Tales From The Trunk

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!   Thi

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 K

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 Roo

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,

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 recentl

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 Empire series, 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 Writin

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 t

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

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 Thief series, by Megan Whalen Turner Severance Shirley Jackson Caitlin’

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 time around, it’s my pleasure to welcome Sarah Hollowell back to the show! Sarah reads us an excerpt of her new book, What Stalks Among Us, which releases September 12th, and then we fall down a hole of absolute gremlinry.   Things we mention this episode:   Sarah’s first episode A Dark and Starless Forest, by Sarah Hollowell Fast and Furious series AEW All In Adam Cole and MJF Triple-H Roman Reigns RPF (Real Person Fic) “The Unreality of Pro Wrestling” The Shield (wrestling) Dean Ambrose/John Moxley Luchasaurus Mantaur Darkness Falls Just Like Home, by Sarah Gailey The Conjuring series The Calculating Stars, by Mary Robinette Kowal P-38 Lightning Apex The Poppy War trilogy, Babel, and Yellowface, by R.F. Kuang The Priory of the Orange Tree and A Day of Fallen Night, by Samantha Shannon His Majesty’s Dragon, Spinning Silver, and Uprooted, by Naomi Novik Terry Pratchett Regular Show, “California King” and “Eggscellent” Labyrinth The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Breath of the Wild Oxenfree and

This time around, I’m delighted to introduce you to Jessica Mary Best! Jess and I do something a little different and perform for your listening pleasure part of the pilot episode of her trunked audio drama, Third Wheel! That reading leads us into a great conversation about the different approaches between written prose and writing for audio.   Things we mention this episode:   Stars, Hide Your Fires, by Jessica Mary Best Chuck Tingle’s episode Oliver! Chekhov’s Gun Brandon, Iowa All Our Yesterdays, by Hilary B. Bisenieks Sufjan Stevens Fall Out Boy Panic! At the Disco Illinois, by Sufjan Stevens “They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back From the Dead!! Ahhhh!” by Sufjan Stevens “I Write Sins Not Tragedies,” by Panic! At The Disco “Lying Is The Most Fun A Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off,” by Panic! At The Disco “Of All The Gin Joints In All The World,” by Fall Out Boy “Stars, hide your fires” Tor dot com writeup The Strange Case of Starship Iris Tom Swifties Munch Squad F

This time around, it’s my delight to welcome back to the show Aimee Ogden (@Aimee_Ogden)! Aimee reads a delightful excerpt of her brand new book, Emergent Properties, available now wherever you buy books, which leads us into some great conversation about the things that made this book, whether or not those things ended up in the final draft.     Things we mention this episode:   “The Cold Calculations,” by Aimee Ogden The Murderbot Diaries, by Martha Wells Beowulf, translated by Seamus Heaney Aimee’s Clarkesworld interview Wallace and Gromit Marie Kondo “A Half-Remembered World,” by Aimee Ogden Translunar Traveler’s Lounge Dropout CollegeHumor Sam Reich Game Changer Entertainment Community Fund Jeopardy! Wheel of Fortune Dungeons and Drag Queens Escape from the Bloodkeep Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien Matt Mercer Erika Ishii Robert Reich Breaking News (Dropout) Brennan Lee Mulligan Name That Bird Aimee’s website Spiders Georg   Stick around next time when my guest will be Jessica Mary Best

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

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