Ex Urbe Ad Astra

Latest Episodes:

Ex Urbe Ad Astra #13 - The Florentine Renaissance with Larry Rothfield Feb 13, 2024

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In this episode, Ada and Jo speak with historian Larry Rothfield about the political nuances of 15th century Florence, and the shifting perspectives of the Renaissance to come since then.

Ex Urbe Ad Astra #12 - Pacing with Ken Liu Jan 09, 2024

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In this episode, Ada and Jo discuss the merits of good pacing across a range of story lengths with Hugo and Nebula award-winning author, Ken Liu.

Ex Urbe Ad Astra #11 - The Problem of Evil in Narrative with Alexis Shotwell Dec 05, 2023

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In this episode, Ada and Jo speak with Alexis Shotwell about the issues that arise from ill-intentioned characters, and the moral questions they present to readers.

Ex Urbe Ad Astra #10 - Setups and Payoffs with Jon Evans Oct 17, 2023

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In this episode, Ada and Jo speak with Jon Evans about the remote research versus travel, short stories, beleivability, and setting up shocking twists for striking payoffs.

Ex Urbe Ad Astra #9 - Stopping Reading Aug 29, 2023

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In this episode, Jo and Ada discuss a number of reasons to put a book down without finishing.

Politics in Disability and Fiction with William Alexander Jul 31, 2023

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Award winning children's author William Alexander joins Jo and Ada to talk about using politics and disability in fiction for children and adults.

Ex Urbe Ad Astra Ep. 7: Shakespeare And Language, With Writer Greer Gilman Nov 09, 2022

Show notes

Greer Gilman has been writing stories set in Cloud, her Northern mythscape, for a quarter of a century. Her books are written for the ear, as much as for the understanding. Like the earliest stories, they are meant to be sung. Greer Gilman website

How Writing Is Like Fencing, With Writer Max Gladstone - Part 2 Aug 03, 2022

Show notes

Note to Patreon backers: You received this episode on January 12, 2022, but due to an oversight, it was never posted here. Normally you hear episodes a week in advance, but this one you received seven months in advance! Thank you to everyone for your patience. This is conclusion of the interview. Anything you can call "writing" (science fiction, fantasy, screenwriting, comics, games) Max Gladstone does. He's also a fencer and martial artist. This episode explores connections between these two types of things. This interview ran long, so this is part one of two. Numerous topics covered include: the similarities shared by the crafts of writing and fencing; struggles when writing descriptions of physical spaces; why we don't see cluttered spaceships in science fiction movies; when to include potatoes in your medieval fantasy setting; designing the layout of museum exhibits, video game spaces, and Walt Disney World; and more! Max Gladstone website Substack newsletter Twitter

Ex Urbe Ad Astra Ep. 5: Writing The Near Future, With SF Writer Naomi Kritzer Jul 13, 2022

Show notes

Note to Patreon backers: You received this episode on November 10, 2021, but due to an oversight, it was never posted here. Normally you hear episodes a week in advance, but this one you received eight months in advance! Thank you to everyone for your patience.

This episode is brought to you by Perhaps The Stars, the fourth and final novel in the Terra Ignota series, available now from (referrer links) Amazon, Barnes And Noble, Books-A-Million, Apple Books, and Indiebound.

Naomi Kritzer has been publishing her science fiction and fantasy for the last twenty years. She lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota, US, and likes to think about ways to describe the future both near and far. Her new book is Chaos on CatNet, the sequel to Catfishing on CatNet published by Tor Teen.

Naomi Kritzer's homepage

Naomi Kritzer's Twitter

Ex Urbe Ad Astra Bonus Ep. 4, Part 2: Chapters Jun 01, 2022

Show notes

This is the second half of a conversation between Ada Palmer and Jo Walton, about writing chapters. This was a two-hour conversation, so our previous episode had the first hour, and this episode has the second hour.

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