Tales from the Trunk

It’s my distinct pleasure, this time around, to welcome Emma Mieko Candon (@EmmaCandon) to the show to talk about their incredible new book, The Archive Undying, out June 27th, 2023, from Tor Dot Com! After a reading from the book’s opening, we descent almost immediately into gremlin mode about the inspirations for the book (our favorite podcast (you know the one)), Star Wars, and the intersection of cultures.
 
Things we mention this episode:
 
Friends at the Table
Mike’s episode
Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie
Pacific Rim
NieR:Automata
Carl Engle-Laird
Just Like Home, by Sarah Gailey
The Genesis of Misery, by Neon Yang
Lindsey Hall
The Tensorate Series, by Neon Yang
Docile, by K.M. Szpara
The Kingston Cycle and Even Though I Knew the End, by C.L. Polk
The Locked Tomb series, by Tamsyn Muir
Margate Lock (Palisade character) (spoilers for Palisode 03)
Star Wars
COUNTER/Weight
Castlevania
Hellboy
Cowboy Bebop
Gundam Newtype
Studio Ghibli
Partizan
Waypoint
A More Civilized Age
Lancer
Bluff City
Marielda
Sangfielle
Donna Haraway cyborg
Jack’s music
COUNTER/Weight and Partizan soundtracks
“The Long Way Around,” by Jack de Quidt
“TANAGER. PERFECT. TOUCHPAPER.,” by Jack de Quidt
Trigun Stampede
Bigolas Dickolas
Gundam: The Witch from Mercury
Utena
Trigun (1998)
Trigun (manga)
Amal El-Mohtar new Tor deal
“Seasons of Glass and Iron,” by Amal El-Mohtar
Three Parts Dead, by Max Gladstone
This Is How You Lose the Time War, by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
Ronin, by Emma Mieko Candon
Star Wars: Visions
Star Wars: The High Republic
Andor
The Mandalorian
The Poppy War, by R.F. Kuang
Wookieepedia
Emma’s insta and tumblr
Seasons of Hieron

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!