Tales from the Trunk: Recent Episodes
Tales from the Trunk
Show notes coming soon.
If you have a few extra dollars, both Sarah and I would appreciate any donations you can make towards relief efforts in the areas of Appalachia affected by hurricane Helene. We highlighted the following organizations:
BeLoved Asheville
World Central Kitchen
American Red Cross
We’re back, folks! And as promised, I’m joined this time around by none other than T. Kingfisher herself, who joins me to talk about her newest novel, A Sorceress Comes to Call, available right this very moment from fine booksellers everywhere.
Things mentioned in this episode:
DeviantArt
“The Goose Girl”
The Hamster Princess series, by Ursula Vernon
Dracula, by Bram Stoker
“Bluebeard”
The Ladies’ Book of Etiquette, and Manual of Politeness, by Florence Hartley
Swordheart, by T. Kingfisher
Magic: the Gathering
Commander format
M:tG Arena
Behold: Humanity!, by Ralts Bloodthorne
Warhammer
Humans are space orcs (this may not be the original, but it’s what I could surface)
Ursula’s bluesky, tumblr, and website
Join us again in October, when I’ll be talking to Sarah Pinsker!
Hello, dear listeners!
I wanted to give you all an update about the show. To whit: I’m taking a bit of a break. The last five seasons have been incredible, and season six has been and will continue to be.
Tales from the Trunk is in no way ending. We will be back on September 20th, when I’ll be talking to T. Kingfisher.
In the mean time, here are some of the things that I have been enjoying from the wider media landscape:
-
- A podcast: Friends at the Table – their eighth season, Palisade, is coming to a close right now, and it has been a Ride.
- A book: Bury Your Gays, by Chuck Tingle – you already know how much I loved Camp Damascus, and it should come as no surprise that the good doctor’s follow-up is every bit as incredible.
- A TV show: Hunter × Hunter (2011) – Just a fantastic shōnen anime.
- And a musical twofer:
- Chappel Roan – come on. I’m queer. She writes good pop hooks. Suggested tracks: “Pink Pony Club” and “My Kink is Karma”
- Porter Robinson – if you like bouncy but also emotional EDM, give him a go. Suggested tracks: “Knock Yourself Out XD” and “Shelter”
Thanks again for your support over the years, and I look forward to returning in two months with even more amazing interviews with incredible guests.
This time around, it’s my delight to welcome to the show Aliette de Bodard! Aliette joins me to talk about her new novella, Navigational Entanglements, available July 30th, 2024, from TorDotCom Books!
Things we mention in this episode:
C dramas
Heaven’s Official Blessing, by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
Xianxia
Camp Damascus, by Chuck Tingle
“The Tutelary, the Assassin, and the Healer,” by Aliette de Bodard in I Want That Twink Obliterated
Worldcon
Sarahs Gailey and Hollowell
Dead Boy Detectives and The Sandman, by Neil Gaiman
The Saint of Bright Doors, by Vajra Chandrasekera
Chronicles of Elantra, by Michelle Sagara
Aliette’s bluesky, insta, website, and patreon
Hello, and welcome to Tales from the Trunk.
Listeners, it’s June, and ya boi is tired. I was going to try to scramble to get an interview scheduled, but then I remembered the name of a Shavuot workshop that a dear friend of the show attended last year: “What if we Rested?”
Life has been nonstop for me for more than half a year now, so what if I rested? What if we all rested? Goodness knows that if you’re not a white cishet allo abled person, you need it.
But also, I wanted to do something. So I’m bringing you something old and something—well, another old thing, actually, but one that hasn’t appeared here before. First, here is an essay that I wrote for Trans Day of Visibility a few years ago, and after that, a short collection of essays that first aired here in June of 2020. I hope you enjoy them.
Visibility
honestly i’ve been sitting on this for a grip and just not quite knowing how to fit the words together, but i’m tired, y’all. so, visibility. of trans people, specifically.
it’s me. i’m trans people.
it took me a long time to understand that about myself, and i didn’t come to it on my own. i needed help. i needed to see that “trans” was a word that could describe me.
when i was little, i knew that i was weird. that i didn’t fit. that i didn’t act like the other little boys. that there were parts of me that i had to learn to hide to keep myself safe. that i couldn’t talk about with anyone because i didn’t have the language to capture it.
when i was in ninth grade, one of our history teachers came out as trans. we had an assembly where an administrator told us all that our teacher was a man now, that his pronouns were he/him, probably that misgendering him wouldn’t be tolerated. but he didn’t look like me.
i had a distant friend in high school who came out as trans. he didn’t look like me, either.
years before she came out as trans, my closest friend at school told me that she was bisexual. she was the first bi person i knew i knew. we would go to goth clubs and she would make out with people while i danced or stood against the wall and nodded my head along. even before we were really friends, i was drawn to her, wanted to be her friend more than anything. we went through a lot of hard times together, but she didn’t look like me.
she pierced my ears after high school. four holes i carry to this day, a little part of her with me all the time even though we haven’t seen each other in a decade.
in college, my friend asked that we use neopronouns for them, then they/them. the neopronouns were hard. we were young. i knew so many queer people in college, so many trans people. none of them looked like me.
that same friend came out to me and my spouse as genderqueer sometime before our wedding. i think that was the first time i’d heard the word. but i didn’t know it was something that could belong to me. not yet.
i “came out” to a friend one summer night while i was in college. we were driving to get snacks after a day of endless quaker committee meetings. i said that i’d only ever fallen for women before, but that i was open to the possibility that wouldn’t always be the case. i was in my first actual relationship then. years later, my ex came out as nonbinary. i didn’t think about that coming-out conversation again for a long time.
i came out as bi to my cat while i was driving her to the vet for dental surgery. she was upset because she was in the car, but i knew that she was someone i could trust with my “secret.” it wasn’t for another few weeks that i came out to my spouse and a few of my friends. i used to think of outness as a binary, even though it’s always been a spectrum. i’m out to some of my coworkers, mostly other queers, but not others. it’s not worth the discomfort. or it’s choosing the lesser of two levels of discomfort.
one time, my boss at the time said “everyone here is straight” in a meeting. he wore a rainbow strap on his apple watch in june. he’d like you to know that he’s an ally. i felt deeply uncomfortable about not saying anything, but also deeply uncomfortable about the idea of saying something. after i left that job, a former coworker confided in me that this boss pulled some classic cishet white dude stuff with them. i felt grateful that i hadn’t outed myself in that meeting long ago.
i found a copy of Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer at a bookstore the same summer that i left that job and bought it on the spot. i just thought it was neat. i knew that i needed it.
i read that book in a single sitting. i’ve re-read it more times than i can count since then.
Maia didn’t look like me, but i still saw myself in eir experiences in a way that i hadn’t experienced before. e was queer. queer as in weird. queer as in didn’t get social expectations for eir assigned gender. queer as in, well, queer.
a month or two later, i got a tattoo of a jackalope on my arm, but if you look closely, you’ll see that it’s a bunny wearing a pair of antlers that are tied on under their chin. when i designed the tattoo, i explained that that was about live-action roleplaying. maybe i believed it? but that’s not what it was really about, was it?
i had a gender crisis in 2020 at the start of the lockdown. if i’m being honest, i’d been having a gender crisis for years, quietly, tucked in the pages of journals hidden away where i didn’t have to look at them. but suddenly, it was just two adult humans and two cats all alone in a house, doing their grocery shopping at first light, uncomfortable with the idea of other people in a new way.
there was a lot of gender going around then.
i came out as genderqueer to my cat while i was driving her to another appointment. maybe you’re sensing a theme. she knows my secrets, but she’ll never talk.
i came out to my partner. it was easier, in some ways, and harder in others. “i’m attracted to more than one gender” is much more straightforward than “i’m genderqueer, but my pronouns are he/him, but my experience of gender is ????” i talked to my few close nonbinary friends about it. that really helped, because we had a shared vocabulary of “gender? what the fuck?”
i came out to my therapist.
he just didn’t get it. he was an older cishet white man. in one of our last sessions, he said that we should talk more about my gender. with my spouse’s help, i broke up with him and found a new therapist before i had to go through that ordeal. my new therapist is queer. she asked me what pronouns to use for me in our first session and told me to tell her if that changed. i started using he/they, then they/he, then just they/them pronouns within a couple months. not everywhere at first, but most places.
bigots started challenging Gender Queer earlier this year, or maybe at the end of last year. who knows when? time is fake. they call it pornographic. they call it smut.
i call it lifechanging.
it wasn’t until i was in my 30s that i started to see queer people who looked like me. it wasn’t until i read a memoir by a person whose early life experiences mirrored my own that i really learned language to talk about myself.
i like where i am in my life. yes, i’m anxious, and we’re all still out here with this pandemic and a global rise in fascism, but i know a lot more about myself, understand a lot more about myself at 35 than i did at 30, at 25, at 20. but that doesn’t stop me from wondering what my life might have looked like if i’d seen people like me when i was growing up.
i can’t change my past, but i can be visible for today’s kids. maybe some weird little boy will see me in the grocery store and gain some understanding that he didn’t have before. maybe a nonbinary teen will feel safer just existing knowing that they’re not alone. that’s what we mean when we talk about “trans visibility.” that’s why it’s important. because trans visibility produces trans adults, but trans invisibility produces miserable people, miserable kids. or dead ones.
trans visibility, queer visibility, is lifesaving.
We’re kicking off Pride this year with none other than my good friend Jay Wolf! Jay reads a snippet about their best worst boys, Egan and Petrel before we get to talking about their newest book as M. Daniel McDowell, The Shepherd in Shadow, which releases June 28th!
Things we mention in this episode:
Valerie Valdes
The Gormenghast series, by Mervyn Peake
Inkfort Press Self-Publishing Derby
Bringer of the Scourge, by M. Daniel McDowell
Glen Cook
Fritz Leiber
Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser
The Colour of Magic and Hogfather, by Terry Pratchett
Beating Hearts & Battle Axes
New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine
Julie Bell and Boris Vallejo
M.E. Morgan
X-Men ‘97
Forged in Fire
Jay’s socials and M. Daniel McDowell’s socials
This time around, I’m thrilled to welcome to the show Meg Elison! Meg reads to us from the start of their trunked novel, Hemet, which leads us into a wonderful conversation about a whole host of topics, including her own artist’s statement on spooky stuff.
This time around, it’s my delight to welcome back to the show Victor Manibo! After a bit of catching up, we get into Victor’s new book, Escape Velocity, which releases later this month from Erewhon Books!
Things we mention in this episode:
The Sleepless, by Victor Manibo
Victor’s first episode
“The Cask of Amontillado,” by Edgar Allan Poe
The Fall of the House of Usher (show)
Gravity (2013)
Funeral and Neon Bible, by Arcade Fire
COWBOY CARTER and RENAISSANCE, by Beyoncé
Shōgun (TV series) based on the novel by James Clavell
Game of Thrones
Our Share of Nights, by Mariana Enriquez
ICFA
Victor’s website, twitter, insta, tiktok, fb, and substack
Stick around next time when my guest will be Meg Elison!
In addition to the regular strong language, this episode carries content warnings for: reclaimed gay slurs; a non-graphic depiction and discussion of non-consensual sex; depictions of consensual violence; and discussions of attempted suicide, medical trauma, experiences of psyche wards, descriptions of psychosis, forcible medication, restraint, experiences of homelessness, alcoholism, and body horror. The non-consensual sex and the consensual violence are both depicted in the reading, which is 24 minutes long, and there is some further discussion of the events from the reading following it. Perhaps even more so than usual, listener discretion is advised.
This time around, it is my complete gremlin pleasure to welcome to the show Ivy Fox! Together, we perform the entirety of her play, Strapped, which leads us into a wide-ranging conversation that touches on collaborative art, anime girls, furry music, mental health, and so much more. Seriously, this episode is over two hours long. We just kept talking!
Things we mention this episode:
Sarah Gailey
Friends at the Table
Toronto Fringe
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Firefly
JRPG
Magic: the Gathering
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, by Samine Nosrat
Chuck Tingle
“Trust the Process,” by Hilary B. Bisenieks in Stone Soup
Machine Girl
The Mad Bird
Kirby’s Return to Dream Land
US Trans Survey
Rev (blue liquor)
Madness and Civilization, by Michel Foucault
Death of the author
The Legend of Zelda
AO3
Warrior Cats series, by Erin Hunter
This tumblr post
The Matrix
Splatoon 3
MahjongSoul
All Our Yesterdays, by Hilary B. Bisenieks
“Chain Bastard”
Metallic Rouge
Blade Runner
Dungeon Meshi
Hunter x Hunter
Hisoka
Slay the Princess
Revolutionary Girl Utena
Together We’ll Shine
Conflict is Not Abuse, by Sarah Schulman
Voidreckon, by Mittsies
Techdog 1-7, by Patricia Taxxon
I WANT TO LOVE AGAIN, by doefriends
Watership Down, by Richard Adams
Ivyfoxart [at] gmail [dot] com, Ivy’s cohost and ko-fi
Soul Mates! on cohost
Doctor Fanfiction’s Monster
Tableturf Battle
Media Club Plus
This time around it is my absolute delight to welcome John Wiswell back to the show to talk about his debut novel, Someone You Can Build a Nest In, which just released this very week! We talk about John’s favorite bits both in and no longer in the book, along with conversation about language, games, and a surprise musical performance!
Things mentioned in this episode:
Premee Mohamed
Sarah Gailey
Caitlin Starling
“D.I.Y.” by John Wiswell
“Open House on Haunted Hill” and its Japanese cover
Katakana and Hiragana
Hunter x Hunter (2011)
Media Club Plus
Starred review in The Library Journal
Merc Fenn Wolfmoor
“This is Not a Wardrobe Door,” by Merc Fenn Wolfmoor
Sickos yes
4th Street Fantasy
Worldcon
John Scalzi
Ted Chiang
Martha Wells
Chuck Tingle
The Simpsons
The Arcadia Project trilogy, by Mishell Baker
Camp Damascus, by Chuck Tingle
Miri Baker
Tom Bombadil
Howard Tayler
Writing Excuses
Schlock Mercenary
Brandon Sanderson
Mary Robinette Kowal
Maurice Broaddus
Dongwon Song
Reservation Dogs
Holly, by Stephen King
Vacíos Cuerpos
Balatro
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Baldur’s Gate 3
Roguelike
Deck-builder
Calvinball
Hades
Friends at the Table Balatro stream
Austin Walker
Twilight Mirage and Spring in Hieron soundtracks
Bandcamp
Deep-fried jpegs
Is It Bandcamp Friday?
Web 1.0
John’s twitter, bluesky, insta, patreon, and substack
Escape Velocity, by Victor Manibo
This time around, it’s my pleasure to welcome longtime friend of the show Laura Blackwell! Laura reads to us from her very very trunked story, “Poor Prisoners,” which leads us into a wide-ranging discussion of things we wish we’d learned sooner, writers whose work we admire, and kindness to our past selves.
Things we mention in this episode:
Story Hour
LiveJournal
Dreamwidth
Macey’s Murderboard episode
All Our Yesterdays, by Hilary B. Bisenieks
Quaker Spec Fic issue
AO3
Omegaverse
The Iliad and Odyssey, by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson
Beowulf translated by Seamus Heaney and Maria Dahvana Headley
Grimms’ Fairy Tales
Lattimore, Fitzgerald, Fagles Homers
The Aeneid, by Virgil, translated by Robert Fagles
Paradise Lost, by John Milton
Translation State and the Imperial Radch trilogy, by Ann Leckie
The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years, by Shubnum Khan
Archival Quality, by Ivy Noelle Weir and Steenz
The Mütter Museum
Ivy’s episode
Just Like Home, by Sarah Gailey
The Death of Jane Lawrence, Last to Leave the Room, Yellow Jessamine, and The Luminous Dead, by Caitlin Starling
Megan E. O’Keefe
Megan’s first episode
Steve Toase
Amanda Cook
Jo Miles
SFWA
HWA
Premee Mohamed
She Walks in Shadows, edited by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Paula R. Stiles
Beneath the Rising, And What Can We Offer You Tonight, The Annual Migration of Clouds, and The Butcher of the Forest, by Premee Mohamed
System Collapse, by Martha Wells
Yuletide (fic exchange)
The Red River of the north
Lake Agassiz
Marie Brennan
Martha Wells
Ursula Vernon
Chuck Tingle
Sarah Gailey
Hugo Awards thing
Stoker Awards
Edenville, by Sam Rebelein
Camp Damascus, by Chuck Tingle
Hellraiser
Death Note manga, netflix, and anime
Potato chip eating scene
Death Note: The Musical
Laura’s website, bluesky, twitter, insta, mastodon
Join me next month when I’ll be talking to John Wiswell and Ivy Fox
To open this show’s sixth season, it is my total delight to welcome A.D. Sui to talk about her forthcoming novella, The Dragonfly Gambit, available later this year!
Things we mention in this episode:
Neon Hemlock Press
dave ring
:unhinged_vibrating:
:shaking_eyes:
Fix-it fic
Fanfiction dot net
Even Though I Knew the End book tour episode
Supernatural
Carl Engle-Laird
100th episode
Jared can’t read vine
Blue Eye Samurai
Family Guy
Rick and Morty
Anna’s twitter, insta, bluesky, and website
John Wiswell
Ursula T. Kingfisher Vernon
This time around, to close out season 5 of Tales from the Trunk, I’m thrilled to welcome Jo Miles to talk about the excellent conclusion to their Gifted of Brennex trilogy, Ravenous State!
Things we mention this episode:
Worldcon 76
Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie
Ninefox Gambit, by Yoon Ha Lee
Game of Thrones,by George R.R. Martin
Brandon Sanderson
A Wizard of Earthsea, by Ursula K. Le Guin
ART and Murderbot from The Murderbot Diaries, by Martha Wells
Starling House, by Alix E. Harrow
System Collapse, by Martha Wells
Warped State and Dissonant State, by Jo Miles
Jo’s mailing list, bluesky, insta, and mastodon
Today, it’s my pleasure to welcome back to the show Premee Mohamed! We talk about her new novella, The Butcher of the Forest, out February 27th from Tor.com books, and then feed something new to the trunk.
Things we mention this episode:
The Fifth Season, by N.K. Jemisin
Hansel & Gretel
Annihilation, by Jeff Vandermeer
Escape from LA
The Faerie Queene, by Edmund Spenser
Snake Plissken
LSBM
Van Helsing post
Dracula, by Bram Stoker
Red Deer Polytechnic
Thursday Next books, by Jasper Fforde
The Siege of Burning Grass, The Annual Migration of Clouds, and We Speak Through the Mountain, by Premee Mohamed
The Rider, The Ride, The Rich Man’s Wife, by Premee Mohamed
One Message Remains
“The General’s Turn,” by Premee Mohamed in The Deadlands
Sean Markey’s episode
Mysterious Galaxy event with John Wiswell, on February 28th 2024
Someone you Can Build a Nest In, by John Wiswell
The Two Doctors Górski, by Isaac Fellman
The Vanished Birds and The Spear Cuts Through Water, by Simon Jimenez
Premee’s bluesky, insta, patreon, and website
Stick around next week, when I’ll be talking to Jo Miles!
Once again, it’s time for an awards eligibility roundup! This episode’s transcript appears in full below:
Hello, and welcome to Tales from the Trunk: Nominating the works that did make it. I’m Hilary B. Bisenieks.
Listeners, it’s somehow that time of the year again, where awards nominations are upon us, and so I have once again reached out to all the wonderful guests who make this show what it is to round up works they’d like to receive your attention for nominations.
To begin, Tales from the Trunk is eligible for the Hugo Award for Best Fancast.
Sarah Gailey, who most recently joined me for our 100th episode retrospective, is eligible for Best Graphic Story for Know Your Station, and for Best Fanzine for their excellent Stone Soup.
Leigh Harlen, who joined us in August of 2021, is eligible for Best Novella with A Feast for Flies.
Dee Holloway, who joined us last May, is eligible in various categories. Her eligibility post is linked in the show notes.
Juliet Kemp, who just joined us most recently a few weeks ago, is eligible for Best Novel with The City Revealed; Best Novella with Song, Stone, Scale, Bone; Best Short Story with “Just As You Are;” and Best Series for The Marek Series. Their eligibility post is linked in the show notes.
Maya MacGregor, who appeared on the show in April of 2022, is eligible in Best Novel and Best Young Adult Novel categories for The Evolving Truth of Ever-Stronger Will.
Freya Marske, who appeared here in October of 2021, is eligible for Best Short Story with a version of the very story that she brought to this fine podcast, “One Version of Yourself, At the Speed of Light.” She is also eligible for Best Novel with A Power Unbound and Best Series for The Last Binding.
Sam J. Miller, who joined us in January of 2022, is eligible for Best Short Story with "If Someone You Love Has Become a Vurdalak."
Premee Mohamed, who last joined us in the summer of 2021, is eligible for No One Will Come Back For Us in various short story collection categories and for “Imagine Yourself Happy” for Best Short Story. Her eligibility post is linked in the show notes.
Annalee Newitz, who joined us for a book tour last January is eligible for Best Novel for The Terraformers.
Aimee Ogden, who joined us twice last year, most recently in August, is eligible for Best Novella for Emergent Properties. Her eligibility post is linked in the show notes.
Malka Older, who joined us at the start of this season in March of last year, is eligible for Best Novella with The Mimicking of Known Successes and for Best Short Story with both “The Plant and the Purist” and “The Dangers We Choose.”
C.L. Polk, who last joined us in February of last year, is eligible for Best Novelette with Ivy, Angelica, Bay, which you can read right now on Tor.com.
Caitlin Starling, who last joined us in October of last year, is eligible for Best Novel with Last to Leave the Room and Best Short Story for “Caver, Continue.” Her eligibility post is linked in the show notes: Twitter | Bluesky
Steve Toase, who joined us back in April of 2021, is eligible for Best Short Story with “Crumpled.” His eligibility post is linked in the show notes.
Rem Wigmore, who last joined us in August of 2022, has an eligible novelette, Lightrunner’s Gambit, and a novel, Wolfpack.
Fran Wilde, who joined us in January of 2021, is eligible for Best Novella for The Book of Gems, Best Short Story for “The Rain Remembers What The Sky Forgets,” and Best Short Story for “No Contingency.” In addition, she would like to recommend From a Certain Point of View: Return of the Jedi, in which “No Contingency” appears, to be considered for anthology and related media categories. Fran, along with Julian Yap, are eligible for Best Editor, Short, for their work at Sunday Morning Transport, which is itself eligible for Best Semiprozine.
If you’ve made it this far, I’d like to sincerely thank you for listening and nominating over the years. Your support means so much to me and all of my guests.
Next month, we’re closing season five of this show out with a book tour appearance by Canadian author and definitely not a lorge beetle Premee Mohamed and a trunk reading from Jo Miles. Please note that due to some scheduling conflicts, Premee’s episode will be releasing on February 8th rather than the 1st.
Also, season 6 is almost upon us! I’m still hammering out guests, so stay tuned to see what amazing authors join me!
Tales from the Trunk is mixed and produced in beautiful Oakland, California.
Our theme music is “Paper Wings,” by Lillian Boyd.
You can support the show on patreon at patreon dot com slash trunkcast. All patrons of the show now get a sticker and logo button, along with show outtakes and other content that can't be found anywhere else.
You can find the show on Bluesky at trunkcast dot bsky dot social, and I post at hbbisenieks dot bsky dot social.
If you like the show, consider taking a moment to rate and review us on your preferred podcast platform.
And remember: don't self-reject.
This time around, I’m joined again by the delightful Juliet Kemp, who joins us to talk about their new novella, Song, Stone, Scale, Bone! After a great little reading, we talk about some of the things that are hard to get on page.
Things mentioned in this episode:
Josh’s episode
The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, by Patricia C. Wrede
A Wizard of Earthsea, by Ursula K. Le Guin
The Marek series, concluding with The City Revealed, by Juliet Kemp
Deadlock
Madeleine Sami
Our Flag Means Death
The Last Binding trilogy, by Freya Marske
Freya’s episode
Juliet’s website, twitter, bluesky, and mastodon
Today it is my sincere pleasure to welcome to the show weird little guy and all around splendid human being Josh Storey! Josh reads to us from his trunked novel, The Wolf That Waits at the End of All Things, which leads us into a lively discussion of the novels we wrote a few pages of when we were young, the ways we reuse ideas until they find the right home, and semiotic bullshit.
Things we mention in this episode:
Trunkcast’s 100th episode
Terry Pratchett’s troll counting
Macey’s murderboard episode on We Make Books
River of Teeth, by Sarah Gailey
Sarah Hollowell
World’s largest frying pan in Iowa
Jessica Mary Best’s episode
Machineries of Empireseries, by Yoon Ha Lee
Jasper Fforde
Zip disk
Final Fantasy
Homestuck
The Locked Tomb series, by Tamsyn Muir
Miri’s episode
Mary Robinette Kowal
Rock Lee
System Collapse book tour
A Wizard of Earthsea, by Ursula K. Le Guin
Baffling Magazine
AO3
All Our Yesterdays, by Hilary B. Bisenieks
Death (Neil Gaiman)
Friends at the Table
Anamnesis
Brandon Sanderson
Writing Excuses
Mary Robinette Kowal’s patreon
“The Air Gap,” by Hilary B. Bisenieks in Lamplight
C.C. Finlay
F&SF
Mary Robinette Kowal’s MICE
HTML
Be The Serpent
R.J. Theodore
Peridot Shift series, by R.J. Theodore
NaNoWriMo
Gnome Stew
Misdirected Mark network
Personal Canons Cookbook
My macaroni and cheese recipe (and essay)
Héctor González
Amal El Mohtar
Bigolas Dickolas
This is How You Lose the Time War, by Amal El Mohtar and Max Gladstone
Trigun Stampede
Trigun (98)
SunCoast Video
L-space
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters
Delicious in Dungeon (Dungeon Meshi)
Apocalypse Keys
Hellboy
Pathfinder 2.5
WotC
Josh’s insta, bluesky, and website
Urban Phantasy blog
Premee Mohamed
Jo Miles
Today it’s my great pleasure to welcome publisher of The Deadlands, Sean Markey, to the show! Sean talks us through the inception of the magazine, what it’s like being a publisher, and where both the magazine and his press, Psychopomp, is going next!
Things we mention in this episode:
Elise Catherine Tobler
Laura Blackwell
Story Hour
Psychopomp
Shimmer
Beth Wodzinski
Quaker Spec Fic issue
“Refuse All Their Colors,” by Annalee Flower Horne
A Voice Calling, by Christopher Barzak
Martha Wells episode
Meg Elison
Maria Haskins
Vanessa Maki
Avra Margariti
A.R. Arthur
Ancillary Sword, by Ann Leckie
“The Dead Boy Inside Me,” by Angel Leal
Clarkesworld
C.C. Finlay
F&SF
Strange Horizons
Chuck Tingle
Sarah Gailey
Fireside
The Deadlands Patreon
Psychopomp store
Diablo 4
“Ultraviolet,” by Spiritbox (and on Bandcamp)
“Peristalsis,” by Vajra Chandrasekera
Rakesfall, by Vajra Chandrasekera
“The Long Way Up,” by Alix E. Harrow
“Death is a Diner at 3:00 a.m.” by A.C. Wise
Psychopomp twitter and bluesky
The Deadlands twitter and bluesky
Shimmer’s twitter
Today it is my absolute pleasure to welcome to the show none other than Martha Wells! Martha joins us to read from and talk about the newest entry in her Murderbot Diaries series, System Collapse, out November 14th from TorDotCom publishing!
A transcription of this episode by Kiri from the Murderbot discord is available here
Things we mention on this episode:
Hugo Awards
Nebula Awards
Locus Awards
Dragon Awards
Network Effect, Fugitive Telemetry, and Exit Strategy, by Martha Wells
Witch King, by Martha Wells
City of Bones, by Martha Wells
Jamie Jones
The Book of Ile-Rien: The Element of Fire & The Death of the Necromancer, by Martha Wells
Mammoths at the Gates, by Nghi Vo
Furious Heaven, by Kate Elliott
Andrea Hairston
The Water Outlaws, by S.L. Huang
Aliette de Bodard
Martha’s website, bluesky, mastodon, and insta
The Deadlands
Join us on November 17th, when my guest will be Sean Markey!
Hey everyone, Hilary here. Due to a combination of life things and poor planning on my part, there’s no new interview this time around, but I’d like to take this spooky month to highlight a great episode from the backlog with our composer and true horror ghoul, Lillian Boyd.
A few other things before we get to the episode:
This show is now on Bluesky at trunkcast.bsky.social, and I’m on there at hbbisenieks.bsky.social. Of the twitter-replacements, Bluesky seems to be the one where most of my writing friends have ended up, so it made sense that the show should find a home there, too.
Also, a heads up that due to scheduling needs, next month’s book tour with Murderbot author Martha Wells will be coming out on Monday, November 6th, rather than Friday the 3rd.
Finally, thank you all so much for listening. I always appreciate hearing from fans of the show. Your support and enthusiasm helps continue making this show what it is!
And now, on with the show!
It's my absolute delight, this time around, to welcome our very own composer, Lillian Boyd (@herelieslill), onto the show. Lillian reads her short-story-that-should-be-a-novella, "Inside Job" (cw: gore, skip forward 10:15 to avoid) before we just go off on an extended tangent about horror movies, noir, pulp, and being as thoroughly on our bullshit as is possible.
Things we mention in this episode:
Rank and Vile
Tetsuo the Iron Man
28 Days Later
My appearance on Rank and Vile
The Reinvented Detective, edited by Jennifer Brozek and Cat Rambo (2023)
Raymond Chandler
Guy Noir: Private Eye
A Prairie Home Companion
Nick Danger
The Firesign Theater
Clive Barker
Nightmare Alley
Guillermo del Toro
Magic for Liars, by Sarah Gailey
Nick and Nora
Humphrey Bogart
Farewell, My Lovely, by Raymond Chandler
- P. Lovecraft (notable racist)
Scrip
Neuromancer, by William Gibson
Blade Runner
The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde
"Panama," by Van Halen
Terry Pratchett
Good Omens, by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
The Discworld
The Bromeliad
Hogfather, by Terry Pratchett
The Long Goodbye, by Raymond Chandler
Chandler's cat letters
Guards, Guards! by Terry Pratchett
Carpe Jugulum, by Terry Pratchett
Neil Gaiman
Ichabod Crane
Michael Kane
Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser
Sandman, by Neil Gaiman
"The Book Job," The Simpsons season 23, episode 6
"Falafelosophy," Arthur season 14, episode 4a
"Neil Gaiman! What are you doing in my falafel?"
Alanis Morisette
Amanda Palmer
Tori Amos
Fiona Apple
"Silent All These Years," by Tori Amos
Where's Neil When You Need Him?
The Crüxshadows
Mirrormask
"Mr. Sandman," by The Chordettes
"Enter Sandman," by Metallica
Hot Topic
"Cry Little Sister," by Gerard McMann
The Lost Boys
Voltaire
Ego Likeness
The Velocipastor
"Toasty"
Siouxsie and the Banshees
Daybreakers
Placebo
"Running Up That Hill," by Placebo
"Running Up That Hill," by Kate Bush
Velvet Goldmine
"20th Century Boy," by Placebo
"20th Century Boy," by T. Rex
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
Queen of the Damned
Twilight
Failure to Adapt
The baseball scene from Twilight
Underworld
Blade 3: Trinity
Triple-H
House of Wax
Friends at the Table: Sangfielle
The VVitch
Sarah Gailey's appearance on Episode 1 of this very show
Hailey Piper
Unfortunate Elements of My Anatomy, by Hailey Piper
Trouble and Her Friends, by Melissa Scott
The Mountain Goats
Alien Vs. Predator
Fireside Quarterly, June-July 2021
The Rank and Vile list
Bride of Frankenstein
And Now the Screaming Starts!
Candyman II: Farewell to the Flesh
The Crow: Wicked Prayer
Brainscan
Videodrome
Audition
Lillian's Twitch
Hair Metal
"Dream Warriors," by Dokken
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
The Books of Earthsea, by Ursula K. Le Guin
Charles Vess
The Farthest Shore, A Wizard of Earthsea, and The Tombs of Atuan, by Ursula K. Le Guin
Keebio's Iris keyboard
Bán Dénes, mrzealot
Ergogen
Ghost in the Shell
Data
Hako Royal True switches
Hellraiser
Lillian's website, soundcloud, and reedsy
In this, the spookiest month, I’m delighted to welcome back to the podcast, Caitlin Starling! Caitlin reads us an excerpt from her terrific forthcoming novel, Last to Leave the Room, coming out October 10th from St. Martin’s Press, which leads us into a great conversation about the potential gaps left in for fanfic authors, among other things.
Things we mention this episode
The Death of Jane Lawrence, The Luminous Dead, Yellow Jessamine, and The Oblivion Bride, by Caitlin Starling
Neon Hemlock
And What Can We Offer You Tonight, by Premee
The Crawling Moon, edited by dave ring
Dracula Daily
Luminescent Machinations, edited by Rhihannon Rasmussen and dave ring
Turks (Final Fantasy VII)
Isaac Fellman
A Dark Song
Archival Quality, by Ivy Noelle Weir and Steenz
The White Road, by Sarah Lotz
Rotten dot com
Third man syndrome
Ernest Shackleton
The Echo Wife, by Sarah Gailey
Spiderman pointing
“Caver Continue,” by Caitlin Starling
The Queen’s Thiefseries, by Megan Whalen Turner
Severance
Shirley Jackson
Caitlin’s website, insta, and bluesky
We made it to the Biggest Number™ and Sarah Gailey is here today to help us celebrate with a retrospective on the last four and a half years of Tales from the Trunk!
Show notes coming soon!
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 goopy, which leads us into a great conversation about horror media, finding your people, and of course all things goopy.
Things we mention in this episode:
Chuck’s episode
Camp Damascus, by Chuck Tingle
Heel (wrestling)
Lillian Boyd
Hear Us Scream: The Voices of Horror Volume II, edited by Cathering Benstead
American Psycho 2
Serial Killing 101
Hellraiser
Clive Barker
Neil Gaiman
Turkey Shoot (film)
Mandy (film)
Dune (2021)
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
House of 1000 Corpses
The Devil’s Rejects
Foz’s episode
Zombie
Lucio Fulci
The Lion King
Sisyphus
Bound in Flesh, edited by Lor Gislason
Dragon Ball
Animorphs (series) by K.A. Applegate
Artemis’ turning Acteon into a stag
D’Aulaires’ Book of Norse Myths, D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths, D'Aulaires' Book of Trolls, by Ingri and Edgar D’Aulaire
The Mummy
Mummies Alive!
Street Sharks
Biker Mice from Mars
Mars Attacks!
Ozma of Oz, by L. Frank Baum
Return to Oz
Wicked
Sarah Gailey
Sickos
Sarah Hollowell
“Look,” by Sarah Gailey
Star Wars tweets
River of Teeth, by Sarah Gailey
Inside Out, by Lor Gislason
Resident Evil 4 remake
Control (game)
SCP Foundation
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Piccolo
Akira
Lor’s insta and blog
Joe Koch
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 bits.
Things mentioned in this episode:
Game theory
Straight and Bury Your Gays (2024), by Chuck Tingle
A More Civilized Age
Kelly Lonesome
Get Out
Multi-level marketing
Grindcore
Discord
Friends at the Table
In the Lives of Puppets, by Tj Klune
Barry
Ratboys
Chuck’s BlueSky, Insta, Facebook, TikTok, Tumblr
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 the pandemic, and Dee’s forthcoming novella, Little Nothing.
Things we mentioned this episode:
Stuart Dybek
The Complete History of New Mexico, by Kevin McIlvoy
Sabrina & Corina, by Kali Fajardo-Anstine
Lady Bird
Joan Didion
California State Railroad Museum
Sacramento History Museum
QueryTracker
Little Nothing, by Dee Holloway
“The Highwayman,” by Alfred Noyes
Devil’s Cup, by Dee Holloway
The Craft
Blue Crush
Equus, edited by Rhonda Parrish
Luna Station Quarterly
“MONTERO (Call My By Your Name),” by Lil Nas X
Tim Curry
John Milton
Paradise Lost, by John Milton
The Odyssey, by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson
The Iliad, by Homer
The Aeneid, by Virgil
Pitchfork
John Grisham
Bigolas Dickolas
This is How You Lose the Time War, by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
Kotaku and Polygon writeups
Camp Damascus, by Chuck Tingle
Lamplit Underground
Sea of Tranquility, by Emily St. John Mandel
The Glass Hotel, by Emily St. John Mandel
Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel
Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma, by Claire Dederer
Burn You the Fuck Alive, by B.R. Yeager
Dee’s insta and itch
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 episode:
Megan’s previous episode
Val’s last episode
K.B. Wagers’ last episode
Jaime Jones’ cover
The Archive Undying, by Emma Mieko Candon
Friends at the Table (of course)
The Imperial Radch Trilogy, by Ann Leckie
Ninefox Gambit, by Yoon Ha Lee
Velocity Weapon, by Megan E. O’Keefe
The Scorched Continent Trilogy, by Megan E. O’Keefe
The First Omega, by Megan E. O’Keefe
Cormac McCarthy
Philip K. Dick
Terry Pratchett
Final Fantasy XIV
The Bone Shard Daughter, by Andrea Stewart
Megan’s website, insta, twitch, and github
State machines
Pico air monitor
Micropython
Purple Air Dev
Ludum Dare
Johnny 5
Seek the Light, on Megan’s itch
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 about the intersection of poetry and game design, how recipes and poems are alike, and how H. P. Lovecraft was accidentally kinda hip-hop.
Things we mention in this episode:
Suzan’s episode
Mike’s episode
Speculate!
Valerie Valdes
Girl By Moonlight
Iori Kusano
Jeoi Gawain Lin
FB moderation expose
Sin-eater
All Our Yesterdays
The Moon Wants Me To Leave You
Anteater tumblr post
Can You Sign My Tentacle?, by Brandon O’Brien
Interstellar Flight Press
Uncanny Magazine
Lovecraft’s cat (CW: racial slurs)
Sarah Gailey’s Personal Canons Cookbook
Shing Yin Khor
“Trust the Process,” by Hilary B. Bisenieks
Elgin Award
Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
Gregory A. Wilson
Blades in the Dark
Slugblaster
Lasers & Feelings
Evil Hat Productions
Friends at the Table (of course)
The Rookie
“Call ACab,” by Sam Stone
Sam Waterston
Aaron Sorkin
The Newsroom
Nickel Creek
Pavement
“Spit on a Stranger,” by Nickel Creek
Brandon’s insta and newsletter and website
Fiyah
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 Dinosaur Press!
Things we mention this episode:
Robot Dinosaur Press
The Chipped Cup Collective
Sarah Loch
Rekka
Merc Fenn Wolfmoor
Andi C. Buchanan
Just Like Home, by Sarah Gailey
Dark Souls
The Last Podcast on the Left - Richard Kuklinski
Disney World
Ryszard Kukliński
Tales of Symphonia
Natuto
Greenpoint (NYC)
Aleta Perez
Last Call, by Elon Green
The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer, by Philip Carlo
Ladz’s blog
Terry J. Benton-Walker on Ladz’s blog
“Problem for Tomorrow’s You,” by Ladz on itch.io
Better Call Saul
Darkest Dungeon II
Frostpunk
Light novels
Bakemonogatari
Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust
Vampire Hunter D (light novels)
Poppy Z. Brite
Gormenghast trilogy, by Mervin Peake
Leech, by Hiron Ennes
Edward Gorey
The Hobbit cover Smaug
Sarah Gailey’s original River of Teeth map
Ice Upon a Pier cover reveal on Sarah Gailey’s Stone Soup
The Balde Between, by Sam J Miller
The Sleepless, by Victor Manibo
The Bruising of Qilwa, by Naseem Jamnia
Ladz’s insta, blog, and newsletter
Join me again in two weeks, when my guest will be Brandon O'Brien!
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 stories we’ve written that aren’t ours to tell. And then bagged pickles. We do get things back on track, amazingly, and have some great conversation about the place of emotion versus professionalism in writing, the current discourse around so-called “artificial intelligence” (large language models), and the baseball of crying.
Things we mention this episode
“Every Day is Halloween,” by Ministry
Joyce Carol Oates
“Apolépisi: A De-Scaling,” by Suzan Palumbo
Welcome to the Black Parade, by My Chemical Romance
Give Up, by The Postal Service
Plans, by Death Cab for Cutie
Pickle tweets
Shut the fuck up Friday
Friends at the Table
“Bloody Therapy,” by Suzan Palumbo
Shimmer
Elise Tobler
John Wiswell
Personal Canons Cookbook
Miri’s episode
Clarkesworld AI submissions
- D. Perry’s Resident Evil novels
Harley Quinn
Poison Ivy
“Soup Boys” and “NYC Cops” by Heems
“Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell,” by Das Racist
“Douen,” by Suzan Palumbo
Skin Thief: Stories, by Suzan Palumbo
dave ring
Cult of the Lamb
“Temple,” by River Boy
Interview with the Vampire
Tell me I’m Worthless, by Alison Rumfitt
Sergei Prokofiev
Romeo and Juliet Suite, by Sergei Prokofiev
“The Death of Tybalt,” by Sergei Prokofiev
Suzan’s insta, mastodon, and website
Join us next month, when my guests will be Ladz and Brandon O’Brien!
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 mentioned in this episode:
Infomocracy, by Malka Older
Tor.com Publishing
Brent Lambert
NaNoWriMo
Juliet Kemp’s episode
The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles, by Malka Older
The Archive Undying, by Emma Mieko Candon
C.L. Polk’s recent book tour
Even Though I Knew the End, by C.L. Polk
Malka and Cee’s event, March 9th, 3:00 pm Pacific at Loyalty Bookstore
“Narrative Disorder,” by Malka Older
…and Other Disasters, by Malka Older
Daniel Jose Older
Meru, by S.B. Divya
The Terraformers, by Annalee Newitz
A Scatter of Light, by Melinda Lo
Malka’s mastodon, insta, and tumblr
Join us again in two weeks, when I’ll be talking with Suzan Palumbo!
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 episode
Network Effect, by Martha Wells
Gregory A. Wilson
Beauty heart (watermelon) radish
Cat Valente
Tamora Pierce
The Wings of Fire series, by Tui T. Sutherland
Redwall series, by Brian Jacques
Diggers, Guards! Guards!, Hogfather, and The Last Continent, by Terry Pratchett
“The Cold Calculations,” by Aimee Ogden
Be the Serpent
Sarah Gailey’s Personal Canons Cookbook
Skies of Wonder, Skies of Danger, edited by John Appel, Mary Agner, and Jo Miles
Mary Robinette Kowal
F&SF
Clarkesworld
Ann Leckie
Analog
Translunar Traveler’s Lounge
Friends Journal QSFF issue
Emergent Properties, by Aimee Ogden
“A Love Letter Written at the Heat Death of the Universe,” by Aimee Ogden
The Deadlands
Shimmer
Fireside
Augur
Local Star, by Aimee Ogden
“Flower Daughter, Soil Seed,” by Eugenia Triantafyllou
“Sturgeon Moon Jam,” by Jennifer Hudak
The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart, by Stephanie Burgis
Everything Everywhere All At Once
My Neighbor Totoro
Aimee’s website
Join us again next month, when our guests for the start of season 5 will be Malka Older and Suzan Palumbo!
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 mention in this episode:
The Kingston Cycle and The Midnight Bargain, by C.L. Polk
Detroit Red Wings
Chicago Blackhawks
Supernatural
AO3
Hardboiled fiction
The Magicians
Discord
Guy Noir, Private Eye
A Prairie Home Companion
Phillip Marlowe
Raymond Chandler
An American Werewolf in London
Hermie (Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer)
The Witching Hour, by Anne Rice
Masters of Magic
Dragon Age
Dragon Age: Absolution
The Spare Man, by Mary Robinette Kowal
The Lady Astronaut series, by Mary Robinette Kowal
Cee’s website
Groundhog Day
Join us again in two weeks, when my guest will be Aimee Ogden!
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 Table
Austin Walker
A More Civilized Age
“Blocking,” by Juliet Kemp in Strange Bedfellows
Angry Robot Books
The City Revealed, by Juliet Kemp
Ocean’s series
Alien Quadrilogy
Lois McMaster Bujold
Terry Pratchett
Macey’s Murderboard method
“Monday,” by Hilary B. Bisenieks
LiveJournal
Lockie Hunter
A Starbound Solstice, by Juliet Kemp
“At the Lighthouse Out by the Othersea,” by Juliet Kemp
Our Flag Means Death
Black Sails
A League of Their Own
The Hands of the Emperor and At the Feet of the Sun, by Victoria Goddard
Flotsam, by R.J. Theodore
Juliet’s website
Join us next month, when I’ll be talking to C.L. Polk and Aimee Ogden!
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 this year’s awards!
Andi C. Buchanan, who joined us in April of 2022, has a number of eligible works including their novel, Sanctuary, and the essay “Human not machine: how autistic writers are writing new space for themselves.”
A link to their eligibility post is included in the show notes. https://andicbuchanan.org/2022/12/18/2022-publications/
C.L. Clark, who just joined us in December, is eligible in most novelette categories for "Your Eyes, My Beacon: Being an Account of Several Misadventures and How I Found My Way Home," published in Uncanny May/June 2022
Amanda Cook, who joined us in June of 2022, has six stories eligible for short story categories: “The Impossible Task of Bringing Water,” “Germinating Everyday Magic,” “Weaving Serenity,” “Lily and Ink,” “Print a Soul in Six Easy Steps, a Primer by Clover Silverbrook,” and “When Dreams Do Show Me Thee.”
A link to her eligibility post is included in the show notes. https://acooksbooks.com/2022/11/28/babys-first-awards-eligibility-post/
Marion Deeds, who made her debut on this show in May of 2022, has an eligible novella, Comeuppance Served Cold, which you can hear an excerpt of on that episode, along with an eligible novel, Golden Rifts.
Ruthana Emrys, who appeared on the show in July of last year, has an eligible novel, A Half-Built Garden, and her column, Reading the Weird, is eligible for Best Related Work.
A link to her eligibility post is included in the show notes. https://twitter.com/R_Emrys/status/1592598551364005888
Sarah Gailey, this show’s patron saint, joined us again last year in support of their eligible novel, Just Like Home. Among their other eligible works are their newsletter, Stone Soup, and their original comic miniseries, Know Your Station.
A link to their eligibility post is included in the show notes. https://sarahgailey.com/awards-eligibility-2022
Victor Manibo, who joined us in December of 2021, is eligible for his debut novel,The Sleepless.
Freya Marske, who joined us in October of 2021, is eligible in the various novel categories forA Restless Truth, the excellent sequel to her 2021 debut, A Marvellous Light.
Sam J. Miller, who joined us last January, has an eligible novella, Kid Wolf and Kraken Boy, as well as a collection, for such awards as have categories for collections, Boys, Beasts & Men.
Scientist, and definitely not a multi-colored beetle, Premee Mohamed, who last joined us in August of 2021, is eligible for Best Series for the first time for her Beneath the Rising series, which concluded with eligible novel The Void Ascendant. She also has several eligible short stories, including “All That Burns Unseen.”
Her eligibility post is included in the show notes. https://www.premeemohamed.com/post/2022-eligibility-post
Aidan Moher, who joined us back in October after far, far too long, is eligible with Fight, Magic, Items for Best Related work. He’s also eligible for Best Fanzine for Astrolabe, and for Best Fan Writer for his work all over the place.
Aidan’s eligibility post is included in the show notes. https://astrolabe.aidanmoher.com/p/2022-award-eligibility-hugos-nebulas
Hailey Piper, who joined us to open season four of the show back in March, has an eligible short story, “We Frolic Within the Leviathan’s Heart,” a novella, Your Mind Is a Terrible Thing, and a novel, No Gods for Drowning.
C.L. Polk, who will be returning to the show next month, has an excellent eligible novella, Even Though I Knew The End.
dave ring, patron saint of queer small-press publishing, is eligible for Best Editor, short form, for his work on Baffling Magazine as well as many other fine publications. His work with Marianne Kirby on Neon Hemlock Live is also eligible for Best Related Work.
A link to dave’s eligibility post is included in the show notes. https://www.dave-ring.com/news/2022/11/18/2022-eligibility-post
Valerie Valdes, who joined us again this past August, is eligible for Best Novel (Science Fiction, where applicable) for Fault Tolerance, for Best Series for Chilling Effect, for Best Short Story for both “Team Building Exercise” and “Working from Home,” and for Best Semiprozine for Escape Pod, which she edits with Mur Lafferty.
Val’s eligibility post is linked in the show notes. http://candleinsunshine.com/news/awards-eligibility-for-2022/
Fellow Warren Wilson alumnus Fran Wilde has various short stories eligible but is most excited to be eligible, for the first time this year, for Best Editor, Short Form, for her work at The Sunday Morning Transport!
John Wiswell, excellent human being, has many, many eligible short stories, including “D.I.Y.” and “Demonic Invasion or Placebo Effect?”
John’s full eligibility post is linked in the show notes. https://johnwiswell.substack.com/p/all-the-short-stories-i-published
Finally, I have 100% more eligible work this year than last! In addition to this very show, Tales from the Trunk, which is eligible for Best Fancast and other podcast and audio categories, I also published a game, All Our Yesterdays, which is eligible for the Nebula Award for Best Game Writing.
Thanks so much for tuning in, and thank you to everyone who nominates and votes in any of our genre’s awards! That’s very cool of you.
Join us again next week, when my guest will be Juliet Kemp!
Tales from the Trunk is mixed and produced in beautiful Oakland, California.
Our theme music is “Paper Wings,” by Lillian Boyd.
You can support the show on patreon at patreon dot com slash trunkcast. All patrons of the show now get a sticker and logo button, along with show outtakes and other content that can't be found anywhere else.
You can find the show on Twitter and Tumblr at trunkcast, and I tweet and tumbl at hbbisenieks.
If you like the show, consider taking a moment to rate and review us on your preferred podcast platform.
And remember: don't self-reject.
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 mention on this episode:
Tumblr
Mastodon
I-5 cattle ranches
Dune, by Frank Herbert
Friends at the Table
Jeffrey Tumlin
Plate tectonics
Chuck Tingle
Michael Hobbes
Maintenance Phase
If Books Could Kill
Freakonomics, by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, by Yuval Noah Harari
Charlie Jane Anders
Our Opinions are Correct
The myth of progress episode
Brad DeLong
Four Lost Cities, by Annalee Newitz
Annalee’s website and tiktok
It’s my distinct pleasure, for this, our post-NaNo episode, to welcome C.L. Clark (@C_L_Clark) to the show! Cherea 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 loud. Cherea also shares the story of her journey from NaNoWriMo to publication for their amazing novel, The Unbroken.
Things we mention this episode:
The Unbroken, by C.L. Clark
Héctor’s episode
My episode with Sharon Hsu
George Carlin
NaNoWriMo
Brandon Sanderson
Scrivener
Podcastle
Frodo it is done dot gif
DVPit
Just Like Home episode
The Faithless, by C.L. Clark
Writers of the Future
Tor.com
“Sisyphus,” by C.L. Clark
Queers Destroy SF
Seanan McGuire
Lockie Hunter
Steering the Craft, by Ursula K. Le Guin
Wonderbook, by Jeff Vandermeer
The Expanse, by James S.A. Corey
The Godkiller, by Hannah Kaner
Small Gods and Hogfather, by Terry Pratchett
Cherae’s website and insta
Maslowe’s Hierarchy of Needs
The Skeleton War
“SFF’s Big Fat Problem,” by R.K. Duncan
Join us next month, when I’ll be talking to Annalee Newitz and Juliet Kemp, plus our annual awards roundup!
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 finished the book and the second from the version you can go and buy for yourself!
Things we mention in this episode:
NaNoWriMo ML
Rekka’s book tour
We Make Books
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword Pumpkin Landing
xkcd 483
Neal Stephenson
The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
Rekka’s first episode
The Peridot Shift series, by R.J.Theodore
Murderboard podcast episode
Writing book three of a duology with Premee podcast episode
Stephen King
Sarah Gailey
Coffee shop AU
Legends & Lattes, by Travis Baldree
Our Flag Means Death
John Wiswell
Just Like Home, by Sarah Gailey
Bridge to Elsewhere, edited by Alana Joli Abbott & Julia Rios
Neon Hemlock Press
Quick Sip Reviews
Robot Dinosaur Press
Chipped Cup Collective
Merc Fenn Wolfmoor
Sarah Loch
Andi C. Buchanan
Novae Caelum
Nia Quinn
Carlie St. George
Juliet Kemp
Rekka’s website, insta, and patreon
Join us next month, when I’ll be talking to C.L. Clark!
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:
Trepidatio Press
Mikio Murakami
“Jewel of the Vashwa,” by Jordan Kurella in Apex Magazin
Keanu Reeves
Apex Magazine
Jason Sizemore
Friends at the Table - HOUNDS
Farscape
PTSD
Aaron Rosenberg
Gen Con
The Imperial Radch trilogy, by Ann Leckie
“How the Carrion Crew Stopped Courting Death and Other Methods of Lost Hope,” by Jordan Kurella in Fusion Fragment #6
“A Promise of Dying Embers,” by Jordan Kurella in Diabolical Plots
King’s Quest III
“The Warsong of Berra and Irrit,” by Jordan Kurella in Lamplight Magazine
Lamplight Magazine
E Catherine Tobler
Shimmer Magazine
The Deadlands
“The Air Gap,” by Hilary B. Bisenieks in Lamplight Magazine
Jacob Haddon
Mary Shelley
I Never Liked You Anyway, by Jordan Kurella
Orpheus and Euridice
Am I the Asshole?
Dead Collections, by Isaac Fellman
Archive Of Our Own
Final Fantasy XIV
MMO
World of Warcraft
Clue
The Sandman (Netflix)
Mythic Quest
Siren Queen, by Nghi Vho
Jordan’s first episode
Jordan’s website
Join us again in two weeks, when my guest will be R.J. Theodore!
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 transformation, and for sexual themes. If you would like to skip them, the two readings are from 3:50 to 8:05 and 15:15 to 19:31.
Things we mention in this episode:
v o i d j u n k dave’s episode Sarah Loch
Héctor’s linktree
“Gracias, Orlando: A Genre Film and a Queer Body Awakening,” by Héctor González
Hector of Troy Spider-Man Batman Superman Bachan Frank Miller Xanga John Picacio Worldcon 76 Mexicanx Initiative John Scalzi Alejandro Jodorowski George R.R. Martin Isaac Asimov Robert Heinlein Arthur C. Clarke Hugo Loser’s Party Aidan Moher
Sarahs Gailey and Hollowell The Dot-Com Bubble Sarah Gailey’s Personal Canons Héctor’s essay Momo challenge Momo and The Neverending Story, by Michael Ende
Terry Pratchett The Dispossessed, by Ursula K Le Guin
River of Teeth and Taste of Marrow, by Sarah Gailey
Unmasking Autism and Laziness Does Not Exist, by Devon Price
We’re Here 2020, edited by C.L. Clark and Charles Peyseur
Charles Peyseur C.L. Clark
“The Captain and the Quartermaster,” by C.L. Clarke
Babel, by R.F. Kuang
Superliminal (game)
Portal Key & Peele Nope Dave Chapelle (fuck that guy)
Reboot Buster Keaton Paul Rudd
Héctor’s insta
Tune in next month, when my guests will be Jordan Kurella and R.J. Theodore!
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 Fantasy
Dragon Quest
The Offspring
NOFX
Warcraft II
LAN Party
Doom II
Final Fantasy VI
Xenogears
Hironobu Sakaguchi
Yuji Horii
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan
Game Boy
Final Fantasy Legend II
The Legend of Zelda
Akitoshi Kawazu
Doom
Final Fantasy III
Game Players
Electronic Gaming Monthly
Nintendo Power
Chrono Trigger
The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Sword of Shannara, by Terry Brooks
Magic: the Gathering
Dragon Ball Z
Shōnen
Super NES
Playstation 1
Final Fantasy XV
Final Fantasy XIII
Final Fantasy VIII
Final Fantasy IX
Final Fantasy X
Grandia
Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete
Tales of Destiny
Visual Novels
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Final Fantasy Adventure
Mana series
Kirby’s Dream Land 2
Pokemon Red
Final Fantasy VII
The Wheel of Time, by Robert Jordan
Tetris
Star Trek: 25th Anniversary (Game Boy game)
Carl Jung
Gnosticism
K’Nex
Metal Gear Solid
Suikoden III
Hideo Kojima
Sega Saturn
Panzer Dragoon Saga
Grandia (Sega Saturn)
Vagrant Story
Aidan’s localization piece (not published yet, link TK)
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection
Power-Up, by Chris Kohler
Final Fantasy V, by Chris Kohler
Press Reset and Blood, Sweat, and Pixels, by Jason Schreier
Pure Invention, by Matt Alt
Sailor Moon
Aidan’s website
fighmagicitems.rocks
Astrolabe
Patrick Klepek
Less Than Jake
Join us again in two weeks, when my guest will be Héctor González!
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 reading aloud, and how important a good fight scene is.
Things we mention in this episode:
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power
Viable Paradise
John Appel
Karen Osborne
Valerie Valdes
Scrivener
Third person omniscient
The Earthsea Cycle, by Ursula K. Le Guin
The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien
Jane Austen
Karen’s twitch
“Fractured,” by Aimee Kuzenski
The Murderbot Diaries, by Martha Wells
The Locked Tomb series, by Tamsyn Muir
The Broken Earth series, by N.K. Jemisin
The Raven Tower, by Ann Leckie
Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie
Blade Runner
Wow, cool robot
Hayao Miyazaki
The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien
“The Shadow out of Time”, by racist uncle Howard
Beneath the Rising series, by Premee Mohamed
The Innsmouth Legacy series, by Ruthanna Emrys
Ruthanna’s episode
Dune, by Frank Herbert
“How I Became Coruscating Queen of All the Realms, Pierced the Obsidian Night, Destroyed a Legendary Sword, and Saved My Heart’s True Love,” by Baker and Dovey
No Shit, There I Was, edited by Alex Acks
Story Hour
Skies of Wonder, Skies of Danger, edited by Agner, Appel, and Miles
“The Raven,” by Edgar Allan Poe
Castle
Fix My Fight Scene on Twitch and Youtube
K.B. Wagers
Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045
Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen
Sense and Sensibility
Emma Thompson
Kate Winslet
Persuasion
Clueless
What Moves the Dead, by T. Kingfisher
The Fall of the House of Usher, by Edgar Allan Poe
Just Like Home, by Sarah Gailey
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 multiple rewrites can be good, actually.
Things we mention in this episode:
Neon’s Tensorate series
Joan of Arc
Gundam
Sarah Gailey’s latest book tour
Just Like Home, by Sarah Gailey
Dongwon Song
Friends at the Table PARTIZAN
Monster Hunter Rise
Devil May Cry
Elden Ring
Neon’s insta
Join us next time, when my guest will be Aimee Kuzenski!
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
Lake Taupō
The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien
Friends at the Table
The Tiffany problem
Dungeons & Dragons
Miri’s episode
The Witcher (TV Series)
Newgrange
Passage tombs
CoNZealand
Codex writers group
C.L. Polk
Neon Hemlock
Kai Ashante Wilson’s novellas
F&SF
“Time Bomb Time,” by C.C. Finlay
Villanelle (poetry)
And What Can We Offer You Tonight By Premee Mohamed
Premee’s book tour episode
Tor.com publishing
River of Teeth, Taste of Marrow, and Upright Women Wanted, by Sarah Gailey
The Tensorate series, by Neon Yang
Emily Tesh
The Murderbot Diaries, by Martha Wells
The Blacktongue Thief, by Christopher Buehlman
K.J. Charles’ Will Darling Adventures
Kurangaituku, by Whiti Hereaka
Eat the Rich, by Sarah Gailey
Squad, by Maggie Tokuda-Hall
The Girl and the Sea, by Molly Knox Ostertag
The Witch Boy, by Molly Knox Ostertag
Brennan Lee Mulligan
Escape from the Blood Keep
Critical Role
Matt Mercer
Ify Nwadiwe
Exandria Unlimited
Erika Ishii
Last Shooting
Doctor Who
Queen of Swords Press
Rem’s previous episode
Rem’s website
Stick around next month, when my guests will be Neon Yang and Aimee Kuzenski!
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 who Val mains in Super Smash Bros.
Things we mention in this episode:
Val’s first-season episode
Chilling Effect, by Valerie Valdes
Garrus
Mass Effect
Fix-it fic
Thane
Chekhov’s gun
Mario Kart
Mad Max: Fury Road
Portal
Super Smash Bros
Pokémon
Transformers
Assassin’s Orbit, by John Appel
The Memory War series, by Karen Osborne
Megan E. O’Keefe
K.B. Wagers
The NeoG series, by K.B. Wagers
Annihilation Aria, by Mike Underwood
Imperial Radch trilogy, by Ann Leckie
The Machineries of Empire, by Yoon Ha Lee
D.J. Older
Mike Chen
Rebecca Roanhorse
Doctor Aphra, by Alyssa Wong
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
Rarepair
Austin Walker
Five plus one fic
Harold (improv)
Conrad Verner
Tekken 2
Marvel vs. Capcom 2
Jigglypuff
Link
Zelda/Sheik
Samus
Kirby
Shang Tsung
Tron Bonne
Servbot
Roll
Jill
Marth
Mr. Game & Watch
Horizon Zero Dawn
Hades
Val’s twitch
Guardians of the Galaxy (2021)
Girl by Moonlight
Blades in the Dark
Magical girl genre
Persona series
Serial Experiments Lain
Brandon O’Brien
Mike Underwood
Iori Kusano
Jeoi Gawain Lin
ArvanEleron on twitch
Arvan Eleron’s Youtube channel
Stone the Crows, by Grant Howitt
Friends at the Table Partizan
Beam Saber, by Austin Ramsay
Scum and Villainy
Ms Marvel
Our Flag Means Death
Moon Knight
Knights and Bikes
Join us again next time, when Rem Wigmore will be returning to the show!
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 swords, and extremely incorrect understanding of swords. It is just under 20 minutes long.
Things we mention on this episode:
Blue at War, the cape Miri made for Amal El-Mohtar for the 2020 Hugos
Lillian Boyd
Machine of Death and This Is How You Die, edited by Ryan North, Matthew Bennardo, and David Malki
The Importance of Being Earnest, by Oscar Wilde
Duotrope’s Digest
The Submission Grinder
Wondermark! By David Malki
Steampunk
Fence, by C.S. Pacat
Sarah Rees Brennan
The Demon’s Lexicon, by Sarah Rees Brennan
In Other Lands, by Sarah Rees Brennan
Monstrous Affections, edited by Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant
Be the Serpent
Worldcon 76
Fullmetal Alchemist
Himoru Arakawa
Neil Gaiman’s Journal
Tumblr
Arthur, season 14, episode 4, “Falafelosophy”
Miss Snark’s Blog
Query Shark
George Clponey
John Scalzi’s Whatever
Chuck Wendig’s Terrible Minds
Mary Robinette Kowal’s My Favorite Bit
Sarah Gailey’s Stone Soup
Writing Excuses
Schlock Mercenary, by Howard Tayler
LiveJournal
Fantasy Rants
Gaia Online
NaNoWriMo
Uncanny Magazine
Viable Paradise
Sarah Gailey
River of Teeth, by Sarah Gailey
Sarah’s Star Wars tweets
Amanda Cook’s episode
The Hugo Awards
Yaya Han’s ultimate bodysuit pattern
SFWA
Annalee Flower Horne
Anime Weekend Atlanta
Friends at the Table
Gravity Falls
Steven Universe
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power
Archive of our Own
Fanfiction dot net
Arcane
Riot Games
League of Legends
RWBY
Rooster Teeth
Red vs. Blue
Halo
Persona 5 Royal
Steam
The Locked Tomb series, by Tamsyn Muir
Nona the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir
Cybergoth freeway rave
Miri’s portfolio
Rekka Jay
This is How You Lose the Time War, by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
Stick around next month for the return of Valeria Valdes and Rem Wigmore!
This time around, it’s my pleasure to welcome Ruthanna Emrys (@R_Emrys), who joins us to talk about her new novel, A Half-Built Garden, which comes out on July 26th from Tor Dot Com publishing. We talk about ecological sci-fi, the things that got left on the cutting-room floor, and Ruthanna’s current reads.
Things we mention in this episode:
Winter Tide, by Ruthanna Emrys
David Bowie
The Innsmouth Legacy series, by Ruthanna Emrys
Seanan McGuire
Field Guide to Invasive Species of Minnesota, by Amelia Gorman
Light From Uncommon Stars, by Ryka Aoki
Ruthana’s Patreon
Reading the Weird on Tor.com
Anne M. Pillsworth
The City We Became, by N.K. Jemisin
Tune in next time, when my guest will be Miri Baker!
This time around, it’s my delight to be the first podcast out there to host up-and-coming author Amanda Cook (@AmandaCook627)! Amanda reads her trunked story, “Snow Day,” which leads us into a delightful conversation about cozy fiction, early-career writing, cosplay, and patience!
This episode’s reading carries content notices for some brief mentions of guns and other weapons, along with a mention of nuclear war.
Things we mention in this episode:
Book Tour 17: Sarah Gailey - Just Like Home Dealing with Dragons, by Patricia C. Wrede
“Badass Moms in the Zombie Apocalypse,” by Rae Carson
John Wiswell Wyngraf Tales & Feathers Magazine Augur 4th Street Fantasy
“Ruby’s Delivery,” by Amanda Cook
The Submission Grinder Etherea Magazine NaNoWriMo The Golden Orb, by Amanda Cook
Tor When We Were Forgotten, by Amanda Cook
Moiraine Damodred (from The Wheel of Time, not GoT)
Frozen Once Upon a Time Gen Con Crowley David Tennant
“Weaving Serenity,” by Amanda Cook
“Lily and Ink,” by Amanda Cook
Apparition Lit Our Flag Means Death The Kids in the Hall Hell’s Library series, by A.J. Hackwith
Sweep of Stars, by Maurice Broaddus
Black Panther The Expanse
Amanda’s insta, Facebook, and blog
Tune in next month, when my guests will be Ruthana Emrys and Miri Baker!
This episode carries content warnings for mentions of parental death, terminal illness, serial killers, and feelings of powerlessness. Additionally, the reading from this episode contains an overall sense of tension and dread. If you would like to skip the reading, you can skip forward 18 minutes from the beginning of the reading to bypass it.
This time around, we’re joined once again by the incomparable Sarah Gailey (@gaileyfrey) to talk about their incredible (and incredibly terrifying) new book, Just Like Home, available July 19th wherever fine books are sold! Sarah tells us about the staggering number of rewrites that this book went through and what was learned along the way.
Things we mention this episode:
The Luminous Dead, by Caitlin Starling
The Southern Reach Trilogy, by Jeff VanderMeer
Flowers for the Sea, by Zin E. Rocklyn
Queen Amidala
Magic for Liars, by Sarah Gailey
And then a skeleton popped out
The Death of Jane Lawrence, by Caitlin Starling
NetGalley
Eat the Rich, by Sarah Gailey and Pius Bak
The Echo Wife, by Sarah Gailey
“The Foundations of Decay,” by My Chemical Romance
The Great (TV)
Veep (TV)
Number One Fan, by Meg Elison
Misery
Empire of the Wild, by Cherie Dimaline
Sarah’s website and Insta
Stone Soup newsletter
Kompromat
Join us in two weeks, when my guest will be Amanda Cook!
Update: I've fixed some issues with the audio mixing for this episode that should make it easier to listen to now.
This time around, it’s my absolute joy to welcome Michael R. Underwood (@MikeRUnderwood) to the show! Mike reads from his trunked novel, The Broken Summit before (and after) we have a conversation about the intersection of writing and tabletop roleplaying, the life of a content creator, and some excellent advice about shaping your career goals.
This episode’s reading is 17 minutes long and carries content warnings for themes of war and imperialism.
Things we mention on this episode:
Friends at the Table
The Adventure Zone
The Quiet Year
The McElroys
Thirsty Sword Lesbians
Tom Clancy
Angry Robot Books
Penguin Random House
Hot Wheels boosters
Chilling Effect, bu Valeria Vlades
Yoon Ha Lee
River of Teeth, Taste of Marrow, and Magic for Liars, by Sarah Gailey
Sarah’s Star Wars tweets
Genrenauts series, by Michael R. Underwood
Monster of the Week
Tortall setting (Tamora Pierce)
Blue Rose (RPG)
3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons
Shadowrun 3rd Edition
Sorcerer
Dogs in the Vineyard
Apocalypse World
Blades in the Dark
GenCon
Indie Press Revolution
DriveThruRPG
Creative Commons
Game Jam
Open Game License
Powered by the Apocalypse
Speculate!
Fagin
NaNoWriMo
Anamnesis
Mage: The Ascension
White Wolf Publishing
The Game Master’s Apprentice
ConFusion
Friends Journal Quaker Spec-Fic issue
Clapcast
Clarion West
Cassie Alexander
Better-Faster Academy
Dear Writer, You Need to Quit, by Becca Syme
The Nebula Awards
George R. R. Martin
Twitch
Elden Ring
TikTok
Maya MacGregor’s TikTok
The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester, by Maya MacGregor
Hank Green
Celebromancy series, by Michael R. Underwood
Citizen Sleeper
Dungeons and Dating series, by Katherine McIntyre
Mike’s Twitch
Val’s Twitch
Hades
Karen Osborne’s Twitch
Join us again next month, when my guests will be Sarah Gailey and Amanda Cook!
This time around, we're joined by author Marion Deeds (@mariond_d) to talk about her new novella, Comeuppance Served Cold, a wonderful alternate-history fantasy-noir out now from Tor.com publishing. Marion talks about baking versus cooking when working on books, and we muse on the current golden age of SFFH novellas.
Things we mention this episode:
Story Hour
Laura Blackwell
Helen Crawford-White
Tor Dot Com
Queen of Swords Press
Neon Hemlock
Hugo ballot
Premee Mohamed
The Poppy War, by R.F. Kuang
Victories Greater Than Death and Dreams Bigger Than Heartbreak, by Charlie Jane Anders
Our Opinions Are Correct
Be The Serpent
Marion’s Facebook and Blog
Fantasy Literature dot com
Falstaff Press
Aluminum Leaves, Copper Road, and Golden Rifts, by Marion Deeds
Kat Hooper
Kate Lechler
Alix E. Harrow
This time around, we're joined by Andi C. Buchanan! Andi reads from their trunked YA steampunk novel, which leads us into a great discussion about steampunk, accessibility, well-intentioned white people (like us), and their brand new book, Sanctuary, which came out earlier this week from Robot Dinosaur Press!
Show notes coming soon!
This time around, it's my absolute delight to welcome Maya MacGregor (@Maigheach) to the show to talk about their brand new book, The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester, which releases this May!
Things we mention in this episode:
Jennifer (Macey) Mace's appearance on this very show
Look to the Sun, by Emmie Mears
The Man in the High Castle, by Philip K. Dick
The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Dune, by Frank Herbert
Dune (2021 film)
The Death of Jane Lawrence, by Caitlin Starling
Pine, by Francine Toon
The Woman in White, by Wilkie Collins
The Hidden Life of Trees, by Peter Wohlleben
Pretty Little Liars
The Books of Earthsea, by Ursula K. Le Guin
Charles Vess
Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy, by Gabriella Coleman
Anonymous
This Is How They Tell Me The World Ends, by Nicole Perlroth
Nina Niskanen
Animal Crossing: New Horizons
The Forgetting River, by Doreen Carvajal
Conversos
Maya's Insta and TikTok
And of course, Maya's cats, Tara:
And Willow:
Stick around next time, when I'll be joined by Andi C. Buchanan!
It's my absolute delight, this time around, to welcome our very own composer, Lillian Boyd (@herelieslill), onto the show. Lillian reads her short-story-that-should-be-a-novella, "Inside Job" (cw: gore, skip forward 10:15 to avoid) before we just go off on an extended tangent about horror movies, noir, pulp, and being as thoroughly on our bullshit as is possible.
Things we mention in this episode:
Rank and Vile
Tetsuo the Iron Man
28 Days Later
My appearance on Rank and Vile
The Reinvented Detective, edited by Jennifer Brozek and Cat Rambo (2023)
Raymond Chandler
Guy Noir: Private Eye
A Prairie Home Companion
Nick Danger
The Firesign Theater
Clive Barker
Nightmare Alley
Guillermo del Toro
Magic for Liars, by Sarah Gailey
Nick and Nora
Humphrey Bogart
Farewell, My Lovely, by Raymond Chandler
H. P. Lovecraft (notable racist)
Scrip
Neuromancer, by William Gibson
Blade Runner
The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde
"Panama," by Van Halen
Terry Pratchett
Good Omens, by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
The Discworld
The Bromeliad
Hogfather, by Terry Pratchett
The Long Goodbye, by Raymond Chandler
Chandler's cat letters
Guards, Guards! by Terry Pratchett
Carpe Jugulum, by Terry Pratchett
Neil Gaiman
Ichabod Crane
Michael Kane
Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser
Sandman, by Neil Gaiman
"The Book Job," The Simpsons season 23, episode 6
"Falafelosophy," Arthur season 14, episode 4a
"Neil Gaiman! What are you doing in my falafel?"
Alanis Morisette
Amanda Palmer
Tori Amos
Fiona Apple
"Silent All These Years," by Tori Amos
Where's Neil When You Need Him?
The Crüxshadows
Mirrormask
"Mr. Sandman," by The Chordettes
"Enter Sandman," by Metallica
Hot Topic
"Cry Little Sister," by Gerard McMann
The Lost Boys
Voltaire
Ego Likeness
The Velocipastor
"Toasty"
Siouxsie and the Banshees
Daybreakers
Placebo
"Running Up That Hill," by Placebo
"Running Up That Hill," by Kate Bush
Velvet Goldmine
"20th Century Boy," by Placebo
"20th Century Boy," by T. Rex
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
Queen of the Damned
Twilight
Failure to Adapt
The baseball scene from Twilight
Underworld
Blade 3: Trinity
Triple-H
House of Wax
Friends at the Table: Sangfielle
The VVitch
Sarah Gailey's appearance on Episode 1 of this very show
Hailey Piper
Unfortunate Elements of My Anatomy, by Hailey Piper
Trouble and Her Friends, by Melissa Scott
The Mountain Goats
Alien Vs. Predator
Fireside Quarterly, June-July 2021
The Rank and Vile list
Bride of Frankenstein
And Now the Screaming Starts!
Candyman II: Farewell to the Flesh
The Crow: Wicked Prayer
Brainscan
Videodrome
Audition
Lillian's Twitch
Hair Metal
"Dream Warriors," by Dokken
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
The Books of Earthsea, by Ursula K. Le Guin
Charles Vess
The Farthest Shore, A Wizard of Earthsea, and The Tombs of Atuan, by Ursula K. Le Guin
Keebio's Iris keyboard
Pictured above: my personal Iris keyboard (rev 2b, Kailh speed copper switches, Matt3o DSA Nerd keycaps)
Bán Dénes, mrzealot
Ergogen
Ghost in the Shell
Data
Hako Royal True switches
Hellraiser
Lillian's website, soundcloud, and reedsy
Join us next month, when my guests will be Maya MacGregor and Andi C. Buchanan!
Welcome to season 4! This time around, Hailey Piper (@HaileyPiperSays) is leading the way with an appearance in support of her forthcoming novella, Your Mind is a Terrible Thing, which comes out May 7th, 2022! Hailey brings us some fantastic words to live by as an artist, and I hope we can all hold on to this throughout the coming year and beyond: "be brave: let it be weird."
Things we mention in this episode:
The 2021 Bram Stoker Award ballot
Star Wars
NaNoWriMo
Off Limits Press
Queen of Teeth, by Hailey Piper
"Recitation of the First Feeding," by Hailey Piper in Unfortunate Elements of my Anatomy
The Shape of Water
Tales from the Hood
This Appearing House, by Ally Malinenko
The Fervor, The Hunger, and The Deep, by Alma Katsu
HMHS Britannic, sister ship to the Titanic
RMS Lusitania, not the sister ship to the Titanic
Wrath Goddess Sing, by Maya Deane
Stokercon
No Gods for Drowning, by Hailey Piper
Other Terrors, edited by Vince A. Liaguno and Rena Mason
Stephen Graham Jones
S. A. Cosby
The Book of Queer Saints, edited by Mae Murray
Eric LaRocca
Joe Koch
Hailey's website and insta
Laura Lockwood
Stick around next time, when my guest will be none other than our own composer, Lillian Boyd!
For the final episode of our third season (wild, right?), I had the absolute delight of having Ivy Noelle Weir (@ivynoelle) on to record one of the most chaotic episodes, energy-wise, possibly ever in the history of this show! Ivy reads from The Archivist, the original title of the novel that became her and Steenz's graphic novel, Archival Quality, which leads us into a great conversation about how the transition from prose to comics came about, as well as Ivy's recently-released and forthcoming graphic adaptations of several works of classic children's literature.
Things we mention in this episode:
R. K. Duncan
Magic: the Gathering
The Mütter Museum
The Clarion Workshop
The Death of Jane Lawrence, by Caitlin Starling
"The Raven," by Edgar Allen Poe
The First Unit
Eastern State Penitentiary
Gritty
The Phillie Phanatic
Pennsylvania politicians convicted of crimes
Steenz
Neil Gaiman
The Valkyries
Tini Howard
Vita Ayala
The Eisner Awards
Oni Press
Eat the Rich, by Sarah Gailey and Pius Bak
Bountiful Garden, by Ivy Noelle Weir, Steenz, and Kelly Williams
Rumiko Takahashi
Junji Ito
Hellboy, by Mike Mignola
Molly Knox Ostertag
The Prince and the Dressmaker, by Jen Wang
The Magic Fish, by Trung Le Ngyuen
Tidesong, by Wendy Xu
Gotham Academy, by Becky Cloonan and Brenden Fletcher
Batman: The Animated Series
Nintendo Switch
Death Cab for Cutie
Looks at the camera like I'm on The Office
Broadchurch
The Fall
Maus, by Art Spiegelman
Barefoot Gen, by Kaiji Nakazawa
Anne of West Philly, by Ivy Noelle Weir and Myisha Haynes
Anne of Green Gables, by L. M. Montgomery
The Secret Garden On 81st Street, by Ivy Noelle Weir and Amber Padilla
The Secret Garden, by Francis Hodgson Burnett
The Secret Garden (1993)
Anne with an E
The Library of the Dead, by T. L. Huchu
TikTok
My Year of Rest and Relaxation, by Ottessa Moshfegh
Eileen, by Ottessa Moshfegh
Shirley Jackson
Witch Hat Atelier, by Kamome Shirahama
Bravo
The Bachelor
Yellowjackets
John Waters
Ivy's TikTok and website
This time around, we're joined once again by R. J. Theodore (@bittybittyzap) to talk about the second edition of Flotsam, the first book in their Peridot Shift series! After an exciting excerpt, full of wheeling and dealing, we get into the history of the book, what changed since its first printing, and what's next for the series!
Things we mention in this episode:
Rekka's first appearance on the show, where they read from book 3, Cast Off
NaNoWriMo Robot Dinosaur Press Chipped Cup Collective Latte Literary Merc Fenn Wolfmoor Sarah Loch Self-Publishing Formatting Guidelines, by R. J. Theodore
Parvus Press Joss Whedon Firefly The Wayfarers Series, by Becky Chambers
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, by Becky Chambers
"Oversharing," by R. J. Theodore
The Death of Jane Lawrence, by Caitlin Starling
Animal Crossing: New Horizons Super Smash Brothers Encanto Lin-Manuel Miranda Hamilton Encanto (Japanese Soundtrack) Encanto (Spanish Soundtrack)
"We Don't Talk About Bruno (Japanese)"
Supernatural
Rekka's website, insta, and patreon We Make Books Unfettered Hexes
We Make Books, Episode 5 at the 2019 Nebulas
John Scalzi The Murderboard Episode, with Jennifer Mace
both is good dot gif
Stick around next time, when Ivy Noelle Weir will be joining me!
This time around, I'm joined by multi-award-nominated-and-winning author Sam J. Miller (@sentencebender)! Sam reads from his trunked novel, Blue Matter, which leads us into a great conversation about YA, the ways that genre books are in conversation with each other, and why we're ultimately glad that our journeys as creators have been the shapes they are.
Things we mention in this episode:
The Art of Starving, by Sam J. Miller
Blackfish City, by Sam J. Miller
The Blade Between, by Sam J. Miller
Michael Pollan
Ted Chiang
The Clarion Workshop
Octavia Butler
Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro
John Bellairs
Joan Aiken
The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier
The Butter Battle Book, by Dr. Seuss
Mutual assured destruction
The Lorax, by Dr. Seuss
RuPaul's Drag Race
Aikido
Be the Serpent, Episode 91
Beowulf, translated by Maria Dahvana Headley
Beowulf, translated by Seamus Heaney
The Hobbit, by J. R. R. Tolkien
The Odyssey, by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson
Iambic pentameter
"The Raven," by Edgar Allan Poe
Hudson, NY
This Is How You Lose The Time War, by Amal El-Mohtar Max and Gladstone
Mexican Gothic, by Sylvia Moreno-Garcia
Notes from the Burning Age, by Claire North
The Echo Wife, by Sarah Gailey
Gideon the Ninth and Harrow the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir
The Unbroken, by C. L. Clark
The Death of Jane Lawrence and The Luminous Dead, by Caitlin Starling
Boys, Beasts & Men, by Sam J. Miller
Sam's website and insta
Join us again next month, when I'll be talking to R. J. Theodore and Ivy Noelle Weir!
Yeah buddy! It's awards season once again! And just like we have every year since the show started, we've got a roundup of eligible works from past guests!
This episode's full transcript, with links, is below.
Hello, and welcome to Tales from the Trunk: nominating the stories (and other things) that did make it. I’m Hilary B. Bisenieks.
Listeners, it’s that time of year again, where we’re all looking back—maybe frantically—on what we did last year and what we consumed as awards nominations open up. To help with that, I’ve once again reached out to all of my past guests to see if there’s anything they’d like me to mention on this show. The full transcript of this show will also be in the show notes, so don’t worry if things go by fast.
To start off, I know I’ve tweeted about it, but I want to thank every single one of you who nominated this show for Best Fancast last year. I’m still in a bit of shock that this show made it to the Hugo award long list. This year, Tales from the Trunk is eligible for Best Fancast for the Hugos and, until January 21st, r/Fantasy’s Stabby Award for Best Audio Original - Nonfiction. It would be a huge honor to get your nominating vote for either award.
John Appel, who joined us on book tour last summer, is eligible for both Best Novel and Best Debut Novel in the science fiction category, where applicable, for Assassin’s Orbit.
Nino Cipri is eligible in the Best Novella category for Defekt, the sequel-ish follow up to 2020’s Finna.
R. K. Duncan, who joined us way back in our very first season, has five eligible short stories, which you can find in his awards eligibility post, linked in the show notes. Of those, “Her Black Coal Heart a Diamond in My Hand” is dearest to his heart.
Sarah Gailey, one of this show’s staunchest and most long-time supporters, has The Echo Wife, eligible for Best Novel, and their limited series, Eat the Rich, eligible for Best Graphic Story and other comics categories.
Sarah Hollowell (you didn’t think you’d get one of these Sarahs without the other, did you?) is eligible for Best Novel, Best Young Adult, and Best Debut Novel for A Dark and Starless Forest!
Tyler Hayes (Tyler, please forgive me for putting you slightly out-of-order) has the story “The Devil You Don’t” eligible for Best Short Story.
Jordan Kurella has both a story and an essay eligible this year! Their story, “Personal Histories Surrounding La Rive Gauche, Paris: 1995-2015” carries content warnings for mentions of suicide and psychological abuse, and is eligible for Best Short Story. Their essay “Un/Reliable: Reflections in The Drowning Girl,” which carries content warnings for discussion of mental illness and suicide, is eligible for Best Related Work.
L. D. Lewis, who joined us this past spring, is eligible in a bevy of categories! Her stories “From Witch to Queen and God” and “Dizzy in the Weeds” are both eligible for Best Short Story. FIYAHCON 2021, like the 2020 version, is eligible for Best Related Work, meanwhile, and the Hugo Award-winning FIYAH Literary Magazine is eligible for Best Semiprozine.
Sarah Loch has a number of stories and essays eligible, all of which you can find in her eligibility post. Of those, she’d like to particularly highlight “How Dungeons & Dragons Helped Me Escape a Cult” for Best Related Work.
Jennifer Mace, the English One, is eligible for Best Fancast for Be The Serpent—and I should mention that this is their final year of eligibility—along with Freya Marske, the Australian one, and Alex Rowland, the American One. Additionally, Macey’s poem, “letters from the ides” is eligible wherever speculative poetry awards are given, and her poem-story, “Birds Are Trying to Reinvent Your Heart,” which is eligible for Best Short Story.
Speaking of the Australian One, Freya Marske, who joined us in the traditional serpent month, October, is eligible for Best Novel and Best Debut for A Marvellous Light.
Preeme Mohamed, who joined us again this summer, has had quite the year as far as novellas go! These Lifeless Things, And What Can We Offer You Tonight, and The Annual Migration of Clouds are all eligible for Best Novella. Additionally, A Broken Darkness is eligible for Best Novel. You can find a link to her full eligibility post in the show notes.
C. L. Polk has an eligible story, “The Music of Siphorophenes,” and a novel, Soulstar, and, in a first for guests of this show, their Kingston Cycle, consisting of Witchmark, Stormsong, and Soulstar, is eligible for the Best Series Hugo.
dave ring has a trio of eligible works this year: The Hidden Ones is eligible for Best Novella, “Top Ten Demons to Kill Before The World Ends” is eligible for Best Short Story, and Unfettered Hexes: Queer Tales of Insatiable Darkness is eligible for Best Anthology!
Elsa Sjunneson is eligible for Best Fan Writer for her editorial column at Uncanny Magazine, where she’s just finished her tenure as nonfiction editor (Uncanny is eligible for Best Semiprozine). Additionally, “Ocean’s 6” is eligible for Best Short Story, and Being Seen is eligible for Best Related Work!
R. J. Theodore has two stories eligible for Best Short Story, “A Ship With No Parrot” and “The Coven of TAOS-9.” Additionally, Underway is eligible for Best Novella, and Self-Publishing Formatting Guidelines is eligible for Best Related Work. Finally, I would be remiss not to mention that We Make Books, which Rekka hosts with Kaelyn Considine, is eligible for Best Fancast!
Rem Wigmore, who joined us for an impromptu Oceana Month is eligible for Best Novel with Foxhunt.
Fran Wilde, who joined us way way back at the start of 2021, would like to highlight “Unseelie Brothers, ltd.” which is eligible for Best Novelette. You can find other things she wrote and read last year on her blog, linked in the show notes.
Finally, last, but most certainly not least (and who would have thought that we’d have so many W-names?), John Wiswell would love for you to read and consider his novelette “That Story Isn’t The Story.” His other eligible works can be found on his site, linked in the show notes.
2021 was absolutely a wild year, but I hope that this episode helps jog your memory of some of your favorite things, or maybe even introduces you to a brand new favorite that you missed the first time around. I’m deeply grateful for your consideration of this show or any of the works mentioned on this episode, as are all the amazing, talented creators behind those works.
As mentioned at the top of the episode, links to all of the works mentioned, along with any eligibility posts, whether specifically called out or not, will be in the show notes.
Thank you so much for listening, and thank you to all of the amazing creators who have been a part of this show over the past three seasons!
Tales from the Trunk is mixed and produced in beautiful Oakland, California.
Our theme music is “Paper Wings,” by Ryan Boyd.
You can support the show on patreon at patreon dot com slash trunkcast. All patrons of the show now get a sticker and logo button, along with show outtakes and other content that can't be found anywhere else.
You can find the show on Twitter at trunkcast, and I tweet at hbbisenieks.
If you like the show, consider taking a moment to rate and review us on your preferred podcast platform.
And remember: don't self-reject.
This time around, my guest is author and agent Jennie Goloboy (@JennieGoloboy), whose Obviously, Aliens released in November 2021 from Queen of Swords Press! After hearing the opening chapter of the book, we get into what made it and what didn't in the final draft, along with some great talk about the craft of humor writing and some excellent recommendations!
Things we mention in this episode:
Queen of Swords Press
Foxhunt, by Rem Wigmore
Doge (meme)
Terry Roy
NaNoWriMo
Seasteading
Peter Thiel
Monty Python's Life of Brian
Men in Black
The War of 1812
P. G. Wodehouse
Graceland
Denver International Airport (DEN)
Ted Lasso
The Murderbot Diaries, (Wikipedia) by Martha Wells
2021 Hugo Award results
Soldier (1998)
Unforgiven
The Imperial Radch trilogy, by Ann Leckie
The Last Watch, by J. S. Dewes
Jennie's website
The Voyages of Cinrak the Dapper, by A. J. Fitzwater
This time around, I'm joined by the amazing Victor Manibo (@VictorManibo), author of The Sleepless, coming out in June of 2022 from Erewhon Books! Victor reads his trunked Poe retelling before we launch into a discussion of life after NaNoWriMo and how he went from never having heard of the event to getting his book onto store shelves.
Things we mention in this episode:
NaNoWriMo
"The Cask of Amontillado," by Edgar Allan Poe
Favelas
The Luminous Dead, by Caitlin Starling
"There is no there there"
Publishers Weekly (PW)
Nina Niskanen
Mary Robinette Kowal
Viable Paradise
Rubber ducky debugging
Jennifer "Macey" Mace
Valerie Valdez
Brass Goggles
Tor.com
Fae's purrs
Worldcon
Cowboy Bebop (anime and live-action)
Firefly
Animal Crossing: New Horizons
The Expanse
Victor's website and insta
Obviously, Aliens, by Jennie Goloboy
Queen of Swords Press
Join us again next month, when my guests will be Jennie Goloboy and Sam J. Miller!
This is a spicy one, folks, so put those headphones in! This time around, it was my absolute delight to talk to Cassie Alexander (@CassieY4), author of many fine, spicy books. This time around, we're talking about her newest, AITA? and the fugue-state that Cassie wrote this book in!
Things mentioned on this episode:
AITA? (subreddit)
Schitt's Creek
Her Ex-boyfriend's Werewolf Lover, by Cassie Alexander
Blood of the Pack, by Cassie Alexander
Sons of Anarchy
Chuck Tingle
Quiver & Quill, by A. M. Kore
Mothman (cryptid)
Cassie's website and TikTok
Stick around for next time, when Victor Manibo will be joining the show!
This time around, we're joined once again by Merc Fenn Wolfmoor (@Merc_Wolfmoor) to talk about their new novella, The Wolf Among the Wild Hunt! We talk about queernorm worlds, physical video game packaging, and some of the great things we've been reading.
Things mentioned on this episode:
Grimdark (genre)
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
Friends for Robots, by Merc Fenn Wolfmoor
Neon Hemlock's novella series
Network Effect, by Martha Wells
Caitlin Starling
Premee Mohamed
The Annual Migration of Clouds, by Premee Mohamed
Archival Quality, by Ivy Noelle Weir and Steenz
The Secret Garden on 81st Street, by Ivy Noelle Weir and Amber Padilla
Finna and Defekt, by Nino Cipri
Merc's website
This time around, I'm joined by multiply-Hugo-nominated podcaster and author of the forthcoming novel, A Marvellous Light, Freya Marske (@freyamarske), thus completing the prophecy. Freya reads an excerpt of her story, "One Version of Yourself, at the Speed of Light," which leads us into a great discussion about using our day-job-expertise in our writing, the end of Be the Serpent, a hot take about historical fiction, and of course a lot of talk about fanfic.
Things we mention in this episode:
Be the Serpent
Alexandra Rowland
Jennifer "Macey" Mace
Hurt/comfort
The Kingston Cycle, by C. L. Polk
Edwardian England
World War One
The Hugo Awards
Worldcon
My episode being interviewed by Sharon Hsu
The Archive of Our Own (AO3)
Kudos (AO3)
Goodreads
Crack fic
AUs
Five things fic
Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Ninefox Gambit, the first book of The Machineries of Empire series, by Yoon Ha Lee
A Memory Called Empire, by Arkady Martine
Battlestar Galactica
Tumblr
Ted Lasso
Summer Sons, by Lee Mandello
Dark academia
Friends at the Table (specifically Sangfielle, their current season)
Hellboy
Annihilation, by Jeff VanderMeer
Seducing the Sorcerer, by Lee Welch
Howl's Moving Castle, by Diana Wynne Jones
The works of T. Kingfisher
Freya's insta and website
The Marvel Cinematic Universe
Infinity Stones
Join us again next month, when my guests will be Merc Fenn Wolfmoor and Nina Niskanen!
This time around, to open out our unintentional Oceana month, I'm joined by the delightful Rem Wigmore (@faewriter), whose novel, Foxhunt, is available now, wherever you get your books, from Queen of Swords Press. They read us a slightly-spoiler-y excerpt of the book (you can skip ahead 11:40 from the start of the reading if you'd rather not be spoiled) that leads us into some great conversation about banter, taking the piss, and how mythology might survive into the future.
Things we mention in this episode:
Hades (game)
Orpheus and Eurydice
The Realm of the Elderlings series, by Robin Hobb
These Violent Delights, by Chloe Gong
Butcherbird, by Cassie Hart
Riverwitch, by Rem Wigmore
The Contemporary Witchy Fiction project
The Waikato River
Rem's website
Join us again on the 15th of October, when my guest will be Freya Marske!
This time around, I had the pleasure of talking to Hugo-award-winning author and editor Elsa Sjunneson (@snarkbat)! Elsa reads an excerpt from her terrific currently-trunked novel, The Livelong Night, which launches us into a conversation about representation, trunking (the bad kind), disability, and her forthcoming memoir, Being Seen, which releases this October!
Things we mentioned this episode:
Worldcon 76
Burying your gays (trope)
Mad-Eye Moody
Gideon the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir
The Book of Eli
Daredevil
The ghost of Peter Stuyvesant
Reviews of Being Seen from Kirkus and Booklist
Scream (TV show)
“I Belong Where the People Are: Disability & The Shape of Water," by Elsa Sjunneson
Children of a Lesser God
Me Before You
"The Home Front," my 9/11 essay
"Blind Women Get Married Too," by Elsa Sjunneson
RSD - Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria
Ready or Not
The Invisible Man (2020)
The Chair
The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver
Exvangelicals
Beowulf, audiobook, translated by Seamus Heaney
Join us again next month, when my guests will be Rem Wigmore and Freya Marske!
This time around, we're joined once again by Sarah Hollowell (@sarahhollowell) whose debut, A Dark and Starless Forest comes out September 14th! Sarah reads an excerpt of her book that leads us into a fun conversation about the terrible faces that cats make, natural disasters, and probably some stuff about the book, too.
Things we mention in this episode:
The Wee Free Men, by Terry Pratchett
Tangled
The 12 Dancing Princesses
"Crow's Eye," by Sarah Hollowell
The geology of Indiana
The Airborne Toxic Event
Duck and cover
This Poison Heart, by Kalynn Bayron
The Ones We're Meant to Find, by Joan He
Each of Us a Desert, by Mark Oshiro
Beneath the Rising, A Broken Darkness, and And What Can We Offer You Tonight, by Premee Mohamed
Annihilation, by Jeff VanderMeer
Sarah's insta and website
Sarah Gailey
R. K. Duncan
Kate Lechler
Join us again in two weeks with my guest, Elsa Sjunneson!
This time around we're joined by Leigh Harlen (@leighharlen) to talk about the new printing of their collection, Blood Like Garnets! Leigh reads to us from their pissed off, queer response to that wizard series, which leads us into a discussion on new and exciting forms of self-rejection, and why community is so important to us as writers.
Things we mention in this episode:
Studio Ghibli
Ursula K Le Guin's Earthsea
"Blood Makes the Fruit Grow Sweet," by Leigh Harlen in Dark Moon Digest
The Dark
TKO (publisher)
Worldcon 76
Norwescon
Neon Hemlock
Fireside Magazine
Fiyah Literary Magazine
Premee's book launch event
Yellow Jessamine, by Caitlin Starling
Stephen King
V O I D J U N K
The Silence of the Lambs
"Prey," by Richard Matheson
The Babadook as a queer icon
This year's World Fantasy Awards finalists
Ring Shout, by P. Djèlí Clark
Lovecraft Country
Train to Busan
Night of the Living Dead
Pseudopod
The Submission Grinder
SFWA pro rates
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Season 6, Episode 13 - "Far Beyond the Stars"
Weird Tales
A guide to Twitter Lists
Victories Greater Than Death, by Charlie Jane Anders
Elatsoe, by Darcie Littlebadger
Leigh's website
Join us again in September, when our guests will be Sarah Hollowell and Elsa Sjunneson!
This time around, I'm rejoined by Premee Mohamed (@premeesaurus) to talk about her amazing new novella, And What Can We Offer You Tonight, out now from Neon Hemlock! After hearing the first chapter of the book, straight from the mouth of the author, we get into all the stories that Premee still wants to tell in the world of the book, and we talk fondly of a viscerally-uncomfortable scene from the book that we both love to bits. We also take a bit of time to talk about the other three (3) books that Premee has or will have out this year, all of which are well worth your time.
Things we mention in this episode:
My very on-brand outfit for this audio recording
Neon Hemlock Press
The And What Can We Offer You Tonight launch party
Leigh Harlen
Mad Max
The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway
L. D. Lewis' appearance on this very show
dave ring
These Lifeless Things, by Premee Mohamed
The Annual Migration of Clouds, by Premee Mohamed
Beneath the Rising, A Broken Darkness, and The Void Ascendant, by Premee Mohamed
Premee on We Make Books
Premee's website
Join us again later this month, when I'll be talking with Leigh Harlen!
After some trials and tribulations with our audio, L. D. Lewis (@Ellethevillain) joins us on this episode with her amazing climatepunk story, "The Last Stand of the E 12th St Pirates." Following the reading, we talk about how that story came about before taking some time to talk about Fiyah Literary Magazine and Fiyahcon (September 16-19, 2021).
Things we mention in this episode:
Cyberpunk
And What Can We Offer You Tonight, by Premee Mohamed
"For Every Jack," by R. K. Duncan
Geneva Bowers, nee Benton
Fiyah on Twitter
Fireside Magazine
Fire!!
Langston Hughes
Zora Neale Hurston
Fiyahcon
Breonna Taylor
George Floyd
Vida Cruz
Iori Kusano
Ignyte Awards
Airmeet
Norwescon
Monterey Bay Aquarium
L's Website
Slack
TikTok
LeVar Burton Reads Writing Contest
Tor.com
Diana M. Pho
Realm
Reading Rainbow
Geordi La Forge
Join us again next month, when Premee Mohamed and Leigh Harlen will be my guests!
To open pride month this year, we're joined by Jen Karner (@articulatedream), whose sapphic debut, Cinders of Yesterday, releases later this month! Jen reads us a delicious excerpt of their book, and we chat about some of her favorite bits, the chaos energy of their drafting process, and why we shouldn't treat her as any kind of example for how publishing usually goes.
Things we mention in this episode:
NaNoWriMo
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing
fanfiction.net
GeoCities
Children of Blood and Bone, by Tomi Adeyemi
Baltimore Pride
Boffer weapons
LARPing
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Supernatural
Teen Wolf
Pitch Wars
RevPit
Jen's insta, website, and facebook fan page
Join us again on June 18th, when our guest will be dave ring!
This time around, my guest is friend and co-host of the podcast, We Make Books, R. J. Theodore (@bittybittyzap)! Rekka reads an excerpt from the third book of her Peridot Shift series, Cast Off, which leads us into a great conversation about what can happen when your publisher closes its doors, murderboarding for fun and profit, and the things that we love so dearly about steampunk.
Things we mention in this episode:
Parvus Press
Master and Commander, by Patrick O'Brian
Steampunk
Space elves discourse (I believe the discourse came from this)
Ever Given
Sarah Pinsker
Gideon the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir
Jennifer "Macey" Mace's Murderboard Method, on We Make Books
C. J. Cherryh
Mistborn series, by Brandon Sanderson
Game of Thrones, by George R. R. Martin
Scrivener (software)
Epistolary fiction
Gail Carriger
The Brass Goggles forum
Frankenstein, by Mary Shelly
Jules Verne
The Kingston Cycle, by C. L. Polk
Guillotine
The Lord of the Rings, by J. R. R. Tolkien
Star Trek Pocket Books
Wesley Crusher
Livejournal
"The Coven of Taos-9," by R. J. Theodore, in Unfettered Hexes
Episodes 48 and 51 of We Make Books, featuring Hilary B. Bisenieks
Join us next month, when Jen Karner and dave ring will be our guests!
This time around, we're joined by my friend, Sarah Loch (@sloch), whose new book, Blue Line, written as Ariel Bishop, just released! After hearing an excerpt from the book, we talk about about fake dating, representation, and self-publishing. Also, Sarah took a moment to tell us about her friend, F. A. Ray's new m/m soccer (football, to our listeners outside of North America) romance, Yellow Card, which is also available in early access on Gumroad.
Things we mention in this episode:
The Tripping series, by Ariel Bishop
BDSM (link contains NSFW content)
Switch (link contains NSFW content)
Demiromantic
Aromantic
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power
Haikyu!!
Join us next episode, when I'll be talking with R. J. Theodore!
This time around, we're joined by Nino Cipri (@ninocipri) to talk about their forthcoming Defekt, sequel to the amazing, Hugo-finalist novella, Finna. Nino reads their trunked story, "Presque Vu" (no, not that one, the trunked one), and we talk about their thoughts on composting stories, writing workshops, and why capitalism is bad, actually.
Things we mention in this episode:
Homesick, by Nino Cipri
The Clarion (and Clarion West) Workshop
"Presque Vu," by Nino Cipri
IKEA
420 (nice)
The Nebula Conference
AWP
N. K. Jemisin
John Scalzi
Jim C. Hines
Nino's website, insta, and newsletter
Join us again in May when our guests will be Sarah Loch and R. J. Theodore!
This time around on book tour, we're joined by Steve Toase (@stevetoase), whose collection, To Drown in Dark Water, releases on April 27th, 2021! After Steve reads a selection of flash stories from the collection, we talk about cosmic horror, organic servers, and the Munich art scene.
Things we mention in the episode:
Jordan Kurella's appearance on the show
The Best Horror of the Year, volumes 6 and 11, edited by Ellen Datlow
Stefan Koidl
Hazel Ang
Short Story Day
"Terminus Post Quem," by Steve Toase
Mad Scientist Journal
Analog
Dendrochronology
RFC (Request for Comments)
April Fool's RFCs
Hyper Text Coffee Pot Control Protocol
IP over Avian Carriers
Whale fall
"The Silent Brush of Wings," by Steve Toase, in Three-Lobed Burning Eye
Franz Marc
Der Blaue Reiter
Atelier
"Simplicity," by Wassily Kandinsky
Death in Venice, by Thomas Mann
Gladius Dei, by Thomas Mann
Robert W. Chambers
M.R. James
our awful, racist uncle, Howard (Phillips Lovecraft)
Paul Klee
Cosmic horror
The King in Yellow, by Robert W. Chambers
The Yellow Sign, by Robert W. Chambers
Fortean Times Magazine
Harrogate, north Yorkshire
Flint knapping
Silicosis
Asbestosis WARNING: some gross images on that wikipedia page
Embodied Geographies, edited by Elizabeth Kenworthy Teather
Steve's blog
Steve's newsletter
Steve's patreon
Join us again on April 16th, when our guest will be Nino Cipri!
Hello, and welcome to season 3!
This time around, we're joined by Kelly Robson (@kellyoyo), whose new collection, Alias Space, comes out April 30th, 2021, from Subterranean Press! Kelly reads her story, "Deadfall," which she wrote as a futurist-in-residence during a conference, and we dive right into talking about what being a futurist is all about.
Things we mentioned in this episode:
A. M. Dellamonica
Stan Rogers
The Book of Dragons, edited by Jonathan Strahan
The Newsflesh series, by Mira Grant
Little Brother, by Cory Doctorow
Shaw Broadcasting
Stantec Engineering
Nakoda (Stoney) Tribe
Lenape (Delaware) Tribe
Karl Schroeder
IBM
Madeline Ashby
Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity
Futurescapes
Oculus VR
Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Codex Writer's Group
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power
Nanowrimo
Moby Dick, by Herman Melville
Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley
An Unkindness of Ghosts, by Rivers Solomon
Subterranean Press
Alias Grace, by Margaret Atwood
Join us again on April 16th, when our guest will be Nino Cipri!
This time on book tour, we're joined by returning guest Karen Osborne (@karenthology) to talk about Engines of Oblivion, the amazing sequel to last year's Architects of Memory, and conclusion of the Memory War duology. Karen reads us an excerpt from the book, and we take some time to talk about some of her favorite bits both that made it into print and that got taken out in edits.
Things we mentioned in this episode:
The Imperial Radch Trilogy, by Ann Leckie
Ninefox Gambit, by Yoon Ha Lee
Wandavision
"Agatha All Along"
Interstellar
Mass Effect
The Expanse
"The Sky is a Neighborhood," by Foo Fighters
"Trip Switch," by Nothing but Thieves
"Daddy Lessons," by Beyonce, featuring the Dixie Chicks
Don't Touch That: An Anthology of Parenthood in SFF, edited by Jaymee Goh
Join us again next time, when my guest will be Kelly Robson!
This episode, we are joined by Nebula-nominated author and journalist extraordinaire, Jason Sanford (@jasonsanford). Jason reads us his story, "The Wheels on the Torture Bus Go Round and Round," and we discuss progress in the science fiction, fantasy, and horror community, the joys of short fiction, and Jason's Genre Grapevine column on his patreon, where he covers news in the field.
Things discussed in this episode:
Meadowbrook Press
Shel Silverstein
Newfangled Fairy Tales, edited by Bruce Lansky
"Rumplestiltskin, Private Eye," by Jason Sanford, in Newfangled Fairy Tales #2
A. J. Hackwith on Tales from the Trunk
"May Our Voices Sing Like Blood from Open Wounds," by Jason Sanford, in Intergalactic Medicine Show
"The Eight-Thousanders," by Jason Sanford, in the September/October, 2020, issue of Asimov's
Locus
The Society of Professional Journalists
Lady Whistledown's Society Papers
Sad Puppies and Rabid Puppies (the sad/rabids)
Under Everest, by D. H. Dunn
Uncanny Magazine
Analog Magazine
Randall Kenan
Let the Dead Bury Their Dead, by Randall Kenan
"Run, Mourner, Run," by Randall Kenan, in Let the Dead Bury Their Dead
The Peace Corps
If I Had Two Wings, by Randall Kenan
The Murderbot Diaries, by Martha Wells
Sarah Gailey on Tales from the Trunk
Tor.com Publishing
"Sublimation Angels," by Jason Sanford
Plague Birds, by Jason Sanford
Join us again next month, when our guest will be Kelly Robson
This time around, we're re-joined by Sarah Gailey (@gaileyfrey), who brings us an exclusive excerpt from their forthcoming novel, The Echo Wife, which releases on February 16th, 2021. Following the reading, we talk a bit about some not-so-usual book-event questions.
Other things we mention in this episode:
The Echo Wife in Entertainment Weekly
in Cosmopolitan
"Look," the scary eyeball story, by Sarah Gailey
Hamilton
Sarah (Other Sarah) Hollowell (on Tales from the Trunk)
Magic for Liars, by Sarah Gailey
The Echo Wife tour
Miriam Weinberg
River of Teeth and Taste of Marrow, by Sarah Gailey
When We Were Magic, by Sarah Gailey
Sarah's Substack newsletter, Stone Soup
Sarah's Instagram
Maggie Tokuda-Hall (Instagram)
The Mermaid, The Witch, And The Sea, by Maggie Tokuda-Hall
Gritty
Tune in again in two weeks, when our guest will be Jason Sanford!
We're joined this time around by Fran Wilde (@fran_wilde), who reads her story, "How Sentient Kudzu Solved the KRYPTOS K4 Code and How the CIA Covered It Up A Revolution in Four Parts," which leads us into a discussion of invasive plants, poetry, and some unexpected connections from our shared alma mater.
Things we mentioned in this episode:
Gritty
Kryptos
Kudzu
Philadelphia World's Fair
Elise Tobler
Shimmer
John Bartram
Warren Wilson College
Rita Dove
Debra Nystrom
Gregory Orr
Charles Wright
Heather McHugh
Eleanor Wilner
Brigit Pegeen Kelly
Larry Levis
Joan Aleshire
"One Art," by Elizabeth Bishop
George Oppen
"Without," by Fran Wilde, in Nature: Futures
"Everlasting," by Fran Wilde, in Daily Science Fiction
Updraft, by Fran Wilde
The Nebula Awards
Life on Mars, by Tracy K. Smith
Julia Rios
Lanternfish Press
Klein bottles
European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman, by Theodora Goss
Fran's Patreon
Ideomancer
Sam J. Miller
Uncanny Magazine
Viable Paradise
"The Ghost Tide Chanty," by Fran Wilde
"Mayor for Today," by Fran Wilde, in Asimov's, January/February 2021
"Rhizome by Starlight," by Fran Wilde, in Rebuilding Tomorrow
The Ship of Stolen Words, by Fran Wilde
Riverland, by Fran Wilde
Narnia
Clock Star Rose Spine, by Fran Wilde
Boskone
Futurescapes
Cat Rambo's classes
Wester Colorado University's MFA in Creative Writing program
Join us again on February 19th, when Jason Sanford will be our guest!
Happy new year, everyone! It's been awards season for a hot minute already, but it takes a little while to do a roundup for all my guests who are interested in being a part of it, so here we are!
Works mentioned in this episode:
When We Were Magic, by Sarah Gailey
Upright Women Wanted, by Sarah Gailey
“We Don’t Talk About the Dragon,” in The Book of Dragons, by Sarah Gailey
“Drones to Plowshares,” by Sarah Gailey
“Tiger Lawyer Gets It Right,” by Sarah Gailey
“Everything Is The Hunger Games Now,” by Sarah Gailey
Here's the Thing
Sarah's awards post
“Raff and the Scissor-Finger,” by R. K. Duncan
“Clever Jack, Heavy with Stories,” by R. K. Duncan
“For Every Jack,” by R. K. Duncan
"Witness," from Fireweed: Stories of the Revolution, by R. K. Duncan
R. K. Duncan's awards post
Prime Deceptions, by Valerie Valdes
Chilling Effect, by Valerie Valdes
The Archive of the Forgotten, by A. J. Hackwith
The Library of the Unwritten, by A. J. Hackwith
Finding Faeries, by Alexandra Rowland
Be The Serpent
Beneath the Rising, by Premee Mohamed
“Everything As Part Of Its Infinite Place,” (Patreon-locked) by Premee Mohamed
“The Redoubtables,” by Premee Mohamed
“Restoration of function to Biochemical Structure 34 using iterative molecular construction techniques: teaching an old dome new tricks,” by Premee Mohamed
“An Empathy of Fear,” by Premee Mohamed
The Big Idea: Premee Mohamed, John Scalzi's blog, March 2020
Whatever, John Scalzi's blog
Premee's awards post
“And All the Trees of the Forest Shall Clap Their Hands,” by Sharon Hsu
“Upon What Soil They Fed,” by Jennifer Mace
“In the Salt Crypts of Ghiarelle,” in Silk and Steel, by Jennifer Mace
Silk & Steel: A Queer Speculative Adventure Anthology
"saltwashed," by Jennifer Mace
“Open House on Haunted Hill,” by John Wiswell
Machina, by Fran Wilde, Malka Older, Curtis C. Chen, and Martha Wells
A transcript of the show is below:
--
Before we get started, a quick reminder that I’ll be returning as a guest on the next episode of We Make Books, which should be hitting the feed on January 5th, talking about the process of trunking things. A huge shout out to Rekka and Kaelyn for inviting me back on the show!
[“Paper Wings” plays]
Hello, and welcome to Tales from the Trunk: Reading the stories that didn’t make it. I’m Hilary B. Bisenieks.
It’s awards season once again, and while I’ve already made my obligatory awards post on social media, that doesn’t do a whole lot if you don’t follow me or the show on Twitter. So once again, I’m collecting awards information for the show and all interested guests here in the feed.
This show, Tales from the Trunk, is once again eligible for Best Fancast and is my only eligible work for 2020.
Sarah Gailey, who appeared on our very first episode in March of 2019, is eligible for the Lodestar and other YA awards for When We Were Magic. They are eligible for Best Novella for Upright Women Wanted, (one of my favorite books of the past year). In the Best Short Story category, they have the following eligible stories: “We Don’t Talk About the Dragon,” “Drones to Plowshares,” and “Tiger Lawyer Gets It Right.” They are eligible for Best Related Work for their essay “Everything Is The Hunger Games Now,” and for Best Fan Writer for their newsletter, Here’s the Thing. A link to their awards post will be in the show notes.
R. K. Duncan, our May 2019 guest, has three stories eligible for Best Short Story: “Raff and the Scissor-Finger,” “Clever Jack, Heavy with Stories,” and “For Every Jack.” Additionally, their poem, “Witness,” is eligible for various poetry awards. A link to their awards post will be in the show notes.
Valerie Valdes, our July 2019 guest, is eligible for Best Novel for Prime Deceptions, the excellent sequel to last year’s Chilling Effect.
A.J. Hackwith, who was on the show in September of 2019, is in her second year of eligibility for the Outstanding Award for New Writers. The Archive of the Forgotten, the sequel to last year’s stellar debut, The Library of the Unwritten, is eligible for Best Novel.
Alex Rowland, who came on the show in October of 2019, is eligible for Best Novella for Finding Faeries, and Best Fancast for Be The Serpent, along with our October 2020 guest, Jennifer Mace.
Premee Mohamed, who joined us in November of 2019, is eligible for Best Novel for her debut, Beneath the Rising. The following are eligible for Best Short Story: “Everything As Part Of Its Infinite Place,” “The Redoubtables,” and “Restoration of function to Biochemical Structure 34 using iterative molecular construction techniques: teaching an old dome new tricks.” She is eligible for various nonfiction awards for her essay “An Empathy of Fear,” and her appearance on John Scalzi’s “Big Idea” feature on his blog, Whatever. A link to Premee’s awards post will be in the show notes.
Sharon Hsu, our December 2019 guest, is eligible for Best Short Story for “And All the Trees of the Forest Shall Clap Their Hands.”
Macey, AKA Jennifer Mace, who joined us in October of this year is eligible alongside their podcasting compatriots, Alex Rowland and Freya Marske, for Be the Serpent in the Best Fancast category. Macey’s stories, “Upon What Soil They Fed” and “In the Salt Crypts of Ghiarelle” are both eligible for Best Short Story. Silk & Steel: A Queer Speculative Adventure Anthology is eligible for the World Fantasy Award for Best Speculative Anthology, and “saltwashed,” is eligible for poetry awards.
John Wiswell, who joined us in November of 2020, is eligible for Best Short Story for “Open House on Haunted Hill.”
Finally, Fran Wilde, who will be joining us on the show in two weeks, has the Serial Box serial, Machina, eligible for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form, along with Malka Older and Curtis C. Chen.
Links for eligibility posts, as applicable, along with all the works mentioned on this episode will be available in the show notes.
Tales from the Trunk is mixed and produced in beautiful Oakland, California.
Our theme music is “Paper Wings,” by Ryan Boyd.
You can support the show on patreon at patreon dot com slash trunkcast. All patrons of the show now get a sticker and logo button, along with show outtakes and other content that can't be found anywhere else.
You can find the show on Twitter at trunkcast, and I tweet at hbbisenieks.
If you like the show, consider taking a moment to rate and review us on your preferred podcast platform.
And remember: don't self-reject.
[“Paper Wings” plays]
This time around, it's my pleasure to welcome Phoebe Barton (@aphoebebarton | phoebebartonsf.com) onto the show! Phoebe reads their story, "More Things Than Are Dreamt Of," which leads us into a great conversation about how the submissions game has changed since we got started and what Phoebe's just-released interactive fiction game, The Luminous Underground, taught her new things about writing linear fiction.
You can find links to purchase The Luminous Underground on the Choice of Games website.
Things we mentioned this episode:
SFWA
Cowboy Bebop
Bakka-Phoenix Books
Analog
Asimov's
“The Paragon of Animals,” by Phoebe Barton (Analog, March 2013)
F&SF
Weird Tales
Chocobos
John W. Campbell
Choice of Games
Ghostbusters
Choice of Games: pitching
Twine
NaNoWriMo
Clarion West
Worldcon
Join us again on January 15th, when our guest will be Fran Wilde!
For this month's bonus episode, I'm talking a bit about NaNoWriMo! The transcript for this episode follows:
--
Hello, and welcome to Tales from the Trunk: reading the stories that didn’t make it. I’m Hilary B. Bisenieks.
Twenty twenty might have been simultaneously the best and worst year to try to do NaNoWriMo. Best because we didn’t have our usual distractions thanks to the pandemic, so we could spend more time at home working on our writing. Worst because, well, everything. And despite or because of all that, many of us tried to write a novel this November.
As some of you may have seen on my main twitter account, I won NaNo this year. This was my first time winning—by which I mean writing over fifty thousand words during November—though it was my sixth November attempt. I wrote fifty thousand, four hundred and fifty one words of a brand new manuscript in November, which represents what I estimate to be about fifty five percent of the first draft of this book. So yes, I “won” NaNo in that I wrote all those words, but I didn’t finish the book in November.
That’s ok, though. I’m over halfway done with the first draft of a novel. I wrote more in the past month than I did in the previous few years combined. That’s a huge win for me. And like John Wiswell said on our November episode, if you manage to write any words in November, you’re doing better than most writers out there. So however much you wrote in November, good job! And if you didn’t write in November, guess what? You’re still doing great.
So as someone who finally won after five quote-unquote unsuccessful attempts, what did I learn? What were my secrets?
Mostly it came down to having support. Nobody actually writes (or creates any other art, for that matter) in a vacuum. In my case, I couldn’t have written as much as I did without the support of my spouse (who won NaNo on her first try!) or all my friends online, who encouraged me to sit down and write for half an hour with them at whatever time I was at my computer. Elizabeth, Macey, Noah, Caitlin, Rem, Val, Laura, and so many other folks were right there cheering me and everyone else along.
It turns out for me that doing sprints like that is the most-consistent way I can get words out. If I just sit down to write with the goal of just making wordcount for the day, often I’ll just stare at the blinking cursor. If I sit down and put on a timer for fifteen or thirty minutes and announce on twitter or slack or to my spouse that I’m going to write for a set amount of time, that creates enough pressure on me to get words out, and if I can just keep going after that timer goes off? Great! And if not, there will be another run after a short break.
The other thing, which I learned about myself a while ago, but which doing NaNo really reinforced for me, is that I need an outline for longer works, but that I shouldn’t be too precious with it. While for most of the month I had at least two thirds of the book outlined, I only really needed to have the next two chapters firm in my head, because anything beyond that was likely to change in some way or another anyway.
Finally, I learned that I can, in point of fact, win NaNoWriMo. I went in with the goal to write fifty thousand words, an average of sixteen hundred and sixty-seven words a day, and I did that. If I didn’t hit par one day, and I frequently didn’t, that was fine. And if I hadn’t won? That would have been fine, too. Any words I made in November would be a win. Any words you can make any month are a win.
NaNo doesn’t work for everyone, and that’s ok. You know the best way to make words for yourself, and anything anyone else tells you is at best a helpful suggestion.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go make some more words. This novel isn’t going to finish itself, however hard I might wish that it would.
Tales from the Trunk is mixed and produced in beautiful Oakland, California.
Our theme music is “Paper Wings,” by Ryan Boyd.
You can support the show on patreon at patreon dot com slash trunkcast. All patrons of the show now get a sticker and logo button, along with show outtakes and other content that can't be found anywhere else.
You can find the show on Twitter at trunkcast, and I tweet at hbbisenieks.
If you like the show, consider taking a moment to rate and review us on your preferred podcast platform.
And remember: don't self-reject.
This month, we're honored to be joined by John Wiswell (@Wiswell), who reads an excerpt of his story, "Tonight at the Palindrome." After that, we talk about our experiences navigating non-genre bachelors programs as genre writers and why it's so important to be open about our rejections as well as our sales.
Things that we mentioned this episode:
"Tank!" by John Wiswell
Ellen Datlow
Arkady Martine
A. T. Greenblatt
Uncanny Magazine
Shimmer
Julia Rios
Fireside Magazine
Worldcon 76
Bogi Takács
NaNoWriMo
Curtis C. Chen
Mary Robinette Kowal
Seanan McGuire
Warren Wilson College
Louis L'Amour
Stephen King
J. R. R. Tolkien
Ursula K. Le Guin
Richard Matheson
"The Lottery," by Shirley Jackson
Bennington College
The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold
William Faulkner
Tor
Peter Jackson
Campbellian monomyth
Astounding
Amazing Stories
TSR (the publisher, as opposed to "TRS," as in the Tandy TRS-80, which was mistakenly name-dropped in the episode)
Lois McMaster Bujold
Diana Wynne Jones
Cowboy Bebop
"Tank!" by Yoko Kanno and Seatbelts
Personal Canons: Dragon Ball by John Wiswell (free to read, despite what was said on the show, but do consider subscribing anyway)
Sarah Gailey's Here's the Thing
Orson Scott Card
"The Bottomless Martyr," by John Wiswell
The Bathroom Monologues
Please join us again next month, on December 18th, when our guest will be Phoebe Barton!
It's been a week, y'all, so here's some comforting content.
You can catch me on We Make Books on November 17th.
Join us again on November 20th, when my guest will be John Wiswell.
Darling listeners, we're joined this month by Jennifer Mace (@englishmace), one of the hosts of Be the Serpent, a podcast of Extremely Deep Literary Merit. Macey reads us a chapter out of the trunked novel that was to be her YA debut, and we talk about murder-boards, Nanowrimo, and some previews of upcoming Serpentcast episodes! Silk & Steel, a queer adventure anthology that Macey co-edited, will be released in November of 2020.
Also, if you can't get enough of me, I'm happy to announce that I will be on the next episode of Rank & Vile, talking about one of my favorite horror movies, 28 Days Later, which will be going up on their Patreon this Saturday, the 17th, and in the public feed the following week. Also, I will be appearing on Story Hour at 7PM Pacific on Wednesday, October 21st, along with Laura Pearlman.
Things we mention in this episode:
Hag of the Hills
PitMad
Tithe, by Holly Black
"A Cradle of Vines," by Jennifer Mace
"saltwashed," by Jennifer Mace
"A Step Out Into the Blue," by Hilary B. Bisenieks
"Thou Shalt Be Free As Mountain Winds," by Jennifer Mace
Managing Mayhem with Murderboards - We Make Books Podcast
Design documents
NaNoWriMo
Brandon Sanderson lecture series
Quick Sips Reviews
"Small Changes Over Long Periods of Time," by K. M. Szpara
Binge Mode
Haikyu!!
Join us again next month, when our guest will be John Wiswell!
Hello, and welcome to Spooky Season!
We've got a bit of a weird one for you this time around, but I think it came out well. I asked a number of friends of the show if they would contribute to a literary exquisite corpse and got some phenomenal submissions.
Thank you so much to John Wiswell, Aimee Kuzenski, Premee Mohamed, Kate Lechler, Laura Blackwell, Merc Fenn Wolfmoor, R. K. Duncan, Dave Ring, Hana Russell, Tyler Hayes, and Jordan Kurella, our literary doctors Frankenstein.
A transcript of this episode is available here.
This month, we're joined by Locus and Bram Stoker Award nominated author, and winner of this year's Ladies in Horror Award, Caitlin Starling (@see_starling @authorcstarling)! Caitlin's new novella, Yellow Jessamine, came out on September 5th from Neon Hemlock Press. We're treated to an excerpt of Caitlin's trunked novel, Untitled Faerie Story, which can be affectionately described as "idiots to lovers," before having a wonderful conversation about the whys and hows of writing horror and how online text-based roleplaying helped to shape Caitlin's writing.
Things mentioned in this episode:
The Luminous Dead, by Caitlin Starling
Valerie Valdes
Guild Wars 2
Martha Wells
Max Gladstone
Clockwork Boys, by T. Kingfisher
Raising Steam, by Terry Pratchett (GNU)
The California State Railroad Museum
Zootopia
Megan E. O'Keefe
Animal Crossing
The Death of Jane Lawrence, by Caitlin Starling
Rubber duck debugging
Harrow the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir
Silk and Steel
Join us again on October 16th, when our guest will be Jennifer Mace
We've got a Q&A for this month's bonus episode! Thank you to Miri, Jo, D. H. Dunn, R. K. Duncan, Nina, Diane, Valerie, Sarah, Dave, and Amanda for submitting questions on such short notice! I promise I'll give everyone more than a couple weeks advance warning before I do another of these!
Join us again on September 18th, when Caitlin Starling will be on the show!
We're joined this month by Karen Osborne, who reads us her trunked space lighthouse story "Slingshot Protocol." Afterwards, we talk about the fine art of listening to and then not acting on what your beta readers say and keeping your eyes on your own paper. Karen's debut novel, Architects of Memory, comes out on September 8th from Tor books.
Join us again on September 4th for another Shelter in Place special, where I'll be answering listener questions, and then on September 18th, when our guest will be author Caitlin Starling!
Here we are: another month of something like lockdown, another Shelter in Place special. This time around, I'm bringing you another story from my own trunk, all the way from January of 2010.
If you're a US citizen, please make sure that you're registered to vote in this year's general election, which will take place on Tuesday, November 3rd. You can find out how to register to vote in your state by visiting vote.gov.
Join us again in two weeks, on August 21st, when our guest will be Karen Osborne. You can preorder her debut, Architects of Memory, now (and you should)!
A transcript of this episode is available here.
We're joined on this episode by author and Nebula Award finalist, Merc Fenn Wolfmoor (@Merc_Wolfmoor). Merc reads their short horror story, "When Dreams Like Fire Spread," and we talk about horror, portal fantasies, queer representation, and fanfiction. Merc's newest story, "Bring the Bones That Sing," is now up on Diabolical Plots!
A transcript of the episode, provided by D. H. Dunn, is available here.
Things we mention on this episode:
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power
Robot Dinosaur Fiction
AJ Hackwith's appearance on Tales from the Trunk
LORE
The Magnus Archives
Writing Excuses
Welcome to Night Vale
X Minus One
"This is Not a Wardrobe Door," by Merc Fenn Wolfmoor
In Other Lands, by Sarah Rees Brennan
Fireside Quarterly
Pokémon Go
Dawn of the Dead
"Blink"
The Ring
They Live (alluded to)
Psycho
The Destroy anthology series
Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction!
John Wiswell
Elsa Sjunneson
Nightmare Magazine being edited by Wendy Wagner beginning in 2021
Be the Serpent
Archive Of Our Own
My Battery Is Low and It Is Getting Dark
The Dystopia Triptych
Silk & Steel
Sword and Sonnet
No Shit, There I Was
Avatars Inc
Architects of Memory, by Karen Osborne
Join us again on August 7th for whatever our next Shelter in Place special, and August 21st, when our guest will be Karen Osborne
Friends, somehow it is July of twenty twenty. We’re still sheltering in place, here in Beautiful Oakland, California, and that doesn’t look like it’s going to change anytime soon. I hope that wherever you are in the world, you and your friends and loved ones are safe and well.
For this month’s Shelter in Place episode, we’re diving back into my trunk, all the way back to the spring of 2010, a whole entire decade ago, to brush some of the dust off of another story that I wrote for an assignment. I don’t recall what, if anything, I was given as a prompt, but I turned it into another vaguely horror-y tunnel story, which should surprise approximately nobody.
Actually, this story predates “Green Line,” which I read on our April episode, by about a year.
Join us again on July 17th, when Merc Fenn Wolfmoor will be on the show!
On this episode, we're joined by Megan E. O'Keefe, author of Velocity Weapon and its forthcoming sequel, Chaos Vector. Megan reads the first chapter of her trunked novel, Conduit of Stone, which leads us into a lively conversation about our influences and Megan's thoughts on the parallels between writing and video game development.
A transcript of the episode, provided by D. H. Dunn, is available here.
Please join us again for our next Shelter in Place episode on July 3rd, and on July 17th, when our regular guest will be Merc Fenn Wolfmoor!
I thought for a long time about delaying this episode or simply not releasing it at all, but for all the darkness in the world, we still need art. We need voices of hope. It is Pride month, where we celebrate who we are and how far we’ve come, and where we honor and remember those who came before us.
Stonewall was a riot against police brutality, started by Marsha P. Johnson, a Black, trans woman. We would not have Pride without queer, Black activists.
This Pride in Place episode was inspired in part by the folx at Buddies in Bad Times Theater in Toronto, a space dedicated to the promotion of queer theatrical expression.
The contributors who wished to be named for this episode are:
K. B. Wagers, Twitter @kbwagers, Insta @midwaybrawler
Jill Seidenstein, Slow Bloom
You can find your local community bail funds at bit.ly/localbailfund
Consider raising up Black spec-fic writers by subscribing to FIYAH Literary Magazine (@fiyahlitmag)
Join us again on June 19th, when our guest will be Megan E. O'Keefe
For this month's episode, we're joined by Annalee Flower Horne (@LeeFlower). They read the first chapter of their trunked novel, Diamonds in the Sky, and we talk about Esperanto-speaking space-Quakers, source control management, representation, appropriation, mental health, and test-driven development.
A transcript of the episode, provided by D. H. Dunn, is available here.
Things we mention this episode:
Esperanto
"Seven Things Cadet Blanchard Learned from the Trade Summit Incident," by Annalee Flower Horne, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, July/Aug 2014 issue
Mary Robinette Kowal
Star Trek
Git
thefuck
The Dazzle of Day, by Molly Goss
Quaker process
Occupy Wall Street
Mass Effect 2
Civil Air Patrol
Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria
“Carborundorum > /dev/null,” by Annalee Flower Horne, Fireside Quarterly, July 2018
Test-driven development
"The Great Divide," Avatar: the Last Airbender season 1, episode 11
Nineteen Eighty-Four, by George Orwell
Mary Sue
Star Wars
LiveJournal
NaNoWriMo
Futurescapes
The MICE Quotient
"it me, ur smol," by Merc Fenn Wolfmoor
it me, ur smol (Twitter bot)
The Bias
Join us again on Friday, June 5th, for our Pride in Place special!
Joining me live in studio for this month's Shelter in Place special is my spouse, Elizabeth! We revisit the original concept for this show with some excerpts from her story "Horse Story," and talk race-consciousness, pin-gays, and representation.
Join us again on Friday, May 15th, Annalee Flower Horne will be on the show!
For close to the start of our second season, I decided to turn the table on myself, and Sharon Hsu (@pensyf) was kind enough to agree to come back on the show to guest-host! I read my story, "Green Line," and we talk about Philadelphia, our evolution as writers, and why podcasting is great.
Things we mention in this episode:
Uncanny Magazine Duotrope The Submission Grinder Fantasy & Science Fiction Shimmer "Badgers" Lois McMaster Bujold Wawa Rita's Italian Ice Flavor Brigade SEPTA 365 Tomorrows (and my story, "Monday")
LiveJournal Lockie Hunter Pseudopod Codex writer's forum
The Allusionist: "Podcast Podcast" Fran Wilde Warren Wilson College Annalee Flower Horne Be the Serpent Fred Yost Dorothy L. Sayers As My Wimsey Takes Me Archive of Our Own (AO3)
Esperanto
"And All the Trees of the Forest Shall Clap Their Hands," by Sharon Hsu
Join us on May 1st for our next Shelter in Place episode, featuring my spouse, and on May 15th, when our guest will be Annalee Flower Horne.
Welcome to our first shelter in place special episode. On this episode, I'll be reading my 2009 story, "Steel Yard." Please note that things get a little spoopy, so if you need something lighter at the moment, I won't fault you for skipping this one.
Join us again in two weeks, on Friday, April 17th, when I'll be back with a regular episode featuring me and special guest host Sharon Hsu!
Season two starts off with guest Jordan Kurella (@jskurella) reading an excerpt of their very dark and murdery story, "Awake, Arise, and Be Forever Fallen." Following that is a great discussion of problematic storytelling, the pitfalls, and how we can write and act with empathy when representing marginalized groups in our stories. We also talk sensitivity reading and the fine art of apologizing online.
Things mentioned in this episode:
Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones Ancillary Sword (Imperial Radch Book 2), by Ann Leckie
Area X: The Southern Reach Trilogy, by Jeff VanderMeer
Be the Serpent Annihilation (2018)
NaNoWriMo Madcap Retreats Clarkesworld Magazine Escape Pod Fantasy and Science Fiction Strange Horizons Beneath Ceaseless Skies Uncanny Magazine
"The Air Gap," by Hilary B. Bisenieks, in LampLight Magazine
Mary Robinette Kowal's explanation of the MICE Quotient
"A Promise of Dying Embers," by Jordan Kurella, forthcoming at Diabolical Plots
King's Quest III Glitter + Ashes
Join us again on April 17th, when our guest will be me, Hilary B. Bisenieks, and Sharon Hsu will be joining us as guest host.
On this episode, K. B. Wagers (@kbwagers/@midwaybrawler) joins us to read an excerpt from their novel, Reluctant Heroes and talk competence porn, how Twilight-bashing is shitty and counterproductive, social media, and tattoos.
This episode marks the end of season 1 of Tales from the Trunk! Thank you all so much for joining us on this ride!
Things we mentioned on this episode:
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
Battlestar Galactica SFWA Grand Master, Lois McMaster Bujold
Writing Excuses Schlock Mercenary, by Howard Tayler
Twilight, by Stephenie Meyers
The Merlin Mystery, by Jonathan Gunson and Marten Coombe
Behind the Throne, by K. B. Wagers
Doctor Who Red Dwarf Blake's 7 Space Opera, by Catherynne M. Valente
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword NaNoWriMo Out Past the Stars, by K. B. Wagers
The Magnificent Seven (2016)
Captain America: The Winter Soldier Rogue One Nineteen Eighty-Four, by George Orwell
We, by Yevgeny Zamyatin
The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
"The Hades Business," by Terry Pratchett (his first published story), which appears in A Blink of the Screen Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story A Pale Light in the Black, by K. B. Wagers
Join us again next month, on March 20th, when we'll kick off season 2 with guest Jordan Kurella!
With awards season firmly upon us, I thought it would be a good idea to put together an eligibility-post-as-audio, not just for the show, but also for all the amazing guests I've had on this past year.
What I mentioned this episode:
Magic for Liars, by Sarah Gailey
"Away with the Wolves," by Sarah Gailey
Here's The Thing, Sarah's newsletter
"The Neverending Story at 40: A Children's Book Grappling with the Legacy of War," by Sarah Gailey
"The Sweetest Fruit of Summer," by R. K. Duncan
R. K. Duncan's awards eligibility post Chilling Effect, by Valerie Valdes
The Imaginary Corpse, by Tyler Hayes
The Library of the Unwritten, by A. J. Hackwith
"Through Doorways: Portal Fantasies as a Means of Queer Escape and Queer Hope," by A. J. Hackwith
A Choir of Lies, by Alexandra Rowland
Be the Serpent: A Podcast of Extremely Deep Literary Merit Worldbuilding for Masochists
"Fanfiction: The Infinite Free Buffet," by Alexandra Rowland
"The Moving Stars," by Premee Mohamed
"Us and Ours," by Premee Mohamed, in A Secret Guide to Fighting Elder Gods
"paper, incense, need," by Sharon Hsu
The transcript for this show is available here.
On this episode, World Fantasy Award winner C. L. Polk (@clpolk) joins us to talk being an early-career writer, losing at NaNoWriMo, her early strategies for submitting stories, and why stories don't land. Cee reads to us from a trunked first draft, "Memory and a Monkey," which is a very fun sci-fi detective story. The sequel to Witchmark, Stormsong, comes out February 11th, 2020 from Tor.com books.
On this episode, we mentioned:
Witchmark, by C. L. Polk
The His Dark Materials series, by Philip Pullman
"Writing Begins With Forgiveness," by Daniel Jose Older
nanowrimo
SFWA qualifying market list Shimmer Magazine on spec magazine Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet Ideomancer
"Bullet in the Brain," by Tobias Wolff
Tor.com Uncanny Magazine FIYAH Literary Magazine Diggers (my dad actually got me Truckers), The Bromeliad Trilogy, by Terry Pratchett
Stormsong, by C. L. Polk
The Midnight Bargain, by C. L. Polk
Skies of Wonder, Skies of Danger
"The Air Gap," by Hilary B. Bisenieks, LampLight Magazine
Join us again next month, when I'm excited to announce that our guest will be novelist K. B. Wagers.
This month, friend and neighbor of the show, Sharon Hsu (@pensyf) joins us live in studio (dining room). Sharon reads her story, "Grown-Up Business," and we talk about academia, art, and how terrible capitalism is. Sharon's latest story, "paper, incense, need," is out now in issue 2.3 of Augur Magazine. You can get much more of Sharon, along with co-host Charis Ellison, on their podcast, As My Wimsey Takes Me.
Join us again on January 17th, 2020, when we'll be joined by World Fantasy Award-winning author C. L. Polk!
This month, we're joined by Premee Mohamed (@premeesaurus). Premee reads an excerpt of her story, "The Broken Astrolabe of Tychon Silvertongue," and we talk about Moby Dick jokes and the beneficial effects of shitposting on a writer's psyche. Premee's debut novel, Beneath the Rising, comes out March 3rd, 2020, from Solaris Books.
Things mentioned in this episode:
"More Tomorrow," by Premee Mohamed
Moby Dick, by Herman Melville
Beneath the Rising, by Premee Mohamed
NaNoWriMo
Brandon Sanderson doorstopper epic fantasies
River of Teeth, by Sarah Gailey
All Systems Red: The Murderbot Diaries, by Martha Wells
Railsea, by China Miéville
Neuromancer, by William Gibson
A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeline L'Engle
The 13 Clocks, by James Thurber
C. J. Cherryh
Month of Letters
No Shit, There I Was
Escape Pod podcast
Shimmer
Mary Robinette Kowal's Patreon
John Wiswel
Join us again on December 20th, when we'll have Sharon Hsu on the show!
This month, we're joined by podcaster and author Alexandra Rowland. Alex reads an excerpt from their trunked novel, Windfall, and we talk NaNoWriMo, community, and the issues with college creative writing programs.
This month's guest is another friend and debut novelist, A. J. Hackwith (@ajhackwith), whose debut, The Library of the Unwritten, comes out October 1st. Amanda and I talk anthologies, voice, and dinosaurs!
Things we mention in this episode:
The Library of the Unwritten, by A. J. Hackwith
"Tank!" by John Wiswell
Robot Dinosaurs! edited by Merc Rustad
"Lips of Red, Lips of Black," by A. J. Hackwith, in Skies of Wonder, Skies of Danger
Uncanny Magazine, Issue 23 (the dinosaur issue)
The Underwater Ballroom Society, edited by Tiffany Trent and Stephanie Burgis
Destroy anthologies
Uncanny Magazine, Issue 24, Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction
The Imaginary Corpse, by Tyler Hayes
Jasper Fforde
"Hell's Librarian," by A. J. Hackwith
The Library of the Unwritten, reviewed in The Library Journal (starred)
A Conspiracy of Whispers and A Treason of Truths, by Ada Harper
Excerpt of The Library of the Unwritten, Tor.com
Join us next month, on October 18th, when Alexandra Rowland will be on the show!
This month, I've got another friend of mine, Tyler Hayes (@the_real_tyler). Tyler and I share a table of contents in Skies of Wonder, but that's not the (only) reason that I wanted to have him on the show. Tyler reads an excerpt of his story, "Ferryland," which leads into a great conversation about how we grow as writers.
Tyler's debut, The Imaginary Corpse, comes out September 10th, 2019, in ebook and physical formats.
Things we mention in this episode:
Skies of Wonder, Skies of Danger
No Shit, There I Was
R. K. Duncan's episode of this show
Writing the Other
Angry Robot Books submissions (there is not currently an open submissions call)
QueryTracker
Writing Excuses podcast
Writer Beware
Jasper Fforde, specifically his Nursery Crimes books
Narrative Dare, Fforde's interview in Locus Magazine
George H. Scithers (Wikipedia)
Alexandra Rowland's "hopepunk" post
Be the Serpent (a Hugo finalist podcast of extremely, extremely deep literary merit)
Not Our Kind: Tales of (Not) Belonging
Join us next month, on September 20th, when A. J. Hackwith will be joining us!
This month, I'm talking with a debut novelist and friend, Valerie Valdes (@valerievaldes). Valerie reads the first chapter of a NaNoWriMo novel with a fun urban fantasy premise, "Handyman," and we talk about empathy, non-harming in writing, Twitter Discourse™️, and Cuban slang. Which means some bilingual strong language.
Valerie's debut, Chilling Effect, comes out September 17, 2019, in paperback, audio, and ebook formats, and is worth your preorder dollars.
Things we mention in this episode:
NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month)
"Red Light Properties," by Dan Goldman
The Dresden Files (series), by Jim Butcher
Carl Hiaasen
Dave Barry
Alex Segura
Kat Howard's editing services
CSI: Miami (TV series)
Burn Notice (TV series)
Clockwork Boys, by T. Kingfisher (Ursula Vernon)
Tobias S. Buckell
Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Robin McKinley
Patricia McKillip
Anne McCaffrey
Mercedes Lackey
Lois McMaster Bujold
Ursula K. Le Guin
Diana Wynne Jones
Chilling Effect, by Valerie Valdes
Katamari Damacy (video game)
Julie Dillon's art
NATO Phonetic Alphabet
Join us next month, on August 16th, when we'll have Tyler Hayes on the show!
On this month's episode, I'm excited to finally be talking voice-to-voice with longtime inter-friend and fantastic writer, Kate Lechler (@KateLechler). Kate reads her story, "4PM at the Three-Eyed Dog," a super-fun noir mood-piece, and we talk about how we take care of our mental health when one of our greatest sources of online community, Twitter, is also a terrible cesspit of human misery.
Things mentioned in this episode:
Mary Robinette Kowal and Cat Rambo's online writing classes
"Throw Yourself Like Seed" – Miguel de Unamuno
Kate's editing service, Cephalopod Editing
Join us here next month, when we'll have Valerie Valdez!
For this episode, our shortest episode to date, I have the great pleasure of having on one of my oldest friends, Robin (R. K.) Duncan (@rkduncanauthor). He reads an excerpt of his story, "The Night School," which is a very atmospheric piece out of his back catalog, and we talk about discovering our personal processes and doing real, honest-to-god postal subs as baby-writers.
The Fisher of Bones, by Sarah Gailey
Fireside Quarterly
"STET", by Sarah Gailey
A Punk Rock Future (Amazon preorder)
"Farewell Concert at the World's End" (audio), by R. K. Duncan
"The Best Busker in the World" (audio/text), by R. K. Duncan
"How I Became Coruscating Queen of All the Realms, Pierced the Obsidian Night, Destroyed a Legendary Sword, and Saved My Heart’s True Love" (audio/text), by Baker & Dovey (reprinted from No Shit, There I Was)
Join us again on June 21st, with guest Kate Lechler!
This episode completes our Sarah-fiction double-feature with guest Sarah Hollowell (@sarahhollowell). Sarah reads her story, "Several Emails Regarding a Ceiling Fan and a New Kitten," and we talk about some of the differences between genre-focused writing workshops and creative writing programs at colleges. Also: rejection. It's a thing that's going to happen to you as a writer.
On this episode, we make a passing reference to pay rates without actually explaining what they are. Accoring to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, SFWA (SIFF-wa), pro rates for short fiction, as of this episode's airing, are $0.06/word or above (although these rates are being raised later in 2019). Anything below that rate but above $0.01/word is considered semi-pro, and anything below that is considered token pay.
Things mentioned in this episode:
Duotrope (paid) and The Submissions Grinder (free)
RIP to Shimmer Magazine
"Crow's Eye," by Sarah Hollowell
Alpha, the Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Workshop for Young Writers
Annihilation, by Jeff VanderMeer
The art of Galen Dara
"Every Fat Person, Healthy or Not, Deserves Respect," by Sarah Hollowell for The Huffington Post
Texts from A on Frolic (as of this airing, this series is now appearing weekly)
"Hello, Wild Things, and Good Luck," by Sarah Hollowell
Michael with a B
Join us again on May 17th, with guest R. K. Duncan!
In this, the very first full episode, my guest is the one and only Sarah Gailey (@gaileyfrey), Hugo, Campbell, and Nebula-nominated author and winner of the 2018 Hugo award for Best Fan Writer. They read one of the very first stories they wrote, “Meet Cute,” and we talk about treating people well and reading widely.
A transcript of the episode, provided by D. H. Dunn, is available here.
Works mentioned in this episode:
“Monday,” by Hilary B. Bisenieks (my first published story)
“STET,” by Sarah Gailey
River of Teeth, by Sarah Gailey
The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick, by Mallory O’Meara
Magic for Liars, by Sarah Gailey
Tune in for the next episode on April 19th, when it’ll be a Sarah-fiction double-feature, with Sarah Hollowell!
Hello, and welcome to Tales from the Trunk!
Regular episodes will be releasing monthly on the 3rd Friday of the month, beginning 2019-03-15 with a Hugo-winning guest you will not want to miss, so I hope that you tune in then, and thank you for coming along on this journey with me.
Transcript