Podcast appearances and mentions of Jasper Fforde

Send us a textAmber hosts Robert and J.P. as they discuss an alternate 1985 where dodos are not extinct, time travel is real, and criminals steal literature for profit. The New York Times best seller, The Eyre Affair, introduces us to Thursday Next and her world that is both real and fantastical. https://jasperfforde.com/Twitter @dockingbay77podFacebook @dockingbay77podcastdockingbay77podcast@gmail.compatreon.com/dockingbay77podcasthttps://discord.gg/T8Nt3YB7

Send us a textJoin Amber and Robert as they interview Jasper Fforde, author of the Thursday Next series, The Great Troll War, Red Side Story, and The Constant Rabbit. In June we are reviewing the first in the Thursday Next series, The Eyre Affair. This interview is good for film and book lovers alike. https://jasperfforde.com/Twitter @dockingbay77podFacebook @dockingbay77podcastdockingbay77podcast@gmail.compatreon.com/dockingbay77podcasthttps://discord.gg/T8Nt3YB7

« Croyez-vous parce que je suis pauvre, humble, sans agréments, petite, que je sois sans âme et sans cœur ? »Victoire, Pascale et Jeanne comparent le roman de Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, à son adaptation en film réalisée par Cary Fukunaga avec Mia Wasikowska et Michael Fassbender. La vie est difficile pour Jane Eyre : orpheline, maltraitée par sa tante puis au pensionnat, elle grandit tant bien que mal et devient gouvernante au manoir de Thornfield d'une petite française, Adèle. Mais très vite, Jane perçoit une présence inquiétante qui rôde dans le grenier et les couloirs... Et surtout, elle commence malgré elle à développer des sentiments pour le maître des lieux, Mr Rochester.Le film de Cary Fukunaga est-il fidèle au livre dont il est tiré ? Réponse dans l'épisode !3 min 08 : On commence par parler du roman Jane Eyre de Charlotte Brontë, paru en 1847.1 h 19 min 43 : On enchaîne sur l'adaptation en film sortie en 2011 et réalisée par Cary Fukunaga avec Mia Wasikowska et Michael Fassbender.1 h 57 min : On termine sur nos recommandations autour des sœurs Brontë et des romans gothiques.Avez-vous lu ou vu Jane Eyre ?Recommandations :Les Hauts de Hurlevent, écrit par Emily Brontë (1847)Northanger Abbey, écrit par Jane Austen (1817)Les Sœurs Brontë, la force d'exister, écrit par Laura El Makki (2017)L'Affaire Jane Eyre, écrit par Jasper Fforde (2001)

Ashlie, host of Advice from The Cheerbrarian, LOVES books and loves to prescribe books to friends, listeners and strangers based on a few questions. We talk about breaking up with your phone, the benefits of parallel reading multiple books at the same time, and book discovery. Keep up with Ashlie online Advice from the Cheerbrarian: https://open.spotify.com/show/77y9HmJHzKhZZ8wyspnCqb Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/ardaigle Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cheerbrarian/ Threads: https://www.threads.net/@cheerbrarian TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@cheerbrarian Advice from the Cheerbrarian website: https://www.cheerbrarian.com/ Unrequired Reading: https://www.cheerbrarian.com/unrequired-reading Show Notes Star Trek: The Next Generation: https://www.startrek.com/series/star-trek-the-next-generation Advice from the Cheerbrarian - "Your Brain is a Dirty Dirty Liar (Your Brain Part 1)": https://creators.spotify.com/pod/show/ardaigle/episodes/Your-Brain-is-a-Dirty-Dirty-Liar-Your-Brain---Part-1-e2gle2k My Stroke of Insight by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor Advice from the Cheerbrarian - "YOU'RE REJECTED. Now what?": https://creators.spotify.com/pod/show/ardaigle/episodes/YOURE-REJECTED--Now-what-e2if0cq The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer Strengthsfinder 2.0 by Gallup Advice from the Cheerbrarian - "The Power of Yes (Part 1)": https://creators.spotify.com/pod/show/ardaigle/episodes/The-Power-of-Yes-Part-1---Say-Yes-to-Being-the-Best-at-Being-the-Worst-e2pm271 Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder: https://littlehousebooks.com/ Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery: The Cat Who... series by Lilian Jackson Braun: https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pe.cgi?11710 Stuart Little by E.B. White Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 1984 by George Orwell Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/ The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride Beartown by Fredrik Backman: A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman The Power of Fun by Catherine Price Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics by Dan Harris 10% Happier by Dan Harris How to Break Up with Your Phone by Catherine Price The Thursday Murder Club series by Richard Osman: https://www.goodreads.com/series/299267-thursday-murder-club Murder, She Wrote on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder,_She_Wrote Dublin Murder Squad series by Tana French: https://www.goodreads.com/series/51639-dublin-murder-squad Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: https://www.nbc.com/law-and-order-special-victims-unit In the Woods by Tana French: https://bookshop.org/p/books/in-the-woods-tana-french/11716028?ean=9780143113492 Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde: https://www.goodreads.com/series/43680-thursday-next Born a Crime by Trevor Noah Yes Please by Amy Poehler The Wreckage of My Presence: Essays by Casey Rose Wilson Joyful Recollections of Trauma by Paul Scheer Finding Favorites - "Paul Scheer loves the L.A. Clippers": https://findingfavorites.podbean.com/e/paul-scheer-hdtgm-la-clippers/ Travels with Charley: In Search of America by John Steinbeck Craft Sequence series by Max Gladstone: https://www.goodreads.com/series/91029-craft-sequence Finding Favorites bookshop: https://bookshop.org/shop/FindingFavoritesPodcast House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace Good Morning America Book Club: https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/bookclub Happiness Falls by Angie Kim: Advice from the Cheerbrarian - "Cheerbrarian Presents - Author Angie Kim": https://creators.spotify.com/pod/show/ardaigle/episodes/Cheerbrarian-Presents---Author-Angie-Kim-e2jbg6p Reese's Book Club: https://reesesbookclub.com/ Advice from the Cheerbrarian - "Six Tips to (try to) Read More Books": https://creators.spotify.com/pod/show/ardaigle/episodes/Six-Tips-to-try-to-Read-More-Books-e2jto9s Finding Favorites is edited and mixed by Rob Abrazado. Follow Finding Favorites on Instagram at @FindingFavsPod and leave a 5 star rating on Apple Podcasts, GoodPods or Spotify. Got a question or want to suggest a guest? email Leah at FindingFavoritesPodcast@gmail.com Support Finding Favorites by shopping for books by guests or recommended by guests on Bookshop.

The protagonists in Jasper Fforde's "Red Side Story" live in Chromatacia, a place where "The hierarchy is based not on something mundane like voting for people, but on the colors that you can see." A sequel to "Shades of Grey," the book is packed with humor, adventure, murderous plots, and a dash of romance. In this edition of Book Lust, Fforde and host Nancy Pearl delve into Chromatica's reflections of our own world, as well as their views on fantasy, satire, and the wonder of audiobooks.

This is the long anticipated sequel to "Shades of Grey."

Auf den ersten Blick scheint es hier keine besondere Neuheit zu geben. Die Fragen sind: Was wäre, wenn es Magie wirklich gäbe, wenn sie von einem geheimen Club kontrolliert und dazu benutzt würde, die Öffentlichkeit vor bösartigen Geistern und übersinnlichen Feinden zu schützen? Aber Ben Aaronovitch bietet etwas Neues, indem er die Metropolitan Police in den Mittelpunkt seiner magischen Welt stellt, und schon haben wir das Beste aus zwei Welten der Urban Fantasy, so nahe liegend, dass man glauben könnte, diese Art der Literatur gab es schon immer. Da mag man vor allem an die berühmten okkulten Detektive wie Hodgsons Carnacki, Blackwoods John Silence oder an LeFanus Dr. Hesselius denken, aber damit hat Peter Grant, der Held der Reihe, gar nichts zu tun (übrigens auch nicht mit Harry Potter, wie oberflächliche Rezensenten behaupten). Am ehesten ist noch die Thursday-Next-Reihe von Jasper Fforde mit Peter Grant verwandt, aber auch die verfolgt einen gänzlich anderen Ansatz. Wäre noch Harry Dresden, die Königsreihe der Urban Fantasy; das gilt aber nur, wenn man Kategorien unbedingt braucht. Und Scott Mebus mit seinen Gods of Manhattan. Folge direkt herunterladen

Jasper Fforde is the critically acclaimed author of The Last Dragonslayer series: THE LAST DRAGONSLAYER, THE SONG OF THE QUARKBEAST and THE EYE OF ZOLTAR, SHADES OF GREY, the Nursery Crime books: THE BIG OVER EASY and THE FOURTH BEAR and the Thursday Next novels: THE EYRE AFFAIR, LOST IN A GOOD BOOK, THE WELL OF LOST PLOTS, SOMETHING ROTTEN, FIRST AMONG SEQUELS, ONE OF OUR THURSDAYS IS MISSING and THE WOMAN WHO DIED A LOT. His latest book is RED SIDE STORY, a sequel to Shades of Grey.We really enjoyed this chat with Jasper, hearing about how he dealt with initial rejections, and why you must persist with your writing in order to make it better. We also chat about not writing to market and hear how he develops initial ideas to full story, including the concept of the "narrative dare" that he as an author makes with himself. Plus, we talk about his rather unique author website!Links:Buy Jasper's books nowVisit Jasper's websiteFollow Jasper on Twitter/XPage One - The Writer's Podcast is brought to you by Write Gear, creators of Page One - the Writer's Notebook. Learn more and order yours now: https://www.writegear.co.uk/page-oneFollow us on Twitter/XFollow us on FacebookFollow us on InstagramFollow us on BlueskyFollow us on Threads Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In part two of three of their 3rd Annual Mysterious Galaxy Summer Bingo Showdown Throwdown, Smack and Gabi settle in with some wine to continue playing two games.  One is the typical showdown throwdown which we all know and love.  The other is Rock, Paper, Scissors for what should be an impartial tie-breaker but which is somehow…not.  This month's match-up features hard horror limits (mushrooms!), sci-fi portal fantasy time shenanigan takes on Arthurian legend, sassy magical cats, voyeuristic houses, and a fun, definitely 100% accurate history sidebar with Smack about Elizabethan England.  Come back in January for part three to see who wins! The titles showdowned throwdowned in this episode include: Undead Girl Gang by Lily Anderson vs. The Broken Girls by Simone St. James Hexwood by Diana Wynne Jones vs. Hunting Kat by Piper J. Drake The Cat Who Saved Books by Sōsuke Natsukawa, translated by Louise Heal Kawai v. An Impractical Guide to Satyr Charming by Cynthia Diamond The Great Troll War (The Last Dragonslayer #4) by Jasper Fforde v. A Crown of Ivy and Glass (The Middlemast Trilogy #1) by Claire Legrand Unmasked by the Marquess (Regency Imposters #1) v. Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton

Jasper Fforde, an ally who has queered English Literature

You can find Willie Carver on Instagram @williecarverjr or on his website at www.williecarver.com. For show notes for any episode, go to our website at www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. We are also on Instagram @perksofbeingabookloverpod and on FB Perks of Being a Book Lover.   Sometimes when people have experienced a loss or some kind of traumatic event, they are encouraged to write about it, which gives them an outlet for their feelings and a way to help them process the experience. Our guest this week, Willie Carver Jr. was the 2022 Kentucky Teacher of the Year but he experienced loss and trauma when both he and his students were targeted because he is gay. He began putting his thoughts and feelings into poetic lines and stanzas. The book of poems that resulted, Gay Poems for Red States published by University Press of Kentucky, helped him look back at prejudices he had experienced as a child living in rural Kentucky, as a gay man, and as a teacher offering a place of security for his students. The poetry served as an impetus for him to engage more as an activist, even testifying before the House Subcommittee on Civil Liberties and Civil Rights concerning the need for rights for LGBTQ students and educators. Book Riot has named Gay Poems for Red States one of its' best of the year. Books Mentioned in this Episode: 1- Gay Poems for Red States by Willie Carver Jr 2- The Awakening by Kate Chopin 3- Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer (audiobook) 4- Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll narrated by Sally Field (audiobook) 5- The Eyre Affair series by Jasper Fforde (audiobook) 6- What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher 7- The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe 8- Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia 9- Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver 10- Theoretical Tiger Society by Brian Fuchs 11- With a Hammer for My Heart by George Ella Lyon 12- Undercooked: How I Let Food Become My Life Navigator and How Maybe That's a Dumb Way to Live by Dan Ahdoot Five Star Recommendation by Fellow Book Lover Michael DeConzo, author of Welcome to the Arcade and Two Nickels 1- Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier Podcast mentioned 1- Green Eggs and Dan

You can find Willie Carver on Instagram @williecarverjr or on his website at www.williecarver.com. For show notes for any episode, go to our website at www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. We are also on Instagram @perksofbeingabookloverpod and on FB Perks of Being a Book Lover. Sometimes when people have experienced a loss or some kind of traumatic event, they are encouraged to write about it, which gives them an outlet for their feelings and a way to help them process the experience. Our guest this week, Willie Carver Jr. was the 2022 Kentucky Teacher of the Year but he experienced loss and trauma when both he and his students were targeted because he is gay. He began putting his thoughts and feelings into poetic lines and stanzas. The book of poems that resulted, Gay Poems for Red States published by University Press of Kentucky, helped him look back at prejudices he had experienced as a child living in rural Kentucky, as a gay man, and as a teacher offering a place of security for his students. The poetry served as an impetus for him to engage more as an activist, even testifying before the House Subcommittee on Civil Liberties and Civil Rights concerning the need for rights for LGBTQ students and educators. Book Riot has named Gay Poems for Red States one of the best of the year. Books Mentioned in this Episode: 1- Gay Poems for Red States by Willie Carver Jr 2- The Awakening by Kate Chopin 3- Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer (audiobook) 4- Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll narrated by Sally Field (audiobook) 5- The Eyre Affair series by Jasper Fforde (audiobook) 6- What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher 7- The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe 8- Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia 9- Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver 10- Theoretical Tiger Society by Brian Fuchs 11- With a Hammer for My Heart by George Ella Lyon 12- Undercooked: How I Let Food Become My Life Navigator and How Maybe That's a Dumb Way to Live by Dan Ahdoot Five Star Recommendation by Fellow Book Lover Michael DeConzo, author of Welcome to the Arcade and Two Nickels 1- Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier Podcast mentioned 1- Green Eggs and Dan

We're pulling out some of my favorite interviews for the next few weeks. This week is my interview with Jasper Fforde. He has built a career and writing books that don't 'fit' into a traditional genre. And yet I will repeat, He has made a CAREER out of it! This is good news for all of us who don't write in a specific genre or like to write what we have in our heads instead of what the industry says we should write. Check out Jasper Fforde's books (they're really fun) here:https://jasperfforde.com/The Constant Rabbit: https://www.jasperfforde.com/rabbit/buy.htmlSign up for my writer's newsletter here:https://katcaldwell.com/writers-newsletterSign up for my reader's newsletter here: https://katcaldwell.com/readersFind me at https://katcaldwell.com or on Instagram as @katcaldwell.author or @pencilsandlipstick

In Episode 34 Shelf Help booksellers answer a question from Caleb -- "some of my favorite books are ones with allusions to other literary works, like the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde. What other books like that series would the co-hosts recommend?" Recommendations included the unexpected - a picture book - A Child of Books by Oliver Jeffers, as well as other novels the Wayward children series by Seanan McGuire, Check out 19 by Claire Louise Bennett, The Idiot by Elif Batuman, Mr. Penumbra's 24 hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan, Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern, Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill, and the Magpie Murders series by Anthony Horowitz.Shelf Help is a podcast where booksellers help you answer one of life's trickier  - and we'd argue extremely important - questions: what should you read next?  If you've got a reading dilemma, you can email us a question or voice memo at shelfhelpuv@gmail.com. We're here to help your shelves. Shelf Help is a collaboration between the Book Jam, a nonprofit designed to inspire readers; CATV Upper Valley media community (NOW LOCATED AT JAM, Junction Arts & Media); three Upper Valley bookstores: Yankee Bookshop in Woodstock, VT; the Norwich Bookstore in Norwich, VT; and Still North Books & Bar in Hanover, NH.  

How are writers portrayed in fiction? The Word Docs (or, as they're inexplicably calling themselves, the Warlock, the Wizard and the Witch) are investigating the magic of storytelling as depicted in popular culture. From Fforde to Ginsberg, and Ginsberg to King, there is a tradition of romanticising authors and their work. Amy is into it... Sean really, really isn't. Join us as we separate the myth from the grind.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How are writers portrayed in fiction? The Word Docs (or, as they're inexplicably calling themselves, the Warlock, the Wizard and the Witch) are investigating the magic of storytelling as depicted in popular culture. From Fforde to Ginsberg, and Ginsberg to King, there is a tradition of romanticising authors and their work. Amy is into it... Sean really, really isn't. Join us as we separate the myth from the grind.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's the moaning hour, and not in a good way - join Ozzy and Kristian as they excoriate emphatically on extensive esoterica.   Streamed live at https://www.twitch.tv/invisibletower   00:00 Intro & Maths 03:11 Nintendo Switch Online & GameBoy Emulators 08:30 Licit & Wordlove 09:51 Comedy Awards 10:40 Ghosts & terrible modern music 13:50 The Legend of the Zelda: The Breath of the Wild the 2 18:26 The inexorable march of time 28:12 Fast Forward, Rewind, and the rest 33:52 Ownership as a service 36:32 How big companies ruin everything with exclusivity 40:34 Spirit of the Table 41:55 English as a Foreign Language 47:26 Ozzy's new name 48:52 Rocky (RIP) 50:22 Wolfey Glick & VGC 51:45 Organised religion 53:29 Jasper Fforde 55:31 The charlieissocoollike of Rumble 57:55 Out-tro   Kristian's Tips: https://ko-fi.com/invisibletower YouTube: https://youtube.com/invisibletower Twitter: https://twitter.com/InvisibleTower Email: contact@invisibletower.net   Music: "Anachronist" by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3363-anachronist License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

¡Regresamos a la Habitación 101 después de esta pausa de un mes y lo hacemos con un libro que trata sobre literatura... ¿qué me diríais si os hablara de una detective que se dedica a resolver crímenes literarios en un mundo donde el robo de un manuscrito es de interés nacional? Ucronía, fantasía y ciencia ficción se mezclan con esta novela policiaca que, desde luego, sorprende por su originalidad. Para cualquier duda o comentario, las formas de contactar conmigo son a través de Twitter (@greenpeeptoes) o en el canal de Telegram del programa (t.me/habitacion101)También espero tus comentarios en https://emilcar.fm/habitacion101 donde podrás encontrar los enlaces de este episodio.

The year is 2020. There are 1.2million human-sized rabbits living in the United Kingdom - they speak English, drive cars, and use cell phones. And after the past 50 years, their welcome from humans has worn thin. Join the gang this week as we enter into the world of our next Book Club installment - “The Constant Rabbit”This week, we chat with New York Times Best-Selling Author, Jasper Fforde, about Sean Bean's interior decorating skills, human-sized bee cashiers, and loving our neighbors.Thank you so much for listening! We would love your input, comments, questions or episode ideas. Become a Patron on PatreonSend us an email!Check out our InstagramFind us on TwitterFollow your hosts!William's InstagramCody's InstagramAlex's InstagramDallas' Instagram

Please join us on Sunday, October 23rd, At 5 PM EDT. We will be discussing the book The Big Over Easy, by Jasper Fforde, DB62658. This is the 1st book in The Nursery Crimes series. NLS Description: Detective Inspector Jack Spratt of the Reading Police Department Nursery Crime Division investigates the untimely demise of Humpty Dumpty--ex-con, womanizer, alcoholic, and philanthropist--found shattered to death. When the pieces add up to foul play, Jack and his partner, Mary Mary, sort through Humpty's secret, sordid past. Some strong language. 2005.

"The untold story of the last days of Quinn Oldman, a father disturbed by his own non-Victorian feelings." What kind of non-Victorian feelings are we talking about? Why was this story untold? And who or what or where is Dickinson? Our guest Jasper Fforde has the creativity and brainstorming power to help us work through it! Follow him online @jasperfforde.

With Dave in Ohio (!) of all places and the season nearly wrapped, it seemed as good a time as any to drop our Season two outtakes reel.  This time with guests!!  Enjoy a mix of laughter and insight found from the cutting room floor, full of daughter interruptions and even a dropped call.  Thanks to all the guests who gave their time to laugh with us.  Here's to many more. Guest List: Kelli Russel Agodon, Raegen Pietrucha, Shiksha Dheda, Nicole Tallman, Mitchell Nobis, Jasper Fforde, Lannie Stabile, & Terri Linn Davis. My Bad Poetry Episode 2.23: "Season 2 Bloopers and Outtakes" Podcast Email: mybadpoetry.thepodcast@gmail.com Twitter: @MyBadPoetryThe1 --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mybadpoetry-thepodcast/message

Fforde has been writing in the Comedy/Fantasy Genre since 2001 when his novel 'The Eyre Affair' debuted on the New York Times Bestseller list. 'The Great Troll War', published in September 2021, is his 16th novel and he counts his sales in millions. He lives and works in Wales. His latest is The Constant Rabbit availble now everywhere. You can find out more about Jasper Fforde here.   Want to support the show? You can buy me a coffee or "book" here: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/PencilsLipstick   Looking for tips on writing, publishing, and storytelling? Join my writers' newsletter! Want more information on my books, author swaps, short stories and what I'm reading? Sign up for my readers' newsletter.

Dave and Aaron find themselves talking to one of their shared favorite authors and yes... we are as surprised as everyone else. Jasper Fforde brings his wit and wisdom to the show while sharing some of his poems that are far superior to the works of Aaron's old Wolf Journal. Much like his novels, the episode is smattered with references that range from Kafka and Lewis Carol, to Bonanza and The Clash. Jasper Ffordes latest novel The Great Troll War from the Last Dragonslayer Chronicles is available in the UK and will be available in the US on August 9th, 2022. Other works include the Thursday Next Series, the Nursery Crime Series, Shades of Grey, Early Riser, and The Constant Rabbit. All can be purchased through The Goliath Corporation found on Jasper Fforde's website or through your local bookstore. The author can be followed on Twitter @jasperfforde. My Bad Poetry 2.17: "Double Trouble, and Twice as Nice (w/Jasper Fforde) End Poem from a Real Poet: "High Flight" by John Gillespie Magee Podcast's Twitter: @MyBadPoetryThe1 Podcast's Email: mybadpoetry.thepodcast@gmail.com Website: https://www.podpage.com/my-bad-poetry/ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mybadpoetry-thepodcast/message

This is part two of my interview with C. S. E. Cooney about her publishing journey for Saint Death’s Daughter, featuring questions from my patrons. You can listen, or read the transcript below, and in case you missed it, part 1 of this interview is here! If you have not already devoured Saint Death’s Daughter in one day, like I did, I encourage you to check it out! It’s available as a printed book, an ebook, and an audiobook, and Claire does her own narration for the audio version!JuliaWelcome to the OMG Julia Podcast, where we talk about creative lives and processes. This is part 2 of my interview with C. S. E. Cooney about her journey to publication with Saint Death’s Daughter. We’re picking up this conversation after Claire told us about how she loves to read her first drafts aloud. JuliaI love that about you! I love working with you, because I've done work at the same time and place as you, and even if I'm not super productive during those times, I always love hearing what you've come up with. Because I feel like I've gotten a lot out of just talking through plots with you, even if I haven't been writing. ClaireI Do. I Love that part. Yeah.JuliaBecause I think that writing is a lot of different things, and some of that is getting the words actually down on the page, but some of it is actually just being in a place where you can think through story structure, and what is actually happening. And one thing that I've learned about myself over years and years and years of basically feeling like I must be broken because I don't write x words every day… Which, there is so much advice out there that's like, “You're not a writer if you don't write every single day.” And I don't. I don't write every single day. ClaireYeah, it's so harmful. Oh my gosh.JuliaI have to have a long period of time usually before any project where I just kind of like think about it. And now that I've learned that this is how I work, it really has made a huge difference for me. Because I know that if someone has asked me to write a story for an anthology or something, I can tell myself very clearly, “You know we have to write a story for this anthology. So, let's start thinking about that.” And then I go about my business doing other things, but I'll be working through the problem in the back of my mind. And I will do research and I'll do other things, but the whole time, what I'm really doing is the hard brain work of invisibly creating something inside my head that I don't even necessarily really fully understand until I actually start writing. And I won't be ready to start writing until it's ready.ClaireI feel like I do that process, but I do it in drafts rather than in my brain first. But I draft a lot, like 4 to 8 drafts sometimes, so it's like I write before I even know what I want to write, before sometimes I have an idea. And that makes a whole draft before my draft starts, but sometimes it's just like this vague, you know, itch. Or a character, or even like a feeling between two characters. Like, what is that? How do you make that? Like, I wanted to write a theater story and I knew what the theater troupe did. And I kind of knew the world they did it in but I didn't have characters you know like the troupe was almost like an entity but somebody still has to tell the story. There has to actually be a plot. And these elements of this theater troupe that does this thing in a world that does this thing… those were like the tensions grinding against each other. So I had the 2 major tensions, but what are the pieces at play within those tensions? And I didn't know that until I started, you know, wrote the first line, which came out of nowhere.JuliaRight? yeah.ClaireAnd then I figured my way through from there. But it's funny how much you can do with 2 grinding tensions. JuliaI mean, yes, as the actress said to the bishop. You can count on me for that 12-year-old humor. ClaireLOL. Anytime, Julia Rios.JuliaNo, but I find that for me, I used to be the kind of person who writes a zero draft that's not a first draft. It's the draft where I try to tell myself what I'm even writing, and it's a giant mess and completely often unsalvageable. So I have many, many old stories languishing on hard drives that are just like a complete mess. It doesn't do anything for me, and many of them are such a mess that I've never come back to them. It's like, it's not worth it. Now that I know that I kind of have to do this percolating thing, my drafts come out a lot cleaner. Which isn't to say that I don't end up having to change them and edit them. I do! It's just that my rate of unsalvageable muck is lower.ClaireThat's cool. You can actually work on it because you're not shuddering away from it.JuliaAnd because there's something to work on. I literally, because I tried to do NaNoWriMo many years, and I had so many attempts at it that just came out as just a mess. Not a mess that you're like, “Oh, this could turn into a good story!” Just like, what is even happening here? No one knows.ClaireHave you over have you ever tried to do a NaNoWriMo where you've spent all year thinking and prepping for it the way you do for a short story for an anthology?JuliaI think, yes, I have, and that's probably the one that came the closest to actually being decent. This was many years ago, though, and I say close to being decent, by which I mean, like, had a full story arc. And I don't think I finished the word count during NaNoWriMo. I definitely didn't finish the novel during NaNoWriMo, but I had been thinking about it a lot before I started it, and I did do a big chunk of it during NaNoWriMo. I don't remember if I did 50,000 words or if those 50,000 words ended up staying. I think I still have that saved somewhere, possibly in a Google drive. But it's the kind of thing that also it was so long ago. I haven't attempted NaNoWriMo in many years because I finally figured out that like, hey, you know what? Trying to push myself in that particular way isn't actually productive for me. ClaireYeah, that's what Ellen Kushner once called the cult of word count, which, I have to say, I mean, all these years later: Saint Death's Daughter! But it is not really the story I wrote in NaNoWriMo, though there are many elements… Like, you could see the origins there. JuliaI don't think it's a cult of word count. I think that it's a really useful tool for some people. I think it depends a lot on what kind of writer you are. ClaireYeah, I always wanted to do it again.JuliaI know people for whom they have a great time and they come out of it with something that they enjoy. And I know several self publishers who, like, a lot of the people who really are successful in self publishing can just crank out stuff and they are very prolific. They have an idea of what they want to do and they just sit down and do it, and they do that over and over again. And if you're really fast, doing something with a bunch of other people and knowing that everybody's doing it at the same time can be a very powerful tool.ClaireI've always wanted to do it again, and I never have, and I wonder why. It was like that 1 year in Chicago, and, I mean, I was commuting an hour both ways to the bookstore that I worked at. I'd come home and I remember that I would read a chapter of Jane Eyre (which I've read an umpteenth billion times) right before writing, because I couldn't get started without having read something, but I couldn't read something that I would get into too much, because I didn't want to lose all my time to reading something that I found super fascinating, but it had to be really good. Because it had to feed the writing itself. So Jane Eyre was the book of choice, and I would set a timer. I'd read for a half hour, and then I would try to do 2,000 words, and it was really interesting, and it created a lot of cool things. And I feel like I was like, “This is cool. This works.” If I did that every month, oh boy. What a writer I would be! And it made it feel possible to to be that kind of writer, and yet I've never been able to duplicate it.JuliaWell, the other thing I wonder is, for you, if that isn't the kind of thing that you can sometimes do in a sprint, but can't do in a marathon setting. And often when you're writing as a career, you're doing a writing marathon. You're not doing a writing sprint.ClaireYeah. Yeah, maybe I'll do it this year, though who knows? It would be cool. You know, it'd be cool if I wrote the next two drafts of Miscellaneous Stones —sorry, of Saint Death's Daughter. I still do call it by its old title, or just by her name, really— if I did both drafts as NaNoWriMo to start with, to give myself, like, starting time motivation. You know, like, here's the seed… and maybe if I start out with 50,000 words and I don't give myself 12 years, it won't turn into almost. 200,000 words. Maybe I could just kind of keep it in… But, you know, usually a second draft doubles. So like 100,000 words is not bad for a novel, you know. We could maybe keep it at that that.JuliaSo you mentioned NaNoWriMo, and you said that this is what came out of it. Was this actually your NaNoWriMo novel?ClaireIt was, but it wasn't the beginning. The beginning is further back than that, though I often count the first draft of Saint Death's Daughter as the NaNoWriMo. I think it was 2006. But, before that, was a short story in Phyllis Eisenstein's science fiction class at Columbia College, where there was the idea of a girl raised in a family of assassins. But it was a sci-fi story, and the butler was not a housekeeper, and it was not undead. It was a robot, a robot butler named Graves. So, before that, though… Several years before that, either I was just in college or just before college, my friend Kiri took me out shooting in the Arizona desert. We were both raised in Arizona. She said, “You're going to be a writer. At some point you probably will have to write about guns, so you should definitely shoot a gun sometime during your life, and I want to be the one to take you to shoot a gun.” So we went out to the desert to shoot guns, and we had noise canceling headphones and everything, but either mine weren't working or my ears are very sensitive or bullets are just that loud, but it was so loud that after the first shot I was getting heart palpitations and my hands were sweaty because I didn't want to hear that sound again. I was like, “Oh gosh, if this had a silencer on it I'd be a badass assassin, but it doesn't and I'm afraid of the sound. Wouldn't it be interesting if there was a character who was supposed to be an assassin, but was allergic to violence?”That was the idea, and I remember when it happened, and it didn't show up in a short story for several years, and it didn't turn into a NaNoWrio novel. But the idea has always been appealing, especially throughout all the media and books I've read, and still am reading, where violence is such a problem solving tool on a micro and macro scale. There are so many TV shows where, if you don't agree with someone, you punch them in the face, which is not how my life works at all. And then like on an epic fantasy scale, if you don't agree with someone, you invade their country and you kill all of their orcs or whatever, you know? And I just thought like what if she doesn't have that option? What else can we do if you don't have that option? How many workarounds does somebody have to figure out in their life? In a world like ours that's full of violence, but you're incapable of it? Not that you don't want to sometimes, but that even wanting punishes you?I mean, I still think it's an interesting idea. Thank goodness, because it's still enough of an idea to create two more books out of, I think. And then trying to turn it and look at it from a different point of view. What does violence mean? What does history mean? What is, like, not only the violence of a physical violence, but the violence of your own history? The lies and the biases and the prejudices you've been told? The violence of your own education? How seeing the world and growing a little older and thinking about things differently, and learning another language changes your mind, you know? So, I mean, I still think that's interesting. JuliaYeah, I mean I think it's very interesting. I think that you really do dive into a lot of those questions, and it's very cool to see Miscellaneous Stones exploring them.Yeah, I think this leads into… This is a good place to dig into a question from Francesca Forrest.ClaireOh, I Love her!JuliaThat's because she's delightful! So, she says, “I know Claire's journey with this novel is very long. I'd love to hear what the most important differences are between the novel now and the novel she started so long ago, and which things have remained the same or very similar over all the years.”ClaireThe first novel, that was 50,000 words almost exactly, was very cheeky. It's very lighthearted, and the violence is cartoonish, and the consequences are surface. It's as funny as I could have made it at the time, which isn't very. But what has happened since then? Well, many things. Many drafts, many years, and also Carlos. And one of the wonderful things about Carlos—so he caught me at about draft four, so he's been with it for more than half the book, more than half of the drafts. It was about eight full drafts till it hit the agent and went on submission, and then a couple more drafts from the editor. So, Carlos did many, many things for me, but the three things that stand out are:The child, DatuThe father, Mac The Scratches, the Scratch family So, in the original, the child, Datu, is like one of those anime 6-year-old genius serial killers. Do you know what I mean? Like, cold stone killer, acrobatics, dance on the edge of a leaf. Really funny and witty, but also six years old. And he was like, “She's a child. She's six years old. She may have been trained. You know, like, you see children gymnasts who are capable of amazing things, or children Broadway performers, or child actors who've won the Academy Award, and they are amazing. They're still children, and that level of savant genius has a toll, generally.” He kept being dissatisfied. He's like, “We've seen cartoon death child already. Like, what else have you got?” So, I think Datu’s really different.Mac, the father, really different. Because he's one of the only nurturing, moral male characters in the in the novel. And I think Carlos was just like, You know, give me more than brooding male / potential love interest.” Earlier drafts, he definitely was Lanie's love interest, and I've moved far away from that. Because it is more interesting. Satisfying romantically is one thing, and what I kind of like to read and am inclined to write. But what is more intellectually and emotionally interesting now is different. And he's like, “I don't think if one's sister has enslaved a man, got her child upon him, abused him in many ways, that it's very likely that that man will end up falling in love with you, unless it's super traumatic and ugly, you know?” Like, he was just so repulsed by it in a way that was so different from every romance novel ever that takes a damaged man and puts it with your protagonist and by the end he's not as damaged because love has saved him, or whatever. Like all of those tropes that I grew up with. So he kept saying that. He kept being dissatisfied. And, you know, his best friend Maggie once told me, “You have too high of an opinion of his high opinion.” But the truth is I do want his high opinion so badly, and it tells me something when I can make him cry or laugh. Like, it's working. That's what I want. And when I make him make a certain face like, this just isn't right! This doesn't feel good. “Give me something. Mac has to be better than that. You have to make him better.”So he really turned into, in many ways, a moral center. He's wrong sometimes. But he thinks about it, comes back, and says, “I was wrong about that.” You know, he's actually capable of growth. He has such an interesting internal life. And he and Lanie become like brother and sister, true brother and sister almost in spite of everything that happened to them. Consciously, to make this decision to be family, that’s something that is a huge difference from brooding man who turns into a falcon, totally damaged, awesome, scarred, so hot, ends up being the love interest that lightheartedly, coyly flirts with you at the end sort of thing. I still have that Mac inside of me, but he doesn't fit anywhere in the future of Lanie Stones. What does fit in is an increasingly interesting intimate. Not sibling the way she and her sister are siblings, but like, will be there for you if you need me. Always, and in both physical and spiritual ways. And then, the Scratches… There's like the huge major villain, which is the Blackbird Bride, which, I actually am a little in love with her, and I feel deep pity for her. But she's also, like, she just needs to be shaken some sense into, and she's not capable of being shaken sense into. She was not born that way. But the Scratches are the villains on the ground, or at least the antagonists. They are definitely working against the Stoneses, for reasons that are both apparent and mysterious. There's the front reason, like, you owe us money. And then there's the deep-seated, like, your family versus my family a hundred years ago, feudal reasons.But the nature of the scratches… They were very much like cartoon villains, and in the first draft, by the end, Lanie had turned them into like neon colored bunny rabbits. That was what her magic did. They ended up being a bunch of neon bunny rabbits that she sold to a circus or something like that. That was that story. It is not that story anymore. There's no magic that turns anybody into neon colored bunny rabbits, and there are severe consequences to the Scratches doing things the way they do. Which is, you know, sometimes with violence, and sometimes with arrogance, or with coldness, or with an uncompromising vision. And not everybody survives that.And the Scratches, once they have enough power to do so, change their name back to their true name, and they start to live by their own standards. They'd been sort of subsuming themselves for so many years, but like the nature of of culture and language again like they kind of represent a lot of that and they are very reasonable and and yet have been part of a people who have been very oppressed and downtrodden for. Hundred years so like there's a there's like they occupy a whole different space. So I would say those are the 3 and I blame Carlos for all of them but also just like living in the world a little longer than 27 years Ah also helped.JuliaYeah, I mean, I'll say one thing that I noticed a lot, reading the final version versus the the draft that I read so many years ago… because I think it was probably ten years ago that I read a draft of this. ClaireYeah.JuliaFor me, some of the things that stood out were just how much more real a lot of the world felt. And I don't mean like I could imagine being there, because I feel like you always have drawn worlds that I could imagine being in. They're very vivid. And your writing voice tends to draw people in that way. So it's normal to think, “Oh, I'm reading something by C. S. E. Cooney and I feel like I could just walk into this world.”But the realness was more of this sort of like… The sense that all of this frivolity was happening in the harmony and contrast with oppression and suffering and what those things specifically meant and how they tied into each other and fed each other on multiple axes. And I don't know if part of that is just your deepening life experience or part of that is having feedback from different people. But I think, like, you were talking about the character of Mac, and how he changed from being just like a hot scarred hawk guy and into someone who has become in a lot of ways a moral center, and I think that I noticed that with Goody Graves as well. ClaireYeah.JuliaIn the draft that I remember first reading, Goody Graves was just sort of like a loyal retainer who was always there and liked Lanie. And that's great and cool, and it's also you know, unexpected that your loyal retainer is going to be an undead, stone, statue person. But in this draft you you learn a lot more about who she is and her backstory and what she is capable of doing or not doing, and it makes it feel that much more real and rich because you have a lot more — there's a lot more to chew on, I guess.ClaireYeah, Amal said when she read it —this will always stay with me, “It’s like I can see your stretch marks.” You know like she's read so much, like you, I feel like she can see all the layers. I don't think she ever read an earlier draft. And I'm very aware of the draft you read, because you were the one who gave me the language of the many gendered god of fire, and I remember changing that because of how you were very gently like, “I don't think we use those words anymore.” And then I started thinking about gender in a different way, because, at some point in our lives, we have to start. You know like if you don't know something, there's a point where you learn it, and that was the point where I learned like, oh, a fire god, a many-gendered god of fire makes it much more interesting and open and like less like, “Oh, I don't want to touch that…” You know, like, you gave me my god of fire, Julia.JuliaOh, that's so nice! I love the way that worked out, by the way. And I really love that the inn that she sort of ends up working at has a history of having been a brothel at one point, and it's still actually there and informs the present of it today. And I love the character that's clearly Patty Templeton.ClaireDread! Yes, I want to write the novella that's mentioned in the footnote about Havoc Dreadnought. Havoc: the life and times of Havoc Dreadnoought, and how she… like there's a huge footnote about it, and yeah, I want that to be the title of a novella someday. JuliaI guarantee you you will have a built-in readership for that.ClaireYeah, I love the school. So there's an inn, and on top of the inn is a bakery, and on top of the bakery is a school, and the the school part had been a brothel, but they leave a lot of the brothel trappings to sort of, the footnote says, to lure people into higher education. To lure the unsuspecting into higher education. I feel like some of the cheekiness of the first draft, when I really just wanted to be Terry Pratchett and failed constantly. I'd lost a lot of the humor in many of the drafts to come, and then I just missed it so much that, very late in the drafting process… There was so much world-building and backstory that I wanted that didn't fit into the narrative flow, and so many jokes that I wanted to make that delighted me, so that's when the footnotes happened.I was like, I have to cut all this, ooh, but I could put it in a footnote and then make it even funnier! So that's what I did and I feel like Jasper Fforde, Terry Pratchett Susannah Clarke, you know, I think they sort of give you permission to do footnotes.And when I was younger, if a story had footnotes in it, I would actually not read them. It just didn't occur to me to do so. And I feel like if a younger person, or somebody who hates footnotes, read Saint Death’s Daughter through, they'd still get it without having to read the footnotes, but the footnotes are the parts that made me laugh out loud. And I don't easily respond to my own writing like that. But some of the footnotes still make me laugh.And I have to say that's what Carlos says. When he's writing, if he can make himself laugh out loud, he knows it's working, because it's like tickling yourself. It's a lot harder to do.JuliaYeah, I 100% agree with that. Okay, so last Patron question is, “I would love to find out what it was like finding an agent and how your agent helps you in your career.”ClaireOkay, yeah, it's so hard. I thought when I was first setting out to find an agent, I'm like, “I'm going to submit to an agent a day. No, five agents a day!” It's a numbers game —everybody says it's a numbers game— if you can get to a hundred submissions, your chances are so much higher than if you do ten submissions, but so is dating, they say. I don't know how similar or dissimilar they are, but what I found when I was submitting….First of all, it's sort of like the cover letter and the synopsis takes a lot of eyes and brains. You definitely want to get some friends on it, especially friends who've already gone through the process. For doing the synopsis, if you have three friends who've read your book, basically what I ask them is, “Could each of you write your version of a synopsis of my book and send it to me?” My friend Caitlyn is really good at that. So I think Carlos maybe did, and Caitlyn did, and I had my synopsis. And Caitlyn's really good at making my book sound like something somebody would want to read. I wrote a very stilted like, “And then, she very formally did this thing in an elucidating sort of way, and you know there was a villain…” or whatever. It just was very stiff, and she'd be like, “Kapow! Kablam! Exclamation point!” I mean it all felt like an exclamation point. It felt like an actual back of a book, and by reading her synopsis, I saw what was important or what stood out, or like, “Oh that's what it feels like to write a compelling synopsis. I think she left a few important things out which I will slip in and try to do it more in her style…” And then again if you have a third view, it's even better because then you can have a pretty hefty, true to the story synopsis in a way that you, as a writer, may be too close to write initially. So I say cover letter, synopsis… And cover letter is much like a cover letter for a submission for a short story, where you give your credits. So you have to make yourself look like you're worth reading the first chapter of, I guess. Which doesn't necessarily mean that you have to have a bunch of credits to your name, but you just have to, I guess, be confident, or know who you are, or at least be polite and professional. So anyway. All of that to say that I set out with this very what Caitlyn calls Big Book Energy. You know, I'm going to do all of this because it's a numbers game! And I found that like after submitting one, I had this terrible headache. My stomach was a mess. I had to go lay down, and the whole day was shot, and I was like damn it this is not how you win a numbers game! But I couldn't, emotionally, make myself do more than one a day, very rarely more than one a week, so it was a very, for me, slow process. I Still don't know, if I have to do it again, how would I do it. Because it would just… I'd hope I'd be tougher now. And I'd hope I'd make better lists and do things better, but actually I think it will always be hard, and it's what mood people are in how overwhelmed they are, how much they might like the thing that you're writing. And, boy, like books are so personal and so intimate. So I would say that I sent it out to a lot of people. I got very few responses. Some of the responses I got quick were just, “This is not for me. Didn't catch my interest.” And you try to think, “Ah, I didn't catch their interest. I am boring. Nobody loves me.” Eventually, I got a great response from one of the submission editors at New Leaf, I think they're called. I loved every single agent bio that I read, I loved their mission statement, I was like, “Oh, these people! I want these people to read my book and love me!” And it got to the submissions editor or agent, the one who reads things before they send it up to the main agent, like kind of to get you past the slush pile, and she just wrote back with such enthusiasm! And she's like, “I'm going to set it up to my boss right away!”Even just that stage, even to get any kind of feedback of that tone of voice that I'd been waiting for… I want the people who represent me to have that tone of voice! And it did get passed up to her agent, and I think she even was reading it, but I think she had a baby and a lot of things.And in that interim, when she was reading it and having a baby and life was happening, Markus Hoffmann at Regal Hoffmann & Associates also read it. And he was a suggestion of a writing friend, who said, “This is my agent. I really like him. just tell him I sent you.” So that was a kind of a Who You Know moment. It was Audrey Niffenegger, who I had met once at Columbia College Chicago. We were on a panel together. She had been a teacher there and I had been a student. She wrote The Time Traveler's Wife. So we were Facebook friends, but we had had literally no interaction since that one panel we were on, where we were on a panel but didn't really talk to each other, we just talked with each other. And she saw on Facebook when I was like, “Oh, this agent quest, it's such a slog.” You know, how one does when one's on an agent quest. She private messaged me and she said, “Try Regal Hoffman. I didn't know you didn't have an agent.” You know, like, tell him I sent you… So Marcus got back to me and he wrote an email. He said, “I quite like the first 50 pages. May I see the rest?” And then he wrote an email saying, “I would love to talk to you to tell you about this agency.” When I talked to him, I just loved him immediately. He said all the right things, and in such a tone of voice, very European. He's German, and just gentle and warm and really incisive, and had great questions, and… It's like that kind of person you want on your team, that he'll be the editor before your editor gets to you. He'll be the editor who makes the draft that makes the the publication happen. So just on all of those levels, I really clicked. So I wrote to the people at New Leaf, who still had my manuscript. I was like, “I'm sorry, I'm going with another agency.” And that agent had just read it and said, “Oh, I just finished it! I was about to write to you.” So I feel this very warm radiant feeling toward New Leaf, and I think I feel like if I had gone a little further in the process, maybe would have not been so emotionally wrecked by it, I would have gotten better at it. I would have gotten a tighter and tighter synopsis and cover letter. You know, it might have taken 50 or 100 more, but I think eventually it would have happened. That it happened this fast, I think, was due to the shortcuts of going to conventions, being on panels, that whole networking web that happens that you think will never happen that it's really hard to make happen on purpose. But Gene Wolfe once told me, “You know, all networking means is making friends.” And you don't really make friends with this cold eye of calculation of what your friends will do for you someday, you just sort of make friends who all love the things you love writing and reading, you know, and then sometimes somebody knows somebody who knows somebody, and that's one way to do it. But I think the other way also works. It just takes longer and has a toll. So I would say, working with my agent is amazing. I sometimes like think of him as like a ninja elven prince. Yeah, that's the space in my brain he occupies. He's sly, he likes things like talking up my book, and making deals, and like, going to parties. Things that I don't really know how to do, and don't really want to know how to do. he has people who do the contracts like, “Markus, can you look at this contract because it's scary?” And then he'll look at it, and he does things that I can't. I don't have the tool set, and I'm so, so grateful. And as Carlos and I have done some collaborative projects, It's been really fun, because Carlos's agent is DongWon Song and mine is Markus Hoffmann, but they used to almost work together at one point. They knew each other! And they met at a house party at our house, and they're like, “What are you doing here?” So they get to work together sometimes on mutual contracts and it's really nice that they already had a kind of warm, friendly relationship.JuliaOh, that is nice. So how long would you say it took from the time you started sending queries out until the time you ended up with an agent?ClaireIt's it's really hard to say because, like at one point I had sent it to an agent and he suggested these edits, so that took me six months to make the edits and turn it back in. He suggested more edits, and at that point, I thought, “Ooh. I liked the first round of edits a lot, but the second set of edits sounds like the book he wants is not the book I want to write.” And so I gently backed away very amicably and then started submitting again.And then there maybe comes a time where it's like, “Oh, I can't believe I ever thought that draft was worth submitting. I think I need to just sit down and rework it.” You know? So it was a lot of stops and starts, and it was years. I think I started submitting it at the fourth draft and it wasn't until like draft eight that it got an agent. That's at least a draft a year, so I would say maybe four years for that one. Some people don't ever start submitting until they are totally sure they're done. Me, I'm like totally sure I'm done after my first draft, and then two weeks later I'm like, “What was I thinking?” And you know then twelve years later it's ready…JuliaOkay, well thank you so much for talking to me about this. We didn't talk about your career as an Audiobook narrator at all, which is a sort of a separate thing from your writing career. Except for when you narrate your own books. ClaireYes, thank goodness.JuliaAnd so I want to close this out by asking how was the experience of narrating this novel as a narrator who is also the writer of the book? Did you always know it was going to be you? Did you really want it to be you? And what was the whole experience like?ClaireThat's a great question, and it has a complicated answer, so forgive me beforehand. So, if I could have gotten a world class, phenomenal, powerful narrator like one of the ones I listen to all the time, like Kate Reading, for example. Or who's the really famous one? Simon Vance. You know, somebody of that caliber. Then I would totally have wanted somebody else to narrate my audiobook. But most narrators are like me, where we're pretty good. We make a living, or we would make a living if we lived in a small town and had two roommates. But since I'm married to Carlos, you know, I make a living as far as I'm concerned, but not like a New York City living. Anyway, so if somebody is just going to be very good, and I know I'm pretty good, and I know how to pronounce all my made up words. So that part of my narrating writing brain is like, “I should probably do it unless they get somebody extraordinary.” Which sounds… I don't know how it sounds, but that's how my brain works. Now, Carlos, and my mother, and a couple people who love me very much have agitated strongly from the beginning that no matter if they got Kate Reading or Simon Vance, I should still be the one to narrate it, which I fight against because there's a part of me that is not arrogant enough to think that that my text couldn't be improved upon by somebody else. I would be eager to listen to a different interpretation. It's easier to listen to somebody else's voice than my own, even though I like my voice just fine. All of that to say, when we made this deal, Rebellion seemed very excited. They like having authors narrate their own work and that had been kind of a handshake agreement. And earlier this year, as we're getting closer to publication, it ran into some snags. Like, it's pretty expensive to hire a US narrator. They have people in-house. They have deals going on. So it was almost that I couldn't narrate it and they had some pretty good narrators lined up, and I was like, “Okay, well just make sure that they call me so I can give them the pronunciations of the words I made up.”But I was unhappy, I think, in that moment because I had been looking forward to it. for two years I'd sort of had it in my head I was going to do it. I'd been prepping for it, and so that felt like a little like, “Oh it's not going to happen. Okay.” And I had to readjust my thinking.But over the pandemic, instead of commuting to Connecticut to do my studio recording for Tantor Audio, they have a working relationship with a small studio that's just three miles from me, which I can walk to. Three miles is a big difference from a three hour commute to Connecticut and staying overnight for three or four days, which is what I'd been doing for the two or three years since I'd moved here before the pandemic. So I told my agent and Rebellion. I was like, “Well, there's this little studio I work with. They do all this amazing professional production work for all of these different companies. Here are their rates. Here's their email. Maybe we could work something out.”And the next thing I knew, they're like, “Okay, you're recording next week.”So whatever they worked out, whatever my agent did, and whatever all of the powers that be… Because of the pandemic, and because of this relationship, and maybe because I wrote the right email at the right time, all of this worked out so that I could I could actually record my audiobook. So it was a bit of a roller coaster right at the end, and it was right up at the edge of time of when we could record it to have it out concurrently with the book. All of which to say that I didn't have as much prep time as I had wanted, and yet I have been prepping for twelve years at this point.I wanted to make every day in the studio more than usually special. I really wanted to say this is the end of a very long journey of many drafts and many despairs and a lot of leveling up. And yet it felt like another day. If I didn't pay super close attention, it would just be another grinding week at the studio, and I didn't want that. So every day I dressed up to match the section of the book that I was going to be recording. I wore like a different little perfume that had a note of citrus in it because citrus is the smell of necromancy in my book, and I wore a piece of jewelry that usually a friend or a loved one had given me that had to do with the book. I really tried to make it not just a recording, but a celebration of a decade and a half of work. And it was a blessing, in that sense, to record my work, and to look at it in its final form, and to say, “Ah, well, this was a thing, and this is what that thing looks like, and now it's in my mouth, and it's for you in your ears for all of posterity.” And that's something, because you know we still listen to W. B. Yeats at the beginning of the twentieth century reading his work in his own voice. There are probably better actors to read his work, but it is something to have his poems and his own voice. And so now we have this work in my voice, and I feel that in this human pageant, it's something that is super special. Very pleased.JuliaI think it's great. I loved it, and I think you're a wonderful narrator. I think you're not giving yourself enough credit.ClaireOh, but not British, Julia!JuliaWell, no, you're not British, but you are someone with a huge background in theater, and training, and also a large amount of experience at this point in narration, and you know your stories better than anyone, because you did spend all of your twelve years refining this particular book.ClaireThat's what Carlos says, so you and Carlos… if you and Carlos say it, I know that you're both more right than I am because I trust your brains.JuliaI thought it was a wonderful experience listening to you read it, and if you're listening to this podcast and you like listening to things, go ahead and pick up the audiobook of Saint Death's Daughter, because it is really wonderful. If you like to read things on the page, the text is also there for you, and that is also wonderful. But if you like listening to Claire's voice, get that audiobook. Thank you Claire and, thank you so much for taking all of this time to talk to us and answer all of our questions.ClaireThank you so much. Julia.JuliaI hope everybody goes out and reads your wonderful book, which is full of horrifying things, and also great bits of humor, and wonderful humanity. ClaireThank you.JuliaThanks so much for listening. If you want to have the chance to ask your own questions, or request specific kinds of posts from me, consider joining my patreon which is at patreon.com/juliarios, or my substack, which is at omgjulia.substack.com All patrons and subscribers get early access to every piece of creative work I commission from other creators in my Worlds of Possibility project, and your pledges and subscriber fees go directly to help pay for those stories and poems, and for the cost of my equipment and my labor, because recording these interviews, and then editing the transcripts and editing the recordings and making them podcast-ready for you takes a lot of time and effort! I am a little later on this one than I had intended to be because I got COVID again! Oops! So that’s why my voice sounds a little hoarse right now. Luckily, I was able to get antivirals, so that is fine, and I am doing better, but it kind of threw a wrench in things and it really made me realize how much time and effort this kind of thing takes. It takes a lot! So, if you have been enjoying this, please do subscribe. Please, any amount that you feel like contributing will absolutely help keep things going for me. And I’m in the middle of accepting all the pieces I am going to accept for this wave of Worlds of Possibility, and I have some GREAT stories to share with you, so I can’t wait to get into that, too. Thank you for listening, and I’ll catch you next time!Thanks for listening, and I’ll catch you next time. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit omgjulia.substack.com/subscribe

Book 13 in the internationally best-selling Chronicles of St Mary's series. For fans of Richard Osman's Thursday Murder Club series, Jasper Fforde and Doctor Who. Finally - finally! - Max has that nice office job she's always wanted. The one with no heavy lifting and no one tries to kill her. Well, one out of two's not bad.... Punching well above their weight, Max and Markham set out to bring down a sinister organisation founded in the future - with a suspicious focus on the past. Max's focus is staying alive long enough to reunite with Leon and Matthew, alternately helped and hindered by St Mary's - who aren't always the blessing they like to think they are. But non-stop leaping around the timeline - from witnessing Magna Carta to disturbing a certain young man with a penchant for gunpowder - is beginning to take its toll. Is Max going mad? Or are the ghosts of the past finally catching up with her?

Book 13 in the internationally best-selling Chronicles of St Mary's series. For fans of Richard Osman's Thursday Murder Club series, Jasper Fforde and Doctor Who. Finally - finally! - Max has that nice office job she's always wanted. The one with no heavy lifting and no one tries to kill her. Well, one out of two's not bad.... Punching well above their weight, Max and Markham set out to bring down a sinister organisation founded in the future - with a suspicious focus on the past. Max's focus is staying alive long enough to reunite with Leon and Matthew, alternately helped and hindered by St Mary's - who aren't always the blessing they like to think they are. But non-stop leaping around the timeline - from witnessing Magna Carta to disturbing a certain young man with a penchant for gunpowder - is beginning to take its toll. Is Max going mad? Or are the ghosts of the past finally catching up with her?

Bert's review of Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/bertsbooks/message

The Eyre Affair, by English author Jasper Fforde, was first published in 2001. It takes place in an alternative 1985, where literary detective Thursday Next pursues a master criminal through the world of Charlotte Brontë's 1847 novel Jane Eyre.  Reminder: this is a spoiler-filled podcast. So if you're not into that kind of thing, read the book first and come back later. Episode Links “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Brontë “The Eyre Affair” by Jaspar Fforde “Charge of the Light Brigade” poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson “The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit” by Charles Dickens “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" poem by WIlliam Wordsworth The Cranberries - Daffodil Lament (Lyric Video) Reading Jennie – “Love, Comment, Subscribe,” by Cathy Yardley Pete – “Young Bucks: Killing the Business” by Matt and Nick Jackson Tell us what YOU think about this book, or anything else you're reading, in our GoodReads or Facebook groups, or talk to us on twitter using the #BigBookPodcast hashtag. If you'd like to make a suggestion for future reading send us your recommendations on the Big Book Club Podcast page on the Arlington Public Library website. Up Next “Sex and Vanity” by Kevin Kwan and “Room with a View” by E.M. Forester

For December we read the 1847 novel by Charlotte Brontë, “Jane Eyre.” Originally published under the pen name Currer Bell, as “Jane Eyre: An Autobiography,” the novel follows the experiences of the eponymous heroine, including her growth into adulthood and love for the brooding Mr. Rochester.  In January, we're reading “The Eyre Affair” by Jasper Fforde, the first Thursday Next novel.  Reminder: this is a spoiler-filled podcast. So if you're not into that kind of thing, read the book first and come back later. Episode Links “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Brontë “The Eyre Affair” by Jaspar Fforde "Wide Sargasso Sea" by Jean Rhys Reading Jennie – “Cyborg Detective: Poems” by Jillian Marie Weise Pete – “Paperback Crush” by Gabrielle Moss Tell us what YOU think about this book, or anything else you're reading, in our GoodReads or Facebook groups, or talk to us on twitter using the #BigBookPodcast hashtag. If you'd like to make a suggestion for future reading send us your recommendations on the Big Book Club Podcast page on the Arlington Public Library website.

Ich begrüße euch zu einer weiteren Buchbesprechung. Auf den ersten Blick scheint es hier keine besondere Neuheit zu geben. Die Frage ist: Was wäre, wenn es Magie wirklich gäbe, wenn sie von einem geheimen Club kontrolliert und dazu benutzt würde, die Öffentlichkeit vor bösartigen Geistern und übersinnlichen Feinden zu schützen? Aber Ben Aaronovitch bietet etwas Neues, indem er die Metropolitan Police in den Mittelpunkt seiner magischen Welt stellt. Und schon haben wir das Beste aus zwei Welten der Urban Fantasy. so nahe liegend, dass man glauben könnte, dass es diese Art der Literatur schon immer gab. Da mag man vor allem an die berühmten okkulten Detektive wie Hodgsons Carnacki, Blackwoods John Silence oder an LeFanus Dr. Hesselius denken, aber damit hat Peter Grant, der Held der Reihe, gar nichts zu tun (übrigens auch nicht mit Harry Potter, wie oberflächliche Rezensenten behaupten). Am ehesten ist noch die Thursday-Next-Reihe von Jasper Fforde mit Peter Grant verwandt, aber auch die verfolgt einen gänzlich anderen Ansatz. Wäre noch Harry Dresden, die Königsreihe der Urban Fantasy; das gilt aber nur, wenn man Kategorien unbedingt braucht. Und Scott Mebus mit seinen Gods of Manhattan könnte man ebenfalls noch ins Feld führen. Folge direkt herunterladen

Kerouacs “On the road” ist unbestreitbar ein Frühlingsroman. Nicht im meteorologischen Sinne, keine Ahnung ob Jahreszeiten im Buch genannt werden, und wie soll man das auch rausbekommen, aber, einen Trip quer durch die US of A im Sommer in Autos noch ohne Klimaanlage zu machen ist ausgeschlossen! “On the road” also, spielt im Frühling!J. R. Tolkien ist in “Herr der Ringe” wiederum ganz klar ein Herbstautor. Septemberbunte Wälder im Elfen- und Oktobernebelige Täler im Auenland, dazu diesig-dunkles Mordor im November, das passt.Sommerromane gibt es nicht. Nie hat je ein Roman im Sommer gespielt, denn keiner will das Lesen. Einen Sommerroman im Winter zu lesen führt zu Depression und Suizid und am Strand im August ist es ungemütlich genug, um nicht auch noch im Buch selbst von flimmernder Hitze lesen zu müssen. Sommerroman gibt es nicht.Winterromane sind wiederum allgegenwärti,g weil therapeutisches Kassengold. Was bleibt einem im Winter Anderes als zu lesen. Man kann das Haus nicht verlassen, weil es zu anstrengend ist, für die paar Meter in die Bar Anoraks und Winterstiefel anzuziehen und in die Bar in Bademantel und Schlappen gehen, das darf nur der Dude. Also liest man und was gibt es Kuscheligeres als die Vorhänge zuzuziehen um das, was man in der Stadt Winter nennt und doch nur Schlamm und Hundeshit ist zu verbergen und zu ersetzen mit Mengen und Mengen und Mengen von Schnee. Es kann nicht genug Schnee sein.Und genau das liefert Jasper Fforde. Und damit das auch der letzte Borderline-Depressive am 18.November 2018 versteht, dem deutschen Erscheinungstermin des hier besprochenen Romans, übersetzt der Heyne Verlag den geheimnisvollen Titel “Early Riser”, Frühaufsteher, mit dem “Schlund auf und Rein damit” Titel “Eiswelt”. Es fehlt nur der Untertitel “Ein Winterroman”. Meine Güte.Die Eiswelt ist, wie in vielen Romanen des Walisers Jasper Fforde, Wales, Anfang des 21. Jahrhunderts, also gerade eben. Steht die Frage, wie Wales, an der Westküste der Britischen Insel und mitten in den nordöstlichen Ausläufern des Golfstromes gelegen, der Schauplatz eines Winterromanes, mit Schnee und Gestöber sein kann. Nun, es ist nicht genau das Wales, welches ich noch letztes Jahr von Portishead, the Village, not the Band aus, mit Blick über den Severn gesehen habe. So unbeeindruckend das geographische Namedropping in der Rezension, so notwendig ist es im Roman, denn Early Riser spielt auf realen Schauplätzen in Wales, aber in einem parallelen Universum, in dem seit Jahrhunderten Eiszeit herrscht, mit Gletschern bis nach Glasgow runter, Sommertemperaturen von 32 Grad plus und Wintertemperaturen von 64 derer minus.Die Gesellschaft, die sich um einen Winter dieser Strenge gebildet hat ist eine, die den zweimonatigen Winterschlaf, immer dann, wenn der Winter am strengsten ist, zur Strategie ihres Überlebens gemacht hat. Alles ist auf diese zwei Monate eingestellt. In den Wochen vor der Wintersonnenwende ist Bewegung verpönt, gehaltvollstes Essen anbefohlen, damit man eine gesunde Fettheit entwickle, die man in den acht Wochen des Winterschlafes auch braucht, denn was mit Kindern passiert, die ihren Pudding nicht aufessen, erzählt in diesem Wales die Nanny jeden Abend vorm einschlafen. Sie verhungern ganz jämmerlich in ihren Betten. Oder, fast schlimmer, sie wachen vorzeitig auf und fallen damit der Gesellschaft zur Last. Oder, seit der Einführung eines den Winterschlaf fördernden Medikaments, sie wachen frühzeitig als Gemüse auf und können gerade noch so Sachen wie Tom Jones Songs auf der Gitarre spielen. Und zwar immer denselben. Und bekommen, wenn sie nicht genug Kalorien in den Körper kriegen, einen verdammten Heisshunger auf ihre Mitmenschen.Von dieser Seltsamkeit ist alles in Wales in “Early Riser”: es ist ein nicht enden wollender Trip durch ein absurdes Land aus dem Kopf von Jasper Fforde, aber, und das Wichtigste an jedem Fantasy, Schrägstrich, Gruselroman, die Seltsamkeit ist immer an der Grenze zur Plausibilität. Gruselroman, was für ein bescheuertes deutsches Wort, aber nunja, ist “Eiszeit” für unseren Kollegen Mikis Wesensbitter, der das Buch in der letzten Weihnachtssendung kurz vorstellte und von dem er sagte, “Er sei froh gewesen, dass es zu Ende gewesen sei, er hätte nachts nicht schlafen können.” Ich beneide Mikis da ein bisschen um seine Sensibilität, ich als alter Zyniker lasse mir von einem Roman, in dem ein Pharmakonzern versucht in den Träumen des Protagonisten rumzufuhrwerken, ein sehr schönes deutsches Wort, nicht im Ansatz den Schlaf rauben. Weshalb ich mir Fortsetzungen wünsche, ich möchte mehr Stories aus einer Welt wissen, in der zwar die Indiebands meiner Jugend im Radio laufen, es aber seltsamerweise keine Schusswaffen gibt sondern nur Luftdruckwaffen. Eine Gesellschaft, die sich darauf geeinigt hat, dass man sich im Winter zwei Monate hinlegt ist sowieso mein Ding, aber, dass es da immer Outlaws gibt, die sich wach halten und gar nicht schlafen, macht den Roman interessant und es soll sogar Menschen geben, die jede Nacht schlafen. Wahnsinn. Diese Outlaws sind, im Fall der Gruppe der Villains, also ganz platt “die Bösen” genannt, bei einem Roman von einem Waliser geschrieben und in Wales spielend - Na? - genau: Engländer, die mit Picknicktisch und Teekocher im Winter in Museen einbrechen um rare Briefmarken zu stehlen. Aber, und hier muss ich spoilern, so großartig ist die Idee, es gibt auch Menschen, die im Winter gar nicht schlafen, wie im Fall von Aurora, der unser Hauptheld eines Vormittags begegnet in ihrer Funktion als Sicherheitschefin besagten bösen Pharmakonzerns. Aurora hat ein halbseitige Lähmung, sie kann nur mit ihrem rechten Auge sehen und bittet entsprechend sich in diesem Sichtbereich zu bewegen. Unser Hauptheld Charlie, genannt Wonky, ist in seinem ersten Jahr als Mitglied einer Polizeieinheit namens “Winterkonsule”, die, während alle anderen schlafen dafür sorgen, dass diese das in Ruhe tun können. Am Abend stellt sich Wonky bei seiner neuen Chefin vor, Toccata, die die gleiche Behinderung wie Aurora hat, nur auf der anderen Seite des Gesichtes, sie sieht mit dem Linken Auge, weshalb die rechte Seite ihres Büros aussieht wie Bombe. Erst nach der Begegnung bekommt unser Hauptheld kichernd von einem seiner Kollegen erzählt, dass Toccata und Aurora die gleiche Person sind, ein sogenannter Halbling, bei dem jeweils eine Gehirnhälfte einen halben Tag lang schläft, die andere Tageshälfte dann die andere. Und die sich übrigens abgrundtief hassen und Fernschach miteinander spielen weil sie nicht wissen, dass sie die gleiche Person sind. Auf solche Ideen will ich mal kommen, wenn ich gross bin.In diesem, hüstel, Winterkaleidoskop spielt eine Story von Kapitalismuskritik und dem Blick auf unsere Welt, den man nur erhält, wenn man eine Geschichte in einem Universum ansetzt, dessen Paramter die exakt nicht zu grosse und nicht zu kleine Entfernung nach rechts (oder links) verschoben sind, dass man sich selbst gerade noch ins Buch begeben könnte ohne ratlos zu sein. Jasper Fforde ist kongenial darin, genau diesen Drahtseilakt zu schreiben, wir erkennen uns in allem wieder und wundern uns, wie wir in dieser Gesellschaft leben würden, die so viel mehr tut zum Überleben als die unsere, und, man kann vermuten, zu spät, irgendwas hat zu diesen strengen Wintern schliesslich geführt. Die Fülle an popkulturellen Referenzen mögen nur britophile Leser wirklich zu schätzen wissen, oder halt Briten, aber man ahnt immer (und Google ist dein Freund), das die Welt für jemanden, der Ambrosia Creamed Rice seit seiner Kindheit zum Frühstück isst, sich dem Eiszeitlichen Wales, seiner Folklore und seinen existentiellen Problemen noch ein Stück näher fühlen wird als wir deutschen Leser.Aber das tut der Sache keinen Abbruch. Wer es sich gerade in diesem, nach Waliser Verhältnissen milden Wintermonaten, gerne bequem macht mit einem Buch der Originalitätsstufe “Exzellent”, findet in Eiswelt oder noch besser im Original mit “Early Riser” beste Unterhaltung und ich hoffe sehr, nur den Beginn einer langen Folge von Sequels.Ich vermute aber, dass sich Netflix schon lange und zu recht in Verhandlungen befindet, die Nummer zu verfilmen. Man sieht die verschobenen Gesichter von Haupt- und Nebenhelden vor sich, das langsame Blinken derer, die nicht in Winterschlaf verfallen und zwei Monate im Halbschlaf vor sich hindämmern, man hört den Schneesturm beim Lesen vor dem Fenster, die Luftdruckwaffen mit Namen von Bami (das kleine Handgerät) bis Schtomper, eher für Kühe geeignet, vor sich, zusammen mit den mit kleinem Budget gut umsetzbaren special effects, wenn der Luftdruck kurz den Schnee zu Regen macht und die -40 Grad Celsius das Wasser augenblicklich um den Geluftdingsbumsten erfrieren lässt, auf dass sein Kadaver erst im Frühjahr wieder auftaue. Überhaupt ist das kein Jugendroman, das Killratio ist ordentlich, aber irgendwie immer comichaft, zumindestens für Zyniker wie Herrn Falschgold, allen anderen wünsche ich besten Grusel, egal ob mit Schnee vor dem Fenster oder am Strand bei 40 Grad - Early Riser, oder wie der Heyne-Verlag es will “Eiswelt”, ist kein reiner Winterroman, aber einer der besten seit langem. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit lobundverriss.substack.com

Notes:These notes includes affiliate links.The Verbivore loosely quotes several sections of the books we discuss. Here are the actual quotes:“Come, dear, [Gwendolen rises] we have already missed five, if not six, trains. To miss any more might expose us to comment on the platform.” ― Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest“I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.” ― Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest“By day it is filled with boat traffic - water buses, delivery boats, gondolas - if something floats and it's in Venice, it moves along the Grand Canal. And by daylight it is one of the glories of the Earth. But at night, especially when the moon is full and the soft illumination reflects off the water and onto the palaces - I don't know how to describe it so I won't, but if you died and in your will you asked for your ashes to be spread gently on the Grand Canal at midnight with a full moon, everyone would know this about you - you loved and understood beauty.” ― William Goldman, The Silent GondoliersThe Verbivore mentions the Fforde Fiesta where fans of Welsh author Jasper Fforde's work get together and play games. It's strange, but looks pretty fun. The next one is on the 28th and 29th of May, 2022 in Swindon, UK. Here is a link to information in case you're interested:https://www.ffordeffiesta.co.uk/ Books & Movies Mentioned:The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar WildeThe Importance of Being Earnest (2002) - Directed by Oliver ParkerReady Player One by Ernest ClineMonty Python and the Holy Grail - Directed by Terry Jones, Terry GilliamThe Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure by William GoldmanThe Silent Gondoliers by William GoldmanThe Alchemist: A Fable About Following Your Dream by Paulo CoelhoPride and Prejudice by Jane AustenPride and Prejudice (2005) - Directed by Joe WrightPride and Prejudice (1995) - Directed by Simon LangtonPersuasion by Jane AustenEmma by Jane AustenNorthanger Abbey by Jane AustenSense and Sensibility by Jane AustenAnne of Green Gables by L. M. MontgomeryAnne of Green Gables (1985) - Directed by Kevin SullivanAnne of Avonlea (1987) - Directed by Kevin SullivanAnne of Avonlea by L. M. MontgomeryThe Eyre Affair: A Thursday Next Novel by Jasper FfordeShades of Grey by Jasper FfordeThe Last Dragonslayer: The Chronicles of Kazam, Book 1 by Jasper FfordeCatching Fire by Suzanne CollinsThe Magnolia Sword: A Ballad of Mulan by Sherry ThomasCaraval by Stephanie Garber The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee AhdiehThe Rose and the Dagger by Renee AhdiehThe Beautiful by Renee AhdiehFlame in the Mist by Renee AhdiehSmoke in the Sun by Renee AhdiehTil We Have Faces: A Myth Retold by C.S. LewisThe Space Trilogy (Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, That Hideous Strength) by C.S. LewisThe Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonaldGift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh Life of the Beloved: Spiritual Living in a Secular World by Henri J. M. NouwenMusic from: https://filmmusic.io 'Friendly day' by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Don't have time to waste on terrible books?  To help you out, Kim and Aimee debate the merits of Jasper Fforde's first novel in the Thursday Next series, ‘The Eyre Affair'. 

Show notes Jasper Fforde www.jasperfforde.com Gateway Book; Alice In Wonderland - Lewis Carroll Current reads; You Are Not Sparrows: A Light-Hearted Account of Flying Between the Wars - by S.J. Carr Top 10 True Grit - Charles Portis Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About - Mill Millington He Died With A Felafel in his Hand - John Birmingham 1927 - Bill Bryson Moomin - Tove Jansen Catch-22 Joseph Heller Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut Tiger Tiger - Alfred Bester (AKA The Stars My Destination) Alice in Wonderland / Through The Looking Glass Lewis Carroll Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham Douglas Adams - All books Grim Short Story Comp - write your story as a review on danmurphys.com.au and share with us via twitter @beyondzeropod or email to beyondthezeropod@gmail.com Shortlisted entries will be read on the show and the winner will receive a signed copy of Grimmish from Michael Winkler.

The final instalment of the Last Dragonslayer Chronicles, demonstrating that with a small band of committed followers, a large tin of resolve and steely determination, almost anything can be achieved.... Sixteen-year-old Jennifer Strange and her sidekick and fellow Orphan Tiger Prawns have been driven to the tip of the UnUnited Kingdoms - Cornwall - by the invasion of the Trolls. Their one defence is a six-foot-wide trench full of buttons, something which the Trolls find unaccountably terrifying (it's their clickiness). Worse than being eaten by Trolls is the prospect of the Mighty Shandar requisitioning the Quarkbeast and using him to achieve supreme power and domination - an ambition that has been 400 years in the planning and which will ultimately leave the Earth a cold cinder, devoid of all life. Nothing has ever looked so bleak, but Jennifer, assisted by a renegade vegan Troll, a bunch of misfit sorcerers, the Princess (or is she now the ruler?) of the UnUnited (or are they now United?) Kingdoms, and Tiger, must find a way to vanquish the most powerful wizard the world has ever seen, and along the way discover the truth about her parents, herself, and what is in the locked glovebox of her VW Beetle....

Lucy Flannery, award-winning writer and RLF consultant fellow, discusses Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair and her own work with me.

The twelfth book in the bestselling Chronicles of St Mary's series. If you love Jasper Fforde, Ben Aaronovitch or Doctor Who, you won't be able to resist Jodi Taylor. 'It's time, Max.' And so, a whole new chapter opens up... It's long been known that if a thing can go wrong, it will. With knobs on, usually. Disasters start to pile up. A new colleague with no respect for the past and a great deal to prove. Historians lost in time. And - worst of all - Rosie Lee on her very first jump. Then there's the small matter of Max's dishonourable discharge. From Tudor England to the Tower of Babel - it's all going horribly wrong. Jobless and homeless, Max receives an offer she can't refuse. Another time, another place. A refuge, perhaps. She's got that wrong, too.

The third book in the bestselling Chronicles of St Mary's series which follows a group of tea-soaked disaster magnets as they hurtle their way around History. If you love Jasper Fforde or Ben Aaronovitch, you won't be able to resist Jodi Taylor. History happens all around you. And, occasionally, to you. I could have been a bomb-disposal expert, or a volunteer for the Mars mission, or a firefighter, something safe and sensible. But, no, I had to be an historian. It began well. A successful assignment to 17th century Cambridge to meet Isaac Newton, and another to witness the historic events at The Gates of Grief. So far so good. But then came the long-awaited jump to the Trojan War that changed everything. And for Max, nothing will ever be the same again. With the bloody Battle of Agincourt playing out around her, Max risks everything on one last desperate gamble to save a life and learns the true meaning of a second chance.

The first book in the bestselling Chronicles of St Mary's series which follows a group of tea-soaked disaster magnets as they hurtle their way around History. If you love Jasper Fforde or Ben Aaronovitch, you won't be able to resist Jodi Taylor. Time Travel meets History in this explosive bestselling adventure series. 'So tell me, Dr Maxwell, if the whole of History lay before you ... where would you go? What would you like to witness?' When Madeleine Maxwell is recruited by the St Mary's Institute of Historical Research, she discovers the historians there don't just study the past - they revisit it. But one wrong move and History will fight back - to the death. And she soon discovers it's not just History she's fighting...

A Christmas ghost story - Chronicles of St Mary's style! For fans of Doctor Who and Jasper Fforde... and A Christmas Carol. Where better for the annual festive jump than the chance to experience a real Victorian Christmas? On the longest night of 1895, a terrible storm rages above Harewood Hall. Max, Markham and an injured Peterson are welcomed in by the Harewood family, but soon realise that, in true St Mary's style, they couldn't have arrived at a better moment. For tonight marks the Ordeal of the Haunted Room. Dum ... dum ... dum ... Every Harewood heir must endure one terrifying night alone in the Haunted Room before he can inherit the family seat. Legend says that a ghost will murder anyone who isn't the true successor. Henry Harewood's ordeal will begin at midnight and end at dawn, but it isn't long before everything goes horribly wrong...

Michaela Kalowski and Kate Evans read Sam Coley's State Highway One, Jasper Fforde's The Constant Rabbit and Rebecca Dinerstein Knight's Hex with writers Christopher Raja and Karina Kilmore

Enjoy this lively book discussion between Fairfax County Public Library Director Jessica Hudson and Deputy Director Christine Jones. They're librarians who love a great book but almost never agree on what makes a book great.In this episode, Jessica finally gets Christine to read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.

On this episode of the Magic Book Club Podcast, Emma chats to the author of our Book of The Month Jane Fallon all about her new novel Queen Bee. We catch up with author of I Am Not Your Baby Mother Candice Brathwaite about being a successful working mother, and the gap in diversity when it comes to representation in motherhood, and we find out how some of your favorite authors stay inspired to write the books you love.

Final episode in our series for Irish History Month is a rebroadcast of last year's episode on Charlotte Brontë! (Her grandparents were Irish, it counts.) Charlotte wasn't just some spinster writer. Her life was full of adventure and tragedy. Listen to learn more about the creator of Jane Eyre!New episodes every Monday. You can listen on Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, or Stitcher.Non-fictionCharlotte Brontë a Fiery Heart by Claire Harman - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25739007-charlotte-brontStuff You Missed in History Class Podcast EpisodesGrowing Up Brontë - https://www.missedinhistory.com/podcasts/growing-up-bronte.htmFrom Brontë to Bell and Back Again - https://www.missedinhistory.com/podcasts/from-bronte-to-bell-and-back-again.htmBBC World Service: World Book Club, Charlotte Brontë - Jane Eyre - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03sqwl4New York Times Charlotte Brontë Obituary - https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/08/obituaries/overlooked-charlotte-bronte.htmlMovies Jane Eyre starring Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1229822/Jane Eyre starring Charlotte Gainsbourg - https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/jane-eyre-1996Bonus! Not mentioned in episode:BBC To Walk Invisible - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04cf4wvFictionThe Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27003.The_Eyre_AffairJane Steele by Lyndsay Faye - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25868918-jane-steeleRomancing Miss Brontë by Juliet Gael - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6906240-romancing-miss-brontThe Secret Diaries of Charlotte Brontë by Syrie James - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2342881.The_Secret_Diaries_of_Charlotte_BrontExtrasJane Eyre Perfume - https://www.immortalperfumes.com/imported-products/jane-eyre-a-charlotte-bront-inspired-perfumeMr. Rochester Cologne - https://www.immortalperfumes.com/imported-products/mr-rochester-a-cologne-inspired-by-jane-eyreQuarantine Content Survey - https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/9QZY8JD

Milk the Cow has long been a favourite cheese destination of mine and the many varied and creative pairings were an early inspiration for this very podcast! Cheesemonger Laura took me through a tasting with some weird and wonderful cheeses, discussed how cheese is similar to books in the ways they both tell a story, shared some tips on how to pair things with cheese and, for those intrepid listeners who stick it out until the end, some terribly cheesy puns as well! The cheese and the books: Wyfe of Bath, England - succulent, nutty, creamy, taste of old England The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde is absolutely bonkers, witty and weird in that delightful English way. Set in an alternate Great Britain circa 1985 where time travel is routine, cloning is a reality (dodos are the resurrected pet of choice), and literature is taken very, very seriously. This book is ridiculously nutty, funky, fun and absorbing, smooth and creamy. Gjestost, Norway - Unusual, heated and reduced until it caramelizes. Extremely durable, sour but sweet, smooth and fudge-like Only the Animals by Ceridwen Dovey is made up of 10 fable-like tales told by the souls of animals killed in human conflicts in the past century or so. Each of these souls narrates their story and are playful and witty, beautifully written and poignant. This book has a depth and a sweetness, it is unusual and its fable-like style lends to the creamy, fudgy texture which just sticks with you and is a truly lovely read. Jacquin Tradition du Berry, France - smooth, dense, mild, lemony, clean and bright Mend the Living by Maylis de Kerangal. This story takes place over the twenty-four hours surrounding the resulting heart transplant, it is the story of the heart's journey – and the story of all the lives it will impact - in the hours between the accident that cuts short his life and the moment when his heart will begin to beat again in the body of someone else. The language is gorgeously smooth, rolling and warm whilst also clean and precise as this book examines the deepest feelings of everyone involved as they navigate decisions of life and death. It is a fine balance of emotion and pragmatism, definitely dense and altogether a book which can wash clean what is otherwise a turbulent story. Special extra ... the cheesiest book I know: Match me if you can by Susan Elizabeth Phillips is a romantic romp following the trials of matchmaker Annabelle as she attempts to land the hottest client in Windy City and falls in love in the process. So cheesy, really funny and just a nice, light read!

Writers Jasper Fforde, Karen Thompson Walker and Krissy Kneen explore the connection between dreams and fiction in a panel discussion from the Brisbane Writers Festival.

Writers Jasper Fforde, Karen Thompson Walker and Krissy Kneen explore the connection between dreams and fiction in a panel discussion from the Brisbane Writers Festival.

You keep asking for more Charlotte Bronte so here is a whopping 48 minute overview of the author's life.Non-fictionCharlotte Bronte a Fiery Heart by Claire Harman - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25739007-charlotte-brontStuff You Missed in History Class Podcast EpisodesGrowing Up Bronte - https://www.missedinhistory.com/podcasts/growing-up-bronte.htmFrom Bronte to Bell and Back Again - https://www.missedinhistory.com/podcasts/from-bronte-to-bell-and-back-again.htmNew York Times Charlotte Bronte Obituary - https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/08/obituaries/overlooked-charlotte-bronte.htmlBBC World Service: World Book Club, Charlotte Bronte - Jane Eyre - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03sqwl4Movies Jane Eyre starring Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1229822/Jane Eyre starring Charlotte Gainsbourg - https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/jane-eyre-1996Bonus! Not mentioned in episode:BBC To Walk Invisible - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04cf4wvFictionThe Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27003.The_Eyre_AffairJane Steele by Lyndsay Faye - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25868918-jane-steeleRomancing Miss Bronte by Juliet Gael - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6906240-romancing-miss-brontThe Secret Diaries of Charlotte Bronte by Syrie James - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2342881.The_Secret_Diaries_of_Charlotte_BrontEnter the Giveaway for Jane Steele and The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Bronte! Fill out the form on immortalperfumes.com/storical

New York Times best-selling author Jasper Fforde returns to talk about his new novel Early Riser, a comic thriller set in a world very much like ours -- except here, humans hibernate. What happens during the cruel winter months is the subject of this gripping and funny book, and Jasper reveals much about the process of creating it, his ongoing fascination with all things Welsh, how he accepts narrative dares and creates Ffordian Middle Earths, why and when he has to spread textual jam, his ongoing effort to make ‘scribernation' happen, the promise of sequels, and how creativity is both the angel and the devil sitting on a writer's shoulders. Also featuring Jasper's unsolicited (and totally delightful) praise for the Reduced Shakespeare Radio Show (available on Audible and iTunes)! Calling all editorial sherpas! (Length 25:25) The post Jasper's ‘Early Riser' appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.