, calm yet evil voice that made me shudder. The spin off for Stonewall Investigations Miami is set up here too. That first book, Bad Idea, just released last week and I can’t wait to pick it up as soon as there’s an audio version.

It's a feedback episode! Here's what we talk about:*Convincing others to give 'Discovery' a whirl, fun with puns, and Diane Duane's 'Rihannsu: The Bloodwing Voyages' with Bill Reed! Novels discussed: 'My Enemy, My Ally', 'The Romulan Way', 'Swordhunt', 'Honor Blade', 'The Empty' Chair' by Diane Duane (collected as 'Rihannsu: The Bloodwing Voyages'), 'Spock's World' and 'Dark Mirror' by Diane Duane, and 'Dwellers in the Crucible' by Margaret Wander Bonanno* How to head-canon Zephram Cochrane's metamorphosis from the film 'First Contact' to the TOS episode "Metamorphosis" with Randy Christopher!* A desire for more 'Star Trek: Enterprise' and a need to see a Romulan Wars mini-series with Dylan Diggs!*Update on our opinions of the technology in Discovery!--Star Trek Hologram History (Including Discovery): https://youtu.be/Ewjh0lPRQGI--STAR TREK: DISCOVERY EXPLAINS THE LOW-TECH '60S VIBE OF THE ORIGINAL SHOW WITH A WEIRD CANON TWIST: http://bit.ly/2TJxUJX* Asthmatic turtles, mermaids, and sloths with Bethany Roberson* The state of Jennifer Lien with Robert Butler* Instagram questions: Which ship is your favorite? Kirk vs Picard* Instagram listener @christinehoppe78 recommends "Space Team" by Barry J. Hutchison, "Paradox" and "Paradox 2" by Phillip P. Peterson | Dave recommends the "Q Continuum" trilogy by Greg Cox and "IQ" by Peter David and John de Lancie* Twitter's @MattVader74 and @yusuku13 recommends and questions if we cover books and comics, and Dave talks entirely too long about books and comics (as if we haven't talked about those enough this episode)* Twitter's @Nerdytastic and @ChuckCredoIV give us propsStar Trek Universe Podcast #033 - Discovering 'Discovery' + Other Feedback

Guys! There are whale wizards and wizards becoming whales! This was a really wild section, and I am once again taken aback by Diane Duane's incredible imagination. I love that there's still so many ways to surprise me. In this section, our lovely friends transform into whales, via two different methods. Kit uses something called a whalesark which holds the memories of a previous whale who died, while Nita uses her magic and taps into her inner...whale? They travel all day, although it doesn't seem nearly that long to them while they're in whale form, and visit an ancient whale living near Sandy Hook to commit to singing their parts in the upcoming spell. I really enjoy all of the wild magic in these books. Thank you so much to Devin for commissioning this!

FINALLY! Thank you so much to Rosalie for commissioning the next book in the Young Wizards series, Deep Wizardry by Diane Duane! I have to confess I didn't expect that it would be so long before someone commissioned another book from this series, but I started to come to terms with the fact that maybe the other books weren't as good and nobody wanted to hear about them. I AM VERY EXCITED TO BE WRONG. This book starts off in a totally new setting, which I should have seen coming because of the cover, but guess what. I didn't. So our two heroes are down by the beach, they're talking to dolphins and whales, they're solving magical aquatic problems...this is all really new. I'm thrilled. Thank you again to Rosalie, and you can find the book here! https://amzn.to/2QRZD9U

Hey you gorgeous souls! I'm here with an episode of Spoil Me! sponsored by Devin Mathews, who requested the first 50 pages of So You Want To Be A Wizard by Diane Duane. If you're interested in picking up a copy, you can find it here! https://amzn.to/2OqsD7lThis was an unexpected pleasure, and I'm so delighted to find out that there are many fans of this series in the UNspoiled! fandom who were excited to see this commissioned. I'm really into the whole idea of a brand new method of employing magic, and this is certainly a style that I haven't come across much in my personal reading. Thanks so much to Devin for the commission, and if anyone wants to join the Facebook group to organize commissions, you can find it here: www.facebook.com/groups/spoilmepodSee you next week with the first episodes of Veronica Mars!

Welcome to Episode 4 of the Trek Book Club podcast, Spock’s World. Rob and Rick discuss the book Spock’s World, by Diane Duane. As well as discussing the story we will also talk about the reactions of everyone who took part in the Trek Book Club day on Twitter.

That Novel Life podcast reviews YA Fiction novels. New episodes every other Sunday! This week’s review is on So You Want to be a Wizard by Diane Duane, book one of the Young Wizards series Music from www.bensound.com “Memories”

Dark Mirror. In the year 2267, four Starfleet officers found themselves trapped in a strange alternate universe, a dark and deadly mirror of their own reality. There, a brutal empire ruled in place of the Federation, and advancement came through deceit and murder. Now, a century later, the crew of the Enterprise-D find themselves pulled into that same mirror reality, and this time they must work to prevent a full scale invasion of the prime universe! In this episode of Literary Treks, hosts Bruce Gibson and Dan Gunther talk about the TNG novel Dark Mirror by Diane Duane. We discuss how the novel compares to other stories set in the mirror universe, a dolphin scientist named Hwii, his theory of hyperstrings, the evil and powerful Counselor Troi, the origins and nature of the mirror universe, Diane Duane's particular brand of technobabble, and wrap up with our final thoughts and ratings. In the news section, we talk about the upcoming Autobiography of Mr. Spock, judge the cover of James Swallow's novel Star Trek: Discovery: Fear Itself, and discuss the news of the new comic miniseries, Star Trek: The Next Generation: Terra Incognita, coming later this year. News The Autobiography of Spock (00:03:38) Star Trek Discovery: Fear Itself (00:08:27) Terra Incognita Announcement (00:11:47) Feature: Dark Mirror Back to the Mirror (00:15:36) How it Fits (00:18:28) Sea World in Space (00:30:26) Good Vibrations (00:35:08) The Counselor (00:37:28) Comparing Universes (00:49:10) Possible Origins (00:57:02) Master of Technobabble (01:01:37) Ratings (01:10:19) Final Thoughts (01:11:06) Hosts Dan Gunther and Bruce Gibson Production Matthew Rushing (Editor and Producer) C Bryan Jones (Executive Producer) Ken Tripp (Executive Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer) Richard Marquez (Production Manager) Brandon-Shea Mutala (Patreon Manager) Ken Tripp (Associate Producer) Brandon-Shea Mutala (Associate Producer) Bruce Gibson (Associate Producer) Justin Oser (Associate Producer) Norman C. Lao (Associate Producer) Greg Rozier (Associate Producer) Jeffery Harlan (Associate Producer)

Doctor's Orders. For a ship's surgeon, Dr. McCoy tends to spend an awful lot of time on the bridge of the Enterprise, usually grousing to Captain Kirk about his command decisions. The tables are turned on the good doctor when Kirk decides to leave him in command while visiting an alien world. However, when Captain Kirk disappears, McCoy must remain in command until he is found. Will the doctor find himself in over his head? In this episode of Literary Treks, hosts Bruce Gibson and Dan Gunther discuss the classic Diane Duane novel Doctor's Orders. We talk about McCoy's command style, the three species of the planet Flyspeck, when the story is set, Diane Duane's fascination with starship maneuvers, the fact that the grass isn't always greener on the other side, and wrap up with our final thoughts and ratings. In the news segment, we talk about Christopher L. Bennett's annotations for his novel The Face of the Unknown and review two comics: Boldly Go #8 and Waypoint #5. News The Face of the Unknown Annotations (00:02:54) Boldly Go #8 (00:06:35) Waypoint #5 (00:14:50) Feature: Doctor's Orders Oldie but a Goodie (00:24:46) Doctor on the Bridge (00:28:58) Three Species (00:38:38) When Does This Story Take Place? (00:59:52) Intricate Maneuvers (01:05:14) Where We Belong (01:10:31) Ratings (01:16:26) Final Thoughts (01:19:30) Hosts Dan Gunther and Bruce Gibson Production Matthew Rushing (Editor and Producer) C Bryan Jones (Executive Producer) Ken Tripp (Executive Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer) Richard Marquez (Production Manager) Brandon-Shea Mutala (Patreon Manager) Ken Tripp (Associate Producer) Brandon-Shea Mutala (Associate Producer) Bruce Gibson (Associate Producer)

THE BABIES ARE BACK. After a painful break from podcasting, we're diving back in with So You Want to Be a Wizard: a technical marvel chock full of magic, friendship and leaving bullies in your supernatural dust. How can a white hole be so darn charming? Is there a more creative "wrong" version of our world than the Starsnuffer's personal utopia? And just how confusing is it to try to navigate fictional New York? Also featuring a Smaug-style sewer dragon and 2 kids accomplishing way 2 much for their age. Press play and don't forget your wizard's manual. We're also catching the tail end of #trypod. Recommendations: Madeleine - Sooo Many White Guys / Grace - Imaginary Worlds. Please note - while Dragon Babies is not explicit, these recommendations are.MUSIC - Pippin the Hunchback by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) - Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Author Diane Duane joins us on the show and tells us about her Star Trek novels, learning from David Gerrold, what it was like to pitch a script to Gene Roddenberry, how she creates alien characters, and more. Hosts Andi and Sue Guests Diane Duane Editors Jarrah and Sue Send us your feedback! crew@womenatwarp.com @womenatwarp http://facebook.com/womenatwarp Support the show! http://www.patreon.com/womenatwarp  

Author Diane Duane joins us on the show and tells us about her Star Trek novels, learning from David Gerrold, what it was like to pitch a script to Gene Roddenberry, how she creates alien characters, and more. Hosts Andi and Sue Guests Diane Duane Editors Jarrah and Sue Send us your feedback! crew@womenatwarp.com @womenatwarp http://facebook.com/womenatwarp Support the show! http://www.patreon.com/womenatwarp  

Editor of TeleRead   Interview starts at 11:26 and ends at 37:11   Even if all the publishers remove DRM from every eBook they sell tomorrow, I would be the vast majority of Amazon Kindle customers would go right on being Amazon Kindle customers, just because it's so easy to tap the button and start reading the book.   News “Amazon Kindle Voyage to be Released November 2015” by Michael Kozlowski at Good E-Reader - July 7, 2015 “Amazon Top Pick for Contract to Create N.Y.C. Schools' e-Book Marketplace” by Michele Molnar at Education Week - July 30, 2015 “City partners with Amazon for $30 million e-book contract” by Eliza Shapiro at Capital New York - July 29, 2015   Tech Tips Send to Kindle app for Mac and PC   Interview with Chris Meadows “Chris Meadows becomes Editor of TeleRead; Juli Monroe to remain Editor-in-chief” by David Rothman at TeleRead - July 17, 2015   TeleRead articles by Chris Meadows TeleRead articles by Founder David Rothman and Editor-in-chief Juli Monroe Links including “950 million Android phones can be hijacked by malicious text messages” Ars Technica story (scroll down to the fourth item in this post) Calibre eBook management calibre2opds script Baen books Humble Bundles Book Bub (and an even better choice for eBook bargain emails: Stephen Windwalker's BookGorilla) Steam videogames The recently launched TeleRead Podcast, hosted by Chris Meadows TeleRead Podcast interview with author Diane Duane (click on episode 5) - July 25, 2015 Closed Circle Publications, the independent eBook retailer created by authors C. J. Cherryh, Lynn Abbey, and Jane Fancher Author Doranna Durgin's website Pottermore “Macmillan Parent Company Holtzbrink Abandons DRM in Germany” by Nate Hoffelder at The Digital Reader - July 20, 2015 Author Earnings Report - May, 2015 Gen Con - July 30 - August 2, 2015 in Indianapolis Amazon Game Studios “Whither the PDA (or iPhone) D&D?” by Chris Meadows at TeleRead - January 28, 2009 DriveThruRPG and Paizo   Content Awesome Indies book reviews Awesome Indies review of The Ribs and Thigh Bones of Desire by Sandra Hutchinson   Comments Amazon PowerFast adapter for Kindle and Fire Prime Music     Next Week's Guest Carie Harling, whose Clippings.io and Evernote video details a terrific way to organize your Kindle notes and highlights   Music for my podcast is from an original Thelonius Monk composition named "Well, You Needn't." This version is "Ra-Monk" by Eval Manigat on the "Variations in Time: A Jazz Persepctive" CD by Public Transit Recording" CD.    Please Join the Kindle Chronicles group at Goodreads!

Welcome to Episode 27, where Les Filles talk with author, screenwriter, and Alina’s personal hero Diane Duane! Diane spoke to us from the Library Bar in Dublin, after having seen The Battle of the Five Armies. After the episode is … Continue reading →