Category: Books

Episode 146: Spear by Nicola Griffith

Andi and Lise discuss and deeply appreciate multiple award-winning spec fic writer Nicola Griffith’s novel Spear (current Nebula finalist!)—a queer Arthurian story that will bring you right into the era from a perspective you didn’t know you absolutely needed. If, like them, you grew up on Arthurian/Camelot stories, Spear is like coming home to the people you wanted and needed to see in those tales. 

Nicola Griffith’s website HERE. 

Info about Spear HERE. 

List of this year’s Nebula finalists HERE. 

Shout-outs: Lise started watching the Netflix series Lockwood and Co., about teen ghosthunters/ghost battlers in a Britain overrun by spirits that can kill with a touch. Adapted from the first two books in the Lockwood and Co. series by Jonathan Stroud. Andi shouts-out the ol’ skool show Forensic Files which she’s watching on Hulu. The episodes are about 22 minutes long without commercials, and she’s ended up learning a lot and making it a family affair. 

We’re still hanging in there on Twitter: @LGOPodcast, @andimarquette, @LiseMacTague. 

You can also find Andi and Lise on Instagram, posting fun photos, same handles: @andimarquette, @LiseMacTague 

LGO is available on tons of platforms; please like and subscribe. It helps! Thanks! 

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Episode 142: A Pale Light in the Black, by K.B. Wagers

Andi and Lise loved K.B. Wagers’ A Pale Light in the Black, the first installment of Wagers’ NeoG series. A fast-paced, diverse character-driven space opera meets sports story meets mystery with some of their fave elements: strong diverse characters with issues we can all relate to; space opera adventure; found family; sporting competition; creepy mystery. 

Find out more and get buy links at Wager’s website HERE. 

Shout-outs: Lise is getting ready to get her arm sleeve completed by a specific tattoo artist. It’s been five years, and she’s psyched about it. Andi has been playing the game Silk Rose Murders on Nintendo Switch, a fun murder/puzzle game set in an ancient Chinese dynasty. 

You can still find us on Twitter: @LGOpodcast; @LiseMacTague; @andimarquette 

Also find Andi and Lise on Facebook and Twitter (andimarquette, LiseMacTague). 

LGO is available on numerous platforms; please like and subscribe! THANKS!

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Episode 140: What’s up in 2023!

Andi and Lise chat about the changing of the year, taking stock, calendars, and a few of the things they’re looking forward to in terms of books, TV shows, and games, and also their dreams to win powerball and fund game studios. 

Lise:  

Tears of the Kingdom, the next Legend of Zelda game, available in May 

K.B. Wagers’ 2023 and 3rd installment in their NeoG sci fi series, The Ghosts of Trappist, but read the whole series! 

The space exploration/epic journey game Starfield, by Bethesda, hopefully out in 2023 

Andi: 

Author Kalynn Bayron’s latest, My Dear Henry: A Jekyll and Hyde Remix, is out in 2023. Bayron remixes fairy tales and other stories into diverse, queer awesomeness. Andi plans to read all her stuff. 

The Mandalorian Season 3, slated to drop March 1 

Heartstopper on Netflix, Season 2. Andi’s going to give this series a try because it’s supposed to be heartwarming and we could all use more of that 

Lez Geek Out! is available on bunches of platforms; please like and subscribe! THANK YOU! 

LGO, Andi, and Lise are still hanging out on what’s left of Twitter. Find us: 

@LGOpodcast, @andimarquette, @LiseMacTague 

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Episode 138: The Tangleroot Palace: Stories by Marjorie Liu

Andi and Lise loved this collection of self-curated short stories (plus one novella) by majorly award-winning spec fic writer Marjorie Liu. These stories represent a collection from roughly 2009 until more recently, and span a range of spec fic genres, including paranormal, post-apocalyptic, fairy tale, superhero, and steampunk. Liu writes multi-layered character-driven stories that will suck you right in and leave you wanting more. Do yourself a favor and definitely pick up a copy of The Tangleroot Palace: Stories. 

Find out more about Liu and her work at her website HERE. 

Find out more about Tangleroot Palace: Stories HERE. 

Shout-outs: Lise is psyched about the game Slay the Spire (shout-out to author Meghan O’Brien, who posted about it on social media), which is a cool fusion of card games and roguelikes in a single-player deckbuilder game. Andi shouts out all the people managing to stay kind during these times, and also shouts out the late Octavia Butler, one of the high-ups in her pantheon of writers. 

You can still find us on Twitter, even as it’s rife with chaos under new management: 

@LGOPodcast 

@LiseMactague 

@andimarquette 

And find us on most podcast platforms. Don’t forget to like and subscribe! Thanks! 

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Episode 130: The Realities of Writing

Andi and Lise talk about the writing life, and a bit about what’s involved if you decide to “go professional” with your writing. How does that change your creativity? What does it mean for you if you decide to go professional and get published? What do writers have to think about should they decide to go the publishing route? Andi and Lise address some of the misunderstandings about a writing life and career, and yes, some of the realities that they’ve dealt with in their own writing arcs. 

Shout-outs: Lise has discovered the video game Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, which is based in ancient Greece and is loving it. Andi is finishing up the first season of Star Trek: Discovery and wow! Twists and turns! Available on CBS and the apps that stream CBS. 

Find us on many podcast platforms and at our website, lezgeekoutcast.com. Also find us on Twitter! @andimarquette, @LiseMacTague, @LGOPodcast. 

If you dig this podcast, please like and subscribe! Thanks! 

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Episode 129: A Dark and Starless Forest by Sarah Hollowell

Andi and Lise really, really enjoyed author Sarah Hollowell’s Locus-nominated YA fantasy, A Dark and Starless Forest (2021), which deals with a group of young women and girls, each with specific magical gifts, who are cloistered in a house near a mysterious forest, overseen by a man whose true motivations are suspect. Told from the POV of one of the young women, this is a wonderfully crafted novel that will definitely leave you thinking long after you’ve finished it the first time (and second…and third…). Highly recommend! 

Find Sarah Hollowell: 

Website link HERE 

Buy links HERE 

Shout-outs: Lise has been spending a lot of time with binoculars spying on her frog ponds from her back windows, watching tadpoles turn into polliwogs turn into froglets and finally, FROGS! Andi appreciates spying on nature, as she was doing the same with this year’s group of Canada goose goslings inhabiting a nearby river bank. Both Andi and Lise highly recommend checking out nature as you can. 

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Episode 126: Writing WLW Spec-Fic: A Conversation with Author Cathy Pegau

Andi and Lise chatted with award-winning author Cathy Pegau about her writing and publishing trajectory and about writing F/F spec fic, including her latest work, The Demon Equilibrium, a historical paranormal saga in which two women have to save the world from a demonic horde.  

Cathy’s website HERE 

Find out more about The Demon Equilibrium HERE 

Shout-outs: Lise is working on figuring out how to build caterpillar cages to help protect caterpillars in her backyard ecosystem. Cathy is stoked that her son is graduating from college very soon and Andi is once again planting things. 

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Episode 124: A Conversation with Karin Kallmaker

Andi and Lise are super-stoked to have the Queen of Lesbian Romance, Karin Kallmaker, on the show to talk about the evolution and history of F/F fiction, how it’s crossing over into “mainstream” publishing and what that means for representation, for publishing, and the F/F publishing industry that’s been here all along. Karin is a multiple award-winning author who published her first novel in 1989 and has been going strong ever since. She has also worked as an editor in the lesfic publishing industry, so she’s been on both sides of the publishing fence. 

Find Karin on Twitter: @kallmaker 

And at her website: kallmaker.com 

Shout-outs: Lise started watching Our Flag Means Death on HBO Max and says it’s a fab rom-com in pirate days with all kinds of rep and go watch it right away. Karin just got Sara Paretsky’s latest release in the detective V.I. Warchawski novels, Dead Land, and she’s looking forward to reading that. She also recommends the movie The Lost City, lots of belly laughs. Andi has started the gardening thing and has some tomato seedlings. Plus, she’s making candles. 

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Episode 122: All Systems Red, Book 1 of The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells

Andi and Lise are finally talking about the first novella, All Systems Red, in The Murderbot Diaries series by multi-award winning author Martha Wells. Told from the point-of-view of Murderbot, an autonomous security droid who has liberated themself from the control of the overarching corporate company that manufactured them, Murderbot now goes on their assignments trying to fly under the radar and keep from being discovered as autonomous. Their latest assignment is a research team on a planet on which other research teams are being wiped out. Superb world-building, excellent characterization, and wrestling with big themes about autonomy and AI, this is a must-read. 

Martha Wells’ website HERE. 

Info about “All Systems Red” HERE. 

Shout-outs: Lise watched the movie Turning Red, a Pixar offering available on Disney Plus. Set in Toronto’s Chinatown in 2002, the movie follows main character Mei Lee, a geeky 13-year-old Chinese Canadian girl who is dealing with all the issues that come with that age in addition to a family blessing/curse in which Mei Lee turns into a large red panda when she experiences intense emotions. Andi is working to broaden her mystery-reading to include more diverse authors and also shout-outs the NBC series (also streaming on Hulu) The Endgame, in which a Black female FBI agent faces off against an Eastern European female international arms dealer. 

Find LGO on Twitter (@LGOPodcast) and their website. You can find the hosts on Twitter, too! @LiseMactague and @andimarquette. Please like and subscribe and review! Help other geeks find us

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