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!

April 14, 2023 0

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!

February 3, 2023 0

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 3^rd 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

January 6, 2023 0

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!

July 22, 2022 0

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.

July 8, 2022 0

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

March 18, 2022 0

Episode 118: Looking forward to 2022

Andi and Lise were joined by book reviewer and fellow podcaster Tara Scott (she/they) to chat about things they’re all looking forward to in 2022 despite the continuing pooshow that is the world.

Find Tara at The Lesbian Review, Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, and Queerly Recommended. Also on Twitter, @taramdscott

On the TV:

Lise: animated series Legend of Vox Machina, Amazon Prime, based on “Critical Role,” a group of voice actors who have been playing D&D together for years.

Tara: RuPaul’s Drag Race: UK Vs. the World (BBCThree) – a global spinoff. She’s also looking forward to RuPaul’s Drag Race in general (various platforms) and the show We’re Here (HBO), which follows 3 drag queens bringing luv to small-town America.

Andi: Mandalorian season 3 (Disney Plus) and Only Murders in the Building (Hulu), season 2.

Books:

Tara: Count Your Lucky Stars (steamy F/F rom-com) by Alexandria Bellefleur and I Kissed Shara Wheeler (F/F) by Casey McQuiston.

Lise: Rebecca Roanhorse, Fevered Sun (Book 2 in the Between Earth and Sky series); Naomi Novik’s third in the Scholomance series, The Golden Enclaves

Andi: John Scalzi, Kaiju Preservation Society and Tochi Onyebuchi, Goliath; also Janelle Monáe’s The Memory Librarian, short speculative fiction featuring Black women writers and Black nonbinary writers and creators

Games:

Tara: Rune Factory 5 (Nintendo Switch) and Sea of Stars (Switch; other platforms)

Lise: Starfield (Xbox)

Andi: still learning Switch, plays puzzle/mystery games but looking for a FPS for noobs on the Switch

Movies/TV:

Tara: not feeling movies, but recommends Mythic Quest on AppleTV, a comedy show about a fictional video game studio working on the fictional game Mythic Quest

Andi: Everything Everywhere All at Once, starring Michelle Yeoh as a woman who just wants to get her taxes paid but keeps getting sucked into the multiverse to save it.

January 21, 2022 0

Episode 116: Sparrow Hill Road by Seanan McGuire

Book 1 in the Ghost Roads trilogy

Andi and Lise rave about this tale of paranormal urban legend with backstory and personality, in which author Seanan McGuire world-builds a context for the folklore around the hitch-hiking prom ghost/girl in the diner ghost. Here, the ghost tells her own story in a non-linear narrative: how she died, the type of ghost she is, and “living” on the ghost roads, the world of the dead, haunted by a variety of spirits. One of which is the man who killed her. Tapping into the myth and legend of U.S. road culture, McGuire provides a beautifully written gripping story about Rose Marshall, the subject of urban and road paranormal legend. Even the dead have things to fear.

Seanan McGuire’s website

Sparrow Hill Road

Shout-outs: Lise really enjoyed the first season of Only Murders in the Building, available on Hulu. Here, New York Upper West Side neighbors bond over a shared love of true crime, and set out to solve the mystery of a resident’s death in the same building. Andi watched the Lifetime premiere of the F/F holiday film Under the Christmas Tree, and really enjoyed its fluffy goodness (a queer holiday film where there’s no angst over being queer!).

Find LGO on Twitter: @LGOPodcast

And at our website!

Happy (and safe) holidays!

December 24, 2021 0

Episode 83: Ascension by Jacqueline Koyanagi

Andi and Lise greatly admire Jacqueline Koyanagi’s novel Ascension, an excellent space opera with elements of magic and mystic-ness layered in. Great diverse cast of characters; queer WOC main character who also deals with a chronic illness; fabulous world-building. This one stays with you in many different ways.

“Alana Quick is the best damned sky surgeon in Heliodor City, but repairing starship engines barely pays the bills. When the desperate crew of a cargo vessel stops by her shipyard looking for her spiritually-advanced sister Nova, Alana stows away. Maybe her boldness will land her a long-term gig on the crew. But the Tangled Axon proves to be more than star-watching and plasma coils. …” –from Amazon book description

Koyanagi’s website

Lise’s shout-out: super see-krit new project she’s working on but she’s not sharing it yet! Plus, finishing up via Netflix the animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Andi’s shout-out: Wynonna Earp Season 4, people! Episode 2, “Friends in Low Places,” has what Andi predicts is a history-making F/F love/sex scene (and no, that’s not a link to the scene LOL).

August 7, 2020 0

Episode 79: Decolonizing Our Media

Andi and Lise have been working on expanding and decolonizing their media consumption, seeking out more creators of color and more creators who are differently abled, neurodiverse, and from different cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds than they are. They each share some of that media in this episode.

Lise:
Binti novella series by Nnedi Okorafor
Octavia Butler’s Kindred graphic novel adaptation
N.K. Jemisin, Inheritance trilogy; see also her short story anthology How Long ’til Black Future Month
Movie D.E.B.S., written and directed by Angela Robinson (We talked about this movie in our very first episode!!)
Ebony Warriors Studio, cosplay (also find on Instagram)

Andi:
Ascension, by Jacqueline Koyanagi
N.K. Jemisin, Far Sector comic series
Movie Black Panther, directed and written by Ryan Coogler
Website Black Girl Nerds (LOL Andi and Lise lost count and Andi did 4 instead of 5); NOTE: website was fine at recording time, but afterward, it appears to be undergoing some work. You can find BGN on Twitter and Instagram, too.