Tag Archives: Gail Carriger

by | November 16, 2016 · 4:04 am

Episode #67: Young Adult Fiction 101 — Part Two (with Scribe and Scribby)

With Curse of the Silver Pharaoh now out in print, Tee and Pip head to a renaissance festival for hilarity and sheananigans. They invited for their little merry jaunt a pair of Laurens who know a lot about writing Young Adult fiction. So even thought it is Tee’s birthday, we are giving YOU a present with this podcast for your Friday!!!

00:00 —  Introduction

  • Missed a week, but for good reason!
  • BEST WISHES FOR PC AND JEN HARING!!!
  • We were having so much fun with Scribe and Scribby that we broke the show up into two parts!
  • So how about we get back to it?

01:57 — Episode #67: Young Adult Fiction 101 (with Scribe and Scribby) 

  • Picking up where we left off in looking over Tee’s blogpost on writing Young Adult fiction…
  • So as we are dealing with street kids in The Curse of the Silver Pharaoh, you might want to accept that they are not going to be little angels. IOW, they will not be talking like little angels.
  • Sonic Boom thought about taking on a Herculean task…
  • The conversation stems from a recent blogpost of Tee’s…
  • Quick shout-out to The Hunt for the Wilderpeople
  • Turning to the Books of Potter on harsh language
  • So where is The Curse of the Silver Pharaoh falling?
    • Checking your age range
    • Tee’s first encounter with a “concerned” parent
    • Scribby’s own encounters
  • Reading habits of the Ladies in studio
  • How a book serves as a “safe space” for teens and tweens
  • A moment of fangirl awesome as Scribe and NYT Bestseller Gail Carriger meet Mercedes Lackey
  • The discovery of gay characters for a young, impressionable Lauren Harris? Not a big deal.
    • Scribby dealing with a “No Gay” Zone at the Library
    • The Pros and Cons of Labeling
  • A quick request for voicemail at 703.791.1701 on some music trivia
  • You got a church? PROTEST OUR BOOKS!!!
  • Tee’s Final Point: The Angst Level
    • The Light versus the Dark: Comparing The Flash and Supergirl with Arrow.
    • How Stephen Amell would make the  situation in The Fifth Wave work…
    • Teens are now laughing at the angst.
  • How angst changes between teens and adults
  • Remembering the balance of angst against the good times
  • Hey, Pip, who are The Famous Five?
  • Treating angst with care
  • So…what actually did go on at Pip’s private girl’s school???
  • Another reading from The Curse of the Silver Pharaoh…
  • When it comes to S-E-X: Go gently in to that good night.
    • Scribby, there is a huge difference between a “love triangle” and a “threesome” if you are wondering…
    • Back to Gail Carriger and her handling of romance
    • The romantic ways of teens
    • Earning affections — not always so easy
    • And Tee is twelve years old, for the record
  • The real reason authors avoid sex in Young Adult: that “first time” is a little disastrous.
  • How author John Green gets it right
  • How Leigh Bardugo got it right for Scribe
  • Sex in Y.A. — more emotion, less scrappin’

34:57 — LootCrate Lookie-Loo

  • Two crates? What is this madness??? Oh, it’s the Loot Vault!
  • And do we need to remind you that Tee is twelve?
  • Loot Crate — July 2015 (Heroes 2)
    • Fresh from the 60’s, a Batman Q-Pop
    • A Star Trek air freshener (and Pip just got a new ride, so…)
    • A sweatband from Legend of Zelda for those extra-long runs!
    • From The Dark Knight, a multitool of a bottle opener and a keychain
    • A D.C. Bombshell Wonder Woman poster for Sonic Boom…maybe?
    • And with The Legion of Regrettable Superheroes, Tee’s collection is complete!
  • Loot Crate — January 2016 (Invaders)
    • A reminder of Tee’s childhood with a Q-Pop Space Invaders alien!
    • A plushie Face hugger!
    • Pip finally gets her Multi-Pass from The Fifth Element
    • A X-Files LED flashlight
    • Mini-prints from War of the Worlds and The Day the Earth Stood Still
    • The X-Files tee shirt…that only Tee recognized
  • How the Vault differs from regular Loot Crates
    • All loot in the older crates are revealed
    • All crates are at a discount
  • Why is Boom in the doghouse tonight?
  • Loot Crate upgraded their pins between 2015 and 2016…and this is a good thing!
  • *sigh* Sometimes, Nerd Parenting is hard.
  • Going into details on what’s in the Vault.

45:28 — Wrapping up

  • Heading into the end of the year.
  • Pip doesn’t want to take a break. So got a question or a comment for us? Let us know at 703.791.1701 
  • What’s coming up?
    • Countless Hues of Crimson (coming in December)
    • Audio version of Magical Mechanications (coming in December)
    • Tales from the Archives: The Final Season (going live at Christmas)
  • Where are we going to be between now and the end of the year: 18-20 November, PhilCon in Cherry Hill, NJ
  • Mad love to New Zealand!
  • Kicking off 2017 in January
  • A full writing schedule, including Pip’s latest novel, coming in 2017…
  • We are getting your voicemails and email, but we’ve been recording jam-packed shows of late. We will be getting to them soon! Until then…
    • Call us at 703.791.1701 (now accessible through the Instagram app!)
    • Send me email — tee@teemorris.com
    • Send Pip email — pip@pjballantine.com
    • …or find us on social media everywhere.
  • BONUS OUT-TAKE: Some behind-the-scenes silliness

[display_podcast]

Find us on Twitter at either Tee’s or Pip’s account,
leave us a voicemail or questions for the show at 703.791.1701,
or leave us a comment here at the blog.
We’ll talk about it!
And remember, you can find the show on iTunes or Stitcher!
Subscribe, listen, and review.

Enjoy the ride
and we’ll catch you later.

1 Comment

Filed under Episodes

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

by | April 9, 2014 · 3:48 am

Episode #32: Getting a Writer’s Life Organized (with Lauren “Scribe” Harris)

TSD-back2back_Scribe

When you have house guests, you make sure you show them a good time. When you have house guests who happen to be writers, you get them on the mic which is exactly what Pip and Tee did when writer and podcaster Lauren “Scribe” Harris came up for a visit, enjoyed a visit to the Madison Tea Room, and quality time with the Boom. Today on this episode of The Shared Desk, these three multitaskers sit down and talk about what they do to stay organized.

00:00 — Introduction

10:21 — Getting a Writer’s Life Organized

  • So many plates spinning for all three of us…
    • Tee attempts to rattle off all the ideas we have working right now…
    • Pip reveals her new idea concerning Hollywood and accent gods and demons.
    • Tee is torn between where to focus his own attention between writing projects and contracting.
  • Most writers are terrible at organizing their projects. True or false?
  • Lauren gets scared of über-organized people
    • …but she herself is wicked-organized!
    • Lauren: “That’s called worldbuilding.”
    • Scribe shows what a bad influence she is.
  • Pip completely derails the show with a drop-in request…and then it delves into wacky fan fiction…
  • Back on the project organization…
    • Lauren does the longhand approach.
    • Pip can’t read her own handwriting, but she still grabs random scraps of paper to get notes down.
    • Tee prefers the digital approach to notes.
  • Lauren uses checklists to keep on track with her day.
  • Tee and Pip meltdown in front of PJ Schnyder, not in a nasty way, but just in a self-imploding sort of way.
    • PJ was thinking [cue Archer drop-in]
    • We were terrified by what we were facing on our To Do List.
    • Tee remembers the first thing erased off the list.
    • Colored “thumbtack” magnets help prioritize ideas and things to do.
  • Scribe gets bored with the conversation and starts playing with Tee’s magnets.
  • Pip wonders how having two writers in the same house affects our productivity.
  • Before you get organized, find where your “hub space” is and hang your white board there.
  • Scribe reveals the Covey Quadrant…and Tee gets an ice cream headache.
  • And Tee uses that Archer drop-in again for the social media addicted ladies in studio.
  • Downtime/Self-time for yourself needs to be a priority.

33:56 — Writing Advice from Crazy Uncle Charlie

  • Scribe and Crazy Uncle Charlie are reunited…and it feels so good.
  • Scribe has a fangirl moment. We’re not sure why.
  • Pip doesn’t want to admit it…but she has missed Crazy Uncle Charlie.
  • Charlie gives his own approach to organizing projects…which resembles something of a jumbles mess.

37:46 — The Wrap-Up

  • And once again, the studio smells of cheese.
  • Got some organization tips? A question for Crazy Uncle Charlie?
    • 703.791.1701
    • pip (at) pjballantine (dot) com
    • tee (at) teemorris (dot) com
  • Later on in April…
    • DemiCon 25, May 1-5
    • Balticon, May 22-26
      • Lauren describes Balticon for anyone who may be coming to the con.
      • Pip, even with her power as the Dark Goddess, can’t get fast service at the Hunt Valley bar…
      • The Podcaster Cookout. It’s coming!
      • And…..
  • The Ministry of Peculiar Pajamas: The Pajama Initiative
    • How did this idea come around?
    • People want this to be a thing.
    • Maybe Sunday night, starting early.
    • This is an idea in progress. Bear with us.
  • Pip’s glad March is done, but April is coming in hard…
  • Lauren’s got another mini-writing/mini-podcasting stretch coming soon!
  • The power of a Phil Rossi drop-in.
  • Go out and get Dawn’s Early Light! NOW!!! 

  51:22 — The Outtake

 

Featured People in this podcast:
[display_podcast]
Find us on Twitter at either Tee’s or Pip’s account,
leave us a voicemail or question for the show at 703.791.1701,
or leave us a comment here at the blog.
Enjoy the ride
and we’ll catch you later.

 

1 Comment

Filed under Episodes

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

by | March 29, 2012 · 2:32 am

The Shared Desk — Episode #15: The Listener Appreciation Show (Volume 2)

Call in with your questions and comments!

WOW! We collected enough comments, questions, and overall opinions from you, the listeners, to make this show our second Listener Appreciation Show! We got some questions on Kindle, Scrivener, and Book Reviews, but we also got questions on topics we have never tackled before on mic.

And Pip gets not one but TWO drop-in’s of her own…

00:00 — Introduction

  • A quick shout out to Geek Radio Daily for their own touch on the show…
  • Even more of YOUR CALLS, YOUR EMAILS, YOUR SOCILA NETWORK COMMENTS! 
  • Yeah, Tee is showing the kind of love that only Soundboard can truly deliver.
  • …and the Shared Desk Voicemail Line for the next one — 703.791.1701

04:30 —  Your Voicemail and Email

  • Guy Barber from Cornwall, UK, sends us kudos for the audio version of HarperAudio’s Phoenix Rising and The Shared Desk, and puts in his vote for an audio version of Geist.
  • Ben from Florida asks close on the same question as emails from Valkyrie Page and Chris Forshner on how we collaborate and the creative process between the two of us.
    • Tee talks about Pip’s strengths and then discusses his own.
    • How other authors collaborate against what Pip and Tee do.
  • Melissa Hay surprises us with a call, and brings up the topic of book bloggers and how authors and publishers are keeping the peace, at least for now…
  • Terry Arman asks us what we thought of the promo he cut for us…but has us at a loss.
  • Nobilis Reed wants to know how we collaborate using Scrivener.
  • P.C. Haring Calls “Shenanigans!” on our Scrivener…and we call him to the mat with some help from Phil Rossi!
  • David from the Scrivener Crew writes us a killer “thank you” note.
  • Our Anonymous NYT Bestseller gives inside dirt on Amazon and their own titles…
    • Pip finds herself derailed by her bumper and a lack of breakfast.
    • Is there anyone “big enough” to stand toe-to-toe with Amazon? Well, yes…
    • More discussion about Amazon, and a shameless plug for The Janus Affair
  • Rick Asplund calls in to give us BVL (big Viking love) from Chicago.
  • Dan Dan the Artman drops a voicemail that calls forth the humbled (and slightly vaklempt) Crazy Uncle Charlie.
  • Michael Spence mainlines The Shared Desk and gives his own opinions on shared universes.
  • Tony Mast takes Tee to task for releasing Aladdin and His Wonderfully Infernal Device for the Kindle exclusively.
  • Gail Carrigerwants to know what the “Shared Desk” really looks like……so here it is:

  • And from the Great White North comes Steve Saylor, asking of working with video to promote your writing.

1:03:03 — The Wrap-Up

  • The Second Listener Appreciation Show is DONE, and now we need your comments for Show #20!
  • Hunger may be pushing Pip closer to PIP RAGE!!! 
  • Where to leave your comments for us…
  • April 10 — Volume 2 of Tales from the Archives goes live!
  • Tee’s cheat-sheet is swiped from him…but he nails the Creative Commons exit.
[display_podcast]
Some Related Links
Find us on Twitter at either Tee’s or Pip’s account,
leave us a voicemail or question for the show at 703.791.1701,
or leave us a comment here at the blog.
Enjoy the ride
and we’ll catch you later.

2 Comments

Filed under Episodes

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

by | February 29, 2012 · 1:33 am

The Shared Desk — Episode #013: Amazon, Authors, and Armageddon…at a Discount!

No Crazy Uncle Charlie.

No Writers Off the Clock.

No drop-ins.

Authors at the mercy of Amazon

This is a raw and candid conversation with our agent, Laurie McLean, on Amazon and their February power plays against the Big Six publishers. How will these shenanigans affect authors, and what can we do to avoid becoming cannon fodder in the war between Amazon and New York’s Six Sisters?

00:00 — Introduction

  • Pulling a McGyver in order to bring our agent, Laurie McLean, on this episode
  • Diving right into the madness…

01:03 — Amazon, Authors, and Armageddon…at a Discount!

  • WTF AMAZON?!?!
  • What happened last week
  • Why is Amazon doing this?
  • What happens when a book seller gets too big to control, even by the publishing powers-that-be
  • A history (in brief) of Amazon.com and the pro’s and con’s of their success from selling books to turning eBooks and digital publishing into a viable market
  • Tee steps back to his independent publishing past, sharing memories of Dragon Moon Press and her struggles with Amazon.
  • MacMillan and Amazon square off in a pricing war — the beginning of Amazon’s pushback against New York.
  • Another glimpse of Amazon’s Dark Side: The “App Testers”
  • Reviewing the numbers on Amazon sales compared to other eBook venues
  • Can the NYT Bestseller title still matter in a world of digital authors dominating Amazon’s charts?
  • What matters more to an author — a full-time career in writing or the “New York Times Bestseller” title?
  • Completely Off-Topic…. ARCHER FARMS ROCKS!!!
  • Laurie speculates on when the honeymoon with Amazon ends…
  • What can the Big Six or other booksellers do against Amazon?
    • Amazon answers the challenge of brick-and-mortar stores…by opening their own?
    • Authors are finding themselves in a war between Amazon and New York.
  • Authors need to understand the business just as much as the art of their craft.
  • Could Amazon be the next Apple Store success? Or could they be the next Gateway?
  • Where can Amazon open their brick-and-mortar stores? (Where is your closest Borders?)
  • Challenges to Amazon’s brick-and-mortar stores
    • Will it be books…or books and other stuff
    • Customer service in real time
  • Pip draws a parallel between authors and Les Miserables…and Tee reminds Pip that things didn’t end well for the folks at the barricade…
  • The fate of authors in this future with Amazon
  • The dangers of putting all your eggs in one basket
  • Diversification: What authors (and agents) need to do

53:09 — The Wrap-Up

[display_podcast]
Find us on Twitter at either Tee’s or Pip’s account,
leave us a voicemail or question for the show at 703.791.1701,
or leave us a comment here at the blog.
Enjoy the ride
and we’ll catch you later.

6 Comments

Filed under Episodes

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

by | October 12, 2011 · 1:32 am

The Shared Desk — Episode #005: Concerning Cons


Breaking well beyond the boundaries of an hour, The Shared Desk brings you another on-the-road recording. This time, Pip and Tee are in Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas for FenCon VIII, and are joined by a rabble more of vile confederates:

  • Gail Carriger
  • Olivia M. Grey
  • Odin1eye
  • Beth Case
  • Ash Robbins
  • Machelle Grimes

The topic of the night — CONVENTIONS. Why do we pack up and head out for destinations unknown and why should authors consider paying them a visit? Join Tee & Pip poolside for this round table discussion on conventions from the author’s and the fan’s perspective.

00:00 — Introduction

  • Are you sure you’re Philippa Ballantine?
  • It was supposed to be a paperwork ceremony, but the neighbors had other ideas…
  • Kick back for this hour-long extravaganza recorded in the great state of Texas!

02:28 — Concerning Cons (with Gail, Olivia, Ash, Machelle, Beth, and Odin)

  • Introductions all around…
  • So what brings our guests to FenCon and what did they expect?
  • Odin gives his approval for FenCon’s Phineas & Ferb panel
  • Speaking to Gail about experiencing a con from the GoH’s point-of-view
  • Pip comes clean on how tough it was to “return to reality” after the Guest of Honor treatment.
  • What do you as a potential guest offer to the cons?
  • Tee shares a major faux pas that programmers can do to “enthusiastic” participants…
  • SHOUT OUT TO BALTICON!!!
  • A few words on Gail’s rack…
  • Beth Case introduces herself. (She was late as she was playing with robots.)
  • Ash is put on the spot: What could a newcomer bring to a con? (Let Tee tell you…)
  • What is a Rite of Ascension for a Would-Be Author?
  • The difference between Cons and Writers’ Conferences
  • SHOUT OUT TO SIN!
  • For Beth and Odin, what should the fans bring to the con? What would be considered good fan etiquette?
  • “Fanboi” can happen to anyone…even Pip’s dad…
  • Beth squees under peer pressure….and so begins spontaneous squeeing through the remainder of the podcast….
  • Moments of fanboi happen, even with authors on meeting their heroes…
  • Felicia Day makes Gail squee.
  • Pip and Tee look ahead to ComiCon…and Tee gushes a bit over Jared Axelrod. (Easy to do.)
  • Closing comments and promotions…with a SECOND SHOUT OUT TO BALTICON!!!
  • breaks the ONE HOUR BARRIER!

59:15 — Writing Advice from Crazy Uncle Charlie

  • If you’re going to break the one hour barrier, it might as well be with a Warlock Rock Star from Mars.
  • Questions for Crazy Uncle Charlie
    • From Olivia: What is your process for creating characters?
    • From Machelle: Should I use an outline, or dive into writing a story?
    • From Gail: Should I use a pseudonym?
  • C.U.C. is a little distracted by the present company, but he soldiers on…
  • What is it about Odin1eye that bothers C.U.C.?
  • Pip tries to keep C.U.C. on track. She tries…and tries…and tries…

1:06:16 — The Wrap-Up

  • The audio is barely two week’s old…and it’s already dated.
  • Heading to New York Comic Con this week!
  • Check out our websites for our New York Comic Con schedules.
  • We’re on an app!!!
  • But we are not done yet! We’re hooking up with friends at ComiKazie Expo in Los Angeles.
  • Chillaxing?! Seriously?!
  • Thanks, Gail, for this episode’s album art!
  • Yes, the next episode will not be super-sized. It’ll be just us. (Maybe…)

More Shout-Out’s During the Show…

[display_podcast]
Find us on Twitter at either Tee’s or Pip’s account,
leave us a voicemail or question for the show at 703.791.1701,
or leave us a comment here at the blog.
Enjoy the ride
and we’ll catch you later.

3 Comments

Filed under Episodes

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,