Tales from the Trunk

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 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
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