Fantasy+Girls Podcast

• FANTASY+GIRLS
  
  My Favorite Apocalypse Ep 4: The Apocalypse Goes Goth
  
  
  • EJ and Em have been gone...for a while. It is now July—months away from when they began the series in April
  • EJ and Em talk about how things have changed since the miniseries began.
  • EJ and Em discuss the Black Lives Matter movement, how it is necessary, and how it is changing publishing. The hosts discuss easy ways that you can support Black authors and creators.
  • Em and EJ discuss the twitter hashtag #publishingpaidme on twitter and how it revealed the pay gap between white authors and everyone else, especially Black authors in the same genres.
  • Em says it is imperative that the SFF genre embrace diversity so that we can experience weird and wonderful stories. EJ explains how this benefits readers and consumers—how everyone benefits when there are more seats at the table filled by diverse authors.
  • Em gives credit to the creator of the #publishingpaidme twitter hashtag, author L.L. McKinney. EJ loves all things Alice in Wonderland, and the hosts chat about how good L.L. McKinney’s a new series based on the classic novel, A BLADE SO BLACK, looks.
  • EJ asks readers to check out #OwnVoices books and explains exactly what that means and why that is important.
  • EJ suggests listeners check out BlackAndBookish.com
  • EJ suggests DREAD NATION by author Justina Ireland. The historical fantasy/horror is a fresh take on zombies/zombie hunters. The book manages to be a zombie book that also examines the historic time period and slavery, but is also accessible and modern.
  • EJ’s second books suggestion is THE POPPY WAR. The hosts take a tangent down Libby lane. They adore Libby—who wouldn’t? It’s amazing. The Libby app will cause you to read faster because it is a race to read the book before the library takes the book back off of your device. EJ has checked out the POPPY WAR three times because Libby keeps taking it.
  • Em says she has been making a cognizant decision to read even more diversely. She is about to give her book picks, but takes a very on-brand detour to say she has been working on a darker work of fiction herself, as well as watching darker shows and even reading darker fiction. EJ jumps on board and says her current show is HANNIBAL..
  • Em says that since she has been writing such a dark book, she has been trying to read some fluffy, fun reads to keep her mind right. Em explains she is also currently reading five books at one time (ADHD has perks). Her current read is I WANNA BE WHERE YOU ARE by Kristina Forest.
  • EJ just finished THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE. Em suggests taking a Shirley Jackson deep dive.
  • Em explains that she knows she is supposed to be talking about the apocalypse, but her current reads have been all over the place. Recently, she has finished CIRCE by Madeline Miller (which is Em’s favorite book of the year so far). Then she read a vampire book. Then a DEXTER book. Then a horror book titled, THE RETURN by Rachel Harrison. Em read MY LOVELY WIFE.
  • EJ asks Em if she has heard the buzz about MEXICAN GOTHIC by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. EJ has FOMO. She wants to read it so bad. Em wants all the gothic stories forever and ever.
  • Em has a MEXICAN GOTHIC story. Em has been anticipated this book for months and months. She is about to start the audiobook.
  • EJ is super excited about the book CATHERINE HOUSE by Elisabeth Thomas.
  • Em loves the comps—NEVER LET ME GO is amazing.
  • Em is ready to dig into MEM by Bethany C. Morrow.
  • WESTWORLD SPOILERS AROUND THE 25 MINUTE MARK.
  • Em confesses that she thought she would thrive in the current environment, but now knows she would actually die pretty quickly in a real apocalypse.
  • Em’s next book recommendation is FRANKENSTEIN IN BAGHDAD by Ahmed Saadawi.
  • EJ says how many people have retreated from the current world into romance novels, however she has fallen into dark, thriller, horror genre novels/shows.
  • Em commiserates that she often falls down the dark-fic rabbit hole. Sometimes after a binge, she thinks you need to almost read or watch something light to shake off the morbidity of darker books.
  • Full circle to Hannibal. EJ loves it—though it is admittedly gruesome.
  • HANNIBAL SPOILERS AROUND THE 28:20 MARK.
  • EJ tells a gruesome Hannibal plot point that has Em unable to cope.
  • The take another (on-brand) detour to Hannibal.
  • Why are our hosts still talking about cannibalism? Who knows?
  • Em has watched every WUTHERING HEIGHTS adaptation available to stream. She knows she shouldn’t, but there is something about the toxic/terrible relationship between Heathcliff and Catherine.
  • EJ points out that JANE EYRE is in many ways the opposite of Wuthering Heights. Wuthering Heights is no restraint or boundaries—basically two ...

FANTASY+GIRLS
My Favorite Apocalypse Ep. 3: And We’re All Out of Bubble Gum

Note: This episode was recorded in April, before the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor at the hands of police, and the subsequent protests. When Em and EJ talk about the current state of the world, they are referring to the very beginning of quarantine. FANTASY+GIRL Podcast stands behind Black Lives Matter. For our full Black Lives Matter statement, commentary on its impact on publishing, and how to support black authors, see the opening of episode 4 in this miniseries.

It is about to get really wacky on here!

• Picture this: it’s the ’80s. Perms. Bleached mullets. Bruce Willis still had hair and your favorite hosts were only babies! There’s all kinds of movie goodness that came out during this time. But what she chose is C movie deliciousness that has somehow achieved cult status online. Em discovered this movie during a Halloween parade and has wanted to watch it ever since and she finally had an excuse (as if she needed one!).
• Em sets the scene: Imagine your mullet is blowing in the wind. You mosey into town in your acid washed jeans...also you’re a dude. You roll up to a homeless camp that somehow has an outdoor television with cable. But every so often there is static as something breaks illegally into the signal to proclaim, “They are among us and we are only safe because we don’t know about them! Wake up! They live!”
• Em is talking about the cult classic THEY LIVE!
• The main character of the movie refuses to believe in the scrambled random cable messages until one day when he picks up a random pair of sunglasses and suddenly he can see the truth! They live among us! Aliens disguised as humans! Ah!
• With these random tech sunglasses you can read all of the subliminal messages that surround you in daily advertising.
• This is the movie that gave us the one liners “You look like last week’s cheese dip!” and “I came here to kick ass and chew bubble gum...and I’m all out of bubble gum!” and “Mama don’t like no tattle tales!” and “Life’s a bitch and she’s in heat.”
• There’s no explanation of why the aliens are here, or why we care the aliens are here. The movie definitely isn’t plot heavy and if you love plot holes and senseless action scenes and a definite ’80s aesthetic, this might be for you! Just...don’t overthink it. It’s pretty terrible in a drinking game kind of way.
• Em admits that it is more pre-apocalypse than true apocalypse. And it definitely isn’t post-apocalypse.
• Em says the movie has quite the online following once she began digging into it.
• EJ’s pick is also pre-apocalypse. She asks Em if she is familiar with INVADER ZIM.
• EJ was obsessed with Invader Zim in college. It was her first binge watch—before binge watching was a thing. EJ lets Em know she can still find Invader Zim online on youtube.
• EJ gives us the premise: there are aliens who are planning to execute Operation Impending Doom 2 (bc Operation Impending Doom 1 failed).
• Their entire hierarchy of alien power is based on height. We meet our invader, Zim, who is the reason the first Operation Impending Doom failed.
• Invader Zim gets sent to Earth (just so his leaders can get rid of him...although he thinks he is on an important mission.) Every episode is about taking over the world. EJ proclaims that it has one of the best soundtracks of any animated show.
• EJ says the show has a very PINKY AND THE BRAIN feel. Em is here for it—she loves Pinky and the Brain.
• Em asks EJ if she saw the animated movie Home because the people who wrote it must have been fans of Invader Zim.
• Em asks how could they forget HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY by Douglas Adams? EJ says it’s one of the few stories that begins with a true apocalypse—the destruction of the Earth. If Em remembers correctly, the world was destroyed to make room for an interstellar highway and Earth forgot to file paperwork to avoid being destroyed. However, the dolphins knew what was up!
• Em talks about how people are still super fans of this series and you can still spot stickers on people’s cars that say, “So long and thanks for all the fish,” and, “Don’t panic!” It makes Em super happy and EJ interjects that it’s always relevant.
• Em admits that all of the episodes are running together and she wonders if they were supposed to research sweet apocoli. Who knows?
• Em brings up for LOOKING FOR A FRIEND AT THE END OF THE WORLD with Steve Carrell and Kiera Knightly.
• EJ brings up the heaviest, artsy, moodiest apocalypse movie: MELANCHOLIA. Melancholia is dark the entire time, however it was visually beautiful.
• EJ says that the movie was more about beautiful scenes than plot.
• Em still struggles saying Apocalyptic....

FANTASY+GIRLS
My Favorite Apocalypse Ep. 2: Radioactive Carrots

Note: This episode was recorded in April, before the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor at the hands of police, and the subsequent protests. When Em and EJ talk about the current state of the world, they are referring to the very beginning of quarantine. FANTASY+GIRL Podcast stands behind Black Lives Matter. For our full Black Lives Matter statement, commentary on its impact on publishing, and how to support black authors, see the opening of episode 4 in this miniseries.

What is the plural of apocalypse, anyway?

• Signed and approved—the plural of apocalypse is apocolypti. And can it be bad if there are chicken enchiladas involved? There are still no zombies—which is kind of disappointing but probably a good thing.
• Em chats about the movie version of I AM LEGEND and how fun it was. It was loosely based on the story (novella?) I AM LEGEND by Richard Matheson. Em re-reads it every few years. It was the first book that Em read in the apocalyptic genre that made her go, “huh?” She talks about the difference between the movie and the book and explains the monsters from the book to EJ and how the title makes so much more sense in the book.
• EJ wonders, as an author, how it would feel if Hollywood takes your story and completely changes it. Em thinks that even though the book was written long ago, that the book and the movie evoke the same feeling. There were a lot of similarities with a majorly different ending.
• It reminds EJ of the TWILIGHT ZONE episode where the woman is having her face done (episode: EYE OF THE BEHOLDER. Original: 1959. Remake: 2002)...except if they ended the episode before the big twist.
• EJ says it’s like the entire point is gone.
• Em is a Twilight Zone super fan. EJ, too. The girls geek out about it for a moment and discuss the Twilight Zone episode TO SERVE MAN. EJ watched it in grade school, which led to a Twilight Zone club at school where kids gathered to watch episodes at lunch.
• Em would have killed for geek friends. She tried to explain it to her jock friends, “You don’t understand! They were serving man! It was a cookbook!” only to be looked at as if she were bananas.
• Em circles back to THE SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE bc it reminds her of IT’S A COOKBOOK!
• EJ points out that maybe Em has a thing for cannibal tales (as a joke!). The girls crack themselves up.
• They begin chatting about THE WALKING DEAD. EJ thinks Em should give it another shot.
• Em loved the zombies but bailed when it got to the season where survivors were trapping and cooking each other. She noped right on out.
• Em tells a story about her dad letting her watch whatever she wanted when her mom was working nights as a nurse. She recalls watching TOTAL RECALL(the original) and her dad pausing it and making her cover her eyes every so often. But she peeked and was mesmerized (scarred?) by the three boobed alien.
• Pros and cons of three boobs? There are many!
• EJ’s take on the apocalypse is RESIDENT EVIL. They have the BEST monsters.
• Resident Evil released in 2002, but seems very 90s. EJ was never a gamer so she wasn’t familiar with the content.
• EJ says it is so campy and over the top, but the monsters are truly terrible. She would never survive in that particular apocalypse. Em says no one would bc the monsters are constantly evolving.
• Em tells the story of watching the last installment at the theatre with her sisters at a midnight showing. They were the only ones in the theatre and were so loud and obnoxious—it was great!
• EJ wants to be Alice.
• EJ says she could survive the Walking Dead apocalypse. Em says that she thinks that she could—but isn’t sure she would. After a year of zombies, no electricity, no toilets, or antibiotics, she isn’t sure she’d want to keep playing.
• Em asks EJ if she ever read LILITH’S BROOD by Octavia Butler. (Possibly disused during the Halloween episode).
• Em hasn’t re-read it probably in ten years, but she can still remember so much of it because it is THAT GOOD. Mankind has ended, but survivors wake up on a spaceship manned by a nomadic alien race called the Oankali. Em says it is the most bizarre thing she’s ever read but also the most interesting.
• The way the Oankali survive is by inter-breeding with new species. They are peaceful and do not force themselves or take over—but they offer their way as an alternative to Earth’s dying planet.
• Em says she is making the plot sound campy, but truthfully it is a heartfelt, strange book. It is the kind of book that makes you really want to meet the author because it is so involved that you know the person who came up with the world has a lot of going on with their imagination.
• EJ brings up COWBOYS VS....

There’s been a strong mad scientist motif running lately with a feminist bent, and we needed to talk about it. Poor Things. Lisa Frankenstein. The Tortured Poets Department--we get into all of it, plus some of our other faves on the trope.

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