Tales From The Trunk

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 Blackto

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

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 Se

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 “

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 B

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

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

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 Pratche

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.

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 Gai

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

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

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

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!