So I'm Writing a Novel...

Ep40 Founding a Literary Magazine with Nat Webb

Returning champion Nat Webb joins us to discuss his recent founding of a literary magazine, Wyngraf!Their discussion covers alternate titles for the magazine, defining cozy fantasy & backpack fantasy, conflict in stories and other things that can drive story, writing delicious food scenes, the cozy fantasy scene on Reddit and elsewhere, getting into short stories, his first submission and rejection and what he learned from it all, self-publishing a novel, discovering a love for the technical side of publishing, taking submissions in for the first time, putting one of your own stories in your own magazine, being transparent about the numbers behind your business, paying forward all the writing advice you've been given, working with an artist on a cover commission, choosing to pay authors and how much, deciding how often to release new issues, the importance of actually finishing a project, knowing when to stop with a project, Legends and Lattes and other reading recs, refreshing sincerity vs ironic distance, "coffee shop AU" explained, "numbies" explained, how sometimes the thing you bang out quickly resonates with people far more than the thing you slaved over forever, ins and outs of the Kindle Select program, the merits of publishing flash fiction, and more!www.wyngraf.comWyngraf on TwitterThe cover artist for issue #1 of Wyngraf is Sâmara Lígia (her other Instagram).The swashbuckling magazine Nat announced like five days after we recorded is called Rakehell.Nat's Author SiteNat's previous appearance on the show, where Oliver consulted him on a work-in-progress.Some magazines Nat mentions that he likes: Tales from the Magician's Skull, Whetstone Magazine, and Tales and Feathers.That Harry Otto Fischer origin story for Grey Mouser can be found here on page 28.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

Ep41 Sword & Sorcery & Feminism, with Nicole Emmelhainz

Oliver and Nicole Emmelhainz discuss her essay on feminism and sword & sorcery, "A Sword-Edge Beauty as Keen as Blades: The Gender Dynamics of Sword-and-Sorcery"!This covers things like Weird Tales Magazine, Robert E. Howard and Conan, Jirel as "Alice in Wonderland with a big sword", Howard and Lovecraft's correspondence with each other as well as fellow Weird Tales writers like Moore, S&S writing as "an opportunity to expose gender as fundamentally performative in nature", growth and change in Conan, the flexibility of sword and sorcery, what Nicole sees as the necessary qualities for an S&S story to be feminist, defying gender roles, the body as a vessel for victory, S&S as a very body-centric genre, good old barbarism vs civilization, queer possibilities in S&S, an intriguing ambiguity in the ending of Black God's Kiss, what might be a "trans utopic space" in sword and sorcery?, the potential for expanding the space of sword & sorcery along lines of gender & sexuality, cozy fantasy, and more!Nicole's EssayGollancz collection of all six Jirel of Joiry StoriesRead Black God's Kiss for free hereDehumanizing Violence and Compassion in Robert E. Howard’s “Red Nails”, an essay Nicole mentions, written by her husband Jason Ray CarneyThe Whetstone Tavern DiscordThe Dark Man Journal of Robert E. Howard and Pulp StudiesThat cool trans-centric "zombie" apocalypse novel Oliver mentions, ManhuntThe episode of The Appendix N Book Club focused on Jirel of Joiry, featuring friend of the show Cora Buhlert. Good if you want to hear different angles on the story Black God's Kiss, hear more about the other Jirel tales, and consider the TTRPG possibilities in those stories.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

Ep42 Writing Anxiety with Mike Harrington

Oliver discusses with Mike the ways anxiety has affected them when trying to write, and how Mike overcame a thirty year block to end up making his first ever short story submission!Subjects they cover include playing Dungeons & Dragons leading to creative writing, the potential long-term impact of complimenting your child's creativity, the validation brought by writing, a state of flow found when writing and the peace found within it, the merits of escapism, the editor in the back of your head, nurturing empathy through writing and reading, when writing anxiety first truly manifested for Mike, conflating an author's writing in a character's voice with the author's own self, how writing anxiety can manifest and be triggered, the whole "always have a notebook handy" thing, outlining, the fallacy of seeking the One Right Method, "well, that isn't realistic...", feeling "behind" other writers or on your reading, comparing ourselves to what others show of themselves, the myth of the "self-made man", the compulsion to tell stories, how Mike got over thirty years of writer's block, the importance of finding a good writing community, learning to accept where you are, the advice Mike would give the Mike of a year ago (when he was still stuck), writing as a process of discovery and self-discovery, what kind of writing makes Oliver anxious, "REAL writers write every day...", the story Mike wrote for his first ever submission, the importance of reading broadly, and more!Several Short Sentences About Writing by Verlyn KlinkenborgVettius and His Friends by David DrakeSince recording, Mike has dared to make an author Twitter account for himself!The Whetstone Tavern DiscordBlack GateThe Silver Key (Brian Murphy's blog!)Howard Andrew Jones' author pageImaginary Cities: A Tour of Dream Cities, Nightmare Cities, and Everywhere in Between by Darran 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

Ep43 So I’ve Been Doing this Podcast for a Year...

It's the one year anniversary show! What have I learned? How have I benefited? What's coming up next?Feat. Behind the scenes stuff on my launching this podcast/novel project, and how it's been this past year, including details on the technical stuff, promotion, the Patreon, a listener question about liking your antagonist more than your protagonist, and more.Wanna support the show? There's Patreon, Ko-Fi, Paypal, and even an Amazon wishlist of research materials. There's also sharing the show online and writing a review on Apple Podcasts. Everything helps, and everything's appreciated.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

Ep44 Interview with David C. Smith (Part One)

David C. Smith is an author whose career began in the 1970’s during the second wave of sword & sorcery, he still writes to this very day, and Oliver felt very lucky to get the chance to have this epic, first-ever two-part interview with him!In this first part we cover David's original aspirations to work in film, the incredible role having the right English teacher can play in your life, discovering Conan, the real life model for Norman Bates, how Lord of the Rings helped David see Robert E Howard more clearly, the grounded nature of sword & sorcery and how it contrasts to make the weird elements shine brighter, too many elephants in too many towers, "when everything is special than nothing is", the 70's fanzine community and the role it played in David's career, zine letter's pages as the "online" forums of the pre-internet era, David's first time selling one of his stories, getting his first rejection out of the way, the value of feedback with rejections and getting roasted in the letters column, selling his first novel - Oron, using zines to promote sword and sorcery today, how David distinguishes S&S from Heroic Fantasy, trying to attract fans of the romance genre to S&S, how only having serious musclemen protagonists and stories limits things, when there was a midlist in publishing, the second wave of sword and sorcery, how the Esoteric Order of Dagon played a key role in David's career, potentially finding direct influences on Lovecraft's invention of weird cultist language, David's line between fan fiction and true pastiche, the Greek style heroic arc, the truth behind a rumor Oliver heard about David being called in to finish a Karl Edward Wagner novel, Black Vulmea, and more!David's Author SiteDavid on Goodreadswww.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

Ep45 Interview with David C. Smith (Part Two)

David C. Smith remains a lovely and talented author with whom Oliver spoke for so long we decided to split the interview into two parts. Here's that second part!In this half we discuss the 80's sword & sorcery publishing implosion, the importance of adapting to changing tastes and not just telling the same limited range of stories ad infinitum, how expanding something - like a genre's possibilities - means more and doesn't take away what's already there that people like, the fallacy of thinking you can write a story with no theme or message or opinions or "politics" in it, David's latest novel (Sometime Lofty Towers), avoiding the white savior pitfall and otherwise best practices when writing fictional indigenous peoples, the history of The Other in western civilization, cultural appropriation, writing outside "the usual sword & sorcery template", silent film and westerns, Unforgiven, earning the trust of the reader so they'll follow you through dark passages (of writing), philosophy in sword & sorcery starting right at the beginning with Robert E Howard, asking yourself if there's enough meat on a character's bones, how David's writing style has evolved since he wrote the first Oron book, David's influences, the exercise of typing up stories by a beloved author, David's plans to republish his Oron novels, the importance of reading widely, learning by teaching, diagramming sentences, what has kept David writing all these years, David's opinion on where to start if you want to begin exploring his work, and more!David's Author SiteDavid on GoodreadsThe Gonji series David mentionsDavid's silent era film mystery novel "Bright Star"Tales of Attluma and Sometime Lofty TowersDark Muse
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

Ep46 Fresh Blood and New Thunder! Bringing New Readers to Sword & Sorcery, with Sof Magliano

Oliver experimented with sending six S&S tales to a younger, contemporary fantasy fan, then got her reactions, and discussed promoting sword & sorcery to younger, more diverse audiences.Among other things, we discuss the work of Robin Hobb, the dilution of the term "sword & sorcery" and other branding issues, living in a character's head, struggling to connect with Tower of the Elephant, reading trope-setting classics as a contemporary reader, connecting more with emotion-driven sword & sorcery, backfiring magic, quick-moving plots and pacing, how Sof felt S&S has a unified feel and how it differs from the broad trends of contemporary fantasy, Brian Murphy's definition of sword & sorcery, short stories as a break from the 500+ page installations of trilogies or longer, the evolution of Sof's own writing, how DO we recommend S&S to people who don't read it - young and old, why telling someone something is short isn't actually a great selling point, how S&S's outsider protagonist tradition primes it for more diversity in its protagonists and appealing to people outside the classic white cishet male demographic, best online platforms for reading younger audiences and the challenge of self-reinforcing popularity, the importance of making books look pretty on social media, the strong art tradition of sword & sorcery, the "convincing you to read based on aesthetic" TikTok format, author newsletters, the fallacy of expecting self-published authors to do everything a publishing house can do, changing trends in fantasy cover art, this thing called "Google", Sof's own novel she's working on, Elizabeth Olsen's early film "Martha Marcy May Marlene", and more!Sof's Bookstagram!The six stories I assigned Sof to read for our discussion. You don't have to read them, but maybe you'll want to?1) Tower of the Elephant by Robert E. Howard (Free!)2) Black God's Kiss by C.L. Moore (Free!)3) Mzee by Charles Saunders (Flick through to page 60)4) Return of the Sorceress by Silvia Moreno-Garcia5) The Second Death of Hanuvar by Howard Andrew Jones (Featured in Tales from the Magician's Skull issue #3)6) The Gate of Mist by Cora Buhlert (Absolute last story in this free magazine)
 
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

Ep47 Interview with Kirk A. Johnson

Oliver has a great time talking with Kirk A. Johnson about his new sword & soul story collection, The Obanaax and Other Tales of Heroes and Horrors.We cover the afternoon movies which helped form Kirk's idea of what heroes should be, his own first collision with Conan and Frazetta, why martial arts films were such a big thing in the black community back in the day, is Robin Hood S&S?, Fafhrd & Grey Mouser in The Wire, the film Thief remade as S&S, S&S and the hard boiled crime genre, periods of great economic strife being ripe for S&S, the folly of trying to write a story that "isn't political", Kirk's first short fiction sale (to Milton Davis' firs Griots anthology) and his journey developing as a writer, Charles Saunder's Imaro, his first rejection and the importance of the feedback given within, what he's proudest of in how his craft has evolved since his first publication, Kirk's approach to using violence in his stories and necessary limits with gore, MONDO VIDEO, sword & sorcery as a genre of the body, "The Big Book of Sword & Sorcery Farts", a key scene in The Northman, Kirk's attitude on when to speak more plainly and when to turn the prose a brighter shade of purple, working people from life into your out there fantasy genre tales, the joys of being published with or having your work shared by authors you admire, the real life African cultures Kirk drew from in his worldbuilding, mixing invented language in with real ones, Jack Vance's "The Dragon Masters" and the importance of using context to help your reader absorb invented language without needing to check a glossary, the journey of writing his new book, "Spear & Fang", the animated series "Primal', Kirk's experience so far with self-publishing, tells us about BookBaby, self-promotion and how it can be difficult to ask people for help, contributing to the tradition of sword and sorcery, the importance of diverse representation in all media, how the art available to you - all of you/us - is so much wider and more colorful than we sometimes realize, realizing the demographic who enjoys something is much wider than you thought - or that gatekeepers are willing to acknowledge, Jessica Amanda Salmonson, Black Panther, Korean Historical Dramas like Age of Heroes, Fela Kuti and "wonderfulment", Shaft and Blaxploitation in general, remixing Shakespeare and which Blaxploitation movie is the most Shakespearean, and more!Buy the book!Far Afield Press' site (on Facebook, and on Instagram)Kirk on TwitterThe State of Black Science Fiction-NYC, a group Kirk is a member of which you too may wish to join.Beef, Wine and Shenanigans - a fun podcast Kirk co-hosts!
 
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Ep48 Interview with Steve Babb of Glass Hammer

Oliver finally dives into the musical side of sword & sorcery by speaking with author & composer Steve Babb, of the band Glass Hammer!
 
https://stephenrbabb.com (FB)www.glasshammer.com (Twitter, Youtube)Buy Skallagrim – In The Vales of PagarnaThe Lay of Lirazel
 
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
 

Ep49 Interview with Alasdair Stuart

Alasdair Stuart is a professional enthusiast, pop culture analyst, and writer behind the award-nominated weekly newsletter, The Full Lid, as well as a multiple Hugo finalist and co-owner of the Escape Artists podcast network. He's also a really kind and fascinating man, whom Oliver greatly enjoyed chatting with about building your own podcast empire, financing such an empire, balancing writing with other creative pursuits, best practices when trying to promote diversity within the genre writing scene, and a whole lot more!AlasdairStuart.com (Twitter)EscapeArtists.netThe Full Lid - Alasdair's weekly, popular pop-culture newsletter.Both PseudoPod episodes mentioned in the interview, 1 and 49, can be found here.The terrifying live TV event from the mid-90's that Alasdair mentions is on Youtube, of course.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