A Conspiracy of Lemurs

Jaynie Royal and Pam Van Dyk chat with Mimi Herman, author of The Kudzu Queen, and Dale Neal, author of Kings of Coweetsee, about Southern fiction, the "seeds" of literary work, and the research and inspiration required to make them "grow." Join us for a fabulous conversation! 

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Join us for a deep dive into Southern fiction and Regal House's Sour Mash series with Marjorie Hudson, author of Indigo Field, and Culley Holderfield, author of Hemlock Hollow. 

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We welcome Roxanne Doty, author of Out Stealing Water, and Amy L. Bernstein, author of The Protero Complex, to our podcast to discuss Writers as Recording Artists: Power and Empathy in Fiction. Novelists writing of their contemporary world are historical commentators of their time. They offer sweeping and sometimes dystopian views of government and the people who run it, tapping into real fears and fundamental truths about the world, its people, its leaders and their policies. Civil unrest, wars, plagues, famines all find their way into literature. Roxanne and Amy have created fictional worlds that touch upon economic power and economic deprivation, upon the scarcity of resources, and the social justice implications of differential access to those resources.

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One of the most common themes in literature for young people is boundaries crossed—in friendship and family.  Young people are changing rapidly, and they often find it very hard to know their own boundaries, or when they've crossed the boundaries of others, until conflicts arise.  With our guests Ona Gritz, author of the middle grade novel, August or Forever, and Carol Dines, the author of the young adult novel, The Take-Over Friend, we  explore what boundaries are, why they are important, why boundaries change in relationships, and why communication in family and friendship is both challenging and important.  

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Gary Eldon Peter, author of The Complicated Calculus (and Cows) of Carl Paulsen, and Valerie Nieman, author of In the Lonely Backwater, join us to discuss the rich opportunity for YA fiction world building with non-binary characters in rural settings.

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Ginger Park, author of The Hundred Choices Department Store, Frank Morelli, author of Breaking News, and Diana Renn, author of Trouble at Turtle Pond join us for a lively discussion about trends, gatekeepers, and the authenticity of voice in middle grade literature. 

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We are delighted to welcome Michele Herman, author of Save the Village, Laraine Herring, author of A Constellation of Ghosts: A Speculative Memoir with Ravens, and David R. Roth, author of The Femme Fatale Hypothesis to discuss mortality in literature.

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M.B. McLatchey‘s memoir Beginner’s Mind and Kevin McIntosh‘s novel Class Dismissed address similar educational themes and explore some of the same tensions in and out of the classroom. M.B. McLatchey and Kevin McIntosh will be joining Jaynie Royal and Pam Van Dyk to explore the philosophical threads of these education-themed literary works. 

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 Jon Sealy, founder of Haywire Books and author of The Edge of America, The Whiskey Baron, So You Want to Be a Novelist, and The Merciful  and   Heather Bell Adams, author of Maranatha Road and The Good Luck Stone (published by Haywire Books), will be joining us to discuss the indie publishing scene, the editor-author relationship, as well as their recent releases.

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 In anticipation of the release of our 2019 Kraken Book Prize-winning title, Thomas Creeper and the Gloomsbury Secret, J.R. Potter will be joining us on A Conspiracy of Lemurs to chat about would-be heroes in crisis, heroes who have nothing to lose and everything to gain. We’ll explore the role of the underdog hero in middle grade fiction and the lessons we can learn from them at any stage in our lives. 

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 Joey Garcia and Joni Renee Whitworth, contributors to the upcoming upcoming release (Her)oics: Women’s Lived Experiences During the Coronavirus Pandemic, will be joining us to discuss the impact of the pandemic on their experience and work as writers and artists, individually and in community. 

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Alicia Mosley and Ella deCastro Baron, contributors to the upcoming release (Her)oics: Women’s Lived Experiences During the Coronavirus Pandemic, and Joanell Serra, coeditor of (Her)oics, (Pact Press, March 2021) will discuss their contributed stories: “Mosley’s Mothering while Black during the Pandemic” and deCastro Baron’s “Bahala Na.”  In conversation with Pam and Jaynie, they will  consider the impact culture and race had on their communities’ experience of the pandemic. Ella deCastro Baron is a second generation Filipinx American professor and author living in San Diego, California. Alicia Mosley is a poet and fiction writer, a mother of four, and a community educator. She earned her MEd in Curriculum Development and MFA in Creative Writing from the University of California, Riverside 

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Julie Wittes Shlack, author of This-All-at-Onceness, joins Jaynie Royal and Pam Van Dyk to discuss and ins and outs of political literature – how it may be differentiated from propaganda, it’s role in society, and its ability to endure and resonate beyond that political time. 

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Jaynie Royal and Pam Van Dyk spend an hour with two of our Southern Mash Literature Series authors: Rebecca Baum, author of Lifelike Creatures, and Karol Hoeffner, author of Knee Deep. Together we discuss the use of landscape, culture, and catastrophe as catalysts for character development; and how narrative point of view shapes the reader’s experience of that journey. 

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Jaynie Royal and Pam Van Dyk spend an hour with Jan Alexander, author of Ms. Ming’s Guide to Civilization, and Karen Quevillon, author of The Parasol Flower, discussing the role of place in fiction. 

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Melanie Cossey, author of A Peculiar Curiosity, and Lillah Lawson, author of Monarchs Under the Sassafras Tree, join us on A Conspiracy of Lemurs to discuss the role of madness in Victorian and Southern Gothic literature. 

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Karen Quevillon, author of The Parasol Flower, and Mitchell James Kaplan, author of Into the Unbounded Night, join Jaynie Royal and Pam Van Dyk to discuss the writing of history vs. the writing of “tales.” As a novelist, are you working with “official” history, working against the grain of it, or doing something else entirely…? 

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Jaynie Royal and Pam Van Dyk are delighted to welcome Dr. Mary Hill-Wagner to join us on A Conspiracy of Lemurs to discuss the inspiration behind her upcoming publication, Girlz n’ the Hood: A Memoir of Mama and the challenges she faced in bringing this project to fruition. A delightful episode, not to be missed!

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On this episode of A Conspiracy of Lemurs, Jaynie Royal and Pam Van Dyk are joined by  Jane Bernstein, author of The Face Tells the Secret, and Julie Wittes Schlack, author of This All-at-Onceness. We discuss the inspiration behind their respective literary works, the definition and intent of the memoir narrative, the challenges entailed in such a task, and the role of truth in the formulation of content. 

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Jaynie Royal and Pam Van Dyk welcome Regal House poets, Martha Kalin, the winning recipient of the 2019 Terry J. Cox Poetry Award for her collection How to Hold a Flying River, and Zack Rogow, author of The Irreverent Litanies and the judge of the 2019 Terry J. Cox Poetry Award, to A Conspiracy of Lemurs. Join us for a delightful conversation about the inspiration behind their collections, the role of poetic activism, and the influence of social media on the poetic art form. 

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