The Banderpod

The Song of the Stone Tiger by Glenn McCarty has been nominated for audiobook of the year by The Selah Awards ! To celebrate we’re closing out season five by sharing Glenn reading the first three chapters of the book. Enjoy! Mentioned in this episode: • The Selah Awards - 2026 https://www.blueridgeconference.com/2026-selah-award-finalists/ • The Song of the Stone Tiger Audiobook - Audible https://...

Rachel Donahue interviews Dr. Carolyn Weber about how poetry has shaped her life and faith, and also her newest release, Four Questions God Asks . Carolyn is best known for her memoir Surprised By Oxford , which has been turned into a movie (available on Apple , Angel or Amazon ) but Carolyn is also a poet and the trajectory of her entire life has been altered by how deeply she engaged with a John...

Annie Beth Donahue interviews Bethany Faulk about the newest Bandersnatch Book release, Seichō Summer ! Bethany describes Seichō Summer as a kind of 90’s Little House on the Prairie, albeit with sushi rather than smoked meats! But both Faulk and Laura Ingalls Wilder lightly fictionalized their own childhoods to make a story that could resonate with all generations about feeling misplaced somewhere...

Carolyn Givens interviews Melissa Woodruff about her path to being a reader, then a homeschool mom who writes novels, works at her church, and now has become a full partner in Bandersnatch Books! From Radio Shack to camp counseling, Melissa has weaved through life with energy, love and engagement with everyone who God sends her way. When she stumbled into Bandersnatch Books’ booth in the Great Hom...

Carolyn Clare Givens interviews S.D. Smith ( The Green Ember ) about where the Green Ember came from, how he seeks to serve his audience, how he stumbled into a grace-filled vocation (albeit with hard work and a calling) and the strange concatenation of events that could possibly align to allow for an entire barbecue restaurant to be filled with only bearded men on a Tuesday! Sam is also releasing...

A.B. Donahue interviews Ambre Sautter about “Reshelving Alexandria” a bookish community on Facebook and later on Substack (organized originally in 2017). Ambre is a wife and mother of five living in the picturesque landscapes of Iowa, and she aims to be a guide for others on their literary journeys, especially in curating their own home libraries. Though she is a homeschooling parent, Ambre doesn’...

Carolyn Clare Givens interviews Square Halo’s Théa Rosenburg about co-writing and compiling Strong Allies after Leslie Bustard’s death. Thea had originally planned to be an editor and a collaborator on Leslie’s book Strong Allies, a book that expounds upon the Hebrew word ezer which can be translated as helper, but is perhaps better translated as ‘Strong Ally’. Expounding this concept was Leslie B...

Rachel S. Donahue interviews Rabbit Room’s Andy Patton (Darkling Psalter) about where and how the logistics of productivity overlap with the creative process, and much much more having to do with 3.5x-speed-audiobooks, the Toyota Way, LitRPG, and yellow slime (yes, yellow slime!) and the various niche corners of the internet where LitRPG represents a new kind of publishing model, that’s really a r...

Annie Beth Donahue interviews Doraine Bennett about writing In the Grip of the Ice , Bandersnatch Books’ most recent adventure. Doraine shares her previous experiences as a writer which prepared her for this epic adventure told from the perspective of real-life stowaway Perce Blackborow, and his journey upon a famous Antarctic exploration ship ( Endurance ) interspersed with accounts from their va...

Rachel S. Donahue again interviews Ben Palpant (creator of Brightwing Tales ) to learn how a poet approaches a foray into children’s literature. Ben is our first return guest on the podcast (you may remember him from Season 3: Episode 9 where we discussed his poetry book, An Axe for the Frozen Sea ). Ben is back after completing a new work of children’s literature in the whimsically adventurous tr...

Melissa Woodruff interviews her friends and colleagues Carolyn Clare Givens , Rachel S. Donahue and Annie Beth Donahue for this end of season question & answer episode filled with as many questions that we could answer, taken from all the questions that you listeners sent in. Thank you for sending questions, thank you for listening and thank you for taking an interest in Bandersnatch Books! Also w...

Rachel S. Donahue interviews her friend and colleague Carolyn Clare Givens (author of Rosefire and The King’s Messenger ). In this discussion, Carolyn shares the multiple roots of her career as an author and the many origin points of each of her stories. Every author tends to be inspired differently, and Carolyn describes how poetry, shoofly pie, music, and classroom settings all variously sparked...

Annie Beth Donahue interviews our newest Bandersnatch Books author and illustrator Mary Barrows (author of Joe the Fourth and the King’s Crown ). About ten years ago, Mary switched careers and started writing her Middle Grade novel Joe the Fourth while also making an effort to begin working as a freelance illustrator. As her illustration business grew, so did her confidence and the scope and size...

Rachel S. Donahue interviews Emily J. Person (illustrator of I’ve Got a Bad Case of Poetry ) about a behind the scenes look at all the stresses and joys of illustrating such a huge project while simultaneously navigating several life changes and moving her studio and all her art supplies from state to state to state! * Emily J. Person www.emilyjperson.com * PREORDER: I’ve Got a Bad Case of Poetry...

Carolyn Clare Givens interviews our “fairy godmother” Diana Pavlac Glyer (author of our publishing company’s namesake book Bandersnatch ! ) about her life’s work reinterpreting the Inklings (J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and their friends) not as a group of solitary men occasionally meeting together, and keeping their creativity strictly boundaried from each other. Instead, Glyer challenged the acad...

Annie Beth Donahue interviews Amanda M. Brindley & Sofia Rector (author & illustrator of Doodle’s Mountain ) about the unexpected joys and pitfalls of two friends collaborating as author and illustrator for a children’s picture book. During the nap times of their littles, Sofia and Amanda slowly pieced together the ideas for this picture book and slowly shepherded Doodle’s Mountain toward becoming...

Carolyn Clare Givens interviews Andrew Mackay (co-creator of Story Warren publisher of the Green Ember series) about publishing, brand new Green Ember video games and how Story Warren got started in the first place. There are wonderful side discussions abou the smell of giant printing presses, why Carrie is a “Newsletter Ninja”, why Andrew is “human Benadryl” and many more. By the end of this epis...

Annie Beth Donahue interviews Katherine Ladny Mitchell (author of the new mystery novel Not To Be ) about why mysteries are about so much more than just whodunnit. Mysteries scratch a deep itch inside our souls, the longing for justice and the revelation of truth behind the lies. The conversation also winds its way into homesteading, emus, goats and tractors! Visit Katherine Ladny Mitchell’s Subst...

Carolyn Clare Givens interviews Carolyn Leiloglou (author of The Restorationist Trilogy ) about her just-released book three: Beyond the Far Horizon ! The conversation also delves into the origins of Carolyn Leiloglou’s love of art, how great artwork inspires her craft of writing, and the importance of building writing communities (specifically her writing partnership with recent Bandersnatch auth...

Rachel S. Donahue interviews Glenn McCarty (creator of The Song of the Stone Tiger and the Tumbleweed Thompson books) about his love of children’s literature and the origins of his newest book set in the mysterious mountains of western North Carolina. His book will be released at the one-year mark of the devastation of Hurricane Helene in those same mountains, and so it is important to us to highl...

S.D.G Morgan hosts the last episode of The Banderpod–Season 3, where Katherine Ladny Mitchell reads from her upcoming cozy mystery Not to Be (the first in the Pen & Paintbrush mystery series). PREORDER “NOT TO BE” Annie Beth Donahue also reads the first chapter in her middle grade mystery No Clues, You Lose . Finally, all our guests this season share their favorite mysteries to fill up your TBR li...

Rachel S. Donahue interviews Ben Palpant (creator of An Axe for the Frozen Sea and Letters from the Mountain ) to have a conversation about conversations with seventeen powerful poets of the 21st century. These conversations cover an entire range of life experience, including grief, hope, culture, the writing craft, family life, and the imagination. Mentioned in this episode: * An Axe for the Froz...

Rachel S. Donahue interviews Kelly Belmonte (author of the The Mother of All Words ) about how Maine, food and “the mother of all words” have all impacted her collection. These poems are Kelly's expression of love to a world that is sometimes hard to love! Mentioned in this episode: * The Mother of All Words - Kelly Belmonte * York, Maine * Letters from the Mountain - Ben Palpant Also Mentioned in...

A. B. Donahue interviews Ken Priebe (author of Goblabet ) about some good and beautiful uses of darkness in art, and how delight can be a weapon against the darkness. (Also discussed: the occupational hazards of working with goblins, and why gnomes prefer to sing in cheese forests.) Still some time get in on the Kickstarter for I’ve Got a Bad Case of Poetry ! Mentioned in this episode: * Goblabet...

Rachel S. Donahue interviews Graeme Pitman (host of the Withywindle podcast and book designer for Above Not Up & Mother of All Words ) to learn more about how he combines his artistry, especially an aesthetic for design (with a photographer’s eye for light) with his podcast persona filled with kid-friendly nonsense, Doritos, pigeons, bookstore trolls and great books for kids! LAST DAY for Kickstar...