2019! We’re finally here. Like you, we’re hoping it will be a good one. 2016 ended rough. 2017 was even worse. And 2018 was sort of like getting kicked in the teeth by the high school bully every single day. Whether you lost a loved one, your government lost its damn mind, or you tried desperately to keep your hopes up in yet another year of trashfires and horror, we know this last year has been just as tough on you as it has been on each of us. That’s why we tried to make 2018 a “Year of Hope.” Hopefully, our podcast was a little beacon of light in an otherwise dark abyss.
Of course, 2018 wasn’t all bad. U.S.-Americans sent a message to the alt-right that y’all ain’t gonna keep this country for long. We got a new Star Wars movie (which Shaun says was absolutely kickass). There were some amazing books by old friends, new friends, and folks we haven’t met yet. Heck, 2019 was a year of phenomenal writing of all kinds. Plus, N.K. Jemisin won another Hugo Award (we’re temporarily renaming it the Jemisin is Awesomesauce Award). In a lot of ways, 2018 was a good year.
So what have we got in store for you in 2019? Well, there will be no theme this year. And that’s OK. We haven’t always had a theme, so sometimes it’s nice to take a break and just make podcasts on lots of things that interest us (and our listeners). Of course, we will have some other projects for 2019, which we’ll discuss in more depth here. These include:
- Keeping it Inclusive!
- Funding an Actual Play RPG Podcast
- Making Jen Cry
- The 2019 Month of Joy!
- The Continuing Adventures of the Skiffy and Fanty Booktube!
- Making Y’all Happy
1. Keeping It Inclusive: The Ongoing Mission + a Call for Trans Creators
As always, we want to keep to our mission to make this podcast, blog, and the community they are a part of an inclusive and welcoming place. That means we will continue to try to bring a diverse group of people on to our podcast as interviewees, guests, etc., and we will continue to cover an increasingly wider range of material on our blog through reviews and other stuff. If you have a project (book, movie, comic, whatever!) that fits our guidelines (they’re really broad) and you would like to be on the podcast/blog or have something reviewed, get in touch with us at your leisure!
In addition to our normal goals, we also want to bring more trans, ace, and other underrepresented identities on to the podcast/blog. If you fit the bill and would like to be on the podcast/blog or have your project reviewed, get in touch with us on our contact page.
2. Funding an Actual Play RPG Podcast
This year, we would like to make it to our $150/month goal, which will allow us to create a new show full of the kind of geeky nonsense you’ve come to love in the Skiffy and Fanty Network. For months now, we’ve been developing and sitting on an idea for an actual play RPG podcast set in a multiverse in which the laws of nature of each world are based on different RPG systems. It’s basically the love child of Sliders, Quantum Leap, Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi, that old Dungeons & Dragons cartoon, and Star Trek.
To do that, we need your help. Become a patron on our Patreon page and get your friends to do it, too! If we reach that $150/month goal, we’ll start filling your ears with RPG silliness!
3. Making Jen Cry
One of our missions is to finally give Jen an emotion other than the anger of a thousand suns. Honestly, the only way to do that is to make Jen cry and cry and cry. Not happy tears. Tears of total terror. David has volunteered to be Fearmaster this year, and we encourage all of you to do what you can to scare the living crap out of her.
(This section is just to troll Jen. Maybe. I mean, probably not. It’s probably totally legitimate. Who knows?)
4. The 2019 Month of Joy
Last year, we held a big festival throughout our podcast vacation month. It was called the Month of Joy and fit nicely into 2018’s theme: hope.
This year, we’re officially making it an annual event. And we’re pretty sure you won’t complain, since you’ll get to open up the new year with a mountain of joyful things!
On the docket this year (thus far): Thoraiya Dyer, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Vlad Barash, Lorraine Fryer, Ausma Zehanat Khan, Cora Buhlert, Chrysoula Tzavelas, Catherine Mann, Dave Robison, Betsy Dornbusch, Joyce Chng, Mary Anne Mohanraj, Rhiannon Held, Sarah Gailey, Keith Manuel, Eden Royce, and Kate Heartfield!
We hope our Month of Joy will help bring you some, well, JOY!
5. The Continuing Adventures of the Skiffy and Fanty Booktube!
You all may have noticed that we started a YouTube channel called The Skiffy and Fanty BookTube (or SFBT, a.k.a. sofboot). If you haven’t subscribed already, you really should. We are planning all kinds of video shenanigans over there, and we want you to join us on the adventure.
Here are the videos we have released thus far. They are totally normal. Nothing unusual to find here. *cough*
So expect so much more BookTube silliness in 2019. Much MUCH more!
6. Making Y’all Happy
Naturally, our biggest goal for 2019 is keeping you happy. We’ll keep making the kind of content you love while mixing things up to keep this podcast and blog fresh. As always, you can suggest a topic for us to cover. Patreon supporters can even vote on Torture Cinema polls.
Thanks for sticking with us throughout 2018! We really appreciate it, and we hope we will continue to earn your earholes throughout 2019.
Here’s to a brand new year!
