In this special election season bonus episode of Connect the Plots, Erik & Cylia are joined by athlete, author, activist and candidate for California State Assembly, Chris Kluwe for a deep dive into the stories that inspire him and the better worlds we can imagine together. Plus, Chris takes Cylia & Erik for a trip down Royal Road, introducing them to new genre concepts and all-new types of stories.

In the first season finale of Connect the Plots, Cylia surprises Erik with a meme-based craft project, and they revisit the goals and trajectory of the last 6 months worth of episodes.

IT'S THE FINAL COUNTDOWN! In the second-to-last episode of season 1, Cylia and Erik reflect on their conversation with Catherynne M. Valente, revealing more ways that Cat factored into the secret history of Connect the Plots (it involves a cabal of surly bartenders and a water bottle!), and consider the was that patient curiosity unites them.

For their final interview of season 1, Cylia and Erik welcome acclaimed, best-selling author Catherynne M. Valente for a conversation about the importance of local folklore, building a reading list from the references in old books, and the folly of using Stephen King for teenage sex education.

Cylia & Erik compare and contrast their experiences with the first interview recorded and last with Cerius Blaq, discuss the permeability of action figure and comic book genres, the slow internet, and the books they are reading and looking forward to reading.

YouTube creator and comic book professional Cerius Blaq joins Cylia and Erik to talk about his eclectic influences, recommend some comic books, and join forces with Erik to interrogate Cylia's "not a writer" identity.

Cylia and Erik untangle all the red strings after their conversation with Curtis C. Chen, discuss cycles of introversion and extroversion, and keep reading.

Cylia and Erik reflect on their origin stories, Star Trek, fan fiction, and much more with good friend Curtis C. Chen, author of the forthcoming Kangaroo Forth, the fo(u)rth book in the Kangaroo series.