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 128: The Fifth Element: Does it Hold up?

Andi and Lise dive into the 1997 dystopic sci fi film The Fifth Element, with Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich, Gary Oldman, and Chris Tucker to determine what still works (or not) 25 years after its release. They find that it holds up surprisingly well in a number of ways, but needed work in others. Still, after 25 years, it’s a visually appealing film that does interesting things with cinematography, soundtrack, and gender expression. 

Original trailer HERE 

2017 Entertainment Weekly article about the film’s making HERE 

Shout-outs: Lise shouts out veterinarians; she’s been dealing with a sick kitty and hopefully all will be well soon. In honor of this shout-out, Andi shout-outs and recommends the show Critter Fixers: Country Vets, available on NatGeo. 

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Episode 127: It’s Pride Season!

Andi and Lise talk about Pride: its origins, media representation, commercialization, and the anti-LGBTQIA stuff we are all still facing. Celebrate, commemorate, but stay safe and take care of yourselves and each other. 

Some reading! 

Pride and the history of police violence against LGBTQ communities 

The History of Pride: How Activists Fought to Create LGBTQ+ Pride 

What is Pride Month and the History of Pride? 

Shout-outs: Lise has been watching season 4 of Stranger Things on Netflix, but has mixed feelings about Netflix because the service has been stepping in it by platforming anti-trans voices and other problematic things. Andi has been watching British procedurals on Acorn and BritBox and is continually reminded how screwed up the US is because gun violence just isn’t an issue in almost all of them. 

Solidarity, love, and light to those affected by gun violence. 

Find us on Twitter: @LGOPodcast; @andimarquette; @LiseMactague 

And please like and subscribe. Thanks! 

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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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Re-run: Episode 1: D.E.B.S.

Lise had to spend a week driving halfway across the country and back, so she and Andi decided to flash all the way back to the beginning of Lez Geek Out! Enjoy the inaugural episode featuring the movie D.E.B.S. and they’ll be back next time.

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Episode 125: Our Flag Means Death

Our Flag Means Death: alt-history fanfic rom-com for pirates! 

Andi and Lise really, really enjoyed the immensely popular first season of the HBO Max series Our Flag Means Death, which is a delightful take on the story of “Gentleman Pirate” Stede Bonnet and the legendary Blackbeard. Includes a slow-burn M/M romance, a nonbinary character (and romance!), wonderful dialogue, excellent storytelling, diverse characters. Includes great seafaring scenes, laughs, and interesting underlying messages about identity and the choices we make. Unfortunately, HBO Max has not announced plans for a second season. Andi and Lise find that…troublesome. Regardless, watch this season while you can! 

Trailer HERE. 

More info HERE. 

Smithsonian article about Stede Bonnet HERE. 

Shout-outs: Lise started watching another HBO Max series, Minx, set in 1970s Los Angeles in which a young white feminist teams up with a publisher to create the first erotic magazine for women. Lise finds the main character’s evolution as a feminist a key part of the series, as the character has certain views that are challenged by reality. Meanwhile, Andi has started some seedlings for her vegetable planters and she’s excited about that. Yay, gardening! 

Find us on Twitter @LGOPodcast; @andimarquette; @LiseMactague. Please like and subscribe! It helps! 

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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 123: Black Widow

Andi and Lise discuss the 2021 Marvel blockbuster film Black Widow, starring Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff and Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, Natasha’s sister. One of the overarching themes that Andi and Lise really enjoyed is the exploration of family – what it is, what makes it, and how it can create an infrastructure in your life whether you want it to or not. We love superhero movies fronted by women (passes the Bechdel test!) and we love them more when they explore the complicated nature of family dynamics. Great pacing and special effects, great interactions between characters. 

Black Widow trailer 

Shout-outs: Lise is watching Lost in Space on Netflix and enjoying the family situations going on there. Andi has started watching Star Trek: Discovery and realizes that yes it is a great show. 

Find us on Twitter: @LGOpodcast; @andimarquette; @LiseMactague 

And our website: lezgeekoutcast.com 

Please like and subscribe! It helps spread the word and share the love. Thanks! 

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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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Episode 121: Mr. and Mrs. Smith: Does it Hold up?

Andi and Lise unpack the 2005 spy/assassin romance movie Mr. and Mrs. Smith, starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie and determine that it holds up in some ways but not in others, particularly with regard to gender roles. But on sheer character chemistry, Jolie and Pitt are an excellent action duo. 

Original movie trailer HERE. 

IMDB info HERE. 

Shout-outs: Lise has been playing a lot of Mario Kart, and finds it’s an excellent mindless escape from…well, everything. Andi has been watching The Gilded Age on HBO Max, and notes that things really haven’t changed all the much in terms of the American racialized caste system, but following the individual characters navigating social and economic change is interesting. 

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