No Dragons Press

Episode 10: “Addie Says Goodbye”

Show Notes from Episode 10

These are the show notes from No Dragons Press: Episode 10: Addie Says Goodbye. (The chapter begins at around 3:45, if you want to skip ahead.)

Hey everyone, thanks so much for listening! I hope you’re all having a great weekend!

Chapter Ten Is a Doozie

I’m really excited about this week’s chapter. You could probably tell with the last episode, but that “big event” I’ve been kind of hinting at is finally here!

So, go ahead and skip forward a bit if you just don’t want to wait, but first I wanted to talk a little bit about what I’ve been up to this week and let you know about some exciting plans for next week’s episode.

Minnesota State Fair on a Stick

I live in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and one of my absolute favorite things about summer is the Minnesota State Fair. I go every year and eat and drink everything, and this year was no exception. It occurred to me that if you’re not from the Midwest United States, you probably haven’t experienced anything like this before, so there are a few things you should know.

Feels like home: classic Midwest.

Pretty much every county, big or small, holds a county fair in the summer. It’s this huge celebration of Midwest farm culture. There are horses, pigs, sheep, cattle, ducks, chickens, you name it, and you can watch them winning medals with their farmers or check them out in their pens throughout the fair. The local Lions Club chapter and all kinds of organizations have booths or hand out beer or just walk around and talk to people.

Then there’s food, a lot of it on sticks—it’s just a thing we do—and deep-fried pickles and brats and hamburgers and mini donuts in paper bags. There’s probably someone selling honey or jam, there’s an eighties cover band and/or a country band, although I don’t really care about that part, and you can go on rides and get your face painted and check out crafts and prize-winning stuff and play carnival games and learn about local agriculture and buy farm equipment, all at once.

Then there’s the Minnesota State Fair. You don’t just check out the animals, you watch them giving birth. There isn’t an eighties cover band, there’s Alabama and Don Henley. A lot the beer is local, some of it crazy experimental, the cookies and donuts come in gigantic buckets, and it’s not just pickles and hot dogs on a stick, it’s things like hot dish—another thing we do—and salad and mac and cheese on a stick, and an all-you-can-drink milk bar that Ron Burgundy has ruined for everyone.

Other states have fairs, but I feel like because it’s basically right in Minneapolis and we have such a great mix of cultures here, our fair has this really fantastic vibe. You can find Caribbean food and Middle Eastern food and spam sushi and all kinds of crazy fusion stuff, and it’s this really unique blend.

I walked and ate and drank all day and it was amazing and I kind of want to go again before it’s over. Yeah, it goes for like two weeks or something. I took a few pictures, which you saw if you follow me on Instagram at @nodragonspress, and I’ll put a few in the show notes so you can check it out.

Yeah. That’s about how it went.

Special Guest on Next Week’s Podcast

OK, big announcement: Next week, I will be having a special guest on the show: the fantastic illustrator over at our Weekly Illustrated Fiction series, Emily, is coming on the show. On top of doing a brand-new illustration for every single chapter of No Dragons Press, she’s designed T-shirts and done stuff with bands and does amazing photography and all sorts of amazing and creative stuff. Check her stuff out at ruftimes.com, for real.

I’m going to be asking her a bunch of questions and I’m really excited to have her on the show. If you have any questions for her, just head to nodragonspress.com/contact to send them in and I’ll make sure to ask her.

Alright, that’s it from me. Without any further ado, here is Chapter Ten: Addie Says Goodbye. I really hope you enjoy it!

Hey, guys. Thanks for listening. Remember to subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen to your podcasts, find show notes and links to our Weekly Illustrated Fiction series at nodragonspress.com/podcast, and keep looking out for each other, okay? See you next week. Take care.