Podcast appearances and mentions of tess thompson

Join Brian and Dr. Tess Thompson as they delve into the complexities of scaling Agile, highlighting the challenges of aligning leadership priorities, fostering transparency, and applying system-level thinking for successful organizational transformations. Overview In this insightful episode, Dr. Tess Thompson tackles the pressing challenges organizations face when scaling Agile, with a focus on the critical role of leadership alignment. Drawing from her extensive experience, she explains how misaligned priorities at the leadership level can stall progress and waste resources. Dr. Thompson emphasizes the importance of system-level thinking, transparency, and communication between teams and leaders to resolve misalignments and ensure success. She also shares her holistic approach, blending practices from various Agile frameworks to meet the specific needs of different organizations. References and resources mentioned in the show: Dr. Tess Thompson Scrum Inc. Scrum.org #68: The Pros and Cons and Real World Applications of SAFe with Mike Hall #94: Connecting Teams and Leadership with Anthony Coppedge Three Questions to Determine If an Organization Is Agile by Mike Cohn Certified Scrum Product Owner® Training Join the Agile Mentors Community Subscribe to the Agile Mentors Podcast Want to get involved? This show is designed for you, and we’d love your input. Enjoyed what you heard today? Please leave a rating and a review. It really helps, and we read every single one. Got an Agile subject you’d like us to discuss or a question that needs an answer? Share your thoughts with us at podcast@mountaingoatsoftware.com This episode’s presenters are: Brian Milner is SVP of coaching and training at Mountain Goat Software. He's passionate about making a difference in people's day-to-day work, influenced by his own experience of transitioning to Scrum and seeing improvements in work/life balance, honesty, respect, and the quality of work. Dr. Tess Thompson is a visionary leader in Agile transformations, with over three decades of experience reshaping industries from energy to biotech across the globe. As a professor at St. Mary's University, her dedication to fostering Agile leaders has empowered countless individuals to embrace adaptability and forge their own path to success. Auto-generated Transcript: Brian (00:00) Welcome in Agile Mentors. We're back for another episode of the Agile Mentors Podcast. I'm with you as always, Brian Milner. And today I have a very special guest with me. I have Dr. Tess Thompson with me. Welcome in Dr. Thompson. Tess Thompson (00:13) Hi, I'm glad to be here. Brian (00:16) I'm so happy to have Dr. Thompson with us. And just for people who aren't familiar, let me make sure that I introduce her and give you the background a little bit. First of all, she's been in this business for almost 40 years now. She's been doing stuff in IT since the 80s. She is a principal consultant and RST fellow with Scrum Inc. Scrum .inc, I should say. She is a PST as well with scrum .org. So two different organizations from two different founders of Scrum. She has been a professor at St. Mary's University. So has that kind of educational background as well. And I was asking her beforehand if there's anything else I needed to say. And she said, well, make sure you say I've got nine grandchildren. That's kind of my claim to fame. I love that. So. Nine grandchildren, very happy for that. So that's who we're talking with. And we wanted to have Dr. Thompson because there's a lot of experience here that she brings to the table in the realm of scaling, obviously being connected so closely with those two organizations. So with all that out of the way, let's talk about scaling a little bit. And Dr. Thompson, what I want to start with is just Tess Thompson (01:27) I'm Brian (01:40) When you work with organizations today that have scaling issues, what are organizations really struggling with? What's kind of the main issues that you see organizations have with scaling today? Tess Thompson (01:55) I would say there's a lot of things, but I would say still the biggest problem is getting everybody to align on what the priority is. So at some point, like you get alignment with maybe people that are doing Scrum and they're the people that are above them, but then the people above them are out of alignment. like, for example, one of the clients I have right now brought some consultants in to work on a project. Brian (01:59) Yeah, right. Tess Thompson (02:24) And those consultants have been stuck now for four weeks. And where the alignment problem is, is actually up at the C -suite with this client. Because one of them says, nope, we were supposed to help. That was a priority in 2023. And the other one's like, no, this is a priority in 2024. And they're not helping each other. So in the meantime, this project is stuck for four weeks. And we're spending money on people that are sitting there doing nothing. Brian (02:50) So just when you say alignment, give us kind of a flavor. when leaders are misaligned, what kind of things are they, are there different ideas about priority or different ideas about why they're doing this? What are they misaligned on? Okay. Tess Thompson (03:09) Both, both, I would say both. The, you know, especially as the companies get bigger and bigger, we have a CEO who's got some priorities, but then all the C -suite under them have their own priorities and they're not always, and then they break down to the next level and these priorities start to get out of alignment because people start bringing in their own objectives and their own priorities and they often don't match what somebody else is doing. So part of it is the different incentives and just the organizations being so big, they have to get even these priorities aligned at different levels. Brian (03:49) So this is kind of an amazing thing, I think, for people to latch onto here, because I hear a lot of people in just regular base level classes talk about how there's a disconnect between them and the leadership on how they're going to do Scrum and how this fits into the overall structure of the organization. just understand, Dr. Thompson here is talking about organizations that The leadership has stated, at least in some way, or form, we're in alignment with this. We want to do this. We want to have Scrum throughout our organization. But even in those situations, we're seeing these misalignments of just priorities and what are the drivers really for what they're trying to do. So I find that fascinating that talking to so many people who just wish that their leadership could get on board. with what it is they're trying to do, that even in those organizations where they do, quote unquote, get on board, there's still these kind of fundamental disconnects. Tess Thompson (04:51) Yep, absolutely. In fact, I do very little work anymore on scrum specific. is many organizations, I mean, almost every organization I go into anymore has some shape or form of scrum going on or people with experience with it. Some people, you know, they're not, it's something that they're trying to do anyway, something agile. And they're... They're getting things done quicker. They're delivering with higher quality. They have better communication at that level. But then as you go up the chain, things start to break down and then teams are stuck. So organizations can only get product out the door with high quality as quick as possible. The more the organ... We have to really think the system. So most of the work that I do today is around the system, which is scaling. It's system agility. Otherwise you start having, you just run into optimization in areas, that local optimization problem. Brian (05:58) Yeah, yeah, not seeing the whole, right? Tess Thompson (06:02) Right, absolutely. So I think that over the years that Agile has been around, we're seeing more and more of it, but then it's, like I said, almost all my work now is system level and not down at the team level. So often I'm not even using Scrum language when I'm talking. It is about alignment. It is about prioritization. So yes, at a Scrum level, your product owner is putting the order of the product backlog, and then the team can pull out off that backlog. based on value from all the different stakeholders that the product owner is working with. But in a big organization, those stakeholders can be a manager, can be a director, it can be another department, it can be, it's from all over the place. And then at some point, how does that work coming into the product owner roll up to the priority of the department or a higher level? And then how does that roll up to the higher level? And that's where we start running into messes. Brian (06:58) Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. mean, it's like you said, with all these various priorities, with all these various drivers, I've always talked to product owners and say, it's a tough job. You're balancing the needs and desires of all these people into one product, and you're having to take them all into account. So yeah, it's not easy. It's not an easy job. Tess Thompson (07:08) You. Brian (07:27) Well, so I'm curious about, you say you don't really even use the Scrum language as much when you're talking to the leaders, because they're not really interested in that, right? They're not really interested in, we doing this exactly according to what the Scrum guide says? They're interested in the outcome, right? The results that you're getting from this. Yeah, so I'm kind of curious, especially since you're a fellow with Scrum Inc. And I know that the... Tess Thompson (07:37) No. Absolutely. Brian (07:55) a Scrum at Scale kind of strategy is very specific about how these things are implemented. There's practices and all sorts of stuff that Scrum at Scale kind of implements. Would you categorize yourself as sort of a Scrum at Scale implementation consultant? Or is it more of just, I take more of a holistic approach to the scaling. Tess Thompson (08:19) Holistic, absolutely. So actually, I'm certified in Nexus, Scrummit Scale, Less, and Safe. I mean, I have all of them. So I always think you need to bring the best tool to the job. One of the things I like about Scrummit Scale and Nexus is they're just so simple. Like if, hey, if these two teams are not, if we need to coordinate, let's get these product owners together and work together to figure out what is really the order. So whether we call it a meta scrum or we call it something else, I don't think that language matters as much as seeing the need and then bringing in a tool to help meet that need. If these teams are interdependent and they need to be chatting to help get rid of those interdependencies, well, let's spin up a scrum of scrums here. Brian (08:58) Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I've had someone on before that we've talked through kind of the safe model a little bit and talked about how, you know, there's so much additional overhead, there's so much additional roles and events and all these other things that get added from the safe perspective, that it can be very, very overwhelming for a lot of organizations to look at that and say, well, gosh, how are we ever going to, I mean, we're barely hanging on with it, trying to understand what Scrum is. And now we're going to layer in all these other things and, Tess Thompson (09:22) Thanks. Okay. Brian (09:38) It just seems like a recipe for disaster to try to understand all these things. So I guess one of the things that I had in that previous conversation was this dialogue about how you match the problem to the practice. You find the problem that is going on in the organization and you find the right practice that solves that, but not necessarily implementing the whole smorgasbord of practices because you may be trying to solve problems you don't have. Do you see that as kind of your approach when you work with organizations or how do you match the practices to what's actually going on on the ground? Tess Thompson (10:18) Yeah, I would say, you know, it's kind of similar to what happened with, so I'm also a PMP. So when we When we put together the PIMBOK over the years, it became this, know, it was supposed to be, these are best practices that you can have. And over time, it became very, big, thick book and people didn't understand they were only supposed to implement whatever tool from that book really helped solve the problems they were having. And started implementing the whole thing. And I think that's what happens too with like, Brian (10:50) Ha ha. Tess Thompson (10:53) safe or any of these agile practices, even though, know, Ken and Jeff went completely the opposite of PMI and said, hey, we're just going to roll out. This is the absolute minimum that you need for running, running a team or a project or product. And, but it's not enough. So you need to add in some more things to it. You got to bring in some additional tools to help depending on the organization, such as road mapping. I really believe that's one of the. I spend a lot of time helping organizations and product owners think about, we do need to plan ahead. And that is one of the pieces I do like about SAFE is that in their PI planning, have the getting some product owners and teams together to plan together to look out further, I think is pretty essential in most organizations. Now, do we need to do it on a regular cadence of every eight weeks? And do we need to have 200 teams together? I think Brian (11:23) Yeah. Tess Thompson (11:49) Sometimes it's, think organizations end up implementing all of SAFE, kind of like in the pin box, if you will, and it's way more than they need. So I think it's taking the elements of all of these and then using them to meet the need of the organization. I mean, if you're a 30 person organization, do you need a bunch of release trains and engineers and stuff? No. Brian (11:59) Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's very interesting to me with your background that you have all of these different scaling frameworks in mind. How much of what you do do you feel is aligned to a specific framework and how much of it is just piecemeal across the different frameworks? Tess Thompson (12:34) I would say I'm most aligned to, well, Scrum at Scale, never solely. It's always piecemeal. It is a piecemeal thing because I really do believe that teams do get to need to plan out in almost every company I go into. Teams do need to plan out more than one sprint. Brian (12:44) Hmm. Tess Thompson (12:54) Okay, we need to plan out and we're never delivering anything alone with one team. It seems like we're always need multiple teams. So we need that coordination and we need some of the scaling practices for sure. I really use a variation of safe of PI planning, but then I layer in, so we put together our plan for let's say the month, maybe we have a product goal for the month. And then I use the version of PI planning to get the teams together to plan out for sprints. weekly sprints to get to that product goal and try to get rid of the dependencies and problems that we see between the teams. And then we let it run. But then I pull in from Scrum at Scale, definitely the Metascrum. Like every sprint, let's still get the product owners together and revise our sprint plans because we've learned a lot in the last sprint or we learned a lot today. So we're not just going to let it ride for a month, for example, we're going to still get together at a regular cadence, like once per sprint. and realign our backlogs based on what we've just really happened. So it's using both, yeah. Brian (13:55) I love that. Yeah, taking the best of what these different practices offer, Tess Thompson (14:04) Absolutely. Brian (14:06) I love that. Well, one of the things that I wanted to talk to you about as well is sort of in working with scaling practices, I'm sure you already talked a little bit about how leadership has different ideas than the team level does. And the team level is kind of struggling with a certain layer of complexity. The leaders are struggling with another. Tess Thompson (14:22) Okay. Brian (14:33) I know there often appears to be sort of a disconnect between these two groups. I've talked to people who feel like they're speaking a different language. It's sort of like the leaders are, especially when teams, the team level will look and see, there's people in leadership who just, they want us to do Scrum, but then they want a lot of things in the same way that they always have, which is really hard for us to translate and put back into that old language. I'm just kind of curious your thought about that. Do you see leaders, the leadership layer as sort of speaking a different language than the team layer and how do you help them understand each other? Tess Thompson (15:13) Yeah, I mean, my most successful implementations is definitely when the leaders are on board. Leaders are really important to agility. We need their help and we need their support. What I always find super interesting is when I go into an engagement, I usually run an assessment, an agility assessment. And what I'm measuring is kind of where the organization is on culture, delivery, how well they're continuously improving or optimizing the system, how well they prioritize and how customer centric they are. Because I really believe agility is about those... It's those five dimensions, if you will, that you need to really focus on. And so I run this assessment and I always have them self -assess through a survey, interviews, and then observations. So often I see my assessments different than maybe how they self -assess and I'll compare both of them. But the leadership assesses so different than the teams do. And so at the end of the assessment, it's just interesting how different they are. Brian (16:13) Yeah. Tess Thompson (16:21) The teams are thinking they're delivering so well because they're getting all kinds of stuff done and leadership's like they're delivering, they're not delivering. And it's, like, how do we get so out of aligned it all the time at companies? Yeah. Brian (16:35) Yeah, yeah, we will do an assessment to it mountain goat. And one of the things that like became clear to me very early in doing that is that self perception versus, you know, perception of others is very different. And, you know, it was amazing to me, just like you said, to see things like the leadership might think that you have one opinion of something and the teams might have another or, you know, the other thing that I saw was was You know, like the Scrum Masters might think, yeah, our practices are great or they're going really well. And then you ask the developers and developers would say, no, it's horrible. We don't like the way this is working. so, you know, it kind of became apparent to me that you have to factor that human personal perception, right? We tend to be maybe individually more critical on ourselves, but Tess Thompson (17:18) Okay. Brian (17:34) you know, as a group, tend to give ourselves a little more grace in how we're performing, whereas others, when they look in from the outside, will kind of be more honest about it and say, it's not so great in this situation. Tess Thompson (17:49) But what I often find is they are delivering. The thing is they're delivering a bunch of things that the leadership doesn't even know about. So the leadership will have their priority list in their head of projects or things they want the teams to be delivering. But the team is getting hit with all kinds of other stuff that the leadership doesn't know about. So they are working hard and they're delivering. So in their head, they're doing it. It's just this. Brian (17:56) Yeah. Tess Thompson (18:12) the leader maybe not attending to a sprint review and really understanding what the teams got on their plate. Brian (18:17) Yeah, and that's kind of that transparency moment, right? mean, if they think they're not doing anything, they may be, they're just not seeing what they're doing and what they're actually spending their time on. And it's not that they aren't really working hard. As you said, they are working hard. It's just the work they're being asked to do is not really in align with what the leadership thinks the priorities should be. Tess Thompson (18:22) Yes. Absolutely, that's it. Yep. And then should the people be working on the stuff that they're working on? You know, is it the right thing? And often it may not be. Brian (19:00) Yeah. Yeah, I know I've had several instances where I've talked to people when I've been in working with teams where they will, the team level will say, you know, we have all the stuff that we're having to do in addition to the new work. And, you know, we know that that's just kind of a constraint we're under. The organization has asked us to do this as well. And, you know, my comment is always, well, Are you being really transparent about that when you get to something like a sprint review? Are you showing them where you're spending your time? Are you showing them kind of how much of this extra other work you're doing? And I've had situations where we've been in sprint reviews and we've shown them, for instance, like how much support time that they've had to spend. when the lead, right. And the leaders see that and think, my gosh, I didn't know they're spending 60 % of their time doing that kind of work. That's not good. We want them to do, Tess Thompson (19:32) right. Yep, eye -opening. Brian (20:00) new work. So I've had leaders who have actually spun up support teams when they've been confronted with that just because they didn't know what was going on. Tess Thompson (20:09) Yeah, absolutely. That is one of the things I love about sprint reviews is that transparency. And I have seen teams also go into sprint reviews thinking that they just want to show like some progress they made on an increment for a project and not talk about the support work that they did or some of the other buckets of work that come in. And I'm like, you. Part of transparency is seeing, hey, and it doesn't have to be that you show all the support tickets or anything like that. It's talk about something like 50 % of our time, of our capacity was spent on support tickets. Just throwing that in there to make sure leaders are aware. Brian (20:45) Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I want to go back to something you said earlier too, because you were talking about when we first started about how one of the biggest issues is alignment on priorities. And I want to just dig under the surface in that a little bit, because when we talk about that alignment of priorities, are we talking about more of the product area? Are we talking more about just a general overall? What's our company's priority? What kind of priorities are they misaligned on? Tess Thompson (21:08) All, I would say all, all priorities are misaligned. So it's been an interesting move to, for me, to Scrum Inc. Because Scrum Inc's clientele is very much Brian (21:21) Right. Tess Thompson (21:35) scrum mostly outside of IT. So it's been really fun for me because my career and background was all in IT. So I've been learning so much about all these other different domains out there. And we're doing full transformations of an entire company is doing a version of scrum, right? Or scrum at scale so that they're aligned on priorities. And anyway, so it's very... It's all, all the work tends to be a little out of alignment. And going back to the support, I really like to work companies to help them really understand that almost all support, whether it is support in a field that's doing some kind of drilling or it's or it's IT support or it's HR support, you know, taking phone calls from the employees that it tends to all be tech debt. All support is really some form of tech debt. And so getting that message out there, how much time we're spending on and how much money we're spending on support helps companies, leaders to agree to fund some of these. Brian (22:44) Yeah. Tess Thompson (22:57) projects around reducing tech debt. Brian (22:59) Yeah. Yeah. And there's always the having to overcome the kind of more traditional viewpoint of projects and these things based around projects and scope schedule, that sort of thing. How do you help leaders understand kind of this is a new way of doing things and not that we can't talk about schedules, but Tess Thompson (23:07) Okay. Brian (23:29) that we're kind of shifting our priorities a little bit, or we're trying to focus on what matters more than arbitrary dates. How do you have those conversations? How do leaders understand that? Tess Thompson (23:38) In some organizations it's easier than others. It depends how much the leader above those leaders is on board, to tell you the truth. So I feel like fundamentally they understand. And if we bring up two different priorities and it's two vice presidents, for example, and they're getting bonuses or something based on their performance in their area, we can see Brian (23:50) Yeah. Tess Thompson (24:08) They fundamentally will understand in a meeting together, they'll understand and then we'll leave and they'll still kind of do their own thing. But if I could get even though like the person, the CEO also, a person above them be like, nope, this is important. And for that person to see the two competing priorities and where there's a problem, I mean, it's really about if there's a problem, right? And then they'll agree and kind of one will give up a little bit on. Brian (24:30) Yeah. Tess Thompson (24:37) on their ambition towards getting their thing done, understanding that it's good for all of us, the whole company, we all, to get to work on maybe the other priority first. Brian (24:50) So a lot of negotiation involved, right? A lot of negotiation skills. Tess Thompson (24:54) Absolutely, and getting people in the same room so that they can have the conversation together. You know, it's not me talking to one and then going and talking to the other. I mean, there is some of that too, but then we have to get together here and decide. And yes, unfortunately, yeah, and yes, we will probably be working on these at the same time. However, if there comes into, you know, with an or, Brian (25:10) Yeah, it's amazing how much easier that is, right? Tess Thompson (25:22) With a large organization, when you've got hundreds of thousands of people, of course we're working on a ton of things at the same time. But when there is a conflict, like we need this skill set here and this, then we have to know which one is more important. Brian (25:37) Yeah. Yeah, and someone has to make that call, right? Someone has to be given that authority at some point. Well, this is fascinating stuff. I'm really interested in hearing your perspective of working with these organizations in today's world. So last little question here. From what you just see, especially most recently, Tess Thompson (25:44) Yep. Brian (26:07) from what you've seen in the organizations you've worked with. If you could just blanket, have one thing fixed before they start working with you, or one thing that they were in alignment with that would really give them a boost in their scaling before they start working with you, what would that be? What would be the thing that you think is most often missing in organizations before you work with them? Tess Thompson (26:33) Getting their goals, their strategy and starting to build out their backlog. based on those priorities. In fact, I usually do ask that. Start thinking about what are really your goals? What's your strategy to get there? And what kind of things are you doing to get there? What products are you creating? What services are you What projects you're creating for those products? Start thinking about that and start being a list together. And then when I get there, I'll help organize the list if you don't have it. But it's just starting to think about that ahead of time. Because what I see is leaders or people have multiple lists. They have a list over here of their projects. They have a list over here of stuff they're doing. They have all their emails that are coming in, their chats that are coming in, the phone that's coming in. And it's like, can we get it all kind of in one place so we can really look at it to make better decisions on really where we should be spending our time and our money? Brian (27:14) Yeah. Yeah, yeah, that's a great point. A friend of mine, David Hawks, used to say that organizations are swimming in a sea of opportunity. There's all these different things we could do and really trying to limit that scope and say, yeah, we could do all these things, but what makes the most sense for us to do? What's the most valuable thing for us to do? Tess Thompson (27:58) Yep, absolutely. And getting in touch with and constant feedback with your customer helps you figure that out. So many companies don't even, the people are like, have no, I always love when I get a group and I said, hey, let's name our customers. And they're sort of out of the line on who their customer is. Brian (28:19) Right, and if you don't know who it is you're trying to serve, how do you serve them? Yeah. Tess Thompson (28:25) Yeah, yeah. That's usually one of the first things I ask is, hey, who's your customer? Is it the shareholder? Is it this? Is it that? Let's agree. Yes, you will have multiple customers. Let's get it together and understand who are our customers. Let's all agree on that. Maybe even a priority on some of those customers to some degree. Brian (28:30) You Right, love that. Right. Yeah, yeah, this has been great. Well, I really appreciate you taking time out, Dr. Thompson, for coming on and helping us and to see things from your perspective. It's so great to talk to people that are, know, not just, you know, this isn't just theory or book learning. You're actually out there, you know, doing these in these large scale organizations and, you know, hearing from you what those real world problems are that you're seeing on a day to day basis. Tess Thompson (29:18) And I'm having amazing, amazing results. tell you, I'm, that's why I only had three hours of sleep last night and I'm still. Brian (29:27) Ha ha. Tess Thompson (29:28) woke up full of joy to be here with you today is I love what I do because I'm constantly getting phone calls after the factor during it and it's like, wow, this stuff really works. I'm like, yeah, it does. It really does. Brian (29:41) Amazing when that happens. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for coming on and I just appreciate you sharing your wisdom with us. Tess Thompson (29:53) Anytime. Thank you for having me.

This movie is so boring. The talent of Chris Hemsworth and Tess Thompson couldn't save this movie. It probably killed the franchise for the the future. If you have a suggestion for future episodes email us at 2ndtakemoviespod@gmail.com Instagram: https://instagram.com/2ndtakemovies/ Youtube: www.youtube.com/@2ndtakemovies/featured Find the pod elsewhere: https://linktr.ee/2ndtakemovies Music by Jake Tweito Graphic Design by Kevin Archie --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/2ndtakemovies/message

The Authors Charlene Tess and Judi Thompson are sisters who co-write mystery, thriller and romance novels under the name Tess Thompson, I'll leave all of you to figure out how they came up with the pen name, let's say it's not rocket science. They were born in El Paso, Texas. Their father was a pilot […] The post The Angel Falls Series by Charlene Tess & Judi Thompson appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.

Episode 143 / Tess Thompson, author of small town romances and American historical romances, joins us to talk about mindset changes she made that have helped her achieve career goals. We delve into resistance, limiting beliefs, and discoverability. Tess also shares tips for writing a small town romance series. Intro links:  Subscriptions for Authors Show notes: How Tess was traditionally published and then went indie in 2017, essentially starting over from scratch What Tess has learned that helped her writing career take off: finish a series, find your genre sweet spot, use cover styles that readers expect Why the thing that we resist is often the thing we should be doing The discoverability problem and how Tess fixed it How Tess moved from a fear-based mindset to a mindset of letting her dreams live Why conferences are a good investment even when your revenue is low Small town world building How Tess researches her historicals   Come over and say hi to Jami and Sara in the WIKT Facebook group! You can find show notes and links at wishidknownforwriters.com. Links:  Tess' website The Big List of Craft and marketing books mentioned on WIKT podcast episodes  Jami's Launch Plan Sara's Book Release Timeline Checklist Jami's books Sara's books Resources from the Author and Reader Community to Help Ukrainans

Are you an author looking for new ways to get the word out about your books? Or are you a reader wondering how authors go about marketing new releases? Well, look no further! Podcast co-hosts Tess Thompson, a USA Today Bestselling Author, and Karen McQuestion, an Amazon Charts Bestselling Author, have picked up a plethora of marketing tips and tricks over the years. Other authors have been instrumental in helping them along the way, so they've done this episode to pay it forward.They hope you find it informative and entertaining.  Kindlepreneur Dave Chessen: https://kindlepreneur.com/Kindlepreneur Book Description GeneratorBKlink--to check book categories: https://bit.ly/3xCf64BMarketing guru David Gaughran: https://davidgaughran.com/Method for Writing a Book Description: https://www.karenmcquestion.com/for-writersBookBrush: https://bookbrush.com/BookFunnel: https://bookfunnel.com/BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/launchAuthor Promotion: On Top of That Marketing  https://www.ontopofthatmarketing.com/Goodreads GiveawaysInkers ConKing Sumo (Giveaway hosting site): https://kingsumo.comA+ ContentBook: Write that Novel!  by Karen McQuestion

From elite warrior to bounty hunter to King, Valkyrie demands respect in everything she does. In anticipation of Thor: Love and Thunder, we break down her story so far.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to Romance Happy Hour! Hostesses Dawn Luedecke and Dylann Crush chat with romance authors Karen Grey and Tess Thompson! This episode was recorded on March 24, 2022. To find out more about Romance Happy Hour and sign up for our newsletter, visit our website at: https://www.romancehappyhour.com/​​​. Or our Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/RomanceHappyHour. To learn more about Dawn Luedecke: https://www.dawnluedeckebooks.com/​​​​ Dylann Crush: http://dylanncrush.com/​​​​ And to learn more about our featured authors: https://www.romancehappyhour.com/category/authors. Take us with you wherever you go by subscribing to the Romance Happy Hour podcast at your favorite podcast app! If you enjoyed the show, please consider leaving a review… we'd appreciate it! Thanks for joining us and we hope you'll come back next time! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

USA Today bestselling author Tess Thompson (and co-host of this podcast) shares all she knows about writing and marketing a series. With six series under her belt, she's well versed on what readers respond to, and how to get visibility and sales for books in a series. Per usual, her co-host partner Karen, asks thought-provoking questions.Enjoy!https://tesswrites.com/

DaGrip welcomes Tess Thompson, CEO of Hello Doll Boutique at the Factoryshops - Gaffney, South Carolina.  Tess is making Boss moves to provide a brand new vibe in fashion in the Carolinas and online.  During our conversation, she talks about surviving Covid, building her brand, and trendy styles for the Spring. 

On the latest podcast episode from Writeway's The Real Story, we dive deep into the very tangible, but sometimes elusive, world of independent publishing. Joining Rea in the aftermath of launch week for her new book, Secrets of Our House, are prolific bestselling authors, as well as co-hosts of the literary insider podcast, Behind the Book, Karen McQuestion and Tess Thompson. The combined experience and success of Karen and Tess provide a poignant and clarifying look at a dynamic of the publishing industry that is continually misperceived. As Rea and Writeway consider embarking on a foray into the world, both host and audience alike benefit from this episode's takeaways.Also to note this week: in tandem with Writeway's podcast upgrade, the company homepage—writewayco.com—has gotten a makeover as well. Visit now to check out our modified services and products, as well as a page dedicated to all our clients' projects that have found a home.

It's Tess Day on the podcast! Karen puts her co-host Tess squarely in the interview chair and learns a ton about her partner that she didn't know.  Tess gives great advice to aspiring authors, and shares the 'ups and downs' of her publishing career as well as what inspires her.Enjoy!In the interview, Tess recommended a helpful writing guide, but was mistaken about the author name. This is the book (with the correct title and name):The Making of a Story: A Norton Guide to Creative Writing by Alice LaPlante 

After USA Today bestselling author Tess Thompson came up with the concept for the Behind the Book podcast, she invited her friend Karen McQuestion to join her as co-host. From there, the two worked together to make it a reality. Listen in as they talk about the process of creating a podcast--everything from the necessary  equipment, distribution channels, building an audience,  and making guests feel at ease. This episode is for anyone who listens to podcasts or those who are considering starting their own. Enjoy!Behind the Book Facebook page (leave a comment!): https://www.facebook.com/Behind-the-Book-with-Tess-and-Karen-100822158828120JLab Microphone mentioned: https://amzn.to/33Nzi8jTess Thompson: https://tesswrites.com/Karen McQuestion:  https://www.karenmcquestion.com/

Last Friday, to celebrate John's last day as CEO, the Lemonly team surprised him with an afternoon full of laughter, memories, and quality time together — including a surprise podcast interview that put John in front of the mic.In this special episode, recorded live from Lemonly HQ in downtown Sioux Falls, John T. Meyer reflects back on his life and lessons from the past decade as CEO of Lemonly. It's a heartfelt, vulnerable conversation moderated by Tess Thompson, Lemonly's director of client services, with questions gathered from the whole Lemonly team. You'll hear lots of laughs and a few tears from Lemonheads in the background.Setting the Stage (2:09)Looking Back on 10 Years at Lemonly (4:08)John's Leadership Lessons (18:51)Life, Legacy, and the Future (27:55)Rapid-fire with John (34:02)-----Follow John T. MeyerFollow Leadmore on InstagramFollow Leadmore on TwitterSubscribe to John's newsletter

Subscribe to Quotomania on Simplecast or search for Quotomania on your favorite podcast app!Poet and activist Warsan Shire grew up in London. She is the author of the collections Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth (flipped eye, 2011), Her Blue Body (flipped eye, 2015), Our Men Do Not Belong to Us (Slapering Hol Press and Poetry Foundation, 2015), and Bless The Daughter Raised By A Voice In Her Head (Random House, forthcoming 2021). Her poems have appeared in journals and magazines, including Poetry Review, Wasafiri, and Sable LitMag; in the anthologies Salt Book of Younger Poets (2011), Long Journeys: African Migrants on the Road (2013), and Poems That Make Grown Women Cry (2016); as well as in Beyoncé's visual album Lemonade (2016) and film Black Is King (2020).According to Alexis Okeowo in the New Yorker, Shire's work “embodies the kind of shape-shifting, culture-juggling spirit lurking in most people who can't trace their ancestors to their country's founding fathers, or whose ancestors look nothing like those fathers. In that limbo, Shire conjures up a new language for belonging and displacement.” Shire's poems connect gender, war, sex, and cultural assumptions; in her work, poetry is a healing agent for the trauma of exile and suffering. In an interview, Shire noted, “Character driven poetry is important for me—it's being able to tell the stories of those people, especially refugees and immigrants, that otherwise wouldn't be told, or they'll be told really inaccurately. And I don't want to write victims, or martyrs, or vacuous stereotypes … my family are really amazing—they'll tell me, ‘I have a new story for you,' and I'll get my Dictaphone and record it, so I can stay as true as possible to the story before I make it into a poem.”Shire has read her work in South Africa, Italy, Germany, and the United States. In 2013, she won Brunel University's first African Poetry Prize. In 2014, she was named the first Young Poet Laureate for London and chosen as poet-in-residence for Queensland, Australia. In 2017 she was included in the Penguin Modern Poets series. In 2019 she wrote the short film Brave Girl Rising,narrated by Tess Thompson and David Oyelowo, and became the youngest person to ever be inducted into the Royal Society of Literature.Shire is poetry editor of Spook Magazine and guest edited Young Sable LitMag.For more information about Warsan Shire:Previously on The Quarantine Tapes:Suketu Mehta on Shire, at 09:18: https://quarantine-tapes.simplecast.com/episodes/the-quarantine-tapes-079-suketu-mehtaTim Robbins on Shire, at 07:10: https://quarantine-tapes.simplecast.com/episodes/the-quarantine-tapes-113-tim-robbinsHome read by Warsan Shire: "Home" by Warsan ShireNY Times: Warsan Shire, the Woman Who Gave Poetry to Beyoncé's ‘Lemonade'https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/28/arts/music/warsan-shire-who-gave-poetry-to-beyonces-lemonade.html

Tess Thompson is the USA Today Bestselling and award-winning author of contemporary and historical Romantic Women's Fiction. Tess loves lazy afternoons watching football, hanging out on the back patio with Best Husband Ever, reading in bed, binge-watching television series, red wine, strong coffee and walks on crisp autumn days. She laughs a little too loudly, never knows what to make for dinner, and always complains about the rain even though she chose to live in Seattle.She's grateful to spend most days in her office matchmaking her characters while her favorite cat Mittens sleeps on the desk.

Today's Daily Quotation:Home by Warsan Shireno one leaves home unlesshome is the mouth of a sharkyou only run for the borderwhen you see the whole city running as wellyour neighbors running faster than youbreath bloody in their throatsthe boy you went to school withwho kissed you dizzy behind the old tin factoryis holding a gun bigger than his bodyyou only leave homewhen home won't let you stay.no one leaves home unless home chases youfire under feethot blood in your bellyit's not something you ever thought of doinguntil the blade burnt threats intoyour neckand even then you carried the anthem underyour breathonly tearing up your passport in an airport toiletsobbing as each mouthful of papermade it clear that you wouldn't be going back.you have to understand,that no one puts their children in a boatunless the water is safer than the landno one burns their palmsunder trainsbeneath carriagesno one spends days and nights in the stomach of a truckfeeding on newspaper unless the miles travelledmeans something more than journey.no one crawls under fencesno one wants to be beatenpitiedno one chooses refugee campsor strip searches where yourbody is left achingor prison,because prison is saferthan a city of fireand one prison guardin the nightis better than a truckloadof men who look like your fatherno one could take itno one could stomach itno one skin would be tough enoughthego home blacksrefugeesdirty immigrantsasylum seekerssucking our country dryniggers with their hands outthey smell strangesavagemessed up their country and now they wantto mess ours uphow do the wordsthe dirty looksroll off your backsmaybe because the blow is softerthan a limb torn offor the words are more tenderthan fourteen men betweenyour legsor the insults are easierto swallowthan rubblethan bonethan your child bodyin pieces.i want to go home,but home is the mouth of a sharkhome is the barrel of the gunand no one would leave homeunless home chased you to the shoreunless home told youto quicken your legsleave your clothes behindcrawl through the desertwade through the oceansdrownsavebe hungerbegforget prideyour survival is more importantno one leaves home until home is a sweaty voice in your earsaying-leave,run away from me nowi don't know what i've becomebut i know that anywhereis safer than here__________________________________________ Poet and activist Warsan Shire grew up in London. She is the author of the collections Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth (flipped eye, 2011), Her Blue Body (flipped eye, 2015), Our Men Do Not Belong to Us (Slapering Hol Press and Poetry Foundation, 2015), and Bless The Daughter Raised By A Voice In Her Head (Random House, forthcoming 2021). Her poems have appeared in journals and magazines, including Poetry Review, Wasafiri, and Sable LitMag; in the anthologies Salt Book of Younger Poets (2011), Long Journeys: African Migrants on the Road (2013), and Poems That Make Grown Women Cry (2016); as well as in Beyoncé's visual album Lemonade (2016) and film Black Is King (2020).According to Alexis Okeowo in the New Yorker, Shire's work “embodies the kind of shape-shifting, culture-juggling spirit lurking in most people who can't trace their ancestors to their country's founding fathers, or whose ancestors look nothing like those fathers. In that limbo, Shire conjures up a new language for belonging and displacement.” Shire's poems connect gender, war, sex, and cultural assumptions; in her work, poetry is a healing agent for the trauma of exile and suffering. In an interview, Shire noted, “Character driven poetry is important for me—it's being able to tell the stories of those people, especially refugees and immigrants, that otherwise wouldn't be told, or they'll be told really inaccurately. And I don't want to write victims, or martyrs, or vacuous stereotypes … my family are really amazing—they'll tell me, ‘I have a new story for you,' and I'll get my Dictaphone and record it, so I can stay as true as possible to the story before I make it into a poem.”Shire has read her work in South Africa, Italy, Germany, and the United States. In 2013, she won Brunel University's first African Poetry Prize. In 2014, she was named the first Young Poet Laureate for London and chosen as poet-in-residence for Queensland, Australia. In 2017 she was included in the Penguin Modern Poets series. In 2019 she wrote the short film Brave Girl Rising,narrated by Tess Thompson and David Oyelowo, and became the youngest person to ever be inducted into the Royal Society of Literature.Shire is poetry editor of Spook Magazine and guest edited Young Sable LitMag.

It's Karen Day on the podcast! Tess puts Karen squarely in the interview chair and learns a ton about her partner that she didn't know.  Karen gives great advice to aspiring authors, shares her 'ups and downs' of a long publishing career as well as what inspires her. About Karen:Karen McQuestion is an Amazon Charts bestselling author who writes for adults, teens, and kids. Some of her titles include Hello Love, The Moonlight Child, The Long Way Home, and the Edgewood series. She's also the co-host (along with USA Today bestselling author, Tess Thompson) of the popular podcast, BEHIND THE BOOK.Her books have been translated into numerous languages and are available internationally in English. All told, her books have sold over two million copies.Her publishing story has been covered by the Wall Street Journal, Entertainment Weekly, and NPR. Additionally she appeared on ABC's World News Now and America This Morning. More about Karen on her website:  https://www.karenmcquestion.com/ 

Co-hosts Karen McQuestion and Tess Thompson were delighted to interview the thoughtful and talented novelist Christine Nolfi. In this episode, Christine shares her unique wisdom about writing, publishing, refueling the creative tank, and how to live your best life. Need inspiration? This is the episode for you!About Christine:Award-winning author Christine Nolfi writes heartwarming and inspiring fiction. Her latest release, The Road She Left Behind, has remained on the Amazon bestseller's list since its release in June 2019.The Sweet Lake Series has been recognized by the International Book Awards, Royal Palm Literary Awards, Readers' Favorite Awards, and Best Book Awards. Kirkus Reviews calls Sweet Lake “an uplifting and charming story.” Redbook calls the book “an enchanting story full of lovable characters.” The Liberty Series has been recognized by the Next Generation Indie Awards and Put Your Heart In A Book Awards. “Treasure Me is sure to delight and entertain. It's light and refreshing; your old fashioned feel-good novel.” –USA TodayPrior to writing fiction, Christine owned a small public relations firm in Cleveland, Ohio. Her articles and press releases have appeared regionally in The Plain Dealer, The Akron Beacon Journal, and Cleveland Magazine.Christine is the proud mother of four adopted children and two stepchildren, all of whom are now grown and in no hurry to give her grandchildren. She resides with her husband Barry and a crazy Wheaten Terrier named Lucy in Charleston, South Carolina. Join her mailing list for news and contests, and chat with her on Twitter at @christinenolfi.

Where we fight about lazy sequels, long-awaited Festivals and what DC and Marvel adaptations are and aren't willing to do to maintain their brands

Join co-hosts Karen McQuestion and Tess Thompson as they interview the lovely bestselling author Judith Keim. She shares her publishing journey, writing process as well as advice for aspiring authors. Readers and writers alike will fall in love with Judith's inspiring and warm personality. About Judith: Judith Keim enjoyed her childhood and young-adult years in Elmira, New York, and now makes her home in Boise, Idaho, with her husband and their two dachshunds, Winston and Wally, and other members of her family.While growing up, she was drawn to the idea of writing stories from a young age. Books were always present, being read, ready to go back to the library, or about to be discovered. All in her family shared information from the books in general conversation, giving them a wealth of knowledge and vivid imaginations.A hybrid author who both has a publisher and self-publishes, Ms. Keim writes heart-warming novels about women who face unexpected challenges, meet them with strength, and find love and happiness along the way. Her best-selling books are based, in part, on many of the places she's lived or visited and on the interesting people she's met, creating believable characters and realistic settings her many loyal readers love. Ms. Keim loves to hear from her readers and appreciates their enthusiasm for her stories.Sign up for Judith's newsletter here: http://eepurl.com/bZ0ICXCheck out Judith's website to learn more about her and her books: http://www.judithkeim.com/

Join co-hosts Karen McQuestion and Tess Thompson as they discuss writing with bestselling author Lesley Kagan. She shares stories from her fascinating life as an actress and radio personality as well as how she became a New York Times Bestselling author. Fans and soon-to-be fans of Lesley won't want to miss this one! About Lesley:Lesley Kagen is an actress, sought-after speaker, and award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of nine novels. A mother of two and grandmother of two, she lives in a hundred-year-old farmhouse in a small town in Wisconsin. To learn more about her books, visit her website: www.lesleykagen.com

In the first episode of Behind the Book, co-hosts Karen McQuestion and Tess Thompson interview bestselling Women's Fiction author Grace Greene. Grace discusses her process for writing novels, how she got her start in publishing, and gives inspiring advice for aspiring authors.  About Grace Greene:Grace Greene writes women's fiction and contemporary romance with suspense ~ Stories of heart and hope ~ from the Outer Banks to the Blue Ridge. A Virginia native, Grace has family ties to North Carolina. She writes books set in both locations ~ and in those beautiful landscapes in-between.The Emerald Isle books, BEACH RENTAL, BEACH WINDS, and BEACH WEDDING (as well as the novellas BEACH CHRISTMAS, BEACH WALK, and the short story, BEACH TOWER) are set in North Carolina where "It's always a good time for a love story and a trip to the beach."Or travel down Virginia Country Roads for Women's Fiction with Suspense in KINCAID'S HOPE, A STRANGER IN WYNNEDOWER, and CUB CREEK and "Take a trip to love, mystery and suspense." LEAVING CUB CREEK, is the sequel to CUB CREEK.BEACH RENTAL, her debut novel, won the Booksellers Best award in both the Traditional and Best First Book categories. BEACH RENTAL and BEACH WINDS were each awarded 4.5 stars, Top Pick by RT Book Reviews magazine. KINCAID'S HOPE received a 4 star review from that same magazine.Grace began writing for Lake Union, an Amazon Publishing Imprint in 2017, with the release of THE HAPPINESS IN BETWEEN on January 31st and THE MEMORY OF BUTTERFLIES, released on September 5th. WILDFLOWER HEART, the first novel in THE WILDFLOWER HOUSE Series, published in January 2019 and WILDFLOWER HOPE followed in September. The third in the series, a Christmas novella, WILDFLOWER CHRISTMAS, arrived in November of that same year.​A LIGHT LAST SEEN ~ another Cub Creek novel (a single tile) ~ released in February 2020. Grace is currently working on a return to the beach with her next novel.Grace lives in central Virginia. Stay current with Grace's releases and appearances at www.GraceGreene.com and sign up for her newsletter. Grace loves to hear from readers. You'll also find Grace here:Twitter: @Grace_GreeneFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/GraceGreeneBooksGoodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/Grace_GreenePinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/gracegreeneauth/Amazon's Author Central: amazon.com/author/gracegreene

Si & Veronica formulate a great episode 164! The BBMAs were this past weekend and The Weeknd finally got his due for the awards season. Adonis joined his Champagne Papi to help accept the Artist of the Decade award. Jonas Brothers are back on the road with Kelsea Ballerini and a new single with Marshmello. Demi Lovato has come out as non-binary and taken on they/them pronouns. There is a potential new throuple with Taika Waititi, Tess Thompson, and Rita Ora showing a ton of PDA Down Under. Timothee Chalamet will be taking his sickly Victorian self to the set of the new Willy Wonka prequel as the lead. Vee went “Yikes!” to Kendall Jenner’s colonizer chic and super tone deaf tequila ad. You think Kendall would’ve learned from the Pepsi incident. For our Mini Main topic this week, we dove into what makes a good first date and how you can snag a second date. Do you believe in waiting a day after a date to text? Or can it come sooner? Australian Bachelorette is making history with the first ever bisexual AND indigenous lead. We will definitely be searching for some links to watch that. Join us for what is always a good time and leave us a rating and review for a shoutout! Follow us @thefuturebachelor on Instagram! Thanks to you all who have subscribed! -- For fun, great music updated weekly, follow FUTURE BACHELOR on Spotify!   ***SLAPPER OF THE WEEK*** “The Wave” Commonminds, Myles Cameron -- Follow us on Instagram!

It's a big review Stack podcast this week as we discuss: Star Wars: The High Republic #1 Marvel Written by Cavan Scott Art by Ario Anindito Dark Nights Death Metal #7 DC Comics Written by Scott Snyder Art by Greg Capullo With Yanick Paquette and Bryan Hitch Crossover #3 Image Comics Written by Donny Cates Art by Geoff Shaw Eternals #1 Marvel Written by Kieron Gillen Art by Esad Ribić Future State: The Next Batman #1 DC Comics Written by John Ridley, Brandon Thomas, Paul Jenkins Art by Nick Derington, Sumit Kumar, Jack Herbert Future State: Superman of Metropolis #1 DC Comics Written by Sean Lewis, Brandon Easton Art by John Timms, Valentine de Landro, Cully Hamner, Michael Avon Oeming Future State: Swamp Thing #1 DC Comics Written by Ram V Art by Mike Perkins Future State: The Flash #1 DC Comics Written by Brandon Vietti Art by Dale Eaglesham Future State: Wonder Woman #1 DC Comics Written and art by Jöelle Jones Colors by Jordie Bellaire Future State: Harley Quinn #1 DC Comics Written by Stephanie Phillips Art by Simone Dimeo The Amazing Spider-Man #56 Marvel Written by Nick Spencer Art by Mark Bagley The Last Witch #1 BOOM! Box Written by Conor McCreery Illustrated by V.V. Glass Generations Shattered #1 DC Comics Written by Dan Jurgens, Andy Schmidt and Robert Venditti Art by Ivan Reis, Joe Prado, Scott Hanna, Ferbabdo Pasarin, Oclair Albert, Aaron Lopestri, Matt Ryan, Emanuela Luppacchino, Wade Von Grawbadger, Bernard Chang, Yanick Paquette, Kevin Nowlan, Dan Jurgens, Klaus Janson, Paul Pelletier, Sandra Hope, John Romita Jr., Danny Miki, Doug Braithwaite, Rags Morales and Mike Perkins Backtrack #10 Oni Press Written by Brian Joines Illustrated by Jack Elphick Return of the Valkyries #1 Marvel Written by Jason Aaron & Torunn Grønbekk Art by Nina Vakueva Getting It Together #4 Image Comics Co-written by Sina Grace & Omar Spahi Art by Jenny D. Fine & Sina Grace The Vain #4 Oni Press Written by Eliot Rahal Illustrated by Emily Pearson Venom #32 Marvel Written by Donny Cates Art by Ivan Coello Inkblot #5 Image Comics Created by Emma Kubert & Rusty Gladd SUBSCRIBE ON RSS, ITUNES, ANDROID, SPOTIFY, STITCHER OR THE APP OF YOUR CHOICE. FOLLOW US ON TWITTER, AND FACEBOOK. SUPPORT OUR SHOWS ON PATREON. This week's episode is sponsored by Shape & Foster. Visit www.shapeandfoster.com for your free 14-day trial. Full Episode Transcript: Alex:                 What is up everybody? Welcome to The Stack. I'm Alex. Justin:              I'm Justin. Pete:                I'm Pete. What it is. Justin:              What it is, he says. Alex:                 What it is. Justin:              T I Z. Alex:                 On The Stack, we talk about a bunch of comics that have come out this week. Lots of big stuff here. We're going to have a big chunk in the middle to hold that all we'll get to in a moment, but first, let's talk a bit… A big kickoff that happened this week. Star Wars: The High Republic #1 from Marvel, written by Cavan Scott, art by Ariel Anandito. This is a comic, but this is also a megastory that is going to be told over comics, books, games, probably TV shows. I don't know what else, but it's all set at the height of the Jedi. They're facing down a new threat. This is the first salvo hero. I believe the first two things that were released were this comic book today and, yesterday, Charles Sol, comic book writer, wrote a book called Star Wars: Light of the Jedi that touches on a lot of the same plot lines. Alex:                 This is a big deal. This is [crosstalk 00:02:08] part of it again. Pete:                He also writes really good novels, okay? He's not just a comic book writer, okay? Alex:                 No, this is a novel that he wrote, that I was mentioning, Pete. Pete:                Yeah. Oh. I thought you tried to just pigeon-hole him as only a comic book writer. Alex:                 No, I'm just trying to pigeon-hole him as a lawyer. Justin:              Pete hates pigeons, and he hates the holes that they live in. Pete:                You're god damned right, I do. Justin:              He's coming for you. Alex:                 The thing that I'm curious about with this book is, does it work, first of all, as its own comic book, as its own thing? What do you think about it as part of this Star Wars: The High Republic megastory? Pete:                I just have a question real quick. The lizard guy with one arm, that's not the guy from the bar who loses an arm? Justin:              No. Pete:                Okay. Just making sure. Justin:              That would be a crazy coincidence. Pete:                Well, that's the thing. It's a lizard guy with one arm. I mean, I don't know. Justin:              This takes place before that. Alex:                 No, this takes place, yeah, hundreds of years before, I believe. Pete:                Oh, okay. All right. Just checking. Just making sure. Justin:              Let me throw out, I love just seeing the timeline infographic they did for the cover. Alex:                 Oh, yeah. Justin:              That's just fun. It's just fun to see all those things and be like, “Oh, look at all the good stuff, and then look at all the bad stuff,” all on one page. Alex:                 I stopped reading there, so I think we can move on to the next title. No, I actually like this. I was a little trepidatious, frankly, going into here. I think, sometimes, it's a mixed bag with Star Wars books, particularly when you're not focusing on the main characters that have an established voice, but I think this new character that we're following, this young Jedi, this Padawan, who goes on a mission, gets elevated, spoiler, to the level of Jedi knight, gives you a really good setup for the stakes and everything that's going on. There's clearly some danger coming her way, but I enjoyed it. I thought it was a fun Star Wars book, independently of anything else that's going on. Pete:                Plus the double-sided sabers. That's always badass. Justin:              Yes, always badass. Never not successful. Justin:              I like this, too. My favorite parts were where I felt like there was some new ground broken. I feel like these new characters, it feels a little [Star Treky 00:04:20], a bit. Alex:                 Yes. Pete:                Whoa! Alex:                 I think very much so Justin:              Which I think makes a lot of sense in that the height of the Jedi would be a much more organized society, like Star Trek is. I thought that was cool. Justin:              The parts that I don't like are when they're just referencing shit that we've already seen, like, there's a lot of splash pages later on where the only species we see are species we've seen in Star Wars. I'm like, “I see why you did that, but throw some other people in there. I want to see some new stuff. I'd like to see the Force used in a different way,” was my takeaway here. Alex:                 What'd you think about hot Yoda? Because we kind of get a hot, younger Yoda here, like a little more ripped. Justin:              He's sort of a teen, like an angsty teen. This Yoda fucks, and I love that. Pete:                Yeah, but he's still- Alex:                 Yoda's the kind of guy, Yoda, you'd want to grab an IPA with, like plug his mind, find out what's going on there. What are his ideas? Pete:                Well, first off, he's still got- Justin:              Yoda, put away that joint! We can't get high now. We have a big council meeting. Pete:                Yoda's got a walking stick, so he's not that young. Alex:                 Smoke, you will. Justin:              Relax, we must. Alex:                 Meeting dot 420 minutes, it is. Pete:                Oh my god. Nice. Nice. I mean, I can't believe I'm not in on these bits, but really impressive, Alv. That's the smartest 420 bit I've ever heard. Justin:              Wow. Pete:                Yoda's still got a walking stick, guys, all right? He's not that- Justin:              But he's not using it. He's not leaning on it. It's sort of more of a fun stick. Pete:                No, he's not. Yeah. Justin:              That's [crosstalk 00:05:53] a bowl. Alex:                 It's a pimp stick. Justin:              It's a bowl. Alex:                 That's a pimp stick. Justin:              It's a very long bowl that he smokes out of. Pete:                It's a bowl. Yeah. Pete:                Yeah, it's cool. It's nice to see him. I also am more interested in the horned Chewbacca character next to him, like Justin said, that it's like, “Oh, this is interesting. This is new.” Yeah, I think, with all the Star Wars, I agree. It would be nice to be like, “Let's just go away from what we know for a little bit and really just kind of get lost in some new shit,” but I enjoyed this. I very much enjoyed this. The fun timeline with all the symbols in the beginning was great. Love the action. This is just some good stuff. I feel like it's a great setup for this world to get into. Alex:                 I'm not laughing at you. I'm actually laughing at us, the fact that we were like, “Love that timeline.” Justin:              We do. Alex:                 First few pages. You open it up. Timeline. Close it back up. Justin:              Yeah. All I want, just the context. I love context. Pete:                Exactly. Just give me… Where are we? Alex:                 Yeah, I also did love the timeline, though. Pete:                What are we doing? Justin:              Yeah, exactly. As I say, everybody loves a timeline. Pete:                [crosstalk 00:06:59] disagree with you. Wording wasn't like- Justin:              I think what Pete's saying is, he wants more of his comics, like the X-Men specifically, with pages in the middle, where they just have information. Pete:                Fuck you. Justin:              Especially symbols. Pete:                Fuck you. Alex:                 Don't worry. We'll get there. We'll talk about another Marvel book that has that, but first, from the beginning to an ending, let's talk about Dark Nights: Death Metal #7 from DC Comics, written by Scott Snyder, art by Greg Capullo with Yonic Bucat and Brian Hitch. This is wrapping up this mega, wild saga of the DC Universe versus the Being, the Batman, I don't know what you call him, who laughs. Here, as has been not wildly rumored but put out there, the entire DC Universe, the cosmology of it, gets completely redefined at the end, really characterizing this, in case you weren't clear, as the level of a crisis in terms of redefining the universe, which is, I think, a big deal. Pete:                Yeah. Alex:                 What'd you think about how this book wrapped up as a whole but also where it leaves the DC universe? Nobody say anything, please. Justin:              No, Pete, I thought that was yours. There was a perfect lane for you. Alex:                 Yeah, you sort of bent back as if you were winding up for like, “Here it comes.” Justin:              A real haul-off. I thought a haul-off was coming. Pete:                It got kind of crazy in a way that I was like, “What is happening?” but I'm the first guy to get lost in stuff. The Wonder Woman mirror thing was a little weird. It got kind of meta. It was cool, the way it kind of started with Skeleton Head Rock, and then we got to see kind of like a young Sergeant Rock that was cool. Pete:                I think this event overall was a lot of fun. I wasn't like, “Oh, shit! DC Universe is completely changed!” You did a thing about a hand that kind of shows up. It got weird in spots, but I thought this was fun. I like the Batman talking shit, calling somebody a punk. Yeah, this was a fun event. Justin:              What I love about this, and I thought this ended really strongly here. There were a lot of titles throughout Death Metal that felt like, if you were reading everything, it was like, “Wait. Where are we? We were off the main plot here.” This book really landed all of the planes together in a great way. It was funny, while at the same… Every character was really playing their character game, the thing that make their essence at a high potential the entire time. I love that the focus never shifted from Wonder Woman. I thought for sure it was going to shift back to Batman at some point in this, because it's such a Batman-focused event, and I love that they didn't. Batman and Superman had their fights, and they were sort of off, but it was all about Wonder Woman. I appreciated that so hard, because the themes of this crossover are her themes. It's like truth, ultimate justice, be direct and simple to your truth. That's where we end up. Wonder Woman wins by not knowing the consequences but still just doing what she thinks is the right thing. The fact that that paid off, I thought was great. Justin:              The philosophy at the end of this, where the DC Universe is landing, where it's like, “Let's bring these characters back to their cores but, at the same time, let everything go wild. Let's push this universe into any direction we want.” I just love that creative potential. The event, from the premise to the endpoint, that was the idea. I love that it's taking over the whole line now. Alex:                 Yeah. I completely agree with you. My only two tiny, little quibbles that I don't even completely agree with but I'll say out loud anyway, one of them is that it felt like this was leading up to a point where Wonder Woman was going to die, right? Justin:              Mm-hmm (affirmative). Alex:                 I appreciate the fact that they didn't kill her off, which is why this is a dumb thing to bring up, because that would have been very frustrating, but it felt like they did the thing that they did with Tony Stark over in Civil War 2, where it was like, “Well, story-wise, we have to kill off Iron Man. That is the only option here. Instead, let's come up with this weird middle point where he doesn't die so we can keep him around, so we don't just rely on, ‘Oh, and then we're going to bring him back anyway.'” They do the same thing with Wonder Woman here, where it's like, she should have died. That was the natural ending point of this thing. It would have been a huge bummer and frustrating, so instead, they did this weird middle point that's going to lead to something else. A lot of that depends on whatever story they're about to tell with Wonder Woman going forward, I guess. Alex:                 The other part is just the idea that everything matters, which is the same as, I think, the Hyper Time idea that they tried a little while ago, that is confusing to think about. I think the way to approach it and the way that I'm approaching is, don't worry about it too much. We've been reading comics for years. None of it makes any sense when you lay it out linearly, so just allow yourself to remember the stories you like and ignore the things that don't necessarily make it cohesive. That's fine. That's how I'm getting past it, but there's certainly times when I'm reading this book where I felt like, I don't know how everything can matter. That just doesn't jive up in any sort of way. What does Superman remember that happened right now? What was his life like in a linear fashion? You know? Justin:              I think that what I like about this is, that's the problem anyway. Continuity is a fluid thing. You believe enough parts of it so you're like, “This is the story,” but every specific detail isn't important, because they start to conflict. Then you're left with mush, so I like the idea that they were able to play a little bit faster and looser with it, where it's like, “Yes, he was married. He has this kid. The kid was aged up in the future. All those things are true. Then, now, we're shifting into Future State, where we're really exploring extrapolations on those themes. Then we'll see where the main stories land,” but the fact that there are lanes where new stories can be told are great. Justin:              I just want to say to your point, Pete, how did you feel…? I thought Alfred looked great in this comic. Pete:                Fuck you, you fucking fuck, bud. Justin:              I think he looks better. Pete:                This comic brings up an interesting point. I'm wondering if you guys have thought about this at all. If you see a different version of yourself, the mirror version of yourself, do you just assume that it's you, because it looks similar? Do you kind of quiz yourself to make sure it's you? How do you react to seeing kind of like a different version of you in the mirror there? Justin:              You can always tell with a kiss. Pete:                You're going to kiss yourself? Alex:                 I agree. I agree. Pete:                You're going to kiss yourself? Alex:                 Exactly what I was going to say. Pete:                Why would it…? How would…? Kissing yourself, you would know it's you? How would that…? That's… Justin:              It is intimacy. You just know. Alex:                 Yeah. Justin:              Sometimes, you just know with a kiss. Pete:                What? Oh my god. Alex:                 You can just feel what's in the other's heart. Pete:                Oh my god. All right. Alex:                 Let's move on to another crossover, [inaudible 00:14:11] Crossover #3 from Image Comics. [crosstalk 00:14:12] Shaw. Pete:                Oh, I see what you did there. I see what you did. Alex:                 In this issue, a lot of the story threads are starting to come together as our main characters are trying to bring a comic book character back to the dome that is over Denver. They run into some trouble along the way. We get a reveal at the end of a character they've been teasing that is a big deal at the end of this issue. I thought the reveal was great. I cackled out loud when I got to it. I enjoyed it quite a bit. I don't know if we want to spoil it necessarily, but what did you think about this issue and the story as a whole? Pete:                We shouldn't. I thought this was great. I really love the reveal. I thought it made a lot of sense. You kind of get a hint of stuff along the way, which is cool. Yeah, I'm really impressed with the writing and the creativity on this book. It's very interesting. It's really cool to see how things are going to unfold. I love the kind of action stuff that happens here. I think I'm completely on board. This has been a lot of fun. Justin:              Yeah, I like it, too. It's amazing how meta and comic book [insidery 00:15:27] this book is, but it doesn't bother me. It's just a book for a very specific audience, and that's because- Pete:                Your review is, this book doesn't bother you. That's what you're saying? Justin:              I guess what I'm saying is, my expectation was that, if someone was like, “Hey, we're going to do this book where we reference all this very insidery things and sort of call a character Dr. Strange in a very winky way and then back off of that idea, I would be like, “I don't know if I would like that,” but I thought it's really handled in a very smart way. The reveal on the last page, I thought, was very fun. A couple characters, the guy's dad is the male love interest, is drawn like John Goodman from The Righteous Gemstones, like so hard. Alex:                 Yes, 100%. Justin:              Which I thought was fun. Alex:                 Mm-hmm (affirmative). Justin:              It's good. It's really striding a line that I think is difficult to stride. Pete:                I just don't understand, if you have a comic book, why you wouldn't put John Goodman in it. You know what I mean? Alex:                 Exactly. I completely agree. I think he was in Dark Nights: Death Metal somewhere. Pete:                Yeah. Alex:                 I also like the fact that Donny works in, I think it's The Paybacks, which is a book that he wrote back in the day, that he very cheekily is like, “Well, nobody read it, but it was very good,” which I thought was a fun, little detail. Again, you get that character at the end that I think is definitely a swerve but is perfectly- Pete:                Did it bother you, though? Alex:                 Should we just talk about it? Pete:                No, no. I just want to know if it bothered you at all. Alex:                 What bothered me? Pete:                Some things didn't bother Justin. I just want to know if you wanted to say, anything didn't bother you. Alex:                 What? No, nothing bothered me. Justin:              Yeah, do you want to talk about the reveal at this point? Alex:                 Yeah, sure. Let's talk about the reveal. Spoiler if you haven't read it already, but Mad Man shows up at the end. We got this tease in the first issue. The character drew somebody who has been taking people, helping get in and out of the dome. It looks like it's a picture of Superman, so the implication is, “Holy shit, did they somehow get Superman?” No, they did not get Superman as of yet, but it turns out, it's actually Mad Man, Mike Allred's creation. Pete:                Yeah. Alex:                 That is just a perfect character for this sort of dimension-hopping weirdness sort of thing. That's the thing that I really liked about the reveal, is it's not the biggest swerve you can think of from Superman, but it's certainly something you're like, “I never would have predicted that character would be coming here, but it makes perfect sense for the story they're telling.” It definitely doubles down on, “Okay, we're going for this. Here's the crossover. This is not just original characters that we're doing here.” Justin:              That's what I think. It really served the crossover premise so strong. Pete:                Yeah. I think my big takeaway is, this comic doesn't bother me. Justin:              Good. Go ahead and throw that on the cover. Alex:                 Let's move on- Justin:              One quick thing in the credits. Alex:                 Yeah. Justin:              Mark Wade worked on this book, as a… It says, “Story edits.” Alex:                 Ooh. Justin:              Yeah, interesting that he's there, helping craft the final book here. Alex:                 That is very interesting. Alex:                 Let's move on to one that may or may not have bothered Pete. Eternals #1 from Marvel, written by Kieron Gillen, art by Esad Ribic. As Justin mentioned on the live show, we talked to Kieron about this on our podcast a couple of months back. He teased this. I still think, even based on his teases, I didn't know what we were getting into here. This is a wild ride. This seems very clearly influenced or perhaps just parallel to what Jonathan Hickman has been doing over on X-Men in this book. There's a lot of back matter and integrated matter. We've certainly talked about how that works sometimes with the X-Men books, sometimes does not. Here, in my mind, it definitely does. I thought this book was great. Again, great last page reveal. I loved it. Justin:              Yeah. Great. I mean, the art by Esad Ribic is just stunning. It really… I think it serves sort of the tone of this book, which feels very postmodern superhero book that's owning, like a lot of books we've talked about, about continuity. This owns all this continuity. It feels like these characters, these Eternals, have been alive forever. They have done everything. They're a little bit cold about everything. It's still the world. Iron Man shows up here. It feels like a comic book reader. I've seen hundreds and hundreds of stories. Where's the new ground? It feels like we're going to get there. It's sort of like the, “God is dead at the end of the world. Who did it?” I love that. Pete:                Yeah. I mean, I've never really been a big Eternals fan, and I'm wondering if this movie's going to be any good or not, but- Alex:                 Did you say, “Eternals,” or, “A-turtles?” Never been a big a-turtles fan, huh? Pete:                No, Eternals. Alex:                 The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. They love the pizza. Pete:                I don't know what's going on, but you know I'm a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fan, so I wouldn't say that. Alex:                 Oh, okay. Pete:                Yeah, I have a hard time where the characters are eternal. They live forever. They're these all-impotent beings that have lived life forever, whatever whatever. Nothing's new for them. They get bored and do stupid shit. Pete:                I was impressed with the head butt. I thought that was glorious, calling your shot, which was great, but other than that, the art's fantastic. There were some weird pages of symbols that I didn't check out on purpose, but we'll see how this wraps up. Alex:                 Interesting. Pete:                Last page, saw that coming a mile away. Alex:                 Wow. Justin:              What? No way. Pete:                Yeah, dude! Justin:              Wow. Okay. Pete:                Get to the planet, and it's basically his name. I mean, what the fuck? Justin:              Wow. Alex:                 All right. Justin:              Okay. Alex:                 One of the things, just to- Justin:              Why did you call the ending of the second issue, then? Pete:                What's that? Alex:                 Yeah, Pete. If you know it so well, what's happening at the end of the second issue. Pete:                He gets the fucking gauntlet. I don't know. I don't fucking know what that's going to happen in the next one. Justin:              All right. The thing with Pete is, it probably will happen. Pete:                I mean, they dropped him. [crosstalk 00:21:36]. Alex:                 One thing that I wanted to respond to, that I think Kieron Gillen does so well here, is deal with the idea that these are Eternals. These are immortals. They think they have this purpose, and they found out their purpose is not necessarily wrong but just doesn't mean anything, so what do they do next if they're never going to die but their lives don't mean anything? What does that mean for the lives they continue living? To me, he almost treats it like office worker drones, right? Like you're going into work every single day. You're doing the same thing. What is the end result? For them, there is no end result. There's nothing, so what is their purpose? I think that's the setup here. We're going to find out, do they have a purpose? Who has a purpose? What do their lives mean going forward? I think that's a very exciting and interesting and very esoteric, mind you, thing to talk about. Alex:                 The other thing that I really loved about this book was the description of Deviants. Pete:                Yeah. Alex:                 That really popped for me, because there's this setup at the beginning of, the Celestials came down. They created 100 Eternals. They created 100 Deviants. They left. Then there's a little shruggie emoji beneath that. That's the perfect setup for the book. What he talks about with the Deviants in there, there's this comparison of like, yeah, not all Deviants are bad. Some of them just go bad, but they look at human beings as like, “Well, some of you are serial killers.” You know? I thought that was just such a good sequence of dialogue, aligning us with Deviants when the rest of the book is aligning us with Eternals. Just great writing, great art across the board. I really like this book quite a bit. Justin:              Now, one follow-up I know we talked about. Do you think, if the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles lives under, in the sewers of other cities, they would like different stuff? Pete:                Yeah. Alex:                 Yeah, sure. Justin:              Like if they lived in the sewers of Seattle, would they just be like coffee drinkers? Alex:                 Yeah. They live under St. Petersburg, and they're like, “I love being a turtle, and I love borscht.” Justin:              Yeah. “Borscht time!” Alex:                 If they lived in Rochester, they would love garbage plates. Pete:                There you go. Justin:              Wow. If they lived under Philadelphia, they'd be sucking on a cheese stick. Pete:                Ah man. Alex:                 Wrong podcast. Alex:                 Let's get into our Future State block here with a ton of books that were released off of the end of Dark Nights Battle from DC this week. Pete:                Here we go! Alex:                 They all take place in an indeterminate future of the DC Universe. However, as we found out when we were talking to Phillip Kennedy Johnson on our live show, they're all interconnected in some way, and they all do matter in some way as well. They're going to take elements and work them back, so this isn't just Elseworlds. This isn't just like what if or anything like that. It's something else. We don't know fully yet, but I figured the best way of approaching this, I'm just going to read through the titles. We don't need to talk about each of them individually, but I'm curious to hear you guys shout out. Then I'll read off the creative teams as well. Alex:                 We've got Next Batman, Superman of Metropolis, Swamp Thing, The Flash, Wonder Woman, and Harley Quinn. Justin, you were super into the Swamp Thing one, which was written by Ram V, art by Mike Perkins. You want to talk about that? Justin:              Yeah. This one is sort of post-apocalyptic Earth. Swamp things are the only things alive, at least at the beginning of the issue. Pete:                I like what you did there. I like what you did there. That was nice. Justin:              Yeah. It's just really nice. It's an issue about, oddly, like being a parent here. Swamp Thing intermittently walks us through the construction of a body of his children, basically, as he's going. Then bad things start to happen. This is the kind of story that I hope DC does more of with Future State and beyond, where it does feel like an Elseworlds that matters. Alex:                 Pete? Pete:                The art's glorious. I thought it was okay. Justin:              Great. You weren't bothered by it? Pete:                Yeah, it didn't bother me. I think there were other ones in the stack that I really like more, but you know. I'm not a parent, so I didn't really- Alex:                 I will say, reading these in the order of Next Batman, Superman of Metropolis, Swamp Thing; Next Batman brings up this new villain for Gotham city. Superman of Metropolis brings up a new villain for Metropolis, so I started to feel like, “Okay, we're getting kind of this interconnected thing.” Swamp Thing, I could not figure out how that gelled with that, so it took me a little while to get into it because of that, but I agree with you, Justin. I thought this was really nice storytelling and very interesting and weird. It reminded me a little bit of a Jeff Lemire take on Swamp Thing, almost like Sweet Tooth in a certain way. Justin:              For sure, yeah. Alex:                 I like this one quite a bit. Justin:              Swamp Tooth. Alex:                 Swamp Tooth. If you weren't into this one, what was your jam? What did you like of the Future State books? Pete:                I thought The Dreaming was cool. Batman was great. Alex:                 We're not talking about The Dreaming. Let's talk about Next Batman, though, written by John Ridley. Pete:                The backups were great as well. Alex:                 Hold on. Let me just say the writing staff on Next Batman. Pete:                Okay. Alex:                 You got John Ridley, Brandon Thomas, Paul Jenkins, art by Nick Derington, Sumit Kumar, and Jack Herbert. This is the big deal. This is like their shout across the bow, because this is a black Batman. This is Luke Fox, I think? Lucius Fox's son who was taking over, I think. Pete:                Yeah. Alex:                 Am I wrong about that? Justin:              I think you're wrong about that, because Luke Fox- Alex:                 Maybe it's his brother? Justin:              Yeah, Luke Fox was the other Batman family character. Alex:                 Okay. All right. I think it's part of the Fox family. Justin:              Definitely that, yes. Pete:                Yeah. Agreed. Alex:                 It's probably like the Simpsons. Justin:              Oh, no, you're right. It is Luke. It's Luke. It's Luke. It's Luke. Alex:                 It's Luke Fox. Okay. This is a big deal. We get a couple of backups to show us other things that are going on in the world of Gotham City as it's under this tyrannical rule, this fascist rule. Pete, what did you like about this book? Pete:                Well, first off, the villain that kind of gets attacked has some sweet knives. You don't see the combination of like brass knuckle and knife very much anymore, so that was great, to see that again. Some good action sequences. Then also liked the kind of like bubble that we got inside Batman's head a little bit, and Justin really likes that. Then we kind of got a little of the Fox residence. Then there's this kind of interesting thing about masks and putting on masks in Gotham, which is cool. Yeah, there was some really cool ideas going around here, so it got me very excited to see where this is going to go. I really like the design of Batman. The action of Batman in this comic was really great. This had a real cool feel to it, and I liked it very much. Alex:                 Yeah, I thought Nick Derington's art in particular was very good here. It feels like a classic Batman tale, which is probably transgressive in and of itself, that it's not a Batman who is black first and foremost, but it is a Batman first and foremost. Then it has these other layers to it. I think it was very purposeful on John Ridley's part and works really well. Alex:                 The one that jumped out to me, Future State: Wonder Woman #1. Pete:                Yes. Alex:                 This was written and art by Joëlle Jones, colors by Jordie Bellaire. Pete:                Wait. Alex:                 Yes? Pete:                Before we move on, we should talk a little bit about the backups in the Batman issue. Alex:                 Sure. Go ahead. Pete:                Okay. Katana was great. Alex:                 Yeah. Pete:                The design was really awesome. Sometimes, Katana is done not too well. This was really great. I really appreciated all that we got from this character. I'm very excited to get more. I hope these cool backups continue. Then we kind of got these team-up stuff as well. We got the Outsiders stuff in there. That was done well. I'm very excited to see, in this future state, how the Batman team is going to work, so I feel like they did a great job of getting us excited in this Next Batman Future State issue for the, not only Arkham Knights but the Outsiders as well. Justin:              Yeah, I agree. I hope this is the format of these books, where we get to see little snippets of the other characters. Great take on Outsiders and just really great across the board. Pete:                Yes. Sorry, Alex. I didn't mean to cut you off there. Alex:                 No, that's fine. Back to Wonder Woman. This Joëlle Jones art alone, to heat it up a little bit, on this book is so phenomenal. Justin:              Yes. Yes. [crosstalk 00:30:42] alone! Alex:                 This is a book that… I definitely went into it with preconceptions, only because it isn't out yet. It's already in develop by the CW as a TV show, so I was like, “All right. How is this going to work? What is this TV show about?” That was the critical lens I was looking through it. I still have no idea, having read the book, but once I was able to get past that, this is the boldest reinvention of the Wonder Woman mythology since Cliff Chiang and Brian Azzarello, and I love it. Love it. So good. It's a completely a different character. It feels consistent with the name Wonder Woman as she goes down to the underworld on a mission. We get to see different aspects of it. It's funny. It's weird at points. There's interesting mythology that's mixing different mythologies than just the Olympic mythology that we're used to, with Diana. This is so good. I think it is, actually, but this is one that I hope is ongoing, beyond the two to three issues that they're going to be doing over the course of these months. Justin:              Yeah, I mean, I agree. Pete:                Yeah, this… Oh, go ahead. Justin:              It's a young, brash Wonder Woman. Just comparing this Wonder Woman to the Wonder Woman from Wonder Woman 1984 is just like… This is so much more exciting. This is just all in one issue. Pete:                Yeah. This is just a great version of Wonder Woman, who is very action-forward, which is great. The kind of villains and the cool characters along the way doesn't feel like Wonder Woman, but it works in such a nice way that it makes it feel fresh. Yeah, I was like, “Okay, what's this going to be?” and then didn't want to leave this world. I loved the last splash page at the end. This is very exciting stuff. Alex:                 Let's touch on some of the other ones real quick, sort of do little capsule reviews of them. We got Future State: Superman of Metropolis #1 from DC Comics, written by Sean Lewis, Brandon Easton, art by John Timms, Valentine De Landro, Cully Hamner, Michael Avon Oeming. One thing that I really liked about this one is how weird it was. Justin:              It was very weird. Pete:                It was super weird. Alex:                 Yeah, this is weird, sci-fi Superman tales, something that I don't think we've seen in a very long time, and I appreciated that. Justin:              Yeah, I agree. It was almost a little too… I wanted more of like, “Oh, I see what this story is, and I see where it's going.” It was very grim also. It felt like I was… I'm not confident things are going to work out, which is an odd tone for a Superman book. It's funny. In the Batman book, I thought the first story was the strongest, and in order, that's how I liked them. In this, I feel like it was the reversed order. Pete:                Yes. Justin:              I liked the Guardian story at the end the best. Pete:                Yes! Justin:              Then, second, the Mr. Miracle, and third, the Superman [crosstalk 00:33:51]. Pete:                Exactly, man! The Guardian was badass! It was really great! I was surprised how much I loved that. Yeah, Superman was all right, but what are we doing with Superman? You know what I mean? Are we changing things up, or is this just like anime Superman? What are we doing? Alex:                 I don't know. I can't get too mad at a ball of teeth. That's a pretty weird, cool villain. Alex:                 Let's talk about Future State: The Flash #1, written by Brandon Vietti, art by Dale Eaglesham. Love Dale Eaglesham's art, one of my favorite artists ever, so great to see him draw the Flash family. Justin:              Yeah. Dark take. Alex, are you saying you don't love this? Alex:                 I didn't love this. Justin:              Because it's so dark. Pete:                Whoo! Justin:              Flash, mostly a bright- Alex:                 No, I don't know. There was something a little stilted about the language, to be honest. Just the writing, the dialogue was a little weird to me. It didn't feel like as bold of a swing as some of the other books that we read in some of the Future State stuff. Justin:              Yeah. Alex:                 It felt like, if the assignment was what happens in 40, 50 years down the road in the DC Universe, this was what happens two, three storylines down the road. Justin:              Interesting. Pete:                [inaudible 00:35:09]. Alex:                 You know what I mean? Justin:              Mmm. Alex:                 I wanted something bigger and weirder with the Flash, and that's not what we got here. Pete:                I read this- Justin:              Interesting, because- Pete:                Oh, go ahead. Justin:              Go ahead. Pete:                I was just going to say real quick, I read this one. I was like, “Well, I hope that Alvin liked this.” Justin:              I read it, and I was like, “Oh, I think Alex won't like this,” because I do think it's a bold swing, because it's a very not… The Flash is so bright and shiny and, “I'll fix this by running.” This is the opposite of that. Pete:                That's his move. Justin:              I think you also don't like it, Alex, because Wally's the bad guy. Alex:                 It makes no sense. Pete:                Shots fired! Alex:                 He's the good guy. Come on! Pete:                Shots fired. Justin:              He's the bad guy in this one, Alex. I want to pick up the next one, because I really was surprised by the tone and the vibe of this. I like the way that the heroes change. Heroes die, and the heroes change their tactic in the middle of this book. I thought that was interesting. Alex:                 Last- Pete:                I think one of the things I realized reading this is like, I've tried doing the Flash philosophy, just run harder, and it doesn't always solve your problems. Alex:                 Oh, go ahead. Oh, really? Pete:                Yeah. I think this book kind of falls short. Justin:              Pete, maybe you need to run a little harder. Pete:                I've tried. I've tried that. Alex:                 Okay, but run even harder. Pete:                Yeah, I- Alex:                 Last, we're going to talk about Future State: Harley Quinn #1, written by Stephanie Phillips, art by Simone Di Meo. This one, to me, almost had the clearest setup of a book. The rest of them felt like they were cutting in in the middle, but here we get, Harley is captured. Scarecrow is basically working as her Charlie-style, from Charlie's Angles, style handler, sending her off on missions to take down other villains in Gotham City. I thought this was a fun setup. I liked it. In particular, I thought Simone Di Meo's art was very good on the book. Justin:              Yeah, I agree. I like the setup here. It is the most… I see what this book is, and we're going to see more of this style story. Pete:                Yeah, that's what I liked about it, was like, “Okay, this is what it's going to be.” It gets you excited for what's going to happen next, so I feel like it does a good job of, “All right. Here's our take on Harley Quinn. This is her new look.” Cool, great. Awesome. I don't hate this at all, but I felt like I wanted a little bit more, but I feel like I'm excited to see where this could go, because it has a lot of possibilities. Alex:                 Let's move on to talk about some non-Future-State books, starting with The Amazing Spider-Man #56 from Marvel, written by Nick Spencer, art by Mark Bagley. Somehow, we're done with the Last Remains storyline and have moved on. We see here how the Kingpin and Norman Osbourne captured Harry Osbourne, AKA Kindred, and what starts to happen next. Alex:                 I know we talked about this with the last issue. Mark Bagley's are always good. He's always a good Spider-Man writer. I am starting to lose my patience with this storyline, to be perfectly honest with you. Justin:              Interesting. Alex:                 I always hesitate to say things like this, but we need to get to it. What is Kindred's deal? He can't stand in the corner and be like, “You know what you did,” for another 15 issues, because I am going to go insane. Justin:              It's funny you say that, because I think the story is sort of moving on. There's a ton of setup in this book for what the next things that are going to be happening. I will say, I liked the little moment where Kindred has little tears running down his weird eyes, his empty, pumpkin head eyes, but I think I've shifted… The coin, I think, is just part of this. We're getting some story. I think what the issue is for me now is, Spider-Man is not the main character in this book, and we're not in Spider-Man's head. Spider-Man is a side character. We're just observing him. It's about the Osbournes, Kingpin. We're in all these other heads. We need Spider-Man to be the center here. The Sin Eater story was about Spider-Man and Sin Eater and what was happening there, and I feel like we've been on Kindred's side of it, and I hope we're going to flip back as we go forward. Pete:                Yeah. Alex:                 Also, sorry Pete. The one thing I was going to say about the Sin Eater thing is, so much of this issue is consumed with talking about how cool the Sin Eater storyline and how interesting it was and the fallout of that, to the point where I'm like, that was more interesting. I like that. That was fascinating, and that really brought Spider-man to the brink, in the way that I just don't understand what Kindred means to him, even though he's a character that we've known for decades at this point. Justin:              Yeah. Pete:                I kind of, as Alvin said, might be a little bit nicer. When you've got a character talking about cool shit that happened before, that's not a good comic book. You're not in the moment in a way that's exciting. You're like, “Man, you know what was really cool? Couple issues ago. That's when shit was exciting. I don't know what's happening here, but I'm going to monologue as I walk circles around this cubed villain. Cool.” Yeah, I didn't like this at all. I want Nick Spencer to be off this book so I can go back to enjoying fucking Spider-Man. Justin:              Not necessary. Alex:                 No, you don't want to take somebody off of a job. That's mean, Pete. Alex:                 Let's move on, though, talk about The Last Witch #1 from BOOM! Box, written by Connor McKeery, illustrated by Vivi Glass. In this book, we meet a young girl who is very interested in sneaking up on, maybe, a witch's castle on her birthday. She is stymied because of a couple of different things. Alex:                 Really like the art here. There's some good all-ages stuff. I wanted a little more in the plot, and we finally get there by the end, so I am excited enough to read issue two. Justin:              Yeah, I thought this was a sock-fixing book for a good portion of it. Pete:                Oh man. Justin:              Like, “Yeah, fix these socks.” Pete:                You can't have your fun until you've fixed some socks, Justin. Everybody knows that. Justin:              Darn those socks. Darn, darn those socks. Justin:              I will say, I liked this. I think the dread that is set up throughout the story is good. It really pays off at the back end. It feels very Blair Witch, if I may reference an old movie. Alex:                 No. Justin:              Okay. Alex:                 The movie we talk about on this podcast is Blair Witch: Book of Shadows. Justin:              Retracted. Pete:                Wow. Justin:              Yeah. That's the bummer. We refuse to mention any movie but the current sequel that's out there. It really makes a lot of our movie conversations horrible. Alex:                 What's more current than Book of Shadows? Justin:              Yeah. Justin:              I thought this was good. Definitely going to pick up the next issue. Yeah. Alex:                 Yeah. Good stuff. Pete:                I agree that I thought this was a lot of fun. The art's fantastic. You got a badass grandma who's smoking a cigar. That's good times. Justin:              Is there anything you like more, Pete, than grandmas? Pete:                Nope. Justin:              All you talk about is grandmas on this podcast. Pete:                Plus you got a little kid, uses gap tooth well. I'm excited to see where this goes. There was a lot of kind of walking in place, if you will, a little bit, but I'm glad we got to see the tower and what's going to… I'm excited to see what happens after that. Alex:                 Yeah. I agree with you. There were a lot of points where they weren't focusing on the grandma, but then, there were a couple of pages where they focused on the grandma. Pete:                Yeah. Justin:              Yes. That's what Pete's interest… Really, Pete? Pete:                Yeah. Alex:                 Let's move on and talk about one more DC book here, Generations Shattered #1 from DC Comics, written by Dan Jurgens, Andy Schmidt, and Robert Venditti, art by… Are you ready? Ivan Reis, Joe Prado, Scott Hanna, Fernando Pasarin, Oclair Albert, Aaron Lopresti, Matt Ryan, Emanuela Lupacchino, Wade van Grawbadger, Bernard Chang… I like that you're both taking drinks of your beer. Yanick Paquette, Kevin Nowlan, Dan Jurgens, Klaus Janson, Paul Pelletier, Sandra Hope, John Romita Jr., Danny Miki, Doug Braithwaite, Rags Morales, and Mike Perkins. Alex:                 This is a book that I included here on the stack, because it certainly seems like, okay, you go Dark Nights: Death Metal. You go Generations Shattered. Then we're into Future State. It even says on the cover, “Spinning out of the pages of Dark Nights: Death Metal.” It doesn't have anything to do with that. Justin:              No. This book is a bit of a fever dream. Alex:                 Oh, yes. I didn't mind it once I got past realizing, “Wait, this has nothing to do with anything else going on in the DC Universe,” because there's just a fun thing about Kamandi building a team to take down another time-threatening villain. There's some good, fun art in it. There's a weird team that he puts together, has Dan Jurgens leading into his Booster Gold stuff, which… Justin:              Loves Booster Gold. Alex:                 That's cool. Loves Booster Gold. Justin:              I know people love Kamandi. I've always just been like, his only thing is he's the last boy. It's sort of like, “Well, he's just the last one.” Alex:                 No, man, he has long, blonde hair. Justin:              Yeah. Alex:                 He wears cut off jean shorts and no shirt. Justin:              I feel like he's cold. He's traveling through time with no shirt on. It's got to be cold. Alex:                 Yeah. Put on a shirt. Justin:              Yeah. Put on a shirt, Kamandi. Justin:              I do like Wave Rider. I like a lot of these weird characters that they pulled together for this. There's a lot of fun, weird… Like fighting Hector Hammond's big head in this middle bit, the young Booster Gold versus old Booster Gold. Alex:                 I think the problem is the timing of how this comes out more than anything. This feels like there's this weird, other event that's been going on during the big event, that is trying to do a lot of the same things that Dark Nights: Death Metal is doing but in a more conventional way. It's fun to read but confusing to read this week. Justin:              I think that's fair. Pete:                I really love the Remuter Jr. bit. That was enjoyable, but the other shit was really kind of fucked up. Justin:              The other shit was fucked up. The woman's doll in the fridge, I was like, “Is that…? Are you recalling out fridging here?” Pete:                Ooh. Alex:                 Oh, I don't even remember that. I think I missed that entirely. Pete:                Oh, yeah. Batman, yeah. Yeah, it was kind of crazy. Justin:              It was a weird thing. Pete:                Yeah. Justin:              Then the very end, I liked the last couple pages, but I don't know what it means. Alex:                 The black and white? Justin:              Yeah. Alex:                 Yeah. Who even knows? No idea. Alex:                 Next up, Backtrack #10 from Oni Press, written by Brian Joines and illustrated by Jake Elphick. We've been following this title all along. This is the last issue, I believe, of this death race through time- Justin:              Yes, for now. Alex:                 For now, death race through time book. It ends on a little bit of a question mark note, but how'd you feel about how it wrapped up? Pete:                I really liked the emotional choices that were made in this. It's really interesting how great the relationships are. There's this insane race going on, but then as the story goes on, we get little pieces of people's lives in such an interesting way. I thought this was a great somebody sacrificing their wish for somebody else, a classic thing but done really well, kind of in the backdrop of Fast and the Furious. I think this is a great book from start to finish. I was really impressed with this insanity, but it was done in a way where you could follow. Justin:              Fun art. Cars. If there was one of us on this podcast that loves cars, you know it's JT Sizzle who is really always checking what's under the hood and kicking the tires. Alex:                 What?! Yeah, you're a real gearhead, man. Justin:              That's exactly right. This guy gets cars. That's why I mentioned a Ford truck earlier tonight on another podcast. Alex:                 Cool. Justin:              I agree. This is a fun… I did like the emotional- Alex:                 Do you just want to flex about how you do other podcasts, too? Justin:              With you. It's not a… It's with you. It's not a flex to say that. Justin:              I like the emotional turnaround we got at the end of this. It's fun. Alex:                 Yeah, good stuff. This is one that I think is going to read really well in trade in particular. Justin:              Yes. Alex:                 Moving on, Return of the Valkyries #1 from Marvel, written by Jason Aaron and Torunn Gronbekk, art by Nina Vekueva. As the title implies, this is Jane Foster, slowly, potentially building the Valkyries back up. In this case, she is ferrying the sentry to the Underworld after the events of King in Black and runs into some trouble. We start to bring in a character that is not exactly but very similar to Tess Thompson in the MCU and hook back up with her. As usual, they just do a great job of the Jane Foster book. This is more of the same. If you like that, you're going to like this. Justin:              Agree. I love the sentry stuff. There's so much nice, down-to-earth stuff where his life flashes before his eyes with the good parts. He remembers a good joke with his wife. Really good stuff. Pete:                Yeah, there's nothing like a good bit. You know? I think this is a lot of fun. A lot of cool stuff going on. Art's fantastic. Some good storytelling. Yeah, I think this is solid. Justin:              I really hope, when my life flashes before my eyes, it goes back to this moment, when I said that Yoda fucks. Alex:                 Getting It Together #4 from Image Comics, cowritten by Sina Grace and Omar Spahi, art by Jenny D. Fine and Sina Grace. This is also the last issue of this, at least for now. This issue, we get to watch one of our main characters travel out to LA, find her solo music career. Alex:                 I got to say, I like this last issue in the story. They told quite a bit, but I was bummed that it only included one of the main characters for the most part. Pete:                Agreed. Alex:                 Bless you, Pete. Pete:                Agreed. Yes, was very cool that we got this, but you did miss the rest of the band. You know? You did want to know what was going on with them. I think this is a great book, a cool take on what it's like to be in a band, where all these people with different ideas and what they want to do and how you manage that, but I think the art and the storytelling in this is just really nice. Justin:              I hear your criticism, Alex, but what I liked about this book in general is that it's about a time in your life ending or a time in these characters' lives ending. When that happens, especially when it's a group, when you're young and you have a group of friends, and everyone just sort of splits off and goes in their own separate way, I felt like it was spot-on to only follow one character, because that's what happens. Everyone falls away, and you then go on with your life. For this book, we ended up just following her as she went to LA and sort of sorted out her solo music career. I appreciate it, but I do agree. I wish there was more. It felt like it ended right when I wanted to just hear her just go. I hope they do more of this, because I really love the tone and the setting of this book and the humor, the way the characters are built. It's really good. Alex:                 I agree. Next up, The Vain #4 from Oni Press, written by Elliot Rahal, illustrated by Emily Pearson. In this issue, we're in the '60s with our vampire criminals. They are building up a cult. Some of them are on board with it. Some of them are not. Alex:                 It is wild to me how much this book jumps forward every single issue, time-wise. Justin:              Yeah. Yeah, it jumps around in a wild fashion. It's funny. I feel like we compared it to American Vampire a lot. It's just such a different-type book. The pacing's wildly different. I still like it. I like the way vampires are rising, then they're falling, then they're all killed. The story is just innovative takes on what being a vampire is. Alex:                 Yeah. Pete, what do you think about this one? Pete:                I'm not sure. It's okay. Alex:                 Thanks, Pete. Pete:                I liked other issues more than this one. I don't know what to tell you, man. Alex:                 Great. Thanks for coming on the podcast. Alex:                 Venom #32 from Marvel, written by Donny Cates, art by Iban Cuello. Here, we get to see what happens after Eddie Brock hits a car and dies. Turns out, Eddie Brock, his body is dead, mind not quite dead because he's part of the hive mind that has been created by Knull, the god of the Symbiotes, starts to fight back here in a certain way. What do you think about this? Pete:                I love the message here. When you're falling to your death, you

Tess Thompson  – author of the Blue Mountain series, the Cliffside Bay series, and The Santa Trial. Website

Achtervolgd van Lisa Sanders is het eerste boek in de serie over rechercheur Tess Thompson, voor lezers van o.a. MJ Arlidge en Robert Bryndza. Tess start een onderzoek nadat een meisje is aangerand.Uitgegeven door Ambo|AnthosSpreker(s): Jorien Zeevaart

Netflix Responds to Cuties Controversy by Changing Movie Poster and Description – Dom B Podcast 211   Netflix responds to the criticism and backlash from their upcoming movie Cuties. Netflix has changed the movie poster and description on its platform. There are many defending the movie Cuties. Saying that Cuties is as actually against what many are accusing of doing. There is currently a petition going around with over 180,000 signatures to removes Cuties from Netflix. Netflix did apologize however it will still be releasing the movie to its platform. Allegedly a customer had a chat with the Customer Service of Netflix and I share that with you. Tess Thompson is defending Cuties, saying that the Netflix promotion is not what the movie Cuties is all about. I am disgusted by Netflix and their releasing the movie Cuties.   Is it okay for Netflix to release the movie, Cuties? Will you watch the movie Cuties?   Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/dombpodcast PayPal Donations - https://www.paypal.me/DomBPodcast Cash App - $DomBPod Venmo - @Dom-B85 Dom B Instagram - @domb85 Dom B Facebook (Business) - https://www.facebook.com/dombpodcast Dom B Twitter - @dombpodcast Parler - https://parler.com/profile/DomB/posts Email – dombpodcast@gmail.com Dom B YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6KVo6FU6GFxSL2leQLT6dA SHIRTS ARE AVAILABLE - https://rdbl.co/2Oj2zKT iTunes - https://apple.co/2og1Nnk Spotify - https://spoti.fi/2wwGxgS Reddit - https://www.reddit.com/r/DomBPodcast/ Facebook Group Conservative War Hut - https://www.facebook.com/groups/270974964192315   #Cuties #CutiesMovie #CancelNetflix Netflix Responds to Cuties Controversy by Changing Movie Poster and Description – Dom B Podcast 211 Netflix Responds to Cuties Controversy by Changing Movie Poster and Description – Dom B Podcast 211 Netflix Responds to Cuties Controversy by Changing Movie Poster and Description – Dom B Podcast 211  

Welcome to Romance Happy Hour! Hostesses Dawn Luedecke & Dylann Crush chat with romance authors G.S. Carr and Tess Thompson. This episode was recorded on July 9, 2020. To view previous episodes of Romance Happy Hour visit our website. You can find out more about co-hostesses Dawn & Dylann on our websites: Dawn Luedecke & Dylann Crush To find out more about our guests, visit them here. We’d love to connect with you on our social media… Instagram Facebook YouTube Thanks for listening and we hope you’ll come back next time!

Tess Thompson is the USA Today bestselling author of small-town romance and historical fiction, with more than 20 titles across multiple series that focus on heartwarming journeys of triumph and humanity for colorful characters you'd love to be friends with in real life. She started her writing career in fourth grade when she wrote a story about an orphan who opened a pizza restaurant. Oddly enough, her first novel, "Riversong" is about an adult orphan who opens a restaurant. Clearly, she's been obsessed with food and words for a long time now. Tina Susedik is an award-winning, Amazon best-selling, multi-published author with books in both fiction and non-fiction, including history, children’s, military books and romances. Her favorite is writing romance stories where her characters live happily ever after. Tina also writes spicier romance as Anita Kidesu. Her romantic suspense, “Love With a Side of Crazy,” was recently named for Book of the Year in Romance with Authors on the Air Global Radio network. Your Book Garden is a copyrighted podcast owned by Authors on the Air Global Radio Network

USA Today Bestselling author Tess Thompson writes small-town romances and historical fiction. She started her writing career in fourth grade when she wrote a story about an orphan who opened a pizza restaurant. Oddly enough, her first novel, "Riversong" is about an adult orphan who opens a restaurant. Clearly, she's been obsessed with food and words for a long time now. Tina Susedik is an award-winning, Amazon best-selling, multi-published author with books in both fiction and non-fiction, including history, children’s, military books and romances. Her favorite is writing romance stories where her characters live happily ever after. Tina also writes spicier romance as Anita Kidesu. Her romantic suspense, “Love With a Side of Crazy,” was recently named for Book of the Year in Romance with Authors on the Air Global Radio network. Your Book Garden is a copyrighted podcast owned by Authors on the Air Global Radio Network

Tess Thompson – author of The River Valley series, the Legley Bay series, the Cliffside Bay series, and the Blue Mountain series. http://tesswrites.weebly.com

In today's episode, Isaac gives his review on Boricua Bond and how build a friendship with a guy who was part of the film, Men In Black reboot starring Chris Hemsworth and Tess Thompson, Avengers Endgame trailer, Isaac also reminds his listeners on the Elseworld crossover, then discusses 21 Jump Street reboot while at the same time goes on a rant on Hollywood. Listen to the pod each and every on Spotify. Also make sure to subscribe and download on iTunes.

In today's episode, Isaac gives his review on Boricua Bond and how build a friendship with a guy who was part of the film, Men In Black reboot starring Chris Hemsworth and Tess Thompson, Avengers Endgame trailer, Isaac also reminds his listeners on the Elseworld crossover, then discusses 21 Jump Street reboot while at the same time goes on a rant on Hollywood. Listen to the pod each and every on Spotify. Also make sure to subscribe and download on iTunes.

Annihilation is a film that no matter how you feel about it deserves to be talked about simply for all the different ways that you can interpret the meaning of what is on screen. It is a film with layers upon layers waiting to be unfolded and that is what we are here to try and do. Annihilation is the new film from writer and director Alex Garland, based on the novel by Jeff VanderMeer, and stars Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson, Tuva Novotny, and Oscar Isaac in a film about a lot of different things. Before we talk Annihilation though we get into what we feel should win at this Sunday's 90th Academy Awards ceremony. Listen in and enjoy!

Bill welcomes novelist Tess Thompson to the show. Join Bill and Tess as they talk about the books we write and the lives we lead. Don't miss it!