We're lying, but that's ok

What are the benefits of reading regularly? Plus a couple tips for successful goal-setting. Explicit Content: May contain strong language Production: Maxwell Gariety Music: The Silent Grove by Axletree Licensed under Attribution 4.0 Show Notes : Book Recommendations for your New Year book list Year of the Witching by Alexis Hendersen The Dawn of the Coven by Alexis Hendersen House of Hunger by Ale...

Do fans have a responsibility to be good fandom citizens? Today we discuss if the concept of literary citizenship extends to fans. Fandom communities are prevalent especially in fantasy, and just like every other community experience, there are people who are kind and welcoming, and people who want to gatekeep. And then the majority of us who are trying to be good citizens, but because we're human...

Today we'll discuss the purpose of stories in societies and why genres like fantasy and science fiction are so good at drawing people in and creating hard-core fans. Could it really just be escapism? Story "experts" like Jonathon Gottschall and Lisa Cron believe stories are more than that. Can a story literally change lives? Explicit Content: May contain strong language Production: Maxwell Gariety...

Today we'll discuss the purpose of stories in societies and why genres like fantasy and science fiction are so good at drawing people in and creating hard-core fans. Could it really just be escapism? Story "experts" like Jonathon Gottschall and Lisa Cron believe stories are more than that. Can a story literally change lives? Explicit Content: May contain strong language Production: Maxwell Gariety...

Today we peek just for a moment behind the scenes in our lives as authors. Is higher education worth it anymore? Is an MFA necessary or even valuable? We will discuss the current world of higher education, what it means for artists, and our personal decisions to purusue our MFAs. Explicit Content: May contain strong language Production: Maxwell Gariety Music: The Silent Grove by Axletree Licensed...

Representation, realism, and catharsis. We'll discuss why these themes are important to us and how well mental illnesses have been represented in media. We'll also briefly discuss pop culture fascination with severe mental illnesses and how that influences how they're predicted, including the serial killer obsession. Explicit content: May contain explicit language Production: Maxwell Gariety Music...

Is fiction getting darker? Why do people want to consume dark stories? Where's the line, and does grimdark cross it? In the wake of Halloween, we're discussing dark fantasy and the grimdark movement--its controversy and lack of definition as a genre. We'll discuss the broader darkening of fiction and whether it's really that new. Explicit content: Dark themes; may have explicit language Production...

How closely should an adaptation follow the original material? Is there such thing as a perfect adaptation? Is that even possible when adapting novel to film? We'll explore these questions and more as we discuss The Wheel of Time Season One and what we know so far about the recently wrapped Season Two (season one in part one, season two in part two). We'll focus on some of showrunner Rafe Judkin's...

How closely should an adaptation follow the original material? Is there such thing as a perfect adaptation? Is that even possible when adapting novel to film? We'll explore these questions and more as we discuss The Wheel of Time Season One and what we know so far about the recently wrapped Season Two (season one in part one, season two in part two). We'll focus on some of showrunner Rafe Judkin's...