This week we welcome special guest and friend of the show, Karen Osborne! Karen is the author of The Memory War duology (Architects of Memory & Engines of Oblivion). If you enjoy a fresh take on aliens, first contact, and artificial intelligence, you should grab these books and take a deep dive into their world.

With Karen blasting toward science fiction, we shift our focus to technologies of the future and what some technologies might mean for children & parenthood. We tap dance around sinister ideas about manipulation and childhood before settling on a story about how parents can game the educational system to enter the multiverse of their dreams.

Digressions include: corporations don't love us (so we don't love them), how details build a setting, time changes hometowns, science and art both involve squishy feelings, revision is like adaptation, children: actually people, and we're keeping the dog!

Stay tuned at the end of the episode for a special announcement about the future of Story Kernels!

Today’s Prompt System:

100 Prompts for Science Fiction Writers by Leslie and Jarod Anderson

What’s Been Inspiring Us Lately:

• Every Bone a Prayer by Ashley Blooms
• Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimerrer
• The Umbrella Academy (trailer)

External Links:

• Virginia Company
• America’s Company Towns, Then and Now (via Smithsonian Magazine)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation (credits)
• CompuServe
• Babylon 5 (credits)
• DON'T TOUCH THAT!: A Sci-Fi and Fantasy Parenting Anthology edited by Jaymee Goh
• Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop
• Why Google Glass Failed… And Why It's Coming Back (video)
• Cocomelon
• Into the Spider-Verse, an exploration of multiversal memes (via Tumblr)
• We Are Satellites by Sarah Pinsker

Music: Cherryblossom by Raptorface is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives.

Have you ever wondered what to do with a main character you just want to punch in the face? How about one who can't seem to fail? Alli and KL! develop a story with a punchable hero, an unexpected Zombie King, an impossible choice, and the sacrifices that must be made when the whole world is covered in fire. Then we answer your questions about how the heck to choose an ending for your story, using structure and theme as your guide—you don't want to miss it!

Digressions include: serialized fiction and new-old ways to tell stories, everything is zombieable (including bears), predestination, separating bodies and consciousness, and stories that come too close to being very relatable content.

Don't forget to check out the new Caramel Corn pledge tier for personalized tarot prompts at the Story Kernels Patreon. (Alli & KL are not professional tarot readers, but they are excellent at using non-standard tools for story inspiration.)

Today’s Prompt System:

Shadowscapes tarot deck by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law

What’s Been Inspiring Us Lately:

• Social Media AUs
• This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone

External Links:

• Garden of Gethsemane
• Captain America: The Winter Soldier (video with fisticuff violence)
• A Very Bearable Room (Repeating Bears comic)
• The story behind Hans Christian Andersen writing "The Little Mermaid" (Twitter thread)
• Donnie Darko (metaphysical path scene)
• Hero's Journey: Refusal of the Call (video explanation)
• John Calvin
• Write What You Know
• Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
• How to End a Story Right: 13 Tips Every Author Should Know
• Story Structures: The Fundamentals You Need to Know

Music: Cherryblossom by Raptorface is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives.

If you want to help support the podcast and receive additional inspiration, check out our Patreon.

This week's story asks, "what happens when a naive woman in her 30s and a time-traveling woman in her 50s love each other very, very much?" The answer is they try to stop the Victorians from eating mummies. Listen in as Alli becomes unhinged about time travel and Victorians, and everyone is a lesbian. In addition to our quest to develop a story, we also respond to listener messages about our first episode. Thanks for writing in!

Digressions include: gendered languages; KL's musical interludes; time travel devices, rules, and limitations; the ghostliness of cassette tapes; ugh, colonialism; and pufferfish art.

Today’s Prompt System:

Plot Generator from writingexercises.co.uk

What’s Been Inspiring Us Lately:

• Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire
• A Potpourri of Icelandic Poetry Through Eleven Centuries, edited by Hallberg Hallmundsson
• The Allusionist Podcast

External Links:

• Wonderwall by Oasis (music video)
• They're Lesbians, Harold (meme)
• The Price of Salt (or Carol) by Patricia Highsmith
• Cassette tapes
• Terminator time travel sequence (video - warnings for nudity, language, and violence)
• 1890s Fashion (you better believe Alli already had a link for this)
• Rockabilly Fashion
• Kyber crystals (probably not used for time travel)
• The Time Machine time travel sequence (video)
• Mummies and the Usefulness of Death
• The Mummy (trailer)
• Damien Williams' blog, "A Future Worth Thinking About"

Music: Cherryblossom by Raptorface is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives. 

If you want to help support the podcast and receive additional inspiration, check out our Patreon.