So I'm Writing a Novel...

Ep20 Interview with Milton Davis

In this interview we're speaking with author and publisher, Milton Davis. Oliver and Milton have plenty of laughs talking about what it's like being both a writer and a publisher, knowing Charles Saunders and what's going on with the Imaro TV adaptation, when the history nerds come for you, origin stories, designing and playtesting an RPG, and so much more!
 
www.miltonjdavis.com (Facebook and Twitter)A Sword and Soul Primer, blog post by Milton.MVmedia, Milton's publishing company.Sword and Soul Adventures FB Group, run by Milton.Nyumbani Tales (Short stories by Charles Saunders).Milton's Sword & Soul Worldbuilding video.A Look at Milton Davis' Changa's SafariKi Khanga Sword and Soul Role Playing Game: Basic RulesKi Khanga FB GroupGriots: Sisters of the Spear
www.soimwritinganovel.comPATREON: www.patreon.com/soimwritinganovelBUY OLIVER'S BOOKS: https://www.oliverbrackenbury.com/storeSO I'M WRITING A NOVEL... TWITTER: https://twitter.com/so_writingOLIVER'S TWITTER: https://twitter.com/obrackenburyOliver's Link Tree (For everything else): https://linktr.ee/obrackenbury

Ep21 Interview with Matt John of Rogues in the House

Oliver speaks with a host from the popular sword & sorcery podcast Rogues in the House, Matt John, about the genre, gatekeeping vs helping the S&S scene thrive, the trials of buying books online when you're Canadian, working sword & sorcery and role-playing games into the classroom, Army of Darkness hot takes, He-Man, "Good Rudes", letting go of the things you don't want to write and just writing the things your inner child wants to write, good and bad nostalgia, and "more"!Rogues in the House Podcast / Facebook / TwitterMatt's author page on AmazonMatt's essay on Robert E. Howard, Sword & Sorcery, and GrimdarkThe actual Robert E Howard story, Rogues in the HouseSome other things we mentioned:Brian Murphy's Flame and Crimson: A History of Sword-and-SorceryRude Tales of Magic "The only RPG actual play Oliver listens to"The Whetstone Discord server, a great place to chat about sword & sorcery!Imaro by Charles SaundersUnknown Worlds of the Merril Collection (Oliver's other podcast)CromcastConan Gaming GroupSword & Sorcery: "An earthier sort of fantasy" Goodreads groupTales From The Magician’s Skull submission guidelineswww.soimwritinganovel.comPATREON: www.patreon.com/soimwritinganovelBUY OLIVER'S BOOKS: https://www.oliverbrackenbury.com/storeSO I'M WRITING A NOVEL... TWITTER: https://twitter.com/so_writingOLIVER'S TWITTER: https://twitter.com/obrackenburyOliver's Link Tree (For everything else): https://linktr.ee/obrackenbury

Ep22 Interview with Ngo Vinh-Hoi of the Appendix N Book Club

Oliver and Hoi discuss fantasy book cover art, the origin story of the Appendix N Book Club, the conservative faction of S&S fandom, finding S&S outside the usual Anglo sphere, podcast show notes (do people read them??? ARE YOU READING THIS???), figuring out how to keep the momentum going with longform creative projects, what makes a good podcast guest, thinking critically about genre fiction or "low art", the Thor belly body shaming fiasco, form and substance in genre writing (and emulation), representation in writing S&S, iconic vs dramatic heroes, fantasizing about being an author when it was possible to make a living writing short stories, destroying your influences, writing to pay the rent, the vanished publishing midlist, creative writing MFAs, Game of Thrones having come out George R.R. Martin's rpg sessions, and soooo much more!The Appendix N Book Club / Twitter / PatreonGary Gygax's original Appendix N Reading ListHoi's Adventures in Fiction Articles on Goodman-Games.com: Andrew J. Offutt, John Bellairs, Lin Carter, Stanley G. Weinbaum, and Jack Williamson. Hoi on TwitterAfter the interview, Hoi remembered he'd actually written two books back in the 90's! Those were The Martial Arts Almanac (Goodreads) & Martial Arts Masters: The Greatest Teacher, Fighters, and Performers (Goodreads).The episode of The Appendix N Book Club where Oliver was the guest!Some other stuff that comes up in the interview:Ken and Robin Talk About StuffSwords of the Four Winds: Tales of Swords and Sorcery in an Ancient East That Never Wasby Dariel QuiogueHarold Lamb52 short stories in 52 weeksAppendix N Book Club episode covering Micheal Shea's Nifft the LeanBrain Murphy's Flame and Crimson: A History of Sword-and-SorceryPulp by Ed Brubaker and Sean PhillipsWhetstone Magazine and the new cosmic horror magazine by the same guy, Witch HouseImaro by Charles Saunderswww.soimwritinganovel.comPATREON: www.patreon.com/soimwritinganovelBUY OLIVER'S BOOKS: https://www.oliverbrackenbury.com/storeSO I'M WRITING A NOVEL... TWITTER: https://twitter.com/so_writingOLIVER'S TWITTER: https://twitter.com/obrackenburyOliver's Link Tree (For everything else): https://linktr.ee/obrackenbury

Ep23 Interview with Julian Bernick

Julian Bernick has written across a wide variety of mediums, so Oliver discusses with him getting burnt out on novels, the Appendix N Reading List, writing for role-playing games, Jack Vance's Dying Earth series, writing lyrics as the lead singer of several bands, and more - but the focus of this interview is poetry, gothic horror, and how Julian combined the two in his most excellent book Castle Bash: A Record of the Most Unfortunate Doings at Castle Bash - As Told by an Unnamed Poet who was Never Seen Again!A narrative poem in the Romantic tradition, Castle Bash is Byronic in character, Gothic in atmosphere, Romantic in outlook and Lovecraftian in scope. When a bastard poet is given safe haven and patronage at the tenebrous Castle Bash, mystery, passion, and the forces of hell converge upon its benighted inhabitants.Spellburn Podcast / iTunes / TwitterWhistling Shade Magazine, where Julian serves as an editor of poetry.Julian's RPGeek pageSome of Julian's earliest storytelling can be found in this Dungeons of Yesteryear feature.If you'd like to hear Julian talk more about his game design career...and Here's three contemporary poets Julian recommends:Chelsea MinnisFreddie SeidelMichael Robbinswww.soimwritinganovel.comPATREON: www.patreon.com/soimwritinganovelBUY OLIVER'S BOOKS: https://www.oliverbrackenbury.com/storeSO I'M WRITING A NOVEL... TWITTER: https://twitter.com/so_writingOLIVER'S TWITTER: https://twitter.com/obrackenburyOliver's Link Tree (For everything else): https://linktr.ee/obrackenbury

Ep24 Interview with Michael Curtis

Michael Curtis, while Leiber's Fafhrd & Grey Mouser stories have been a great source of inspiration for Oliver's novel-in-progress, you better believe he was excited to talk with Michael about: Why people should read the Fafhrd & Grey Mouser stories, how these characters so defined by their friendship were born of a real life bromance, what defines Leiber's writing style, what makes F&GM's home - Lankhmar - the ultimate fantasy adventure city, how Michael made writing RPGs his career, what it was like poring over Leiber's original papers at an archive in Houston, and more!Michael Curtis on PatreonDungeon Crawl Classics RPG products by Michael CurtisMichael also writes articles for Goodman Games, such as this one on Lord DunsanyThe Society of Torch, Pole, and Rope - Michael's game design blog may be dormant but it still contains many fascinating things to pore over.Michael Curtis Visits Leiber’s Legendary Lankhmar Library in HoustonLankhmar 101 - A video panel discussion about DCC: Lankhmar, led by Michael Curtis.www.soimwritinganovel.comPATREON: www.patreon.com/soimwritinganovelBUY OLIVER'S BOOKS: https://www.oliverbrackenbury.com/storeSO I'M WRITING A NOVEL... TWITTER: https://twitter.com/so_writingOLIVER'S TWITTER: https://twitter.com/obrackenburyOliver's Link Tree (For everything else): https://linktr.ee/obrackenbury

Ep25 – Act Two, Part One

A lil' recap of the podcast & novel is followed by Oliver sharing how he figured out the most top-tier planning of his novel's middle, particularly its first half, and how it would fit into the novel as a whole!This includes discussion of "how much inspiration do you want to take from another author's works?", how to keep your thoughts organized when you finally get to a part of writing a story that you've been looking forward to for ages, gauging how ambitious you might want to be with breaking The Rules, who Oliver sees as the most influential sword & sorcery heroes after good old Conan, the difficulty in choosing perspective for this part of the novel or even nailing down Fritz Leiber's approach to perspective, being both your instructor and your student, and more.That publicly available, image-heavy Patreon post OIiver mentions, that's all about the notebook he outlines the novel in.The first episode of So I'm Writing a NovelEpisode #7: where Oliver reads you the short story that grew into this novel & podcast.The Cultural Iceberg model.
www.soimwritinganovel.comPATREON: www.patreon.com/soimwritinganovelBUY OLIVER'S BOOKS: https://www.oliverbrackenbury.com/storeSO I'M WRITING A NOVEL... TWITTER: https://twitter.com/so_writingOLIVER'S TWITTER: https://twitter.com/obrackenburyOliver's Link Tree (For everything else): https://linktr.ee/obrackenbury

Ep26 Creating a Co-Protagonist

Oliver takes you with him through the process by which he designed a new best friend for his novel's protagonist, a co-protagonist for the next four stories he has to outline, when Voe and this new best buddy will have swashbuckling, thieving adventures loosely inspired by the Fafhrd & Grey Mouser stories of Fritz Leiber!The writing book Oliver mentions in this episode, and has mentioned before, is Creating Unforgettable Characters by Linda Seger.www.soimwritinganovel.comPATREON: www.patreon.com/soimwritinganovelBUY OLIVER'S BOOKS: https://www.oliverbrackenbury.com/storeSO I'M WRITING A NOVEL... TWITTER: https://twitter.com/so_writingOLIVER'S TWITTER: https://twitter.com/obrackenburyOliver's Link Tree (For everything else): https://linktr.ee/obrackenbury

Ep27 (World)Building a Fantasy City

Will Oliver succeed in finally naming his dang fantasy city by the end of the episode??? Oliver takes you through the process that got him to where he felt he knew enough about the fictional city where he'd be setting no less than four of his novel's stories in. He covers repurposing research from an older project, choosing when and how to shape setting with theme, when he decided a novel wasn't the story for him to write, figuring out what you need to figure out about a setting/city, feral cities, hyperdense research texts, an interesting lesson he took from his role-playing game hobby that applies here, leaving room for later inspiration, another pertinent Ursula K Le Guin quote, Karl Edward Wagner's Bloodstone, and more!That book I mention a lot: Imaginary Cities: A Tour of Dream Cities, Nightmare Cities, and Everywhere in Between by Darren Andersonwww.soimwritinganovel.comPATREON: www.patreon.com/soimwritinganovelBUY OLIVER'S BOOKS: https://www.oliverbrackenbury.com/storeSO I'M WRITING A NOVEL... TWITTER: https://twitter.com/so_writingOLIVER'S TWITTER: https://twitter.com/obrackenburyOliver's Link Tree (For everything else): https://linktr.ee/obrackenbury

Ep28 Kinship in Kholtum

In this episode Oliver tells you all about how he outlined the origin story for his protagonist's new friendship, a friendship that would be at the heart of a whole quarter of the novel's stories. This involves discussion of consulting others when you're feeling lost trying to make a vital decision, puppetry (and avoiding obvious metaphors), elements by which two friends might bond, differing attitudes toward killing for your protagonists, what if DUNE's Bene Gesserit wanted to sell weed, the ol' "They meet in a tavern..." routine, Beer Street and Gin Lane, Bound 2 (?), using index cards to help keep everything you need in front of you, hitting a major progress point in the novel, and more!Plus there's a LISTENER QUESTION, gosh we like those, to do with how far up the line of human history you can set a story (or base the secondary world setting of a story on) and still have it feel like sword & sorcery.Mentioned in Oliver's answer is Howard Andrew Jones' breakdown of how he defines sword & sorcery as a genre.www.soimwritinganovel.comPATREON: www.patreon.com/soimwritinganovelBUY OLIVER'S BOOKS: https://www.oliverbrackenbury.com/storeSO I'M WRITING A NOVEL... TWITTER: https://twitter.com/so_writingOLIVER'S TWITTER: https://twitter.com/obrackenburyOliver's Link Tree (For everything else): https://linktr.ee/obrackenbury

Ep 29 Sacred Thievery

In three acts, Oliver shares the outlining of this second story in the sword & sorcery novel's second quarter, an escalating farce built around the theft of a saintly relic from one church within the same religion as the other, who has hired Voe & Tiravam to perpetrate said theft. Ah, if only it were so straightforward as all that...Oliver covers the joys of finding the piece of research which unlocks your story for you, interesting historical details of medieval relic theft, judging when the tone of an idea you love doesn't just doesn't fit with your work as a whole, balancing inspiration against directly imitating a story you love, courtroom drama, juggling lies & secrets, knowing when you've figured out enough for now, "horny is great for funny", and more!There's also a listener question, asking Oliver for advice in researching markets for SciFi short stories. In his answer, Oliver mentions The Submission Grinder and Authors Publish. Finally there's some end of 2021 news, thanks, and announcements!The show's Twitch channel, worth subscribing to as we have plans for it in 2022!Want to support the show? Here's a page with useful ideas and links.www.soimwritinganovel.comPATREON: www.patreon.com/soimwritinganovelBUY OLIVER'S BOOKS: https://www.oliverbrackenbury.com/storeSO I'M WRITING A NOVEL... TWITTER: https://twitter.com/so_writingOLIVER'S TWITTER: https://twitter.com/obrackenburyOliver's Link Tree (For everything else): https://linktr.ee/obrackenbury