No Dragons Press

Episode 31: “Xenia Knows Best”

Show Notes for Episode 31

These are the show notes from No Dragons Press: A HIGH FANTASY Fiction Podcast: Episode 31!

Good news, everyone!

You guys. YOU GUYS. I have amazing news: Emily is back! She took some time off from the Weekly Illustrated Fiction series to work on some of her own stuff, which you can take a look at at ruftimes.com, that’s R-U-F, one F, and you can check out her super limited edition prints at ruftimes.bigcartel.com, she’s got some amazing stuff for sale, so if you want to see what she does outside the context of No Dragons Press, definitely check that out.

So! Since I continued on with the podcast and we took a break with the illustrated fiction over at Ascraeus Press, the two aren’t in sync anymore, but I think that’s kind of awesome: if anyone following the illustrated story at Ascraeus Press wants to skip ahead at any point, they can bounce over to the podcast, and you guys can check out the art from some of the chapters you’ve heard before and maybe pick up a little bit of extra context.

Oh my gosh I am so excited to finally tell you guys: So this is actually the second week she’s back, because I got behind a little bit—so I was all set to tell you how amazing her first one was, and then last night she sent me her second, and I was like…she went off on like a shaman, truth-finding mission, and basically now she’s an oracle. I don’t know what to say. Go check out the artwork.

(Emily, if you’re listening: You are an oracle. Don’t worry about it.)

These illustrations are holy shit

So, this week’s illustration is absolutely fucking amazing—it’s from chapter 18, Bliss and Ignorance, from when Addie gets back together with Bradley, briefly and then he disappears and it’s from Addie’s weird dream sequence, and it is legit terrifying. It’s this dragon the likes of which you have never seen before, ever, and you definitely want to check that out at ascraeuspress.com/nodragons, she did an amazing job.

Then the second picture—I’ve always kind of struggled with Xenia sometimes, I want to make her a real two-dimensional character who is special and cool and interesting on her own, and Emily has always told me she’s always really liked Xenia, so I’m just blown away that that’s how she sees this person. Definitely check out the illustration [for chapter 19, The Point of an Arrow], we’ll see you there.

OK, thanks so much for listening!

Hey, thanks for listening. I hope you enjoyed chapter 31. If you like what you hear, tell a friend, consider supporting the show, and tune in next week. take care, guys.

No Dragons Press

Episode 30: “Hurtling Through Space”

Show Notes for NO DRAGONS PRESS Episode 30

Hey everyone, and thanks for listening! This is No Dragons Press: A High Fantasy Fiction Podcast: Episode 30!

More technical issues

Hey, everyone. Sorry about the delay, I had some technical difficulties and everything was kind of nutso. Thanks for your patience. I’m going to post another episode right away to make up for it,

January 2017…wow.

It’s the last day of January, and wow, what a month. What a week. It’s hard to know what to do or how to feel, and I certainly don’t know what to say. Just remember to reach out to your friends when you’re feeling overwhelmed about the world, I think there are a lot of people stewing with their own thoughts because it’s hard to know how to reach out?

Chapter titles—yikes

So: Chapter titles! You guys, I need help. My chapter titles are definitely my weakest link, and at this point they’ve just gotten so sprawling and ridiculous that I’m pretty sure I’m going to cut them for the book, just number the chapters and have done with it. But I kind of like some of them, so I don’t know—if you’ve been listening and just completely groaning when I mention the chapter titles, and if you’re like “She should have used this other more obvious and way cooler thing,” I’m totally open to suggestions.

All Oppression Is Connected

Well, I talked a lot last week, with good reason, and it feels like there’s even more to talk about this week, but here’s the thing: I’m never going to give every issue the spotlight it deserves, and this isn’t a show about current events, but there’s one particular sign from the Women’s March last week that I keep thinking about and considering, and I want to leave you with that: All Oppression Is Connected.

We choose whether we want to feel threatened or empowered by the empowerment of other people who really really need it.

Thanks, everyone.

I hope you enjoy No dragons Press Chapter 30: Hurtling Through Space!

And if you like the show, make sure to check out my Patreon page for ways to contribute and even get cool stuff in the mail.

Thanks!

Hey, thanks for listening. I hope you enjoyed chapter 13. IF you’re enjoying the story, please tell a friend, and tune in next week. take care, guys.

No Dragons Press

These are the show notes from No Dragons Press: Episode 29: “Addie Is Wrong…Again.”

I also discuss going to the Women’s March on Washington: MN at the Saint Paul capitol.

I attended the Women’s March on Washington: MN

Hello everyone! I know I kind of missed a week and played with some dates there, but here’s the thing: I went to the Women’s March on Washington in MN.

The Women’s March Showed an Isolated America Another Perspective

You know, everyone’s got that friend or coworker told them your side lost get over it, and I really hope these marches showed everyone on the outside just how widespread the dissent is how many different reasons.

The Women’s March Highlighted Struggles of All Women, Not Just White Ones

I think it was a great learning opportunity for the people marching. Even big cities with a lot of diversity really face difficult challenges in connecting one community to another in all the important ways when the struggles of one community might not necessarily make it on the radar of the community just next door.

I think everyone who attended the women’s march came away with a deeper idea of how nuanced these ideas of feminism and equality are and how any real solution to gender inequality includes recognizing and addressing racial inequality and ableism and all of these other very real social issues we can’t silence, and how we all bring our own experiences to the table and every one of those experiences is a valid part of what America is.

As a few awesome signs note, the revolution will be intersectional.

I think women who hadn’t necessarily thought about any of these things before walked away with a much deeper understanding of their own privilege and a very real commitment to standing up for the people being belittled or overlooked, especially when they don’t have a way to stand up for themselves, even if we aren’t directly or immediately affected ourselves, and understanding that acknowledging the deep struggles of others does not diminish our own, it just makes us collectively stronger.

The Women’s March Showed Us We Are Not Alone

You know, for everyone who’s felt scared or anxious or hopeless since the election, whether that’s about women’s issues or anything else—I can’t speak for everyone, but in a time where I often feel like I’m literally speaking another language than some of my family, it felt really fucking good to stand with thousands and thousands of people who didn’t all necessarily feel exactly the same way about everything but found enough common ground over their frustrations to come together in a truly historic way.
I just hope we stay fired up and engaged, because it was individual disgust with the general state of things that made so many people stay home on Election Day, and hopefully displaying our collective disgust gives us all the motivation to make sure that doesn’t happen again.

Thanks for the Patreon support!

Hey, I know I left you on kind of a cliffhanger and I want to get on with it, but first I want to give a shout out to Ollie for supporting the show on Patreon! Psyched to have you onboard.

If anyone else is interested in contributing, head to http://www.nodragonspress.com/patreon to check out the ways to contribute. And you know, if you aren’t into the idea of contributing, that’s totally fine—definitely keep listening for free, I’m having a lot of fun and since this is the 29th episode, I assume you are too!

Thanks for listening, everyone!

I hope you enjoy chapter 29: Addie Is Wrong…Again.

Thanks for listening! If you like what you heard, tell a friend, and if you’d like to contribute, go ahead and check out Patreon at http://wwww.nodragonspress.com/patreon. And thanks!

No Dragons Press

Episode 28: “Everyone Can Change”

Thanks so much for listening—I hope you enjoyed chapter 28, “Everyone Can Change.” Make sure to visit acraeuspress.com/weekly-illustrated-fiction to check out the illustration, and stay tuned!

No Dragons Press

Episode 27: “Plan of Attack”

Show Notes for Episode 27: Plan of Attack

Happy New Year!

And a big hello to the new listeners who found me during the holidays. Whatever you celebrate or don’t celebrate, it seems like a handful of you took advantage of the winter break to listen to a bunch of episodes in a row, which is really awesome. If you’ve made it this far, I really want to say thank you for your support. It means so much to me.

Well, not a whole lot to talk about, so I will crack on with it—please enjoy chapter 27, Plan of Attack!

Thanks for listening! Stay safe in the New Year, and take care.

No Dragons Press

Episode 13: “Bad News and Good News”

Show Notes for Episode 26

Hey everyone! And I’m actually recording this episode a few days ahead of time, so it feels a little weird talking to the future as if we don’t have this huge temporal gap between us. I know it doesn’t really matter, it’s not like you can’t listen to any episode of No Dragons Press at any time, but I dunno, I never really do it like that for the intro.

So, anyway:

Greetings to the future!

This episode should be airing somewhere around Monday, December 25th, and it’s the last one for the year!

So, let’s talk a little bit about what 2017 means for No Dragons Press.

First of all, I’m not 100% confident I won’t still combine or break apart chapters moving forward if I feel that I need to. (Even though I’ve edited this thing like crazy, I always go through each chapter one last time to make sure everything makes sense and flows well and change anything that still needs to be changed.)

4:20: More than just a pot smoker’s holiday

So I did some counting, and it looks like after this week’s episode, we’ve got about nineteen chapters left in book 1 to work through. Now, I was kind of shooting to wrap up book 1 somewhere around April 20th 2017 just because that sounds fun, and honestly I haven’t looked at a calendar to confirm this yet, but it kind of sounds like I’m right on the nuts right now.

I’m not totally sure what this all means just yet, but you can bet we’re gonna be celebrating this year’s national smoker’s holiday with some sort of giveaway or prize. I’d really kind of like it if that involved a published book you guys can hold in your hands, but we’ll see what happens.

…any book cover designers listening?

Incidentally, if I’ve got any book cover designers listening, and it isn’t too far into 2017 when you hear this, definitely shoot me an email with a link to some of your stuff, and if it fits with what I’m thinking, maybe we can work something out. I could really use some help, and I feel like it’s going to be the easiest for me to work with someone super familiar with the story already, so I don’t have to try to explain everything. If you think that might be you or someone you know, I’d love to hear from you.

New podcast about progressive rock

Something else that’s really exciting: I’m going to be starting a new podcast! It’s not going to be fiction. I’m actually going to be talking about the music I love, which is 70s progressive rock.

I feel like I talk about it enough anyway, and I have all this podcast gear now, and I have a lot of really interesting friends, a lot of whom are a little bit older than me and have actual memories of being around for some of this stuff, and a lot of whom are more or less my age and, like me, have to try to imagine what it must have been like to hear some of this stuff for the very first time and are still just piecing it all together.

Anyway, I think it’ll be a lot of fun, and I’m really looking forward to it!

…any graphic designers listening?

Actually, if I have any just general graphic designers out there, since this isn’t going to have anything to do with No Dragons Press, I really don’t want it to look anything like it, so where I would usually ask Emily Ruf, who has done not just the No Dragons Press illustrations but all of my amazing logos so far, I figured I’d just throw it out here for you guys. Basically I want a road leading toward a big ol’ seventies prog sunburst—check out the cover of Wishbone Ash Live Dates and you’ll see where I’m going with this:

Wishbone Ash: Live Dates

(Oh, and then listen to Live Dates, because it’s maybe the best Wishbone Ash record. Which is exactly the sort of thing I’ll be talking about on the new podcast. Stay tuned.) Definitely send me an email at nodragonspress [at] gmail.com [or use my contact form] if you’re interested in helping out.

That’s it from me!

I hope you enjoy: “Chapter 26: Addie Is Wrong.”

Thanks for listening, everyone. I had a lot of fun with this one, I hope you guys enjoyed it.

And that’s it for the year! Stay safe, everybody. 2016 was a rough one, and 2017 is going to be all about staying strong, looking out for each other, and lifting each other up. Keep checking your facts, stay engaged and empathetic, do not shut down. We’re all in this together, OK?

Thanks everyone. Take care, be well, have a happy and safe New Years, and I’ll see you next time.