Episodes
Wednesday Feb 14, 2024
The Persistent State of Meh. A Happy Show.
Wednesday Feb 14, 2024
Wednesday Feb 14, 2024
In this episode we talk a little bit about mental health and writing, and a tiny bit about joy.
Catch up on Jenn’s adventures with her memoir
The Career Adjunct podcast
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-career-adjunct/id1712918978?i=1000634210726
Her interview on Create Me Free:
And her guest post on The Recovering Academic
https://open.substack.com/pub/joshuadolezal/p/guest-post-jenn-zuko?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
You can read more from Jenn Zuko at https://jennzuko.wordpress.com and on her Substack
You can follow Jason Quinn Malott at https://www.jquinnmalott.com
This show’s audio is cleaned up and trimmed by Heather Eden.
Wednesday Jan 03, 2024
The Numbers Say We Suck, But That’s Just The Algorithm.
Wednesday Jan 03, 2024
Wednesday Jan 03, 2024
In this episode we talk about the usual stuff like our readings and writings, catching Covid for the first time, getting noticed by pubs (the boozy kind), and our cranky, cranky take on the future of publishing.
The article that launches us on the rants. The Fight for The Future of Publishing by Alex Perez
https://www.thefp.com/p/the-fight-for-the-future-of-publishing
You can read more from Jenn Zuko at https://jennzuko.wordpress.com and on her Substack
You can follow Jason Quinn Malott at https://www.jquinnmalott.com
This show’s audio is cleaned up and trimmed by Heather Eden.
Tuesday Dec 05, 2023
Aaaaargh! So, How Are Your Anger Issues Tonight?
Tuesday Dec 05, 2023
Tuesday Dec 05, 2023
On this month’s episode we talk about recording issues, Jenn’s first driver’s license, pooping, peri-menopause, and D&D dice. The big topic is a combination of AI in publishing, Literary Freedom, and how we’re letting algorithms determine what is worth publishing and kill art.
Reading
Jenn: LeCarre box set. Colorado Paranormal Society from a new press in Denver.
Jason: The Refugee Ocean by Pauls Toutonghi.
Jenn’s interview on The Career Adjunct Podcast
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2251914/13937795
Source Material
Pen Center: Booklash: Literary Freedom, Online Outrage, and The Language of Harm
https://pen.org/report/booklash/
You can read more from Jenn Zuko at https://jennzuko.wordpress.com and on her Substack
You can follow Jason Quinn Malott at https://www.jquinnmalott.com
This show’s audio is cleaned up and trimmed by Heather Eden.
Thursday Nov 09, 2023
Come and Live in Kansas for Ten Years, Ya Sh*tstick.
Thursday Nov 09, 2023
Thursday Nov 09, 2023
In this episode we discuss time, Star Trek, Ulysses (again), being delusional, the silent rejection, and the purpose, importance, and intent of small presses in response to a Spring 2023 episode of M. Allen Cunningham’s In The Atelier podcast.
Discussion Source
April 3rd Episode of In The Atelier: Answering 10 Questions About Atelier26 Books & Small Publishing
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/in-the-atelier/id1488083777?i=1000607130434
Reading:
Jenn - Sherlock Holmes and John LeCarre
Jason - Mulligan Stew by Gilbert Sorrentino
You can read more from Jenn Zuko at https://jennzuko.wordpress.com and on her Substack
You can follow Jason Quinn Malott at https://www.jquinnmalott.com
This show’s audio is cleaned up and trimmed by Heather Eden.
Saturday Oct 14, 2023
Sorry We’re so Tardy, but We Had a Little Party . . .
Saturday Oct 14, 2023
Saturday Oct 14, 2023
Sorry we’re a bit hard this month, but Jason had a birthday party, and a vacation. Heather started a new job. Jenn did things, we don’t know. In this episode we talk about time, Aubrey Plaza, not reading fiction as much, being out of place and perfect but ignored, and getting our 28 year old student loans erased by the first round of the Income Dependent Repayment plan update.
You can read more from Jenn Zuko at https://jennzuko.wordpress.com and on her Substack
You can follow Jason Quinn Malott at https://www.jquinnmalott.com
This show’s audio is cleaned up and trimmed by Heather Eden.
Saturday Sep 09, 2023
Plot Is Great, but Have You Tried Foucault-ing Off?
Saturday Sep 09, 2023
Saturday Sep 09, 2023
In this episode, we discuss John Le Carré, Japanese fiction, things we’re sending out to agents and publishers, being in the wilderness—all before we get to our discussion of an essay by Joseph Scapellato on Shape as a wrap-up to our discussion on Form and Function.
Sure, Plot is Good, But Have You Tried Talking About Story Shape? by Joseph Scapellato
https://lithub.com/sure-plot-is-good-but-have-you-tried-talking-about-story-shape/
You can read more from Jenn Zuko at https://jennzuko.wordpress.com and on her Substack
You can follow Jason Quinn Malott at https://www.jquinnmalott.com
Monday Aug 14, 2023
Distilled Spirits of Foucault
Monday Aug 14, 2023
Monday Aug 14, 2023
We’re late. Sorry. It’s summer, and it’s been hot and sluggish. In August, we continue our conversation on Form and Function with a discussion of three essays by Jenn (links below).
Other topics include: perimenopause, Penis Appreciation Day, grooves in your brain, a hard turn to the left, No Rosé, being aged, Womb Wakes, reading Foucault, rejections, editors, boredom, haibun, and missing persons.
Essays
Popination (Part 1)
https://open.substack.com/pub/jenn5c3s4/p/popination-part-1?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Popination (Part 2)
https://open.substack.com/pub/jenn5c3s4/p/popination-part-2?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Popination Consternation
https://open.substack.com/pub/jenn5c3s4/p/popination-consternation?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
You can read more from Jenn at https://jennzuko.wordpress.com and on her Substack
You can follow Jason at https://www.jquinnmalott.com
Tuesday Jul 11, 2023
And I Made It With My Own Two Hands
Tuesday Jul 11, 2023
Tuesday Jul 11, 2023
This month, Jenn and Jason kick off a series of discussions on craft: how their things are put together, why and to what ends certain decisions are made and so on. For July, we’re looking at some early chapters from Jason’s project “The Poisoned Moon” with a focus on Form and Function. Next month, we’ll take a look a some work of Jenn’s
To see Jason’s Sample go to https://jasonquinn-malott.squarespace.com/sample-draft
The page has a password to view page because we don’t want just anyone wandering through. password: Top_July_23
You can read more from Jenn at https://jennzuko.wordpress.com and on her Substack
You can follow Jason at https://www.jquinnmalott.com
Tuesday Jun 06, 2023
Accept Discomfort
Tuesday Jun 06, 2023
Tuesday Jun 06, 2023
In this month’s discussion, we chatter about AI and all the ways that the robots are coming for our artistic expression. Instead of the robots being tasked with the dirty jobs, they’ll make our art while we scoop poop and pray that the billionaires will think to include us on their spaceship to Mars where we’ll scoop poop on the red planet.
Unless we fight back.
Accept discomfort.
Here are the articles we reference.
From NPR: Sci-Fi magazine stops submissions after flood of AI generated stories
From the NY Times: The Upshot
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/04/26/upshot/gpt-from-scratch.html
From the NY Times: Bing’s AI Chatbot
The Ezra Klein Show
If on a winter's night a traveler by Italo Calvino
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_on_a_winter's_night_a_traveler
You can read more from Jenn at https://jennzuko.wordpress.com and on her Substack
You can follow Jason at https://www.jquinnmalott.com
Saturday May 06, 2023
Crafty, Crafty or You Ain’t Betty Crocker, Quit Baking Her Cakes.
Saturday May 06, 2023
Saturday May 06, 2023
In this episode, we discuss craft and crafty things, and what it all really means and how we think about it and, maybe, should think about it. We trot out a metaphor that writing is baking—and that some writers rely too much on premade cake and muffin mixes.
Writing as Baking
Elements (ingredients): scratch vs. mix
Craft: Technique vs. Method
Form: The container
Genre: Frosting, non-essential ingredients
Jenn’s References
My poem on the t’Art Spring Showcase
My Substack: Zuko’s Musings
Current Readings:
The Biology of Desire by Marc Lewis
(and many more)
Crafty books (in no order because I am too lazy to alphabetize them):
Understanding Comics - Scott McCloud
The Sense of Style - Steven Pinker
Writing to Learn - William Zinsser
On Writing Well - William Zinsser
On Directing Film - David Mamet
Reading Like a Writer - Francine Prose*
To Show and to Tell - Philip Lopate*
The Poet’s Companion - Addonizio/Laux*
Narrative Design - Madison Smartt Bell*
Understanding Rhetoric - Losh/Alexander/Cannon/Cannon
Writing Fiction - Janet Burroway**
What If? - Bernays/Painter**
Writing as a Way of Healing - Louise deSalvo**
The Craft of Revision - Donald M. Murray
Backwards & Forwards - David Ball***
Steering the Craft - Ursula K. LeGuin
Zen in the Art of Writing - Ray Bradbury
Language of the Night—Ursula LeGuin
Dreyer’s English—Benjamin Dreyer
The Deluxe Transitive Vampire—Karen Elizabeth Gordon
*These are required textbooks for my current class, Writer’s Workshop (DU’s PWRI dept)
**These have been required textbooks for other crafty courses I’ve taught at DU
***Required text for my theatre courses that include lots of play reading
Jason’s References
Currently reading:
Notes from the Coming War by Gavin Pate
This Book Is Not For You by Daniel Hoyt.
You Are Not So Smart Episode 257
John Berger - Into Their labors Trilogy book two: Once in Europa
One Great Way to Write Short Stories by Ben Nyberg #
On Writing Well: The classic guide to writing non-fiction by William Zinsser*
Narrative Discourse and Narrative Discourse Revisited by Gerard Genette
The Last Draft: A Novelists guide to revision - Sandra Scofield*
The Hidden Machinery Essays on Writing by Margot Livesey*
The Art of Subtext by Charles Baxter
The Art of Mystery by Maud Casey*
The Art of History by Christopher Bram*
The Art of Time in fiction by Joan Silber#
The Art of Perspective by Christopher Castellani*
The Art of Revision by Peter Ho Davies
The Scene Book by Sandra Scofield*
Narrative Design by Madison Smartt Bell
Ways of Seeing by John Berger
The Blink of an Eye: A perspective in Film editing by Walter Murch
The Conversations: Walter Murch and the art of editing film by Michale Ondaatje
The Way of the Writer by Charles Johnson*
How Fiction Works by James Wood
The Art of Fiction by John Gardner
The Rhetoric of Fiction by Wayne Booth#
The Art of Intimacy by Stacey D’Erasmo
The Theory of the Novel edited by Michael McKeon#
On Writing by Stephen King.
On Moral Fiction by John Gardner
On Becoming a Novelist by John Gardner
Six Memos for The Next Millennium by Italo Calvino
You can read more from Jenn at https://jennzuko.wordpress.com and on her Substack
You can follow Jason at https://www.jquinnmalott.com