No Dragons Press

Episode 4: “Addie Considers the Multiverse”

Show Notes

These are the show notes from No Dragons Press: Episode Four: Addie Considers the Multiverse. (Chapter 4 begins right around 2:24.)

Show notes:

Hey, everyone.

Look, it’s been a really sad week, especially in Minnesota, where I live. I just wanted to explain why I’m not making much of an intro this week.

If you’re listening to an archive of this show, it’s early July 2016, and just somehow this week doesn’t feel right to talk about anything else as if it’s important. and nobody really quite knows what to do with all this anger and outrage or how we’re all going to move forward together.

I live in Minneapolis, just a few minutes from where Philando Castile was pulled over and shot to death by a police officer in front of a four-year-old child and denied medical attention. Nobody really quite knows what to do with all this outrage and how we’re going to move forward together, but we need to start taking better care of each other. We need to start seeing each other.

There’s so much we can learn from each other and share and experience if we’re not busy being afraid and focus on what we all have in common: being with the people we love, enjoying delicious food, talking about our day, and sharing our hopes and our fears, telling our stories. Let’s keep reminding each other to treat the things we don’t understand as opportunities to learn.

OK, so that’s my announcement. I suppose this week’s artwork is pretty on message too: it’s a map of the galaxy with our little tiny place in it called out with a little “you are here” thing. It’s actually only incrementally related to the chapter, but it turns out it has everything to do with everything, so it’s totally cool that my artist Emily picked that out as the thing she wanted to draw. This is what I love about working with her, and I hope you guys have had a chance to check out the artwork at ascraeuspress.com. I’ll also leave you a link in the show notes at nodragonspress.com/podcast.

Well, I think that’s it from me! Thanks for sticking with me and I really hope you enjoy Chapter Four: Addie Considers the Multiverse.

Hey everyone, thanks for listening! You’ve just heard Chapter Four: Addie Considers the Multiverse. Tune in next week, and in the meantime, be good to yourselves, be good to each other. Take care.

No Dragons Press

Episode 3: “Addie Sneaks a Smoke”

Show Notes for Episode Three

These are the show notes from No Dragons Press: Episode Three: Addie Sneaks a Smoke. (Chapter 3 begins right around 3:00.)

Hey guys, I hope you’re all having a great  weekend. I just got back from a music festival, and I have already had more than enough weekend for one weekend – as you can probably tell by the sound of my voice!

Luckily I prerecorded the chapter earlier this week, so it should just be the intro that sounds a little rough; thanks for bearing with me. (I did a lot of yelling.)

A crisp beverage helps with the yelling. Well, it helps, anyway.

Weekly Illustrated Fiction

I wanted to talk a little bit more about the Weekly Illustrated Fiction series we’re doing at Ascraeus Press. I know I mentioned it before, but I wanted to clarify a few things about the structure of this thing and how it relates to the podcast and No Dragons Press as a whole.

I think we’re all clear now that No Dragons Press is the title of my High Fantasy series, and Ascraeus Press is the publisher, so that’s awesome. So what I’m doing is reading one chapter per week from my upcoming novel, which is Book 1 in a planned five-book series. Don’t worry, I know we’ve seen a lot just one single building, but things definitely change soon for Addie, so, you know, don’t get too comfortable in the No Dragons Press building.)

So, the Weekly Illustrated Fiction series at Ascraeus Press is really exciting in general because we’re committed to giving you one never-before-seen chapter per week,  for free, before I publish my book, but it’s also really exciting to me personally because I get to see what this world I have created looks like to someone else, which is a ton of fun. My illustrator Emily [Ruf] is amazing and totally gets what I’m doing, and the process of someone else reaching into my brain and pulling something out and then showing it to me is so cool.

We also have really fun work meetings, generally over beer. In a recent meeting about the Weekly Illustrated Fiction artwork, we were talking about holding back from doing characters in any sort of detail, at least for a while, and kind of leave it to the reader to decide what people look like, but we knew we had to see Addie before too long, even just a little bit, and I’m really happy with the artwork.

Awesome New Artwork from Emily Ruf

I’ll add a link in the show notes so you can check it out, but in case you can’t check it out right now, I’ll just briefly explain Emily‘s artwork this week: Addie’s got her hood pulled over her eyes and this absolutely magical cloud of smoke is coming out of her face, and it looks amazing. You can check it out at ascraeuspress.com and I’ll add a link to the show notes at nodragonspress.com/podcast.

Well, that’s it from me this week! Stay out of trouble, you guys, I’ll try to do the same, and I hope you enjoy Chapter Three: Addie Sneaks a Smoke.

Hey guys, thanks for listening. Make sure to check out nodragonspress.com/podcast for a link to the Weekly Illustrated Fiction thing, and also the podcast episode one, and you can listen to all the archived episodes there, too.

Thanks for sticking with me, you guys—take care!

No Dragons Press

Episode 2: “Addie Meets a Lumberjack”

Show Notes

These are the show notes from No Dragons Press: Episode Two. (Chapter 2 begins at 4:32.)

Hey everyone, thanks so much for listening! I hope you’re enjoy the story so far! Last week was the very first episode, so if you’re listening to this, thank you so much for coming back.

So, the last episode was kind of a doozy because the first chapter is a little on the long side, and I also had a ton of disclaimer-y type stuff to go over, so thanks for bearing with me.

If you haven’t had a chance to check it out, you can always find it at nodragonspress.com/podcast or wherever you’re listening to this. Most of chapters aren’t as long as that first one, though I suppose it depends on how much I have to say first!

No Dragons Press Featured on Weekly Illustrated Fiction

So, if you checked out last week’s show notes, you probably saw a link to follow where you could actually read the chapter. I didn’t want to get too much into it because I had to much other stuff to go over, but I’m really excited about this: No Dragons Press is being featured as the first Weekly Illustrated Fiction series at ascraeuspress.com. (I know it’s kind of tricky, so I’ll make sure to add links to the show notes, don’t worry.)

My friend Emily Ruf is the illustrator over at Ascraeus Press, and she also drew the No Dragons Press logo, so depending on where you’re listening to this you may not see it, but take a look sometime, because it’s totally amazing. So, along with one new chapter of No Dragons Press every week, we are going to post a brand-new illustration by Emily, for every single chapter. She does these really cool drawings in black ink and her textures are amazing, I’m going to get that every week, it’s so amazing.

So, regardless of whether you prefer the story in text or audio form, definitely check the artwork out at ascraeuspress.com, because it’s totally cool. I will also link to each new chapter and illustration in the episode show notes, so just check nodragonspress.com/podcast and I will point you in the right direction.

No Dragons Press vs. Ascraeus Press

OK, so a few people told me that having something called No Dragons Press hook up with something called Ascraeus Press was going to be like really prohibitively confusing, and I was kind of like—I really don’t think people are going to have a problem with the fact that the title of the book has the word “press” in it, or that it is being published at a place that also has the word “press” in it, which I think makes total sense. And, I mean, it’s pretty easy to remember given Tristan’s intense hatred of dragons.

Someday I’ll tell you the story of how No Dragons Press really got its name, in real life—but I like the story of how No Dragons Press got its name in Addie’s world, which I know you guys don’t quite know the specifics of that story just yet, but if you did listen to the last episode, you obviously get that Tristan has a strong hand in the decision.

I love Tristan. I just love that he’s a person who cares so much about this one stipulation that he will name an entire publishing company after it, just so that he’s clear. I just love that about him.

At any rate, Ascraeus Press is a press, and No Dragons Press is a story about some people who work at a press.

I will not be giving you a quiz, you don’t even really need to know the difference because I won’t be using the terms in confusing ways, and it really isn’t that confusing anyway—don’t worry, you’re in good hands and I’m going to make sure you know where you are at all times.

OK, I think that’s it from me! You can always find episodes and show notes at nodragonspress.com/podcast, and you will also find links to our Weekly Illustrated Fiction series and everything else you could possibly be looking for.

So stop by, tell your friends, and I hope you enjoy No Dragons Press, a High Fantasy Adventure: Book One, Chapter Two: “Addie Meets a Lumberjack.”

Thanks for listening, you guys. Remember, you can subscribe to the podcast wherever you’re listening, be sure to check out nodragonspress.com/podcast to learn more about our Weekly Illustrated Fiction series, and tune in next week for another episode of No Dragons Press: A High Fantasy Podcast. Have fun, be good, and I’ll see you next week!

No Dragons Press

Episode 1: “Addie Gets a Job”

Show Notes

These are the show notes from No Dragons Press: Episode One. (Chapter 1 begins at 3:44.)

Greetings! You’re listening to No Dragons Press: A HIGH FANTASY Podcast! Each week you’ll hear another installment in the adventures of Addie McCallister, a small-town bartender who is destined to save the universe, as long as the weed doesn’t run out.

I’m your host, Maggie Gibbs—author of No Dragons Press, creator of the High Fantasy universe, and Grand Master of the “bonkers stoner fantasy” genre—and today I’ll be reading Chapter One: Addie Gets a Job.

Hey, everyone, I am so super excited to finally be here. Today is the very first episode of No Dragons Press!

I don’t want to take up too much time talking, but today, before getting into the chapter itself, I wanted to take just a moment to tell you a little bit about the show so you know what to expect every week.

No Dragons Press: A HIGH FANTASY Podcast Show Structure

Generally, I’m going to break the show into two sections: my introduction, which is what you’re listening to now, and the main content of the episode, where I’ll read one new chapter every show.

I’ll always try to keep the introductions brief, but if you find that you’re in a hurry, or if you don’t want to listen to my babbling, or for whatever reason you just want to jump right to the story itself, check out nodragonspress/podcast and take a look at the show notes and I’ll do my best to let you know what time I actually started reading so you can skip ahead.

“High Fantasy” = High + Fantasy

A quick note on the “high fantasy” part:

“High fantasy” as a genre generally takes place in a completely made-up world. No Dragons Press starts in the real world, but (spoiler alert #2) it doesn’t stay there for long.

Yes, It’s That Kind of “High”

And yes, as you may have guessed by now, “high” has a double meaning here. This is a book in which situations are portrayed in which people are frequently high.

So, this whole thing started because I was sitting around one day, thinking about how bonkers it must be for characters when they experience weird, otherworldly elements in a real-world setting. Like, that moment where they have to reconsider their perceptions of the world. And I found myself thinking how much more bonkers that moment would be for a character who’s really, really stoned.

So, there it is: that’s where No Dragons Press came from. You could say it starts high and becomes fantasy.

Content Warning

It’s not like my protagonist is some scary weirdo or like, morally bereft. She’s actually really normal, a tax-paying citizen who’s just trying to figure her shit out like the rest of us. The being high part is really just incidental to the story. Kind of like it is for a lot of human adults.

Anyway, so here’s the disclaimer: you should know that the book I’ll be reading for you contains references to marijuana, which the federal government has classified as an illegal substance. It also contains occasional adult language. Kind of like it is for a lot of human adults.

For these reasons, this podcast is meant for mature audiences only.

No Dragons Press is Really a Fun Fantasy Adventure in Podcast Form

But really, this isn’t a “drug book,” and this isn’t a “drug podcast.” That’s kind of not the point.

But because this is the first episode, I want to be totally upfront with you, and I want to make you a few promises right now.

• I will not be smoking marijuana on the show.
• I will not advise you to smoke marijuana, or to break any laws.
• I will not be high on the show. (Although I may occasionally have a beer.)

This is not that kind of show. It’s a show where I read you a chapter a week from a book I really love and had a great time writing, and I hope you have as much fun as I did listening to it.

…And Also in Text and Illustration Form

And, if you hate my voice, you can read the story in text form for free. Just go to nodragonspress.com/podcast for more details.

OK, enough with the boring stuff, thanks for bearing with me.

I hope you enjoy No Dragons Press, a High Fantasy Adventure: Book One, Chapter One: Addie Gets a Job.

Thanks so much for listening. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast wherever you’re listening or visit nodragonspress.com/podcast for updates, and tune in next week for another episode of No Dragons Press: A High Fantasy Podcast. Take care, you guys.