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Guest Post: Stay With Your Story by Betsy Dornbusch

Today on Skiffy and Fanty, Betsy Dornbusch, author of  the Books of the Seven Eyes trilogy and the soon-to-be-released The Silver Scar, talks to us about the books that influence us and how writers have to find their own stories. “Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay gold.” Most American readers will recognize that as a climactic line from The Outsiders by SE Hinton, which happens to be my favorite book. I met SE Hinton when she came to Oak Park Elementary in fourth grade. My recollection was that we talked about that book a lot and that she was nice enough, but also that her books were about teenagers, so they had nothing to do with me. My brothers were teenagers, and they were WAY older. Never mind that Nancy Drew was a teenager, and the Hardy Boys, and the older Pevensies, and really, when you get down to it, Frodo in his way. But as life goes, I didn’t actually read The Outsiders until 7th grade. Reading it changed me into a writer.

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Signal Boost #42: Rhonda Parrish & Greg Bechtel (co-ed. Tesseracts 21: Neverthless) & Peter Tieryas (Mecha Samurai Empire)

https://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/SandFSignalBoost42ParrishBechtelTieryas/Sandf–SignalBoost42–ParrishBechtelTieryas.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSIn today’s episode of Signal Boost, Jen talks to to Rhonda Parrish and Greg Bechtel, the co-editors of Edge Publishing’s anthology Tesseracts 21: Nevertheless. They discuss how each got involved with this collection of optimistic speculative fiction stories, how the theme was impacted by the 2016 US election, how persistence, specifically, became a dominant message, and a little bit about how an editor of anthology comes up with a title and an contents order (hint: it might involve beer). Then Paul speaks with Peter Tieryas about his new stand-alone novel in the United States of Japan universe, Mecha Samurai Empire. They discuss the influence that Philip K. Dick’s Man in the High Castle had on Peter’s books, delve into the main characters of Mecha Samurai Empire, explore how Kaiju play a roll in a surprising way, and hint at the connection to the Records of the Three Kingdoms from Chinese history. Also, Mecha!!! We hope you enjoy the episode!

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COMICS REVIEW: Everything gets worse and it’s beautiful – Monstress Volume 3

Welcome to the latest installment of my comics review column here at Skiffy & Fanty! Every month, I use this space to shine a spotlight on SF&F comics (print comics, graphic novels, and webcomics) that I believe deserve more attention from SF&F readers. This time out, I’m taking a look at a work that certainly isn’t exactly under everyone’s radar, but that most definitely deserves more attention, if only because of the eldritch abominations that’ll eat you alive if you don’t stay sharp — Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda’s Monstress Volume Three. (This review contains spoilers!)

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Torture Cinema #83: Atlantis: The Lost Continent (1961)

https://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/SandFTortureCinema83AtlantisTheLostContinent/Sandf-TortureCinema83-AtlantisTheLostContinent.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSS Crystal lasers, pig people, and recycled costumes, oh my! In today’s episode of Torture Cinema, Paul, Alex, Daniel, and the prodigal son, Shaun, gather together to make absolutely sure that the destroyed civilization of Atlantis stays destroyed as they review the disastrous George Pal 1961 disaster movie, Atlantis: The Lost Continent. The team discusses everything from the shoddy world-building, the shaky special effects, the lazy misogyny, and the fact that this movie fails the Bechdel-Wallace test SO BAD that it technically couldn’t even hope to pass it. This movie is apparently so awful that even the director hated it, but Paul is such a clever salesperson that you might actually want to see it by the end of this podcast. Just don’t listen to Shaun. It’s not THAT bad. Really, we swear. (Don’t listen to the narrator of these posts. The movie is totally awful. –Shaun) We hope you enjoy the episode!

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Anime Review: Darling in the Franxx

Set in a post-apocalyptic future where humanity is driven to near extinction by war against giant beasts for the right to live on Earth, the anime Darling in the Franxx is a 2018 action-mecha-packed anime with serious messages about humanity. Adapted from the original Japanese manga with the same title, Darling in the Franxx not only has eye-catching artwork and animation style but a great story that makes you rethink humanity’s existence on Earth – deep, I know, and it sure opened my eyes. (Caution: Spoilers Ahead! Read at your own discretion)

A Wrinkle in Time Cover
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Retro Childhood Review: A Wrinkle in Time

Life, with its rules, its obligations, and its freedoms, is like a sonnet: You’re given the form, but you have to write the sonnet yourself. I have a tendency to be somewhat contrary about my reading choices. If it seems that EVERYONE in the entire world really loves a thing, I take that as a sign that I shouldn’t bother reading it. It’s one of very few rebellions that I engage in and there’s so much in the world to read that I’ve never actively pushed back against this completely misguided tendency. However, it was this spark of defiance that resulted in me never picking up A Wrinkle in Time when I was precisely the age and the type of child that would have really loved and connected with it. But, you see, EVERYONE loved A Wrinkle in Time, even the popular girls who (in my mind) probably never ever read anything else because they were too busy doing their hair. And I was a NERD. I read comic books, played D&D, loved video games, had read the Hobbit when I was 8 and Lord of the Rings when I was 12, so if the popular girls liked the book then there was NO WAY that I would ever demean myself by picking it up. Look, I had issues, OK? However, that means that I am now reading A Wrinkle in Time for the first time and I’m really angry at myself for having stuck my nose up at it when I needed it.

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