Tag: episodes

What Harry Potter Taught Me About Satanism

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Rebecca Kordesh, Director
Twitter | Blog

Personal observation: my chosen photo has never been more relevant than it is in this moment.

I went to Catholic school for 16 years. This provided me with a somewhat different school experience than many of my friends, and certainly with myriad stories that friends still love to hear about the different things I learned and the different classes I took than my public school peers. One such class was a morality class I took as a junior in high school, during which we discussed pretty much any topic under the sun, with special emphasis on the Big Ones. You know, the ones that come up in the news all the time.

Like Harry Potter. When I was a junior in high school I was waiting eagerly for the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which would come out over the summer before my senior year. The Order of the Phoenix movie was released that same summer.

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TBT 13: Storytelling in Video Games

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In this episode of The Book Table, some of our gaming whisperers discuss elements of storytelling in some of their favourite video games.

For listeners of The Book Table, Audible is offering a free audiobook and a 30-day free trial! Sign up at audibletrial.com/TheBookTable.

In this episode you heard from:
Ayesha
Dorothy | @bwp_dorothy
Louisa | @otterbewriting
Rich

The Book Table is a podcast from Backroom Whispering Productions. Our theme music is by Mark Wayne.

If you liked this podcast, rate us on iTunes! Or get in touch with us:
Twitter | @BackroomWhisper
Facebook | facebook.com/BackroomWhispering
Email | BackroomWhispering@gmail.com

TBT 12: The Name of the Wind

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For our twelfth episode, we had a lively discussion of Patrick Rothfuss‘s The Name of the Wind, a book that has quickly become considered an exemplar of the fantasy genre.

(n.b. Spoilers start around 24:00)

For listeners of The Book Table, Audible is offering a free audiobook and a 30-day free trial! Sign up at http://audibletrial.com/TheBookTable.

In this episode you heard from:
Rebecca | @rumy91989
Madeleine | @madnbooks | youtube.com/madnbooks
Shelly | @shllybkwrm
Emma |
Christopher |@cmcb
Sara (by proxy) | @fantasticpiggy

The Book Table is a podcast from Backroom Whispering Productions. Our theme music is by Mark Wayne.

If you liked this podcast, rate us on iTunes! Or get in touch with us:
Twitter | @BackroomWhisper
Facebook | facebook.com/BackroomWhispering
Email | BackroomWhispering@gmail.com

TBT 11: How Do You Book?

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In this free-form discussion, several of our whisperers talk about the pros and cons of all the different ways we consume literature — whether it be print (hardback, paperback, mass market), digital (kindle, nook, iBooks), or audio.

For listeners of The Book Table, Audible is offering a free audiobook and a 30-day free trial! Sign up at http://audibletrial.com/TheBookTable.

In this episode you heard from:
Akhi | @akhipill
Dorothy | @bwp_dorothy
Madeleine | @madnbooks | youtube.com/madnbooks
Louisa | @otterbewriting
Rebecca | @rumy91989
Sara | @fantasticpiggy
Tanis

The Book Table is a podcast from Backroom Whispering Productions. Our theme music is by Mark Wayne.

If you liked this podcast, rate us on iTunes! Or get in touch with us:
Twitter | @BackroomWhisper
Facebook | facebook.com/BackroomWhispering
Email | BackroomWhispering@gmail.com

TBT 10: Legend of the Galactic Heroes

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Our designated #LOGHSQUAD discusses the recently-released English translation of the first light novel in this acclaimed Japanese science-fiction series, as well as its comparison to the popular anime adaptation.

[Spoilers start at about 48:00]

For listeners of The Book Table, Audible is offering a free audiobook and a 30-day free trial! Sign up at http://audibletrial.com/TheBookTable.

In this episode you heard from:
Akhi | @akhipill
Madeleine | @madnbooks | youtube.com/madnbooks
Mike
Robert
Shelly | @shllybkwrm
Stephen

The Book Table is a podcast from Backroom Whispering Productions. Our theme music is by Mark Wayne.

If you liked this podcast, rate us on iTunes! Or get in touch with us:
Twitter | @BackroomWhisper
Facebook | facebook.com/BackroomWhispering
Email | BackroomWhispering@gmail.com

Book Table 09: Non-Western Themes in Fantasy Literature

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What about fantasy that doesn’t fit the genre-typical western Medieval European setting? In this episode, some of our whisperers discuss books they’ve read that explore non-western themes and places, as well as a bit about the genre as a whole!

In this episode, you heard from:
Akhi | @akhipill
Dorothy | @bwp_dorothy
Louisa | @otterbewriting
Rebecca | @rumy91989

Books mentioned in this episode include:
The Emperor’s Blades by Brian Stavely
Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed
City of a Thousand Dolls by Miriam Forster
Dune by Frank Herbert
Tamora Pierce’s Tortall series
Stormdancer by Jay Kristoff
Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton
The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
Ivory and Bone by Julie Eshbaugh
Uprooted by Naomi Novik
Harry Potter / Pottermore by J.K. Rowling
The Immortals by Jordanna Max Brodsky

The article about J.K. Rowling’s “Magic in North America” can be found on the Native Appropriations site.

 

The Book Table is a podcast from Backroom Whispering Productions. Our theme music is by Mark Wayne.

For listeners of The Book Table, Audible is offering a free audiobook and a 30-day free trial! Sign up at audibletrial.com/TheBookTable.

If you liked this podcast, rate us on iTunes! Or get in touch with us:
Twitter | @BackroomWhisper
Facebook | facebook.com/BackroomWhispering
Email | BackroomWhispering@gmail.com

*Nota bene: All links to books available for purchase through Amazon are affiliate links, which means Backroom Whispering Productions receive a small percentage of the sales made through that link.

The Importance of Being Bennie

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Louisa Mitchell
Head Writer, Pycera
Twitter

 

Imagine the typical plot line of a modern YA fantasy.

You’ve got it, right?

Teen discovers they have mystical powers. Teen tries out said mystical powers. Teen is shocked, amazed, maybe a little scared. Teen doesn’t want to go to the adults in their life; they definitely wouldn’t understand. So Teen gathers their courage and decides to tell their best friend what happened — you know, the friend they’ve known forever? The one who casually talks to their parents and knows where all the dishes go at their house? That friend. Teen tells that friend what’s going on, and that friend responds…how?

“You’re crazy.”

“You’re kidding.”

Or maybe, nervously, “Teen, maybe we should get you some help.”

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Writers’ Nook 06: Left Brain, Right Brain, Left Knee?

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Join us for a special interview with Rinske Verberg, a talented author from the Netherlands. As part of her education, she learned about Left Brain and Right Brain approaches to creative writing… but also a Left Knee approach?!

This episode is also available on YouTube and your favorite podcast app. Get in touch if you have trouble finding Backroom Whispering/Book Table content on the app of your choice!

Recommended watching:
Iain McGilchrist: The Divided Brain https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFs9WO2B8uI
Recommended reading:
Writing Down the Bones: http://goo.gl/dkxOlZ
The Artist’s Way: http://goo.gl/n6q4nr

Note: This was the first Writers’ Nook episode recorded as a Writers’ Nook episode, but for convenience, previous “Nanosodes” have been renamed “Writers’ Nook.”

In this episode you heard from:
Dorothy | dorothyannwrites.wordpress.com
Rinske| http://www.rinskeverberg.nl/

The Book Table is a podcast from Backroom Whispering Productions. Our theme music is by Mark Wayne.

If you liked this podcast, rate us on iTunes! Or get in touch with us:
Twitter | @BackroomWhisper
Facebook | facebook.com/BackroomWhispering
Email | BackroomWhispering@gmail.com

TBT 07: Evolution of Fantasy

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How do you define fantasy literature? At what point was there a shift from mythology and fairy tales to what we consider to be fantasy today? Some of our more well-read Whisperers discuss these questions and more in this episode of The Book Table.

For listeners of The Book Table, Audible is offering a free audiobook and a 30-day free trial! Sign up at http://audibletrial.com/TheBookTable.

In this episode you heard from:
Akhi | akhipill
Dorothy | bwp_dorothy
Madeleine | madnbooks | youtube.com/madnbooks
Rebecca | rumy91989

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In the Shadow of ‘The Ring’

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Madeleine Cassier
Producer
Website | Twitter | Goodreads | BookTube

A Companion to TBT Episode 07

Unpopular opinion alert: I’m not the biggest fan of Tolkien — specifically, of The Lord of the Rings.

516GyHY9p6LI know this is essentially heresy to admit to the teeming hordes of guys and gals who, like me, adore the fantasy genre. But, alas, ’tis true that I am not on the side of Mr. J.R.R. Despite this general dislike, I’m relatively fair-minded and can acknowledge that The Lord of the Rings is one of the most recognizable works of the fantasy genre — even with more modern series such as George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, The Lord of the Rings is the ultimate poster-child for marketing fantasy to a mainstream audience.

That being said: I don’t think that Tolkien “invented” modern fantasy as we know it. This, I’m sure, is also going to rankle even more people, especially given that many people would argue that The Lord of the Rings “created ‘fantasy’ as a marketing category” (Yolen, After the King: Stories in Honour of J.R.R. Tolkien), despite the fact that fantasy existed long before Tolkien published his trilogy. 

But I don’t want to talk about the myriad of works previous to Tolkien…I actually just want to talk about one: Der Ring des Nibelungen, or The Ring of the Nibelung by Richard Wagner.

41Um5nZQuXL._SY355_For those of you unfamiliar with German opera: The Ring Cycle, as it’s frequently called, is a cycle of four opera seria (dramatic operas) written about a century before Tolkien, that’s loosely based on characters from Germanic and Norse mythological sagas, specifically the Volsunga saga and the Nibelungenlied. Its got giants, dwarves, gods, forbidden romances, action, adventure — basically everything you could ever want from an epic fantasy story, and all across four operas which, when performed, are staged over the course of several days.

Even with all of those elements, at the very centre of this massive tale is a magic ring fashioned from Rhine gold that allows its bearer to rule the world.

Sound familiar?

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