Bad Lit Friends

Bad Lit Friends
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Bad Lit Friends is a writing podcast that barely knows what it's doing. And that’s the point. Hosted by fiction writers Meagan Thompson-Mann and Kirk Rafferty, this show is equal parts craft discussion, existential despair, ego massage, and wildly unsolicited hot takes. Each episode blends honest conversations about the creative process, the publishing industry, and the messiness of trying to create highfalutin art, with hot-and-occasionally-right takes, and a dash of internet drama. If you've ever felt like you're writing into the void, you're not alone — grab a seat, bring your worst draft.

  1. 3d ago

    BLF Goes to the Polls: Politics, Publishing, and Petulance (Part 2)

    We’re back with another part of our election season series, and like the US midterm campaign, it’s been going on for what feels like YEARS. This week, we get into the sordid story of the Sad Puppies and Rabid Puppies: the conservative campaigns to save the Hugo Awards from the horrible blue-haired woke types. Spoiler: it didn’t work. Featuring “no award” sweeps, even MORE questions about who gets a seat at the table (this is getting old), and white supremacists that used to be in techno bands, we’ve got a little for everyone to hate! And in Hot Goss: James Patterson is writing a romantasy, because, like, how hard can it be? It has NO tropes. NONE. Not a single trope. There is definitely nothing that sounds like the plot of Shrek, and the cover looks like the Firefox logo, but there are definitely no tropes, okay? Welcome to Bad Lit Friends. We're glad you're here, even if none of us know what we're doing.Bad Lit Friends was created and is hosted by Meagan Thompson-Mann and Kirk Rafferty. Email: ⁠badlitfriends@gmail.com Bluesky: ⁠⁠@badlitfriends.bsky.social⁠ Threads: ⁠@badlitfriends⁠ Instagram: ⁠@badlitfriends⁠ YouTube:⁠ https://www.youtube.com/@BadLitFriends⁠ Website: ⁠badlitfriends.com⁠ Show notes: Sad Puppies/Rabid Puppies background: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sad_Puppies  Correia: Sad Puppies post — https://monsterhunternation.com/2014/04/20/a-blow-has-been-struck-against-puppy-related-sadness/  Hugos: 2015 official results — https://www.thehugoawards.org/hugo-history/2015-hugo-awards/  Hoyt: A Lengthy Explanation — https://accordingtohoyt.com/2018/11/27/a-lengthy-explanation/  ConCarolinas statement — https://concarolinas.org/john-ringo/  James Patterson doesn’t do tropes, capisce? https://screenrant.com/james-patterson-online-controversy-romantasy-comments-explained/  Sophie Paul’s amazing book Only One Summer in Berlin: https://mybook.to/OnlyOneSummerInBerlin

  2. Oct 23

    BLF Goes to the Polls: Politics, Publishing, and Petulance (Part 1)

    It's election season, and your Bad Lit Friends are getting political! (As if we weren't already, every day, and twice on Tuesdays.) This week, we kick off what was supposed to be a two-part series about politics in Booklandia, but you know us: why do two episodes when you could do three? First up: Erica Choinka, author of the new political romance Open Seat, who says her conservative beliefs are getting her shut out of the book community. But is this political persecution or is there something else going on? (Spoiler: there’s something else going on and it’s gross.) We have thoughts about free speech, book banning, bookstore shelves, the Miller test (surprise, you’re in law school!), and why nobody owes you a seat at their table. Even if you bring cake. Plus, Meagan desperately wants everyone to be better people, Kirk is considerably less optimistic, and a trip to a Robert Mapplethorpe exhibition makes an unexpected appearance. And in Hot Goss: a suspicious literary agency called Chapter House Literary has appeared online, and Meagan has been doing some detective work. Writers beware, indeed! Next week: the Hugo Awards, Sad Puppies, Rabid Puppies, and MORE political petulance, but sadly no hush puppies or real puppies. We know, we suck. Welcome to Bad Lit Friends. We're glad you're here, even if none of us know what we're doing. Bad Lit Friends was created and is hosted by Meagan Thompson-Mann and Kirk Rafferty. Email: ⁠badlitfriends@gmail.com Bluesky: ⁠⁠@badlitfriends.bsky.social⁠ Threads: ⁠@badlitfriends⁠ Instagram: ⁠@badlitfriends⁠ YouTube:⁠ https://www.youtube.com/@BadLitFriends⁠ Website: ⁠badlitfriends.com⁠ Show notes: Open Seat: https://www.fmcbooks.com/products/open-seat (if you’re going to buy it, send money to a women- and queer-owned indie bookstore in Montana, not Amazon, for Christ’s sake) Reads with Rachel, Authors Behaving Badly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeOeNDnxsJY  The Professional Left Podcast with Driftglass and Blue Gal: https://proleftpod.com/  Chapter House Literary thread from Alexander Phoenix: https://www.threads.com/share/DgIbaxtJ0/  The inimitable Victoria Strauss’s Writer Beware: https://writerbeware.blog/  Absolute Write forums: https://absolutewrite.com/forums/

  3. Oct 19

    Hypocrisy in Booklandia, Part 4

    In this episode, we finally--FINALLY--wrap up our epic journey through hypocrisy in Booklandia. We swear this is the last one. Probably. This time we’re talking about the contradiction at the heart of being a writer: everyone wants you to write the book only you can write, but they would also very much like that book to be marketable, easily categorized, comparable to three recent bestsellers, and be able to pick the wood grain of the exact Barnes & Noble table it will land on. We also talk about comps, genre identity crises, commercial expectations, and why sometimes gatekeeping is actually necessary.In a Goodreads side trek, why allowing a 0.25-star review while keeping five stars as the maximum is especially brutal for indie authors and writers vulnerable to review bombing. And finally, in Hot Goss, we return to hypocrisy in spectacular fashion with a Wired investigation into publishers quietly using AI while writers are being told not to. Bad Lit Friends was created and is hosted by Meagan Thompson-Mann and Kirk Rafferty. Show email: badlitfriends@gmail.comBluesky: @badlitfriends.bsky.socialThreads: @badlitfriendsInstagram: @badlitfriendsWebsite: https://www.badlitfriends.com/ Show notes: “Book Publishers Are Quietly Using More AI, Staff Are Revolting” — Wired https://www.wired.com/story/book-publishers-are-quietly-using-more-ai-staff-are-revolting/

  4. Oct 9

    Rocky Mountain Redux: BLF Goes to a Conference (Again)

    BLF went to the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Colorado Gold Conference, and we’re baaaaack! We discuss how best to get your butt to a conference — planes, trains, and automobiles — and why writers might want to do such a strange thing in the first place. It’s not all hobnobing with the bigwigs, after all, and conferences are expensive. So we talk budgeting, volunteering, scholarship opportunities, room sharing, and the general calculus of whether it’s worth going. (It is, if you can swing it. Seriously.) Also: we get into why you might even want to do something as nutty as this in the first place, and why the good stuff happens outside the meeting rooms. Speaking of which: Meagan had kind of A Week, all of it good, and an acrylic plaque may be involved. Kirk had an elevator ride with Stephen Graham Jones which he can scarcely believe happened. And we both reflect on what we liked most out of this year’s conference, and we get a little soppy. Just a little! There’s still swearing! HOT GOSS: A lesser-informed Thriend posted that she tries not to wince every time a character smells something, because sensory description reads as try-hard literary posturing. The comments were insane, which is what you want on Threads, right? RIGHT???? Next week: part four of Hypocrisy in Booklandia. Unbelievably, we have more to say. Welcome to Bad Lit Friends. We're glad you're here, even if none of us know what we're doing.Bad Lit Friends was created and is hosted by Meagan Thompson-Mann and Kirk Rafferty. Show email: ⁠badlitfriends@gmail.com Bluesky: ⁠⁠@badlitfriends.bsky.social⁠ Threads: ⁠@badlitfriends⁠ Instagram: ⁠@badlitfriends⁠ YouTube:⁠ https://www.youtube.com/@BadLitFriends⁠ Website: ⁠badlitfriends.com⁠ Show notes: Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers: https://rmfw.org/ DVPit (for 2027): https://dvpit.carrd.co/

  5. Oct 2

    One Rule for Me: Hypocrisy in Booklandia, Part 3

    There was simply too much bookish hypocrisy to contain in two episodes, so here’s Part Three. Of Four. (sorrynotsorry) This week: It’s all things transparency. Specifically, the kind you're required to have as a querying author versus the kind publishing extends to you, which is ummmmm approximately none. We also dig into deadlines. Authors are professionals, which means you need to meet them. Publishing is slow, which means... the biz end totally doesn’t have to. Sounds very fair and very, very cool! And then Hot Goss. Four Black debut authors all accused of AI-generated writing, all via Pangram, whose claims HAVE STILL NEVER BEEN INDEPENDENTLY VERIFIED. We have noticed a pattern and you will too. The latest situation is complicated by plagiarism allegations from a decade ago, and we discuss who is and isn't being thrown in the wood chipper, and get into what condiments should be on offer when you eat the rich.  Welcome to Bad Lit Friends. We're glad you're here, even if none of us know what we're doing.Bad Lit Friends was created and is hosted by Meagan Thompson-Mann and Kirk Rafferty. Show email: ⁠badlitfriends@gmail.com Bluesky: ⁠⁠@badlitfriends.bsky.social⁠ Threads: ⁠@badlitfriends⁠ Instagram: ⁠@badlitfriends⁠ YouTube:⁠ https://www.youtube.com/@BadLitFriends⁠ Website: ⁠badlitfriends.com⁠ Meagan is on TikTok! https://www.tiktok.com/@m_essary Show notes: Thélyson Orélien:  https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/sep/25/thelyson-orelien-goncourt-prize-france  https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/25/world/europe/thelyson-orelien-ai-canada-haiti-france.html?unlocked_article_code=1.FVE.lmDB.MUihgPY14sxg&smid=url-share (gift link -- thank you, LA Public Libraries for your free NY Times access because we’re not paying to prop up that rag that occasionally has some articles we want to read, OKAY???) Also Meagan buckled and bought a new laptop so the sound should be vastly improved. SorryYESsorry!

  6. Sep 25

    One Rule for Me: Hypocrisy in Booklandia, Part 2

    We’re back for part two of our series on hypocrisy in Booklandia, and this week we're asking why readers get to be messy while authors are expected to be saints. If you're a writer, you're supposed to accept criticism gracefully, never respond to reviews, maintain an impeccable social media history, and somehow remain above reproach at all times. Sounds reasonable! We talk about review bombing, the unwritten rules of authors reviewing other authors, and the increasingly weird parasocial relationships between writers and their readers. Also, the expectation that authors should be endlessly accessible, endlessly authentic, and endlessly willing to work for free. And we kinda have some thoughts about the value of creative labor. Spoiler: it's not zero. In Hot Goss: Jerry Falade speaks! We revisit the controversy surrounding the debut author accused of using AI, discuss his fascinating response about the influence of Yoruba language and storytelling on his writing. Are we really going to start rewriting our own voices to satisfy a machine's idea of what human writing should sound like? Because that seems like a perfectly normal direction for publishing to take. Bad Lit Friends was created and is hosted by Meagan Thompson-Mann and Kirk Rafferty. Show email: badlitfriends@gmail.com Bluesky: @badlitfriends.bsky.social Threads: @badlitfriends Instagram: @badlitfriends Website: https://www.badlitfriends.com/ Show notes: Reader behavior:https://time.com/6078993/goodreads-review-bombing/ Author-reader intimacy / promotion:https://authors.apple.com/support/3978-social-media-promote-bookhttps://www.ucpress.edu/resources/book-authors/author-promotions-toolkit/checklisthttps://authorsguild.org/resource/promoting-books-without-social-media/ Author labor / promotion:https://www.ucpress.edu/resources/book-authors/author-promotions-toolkithttps://tinhousepress.com/2026/08/20/your-book-is-out-now-what-a-realistic-guide-to-marketing-and-publicity/https://go.authorsguild.org/contract_sections/12 Jerry Falade gives his side of the story: https://kathleenschmidt.substack.com/p/exclusive-author-jerry-falade-reflects

  7. Sep 18

    One Rule for Me: Hypocrisy in Booklandia, Part 1

    Booklandia is a vibes-based economy, and this week the vibe is: one rule for me, one rule for thee, and absolutely zero self-awareness about the difference. Zero, zilch, nada. We're kicking off a multi-parter on hypocrisy in publishing, specifically the kind where authors are expected to document their entire creative process like they're preparing for a witch trial, while publishers hire AI engineers and call it “efficient” and “the future.” Yeah, sure, okay. We also get into querying, where you will follow every bespoke submission guideline to the letter and be grateful for the form rejection, peon. At least we didn’t ghost you! In Hot Goss: the sheer fraudacity of grifters continues to astound us. Up on the block: when scammers pretend that they are the truly scammed amongst us. So sad, I’m not crying at all. Part 2 is coming, and we have feelings. Several of them, and some of them right (maybe)! Welcome to Bad Lit Friends. We're glad you're here, even if none of us know what we're doing.Bad Lit Friends was created and is hosted by Meagan Thompson-Mann and Kirk Rafferty. Show email: ⁠badlitfriends@gmail.com Bluesky: ⁠@badlitfriends.bsky.social Threads: @badlitfriends Instagram: @badlitfriends YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BadLitFriends Website: badlitfriends.com Show notes: AI / research: https://aalitagents.org/generative-ai-warning-for-authors-sample https://authorsguild.org/resource/ai-best-practices-for-authors/ https://abigailfentoneditorial.substack.com/p/no-you-cant-write-your-novel-with-ai https://www.grahammawchristie.com/submissions Publishing using AI: https://authorsguild.org/news/use-of-ai-in-publishing-and-new-model-contract-clause/ https://authorsguild.org/advocacy/artificial-intelligence/ai-model-clauses/ https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/digital/copyright/article/100211-authors-guild-speaks-out-on-publisher-ai-use.html Querying: https://janefriedman.com/when-and-how-to-nudge-agents/ https://nathanbransford.com/blog/2026/01/how-often-to-follow-up-with-a-literary-agent

  8. Sep 11

    Even more Lies, Damn Lies, and Listicles: On Blacklists and Book Bans Part 3

    We are FINALLY wrapping up our accidental trilogy on author blacklists, book bans, and the dangers of missing context, and we will do this by providing context, so there's that! We talk about what it means to designate a writer as dangerous, problematic, or even culturally "forbidden." From the fatwa against Salman Rushdie to N*zi book burnings, McCarthyism, and today’s organized school and library bans, we explore why “just a list on Threads or Instagram” isn’t as harmless as it might seem. You’re allowed to dislike writers. You’re allowed to hate their books. But maybe don’t participate in cultural purges? Would be cool if you didn't. And in Hot Goss: the Horror Writers Association has stepped in it yet again. We unravel the increasingly ugly dispute between former HWA executive director Max Gold and the organizers of Creepaway Camp, HWA's recent leadership turmoil, and why HWA may need to clean house before it goes the way of the Romance Writers of America. (Remember them?) Bad Lit Friends was created and is hosted by Meagan Thompson-Mann and Kirk Rafferty. Show email: [badlitfriends@gmail.com](mailto:badlitfriends@gmail.com) Bluesky: @badlitfriends.bsky.social Threads: @badlitfriends Instagram: @badlitfriends Website: https://www.badlitfriends.com/ Show notes: Horror Writers Association is the hottest mess out there: https://www.threads.com/@brian_keene/post/DckHjFWDVRT?xmt=AQG0vmkgyXcoM8xsEBN8kSYXx2b3tM6wPh_yv8jCSDhLIhHeBpldb7fEf9_DeI9-o0bAReey&slof=1Angela Yuriko Smith on her resignation as president of HWA: https://www.threads.com/@pedroparo2/post/DcpBXnWjwZk?xmt=AQG0HmZqWBPJuiBpGHx-_PXXCR3GOMgkwYgnS6wKb-As1HuHbytU2BN37IZkKLH5K53kfug https://www.fandompulse.com/p/hwa-dissolves-its-executive-director https://www.prospectpark.org/event/sugar-shock-a-new-play-by-regina-robbins/2026-09-27/PEN America: 6,870 school-book bans in the 2024–25 school year; nearly 23,000 since 2021: https://pen.org/report/the-normalization-of-book-banning American Library Association counted 5,668 books banned from libraries in 2025 and another 920 restricted. 92% of 2025 challenges originated with pressure groups, government officials, or other decision-makers. Fewer than 3% came from individual parents: https://pen.org/report/the-normalization-of-book-banning This is organized list-based censorship: people circulating rosters of titles, often without reading them, and demanding institutional removal. Lists, you say? Huh! Uh oh, it’s that man again! (Meagan deals in current references only, which is why she just made one to a BBC radio programme that started in the late 1930s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flvKCWIfT2w)

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About

Bad Lit Friends is a writing podcast that barely knows what it's doing. And that’s the point. Hosted by fiction writers Meagan Thompson-Mann and Kirk Rafferty, this show is equal parts craft discussion, existential despair, ego massage, and wildly unsolicited hot takes. Each episode blends honest conversations about the creative process, the publishing industry, and the messiness of trying to create highfalutin art, with hot-and-occasionally-right takes, and a dash of internet drama. If you've ever felt like you're writing into the void, you're not alone — grab a seat, bring your worst draft.

Information

  • Creator
    Bad Lit Friends
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    63
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Bad Lit Friends
  • Show Website
    Bad Lit Friends

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