All Kittysneezes Podcasts

Recently, JR of the Podhand joined us to discuss a phenomenon we’re calling squeecore —a style of quippy, fluffy, moralistic, fannish, centrist, Joss Whedon-esque speculative writing that touts itself as Important Activism but is mainly middle-of-the-road escapism. This episode unexpectedly sparked an explosion of controversy. Some people loved it, other people (most of whom did not listen to the...

We finally reached our Patreon subscriber goal, so you know what that means! It is time to talk about Bear , Marian Engel’s 1976 Canadian novel about a mousy librarian who falls in love with a bear. The novel sparked tremendous controversy when it came out, but that didn’t stop it from winning the prestigious Governor General’s Literary Award the year of its release. Is this a book about a woman f...

In 1936, anthropologist Ralph Linton said, “The last thing a fish would ever notice would be water.” It’s difficult to see the medium that encompasses everything around you, especially when you’ve never known anything else. Well, if fish were contemporary sci-fi/fantasy readers, the last thing they would notice is squeecore. What is squeecore? You’re soaking in it! Squeecore is the dominant litera...

Albert Birney is a Baltimore-based filmmaker. He has directed/co-directed four feature films: The Beast Pageant , Sylvio , Tux & Fanny and Strawberry Mansion (playing in select theaters February 2022). Gabriel Koenig has been making games since 2013, independently programming Jettomero: Hero of the Universe in 2017 and Test Tube Titans  in 2020. He lives in Vancouver, Canada. TUX AND FANNY: Th...

Leo “LaserFrog” Wichtoski is currently streaming Tuesdays and Thursdays at 8pm GMT. Previously he created the “Leo Takes A Look” series for the video game website kotaku.com and the video poetry series “Run, Play, Think!” on Youtube. He currently lives in Wales. LEO WICHTOWSKI Streaming on Twitch Tuesdays/Thursdays “Run, Play, Think!” Archive “...

Bram Stoker Award-winning author John Langan  joins us to talk about cosmic horror, his novel The Fisherman , upstate New York, how much money writers make (none), and how hard it is to get published when you’re a little too literary for the genre crowd but a little too genre for the literary crowd. Special appearance by Langan’s wiener dog/beagle. About Rite Gud: Raquel S. Benedict is...

We like folklore, and we like feminism. So why not combine them? A lot of writers do. Feminist retellings of old fairy tales are very popular. We have girlboss Cinderella starting her own business, rebellious Belle teaching girls to read in Beauty and the Beast, Snow White leading an army into battle. And why not? What’s wrong with updating folklore for a more enlightened age? We all like to see s...

In this episode, we re-examine the saga of the notorious Sad Puppies. What happened? What ripple effects did it have on the sci-fi/fantasy community? Did we learn anything from this? Should we learn anything from this? And is there more to the story than the official narrative? Kurt Schiller joins us to talk about angry mobs, squeecore writing, and the musical stylings of forgotten 90s techno grou...

In this episode, Gretchen Felker-Martin joins us to talk about her gritty post-Apocalyptic trans novel Manhunt (spoiler free) and how an idea becomes a traditionally published book. We talk about the myth of overnight success, how much money novelists actually make (it is not much), the writing process, agents, research, and dealing with controversy. This is part one of a two part episode. In the...

Whenever a critic complains about the ubiquity or the creative emptiness of superhero narratives in contemporary pop culture, fans argue back that mass entertainment is just the modern incarnation of our rich cultural heritage: superheroes are mythology, and fandom is folklore. Is this true, or is this a way to flatten the complexities of traditional art while giving commercial media a spiritual s...

Artists have always been under pressure to create work that embodies proper morals. In the old days, if art didn’t honor the Church and glorify the state, the artist could be imprisoned, tortured and killed. Even today, pop cultural critique focuses largely on a work’s ability to impart appropriate social values: Is Black Widow feminist enough? What does the live action Lion King remake say...

A story is a type of conversation with the reader. If you don’t leave room for the reader to speak, you’re a terrible conversationalist. This room, this essential emptiness, is called negative space. In this episode, we will discuss why the words you don’t write are just as important as the words you do. We are joined by MK Anderson. Links: QualiaRedux on Youtube Qualia’s Patreon Cedar Court Grizz...

Genre is safe. Genre is comfortable. Genre tells us, as readers, what to expect. As writers, genre gives us guidelines to follow, which can make it a lot easier to plan a story: put the villain monologue here, put the meet cute there, tragically kill the protagonist’s mentor in this part of the story. But do we rely on genre conventions too much? Can genre hold us back? Is genre busting good? In t...

In today’s sci-fi/ fantasy community, it’s fashionable to dig up H.P. Lovecraft and put him on trial as the avatar of everything wrong with speculative fiction. While we won’t defend Lovecraft’s abhorrent social values, we have to ask: what is the point of this? What do we gain by canceling a man who is now a dusty skeleton mouldering in the dirt? Are we really reckoning with genre fic...

If you’ve spent any time talking about geek culture, you’ve probably seen one word come up over and over again: gatekeeper. To be a gatekeeper is bad. To be a gatekeeper is exclusionary and harmful and discriminatory. The internet was supposed to get rid of gatekeepers and usher in a new, democratic era of content, an era free of inequality or bias or those evil old boogeymen called gatekeepers. B...

What makes a writer? Is it coffee and cats? Is it a good author photo? Is it having a screenname like @JaneDoeWrites? Is it in your soul, in your bones, in your DNA? Is it collecting photos of books and sharing writing memes and penning endless posts about writing (specifically, about how much you hate it)? In this episode, Carmilla Mary Morrell joins us to talk about the dark secret of being a wr...

It’s normal to look for people who share your interest in pop culture. But what happens when devotion to corporate-owned IP becomes an integral part of your identity? What happens when you only know how to be queer through fandom? The world’s greatest writer June Martin joins us to talk about how fandom has become synonymous with queerness, and why that’s a problem. We talk about...

In previous episodes, our podcast has said over and over again that one of the best ways to improve your writing is to read a lot: read more books. But instead of learning from books, too many fledgling writers learn to write primarily from movies, television and video games, and their writing suffers as a result. Movies and video games can be well-crafted works of storytelling, but when it comes...

As the world looks grimmer and grimmer, Millennials and Gen Xers retreat deeper and deeper into childhood nostalgia. Adults dominate fandoms meant for children, like Steven Universe , Young Adult fiction, and My Little Pony . Within SFF, many writers, readers and editors have begun to treat all media as though it were meant for children: It must be didactic and escapist and safe. But there are sti...

Why do we love horror so much? On the surface, it makes no sense. Why would anybody enjoy media that focuses on upsetting, grotesque topics? Why would anybody want to be afraid? In this episode, writer and ghost hunter Loren Rhoads joins us to talk about how horror helps us find beauty in darkness. Our discussion touches upon Buddhism, ghost hunting, and the unique cathartic potential of horror. L...

Cultural criticism has always been an essential part of our media ecosystem, especially when it comes to geek culture. And on the surface, it’s thriving. Every blog, every YouTube video essay channel, every op-ed page of every major publication pontificates on very important questions like “Is Wonder Woman a feminist icon?” “Did Thor fat-shame me?” and “Is Super Mario a queer ally?” But is any of...

We here at Rite Gud work very hard to create thoughtful dialogues designed to help our listeners write good. But, there are many writing advice columns that won’t help you write good—that will actually encourage you to write bad, or at best mediocre. There’s a lot of money and clout to be made giving writing advice, and a lot of conventional wisdom, but how much of that is really helpful, and how...

Filthcore queen Gretchen Felker-Martin returns to talk about unlikable female characters. What makes a woman unlikable? Why are we so quick to condemn female characters for minor flaws? Why does art hate ugly people so much? Why don’t we talk about male characters’ likability? And why on Earth do we think grown-ass women need role models? Links: Gretchen’s Twitter Gretchen’s Patreon Female charact...

SFF author and professional translator Mário Seabra Coelho talks to us about the art of translation. Writing translations, even only as an exercise, can open a writer’s eye to new perspectives, new devices, and new poetic turns of phrase. buy viagra generic indian pharmacy online generic We discuss all the important questions: How much should a translator challenge the audience? How far should a t...

Horror writer G. Emerald, who has a background in the medical system, joins us to talk about the healing power of stories that leave us with a bad taste in our mouths. Audiences like happy endings, but do we really need every story to end on a high note? Are we being pacified? Why did the Hays Code require movies to have uplifting endings? Do happy endings sublimate the revolutionary energy that w...