S&L Podcast - #407 - The Strength of Family and Ghosts

Alex Brown is back, the Nebula nominess are out and they are great! We also discover new teas, the real flavor of crab chips, and talk about our thoughts on Elatsoe by Darci Little Badger.

Download directly here!

WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?

Tom: Ito En Matcha Milk Tea

Alex: Adagio Ace Pride Tea

QUICK BURNS

Mark and Tamahome: The Science Fiction Writers of America announced finalists for the 2021 Nebula Awards.
The results of the final ballot will be announced at the 56th Annual Nebula Awards® ceremony during the 2021 Nebula Conference Online, June 4–6, 2021

Julie: N. K. Jemisin’s Inheritance Trilogy to be developed for TV.

Joanna: Margaret Atwood’s Maddadam trilogy is being developed as TV series at Hulu, and The Handmaid‘s Tale had already been renewed for a fifth season.

Joanna: Victoria Schwab’s City of Ghosts series is in works at ABC Signature and Searchlight Television.

Richard: UK watch dog to review the Bertelsmann takeover of Simon & Schuster.

Rob: Will Wight's Bloodline (Cradel: Volume 9) is coming out April 9th

Ruth: Good news! Peter S Beagle, author of The Last Unicorn, has regained control of the rights to his own work.

BARE YOUR SWORD

Trike: OMG the cake thing! Cakes should not look like other food! I co-sign that so hard my pencil breaks. Cakes can look like other things, but never food. Never ever, ick. Here’s a plug for my cousin’s cake-making skills. Toss her some likes.

Treasure chest cake

Super Mario game cake

Cameron McCrorie (Meat Popsicle) @McCrorieBooks @swordandlaser @acedtect well its only taken 5 years and 32 minutes but that's me caught up with s&l podcasts lol. #onwardsandupwards

Dale: @gnarm with another suggestion for Crystal! Night Train To Rigel, by Timothy Zahn, and Station Breaker, by Andrew Mayne. Action with little/no combat or violence. Mysteries are the type ‘hero gets dropped in the middle of things, and has to figure out what the heck is going on’.

And a recommendation from Alex: Witchmark CL Polk

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terpkristin: I feel like it's my responsibility to say that crab chips don't taste like crab (that I know of) but the seasoning that is put onto crabs, Old Bay. Old Bay is a combo of like salt, pepper, paprika, and some other stuff. I put it on corn on the cob, eggs, anything from my work's cafe (they undersalt; it's particularly good on their egg salad sandwich), popcorn, chicken breast...

I've also had the Flying Dog Old Bay Summer Ale. It was ok but kind of weird. I could see having it at a cookout. Maybe just 1 bottle/can, though.

I enjoyed this episode. I didn't know what to expect from Elatsoe but I am really enjoying it. I saw someone else compare it to Veronica Mars and I think that's a great comparison. Hey Tom & Alex, and congratulations to Veronica!

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I heard you discuss the possibility that in this month's book pick, Elatsoe, the name Willoughby may be related to the Twilight Zone episode called "A Stop at Willoughby" - and I hope you're right - but I wanted to let the listeners know that we're a real place, too!

Even though I've claimed I'm from Cleveland for years, I'm actually from a small suburb about 20 miles east called WIlloughby, and I've lived in this area almost my entire life.

Rumor is that while travelling between college in western Ohio and home in eastern New York each year, Rod Serling's train would stop here, and he found it so idyllic that he used the town as the ultimate reward in his Twilight Zone episode.

There doesn't seem to be any other supporting evidence for why he chose that name, and there are other theories, but we are the only town in the country named Willoughby, and his train would have stopped here, so who knows?

Either way we embrace it at our Last Stop Willoughby festival every non-pandemic year. If any of the listeners want to enjoy a slightly weird town festival in August, now you've got a place to go!

Here's a link

-Chris

BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSIONN

Next Month: The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

WRAP UP

Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger

@MitchamBeth
ELATSOE, Darcy Little Badger. Teen Ellie has an rare superpower -- she and her parents trust each other. This helps her defeat the baddie. Oh, she can also summon the dead; this probably came in handy. But mostly the trust. @swordandlaser #Cybils2020 #YA

Jenny (reading Envy) Narrator - Kinsale Hueston - I enjoyed reading about the narrator, who is a poet and a member of the Navajo nation herself. She was once profiled in Time Magazine. She's a *cough* influencer *cough* as well.

John: The illustrations in the hardback book are amazing.
At the start of each chapter there is a "hero style" illustration that presents a scene from the story
I am about 250 pages in and thus far they have perfectly captured the mood and spirit of the story and I have come to enjoy them as much as I have the writing.

Tassie Dave added
There are chapter heading illustrations in the Kindle version as well. They are great.

And Iain added
Rovina Cai, gorgeous pencils...

ADDENDUMS

Our show is currently entirely funded by our patrons. Thank you to all the folks who back our show and if you would like to support the show that way head to patreon.com/swordandlaser

ou can also support the show by buying books through our links! Find links to the books we talk about and some of our favorites at swordandlaser.com/picks/

S&L Podcast - #406 - The Joy of Rat Skeletons

Alex Brown is here and we talk about all the excellent books getting nominated for and winning awards. Plus why Amazon won't sell ebooks to libraries, how animated rat skeletons are pretty awesome and we kick off our March book, Elatsoe!

Download directly here!

WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?

Tom: Oreo Cream Cheese Milk Tea

Alex: Peppermint Tea

QUICK BURNS

Ruth: the British Fantasy Awards were announced!

Richard: Netflix has just come out with a trailer to the new series based on Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo.

A trailer for Season 4 of The Handmaid's Tale coming April 28 to Hulu

Seth: The LA times posted the nominees for their The Ray Bradbury Prize for science fiction, fantasy and speculative fiction.

Mark: Finalists Announced for the 26th (2021) Audie Awards

Seth: Nghi Vo wins the Crawford award for best fantasy debut with the novel The Empress of Salt and Fortune

Richard: The Perserverence Rover's Red Planet touchdown site has been renamed for Octavia E. Butler, the noted African American science fiction author

Jan: Speaking of Octavia E. Butler: Disney-owned FX is adapting Octavia E. Butler's book "Kindred" as a TV series.

Sheila Jean: Amazon was not providing digital copies to libraries, period.

March madness is here!

Semifinal matches so go vote on Goodreads!

BARE YOUR SWORD

terpkristin: Someone once walked into my office and said, ""I know you're from Maryland because you have Old Bay on your desk."" I love Old Bay and I enjoy crab chips but I once had crab cheese puffs and they were infinitely better. For regular snacking I do sour cream & onion or sour cream & cheddar, preferably in the ridged variety. For all my love of Old Bay, though, I'm allergic to actual crabs. Go figure. Related to the topic of Old Bay, the University of Maryland School of Engineering newsletter gave a recipe for Old Bay snickerdoodles around Christmas. I haven't tried to make them yet. But I did finally pick up cream of tartar to do so.

Ruth: I’m intrigued by the idea of the crab chips but they don’t seem to be available over here in the UK. The closest thing is probably these “Firecracker Lobster” flavour chips ......After posting my comment about crab chips not being available in the UK I immediately realised that I had somehow momentarily forgotten that, while I’ve never seen crab flavour chips, prawn cocktail flavour is literally everywhere. (It mostly tastes like tomato ketchup tbh)

And Trike: My stance against food that tastes like other food is justified. I present Exhibit A: Pringles potato chips that taste like Moa Burgers from the Halo video game. Moa, as in the giant flightless bird. De-extincted for a sci-fi franchise, only to be served up for dinner. Now the imaginary bird food (food bird?) can be had in chip form."

@MitchamBeth

THE FOLD, Peter Clines. Ginormous flying transdimensional monsters are why we can't have nice things. I enjoyed watching the mild English teacher break out of his shell as he unfolds the mystery. (Hey, what if zoom calls worked as gates?)

BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION

Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger

ADDENDUMS

Our show is currently entirely funded by our patrons. Thank you to all the folks who back our show and if you would like to support the show that way head to patreon.com/swordandlaser

You can also support the show by buying books through our links! Find links to the books we talk about and some of our favorites at swordandlaser.com/picks.