Tales from the Trunk
Reading the stories that didn't make it
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Episodes
Friday May 05, 2023
Friday May 05, 2023
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
Friday Apr 21, 2023
Friday Apr 21, 2023
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
Friday Apr 07, 2023
Friday Apr 07, 2023
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!
Friday Mar 17, 2023
Friday Mar 17, 2023
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!
Friday Mar 03, 2023
Friday Mar 03, 2023
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!
Friday Feb 17, 2023
Friday Feb 17, 2023
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!
Friday Feb 03, 2023
Friday Feb 03, 2023
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!
Friday Jan 20, 2023
Friday Jan 20, 2023
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!
Friday Jan 13, 2023
Friday Jan 13, 2023
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 for A 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.
Friday Jan 06, 2023
Friday Jan 06, 2023
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