Episode 20: 'The Crystal Singer' and 'The Scorpio Races'

This episode of The Writer and the Critic is recorded LIVE in front of an actual audience at Continuum 8, the National SF Convention, with two very, very special guests: authors extraordinaire Alison Goodman and Kelly Link. Your hosts, Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond, talk with Alison about her new project, a dark supernatural Regency trilogy which may or may not involve gowns, bonnets and a large bloody knife. Kelly reaffirms her love of short fiction -- recommending "The New Mother" by Lucy Clifford along the way -- while reluctantly confessing that she might be considering writing a novel of her own. Certainly, if Holly Black has anything to do with it! Because  reviewing four books in a single podcast would be an act of no small madness, Kirstyn and Ian wisely decide to leave the recommendations for this month to their guests. Alison has chosen The Crystal Singer by Anne McCaffrey (discussion begins at 17:50) while Kelly has brought along The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater (48:20). Inspired by the online exploits of Jim C. Hines, Ian attempts to reconstruct the pose illustrated on the cover of The Crystal Singer. He does rather a marvellous job: If you've skipped ahead to avoid spoilers, please tune back in around 1:16:50 for final remarks. Kelly would also like to make two additional recommendations that listeners might enjoy, The Hearts of Horses by Molly Gloss and the Flora Segunda series of books by Ysabeau Wilce. (photo: Art Bébé Promotions) Next month's episode features yet another special guest, editor and fellow podcaster, Jonathan Strahan, who has recommended Galveston by Sean Stewart for Ian and Kirstyn to read. Ian has picked Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor while Kirstyn has chosen The Drowning Girl by Caitlin R. Kiernan. It will possibly be their longest podcast ever. Okay, okay, it's already been recorded and, yes, it is definitely their longest podcast ever. Make sure you bring along a comfy chair! *** BREAKING NEWS! You are now listening to a multi-award-winning podcast -- a fact which Kirstyn and Ian did not yet know while recording this episode. Because this episode was in fact recorded before the awards were announced. We're not living that much in the future! But Ian would explode if he had to wait until the next recording to announce that The Writer and the Critic has won both Chronos and Ditmar Awards for Best Fan Publication. Ian and Kirstyn are ever so chuffed, and would like to thank all their listeners as well as everyone who voted for them. (They would also like to apologise to Galactic Suburbia for being so shocked and overwhelmed that they failed to notice the GS standing ovation in the back row. They promise to ovate in an upright posture the next time GS wins an award so they too can be blissfully ignored. It's only fair.) But yes, awards! Look! Proof! Plus a random monkey!