Tales from the Trunk

This episode’s reading carries content warnings for discussion of COVID, self harm, horror movie gore, and suicide and suicidal ideation. If you want to opt out of that, please skip forward 14 minutes from the start of the reading.   This time around, it’s my delight to continue our summer of screams with Lor Gislason (@ lorelli_ )! They read us a moving personal essay about how they got so dang g...

It’s my absolute delight to welcome an absolute dream of a guest this time around: Chuck Tingle (@ ChuckTingle )! We read from the first chapter of Chuck’s new horror novel, Camp Damascus , out July 11th from Tor Nightfire, which leads us into a great discussion on Chuck’s writing process, the things that changed between first draft and published book, and of course some of his and my favorite bit...

This episode’s reading carries content warnings for children in perilous situations and description of injuries. The reading is 10:30 long.   This time around, it’s my pleasure to welcome Foz Meadows (@ fozmeadows )! Foz reads an excerpt from his trunked novella, “Blood Penance,” which leads us into a great conversation about idea magpies, internet purity culture, horror, and kink.   Things we men...

It’s my distinct pleasure, this time around, to welcome Emma Mieko Candon (@ EmmaCandon ) to the show to talk about their incredible new book, The Archive Undying , out June 27th, 2023, from Tor Dot Com! After a reading from the book’s opening, we descent almost immediately into gremlin mode about the inspirations for the book (our favorite podcast (you know the one)), Star Wars, and the intersect...

This episode's reading carries a content warning for brief, non-graphic vomiting. You can skip forward 8:10 from the start of the reading to 0:13:00 to avoid this. This time around, it’s my pleasure to welcome Dee Holloway ( @_deeholloway ) to the show! Dee reads from her trunked YA novel, River’s End, which leads us into a great discussion of writing about place, what we did during the height of...

This time around, I’m delighted to welcome back to the show Megan E. O’Keefe (@ MeganEOKeefe ) to talk about her brand new book, The Blighted Stars , out May 23rd from Orbit Books! In between saying “spaceship books” a lot, we talk about some things that got left out for the betterment of the book, some beloved tropes, and what else you can look forward to from Megan!   Things we mention in this e...

This episode’s reading carries a content warning for discussion of online harassment. If you would like to skip the reading, fast forward to timestamp 0:17:25 from the start of the reading.   This time around, it’s my absolute delight to welcome to the show Brandon O’Briend (@therisingtithes)! Brandon reads from their story, “Content is Cuisine,” before we launch into a wonderful conversation abou...

This episode’s reading carries content warnings for implied child abuse and violence. If you would like to skip the reading, please skip forward to the 0:21:00 mark from the start of the reading.   This time around, it’s my pleasure to welcome Ladz (@LadzWriting) to the show! They join us to talk about their forthcoming debut novella, Ice Upon a Pier , releasing April 11th, 2023, from Robot Dinosa...

This episode’s reading carries a content warning for ableist themes around deafness. If you would like to skip this, skip ahead to the 11-minute mark to bypass the reading.   This time around, it’s my pleasure to welcome fellow gremlin Suzan Palumbo (@sillysyntax) to talk about…something. Suzan reads their trunked story, “Fricatives,” which leads us into a discussion about walking away from storie...

Hello, and welcome to season five (5) of Tales from the Trunk, where it’s my distinct pleasure to welcome Dr. Malka Older to the show to talk about her brand new novel, The Mimicking of Known Successes , out in just a few days on March 7th, 2023 from Tor dot com publishing! Malka reads us a couple of excerpts from the book, and then we geek out about putting puns in books because we can!   Things...

This time around, to close out our fourth (4th!) season, it’s my pleasure to welcome Aimee Ogden (@ aimeeogden@wandering.shop ) to the show! Aimee reads from her delightful trunked YA novel, Starstruck, which leads us into a lovely conversation about lesbian radishes, the exhausting nature of submitting work, and short fiction magazines we love.   Things we mention this episode:   Aimee Kuzenski’s...

This time around, it’s my joy to welcome back World Fantasy Award winner and fantastic human being C.L. Polk ( @clpolk@wandering.shop ) to talk about their newest novella, Even Though I Knew The End. After hearing an excerpt from the book’s first act, we get into its unexpected origin story, the things we write for our nine (9) goblin friends, and an introduction to Cee’s other books!   Things we...

This time around, it’s my delight to welcome Juliet Kemp (twitter @ julietk , mastodon @ juliet@zirk.us ) to the show! They read from their trunked sci-fi novel, Between Stars, Between Minds, which leads us into a discussion of messy first drafts, lived-in science fiction worlds, and finishing a four-book series.   Things we mentioned in this episode: Chipped Cup Collective Andor Friends at the Ta...

It's awards time again! A full transcript of the show is included below.     Hello, and welcome to Tales from the Trunk: nominating the works that did make it! I’m Hilary B. Bisenieks.   Friends, it’s been another amazing year for science fiction, fantasy, horror, and beyond, and I’m here once more to let you know about some of the amazing works by my fantastic guests, which you can nominate for t...

This time around, it’s my distinct pleasure to welcome a fellow podcaster, Annalee Newitz (@ annaleen ), to talk about their forthcoming novel, The Terraformers , out January 31st, 2023, from wherever fine books are sold! We get to hear an excerpt from the book that leads us into a great discussion about transit gays, flying moose romance, and robot trans culture, among other things.   Things we m...

It’s my distinct pleasure, for this, our post-NaNo episode, to welcome C.L. Clark ( @C_L_Clark ) to the show! Cherae reads a pair of excerpts from their trunked novel, The Bitch of Maradon, which leads us into a great conversation about formal and informal writing education, interrogating our biases, and how awkward it can be to revisit our old writing in the context of actually reading it out lou...

Happy NaNoWriMo, for all of you who observe! This time around, we’re joined once again by R.J. Theodore (@ bittybittyzap ) to talk about the crazy act of writing a novel in a single month and the freedom that comes with actually deciding to finish a thing. Rekka brings us a compare and contrast reading of two different beginnings of their novel, Flotsam , first from the NaNo when she first finishe...

This time around, it’s my distinct pleasure to welcome back to the show Jordan Kurella (@ kurellian ) to talk about his new collection, When I Was Lost , available now wherever fine books are sold! He reads a previously-unpublished story, “The Hero and the Leviathan,” out of the collection, which leads us to ponder the question: what if a spaceship had PTSD?   Things we mention in this episode:  ...

This time around, it’s my distinct pleasure to welcome Héctor González (@ Mexicanity ) to the show! Héctor reads a pair of spooky, voidy stories from the latest issue of v o i d j u n k , which leads us into a wide-ranging conversation about kindness, viscera, technology, chairs, and fandom.   This episode’s readings carry content warnings for descriptions of viscera, possession, and transformatio...

This time around, it’s my delight to welcome (finally) Hugo-winning fan writer, Aidan (@ adribbleofink ) Moher to the show! We’re talking about his new book, Fight, Magic, Items, which just released October 4th! Aidan reads from the introduction to the book, which leads us into a deep discussion of the games that shaped our childhoods.   Things we mention in this episode:   A Dribble of Ink Final...

In case you missed the announcement at the start of our last episode, with Neon Yang, my new game, All Our Yesterdays, is available now for pay-what-you-want on my itch !  This time around, it’s my absolute pleasure to welcome to the show Aimee Kuzenski (@ aimeekuzenski )! Aimee reads to us from her novel, Tilted, which leads us into a great discussion on the interiority of writing, thoughts about...

As mentioned at the top of the show, I have a game out, All Our Yesterdays, which you can find on my Itch.io !   It’s my absolute pleasure, this time around, to welcome Neon Yang to the show to talk about their brand new book, The Genesis of Misery , out September 27th, 2022, from Tor books! Neon reads to us from the start of the book, which leads us into some great discussion about why doing mult...

This time around, we’re joined once again by Rem Wigmore (@faewriter), who brings us a delicious excerpt from their trunked novella, Considine’s Counsel, which leads us into a great conversation about the study of story forms, actual play podcasts, and an opportunity, as if we needed one, to just be 110% on our bullshit.   Things we mention in this episode:   Foxhunt and Wolfpack, by Rem Wigmore L...

This time around, I’m very pleased to welcome back one of my guests from this show’s very first season, Valerie Valdes (@ valerievaldes ), to talk about the conclusion of her Chilling Effect trilogy, Fault Tolerance , which just released this Tuesday, August 2nd, 2022! Val reads to us from the opening chapter, which leads us into a lively discussion of video game tropes, fanfic, screenwriting, and...

This time around, we’re joined by the one and only Miri Baker (@ MiriBaker ). Miri brings us a trunked story from ye olden days, all the way back in 2011, plus a lot of great conversation about the load-bearing parts of our personalities, cosplay, and how genuinely liking the things we like is good, actually. This episode’s reading carries content warnings for blood, extremely unsafe handling of s...