Podcasts about locked tomb

We're back in the world of necromancers and space palaces with *Harrow the Ninth* by Tamsyn Muir—and things are even weirder (and more brilliant) than before. If you caught our episode on *Gideon the Ninth*, you know we're already obsessed with this series. Now, we're diving headfirst into Harrow's fractured mind, impossible timelines, and a story that refuses to play by the rules.  In the next two episodes, we unpack the chaos, the heartbreak, and the genius of Muir's writing. We'll talk about what makes Harrow such a complex and fascinating character, how this book messes with memory and reality, and why—despite the confusion—it all somehow works.  So if you've read *Harrow the Ninth* and need someone to yell about it with, or you're just curious what all the buzz is about, this one's for you. Just be warned: nothing in the Locked Tomb series is ever straightforward—but that's part of the fun.Support the showRecommend us a Book!If there's a book you want to recommend to us to read, just send us a message/email and we'll pop it on our long list (but please read our review policy on our website first for the books we accept).Social MediaWebsite: https://teachingmycattoread.wordpress.com/Email: teachingmycattoread@gmail.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/teachmycat2read/Tumblr: https://teachingmycattoread.tumblr.comYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFXi9LNQv8SBQt8ilgTZXtQListener Surveyhttps://forms.gle/TBZUBH4SK8dez8RP9

Before we read and discuss the second book in “The Locked Tomb” series, we thought we would revisit the first book, “Gideon the Ninth”, and ask questions we hadn't asked before. Note, this episode features spoilers for the book. The Back of the Book:“The Emperor needs necromancers.The Ninth Necromancer needs a swordswoman.Gideon has a sword, some dirty magazines, and no more time for undead nonsense.Brought up by unfriendly, ossifying nuns, ancient retainers, and countless skeletons, Gideon is ready to abandon a life of servitude and an afterlife as a reanimated corpse. She packs up her sword, her shoes, and her dirty magazines, and prepares to launch her daring escape. But her childhood nemesis won't set her free without a service.Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Reverend Daughter of the Ninth House and bone witch extraordinaire, has been summoned into action. The Emperor has invited the heirs to each of his loyal Houses to a deadly trial of wits and skill. If Harrowhark succeeds she will be become an immortal, all-powerful servant of the Resurrection, but no necromancer can ascend without their cavalier. Without Gideon's sword, Harrow will fail, and the Ninth House will die.Of course, some things are better left dead.”Support the showRecommend us a Book!If there's a book you want to recommend to us to read, just send us a message/email and we'll pop it on our long list (but please read our review policy on our website first for the books we accept).Social MediaWebsite: https://teachingmycattoread.wordpress.com/Email: teachingmycattoread@gmail.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/teachmycat2read/Tumblr: https://teachingmycattoread.tumblr.comYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFXi9LNQv8SBQt8ilgTZXtQListener Surveyhttps://forms.gle/TBZUBH4SK8dez8RP9

We're back with more of Tamsyn Muir's The Locked Tomb as we discuss Gideon and Harrow's arrival at Canaan House and the members of the other houses. Are you Team Skeleton or Team Ghost?Your hosts are Steph Kingston (@StephOKingston), Christina Ladd (@christinaladd), and Joshua MacDougall (@FourofFiveWits). You can find us all on Bluesky. Our art is by Mangoyu Art (@MangoyuArt), and our music is by Bad Sparrow (@BadSparrowMusic). You can find us on BlueSky, and Instagram. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For this week's Greek tragedy, we learn how a Locked Tomb character got their name, both Achilles and Patroclus get laid, we finally meet Odysseus again, and the boys go off to war.Next time: Chapters 17-24 Bonus Episodes and more available on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

At the start of a new season and series, we begin our deep dive into Tamsyn Muir's The Locked Tomb series with Gideon the Ninth. We discuss why we like and chose the series and what makes it unique. This episode focuses a lot on Gideon herself.Your hosts are Steph Kingston (@StephOKingston), Christina Ladd (@christinaladd), and Joshua MacDougall (@FourofFiveWits). You can find us all on Bluesky. Our art is by Mangoyu Art (@MangoyuArt), and our music is by Bad Sparrow (@BadSparrowMusic). You can find us on BlueSky, and Instagram. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of Fic Clique, your hosts discuss "the goosekeeper game," by offlight (The Untamed) @18:19, "Mercy and Augustine's Cake Simulator!," by reconditarmonia (The Locked Tomb) @47:39, and "suppose you are returning," by desmodus (Fire Emblem Three Houses) @1:16:18. Grab your controllers and get ready to lock in because Reid's birthday episode this year is all about video games. In the intersection of interactive fiction and video game canon itself, we found rich narratives that traverse genres and create potential for some true magic.

Join Ollie and Klaudia as they give lectures on Supernatural S4E13: "After School Special" and S4E14: "Sex and Violence."Points of Interest: A certified “Et Tu, Brute?” moment, “Dean embraces his authority in gym class,” the effects of being on Tumblr for over half of your life, Nonna Klaudia, getting distracted by The Locked Tomb, the woke mob (Sam and Dean), reading makes you gay in the Supernatural universe, Sam is accidentally an ally, Dean in the strip club talking to a man, and Super Nanny Bobby.---Help save a family evacuate Gaza and rebuild their lifeResources for Palestine:BDS: What is BDS?BDS: Act Now Against These Companies Profiting From the Genocide of the Palestinian PeopleBDS: Join a BDS CampaignBDS InstagramDecolonize Palestine: A collection of resources for organizers and anyone who wants to learn more about Palestine.Jewish Currents: The Hamas Attacks and Israeli Response: An Explainer---Follow us:@MysterySpotcast on Tiktok / Twitter / Instagram / Tumblr---Contact us:- send us a question to our TikTok Q&A or Tumblr ask box- email us at themysteryspotcast@gmail.com- submit your favorite Destiel fic for us to read

We finish the remainder of the Locked Tomb, as currently released. Nona meets the saddest person she's ever seen, learns why Hot Sauce's name is Hot Sauce, scolds somebody, meets Paul, and remembers it all. Also, Harrow gives John a piece of her mind, pledges her loyalty to someone else, and receives a kiss.We don't talk about it, but also John gets stabbed through the heart. How about that.Next week: Both the Alecto Theories episode (free) and the Nona the Ninth Bonus episode (Patreon-exclusive) will come out. In two weeks, meet us back here for our first podcast outside of Muir's wild ride with A STUDY IN DROWNING, where we will be covering chapters 1-4. Bonus Episodes and more available on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We continue our journey through the Locked Tomb series, with the end on the horizon, as well as ANNOUNCE OUR NEXT BOOK? Oh, golly gee gosh. Too excited. I need a lie down.We learn more about the Angel and, unfortunately, John. Nona has a moment with Hot Sauce, a tantrum, gets a makeover, and gives a kiss.(This episode begins a few recordings where we have issues with Sarah's mic exploding, so her audio will be occasionally disastrous. Sorry. We'll figure it out eventually?) Bonus Episodes and more available on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We're onto the last currently released book in the Locked Tomb series! We reminisce with God about his time in New Zealand. Meanwhile, Camilla, Palamedes, and all of us try to figure out who Nona is, Pyrrha acts like a pimp, the kids discuss the creepy Convoy, and Kevin... Kevins.Timestamps available on Patreon as always. Next time up we're covering: Chapter 9 through John 19:18 Bonus Episodes and more available on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Join us as we talk death of the author, dnd classes, how well our protagonists would survive other podcasts, and all things Attic Monologues in this Season 2A Q&A.  The Locked Tomb tangent/spoilers: 6:28-11:55 Voices: Morgan Greensmith LM Clohessy Production Team: Written by Morgan Greensmith Produced by Morgan Greensmith, LM Clohessy, & Sorren Briarwood Directed & Script-Edited by LM Clohessy Sound Designed by Jura Leopold Theme tune composed by Wilkie Morrison Social Media by Sorren Briarwood Logo by Sorren Briarwood Created in association with Exeter University Podcast Society The Attic Monologues is a Planar Prod show. For more information on the show and our production network, visit our website www.planarprod.com. Find us on Twitter @AtticMonologues, and on Instagram, Tumblr, TikTok, and Facebook @TheAtticMonologues. You can also send us an email at theatticmonologues@gmail.com Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/Fw7EgGdeAr Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed, please consider leaving a review and telling a friend; join us on our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theatticmonologues, or buy us a coffee: https://ko-fi.com/theatticmonologues  See you next time!

Der strahlende Held in Ritterrüstung, mit weißem Pferd und wallendem Haar ist out. Zumindest haben wir das Gefühl bei den aktuellen Trend-Entwicklungen auf #booktok und in modernen Videospielen und Filmen. Moralisch graue Charaktere sind jetzt sexy. Warum? Dieser Frage gehen wir in dieser Folge nach. Und wir sagen nur so viel: auch Eva ist ein Opfer. Wir sprechen über verschiedene Bücher und Buchreihen. Falls Ihr auch einen Blick riskieren wollt: "The Locked Tomb" meint die Buchreihe von Tamsyn Muir. Die Bücher heißen auf Deutsch "Ich bin Gideon" und so weiter, leider erschienen nur die ersten 2 Bücher auf Deutsch. Daher schaut Euch auch gerne die Originalfassung an, wo es aktuell 3 Bücher gibt: Gideon the Ninth Harrow the Ninth Nona the Ninth Alecto the Ninth (Noch kein Veröffentlichungsdatum) Die "ACOTAR"-Buchreihe stammt von Sarah J. Maas und hat den Namen von dem ersten Buch der Reihe, "A Court of Thorns and Roses". Auf Deutsch heißen die Bücher "Das Reich der Sieben Höfe" mit wechselnden Untertiteln: Band 1: Dornen und Rosen Band 2: Flammen und Finsternis Band 3: Sterne und Schwerter Band 4: Frost und Mondlicht Band 5: Silbernes Feuer Die Reihe ist noch nicht (!) abgeschlossen. Da Sarah J. Maas auch Querverbindungen zu anderen Buchreihen andeutet, lohnt es sich auch, ihre anderen Buchreihen zu lesen.

Jenn and guest Erica talk about their favorite character pairings in SF/F, from romantic to platonic to #complicated, and discuss the Hugo Awards shenanigans, Dolly Parton's connection to Buffy, and more. Subscribe to the podcast via RSS, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. To get even more SF/F news and recs, sign up for our Swords and Spaceships newsletter! 2024 is the tenth year of the Read Harder Challenge! Join us as we make our way through 24 tasks meant to expand our reading horizons and diversify our TBRs. To get book recommendations for each task, sign up for the Read Harder newsletter. We'll also keep you informed about other cool reading challenges, readathons, and more across the bookish internet. If you become a paid subscriber, you get even more recommendations plus community features, where you can connect with a community of passionate, like-minded readers in a cozy and supportive corner of the internet. Visit bookriot.com/readharder to sign up. This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. News Buffy Reboot news via Dolly Parton [Popverse] Hugo 2023 Shenanigans, Recapped, Plus Resignations [Book Riot, File770] The Audie Awards Finalists [Book Riot] Books Discussed Platonic Soulmates: Camilla Hect and Palimedes in The Locked Tomb by Tamsyn Muir  Complicated Besties: Johnny and Nick in Beneath the Rising by Premee Mohamed Unconditional Acceptance Romance: Yasira and Productivity in The Outside by Ada Hoffmann Former Mentor/Mentee Turned Bros: Cas and Rio in Zero Sum Game by SL Huang Pining Sapphics/Beefing Rappers Turned Lovers: Red and Blue in This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar, Max Gladstone Friends on a Quest: Miuko and Magpie Spirit Geiki in A Thousand Steps into Night by Traci Chee Annoying Friends and Low-Key Co-Parents: Murderbot and ART/Perihelion in Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells Human/Animal Companions: Vasilisa and Solovey (the horse!) in The Winternight Trilogy by Katherine Arden Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

To kick off a month of sequel coverage, we get bone deep in the Locked Tomb follow up Harrow the Ninth. This obtuse but compelling sci-fi/fantasy tome plays with perspective, doubles down on the space wizards, and challenges the reader NOT to notice oddly specific meme references. This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. Go to squarespace.com/overdue for 10% of your first purchase of a website or domain.Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.Follow @overduepod on Instagram and BlueskyAdvertise on OverdueSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode of Fic Clique, your hosts discuss "sacrificial lamb (self-proclaimed)," by flemeth (Locked Tomb) @10:12, "voyages," by junos (SVT RPF) @36:14, and "leave no space," by linearity (Formula 1 RPF) @1:05:01. It's that time of year again where your hosts gather 'round and swap fic recs! While we always enjoy our host rec exchange, we think we really knocked it out of the park this year. If you enjoy the community efforts of fandom, AUs as a vehicle for character study, or how the burden of legacy can weigh on someone, you'll love this episode too.

Prepare for a journey beyond the veil as the Friends Talking Fantasy take on "Gideon the Ninth" by Tamsyn Muir, the first thrilling installment of The Locked Tomb series. In this spoiler-free episode, the Friends unravel the mysteries and necromantic wonders of Muir's unique and genre-defying fantasy world. Step into the Ninth House and join the Friends as they explore the dark and humorous depths of this cult-favorite novel. From sword fights to bone magic, they dissect the elements that make "Gideon the Ninth" a standout in the fantasy landscape. Discover if the praise for this book matches the hype, as the Friends share their thoughts on Muir's bold narrative choices and memorable characters. With its blend of sci-fi, fantasy, and gothic atmosphere, "Gideon the Ninth" promises a reading experience like no other. Tune in to this lively book discussion to find out if "Gideon the Ninth" captivates the Friends as much as it has its dedicated fan base. Visit our website at https://www.theftfpodcast.com/ for more Friends Talking Fantasy content, recommendations, and a journey into The Locked Tomb series that you won't want to miss. Get ready for an exploration of necromancy, intrigue, and dark humor as the Friends dive into "Gideon the Ninth." The Locked Tomb awaits, and the Friends are here to guide you through its mysteries!

Sharifah and Jenn talk ghosts in SFF in honor of the season, pay tribute to Keith Giffen, dig into book banning via Malinda Lo, and more. Subscribe to the podcast via RSS, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. To get even more SF/F news and recs, sign up for our Swords and Spaceships newsletter! Autumn is here, which means it's time to curl up with a great read and get cozy — whatever your version of cozy looks like. Whether it's romance, creepy reads, modern classics, or escapist reads you crave, TBR can help you find the perfect books for your fall reading, with options curated to your specific reading tastes. Visit mytbr.co to find out more and sign up — it only takes a few minutes! This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. News Malinda Lo on Book Bans Literary Activism newsletter Keith Giffen, comics artist and writer, dies [The Guardian] Rick Steves Casually Reviews Dangerous Fantasy Locations [McSweeney's] Prada designing spacesuits! [Design Boom] Books Discussed Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee (so many CWs) The Edinburgh Nights series (Library of the Dead #1) by TL Huchu (cw: harm to children) Kelly Link's story "Two Houses," from Get in Trouble Take Liberty's Ghost Story quiz! The Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir The Spite House by Johnny Compton (cw: racism, child death) Bad Cree by Jessica Johns Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode Notes Hyperfixate with us here on discord: https://discord.gg/hybYc64UX4 or on Twitter at https://twitter.com/thehyperfixpod Guest Host: https://twitter.com/extremesalsaing Guest Host; Audrey from Alone at the Table https://moonshotpods.com/alone-at-the-table/ https://moonshotpods.com/additional-postage-required-2/ Host: https://twitter.com/iappreci8urbutt Host: https://twitter.com/misterjakeypoo Editor: Luis! Discover more podcasts to hyperfixate on at https://twitter.com/moonshotpods Streaming the stuff we are excited about at: https:/twitch.tv/iappreci8urbutt Find out more at https://the-hyperfixation.pinecast.co Send us your feedback online: https://pinecast.com/feedback/the-hyperfixation/5dc8082c-40eb-4249-81b5-910016e9b7e2 This podcast is powered by Pinecast. Try Pinecast for free, forever, no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-12f50f for 40% off for 4 months, and support The Hyperfixation.

After some time off and with more vacationing with Dragon Con coming up, the boys talk about beautifully designed films in the Spider-Verse as well as lesbians in space with the Locked Tomb series. All of that and more in this artistically curated episode of Gayme Boys!

In today's special episode, we talk to Sto & Nicki about Homestuck. What the  heck is Homestuck? Why does it matter? How does it connect to The Locked Tomb? What is moirallegiance??? Tune in to find out!Sto's instagram: instagram.com/the_stolen_centuryDescription of Homestuck from Inneskeeper.Check out some Homestuck podcasts!Will it HomestuckHomestuck Made This WorldOther authors from Homestuck fandom:Arkady MartineAK LarkwoodVivian ShawToby FoxTom Parkinson Morganoliviacirce is writing the Noniad!Use of quotation marks: Inktog.tumblr.comSerendipity gospels vs. Locked Tomb from sixthcavalier.tumblr.comSome good good Tamsyn Muir Homestuck fanfiction:The Serendipity GospelsFroth and FrogsA Hymn of EmpireHemostuckCase Studies on MoirallegianceNicki's youtube playlist!

In this episode of Fic Clique, your hosts discuss "Chapter 7.5," by ionthesparrow (Murderbot Diaries) @18:25, "Psychopompeii," by Eastling (Ancient Pompeii Graffiti) @44:00, and "...and a partridge in a pear tree," by strangehunger (The Locked Tomb) @1:06:30.  Take a break from the weight of the world with these three lovely fics, and the ensuing discussions on otherness, marks of human existence, and laugh-out-loud humorous prose. 

It's been a minute, but we're diving back into GIDEON THE NINTH! In this episode, we pick up our reread with Chapters 32 and 33, in which Gideon, Harrow, Pal, and Cam team up to explore a new room, Second House tragedies occur, and we find the last key inside Abigail's corpse. We rated some hilarious descriptions of The Locked Tomb series from Tumblr users who've never read the books, and then it was time to talk keys and trials: What are the different trials in Canaan House and which lyctors created them? Which characters in Gideon the Ninth have which keys at which point in the book? And at what point does Harrow learn each step of the lyctoral process? We tried to puzzle it out! * SPOILER ALERT * We reference events from all three books in this podcast, as it's intended for readers who are caught up with the series.If you like the episode, find us on Twitter, Tumblr, or TikTok @onefleshonepod or e-mail onefleshonepod@gmail.com with any questions or theories!References:eerna: “Followers who haven't read The Locked Tomb, what can you tell me about it based on your dash?” (answers referenced by tourist-of-the-stars, luxiiien, laraloopy, haroldosaur, achromic-red-dreams-doze-angrily, deepseawave, abessive-art, and tinx-methinks)marzipanandminutiae: Bonus post (Sapphia Dodecarius)abigail-pent: Lyctorhood stepsTamsyn Muir's Reddit AMAdarkveracity: Locked Tomb TimelineReddit discussion of lyctorhood processboneempress: Key coloursIntro/Segment Music: "Turismo" by Spaceinvader (Icons8 Music)Outro Music: "Warm Vacuum Tube" by Admiral Bob (2019 - Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (3.0))

2022 round up! Jillian and Maggie go over the sweetest, spiciest, and their most favoritest books of the year! We discuss the year of the Smut Slut (TM), Madeline Miller making literary art pieces, and once again, how the Locked Tomb series ruined our lives and caused us to never be the same again. Leave us a review! Follow us on Instagram and TikTok @apodcastofsmutanddragonsMaggie: @teawithmargaretJillian: @jilliankiechlinartBusiness inquiries and/or say hi: apodcastofsmutanddragons@gmail.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Amy and Mel talk to Climate Journalist and Sword Fighter Lissa Harris who helped consult on everything to do with swords and sword fighting in Gideon the Ninth.SPOILER WARNING! This episode is filled with spoilers for the entire series.GET IN TOUCH!Follow us on Twitter @lockedtombpodEmail us at theninth@lockedtombpod.comHead to our website lockedtombpod.comMusic credit: Olivia K

This episode is dedicated to the memory of Kevin Conroy, who passed away this past Thursday. On this episode, I talk with my friend Camille about the Batgirl movie, which got cancelled in that other universe but came out on HBO Max in the Delayed Replay universe. Listen to our recap, our review, and our recs, if you can. Show Notes: 42:00 - My Facebook post about Into the Spider-Verse. More info on The Locked Tomb book series recommended by Camille. Steven Shinder: Book | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Website Yesshift: Anchor | Facebook | YouTube Email delayedreplaypodcast@gmail.com

Amy and Mel talk to the the voice goddess herself, Moira Quirk. Moira Quirk is the badass narrator of the Gideon the Ninth, Harrow the Ninth, and Nona the Ninth audiobooks. We could say so much more here in the description, but it wouldn't do this interview justice. We hope you enjoy listening to this conversation as much as we enjoyed having it!SPOILER WARNING! This episode is filled with spoilers for the entire series.GET IN TOUCH!Follow us on Twitter @lockedtombpodEmail us at theninth@lockedtombpod.comHead to our website lockedtombpod.comMusic credit: Olivia K

Featuring special guest star our dear friend Sarah who is probably the world's foremost Locked Tomb expert (step aside, Muir)! Val is wrong about most things. Chloe asks mean questions. And of course once again we all fail to pronounce names correctly. www.inmediales.com Twitter: @inmediales Instagram: @inmediales Reddit: www.reddit.com/r/inmediales Tumblr: thepodinmediales.tumblr.com Music by tatianagladetsk Find out more at http://inmediales.com

Tamsyn Muir joins Kristen and Caitlin to chat about alternative POV choices, non-consecutive timelines, meme culture, Women Who Suck, and all the other fun things that went into the Locked Tomb series. TAMSYN MUIR is the bestselling author of the Locked Tomb Series. Her fiction has won the Locus and Crawford awards, and been nominated for the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award, the Shirley Jackson Award, the World Fantasy Award, the Dragon Award, and the Eugie Foster Memorial Award. A Kiwi, she has spent most of her life in Howick, New Zealand, with time living in Waiuku and central Wellington. She currently lives and works in Oxford, in the United Kingdom. Be sure to check out Nona the Ninth (out now!) as well as the special editions STET books is doing in conjunction with our next guest, Marissa Meyer.

The moment has finally come. Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir is in our hands, it's in our heads, and we've GODda lot to talk about. This is a totally raw reaction episode where we finallllly discuss the third and NOT final book of the Locked Tomb series with each other. This episode is filled with spoilers for Nona the Ninth, Harrow the Ninth, and Gideon the Ninth. If you haven't read these books yet come back once you've finished!GET IN TOUCH!Follow us on Twitter @lockedtombpodEmail us at theninth@lockedtombpod.comHead to our website lockedtombpod.comMusic credit: Olivia K

Nona the Ninth is the latest installment in The Locked Tomb series, written by Tamsyn Muir and narrated by Moira Quirk Review & discussion with Lisa & Scott. Nona the Ninth [Libro.fm] / [Overdrive/Libby] / [Audible] Additional Time Travel References: Predestination [IMDb] Lightning [Audible] The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O [Overdrive/Libby] Time Cat [Overdrive/Libby] Dark [Netflix ] Other Referenced Works: Gideon the Ninth [Libro.fm] / [Overdrive/Libby] / [Audible]   Harrow the Ninth [Libro.fm] / [Overdrive/Libby] / [Audible]   The Kingston Cycle (Series): Stormsong [Libro.fm] / [Overdrive/Libby] / [Audible] Bluebird [Libro.fm] / [Overdrive/Libby] / [Audible]

Almost exactly two years later, we stray far away from the Disc to the realms of the Emperor Undying, because Nona the Ninth came out and we couldn't NOT talk about it. We had (and mostly ignored) a planning document, so... uh... strap in. SO MANY SPOILERS.  Also, as we are talking and swearing about books about queer space necromancers, if body horror ain't your thing, then please go prep for either Going Postal (tomorrow) or THUD (next month).Here's the Harrow Party Bus DiagramHere's the Spotify playlist made by Aly, which is only twice as long as this dang episode.Guests!Aly Grauer is a professional renaissance woman. A writer, actor, and cosplayer, she is also a voice over artist, and serves as audio producer for a number of podcasts, including Skyjacks: Courier's Call, where she also performs the character June Hymnal. She can be found on Twitter, Instagram, and Tiktok @ dreamstobecome.Jude Vais will get a bio when he reads a damn Terry Pratchett book.Music:The Hive by Kevin MacLeodLink: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4495-the-hiveLicense: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Dan has a very shady fun fact about body parts to get us warmed up (7:00 to skip). Ya boys come up with their ideal secret-telling liquid and pick a Pa-bone-us. Shouts out to Tamsyn for picking the least gross part of necromancy to focus on, we thank you. We’re continuing with the Locked Tomb series, start Harrow the Ninth for next week! Special thanks to VOLO for the intro and outro music.The post Gideon the Ninth: Part Two first appeared on Don't call it a book club..

Dan has a very shady fun fact about body parts to get us warmed up (7:00 to skip). Ya boys come up with their ideal secret-telling liquid and pick a Pa-bone-us. Shouts out to Tamsyn for picking the least gross part of necromancy to focus on, we thank you.We're continuing with the Locked Tomb series, start Harrow the Ninth for next week!Special thanks to VOLO for the intro and outro music.

Nona the Ninth is the much-anticipated 3rd book in the Locked Tomb Series by Tamsyn Muir. GateCrashers is joined by TorDotCom editor extraordinaire Carl Engle-Laird to dive into Muir's newest book. This series is pitched as lesbian space necromancers. If you haven't picked it up yet, it's sure to be one of the most unique stories you've ever read, as well as heart-wrenching. Each book in the series follows a different main character. The first was Gideon, the second was Harrow, and now it's Nona's turn for the spotlight. Nona lives in a war-torn city with her best pals Camilla Hect, Palamedes Sextus, and Pyrrha Dve. Nona is sweet, innocent, and full of love. However, she has a huge problem; she doesn't know who she is, but she does know that she looks like someone important. On top of that, the Emperor and a terrorist organization called the Blood of Eden are also interested in who she really is. But Nona cannot be bothered and just wants to be cool like her schoolmate Hot Sauce, play with an 8-legged dog named Noodle, and go to the beach. Cidnya sits down to talk to Carl all about Nona, both in reference to the book and the character, including discussing the sweet surprise that is this novel (instead of the previously reported Alecto the Ninth). Super fans of The Locked Tomb series will get a look into what the editing process is, what working with Tamsyn Muir is like, and the parts of Nona we are excited to talk to readers about! From body swaps to the return of a missed fan-favorite, Carl gives us rabid Locked Tomb fans every piece of insight that will make you fall even more in love with Nona the Ninth and the world this series inhabits.

**This Episode Contains Spoilers for Gideon the Ninth & Harrow the Ninth** Hello, Bone Heads! We are so stoked to share the first off-season episode of the pod and our very first episode of The Unlocked Tombs Special Guest Series! We sat down with Baily and Kabriya to discuss The Locked Tomb series, our first year podcasting, and the various inspirations and influences surrounding the series. Emily had so much fun hanging with Baily and Kabriya making predictions for book 3, Nona the Ninth while Nick showed restraint and, of course, withheld spoilers for book 3. We talk about book recommendations, genre labels, and vent about how we peddle TLT to our friends and family, sometimes to no avail. Let us know what you think of the episode and feel free to share a link to this as well as the ONE FLESH, ONE END podcast with your bookish friends reading this series or in need of some new bookish content to listen to on their long commute to work or while folding laundry or going for a walk or while they practice reanimating skeletons back from the dead... Press PLAY and prepare to be unhinged with us! Follow us on our official Twitter page, https://twitter.com/TheUnlockedTomb ! ONE FLESH, ONE END Podcast: - https://twitter.com/onefleshonepod - https://www.onefleshonepod.com Art Credit: @rzz_dex - https://twitter.com/rzz_dex Very Respectfully, The Bone Squad ► The Unlocked Tomb Podcast Artwork by @naomistares! - https://twitter.com/naomistares - https://www.instagram.com/naomistares ► Featuring Original Music by: - Chelsea Lankes - Ghost© (Remix by Dance with the Dead) (Permission for use granted by the artist) ► The Unlocked Tomb Official Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theunlockedtomb ► Wicked Good Books Patreon https://www.patreon.com/wickedgoodbooks

In anticipation of the release of the third entry in the Locked Tomb quartet by Tamsyn Muir (Nona the Ninth, out 13 September), we're re-releasing our conversation with friend of the pod Erin on the first two books: Gideon the Ninth and Harrow the Ninth. Spoilers, like a lot of them.  Our episode on Nona the Ninth will be released a week from now, so get reading!  A transcript of this episode is available on our website here: https://asabpodcast.com/2020/10/31/episode-12/  The show is on Twitter @ASABpod, Charles @cockroacharles, and Tessa @spacermase.  Our intro music is by Nicole Petkovich.  Thank you for listening!

Hello, Book Fiends! We hope you enjoy our season finale and Sixteenth episode of the WGBP where we continue to discuss the Epilogue of Gideon the Ninth, the first book in The Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir and conclude with our final thoughts before hopping into our wrap party! Let us know what you think of the episode and feel free to share a link to this podcast with your bookish friends reading this series or in need of some new bookish content to listen to on their long commute to work or while folding laundry or going for a walk or while they practice reanimating skeletons back from the dead... Follow us on our official Twitter page, https://twitter.com/TheUnlockedTomb ! Very Respectfully, The Bone Squad ► The Unlocked Tomb Podcast Artwork by @naomistares! - https://twitter.com/naomistares - https://www.instagram.com/naomistares ► Featuring Original Music by: - Chelsea Lankes - Ghost© (Remix by Dance with the Dead) (Permission for use granted by the artist) - Fesliyan Studios Background Music - Haunted Memories© (Permission for use granted by the artist) - Dance with the Dead - Oracle© (Permission for use granted by the artist) - Dance with the Dead - I'm Your Passenger© (Permission for use granted by the artist) ► Wicked Good Books Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/wickedgoodbooks

Tales from the Fandom continues to bring guests from around the globe to talk about their fandoms. Lena aka Lenlaegrim on Instagram joins me from Argentina to talk about her favorite fandoms! We first start off with a discussion about some of her favorite Sci-Fi and Fantasy novels. We talk about the works of Brandon Sanderson including The Cosmere series, along with The Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir. Then we do the unthinkable as we combine Star Trek and Star Wars into one discussion topic. We talk about the show, the movies, what draws her to both long running Sci-Fi fandoms, and more. Lena then introduces me to her love of animated television series. We cover ground on a number of shows, but specifically make time for The Owl House and Maya and the Three. We wrap up with a conversation about Cosplay. From how Lena got into cosplaying, some of the characters she's worked on, and future projects. You can find Lena at: https://www.instagram.com/lenlaegrim/ https://twitter.com/lenlaegrim https://linktr.ee/lenlaegrim Get 10% off your order of Woodmarks, Tolkien style maps, and more from In The Reads by using code TALES10 at checkout. Visit them at: https://inthereads.com/

**ATTENTION THIS EPISODE IS PART 1/2** Hello, Book Fiends! We hope you enjoy the Fourteenth episode of the WGBP where we discuss Chapters 35-36 of Gideon the Ninth, the first book in The Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir! Let us know what you think of the episode and feel free to share a link to this podcast with your bookish friends reading this series or in need of some new bookish content to listen to on their long commute to work or while folding laundry or going for a walk or while they practice reanimating skeletons back from the dead... Follow us on our official Twitter page, https://twitter.com/TheUnlockedTomb ! Very Respectfully, The Bone Squad ► The Unlocked Tomb Podcast Artwork by @naomistares! - https://twitter.com/naomistares- https://www.instagram.com/naomistares ► Featuring Original Music by: - Chelsea Lankes - Ghost© (Remix by Dance with the Dead) (Permission for use granted by the artist) - Fesliyan Studios Background Music - Haunted Memories© (Permission for use granted by the artist) - Fesliyan Studios Background Music - Dark Hero© (Permission for use granted by the artist) ► Wicked Good Books Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/wickedgoodbooks

**ATTENTION THIS EPISODE IS PART 2/2** Hello, Book Fiends! We hope you enjoy the Fifteenth episode of the WGBP where we continue to discuss Chapter 36 and 37 of Gideon the Ninth, the first book in The Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir! Let us know what you think of the episode and feel free to share a link to this podcast with your bookish friends reading this series or in need of some new bookish content to listen to on their long commute to work or while folding laundry or going for a walk or while they practice reanimating skeletons back from the dead... Follow us on our official Twitter page, https://twitter.com/TheUnlockedTomb ! Very Respectfully, The Bone Squad ► The Unlocked Tomb Podcast Artwork by @naomistares! - https://twitter.com/naomistares- https://www.instagram.com/naomistares ► Featuring Original Music by: - Chelsea Lankes - Ghost© (Remix by Dance with the Dead) (Permission for use granted by the artist) - Sean Townsend - The Element of One© (Killswitch Engage Piano Cover) (Permission for use granted by the artist) ► Wicked Good Books Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/wickedgoodbooks

Cohosts Jamie, Em, and Lisa discuss Gideon the Ninth, the first of the Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir. Topics discussed include complex worldbuilding in stories, contemporary references (memes!) in books, and hard to define relationships. If you're interested in reading Gideon the Ninth after listening to this episode, consider borrowing it from your local library or purchasing it from an independent bookstore! Public library locator (USA): https://bit.ly/3FudXPV Independent bookstores (USA and Canada): https://bit.ly/3FifJ6u

Hello, Book Fiends! We hope you enjoy the thirteenth episode of the WGBP where we discuss Chapters 32-34 of Gideon the Ninth, the first book in The Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir! Let us know what you think of the episode and feel free to share a link to this podcast with your bookish friends reading this series or in need of some new bookish content to listen to on their long commute to work or while folding laundry or going for a walk or while they practice reanimating skeletons back from the dead... Follow us on our official Twitter page, https://twitter.com/TheUnlockedTomb ! Very Respectfully, The Bone Squad ► The Unlocked Tomb Podcast Artwork by @naomistares! - https://twitter.com/naomistares- https://www.instagram.com/naomistares ► Featuring Original Music by: - Chelsea Lankes - Ghost© (Remix by Dance with the Dead) (Permission for use granted by the artist) - Chelsea Lankes - Ghost© (Permission for use granted by the artist) - Coven Cvlt - Sweet Summer Child© (Permission for use granted by the artist) - Fesliyan Studios Background Music - Haunted Memories© (Permission for use granted by the artist) ► Wicked Good Books Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/wickedgoodbooks

***IMPORTANT*** If you're in emotional distress or suicidal crisis, find help in your area with Find a helpline. If you believe that someone else is in danger of suicide and you have their contact information, contact your local law enforcement for immediate help. You can also encourage the person to contact a suicide prevention hotline using the information above. Important: Partnerships vary by country and region." National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-8255 Suicide Help Lines Worldwide: https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/11181469 Hello, Book Fiends! We hope you enjoy the Ninth episode of the WGBP where we discuss Chapter 31 of Gideon the Ninth, the first book in The Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir! Let us know what you think of the episode and feel free to share a link to this podcast with your bookish friends reading this series or in need of some new bookish content to listen to on their long commute to work or while folding laundry or going for a walk or while they practice reanimating skeletons back from the dead... Follow us on our official Twitter page, https://twitter.com/TheUnlockedTomb ! Very Respectfully,The Bone Squad ► The Unlocked Tomb Podcast Artwork by @naomistares! - https://twitter.com/naomistares- https://www.instagram.com/naomistares ► Featuring Original Music by: - Chelsea Lankes - Ghost© (Remix by Dance with the Dead) (Permission for use granted by the artist) - Chelsea Lankes - Ghost© (Permission for use granted by the artist) - Coven Cvlt - Sweet Summer Child© (Permission for use granted by the artist) ► Wicked Good Books Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/wickedgoodbooks

Hello, Book Fiends! We hope you enjoy the Ninth episode of the WGBP where we discuss Chapters 28-30 of Gideon the Ninth, the first book in The Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir! Let us know what you think of the episode and feel free to share a link to this podcast with your bookish friends reading this series or in need of some new bookish content to listen to on their long commute to work or while folding laundry or going for a walk or while they practice reanimating skeletons back from the dead... Follow us on our official Twitter page, https://twitter.com/TheUnlockedTomb ! Very Respectfully, The Bone Squad ► The Unlocked Tomb Podcast Artwork by @naomistares! - https://twitter.com/naomistares - https://www.instagram.com/naomistares ► Featuring Original Music by: - Chelsea Lankes - Ghost© (Remix by Dance with the Dead) (Permission for use granted by the artist) - Brevyn - Dark Depths© (Permission for use granted by the artist) - Coven Cvlt - Sweet Summer Child© (Permission for use granted by the artist) - Soularflair - Cue 3 - Dark Brooding-Tension - Ketsa - Me on the Inside© (Permission for use granted by the artist) ► Wicked Good Books Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/wickedgoodbooks

Hello, Book Fiends! We hope you enjoy the Ninth episode of the WGBP where we discuss chapters 26-27 of Gideon the Ninth, the first book in The Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir! Let us know what you think of the episode and feel free to share a link to this podcast with your bookish friends reading this series or in need of some new bookish content to listen to on their long commute to work or while folding laundry or going for a walk or while they practice reanimating skeletons back from the dead... Follow us on our official Twitter page, https://twitter.com/TheUnlockedTomb ! Very Respectfully, The Bone Squad ► The Unlocked Tomb Podcast Artwork by @naomistares! - https://twitter.com/naomistares - https://www.instagram.com/naomistares ► Featuring Original Music by: - Chelsea Lankes - Ghost© (Remix by Dance with the Dead) (Permission for use granted by the artist) - Brevyn - Dark Depths© (Permission for use granted by the artist) - Coven Cvlt - Sweet Summer Child© (Permission for use granted by the artist) - Soularflair - Cue 3 - Dark Brooding-Tension - Ketsa - Me on the Inside© (Permission for use granted by the artist) ► Wicked Good Books Patreon- https://www.patreon.com/wickedgoodbooks

It's getting tense at Canaan House as we recap Chapters 21-22, in which discoveries are made about just how many keys there are for everyone to fight over and some mysterious remains are discovered in the incinerator... Then to lighten the mood, we play a classic game of fuck, marry, kill with the beloved (and not so beloved) characters of the Locked Tomb, before launching into a discussion about the original lyctors and what we actually know about them: the order of their ascensions, the order of their deaths, and the conspiracy theories about who might still be alive. Then we've got a surprisingly morbid Bone of the Week for you!(This episode was recorded on Wednesday, June 1, 2022.)* SPOILER ALERT * We reference events from GTN and HTN in this podcast, as it's intended for readers who've already finished both books.If you like the episode, find us on Twitter, Tumblr, or TikTok @onefleshonepod or e-mail onefleshonepod@gmail.com with any questions or theories!References:Tumblr posts:voiceoflights: Babs in the pool scenethelockedtomb: Fuck, marry, killgothicenjoyer: Vibes at Canaan Housedarkveracity: Locked Tomb timelineabigail-pent: Cassiopeiaexigencelost: Ulysses body and soulvaguely-concerned: Hell in the Locked Tomb universegothicenjoyer: Ulysses the FirstReddit posts:capital_I: Cassiopeia death orderSubzero008: Cassiopeia's ceramicsPeople who theorized about Cassiopeia: ac-ld (now koschei) and darkveracity, abigail-pent, exigencelost, capital_I and altacc2020, udibranchIntro/Segment Music: "Turismo" by Spaceinvader (Icons8 Music)Outro Music: "Warm Vacuum Tube" by Admiral Bob (2019 - Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (3.0))

Hello, Book Fiends! We hope you enjoy the Ninth episode of the WGBP where we discuss chapters 23-25 of Gideon the Ninth, the first book in The Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir! Let us know what you think of the episode and feel free to share a link to this podcast with your bookish friends reading this series or in need of some new bookish content to listen to on their long commute to work or while folding laundry or going for a walk or while they practice reanimating skeletons back from the dead... Very Respectfully, The Bone Squad ► The Unlocked Tomb Podcast Artwork by @naomistares! - https://twitter.com/naomistares - https://www.instagram.com/naomistares ► Featuring Original Music by: - Chelsea Lankes - Ghost© (Remix by Dance with the Dead) (Permission for use granted by the artist) - Brevyn - Dark Depths© (Permission for use granted by the artist) - Coven Cvlt - Sweet Summer Child© (Permission for use granted by the artist) - Soularflair - Cue 3 - Dark Brooding-Tension ► Wicked Good Books Patreon- https://www.patreon.com/wickedgoodbooks

There's a lot happening at Canaan House! In Chapters 14-15, Gideon's introduced to the winnowing trial and gets to fight a truly terrifying bone construct. Then it's time to celebrate the eleventh year of Magnus and Abigail's espousal with a dinner party—and a seating plan—for everyone. We also take a fun quiz to figure out which characters we're most similar to in the Locked Tomb series, then plunge into the Tragedy of the Terrible Teens. RIP in peace Jeannemary Chatur and Isaac Tettares.* SPOILER ALERT * We reference events from GTN and HTN in this podcast, as it's intended for readers who've already finished both books.If you like the episode, find us on Twitter, Tumblr, or TikTok @onefleshonepod or e-mail onefleshonepod@gmail.com with any questions or theories!References:Tweets by decemberiste about the Aries symbol: 1, 2Tumblr post by pinkit about the trials requiring a necromancer and cavalierTumblr post by gideontheeninth about foreshadowingTumblr post by thunderon about Gideon and Harrow getting readyUquiz by medea: What x coded y girl are you in the Locked Tombverse?Tweets by agenderarcee about HomestuckTumblr post by cristabel-oct about character agesTumblr post by mercymornsimpathizer about Gideon and JeannemaryIntro/Segment Music: "Turismo" by Spaceinvader (Icons8 Music)Outro Music: "Warm Vacuum Tube" by Admiral Bob (2019 - Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (3.0))

Hello, Book Fiends! We hope you enjoy the Eighth episode of the WGBP where we discuss chapters 20-22 of Gideon the Ninth, the first book in The Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir! Let us know what you think of the episode and feel free to share a link to this podcast with your bookish friends reading this series or in need of some new bookish content to listen to on their long commute to work or while folding laundry or going for a walk or while they practice reanimating skeletons back from the dead... Very Respectfully, The Bone Squad ► The Unlocked Tomb Podcast Artwork by @naomistares! - https://twitter.com/naomistares - https://www.instagram.com/naomistares ► Featuring Original Music by: - Chelsea Lankes - Ghost© (Remix by Dance with the Dead) (Permission for use granted by the artist) - Brevyn - Dark Depths© (Permission for use granted by the artist) - Coven Cvlt - Sweet Summer Child© (Permission for use granted by the artist) ► Wicked Good Books Patreon- https://www.patreon.com/wickedgoodbooks

In our first bonus episode, we're stepping away from our reread for an interview with a very special guest: Carl Engle-Laird, editor of the Locked Tomb series. We discussed a poem from Nona the Ninth that was recently released by Tor.com Publishing, then looked back over Carl's journey editing this series, from his first impression of Gideon the Ninth to the decision to split Alecto the Ninth into two books. Carl also dropped some no-context clues about Nona the Ninth and gave his thoughts on sexy bones for Bone of the Week!A transcript is now available for this episode!* SPOILER ALERT * We reference events from GTN and HTN in this podcast, as it's intended for readers who've already finished both books.If you like the episode, find us on Twitter, Tumblr, or TikTok @onefleshonepod or e-mail onefleshonepod@gmail.com with any questions or theories!You can find Carl on Twitter @EngleLaird.References:Annotated Nona the Ninth poem: TwitterTumblr (with the sonnet discussion)Tumblr post about imperialism and violence in personal relationships in the seriesGideon/Harrow meta referenced by CarlInfomocracy by Malka Ann Older Leech by Hiron EnnesIntro/Segment Music: "Turismo" by Spaceinvader (Icons8 Music)Outro Music: "Warm Vacuum Tube" by Admiral Bob (2019 - Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (3.0))

Hello, Book Fiends! We hope you enjoy the Seventh episode of the WGBP where we discuss chapters 17-19 of Gideon the Ninth, the first book in The Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir! Let us know what you think of the episode and feel free to share a link to this podcast with your bookish friends reading this series or in need of some new bookish content to listen to on their long commute to work or while folding laundry or going for a walk or while they practice reanimating skeletons back from the dead... Very Respectfully, The Bone Squad ► The Unlocked Tomb Podcast Artwork by @naomistares! - https://twitter.com/naomistares - https://www.instagram.com/naomistares ► Featuring Original Music by: - Chelsea Lankes - Ghost© (Remix by Dance with the Dead) (Permission for use granted by the artist) - Brevyn - Dark Depths© (Permission for use granted by the artist) - Coven Cvlt - Sweet Summer Child© (Permission for use granted by the artist) ► Wicked Good Books Patreon- https://www.patreon.com/wickedgoodbooks

We're looking at Chapters 9-11 of Gideon the Ninth this week and getting to know some of the other occupants of Canaan House! Gideon meets Magnus and the terrible teens of Fourth House, gets a moment alone with her crush in a greenhouse, and takes the chance to try out her duelling skills against the other cavaliers. Then Baily and Kabriya try to tell the difference between 1-star and 5-star reviews (harder than it sounds) and dive into a big chat about queerness in the Locked Tomb series and how it pertains to the world that Tamsyn's created, the individual characters, and of course, the relationships. We end by discussing this week's erogenous bone.* SPOILER ALERT * We reference events from GTN and HTN in this podcast, as it's intended for readers who've already finished both books.If you like the episode, find us on Twitter, Tumblr, or TikTok @onefleshonepod or e-mail onefleshonepod@gmail.com with any questions or theories!io9 “Wimbo” articleGoodreads reviews:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10Tamsyn interviews from our queerness discussion:How Gideon the Ninth author Tamsyn Muir queers the space opera, VoxThe Butch Lesbian Sci-Fi Aesthetic: A Conversation with Tamsyn Muir, Los Angeles Review of BooksTamsyn Muir Is Ready To Write About Cyberpunk Lesbian Gunslingers, BustleTamsyn Muir: The gay goth space opera of our dreams, BookPageTamsyn Muir Interview: “There is a lot of blood on my dance floor.”, Three Crows MagazineVox Book Club article:The remixed genre tropes of Gideon the Ninth, explainedIntro/Segment Music: "Turismo" by Spaceinvader (Icons8 Music)Outro Music: "Warm Vacuum Tube" by Admiral Bob (2019 - Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (3.0))

Hello, Book Fiends! We hope you enjoy the fifth episode of the WGBP where we discuss chapters 14-16 of Gideon the Ninth, the first book in The Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir! Let us know what you think of the episode and feel free to share a link to this podcast with your bookish friends reading this series or in need of some new bookish content to listen to on their long commute to work or while folding laundry or going for a walk or while they practice reanimating skeletons back from the dead... Very Respectfully, The Bone Squad ► Official WGBP Podcast Artwork by @naomistares! - https://twitter.com/naomistares - https://www.instagram.com/naomistares ► Featuring Original Music by: - Chelsea Lankes - Ghost© (Remix by Dance with the Dead) (Permission for use granted by the artist) - Tyler Moran - Gideon (Permission for use granted by the artist) - Humanfobia - Necromancer Shadow© (Permission for use granted by the artist) - Ketsa - Me on the Inside© (Permission for use granted by the artist) ► Wicked Good Books Patreon- https://www.patreon.com/wickedgoodbooks

We cover chapters 17-22 of Gideon the Ninth. Things get BLEAK in Canaan House. The necromancers fail to raise Magnus and Abigail from the dead. Gideon almost gets siphoned to death in order for Harrow to complete a challenge. And to top it off, the fourth teens find someone's been incinerated. Honestly that's not even close to all.This is a podcast filled with spoilers both for Gideon the Ninth and Harrow the Ninth. First time readers beware.Music credit: Olivia K

In this week's recap of Chapters 7-8 of Gideon the Ninth, we arrive at the First House and get introduced to some of the other necromancers and cavaliers! And what fun introductions they are. Then Kabriya puts Baily's linguistics knowledge to the test in a game about the naming conventions of the nine houses, before we jump into a discussion of memes and Internet culture references in the Locked Tomb series—the ones that made us laugh and the ones that made us groan.* SPOILER ALERT * We reference events from GTN and HTN in this podcast, as it's intended for readers who've already finished both books.If you like the episode, find us on Twitter, Tumblr, or TikTok @onefleshonepod or e-mail onefleshonepod@gmail.com with any questions or theories!References:“Chew,” Tamsyn's zombie short story: https://www.nightmare-magazine.com/fiction/chew/Tamsyn interview about Chew: https://www.nightmare-magazine.com/nonfiction/author-spotlight-tamsyn-muir/ Tamsyn interviews from our meme discussion: https://thefantasyinn.com/2019/08/28/an-interview-with-tamsyn-muirhttps://www.forbes.com/sites/adamrowe1/2019/09/10/tamsyn-muirs-goony-fun-gideon-the-ninth-takes-sci-fi-fantasy-prose-into-new-territory/?sh=53321f103384 https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-butch-lesbian-sci-fi-aesthetic-a-conversation-with-tamsyn-muir/Reddit discussion on memes in the series: https://www.reddit.com/r/TheNinthHouse/comments/igk6zt/discussion_do_you_like_the_memes_in_the_books/g2ug0qo/ Intro/Segment Music: "Turismo" by Spaceinvader (Icons8 Music)Outro Music: "Warm Vacuum Tube" by Admiral Bob (2019 - Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (3.0))

Welcome to ONE FLESH, ONE END, a Locked Tomb reread podcast! We'll be recapping and chatting about all the little clues in Gideon the Ninth and Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir as we wait for the very mysterious Nona the Ninth to hit the shelves this fall. In the first episode, we go over Chapters 1-3, let you get to know your hosts a little better by taking Tamsyn's quiz to see which of the nine houses we belong in, and discuss Tamsyn's approach to foreshadowing. And we've got our very first Bone of the Week!* SPOILER ALERT * We reference events from both books in this podcast, as it's intended for readers who've already finished them.If you like the episode, find us on Twitter, Tumblr, or TikTok @onefleshonepod or e-mail onefleshonepod@gmail.com with any questions or theories!References:Tamsyn Muir's House Quiz: https://tazmuir.tumblr.com/post/188233732278/get-ready-forTamsyn Muir Reddit AMA: https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/i45jq6/im_tamsyn_muir_author_of_harrow_the_ninth_second/Tumblr post by @ac-ld about foreshadowing: https://ac-ld.tumblr.com/post/637345686500868096/i-will-add-that-muir-heavily-foreshadows-coming Intro/Segment Music: "Turismo" by Spaceinvader (Icons8 Music)Outro Music: "Warm Vacuum Tube " by Admiral Bob (2019 - Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (3.0))

We cover chapters 7-11 of Gideon the Ninth and get our first glimpse of the First House and meet the best cast of characters ever written. Harrow goes off on her own and Gideon is left to find her own way. Gideon eats a salad.This is a podcast filled with spoilers both for Gideon the Ninth and Harrow the Ninth. First time readers beware.Music credit: Olivia K

We cover the first six chapters of Gideon the Ninth. Gideon tries to escape the Ninth House. Harrow stops her (violently) and makes her attend a house muster where Harrow reveals that she has been summoned to attempt to attain Lyctorhood at the First House. Harrow's cavalier steals Gideon's shuttle. Harrow convinces Gideon to join her as a replacement cavalier, and they leave the Ninth House together.

Welcome to The Locked Tomb Podcast, a reread podcast where we unpack wtf is going on in Gideon the Ninth, Harrow the Ninth, Nona the Ninth and eventually Alecto the Ninth!Take some time to listen to this short trailer where we explain how best to listen to this podcast and when to look out for what spoilers.GET IN TOUCH!Follow us on Twitter @lockedtombpodEmail us at theninth@lockedtombpod.comHead to our website lockedtombpod.com

Hello, Book Fiends! We hope you enjoy the fifth episode of the WGBP where we discuss chapters 11-13 of Gideon the Ninth, the first book in The Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir! Let us know what you think of the episode and feel free to share a link to this podcast with your bookish friends reading this series or in need of some new bookish content to listen to on their long commute to work or while folding laundry or going for a walk or while they practice reanimating skeletons back from the dead... Very Respectfully, The Bone Squad ► Official WGBP Podcast Artwork by @naomistares! - https://twitter.com/naomistares - https://www.instagram.com/naomistares ► Featuring Original Music by: - Chelsea Lankes - Ghost© (Remix by Dance with the Dead) (Permission for use granted by the artist) - Tyler Moran - Gideon (Permission for use granted by the artist) - Humanfobia - Necromancer Shadow© (Permission for use granted by the artist) - Ketsa - Me on the Inside© (Permission for use granted by the artist) ► Wicked Good Books Patreon- https://www.patreon.com/wickedgoodbooks

Hello, Book Fiends! We hope you enjoy the third episode of the WGBP where we discuss chapters 8-10 of Gideon the Ninth, the first book in The Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir! Let us know what you think of the episode and feel free to share a link to this podcast with your bookish friends reading this series or in need of some new bookish content to listen to on their long commute to work or while folding laundry or going for a walk or while they practice reanimating skeletons back from the dead... Very Respectfully, The Bone Squad ► Official WGBP Podcast Artwork by @naomistares! - https://twitter.com/naomistares - https://www.instagram.com/naomistares ► Featuring Original Music by: - Chelsea Lankes - Ghost© (Remix by Dance with the Dead) (Permission for use granted by the artist) - Tyler Moran - Gideon (Permission for use granted by the artist) - Dance with the Dead - Surrender© (Permission for use granted by the artist) - Humanfobia - Necromancer Shadow© (Permission for use granted by the artist) - Distant Dream - Sleeping Waves© (Permission for use granted by the artist) - Ketsa - Me on the Inside© (Permission for use granted by the artist) ► Wicked Good Books Patreon- https://www.patreon.com/wickedgoodbooks

Kvothe hits the bottle and learns some saucy gossip. We're back after our long break to talk about the fourth book in the Locked Tomb series, Fleetwood Mac's Rumors, and the power of schadenfreude…. Everything except the book, really. @pageofthewind pageofthewind.com twitch.tv/pageofthewind

We Make Books is a podcast for writers and publishers, by writers and publishers and we want to hear from our listeners! Hit us up on our social media, linked below, and send us your questions, comments, and concerns for us to address in future episodes. We hope you enjoy We Make Books! Twitter: @WMBCast  |  @KindofKaelyn  |  @BittyBittyZap Instagram: @WMBCast  Patreon.com/WMBCast Episode Transcript (by TK @_torkz) [Upbeat Ukulele Intro Music] Rekka: This is We Make Books, a podcast about writing publishing and everything in between. Rekka is a published Science Fiction and Fantasy author, and Kaelyn is a professional genre fiction editor. Together, they'll tackle the things you never knew you never knew about getting a book from concept to finished product, with explanations, examples, and a lot of laughter. Get your moleskin notebook ready. It's time for We Make Books. Kaelyn: My sister just finished reading the Grisha trilogy. And she was, of course, more of a fan of the Six of Crows after reading that. But one of the things she messaged me- she was like “yeah, the ending was kind of whatever, but it is very clear that this person was reading Harry Potter when they wrote this.” R: [laughs] K: And I said “Yeah, that definitely comes through.” She gave me this whole list of like, book two is basically just The Order of the Phoenix, and the end battle with all of the Grisha and the stand downs, all this stuff, and I was like “Yeah, I guess you're right.” To be honest with you, I kinda limped through the end of that book, I wasn't thinking about that too much. But anyways, it got me thinking about influences in writing and how writers are influenced and how in some cases that's something that we're like “Yes! You can tell that this writer was influenced by such-and-such, and they weave it so beautifully into their story.” And sometimes you get my sister calling me to complain about how she basically just read Harry Potter with Russian witches.  R: So was your sister accusing the author in any way of plagiarism? K [overlapping]: Not plagiarism. R [overlapping]: As a reader I'm curious, like how the reader perceives it when it's that clear when someone's been influenced.  K: I should've asked her before we started recording this - and this is something we'll get to in there - I couldn't tell if my sister was accusing the author of laziness or unoriginality.  R: Okay. K: That's one of the things I wanted to talk about today as we're talking about influence. What is influence, how are writers influenced? How's the best way to leverage and utilize that influence? And when does influence cross into the realm of the negative? When is it no longer praise worthy? When is it, for instance, lazy, contrived, unoriginal, or, in worst case scenario, bordering into plagiarism?  R: Yeah, because that's a tricky thing - if we always wrote a completely original story, you wouldn't have something like Joseph Campbell's The Hero's Journey. Because we wouldn't have a set format that a story would take. So when somebody accuses a fantasy book of being “Star Wars with elves,” well, Star Wars was a Greek epic in space.  K: Oh, I would've called it a Western. R: Okay fine. [overlapping] I mean, people have called it a Western. K: [overlapping] I mean, both work. Both work. [laughs] R: Yeah, but I'm just saying, The Hero's Journey, Joseph Campbell is, he's studying the ancient literature, so that's why I decided to say Greek. But if we could always write something that was completely original, there would be no way to study literature with comparisons and contrasts. There are always going to be parallels between stories written in a similar culture by people who are writing in a similar society. Like, a hundred years apart, you would not necessarily detect the influence of Harry Potter in the Grishaverse. But they're not written a hundred years apart - it was maybe a decade, probably not. K: I'd be curious to go back and try to time out when these books were being written, and when that coincides with the release of the latter half of the Harry Potter books. But anyways, real quick, I'm big into definitions, so let's talk about definitions. Influence is the capacity of something - a person, a situation, a circumstance - to have an effect on another person, on the development of the situation, on the behavior of someone or something. Or, in some cases, even the effect itself. You'll notice there that influence is kind of framed as both proactive and reactive. You can influence something, or you can be influenced. We're talking today about being influenced.  R: And we're not talking about Instagram.  K: [laughs] Oh, God. You know what's funny? I went through this whole thing and I didn't even think about the concept of influencers, and now I'm depressed. R: Because you didn't or because now you are? K: [laughs] Because now I am. R: Okay. I'm sorry. I take it back, I didn't say anything.  K: [laughs] So, writers don't write in a void. It's sort of a reverse Heisenberg principle, which is “whatever you study will also change.” Whatever you read changes you, or whatever you consume changes you. So, writers don't write in a void. If you took a baby and raised them in a box with no interaction with the outside world whatsoever, well, to be honest I'm not sure they'd be capable of putting together an interesting story because they've had no influence.  R: You know what's funny, that's why I don't have kids. Because I thought about this kind of thing frequently in high school, like “what would happen if you raised a child in a padded room? And you never interacted with them, and they never saw another human?” So you're welcome, world, that I have not raised any children. Those children are welcome because I did not abuse them in such a manner.  K: [laughs]  R: But it's good to hear that someone else has had these thoughts. Although, Kaelyn and I did originally bond over the fact that we're terrified of the idea of raising children.  K: Pregnancy is just - R: And pregnancy. It's not for everybody. I recognize that for some people it's a beautiful process, but for Kaelyn and for me, it is body horror.  K: Yeah. Yeah, I mean, there's an entire nother skeleton in your skeleton. [laughs] R: Yes. And it's growing. [overlapping] It's getting larger.  K [overlapping]: It keeps getting bigger. R: And if you've never seen an MRI of a baby's skull, there's a lot of teeth in there.  K: Yeah, also they're squishy. R: Well, the MRI doesn't necessarily show that. It just shows all those chompers, waiting. Waiting.  K: Yeah. There's a lot of extra teeth in there.  R: Okay. [laughs] Where were we going? K [overlapping]: So for our writing- R [overlapping]: A child raised in a padded cell would probably write a different kind of story than somebody who's been exposed to Harry Potter.  K: Yeah, and if you take out every third word, it's their plan to destroy the world with their laser beams.  R: This reminds me of the book The Artist's Way. I think it's a month-long program designed to improve your creativity and I think maybe even to come up with… it's like NaNoWriMo but it's very classist and elitist.  K: [laughs] R: But the first thing it asks you to do is swear off all media for the month. K: Okay. R: And I put the book down right there. K: [laughs] R: Because I was like, that is literally impossible. I was in art school at the time, so I could not promise that I wasn't going to have to look at media. And also, this was written in 1992, before anybody was logging onto the internet daily.  K: Yeah, it was much easier to walk away from media for a month.  R: And I was trying to read it, I think, in 1999 or 2000, and it was even easier, at that point, to walk away from media than it would be now.  K: Yep. R: But, yes, it's called The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron. And I imagine that Julia Cameron has a very nice life and is able to unplug from media whenever it is convenient for her to do so. K: Well, in 1992 that meant “turn off the TV.” R: Right, it meant “don't pick up a newspaper” or, you know. K: Yeah. R: In 2016 they re-released a 25th anniversary edition, and I can't imagine they did much to it, but it really probably needed a lot of re-examining to - K: Yeah. It's -  R: - to even be relevant in 2016, I can't even imagine.  K: Now, was the purpose of this to do a detox of influence from your life? R: Yes. That is exactly what it was, to avoid influence for the month and find out what you write, not what the world around you influences you to write. But I think in her case, she was treating world influence and media and current events as a negative.  K: Mhm. R: And I would argue that if you are responding to the world around you, then the politics of your creativity is going to be more relevant and more well-informed. And I think that's a good thing.  K: Well, yeah. And this is something that we can certainly talk about with influence - current influence versus longevity. You'll see a lot of writers that go out of their way to not incorporate things that might later be considered an anachronism in their writing, so that they're not influenced by that.  R: Mhm. K: So that's another good example of influence. So, let's get the elephant in the room out of the way here: influence is not copying. As we were talking about, writers don't write in a void. You're absorbing everything that you interact with and consume every day, and, whether you know it or not, it's influencing and incorporating itself into even your way of thought.  R: You hear that? So if you were following an Instagram influencer, do not copy everything they do.  K: [laughs] Yes. Please don't. But, again, it's the reverse Heisenberg uncertainty principle. Whatever you're consuming changes you. There are entire PhD programs dedicated to studying and understanding the influence that certain parts of literature have had on larger parts of literature. Influence is not a bad thing. In many ways, it's a scholarly pursuit. Go to any Wikipedia page for any sort of well-known novel, and I guarantee you there's going to be a section in there that says “Influence.”  R: Oh yeah, yeah. K: And it's going to be a couple paragraphs talking about the history of the genre, or the subject material leading up to this. Influence is, apart from being an important part of writing, an academic pursuit. So all of that said, we are talking about influence in a very positive way here. We're saying it's great to read things, and to consume and internalize them so that this can help enrich your writing. Something that you really enjoyed, something you thought was maybe unique, or something that you were like, “Oh, what if I applied that to a character that I already have?” That's a good thing. I think it enriches your writing, I think it shows layers and growth, etcetera. K: That said, sometimes influence goes the opposite way. [laughs] Sometimes you've read something and you're like, “this is terrible,” or “this was such a ridiculous ending,” or “I hated that this happened.” And that might compel you to go through your manuscript and scrub absolutely everything having to do with that. The whole point is that whether you mean to or not, you are going to be influenced by external components in your writing. You could never read anything else, and you will still be influenced by things in the world just by existing in it. But we are talking more about influences in writing here, so we'll stick with that.  R: And we assume that you are being influenced by books because, as we say, if you want to be a writer you need to also be a reader. So we're telling you, go read widely in your genre, and part of that is that we expect you to absorb some of those elements and some of those styles. On a conscious level, we want you to look at the covers, we want you to look at the themes and the tropes and everything like that, but we also expect that on a subconscious level that's going to influence you and hopefully make you a better writer within your genre. K: And if you read a lot within your genre, you will start to notice trails of influence yourself. If you read a lot of - especially maybe a really niche kind of fantasy or science fiction genre, you're going to be able to chronologically put some things in order, like “Oh yes, I can see that book A came out at this time, and then three years later this book came out, and there are certainly elements from book A that I can see coming through in book B even though they were written by different authors.” K: So, I was telling Rekka before we started recording–I went down a little bit of a rabbit hole with this, because for reasons unbeknownst to me and possibly the influence of vampiric elements, I, for whatever reason, picked up my copy of Dracula off the shelf and I've just been flipping through random parts. And then we were talking about doing this, and I was like, vampires are a really really good example of influence through literature. They're something that has always been around - the Mayans actually had a god that was basically a vampire, even though they didn't acknowledge that, bat wings and all. And there's something that–I think you'd be hard pressed to find a significant culture of any sort of longevity from history that didn't have some sort of mythological being that displayed vampire-like qualities. K: In the late 1700s, early 1800s, though, there was the vampire craze in western Europe. There were a lot of short stories and things written about vampires, even though they've been codified as part of the mythos for a long time. But even then, they were sort of holding up the folklore and traditions of vampires–they were reanimated corpses, they were bloodsuckers that came out at night to drain people of their very lifeforce. In some cases, actively rotting bodies, hunched back and demonic looking, claw-fingered and fangs and scary eyes. A lot of this was the traditional folklore. Then we start getting into sexy vampires. [laughs] R: [laughs] I was just going to say. K: [laughs] And there were a couple specific novels that did this. In 1819, John Polidori published a short story called The Vampyre, and this was the first one where the vampire was more of a character rather than just a mindless bloodsucking dead creature. R: Right. This was a vampire worthy of Bela Lugosi's eyes.  K: Oh, no one's worthy of Bela Lugosi's eyes. [laughs] R: You know what I'm saying. K: I know, I'm teasing. So, it was very popular. So then, a lot of vampire short stories and short novels were coming out where the vampires were getting a little more sophisticated, and all of these were drawing influence from Polidori's short story. It was a very successful short story. So then, in 1872, an Irish author named Joseph Sheridan [with a mock-French accent] Le Fanu - I'm assuming it's French which is why I did that accent - published Carmilla, which was a fantastic novel. And this is, I would say, probably a turning point where vampires are unabashedly being associated with a sexual element at this point. It has a not-very-subtle vampiric lesbian... stalking, I guess, going on through this book. It's fantastic, it's not that long. If you ever get a chance to read it, it's great. K: And then of course, a couple decades later in 1897, we come to Bram Stoker's Dracula. I should, by the way, say that Bram Stoker and Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu were both Irish. Ireland had a shockingly strong folklore of vampires. In some cases they were fae, which is a whole different category of supernatural elements in Ireland, and in some cases they were just reanimated corpses. Anyways, then we get Bram Stoker, who of course gives us Dracula. And this is considered the preeminent vampire guideline bible, if you will. I think when most of us - granted, Rekka and I are older millennials, but - R: [laughs] How dare you? K: I think the first vampire we heard of was Dracula.  R: Mhm. K: I actually remember, growing up, that there was a kid in my neighborhood who just thought vampires were called Draculas.  R: Yeah. I think that was probably a… Not that I thought Dracula was a noun, but I never expected Dracula to look the same way twice.  K: Yeah. Yeah, Dracula was just like - Dracula, vampire. They were interchangeable.  R: Mhm. K: And that's how synonymous this became. Now, look at all the stuff that lead up to this in order for us to get the seminal vampire novel of the time. Stoker was absolutely influenced by all these novels that came before. Something else that's really interesting that Stoker was influenced by is the sexual component of vampires in this. Like I said, that came through hard and strong. Well, maybe I should say most popularly with Carmilla. Here's something else really interesting about Stoker: he was probably gay. It's difficult and inappropriate to go back and retroactively categorize people these ways, but there's a lot of very strong… I'm trying not to say “homoerotic,” I'm trying to say… There's a lot of very - R: Queerotic? [laughs] K: Yeah, there's a- R: There's not a queer person in the universe that will argue this point with you.  K: Yeah. R: I think the LGBTQIA+ are very, very ready to claim vampirism.  K: [laughs] Absolutely. And that's a great part of the influence of this. Some of Stoker's best friends were Oscar Wilde and Walt Whitman. Actually, I believe Stoker either started writing or finished writing Dracula right after Oscar Wilde was imprisoned, and they were exchanging letters while he was in prison.  R: Mhm. K: You have to keep in mind, this was the mid-Victorian period, there's very repressed sexuality, but there was also this burgeoning underground masculine sexual component to it, where everyone - R: See people, this is what happens when you don't let people reveal their ankles.  K: Yes. Yes, exactly. [laughs] So, one of the things through Dracula is this secretiveness, this sense of penetration. Not only the fangs in your throat, but a lot of them get into your head and screw with you that way. This was not something we saw in previous iterations of vampires, who were gross, for lack of a better term. [laughs] R: [laughs] Yeah.  K: So, this influence comes through in a lot of different ways. And as I'm talking more about Dracula I can say like, “Okay, well there's a lot of very… what we would now consider queer sexual elements that we see in Dracula, coming through with the relationship between Dracula and Johnathan Harker and Dracula and Mina.” But there's also the influence of other writers who were starting to make vampires actually people, rather than Nosferatu-style monsters.  R: Right. K: Dracula, I would argue, then in turn really helped influence the next generation of common horror. At that point we're getting into H.P. Lovecraft and existential horror. Lovecraft, who, by the way, wasn't quite a contemporary of Stoker's, but was very aware and actually wrote some reviews of his writing. He didn't really like a lot of it. [laughs] I would argue that that was probably part of what influenced Lovecraft: it was a hard turn from these very sterile, white-marble, gothic horror novels to a lot of raw, and ocean, and dark mold, steam spaces.  R: You can literally write the sentence “I can't describe this.” and people are like “Woo, that is scary.” K: Yeah exactly. So much of Lovecraft is like, “it's too horrible to describe!” but it's like “Yeah, but can you tell me anyway?” [laughs] R: You mentioned earlier that an influence can be “I don't want to do this.” K: Yes. R: So, here we are. This is Lovecraft saying  “Well, Stoker wasn't racist enough for me, so I'm gonna write my own thing.” K: [laughs] Oh, God, Lovecraft. It's so hard to read some of that stuff. [sighs] Psychologists would be better at trying to figure out Lovecraft's influence than me, I'm certainly not going to. To say the man had issues is an understatement. He was more of a collection of neuroses formed into a human. Anyways, this is just something I was thinking of as a pretty-easy-to-track set of influences. We go from vampires being very loosely defined and having inconsistent characteristics based on what region the stories are being told in, to some stories published that codify certain rules about them, to their evolution from “Eww, it's a rotting, blood-drinking corpse” to “Huh, maybe I'd like date that person.” R: [laughs] Maybe I would like those lips on my bare neck! K: Yes, exactly. Which is a pretty interesting leap that really did not take that long to get from point A to point B. But all of this was just building on influence and influence, after that.  R: Yeah, all you needed was for one author to pick it up and go, “What if vampires, but sexy?” K: [laughs] Yeah. You know what's funny, we have this sort of modern-day depiction of Dracula as a very suave, debonair… what's the word I'm looking for? High-society type person.  R: Sophisticated.  K: Sophisticated, yeah. In the novel, he is those things a little bit, but he is very off-putting and he is... weird to look at, I guess I should say. R: Yeah, there's that first scene where Johnathan is eating in front of him, and you definitely get a vibe that this dude is not right.  K: Like, he's talking about his hairy ears. [laughs] R: [laughs] Yeah. K: His weird skin, he looks ill, as if when he's making his way to the castle all of the peasantry crying and pressing crucifixes into his hands wasn't red-flag enough for him. R: No, no, no. It's just a quaint little village, this is the thing they do. There is the aspect of vampirism having the power of glamour, and I think this is probably the most effective display of it. The way that he's describing Dracula, there's nothing attractive about this man, and yet. K: He's very drawn to him. R: Mhm. K: And he wants to help him. R: As is Mina. [laughs] K: And Lucy, and all of them. So yeah, vampires. Great example of influence in literature over the course of a relatively short time, shaping something that we now consider to be commonplace.  R: Mhm. K: We've even narrowed it down farther. One of my favorite things about Dracula is, there's nothing that necessarily says he can't go in the sun in that book.  R: Right, right. [laughs] K: It's just that he has no powers after noon, I think, or he loses his powers at sunrise. So he can be outside, but he's just a regular guy at that point.  R: Mhm. K: So, obviously things continued to change and evolve there, the “no going out during the day” is held over from the much older vampire myths. Anyways. So, all of that said, how do we see influences in writing? When can we pick these out? One of the obvious is the story itself, the plot. Maybe some story arcs. R: I would argue that people tend to pick it up faster when it's a similar setting. When it's the worldbuilding, I think people notice it more. K: Okay. R: And I think, again, plot arcs and character arcs are things that we do have to recycle.  K: Absolutely. I think it's rare these days to see completely original, never-before-imagined setting. In terms of world-building, both the world itself, and in my notes here I put “world systems.” Anything from the way magic functions, or government functions, or society functions. There's only so many ways you can organize people, essentially. [laughs] So there may have been something that you came across and you're like “Oh, that's interesting. What if I did this instead?” The characters- anything from the archetypes and tropes of characters to their storylines and their redemption arcs, or even just the relationships, how they interact with each other. How the characters are broken out either into family groups or groups of friends or hierarchies within that. I think we see that a lot. With plot, we can kind of go back to what I said at the beginning of the episode: sometimes there are things in there where it's like, “this is clearly Order of the Phoenix.”  R: Mhm.  K: [laughs] We're just seeing it presented a different way. R: And again, an agent loves this, because you can say “this is my list of story comps.” And if they're successful books, the agent can use that to sell the story and then the publisher can use it to sell the book. K: Mhm. R: So even though sometimes it sounds like we are poo-pooing derivative work, if it comes across as fresh, nobody's going to poo-poo that you have a great list of comps to start with.  K: Definitely, yeah. R: And I would like to note that that is the first time we have said “poo-poo” on this podcast. I feel like that should be marked. K: That definitely needs to be denoted for posterity. R: And now it's been said three times. K: [laughs] Then there's two other areas of influence I'd like to talk about that are a little harder to quantify. One is style. And this comes more to writing style, and how you're presenting your story. For instance, being influenced by the way the author just writes in general, their style, I will harken back to one of our favorite examples here. If you've read Gideon the Ninth it is a very very unique writing style, not something I've ever come across before and I'm sure there are a lot of people who are currently in the process of attempting to imitate it; I don't know how successful they're going to be, but I bet they're trying. R: And then there are others who are influenced by it to say “Oh, I can let loose like that?” K: Yeah. Exactly. Or, “I can try something completely different that I didn't think anybody would be interested in, but if they're willing to do this then maybe they would.” Point of view or viewpoint in the book - if you've read the second book in the Locked Tomb series, Harrow the Ninth, a lot of that is written second person. The Broken Earth series, large portions of that are in second person. R: Well, the Broken Earth series, the amazing thing is it's written in all three. K: Yes, yeah. R: So if you haven't read that I can't go any further, I do not wanna spoil that, even though it's been out for years, the culmination of that book is so good that I refuse to ever spoil it. But go read it, if you haven't read it, for sure. It's a big one - K: It's a lot - R: But it is so worth it. I listen to it on audio, and I can recommend that too. K: Yeah. So both of those books have instances of strange, or - R: Disorienting? K: Disorienting's an excellent word. I remember reading Harrow the Ninth and texting Rekka and going like “Is this like this the entire time?” R: And my only response is “Did you get to the soup yet?” K: [laughs] And it was a mentality shift, and once I just was like “Okay, I fixed my brain to a point that it can accept and read this now.” But another style quality is dialogue. How you incorporate and how you use dialogue in your writing is something that I think is very easily influenced by how other people do that. This can also start feeding into the character influence there as well, how the characters talk and interact with each other is very influenced by dialogue. So then the last kind of nebulous part that I'd like to talk about, and this is a little bit different but it is worth bringing up, is historical influence. There are a lot of books and stories that are nominal retellings of either one or a series of historical events. I'll use Game of Thrones here as an example, and spoilers for anybody who hasn't read or watched - R: I don't care if we spoil Game of Thrones. [laughs] K: George R. R. Martin, well first the basis of a lot of this is the War of the Roses, which was the English Civil War. It was also called the Hundred Years' War; it was just a long, bloody, drawn-out battle of constantly changing kings and powerful families trying to get their person on the throne of England. R: And the interesting part is, it is a hundred years, so the people who started this have cast this war upon the generations to follow, and if that doesn't tell you something about where George R. R. Martin is going to be forced to take the end of the books, I don't know what will, because HBO managed to make the show take what, the war take five years or maybe ten years if that? Just the fact that it was ten seasons, right? Was it ten seasons or nine? K: It was eight seasons. R: Okay, so at most, because of the children aging on the show, it was a nine-year hundred-year war. So if George R. R. Martin is following intentionally the framework of the Hundred Years' war, none of the characters that you're rooting for are going to make it. Just in the nature of aging. K [overlapping]: And there's - you can go through and just read a brief history of the Hundred Years' War, and you'll be able to identify characters in there. Like Tyrion has some very clear Richard III vibes to him. But then there's other historical events and groups of people that he took and pulled into this. The Lannisters are such a clear parallel of the Borgia family that it's almost difficult to know that and read this and know what happened to the Borgias. The Red Wedding was based off of a famous event in Scotland where something very very similar happened to that. Some Scottish lords were invited to dinner by a Scottish lord with English leanings, and he killed all of them, to get in good with the English. R: After serving them bread. K: After serving them bread, exactly. But again, historical influence - the concept of guestright is very important in most cultures and especially in Scotland. So there's so many examples of people taking strong influence from either actual historical events or folklore and mythological events, like the Trojan War and things like that, and incorporating it into their writing. There are a lot of writers who decide “I'm gonna do a modern interpretation of such-and-such,” because maybe - for instance the Trojan War, they're very interested in classic Greek mythology and decide “Hey, that's a great story to tell; I'm gonna set it in a different place but still tell the story.” K: So that's some elements of influence, and before we wrap up here, let's address the thing we started to talk a little bit about but should definitely round out. When is influence just becoming copying, at a certain point? This is hard. Because it's really about finesse and originality. It's about taking something that you liked and putting your own spin on it, so to speak. If you're just re-creating the same story and sticking your characters into it, you're going to get called at best lazy, at worst a plagiarist. R: Yeah, there are plenty of books out there - and I have one to include in the list - that are retellings of a classic story. The problem is when you don't approach it as “how do I make this my story?” K: Yes. I'm gonna use young adult genres here because it's a little bit newer and easier to trace through this, and I'm not going to name books in this apart from the first series that I will name because that author is wildly successful. The Mortal Instruments trilogy - you could probably say series at this point, there's so many books in that world at this point - by Cassandra Clare, is one of the early and premiere urban fantasy young adult novels. This was copied so many times. Some of the authors were a little more original with where they were setting it, some of them were a little more original with where they were putting the characters or who the characters were, but the magical teeenagers who are part of a secret society that protects humanity was everywhere. ‘Cause these books were a runaway success. They were very original; no one had really seen something like this before. The Mortal Instruments created so many tropes that I can't and will not try to name them. R: And I think it's, part of that, somebody loves a book that they experienced so much that they want to hold onto that feeling forever, and one way to do that is to create something completely inspired by that same world. And this is where fanfic comes from, and fanfic is healthy, and it's a great way to express feelings of “I don't want to leave this book world.” But when you take it to a publisher and you say “This is going to sell really well because the other one that already did it sold really well,” as they say - don't follow trends in publishing, because you're five years behind. K: Conversely, a lot of people were able to get things like this published because the market wasn't inundated with this yet. R: Right, you had to be among the first to imitate a successful book, which is why they say don't follow the trends, because you won't be among the first. There are so many people out there writing that there are easily 500 people ahead of you in the queue for the publisher slush pile. K: Yeah and I wanna be clear, the first book of this entire - I'm not joking, I think there's over 20 books within this world at this point - the first one came out in 2007. So yes, the Internet was very alive and well at that point; it was not what it is now. Writing communities on the Internet were not what they are now. But all of this is to say that there were people who just straight up copied this genre, this book in some way. Either in terms of setting, in terms of characters, in terms of the magical elements of this, they just straight up copied this and I gotta be honest with you, a lot of them were not terribly successful. [laughs] Some of them were, though, and some of them made some money off of this. R: Well, for other readers who are not writers, when the same thing happens they come out of a book series and they have to wait for the next book, they want more. K: Exactly, they were looking for more. R: This is not unlike when the animation company puts out a very similar cheap animation to the latest Disney release. I worked at Blockbuster, and I saw this all the time. You'd have a big animated Disney release, and you'd have this tiny company out of who-knows-where that put together an animated copy, and they rely on parents and grandparents to grab the wrong one. This is not like trying to give the kids more of what they want, this is like “If we are gonna be next to this Disney movie on the shelf, someone will pick us up by accident and we will make money.” K: Well I always remember because a lot of Disney's classics, like the Disney renaissance movies, they were all like public domain stories. So they would just make that and they could get it out on VHS faster than Disney could - R: Yeah, they were made direct to video. K: Because Disney left it in - like everyone knew what the upcoming Disney movies were. So if you knew there was gonna be Aladdin, well, the story of Aladdin is public domain, you start making Aladdin right away. [Brief interlude of car noises] R: I literally believe that Mike's apartment is built on an overpass. K: No, just next to a road with a lot of people who drive like idiots. R: Well that was like a garbage truck, but anyway. K: That was a motorcycle. R: That was a motorcycle?? It sounded like it had at least 16 wheels. K: Yeah. R: Alright, sorry, so Aladdin - K: So everyone knew what movies Disney was making well in advance, and of course these would take years after they were announced to actually be finished and put in theatres. So if Disney says “we're making Aladdin” - R [overlapping]: Before it's in theatres! K: - well then, another small studio can also make Aladdin. The animation isn't gonna be great but then Aladdin's gonna be in the theatres and then a week later the imitation Aladdin are going to be on shelves, and grandparents are gonna go “Oh my grandchildren want to see -” R: Or “They've been talking about this movie and here it is on VHS,” and they don't know how theatre releases work and so they grab it and buy it, and they spend $18 or $15, seems like a really good deal on a Disney movie, and the animation studio makes their money back. So they do it again. K: So don't be that cheap animation studio. Don't be the person that's taking something that somebody put a lot of time, thought, and creativity into, and churning out the cheap, fast, easy-to-consume version of it. R: Yeah and I don't think, when it comes to writers - I mean I'm sure there are people out there who go “Okay this is the newest thing, I am going to behave like an algorithm and I am going to make another version of it and then release it, and I will make lots of bucks.” There are those writers that–they do that on purpose. So don't be them. But I don't think any of our audience are going to be them. And if you were thinking that that was a great way to make a successful book, let us correct you. But if you are inspired by Gideon the Ninth, or by Mortal Instruments, or anything like that - take the time to develop a story just like you would a completely inspired out of left field story, and take the time to put it together in a considerate and thoughtful and unique way, and then we approve. You get our approval. We're not promising to buy the manuscript, but we are approving a heartfelt influenced work, not an imitation that is intended to ride the wave of success of someone else. K: Exactly. R: Now when we're saying “copying,” are you talking about the publishing houses out there who literally lift the copy and try to sell it on Amazon, and just do it again and again and again as they get caught and cancelled? K: [laughs] No, no. Copying has, I think the way I'm defining it, more to do with not adding any creativity or original elements of your own, just saying “I liked what this person did, I'm going to do it too.” And listen - it's a fine line. One of the things that's really interesting about plagiarism is it's either very obvious - somebody had too many parts in a book, a novel, a poem, that are clearly just from another book - or, you've gotta go through a whole process of proving that somebody had access to something you were working on and directly lifted elements from that and put it into their book. Plagiarism is either very straightforward or very difficult. R: And, with plagiarism, they have plagiarism checkers on the Internet; I think a lot of teachers appreciate that because they can't read everything. So they can run an assignment from a student through a plagiarism checker, and that plagiarism checker can do its best with whatever it has access to in its database to catch - K: Plagiarism checkers are very good now, by the way. R: But we're talking word-for-word plagiarism. Sometimes what we refer to in the publishing world as plagiarism is actually trademark infringement. K: Yes. R: And that is difficult because if you write a story with Harry Potter in it, but you change his name and all the words are your original words, how do we run a plagiarism checker against that? K: Yes. So it's like I said, either very easy or very difficult to prove plagiarism; there's rarely a middle ground there. R: Although there are books that have been caught lifting a paragraph or two, from different books. So like the entire thing is plagiarized, but it's plagiarized from different sources. K: Yeah. You see instances of plagiarism tend to show up more in academic and scientific publishing than in fiction and genre-writing. It definitely does happen, though. R: Yup. Because, again, there are people out there who are confused about what is allowed and what is advisable in writing.  K: There are some really significant seminal works in American literature especially–I'm sure globally but I just happen to know the American ones–that are just plagiarized in certain places. And a lot of them were written in a time where it wasn't as easy to check this, so we- R: Find out much later, when it is easier, how much that was widespread. K: Yup. Exactly. R: There are nefarious people. I was referring, in my last statement, to the innocent, naive new writer, who just does not understand what is and isn't acceptable. Or, they didn't intend for it to go widespread, and they wrote a little thing for fun and end up finding out that they are not welcome and doors are being shut in their face because they crossed the line and it got noticed. K: Yeah, exactly.  R: That's the thing, a little baby writer learning about things the very hard way. It's a shame. That would be someone that you would hope would find a mentor who would guide them in the right direction before that kind of thing gets shot in their face. But with a pen name you can be reborn, as long as you reiterate yourself in better forms than the previous mistakes that you made. K: Yeah, and plagiarism should be very easy to avoid. R: Mhm. K: If you're looking at somebody else's work and saying “I wish this was mine, I'm going to make this mine,” don't do that. You should never be copying text from somebody else. Everything should be written on your own.  R: Yeah, don't go, “How did that person write it? I loved that so much.” Well yes, you did, but that's not your voice. So write it yourself. And I would say that if you close a book and you go, “Oh, I'm so inspired to write,” and you sit down and you start writing right away, don't publish that. [laughs] K: Yeah. R: There is a process to developing your own ideas even if it's mostly internal and you never grab a notebook and work out the story itself. The process of coming up with your own ideas is not “I just read this, I'm going to go write because I'm inspired and I'm going to finish that book before I do anything else.” [laughs] That's probably going to be a very derivative, if not plagiaristic, book. So don't do that. I always recommend you sit with your ideas for a while before you sit down and write it.  K: Absolutely. I mean, that's important in general. R: Carry it around like a baby, pretend you're some kind of marsupial and you have your twelve-day gestation period but you still carry that little joey around for a while before it's ready to enter the world. That's kind of the process that I recommend for a writer. K: [laughs] So there you go. Be a marsupial. R: Be a marsupial. The opossum tail has its own fingerprints which are unique to it, so there's that. Grow a prehensile tail and commit crimes with it so that you can be tail-printed later. Alright, I don't know where this story's going.  K: I like it, I like it. R: Yeah, I like it too, but it's not a good way to wrap up an episode because all we can do is just stop. [laughs] So, if you have any questions about plagiarism or inspiration, or you just want to share your inspirations and influences, you can @ us on Twitter or Instagram @WMBcast. You can find us on patreon.com/WMBcast, and we will have some more marsupial facts for you in two weeks. K: [laughs] R: [laughs] Thanks everybody for listening, and I hope this was a helpful discussion. Kaelyn and I have to go sit at a desk and figure out- have we fulfilled the promises that we made to you when we started this podcast? Because we feel like we've just kind of been indulging ourselves in what topics we bring up, so if you feel like, “Hey, you said you were going to cover this, and you never covered that,” definitely tell us that too, because we want to go back to our mission statement and make sure that every once in a while we give you an episode that's in line with that. So if you have input to that regard, please let us know. Otherwise, marsupial facts in two weeks! Thanks everyone!

Hello, Book Fiends! We hope you enjoy the third episode of the WGBP where we discuss chapters 4-7 of Gideon the Ninth, the first book in The Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir! Please forgive some of the minor audio issues as we work out the kinks for future recordings. Let us know what you think of the episode and feel free to share a link to this podcast with your bookish friends reading this series or in need of some new bookish content to listen to on their long commute to work or while folding laundry or going for a walk or while they practice reanimating skeletons back from the dead... Very Respectfully, The Bone Squad ► Official WGBP Podcast Artwork by @naomistares! - https://twitter.com/naomistares - https://www.instagram.com/naomistares ► Featuring Original Music by: - Chelsea Lankes - Ghost© (Remix by Dance with the Dead) (Permission for use granted by the artist) - Dance with the Dead - Surrender© (Permission for use granted by the artist) - Humanfobia - Necromancer Shadow© (Permission for use granted by the artist) - Distant Dream - Sleeping Waves© (Permission for use granted by the artist) - Ketsa - Me on the Inside© (Permission for use granted by the artist) ► Wicked Good Books Patreon- https://www.patreon.com/wickedgoodbooks

IT'S GOTH TIME. For this special treat of a Hallowe'en episode, friend of the pod Cam leads a cool lesbian take over. Cam is telling us the very cool, very lesbian story of Gideon the Ninth, the first book in the Locked Tomb series by New Zealand author Tamsyn Muir. Get ready to hear about skulls, butches, bones, immortal emperors, space jesuses (or the absence thereof), and ................. homestuck references. Yes, we have it all. Content Warnings for discussions of: suicide; bullying; abusive relationships; abuse dynamics; child murder; generic murder; authoritarian regimes. -- If you enjoyed this episode, consider subscribing to forever young adult podcast for more of our thoughts on Young Adult literature, coming of age literature! You can have two episodes a month delivered into your lovely ears for FREE. You can keep tabs on upcoming books and give us recommendations on our social media: www.Twitter.com/foreverYApod www.Instagram.com/foreverYApodcast www.goodreads.com/foreveryapod Email us at 4everYoungAdult (at) gmail.com Check out our patreon on www.patreon.com/foreverYAPod to throw us a few coins, check out our rewards, and show your appreciation/ire as applicable! Theme music by Kate Stewart. We love reviews! And recommendations! And attention! Thanks for listening :-)

Hello, Book Fiends! We hope you enjoy the second episode of the WGBP where we discuss the first three chapters of Gideon the Ninth, the first book in The Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir! Please forgive some of the minor audio issues as we work out the kinks for future recordings. Let us know what you think of the first full-length episode and feel free to share a link to this podcast with your bookish friends reading this series or in need of some new bookish content to listen to on their long commute to work or while folding laundry or going for a walk or while they practice reanimating skeletons back from the dead... Very Respectfully, The Bone Squad ► Official WGBP Podcast Artwork by @naomistares! - https://twitter.com/naomistares - https://www.instagram.com/naomistares ► Featuring Original Music by: - Chelsea Lankes - Ghost© (Remix by Dance with the Dead) (Permission for use granted by the artist) - Dance with the Dead - Surrender© (Permission for use granted by the artist) - Humanfobia - Necromancer Shadow© (Permission for use granted by the artist) ► Wicked Good Books Patreon- https://www.patreon.com/wickedgoodbooks

A listener asks for help with getting out of a reading rut. A voracious reader as a child, they now need some help falling in love with reading again. Vox Book Critic Constance Grady recommends big, grab-you-by-the-throat books to help us all rediscover our love of reading. Plus, hear some of Constance's conversation with Tamsyn Muir from their Vox Book Club Zoom event. Constance recommends: The Carry On series by Rainbow Rowell Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi The Shadow and Bone series by Leigh Bardugo Sorcery and Cecilia: Or, The Enchanted Chocolate Pot by Caroline Stevermer and Patricia Wrede Gideon the Ninth and Harrow the Ninth of the Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir If you're looking for a book recommendation, you can email constance.grady@vox.com –  Be sure to use the subject line “Ask a Book Critic.”    Enjoyed this episode? Rate Vox Quick Hits ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts.   Subscribe for free. Be the first to hear the next episode of Ask a Book Critic on Vox Quick Hits by subscribing in your favorite podcast app. Support Vox Quick Hits by making a financial contribution to Vox! bit.ly/givepodcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I talk about Harrow the Ninth the 2nd book in the Locked Tomb series, where Tamsyn Muir obfuscates quite a lot and the ending packs a punch.   Thanks to David Hilowitz for the intro/outro music. If you have any questions or comments send them to LibromancyPod@gmail.com.  Please Like and Subscribe wherever you get your podcast from. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39325105-harrow-the-ninth

I talk about Gideon the Ninth, 1st book in the Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir.  Join me as we delve into the secrets of Necromancy and Swordfighting   Thanks for listening and thanks to David Hilowitz for the intro and outro music. If you have any questions or comments send them to LibromancyPod@gmail.com you can find me on twitter most of the time @libromancypod. I've put up a calendar on the website Libromancy.podbean.com showing what books are coming up next. and Please like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts from ,  And remember to Die with the magic of Books. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42036538-gideon-the-ninth

We've got lesbian necromancers! We've got spooky mansion murder mysteries! We've got MEMES! What else could you need in your space fantasy? How about a lively chat debating the pronunciation of "Doge"?Find out more about our bonus episode recordings at patreon.com/overduepod.Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We've got lesbian necromancers! We've got spooky mansion murder mysteries! We've got MEMES! What else could you need in your space fantasy? How about a lively chat debating the pronunciation of "Doge"?Find out more about our bonus episode recordings at patreon.com/overduepod.Our theme music was composed by Nick Lerangis.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Maskerade! Every face a different shade... after reading Nanny Ogg's new cookbook, that is. Seeking unpaid royalties (and a young witch to replace newly married Magrat), Nanny and Granny head to Ankh-Morpork. They experience Culture, commit shenanigans, and consider questions of morality. Meanwhile, when Sir Terry isn't making her the butt of every single fat joke he can think of, Agnes Nitt has a journey of self-exploration, feeling the twin pull of the life she wants as Perdita X Nitt, famous opera singer, and the life she knows as Agnes the witch-in-potentia.Because this is vaguely Phantom of the Opera (actually a little less than we thought woops), we invited our good friend Coast to join us (noted Phantom expert and Locked Tomb fanatic). Coast is a person who gets excited about things on the internet. Sometimes fan-artist/writer/long-winded babbler. Can be found @coasterchild on Twitter.Check us out on twitter at @atuin_podHelp us keep the lights on via our Patreon!Follow individual hosts at @urizenxvii, @The_Miannai, and @JustenwritesWe can also be found at www.compleatdiscography.pageOur art is by the indomitable Jess who can be found at @angryartist113Music is by Incompetech and used under a Creative Commons 4.0 Attribution license.Take a Chance by Kevin MacLeodLink: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4457-take-a-chanceFuzzball Parade by Kevin MacLeodLink: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5044-fuzzball-paradeLicense: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

We Make Books is a podcast for writers and publishers, by writers and publishers and we want to hear from our listeners! Hit us up on our social media, linked below, and send us your questions, comments, and concerns for us to address in future episodes. We hope you enjoy We Make Books! Twitter: @WMBCast  |  @KindofKaelyn  |  @BittyBittyZap Instagram: @WMBCast  Patreon.com/WMBCast   Links for this episode: Worldbuilding for Masochists Podcast Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master's Guide Wonderbook by Jeff Vandermeer Episode Transcript (by TK @_torkz) [Upbeat Ukulele Intro Music] This is We Make Books, a podcast about writing publishing and everything in between. Rekka is a published Science Fiction and Fantasy author, and Kaelyn is a professional genre fiction editor. Together, they'll tackle the things you never knew you never knew about getting a book from concept to finished product, with explanations, examples, and a lot of laughter. Get your moleskin notebook ready. It's time for We Make Books. We Make Books Ep. 60 Transcription   After intro: [00:26]   Rekka: She was tuuckered out yesterday. I was tuckered out yesterday. [laughing] The trainer had us running around a field and it was the first time I had done any real, like, quick movements, certainly out in the sun on an 80 degree day, when I had forgotten water for both me and Evie, and the trainer only said “oh I have some in the car,” she only gave it to Evie, she didn’t give me any. But she’s like “jump around! Be active! Be real animated!” And I’m like ohh my goodness, do you not realize, that this is me animated.   [both laughing]   Rekka: So I was like, how about I lay down and pretend to be a dead squirrel, dogs love dead squirrels. [laughing]   Kaelyn: [laughing] Aww.   R: So we were all tired yesterday. So today, we are talking about worldbuilding.   K: We are.   R: We are. We are talking about mostly not overdoing your worldbuilding.   K: And because it’s me, we’re certainly going to be talking about some of the elements of worldbuilding as well. Worldbuilding is the process of creating, constructing, and coming up with the rules for an imaginary world, or sometimes an entire fictional universe. There’s a lot of elements that go into this - interesting fact that I found while doing some research for this: the first time “worldbuilding” was used was actually in 1820.   R: The term, or..?   K: The term “worldbuilding” was first used in 1820 in the Edinburgh Review.   R: Okay.    K: Fiction has existed in one form or another all through the course of humanity, obviously, you know, as we got into more recent centuries, literature became a little more organized? I guess? For lack of a better term.   R: So that’s the first time it appeared in print as far as we know, in English, and presumably someone would have said it aloud and said “hey that sounds pretty good.” K: Yeah, you know what, I have to - I’ll try to dig up the article because I am curious but, the Edinburgh Review was, of course, just reviewing published stories and literature and reviews of different things. So the term really gained a lot of traction in the early 1900s when we saw a lot of science fiction and fantasy writing. A really good example, actually of thorough worldbuilding based off of existing history, would probably be Huxley’s Brave New World, and I think that was 1932, I believe.    K: Regardless of where your story is set, what time it’s set, how much you’re using and building off existing human history, or if this takes place in a galaxy far, far away, there’s certain elements you have to have in worldbuilding. One of the good places to start is geography. If it’s Earth: you’re done. No problem. [laughing] You have established that the world is Earth.   R: But do you? Do you even say [laughing] that you are writing a story on Earth, if you are on Earth?    K: You name a place that the reader would presumably have context for. If, you know, the story is set in Delhi, India then yes we’re on Earth. Tokyo, places we’ve heard of.   R: So in fair Verona, on planet Earth where we lay our scene.   K [laughing]: On planet Earth, yes, Shakespeare did always make sure to specify that.   R: That’s what I was kinda saying is that -   K: Yeah.   R: - because of context, because of cultural understanding, some books, current for the audience they were intended for, are going to need less explanation of the setting than others.   K: Yeah, now the other component of geography then, especially if you’re writing a fantasy or a science fiction story, there’s probably some hidden world elements in there. It may not be a hidden world story, but there’s probably some things that regular people don’t see, or some locations that you have to create. So that’s part of establishing your geography.   R: Hidden or invented?   K: Well, invented and hidden.   R: I’m just making you define your definitions.   K [laughing]: Okay.   R: When you say hidden, do you mean literally, like underground caverns? Or do you just -   K: Could be! R: - mean secret societies -   K: It could be any of those. For secret society, we’d be talking about the place that the secret society meets. In some cases, this could be established places that you’re repurposing for your story, but you still need to establish the geography of what these are and where these are.   R: The Mall of America.   K: Exactly.   R: Where my cabal meets every Sunday.   K: Wait, that’s where I’m hiding my Deathstar.   R: It’s a big mall.   K: It is a big mall. Yeah.   R [overlapping]: You could do both things.   K: So [laughing] geography is just a good way to get yourself grounded of where things are especially in relation to each other and that’s very important if your story is set on the road. Because otherwise we start ending up with some Game of Thrones style jetpack -   R: You mean like fast travel? [laughing]   K: Yeah, there were some characters that the running joke was like, for them to have gotten from place A to place B in that amount of time they must have some secret Game of Thrones jetpack that they’re [laughing] doing this with.   R: Well, then you need fossil fuels.   K: Yeah, or dragons.   R: This really - well, yeah, how about you just hop on a dragon! Turns out, everybody was riding dragons in these books -   K [laughing]: Yeah.   R: - it’s just that some people made a bigger fuss about it than others.   K: [laughing]   R: We all ride dragons! All the time! You’re not that cool.   K: So geography is a good way to get your story grounded, so to speak. Now if you’re building one from the ground up—a world, that is—you may not know exactly where everything is when you start writing, and that’s okay. But having a rough idea is very helpful, especially - as I said - if your characters are going to be traveling from place to place because knowing how long it should take them to get from place to place is critical to the story.   R: Yeah, I was just gonna say this is a very story critical element, not just -   K: Yeah.   R: - the setting, some stories could happen almost anywhere, and the setting is not 100% ingrained in the story.    K: Yes, and geography then also plays into one of the other major elements of worldbuilding, which is culture. So where your characters live and what their setting and environment looks like, is really going to affect what type of people they are. But if you have an entire village set on a rocky island in a stormy area in the middle of nowhere isolated from the rest of the people of this kingdom, and those people aren’t good with boats, that’s probably a problem.   [Both laughing]   R: Well, it depends how rough the water is, maybe the water is an actual obstacle.   K: Well, see? And there you go.   R: [laughing]   K: Because the geography there comes into play, because maybe this is an isolated group that never gets off this island because the water is too rough.   R: Maybe the water’s frozen!   K: Maybe the water’s frozen!   R: [giggles]   K: This is going to feed into their culture and what these people are like. This isn’t just culture based on their surroundings though, you have to establish everything about culture which is: their past, their current social structure, religious elements, what do they eat, what do people do there for a living, are they part of a greater entity and if so, what is their contribution to this greater entity.   R: I feel like now would be a good time to make a nod to the podcast Worldbuilding for Masochists.   K: Yes! Yes. [laughing]   R: Which, if you haven’t heard it, goes episode by episode just taking one aspect, and for a while there the hosts were actually building a world with no intention of writing for it, just literally like “okay what’s another thing to consider about this world?” and each host was handling a certain element or a certain region and it’s good evidence of how you can worldbuild and never ever ever get to your story. Because as Kaelyn’s outlining, there’s a lot to go into a finely detailed world for your narrative story, so this way trouble lies -   K: [laughing]   R: - if you are on deadline, for example. [laughing]   K: And there’s a good example of this: Tolkien.   R: Mhm.   K: Tolkien wrote a lot of his books because he was a linguist and he came up with all of these languages and then created history around the languages - because languages are intrinsically linked to history - and then developed this very rich, millenia-long history of Middle Earth, and then he wrote a story set well after he’d actually established all of these things. So he spent a lot of time creating a world and this history to not tell stories that were necessarily set in that, but to tell stories that were a product of everything that he had created.    R: But for this later world that he writes his setting into, the history he created is their history and you can tell.   K [overlapping]: It’s very important to the story as well, yes. If you’ve ever read the Lord of the Rings trilogy, you will know that there is an exhaustive amount of time spent with characters having conversations in different languages, and that’s because this is what Tolkien was all about.   R: That's what he really wanted to write. [chuckles]   K: Yeah, he was very into creating languages. And that, by the way, is why people can learn Elvish, because it’s an actual language with an alphabet - so to speak, if you want to call it that - grammatical rules, syntax, all of the things that need to be there to create a language.   K: But anyway, so culture elements are important because, especially if you are creating a brand new world, if you’re fabricating or you’re building from nothing, you have to have a world that these people live in. You can’t just take a group of people, plop them down, and say: “and then one day a dragon came!” Because we have no context then for: is this a good thing? are they happy the dragon’s there, or did the dragon come to eat them? Is this a frequent problem, are dragons kind of like rats, do they just pop up every now and then and you’ve gotta deal with it? Do they have methods for this? If the dragon eats all of them, is that the end of the story, or what happens to the dragons? [laughing]   R: Was the dragon prophesied? Have they been anticipating their arrival or -   K: Exactly.   R: - was it a surprise? [laughing] like surprise dragons.   K [laughing]: A surprise dragon! The best kind of dragon.   [both laughing]   K: So, establishing the culture, apart from being good for worldbuilding, helps a writer figure out how characters would react or act based on certain events. Leading in from culture, next I would say is cosmology. And I’m gonna put this in two different perspectives here: the science fiction and the fantasy. For science fiction, you gotta establish what’s up there.   R: [giggles]   K: Stars and planets and who lives on what and how fast can you get to them, what's the gravity like, what’s the air situation like, are they all just the planet Venus which is incredibly toxic, or are they all just Saturn and we don’t really know what they’re made up of? [laughing] For worldbuilding and science fiction, that’s very important especially if your story is set in space. And you still, by the way, can absolutely have science fiction set on Earth, in which case the cosmology is ours. And that’s fine, just establish that. But anytime you’re involving space marines, aliens, wormhole travel, you gotta establish, not just Earth, but everything else that we’re interacting with.   K: So then on the fantasy side, it’s a little bit more metaphysical. This kind of leads into the culture aspect. We need to know you know, on this planet - or setting or town or wherever it is - how do these people think about their place in the universe?   R: Is it the center of the universe? Do they have awareness of other life sustaining planets? Do they understand that there are planets or is it just sparkly things in the sky?   K: Are they the dominant species? Is there another one that’s equivalent to them? But also how do they see themselves in the world? Are they a chosen people of a deity that put them there? Are they the rejected children of an angry god? Did they just accept that they evolved from whatever was swimming around in the primordial ooze and now that’s -    [both laughing]   K: - that’s where they are? A lot of times in fantasy, there’s beings of varying degrees of power and there’s frequently like a hierarchy of these and now, granted, some of them - they may be all the same species and some of them are just more powerful than others.   R: Mhm.   K: But typically when you involve magic there’s an otherworldliness to it; the magic is coming from somewhere, so that’s something that needs to be addressed in the cosmological metaphysical scale, if you will.   R: Okay.   K: So then that bleeds into the fourth one, which is physics.   R: You know what, just throw physics out the window, it’s very optional.   K: Well, ‘cause you gotta decide: are you sticking to real world physics? If so, what are you gonna do when you need to invent things, are you gonna try to apply the rules that we theoretically would apply to these things? Or are you just gonna kind of make up like, “yes and we’ve invented a way to take dark matter and make it into energy.” Don’t do that unless you can really back that up. [laughing]   R: Hey, lots of people try. The other thing is, if you can find out the largest argument against doing that, like if other people have tried it in their books and real world physicists have offered their criticism of the method, then you have a scene where one character says: “how did you solve the such and such quandary?”   K: Yes.   R: And you invent a method, give it a name but do not explain it, and just hand wave the heck out of it.   K: Yeah, so how much are you gonna stick to real world physics, and how much is gonna be magic? And obviously magic tends to dabble more into the fantasy side, but you can still apply physics to this. You still have Newton’s primary laws involved there, you know an object in motion tends to stay in motion, okay so a spell that’s already cast tends to continue to be cast -   [both laughing]   K: Maybe you get a little more into a Fullmetal Alchemist with the equal exchange principal, which by the way, is also rooted in physics: matter cannot be created or destroyed.   R: Right.   K: That, though, ties into cosmology frequently which is: where is the magic coming from?   R: Mhm.   K: All of these things that I’ve talked about here, these are how you are going to establish your “rules” of this world. Be they geography, travel, physics, magic, society and culture - this is how you have to set these up in order to place your characters in a setting that makes sense.   R: Okay. Would you say that concludes the definition?   K: Well I would say those are my four elements that I would highlight.   R: Okay.   K: There’s definitely more, and like, subelements within those but I think those are always a good place to start.   R: Okay. So this episode topic was proposed to us as: how do you create worldbuilding that doesn't trap you in both rules and details? So now that you’ve just told people to invent everything -   K [overlapping]: [laughing]   R: - from the Big Bang to the point of your story, how do you make sure you don't?   K: I’m assuming in this scenario we’re talking about multiple books or short stories set in the same world.   R: Why does it have to be multiple?   K: Because, if you are building a world and worried about trapping yourself, you would be able to write your way out of it if it was one book.   R: You think.   K: I think, yes.   R: My answer to this is don’t put all the details in the book.   K: Yeah, absolutely.   R: Understand your rules and understand your basic principles, but don’t reference them in the book because that does then therefore hold you accountable when you get readers who are so enthusiastic about the world you’ve created that they start to write these things down.   K: Writing yourself into a corner with world building - I’m not saying this to be critical of anyone’s writing style, but this is why planning is important. There are certain things that you kind of just need to know are gonna happen in the story in order to construct the world properly. If you get too far into it, you keep adding too much backstory, too much history of the characters, you’re gonna start to run into situations where - like Rekka was saying - there’s contradictions. When you really start to have problems with writing yourself into a corner is when your stories and characters get large enough that they have to keep expanding, that you’ve gone on and on and on in this world for a while.    K: George R.R. Martin has fans who are sort of archivists for him, that he will send them the books or novellas or even like preview chapters, to check against what he’s already written to make sure he’s not contradicting himself in any way. He let them write The World of Ice and Fire book, that was written by just fans of the series that were documenting all of this stuff, so they worked in conjunction with Martin on this, and even with that, he still - things still slip in those books. The scale and sprawl of the world in A Song of Ice and Fire is gigantic; I would argue it’s the biggest problem in getting these books released now -   R: Mhm.   K: - because you’ve flung all of these characters to such far corners and come up against these problems of how do we get this person to here to interact with this person but then get them back over to where I need them to be at the end of this story.   R: A dragon with a jetpack.   K: Yes. Yes. Oh, so the dragons have jetpacks now?   R: I mean it makes more sense; they’re the fireproof ones.   K: That’s a good point, yeah. So in terms of not writing yourself into a corner. This isn’t maybe the most encouraging answer, but I’m going to say that if your world keeps growing and you have to keep adding history and new characters, it’s going to happen.   R: It’s absolutely going to happen. This is a problem that, on the one hand is frustrating, but on the other hand can be good to have. You end up writing more about your worldbuilding and more about your details than writing out your story.   K: This, again, falls into a lot of early epic fantasy where it felt more like there were characters that we were just watching interact with a world so that we could learn more about the world. And the story itself [giggling] wasn’t as important. There’s definitely a balance, but the thing about worldbuilding - about good worldbuilding - is that once you establish it, your reader shouldn’t need a lot of context for it. They should kind of understand: this is the world that this story and these characters are set in, and be able to apply that to the rest of the book as they’re reading it.   K: I wanna distinguish here between setting and worldbuilding, because worldbuilding is not necessarily describing a specific place -   R [overlapping]: Mhm.   K: - it’s describing all of the places and giving the reader context for them. A setting is “places that the characters are.”   R: Right, but if you are showing off your worldbuilding -   K: Yes.   R: - by describing your setting -   K: They certainly can cross, yes, but they -   R [overlapping]: - how do you stop yourself from doing that? Just get a really good friend to smack your hand and tell you “no you’ve gone too far here?”   K: You mean when you’ve gone too far in the world building and we’re getting into like, an exposition dump?   R: Yeah!   K: Yeah, that’s editorial to be honest with you. That’s something that you revisit in drafts, that’s something that you get feedback on. If you have a really richly built and developed world with history and culture and all of these interesting things that you’ve spent time and effort thinking about, there’s gonna be this inclination to just dump all of it at once, to just do a lot of: “these such and such people lived here, and they had spent a lot of generations at war with this and that people who were allies of the third people.” There’s ways to do this and it’s a skill you have to develop, it takes a certain amount of finessing.   R: Usually, some allow more for it than others.   K: Yeah absolutely, and there’s a lot of clever ways to squeeze this in there, and by the way, this isn’t to say that there’s something wrong with a character giving the reader information - either through an internal monologue or explaining something to someone. There’s all sorts of great articles - and, I would imagine, Youtube videos, subreddits - about worldbuilding tips and tricks. So there are ways of incorporating that into your story without having to give a long, tiresome, and confusing explanation. Dropping a lot of information on the reader, they’re not going to retain that.   R: Mhm.   K: Whenever I’m reading a book where I have to keep track of certain places or groups of people or what different types of magical abilities do and mean, I need to re read that a couple times. When there’s a page that has information on I usually bookmark it so that when later -   R [overlapping]: [laughing]   K: - I see it referenced, I can go back and be like okay, yes, those are the people that control fire, you know? [laughing]   R: Kaelyn doesn’t read with bookmarks, she reads with post it notes. [giggles]   K: I - yes. I do still read physical books and sometimes it is bookmarks and post it notes. [laughing]    R: So that brings to mind the idea of how much a reader has to remember what you write in your exposition. If you’re just describing a setting, can you get away with more than laying out the way things work?   K: My experience tends to be that readers will remember descriptions well, because when they’re reading through something and you’re describing, you know, vast mountains capped with snow and trees stopping at a certain point because of the -   R: So that’s imagery.   K: Yes, because you’re giving them something to picture in their mind. What is kind to do for readers, especially if these are things you’ve made up - let’s pretend in Avatar, waterbenders were called something specific. [laughing] You remind them, Katara was a whatever the word is, she controlled water. There are ways to drop those reminders in there so that readers don’t get frustrated by like “I don’t even know who this person is or where they’re from at this point.”   R: But that is a good point. When you’re naming things -   K [overlapping]: Mhm.   R: - consider being a little bit more explicit in the name than to come up with secondary world terms.   K: Yes but, if you do decide to do that - this is where I’m gonna, not derail us a little bit, but talk about another element in the book that can be helpful here which is maps and glossaries.   R: Mhm.   K: We did a whole episode about maps and why they’re so useful and helpful, one of the great reasons is worldbuilding. It’s really nice to open a book and, assuming you can do it without spoilers, see a map there to give the readers some context of where the world is and what’s going on there. I always, whenever I get a map, I like to take a look at it and look at some of the names of places and get an idea of like “okay so I guess we’re going here eventually, we’re probably going there eventually.”   R: Mhm.   K: Glossaries are good for that too, especially when you have to create a lot of stuff, it’s good for the reader to be able to flip back to one of those terms to go like “oh yes, okay, that’s this kind of magic.”   R: Right, and this is a spot where unfortunately, digital and audio do not help us.   K [overlapping]: No.   R: Like if you’re reading a paperback of something you can flip to these things, you can keep your finger in it as you go through, as opposed to - you can put a post it in it! - whereas it is really difficult on, say, a digital reader. It’s still not as natural an experience -   K [overlapping]: Yeah.   R: - as flipping to either the start or the finish. All of my Peridot books have glossaries in them and I feel bad every time I think of anyone reading it in audio.   [both laughing]   R: Because it’s not there, and while yes you can download the files to pair with the audio, you’re generally doing something while you’re listening to an audiobook.   K: Yeah.   R: But I agree with you about the map. The worldbuilding that you get out of a map is pretty impactful in terms of the distance between things, as you started off saying, like how many jetpack refuels does your dragon need -   K: [laughing]   R: - to get from point a to point b in your story.   K: I’ve also seen a lot of books now, especially where there’s a large caste of characters and certain groups or family units, in the beginning of the book they’ll just have a list of them or maybe a family tree.   R: Speaking of Romeo and Juliet again like you have the dramatis personae -   K: Yes, exactly.   R: - a real quick rundown of how they relate to other characters and stuff, again not helpful in audio. Again, this is front matter back matter -  if you had the clout, you could print a separate book of your world bible.   K: And by the way, if you have a glossary, a map, a dramatis personae in this, that is not an excuse to not do the worldbuilding.   R [overlapping]: Right, that’s what I was gonna come back to was like, okay so you’re sticking it outside the actual story, but I would argue that it’s important to be able to read the story and understand everything without supplemental reading material.   K: Yeah, that should be there either for prestory context - reader, I’m gonna throw a lot of people at you, I know it’s gonna be a little tricky to keep track of it have this helpful guide to who these people are -   R: Mhm.   K: - or it’s just a “hey heads up here’s everyone in here,” but that still means you need to do the actual worldbuilding and do the work in the book.   R: Right. So using a prime example, a recent example is the Gideon the Ninth -   K [overlapping]: Ah, yes, one of our favorites [garbled through laughter]   R: [overlapping]: - The Locked Tomb Trilogy. I would much rather talk about Gideon all day than A Song of Ice and Fire, let’s be real.   K: [laughing]   R: So, it begins with names from each of the houses. Not only that but it sets a little bit of tone  -   K: Yeah.   R: - for each of the houses without saying “these houses are like this.” So it begins with, in order of House appearance: “The Ninth House, keepers of the Locked Tomb, house of the Sewn Tongue, the Black Vestals.” And that in itself is worth like six paragraphs of explanation that -   K: Absolutely.   R: - this is just what goes with that name. And then you have the multiple names of the characters that you’re going to encounter from this House, and no explanation as to what they’re like or anything like that. So you’ve gotten a tone for the setting, the Ninth House, you get that like, the names all sort of have a structure to them, and that’s what you get from that pre reading list. And then you get in and then you get the characterization, just like you would if you were not going to have forty characters dumped on you in the course of this book.   K: Yeah, and by the way, because this author is diabolical, by the time we get to the second book, the dramatis personae in the beginning is doing an extra level of work here because they had to do it without spoiling things. So it’s actually creating this air of mystery - which absolutely contributes to worldbuilding by the way. There’s something weird going on here because there’s some contradictions in this, or some people that you can tell are deliberately left out, and then you have to start wondering why.   R: And Kaelyn was very aware of this -   K [overlapping]: I -   R: - jumped right on those little details after reading it the first time, before the second book was out; the second book came out, Kaelyn read it and was texting me like “I have questions!”    K: [laughing]   R: But yeah in the first book you’re introduced to twenty-eight people in three pages, and their alliances that they’re gonna start the book out with, and then you get to meet them. So a dramatis personae is not all the details, it’s not the hair color, it’s not attitude, it’s not history, it’s just “here are the names so you can keep them straight, who was that again, okay that was this person” and maybe then you remember that they had a pinched little mouth.   K: There’s a [laughing] a lot of ways to do this, it just depends the amount of effort and detail you wanna put into it.   R: And some genre expectations too.   K [overlapping]: And some genre expectations, to be sure, absolutely.   R: Always.   K: This can get as straightforward as set in Denver in the present day, and it's primarily just regular human beings and -   R: At a grocery store.   K: At a grocery store, yeah. You still need to establish that so you’re still building your world there -   R: Mhm.   K: - or you can take this as far as something like -   R: New Denver Colony!   K [laughing]: Yeah, exactly, something like Lord of the Rings or Star Trek where there’s just layers and layers of history and characters and different races and species and it’s so expansive that you can just keep adding and adding to it. So what’s the right way to make sure you don’t write yourself into a corner? Well the thing is, if you’re gonna keep developing your worldbuilding, you’re going to [write yourself into a corner] eventually.   R: Yeah. The fun part of being a writer is figuring out how to get yourself out of that corner without being able to change the stuff that’s already been published. I’ve done it! [giggles]   K: Yeah! Leaving yourself some backdoors, if you will, is not a bad idea.   R: Although that requires that you -   K: Plan them.   R: - predict a little bit of the trouble you might run into.   K: Which is a very possible thing to do.   R: If you have a magic system that has a bunch of rules, you could always say “but then there’s Chaos Magic.” And then Chaos Magic can just be a little bit of the antirule that you need later on.   K: Yeah, making something forbidden or the lost art, something that no one has access to, just to have in your back pocket -   R: But just know your readers are gonna wanna hear about it.   K: Yes, absolutely.   R: You might have to write a novella outside your main storyline just to satisfy some readers about that lost locked tomb art of chaos magic.   K [overlapping]: Yeah, Chekov’s Chaos Magic. But again, Rekka’s right then, if you bring something like that up and you’re like yeah, well, that’s forbidden, nobody practices that anymore, you don't have to say, but you have to indicate why. Was it because they destroyed the world, was it because whoever used it died horribly -   R: [giggles]   K: - was it because they just forgot how to do it? There’s historical instances of that, Greek fire is a real thing that existed that we lost the recipe for and nobody can make. There’s theories as to what it was but [laughing] no one can recreate it.   R: And maybe we should leave it that way.    K: Yeah probably but -   R: But what kind of book would it be if we did?   K [laughing]: Exactly.   R: And that’s the other part of it, it’s not just making it explained ‘cause you don’t wanna be like “there’s this forbidden art which we don’t do ‘cause it killed people,” like okay yeah fine, but that forbidden art is gonna be in this book. You say forbidden as a storyteller and I expect somebody to crack that nut.   K: Yeah, the readers will start salivating at that point.   R: Mhm.   K: I’ve read books where there were things that were mentioned that never were discussed again and it's infuriating.    R: Yeah, what happened to the fireworks factory?   K [laughing]: Yeah that’s exactly -   R: That’s a Simpsons reference, yeah.   K: Got too close to the Greek fire.   [both laughing]   R: Yeah, well, there ya go.   K: So how to not write yourself into a corner, the best advice I can give is try to leave yourself a backdoor. And this means that you have done a really good job of worldbuilding, because as Rekka said, you’re anticipating where you could run into problems. And that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t go down that road, it just means that you also need to have another road that you can diverge onto -   R: [laughing]   K: - in order to circumvent this problem and come up behind it, attack it, defeat it, be victorious over your own book.   R: I mean that’s the goal every time.   K: Yeah. Yeah, you really are just sort of in the act of defeating something.   R: Take your project and beat it into submission.   [both laughing]   R: That’s actually writing.   K: [laughing] Will be defeated into the ground.   R: Hey, I am learning right now with puppy training that what you wanna do is be more interesting than the problem -   K: Yep.   R: - so that you can distract and be fun, and reward. So I feel like that’s a good way to - can we apply that to writing, can we just distract the reader from the flaws -   K: No.   R: - in our logic, and the rules -   K: Nope.   R: - that we backed ourselves into?   K: Nope. [laughing]   R: But it works - what if there are liver treats?   K: [laughing] I don’t want any of those.   R [overlapping]: Squeak toys?   K [laughing]: Okay, I’ll take a squeaky toy.   R [laughing]: Okay.   K: But you know, the thing is Rekka, eventually I’m gonna chew the squeaky toy apart and then I’m gonna be like hey, wait, hang on, you promised me forbidden chaos magic.   R: Well, too bad, I have to take you to the vet because you swallowed the valve and now we have to have [laughing] your stomach operated on.   K: [laughing] Yeah, so you can keep trying to distract the reader but eventually you’re gonna have to answer for these things.   R: Okay what if your story is so interesting that the forbidden magic is actually the least interesting thing that you’re talking about in your plot?   K: Alright, I’ll give you a pass there.   R: Alright! I win!   K: [laughing]   K: I’m curious what you’re gonna come up with that’s more interesting than [laughing] forbidden chaos magic.   R [overlapping]: I didn’t say I was gonna write this. I’m not gonna write this.   K: Now I need it, I need to know what you’re gonna come up with that’s more interesting than forbidden chaos magic.   R [groaning]: Fiiiine.   K: [laughing]   R: Fine, I’ll work this into my next project.   K: Excellent. So yeah, I think that’s some of the fundamentals on worldbuilding. I’m sure we'll talk more about this in the future. Oh, you know what, one last thing. If you’re having trouble with worldbuilding and you just really do not know where to start, go get the Dungeons & Dragons official manual, because it actually has a guide for worldbuilding in there.   R: Hm.   K: It’s not perfect, it’s not the end all be all, but if you’re just really at a loss, not a bad place to start to help get some of your thoughts organized. And there are things online that are similar to this, they’ll give you steps to take like, “okay think about this, now think about this.”   R: Yeah I would say that Wonderbook by Jeff VanderMeer et al is about writing but it’s also - there’s a lot of worldbuilding in there and could get your brain really juiced about different things to consider.   K: By the way, if you’re having trouble with worldbuilding, if you’re going, well I need to create this whole alien society and culture and religious system and everything and you’re really having trouble coming up with it, maybe that’s a good time to take a step back and go: maybe that’s not the kind of book I should be writing right now. Can the story be set on Earth and with people and maybe the aliens are just on Earth so that’s minimized your worldbuilding requirements.   R: It’s about the size and shape of the story you enjoy writing. Because you could enjoy watching a movie where it’s all way deep space, but do you enjoy writing it as much as you enjoy when other people do that work.   K: Yeah, exactly.   R: You have a choice.   K: Got a few of them. [laughing]   R: Unless you were hired to ghostwrite this story and you’re stuck.   K: No, then that’s your problem.   R: If you’ve gotten to the point where you’re being hired to write other peoples’ stories, it probably means you already know what to do here.   K [laughing]: Yeah.   R: So write in and tell us.   K: And Rekka, if they wanna write in -   R: You can find us on Instagram and Twitter and at WMBcast.com for all our old episodes and if you are loving the commentary [laughing] along with the puppy barks and actual useful advice from Kaelyn, then you can support us at Patreon.com/WMBcast.   K: Hopefully as always, this was at least educational and entertaining.   R: Or at least useful.   K: At least a little bit useful, yeah, if nothing else, you go to hear some puppy sounds in the back.    R: Yes. [laughing]   K: That’s always a bonus.   R: Let’s see how many I can edit out.   [both laughing]   R: This might just be Evie’s episode, co-host Evie.   K: So thanks everyone and we’ll see you in two weeks!   R: Talk to you next time.

In this episode we talk about The Unspoken Name by A. K. Larkwood, which is maybe our favorite wizards vs. lesbians tale (for now), and which is like the Locked Tomb meets Planescape, but with added Themes.

On this supersized super spooky Halloween special, we bring on returning guest Erin Barbeau to discuss the Locked Tomb Trilogy by Tamsyn Muir, which isn't especially trans but is very gay, and very spooky.  A transcript of this episode is available on our website, https://asabpodcast.com/2020/10/31/episode-12/ Erin can be found online @insectoidreview and @bug_wrangler on Twitter, at zir SFF review blog https://insectoidreviews.wordpress.com/, and on Instagram @caterpillar.creative.  Charles is on Twitter @cockroacharles and Tessa @spacermase.  The show is on Twitter @ASABpod and on our website asabpodcast.com.  Thank you for listening! 

Today we are discussing Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir! Buckle up, this is a confusing book and therefore episode! Please let us know what you think of the episode and show! If you missed our venture into The Locked Tomb listen here! (https://anchor.fm/AHero'sJourney/episodes/S1E10-Gideon-the-Ninth-ee8eea)   Contact us by email (AHerosJourneyPod@Gmail.com), on FaceBook (@aherosjourneypod), on Twitter (@A_Heros_Journey) and GoodReads (https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/111661863-a-hero-s-journey). Follow us for the latest news and updates. We hope you enjoy the show and come back next week! If you have time please rate and review wherever you are listening! Logo by Tree-X-Hugger, Editing by Alexander Merk and John Brinton