Podcasts about not your sidekick

This fortnight we're discussing “Not Your Sidekick” by C.B. Lee, the first book of the series "Sidekick Squad". The fourth book, "Not Your Hero" comes out at the end of August 2021. TITLE: Not Your Sidekick AUTHOR: C.B. Lee PUBLISHER: Duet YEAR: 2016 LENGTH: 304 pages AGE: Young Adult GENRE: Dystopian, Science Fiction, Superheroes RECOMMENDED: Highly Book TW for ableist language (brief), vomit (brief), racism, kidnapping, violence, death (not depicted). Topic 1: Schoolkids - Gaslighting. Begins at (1:35), CW for gaslighting, lying, Topic 2: Abby - kidnapping. Begins at (12:40), CW for kidnapping. Topic 3: Jess - Betrayal. Begins at (21:12), CW for brief discussion of racism. Promo for CPOV RobCast; Spoiler-free wrap-up and ratings: Begins at (27:45). --- If you'd like to make a monthly donation, please check us out on Patreon. To make a one-time donation please support us on Ko-Fi. For fortnightly news and updates, as well as links to recent written reviews, subscribe to our newsletter. You can check out Robin's written review of the book at Reviews That Burn. Find all our links on our Carrd. Music provided by HeartBeatArt and is used with permission. Members of the Certain Point of View network of podcasts.

In this episode, your librarians, Brittney and Joshua, offer some book recommendations for a younger reader who likes Mystery and Science Fiction.Brittney recommends: Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus by Dusti BowlingAli Cross series by James PattersonJoshua recommends:Not Your Sidekick by C. B. LeeThe Last 8 by Laura PohlLinks in the episodeCommon Sense Media where you can review movies, TV shows and books for age-appropriateness and trigger warnings.Hangry for your very own reader's advisory? You can reach us at Starships@coosbaylibrary.org

This week Maggie and Harmony become socio-political commentators as they attempt to make sense of the attempted coup in Washington D.C. that occurred on Jan. 6, 2021. They talk about these events through major themes that occur in the book Not Your Sidekick by C.B. Lee. In this episode: https://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2015/may/06/why-ya-books-about-politics-election-always-dystopian https://dystopianyaliterature.weebly.com/common-themes.html https://bookriot.com/what-is-speculative-fiction/ https://www.masterclass.com/articles/what-is-speculative-fiction-defining-and-understanding-the-different-genres-of-speculative-fiction#subgenres-of-speculative-fiction https://bookriot.com/10-ways-post-election-america-is-a-dystopian-ya-novel/ https://bookriot.com/bring-back-dystopian-ya/ https://www.verywellmind.com/effects-of-collective-trauma-5071346 https://www.psychologicalscience.org/news/collective-trauma-and-disaster-stress-research-publicly-available.html https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/lifting-the-veil-trauma/202005/what-is-collective-trauma What we're reading: The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow https://bookshop.org/a/9908/9780316422048 Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia https://bookshop.org/a/9908/9780525620778 To follow our episode schedule go here https://medium.com/rebel-girls-book-club/read-along-with-the-show-bde1d80a8108 Follow our social media pages at Instagram https://www.instagram.com/rgbcpod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/RebelGirlsBookClub/ Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/101801516-rebel-girls and Twitter https://twitter.com/RebelGirlsBook1 Or you can email us at RebelGirlsBookClub@gmail.com. Our theme song is by The Gays and our image is by Mari Talor Renaud-Krutulis. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/rgbc/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/rgbc/support

This week, we discuss Not Your Sidekick by C.B. Lee!   Next Time: Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz. Follow Us! Tumblr: shelfcontrolpod.tumblr.com Instagram: @shelfcontrolpod Twitter: @shelfcontrolpod Facebook: facebook.com/shelfcontrolpod   Theme Music: "Bright Wish" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Weil es klingt, als hätten wir diese Episode aus dem Inneren einer Cola-Dose aufgenommen, haben wir uns entschieden, diese Diskussion durch die Valerian-Episode zu ersetzen. Zwar konnten wir auch mit diversen Filtern nicht alles retten, aber wir wollten Euch diese dreiviertel Stunde auch nicht völlig vorenthalten. Und weil es kurz vor Weihnachten ist und wir mit unseren bisherigen Episoden die 100 Downloads geknackt haben, gibt es hier jetzt noch etwas zu Hergé. Dennis ist kein Fan.

Harmony and Maggie discuss up to pg. 136, September 18th the waning moon, of The Witches of New York. We talk the maiden archetype, Insta-love, cultural appropriation, violence against women, gay relationships in the 1800s, abortion, the use of of a certain word to describe Romani people and more. In this episode: “Eight women on abortion” by Harmony Birch https://link.medium.com/PqgbD44rlZ Amy Sherman Paladino "I’ve been helped in my career more by men than women. Always." https://www.elle.com/culture/movies-tv/a13957186/amy-sherman-palladino-interview-marvelous-mrs-maisel-gilmore-girls/ What we're reading: City of Blades by Robert Jackson Bennett http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23909755-city-of-blades The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12401556-the-age-of-miracles Queering the Tarot by Cassandra Snow http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41805298-queering-the-tarot Not Your Sidekick by C.B. Lee http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29904219-not-your-sidekick Follow our social media pages at Instagram https://www.instagram.com/rgbcpod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/RebelGirlsBookClub/ and Twitter https://twitter.com/RebelGirlsBook1 Or you can email us at RebelGirlsBookClub@gmail.com. Our theme song is by The Gays and our image is by Mari Talor Renaud-Krutulis. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/RGBC/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/RGBC/support

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

“Very good then, Mr. McGinnis. Welcome to My World”   This week begins our run on the beloved fan favorite series, Batman Beyond Featuring:  A new Batman emerges to fight crime in Neo-Gotham Plus: We write a happier ending for Bruce   0:00 Intro / Rebirth, Parts 1&2 12:27 News 23:51 Back to Rebirth 1:00:03 Notes From Friends 1:13:36 Bat Plugs 1:22:07 Outro   Bat Plugs: Justice League #2 by Scott Snyder on Amazon http://a.co/08pA7I0 and your local comic shop! Not Your Sidekick by C.B. Lee on Amazon http://a.co/1Ax57TL Less: A Novel (Winner of the Pulitzer Prize) by Andrew Sean Greer http://a.co/65a4JqG Hannah Gadsby: Nanette https://www.netflix.com/title/80233611   Intro Music by Ardeshir Adhami Intro SFX by Grant Evans via Soundbible.com   Subscribe and review on iTunes! http://bit.ly/TimmTalk   Follow the podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/timmtalkpod IG: https://www.instagram.com/timmtalkpod Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/timmtalkpod/ Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/timmtalkspotify YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/timmtalkyoutube   Follow Cameron on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cameron.dexter and https://www.instagram.com/camdexter_adventures   Follow Chris on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lordopher/ and Twitter: https://twitter.com/Lordopher   Check out Chris’ new podcast, Gay it Forward, where he learns to be a better gay, on iTunes http://bit.ly/GIFPod, Facebook http://bit.ly/GIFPodFB, Twitter http://bit.ly/GIFPodTW, and Instagram http://bit.ly/GIFPodIG

Hey! It's a bonus episode of Books & Boba, featuring an interview that Marvin conducted at last week's San Diego Comic-Con with some of our favorite Asian American authors, CB Lee (Not Your Sidekick), Sarah Kuhn (Heroine Complex), and RF Kuang (The Poppy War). We talk about what it's like to be an author at SDCC, the joys of writing own-voices Asian characters, and how awesome the Asian American Lit community is. This interview was originally posted on the KollabCast (Episode 173 – San Diego Comic-Con 2018 Part 1) For additional thoughts and discussion visit the Books & Boba Goodreads forums This Episode's Hosts: Marvin Yueh (@marvinyueh), Host This Episode's Guest: Sarah Kuhn, author of Heroine Complex (@sarahkuhn) CB Lee, author of Not Your Sidekick (@author_cblee) RF Kuang, author of The Poppy War (@kuangrf) The Books & Boba July 2018 pick is A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki Follow us: Facebook Twitter Goodreads Group This podcast is part of Potluck: An Asian American Podcast Collective

On this episode we chat with C.B. Lee, the author of the Books and Boba June 2018 pick Not Your Sidekick. C.B. shares about switching careers from academia to writing fiction, and how she created a world centered on a group of queer superheroes who also happen to be people of color. We also talk about our favorite scenes from the first book, gush about the Asian American literature community, and the touch on the importance of addressing mental health in Asian communities. For additional thoughts and discussion visit the Books & Boba Goodreads forums This Episode's Hosts: Reera Yoo (@reeraboo), Host Marvin Yueh (@marvinyueh), Host This Episode's Guest: C.B. Lee, Author of Not Your Sidekick (@author_cblee) The Books & Boba July 2018 pick is A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki Follow us: Facebook Twitter Goodreads Group This podcast is part of Potluck: An Asian American Podcast Collective

On this episode, we discuss the Books & Boba Book Club pick for June2018, Not Your Sidekick by CB Lee, a post-dystopia superhero story about a girl from a family of superheroes with no "superpowers." We discuss how even in a superpowered future, it's hard to live up to the expectations on your immigrant superhero parents, and how refreshing it is to read a story centered on a queer POC character where being queer or POC isn't the conflict. For additional thoughts and discussion on the monthly pick, visit the Books & Boba Goodreads forums. This Month's Book Club Panelists: Reera Yoo (@reeraboo) Marvin Yueh (@marvinyueh) Follow us: Facebook Twitter Goodreads Group The Books & Boba July 2018 pick is A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki This podcast is part of Potluck: An Asian American Podcast Collective

It's the middle of June and we have your latest book news in our mid month check in. Also our new website has LAUNCHED so please check it out at booksandboba.com! Don't forget, the Books & Boba May 2018 pick is Not Your Sidekick by CB Lee For additional thoughts and discussion on the monthly pick, visit the Books & Boba Goodreads group. Follow the hosts: Reera Yoo (@reeraboo) Marvin Yueh (@marvinyueh) Follow the Book Club: Website Facebook Twitter Goodreads Group This podcast is part of Potluck: An Asian American Podcast Collective

In Episode 45, Heather and Bennett discuss CB Lee's "Not Your Sidekick" and the movie A Quiet Place starring John Krasinski and Emily Blunt. Also discussed: Mark Oshiro, the French Open, Kelly Clarkson, Tom Holland, Vladimir Guerrero Jr, the NFL, Morgan Freeman, ICE, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Discworld, Annihilation, Kickass, Avengers: Infinity War, Autoboyography, Buffy, Teen Wolf, Avatar: the Last Airbender, Taika Waititi, Solo, Boba Fett, Spiderman: Homecoming, the Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Hate U Give, Michelle Obama, Isabel Allende, Jurassic World Evolution, Timothee Chalamet, Dietland, Joe Hill, and Jennifer Garner.

On this episode, we discuss the Books & Boba Book Club pick for May 2018, The Leavers by Lisa Ko, a story of a Chinese-American boy dealing with his adoption by well-meaning white parents after his mother's deportation. We discuss the parallels between the dual narratives as well as what the title "The Leavers" really means. To help us with the adoptee perspective, we invite book club member and contributor Lily Rugo, who herself is a Chinese adoptee. For additional thoughts and discussion on the monthly pick, visit the Books & Boba Goodreads forums. This Month's Book Club Panelists: Reera Yoo (@reeraboo) Marvin Yueh (@marvinyueh) Lily Rugo (@Lily_Rugo) Follow us: Facebook Twitter Goodreads Group The Books & Boba May2018 pick is Not Your Sidekick by C.B. Lee This podcast is part of Potluck: An Asian American Podcast Collective

C.B. Lee and I take a deep dive into intersectionality, Asian diaspora characters, bisexual erasure, and whitewashing. Plus, superheroes – all the superheroes! You can keep up with Carrie at cb-lee.com, on Twitter at @author_cblee, or on Instagram at @cblee_cblee. Her books are NOT YOUR SIDEKICK, NOT YOUR VILLAIN, and SEVEN TEARS AT HIGH TIDE. I'm on Twitter at @Brianna_daSilva, and I host the monthly #FemalesinFantasy chat at @femalesnfantasy. Become a co-creator at patreon.com/femalesinfantasy for bonus content, a chance to shape the show, and access to an exclusive online book club!

Jeff and Phil welcome CB Lee, author of the YA superhero novel Not Your Sidekick. They discuss Claudia Kishi of the Babysitters Club, the questionable curious true identity of Akira Yoshida, and the complexities of authorship and authenticity.

Recorded live during the Asian American ComiCon Summit on Art, Action, and the Future. We've seen so many different kinds of futures unfurl in pop culture, and many of them have people of color and LGBTQ individuals as backdrop and "local color." What would a truly diverse, inclusive and intersectional future really look like? Moderated by Keith Chow, panelists include: Steven Barnes (Sci-Fi writer, The Legacy of Heorot and the Dream Park series, with Larry Niven); CB Lee (author Not Your Sidekick); Arune Singh (VP of Marketing, BOOM! Studios); LaToya Morgan (writer for AMC's Into The Badlands); Marc Bernardin (Fatman on Baman podcast; writer, Castle Rock). All this and more on Hard NOC Life! Watch it on your screen, hit "play," and check this. As always, our official theme music is brought to you by the super team of Adam WarRock and Chops