The Coode Street Podcast

Episode 515: Ten Minutes with Ellen Kushner

Ten minutes with... is a special series presented by Coode Street that sees readers and booklovers from around the world talk about what they're reading right now and what's getting them through these difficult times.

Multiple award-winning author, editor, narrator, and radio personality Ellen Kushner chats with Gary about moving back to New York; ordering favorite children’s and YA books from independent bookstores; reading Edward Eager, E. Nesbit, Frances Hodgson Burnett, and Joan Aiken; the brilliance of Frances Hardinge; group reading Shakespeare with friends online; the University of Glasgow’s new fantasy study center; and odd historical genres like “silver-fork novels.”

Books mentioned include:

• The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken
• Night Birds on Nantucket by Joan Aiken
• Dido and Pa by Joan Aiken
• Deeplight by Frances Hardinge
• The Midnight Bargain by C.L. Polk
• Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho
• The True Queen by Zen Cho
• Silk & Steel: An Adventure Anthology of Queer SF&F with High Femmes & Dashing Women edited by Janine A. Southard (forthcoming)

 

Episode 514: Alix E. Harrow and The Once and Future Witches

For the first time since way back in March when they chatted with N.K. Jemisin, Jonathan and Gary are joined by a guest.

This time the wonderful Alix E. Harrow, author of the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy nominated The Ten Thousand Doors of January and the forthcoming The Once and Future Witches joins Jonathan and Gary to chat about reinventing fairy tale materials for the modern age, the recent resurgence of novels about witches, the difference between secret histories (as in her earlier novel) and alternate histories (as in the new one), using fantasy to address social and historical issues such as women’s suffrage, and her short fiction including "A Witch's Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies".

As always, our thanks to Alix for making time to join us, and we hope you enjoy the episode. We'll be back tomorrow with another episode of "Ten Minutes with..." and will see you back here in two weeks with another special guest!

Books mentioned include:

• The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow (due Oct 15)
• The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

Episode 513: Ten Minutes with Candas Jane Dorsey

Ten minutes with... is a special series presented by Coode Street that sees readers and booklovers from around the world talk about what they're reading right now and what's getting them through these difficult times.

Multiple award-winning author, poet, and educator Candas Jane Dorsey talks with Gary about teaching writing online, how her communications students seem to be better motivated in recent years, the appeal of detective stories (which John Gardner included among "moral fictions"), why middle-aged women read Jack Reacher novels, and her own forthcoming series of mystery novels and forthcoming YA novel.

Books mentioned include:

• The Adventures of Isabel: An Epitome Apartments Mystery by Candas Jane Dorsey
• Ice and Other Stories by Candas Jane Dorsey
• Black Wine by Candas Jane Dorsey
• A Paradigm of Earth by Candas Jane Dorsey
• Crimes and Survivors by Sarah Smith
• The Vanished Child by Sarah Smith
• Gideon the Ninth by Tamsin Muir
• Harrow the Ninth by Tamsin Muir
• On Moral Fiction by John Gardner
• Jack Reacher novels by Lee Child

Episode 512: Ten Minutes with Micaiah Johnson

Ten minutes with... is a special series presented by Coode Street that sees readers and booklovers from around the world talk about what they're reading right now and what's getting them through these difficult times.

Today Jonathan chats with exciting debut novelist Micaiah Johnson about the strangeness of lockdown in Nashville, struggling to work in the early stages of quarantine, the pleasures of listening to creepy horror audiobooks, her early memories of reading genre fiction, and how she found her way to writing book that became The Space Between Worlds.

Books mentioned include:

• The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson
• Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
• Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
• Home Before Dark by Riley Sager
• Lock Every Door by Riley Sager
• The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager

Episode 511: Ten Minutes with Cecelia Holland

Ten minutes with... is a special series presented by Coode Street that sees readers and booklovers from around the world talk about what they're reading right now and what's getting them through these difficult times.

Widely respected historical novelist (and very occasional SF or fantasy writer) Cecelia Holland talks with Gary about the smoky conditions in northern California, the joys of doing research, her own new novel about Mongol invasions in the Middle East, and the small comforts of reading favourite poets like W.H. Auden, Richard Howard, and Edna St. Vincent Millay.

Books mentioned include:

• Heart of the World by Cecelia Holland
• The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777 by Rick Atkinson
• Washington’s Crossing by David Hackett Fischer
• Plagues and Peoples by William McNeill
• A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe
• The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley
• The Bedlam Stacks by Natasha Pulley

Episode 510: Ten Minutes with Chaz Brenchley

Ten minutes with... is a special series presented by Coode Street that sees readers and booklovers from around the world talk about what they're reading right now and what's getting them through these difficult times.

Today Jonathan fires up Skype to talk to Chaz Brenchley about the strange challenges of these times, the comfort to be found reading crime and mystery novels, living and working a short walk from SETI and NASA in Silicon Valley, combining girls school novels and steampunk (and the accompanying Mrs Bailey's Recipes for Medium), taking control of his own publishing, his new short story collection and more.

Crater School

Chaz has been working on a series of English girls' boarding-school stories set on Mars. You can sample the Charter School on his website and read more on his Patreon.

Books mentioned include:

• Everything in all the Wrong Order: The Best of Chaz Brenchley by Chaz Brenchley (forthcoming 2021)
• Ancestral Night by Elizabeth Bear
• Velocity Weapon by Megan E. O'Keefe
• Dr. Siri Paiboun Series by Colin Cotterill
• Bangkok 8 by John Burdett
• The Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes Series by Laurie R. King
• Slough House Series by Mick Herron

Episode 509: Ten Minutes with Lev Grossman (redux)

A reissue, with apologies.

Episode 509: Ten Minutes with Lev Grossman

Ten minutes with... is a special series presented by Coode Street that sees readers and booklovers from around the world talk about what they're reading right now and what's getting them through these difficult times.

Today Jonathan spends some time chatting with Lev Grossman about living and working during the pandemic, spending more time than usual with your loved ones, focussing on work, writing for a different audience, and his brand new middle-grade novel, The Silver Arrow.

Books mentioned include:

• The Silver Arrow by Lev Grossman
• Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
• The Trouble with Peace by Joe Abercrombie