Many podcasts far more professional than ours have offered discrete segments covering different topics, so this week we decided to carefully organize the episode—wait, no we didn’t; we’re just rambling again. But we do begin with a small tribute to Jane Yolen, both a great writer and a great friend, which leads into some musings on how reputations are made and sustained. We then touch upon the recent Nebula Awards, the role of small presses like Subterranean, and some exciting new books we’re reading, including Jacly Moriarty’s Time Travel for Beginners. By our standards, all this is carefully planned and laser-focused.

Jonathan and Gary are delighted to welcome the wonderful Molly Tanzer, whose new novella And Side by Side They Wander is just out this week.

Although it involves apparently benign alien visitors, a post-apocalyptic post-United States, corporate overreach, and a fair bit of space opera, the novella's main focus is art, who really owns it, how we interact with it, and whether even a molecularly exact reproduction is ever the same as the original. Molly also shares with us what it's like to revisit the world of C.L. Moore's classic pulp hero Jirel of Joiry in a new series of stories, and what she has planned for the future.

As always, it's a wide-ranging discussion which at times almost gets downright philosophical.

Jeffrey Ford's eight full length collection, Pandemonium Waltz, was published by Lethe Press back in February. Ever since we've been meaning to sit down with him to discuss the new book, his approach to short story writing, how he assembles short story collections, and more.

We're delighted to have had the chance this week, to discuss the book, how retirement in rural Ohio is reflected in some of his recent fiction, and why some stories may not have shown up in any of his collections so far.

As always, we hope you enjoy the discussion, and our thanks to Jeff for making the time to talk to us.

Order Pandemonium Waltz from the publisher (with extra art!)