Hey, look! It’s episode 105 of Sonitotum with Matthew Wayne Selznick, the podcast about making stuff (mostly writing), finding success as we each define it for ourselves, and staying healthy and sane in the process!
This is an interview episode, this time featuring the author Juliet Kemp.
From their website:
Juliet Kemp (they/them) is a queer, non-binary, writer. They live in London by the river, with their partners, kid, and dog.
The first book of their fantasy series, The Deep and Shining Dark, was on the Locus 2018 Recommended Reads list; the fourth and final book, The City Revealed, came out in 2023. They have written several novellas, and their short fiction has appeared in venues including Uncanny, Analog, and Cast of Wonders.
They were short-listed for the WSFA Small Press Award in 2020 and 2023 and had a story in the anthology Trans-Galactic Bike Ride, which was Lambda Award shortlisted in 2021.
When not writing or child-wrangling, Juliet knits, indulges their fountain pen habit, and tries to fit an ever-increasing number of plants into a microscopic back garden.
They can be found on Twitter as @julietk, on Mastodon as @juliet@zirk.us, and on Bluesky as @julietk.bsky.social.
Listen to hear us muse on fiction writing as a balm for anxiety, the challenges of defining just what sort of fantasy one has written, the validity of “comfort reads,” reaching the right readers, the benefits of working with a small press, procrastination and uncertainty, and why it’s okay to claim your writing as a priority in your life… and just how to go about actually doing that, too…
This episode was recorded on August 19, 2024. The conversation with Juliet Kemp was recorded on February 5, 2024.
Links and Topics Mentioned in This Episode
- What is Hopepunk? How about Solarpunk?
- Juliet mentions Greg Egan.
- I mention “the Killer Bs,” Greg Bear, Greg Benford, and David Brin.
- An Archive of Our Own is a haven for fan fiction.
- My Sonitotum episode on how to fix the Amazon bookstore.
- During the episode, I couldn’t recall the name of a tag-based reading recommendation website. It’s The StoryGraph.
- Juliet mentions digging the Doctor Who novelizations from the 1980s.
- I bring up Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan books and the shared world series Wildcards by George R. R. Martin and company.
- Juliet’s Marek series is published by Elsewhen Press.
- My oft-recommended choice for a full-screen / no-distractions / plain text editor, Q10, is recommended yet again!
- Speaking of focus: give Focus At Will a shot.
- Mechvibes gets another mention. Typewriter sounds for focus and momentum as your write!
- Big thanks to my Multiversalists patron community, including J. C. Hutchins, Zoë Kohen Ley, Jim Lewinson, Amelia Bowen, Ted Leonhardt, and Charles Anderson! I’m incredibly grateful for the support of my patrons. If Sonitotum with Matthew Wayne Selznick brings you joy, become a patron!
- Every month net earnings from my Multiversalist patron memberships is at least $100, I will donate 10% to 826 National in support of literacy and creative writing advocacy for children. Let’s go!
- Patron members get the uncut, unedited edition of every episode of Sonitotum. For this episode, that includes seventeen minutes of extra content just for them!
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The Music!
The opening theme song of Sonitotum is “Anastasia” written, performed, and recorded by yours truly, Matthew Wayne Selznick.
The closing and interstitial music is a little ditty I call “Gwinton,” also by yours truly, Matthew Wayne Selznick. It’s super-short and really just a looping thing.
On both songs, I play a 1972 Gibson Ripper bass guitar and a Fender “Bullet” Squire electric guitar. On “Anastasia,” the drums are performed on an Akai Professional MPD218 MIDI drum pad controller. For “Gwinton,” the drums are royalty-free loops found in the excellent Mixcraft Pro Studio software, which was also used to record, mix, and master both “Anastasia” and “Gwinton.”
Podcast Production and Hosting
Sonitotum is usually recorded using an Aurycle a460 large diaphragm studio condenser microphone through a Behringer U-Phoria UMC202HD (audio interface for directly connecting microphones and musical instruments to a computer). Outdoor / remote episodes are often recorded using my Audio-Technica ATR-3350IS omnidirectional condenser lavalier mic. The show is edited and produced in Cakewalk by Bandlab. The episode files are hosted and delivered by Amazon Lightsail; the website is hosted by Dreamhost.
Interested in starting your own podcast? Need help managing your existing show? I can help you like I’ve helped The What Matters Most Podcast, The Possibility Podcast with Mel Schwartz, and Writing with Coach McCoach, among others. Reach out!
Affiliate Declaration
Many of the links in these show notes are to products and services with which I have an affiliate relationship. This means that when you purchase that product or engage in that service, or, in some cases, related products or services, I may receive a modest commission at no extra expense to you. This is a great way to help support Sonitotum and my related creative endeavors, so thanks for doing business with these companies!
Licensing
Sonitotum, including the Sonitotum podcast media, is released under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) License. You are free to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format under the following terms:
- Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
- NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes.
- NoDerivatives — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material.
- No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
The full license can be found here.