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Signal Boost #21: Nathan Adler and Darcie Little Badger

http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/SandFSignalBoost21AdlerLittleBadger/Sandf–SignalBoost21–AdlerLittleBadger.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSIn today’s episode of Signal Boost, we kick off our month of focusing on horror writers from traditionally marginalized communities. First up, Jen talks to Nathan Adler — artist, writer, Anishinaabe and Jewish member of the Lac Des Milles Lacs First Nation — about his novel, Wrist, how Anishinaabe stories informed the monster and how his identities contribute to the topics he explores. Then Darcie Little Badger — Lipan Apache writer and scientist — joins Jen to talk about indigenous futurism, how she uses horror to wrestle with her personal ghosts, and about her newest story, “The Whalebone Parrot,” and the history that informs it. We hope you enjoy the episode! Note:  If you have iTunes and like this show, please give us a review on our iTunes page, or feel free to email us with your thoughts about the show! Here’s the episode (show notes are below):

336. WorldCon 75 Interview Edition with Marko Kloos, Crystal Huff, and David J. Peterson

http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/SandFEpisode336WorldCon75InterviewsWithKloosHuffAndPeterson/Sandf–Episode336–Worldcon75InterviewsWithKloosHuffAndPeterson.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSYou might recall that way back in August, the Skiffy and Fanty team got to go to WorldCon 75 in Helsinki! While they were there, Shaun and Paul had the honor of interviewing Marko Kloos, Crystal Huff, and David J. Peterson. These interviews span from military SF with Marko to Chinese SF Fandom with Crystal to conlang with David. These are some fun, fascinating interviews that are absolutely worth the wait! We hope you enjoy the episode! Note:  If you have iTunes and like this show, please give us a review on our iTunes page, or feel free to email us with your thoughts about the show! Here’s the episode (show notes are below):

Book Review: Horizon by Fran Wilde

The Compton Crook award-winning, Nebula-nominated Updraft by Fran Wilde landed her acclaim, accolades and a very fine YA novel to start the novel portion of her writing career. Focusing on a New Weird world above the cloud of flyers, skymouths and towers of bone, Updraft was one of the most memorable books I read in 2015. Cloudbound, which came out in 2016, took the world of the Bone Towers and its characters in new and intriguing directions. Somewhere in there, the series got a reboot of covers, too. Now, with Horizon, Fran Wilde completes the trilogy. After the revelations of Cloudbound, and the instability that the Bone Tower society has undergone after the events of Updraft, Horizon brings us to the ground, literally and figuratively, in this concluding volume. The three novels of the Bone Towers Trilogy have all done different things, and done them well. Updraft is a classic YA coming of age story with a strong central protagonist, unfolding and unfurling the wings of the author’s worldbuilding even as we have a deep dive into the personality, hopes, fears, dreams and struggles of Kirit. It would have been the easier, safer and perhaps more expected path for the author to continue the trilogy from Kirit’s point of view and go for a grand arc of Kirit’s story at the time of great change for her community.  Surely, I think, the author must have considered and contemplated that sort of path for her subsequent novels.

Signal Boost #20: Sandra Odell and Ausma Zehanat Khan (The Bloodprint)

http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/SandFSignalBoost20SandraOdellAusmaZehanatKhan/Sandf–SignalBoost20–SandraOdellAusmaZehanatKhan.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSIn today’s episode of Signal Boost, Sandra Odell, prolific short story writer, joins Jen to talk about disability, sexuality, and gender representation in science fiction and fantasy, how her identities inform her short stories, and what good representation actually looks like. Then Ausma Zehanat Khan, author of the Esa Khattak and Rachel Getty mysteries, joins Jen to talk about her debut fantasy novel, The Bloodprint, the influence of the Silk Road on the story, how human rights act as a through-line in all her work, and how she loves stories in which women get to take control of their destinies. We hope you enjoy the episode! Note:  If you have iTunes and like this show, please give us a review on our iTunes page, or feel free to email us with your thoughts about the show! Here’s the episode (show notes are below):

Retro Childhood Review: Peter and the Wolf

Peter and the Wolf Coloring Book Cover from 1947

Each character of this tale is represented by a corresponding instrument in the orchestra: the bird by a flute, the duck by an oboe, the cat by a clarinet playing staccato in a low register, the grandfather by a bassoon, the wolf by three horns, Peter by the string quartet, the shooting of the hunters by the kettle drums and bass drum. As I was driving home the other day, my local classical radio station played a recording of the Colorado Symphony’s orchestration of the symphony that made me fall in love with classical music when I was just a tiny little child. Whether I first heard this at my hippie community college preschool program or at home, I have no idea. I do know that my mother, a kindergarten teacher, was a firm believer in music education and we had oodles of children’s books that came with narrated tapes. But the one that has stuck with me after all these years is Sergei Prokofiev’s 1936 symphony, Peter and the Wolf (which you can listen to here).