Podcasts about galactic suburbia

What can urbanists learn from how Sci-Fi authors have reimagined cities? GT Regents Professor in Science Fiction Lisa Yaszek discusses with host Ellen Dunham-Jones how diverse voices from around the world have challenged racial and gender norms in science and technology while proposing alternative kinds of cities, spaces, and social justice. Yaszek is the author of Galactic Suburbia and co-editor of Literary Afro-futurism in the Twenty-First Century. Shaunitra Wisdom, GT School of Architecture Academic Advisor, author, and Periplus Fellow shares her insights and moderates Q&A.

In which Galactic Suburbia has a sad announcement, and the word ‘penultimate’ is used... WHAT’S NEW ON THE INTERNET: Nominating for the Hugos CULTURE CONSUMED: Alisa: The Good Place; Picard S1 Ep 1-2. Tansy: Moontangled, by Stephanie Burgis, The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite, Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell, Supernatural Season 15 (first 5 eps) Alex: many books over the holidays. Ten Thousand Doors of January, Alix E Harrow; Gideon the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir; A Memory Called Empire, Arkady Martine; Come Tumbling Down, Seanan McGuire. Please send feedback to us at galacticsuburbia@gmail.com, follow us on Twitter at @galacticsuburbs, check out Galactic Suburbia Podcast on Facebook, support us at Patreon - which now includes access to the ever so exclusive GS Slack - and don't forget to leave a review on iTunes if you love us!

Back in April, Liz and Ben attended the seventh bi-annual Australian Discworld Convention, Nullus Anxietas VII! They enlisted fellow convention guest (and friend of the podcast), author Tansy Rayner Roberts, to discuss the earliest Discworld short story: 1991's Troll Bridge! Cohen the Barbarian has led a long life, but his greatest glories and biggest adventures seem far behind him. It's time to tick a few items off his bucket list - starting with facing a troll in one-on-one combat. But when he and his annoying talking horse reach one of the few troll bridges left on the Disc, things aren't as straightforward as they were in the old days... With the Snowgum Films adaptation of Troll Bridge being screened at the convention, it seemed only right to cover the source material in this, our first ever live show! Like a lot of Pratchett's work, Troll Bridge is by turns silly and deep, drawing on the traditions of Tolkien and Howard while at the same time pointing out that their worlds couldn't stay the same forever. Did you find it poignant? When do you think it happens in Cohen's timeline? And is a short story enough for an entire podcast? We'd love to know! Use the hashtag #PratchatNA7 on social media to join the conversation. We'd like to extend our warm thanks to everyone who attended the convention; you all made us feel so welcome, and it was such a special experience to be among so many Discworld fans, speaking on panels and chairing debates and meeting you all! Especially big thanks to those of you who came to be in our first live audience, and to the massive team of hard-working volunteers at Nullus Anxietas, without whom fan conventions like this just couldn't happen. That goes eig- er, one more than sevenfold to Suzie Eisfelder, Lisa Lagergren, Steve Lewis and all the other members of the committee, who organise such a massive undertaking every two years. We hope to see you all in Sydney in 2021 for Nullus Anxietas 7A! We hope to do some more live shows in the future, probably as bonus episodes like this one. Regular episodes will continue to be released on the 7Ath of each month...and in episode 21, coming up next in July 2019, you can find out what Genghiz Cohen did next as we discuss Interesting Times. Show Notes and Errata: Tansy Rayner Roberts is an award-winning writer and podcast host. She's written fantasy novels, short fiction, feminist essays and much more; of particular interest to Pratchat listeners is Pratchett's Women, a collection of essays about the women in the Discworld novels. She co-hosts the podcasts Galactic Suburbia (about sci-fi and writing in Australia) and Verity! (about Doctor Who), and has her own fiction podcast Sheep Might Fly. You can find Tansy on the web at tansyrr.com, on Patreon at patreon.com/tansyrr, and also on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.Troll Bridge was first published in the 1991 anthology After the King: Stories In Honour of J.R.R. Tolkien, the most recent edition of which was released in 2012. Other authors in the collection include Stephen R. Donaldson, Jane Yolen, Gregory Benford, Emma Bull, Poul and Karen Anderson, Judith Tarr, Harry Turtledove, Karen Haber and Charles de Lint, among others. The story was reprinted in 2001's The Mammoth Book of Comic Fantasy (which also features stories by Neil Gaiman and Terry Jones) and A Blink of the Screen, a 2012 collection of Pterry's short fiction.The short film Troll Bridge by Snowgum Films was adapted for the screen and directed by Daniel Knight, and stars Don Bridges as Cohen, Glenn van Oosterom as the horse and John Jenkins as Mica. It was a mammoth undertaking, especially considering it's a fan film, albeit an extremely polished one: the cast and crew all worked without pay, with production costs paid for by a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter. It's currently screening in film festivals and fan conventions around the world, but you can still pre-order a digital,

Welcome to a not quite Galactic Suburbia spoilerific. While Galactic Suburbia is usually the Australian podcast of speculative fiction books, publishing news and chat, this episode is a bit different. Firstly, it’s a spoilerific: we’re going to be talking about the TV show Counterpart, so if you haven’t seen it be warned that we will well and truly spoil it here. Secondly, this is an unusual episode because although this is Alex, from Melbourne, joining me is… Liz from Melbourne squiddishly.net @_lizbarr on Twitter The order of the cast on IMDB: Howard Silk Emily Burton Silk Ian Peter Quayle Claire Baldwin Aldrich Alexander Pope Thoughts on the plot: Berlin Parallels (people, pairings, with their others and each other) Likelihood/necessity of a second season Management   Please send feedback to us at galacticsuburbia@gmail.com, follow us on Twitter at @galacticsuburbs, check out Galactic Suburbia Podcast on Facebook, support us at Patreon - which now includes access to the ever so exclusive GS Slack - and don't forget to leave a review on iTunes if you love us!

What's a Glottolog, you ask, and what does it have in common with a llama? Galactic Suburbia tells you how... WHAT’S NEW ON THE INTERNET? Tansy on Skiffy & Fanty talking Mother of Invention Mother of Invention paperback now on sale. HOW TO SUPPRESS WOMEN'S WRITING The Prologue “We have always fought,” Kameron Hurley CULTURE CONSUMED Alisa: world news, PhD report Alex: Shakespeare and Hathaway; a lot of Terry Pratchett; Pandora’s Breeches: Women, Science, Power in the Enlightenment, Patricia Fara; Counterpart Tansy: The Governess Game, Tessa Dare; The Crown S2, Triquetra by Kirstyn McDermott on Tor.com, Jacqueline Pearce Please send feedback to us at galacticsuburbia@gmail.com, follow us on Twitter at @galacticsuburbs, check out Galactic Suburbia Podcast on Facebook, support us at Patreon - which now includes access to the ever so exclusive GS Slack - and don't forget to leave a review on iTunes if you love us!

In which Galactic Suburbia is 8 years olds. We're reading independently, making friends in Grade 3, and eating CAKE. This episode is best consumed with cake, especially if you tweet, email or message us to say exactly what you're eating. CAKE Alex: blueberry and orange ricotta cake with French Earl Grey syrup Tansy: blueberry marscapone cakes Alisa: super fancy hot chocolate (but also blueberry and ricotta cake the day before) WHAT’S NEW ON THE INTERNET? Tansy’s Kickstarter launches on Wednesday March 14 - the Return of the Creature Court. Who Against Guns legal fundraiser, initiative of the Doctor Who podcasting alliance. Rachel Talalay's piece on the epic #metoo women's panel at Gallifrey 2018. Whovian Feminism's breakdown summary of the same panel. The YA Hugo thing that just happened (breaking news as recording) Nominate for the Hugos NOOOOW! CULTURE CONSUMED: Alisa: BLACK PANTHER; Casanegra: A Tennyson Hardwick Story, Blair Underwood, Steven Barnes, Tananarive Due; short stories by Rjurik Davidson Alex: Basically, the Norma. Also Time Was, Ian McDonald; Firefly and Serenity rewatch. Tansy: The Girls at the Kingfisher Club, by Genevieve Valentine; Voltron Season 5, Jessica Jones is coming. (first episode reviewed here) Please send feedback to us at galacticsuburbia@gmail.com, follow us on Twitter at @galacticsuburbs, check out Galactic Suburbia Podcast on Facebook, support us at Patreon - which now includes access to the ever so exclusive GS Slack - and don't forget to leave a review on iTunes if you love us!

For this episode, Alex Pierce from Galactic Suburbia and Acts Of Kitchen podcasts drops by to talk about two Irwin Allen disaster movies, 1972's The Poseidon Adventure and 1974's The Towering Inferno. This is the most disastrous Paleo-Cinema Podcast yet! Alex's Podcasts http://actsofkitchen.com http://galactisuburbia.podbean.com And you can support this podcast at https://www.patreon.com/paleocinema  

In which we launch new projects and Discover a new/old love for Star Trek. Bet you didn't know how much we love Star Trek. What's new on the internet? Nebula Weekend means awards and other announcements! Tansy announces the impending Kickstarter for Mother of Invention: A speculative fiction anthology of diverse, challenging stories about gender & artificial intelligence. Alex reveals the cover of Luminescent Threads, the new book about Octavia Butler coming soon from Twelfth Planet Press. Continuum Preview! Check out the program, because we're all over it. The whole GalSub team will be at Melbourne for this year's Continuum -- if you're planning to be there, block off three hours for our Galactic Suburbia-and-Twelfth Planet Press extravaganza including a fundraising bake sale and a pre-launch party for Luminescent Threads. (It's like a baby shower but for a book, and you don't have to bring gifts) CULTURE CONSUMED: Alisa: Santa Clarita Diet S1; Anne with an E; Luminescent Threads edited by Alexandra Pierce and Mimi Mondal, Twin Peaks. Alex: Moana; Doctor Strange; Arrow; For the Love of Spock; Silent Invasion, James Bradley Tansy: Percy Jackson & the Lightning Thief; The Murderbot Diaries, Martha Wells; The Sarah Jane Adventures (check out Tansy's appearance on the Sarah Jane themed Splendid Chaps here) All of us: Star Trek Discovery Trailer! We have a lot of feels. Please send feedback to us at galacticsuburbia@gmail.com, follow us on Twitter at @galacticsuburbs, check out Galactic Suburbia Podcast on Facebook, support us at Patreon - which now includes access to the ever so exclusive GS Slack - and don't forget to leave a review on iTunes if you love us!

In which Galactic Suburbia becomes a five-time Hugo nominated podcast... WHAT'S NEW ON THE INTERNET? Hugo shortlist Also the Nommo shortlist (from the African Speculative Fiction Society) CULTURE CONSUMED Alisa: The 45th; S-Town; Sea Swept, Nora Roberts Tansy: Lotus Blue, Cat Sparks; Buffy rewatch Alex: New York 2140, Kim Stanley Robinson; the Ancillary series, Ann Leckie; season 2 and most of 3 of Person of Interest; Last Cab to Darwin   Please send feedback to us at galacticsuburbia@gmail.com, follow us on Twitter at @galacticsuburbs, check out Galactic Suburbia Podcast on Facebook, support us at Patreon and don't forget to leave a review on iTunes if you love us!

Appeared in 2012 (Twelfth Planet Press) Tansy Rayner Roberts is a Tasmanian writer of speculative fiction.  Her Creature Court Trilogy is published by HarperVoyager featuring shapechangers and flappers. Tansy is also one of the three voices of the Galactic Suburbia…

Lamia Victoriana by Tansy Rayner Roberts The poet’s sister has teeth as white as new lace. When she speaks, which is rarely, I feel a shiver down my skin. I am not here for this. I am here to persuade my own sister, Mary, that she has made a terrible mistake, that eloping as she has with this poet who cannot marry her, will not only be her own ruin, but that of our family. My tongue stumbles on the words, and every indignant speech I practiced on my way here has melted to nothing. The poet looks at me with his calm, beautiful eyes, and Mary sits scandalously close to him, determined to continue in her path of debauchery and wickedness. I cannot take my eyes from the poet’s sister. Full transcript after the cut: ----more---- Hello! Welcome to GlitterShip Episode 24 for March 15, 2016. This is your host, Keffy, and I'm super excited to be sharing this story with you. This is the last story for the first year of GlitterShip! We launched last April, and although our episodes have not been quite as regular as originally planned, we've managed to settle into a 2-per-month schedule. Coming up on April 5th, we will have our FIRST GlitterShip original story, and will continue with one original and one reprint every month. GlitterShip is currently funded through the end of year 2 (through the end of March 2017) but will be looking for funds to continue the show for a third year -- and hopefully more! If you like what we do here, please consider adding a dollar or two per month via our Patreon page, at http://www.patreon.com/keffy. You can also donate directly via Paypal at https://www.paypal.me/keffy or the Donate button at glittership.com/donate I'm working hard to catch up on the first year's Kickstarter rewards, including the Year 1 anthology. There will be an update for Kickstarter backers by the end of the month. I also ran a listener poll for the stories that were podcast during 2015! The winners were: 1st Place: "Sooner than Gold" by Cory Skerry (Episode 9) 2nd Place: "How to Become a Robot in 12 Easy Steps" by A. Merc Rustad (Episode 1) 3rd Place: "Seventh Day of the Seventh Moon" by Ken Liu (Episode 15) Thank you to everyone who voted! Our story today is "Lamia Victoriana" by Tansy Rayner Roberts. Tansy is a Tasmanian author of science fiction and fantasy. She is a co-host on two podcasts: Verity! and Galactic Suburbia. "Lamia Victoriana" was published as part of Tansy's short story suite Love and Romanpunk, and was previously reprinted in the Mammoth Book of Gaslight Romance. Lamia Victoriana by Tansy Rayner Roberts The poet’s sister has teeth as white as new lace. When she speaks, which is rarely, I feel a shiver down my skin. I am not here for this. I am here to persuade my own sister, Mary, that she has made a terrible mistake, that eloping as she has with this poet who cannot marry her, will not only be her own ruin, but that of our family. My tongue stumbles on the words, and every indignant speech I practiced on my way here has melted to nothing. The poet looks at me with his calm, beautiful eyes, and Mary sits scandalously close to him, determined to continue in her path of debauchery and wickedness. I cannot take my eyes from the poet’s sister. She is pale all over, silver like moonlight. The pale twigged lawn of her day dress makes her skin milky and soft. I have never seen such a creature as her. ‘If you are so worried about my reputation, Fanny, then come with us,’ urges Mary. ‘Be my companion. I know you have always longed to see the continent. We are to Paris, and later, Florence.’ Her deflowering has rendered her more confident than I have ever seen her. She glows with happiness and self-satisfaction.  ‘You may have relinquished society’s good opinion, but I cannot countenance such a thought,’ I say. But the poet’s sister arches her neck and says, ‘Come,’ and I am lost. Within a week, it becomes obvious that they are not human. The poet and his sister enter rooms so silently it is as if their footsteps are swallowed by the very air. When we leave hotels, one of them speaks softly to the owner, and we leave without money or promissory notes changing hands. Language is their coin, and they buy every trinket with a pearl from their tongues. I wonder, is someone somewhere keeping track of the cost of this life of ours? Mary is immersed in her poet. At meal-times, she gazes fiercely at his hands, as if the way that his fingers toy with the silverware or hold a wine glass are in themselves a great work of art. She sighs about hunger or thirst, but does little to assuage such desires. I eat, but the food tastes like ashes, such is my fear. I should not have followed my sister. Her fate should not be my own. I tell myself I chose this path because of my terror of what Father would do to me if I returned without Mary, but the truth is, I came with them because the poet’s sister asked me to. On the ninth day, she kisses me. I am distracted by my latest letter from home. The paper is clutched tight in my fist and my first concern is passing by the poet’s sister in the passageway without our skirts getting tangled together or my hip pressing unduly against hers. Unexpectedly, she turns to me so that our bodies are aligned in that narrow space and gasps her mouth against my own. I drink her in, for a moment of perfumed air and warmth, and then she is gone, her laughter spilling against the walls as she moves, so fast, so fast. Gone. Mary cups her hands over the slight swell of her belly, admiring her new curves in the mirror. “I am greater than I was, Fanny,” she tells me. “The world is greater than it was.” “You are foolish in love,” I tell her, snipping off the end of my embroidery thread. Love. Is that the fluttering feeling in my bones when the poet’s sister looks at me? Am I a greater fool than my sister? “Admit it,” says Mary, tugging the silk of her dress out so that she can imagine how she will look when she is more months round. “Paris is beautiful.” Paris. Paris is chocolate and pastries that we do not drink or eat, though it sits prettily before us at meal-times, in perfect china vessels. Paris is expensive frocks that my sister and her poet cannot afford, persuaded from fancy shops with quiet, forceful words. Mary buys me a travelling dress, of sturdy linen and wool, with a jaunty hat. The colours are violet and black, as is proper for a widow rather than an unmarried chaperone. I wonder whom it is that I am supposed to be mourning, but I rather like the way that I look in the costume. On the train to Florence, I stand at the window, gazing at the winding ribbon of Italian countryside. This, this is the world. I am free of the dust and the smallness of Father’s house and our street in London. I feel as if I could fly. The poet’s sister brushes against me in the narrow cabin, and then again, so that I can tell it was not done by accident. Her fingertips linger on my waist as she steadies herself against the bunk. “Shall we join Mary and my brother in the dining carriage?” she asks. I shake my head, not willing to say aloud that I cannot bear another meal of artifice and elegance at which nothing is eaten. They all enjoy the ritual, but it only serves to remind me of what we have lost, and what we have left behind. It unsettles me that such a vital human need has been lost to us. Hungry. I am so very hungry, and yet I cannot swallow even a crumb. “Well then,” she says, and tugs down the stiff blind that shuts out the light. “We are alone.” The travelling dress comes apart so easily, as if it were designed for this. A button, a lace, and I am unpeeled. Her hands are cold against the heat of my skin, and her mouth fits against my neck perfectly. My mind is overwhelmed with her fingers, her palms, the soft mound beneath her thumb, and the whisper of my chemise as it gives way to her. I do not notice the bite until she is so deep inside me that there is no return, no escape, just heat and taste and the rocking pulse of the train through every inch of my skin. For the first time in days, in weeks, I am sated. Finally, I understand what I was hungering for. To be food. Later, much later, there is a whistle. The train has stopped. I am lying dizzy in the lower bunk, my body wrapped in the languid arms of the poet’s sister. “We’re here,” she says, and slides over my inert body to dress herself. I watch as her white skin disappears into layers of fabric, of stockings and stays and damask. When she is her outer self again, she turns her attentions to me, drawing me to my feet and dressing me as if I am a doll. She even combs my hair, playing the lady’s maid. When I speak, it is only to say, “So quiet.” Where is the bustle of the other passengers, the calls and urgent conversations, the mutterings as they embark or depart? “All the time in the world,” she says softly, and powders my face. Every apartment on the train is empty as we pass. But no, not empty. If I look too closely, I can see a hand here, a foot there, a fallen lock of hair. She catches me looking. “My brother was hungry,” is her only explanation. We meet Mary and the poet on the platform. They are bright with colour, delighted with themselves. Several porters come forth to carry our trunks, but they all have a dazed look about their eyes that proves the poet has already paid them with his dulcet words. “I know we shall love it, here in Florence,” says Mary. “It is a most accommodating city,” agrees the poet, with a satisfied smile. We have been in Florence only three days when someone tries to kill us. He is a most unassuming looking gentleman. The poet’s sister and I are wandering the city markets, choosing furnishings and flowers that will look splendid in the new house that her brother is buying for us. He spends his days going from place to place, searching for the perfect villa, while Mary plans the garden where her children will play. The assassin lunges out of the shadows, a rope knotted in his hands, and wraps it around my lover’s throat. She is caught unawares, but he does not expect me to savage him with the fine brass door-knocker I had been admiring on a nearby stall. Blood pours from the wound on his head as I hurl the knotted rope away, cooing over the ugly bruises on her throat. “Do not concern yourself, Fanny,” she says in a beautiful rasp. “No one shall destroy us.” “You are not one of them,” the man gasps, holding his sleeve to the wound. “Do not let the lamia take your will and your life from you, Frances Wolstonecraft.” I shiver that he knows my name. Or perhaps it is that other word — lamia. I do not know what it means. “Come near us again,” said the poet’s sister. “And my brother will kill you.” She takes my hand, and we run away together, through the market. “Who is that man?” I ask at the supper table that night. The poet, his sister and Mary all look at each other as if I have said something unpleasant, a truth not to be named aloud. “Why does he hate us?” I persist. Am I the only one not to know the secrets of this new family we have formed? I am not a child! “He is an old enemy of my kind,” the poet says finally, shifting his wine glass one precise inch to the left, so that the candlelight makes a prettier pattern of ruby shapes on the tablecloth. “He hates us for being. That is all. His name is Julius. He is not important.” “He was so strong.” I can still remember that look in his eyes, as if my lady were some kind of monster. “We are stronger,” says the poet’s sister, and squeezes my fingers with her own. From Florence, we travel to Switzerland, determined that our plan to live together in all happiness and beauty shall not be spoiled by the horrid man, Julius. I wonder sometimes if he was sent by our father, if the poet only wished to spare Mary and I from that awful truth, that our own family would rather see us dead than happy. We have our house of dreams, finally, in the midst of such green splendour, and a good distance outside the town where prying eyes might seek to spoil our circle. The poet and Mary visit the town often, to buy pretty trinkets, and to slake their thirst. When they are gone, it is as if the house is ours, only ours, and the poet’s sister and I can finally love each other as we long to. She needs no drink but what she takes from me, in sweet drugging kisses that make me feel alive. Mary’s child is born; a perfect silver nub of a creature with bright eyes. She is hungry, so very hungry, and nuzzles her constantly, sucking, biting, clawing at her for food. She hires a nursemaid from the town, and then another, but the babe’s thirst is too great, and for a while it is as if we are constantly digging graves for the scraps left behind. Left unsaid is our belief she will not survive. We will have to move again, and soon, but we have been so happy here. It pains us to speak of leaving the garden, the egg-shell drawing room, the balcony that looks out over the valley. We stay too long. I am awoken from a deep befogged sleep against the body of my beloved when I hear a scream in the night. The baby makes so much noise that I am content at first to ignore the interruption, but then there is another, and the shattering of glass. The poet’s sister sits up in bed, shining and glorious in her white nightgown. “Him,” is all she says, and then she is up on her feet, hair streaming behind her, teeth gleaming in the darkness. He has come for us. The downstairs parlour is alight as we come down the stairs: flames crackle up the curtains and blacken the wooden walls. My beloved gasps as she finds the body of her brother in a pool of silver blood, his body pierced through the heart and his head lying some distance from his neck. “Fanny!” Mary screams, and bursts through the flaming doorway like an angel, bearing her child wrapped in a sage-green blanket trimmed with ivory lace. “Take her,” she begs, placing the wailing bundle in my arms. I stand there, immobile as Mary and my beloved turn back to the smoke and the flames, ready to avenge the death of the poet. He — Julius, slayer of lamia — walks through the wall of flames with his sword held high. It is a short sword, and bronzed rather than steel. How odd, the things you notice at such moments. My sister bares her teeth, as sharp as those of my beloved, and they swarm him. I do not want to watch. I flee, through the kitchen, where I grab the only weapon I can find, a kitchen knife, and spare cloths for the baby. Then I run out of the house, my niece crying in my arms, down the hill, away from the beautiful house. I feel it minutes later, the death of my beloved. It is a blossoming pain in my chest, as if someone has carved out my heart. I do not feel Mary die; we have no such connection. But my tears fall for them both. I run and hide, but the baby is hungry and she will not stop crying. Finally I press her mouth again my upper arm and she suckles deeply, her own teeth finding the vein and drinking in great gulping swallows. I shall have to wind her afterwards, and the thought is almost enough to make me burst with laughter. Too late. I should have silenced her minutes ago. He is upon us. I hear him treading the crisp grass nearby, and the rasp of his smoke-filled lungs. “Frances,” he says, as if he still thinks he has an ally in me. “Give me the child.” The baby’s feed is not as delicious as that of my beloved. It hurts, though there is still a satisfaction in it, in knowing that I am food, that I am needed. Little Mary. Mine now. “No,” I say, quite calmly, though he is standing not far from me, and he has a sword. I do not think he will hurt me. For some reason, he does not believe I am one of the monsters. I keep the knife hidden in my skirts, so that he shall not see that I am able to defend myself. “Listen to me, Frances. I have tracked these creatures for years. They were the last, the three up there in the house.” My family. Tears rush anew down my cheeks, and I cannot wipe them away without disturbing the babe. “There is only that one,” he continues. “When it is gone, the world will be safe. One less monster to ravage families, to destroy the lives of innocents such as yourself. Lamia who are born rather than made are the most powerful, the most dangerous. I have worked for centuries to weaken these creatures, and if this one lives to make more of its kind, it may be centuries more before they are wiped from the face of the earth.” The baby releases me with a gasp and leans against my breast, breathing deeply. She is asleep. My niece, the perfect silver child. My daughter, now. He cannot even acknowledge that she is a ‘she’. “No,” I say again. “You can go home, Frances,” he says, in a soothing voice. “Home to your father, to your old life…” The thought of it makes me shudder. “No!” I scream, and run at him with the knife. He does not expect it, even now. He thinks I am food, a docile milk cow, with no reason to defy him now that my lover and sister are dead. I catch him in the neck, and he twists badly, falling down the hillside onto his sword. I do not think he survived. How could he, a blow like that? After months of standing asid, as my sister and the poet killed for food, I have become a murderer myself. Perhaps the murderer of thousands, by keeping my little Mary alive. The blood of my body will not sustain her forever. But I have learned that the lamia power of persuasive words is mine to share, if I hold the baby close to my skin, and that has been enough to get us from train to train, from country to country. We will travel as far as we can, to a land so distant that another Julius can never find us. She will grow, my darling daughter, and she will feed. Some day, perhaps, she shall make me another lover to replace what I lost. We shall be a family, all together. She shall live, my little Mary, long after I have gone, and live, and live. I am not sorry for it. END

This episode is all me talking about what it was like to create and host Cabbages & Kings in 2015. Lots of gratitude for my listeners, identifying areas for improvement, and thinking about what might happen in 2016. No discussion of books. I talked about my reading in 2015 over on The Three Hoarsemen podcast.A few links:Discussing The Fifth Season with Troy & Khaalidah (and Troy's first appearance)Discussing Ancillary Justice with Ethan (pt. 1, pt. 2)Folklore with Mike UnderwoodComics with ParrishMiddle-Aged Women Aren't Coming of Age and a much better Rocket Talk episode with a similar premiseFangirl Happy Hour podcastGalactic Suburbia PodcastOut on a Wire (radio storytelling)Pilot (podcast of possible-podcast episodes)Cooode St. PodcastMy roundup of lots of podcasts I've listened toVision StatementContact Page (be a guest!)Wisdom of the CrowdsEpisode & Guest indexHalf-Dark PromiseEyes I Dare Not Meet In Dreams (LadyBusiness Review)A not-quite-transcript is below. These are the notes I read and occasionally ad-libbed:Navel Gazing 2015Here’s a year-end wrap up podcast. This isn’t about my reading. I did an episode of the Three Hoarsemen where I talked about that. Short version - I adored Grace of Kings, Fifth Season, Black Wolves & Sorceror of the Wildeeps, while being able to see flaws in a couple of them. This is a podcast where I look back at what Cabbages & Kings is and where I’d like to go in 2016. What I’m trying to do, what I’ve done so far, what went well & poorly, and where the show might go in the future. If you don’t want that episode, bail out now, and I’ll be back in 2016 with plenty of new episodes where I talk about books and stories.OK - What am I trying to doWhat went really wellWhere is there room for improvementWhat cool stuff could I do with a podcast in the future?What am I trying to doI started Cabbages & Kings on the theory that there are a lot of science fiction & fantasy podcasts out there, but there’s a kind of disappointing sameness that I felt left a hole for (among other things) a show that focused readers talking to readers about books, with minimal chit-chat and an editor at the least cutting out fumbles and uhms. And I figured I could make that.It’s worth saying right here that this isn’t either unique or necessarily a “better” format than others. Friends hanging out talking about what they love is basically a genre in and out of science fiction and fantasy: look at For Colored Nerds, Fan Bros Show, or the Accidental Tech Podcast. In the genre space, I love inviting the ladies of Fangirl Happy Hour and Galactic Suburbia and the Gentlemen of The Three Hoarsemen into my ears every few weeks just to sit & converse for a while. Arguably Cooode St. is a similar format podcast. I think the best Writing Excuses episodes are not only tighter than Cabbages & Kings, but usually inspiring and insightful even listening as just a reader. I know that Sword and Laser has created a community around their reading experience, and I think Mahvesh Murad is a fascinating interviewer whether or not I’ve heard of the author she’s got on. I’m also periodically reminded how many podcasts there are out there that I don’t know about. So Cabbages & Kings isn’t an attempt to be the “best” science fiction and fantasy podcast out there, just fill a hole I saw.According to my slightly more aspirational vision statement: Cabbages & Kings is an attempt to create exactly the podcast that I want to listen to. I want a podcast that makes science fiction and fantasy readers smile, pump their fists in recognition, and pause to consider a new idea. I want an excuse to work out ideas that are in my head and to interview a diverse group of other thoughtful readers. Cabbages & Kings is my attempt to contribute to the speculative fiction conversation in the format that I love the most. With Cabbages & Kings I hope to focus on books and stories that I love to read, and the experiences and reactions of other readers. All of this in under 30 minutes per episode, ending with a nostalgic look back at a favorite book.So, basically - I hate blogging because I get bogged down when trying to write words. I want to put a focus on the reading experience that readers have, and I’d like to talk about books in a way that can both gush about what we love and also apply a critical eye. I’ve found that the critical reading I like the most teaches me something about how to approach any new book or media, and I hoped to create some of that.What went really well?I’m going to take a moment to cheer for a moment! I put out 22 episodes in the 34 weeks between May 13 and the end of the year, not counting this one. That’s pretty cool!I really, really enjoyed having Ethan on to talk about Ancillary Justice - I think we got at elements of the ways Artificial Intelligence and Identity are handled that I didn’t see discussed very many places, but apparently there’s a philosophy class using Ancillary Justice to talk about those very topics, so clearly we (by which I mean Ethan) saw something interesting there.Troy Wiggins has been on twice - the podcast that we did with Khaalidah on The Fifth Season was a highlight of this year, and certainly in the first few months, our discussion of his history with the genre was one of my favorite episodes.Talking Short Stories with Nick Mamatas was great, and the discussion of folklore with Mike Underwood was fun to do & seemed to touch a few people when it came out.I was expecting to enjoy having fun & interesting people come on the podcast to talk about books. I was not expecting just how enjoyable it would be. Podcast recording evenings are some of my favorites. Getting a message out of the blue from Maureen Speller (who’s writing in Strange Horizons I’d recently discovered) letting me know very politely that I’d missed the point of the Buried Giant (which I confessed to at the time) and could we talk about it led to an almost two hour conversation, two of my favorite episodes, and a deeper appreciation of the book which is really the point of so much of this! You may have mixed feelings about the endless discussions of Grace of Kings, but for me, sorting out my thoughts about the book has been delightful. Plus I got to actually talk to Kate Elliott about the book (episode to come), and will hopefully get a chance to go over some of the themes with Ken Liu once I’ve finally put out the whole series of deep dives. So anyone out there thinking of starting a podcast - you get an excuse to ask your heroes and/or the smartest people you know to talk about your favorite topics for a while. It’s pretty awesome.Where is there room for improvement?So - I’ve put out some episodes I’m really proud of. I’ve gotten to have the thrilling experience of talking about fascinating topics & books with amazing people. Have I emphasized enough just how cool that it? It’s awesome!There’s something Tobias Buckell said a while ago on Twitter that I keep going back to (and I’m quoting from memory here, so hopefully getting the spirit if not the words) - that he hopes to be able to look back at his writing from 6 months ago and see flaws in it. That’s a sign he’s improving as an author. I haven’t listened back to many early episodes, but even week to week I find that when I listen back to the episode, I can usually see room for improvement. I tend to think about four areas where the show can get better. One is guests & topics which I’ll talk about more in a minute, but three are basically production related:First, there’s the actual interview. Do I hear my guest. Am I giving them space to talk & gather their ideas when that’s what’s needed. Can I listen and follow up on an interesting track. If there’s something *I* don’t understand, can I push them to be more clear? Notably, I had my mom to talk about middle-aged women as protagonists early on and was so invested in how *I* read (looking at worldbuilding and seeing the protagonist as an opportunity to reveal that world to the reader) that I didn’t really do a great job with the interview. (I’ll note that there’s a Rocket Talk episode with Kate Elliott & Emma Newman that touches on middle-aged women in genre stories which is worth listening to and which touches on some of the same topics). Listening back to the Ancillary Justice episode, I also didn’t really follow up on the most interesting things Ethan was saying. Live & Learn. I don’t think I’ve done a really a great job on any interviews yet, but I have at least learned to pause when I’m uncomfortable or confused & pursue a better line, or keep the guest talking. Editing afterwards ... Luxury! Luxury!Quick aside - in the Three Hoarsemen episode I was on at the end of the year with Andrea Phillips, the guys and Andrea did a really good job of pulling back threads that had been mentioned earlier and either building on them or questioning the premise. They heard each other, applied those statements to their experiences, and looked for common ground or interesting differences. It’s a skill or an art or something that I’m still learning the knack of, but at least I hear it sometimes now.Fine, so I’ve got an interview. How do I present it to you listeners? I’m not good at sticking to a time limit during the interview, so I’ve often got over an hour of audio that I’d like to turn into a 30 minute episode (which is about 28 minutes of content, and usually the significant book at the end chew up 1 to 3 minutes). I’ve been working on putting together a story structure. That was there in the first of the two Buried Giant Episodes as well as the comics episode that just went up. Ideally, I’m able to set up the interview with a story of who the guest is, what we’re going to talk about, and what the story of the interview is. Something like: After mostly reading prose fiction, I tried out a comic, and the experience was Exciting! and there were some similarities in the experience but there were important differences between the two media! This, ideally, gives you a hook to tell you why you care about the episode & what you’re listening for. I’m cribbing here extensively from a pretty neat podcast that Jessica Abel is putting out to support her book Out on the Wire: Storytelling Secrets of the Modern Masters of Radio, which has been really helpful in thinking about how to put out a podcast. Brief aside - the terrifying thing about doing heavyhanded editing is that I’m taking the words of someone I was talking to and trying very hard to understand and elicit responses from, and then I’m rearranging those words. And that means there’s the possibility that I’m misrepresenting them. Or missing something they thought was really important that I thought was less important. That’s already happened once (fortunately the guest took an early listen, something I offer everyone who comes on and suggested a couple tweaks), but if the best unanticipated surprise is the sheer joy I’m getting from having an excuse to sit & talk books with amazing people, the scariest unanticipated piece of this is taking other people’s words in my hands and doing something with them.So, thing 1 that I can still improve (that sounds so much better than stuff I’m often sucking at) is getting an interesting interview with my guest. Thing 2 is shaping the audio I’ve got into a story that’ll keep you engaged and set up the key moments or insights from the story.Thing 3 is actual post production audio. Making sure that things aren’t TOO LOUD or *too soft* and that the guest and I sound similar and transitions aren’t really ragged and all of the other stuff that you can do to work with audio to make it sound good. Despite growing up on NPR, Cabbages and Kings is never going to be something like Radiolab. I know I’ve had some moments that sound pretty awful, though. The Eye of the Tiger corny audio experiment was … a corny experiment. Was it awful? I only discovered compression (which helps make soft stuff louder and loud stuff softer) recently - before that I was balancing every second or two manually and that led to some really weird volume shifts. Truncate silence has also been a good tool to learn. I’m pretty sure I’ve still got a lot to learn about audio production. Problem is my preferred podcast client (shout out to Overcast!) does some silence truncating and audio leveling, plus I listen at about 1-and-a-quarter-speed (there are way too many great podcasts out there - 59 unlistened-to-episodes at last count.So, good audio? Bad audio? I probably couldn’t tell you. I am going to order a pop filter, though. And hopefully in 2016 the basic “two or more people are talking to each other and it should sound like they are having a conversation without distracting background noise and plosives” will get better. If anyone has advice on the technical aspects of getting better audio, please, please let me know.OK, so, there are the three pieces of “interviewing people”, “making you the listener care about the interview” and “making the actual sounds good”. All of those can be improved. I’m pretty sure I have improved all of these since the early episodes, and still has a way to go.Now let’s talk a bit about who comes on the show and what we talk about. I’m a pretty firm believer that the conversation is richer and better when many people from many backgrounds are talking. Episode 16 includes a bunch of us talking about how we got into science fiction & fantasy and making fun of my notion that reading Tolkien and then a bunch of Tolkien-clones from the 80s and 90s is the cliched way to engage with the genre. (Show notes will be full of links if you want to follow any rabbit holes). “Diversity” is sometimes a buzzword that hides as much as it obscures, but looking especially over time at the race, gender, and other backgrounds of the people I have on, as well as the topics we’ve chosen can be illuminating. So lets look back at the year:In 2015, I put out 22 episodes before this one. Two solo episodes & twenty with guests. Ethan, AFishtrap, Troy, and Maureen were all on twice.So 16 guests. 8 guys, 8 women. No one who identifies as genderqueer as far as I know.4 who weren’t white, and they were all black and american3 guests not in the US - one Canadian, one British, one american living in GermanyOne thing I’m trying to do is get out of my usual Twitter book discussion bubble. 6 Guests didn’t come on because I follow & chat with them about books on Twitter, though some of them are part of many of the same conversations I am.That gender parity was actually a pleasant surprise. All of the other numbers make we want to have a show that pushes to talk to more people outside the US, outside my comfortable Twitter bubble, and more people from historically marginalized backgrounds. I’ve got a stake in the ground this year. We’ll see how things change next year.So, what’d we talk about - Broadly speaking, we had some general discussions about reading history and common interests, like worldbuilding with Anna and small presses with Shana, focused discussion on specific topics like Short Fiction with Nick and Folklore with Mike, and then deep dives on specific books - The Fifth Season, Grace of Kings (sorry, there’s going to be more of this next year), Ancillary Justice, and The Buried Giant. These deep dives took up 8 of the 20 episodes with guests. Of the four books we went deep one, 2 were by women and two by men, and Ann Leckie was the only white author. The show right now *feels* to me like it’s heavy on in-depth book discussion, mostly because I let those get out of control and have so much great stuff to run. It’s a bit light on themed discussions, though there have been more of those recently (the discussion of Saga & Comics, Folklore and short fiction). In my head, I’d like to be getting about a third of the episodes to explore a theme or subgenre while referencing a few different exemplars, about a third going deep on a book (hopefully revealing some more universally applicable critical approaches) and about a third a grab bag of other reading experiences, and I don’t think I’m there right now.I’ll note that I interviewed 4 of the 5 white guys who came on the show about an in-depth topic - Nick on Short Stories, Aidan on Cover Art, Mike on Folklore and Carl on Queer Romance in the genre. All of these were really good episodes (in fact, Mike’s folklore episode consistently comes up when I ask people about what they’ve liked), but in contrast to the “general background” discussions with Troy and Akil, or the more back-and-forth dialog on worldbuilding that Anna and I had, there’s a trend that white guys come on to be experts at a thing. That’s something interesting to notice that I’d like not to see when I’m doing next year’s roundup.OK enough navel gazing about who talked about what. What am I thinking about going forward?I have a bunch of interviews done & waiting to be edited. An avalanche-load. A heavy mountain. A wince-inducing pile. It’s a little terrifying. I’m coming close to the sense that I have a process for these interviews - I listen to them, make notes, pick out key quotes, figure out the structure, then piece them back together. This process worked well when talking Saga with Parrish, so hopefully it’ll carry me through this batch & going forward. Content isn’t a problem. Figuring out a schedule I can keep is.So is finding guests. Especially finding guests outside of Twitter, outside the US, outside the usual suspects you might hear elsewhere. Maybe even guests who don’t share my political ideology but do share my love of this genre. I’ve got a lot of room to find interesting people whose voices I’m not hearing right now. If you are one, please let me know - there’s a contact form on the website, or send an email to contact@cabbagesandkings.audio.I’d also like to try an experiment with putting together a show that doesn’t require an interview. Skipping the logistics of getting 2 or 3 people together means a back-and-forth is harder, but there’s less chance of talking over each other and no need to navigate timezones. There’s a new link on the website: cabbagesandkings.audio/wisdom-of-the-crowds with hyphens between all those words (oh just check the show notes), where right now I’ve got a bunch of questions up about Dune because 2016 will be the 51st anniversary of it’s publication so this is the perfect time to do a Dune retrospective. Pick a few questions, answer them by recording your voice in the voice recorder of your choice. Share the audio via email, dropbox link, google drive or whatever else you please, and I may include the audio in an upcoming episode.This doesn’t have to be crystal-clear NPR quality audio. I’d suggest not recording outside in the wind, but talking into a phone headset that you’re not nervously playing with and moving around as I so often do would be fine. If you want to get fancy, real professional NPR reporters cover themselves up with coats or hotel sheets to record on the road. But record the audio & send it in. I’d love to hear what you think of Dune and put together an episode with wisdom gleaned from my listeners.I’m also often without a memory of a treasured book to close an episode, so if you’ve got one of those, let me know.Other experiments that may come - there’s a new show called Pilot where Stephanie Foo of This American Life puts out a single episode of something that *could* turn into a full podcast - a bunch of starter ideas. It got me thinking about what some of the other sounds missing from the genre podcasting sphere might be, so I may be trying a few things, including possibly a week or so of running very short morning bulletins. We’ll see.I’ve toyed with the notion of running reviews on the site. A crazy idea since I mostly don’t understand the point of a review, but I try to remember that “I don’t understand” can be an opportunity to learn, so maybe if I have smart people write & read reviews of books, I’ll get the point. Maybe?I’d kind of like to edit two other people talking about something, so take me the interviewer out of the equation. If you’d be interested in that, let me know.I’d like to be reading more short fiction next year, so maybe I’ll figure out how to incorporate that into the podcast. We’ll see.I’ve been hoping that after 25 or so episodes I’ll at least see a bit of a plateau. It’s comforting to think of Tobias Buckell’s “looking back & seeing room for improvement means I’m getting better”, but right now it also means that I kind of sucked at some aspects of this podcasting gig when I started. Hopefully sometime soonish I’ll have to actually work at getting better because I’ll have swiped the low-hanging fruit of awfulness. Then again, Parrish mentioned something about finding your stride around episode 100, so maybe I have a longer slog ahead of me.Regardless, starting Cabbages and Kings this year has been an incredibly fun and rewarding experience. I’ve had people contact me out of the blue because they liked what I was making & wanted to talk about books. I’ve got an excuse to talk to readers I respect and authors whose books I admire. Apparently people in Australia, Israel, and England all listen to the show, so that’s pretty cool! I have this awesome art of a cabbage with a crown on its head that looks badass and not like a destructive meteor anymore which was draft one. I’m really enjoying this. I’m really enjoying this in large part because every once in a while someone stops by the contact form or twitter to let me know that they’re listening & enjoyed something. I think I’ve only dropped the ball on a guest once, sorry about that. I’d love to hear from you. I’d love to hear what you like about the show. I’d love to hear what I can do better. I’d love to talk to you about this genre. If you’re listening now, you’re either somewhere without access to your podcast player controls, or a pretty dedicated listener, so let me know what I can do better. Next year will hopefully have a look ahead at reading plans, a discussion of representation within the genre, an episode on Uprooted, more Grace of Kings, quite possibly an episode on The Just City if I can bring myself to finish it, and hopefully a whole lot of other things that I can’t anticipate right now. No navel-gazing until the end of next year, though.I’ll close the episode by recommending two short stories. From early this year, Malon Edwards’ Half-Dark Promise in Shimmer magazine, set in an alternate Chicago and a girl with a steam-clock heart who needs to get home through the half-dark. Beautiful voice and use of dialect, and Sunny Moraine’s “Eyes I Dare Not Meet In Dreams” about women who’ve been fridged returning just to watch us. I’m not much of a horror reader, and I don’t know that either of these are really horror stories, but they’re tense, wonderful, and well worth a read. When I dive into short fiction next year, I’m hoping to be able to discover gems like thse on my own.Thanks for listening. Tweet me, email me, rate me on iTunes? Is that something people actually do? Recommend a show that you enjoyed to a friend who reads science fiction. And if I don’t have an episode that friend would like, tell me why not, or tell them to come on the show. Happy 2015, and hoping 2016 will be even better.Thanks!

This week it's Lynne's turn to pick a companion-tastic story, and bafflingly, she chose Nyssa in "Black Orchid". Join Deb, Erika, Liz, and Lynne as we discuss all the companions in "Black Orchid". Lynne does have some strong reasons why Nyssa shines here. Deb thinks it's a stronger Tegan story. And Erika discovers it's her new favorite Adric story. It may be a short story, but with the crowded TARDIS of the fifth Doctor era, there are lots of companions to go around! What do you think of this story? Would you have picked a different Nyssa story? Or can you think of other reasons this is a goor one for her? And do you find Adric boring? Charming? Annoying? Let us know in the comments! And remember, you have about a week left to contribute to the Uncanny Magazine Year Two Kickstarter and make an extra difference thanks to an amazing Verity! listener! ^E Also covered [links on our site]: Lynne goes "woo hoo!" over the forthcoming Doctor Who LEGO! Erika had a great time at Worldcon/Sasquan: visiting KSPS in Spokane! meeting some lovely Verity! listeners! guesting on Radio Free Skaro #490! Liz is giddy that Doctor Who is coming back in a few weeks! Deb fangirls over DW writer Sarah Dollard cosplaying as Han Solo! congratulates Tansy and Galactic Suburbia for winning the Best Fancast Hugo Award! recommends you check out Sage's Head Over Feels piece on fan shaming! Bonus links [also on our site]:Total Party Kill"Doctor in Distress"

With Gary only just returned from Spokane and the 73rd World Science Fiction Convention, we sit down to discuss the success of Sasquan, the successful site selection for Helsinki in 2017, congratulate our friends at Galactic Suburbia for their big win, and touch on some of the many and varied issues surrounding the 2015 Hugo Awards. During the podcast we:encourage you to join both MidAmerican II (Kansas City) and WorldCon 75 (Helsinki); mention io9s list of alternate Hugo Awards nominees; and discuss Jay Maynard's article at Black Gate about conservatives in the SF field . This episode was recorded the day after Sasquan and is being sent out early. We expect to return to our usual schedule this coming weekend. Till then, we hope you enjoy the episode!

John E. O. Stevens, Fred Kiesche and Jeff Patterson decided to get away from the Dog Days of August in the northeast United States and amble down to Australia* for some winter weather. While there they met up with Alisa Krasnostein, wearer of many hats (Ph.D. candidate, publisher with Twelfth Planet Press, podcaster with Galactic Suburbia). They discuss education, the doctoral process, publishing, podcasting, and (through a lucky coincidence) get into an extended discussion of James Tiptree, Jr. and the upcoming 100th birthday tribute book. By the end of the episode everybody has spent money and changed their reading plans going forward. More Tiptree! Why aren’t we celebrating the anniversary with more events? *No Hoarsemen actually went to Australia. Host Fred Kiesche, John E.O. Stevens and Jeff Patterson with Alisa Krasnostein.

That's right. We're pretty excited about this week's companion topic. Join Deb, Erika, Lynne, and Tansy as we talk about the most educated companions--the academics, the doctors, the scientists, and more. What is it about them that makes them appealing? Is there anything that can be off-putting to audiences? Does Romana count? The answer to that last one is debated hotly (but laughingly)! What do you think of the brainier companions? Do you see yourself in them? Or do you seem them being too full of their own capabilities? Let us know in the comments! ^E Also covered [links on our site]: Erika sends a huge thank-you to Roam Mobility! listens to Big Finish audios: The Apocalypse Element and Neverland! Lynne wants a 10th Doctor Funko Pop Vinyl! covets the BBC full-cast audio of Mansfield Park (starring David Tennant)! Tansy gives a warm shout-out to Liz Barr's Companion Piece essay defending Mel! wrote a story for Liberating Earth (Faction Paradox)! Deb has warm-fuzzies about all the great, creative, non-Doctor Who stuff she and her Doctor Who-loving friends are doing: Deb is on Pit Stop! The Amazing Race podcast! Erika is on The Audio Guide to Babylon 5! Lynne is co-editing/publishing Uncanny Magazine! Tansy is writing Musketeer Space, a serial, gender-swapped, space-opera retelling of The Three Musketeers! Kat is writing a fantastic blog about fandom, self-discovery, and much more! Liz co-edited and wrote for Companion Piece Women Celebrate the Humans, Aliens and Tin Dogs of Doctor Who! Bonus links [also on our site]:Galactic Suburbia is five years old!Wendy the Weeping-Angel Barbie!GilesBernice SummerfieldLove and War (novel by Paul Cornell)The Marian Conspiracy (Big Finish audio)Peel and SteedMulder and ScullyLeverage

Deborah Ross AKA Deborah Wheeler and Connie Wilkins AKA Sacchi Green join me to discuss the Lambda Awards ceremony.Deborah was nominated for Collaborators. The Lambda Literary review is here. Connie won for Wild Girls, Wild Nights: True Lesbian Sex Stories. The Lamba Literary review is here.The interview is very pleasant, but it does mention Marion Zimmer Bradley. In the interim between recording the interview and today, there has been a lot of online discussion of Bradley and her role in enabling abuse and abusing children herself. This is a very fraught emotional topic for many people in the SF, SCA, and QUILTBAG communities because many people looked at her as a role model and influence, and loved her books and/or or made their first sales to her. Here are some links collecting responses to the whole thing. Please note that the materials about MZB and her ex-husband, Walter Breen, are extremely disturbing. Proceed with caution, especially if rape and abuse are trigger topics for you.*Rape, Abuse, and Marion Zimmer Bradley is a links roundup and response by Jim C. Hines, who is a rape crisis counselor. *Silence Is Complicity is another links roundup and response by Natalie Luhrs, who has been actively calling out bad things in the SF community for quite some time. *On Doing a Thing I Had to Do is a post by Janni Lee Simner, an author who made her fist sale to MZB, and who has decided to donate her proceeds to RAINN. *Rachel Manija Brown's post is a personal response from someone who has been abused about the importance of making this visible. *Regarding the Marion Zimmer Bradley Abuse Story is Deborah's personal response, apologizing for an earlier tweet.While I do think it's important to acknowledge all of this, the podcast episode itself is only a tiny bit about MZB, and mostly about The Lambda Awards, and other awards and projects. Here are the episode specific links:*Here's the picture of Connie winning her Lambda Award. *Here's a picture of Cecilia Tan and Mary Anne Mohanraj (in the red sari Connie and Deborah both admired) at the Lambdas.*The Nebula Award winners list. Congratulations to Ann Leckie, Vylar Kaftan, Aliette de Bodard, Rachel Swirsky, Nalo Hopkinson, and Samuel R. Delaney!*Congratulations to Sarah Pinsker for winning the Sturgeon Award! *The Bisexual Book Awards winners are here. Congratulations all, especially Cecilia Tan, Laura Lam, Malida Lo, and Zan Christensen!*The Ditmar Awards were announced at Continuum in Melbourne. Congratulations all, especially Kirstyn McDermott, Sean Wright, Tehani Wessely, David McDonald, Tansy Rayner Roberts, and all of the Galactic Suburbia and Galactic Chat crews!*Jim C. Hines's Continuum GoH speech. *Congratulations to Cecilia Tan and Mary Robinette Kowal for winning RT awards!And finally, two currently active IndieGoGo campaigns you might like to contribute to:*Gears for Queers is the San Francisco Steampunk community's fundraiser to support the GLBT National Help Center. There are 12 more days to order awesome steampunk items and support a good cause. *Interfictions Online is fundraising to bring us all more excellent interstitial content. They have 19 days left in their campaign, and are working towards some exciting stretch goals.

Hosts Ben McKenzie, John Richards and Petra Elliott discuss Colin Baker and clothes in Doctor Who in the sixth (well, okay…ninth) live Splendid Chaps episode, recorded at Agent 284 in Melbourne on June 15, 2013. Our guests for this episode are writer and podcaster Tansy Rayner Roberts (Galactic Suburbia, Verity!) and fangirl and theatre professional Zen Fletcher. We’ve spared you a narration …

Recorded back before Continuum 8 in June but still fresh as the proverbial daisy, this episode of The Writer and the Critic sees your hosts, Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond, joined by editor and fellow podcaster Jonathan Strahan. The trio try not to ramble too much about a variety of topics, from off-the-cuff commentary and its resultant fallout, to gender and science fiction, to the role of gatekeepers, to some possibly self-indulgent behind the scenes snippets from the world of podcasting. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Galactic Suburbia, Last Short Story and, of course, the Notes from Coode Street podcast are all mentioned. At around the 28:40 point, Kirstyn then manages to herd them onwards to the novel Galveston by Sean Stewart, which Jonathan recommended for all of them to read. Galveston was a joint winner (along with Declare by Tim Powers) in 2001  of  the World Fantasy Award, a year in which Jonathan served on the relevant awards jury. That's how much he loves this book. They then move on to the official novels for the podcast, Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor (beginning at 54:55) and The Drowning Girl by Caitlín R. Kiernan (around the 1:22:00 mark). Ian confesses to having watched the marvellous trailer for The Drowning Girl around thirty times while reading the book and thinks you should watch it at least once or twice! In a tangential discussion about semi-autobiographical fiction, the title of the pertinent Catherynne M. Valente story that Kirstyn fails to remember is "Thirteen Ways of Looking at Space/Time". Listeners might also like to check out the recent Notes from Coode Street episode in which Caitlín R. Kiernan is interviewed and talks about The Drowning Girl, as well as previous Writer and Critic episodes in which Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor and The Red Tree by Caitlín R. Kiernan were featured. Don't forget to tune back in to this episode at 2:13:45 for some very brief closing remarks! Next month will bring another pre-record from June, with very special joined-at-the-brain guests Angela Slatter and Lisa L. Hannett. As with their previous double-barrelled guest podcast with Alison Goodman and Kelly Link, Ian and Kirstyn decline to nominate books of their own to talk about and instead will focus on the two recommendations from their guests: Voice of the Fire by Alan Moore and Galore by Michael Crummey. Read ahead and join in the spoilerific fun!

This episode of The Writer and the Critic is recorded LIVE in front of an actual audience at Continuum 8, the National SF Convention, with two very, very special guests: authors extraordinaire Alison Goodman and Kelly Link. Your hosts, Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond, talk with Alison about her new project, a dark supernatural Regency trilogy which may or may not involve gowns, bonnets and a large bloody knife. Kelly reaffirms her love of short fiction -- recommending "The New Mother" by Lucy Clifford along the way -- while reluctantly confessing that she might be considering writing a novel of her own. Certainly, if Holly Black has anything to do with it! Because  reviewing four books in a single podcast would be an act of no small madness, Kirstyn and Ian wisely decide to leave the recommendations for this month to their guests. Alison has chosen The Crystal Singer by Anne McCaffrey (discussion begins at 17:50) while Kelly has brought along The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater (48:20). Inspired by the online exploits of Jim C. Hines, Ian attempts to reconstruct the pose illustrated on the cover of The Crystal Singer. He does rather a marvellous job: If you've skipped ahead to avoid spoilers, please tune back in around 1:16:50 for final remarks. Kelly would also like to make two additional recommendations that listeners might enjoy, The Hearts of Horses by Molly Gloss and the Flora Segunda series of books by Ysabeau Wilce. (photo: Art Bébé Promotions) Next month's episode features yet another special guest, editor and fellow podcaster, Jonathan Strahan, who has recommended Galveston by Sean Stewart for Ian and Kirstyn to read. Ian has picked Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor while Kirstyn has chosen The Drowning Girl by Caitlin R. Kiernan. It will possibly be their longest podcast ever. Okay, okay, it's already been recorded and, yes, it is definitely their longest podcast ever. Make sure you bring along a comfy chair! *** BREAKING NEWS! You are now listening to a multi-award-winning podcast -- a fact which Kirstyn and Ian did not yet know while recording this episode. Because this episode was in fact recorded before the awards were announced. We're not living that much in the future! But Ian would explode if he had to wait until the next recording to announce that The Writer and the Critic has won both Chronos and Ditmar Awards for Best Fan Publication. Ian and Kirstyn are ever so chuffed, and would like to thank all their listeners as well as everyone who voted for them. (They would also like to apologise to Galactic Suburbia for being so shocked and overwhelmed that they failed to notice the GS standing ovation in the back row. They promise to ovate in an upright posture the next time GS wins an award so they too can be blissfully ignored. It's only fair.) But yes, awards! Look! Proof! Plus a random monkey!

As we observed last year, the day after Christmas is a special one, dedicated to winding down after a day of feasting and gift giving, laughter and merriment. Things slow down – unless you have a taste for the mega-discount sales – and people tend to relax with family. This morning, Perth time, at least, a bunch of participants in Australian podcasting joined together to record The Second Annual Boxing Day Super Mega Podcast. Participating were: Alex, Alisa, and Tansy from Galactic Suburbia; Ian and Kirstyn from The Writer and the Critic; and Gary and I from The Coode St Podcast. Sadly, Grant from Bad Film Diaries couldn't make. What we ended up with was seven seven people talking, in a fairly organised manner about their highlights of 2011 and what they're looking forward to in 2012.  Because I was doing the engineering  for this there was a stuff up and the first 20 minutes of the podcast were lost forever.  Alex and I did a quick do-over and new intro which we think works pretty well.  Either way, we all hope you enjoy it, and that you check out our individual podcasts which will be coming out in the next weeks and months. PS: While this is not an episode of The Coode St Podcast proper, it counts as episode 81 as far as we're concerned :)

And now for something completely different ... SwanCon36 was held over the Easter Weekend (21- 25 April 2011) and a whole bunch of Australian podcasters were in attendance. What better excuse do you need to record a special live MegaPodcast? Join Jonathan Strahan from Coode Street, Helen Merrick from Pangalactic Interwebs, Alex Pierce from Galactic Suburbia, and The Writer and the Critic's own Kirstyn McDermott to hear all about the books and films you should be reading and watching. Yes, should. And if you listen carefully you can even hear Ian Mond wailing and gnashing his teeth back in Melbourne. He really doesn't like being left out of things. Okay, sure. It's not all that different.

And we're back to normal. Gary returned to Chicago from ICFA to dine with China Mieville and write his column, while Jonathan was struck down by an unpleasant bug. Nontheless, climbing from his sick bed, he called Gary to discuss awards, book collecting, using genre as a lens, and some other stuff. As always, they hope you enjoy this podcast! Oh,  and thank you! The Coode Street Podcast has been nominated for a 2011 Ditmar Award. Thank you to every one who nominated and congratulations to our fellow nominees from Galactic Suburbia, Bad Film Diaries, and The Writer and the Critic!

This month on The Writer and the Critic, your valiant hosts, Ian Mond and Kirstyn McDermott, venture forth to the home of their special guest: Galactic Suburbian, Alex Pierce. Having been rewarded with red wine and orange cake, they discuss the origins of Galactic Suburbia as well as the future of its brand new sister podcast, Galactic Chat, then proceed to paddle about in the murky waters of genre and gender. Alex admits a literary crush on Alastair Reynolds. Ian confesses mild paranoia about his reading habits. Kirstyn warns that her inner feminist is pretty much permanently on the loose now. Oh, and Happy Birthday, Galactic Suburbia! Alex has chosen Bold As Love by Gwyneth Jones as her book for this month and so begins a rollicking roundtable on rock stars, romance and revolution. For those wishing to avoid spoilers -- and there are quite a few -- the discussion of this novel begins at 22:30 of the podcast and ends around 45:30. The official podcast books for March are My Name is Will by Jess Winfield, which Ian has recommended (but has a little trouble remembering), and Under the Poppy by Kathe Koja, which Kirstyn has chosen (and may or may not squee about). For your convenience once again, the starting points are 45:30 for My Name is Will and 01:00:00 for Under the Poppy. For a final wrap-up and preview of future podcasting goodness, tune back in by 01:31:30. For next month's podcast, Ian has chosen The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz and Kirstyn has picked Liar by Justine Larbalestier. Plus, there will be a third, listener-recommended title: Above/Below by Stephanie Campisi and Ben Peek. And finally, a heads-up for May when Ian and Kirstyn will be discussing the Black Out / All Clear duology by Connie Willis, as recommended by another listener. With over a thousand pages between the two books, your thoughtful hosts decided to let you know well in advance. See, they really are lovely people! *** Just a reminder that The Writer and the Critic adopts a book club approach to its discussion and will assume its listeners have either read the books in question or don't care if they find out that the plucky and generously endowed heroine comes to the realisation that she is simply an avatar trapped within a highly complex but ultimately futile online multi-player gaming system. There will almost certainly be spoilers, so you are encouraged to read the chosen titles ahead of time. It'll be much more fun that way and Ian and Kirstyn won't get near as many death threats! ***

This month's episode of The Writer and the Critic sees your intrepid hosts, Ian Mond and Kirstyn McDermott, pack up their gear and travel to the gothic Victorian mansionette of their special guest: Melbourne horror writer, Felicity Dowker. The three of them discuss the recent controversy surrounding Bitch Media's list of 100 Young Adult Books for the Feminist Reader and the problematic removal of three books from said list. Ian mentions a blog post Kirstyn previously wrote about the issue. Talk of censorship, feminism and the complicated nature of list-making enues. Ian and Kirstyn then chat with Felicity about her own work, the flavour of horror that she writes, and why, before launching into a review of her chosen book for the month -- Death Most Definite by Brisbane author, Trent Jamieson. For those wishing to avoid spoilers -- and there are many -- the discussion of this novel begins at minute 28:00 of the podcast and ends around 49:00. You're welcome. The official podcast books for March are Last Days by Brian Evenson (recommended by Ian) and White Cat by Holly Black (Kirstyn's pick). For your convenience once again, the starting points are 49:00 for White Cat and 01:08:00 for Last Days. For a final wrap-up and some tasteless, non-book related jokes from Ian, make sure you've tuned back in by the 01:32:30 point. Note to selves: it is possibly not the best idea to imbibe wine while podcasting. Next month, The Writer and the Critic hits the road again to meet with another special guest: Alexandra Pierce from Galactic Suburbia. Alex has chosen Bold as Love by Gwyneth Jones as her recommended read. Ian has recommended My Name is Will by Jess Winfield, while Kirstyn has chosen Under the Poppy by Kathe Koja. Just a reminder that The Writer and the Critic has now adopted more of a book club approach to its discussion and will assume its listeners have either read the books in question or don't care if they find out that the protagonist falls in love with a hairless ferret only to discover in a shocking last page revelation that said ferret is actually a killer whale in disguise. There will almost certainly be spoilers, so you are encouraged to read the chosen titles ahead of time. It'll be much more fun that way and Ian and Kirstyn won't get near as many death threats!