It's the start of our sixth season! And we've got some projects going on.

The Traveling Light anthology, which we Kickstarted -- with the help of many of you listeners! -- at the start of the fifth season, is now almost complete! We've finished the page proofs and are about to turn this into a Real Book. In this episode, you'll get to hear from the anthology authors about their amazing, exciting, super-creative contributions! And if you missed the Kickstarter, fear not! It will be available for purchase in both physical and ebook form, and you'll be able to pre-order that soon.

So what are we launching this year? A Patreon! That's right, we are finally creating a way for our magnificent, lovely listeners to support the podcast. We're hoping this will just help us cover some basic costs of podcast hosting, graphic design, maybe even putting together a Real Website! And in exchange, patrons will get some exclusive content and merch. We've got four tiers: Beetles, Crustaceans, Megafauna, and Kaiju. If you'd like to help us keep doing what we're doing (and maybe even zhuzh it up a bit more), check them out!

And of course, this podcast is its own ongoing massive project! We are so, so grateful to all of our amazing guests who have joined us to talk about so many different aspects of worldbuilding. We're thrilled to be able to have these conversations about craft and imagination, and we're delighted that so many listeners enjoy it, too.

And hey! If you want to see us, we're gonna be some places! Hopefully the full team will be in Glasgow for WorldCon, August 8-12, and some of us will be in Austin for ArmadilloCon, September 6-8. (And if you'd like to help make sure Marshall gets to WorldCon, he's running a GoFundMe!) Voting is also still ongoing for the Hugo Awards, and we would love your consideration for Best Fancast! Because winning in Scotland would be really fun.

Thanks for all your support! Here's to another great season!

Massive worlds require massive worldbuilding -- or do they? Sometimes, a narrower, character-centric scope can create a tight and compelling narrative while still crafting an expansive world. Guest Rebecca Roanhorse joins us to discuss how knowing your characters can help you konw your world.

What does it mean to let character lead worldbuilding? How does that define your scope and how much worldbuilding you show the reader? How does this change wth a single versus a multi- POV story? When you let character lead, how do you avoid a world that feels like it was constructed solely to be an obstacle course for that one character to move through? We discuss technique for all this and more!

Sidebar: It's still Hugo voting season! You've got until Saturday, 20th July 2024, 20:17 GMT to vote -- and you can vote as long as you become a Glasgow 2024 member by then. We are again on the ballot for Best Fancast, and we would love your consideration!

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Our Guest: Rebecca Roanhorse is a New York Times bestselling and Nebula, Hugo, and Locus Award-winning speculative fiction writer. She has published multiple award-winning short stories and novels, including two novels in The Sixth World Series, Star Wars: Resistance Reborn, Race to the Sun for the Rick Riordan imprint, and the epic fantasy trilogy Between Earth and Sky. She has also written for Marvel Comics and games (Echo, She-Hulk, Werewolf By Night, MoonKnight, and Chee’ilth) and for television, including FX’s A Murder at the End of the World, and the Marvel series Echo for Disney+. She has had her own work optioned by Amazon Studios, Netflix, and AMC Studios.

Find her Fiction & Non-Fiction HERE.

She lives in Northern New Mexico with her husband, daughter, and pup. She drinks a lot of black coffee. Find more at https://rebeccaroanhorse.com/ and on Instagram at @RebeccaRoanhorse.

"Traditional" fantasy novels often hold themselves to a pre-gunpowder/pre-steampower level of tech. So, what’s fun about setting a fantasy world in an era that has anything from the printing press to cell phones? Guest Hana Lee joins us to explore incorporating the technological into the magical world!

How can the harnessing of magic be similar to or dissimilar from channeling other kinds of power, like electricity? What story-driving tensions and conflicts can arise from eras of rapid change? And what sort of unholy terror might you create if you introduce magitech-bros into a world?

As a sidebar: It's Hugo voting season! And the voting packet is absolutely stuffed with amazing reading, listening, and viewing material. All ballots must be received by Saturday, 20th July 2024, 20:17 GMT -- and you can vote as long as you become a Glasgow 2024 member by then! We are again on the ballot for Best Fancast, and we would love your consideration!

[Transcript TK]

Our Guest: Hana Lee is a biracial Korean American fantasy author. By day, she makes her living as a software engineer. She's always loved the dark, the gothic, and the occult, so there's usually a picturesque ruin of some kind lurking in the background of her novels.

Her childhood was spent trekking across the United States, from Southern California to the Midwest and back to the West Coast again. She generally considers her hometown to be Portland, OR, mostly because it's home to her favorite bookstore (Powell's Books). She graduated from Stanford University with her B.S. and M.S. in Computer Science in 2018. Her family includes a partner and two ridiculously fluffy cats. They live in sunny Mountain View, CA, a stone's throw from Google HQ.

Hana's debut novel, ROAD TO RUIN, will be published by Saga Press in spring 2024.