Sometimes some people just want a story you can take your brain off and enjoy. If that’s not you, keep your rain off my cotton candy. Also an awesome new effort to Kickstart an Ursula K. Leguin documentary and more great books becoming TV shows!

Yes you can nominate your favorite novels, short stories, TV scripts and— oh look, fancasts! We also discuss the line between inspiration and appropriation regarding Sword of Shannara.

We congratulate the winners of our Inkshares contest and name the book that will be joining our Sword and Laser collection. Plus, why you shouldn’t be angry at George R. R. Martin and how Catherynne M. Valente’s Radiance is like a Tone Poem.

We talk to three of the leaders in the Inkshares Sword and Laser collection contest. From animal people to lonely AI to epic flesh carvers have they got some stories for you!

Over the break, we took a little time out of vacation to talk about our holiday reads, from ancient history to Chewbacca. Sigh. No Star Wars spoilers we promise. We’re not there anymore. But we can pretend we are in this episode.

We wrap up our thoughts about Arrows of the Queen by Mercedes Lackey. And we discuss why calling a character a “Mary Sue” has become meaningless and impedes constructive conversation.

A newly-discovered short story from W.E.B. Dubois called “The Princess Steel” seems to anticipate elements of Game of Thrones and Doctor Who. Plus, we kick off the book with the talking horses!

Author Chuck Gannon joins us on the show this week to talk about his most recent work in the Caine Riordan series (Raising Caine), as well as helping the government figure out the future as part of SIGMA. This is one busy guy, let me tell you.

We wrap up what people thought about Time and Again by Jack Finney. Some loved the imagery, some got bored, and some thought he was just too hard on New York City.

We interview Mallory O’Meara, producer and screenwriter for Dark Dunes Productions, about Yamasong: March of the Hallows, a movie about an automated girl and tortoise warrior, with puppets, Nathon Fillion’s voice and more. We also discuss her love of horror fiction, and how weird it is that her grandparents have a torture shack in the woods!

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