S&L Podcast – #161 – What Harry Potter Stole from Earthsea

This time around we’re kicking off our February book pick, A Wizard of Earthsea, by Ursula K. Le Guin. If you’re looking for the first tale a of a boy who attends a school of wizardry, we’ve got the goods, as well as what Ms. Le Guin, who wrote her book in 1968, thinks of Ms. Rowling. Plus The Clarion Workshop deadline is looming and USC and Intel make one author’s world come alive.

Direct download link here!

WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?    
Tom: Bikini Blonde Lager   
Veronica: 2011 Plantagenet Shiraz Omrah

    
QUICK BURNS    
    
Announcing the instructors for the 2014 Clarion Writers’ Workshop    
SF writing competition: a world without the Normal Curve!    
British science fiction book awards lurch towards gender parity    
Intel Leviathan Project    
This interactive chart maps out all the storylines in The Hobbit    
    
 CALENDAR    
    
TV, MOVIES AND VIDEO GAMES    
    
Neil Gaiman’s American Gods gets a brand new TV deal    

BOOK KICK-OFF    
    
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin    
Wikipedia entry for ‘A Wizard of Earthsea’    
Ursula K. Le Guin’s website    

    
March Poll launched
, vote on what our book should be!

April will be a book picked by our Kickstarter backer Bryan Benson!    
    
BARE YOUR SWORD    
    
What fictional items would you decorate a room with?    
    
Adding “lem” to the dictionary    
    
EMAIL    

Hi Guys,
I listened to TNT for a long time and really enjoyed Tom’s narrative about tech and the tech industry. I just returned to TNT from a short hiatus to discover that Tom is no longer there. It’s only been a couple of episodes but it doesn’t feel the same. I don’t think TNT will be the same without Tom.
Anyway…. I remembered Tom use to mention S&L from time to time on TNT and figured I’d give it a try. I downloaded and listened to my first S&L episode (#160) today and liked what I heard.
I use to submit articles in the TNT’s sub reddit from time to time. Not sure what the official way is to submit for this show but I just read a book I thought was very relevant to discuss you guys had about how Fantasy and Scifi are so tied together and how (as Tom mentioned) it even mixes into Horror sometimes.
I thought this book was really cool for just that reason. It’s got pirates it’s got sudo time travel it’s got monsters. Take a look!

Mike E.

Kevin Singer – The Last Conquistador