Podcast appearances and mentions of Terry Brooks

Terry Brooks is joined by Larry Craig, Executive Committee member of the Kosair for Kids Board of Directors and owner of Craig & Landreth Cars; Dr. Jerry Rabalais, member of the Kosair for Kids Advisory Council and Emeritus Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Louisville; and Dr. Shannon Moody, Chief Policy & Strategy Officer at Kentucky Youth Advocates and lead of the Kosair for Kids Face It Movement.They discuss the state of state on child maltreatment and fatalities, a continued focus on going upstream in prevention efforts, and Face It's efforts to encourage everyone to play a role in ending child abuse in the Commonwealth. Get involved with the Kosair for Kids Face It Movement at faceitabuse.org. Thank you to Aetna Better Health of Kentucky for supporting the Making Kids Count Podcast. Visit AetnaMedicaidKY.com/choose to learn more about their health care benefits and programs designed with your family's wellbeing in mind.

In this week's episode, I take a look at some of the historical influences & inspirations that went into my new book GHOST IN THE ASSEMBLY. This coupon code will get you 25% off SILENT ORDER: OMNIBUS ONE at my Payhip store: SILENT25 The coupon code is valid through April 7th, 2025. So if you need a new book to read for spring, we've got you covered! TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Updates   Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 244 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is March 21st, 2025, and today we are looking at some of the historical influences that went into Ghost in the Assembly. Before we get into that, we will do Coupon of the Week and an update my current writing and audiobook projects. And then Question of the Week, which we did have time for this week.   This week's coupon code will get you 25% off the ebook of Silent Order: Omnibus One at my Payhip store. That coupon code is SILENT25. I'll have the links and the coupon code in the show notes. This coupon code is valid through April 7, 2025, so if you need a new book to read for these spring months, we have got you covered.   Now an update on my current writing projects. I am 44,000 words into Shield of Battle, the fifth book in the Shield War series. I'm hoping to have that out towards the end of April, if all goes well. A reminder that the Shield War series will be six books, so Shield the Battle will be the second to last one. I have also started on the sequel to Ghost in the Assembly, and I am 4,000 words into that, give or take. I had originally planned to call this book Ghost in the Assassins, but I thought that sounded too similar to Ghost in the Assembly. So the fifth book in the Ghost Armor series will be called Ghost in the Corruption. A reminder that Ghost Armor will be six books long and Ghost in the Corruption will be the fifth of six books, so the second to last book in that series as well.   In audio news, recording has started for Shield of Deception and Ghost in the Assembly. Shield of Deception will be excellently narrated by Brad Wills and Hollis McCarthy will excellently narrate Ghost in the Assembly. I expect both of them will probably be out sometime towards the end of May if all goes well, given how long it usually takes to record an audiobook.   In Stealth and Spells Online news, I am 68,000 words into the third and final book in this trilogy. Once Ghost Armor and Shield War are complete, then I will hopefully release the final book in the Stealth and Spells Online because I've been working on that as a tertiary project for quite a long time now. So that's where I'm at with my current writing and audiobook projects.   00:02:17 Question of the Week   Now let's move on to Question of the Week. Question of the Week is of course designed to inspire enjoyable discussions of interesting topics. This week's question, what is your favorite style of fantasy setting (like a more high fantasy, one like Middle Earth or the Forgotten Realms, urban fantasy like the Dresden Files or Kate Daniels or more steampunk like Everon and so on)? No wrong answers, obviously.   And as you can imagine this inspired quite a few responses.   Perry says: Hyperborea! Lankhmar is up there as well. Setting where magic is rare, and usually dangerous or evil. The first edition of the Forgotten Realms (the grey box from the ‘80s) was great. Enough detail to let you use the setting, lots of room to make it your own. Then all the Forgotten Realms novels started to appear with the release of the second edition in the ‘90s and everybody in the world suddenly had powerful magic at their fingertips. Elminster, the Seven Sisters, Drizz't, and others took the appeal right out of the setting for me.   Joachim says: I like the Spelljammer Campaign setting best. A lot of great modules. It seemed it was not overly successful. A shame. I had a campaign running in this setting with some people who liked it. In addition to the Spelljammer modules, you can easily transfer any normal module centered on a small town onto an asteroid.   Evan says: A huge Sanderson Cosmere fan here, especially Stormlight Archive. I like the magical progression tied in to character development, with a bit of mystery of how things work or an unknown that takes time to unwind or tease out.   Justin says: My problem here is separating the settings from the authors. Given that near impossibility, I would cast my vote for high fantasy with a bit of techno/steampunk mixed in. Example – Andre Norton's Witch World.   Bonnie says: I seem to gravitate towards the swords and sorcery genre like Frostborn, but I also enjoyed the urban fantasy/Nadia and the other genres. I have to thank you for introducing me to all of these.   Michael says: Okay, Jonathan, that's the second time I've noticed you indicating a preference for sword and sorcery saga where a barbarian hero travels between corrupt city states and now I really, really want you to write this. And yeah, that's definitely my favorite type of setting too.   Simone says: Definitely urban fantasy. Even in your books, which offer an unusual variety of fantasy settings, I find I enjoy the Cloak series the best.   Roger says: Being an old fogey, I prefer high fantasy always. Can't seem to get my head around urban fantasy. It jars with me.   John says: While I enjoy all settings, I'm also a traditionalist and want a non-industrial, non punk setting without some sprawling empire, more like the aftermath of empire with multiple successor states.   Jonathan T. says: Personally, Star Wars has always been fantasy in a science fiction setting, and that remains a personal favorite. Other than that, I suppose I'm for high fantasy, although I'm not opposed to high fantasy slapstick either such as the Wuntvor trilogy. At some point I must try again to surmount the obstacle known as The Wheel of Time.   Catriona says: Epic and high fantasy are my favorite, enjoy Dark Fantasy, too. Urban fantasy is a hard pass for me.   Juana says: Sword and sorcery, parfait gentle knights, medieval societies, historical fiction like Doyle's The White Company and Sir Nigel. Wherever Nadia lives.   Justin says: Sword and sorcery, magical creatures/beasts. Definitely needs different environments like cities and wild mountains and forests. Not sure what genre that is, but that's what I like.   MG says: High fantasy.   Brandy says: I like ones with a clearly defined map. Sometimes it seems like the world wasn't thought about clearly, so it makes it hard to imagine and I find those stories the least successful. The ones I go back to repeatedly, the ones I read over and over or pimp out to other authors or groups are those I feel like they have a great structure and map, even if it's added on to later. So high, low, or middle, I just really just want the author to tell a great story and make it a great one.   Speaking as an author myself, I really dislike drawing maps, but fantasy readers really like maps, so that's why I have been doing more and more maps lately.   Pauline says: Urban fantasy is definitely my favorite.   Jeremy says: High Fantasy is my favorite. However, my favorite fantasy author is Terry Brooks. His series is Low Fantasy based on Earth. I found out years after reading the series LOL.   For myself, I think my favorite would be a pre-industrial setting with a lot of city-states and various dangerous magic, like you have a barbarian hero wandering from city-state to city-state with monster infested ruins and wilderness between them. When he gets to the city states, he can fight corrupt sorcerers, arrogant nobles, and thieves guilds, and then move on to a new adventure in the next book. So basically a sword and sorcery style setting. So that's it for Question of the Week.   00:06:30 Main Topic of the Week: Ghost in the Assembly: Inspirations and Sources (Note: Spoilers for Ghost in the Assembly!)   This week and now onto our main topic, Ghost in the Assembly inspirations and sources that went into the book. I should mention that this episode contains mild spoilers for Ghost in the Assembly. So if you have not finished reading Ghost in the Assembly yet, stop listening and go finish reading Ghost in the Assembly.   So I thought it would be interesting to talk about some of the ideas and influences that went into Ghost in the Assembly. I have to admit, it took me a few years of thinking between Ghost Night and Ghost Armor to figure out how to write more Caina stories because Caina had become a political figure by the end of Ghost Night and political figures typically do bad things for personal advancement and then lie about it. That is in some ways the essential definition of a political figure. This of course, is hard for a writer to use as a sympathetic protagonist.   Of course, I eventually realized the way around this, the success of a political figure cannot be judged by their personal morality or even their political morality, but by the results of their decisions. Did they do the most for the greatest good of their people? Therefore, I just needed to write a political figure who did somewhat sketchy things (like subverting the Kyracian houses via buying up their debt) in the name of the greater good of the people (defending them from the impending attack of the Red Krakens).   I frequently said that if you want to write a good fantasy novel, you should try to stick to about 15 to 25% of the actual harshness of the past. I don't think you want to go full Grimdark, but you don't want your fantasy world to be indistinguishable from a typical 21st century parliamentary democracy because I think that kind of defeats the purpose of fantasy where you want to visit a world that is eldritch and strange and at least somewhat different than our own. So for Ghost in the Assembly, I went to about 15 to 25% of the experience of ancient Greek democracy. For the entire time that New Kyre and the Kyracians have been in the series (Ghost in the Storm was way the heck back in 2012 and the Kyracians were mentioned before that), they've always been very loosely based on the democracy of ancient Athens. In fact, the very name Assembly of New Kyre comes from ancient Athens, where the gathering of voting citizens was called the ecclesia, which translates into English as assembly. Interestingly, this is also the origins of the word ecclesiastical in terms of a church since one of the first words for the church was ecclesia in the sense of the assembly of the believers in Christ.   Athens wasn't the first ancient Greek democracy, but it was one of the most successful. It was also one of the democracies that self-destructed in the most spectacularly dramatic fashion possible. The Athenians decided to convert the Delian League from an alliance of city-states into their own private empire. A demagogue convinced them to waste enormous resources attacking Syracuse and Sicily, which ended disastrously. The Athenians were eventually defeated by the more militaristic Spartans.   People have debated for centuries whether or not this means democracy is inferior to the Spartans' harsher system, but that overlooks the key fact that a few decades later, Athens, Sparta, and all the rest of the Greek city-states were conquered by the Macedonians anyway. I suppose the actual historical lesson is that a city-state, regardless of its government, is no match for a larger centralized state with better leaders and better military organization. In fact, historically city-states tend to eventually get subsumed into larger political entities. If they last for a long time, it tends to be because of geography (like in ancient Greece) or because of weak and or remote central authority like the medieval Italian city-states, which were ostensibly under the authority of the Holy Roman emperor but in practice tended to do whatever they wanted. Places like modern Vatican City tend to be special exceptions.   Caina's criticism of the assembly of New Kyre in the book is that it is not as egalitarian as it pretends and is easily swayed by both demagogues and bribes. The Athenian assembly of citizens had both these problems, but far worse. You needed to have a substantial level of property to be allowed to vote, and there were numerous examples of the votes swinging on bribes or last minute orations. The Athenian assembly was easily swayed into making bad decisions, such as supporting the disastrous attack on Syracuse during the Peloponnesian War that was the start of Athens' downfall.   In Ghost in the Assembly, Lady Eirenea Tritos is one of the nine chief magistrates of the city, but in an Athenian democracy, women were not allowed to vote and most definitely were not allowed to hold political office. The ancient Greeks in general did not have a very high opinion of women. One Greek orator said that men had wives to produce legitimate heirs, concubines to attend to the body's “daily needs”, and prostitutes for pleasure.   Because of things like that, I thought a setting with a hundred percent of the harshness of ancient Greece would be off-putting to the reader. So as I said, I shot for between 15 and 25% of the actual harshness. New Kyre is definitely richer, better governed, and less elitist and chauvinistic than the ancient Greeks. That said, New Kyre isn't an egalitarian place. Nobles have vastly more rights and money than commoners, and both nobles and commoners own slaves and only the poorest commoners own no slaves themselves. Indeed, slavery is so common in New Kyre that the other nobles see Kylon's decision that House Kardamnos will have no slaves as a sign of malevolent and sinister foreign influence.   Kalliope's fear that she could be dispossessed and Kylon simply take her children is very real. If Kylon wanted, he probably could keep Kalliope from seeing Nikarion and Zoe ever again, though that would inevitably put him in conflict with Lysikas Agramemnos and Calliope is charismatic enough to powerful allies to her side. If Kylon did in fact refuse to allow Kalliope to see their children, he might well set off a civil war. But Kylon, who lost both his parents when he was young, doesn't want to deprive his children of a loving mother.   Of course, the ancient Greeks never had to fight the Red Krakens and orcs. The Red Krakens, the Caphtori, are kind of written like snake-worshipping Vikings. In fact, Caphtori are inspired by the “Sea Peoples”, pirates that seem to have contributed to the collapse of Bronzes Age civilization. Historians argue endlessly about the impact of the Sea Peoples or whether they existed at all, but if they did exist, they might well have been proto-Ancient Greeks, perhaps Mycenaean in origin.   Since having one ancient Greek-esque group fighting another would've been confusing in the book, I made the Caphtori/Red Kraken more like Vikings, which I suppose is a bit of historical anachronism, but Ghost Armor is a constructed world with elves, orcs, and sorcerers, so it's not like I'm writing period accurate historical fiction here.   So these are some of the influences that went into Ghost in the Assembly. I don't have any grand concluding point here. Those were just some of the ideas I thought about and went into the story. Though I should mention that for a while I was a graduate student in medieval history and I hated the experience so much I left and went into IT instead. That said ,decades later it has proven a useful source of plot ideas for fantasy novels, so it worked out in the end.   One final note, a reader suggested that Kalliope Agramemnos and Mardun Scorneus might hook up in later books. And I have to admit, I laughed at that suggestion. Kalliope would react with dismay at the thought of marrying anyone other than an extremely high ranking Kyracian noble, and at the prospect of marrying Kalliope, Mardun would think about it, fake his death, and flee back to the Empire, preferring to take his chances with the Magisterium rather than Kalliope. Anyway, thank you to everyone who has read Ghost in the Assembly. I am very grateful that so many people have enjoyed the book.   So that is it for this week. Thank you for listening to The Pulp Writer Show. I hope you found the show useful. A reminder that you can listen to all back episodes of the show on https://thepulpwritershow.com. If you enjoyed the podcast, please leave your review on your podcasting platform of choice. Stay safe and stay healthy and see you all next week.  

It's finally time. Time for Terry Brooks' exceedingly strange Tolkien knock-off (by way of MTV)

Terry Brooks and Alicia Whatley are joined by state Senator Jimmy Higdon and Delanie Crump, a high school freshman from Boyd County, for a discussion on the state of youth vaping in Kentucky. They also discuss the impact Senate Bill 100 could have on holding retailers accountable for selling nicotine and tobacco products to youth under age 21 and ultimately curbing youth vaping in the Commonwealth. SB 100 is a Blueprint for Kentucky's Children priority bill focused on enforcing the Tobacco-21 law and is currently awaiting action by the Kentucky House of Representatives. Find more information on SB 100 and how to take action at kyyouth.org/bill-tracker/. Thank you to Aetna Better Health of Kentucky for supporting the Making Kids Count Podcast. Visit AetnaMedicaidKY.com/choose to learn more about their health care benefits and programs designed with your family's wellbeing in mind.

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover. To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button. You can find Sariah Wilson at her website www.sariahwilson.com or on IG - @sariahwilsonauthor   We chat this week with Sariah Wilson, the author of many, many rom-coms, who recently published her first romantasy titled A Tribute of Fire. A Tribute of Fire is inspired by the myth of Cassandra who, if you remember, is the Trojan princess who was cursed with the ability to see the future but no one believes her. Sariah's story focuses on Cassandra's assault in Athena's temple by Greek hero Ajax and the resulting punishment which is that two maidens from Ajax's home, Locris, will be sacrified. How exactly, this punishes Ajax, I'm not sure, but such is Greek myth.    Sariah talks to us about her favorite romance trope (which she hardly ever writes herself), the whirlwind backstory to the publishing of this book, and how the popularity of The Fourth Wing series really cracked open a whole new world for romance writers.   And for our book recommendations, we're going to share some children's picture books that have stories and illustrations we love. Earlier this month was National Picture Book Authors & Illustrators Week, but we don't think you need a special week as an excuse to read a delightful picture book.    Books Mentioned in this Episode:   1- A Tribute of Fire by Sariah Wilson 2- The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks   3- A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes   4- The Schwa was Here by Neal Shusterman   5- Greek and Roman Warfare: Battles, Tactics, and Trickery by John Drogo Mortagu   6- A Monsoon Rising by Thea Gaunzon   7- Roland Rogers Isn't Dead Yet by Samantha Leigh Allen   8- A Book Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Corinne @she.loves.bookshelves - A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas   9- Little Golden Book, The Christmas Story  10-  Little Golden Book, Colors Are Nice  11- Little Golden Book Riddles, Riddles From A to Z 12- Little Golden Book,  Mickey Mouse Picnic 13- Disney's World of Wonders The Magic Grinder 14- The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats 15- Ferdinand the Bull by Munro Leaf 16- The Mitten by Jan Brett 17- Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett 18- The Monster at the End of This Book by Jon Stone   19- The Water Hole by Graeme Base   20- Uno's Garden by Graeme Base   21- Animalia by Graeme Base   22- The Verts: A Story of Introverts and Extroverts by Anne Patchett, illustrated by Robin Preiss Glaser   23- Quiet by Susan Cain   24- Mimi's Dada Catifesto by Shelley Jackson 25- Oh, Bear by Melissa Nelson Greenberg. illustrated by Ruth Hengeveld 26- Boobies by Nancy Vo 27- The Cafe at the Edge of the Woods by Mickey Please 28- The Cave Downwind of the Cafe by Mickey Please 29- Shakespeare The Tempest by Georghia Ellinas, illustrated by Jane Ray   Media mentioned--   1- Stephen King/Maurice Sendak upcoming children's book - https://apnews.com/article/stephen-king-maurice-sendak-hansel-gretel-c9f8c7e18254d1e406b59e0ebe3cd20b 2- Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey - coming in 2026 -  https://variety.com/2025/film/news/the-odyssey-matt-damon-odysseus-christopher-nolan-1236311018/   3- The Return (2024)  

Terry Brooks is joined by members of Kentucky Youth Advocates' policy team - Shannon Moody, Alicia Whatley, and Cortney Downs - to share updates on Blueprint for Kentucky's Children 2025 policy priorities and insights on the Frankfort landscape and the impact on kids' issues. Find details on each of the bills discussed at kyyouth.org/bill-tracker/. Thank you to Aetna Better Health of Kentucky for supporting the Making Kids Count Podcast. Visit AetnaMedicaidKY.com/choose to learn more about their health care benefits and programs designed with your family's wellbeing in mind.

Renee Shaw hosts a discussion about the economy, jobs and business issues with Andi Johnson, chief policy officer, Commerce Lexington; Jason Bailey, executive director, Kentucky Center for Economic Policy; Andrew McNeill, president, Kentucky Forum for Rights, Economics & Education (KYFREE); and Terry Brooks, executive director, Kentucky Youth Advocates.

Terry Brooks is joined by Kentucky's Attorney General Russell Coleman to discuss his office's role in convening diverse stakeholders on issues impacting kids and families, as well as ongoing efforts around the Opioid Settlement Fund, protecting kids online, and a substance use prevention campaign targeting youth. Thank you to Aetna Better Health of Kentucky for supporting the Making Kids Count Podcast. Visit AetnaMedicaidKY.com/choose to learn more about their health care benefits and programs designed with your family's wellbeing in mind.

Terry Brooks is joined by Kelly Pullen, Executive Director of the Aetna Better Health® of Kentucky's Supporting Kentucky Youth (SKY) program. We hear more about the long term impacts of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and the role Positive Childhood Experiences (PCEs) has in mitigating adversity. Terry and Kelly also reflect on the SKY program's ACEs prevention and intervention efforts and how all Kentuckians can play a role in preventing adversity and promoting resilience building among children. Aetna Better Health of Kentucky is the signature sponsor of the 2024 Kentucky KIDS COUNT Data Book and the Making Kids Count podcast. Visit AetnaMedicaidKY.com/choose to learn more about their health care benefits and programs designed with your family's wellbeing in mind.

Terry Brooks shares reflections on the first week of the 2025 Kentucky General Assembly, updates on Blueprint for Kentucky's Children policy priorities, and a call to action for advocates to speak up for kids throughout the short state legislative session. Find advocacy information and resources at kyyouth.org/blueprintKY. Thank you to Aetna Better Health of Kentucky for supporting the Making Kids Count Podcast. Visit AetnaMedicaidKY.com/choose to learn more about their health care benefits and programs designed with your family's wellbeing in mind.

Terry Brooks is joined by state Auditor of Public Accounts Allison Ball to discuss her roles as state Treasurer and Auditor. They also dive into the office of the Auditor's recent efforts that will impact some of Kentucky's most vulnerable kids: the successful transition of the Office of the Ombudsman, the ongoing assessment of Senate Bill 151 to support kinship families, and the ongoing investigation into incidents of children in foster care sleeping in DCBS offices. Thank you to Aetna Better Health of Kentucky for supporting the Making Kids Count Podcast. Visit AetnaMedicaidKY.com/choose to learn more about their health care benefits and programs designed with your family's wellbeing in mind.

In this week's episode, we conclude our November Writing Challenge with questions from beginner writers. We also check in with our transcriptionist and see how she did with the challenge. Bonus! The transcriptionist's official Writing Playlist: Now I'm in It-HAIM Build Me Up From Bones- Sarah Jarosz Outnumbered- Dermot Kennedy Pain is Cold Water- Noah Kahan Orpheus- Vincent Lima Flight Risk- Tommy Lefroy If I Don't See You Again- Wyatt Flores Brink of Love- Teddy Thompson The Wire- Patrick Droney Coming Home- Leon Bridges More Love- Sara Bareilles White Flag-JOSEPH TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Updates   Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 228th of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is November the 22nd, 2024, and today we are discussing the fourth and final part of our November Writing Challenge, which will answer questions from beginning writers. Before getting into that, we will have an update on my current writing and audiobook projects and our Question of the Week.   First up, Cloak of Illusion, as I mentioned last week, is now out. You can get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google Play, Apple Books, Smashwords, and my Payhip Store. There was a bit of a processing glitch on Kobo that slowed it down this week, but now the book should be available at Kobo, so if you're a Kobo reader, you can buy it for your Kobo reader or read it in Kobo Plus without any difficulty. Now that Cloak of Illusion is out (and selling very well, thank you all for that), my next project is Orc Hoard. That will be the fourth Rivah Half-Elven Thief book and I am 44,000 words into it (on chapter 10 of 18, which means I'm over halfway through). I very, very much want to have this book out before Christmas and I will be doing my best to make that happen. I am also about 2,000 words into Shield of Deception, which will be the fourth Shield War book (and hopefully will be my first book in 2025). The outline has 31 chapters, which means this will be the longest book I have tackled in a while, so I'm glad I'm getting kind of a head start on it as the secondary project while I work on Orc Hoard.   In audiobook news, as we mentioned last week, Shield of Conquest is out at all the audiobook stores (as excellently narrated by Brad Wills), and you can get that at your favorite audiobook store. In other good audiobook news, Cloak of Spears (as excellently narrated by Hollis McCarthy) is now out at all the audiobook stores and if you are looking for something to listen to on your long Thanksgiving drive or plane trip, I should mention that Cloak of Spears is about 12 hours long, so it will have you covered.   00:02:01: Question of the Week So that's where I'm at with my current writing and audiobook projects and let's move on now to Question of the Week. Question of the Week is designed to inspire enjoyable discussions of interesting topics and this week's question ties directly into what we just talked about: what do you do for entertainment while traveling (whether by car, plane, train or otherwise- podcasts, audiobooks, portable games, that kind of thing)? No wrong answers, obviously. The inspiration for this question, as you might guess, was the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, which for many people was a great deal of travel and finding ways to amuse yourself while traveling.   So in answer to this question, Justin says: music- classical, rock, movie scores, and video game tunes. If I'm traveling, I'm almost always driving. Music helps relax and entertain without demanding my attention.   Brett says: I read- very often one of your books. You've published 100+ books, but because I've read them multiple times, I may be at 1,000 plus reads of your books. (I got to say Brett has a good taste here.) If I'm driving, I don't usually have any entertainment.   Surabhi says: I love reading while traveling. Kindle is a nice advantage, being easy to carry, and I usually have easy to read books to read for traveling, which of course is why I have so many of your books in my Kindle Library. They're simple yet enjoyable to read.   I got to say Kindle does make traveling with books a lot easier. I remember in the old days all I had was space for two books to bring on a trip, and so I was trying to pick out which two books to bring. Venus says: Reading and geocaching.   Bonnie says: about all the traveling I've done recently is to work and back, usually local radio station and ‘80s music.   Juana says: so my dad drove like he was in NASCAR. Consequently, I read books, because I was not brave enough to watch death coming for us. The habit is still with me.   Darla says: riding in car listening to Sirius XM, looking at scenery or talking to the driver, driving by myself- listening to radio or CD music and singing. On an airplane, I read hard copy books or ebooks on my tablet, maybe try to sleep.   Cheryl says: read the Kindle, but mainly keep an eye on the road, even as a passenger. You never know what is going to jump out into a country highway here in Australia.   Ashley says: I listen to audiobooks while driving and that has made working overnights more bearable.   Adeline says: Apple's Books app on my phone has been my best friend while on the move for years-planes, trains, London's public transportation.   MW says: while driving, I listen to either music or a podcast. When I'm being a passenger, I love to read or draw. I'm always carrying my Kindle and my sketchbook everywhere, or I try to catch some sleep. I generally avoid conversing unless I'm actually traveling with someone, but even then I reserve some time for myself.   John says: audiobooks while driving, Kindle on my phone while flying or lounging around, physical books while camping, though I use the phone at night. I like to hang out in restaurants and pubs at the bar, reading books and talking to strangers. If there's a beach or river, occasionally fish and walk around either the city, beach, or trail.   Jenny says: all the books or podcasts/radio shows. BBC has a fun one I have on CD called Cabin Pressure. It's hilarious. And if I'm alone in the car, singing along at full volume with my singalong playlist.   Just a comment quick, I did listen to all of Cabin Pressure in 2022 and early 2023, and it is indeed hilarious and I recommend listening to it if you get the chance. JT says: when I travel, I generally intend to read and thus take several books. Instead, I listen to YouTube videos, audiobooks, music, play games, or nap. It is rather frustrating. Brandy says: I haven't been able to drive myself since 2010, so I generally read books, coordinate meds, snacks, and travel stops since my partner is diabetic and I am epileptic. I navigate, take pictures of interesting scenery for attempted art later, bug people through texts, and Facebook.   Barbara says: if I'm not driving, I usually just watch the traffic and scenery. Of course, depending on whom the driver is, I may just close my eyes so I don't panic. Unfortunately, I have to board an airplane in a couple of weeks for an out-of-state wedding. I'll distract myself from the agony of the flight by reading.   Morgan says: I don't travel much, but I'm a delivery driver for work and I do a lot of audiobooks and podcasts, especially tabletop RPG actual play podcasts. And Rob says: usually talk to the driver/navigate. If it's by bus or train. I read.   For myself, whenever I travel, most of the time I'm the one who's doing the driving, which obviously narrows down the entertainment options. So when I travel any long distances, I'm usually listening to audio books. A quirk I have with that is that I prefer to listen to audiobooks of books I've already read. So if I need to tune out the audiobook and focus on heavy traffic for a while, which happens often, then I don't feel like I'm missing anything.   00:06:30 Main Topic of the Week: November Writing Challenge Week 4   Now it's onto our main topic, the fourth and final week of our November Writing Challenge. As you know, if you've listened to the previous three episodes, our November Writing Challenge is sort of a let's call a low stress way to build a writing habit and get into writing and do writing because the traditional way of getting into writing in November, NaNoWriMo, may be a bit overwhelming for some people. If you feel like you're missing out when others are working on a bigger writing challenge this month, and if you want to start writing but feel overwhelmed, a smaller writing challenge for the absolute beginner- 300 words a day or some other small number of your choosing. The key is that it should be small and something you can manage daily. Follow along with our podcast transcriptionist who has never finished writing a book and feels overwhelmed at the idea of starting one. Follow her progress and see what advice I have for her and other beginner writers.   So with that in mind, let's start with our transcriptionist update for the fourth and final week of the challenge. She says, “I completed another week of the challenge. I averaged 355 words per day, taking an average of 14 minutes per day. It's getting easier as the challenge goes on this month. For my overall challenge, I averaged 363 words per day, taking an average of 14 minutes per day to finish my daily word count. I finished three chapters of a rough draft even in a month where a lot of things happened in real life that ordinarily would've kept me from trying. I plan to keep going with the challenge in December since it feels like a habit at this point.”   So as we can see, our transcriptionist had good results from the challenge and feels like she's gone a long way to build a consistent writing habit. As I've said before many times on the podcast, don't let the perfect be the enemy of the possible and the achievable. And if a 1,000 words or 1,600 words a day just seems overwhelming, 300 words a day might be far more achievable. So that might be something worth looking into. So now onto the questions I've been sent about writing from beginning writers. So we're going to go through these questions one by one.   #1: Do you listen to music while you write? Yes, I do. My preferred genre is soundtracks from movies, TV shows, and computer games that I like. And my listening habits tend to be a bit eclectic and not transferable to other people because if I talk to other people about my age, they prefer listening to bands they remember from their teenage years or their twenties. It's true for everyone, whatever the music you were listening to when you were a teenager and in your early twenties becomes the gold standard for music for the rest of your life, and nothing else can quite live into that. But for me, I prefer listening to soundtracks from movies, TV shows, and especially computer games I enjoy. For example, yesterday I was working on chapters 9 and 10 of Orc Hoard, and during that time I listened to the main theme from Dragon Age: The Veilguard like 15 times in a row. Am I going to play Dragon Age: The Veilguard? No, I don't have time for another computer game of that size, but I like Han Zimmer's music and have many of his soundtracks and I like the main theme to Dragon Age: The Veilguard, so I listen to it like 15 times in a row.   #2: Our next question: is writing fun for you most of the time? I would say it is fun for me most of the time. It's always an expenditure of energy, however. I mean there's always this temptation in the back of your mind or in my mind that I could knock off for the day and play Starfield all day, but then the words wouldn't get done, the books wouldn't get done, and then the books wouldn't sell, so I would have no money to pay my bills. So that is pretty good motivation to write for me. But we're talking about beginning writers here and I'd say it's important to recognize that writing should usually be fun, but it's not always going to be fun.   Creating anything, whether writing a book or writing a song or painting a picture or building a cabinet, whatever it is, is always going to take an expenditure of energy and it is a form of work. Even if it's not as difficult as compared to say digging ditches or doing open heart surgery, it is still a kind of work and therefore there are times when it will feel like work and you have to make yourself do it. If you absolutely hate writing and don't enjoy doing it at all, then by all means you should not be doing it. Go find something else to do that you enjoy and you'll be happier and healthier for it, but if you do enjoy writing most of the time, then that is probably a good place to be.   #3: Our next question: how do you know how much worldbuilding is too little or too much? That is a good question because worldbuilding is definitely one of those writing adjacent tasks that can really be something of a rabbit hole that writers go down and then don't actually get writing any writing done. And I would say the answer is simple. You need to do whatever the right amount of world building is just enough, which I realize is very glib and pat answer, but it's true. You just need to do just enough worldbuilding that the story will be interesting, so that there may be mysteries for the character to solve. Worldbuilding is a bigger deal in fantasy obviously, especially fantasy that deals entirely with secondary worlds where you've made up the entire world and the history and so forth. What you want to do is avoid info dumping. I did an earlier episode about that where the joke was that if contemporary novels written the way that a fantasy novel is written, when someone went to an American airport for the first time and they encountered the security checkpoint, one of the characters would stop and deliver a three page history of the TSA and airplane security procedures in the United States over the last 30 years, which is what you want to avoid. You want to do just enough world building that the story moves forward. You don't want to get bogged down into it. And depending on the nature of your story, you may want to keep some of the world building secret in order to help create a mystery that will hold the reader's interest and drive the plot forward. For fantasy novels, Brandon Sanderson is notoriously good at this where he'll design an elaborate magic system and keep part of it concealed from the reader, and then the reveal about the magic system or the nature of the world is part of the climax of the book. Even in contemporary novels like mysteries or thrillers, you can do that with world building since obviously mysteries and thrillers have their own fictional parts of the world that you construct as part of the world building and so you can have reveals about your fictional police department or fictional spy agency be part of the world building. So to sum up, just do enough world building that you can tell your story, but don't get bogged down in it.   #4: Our next question: what's something no one told you about writing but you wish they had? Well, that's a good question. I think the biggest thing that I wish someone had told me, but it turns out I probably would've had to learn it myself, is the extreme value of persistence plus time plus experience. I saw an interesting Tweet the other day that said that your twenties are basically like being a level one character in an RPG where you have no skills, no experience, and you need to spend all your time level grinding on boring and repetitive tasks in order to acquire the experience and skills that will carry you through your thirties, forties, fifties, and hopefully onward. That struck me as very true because in my case, I started self-publishing when I was about 30 and I obviously spent all of my twenties essentially learning how to self-publish even though I didn't know that what is what I was doing at the time because self-publishing in this current form hadn't come along yet. So as I was teaching myself to write novels and with my technology blog, teaching myself about how to write for the internet and search engines and so forth, I didn't realize it at the time, but I was acquiring these skills that would be very valuable to me in my thirties and forties as I continue self-publishing. So to sum up that question, I would say what I wish I had been told and really understood in my twenties when I was starting out was the value of persistence over time. Because if you look at it, the Grand Canyon is essentially water exercising persistence over time.   #5: Our next question: should I tell people I'm writing a book? Well, that is a tricky question and I would say the answer boils down to it depends, which again is a pat and glib answer, but it really does depend on your personal circumstances and your relationship with your family and friends as well. For one thing, a lot of people say they're going to do things and never do them. In fact, I'd say a lot of people who announced very loudly that they're going to lose weight or learn to draw or learn to write a book or learn to program, never actually get very far or give up on it. So there's something to be said for remaining quiet and just doing things and letting the results speak for themselves once they can no longer be kept quiet. I would also say it really does depend on your relationship with your family, friends, and spouse and/or life partner. If you have a spouse or life partner who is very supportive of your goals and is willing to encourage you, then it's a good idea to tell them. It's not a good idea to keep secrets in that kind of relationship. But if you suspect your spouse, boyfriend, girlfriend, or life partner is going to belittle and mock you, it might be a good idea to keep this to yourself. For your family and friends, it might, again, it really depends on the individual personalities involved in your relationship with them. Some friend groups and families have this very bad habit of crab bucket syndrome or tall poppy syndrome where if someone tries to exceed the overall average of the group, they try to pull them back down to their level. That's why you occasionally hear stories of someone who gives up drinking or loses a lot of weight ends up losing their friend group in their process because it turns out their friend group was based on excessive consumption of alcohol or excessive consumption of food and something like that might occur with your friends and family as well. So I would say, on balance, it probably would be best to keep it to yourself unless you think your friends, family, and a significant other would be encouraging and welcoming of your efforts in this endeavor. But as always, it depends and your mileage may vary.   #6: Our next question is a pretty interesting one that people ask frequently: how long until I can become a full-time author? Now this is again a very complicated question that boils down to your circumstances, and once again, the answer is it depends. Terry Brooks, when he wrote a writing advice book about 20 years ago, said that his editor, Lester del Rey, advised him not to go full-time until he had a year's salary in the bank, and that was 40 years ago. Nowadays, I would say at the bare minimum of going full time is you want to have a year's full salary in the bank and you would want to be making at least 40% more than you would be from your day job. Why 40%? Because once you are self-employed, especially in the US, you are responsible for paying a lot of things that your employer usually does, such as a variety of taxes and insurance costs. Also it's a very good idea, especially in the US, to have some sort of savings for retirement such as a 401K or something similar because there's absolutely no guarantee Social Security is going to be around by the time you retire. So I would say those are the absolute bare minimum before you would even think about doing this is to have a year's salary in the bank and you are making 40% more than your day job on a consistent basis. Again, it might be something you don't want to consider doing at all and you would need to ask yourself, why do you want to be a full-time author? Would it be the prestige of it? Would it be the fact that you really hate your day job? I have to say the reality of being a full-time author is often quite different than the fantasy people have of it, and that there have in fact been many authors who very successfully wrote while also maintaining day jobs. Anthony Trollope very famously wrote for two hours every morning before he went to work for the British Postal Service, and he did that his entire career and some of his books are remembered as classics of English literature to this day. Glenn Cook the fantasy author worked at a GM plant the entire time he was a writer because the benefits and pension were quite good. J.R.R. Tolkien was famously a professor of philology for his entire professional career and he wrote on the side and that became Lord of the Rings. So there's absolutely nothing wrong with keeping a full-time job and also writing on the side as you're comfortable doing so. So some writers have gone full-time, especially since the indie revolution started, found they absolutely hated it and then went back to working a day job and working and writing on the side. And again, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. And for many people it is in fact a very good idea, especially if you have children, more than one child (children are expensive) and they need medical care or if you or another family member has a sort of chronic condition and it helps to have it covered by your employer's health insurance. So again, I hate to keep saying this, but it really does boil down to your personal circumstances and whether it's the right fit for you and your family and your financial situation or not. For myself, I'll give a few examples for my own life here. For myself, I've been a full-time writer for over eight years now. I've been very fortunate to be able to do that. Thank you all for buying the books and helping me to do that. I think my personality is pretty well suited to that because I have absolutely no problems writing for most of the day the way when many writers would find uncomfortable, and I have no problem doing a 6,000 word days or higher on a regular basis. That said, it was not originally my plan to be a full-time writer. I had originally planned to keep my day job and write on the side, but due to family circumstances, I had to move to a different state. And at the time I thought I could look for a different job or I could give full-time writing a go and see what happens, and I gave full-time writing a go and it's worked out pretty well for the last eight years. Thank you. So for me, in my circumstances at the time and the time since going full-time made sense and was a good choice. But again, and I hate to keep saying it, but it really does depend on your personal circumstances, finances, and family situation.   #7: Now our last question, does piracy and AI mean that people won't be able to make money writing anymore? The answer to that is a big old no. Let's address those one at a time-first, piracy. Piracy has been around since the existence of the internet. It is older than the internet. Both J.R.R. Tolkien and Charles Dickens had American publishers who ripped off their works and made bootleg copies of them that led to a bunch of lawsuits. So piracy is nothing new. The internet has just made it easier, and we know that the way to beat piracy is to make getting your books easier and more convenient than it would be to pirate them. There's always going to be a level of people who pirate stuff no matter what. And to be frank, you should not consider that being lost sales because the people who pirate everything are going to pay for anything anyway, though I've had a few readers email from me from time to time saying that they did pirate my stuff and felt bad about it and eventually went on to become regular readers and paying customers. So there's really nothing you can do to stop piracy and it's kind of futile to try and fight it. I do know one indie writer who spent hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to shut down pirate sites, and it was, in my opinion, while that was a noble fight, it was a tremendous waste of money. So piracy, it's best not to worry too much about it. It is one of those things like retail shrink (which is what the big box retailers call shoplifting) that is always going to be with us. The way as an indie author to fight that is to make your work as available as on many paying platforms as possible so that it's very easy for people to get it legitimately.   While AI is a big deal, I think it is somewhat overrated, and I also think that it has some structural problems that it's going to run into sooner or later. For one thing when it comes to writing, while you could use AI to churn out an entire novel, it would require significant editing to make it palatable, in which case you might as well just write it yourself. For another thing, AI is very, very expensive mainly not for the individual users, but for the companies that run them. And I'm not at this point entirely convinced that AI has long-term profitability. I wonder if it's another tech bubble, like the way the Metaverse was at the start of the 2020s when Facebook thought that the pandemic restrictions were going to be permanent and that society was going to become entirely remote. Subsequent events proved otherwise, and Facebook ended up temporarily losing about two thirds of its company value on its whole Metaverse bet. Finally, this is a bit on the fluffier side, but novel writing's art and art is essentially about human emotion and human connection. And no matter how smart the AI gets, that is something that would be very difficult for it to copy -one's own unique voice, one's own unique writing style. Those are something that only humans can do. And so I don't think AI is a long-term threat to fiction. It might be a long-term threat to things like sports writing and instant news articles, but less so for fiction. So to sum up, I don't think piracy and AI mean that people will no longer be able to make money from writing.   And now for the final segment of our writing challenge episode, Jon's Advice Corner. We'll start with editing tips, what to do once your rough draft is done.   So first, what should I do to edit the book once it's done. For myself, what I usually do is I do a first read through using track changes in Microsoft Word, chapter by chapter. And what I focus on then is reducing length, getting rid of sections that don't make sense, reducing excess words, tightening up sentences, making sure there are no continuity errors. I very often in this phase will split up chapters and do smaller chapters or rearrange scenes or move things around. Once that's done, I do a second edit where I essentially have my computer read the book aloud to me, and that's for typo checking. And sometimes you notice things when read aloud that you wouldn't have noticed on the page.   After that, I have a couple different people who check it for typos for me and then we publish. Then I do another typo check, and then any typos that I find after the publishing process, I upload and correct as I get them. So that's my process. People would say that you need to hire an editor, and I think for many people that's true, but for myself, after 157 books, I'm reasonably confident I know what I'm doing and so I am confident doing it myself, even as I recognize that's not good advice to give to younger writers.   Our next question, how do drafts work? The standard term is the first draft is just the first writing you do, getting all the writing down on the page. Depending on the writer, some people do second, third, and fourth drafts where depending on the writer, they might rewrite it entirely from scratch or just do editing on what they've already written. And then the final draft is one you are done with and comfortable with. Next question, how do I know when I should stop editing? That's a tricky question because many beginning writers fall into the trap of endlessly polishing their book over and over and over rather than writing new things. I would say once you've done your edits, once you've had a couple of beta readers look at it, eventually just decide that it is done and that we are going to move on and write new things because no matter how well you write, it's never going to be quite as cool as it is in your head when you are imagining it. I mean, you can get close, but it's never going to be quite there. So I would say a quick rule of thumb is maybe do two drafts, have your beta readers go over it, and then that would be a good place to call it quits because the truth is you can endlessly repolish the same book over and over and over again, but that may not be the best use of your time. Next editing question, how many beta readers should I have? It depends. I heard of one writer who has like 30 or 40 beta readers, and I think that might be a bit excessive, but if you can do three to five people whose opinions you trust and who aren't going to just say complete nonsense, that would probably be a good idea to do. I'd say around three to five (though as I mentioned, some writers can go much higher).   Once you're editing is done and you have a final draft, you decide if you want to self-publish it or look for an agent.   Here are things to avoid while publishing. For one thing, you really need to avoid predatory publishers. If you are approached by a publishing company that wants you to pay in any capacity to publish, it is probably a scam and you should avoid it. If you are self-publishing, you will need to come up with your own cover design anyway. But if you are approached by a publishing company that offers you a package where you pay $1,000 or $3,000 or even more, that is probably a scam and you won't get good value for your money. This is again, my opinion. I think new writers and in fact writers at all levels of experience would be better off self-publishing, but I would recommend avoiding agents and avoiding publicists.   Hiring a publicist for your book is just going to waste your money, and an agent will probably not get you anywhere these days. It really helps if you want to be traditionally published to be famous before you try to get traditionally published-like a former president of the United States. If a former president of the United States decides that he (or someday she) is going to write a book, the former president of the United States is going to have absolutely no trouble finding the book a publisher whatsoever. If a music star or a movie star on the level of someone like Taylor Swift or Tom Cruise decides they want to write a book, they also will have no trouble finding a publisher. But for regular people like you and me, you are probably better off self-publishing and learning the skills to market and the various related publishing skills yourself. Things you would want to understand well before proceeding with these is finding a cover designer. Unless you are proficient with Photoshop and familiar with book covers, you should probably hire a cover designer, and this can be very affordable since many of the big cover designers offer premades where they just drop in your name and title for around $150 to $200 (though custom cover can require more). Hiring editors-this is again, something probably you should research and check out various writing groups on Facebook for recommendations. You want someone who isn't that expensive. You'll want someone who comes with good client recommendations. Hiring narrators is also something to research well in advance. But it might be a little early with your first book because audiobooks are so expensive.   So that's it for our questions, and that is it for our November Writing Challenge. As a bonus, our transcriptionist included her official writing playlist, which I'm not going to read here, but you can see it on the show notes if you are curious. And I would include my writing playlist, but as I said, it's mostly random computer game, movie, and TV show soundtracks that I enjoyed.   So that is it for this week. Thank you for coming along for our November Writing Challenge. I hope you found it helpful and informative. Thank you for listening to The Pulp Writer Show. I hope you found the show useful. A reminder that you can listen to all the back episodes on https://thepulpwritershow.com. If you enjoyed the podcast, please leave a review on your podcasting platform of choice. Stay safe and stay healthy and see you all next week.

Terry Brooks shares an overview of the 2024 Kentucky KIDS COUNT Data Book and the trends in the latest child well-being data. The 2024 Data Book and new online, interactive County Data Dashboard feature the latest data on 16 measures of economic security, education, health, and family and community. Additionally, the essay of this year's edition dives into the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and progress on mitigating those impacts through Positive Childhood Experiences (PCEs). View the Data Book and accompanying resources at kyyouth.org/kentucky-kids-count/. Thank you to Aetna Better Health of Kentucky for supporting the Making Kids Count Podcast. Visit AetnaMedicaidKY.com/choose to learn more about their health care benefits and programs designed with your family's wellbeing in mind.

Terry Brooks is joined by state Senator Lindsey Tichenor to discuss the proponent perspective of Amendment 2, the state ballot initiative to amend the Kentucky constitution to allow the Kentucky General Assembly to create legislation that allows public dollars to be spent to support nonpublic or private K-12 education. Be an informed voter on November 5th -- check out Kentucky Youth Advocates' Electoral Advocacy Toolkit to ensure Kentucky kids count this election day at kyyouth.org. Thank you to Aetna Better Health of Kentucky for supporting the Making Kids Count podcast. Visit AetnaMedicaidKY.com/choose to learn more about their health care benefits and programs designed with your family's wellbeing in mind.

Terry Brooks is joined by Maddie Shepard, President of the Jefferson County Teachers Association, to discuss the opponent perspective of Amendment 2, the state ballot initiative to amend the Kentucky constitution to allow the Kentucky General Assembly to create legislation that allows public dollars to be spent to support nonpublic or private K-12 education. Be an informed voter on November 5th -- check out Kentucky Youth Advocates' Electoral Advocacy Toolkit to ensure Kentucky kids count this election day at kyyouth.org. Thank you to Aetna Better Health of Kentucky for supporting the Making Kids Count podcast. Visit AetnaMedicaidKY.com/choose to learn more about their health care benefits and programs designed with your family's wellbeing in mind.

Sabaa Tahir's Heir returns to the fractured and fraught world of her Ember in the Ashes series as 3 young people's lives come together in surprising and heartbreaking ways. Tahir joins us to talk about revisiting familiar worlds and characters, dropping readers right in the action, writing complex heroes and villains and more with cohost Jenna Seery. We end this episode with TBR Top Off book recommendations from Marc and Donald.  This episode of Poured Over was hosted by Jenna Seery and mixed by Harry Liang.                      New episodes land Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays) here and on your favorite podcast app  Featured Books (Episode):  Heir by Sabaa Tahir  An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir  All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir  The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien  The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks  The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy  Featured Books (Episode):  The City in Glass by Nghi Vo  The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks 

Terry Brooks is joined by Jonathan Shell, Kentucky's Commissioner of Agriculture, to discuss the Department of Agriculture's initiatives related to hunger, nutrition, and workforce, as well as the role we can all play in advocacy and volunteerism. Thank you to Aetna Better Health of Kentucky for supporting the Making Kids Count Podcast. Visit AetnaMedicaidKY.com/choose to learn more about their health care benefits and programs designed with your family's wellbeing in mind.

Send us a textIn this episode of Living the Dream with Curveball, host Curveball interviews author Arden Coutts, who writes queer romance suspense novels about finding yourself and finding love in your thirties and forties. Arden shares their journey from a young poet in rural Nebraska to a published author, discussing the influences and motivations behind their writing. Dive into the world of queer action and romance as Arden talks about their books, including the Fall trilogy, and upcoming projects. Tune in to learn more about Arden's writing process, the importance of representation in literature, and the joy of connecting with readers.

Get the The Warminster Series by J.V. Hilliard: https://amzn.to/3Zk4OFFGuest: J.V. Hilliard, AuthorOn Twitter | https://x.com/JVHilliardBooksWebsite | https://jvhilliard.com/_____________________________Host: Marco Ciappelli, Co-Founder at ITSPmagazine [@ITSPmagazine] and Host of Redefining Society Podcast & Audio Signals PodcastOn ITSPmagazine | https://www.itspmagazine.com/itspmagazine-podcast-radio-hosts/marco-ciappelli_____________________________This Episode's SponsorsAre you interested in sponsoring an ITSPmagazine Channel?

Get the The Warminster Series by J.V. Hilliard: https://amzn.to/3Zk4OFFGuest: J.V. Hilliard, AuthorOn Twitter | https://x.com/JVHilliardBooksWebsite | https://jvhilliard.com/_____________________________Host: Marco Ciappelli, Co-Founder at ITSPmagazine [@ITSPmagazine] and Host of Redefining Society Podcast & Audio Signals PodcastOn ITSPmagazine | https://www.itspmagazine.com/itspmagazine-podcast-radio-hosts/marco-ciappelli_____________________________This Episode's SponsorsAre you interested in sponsoring an ITSPmagazine Channel?

Join Pastor Chris Butler and Justin Giboney for a Politics in the Church with special guests Pastor Terry Brooks, Evan Wickham. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Terry Brooks is joined by Lt. Governor Jacqueline Coleman to continue Kentucky Youth Advocates' look at the 2024 national KIDS COUNT® Data Book and Kentucky students' educational outcomes. Thank you to Aetna Better Health of Kentucky for supporting the Making Kids Count podcast. Visit AetnaMedicaidKY.com/choose to learn more about their health care benefits and programs designed with your family's wellbeing in mind.

We dive into the novelization for The Phantom Menace by Terry Brooks and discuss the additions, the changes, and what makes it work.   We are joined by Ross Hollebon of the Album Cockpit Podcast and Fantatracks.com.   In this fully armed and operational episode of Podcast Stardust, we discuss: Our first experiences reading the novelization of The Phantom Menace, Some of our favorite scenes that appeared in the novel that were not in the movie, How this stroy works as a novel compared to as a movie, The discussion of the origins of the Jedi and the Sith according to the novel, The Living Force versus the Unifying Force, How attachment was portrayed, Obi-Wan Kenobi's intolerance for Anakin Skywalker and Jar Jar Binks and his relationship with Qui-Gon Jinn, How the politics were expanded upon in the novel, and more! Thanks for joining us for another episode! Subscribe to Podcast Stardust for all your Star Wars news, reviews, and discussion wherever you get your podcasts. And please leave us a five star review on Apple Podcasts.   Get your Ultimate Lightsaber 2.0 from SaberMasters and use our referral code (STARDUST) at checkout for $10 off. Head to www.sabermasters.com/discount/stardust   Find Jay and her cosplay adventures on J.Snips Cosplay on Instagram.   Join us for real time discussion on the RetroZap Discord Server here: RetroZap Discord. Follow us on social media: Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest | YouTube. T-shirts, hoodies, stickers, masks, and posters are available on TeePublic. Find all episodes on RetroZap.com.

We dive into the novelization for The Phantom Menace by Terry Brooks and discuss the additions, the changes, and what makes it work.

In this episode, Greg talks to bestselling sci-fi/fantasy author Terry Brooks about his upcoming visit to Rose City Comic Con. Then, he talks to an expert about cyber security for schools.

On Ron's Amazing Stories we have some good stuff. In the Audible segment we take a quick look at the history of advertising which leads to a very special ad in a very fictional audiobook written by Terry Brooks. The work is titled Magic Kingdom For Sale and I think you are going to like this one. It is one of my favorite novels from the golden age of fantasy.  Then we head to our featured story. This one asks the question, how far will you go to end a curse put on you? The story is titled Casting the Runes and comes from the OTR series Escape. We end the show with a brand new edition of Johnny Is It True. I am going to tell you three real stories from history and one…. not so much. Your job is to guess which one I faked.  Featured Story - Casting The Runes Our featured story comes from the OTR series Escape. What are your feelings about curses? Do you believe in them? Our story is titled Casting the Runes. It is about a character who is cursed by a rival and must figure out how to pass the curse back to them before it leads to disastrous consequences. It first aired on November 19, 1947 Other Stories Include - Not So Important Times In History - Isaac Newton, Review - Magic Kingdom For Sale, and Johnny Is It True - Historical Oddities. Program links:  From Johnny Is It True here are the links that I mentioned:  , , , and . Ron's Amazing Stories Is Sponsored by: Audible - You can get a free audiobook and a 30 day free trial at . Your Stories: Do you have a story that you would like to share on the podcast or the blog? Head to the main website, click on Story Submission, leave your story, give it a title, and please tell me where you're from. I will read it if I can. Links are below. Note From Ron: We don't have any of your stories this time. The reason is that the coffers are bare. I need you to dig deep and send in that story that you have been holding on to. They don't need to be paranormal, anything that you think would be fun probably is. Also, it doesn't even have to be true! Fiction is always welcome on Ron's Amazing Stories. So, please do that today.  Music Used In This Podcast: Most of the music you hear on Ron's Amazing Stories has been composed by Kevin MacLeod () and is Licensed under . Other pieces are in the public domain. You can find great free music at which is a site owned by Kevin. Program Info: Ron's Amazing Stories is published each Thursday. You can download it from , stream it on or on the mobile version of . Do you prefer the radio? We are heard every Thursday at 10:00 pm and Sunday Night at 11:00 PM (EST) on . Check your local listing or find the station closest to you at this . Social Links: Contact Links:  

On the latest edition of Kentucky Newsmakers, WKYT's Bill Bryant talks with Kentucky's new education commission, Dr. Robbie Fletcher, and Terry Brooks with Kentucky Youth Advocates.

Terry Brooks is joined by Dr. Elizabeth Dinkins, dean of the School of Education at Bellarmine University, and Dr. Jim Flynn, Executive Director of the Kentucky Association of School Superintendents, to continue Kentucky Youth Advocates' look at the 2024 national KIDS COUNT® Data Book and Kentucky students' educational outcomes. Thank you to Aetna Better Health of Kentucky for supporting the Making Kids Count podcast. Visit AetnaMedicaidKY.com/choose to learn more about their health care benefits and programs designed with your family's wellbeing in mind.

Terry Brooks is joined by state Senator Max Wise and Representative James Tipton to continue Kentucky Youth Advocates' look at the 2024 national KIDS COUNT® Data Book and Kentucky students' educational outcomes. Thank you to Aetna Better Health of Kentucky for supporting the Making Kids Count podcast. Visit AetnaMedicaidKY.com/choose to learn more about their health care benefits and programs designed with your family's wellbeing in mind.

In this episode, hosts Bruce Lesley and Messellech Looby chat with Dr. Terry Brooks, executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates, a nonprofit watchdog for Kentucky's kids. Dr. Brooks has successfully worked with Democrats, Republicans, and Independents to make necessary improvements for the lives of children across the state, such as supporting kinship caregivers and kids in foster care. Dr. Brooks tells our hosts that Kentucky's children, like those around the country, are at a crossroads. Society has accepted issues such as child poverty as normal, he says, and he shares his efforts to press policymakers to focus on issues such as child care and child poverty, rather than on distractions like the culture wars. Dr. Brooks also discusses the complexities of a Kentucky ballot initiative that would allow the general assembly to use public money for private schools. Learn more about Kentucky Youth Advocates: Resource: Kentucky KIDS Count, By Kentucky Youth Advocates Podcast: The American Rescue Plan & Efforts to End Child Poverty, By Kentucky Youth Advocates, Featuring Bruce LesleyTo join the conversation, follow First Focus on Children on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Send us comments on thoughts via email: SpeakingOfKids@firstfocus.orgFind us on Twitter/X: @SpeakingOfKids, @BruceLesley and @First_FocusWant to be a voice for kids? Become an Ambassador for Children here. To support our work and this podcast, please consider donating to First Focus on Children here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Stephen Aryan is a fantasy author from the North East of England.  Growing up, he read fantasy books by authors including Tolkien, CS Lewis, Ursula Le Guin, Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, Terry Brooks, David Eddings, before moving on to authors that include David Gemmell, Tad Williams, James Barclay, Stephen King, Robert Jordan, and Robin Hobb. In 2013, after over a decade of rejections, Stephen submitted his latest novel to a literary agent. Battlemage, his debut novel, was published in 2015, and was the first of a trilogy called the Age of Darkness. Since then, he has gone on to publish several fantasy series. Stephen is a lapsed gamer and a wannabe forest ranger, who likes spending time outside in the woods. When he's not extolling the virtues of Babylon 5, he can be found drinking real ale and reading comics. He lives in the West Midlands with his partner and two cats.

As part of Kentucky Youth Advocates' segment with WEKU's Eastern Standard Radio, Terry Brooks was recently joined by Dr. Tony Zipple, Bounce co-chair, and Kelly Pullen, executive director of Aetna Better Health of Kentucky's SKY Program, to discuss youth mental health and highlight the partnership between CVS Health and the Bounce Coalition. They break down findings from a recent CVS Health-Morning Consult mental health survey, discuss the state of youth mental health in Kentucky, and offer tips for families navigating challenges. Learn more about the Bounce Coalition and request a training at bouncecoalition.org. Thank you to Aetna Better Health of Kentucky for supporting the Making Kids Count podcast. Visit AetnaMedicaidKY.com/choose to learn more about their health care benefits and programs designed with your family's wellbeing in mind.

Terry Brooks reflects on key takeaways from the Annie E. Casey Foundation's 2024 KIDS COUNT® Data Book. The 50-state report provides state level data and rankings, analyzing how kids are faring in post-pandemic America. With a focus on challenges facing children's educational outcomes, the data show Kentucky must do more to prepare children to learn so they are ready to earn when they reach adulthood. Thank you to Aetna Better Health of Kentucky for supporting the Making Kids Count Podcast. Visit AetnaMedicaidKY.com/choose to learn more about their health care benefits and programs designed with your family's wellbeing in mind.

The Shannara Series, by Terry Brooks. Is it worth reading? Jim sure thinks so, and here's his primary reasons why. Want to purchase books/media mentioned in this video? The Sword of Shannara Trilogy: https://www.amazon.com/Sword-Shannara-Trilogy-Terry-Brooks/dp/0345453751/ Ways to connect with us: Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/FantasyForTheAges Follow Jim/Father on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/13848336-jim-scriven Join us on Discord: https://discord.gg/jMWyVJ6qKk Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Fantasy4theAges Follow us on Instagram: fantasy_for_the_ages Follow us on Mastodon: @FantasyForTheAges@nerdculture.de Email us: FantasyForTheAges@gmail.com Check out our merch: https://www.newcreationsbyjen.com/collections/fantasyfortheages Jim's Microphone: Blue Yeti https://tinyurl.com/3shpvhb4 Jim's Camera: Razer Kito Pro https://tinyurl.com/c873tc2n ———————————————————————————— Music and video elements licensed under Envato Elements: https://elements.envato.com/ #FantasyForTheAges #readingrecommendations #fantasy #Shannara #SwordOfShannara #SFF #booktube #booktuber Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4f0U6Xmwb9G-4yy9faUuwA/join

Terry Brooks is joined by Cori Gadansky, executive director of Community Coordinated Child Care, Charles Aull, executive director of the Center for Policy & Research at the KY Chamber of Commerce, and Dr. Sarah Vanover, Policy & Research Director and lead on child care at KYA. They look at the wins and missed opportunities for child care during the 2024 General Assembly, the impacts on centers and families that need to be monitored, and what federal and state advocacy is needed going forward for early childhood education and care. Thank you to Aetna Better Health of Kentucky for supporting the Making Kids Count podcast. Visit AetnaMedicaidKY.com/choose to learn more about their health care benefits and programs designed with your family's wellbeing in mind.

Terry Brooks is joined by Shane Noem, a Republican lobbyist from Northern Kentucky with Roebling Solutions and a Kentucky Youth Advocates board member, and Abby Piper, Founder & Managing Partner of the government and public relations firm Piper Smith based in Lexington. Terry shares KYA's recap of "fumbles" for kids by the 2024 General Assembly and facilitates a debrief of the legislative session with our guests. Learn more about the Blueprint for Kentucky's Children and track the progress of bills that are good for kids at kyyouth.org/blueprintKY. Thank you to Aetna Better Health of Kentucky for supporting the Making Kids Count Podcast. Visit AetnaMedicaidKY.com/choose to learn more about their health care benefits and programs designed with your family's wellbeing in mind.

Terry Brooks is joined by Barry Dunn, President & CEO of Kosair for Kids, and Shannon Moody, KYA's Chief Policy & Strategy Officer, for a look at the Face It Movement's efforts over the last decade. As part of a call to action for Child Abuse Prevention Month, they discuss the state of child maltreatment in the Commonwealth, the growth and impact of Face It, and how everyone can play a role in prevention. Learn more about the Kosair for Kids Face It Movement at faceitabuse.org. If you suspect abuse, call the Child Protection Hotline at 1-877-KYSAFE1. Thank you to Aetna Better Health of Kentucky for supporting the Making Kids Count podcast. Visit AetnaMedicaidKY.com/choose to learn more about their health care benefits and programs designed with your family's wellbeing in mind.

Award-winning Science Fiction and Fantasy author Spencer Sekulin is a busy guy! When he isn't on the road as a paramedic or studying, he is most likely writing. Born and raised in Ontario, Canada, Spencer fell in love with books at a young age, with authors like Terry Brooks and Eoin Colfer giving him an appetite for speculative fiction. Though he didn't begin writing until university, he quickly discovered it was just as fun as reading. The rest is history. His passions include emergency medicine, voice-overs, homemade coffee, travel obscura, and writing. https://spencersekulin.net/ https://twitter.com/Spencer_Sekulin https://www.facebook.com/SpencerSekulinAuthor https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14230825.Spencer_Sekulin Instagram: spencerzms Want to learn more about your host Kim Lengling? www.kimlenglingauthor.com --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/letfearbouncepodcast/message

Jared, Oriana and Ned discuss Ned's choice of topic: Terry Brooks's debut novel The Sword of Shannara. Released in 1977 after the author had been working on it for almost a decade, The Sword of Shannara became a massive publishing success for its then-new imprint Del Rey Books, helping to establish the viability of fantasy literature as a steady and profitable part of the book business as a whole, as well as starting Brooks's continuing writing career with a bang. At the same time, more than a few voices said in response to that success and the book itself that it was pretty clearly using The Lord of the Rings as a model, its own author having now been conveniently dead for a few years at the time of publication. This, as it happens, is a massive understatement – and more to the point it is an absolutely awful book, the success of which seen through the eyes of nearly fifty years later is almost impossible to imagine given both the expansion of the field in general and the fact that Tolkien is no longer solely the lodestone for young writers to look towards. What makes Brooks's work so remarkably un-Tolkien-like despite taking on many of its trappings, and are those trappings used well to start with? How does Brooks's desire to create a rollicking adventure story/page-turner play out in terms of actual story dynamics, character development and other rather important things a good book should have? How do the key themes of Tolkien in general not apply – or rather, get heavily misapplied or transformed – in Brooks's vision of a post-apocalyptic fantasy world? And do Jared and Oriana still wish Ned ill fortune for having made them read this? (Audibly so, yes.)Show Notes.Jared's doodle. If only the book were this exciting. Five years indeed! If you want the full story of how we all got started, as mentioned, Ned talks about that in the introduction to our live episode aka Episode 50 from last year.The big news about The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien, as reported on by Wayne Hammond and Christina Scull, its editors.The not-so-big, in fact really annoying, news about The Rings of Power Season 3 already being worked on. Lovely. Really.The Sword of Shannara! It's a book! Sure is a book!Dan Sinykin's 2023 Slate article “The Man Who Invented Fantasy,” which details Lester Del Rey's career and role in bringing Brooks to wider attention as part of his overall plans for Del Rey with his wife Judy-Lynn. So now you know who to blame.The Brothers Hildebrandt being recruited as the illustrators was a good move from a publishing point of view, especially then.Gene Wolfe's defense of Brooks is in his essay “The Best Introduction to the Mountains.”Our Dennis McKiernan/Silver Call duology episode.Our episode on the orcs. Gnomes they are not.Brooks's TED talk “Why I Write About Elves”.You want to watch The Shannara Chronicles? Enjoy. Without us.Support By-The-Bywater (and our network) on Patreon, and you can hang out with us in a friendly Discord.

Terry Brooks and Kentucky Youth Advocates' policy team discuss the status of the 2024 state budget proposal as the General Assembly begins conference committee negotiations, and offer advocates calls to action to ensure kids and families are prioritized in the final biennial budget. Learn more about the Blueprint for Kentucky's Children and track the progress of bills that are good for kids at kyyouth.org/blueprintKY. Thank you to Aetna Better Health of Kentucky for supporting the Making Kids Count podcast. Visit AetnaMedicaidKY.com/choose to learn more about their health care benefits and programs designed with your family's wellbeing in mind.

Terry Brooks speaks with Senator Max Wise, Chair of the Senate Economic Development, Tourism, & Labor Committee, to discuss the General Assembly's school safety efforts since 2019 and components of Senate Bill 2 of 2024. Learn more about the Blueprint for Kentucky's Children and track the progress of bills that are good for kids at kyyouth.org/blueprintKY. Thank you to Aetna Better Health of Kentucky for supporting the Making Kids Count podcast. Visit AetnaMedicaidKY.com/choose to learn more about their health care benefits and programs designed with your family's wellbeing in mind.

SPENCER SEKULIN Writers of the Future Winner – Biography   When Spencer Sekulin isn't on the road as a paramedic or studying medicine, he is most likely writing. Born and raised in Ontario, Canada, Spencer fell in love with books at a young age, with authors like Terry Brooks and Eoin Colfer giving him an appetite for speculative fiction. Though he didn't begin writing until university, he quickly discovered that it was just as fun as reading—and the rest is history. His passions include emergency medicine, homemade coffee, travel obscura, and of course, writing.  Writers of the Future is Spencer's first professional sale. “The Children of Desolation” started as a story title with no story, and sat for several years before he stumbled across it again, whereupon several separate ideas happened to click together. “Sometimes stories take us by surprise, and then drag us on rides we didn't expect. In my case, this one started running right away, leaving me to catch up in its dust.” Most of it was written on a covered porch during a torrential downpour. Regarding the story itself, Spencer felt drawn to its protagonist, Tumelo Laska. His burden of heritage, and his moral struggle between doing what is right and putting family before all else, lends well to the sense of desperation of the post-apocalyptic setting. Though the world may end, humans have always loved, lost, and sought redemption—and always will.  Spencer hopes it is a story that conveys the importance of family, the indomitableness of the human spirit, and power of forgiveness. He hopes you enjoy reading it. For more information, go to spencersekulin.net

As part of Children's Advocacy Week 2024, Terry Brooks speaks with leaders of the Education Committees -- Representative James Tipton and Senator Jimmy Higdon. They discuss the state of K-12 education and school choice, teacher workforce, student mental health, and more. Learn more about the Blueprint for Kentucky's Children and track the progress of bills that are good for kids at https://kyyouth.org/blueprintky/

Terry Brooks offers predictions of the 2024 General Assembly, reflections on the legislative session so far, and a look ahead to Children's Advocacy Week. Learn more about the Blueprint for Kentucky's Children and track the progress of bills that are good for kids at https://kyyouth.org/blueprintky/

Terry Brooks is joined by Bill Goodman, executive director of Kentucky Humanities, for a conversation with Cara Fitzpatrick, author of “The Death of Public School: How Conservatives Won the War Over Education in America." They discuss Fitzpatrick's book, the national landscape of school choice, and what it means for Kentucky.

TERRY BROOKS was born in Illinois in 1944. He spent a great deal of his childhood  and early adulthood dreaming up stories in and around Sinnissippi Park,  the very same setting for Running with the Demon. He received  his undergraduate degree from Hamilton College, where he majored in  English Literature, and went on to earn his graduate degree from the  School of Law at Washington & Lee University. A writer since high school and heavily influenced by William Faulkner, it took him seven years to finish writing The Sword of Shannara, which published in 1977. It became the first work of fiction to ever appear on the New York Times trade paperback bestseller list, where it remained for over five months. He published The Elfstones of Shannara in 1982 and The Wishsong of Shannara in 1985, both bestsellers. Since that time, he has written numerous novels in the Shannara,  Landover, Word/Void, and Viridian Deep series, including being hand-selected by George  Lucas to write the novelization of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, which hit #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. Terry Brooks lives with his wife Judine in the Pacific Northwest and on the road meeting his fans. SOMETIMES THE MAGIC WORKS To read an autobiography of Terry Brooks, please discover his memoir and writing guide, Sometimes the Magic Works.

Terry Brooks discusses the 2023 Kentucky KIDS COUNT County Data Book, including the latest data on 16 measures of child well-being and an analysis of the "kid workforce" -- the committed adults that support and impact the well-being of Kentucky's children and youth. View the County Data Book, our press release, county profiles, and more at https://kyyouth.org/kentucky-kids-count/. The 2023 Kentucky KIDS COUNT County Data Book was made possible with support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation and KIDS COUNT sponsors, including Aetna® Better Health of Kentucky, Kosair for Kids®, Charter Communications, and Mountain Comprehensive Care Center.

Terry Brooks sits down with Governor Andy Beshear to discuss issues impacting Kentucky kids, such as education, child welfare, juvenile justice, and much more. Tune in to hear the candidate's ideas for helping make Kentucky the best place to be young. An invitation for an appearance on the Making Kids Count Podcast has also been extended to Gubernatorial Candidate Daniel Cameron. Thank you to Aetna Better Health of Kentucky for supporting the Making Kids Count podcast. Visit AetnaMedicaidKY.com/choose to learn more about their health care benefits and programs designed with your family's wellbeing in mind.

Terry Brooks sits down with Russell Coleman, former U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky, to discuss issues impacting Kentucky kids, such as Adverse Childhood Experiences, the impact of parental incarceration on kids, improvements to the youth justice system, and much more. Tune in to hear the candidate's ideas for the role of the Attorney General's office in making Kentucky the best place to young. Listen to our podcast episode featuring Kentucky Attorney General Candidate Pam Stevenson. Thank you to Aetna Better Health of Kentucky for supporting the Making Kids Count podcast. Visit AetnaMedicaidKY.com/choose to learn more about their health care benefits and programs designed with your family's wellbeing in mind.

Terry Brooks sits down with Colonel Pam Stevenson, state Representative of District 43, to discuss issues impacting Kentucky kids, such as Adverse Childhood Experiences, the impact of parental incarceration on kids, improvements to the youth justice system, and much more. Tune in to hear the candidate's ideas for the role of the Attorney General's office in making Kentucky the best place to young. Listen to our podcast episode featuring Kentucky Attorney General Candidate Russell Coleman. Thank you to Aetna Better Health of Kentucky for supporting the Making Kids Count podcast. Visit AetnaMedicaidKY.com/choose to learn more about their health care benefits and programs designed with your family's wellbeing in mind.