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ORIGINality Podcast Episode 39: Do Not Put All Your Eggs in Twitter’s Basket

Twitter is (still) going down in a blaze of…well, not glory. Its demise has been a blow to many creative people. They’re rightfully worried about the future.
In this episode Aleen and I talk about what writers and artists and other creatives can do in the wake of this and any other social media platform’s decline. Spoiler: It’s about diversification.

»»» Click here to listen to episode 39 «««

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ORIGINality Podcast Episode 36: Make Believe About Dragons

I’ve been dying to talk to Whitney “Strix” Beltrán about her twisty-turn-y journey to becoming a narrative designer in the video games industry since XOXO back in 2019. Turned out to be just as fascinating a conversation as I hoped.

Aleen, Whitney, and I talk about how sometimes we take the road we’ve always intended to go down and sometimes we’re led on a path we never could have imagined.

»»» Click here to listen to episode 36 «««

Tempest and Sheree Renée Thomas

Listen to me on the Glitchy Pancakes podcast

The folks at Glitchy Pancakes invited me and Sheree Renée Thomas on to talk about #OwnVoices fiction. Not just what it is, but also some of the complexity behind how people wield that label in writing and reading discourse online. It was a great conversation and I always love talking to Sheree cuz she’s amazing.

Click here to listen and I highly suggest you subscribe as well!

Authors K. Tempest Bradford and Aisha Matthews

I’m on the Science Friday Book Club talking about New Suns

Last week I had the great pleasure of being on WNYC’s Science Friday as part of the #SciFriBookClub. All this month they’re reading and talking about stories from New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction By Writers of Color edited by Nisi Shawl. I got to talk to editor Aisha Matthews and producer Christie Taylor about the story “Dumb House” written by Andrea Hairston.

Any time I get to discuss Andrea’s work with people I’m happy, so I knew going in that this would be fantastic. We ended up having a truly wonderful conversation that went a little over time, so some had to be cut. Still, what’s there captures the essence of what we talked about. You should buy the book, read the story, and listen in.

If you want to listen to the first segment where they talked to Darcie Little Badger about their story, or find the upcoming segments, head to the Science Friday book club website.

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Originality podcast episode #31: Being Transparent About Hating the Process

In this episode Aleen talks to Rosemary Orchard and we discuss getting over barriers to creativity, not holding yourself to impossible standards, and establishing a writing ritual that works for you. Also: do you trust strangers to watch your stuff in coffee shops? (I totally do…)

You can listen to the podcast below or on the episode page where you can see the show notes and also subscribe.

Originality podcast episode #30: The XOXO Episode

In my recent post about communities I talked about the importance of Finding Your Tribe. In this episode we discuss this in the context of the XOXO Festival and why creating intentional community spaces at conferences like this one matters. Also ways to get to conferences even if you don’t have the funds to do so.

Let me know what you think of this one in the comments!

You can listen to the podcast below or on the episode page where you can see the show notes and also subscribe.

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Originality podcast episode #29: Pantser, Plotter, Architect, Spy

In this episode we talk about the F word: failure. Bob Ross didn’t want you to be afraid to fail, and neither do we. So we discuss mistakes and how to frame those experiences to be productive instead of destructive. It’s not as woo-woo as it sounds, I promise.

You can listen to the podcast below or on the episode page where you can see the show notes and also subscribe.