Podcasts about Isles

Let's sail the seas of sleep with more from this volume about the history of our oceans. This time, the Age of Exploration south and north, the mythical Isles of the Blessed, Magellan's remarkable voyage, and how America really got its name. Hint, it was easy to pronounce.   Help us stay ad-free and 100% listener-supported! Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/boringbookspod Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/d5kcMsW Read “The Book of the Ocean” at Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/56311   Music: "Ocean Tapping,” by PC III, licensed under CC BY   If you'd like to suggest a copyright-free reading for soft-spoken relaxation to help you overcome insomnia, anxiety and other sleep issues, connect on our website, https://www.boringbookspod.com.

On this episode of the Ruff Talk VR podcast we are kicking off the week strong talking all the latest VR news! We have a loaded agenda ahead of us including some thoughts on Titan Isles, some accidentally leaked Meta Quest wishlist numbers, some Valve rumors with "Steam Frame", upcoming VR games such as Vex Mage and A Long Survive, newly announced games such as Falcon Fall, Surviving Mars: Pioneer's full launch and PSVR2 release date, and much more!Showcase form: https://forms.gle/HxwkK9zuwydwbkKM8Big thank you to all of our Patreon supporters! Become a supporter of the show today at https://www.patreon.com/rufftalkvrDiscord: https://discord.gg/9JTdCccucSPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/rufftalkvrIf you enjoy the podcast be sure to rate us 5 stars and subscribe! Join our official subreddit at https://www.reddit.com/r/RuffTalkVR/0:00 - Episode start0:45 - Titan Isles16:20 - Meta Smart Glasses SDK23:50 - Meta Quest top waitlisted upcoming VR games32:00 - Beat Saber PSVR2 charts37:10 - Vex Mage release date39:20 - Surviving Mars: Pioneer full release and PSVR2 release date44:50 - 2 millions Bonelab users46:50 - Underdogs PSVR2 sales50:30 - Steam Frame56:00 - Synth Riders Kendrick Lamar58:30 - Falcon Fall1:03:30 - A Long Survive1:07:05 - Drakkenridge1:08:30 - Upcoming VR GamesSend us a text to the Ruff Talk VR fan mail line!Support the show

Tim and AJ talk about how close Isle of Berk gets to the experience of riding dragons, and to leave your fictional crushes at home.Hosted by Tim O'Connor and AJ SalisburyCover art by @chipstercreates.bsky.social on BlueskyFacebook: facebook.com/Standby-LineInstagram: instagram.com/standbylinepodcastPatreon: patreon.com/standbylinepodcastEmail: standbylinepodcast@gmail.com

This week on Ron's Amazing Stories, we're celebrating Labor Day with a special double feature. Our first tale comes from the series Escape and is titled Conquerer's Isle. Three Navy flyers, lost in the South China Sea, discover a secret underground civilization that sees them as little more than pets. It's a strange mix of survival, science fiction, and a chilling vision of humanity's “next stage.” Then, we turn from fantasy to history with Cavalcade of America's Railroad Builders, which first aired on April 15th, 1936. It honors the men who laid steel tracks across mountains, plains, and rivers—building a pathway that connected a nation. Two very different stories—one imagined, one real—but both remind us of the courage, toil, and spirit of labor. So, fire up the grill, grab a cool drink, and settle in for this Labor Day adventure. Featured Stories: Escape – “Conquerer's Isle” (March 5, 1958) Cavalcade of America – “Railroad Builders” (April 15, 1936) Ron's Amazing Stories Is Sponsored by: Audible - You can get a free audiobook and a 30 day free trial at . Your Stories: Do you have a story that you would like to share on the podcast or the blog? Head to the main website, click on Story Submission, leave your story, give it a title, and please tell me where you're from. I will read it if I can. Links are below. Music Used In This Podcast: Most of the music you hear on Ron's Amazing Stories has been composed by Kevin MacLeod () and is Licensed under . Other pieces are in the public domain. You can find great free music at which is a site owned by Kevin. Program Info: Ron's Amazing Stories is published each Thursday. You can download it from , stream it on or on the mobile version of . Do you prefer the radio? We are heard every Thursday at 10:00 pm and Sunday Night at 11:00 PM (EST) on . Check your local listing or find the station closest to you at this . Social Links: Contact Links:

"Kintallia of the Shaman" Episode 02  Written by: Joshua Price and Krystal Camarco Sound Design - Joshua Price Rated - PG for minimal violence While Samantha takes Kintallia to the Shaman forest where she will be safe, Francis advances her wicked plots within the village of Anestrof. Including the voice talents of: Young Kintallia - Alexis Kniker Samantha - Kathryn Leigh Scott High Council leader Mavis - Marie Wallace King Nior - Jeffrey Billard Francis - Rachel Pulliam Nullith - Seth Bramwell Wallers – Dianne Price and Donna Pray Sound Effects obtained from the free sound project or self-produced. This production was produced underneath a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial No Derivative 4.0 International License License: CC-BY-NC-ND https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

ADVENTURES IN THE SILVER ISLES (1) "Kintallia of the Shaman" Episode 03 Written by: Joshua Price and Krystal Camarco Sound Design - Joshua Price Rated - PG for minimal violence During her first training, Kintallia encounters a group of men fighting a dragon, including the young boy she saw in the castle. Meanwhile, Nullith attempts to get the stone Francis has sent him after, from the bottom of a dark lake.   Including the voice talents of: Samantha - Kathryn Leigh Scott Young Kintallia - Alexis Kniker Young Exhanior - Schuyler Whiteford Lumina, great mother dragon - Tanja Milojevic Sound Effects obtained from the free sound project or self-produced. This production was produced underneath a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial No Derivative 4.0 International License License: CC-BY-NC-ND https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

ADVENTURES IN THE SILVER ISLES (1) "Kintallia of the Shaman" Episode 01 Written by: Joshua Price and Krystal Camarco Sound Design - Joshua Price Rated - PG for minimal violence A young girl begins a journey that will change the lives of everyone within an entire kingdom and all those that surround it. Including the voice talents of: Young Kintallia - Alexis Kniker Nullith - Seth Bramwell Samantha - Kathryn Leigh Scott Francis - Rachel Pulliam King Nior - Jeffrey Billard Young Exhanior - Schuyler Whiteford Wallers - Tanja Milojevic, Serena Kyle, Christina Knight Sound Effects obtained from the free sound project or self-produced. This production was produced underneath a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial No Derivative 4.0 International License License: CC-BY-NC-ND https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Here on the Mean Streets of Megacity, the line between justice and death is a thin one. And unearthing the secrets of The Project will go one way or the other...

Send us a textJoin me and special guest, Rene Legault, as we embark on a high-seas adventure with Ironsworn: Sundered Isles. Rene Plays GamesInterested in leaving a rating and review, click here.Check out my Patreon or my ko-fi.Game: Ironsworn: Sundered Isles by Shawn TomkinIntro & Outro Music: Steve Morrison

Joely and Tricia Leigh Fisher talk about being the kids of stars, Connie Stevens and Eddie Fisher—the allure of show business, putting on shows in their living room, and deciding at a young age to make performing their career. They share stories of being on the road with their mom, the good and bad lessons they learned, going to Beverly Hills High School while living alone across the street, and what it means to inherit both talent and addictive behaviors. They also open up about being moms, singing, dancing, acting, writing, and becoming beauty entrepreneurs. Joely discusses her stint at SAG, while the sisters reflect on their parents' many relationships, trying to connect with a distant father, and moving forward in a new entertainment landscape. And of course, they share their mom's immortal line: “Once you date Elvis, everyone else is a disappointment.”Bio: Joely Fisher is an American actress and singer, the daughter of Eddie Fisher and Connie Stevens. She is best known for her roles as Paige Clark on the TV series Ellen and Joy Stark on 'Til Death. She is also the younger half-sister of the late actress Carrie Fisher. Her career spans television, film, and Broadway, and she is a political activist currently serving as SAG-AFTRA Secretary-Treasurer.Tricia Leigh Fisher is the daughter of legendary crooner Eddie Fisher and iconic actress/singer Connie Stevens. She spent her childhood on sets and in concert venues, then joined the family business as a teenager, playing Burt Reynolds' daughter in the film “Stick.” Tricia has performed on many stages around the world, including entertaining the troops in the Persian Gulf with the legend, Bob Hope and the USO. After years touring as a back up singer, she landed her own deal on ATCO Records and hit the hot 100 billboard charts. She has continued to work, as an actress, in television and film for the past thirty-five years, starring in films such as Book of Love, Pretty Smart, Arizona Dream, Saving Grace B. Jones, Hostile Intentions and CHUD II. Tricia has worked in television for decades, including her role as Heidi in The Heidi Fleiss Story, 911, Criminal Minds, Rizzoli and Isles, The Mentalist, No Ordinary Family, Ellen, Til Death, and many others. A few of her theater roles include a Los Angeles run and tour of Bermuda Avenue Triangle with Joe Bologna, Renee Taylor, and Lainie Kazan and Miracle on South Division Street at the New Theater in Kansas City. Tricia is currently the lead singer of her 70's band with husband, Byron Thames, and plays regularly to sold out shows in Los Angeles.

INTERVIEW: Gareth Shute on new book 'Songs from the Shaky Isles' & the history of NZ pop music by Zac Hoffman on Radio One 91FM Dunedin

In December 1900 three lighthouse keepers vanished without a trace from a deserted island in Scotland. To this day no one knows exactly what happened to them. Find out all about this strange situation in this classic episode.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jess here! A while back, Sarina and KJ talked about how much they enjoyed Tess Gerritsen's novel, The Spy Coast, and Sarina reassured KJ she'd enjoy book two of the series even more. I had never read a Tess Gerritsen novel, and while I'd heard her name before and vaguely understood she wrote thrillers, I was starting from square one when I downloaded the audio version of The Spy Coast. Now, I'm not an international spy thriller kind of gal. In the abstract, I understand the allure of books like Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy or Six Days of the Condor. Spies! Intrigue! International [almost exclusively men] of mystery! But they have never really floated my proverbial boat. That said, I loved Tess Gerritsen's spies and the world they inhabit. There's a sense of place - nay, a downright LOVE of place - and a retiring, rural New England domesticity that spoke to this retiring, rural New England reader. Book two, The Summer Guests, is even more rooted in Maine, on its history and the social dynamics of its natives and its summer people. Once I tore through those first two books, I went back to Gerritsen's first book, The Surgeon, one of Time Magazine's top 100 thriller/mystery books of all time and the first in the Rizzoli & Isles series, consequently made into a long-running television series. Gerritsen has a fascinating career trajectory, lots to talk about regarding pantsing and plotting, where the ideas come from, and lots of other geeky details about the writing life. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did. Find Tess at Tessgerritsen.com, or on Bluesky, @TessGerritsen Transcript below!EPISODE 462 - TRANSCRIPTJennie NashHey everyone, it's Jennie Nash, founder and CEO of Author Accelerator, the company I started more than 10 years ago to lead the emerging book coaching industry. In October, we'll be enrolling a new cohort of certification students who will be going through programs in either fiction, nonfiction, or memoir, and learning the editorial, emotional, and entrepreneurial skills that you need to be a successful book coach. If you've been curious about book coaching and thinking that it might be something you want to do for your next career move, I'd love to teach you more about it, you can go to bookcoaches.com/waitlist to check out the free training I have—that's bookcoaches.com/waitlist. The training is all about how to make money, meaning, and joy out of serving writers. Fall is always a great time to start something new. So if you're feeling called to do this, go check out our training and see if this might be right for you. We'd love to have you join us.Multiple SpeakersIs it recording? Now it's recording, yay. Go ahead. This is the part where I stare blankly at the microphone. I don't remember what I'm supposed to be doing. All right, let's start over. Awkward pause. I'm going to rustle some papers. Okay, now—one, two, three.Jess LaheyHey, this is Jess Lahey, and this is the Hashtag AmWriting Podcast. This is the podcast about writing all the things—short things, long things, poetry, prose, narrative nonfiction, fiction, creative nonfiction, queries, proposals. This is the podcast about writing all the things. More than anything else, this is the podcast about the writing life and about getting the work done. I am Jess Lahey. I'm the author of The Gift of Failure and The Addiction Inoculation. And you can find my journalism at The Atlantic and The Washington Post, and my bi-weekly (formerly bi-weekly) column at The New York Times, The Parent-Teacher Conference, ran for about three years I am joined today by Sarina Bowen, who has written 50-odd books. She has written lots and lots of romance, and her most recent addition to the world of publishing has been her thrillers, Dying to Meet You and The Five Year Lie. And she has a book coming out this fall called Thrown for a Loop. The reason I am recording this intro on my own—which, as you may know if you've been listening, is highly unusual for us—is because I know myself. And I know when I'm really excited to talk to someone on the podcast; I'm going to flub the intro. I'm going to forget something. I'm going to forget to introduce them altogether. So today, I'm doing that first, so I don't mess it up. A while ago on the podcast, you may have heard Sarina and KJ read some books by an author named Tess Gerritsen. I had heard of Tess Gerritsen, but I had never read any of her books. I just hadn't yet. I haven't read Nora Roberts yet. I haven't read—there are lots of authors I haven't read yet. And sometimes you don't even know where to start. So when Sarina and KJ recommended Tess Gerritsen's new series set in Maine—the first one being The Spy Coast and the second one being The Summer Guests—I figured I had a good place to start. And you know, as a New Englander, I love a good book about New England, and that was the start of my interest in Tess Gerritsen's work. I have gone back to the beginning and started with her book The Surgeon, which was her first book in the series that became the Rizzoli and Isles Series, as well as a television show. Tess Gerritsen has a—she's written through 33 books at this point. And as I now know, she has also directed a documentary called Magnificent Beast about pigs, which I listened to this morning while I was vacuuming the house. I loved it. She also—she has a lot to say about genre, about publishing, about second careers, about a writing place, and about process. So let's just jump right into it. I am so excited to introduce to you today, Tess Gerritsen. So from the perspective of what our listeners love—this podcast, the Hashtag AmWriting Podcast —is super geek. People who love the nuts and bolts and the dorky details of the writing life. Sarina has a past life in finance, and so she tends to be, like, our “no, but let's talk about the numbers” kind of person. I'm just the research super dork, which is why I spent my morning watching your documentary about pigs.Tess GerritsenOh my god! (Laughing)Jess LaheyMagnificent Beast. I—I've joked in the past that if I could, I would probably just research things in—in, you know, maybe there'll be a book out there, maybe there won't, but I would research things and—and just learn as much as I could. And so I loved—loved—your Magnificent Beast documentary. I thought it was fantastic. But one of the reasons that we wanted to talk to you, just from the very beginning, is that we feel like you do some pretty incredible world-building and relationship-building with your places and your characters. And so I just—I would love to start there, mainly with the idea of starting with the real nuts and bolts stuff, which is, like, what does an average writing day look like for you? And how do you, sort of—how do you set that up? What does it look like, if you have an average writing day? Maybe you don't.Tess GerritsenWell, it's hard to describe an average writing day, because every day is—there are days when you sit at your desk and you just, you know, pull your hair. And there are days when you get distracted by the news. And there are many days when I just do not want to write. But when I'm writing, the good days are when my characters are alive and talking to me. And it's—it's—you talked about world-building and character-building. That is really key to me. What are they saying to me? Can I hear their voices? And it sounds a little—a little crazy, because I am hearing voices. But it's those voices that really make characters come alive.Jess LaheyI—You have said in other interviews that you are very much—sorry to those of you who hate the terms—that you are very much a pantser. And you are sitting on this interview with a consummate plotter. Sarina is our consummate plotter. So could you talk a little bit about how those character—how those voices—influence, you know, the pantsing of the—of the book, and—and how that works for you?Tess GerritsenWell, I mean, it is weird that I am a pantser. And it's funny—I think that people who are plotters tend to be people who are in finance or in law, because they're used to having their ducks lined up, you know. They—they want everything set up ahead of time, and it makes them feel comfortable. And I think a large part of becoming a pantser is learning to be comfortable with unpredictability. Learning to just let things happen, and know you're going to take wrong turns, know you're going to end up in blind alleys—and yet just keep on forging ahead and change direction. So I suppose that what helps me become a pantser, as I said, is hearing a character's voice. If, for instance, when I wrote The Spy Coast, the first thing I heard about that book was Maggie Bird's voice. And she just said, “I'm not the woman I used to be.” And that's an opening there, right? Because you want to find out, Maggie, who did you used to be? And why do you sound so sad? So a lot of it was just—just getting into her head and letting her talk about what a day-to-day life is, which is, you know, raising chickens and collecting eggs and becoming—and being—a farmer. And then she does something surprising in that very first chapter. There's a fox that's killing her chickens, so she grabs her rifle and kills it with one shot. And that opens up another thing, like—how are you, a 62-year-old woman, able to take out a rifle and kill a fox with one shot? So it's—it's those things. It's those revelations of character. When they come out and they tell you something, or they show you they—they have a skill that you weren't aware of, you want to dig deeper and find out, you know, where did they get that skill?Sarina BowenAnd that is a really fun way to show it. I mean, you're talking today with two people who have also kept chickens.Multiple Speakers(All laughing)Jess LaheyAnd had foxes take their chickens, actually.Sarina BowenOh yes, because the two go together.Tess GerritsenYes.Sarina BowenBut yes, I admit I have never shot a fox, and maybe wouldn't.Jess LaheyI have yelled very loudly at a fox, and he actually—I have to say—really mad respect for the fox, because he took one look at me—he did drop the chicken that I was yelling at him for grabbing—and then he went across the street, around the neighbor's house, around the back of the other neighbor's house, and came at the exact same chicken from the other side of the house, where I couldn't see him out the window.Tess GerritsenOh, they are so smart. They are so smart.Jess LaheySo smart. Sarina, it sounded like you had something— you had something you wanted to add, and I interrupted you when we were talking about pantsing and we were talking about world-building and characters speaking to you.Sarina BowenWell, I just had thought that it was a lovely moment to explain why I was so excited to read this book after I heard Tess speak at Thriller Fest 2024, in a packed room where there was nowhere to sit except on the floor. You told the audience a little bit of a story from your real life that—that made you want to write that book. And I wonder if you could tell us what that was, because for me—I mean, we were only five minutes into your talk, and I'm like, oh, I'm—I'm going to download that tonight.Tess GerritsenWell, yes, it was. A lot of my books come from ideas that I've been stewing over for years. I have a folder called the ideas folder. It's an actual physical manila folder. And if I see something in an article or a newspaper or a magazine, I'll just rip it out and stick it in there, and it sometimes takes a long time before I know how to turn this into a book. So the idea for The Spy Coast is a little bit of obscure knowledge that I learned 35 years ago, when I first moved to Maine. My husband is a medical doctor. He opened up a practice, and when he would bring in new patients, he would always get an occupational history. And he used to get this answer—this very strange answer—from his new patients. They would say, “I used to work for the government, but I can't talk about it.” And after he heard that three times, he thought, what town did we land in? And who are these people? And we later found out that on our very short street, on one side of us was a retired OSS person, and on the other side was retired CIA. A realtor told us that our town was full of CIA retirees. So, I mean, of course you want to ask, why did they get here? What are they doing here? What are their lives like? I knew there was a book in there, but I didn't know what that book was. I needed 35 years to come up with the idea. And what I really needed to do was become old and—and realize that as you get older, especially women, we become invisible. People don't pay attention to us. We are over the hill. You know, everybody looks at the young, pretty chicks, but once you start getting gray hair, you fade into the background. And with that experience myself; I began to think more and more about what it's like to be retired. What is it like to be retired from a job that was maybe dangerous, or exciting, or something that you really risked your life to—to achieve? So that was—that was the beginning of The Spy Coast. What happens to CIA retirees—especially women—who are now invisible? But that makes them the best spies of all.Jess LaheyYeah, and we have—we did this really cool thing, this really fun thing for us on the Hashtag AmWriting Podcast. It's like a supporter-only thing, where we call First Pages, where very brave authors—very brave writers—submit their first page to us, and we talk about it and decide whether or not we'd want to turn the page. And you have an incredible skill on your first pages. You're very, very good at first pages. And I was thinking about The Summer Guests, that you had this wonderful line that I'm going to read now:Purity, Maine, 1972. On the last day of his life, Purity police officer Randy Pelletier ordered a blueberry muffin and a cup of coffee at the Marigold Café,Which immediately reminded me of my very, very favorite line from all of literature—my very favorite first line—which is Irving's first line from A Prayer for Owen Meany, in which he ruins the story for you right there in the first line:I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice—not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother's death, but because he is the reason I believe in God.There is this incredible power to first lines. And I'm sort of wondering where—how first lines happen for you. Do they happen first? Do they happen last? Do they happen along the way?Tess GerritsenFirst lines usually happen last. I—it's—I will write the whole book, and I'll think, something's missing in that first chapter. How do I open this up? And, you know, there are things that make lines immediately hypnotic, and one of those things is an inherent contradiction—something that makes you think, wait, okay, you start off this way, but then all of a sudden, the meaning of that line switches. So, yeah, it starts off with, you know, this guy's going to die. But on that last day of his life, he does something very ordinary. He just orders coffee at the local café. So I think it's that contradiction that makes us want to read more. It's also a way to end chapters. I think that—that if you leave your reader with a sense of unease—something is about to go wrong, but they don't know what it is yet—or leave them with an unanswered question, or leave them with, as I said, a contradiction—that is what's page-turning. I think that a lot of thriller writers in particular mistake action for—for being—for being interesting. A car chase on the page is really very boring. But what's interesting is something that—you could feel that tension building, but you don't know why.Sarina BowenI have joked sometimes that when I get stuck on a plot, sometimes I will talk at my husband and—and say, “you know, I'm stuck here.” And he always says, “And then a giant squid attacked.” And it—of course I don't write books that take place where this is possible, so—but it never fails to remind me that, like, external action can sometimes be just, you know, totally pointless. And that if you're stuck, it's because one of your dominoes isn't leaning, you know, in the right spot. So...Tess GerritsenYeah, it's—it's not as much fun seeing that domino fall as seeing it go slowly tilting over. You know, I really learned this when I was watching a James Bond movie. And it starts off—you know, the usual James Bonds have their cold open to those action and chasing and death-defying acts. I found that—I find that really, in that movie anyway—I was like, Ho hum. Can we get to the story? And I found the time when I was leaning forward in my theater seat, watching every moment, was really a very quiet conversation aboard a train between him and this woman who was going to become his lover. That was fascinating to me. So I think that that transfers to book writing as well. Action is boring.Jess LaheyYou and Sarina do something that I feel, as a writer; I would probably not be very good at, which is creating that unease. I—Sarina in particular does this thing... I've read every one of Sarina's books, as a good friend is supposed to do. And I text her, and I say, Why don't they just talk about it and just deal? Get it out in the open! And she's like, you know, we just got to make these people uncomfortable. And you both have this incredible talent for helping—keeping the reader, uh, along with you, simply because there is this sense of unease. We're slightly off-kilter the whole time. And yet in me, as a people pleaser, that makes me very uncomfortable. I want people to be happy with each other. So how do you—if you get to a place where you feel like maybe things aren't off-kilter enough, or things aren't off-balance enough—how do you introduce a little bit of unease into your—into your story?Tess GerritsenWell, I think it comes down to very small points of conflict—little bits of tension. Like, we call it micro-tension. And I think those occur in everyday life all the time. For instance, you know, things that happen that really don't have any big consequence, but are still irritating. We will stew about those for—for a while. And, you know, I used to write romance as well, so I understand entirely what Sarina is doing, because romance is really about courtship and conflict. And it's the conflict that makes us keep reading. We just—we know this is the courtship. So there's always that sense of it's not quite there, because once the characters are happy, the story is over, right?Sarina BowenYeah.Multiple Speakers(All laughing)Sarina BowenAlso, writing the ends of romance novels is the least interesting part. Like, what...? Once the conflict is resolved, like, I cannot wait to get out of there.Tess GerritsenRight, exactly. You know, I—I pay attention to my feelings when I'm reading a book, and I've noticed that the books that I remember are not the books with happy endings, because happiness is so fleeting. You know, you can be happy one second, and then something terrible will happen. You'll be unhappy. What lasts for us is sadness, or the sense of bittersweet. So when I read a book that ends with a bittersweet ending—such as, you know, Larry McMurtry Lonesome Dove—I ended up crying at the end of that book, and I have never forgotten that ending. Now, if everybody had been happy and there had been nobody to drag all those miles at the end, I would have forgotten that book very quickly. So I think—I try—I always try to leave the end of the book either bittersweet—I mean, you want to resolve all the major plot points—but also leave that sense of unease, because people remember that. And it also helps you, if you have a sequel.Sarina BowenThat's so interesting you've just brought up a couple of really interesting points, because there is a thriller—I actually write suspense now—and one of the books that so captured my attention about five years ago was killing it on the charts. And I thought it was actually a terrible book, but it nailed the bittersweet ending. Like, the premise was solid, and then the bittersweet ending was perfect, and the everything between the first chapter and the last chapter was a hot mess, but—but—um, that ending really stuck with me. And I remember carrying it around with me, like, Wow, they really nailed that ending. You know, and—and maybe that has, like, legs in terms of, like, talking about it. And, you know, if it—if—if it's irritating enough, like, the tension is still there—enough to, like, make people talk about it—it could actually affect the performance of that book. But also, um, one thing that I really love about this series—you have—what is the series title for the...?Tess GerritsenMartini—The Martini Club.Sarina BowenThe Martini Club, right? So The Martini Club is two books now. I inhaled the first one last summer, and I inhaled the second one this summer. And The Martini Club refers to this group of friends—these retired spies. And of course, there are two completely different mysteries in book one and book two. And I noticed a couple of things about the difference between those mysteries that was really fun. So in the first case—or in one of the two cases, let's see—in one of them, the thing that happens in their town is actually, like, related to them. And in the other one, it's kind of not. So to me, that felt like a boundary expansion of your world and your system. But also, I just love the way you leaned into the relationship of these people and their town in such a way. And how did you know to do that? Like, how—what does your toolbox say about how to get that expansiveness in your character set? Like, you know, to—to find all the limits of it?Tess GerritsenThat—you know, so much is like—it's like asking a pole-vaulter how they do it. They just—they have just—I guess its muscle memory. You don't really know how you're doing it, but what I did know was—with age, and because I love these characters so much—it really became about them and about what is going to deepen their friendship? What kind of a challenge is going to make them lean into each other—lean on each other? That's really what I was writing about, I think, was this circle of friends, and—and what you will do, how much you will sacrifice, to make sure your friends are safe. No, you're right—the second book is much more of a classic mystery. Yeah—a girl disappears. I mean, there was—there were—there were CIA undertones in that, because that becomes an important part of the book. But I think that what people are—when people say they love this book—they really talk about the characters and that friendship. And we all want friends like this, where we can go and—and—and have martinis together, and then if we—one of us needs to—we'll go help them bury a body.Multiple Speakers(All laughing)Tess GerritsenThat's—they all have shovels, and they're willing to do it. That's the kind of friendship—friends—we want.Jess LaheyWell, and that's funny you mention that—I had an entire question—it wasn't even a question, it was a statement—in here about friendships and being grateful to you for the reminder about the importance of relationships. And this entire podcast was born out of the fact that we were talking writing all the time, and we just wanted an official way to sit down once a week and actually talk about the work. And your work is suffused with just these incredible relationships—whether that's the Rizzoli and Isles—you know, in your first—in the one of your other series—and I'm just—I'm very grateful for that, because we—especially—I think I re—I really crave books about female relationships, especially about older female relationships. And I have been loving your books, and I've—like, as I may have mentioned to you in my initial email—I had—I'm so sorry—never read your books before. And I admitted in the introduction that there are lots of very, very famous authors whose books I have never read. And it's always so exciting to me to dive into someone's series and realize, oh, this person really touches on themes that mean a lot to me, and I can already tell that I'm going to be enjoying a lot of their books to come forward. So thank you for all of the great descriptions of relationships and how we do rely on each other for various aspects of just how we get through all of this stuff.Tess GerritsenYeah—get through life. But you know what's funny about it is that it didn't start that way. For instance, let's go back to Rizzoli and Isles. The very first time they both appear in a book is in The Apprentice. And they don't start off being friends. They start off being—they're so different. As the TV producer once said, “you've really written about Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock.” That's okay—they are—in the books. They are not natural friends. But like real-life friendships, sometimes—just kind of develop slowly, and—and they have their ups and downs. So there are times when—when Jane and Maura are barely speaking to each other because of conflicts they have. But by the time book twelve comes around—or maybe book seven comes around—you know that they would risk their lives for each other. So I think that if you're writing a series like Rizzoli and Isles, or like The Martini Club, it really helps to develop the friendship on the fly and see how they react to certain stresses. The next book, which I just turned in, called The Shadow Friends—it even put—pushes them even further, and it really—it really strains a marriage, because it's—it's more about Ingrid, and an old lover comes back into her life. She used to—they were both spies—and he is, like, hot, hot, hot—Antonio Banderas kind of guy. And here's Ingrid, married to Lloyd, you know, who's just a sweet analyst who cooks dinner for her every night. And I—when I was coming up with that story, I thought, I want to write a book about their marriage. So it wasn't—the plot wasn't about, oh, you know, international assassinations, even though that does occur in the book. It's really about the story of a marriage.Jess LaheyAnd it gives you, it gives you added unease. You know, if you have your two characters not speaking to each other, and you know your readers love those characters and crave those characters to be getting along at some point, then that's just another reason that we're following along. I was just thinking about, uh, Michael Connelly, uh, book the other day, because I really, really like the series he did with Renée Ballard and her relationship with the Bosch character, and how that series is totally about crime, but yet it's also very much about the relationship. And I think I follow—I continue to read those because of the relationship between those two human beings, and less so because of the murder mystery sort of stuff.Tess GerritsenI think it really becomes important if you're dealing also with Hollywood television series. I still remember what the producer first said when he called me up about Rizzoli and Isles. He said, "I love your girls, and I think they belong on TV.” He didn't say, I love your plots. He didn't say, I love your mysteries, you know, all your intricate ups and downs. It was really about the girls. So if you hope to sell to a television series, really, it's about characters again.Jess LaheyAbsolutely.Sarina BowenI was going to ask about longevity, because you have so many books, and you're so obviously still invigorated by the process, or there wouldn't be a book three that you just turned in. So how have you been able to avoid just being sick to death of—of writing suspense novel after suspense novel?Tess GerritsenI refused. That's what it is. You know, I—I don't—I guess I could say that I have a little bit of ADHD when it comes to—to the books I write. I cannot—after 13 books of Rizzoli and Isles, I just had a different idea. And it takes—it takes a certain amount of backbone to say no to your publisher, to your editor, to people who are going, well, when's the next one in this series coming out? And to be able to say, I need a break. I need to do something completely different. So over—how many years I've been a writer—almost 40 now—I've written science fiction and historicals and a ghost story and romantic suspense and spy novels and medical thrillers and crime novels. I've been all over the place, but each one of those books that took me out of what I was expected to do was so invigorating. It was a book that I needed to write. As an example, I wrote a book called Playing with Fire. Nobody wanted that book. Nobody expected that book. It was a historical about World War II, and about music—about the power of music—and having to do with the death camps. I remember my publisher going, "What are you doing?" And, you know, it's—it's true—they're—they—they are marketers, and they understood that that book would not sell as well, and it didn't. But it still remains one of my favorite books. And when you want to write a book, you need to write that book. That's all—even—even if nobody wants it.Jess LaheyI actually was—I'm so pleased that this came up, because that was actually going to be my question, because both you and Sarina have done this—done, you know, 90 degrees—whether it's out of, you know, one genre into another—and that, to me, requires an enormous amount of courage. Because you know you have people expecting things from you. And you in particular, Tess, have people saying, "No, I want the next one. I love this relationship. I want the next one." And—and dealing—you're not just dealing with the disappointment of whether it's an agent or an editor, but the disappointment of fans. And that's a pressure as well. So when I used to do journalism, I remember a question I asked of another journalist was, "How do you continue to write without fear of the comment section?" And essentially, for us, that's our—you know, those are our readers. So how do you find that thing within yourself to say, no, this really is the thing that I need to be writing now?Tess GerritsenWell, that is a really—it's a really tough decision to buck the trend or buck what everybody's expecting, because there's a thing in publishing called the death spiral. And if your book does not sell well, they will print fewer copies for the next one. And then that won't sell well. So you start—your career starts to go down the drain. And that is a danger every time you step out of your tried and true series and do something out of—you know, completely out of the ordinary. I think the reason I did it was that I really didn't give a damn. It was—it was like, Okay, maybe this will kill my career, but I've got to write this book. And it was always with the idea that if my publisher did not want that, I would just self-publish. I would just, you know, find another way to get it out there. And I—I was warned, rightly so, that your sales will not be good for this book, and that will—it will hurt the next contract. And I understood that. But it was the only way I could keep my career going. Once you get bored, and you're—you're trapped in a drawer, I think it shows up in your writing.Jess LaheyI had this very conversation with my agent. The—my first book did well. And so then, you know, the expectation is, I'll write like part two of that, or I'll write something for that exact same audience again. And when I told my agent—I said, "You know, this book on substance use prevention and kids—I—it's—I have to write it. And I'm going to write it even, you know, if I have to go out there and sell it out of the trunk of my car." And she said, "Okay, then I guess we're doing this." And yes...Tess Gerritsen(Laughing) They had their best wishes at heart.Jess LaheyAnd honestly, I love—I loved my book that did well. But The Addiction Inoculation is the book I'm most proud of. And, you know, that's—yeah, that's been very important to me.Tess GerritsenI often hear from writers that the book that sold the fewest copies was one that was—were their favorites. Those are the ones that they took a risk on, that they—I mean, they put their heart and soul into it. And maybe those hurt their careers, but those are the ones that we end up being proud of.Jess LaheyI like to remind Sarina of that, because I do remember we text each other constantly. We have a little group, the three of us, a little group text all day long. And there was—I remember when she first wrote a male-male romance, she was scared. She was really scared that this was going to be too different for her readers. And it ended up being, I think, my favorite book that she's ever written, and also a very important book for her in terms of her career development and growth, and what she loves about the work that she does. And so I like to remind her every once in a while, remember when you said that really scared you and you weren't sure how your readers were going to handle it?Sarina BowenRight? Well, I also did that in the middle of a series, and I went looking for confirmation that that is a thing that people did sometimes, and it was not findable. You know, that was...Jess LaheyWhat? Change things up in terms of—change things up in the middle of a series?Sarina BowenIn the middle of a series. And anyway, that book still sells.Tess GerritsenThat is a great act of courage, but it's also an act of confidence in yourself as a writer. There are ways to do it. I think some writers will just adopt a different pen name for something that's way out there.Jess LaheyIt's funny you should say... it's funny you should say that.Sarina BowenWell, no, and I never have done that, but, um—but anyway, yeah, that's hard. I, uh...Jess LaheyYeah.Sarina BowenIt's hard to know. Sometimes...Jess LaheyWe entertain it all the time. We do talk about that as an option all the time. Shouldn't we just pick up and do something completely different? One of the things that I also—I mentioned at the top of the podcast about, you know, you went off—not only have you done lots of different things in terms of your writing—but you went off and you did an entire documentary about pigs. I have—I have to ask you where on earth that came from and why. And it is a total delight, as I mentioned, and I have already recommended it to two people that I know also love the topic. But, you know, to go off—and especially when you usually, as some of us have experienced—our agents saying, so when am I going to see more pages? or when am I going to see the next book? And you say, I'm really sorry, but I have to go off and film this documentary about pigs.Tess GerritsenYes. Well, you know, I was an anthropology major in college, and I've always been interested in the pig taboo. You know, back then, everybody just assumed it was because, yeah, it was disease or they're dirty animals—that's why they're forbidden food. It never quite convinced me, because I'm Chinese-American. Asia—you know, Asia loves pork. Why aren't they worried about all that? So I was in Istanbul for a book tour once, and I remember I really wanted bacon, and, you know, I couldn't get bacon. And then I thought, okay, I really need to find out why pork is forbidden. This is a—this is a cultural and historical mystery that never made sense to me. The explanations just never made sense to me. It cannot be trichinosis. So I told my son that—my son is—he does—he's a filmmaker as well. And he just said, "Well, let's do it. Let's—we will pose it as a mystery," because it is a mystery. So it took us probably two years to go and—you know, we interviewed anthropologists and pet pig owners and archaeologists, actually, just to find out, what do they say? What is the answer to this? And to us, the answer really just came down to this cultural desire for every—every tribe—to define us versus them. You know, they eat pigs. They're not us, so therefore they're the enemy. And it was fascinating because we—we ended up finding out more about pigs than I was expecting, and also finding out that people who have pet pigs can sometimes be a little unusual.Jess LaheyAnd the people who purchase the clothes for the pigs are also crazy.Tess GerritsenYes. Sew outfits for their pigs and sleep with their pigs. And there was—there was one woman who had—she slept on the second floor of her house, so she had an elevator for her pig who couldn't make it up the stairs, and, you know, ramps to get up onto the bed because they've gotten so fat—they've been overfed. But it was—for me, at the heart of it was a mystery.Jess LaheyAs a nonfiction author whose whole entire reason for being is, "I don't know—let's find out," I think that's just the most delightful thing. And I loved your framing as, "I don't know, we have this question, let's go out there and just ask people about it and find the experts." And that's—oh, I could just live on that stuff. So...Tess GerritsenSo could I. You know, research is so enticing. It's enticing. It is—it can get you into trouble because you never write your book. Some of us just love to do the research.Jess LaheySarina actually has taken skating lessons, done glass blowing—what else have you done? Yoga classes and all—all kinds of things in the pursuit of knowledge for her characters. And I think that's a delight.Sarina BowenYes. If you can sign up for a class as part of your research, like, that is just the best day. Like, you know, oh, I must take these ice skating lessons twice a day for five months, because—yeah—or twice a week, but still.Tess GerritsenYou must be a good ice skater then.Sarina BowenI'm getting better.Tess GerritsenSo you never gave them up, I see.Jess LaheyWell, it's fun because she usually writes about hockey, but she has a figure skater coming up in this book that's coming out this fall. And she's like, "Well, I guess I'm just going to have to learn how to figure skate."Tess GerritsenYeah.Sarina BowenI also—one time I went to see Rebecca Skloot speak about her big nonfiction The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.Tess GerritsenOh, okay.Sarina BowenAnd she said that all her best ideas had come from moments in her life when she went, "Wait, what?!"Tess GerritsenYes. Yep.Sarina BowenIncluding for The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Like, she learned about the cells in high school—she was in high school biology class—and the teacher said, like, "This woman died in the '60s, but we're still using her cells," and she said, "Wait, what?!" And that's—that's what you made me think of with the pigs. Like, I think...Jess LaheyWell, and also your folder of ideas. I mean, I immediately texted Sarina after listening to a podcast where I heard an ad, and the ad made me go, "Oh that could be creepy." And then I'm like, "Okay, this is—this is a plot. This is going in the folder somewhere." And so you have to just think about how those things could unfold over time. And I love the idea of—and even in journalism—there are articles that I've written where I said, this just isn't their time. And then, like, five years later, I'll hear something out there, and I'm like, okay, finally, it's the time for this thing. And there's a reason you put that article in your idea—in your paper—manila folder of ideas.Tess GerritsenWell, I think writers are—we have to be curious. We have to be engaged in what's going on around us, because the ideas are everywhere. And I have this—I like to say I have a formula. It's called "two plus two equals five." And what that means is, sometimes you'll have a—you'll have a piece of information that, you know, there's a book here, but you haven't figured out what to do with it. And you wait for another piece of information from some completely different source, and you put them together, and they end up being like nuclear fusion—bigger than the…Sarina BowenYes!Jess LaheyYes!Tess GerritsenSome of the parts.Sarina BowenMost every book I've ever written works like that. Like, I have one idea that I drag around for, like, five years, and then I have this other idea, and one day I'm like, oh, those two things go together.Tess GerritsenYep.Jess LaheyYeah, absolutely. I think Stephen King mentioned that about Carrie. I think it was like, telekinesis, and that usually starts about the time of menstruation, and it was like, boom, there was Carrie. You know, those two things came together. I love that so much. So you mentioned that you have just handed in your next book, and we don't—we do not, as a rule, ask about what's next for an author, because I find that to be an incredibly intimidating and horrifying question to be asked. But I would love to hear; you know, is this—is this series one that you hope to continue working on? The main series, mainly because we have quite fallen in love with your little town in Maine—in Purity, Maine. Fantastic name for your town, by the way. It's really lovely. It creates such a nice dichotomy for these people who have seen and heard things during their careers that maybe are quite dark, and then they retire to a place called Purity. Is this a place where we can hopefully spend a little bit of time?Tess GerritsenWell, I am thinking about book number four now. I have an idea. You know, it always starts with—it starts with an idea and doodling around and trying to figure out what—you know, you start with this horrible situation, and then you have to explain it. So that's where I am now. I have this horrible situation, I have to explain it. So, yeah, I'm thinking about book four. I don't know how—you never know how long a series is going to go. It's a little tough because I have my characters who are internationally based—I mean, they've been around the world—but then I can't leave behind my local cop who is also a part of this group as well. So I have to keep an eye out on Maine being the center of most of the action.Sarina BowenRight, because how many international plots can you give Purity, Maine?Tess GerritsenThat's right, exactly. Well, luckily…Jess LaheyLook, Murder, She Wrote—how many things happened to that woman in that small town?Tess GerritsenExactly, exactly. Well, luckily, because I have so many CIA retirees up here, the international world comes to us. Like the next book, The Shadow Friends, is about a global security conference where one of the speakers gets murdered. And it turns out we have a global security conference right here in our town that was started by CIA 40 years ago. So I'm just—I'm just piggybacking on reality here. And—not that the spies up here think that's very amusing.Sarina BowenThat is fantastic, because, you know, the essential problem of writing a suspense novel is that you have to ground it in a reality that everyone is super familiar with, and you have to bring in this explosive bit of action that is unlikely to happen near any of us. And those two things have to fit together correctly. So by, um, by putting your retired spies in this tiny town, you have sort of, like, gifted yourself with that, you know, precise problem solver.Tess GerritsenYeah, reminding us.Sarina BowenYeah.Tess GerritsenBut there's only so far I can take that. I'm not sure what the limits... I think book four is going to take them all overseas, because my local cop, Jo, she's never been out of the country—except for Canada—and it's time for her dad to drag her over to Italy and say, "Your dead mom wanted to come to Italy, so I'm taking you." And, of course, things go wrong in Italy for Jo.Jess LaheyOf course, of course. Well, we're going to keep just banging on about how much we love these books. I think we've already mentioned it in three podcast episodes so far in our “What have you been reading lately that you've really loved?” So we're—we're big fans. And thank you so much for sitting down to talk with us and to—you know, one of the whole points of our podcast is to flatten the learning curve for other authors, so we hope that that's done a little bit of that for our listeners. And again, thank you so much. Where can people find you and your work if they want to learn a little bit more about Tess Gerritsen—her work?Tess GerritsenYou can go to TessGerritsen.com, and I try to post as much information there as I can. But I'm also at Bluesky, @TessGerritsen, and what is now called “X”—a legacy person on X—@TessGerritsen, yes.Jess LaheyThank you so, so much again. And for everyone out there listening, keep your butt in the chair and your head in the game.The Hashtag AmWriting Podcast is produced by Andrew Perella. Our intro music—aptly titled Unemployed Monday—was written and played by Max Cohen. Andrew and Max were paid for their time and their creative output, because everyone deserves to be paid for their work. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amwriting.substack.com/subscribe

Installment 2 of the 2025 Summer Cooler Series as Vic and Neil examine the off-season moves in the Metropolitan Division.IN THIS EPISODE[03:29] - Washington Capitals - From barely making the post-season in 2024 to the top regular season team in the East, can many who had career seasons stage an encore?[12:23] - Carolina Hurricanes - Do two significant off-season acquisitions make the Hurricanes any more of a threat to escape the East?[24:20] - New Jersey Devils - With Jack Hughes and Dougie Hamilton returning healthy, the might be the club that sneaks up on Washington and Carolina for one of the top two spots in the division.[30:45] - Columbus Blue Jackets - A new identity was forged after the tragic death of Johnny Gaudreau a year ago. The ability to sustain that identity over 82 games will be necessary in order to crack the playoff lineup next spring.[40:09] - New York Rangers - From Presidents' Trophy winners to fractured franchise, the Broadway Blueshirts start anew with Mike Sullivan taking over behind the bench.[50:03] - New York Islanders - A playoff team in 2024, the Isles missed out last season, switched GM's and have seen players move in and out of the organization during the summer. Though likely to be competitive, the future may be brighter than the present for this group.[1:00:58] - Pittsburgh Penguins - The good news is first time NHL head coach Dan Muse has the likes of Crosby, Malkin and Letang to work with. The downside: aside from a few that will support the trio, the future doesn't look favorable in the Steel City.[1:09:34] - Philadelphia Flyers - Former Flyer and a year removed from the Jack Adams Award, Rick Tocchet takes over behind the bench with some pieces which should be maturing into bona fide NHL talents. But will that goaltending ever come around?X: https://twitter.com/NHLWraparoundNeil Smith: https://twitter.com/NYCNeilVic Morren: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vic-morren-7038737/NHL Wraparound Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/nhlwraparound/#NHLWraparound #ShortShifts #NYCentric #StanleyCupdate #NeilSmith #VicMorren #NHL #SummerCoolers #Loogaroo #AnaheimDucks # #BostonBruins #BuffaloSabres #CalgaryFlames #CarolinaHurricanes #ChicagoBlackhawks #ColoradoAvalanche #ColumbusBlueJackets #DallasStars #DetroitRedWings #EdmontonOilers #FloridaPanthers #LosAngelesKings #MinnesotaWild #MontrealCanadiens #NashvillePredators #NewJerseyDevils #NewYorkIslanders #NewYorkRangers #OttawaSenators #PhiladelphiaFlyers #PittsburghPenguins #StLouisBlues #SanJoseSharks #SeattleKraken #TampaBayLightning #TorontoMapleLeafs #UtahMammoth #VancouverCanucks #VegasGoldenKnights #WashingtonCapitals #WinnipegJets #AnthonyBeauvillier #HendrixLapierre #AndrewMangiapane #TaylorRaddysh #LarsEller #AlexanderAlexeyev #TJOshie #NicklasBackstrom #MartinFehervary #SpencerCarbery #DylanStrome #AliakseiProtas #TomWilson #ConnorMcMichael #PierreLuc-Dubois #JakobChychrun #NicDowd #LoganThompson #AlexOvechkin #WayneGretzky #RyanLeonard #JohnCarlson #K'AndreMiller #NikolajEhlers #SebastianAho #AndreiSvechnikov #SethJarvis #JacksonBlake #TaylorHall #JordanMartinook #LoganStankoven #JordanStaal #K'AndreMiller #ScottMorrow #MikeReilly #CaydenPrimeau #SkylerBrind'Amour #FrederikAndersen #EricRobinson #RyanSuzuki #RodBrind'Amour #KeithPrimeau #BrentBurns #DmitryOrlov #PyotrKochetkov #AlexanderNikishin #JaccobSlavin #JalenChatfield #ShayneGostisbehere #SeanWalker #EricTulsky #TomFitzgerald #JeremyHanzel #ErikHaula #ConnorBrown #EvgeniiDadonov #StanBowman #PeterDeBoer #JackHughes #DougieHamilton #JakeAllen #CodyGlass #BrianDumoulin #CurtisLazar #NathanBastian #NicoHischier #JesperBratt #OndrejPalat #TimoMeier #StefanNoesen #DawsonMercer #BrendenDillon #LukeHughes #BrettPesce #JonasSiegenthaler #SimonNemec #JacobMarkstrom #CharlieCoyle #MilesWood #GavinBrindley #HudsonFasching #IvanProvorov #DanteFabbro #OwenSillinger #DmitriVoronkov...

In this episode of CrossButtonVR, host Reece is joined by Jon Hibbins, founder and game director of Psytec Games, to discuss the development of their new game, Titan Isles. The conversation covers the innovative gameplay mechanics, the challenges of indie game development, and the importance of voice acting and storytelling. Jon shares insights into the small but passionate team behind the game, their approach to multiplayer dynamics, and the excitement surrounding the upcoming release.NOTE: Jon's audio sometimes clips, I have tried to edit this the best I can but unfortunately I could not fix it all.-Meta Quest Affiliate: 10% off all Quest Games Here - https://tinyurl.com/39mxmkcv - or use code CBVR on the Meta store for a discountAll links, including Discord: https://linktr.ee/crossbuttonvr-Chapters00:00 - Intro + Question 122:15 - Question 232:53 - Question 338:18 - Question 401:00:39 - Ending

In this episode of CrossButtonVR, host Reece is joined by Jon Hibbins, founder and game director of Psytec Games, to discuss the development of their new game, Titan Isles. The conversation covers the innovative gameplay mechanics, the challenges of indie game development, and the importance of voice acting and storytelling. Jon shares insights into the small but passionate team behind the game, their approach to multiplayer dynamics, and the excitement surrounding the upcoming release.NOTE: Jon's audio sometimes clips, I have tried to edit this the best I can but unfortunately I could not fix it all.-Meta Quest Affiliate: 10% off all Quest Games Here - https://tinyurl.com/39mxmkcvAll links, including Discord: https://linktr.ee/crossbuttonvr-ChaptersChapters00:00 - Intro02:05 - About Psytec Games, Windlands 2 & Titan Isles Development and the future22:58 - Titan Isles Playtest First Impressions48:28 - bHaptics on Titan Isles! Plus more Titan Isles chatter!

Was the legendary “Land of Gold” truly the Ryukyu Islands—or has history been rewritten? In this deep-dive investigation, we compare Antonio de Morga Pinto's descriptions of “Lequios” with the real geography, resources, and trade records of the Philippines and Ryukyu. From gold and craftsmanship to ancient trade routes, wheat, wine, and ebonywood, the Philippines—particularly Northern Luzon—matches 100% of the historical profile, while Ryukyu barely reaches 15%. Discover how mistranslations, academic bias, and propaganda have distorted centuries of history—and why the Philippines may truly be the ancient Isles of Gold known as Ophir, Tarshish, and Chryse.

Drew and Lauren conclude their discussion of the latest Sanderson Secret Project! The Final Draft features beers from Pontoon and TRVE. Visit our website at www.iolpodcast.com and join the conversation on Twitter @IOLPodcast Support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/inkingoutloud Send us a tip on Ko-fi: ko-fi.com/inkingoutloud Inking Out Loud is Drew McCaffrey and Rob Santos. Sound engineering by Drew McCaffrey. Artwork by Danielle "FelCandy" Prosperie. Intro/outro music: "Moonlight" by Jivemind.

The latest secret project goes deeper into the future, and more into science fiction than ever before! But is this a good thing? Tune in for the full Isles of the Emberdark review.Next Up: Ship of Magic by Robin HobbCheck us out on YouTube:https://youtube.com/c/FantologyPodcastChat with us more and support in the links belowhttps://www.fantologybooks.comhttps://discordapp.com/invite/k5efNbGhttps://www.patreon.com/fantology_bookshttp://www.audibletrial.com/Fantologyhttps://www.redbubble.com/people/fantology/shopMusic Credit: Nathan Towns, see more at https://nathantownscomposer.com/

The party make a deal with a fey creature, decide on their next move, and more of the hargeons' past is revealed...— The world of Vigil is on the brink of a new age... In the war-torn lands of Sindar, city-states clash for dominance. The once-mighty Gammalast Magocracy stirs in the West. Darkness creeps from the Ashen Wastes and the Northern Baern's untamed wilderness hides secret threats. Our story began in Candorne's capital Karden, a city simmering with greed and rebellion. Our heroes were chosen, after proving their worth, to join The Infinite Alliance, a secret group of individuals led by Ludomir Nostrov (The Immortal Man), devoted to protecting Vigil from evil and darkness.The party's first official quest for The Alliance is to investigate why two of the divining rods which allow The Alliance to foresee evil and corruption are no longer functioning...---Vigil is a homebrew actual play campaign using DnD 5e (with some homebrew rules).The party: Andromeda, Aasimar, Level 4 Wizard, School of DivinationAugustus Warren, Harengon, Level 4 Druid, Circle of WildfireEnid Warren, Hargenon, Level 4 Ranger, Fey Wandererde Crane, Dhampir, Level 4 Fighter, Gunslinger Character artwork by the wonderful: https://twitter.com/_beejuiceFollow us

Welcome to the finale of the Heart of the Dominion, season 2 of my Ironsworn: Sundered Isles series.    Cassidy, Leigh, and the Captain continue to trek toward the center of the cursed Razor Isle at the heart of the Kyrody Dominion's myriad capital, with the Captain experiencing flashbacks to life in this ruined city's heyday. When they reach the three towering iron pillars at the city's center, everything falls apart at once.   Learn more about Ironsworn here. ----more---- Join the DMs After Dark Discord channel!   I made a Ko-Fi if you feel absurdly generous and want to help cover podcast hosting costs & all the upkeep. I'm still working on whether I want to offer anything special over there or just give my extreme gratitude (maybe some stickers or something in the mail) to those who donate, but no pressure whatsoever :)   Where to Follow Rene Plays Games: LinkTree |  BlueSky | Threads | Instagram | Facebook | DMs After Dark Rene's Games: MECH | One Last Quest email: RenePlaysGamesPod@gmail.com   Music in the Episode (in order of appearance): Voyage Begins by TabletopAudio.com Haunted Ramparts by TabletopAudio.com Assault by Monument Studios Subtle Emotions Orchestra In by Monument Studios Fog by Monument Studios Emotional Atmos C by Monument Studios No Time Left by Monument Studios Fallen Heroes by Monument Studios Pre Battle by Monument Studios At the End of All Things by Monument Studios Loom by Monument Studios Song of the Seafarer by Vindsvept

We got a lot of Shadesmar in Isles of the Emberdark, so there's some stuff to talk about now! This episode is part discussion, but also part explainer for things. Also part pointless arguments on the GODFORGE and the Shadesmar sun, but hey. This episode we have Eric (Chaos), Ian (Weiry), Evgeni (Argent), Jessie (Lady Lameness), and Ene (AonEne)! Thumbnail is the Bulgarian cover of Rhythm of War, by the incredible Yasen Stoilov: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/PmAvbL Chapters: 0:00:00 Introductions 0:03:22 The word Shadesmar 0:10:10 Shadesmar basics / geography 0:27:05 Rosharan subastral 1:08:47 Scadrian subastral and Ire fortress 1:31:11 Nalthian subastral 1:38:38 Drominad subastral / Shadesmar sun 1:52:25 Silverlight 2:21:43 Final thoughts / Grand Knell 2:30:05 Who's That Cosmere Character If you like our content, support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/17thshard Purchase merch here! https://store.17thshard.com/ For discussion, theories, games, and news, come to https://www.17thshard.com Come talk with us and the community on the 17th Shard Discord: https://discord.gg/17thshard Want to learn more about the cosmere and more? The Coppermind Wiki is where it's at: https://coppermind.net Read all Words of Brandon on Arcanum: https://wob.coppermind.net Subscribe to Shardcast: http://feeds.soundcloud.com/users/soundcloud:users:102123174/sounds.rss Send your Who's That Cosmere Characters to wtcc@17thshard.com

Send us a textJoin me and special guest, Joshua Meehan, as we embark on a high-seas adventure with Ironsworn: Sundered Isles. Joshua's ArtInterested in leaving a rating and review, click here.Check out my Patreon or my ko-fi.Game: Ironsworn: Sundered Isles by Shawn TomkinIntro & Outro Music: Steve Morrison

Shade talks with the Elders, The Party makes it back to Otterton and realizes what happened when the magic came back, Quinari meets Gunkfangs Brightpaw Cast: Robbie as Chaddious Vorkeek Thorn as Shade and Teddy Ravyn as Dis Forrest as Ugleo Keys as Quinari Pagemaster Penny as Harrye Illideen as The Story Weaver ______ Some content, ideas, items, etc. are based on or directly used, with permission, from the following content creators: @betterspellcaster @adramastesGM @logan art L.A.W./ @Legion.Artwork LootTavern Plots & Pens ______ For all things "TDIO": Follow us at visit our Linktree Can't get enough of our content? Get exclusive content like access to our discord server, early access to our episode with Behind the Scenes content, NPC of the week, and more by joining our Patreon. Did we miss something? Have a story to tell or want us to hit a specific topic? Let us know in the comments or email us at ThisDungeonisoccupiedpodcast@gmail.com Sound effects and intro music partially made with Epidemic Sound https://share.epidemicsound.com/m6bcn6 Like the music? That's thanks to Cameron Stahl, The Hobby Hub and Saturn Imagining production. Check them out here! The Hobby Hub https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIXvQmMZA1UJIig_FjjVpvg

Bienvenidas y bienvenidos a Recarga Activa, el podcast diario de AnaitGames en el que filtramos lo más relevante de la actualidad del videojuego en pildorazos de 15 minutos. La Recarga Activa de hoy: Lies of P protagoniza los juegos del Plus de agosto La novena edición de la Women Game Jam arranca el 8 de agosto Isles of Sea & Sky se amplía hoy con una gran actualización gratuita Suscríbete para recibir el siguiente episodio en tu gestor de podcasts favorito. Puedes apoyar nuestro proyecto (y acceder a un montón de contenido exclusivo) en Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/anaitreload ♫ Sintonía del programa: Senseless, de Johny Grimes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jess, Sarina, Jennie and Jess are all here to talk about taking a break from various angles: the mechanics angle, the guilt angle, the fear angle, the identity angle and inspiration angle. Mechanics. * Leave yourself notes about the project when you leave off, for example, “The next thing that needs to happen is this…” so when you come back, you know how to get back into the project. This is Sarina's daily practice, but it really helps when she has to leave a project behind. This can be especially helpful when you have to go away for an unexpected emergency. * Jennie adds that the only way you can do this is if you have a place to keep and find those notes to yourself. In one of your 47 notebooks or in the document itself? Or, as Jess adds, on the side of the cardboard box you use for trash in your basement workshop that you almost recycle by accident. * Jennie also notes that you have to have intentionality, to know what you are writing so you can know what comes next, whether that's in your outline, inside outline, or whatever. * Jennie has a little notebook she brings on vacation with her and she downloads those ideas into that just before going to sleep at night when she's away. * These vacation inspiration moments are much like shower thoughts, part of the magic of our brain unhooking, getting into deep default mode network, and becoming its most creative. * Sarina mentioned an article about how walking makes you more creative, also a study in why tapping into the default mode network is so effective as a practice. Fear * The only way to get over this is to sit down and do it. Open the document. Just start. * Jennie points out that getting back into a manuscript when it's disappeared feels horrifying but it's much easier than it sounds and has happened to one of our frequent guests, Sarah Stewart Taylor, when her then-toddler created a password for the document that was not recoverable. She had to give in to the fact that her book was gone, and recreate it out of her memory. Guilt and Identity* It only took Jess until her fiftieth year to figure out that her process - of walking, gardening, beekeeping, musing - is a part of writing, and that's cool. * Can you be a writer if you are not actively writing? Yes, if research, planning, thinking and otherwise cogitating is a part of your writing process. Get over it. The words have to land on the page eventually, of course, but if you are doing both, have grace for the not-actively-writing part of the writing process. #AmReadingTess Gerritsen's series set in Maine (The Spy Coast and The Summer Guests) and, once she finished those two books, Jess went back to The Surgeon, where it all started for Tess Gerritsen. Stay tuned for our interview with her! Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary (Don't watch the movie trailer if you plan to read the book!)Sarah Harman's All the Other Mothers Hate MeAmy Tintera's Listen for the LieRosemerry Wahtola Trommer The UnfoldingRichard Osman's The Thursday Murder Club (coming to Netflix in August!)Janelle Brown's What Kind of Paradise Want to submit a first page to Booklab? Fill out the form HERE.Writers and readers, KJ here, if you love #AmWriting and I know you do, and I know you do, and especially if you love the regular segment at the end of most episodes where we talk about what we've been reading, you will also love my weekly #AmReading email. Is it about what I've been reading and loving? It is. And if you like what I write, you'll like what I read. But it is also about everything else. I've been #AmDoing: sleeping, buying clothes and returning them, launching a spelling bee habit, reading other people's weekly emails. Let's just say it's kind of the email about not getting the work done, which I mean that's important too, right? We can't work all the time. It's also free, and I think you'll really like it. So you can find it at kjdellantonia.com or kjda.substack.com or by clicking on my name on Substack, if you do that kind of thing.Come hang out with me. You won't be sorry.Transcript below!EPISODE 458 - TRANSCRIPTKJ Dell'AntoniaWriters and readers, KJ here. If you love Hashtag AmWriting, and I know you do, and especially if you love the regular segment at the end of most episodes where we talk about what we've been reading, you will also love my weekly Hashtag AmReading email. Is it about what I've been reading and loving? It is. And if you like what I write, you'll like what I read. But it is also about everything else. I've been ‘hashtag am-doing', sleeping, buying clothes and returning them, launching a spelling bee habit, reading other people's weekly emails. Let's just say it's kind of the email about not getting the work done—which, I mean, that's important too, right? We can't work all the time. It's also free, and I think you'll really like it. So you can find it at KJdellantonia.com or kjda.substack.com or by clicking on my name on Substack, if you do that kind of thing or of course in the show notes for this podcast. Come hang out with me. You won't be sorry.Multiple SpeakersIs it recording? Now it's recording. Yay! Go ahead. This is the part where I stare blankly at the microphone. Try to remember what I'm supposed to be doing. All right, let's start over. Awkward pause. I'm going to rustle some papers. Okay. Now, one, two, three.KJ Dell'AntoniaHey, I'm KJ Dell'Antonia, and this is the Hashtag AmWriting Podcast, the weekly podcast, while writing all the things—short things, long things, pitches, proposals, fiction, nonfiction. And somebody told me they thought this was a recorded intro. And I just want you to know I do this live every time, which is why there's this, come on, there's more variety here, people, and you should know that. Anyway, here we are, all four of us, for we got a topic today. But before we do that, we should introduce ourselves in order of seniority, please.Jess LaheyI'm Jess Lahey. I am the author of The Gift of Failure and The Addiction Inoculation. And I laugh, because when you said seniority, all I could do was think of us in our little eave space in my old house, down the street from you, not knowing what the heck we were doing. But yeah, we've been doing this for a long time now. You can find my... you can find my journalism at The New York Times, at The Washington Post, at The Atlantic, and everything else at Jessicalahey.com.Sarina BowenI'm Sarina Bowen. I'm the author of many novels. My new one this fall is called Thrown for a Loop, and it will be everywhere that books are sold, which is very exciting to me, and all about me at Sarinabowen.com.Jennie NashI am the newest of the co-hosts, and so happy to be among this group of incredibly smart and prolific and awesome women, and I'm the founder and CEO of Author Accelerator, which is a company on a mission to lead the emerging book coaching industry. And you can find us at bookcoaches.com or authoraccelerator.com.KJ Dell'AntoniaI'm KJ Dell'Antonia. I'm the author of three novels, the latest of which is Playing the Witch Card, and the most televised of which is The Chicken Sisters—Season Two coming soon to a Hallmark network near you. And I'm also the former editor and lead writer of The Motherlode, making me our... well, and Jennie too, like the crossover. I've done too many different kinds of writing—probably should have stayed in my lane. Oh well. And our plan today—as we're recording, it is summer. And a pretty frequent thing that happens in the summer is that you need to put your project down for a little while, because you have house guests, because you're going on the kind of vacation that does not involve working, because you just need a break or you're sick. That's not really a summer thing, but it definitely happens. Anyway, we wanted to talk about how, you know, what—what do you do to make that work better?Jess LaheyI think a lot about being a parent and needing to take a break too. And you know, this is something I talk a lot about with, you know, other writers who are sort of struggling, especially since I read a lot about parenting—who are struggling to—with that guilt of, you know, like, I feel like I owe my time to the words, and I feel like I owe my time to the children. And finding a way to take a break from the words and not feel guilty about not being with the words can be really, really hard, especially when you're going gung-ho on something. So I want to make sure that we figure out a way to have a break without guilt. That's like the big question I get a lot—is, how do you, you know, either from the parenting or the writing side?KJ Dell'AntoniaAnd I was thinking about it more from a mechanics side.Jess LaheyYeah.KJ Dell'AntoniaHow do you put this thing aside for a week or two weeks or even a month? And know where you were?Jess LaheyRight.KJ Dell'AntoniaAnd come back and feel like it does not take you forever to dig in.Sarina BowenYeah. Um, so we've got the guilt question. We've got the mechanics of how to do it. And I would just like to add a layer, which is the fear factor.Jess LaheyYeah.Sarina BowenI have this thing where, when I walk away from a manuscript, I become afraid of it. So it seems scarier when I take a break. Like, even if it's not true—that I don't know where I am or that I become unmoored from the channel of that book and it seems intimidating to go back to.Jess LaheyCan I add one more layer as well? And that's the identity factor. You know, if I identify as a writer, what am I if I'm not actively writing something? And that messes my head up a lot. So I would love to add that added layer in as well and make sure we discuss that.Jennie NashWell, and I have something totally different from all of those, which is that I often find when I go on vacation, I am more inspired and motivated to work on my project than I was in my real life. It tends to light a fire under me. So then I'm faced with that choice of, you know, wanting to really lean into it. And, you know, just like a really small piece of that story is, I love to write on airplanes. I just love it. Give me a very long flight, and it's—I just want to work and not talk to anybody. And, you know, it's awesome. So I feel some guilt around that. When I'm with my family, it's like, don't talk to me, don't watch movies. You know, I'm—I'm enjoying my plane time, doing my work. So I have that reality.KJ Dell'AntoniaWell, that's the choice that you have to start with, is, am I just, you know, can I not? Am I—do I need to accept the reality, which is that this is a beach trip with extended family and some, you know, my—to multiple generations, and I inevitably am going to be the person who is cooking and figuring out where the garbage has to go in the Airbnb? I should, you know, I—I will feel better if I just accept the reality that I'm not going to wake and work. Or, you know, is it a—is it a trip where you can schedule some work time and want to? Or is it a trip where you affirmatively want to give yourself a break? Or is it also, I mean, I sort of think that the last possibility—well, there are probably multiples—is I just want to touch this every day. So I feel like you can kind of—you're like, you're either like, just—no, not going to happen, not going to pretend it's going to happen, not going to feel the guilt. That's the—that's where we are. And there's sort of a, I just want to open the file every day and keep it warm and friendly. And on, you know these three—three days I have an hour.Jess LaheySo let's do this. Let's—let's do mechanics first, since that's the real nuts-and-bolts stuff, and then we'll talk about all the touchy-feely stuff after that. So let's do mechanics first. It sounds like you have thoughts, KJ…?KJ Dell'AntoniaWell, I was actually thinking that Sarina did this pretty recently.Jess LaheyYeah, that's true.Sarina BowenYeah. Like, you know, I, um, I have found mechanically that leaving yourself notes every time you walk away from your manuscript is a good thing. So this is sort of like a best practices in your life idea, where I will have a writing day, and it's done now, and I'm going to get up and go do other things in my life. If I pick up my notebook, and I write down where I am—like, okay, and the next thing that has to happen is this—like, it could be really short or not. But taking better notes about the structure of the thing I'm working on is serving me on so many levels that it just slots right in here. Like, I took a big trip in April, and I thought I might work, but then I didn't, and I really seamlessly came right back in, because I knew where I was, and I avoided a lot of my own fear. So, if the practices that help you become a good day-to-day writer also can be practices that help you in this very instance, the mechanics of picking up your book again are that you left yourself a note right in your document, um, or in your notebook, that says, and here's what I think is supposed to happen next. And, yeah.KJ Dell'AntoniaThat's going to be gold for an unexpected break too, because that happens, you know, right? You get one of those phone calls, and it's a week before you're back or more.Sarina BowenYeah.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah. I love this practice. This is one of those things I forget to do.Jennie NashI feel like I—I feel like I have to add to that a couple things. That the only reason you can do that is, A, if you have a place to take notes, which—which could be your, the document itself that you're working on. But Sarina talked about a notebook, right? You have a place that you know, that you can find that, which is not an insignificant thing to have, or...Sarina BowenCorrect!Jennie NashRight?! Or, in the case of me, it's like, I have 47 notebooks. Well, which one did I put the note in?Sarina BowenRight.Jennie NashBut then the second thing is, I mean, this is something that I find so inspiring about the way you work, Sarina, and it—and it's a thing that I teach—is you have to know what you're writing, you know, in order to know where you are, what the structure is, and what you're doing, and to ask those—like, you have to have done the thought work of what, what it is you're trying to do and what your intention is. Otherwise, you sort of don't ever know where you are or where you're going. So...Sarina BowenRight, but that's on two levels. Like, you could—let's just say you have successfully written yourself an Inside Outline, you know, the way that you do it—you still might need that granular thing.Jennie NashOh yeah!Sarina BowenLike, you might know where you are in the arc of the book, but you might actually need the note that's like, "And now we're going to wash the dishes." I mean, let's please not put that in the novel, but you know what I mean.Jennie NashYeah, yeah. But that intentionality of, on the big picture, what am I doing, and on the small picture—in this chapter, in this scene, in this moment, and with this character—what was I... how'd that fit into the whole? What was I thinking? And those things are not—they're not easy. Like, we're talking about them like, "Oh, you just..." You know, like I was saying, what if you have 47 notebooks? That literally is a problem I have. It's like, I know I wrote this note down, and I don't know where I put it—digitally or analog.Sarina BowenRight. I confess I actually do still have this problem. Like, even with all of my best practices, like, put into—sometimes it's like, well, is that in the document, or is it in my notebook? And then—or I thought about it at four in the morning and actually didn't write it down anywhere. And I'm looking anyway...Jennie NashOh, I do that too. I absolutely do that too. I'm convinced that I left a note while I was driving—that's a thing I often do. I'll leave—I'll have Siri write me a note, and then somehow it doesn't appear, or it's like, I know I did this, I know I asked her to do this... you know.Jess LaheyI actually have—I was doing the recycling, and I realized that I was in big trouble because three sides of a box I'd had down in the basement with me while I was working on a project—I was doing something with my, getting some beehives ready—and I was listening to an audiobook that is research for a project I'm working on, and I had scribbled some really important notes to myself about how I was supposed to start a chapter on. And it was a great start. It was like a whole paragraph on the three sides of the box, with an old Sharpie I found down in the basement. And then I realized I almost recycled, like, some really useful outline stuff.Multiple Speakers[all laughing]Jess LaheySo normally—no, so I actually have them. While you guys are talking about something else, since we do see each other while we're recording this, I'll show you later. But the thing that I normally do is either in the document, like right where I left off, or in my main notebook, because I am so bad at finding those notes that I have strewn all over my office or on the side of a cardboard box.KJ Dell'AntoniaI have had the problem lately of I'm not in a manuscript, and that it's much easier when you're in a manuscript to come back to a manuscript, but I'm in a notebook full of assorted random Blueprint challenge, you know, like trying to—I'm, I'm in figuring out where this is going mode, which means I do a lot of thinking while I'm not working that then hopefully I go and write down. But it also means that I frequently sit down and I'm like, well, am I going to think about who these people are? Am I going to think about what the plot is? What am I going to do? So I've been trying to leave myself like a task, something that will, that will just get me, get me back in, because sometimes that's the problem. I, you know, I open the notebook, and there's no obvious thing to do, and the next thing I know, I'm buying running shoes.Jennie NashWell, since we're talking about nuts and bolts, when I said that I often get inspired when I go away or go on vacation and I want to work, I'm not talking about I'm going to go sit in a library or coffee shop for three hours. What, what I mean by that is I often have ideas that I want to capture, and so I have a little notebook that I bring on vacation, and what I like to do is go to bed early enough that I can download all the things I thought that day. I need that space and time to—if it's, if I'm working on something, it's in my head. It's not going to not be in my head. And so the one sort of new mechanical thing that I, that I do, is have that "vacation notes notebook" with me.KJ Dell'AntoniaI always carry one, and I never use it. So there's that.Jess LaheyI get—I am at my most inspired to write when I specifically can't write, which is usually behind the wheel of my car. So I use, in my car, I have been known to, you know, either scribble on things—which, totally don't do that—or to record myself on my phone. But then, audio things, I'm particularly bad at going back and listening to; that seems like it's just too much work. So those tend to get lost a lot. I need to come up with a better system for that. But it is predictable that if I am in a place where I cannot physically write, I will be at my most inspired to write.Jennie NashJess, that's kind of what I'm talking about. That's what happens to me, is I might say I'm leaving all work behind. I'm going off the grid. I'm not doing the thing. And that's when I most want to do the thing. And I, like, my brain seems to really get inspired. What? What do you think that's about? Is that...Jess LaheyI, you know, I, I was very worried that it was my sort of, um—sorry, what's the word I'm looking for? It was—it's my, my brain's way of saying, "Oh, you couldn't possibly work now, so let's have some of the best ideas so that you seem like a good little doobie writer, but it's physically impossible for you to write now." It's just a really weird thing, and maybe one of the other things I thought about is that I'm often listening to a book that I'm really into, which also inspires me to write. I've been listening to a lot of really great books lately, and you can't listen to a book—even one that inspires you deeply—and actually write at the same time, which is another quandary.Sarina BowenYou know what, though? This is not uniquely your brain messing with you—like, this is shower thoughts.Multiple Speakers[Overlapping: “Mm-hmm.” “Sorry.” “Ohhh...”]Sarina BowenBut everybody—everybody has those great ideas in the shower, and it's because you have unhooked yourself. You are just in there with the shampoo and the conditioner and that razor that you probably should change the blade with, and like, you know, there is nowhere to write and nothing to do. So your brain is like, I am free right now to unclench and actually solve this problem of chapter 17, and that's what—that's what happens.Jess LaheyIt is my duty, whenever we mention this, to bring up that—years ago, Ron Lieber, the write... uh... the "Your Money" columnist at The New York Times, told me that he has a waterproof little whiteboard situation that's— that lives in the shower. He and his wife, Jodi Kantor—amazing writer as well, Pulitzer Prize–winning writer, even— that these would be people who might just need a waterproof whiteboard in the shower with them.Sarina BowenBut would that ruin the magic…?KJ Dell'AntoniaIt might just...Multiple Speakers[all laughing]Jess LaheyIf you had a place to write it down, your brain would—like—be... your brain would say, "Sorry, I'm not coming up with good ideas."Sarina BowenBecause I don't think I am willing to take this risk. I take a lot of risks in my life, but this one—like; we do not mess with the shower thoughts. I think, I think...KJ Dell'AntoniaSo, so what do we do if you didn't do any of this? If what—you know—what are—you're listening to this podcast, coming back from your trip, and you're like, I... was writing... something...Sarina BowenYou know what, though? I almost feel that we should point out the fact that, like, that is kind of unlikely. Like, somebody should feel welcome to take this trip and to have all those thoughts, and even if you didn't write them down on your whiteboard in the shower or on your handy notebook, like, I would argue that unhitching yourself in the first place possibly leads to a lot of creative development that, even if you don't capture it in the moment, is still with you. Like, I had this fantastic trip in April. I thought I was going to work, and then I did not, and it was, like, the best two weeks of my life. So then, the other day, my husband said, “Hey, there's a new article you need to read in The Athletic,” which is a New York Times sports blog, and I have just pulled it up so that we can recommend it, about how walking makes you a better problem solver. And the framing story of this article is about a retired baseball coach, but, um, but then, when they got around to studying it, um, they said this question planted the seed for the first set of studies to measure if walking produces more creativity. In the series of experiments, Oppezzo and Schwartz [Marily Oppezzo & Daniel L. Schwartz] asked 176 college students to complete different creative thinking tasks while sitting, walking on a treadmill, walking outside through campus, or being pushed in a wheelchair. In one example, the students had to come up with atypical uses for random objects, and anyway, on average, the students' creative output increased by 60% when they were walking.Jennie NashThat's so cool!Sarina BowenAnd the article is—it's so cool—it's called An MLB manager found value in long walks. Research suggests it's a ‘brain-changing power'.Jess LaheyI have put a spot for it in the show notes. And I should mention that this is all part of what we call the default mode network. This is the—the part of our brain that is the wandering, most creative part of our brain. And we can get there lots of ways. Walking is a fantastic way to do it.KJ Dell'AntoniaSarina, if you do have the fear of the manuscript when you're coming back to it, like, take—you know, travel back in time to maybe when you were a little less confident in your abilities. What do you do to get past the fear and sit down?Sarina BowenThere is only one solution, and that is sitting down. And I'm not so great at this—like, when, when the fear creeps up on me, in spite of my best intentions, man, I will do anything to avoid that sucker. And then when I finally do, and I wade back in, almost every time my response is, Oh, this isn't so bad. I know where—I kind of remember now. It's going to be fine, you know. But it's so easy to put off work out of fear. It's—it's the—it's the one big obstacle. Like, I don't put work off for other reasons, you know, because I'm tired or whatever. It's because I'm afraid that there's something fundamentally wrong with the project, or fundamentally wrong with me, and that is almost always what's keeping me from doing good work.Jennie NashThere was, back in the day before computers became what they are now, people would frequently lose manuscript drafts. It was just much harder to save your work. And I can't—I can't explain exactly what changed, but it was. People frequently lost huge chunks of their work if they didn't actively back up. And when I was a new coach and working with writers who would lose their manuscripts, they would be—understandably—beyond devastated. And this often was full manuscripts, just unrecoverable, full manuscripts. And it was true that if they sat down to recreate what they'd written, it would really flow from them, for that same reason—it was still in their brain. They—they had—they'd written it, so there was a sense that they had, they owned it, and they could sit down, and it was kind of quite remarkable. And I would confidently say to them, just sit down, start writing. I think it will come to you, and it always did. It's very interesting.Jess LaheyThere's an example—we've interviewed Sarah Stewart Taylor many times now, and she tells the story of, a long time ago, her youngest managed to crawl across the computer in such a way as to create a password for the document itself, and there's nothing that can be done. She was on the phone with Word—with Microsoft—for a long time, and they're like, look, this is a password you created. We can't—that's not recoverable. So she had to go and recreate—I believe she was about a third of the way into a book—but she said that it actually flowed really well, and that, you know, she'd had it, it had been cooking and stuff like that. So that massive fear of, oh my gosh, how am I going to get back into this project when it has just disappeared? It turned out to be not a thing—that it actually came really easily to her.Jennie NashJess, you're bringing all the very weird stories today, and I'm so here for it—notes on boxes, babies making passwords.Jess LaheyYeah, well, and the hard part—the funny part about that—is like, you cannot recreate a toddler, essentially, like bashing away at your keyboard and creating a password that's never coming back. Sorry.Sarina BowenThere is a writer—she once gave a talk that I heard—a very successful young adult author, Cynthia Leitich Smith, and she apparently wrote a discovery draft of the novel to, like, figure out what it was about and then deleted it and started over on purpose.Jennie NashOn purpose?!Sarina BowenYes, and everyone in the room gasped because, of course, you know that I just rather, like, been in a lot of pain. I'd rather have oral surgery than delete my first draft of a novel. But, um... but yeah, if she was unafraid to get back there after that kind of break, then I think we can all handle it.KJ Dell'AntoniaThis is true. I've never deleted a draft, but I have just gone—poofft—"Let's, let's, let's start again." In fact, almost every time. Kind of sad. I'm doing it now, actually, but it's not a full draft. Anyway. So take the breaks, right? That's what we're saying here.Sarina BowenYeah, take the break.KJ Dell'AntoniaYou can break however you do it, you know, whichever thing you pick, and if you don't do what you thought you were going to do, that's cool, too. It's going to—it's going to be fine.Jess LaheyCan I mention something that has—so that now that we've sort of done mechanics, we've done a little bit about the fear thing, the—the identity thing—has been really hard for me, in that I have these two books that I've written, and I've written a bunch and researched a bunch of things over the past couple of years, and people keep asking me, what are you writing? What are you writing? And the reality is, like, I'm not. I'm working on something, I'm researching something, and I've written a lot of things. In fact, now I'm holding up my cardboard box pieces—I found them. But the day—I'm not, like, meeting a 1200-words-a-day goal. And sometimes I feel really... I feel like a fraud. I feel like a massive fraud. Like, what kind of writer is not actually sitting down and writing 2,000 words a day? And that's incredibly difficult for me. Like, I don't deserve to call myself a writer, even though I have a couple of books out there and I wrote—you know—did all this other stuff. But the thing that I have—there are a couple of things that have really helped—and one of those is to understand that and have some grace for myself around what I happen to know full well what my process is. Yes, I wrote a couple of book proposals that didn't turn into books, but it was only through writing the book proposals that I discovered that those books weren't something that I wanted to write, and only through doing all of this research on audiobooks and writing on the side of cardboard boxes. That's the way I've written every one of my books. And it's not—it's just what works for me. And so having a little bit of this, you know, this feeling of insecurity as a writer, I don't think is—I don't think is unique to me. I think a lot of writers feel this, and it's...KJ Dell'AntoniaNo, all the rest of them are...Jess LaheyAll of them are really...KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah, no, everyone else is just like, well, of course. No, I'm not an imposter.Jess LaheyBut what's great is when I sit down with other writers and I say, what is an integral part of your process that isn't actually about putting the words on the page? That's not some bogus, like, excuse for not writing. You know, the gardening is part of it, the—the research is part of it, the listening to audiobooks is part of it. The writing—or the walking—is part of it. And it's not just a part of it. It is an incredibly important part of it for me, and—and understanding that and owning that about myself has been really a good thing for allowing myself to not—I'm not productive when I just feel guilty or like an imposter every day. It—that's not good for my process. But none of you ever feel that, right?KJ Dell'AntoniaOr apparently the people around you…Jess LaheyThe other thing that has been—well, the other thing that's been really, really helpful is the—and especially from the parenting perspective—is, or the marriage perspective, or the dog perspective, or the bees perspective, is I need to be fully committed to the thing right in front of me when I'm doing that thing. And if I'm feeling guilty about not being with the words when I'm with my children, or not being with my children when I'm with the words, that is awful, too. And so I have found that when I have to let go of all the other stuff and be fully, 100% in, I'm highly distractible. And so if I'm not fully in the thing, and that—all that guilt of not being over there doing that other thing—that's just taking away from the actual process of writing or researching or whatever it is, or taking care of my bees. I have to be fully in the thing I'm in and not feel guilty about not doing something else. And that's been a growth moment for me, too. It only took me—how old am I? I'm 55 now, and I got there somewhere around 50, I think.Jennie NashThere is also—I mean, I—I love what you're saying, and that is a thing to strive for, for sure—to be, to be present in whatever you're doing. But there is also this idea—I always think of it as mental real estate—that you leave for your project, for your idea, for your writing, for your book. That you, that you have a space in your brain devoted to that, and that you visit, whether or not you're producing words. And I think that that, too, is writing. I think, in some ways, that's more writing than sitting at the keyboard. I mean, I always object to the process of just putting words down. And a lot of the things that challenge writers to do that, because they skip that part—the thinking part and the having-the-part—you know, the real estate-in-your-brain part. And I think this connects to the shower—shower thoughts, right? You're gardening or beekeeping, you're walking, you're thinking, you're writing proposals and throwing them out. You're doing all that, that, that's writing. That's the—that's writing in my mind.KJ Dell'AntoniaAnd it's not... I mean the other thing we do say a lot is, you know, "Good writing comes last."Jennie NashYeah.KJ Dell'AntoniaYou've got to do the other stuff. So you can do it on vacation, or you could not do it on vacation. This—I don't think—we just—maybe I—this was my idea, and I think maybe I just needed the reassurance. I have a couple weeks coming up where I'm probably not going to do anything, and I just needed a reminder that that's cool. That's cool. It's all right. It's going to be okay. That's what I—if y'all could just pat me on the head and say "it's going to be okay."Multiple Speakers[Overlapping voices: “Mm-hmm,” “Sorry,” “Ohhh...”]KJ Dell'AntoniaSix or ten times an hour, that might be about what I need.Jess LaheyWell and one of the other things that has been really cool this summer is I've been on a streak of really good books. And every one of those really good books that I've been reading has made me like, Oh, I could do this. Oh my gosh, I could do that. I could write like her. I could I could write this other thing. And it's, it's all that energy is good and it's all a good thing to sit on a beach and read a book, or sit in the woods and read a book. It's all great.KJ Dell'AntoniaAll right, everybody, go collect some energy. Hey, on that note, who's read something good lately?Jennie NashI want to hear all these great books, Jess.Jess LaheySo I really have been on this roll. I've already talked about Atmosphere in an earlier podcast, the Taylor Jenkins Reid thing. But then I've been on this Tess Gerritsen jag, because we're—I'm interviewing Tess Gerritsen later this week. You guys will get to hear her later this summer. I am... Sarina and KJ, I believe, read the first of her new series that she has set in Maine and with a couple of retired CIA agents and spies in Maine. And then I enjoyed those so much that I went all the way back to the beginning—to her first book, The Surgeon, which I didn't even know was turned into this whole series called Rizzoli and Isles. It's a television show—I had no idea. And now I'm deep into Tess Gerritsen land. I'm still—I found out that there's going to be a movie of the book by the guy who wrote The Martian, Andy...Sarina BowenAndy WeirJess LaheyAndy Weir, thank you. And I was warned very specifically on social media not to watch the preview—the trailer—for the new movie that is going to be coming out with Ryan Gosling later on this summer, because it ruins the book. The book is called Hail Mary… Project Hail Mary. So I very quickly turned away from social media and said, Ooh, I better read the book really quickly before anyone ruins it for me, and I am enjoying the heck out of Project Hail Mary. So it's been really fun. Yeah.Sarina BowenI am reading a book that KJ put into my hands. And the fun part is that I don't remember why she put it into my hands, you know. Like, why did I pick up this book? Like, it happens all the time. It's called All the Other Mothers Hate Me by Sarah Harman.Jennie NashWhat a great title.Sarina BowenYeah, like, I picked up this book, and my husband said, oh my God, what a great title. And so, yes, that's super cool. And it's very voice-y. And the—the flap copy has the—a premise that smacks of a thriller, but the voice isn't like all deep, dark thriller. And so I think maybe the contrast of those two things might be why KJ put it into my hands. But I am enjoying the fabulous writing, and I'm—I'm still at the beginning, but the way she introduces characters is really sharp. So even that alone is like a little master class on introducing characters.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah, that was why I gave it to you, was that we'd been talking about, you know, the voice, and also because we'd been talking about, like, funny thrillers versus thriller-y thrillers. And this isn't funny, but it's super voice-y. It reminds me of the one you pressed into my hands, which maybe is a little funnier—Listen for the Lie.Sarina BowenYeah, yeah.Jennie NashWell, I'm reading something very different, which is not—not very beachy. I go to a yoga class that is taught by a middle grade English teacher, and she runs her yoga class sort of like English class, where she always starts with a poem and throughout the class, she refers back to the poem in a very embodied way that you're doing the yoga around. And then she reads the poem again at the end. It's—its spectacular. She's—she's so popular at our yoga studio that you have to, you know, fight your way in. But she read a poem by a woman named Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer—and that's Rosemerry like Christmas Merry, so: Rosemerry. And the book is called The Unfolding. And I say it's very different from what you are all mentioning because this woman experienced the death of her young son and father in very close proximity, and her poems are ostensibly about grief, but they're just filled with joy and hope and delight. And, you know, it's kind of that thing you're talking about, Sarina—that it's—here's a book about tragedy and grief, but it's—there's something about the voice that just is—is fresh. And they're just—they're just stunning, just absolutely stunning. And I have gone and ordered all her books, of which there are—are many. So she's a new voice to me, and I just—I can't get enough of them. They're incredible.KJ Dell'AntoniaWell, here I am going to go back to the fiction summary read-y thing. I am very late to The Thursday Murder Club party, but it is joy. It is so much fun—really your sort of classic Agatha Christie stuff, but way, way funnier and more entertaining, with a dash of elderly spies. So we're on that theme. And then I also want to mention, just because I liked it so much—and I'm not sure I want everyone to read it—What Kind of Paradise by Janelle Brown. This could be your lit fic read of the summer. It's somewhere—but—but it's still a page turner. And I thought the premise was extremely great. Basically, it's: what if the Unabomber had also raised a young daughter with him in the woods on all of his theories, back when the Unabomber was living in the woods, and inadvertently involved her in his first kill before she got away? And now she's an adult looking back at what happened. And Janelle Brown is a Silicon Valley person. She's really steeped in this culture. She really knows this world. It's a really good book—plus super entertaining.Jennie NashI love it.KJ Dell'AntoniaThat's it!Jess LaheyI love it when we have a lot of good stuff, because there have been a couple weeks this year where we were like, I was just let down this time around. But yay, I'm loving this.KJ Dell'AntoniaAll right, I think that's it for us this week, kids. Remember, if you support the podcast, you get bonus content every week right now, because we are killing it. You might get Jess's Soup to Nuts series, where she is coaching a fellow writer on creating a nonfiction proposal that also will work with her speaking career. You can join me and Jennie on a weekly basis as we flail our way through the beginnings of writing a couple of books. And of course, on a monthly basis, we've got the Booklab, where we look at the First Pages of novels submitted by listeners. And if you'd like to submit to the Booklab, that'd be great. Jess will put the link in the show notes.Jess LaheyIndeed, Jess will. And until next week, everyone, keep your butt in the chair and your head in the game.The Hashtag AmWriting Podcast is produced by Andrew Perella. Our intro music, aptly titled Unemployed Monday, was written and played by Max Cohen. Andrew and Max were paid for their time and their creative output, because everyone deserves to be paid for their work. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amwriting.substack.com/subscribe

Brandon Sanderson is joined by special guest Howard Lyon for this special episode of Intentionally Blank! Get your copy of Isles of the Emberdark here: https://www.dragonsteelbooks.com/collections/printed-books/products/isles-of-the-emberdark-dragonsteel-premium-editionWant to send me something to open?Dragonsteel EntertainmentATTN: AdamP.O Box 698American Fork, UT 84003Get your Wheel of Time updates here with the Bound and Woven newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/brandonsanderson/eye-of-the-world-campaignStay up to date by  following my newsletter: https://brandonsanderson.us10.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=7d056bb7596a3e617f82004b2&id=fa68f14db0Interested in signed books and swag? Check here: https://www.dragonsteelbooks.com/You can also follow me on:Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@authorbrandonsandersonFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/BrandSandersonTwitter: https://twitter.com/BrandSandersonInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/brandsanderson/?hl=enTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/mistbornbrandonFrequently asked questions: https://faq.brandonsanderson

It's finally time to dust off the microphones to cover all the off-season happenings in Islanders Country! Darche has taken over as GM and is already leaving a huge mark on the franchise. Matthew Schaefer is a New York Islander. So are Victor Eklund and Kashawn Aitcheson after shipping Noah Dobson up to Montreal. New staff, new free agents, new fan outreach. LOTS to cover as Sean and Stefen return to talk all about it with some help from the great Thomas Hickey!Follow HNiNY on all social media platforms at @hockeynightnySponsored by Centre Station Bar & GrillSponsored by Main Street Board Game CafeSponsored by Raiser and KenniffSponsored by Tovi HockeyRecorded at Floored MediaCatch Stefen's coverage on the Isles beat for The Hockey NewsSubscribe to our friends at IslesFix newsletter!

It's time for a new Sanderson book yet again, this time it's the HIGH-COSMERE CONNECTIVITY Isles of the Emberdark! We discuss what we thought of the book, and just scratch the surface on everything else. On this episode, we have Eric (Chaos), Ian (Weiry), Evgeni (Argent), David (Windrunner), and Bonnie (Cosmeregirl)! The original episode where Ben and Eric freakout about Patji: https://youtu.be/OT3m64Xuako 0:00:00 Introductions 0:02:49 Note about reactions 0:05:41 General thoughts 0:20:28 Physical book design 0:27:30 Flashbacks and Dusk 0:47:25 Starling 1:07:41 Starling's crew 1:39:47 Silverlight 1:58:19 Entities 2:14:40 TUNNEL 2:21:48 Sequel hopes 2:30:01 Final thoughts 2:39:28 Who's That Cosmere If you like our content, support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/17thshard Purchase merch here! https://store.17thshard.com/ For discussion, theories, games, and news, come to https://www.17thshard.com Come talk with us and the community on the 17th Shard Discord: https://discord.gg/17thshard Want to learn more about the cosmere and more? The Coppermind Wiki is where it's at: https://coppermind.net Read all Words of Brandon on Arcanum: https://wob.coppermind.net Subscribe to Shardcast: http://feeds.soundcloud.com/users/soundcloud:users:102123174/sounds.rss Send your Who's That Cosmere Characters to wtcc@17thshard.com

Drew and Lauren discuss Parts One and Two of the newest Cosmere book! The Final Draft features beers from Loveland and Cerebral. Visit our website at www.iolpodcast.com and join the conversation on Twitter @IOLPodcast Support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/inkingoutloud Send us a tip on Ko-fi: ko-fi.com/inkingoutloud Inking Out Loud is Drew McCaffrey and Rob Santos. Sound engineering by Drew McCaffrey. Artwork by Danielle "FelCandy" Prosperie. Intro/outro music: "Moonlight" by Jivemind.

Days of our Lives Podcast Tina Huang who plays Melinda Trask joins us live. With such a big week for Melinda, Sophia, and the baby drama we're excited to talk with her! From Days to Risoli and Isles to Star Wars: The Bad Batch, Huang has had a prolific career. Follow us on twitter: @10thFloorGH and @Brookelynn74 Support the show on Buy Me A Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/10thfloor

 Brandon Sanderson and Dan Wells are back with another Intentionally Blank to discuss some of the hot button thoughts on there minds.Get your copy of Isles of the Emberdark here: https://www.dragonsteelbooks.com/collections/printed-books/products/isles-of-the-emberdark-dragonsteel-premium-editionWant to send me something to open?Dragonsteel EntertainmentATTN: AdamP.O Box 698American Fork, UT 84003Get your Wheel of Time updates here with the Bound and Woven newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/brandonsanderson/eye-of-the-world-campaignStay up to date by  following my newsletter: https://brandonsanderson.us10.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=7d056bb7596a3e617f82004b2&id=fa68f14db0Interested in signed books and swag? Check here: https://www.dragonsteelbooks.com/You can also follow me on:Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@authorbrandonsandersonFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/BrandSandersonTwitter: https://twitter.com/BrandSandersonInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/brandsanderson/?hl=enTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/mistbornbrandonFrequently asked questions: https://faq.brandonsanderson 

A collection of islands off the Sword Coast, the Moonshae Isles have a rich and deep history! We start diving into it this week! DnD Lorecast Discord | DnD Lorecast t-shirts, stickers and more! Pre-Order Lore TA Shaun's Alien novel, PERFECT ORGANISMS First Look at Lore TA Shaun's next book, the first ever Solomon Kane novel Homebrew Corner: The Travelers Guide to Factions Links: Lore TA Shaun's second novel, The Dissonance, is out NOW Pantheon/PRH! Buy it ANYWHERE books are sold! And pick up Shaun's Conan the Barbarian ebook short story, also available now! Fandom University - Sergio's OTHER nerdy podcast! Multi-episodes arcs deep-diving into various nerdy topics *SEASON 1 NOW COMPLETE* Check out all the socials at dndlorecast.com And send us a note! Email us at dndlorecast@gmail.com  ROBOTSRADIO.net - Smart Shows for Interesting People. Explore all the awesome shows on the network. Robots Radio Network Discord: discord.gg/JXKfVhM Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join the DMs After Dark Discord channel!   Welcome back to the Heart of the Dominion and season 2 of my Ironsworn: Sundered Isles series.    The penultimate episode sees Azriel Stirling send off Senator Minos and bring down the ruins beneath the Kyrody capital city of Carcordia, while Drake McCabe and others resurrected by the Church of the Enduring Servants find themselves with a strange new gift...   Cassidy and the crew of the Revenant return to the Razor Isle, and the mysterious ghost bound to the ship known as "The Captain" is secretly the one at the helm... What awaits the crew at the cursed island in the center of the Dominion's myriads?   Learn more about Ironsworn here. ----more----   I made a Ko-Fi if you feel absurdly generous and want to help cover podcast hosting costs & all the upkeep. I'm still working on whether I want to offer anything special over there or just give my extreme gratitude (maybe some stickers or something in the mail) to those who donate, but no pressure whatsoever :)   Where to Follow Rene Plays Games: LinkTree |  BlueSky | Threads | Instagram | Facebook | DMs After Dark Rene's Games: MECH | One Last Quest email: RenePlaysGamesPod@gmail.com   Music in the Episode (in order of appearance): Solemn Vow by TabletopAudio.com Earthquake by Monument Studios Closing In by Monument Studios Emotional Dulcimers by Monument Studios Rebuilding by TabletopAudio.com Voyage Begins by TabletopAudio.com Thunderstorm by Monument Studios Storm at Sea by TabletopAudio.com Dark Continent by TabletopAudio.com Legion Mix B by Monument Studios Meta Heroic Ensemble by Monument Studios Rene Plays Games Theme written & produced by Dan Pomfret | @danfrombothbands

Nick Isles, of the newly formed Centre for Policy Research on Men and Boys in the UK joins the show to talk about the issues of boys from a UK perspective. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tunes: Jason Rouse: Napoleon's Grand March Stables: Napoleon's Grand March Angus MacKay: Up and Waur them A' Willie, The Haughs of Cromdale, Robert Miller: The Highland Brigade at Waterloo, Lochiel's March (Pibroch of Donald Dhu) John Gow: The Highland Brigade at Waterloo Donald MacLeod: The Highland Brigade at Waterloo John McLachlan: The Highland Brigade at Waterloo David Glen: The Highland Brigade at Waterloo, The Highland Brigade at Waterloo (2nd setting), Pibroch of Donald Dhu, Donald MacDonald: Piobaireachd Dhomnuill Duibh (Black Donald Balloch of the Isles), John Grant: The Gathering of the Clans, Readings: Henry John Thoroton Hildyard: Historical record of the 71st regiment Highland light infantry, from its formation in 1777, under the title of the 73rd, or McLeod's highlanders, up to the year 1876 C.A. Malcolm: The Piper in Peace and War Allan MacDonald Thesis: The Relationship Between Pibroch and Gaelic Song: Its Implications on the Performance Style of the Pibroch Urlar +X+ Checkout Jason's Album Heavy Metal on Bandcamp: https://pipingrouse.bandcamp.com/album/miotal-trom-heavy-metal Be sure to come check out the Zoom Tune Session Thursday at 6:30 PM US Central time: https://und.zoom.us/j/95809246209 Here is the Facebook Even for the Session: https://www.facebook.com/share/1EHr9pYUKD/ Sources: +X+X+X+ Late 19thc: Napoleon's March From Henry Stables Cumbria Manuscript by way of Chris Partington and Traditional Tune Archive: https://tunearch.org/wiki/Napoleon%27s_March +X+X+ 1854: Up and Waur Them A' Willie from Angus MacKay's The Pipers' Assistant https://digital.nls.uk/special-collections-of-printed-music/archive/105007223 +X+X+ The Highland Brigade at Waterloo 1858: The Highland Brigade at Waterloo From Miller Manuscript +X+ 1817: The Highland Brigade at Waterloo from Gow's 4th Repository https://imslp.org/wiki/Gow%27sRepositoryoftheDanceMusicofScotland(Gow%2C_Niel) +X+ 1854: The Highland Brigade at Waterloo from John McLachlan's The Piper's Assistant https://digital.nls.uk/special-collections-of-printed-music/archive/105010534 +X+ 1870s: The Highland Brigade at Waterloo from the Glen Edinburgh Collection (Book 2) https://ceolsean.net/content/EdinColl/EdinColl_TOC.html +X+ 1890s: The Highland Brigade at Waterloo from David Glen's Collection of Highland Pipe Music (Book 9) https://ceolsean.net/content/Dglen/Dglen_TOC.html +X+X+X+ Pibroch of Donald Dbhu 1821: Pibroch of Donald Dbhu from Donald MacDonald https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=hdpWAAAAcAAJ&pg=RA1-PA106#v=onepage&q&f=false Check out Alasdair Boyd's Singing on Tobar an Dualchais: https://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/track/44689?l=en +X+ 1858: Lochiel's March From Robert Miller's Manuscript +X+ 1880s: Pibroch of Donald Dhu from book five of David Glen's Collection of Highland Bagpipe Music https://ceolsean.net/content/Dglen/Dglen_TOC.html +X+ 1840: Donald Dhu, or Lochiel's March from Davie's Caledonian Repository I didn't play this on the episode https://digital.nls.uk/special-collections-of-printed-music/archive/104999413 +X+ 1816: Pibroch of Donald Dubh from Alexander Campbell's Albyn's Anthology (Lyrics by Walter Scott) I didn't play this on the episode https://archive.org/details/albynsanthologyo00camp_0/page/82/mode/2up?view=theater +X+X+X+X+ 1828: The Haughs of Cromdale From Donald MacDonald I didn't play this on the episode https://ceolsean.net/content/McDlight/Book02/Book02%2020.pdf +X+ 1844: The Haughs of Cromdale From Angus MacKay's The Pipers' Assistant https://ceolsean.net/content/PipeAsst/Book02/Book02%209a.pdf +X+X+ 1920: The Gathering of the Clans by PM John Grant from “The Pipes of War” a Collection of Original Pipe Tunes Compose during the Great War 1914-1918 https://ceolsean.net/content/Pwar/Book01/Book01%2014a.pdf +X+X+X+X+X+ Readings: George Clarke: 1876: Excerpt from Historical record of the 71st regiment Highland light infantry, from its formation in 1777, under the title of the 73rd, or McLeod's highlanders, up to the year 1876 by Henry John Thornton Hildyard https://archive.org/details/historicalrecord00hildiala 'Anecdote of the bravery of the Scotch piper of the 71st Highland Regiment, at the Battle of Vimiero', 1808 https://collection.nam.ac.uk/detail.php?acc=1971-02-33-533-12 Music Division, The New York Public Library. "The Highland Piper, George Clarke" New York Public Library Digital Collections. Accessed July 5, 2025. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47dc-9cac-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99 +X+ Pipe Major Cameron: 1927: Excerpt from The Piper In Peace And War By C. A. Malcolm, M.A., Ph.D. https://electricscotland.com/history/scotreg/peaseandwar15.htm +X+ 1995: Thesis: The Relationship Between Pibroch and Gaelic Song: Its Implications on the Performance Style of the Pibroch Urlar by Allan MacDonald's https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/archive/rja14/musicfiles/manuscripts/allanmacdonald/ +X+X+ FIN Here are some ways you can support the show: You can support the Podcast by joining the Patreon page at https://www.patreon.com/wetootwaag You can also take a minute to leave a review of the podcast if you listen on Itunes! Tell your piping and history friends about the podcast! Checkout my Merch Store on Bagpipeswag: https://www.bagpipeswag.com/wetootwaag You can also support me by Buying my Albums on Bandcamp: https://jeremykingsbury.bandcamp.com/ You can now buy physical CDs of my albums using this Kunaki link: https://kunaki.com/msales.asp?PublisherId=166528&pp=1 You can just send me an email at wetootwaag@gmail.com letting me know what you thought of the episode! Listener mail keeps me going! Finally I have some other support options here: https://www.wetootwaag.com/support Thanks! Listen on Itunes/Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wetootwaags-bagpipe-and-history-podcast/id129776677 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5QxzqrSm0pu6v8y8pLsv5j?si=QLiG0L1pT1eu7B5_FDmgGA

Hosts Mike Guidone and Chris Caputo welcome former NHL goalie Daren Puppa, who spoke with the guys about his time in the NHL. Later, John Santamaria joined the program to break down the New York Islanders' draft picks and the Mets' recent struggles.

Join the DMs After Dark Discord channel!   Welcome back to the Heart of the Dominion and season 2 of my Ironsworn: Sundered Isles series.    As Cassidy & crew make their way to the Kyrody capital of Carcordia to make contact with the Ebb and find out what's next, Azriel Stirling avoids Kyrody law enforcement by hiding out down in the ruins below the capital, and he's not the only one down there...   Learn more about Ironsworn here. ----more----   I made a Ko-Fi if you feel absurdly generous and want to help cover podcast hosting costs & all the upkeep. I'm still working on whether I want to offer anything special over there or just give my extreme gratitude (maybe some stickers or something in the mail) to those who donate, but no pressure whatsoever :)   Where to Follow Rene Plays Games: LinkTree |  BlueSky | Threads | Instagram | Facebook | DMs After Dark Rene's Games: MECH | One Last Quest email: RenePlaysGamesPod@gmail.com   Music in the Episode (in order of appearance): Dire Ambience by Monument Studios Footsteps Rock by Monument Studios Critical Headbutt by Monument Studios Pieces of a Memory by Vindsvept Floating Market by TabletopAudio.com The Inspiration Seeker by Monument Studios Cryptic Choir by Monument Studios Chaotic Drums by Monument Studios Red Room by Monument Studios Entropy by Monument Studios Lost Mine by TabletopAudio.com Moonless Night by Vindsvept

Following former MLB player Dave Parker's passing this weekend, which coincided with the Mets' series in Pittsburgh, Gio reminisced about classic sports photography and its decline due to the internet, while Boomer claimed to have cried over an Islanders draft pick story, which Gio doubted. Both discussed their weekend family entertainment, with Gio attending a dance recital and Boomer's grandchildren seeing the Wiggles. Jerry's update focused on the Mets' continued losses to the Pirates, prompting Steve Cohen to post about the team's state on X, while the Yankees easily defeated the A's with a Cody Bellinger homer. The segment concluded with a discussion of Tom Brady dancing with Sydney Sweeney at a wedding and Gio's dissatisfaction with a thank you from a makeup artist he helped on Fire Island.

With the first round of this year's NHL Draft now in the books, the guys recap all the action and discuss an impressive haul for the Isles, the expected run on centers, Philly prioritizing size up front, the Penguins' maneuvering, goalies Pyotr Andreyanov and Joshua Ravensbergen, and more.Hosts: Max Bultman and Corey PronmanWith: Scott Wheeler and FloHockey's Chris PetersExecutive Producer: Chris FlanneryProducer: Chris Flannery Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 1538, Gerardus Mercator published a world map that preserved one of the last cartographic witnesses to an ancient truth—labeling the Lequii Populi at 10°N, right in the Philippines, not Japan or Ryukyu. This episode of The Smoking Quill exposes how Jesuit and colonial manipulation led to centuries of geographic confusion, wrongly relocating the Lequios and Zipangu to Japan. But Mercator's early maps, along with Ptolemy's Barusse and Basacata Isles, all point to the Philippines as the ancient Isles of Gold, Aurea Chersonesus.From Barbosa's 1516 identification of the Lequios in Luzon, to Mercator's correction of Ptolemaic errors in 1569, we trace a clear cartographic trail to Luzon, Mindanao, and Palawan as the real ancient lands of gold—Chryse, Barusse, and Basacata.

Send us a textJoin me and special guest, Maddy Searle, as we embark on a high-seas adventure with Ironsworn: Sundered Isles. A Game of One's OwnInterested in leaving a rating and review, click here.Check out my Patreon or my ko-fi.Game: Ironsworn: Sundered Isles by Shawn TomkinIntro & Outro Music: Steve Morrison

Happy NHL Draft Day!  After a full day of non-stop sports news, Michael Grange joins the show (3:30) to discuss the Raptors moving on from long-time president Masai Ujiri. They discuss the decision from Keith Pelly and the MLSE Board, Masai's uniquely lucrative contract, why the Raptors will be searching for a replacement, Bobby Webster's future in Toronto, and the legacy Masai leaves behind. Then, ahead of the 2025 NHL Draft, Cam Robinson joins the show (25:50) live from Hollywood to break down what he has been hearing and dive into the big names expected to hear their names called tonight. They also break down the returns for both sides in the Noah Dobson trade and how the Isles got to this point, what the Sharks will do at #2, the most active teams looking to make a move, and much more. Then, to end off the show, Justin and Producer David Ciss go through the FAN Pregame's 2025 Big Board!The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Sports & Media or any affiliates.

It's a Quick Fix featuring Joe Buono (@IslesFix) and former VP of Communications for the Islanders, Chris Botta (@ChrisBottaNHL).Chris and Joe are back to set the stage for what is set to be a seminal moment in the history of the New York Islanders. The consensus is that the Isles will select defenseman Matthew Schaefer, the consensus pick, with the top pick. That should and will be enough to make it a night of celebration for the franchise, but the weeks-long buzz about what else the Islanders may do to trade back into the 1st round or make a roster-shaking move looms as well.There will be nothing to be disappointed about if the Islanders “only” take Schaefer and then enjoy the Draft Party at UBS Arena, but the fans have been primed for something else. Whether that happens tomorrow or in the days that follow will quickly fill the void of no longer having the anticipation of pick No.1.Plus, we talk about the evaluation phase of Mathieu Darche's first few weeks on the job and the tricky contract negotiation he faces with Noah Dobson that may lead to a homegrown defenseman being on the move. Also, lessons from past drafts, and Chris shares memories of the days that led up to Mike Milbury's big gamble 25 years ago in drafting Rick DiPietro. Get full access to Isles Fix at islesfix.substack.com/subscribe

Andrew previews the Isles' No. 1 pick and the first draft under new GM Mathieu Darche, plus hear from NHL president of content and events Steve Mayer about the league's decentralized draft this year.

After three months at sea, Joey and Pacey are finally returning to Capeside just in time for their senior year of high school, and a lot has changed in their absence. Dawson's taken up photography. Dawson and Jack have started a house painting business. Jen is trying a long-distance relationship with Henry, who got recruited from football camp to a fancy private school. Doug and Pacey's sister Gretchen (Sasha Alexander, the future Isles of Rizzoli & Isles!) has taken a year off from college, and taken Pacey's spot on Doug's couch. Bessie has made the B&B profitable, perhaps in part by renting out her sister's room. Here's what hasn't changed: Dawson still sucks. Pacey and Joey decide how best to strategize about their reunion with Dawson (and boy, THAT'S probably something they didn't miss doing all summer) with an assist from Jen, trying to salve her guilt over her part in how Dawson found out about Joey and Pacey in the first place by easing Joey and Dawson back into each other's proximity. Does Dawson deserve this kid-glove treatment? You already know the answer! Deep in the background, Andie meets and flirts with a couple of French guys, one of whom looks a LOT like that gay kid Danny from the then-most recent season of The Real World in New Orleans! Prepare to dock for our episode on "Coming Home"! NEW CLUB CAMPAIGN!

Back in 2009, Lori and I used to walk around Lake of the Isles every day when we were flat broke, and trying to figure out how to build a comeback from rock bottom. In this episode, I share how a full-circle moment reminded me why you should never underestimate where long-term consistency can take you. There was one house we always walked past that symbolized “someday” for us. Well, I just saw that same house listed for sale, and it hit me that we could buy it today without blinking. If you're doubting your timeline, this one's for you. Get ready to stretch your vision and reignite your belief.   HIGHLIGHTS The exact house that shaped our money mindset. How Lori and I went from six figures in debt to financial freedom. Why most people underestimate long-term growth. What compounding effort looks like over 10+ years. The questions that changed how we saw success.   RESOURCES Join the most supportive mastermind on the internet - the Mentor Collective Mastermind! Make More Sales in the next 90 days - GET THE BLUEPRINT HERE! Check out upcoming events + Masterminds: chrisharder.me Text DAILY to 310-421-0416 to get daily Money Mantras to boost your day.   FOLLOW Chris: @chriswharder Lori: @loriharder Frello: @frello_app

Lying far to the south of Westeros and Essos are the Summer Isles, representing the most southwesterly peoples of the known world. Famed for their shipbuilding and navigation skills, the Summer Islanders are also a unique culture in part due to their relative isolation and favorable geography. Despite this, they have a history with Valyria, Sothoryos and places unknown to Westeros. They might be the only culture we know of without memory or evidence of the Long Night, and they've come up at key times in the story for Sam, Daenerys and others. Notable characters include Jalabhar Xho, Quhuru Mo, Kojja Mo, Xhondo Dhoru, Black Balaq, Tal Toraq, Chataya, Alayaya, Alleras/Sarella Sand, and Bellegere Otherys.Bonus Eps & More -⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ www.patreon.com/historyofwesteros⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Shirts & Stickers -⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠historyofwesteros.threadless.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.historyofwesteros.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Intro/Maps - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://klaradox.de⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook Group -⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://bit.ly/howfb⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Discord -⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://bit.ly/howdiscord⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Nina - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠goodqueenaly.tumblr.com/⁠⁠⁠