Book Fight

The problem with writing very short stories is that it forces you to write more endings, which are the hardest part! At least that's our opinion. But we bring on writer and Barrelhouse fiction editor Christopher Gonzalez (I'm Not Hungry But I Could Eat, 2021) to school us in how to stick the landing on flash fiction.  Chris chose four very different flash pieces for us to read, all of which are available for free online: -Andy Lopez, "How Filipino of Us [https://splitlipthemag.com/flash/0423/andrea-lopez]" (from Split Lip) -Deesha Philyaw, "Love 1992: A Catechism) [https://fracturedlit.com/love-1992-a-catechism/]" (from Fractured Lit) -Amy Stuber, "Only a Little Bit Less Than I Hate Myself [https://longleafreview.com/a-stuber/]" (from Longleaf Review) -Julian Martinez, "Cartoons [https://www.havehashad.com/hadposts/cartoons]" (from HAD) Also in this episode: We review what's going on in shorts (short pants, that is), which includes some conflicting reports in terms of inseam lengths. And do shorts get longer as the government becomes more authoritarian? It's a theory, apparently.

We kick off the final season of Book Fight with a guest-free episode--like the old days! Our reading this week is Geoff Dyer's 2022 book The Last Days of Roger Federer, and Other Endings. Which seemed thematically appropriate as we come to our own ending (of the podcast; we're not dying or anything).

It's that time of year again: our annual holiday episode, where we invite several members of the Barrelhouse editorial team to read and discuss a very sexy holiday-themed novel. This year's book is SKRUJ: Holidate with an Alien [https://www.amazon.com/Skruj-Holidate-Alien-Honey-Phillips/dp/B0CN2SL4BV], by bestselling author Honey Phillips. The book is a retelling, of a sort, of the Dickens Christmas classic, but starring a grumpy alien man with a weird (and gigantic) penis, and his human lover. Our guests this year include: Chris Gonzalez, Becky Barnard, Dave Housley, Erin Fitzgerald, and first-timer Christina Beasley. Plus our regular hosts, Mike Ingram and Tom McAllister. Note: This will be the last episode of the podcast on the regular feed for a spell, while we work on our next season. But we'll continue to post new episodes for our Patreon subscribers: for $5/month, you can get those episodes, plus access to our entire back catalog. https://www.patreon.com/c/bookfight [https://www.patreon.com/c/bookfight] Thanks for listening, and happy holidays!

We wrap up our noir season with one final episode, this one discussing the 1963 Peter Sellers movie The Pink Panther, and the series more generally, which spoofed many of the tropes of the noir/detective genres. We also look back at the season--what we learned from diving into the noir genre, and our favorite books. If you like this episode, we've been doing an entire series on noir films over on our Patreon, which you can access for just $5/month. We'll also keep posting episodes over there in the new year, leading up to our next season of regular episodes: https://www.patreon.com/c/BookFight [https://www.patreon.com/c/BookFight] Thanks for listening!

We welcome Nadira Goffe (culture writer for Slate) to talk about a Black, Southern noir from S.A. Cosby. We learn about Nadira's love of the Fast and the Furious franchise, her fear of actual driving, and her mixed feelings about an over-the-top metaphor. Plus: Mike gets pedantic about dialogue tags, and Tom realizes there's a limit to how many car-chase sequences he's willing to read in a novel. Vroom vroom! Note: this is the eighth (and final) episode in our noir-themed season, but there's no reason you need to listen to the episodes in order. If you're enjoying the podcast, and want to help support it (while getting yourself some sweet, sweet bonus content) please consider subscribing to our Patreon. For $5 a month you get two monthly episodes, which could also help tide you over until our next season: https://www.patreon.com/c/BookFight [https://www.patreon.com/c/BookFight] As always, thanks for listening!