Tales from the Trunk

In this, the spookiest month, I’m delighted to welcome back to the podcast, Caitlin Starling! Caitlin reads us an excerpt from her terrific forthcoming novel, Last to Leave the Room, coming out October 10th from St. Martin’s Press, which leads us into a great conversation about the potential gaps left in for fanfic authors, among other things.   Things we mention this episode   The Death of Jane Lawrence, The Luminous Dead, Yellow Jessamine, and The Oblivion Bride, by Caitlin Starling Neon Hemlock And What Can We Offer You Tonight, by Premee The Crawling Moon, edited by dave ring Dracula Daily Luminescent Machinations, edited by Rhihannon Rasmussen and dave ring Turks (Final Fantasy VII) Isaac Fellman A Dark Song Archival Quality, by Ivy Noelle Weir and Steenz The White Road, by Sarah Lotz Rotten dot com Third man syndrome Ernest Shackleton The Echo Wife, by Sarah Gailey Spiderman pointing “Caver Continue,” by Caitlin Starling The Queen’s Thief series, by Megan Whalen Turner Severance Shirley Jackson Caitlin’s website, insta, and bluesky

We made it to the Biggest Number™ and Sarah Gailey is here today to help us celebrate with a retrospective on the last four and a half years of Tales from the Trunk! Show notes coming soon!

This time around, it’s my pleasure to welcome Sarah Hollowell back to the show! Sarah reads us an excerpt of her new book, What Stalks Among Us, which releases September 12th, and then we fall down a hole of absolute gremlinry.   Things we mention this episode:   Sarah’s first episode A Dark and Starless Forest, by Sarah Hollowell Fast and Furious series AEW All In Adam Cole and MJF Triple-H Roman Reigns RPF (Real Person Fic) “The Unreality of Pro Wrestling” The Shield (wrestling) Dean Ambrose/John Moxley Luchasaurus Mantaur Darkness Falls Just Like Home, by Sarah Gailey The Conjuring series The Calculating Stars, by Mary Robinette Kowal P-38 Lightning Apex The Poppy War trilogy, Babel, and Yellowface, by R.F. Kuang The Priory of the Orange Tree and A Day of Fallen Night, by Samantha Shannon His Majesty’s Dragon, Spinning Silver, and Uprooted, by Naomi Novik Terry Pratchett Regular Show, “California King” and “Eggscellent” Labyrinth The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Breath of the Wild Oxenfree and Oxenfree II: Lost Signals Return of the Obra Din Hollow Knight: Silksong Hades II Hades Animal Crossing The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword Sarah’s bluesky, tiktok, insta The Nursery Nurse tiktok   Join us again in two weeks for the 100th episode of Tales from the Trunk!

This time around, I’m delighted to introduce you to Jessica Mary Best! Jess and I do something a little different and perform for your listening pleasure part of the pilot episode of her trunked audio drama, Third Wheel! That reading leads us into a great conversation about the different approaches between written prose and writing for audio.   Things we mention this episode:   Stars, Hide Your Fires, by Jessica Mary Best Chuck Tingle’s episode Oliver! Chekhov’s Gun Brandon, Iowa All Our Yesterdays, by Hilary B. Bisenieks Sufjan Stevens Fall Out Boy Panic! At the Disco Illinois, by Sufjan Stevens “They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back From the Dead!! Ahhhh!” by Sufjan Stevens “I Write Sins Not Tragedies,” by Panic! At The Disco “Lying Is The Most Fun A Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off,” by Panic! At The Disco “Of All The Gin Joints In All The World,” by Fall Out Boy “Stars, hide your fires” Tor dot com writeup The Strange Case of Starship Iris Tom Swifties Munch Squad Friends at the Table Sarah Gailey Lillian Boyd Welcome to Night Vale Audacity Keep it Steady  Unwell  The Bear Phoebe Bridgers Criminal Radiotopia 99% Invisible The Allusionist Articles of Interest Fearless (Taylor’s Version) Jess’s website and insta

This time around, it’s my delight to welcome back to the show Aimee Ogden (@Aimee_Ogden)! Aimee reads a delightful excerpt of her brand new book, Emergent Properties, available now wherever you buy books, which leads us into some great conversation about the things that made this book, whether or not those things ended up in the final draft.     Things we mention this episode:   “The Cold Calculations,” by Aimee Ogden The Murderbot Diaries, by Martha Wells Beowulf, translated by Seamus Heaney Aimee’s Clarkesworld interview Wallace and Gromit Marie Kondo “A Half-Remembered World,” by Aimee Ogden Translunar Traveler’s Lounge Dropout CollegeHumor Sam Reich Game Changer Entertainment Community Fund Jeopardy! Wheel of Fortune Dungeons and Drag Queens Escape from the Bloodkeep Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien Matt Mercer Erika Ishii Robert Reich Breaking News (Dropout) Brennan Lee Mulligan Name That Bird Aimee’s website Spiders Georg   Stick around next time when my guest will be Jessica Mary Best

This episode’s reading carries content warnings for discussion of COVID, self harm, horror movie gore, and suicide and suicidal ideation. If you want to opt out of that, please skip forward 14 minutes from the start of the reading.   This time around, it’s my delight to continue our summer of screams with Lor Gislason (@lorelli_)! They read us a moving personal essay about how they got so dang goopy, which leads us into a great conversation about horror media, finding your people, and of course all things goopy.   Things we mention in this episode:    Chuck’s episode Camp Damascus, by Chuck Tingle Heel (wrestling) Lillian Boyd Hear Us Scream: The Voices of Horror Volume II, edited by Cathering Benstead American Psycho 2 Serial Killing 101 Hellraiser Clive Barker Neil Gaiman Turkey Shoot (film) Mandy (film) Dune (2021) The Texas Chainsaw Massacre House of 1000 Corpses The Devil’s Rejects Foz’s episode Zombie Lucio Fulci The Lion King Sisyphus Bound in Flesh, edited by Lor Gislason Dragon Ball Animorphs (series) by K.A. Applegate Artemis’ turning Acteon into a stag D’Aulaires’ Book of Norse Myths, D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths, D'Aulaires' Book of Trolls, by Ingri and Edgar D’Aulaire The Mummy Mummies Alive! Street Sharks Biker Mice from Mars Mars Attacks! Ozma of Oz, by L. Frank Baum Return to Oz Wicked Sarah Gailey Sickos Sarah Hollowell “Look,” by Sarah Gailey Star Wars tweets River of Teeth, by Sarah Gailey Inside Out, by Lor Gislason Resident Evil 4 remake Control (game) SCP Foundation The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Piccolo Akira Lor’s insta and blog Joe Koch  

It’s my absolute delight to welcome an absolute dream of a guest this time around: Chuck Tingle (@ChuckTingle)! We read from the first chapter of Chuck’s new horror novel, Camp Damascus, out July 11th from Tor Nightfire, which leads us into a great discussion on Chuck’s writing process, the things that changed between first draft and published book, and of course some of his and my favorite bits.   Things mentioned in this episode:   Game theory Straight and Bury Your Gays (2024), by Chuck Tingle A More Civilized Age Kelly Lonesome Get Out Multi-level marketing Grindcore Discord Friends at the Table In the Lives of Puppets, by Tj Klune Barry Ratboys Chuck’s BlueSky, Insta, Facebook, TikTok, Tumblr  

This episode’s reading carries content warnings for children in perilous situations and description of injuries. The reading is 10:30 long.   This time around, it’s my pleasure to welcome Foz Meadows (@fozmeadows)! Foz reads an excerpt from his trunked novella, “Blood Penance,” which leads us into a great conversation about idea magpies, internet purity culture, horror, and kink.   Things we mention in this episode:   A Strange And Stubborn Endurance, by Foz Meadows Captive Prince, by C.S. Pacat Halloween The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Scream series Allegory of the Cave, by Plato “Hotel California,” by The Eagles Lillian Boyd Rank & Vile Death of the author Watership Down, by Richard Adams Watership Down (movie) All the Hidden Paths, by Foz Meadows Finding Echoes, by Foz Meadows Luminescent Machinations, edited by Rhiannon Rasmussen and dave ring The Untamed Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu Heaven Official’s Blessing Beyond Evil KinnPorsche Stray Kids “Red Lights,” by Stray Kids “Venom,” by Stray Kids OnlyOneOf Foz’s tumblr and tiktok

It’s my distinct pleasure, this time around, to welcome Emma Mieko Candon (@EmmaCandon) to the show to talk about their incredible new book, The Archive Undying, out June 27th, 2023, from Tor Dot Com! After a reading from the book’s opening, we descent almost immediately into gremlin mode about the inspirations for the book (our favorite podcast (you know the one)), Star Wars, and the intersection of cultures.   Things we mention this episode:   Friends at the Table Mike’s episode Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie Pacific Rim NieR:Automata Carl Engle-Laird Just Like Home, by Sarah Gailey The Genesis of Misery, by Neon Yang Lindsey Hall The Tensorate Series, by Neon Yang Docile, by K.M. Szpara The Kingston Cycle and Even Though I Knew the End, by C.L. Polk The Locked Tomb series, by Tamsyn Muir Margate Lock (Palisade character) (spoilers for Palisode 03) Star Wars COUNTER/Weight Castlevania Hellboy Cowboy Bebop Gundam Newtype Studio Ghibli Partizan Waypoint A More Civilized Age Lancer Bluff City Marielda Sangfielle Donna Haraway cyborg Jack’s music COUNTER/Weight and Partizan soundtracks “The Long Way Around,” by Jack de Quidt “TANAGER. PERFECT. TOUCHPAPER.,” by Jack de Quidt Trigun Stampede Bigolas Dickolas Gundam: The Witch from Mercury Utena Trigun (1998) Trigun (manga) Amal El-Mohtar new Tor deal “Seasons of Glass and Iron,” by Amal El-Mohtar Three Parts Dead, by Max Gladstone This Is How You Lose the Time War, by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone Ronin, by Emma Mieko Candon Star Wars: Visions Star Wars: The High Republic Andor The Mandalorian The Poppy War, by R.F. Kuang Wookieepedia Emma’s insta and tumblr Seasons of Hieron

This episode's reading carries a content warning for brief, non-graphic vomiting. You can skip forward 8:10 from the start of the reading to 0:13:00 to avoid this. This time around, it’s my pleasure to welcome Dee Holloway (@_deeholloway) to the show! Dee reads from her trunked YA novel, River’s End, which leads us into a great discussion of writing about place, what we did during the height of the pandemic, and Dee’s forthcoming novella, Little Nothing.   Things we mentioned this episode:   Stuart Dybek The Complete History of New Mexico, by Kevin McIlvoy Sabrina & Corina, by Kali Fajardo-Anstine Lady Bird Joan Didion California State Railroad Museum Sacramento History Museum QueryTracker Little Nothing, by Dee Holloway “The Highwayman,” by Alfred Noyes Devil’s Cup, by Dee Holloway The Craft Blue Crush Equus, edited by Rhonda Parrish Luna Station Quarterly “MONTERO (Call My By Your Name),” by Lil Nas X Tim Curry John Milton Paradise Lost, by John Milton The Odyssey, by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson The Iliad, by Homer The Aeneid, by Virgil Pitchfork John Grisham Bigolas Dickolas This is How You Lose the Time War, by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone Kotaku and Polygon writeups Camp Damascus, by Chuck Tingle Lamplit Underground Sea of Tranquility, by Emily St. John Mandel The Glass Hotel, by Emily St. John Mandel Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma, by Claire Dederer Burn You the Fuck Alive, by B.R. Yeager Dee’s insta and itch