Shining Moon: A Speculative Fiction Podcast

Shining Moon Episode 41: Reading the Nebulas II

With me today to read the novelette category for the Nebulas are Allen Dyen-Shapiro, Leigh Harlen, and Brent Lambert.  Allan Dyen-Shapiro is a Ph.D. biochemist who enjoyed a 19-year research career. He now teaches in high-poverty schools in Southwest Florida and recently ramped up his union activism. He's sold short fiction to venues including Dark Matter Magazine, Flash Fiction Online, and numerous anthologies and co-edited an anthology of speculative fiction set in the Middle East. He's a member of SFWA and Codex and blogs at allandyenshapiro.com [http://allandyenshapiro.com], where you'll also find links to his stories.  Leigh Harlen is a queer, non-binary writer of dark leaning speculative fiction who lives and works in Seattle alongside their partner and dog. They are the author of Queens of Noise, Blood Like Garnets, A Feast For Flies, and several short stories. Their non-writing hobbies include petting strangers’ dogs, crocheting, and enthusing about how awesome bats are. Follow them on Twitter @LeighHarlen [https://leighharlen.wordpress.com/mentions/leighharlen/] or better yet, Bluesky @leighharlen [https://leighharlen.wordpress.com/mentions/leighharlen/].bsky.social for updates on future publications.   Brent Lambert is a Black, queer man who heavily believes in the transformative power of speculative fiction across media formats. As a founding member of FIYAH Literary Magazine, he turned that belief into action and became part of a Hugo Award winning team. He resides in San Diego but spent a lot of time moving around as a military brat. His family roots are in the Cajun country of Louisiana. Stories in this episode: "A Short Biography of a Conscious Chair", Renan Bernardo (Samovar 2/23) I Am AI, Ai Jiang (Shortwave)  "The Year Without Sunshine", Naomi Kritzer (Uncanny 11-12/23)  "Imagine: Purple-Haired Girl Shooting Down The Moon", Angela Liu (Clarkesworld 6/23)  "Saturday’s Song", Wole Talabi (Lightspeed 5/23)  "Six Versions of My Brother Found Under the Bridge", Eugenia Triantafyllou (Uncanny 9-10/23) "Don't tell me that the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass." -- Anton Chekov Piano music for closure Thank you for listening to Shining Moon! You can reach the host, Deborah L. Davitt, at the following social media platforms: www.facebook.com/deborah.davitt.3 [http://www.facebook.com/deborah.davitt.3] Bluesky: @deborahldavitt.bsky.social www.deborahldavitt.com

Shining Moon Episode 40: Reading the Nebulas I; Short Stories

Hello and welcome to Shining Moon, Episode 40. With me today are A.P. Howell, Sam W. Pisciotta, A.T. Sayre, and Risa Wolf. The voting for the Nebulas has just concluded, and we’re here to talk about the contenders on the ballot before the winners are revealed. Let’s get started with some introductions! A. P. Howell  For information on published works, links to social media accounts, and similar things, visit her website aphowell.com [http://aphowell.com]  Sam W. Pisciotta  Connect with him at www.silo34.com [http://www.silo34.com/] and @silo34 on X and Instagram.  A.T. Sayre His first short story collection, Signals in The Static, comes out May 20th from Lethe Press.  Pre-order link: https://www.lethepressbooks.com/store/p713/static.html [https://www.lethepressbooks.com/store/p713/static.html] Risa Wolf  Visit them at killerpuppytails.com [http://killerpuppytails.com]. Stories discussed: "Once Upon a Time at The Oakmont", P.A. Cornell (Fantasy 10/23)   "Tantie Merle and the Farmhand 4200", R.S.A Garcia (Uncanny 7-8/23)  "Window Boy", Thomas Ha (Clarkesworld 8/23)  "The Sound of Children Screaming", Rachael K. Jones (Nightmare 10/23)  "Better Living Through Algorithms", Naomi Kritzer (Clarkesworld 5/23)  "Bad Doors", John Wiswell (Uncanny 1-2/23)  "Don't tell me that the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass." -- Anton Chekov Piano music for closure Thank you for listening to Shining Moon! You can reach the host, Deborah L. Davitt, at the following social media platforms: www.facebook.com/deborah.davitt.3 [http://www.facebook.com/deborah.davitt.3] Bluesky: @deborahldavitt.bsky.social www.deborahldavitt.com

Shining Moon Episode 39: Writing Games III, Cerebos the Crystal City

Zach Welhouse is a librarian and game designer who lives in the Pacific Northwest. He enjoys hot drinks and meeting dogs who look like goblins. His work has appeared in the Costume Fairy Adventures and Deadlands RPGs, and Strange Beast: A Tarot Zine. Cerebos: The Crystal City, a game about crossing a surreal desert by train, is available through Penguin King Games on itch.io [http://itch.io] and Drivethru RPG  Amelia Gorman lives in Eureka where she spends her free time exploring tidepools and redwoods with her dogs and foster dogs. Her fiction has appeared in Nightscript 6 and Cellar Door from Dark Peninsula Press. You can read some of her poetry in Vastarien, Utopia Science Fiction, and Strange Horizons. Her first chapbook, the Elgin-winning Field Guide to Invasive Species of Minnesota, is available from Interstellar Flight Press. Her microchapbook, The Worm Sonnets, is available from The Quarter Press.   Cerberos is a fascinating game. The premise is simple; the execution is complex. The premise? That you’ve boarded a train for the Crystal City of Cerebos. But you can choose your journey’s tone right from the start—it might be a folk horror setting, it might be fairy tale, it might be science fiction. . . and then you’re rolling on tables for cards that detail the complications that ensue on the train, the strangeness of the stops along the route, and so on. Halfway through your journey, the game changes; one of the characters becomes the Protagonist, and the other characters become advisors who encourage them to either put aside the past and embrace the future, or embrace the past more fully. There’s a huge psychological element to play—if you want there to be, anyway. Some people might play it solely as an adventure, and that’s another entirely correct way to play. "Don't tell me that the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass." -- Anton Chekov Piano music for closure Thank you for listening to Shining Moon! You can reach the host, Deborah L. Davitt, at the following social media platforms: www.facebook.com/deborah.davitt.3 [http://www.facebook.com/deborah.davitt.3] Bluesky: @deborahldavitt.bsky.social www.deborahldavitt.com

Shining Moon Episode 38: Writing Games II--TEETH RPG

Hello, and welcome to Shining Moon: A Speculative Fiction Podcast, Episode 38.  Today we’ll continue our series by asking questions about writing games, particularly roleplaying games. This is a subject dear to my heart, because I’ve spent twenty years of my life playing RPGs, mostly in written form, in play-by-post games. I am a big proponent of how they help to develop writers’ skills at worldbuilding, characterization, and plot. My guests today are Marsh Davies and Jim Rossignol of the game Teeth! Marsh Davies is a writer and illustrator who has worked in games for the better part of twenty years, first as a journalist, then as an artist and indie developer. He joined Mojang, the creators of Minecraft, as the head of creative writing, before returning to the indie scene as a narrative designer and co-authoring a collection of grotesque tabletop roleplaying games with Jim. Jim Rossignol is a writer and game designer. In the first part of his career he was best known for games-related journalism, in which he founded the PC gaming site Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Later he moved into game development, producing digital games such as Sir, You Are Being Hunted and more recently moving into tabletop games with the RPG TEETH.  "Don't tell me that the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass." -- Anton Chekov Piano music for closure Thank you for listening to Shining Moon! You can reach the host, Deborah L. Davitt, at the following social media platforms: www.facebook.com/deborah.davitt.3 [http://www.facebook.com/deborah.davitt.3] Bluesky: @deborahldavitt.bsky.social www.deborahldavitt.com

Shining Moon Episode 37: Speculative Poetry IV

Daniel Ausema is an educator and stay-at-home dad. His poems have appeared in Strange Horizons, Fantasy Magazine, Dreams & Nightmares, and many other places and have been nominated for the Rhysling Award. He is also the author of the Arcist Chronicles and the creator of the Spire City series, as well as the writer of many short stories, roughly a hundred of which have been published in places like Diabolical Plots and Strange Horizons. He lives in Colorado at the foot of the Rockies and can be found online at danielausema.com [http://danielausema.com]. Brian U. Garrison (he/him) catches new, old, and otherworldly jazz from the radio station KMHD in Portland, Oregon. His poetry has appeared in Fantasy & Science Fiction, Asimov's, Dreams & Nightmares, and elsewhere. His chapbook Micropoetry for Microplanets (Space Cowboy Books) celebrates the smallish to medium rocks that circle our sun. He serves as Managing Editor for Eye to the Telescope. Find him online at www.bugthewriter.com [http://www.bugthewriter.com] D.A. Xiaolin Spires steps into portals, reappearing in Hawai’i, NY, various parts of Asia and elsewhere. Her work appears in Clarkesworld, Analog, Nature, Strange Horizons and Uncanny. She’s conducted NSF-funded research in anthropology, specializing in food, environmental issues, agriculture and technology. Each of her ten fingers is equipped with a monkey and a typewriter. Through the clamoring of these near-dozen simians and some strange wondrous convergence in the universe, poetic things arise.  Bogi Takács (e/em/eir/emself or they pronouns) is a Hungarian Jewish  author, editor, critic and scholar who's an immigrant to the US. Bogi  has won the Lambda and Hugo awards, and has been a finalist for other  awards. Eir debut poetry collection Algorithmic Shapeshifting and eir  debut short story collection The Trans Space Octopus Congregation were  both released in 2019, and eir second short story collection Power to  Yield and Other Stories came out just now. You can find Bogi on various  social media as bogiperson. "Don't tell me that the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass." -- Anton Chekov Piano music for closure Thank you for listening to Shining Moon! You can reach the host, Deborah L. Davitt, at the following social media platforms: www.facebook.com/deborah.davitt.3 [http://www.facebook.com/deborah.davitt.3] Bluesky: @deborahldavitt.bsky.social www.deborahldavitt.com