Tales from the Trunk Tales from the Trunk

This time around it is my absolute delight to welcome John Wiswell back to the show to talk about his debut novel, Someone You Can Build a Nest In, which just released this very week! We talk about John’s favorite bits both in and no longer in the book, along with conversation about language, games, and a surprise musical performance!
 
Things mentioned in this episode:
 
Premee Mohamed
Sarah Gailey
Caitlin Starling
“D.I.Y.” by John Wiswell
“Open House on Haunted Hill” and its Japanese cover

Katakana and Hiragana
Hunter x Hunter (2011)
Media Club Plus
Starred review in The Library Journal
Merc Fenn Wolfmoor
“This is Not a Wardrobe Door,” by Merc Fenn Wolfmoor
Sickos yes
4th Street Fantasy
Worldcon
John Scalzi
Ted Chiang
Martha Wells
Chuck Tingle
The Simpsons
The Arcadia Project trilogy, by Mishell Baker
Camp Damascus, by Chuck Tingle
Miri Baker
Tom Bombadil
Howard Tayler
Writing Excuses
Schlock Mercenary
Brandon Sanderson
Mary Robinette Kowal
Maurice Broaddus
Dongwon Song
Reservation Dogs
Holly, by Stephen King
Vacíos Cuerpos
Balatro
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Baldur’s Gate 3
Roguelike
Deck-builder
Calvinball
Hades
Friends at the Table Balatro stream
Austin Walker
Twilight Mirage and Spring in Hieron soundtracks
Bandcamp
Deep-fried jpegs
Is It Bandcamp Friday?
Web 1.0
John’s twitter, bluesky, insta, patreon, and substack
Escape Velocity, by Victor Manibo

This time around, it’s my pleasure to welcome longtime friend of the show Laura Blackwell! Laura reads to us from her very very trunked story, “Poor Prisoners,” which leads us into a wide-ranging discussion of things we wish we’d learned sooner, writers whose work we admire, and kindness to our past selves.
 
Things we mention in this episode:
 
Story Hour
LiveJournal
Dreamwidth
Macey’s Murderboard episode
All Our Yesterdays, by Hilary B. Bisenieks
Quaker Spec Fic issue
AO3
Omegaverse
The Iliad and Odyssey, by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson
Beowulf translated by Seamus Heaney and Maria Dahvana Headley
Grimms’ Fairy Tales
Lattimore, Fitzgerald, Fagles Homers
The Aeneid, by Virgil, translated by Robert Fagles
Paradise Lost, by John Milton
Translation State and the Imperial Radch trilogy, by Ann Leckie
The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years, by Shubnum Khan
Archival Quality, by Ivy Noelle Weir and Steenz
The Mütter Museum
Ivy’s episode
Just Like Home, by Sarah Gailey
The Death of Jane Lawrence, Last to Leave the Room, Yellow Jessamine, and The Luminous Dead, by Caitlin Starling
Megan E. O’Keefe
Megan’s first episode
Steve Toase
Amanda Cook
Jo Miles
SFWA
HWA
Premee Mohamed
She Walks in Shadows, edited by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Paula R. Stiles
Beneath the Rising, And What Can We Offer You Tonight, The Annual Migration of Clouds, and The Butcher of the Forest, by Premee Mohamed
System Collapse, by Martha Wells
Yuletide (fic exchange)
The Red River of the north
Lake Agassiz
Marie Brennan
Martha Wells
Ursula Vernon
Chuck Tingle
Sarah Gailey
Hugo Awards thing
Stoker Awards
Edenville, by Sam Rebelein
Camp Damascus, by Chuck Tingle
Hellraiser
Death Note manga, netflix, and anime
Potato chip eating scene
Death Note: The Musical
Laura’s website, bluesky, twitter, insta, mastodon
 
Join me next month when I’ll be talking to John Wiswell and Ivy Fox

To open this show’s sixth season, it is my total delight to welcome A.D. Sui to talk about her forthcoming novella, The Dragonfly Gambit, available later this year!
 
Things we mention in this episode:
 
Neon Hemlock Press
dave ring
:unhinged_vibrating:

:shaking_eyes:

Fix-it fic
Fanfiction dot net
Even Though I Knew the End book tour episode
Supernatural
Carl Engle-Laird
100th episode
Jared can’t read vine
Blue Eye Samurai
Family Guy
Rick and Morty
Anna’s twitter, insta, bluesky, and website
John Wiswell
Ursula T. Kingfisher Vernon
 

This time around, to close out season 5 of Tales from the Trunk, I’m thrilled to welcome Jo Miles to talk about the excellent conclusion to their Gifted of Brennex trilogy, Ravenous State! 
 
Things we mention this episode:Worldcon 76
Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie
Ninefox Gambit, by Yoon Ha Lee
Game of Thrones, by George R.R. Martin
Brandon Sanderson
A Wizard of Earthsea, by Ursula K. Le Guin
ART and Murderbot from The Murderbot Diaries, by Martha Wells
Starling House, by Alix E. Harrow
System Collapse, by Martha Wells
Warped State and Dissonant State, by Jo Miles
Jo’s mailing list, bluesky, insta, and mastodon

Today, it’s my pleasure to welcome back to the show Premee Mohamed! We talk about her new novella, The Butcher of the Forest, out February 27th from Tor.com books, and then feed something new to the trunk.
 
Things we mention this episode:
 
The Fifth Season, by N.K. Jemisin
Hansel & Gretel
Annihilation, by Jeff Vandermeer
Escape from LA
The Faerie Queene, by Edmund Spenser
Snake Plissken
LSBM

Van Helsing post
Dracula, by Bram Stoker
Red Deer Polytechnic
Thursday Next books, by Jasper Fforde
The Siege of Burning Grass, The Annual Migration of Clouds, and We Speak Through the Mountain, by Premee Mohamed
The Rider, The Ride, The Rich Man’s Wife, by Premee Mohamed
One Message Remains
“The General’s Turn,” by Premee Mohamed in The Deadlands
Sean Markey’s episode
Mysterious Galaxy event with John Wiswell, on February 28th 2024
Someone you Can Build a Nest In, by John Wiswell
The Two Doctors Górski, by Isaac Fellman
The Vanished Birds and The Spear Cuts Through Water, by Simon Jimenez
Premee’s bluesky, insta, patreon, and website
 
Stick around next week, when I’ll be talking to Jo Miles!
 

Once again, it’s time for an awards eligibility roundup! This episode’s transcript appears in full below:
 
Hello, and welcome to Tales from the Trunk: Nominating the works that did make it. I’m Hilary B. Bisenieks.
 
Listeners, it’s somehow that time of the year again, where awards nominations are upon us, and so I have once again reached out to all the wonderful guests who make this show what it is to round up works they’d like to receive your attention for nominations.
 
To begin, Tales from the Trunk is eligible for the Hugo Award for Best Fancast.
 
Sarah Gailey, who most recently joined me for our 100th episode retrospective, is eligible for Best Graphic Story for Know Your Station, and for Best Fanzine for their excellent Stone Soup.
 
Leigh Harlen, who joined us in August of 2021, is eligible for Best Novella with A Feast for Flies.
 
Dee Holloway, who joined us last May, is eligible in various categories. Her eligibility post is linked in the show notes.
 
Juliet Kemp, who just joined us most recently a few weeks ago, is eligible for Best Novel with The City Revealed; Best Novella with Song, Stone, Scale, Bone; Best Short Story with “Just As You Are;” and Best Series for The Marek Series. Their eligibility post is linked in the show notes.
 
Maya MacGregor, who appeared on the show in April of 2022, is eligible in Best Novel and Best Young Adult Novel categories for The Evolving Truth of Ever-Stronger Will.
 
Freya Marske, who appeared here in October of 2021, is eligible for Best Short Story with a version of the very story that she brought to this fine podcast, “One Version of Yourself, At the Speed of Light.” She is also eligible for Best Novel with A Power Unbound and Best Series for The Last Binding.
 
Sam J. Miller, who joined us in January of 2022, is eligible for Best Short Story with "If Someone You Love Has Become a Vurdalak."
 
Premee Mohamed, who last joined us in the summer of 2021, is eligible for No One Will Come Back For Us in various short story collection categories and for “Imagine Yourself Happy” for Best Short Story. Her eligibility post is linked in the show notes.
 
Annalee Newitz, who joined us for a book tour last January is eligible for Best Novel for The Terraformers.
 
Aimee Ogden, who joined us twice last year, most recently in August, is eligible for Best Novella for Emergent Properties. Her eligibility post is linked in the show notes.
 
Malka Older, who joined us at the start of this season in March of last year, is eligible for Best Novella with The Mimicking of Known Successes and for Best Short Story with both “The Plant and the Purist” and “The Dangers We Choose.”
 
C.L. Polk, who last joined us in February of last year, is eligible for Best Novelette with Ivy, Angelica, Bay, which you can read right now on Tor.com.
 
Caitlin Starling, who last joined us in October of last year, is eligible for Best Novel with Last to Leave the Room and Best Short Story for “Caver, Continue.” Her eligibility post is linked in the show notes: Twitter | Bluesky
 
Steve Toase, who joined us back in April of 2021, is eligible for Best Short Story with “Crumpled.” His eligibility post is linked in the show notes.
 
Rem Wigmore, who last joined us in August of 2022, has an eligible novelette, Lightrunner’s Gambit, and a novel, Wolfpack.
 
Fran Wilde, who joined us in January of 2021, is eligible for Best Novella for The Book of Gems, Best Short Story for “The Rain Remembers What The Sky Forgets,” and Best Short Story for “No Contingency.” In addition, she would like to recommend From a Certain Point of View: Return of the Jedi, in which “No Contingency” appears, to be considered for anthology and related media categories. Fran, along with Julian Yap, are eligible for Best Editor, Short, for their work at Sunday Morning Transport, which is itself eligible for Best Semiprozine.
 
If you’ve made it this far, I’d like to sincerely