Ex Urbe Ad Astra

This is the first half of a conversation between Ada Palmer and Jo Walton, about writing chapters. This was a two-hour conversation, so this episode has the first hour, and the next episode will have the second hour.

This is the final half of a conversation between Ada Palmer and Jo Walton, about how an author can craft the early part of a novel to set up the reader's expectations about what kind of a book to expect. This was a two-hour conversation, so our previous episode had the first hour, and this episode has the second hour.

This is part one of a conversation between Ada Palmer and Jo Walton, about how an author can craft the early part of a novel to set up the reader's expectations about what kind of a book to expect. This was a two-hour conversation, so this episode has the first hour, and the next episode will be part two.

This episode is brought to you by Perhaps The Stars, the fourth and final novel in the Terra Ignota series, available now from (referrer links) Amazon, Barnes And Noble, Books-A-Million, Apple Books, and Indiebound. Anything you can call "writing" (science fiction, fantasy, screenwriting, comics, games) Max Gladstone does. He's also a fencer and martial artist. This episode explores connections between these two types of things. This interview ran long, so this is part one of two. Numerous topics covered include: the similarities shared by the crafts of writing and fencing; struggles when writing descriptions of physical spaces; why we don’t see cluttered spaceships in science fiction movies; when to include potatoes in your medieval fantasy setting; designing the layout of museum exhibits, video game spaces, and Walt Disney World; and more! Max Gladstone website Substack newsletter Twitter

David Perry is a freelance journalist covering politics, history, education, and disability rights. He was a professor of Medieval History at Dominican University from 2006-2017, and now works as an academic advisor in the history department of the University of Minnesota. His scholarly work focuses on Venice, the Crusades, and the Mediterranean World. Numerous topics covered include: Reasons to study history; how historical figures and institutions claimed legitimacy; calling an Age "Dark" or "Golden" in order to get legitimacy; patronage of the arts to prop up legitimacy; fake innovation and fake continuity; bastardy; parrots and coconuts in medieval Europe; and more!   David Perry website David Perry Patreon "The Bright Ages: A New History of Medieval Europe" by Matthew Gabriele and David M. Perry

Ruthanna Emrys is an author of science fiction and fantasy such as The Innsmouth Legacy series and Deep Roots, which are hopeful Lovecraftian fantasy, and the forthcoming A Half-Built Garden, a hopeful science fiction novel of first contact. Ruthanna Emrys Patreon "Reading The Weird" column on Tor.com Ruthanna Emrys homepage

This will probably become a series of occasional bonus episodes in which Ada Palmer and Jo Walton discuss manga and anime with an eye to its innovations, cultural norms, and wider implications for the media landscape.   - Gender and age marketing categories in manga. - Translation of Japanese onomatopoeia (sound-effect words). - The influence of organized communities of fandom on a medium. - A story-formula and set of character archetypes called "moe" (MO-ay). - Moe's reliable merchandising profit, resulting in more moe. - Availability of manga on devices both broadening and narrowing market categories.   And more!

Jonathan Sneed is an astrogeologist and expert in Mars wind and erosional science. He also consults with science fiction authors, and has the skill of giving the sort of answers to science questions that are useful when writing fiction. Numerous topics covered include - open questions in Mars science; panspermia; wind tunnels; and how entertainment technology is often ahead of technology made for any other industry. Also weird ideas for novels such as: an alien animal species that incorporates knowledge from brains through digestion; why a savannah planet can't work and how to make it work anyway; and a ninja in Florence! All this and much more. As mentioned in the episode, he has a guest post on Ex Urbe, "What Color Is Pluto?"

In this bonus episode, Ada Palmer and Jo Walton have a craft of writing discussion of complicity, i.e. when and how the author gets the reader or audience on the side of characters they would not expect to root for, and how that can be used in fiction.

Novelist and political scientist Malka Older, author of Infomocracy and its sequels, shares an interest with Ada Palmer in the development of political systems. With Jo Walton providing examples from her broad knowledge of the history of F&SF, they discuss speculative political systems, historical disaster response, and forms of organization with which populations can respond to their needs. Malka Older on Twitter: @m_older https://malkaolder.wordpress.com Read the first five chapters of Infomocracy: https://www.tor.com/2016/02/22/excerpts-malka-older-infomocracy-chapter-1/