Nomes & Vic talk about Books

• different kinds of monsters
• the history of monsters
• best monster books
• how to design a monster for your story

We talk about:

• The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
• Green Knowe
• Arcane Houses of London
• The Haunting of Hill House
• Howl’s Moving Castle
• Hogwarts
• Baba Yaga
• The Hobbit
• Grail Legends
• Condor Peak

• the interplay between plot & character
• how to get character to do unusual things & stay in character
• what 'breaks' a character
• how to design interesting characters

We talk about:

• Ursula le Guin
• Tolkien
• Genre conversions
• LOTR and Figwit
• Surprising & delighting readers - without losing them
• Stringing people along for the payoff

We talk about:

• the different levels of pet peeves
• how you can't please everybody (so don't try)
• the curse of knowledge (and how it can ruin an otherwise good read)
• the rule I use when parsing beta reader feedback
• and many more peeves...

• how our previous jobs (architecture, theatre) shaped our writing
• how hobbies (classical music, surfing) shapes writing
• the role of the narrator/director in a story
• the architecture of story

We talk about:

• Fan fiction
• Harry Potter, Draco/Hermione, Draco/Harry Potter
• Pride and Prejudice
• The Da Vinci Code
• The disco ball of theme
• Dark romance, Damseling, & Stockholm Syndrome 
• Vorkosigan Saga - Aral Vorkosigan and Cordelia Naismith
• BBC Sherlock & Queerbaiting
• Greek concept of multiple forms of love
• The Hobbit movie

We talk about:

• Dr Seuss - Cat in the Hat
• Maurice Sendak - Where the Wild Things Are
• Judith Kerr - Mog Books, Tiger Who Came for Tea
• Not now, Bernard
• Shirley Jackson - The Lottery, Jack the Ripper
• Quentin Blake
• Alan Lee
• John Howe
• Tolkien
• Calvin & Hobbes
• Terry Pratchett
• Star Wars
• CS Lewis - Narnia

We talked about:

• RWNZ conference
• Keynote speakers TL Swan, Jennifer Hilt, Nalini Singh
• Shannon Curtis on theme
• Aesop's Fables
• Stephen King's 'On Writing'
• 'The Lottery' & 'The Witch' - Shirley Jackson
• The Merchant of Venice
• Pride and Prejudice
• A Room with a View - E.M. Forster
• Willa Cather - My Mortal Enemy
• The Titanic

Books & Stories mentioned:

- The Retired Assassin's Guide to Amateur Theatrics

- The Lottery - Shirley Jackson

- The Haunting of Hill House - Shirley Jackson

- Chivalry - Neil Gaiman

- Where the Wild Things Are - Maurice Sendak

- The Tiger Who Came for Tea - Judith Kerr

- Agatha Christie

Books & movies mentioned:

• The Famous Five - Enid Blyton
• Dorothy Sayers
• Sherlock Holmes
• Ngaio Marsh
• No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency
• Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch
• Agatha Christie
• Thursday Murder Club
• cat steals the show: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/15Wy9kj3bNE
• Dungeon Crawler Carl
• The Retired Assassin's Guide to Country Gardening
• Victoria's as-yet unnamed book!