If Giles were evil, he’d be a shadow daddy.

Yes, Giles, the librarian from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Definitely a shadow daddy in an alternate universe.

Oh, anyway. Hi everyone! Your favorite ladies for hot literary takes are back!

Thank you all for bearing with us so far in this crazy year. We really appreciate you.

Meanwhile, you can check out our transcripts, follow us, and support us wherever you scroll: https://linktr.ee/inksinkpodcast

Note: This episode contains some cursing. Annie may or may not have some tricks up her sleeve.

Now, back to the more important point. Give us your favorite shadow daddies! Message us on Facebook or Instagram. Or email us at InkSinkPodcast@gmail.com. We’ll read the best ones on the show.

News links

• Listen to the Graphic Audio version of Fourth Wing here: https://www.graphicaudio.net/the-empyrean-1-fourth-wing-1-of-2.html
• The Poynter Report is a good source for what’s going on in news news. Here’s their breakdown of the Bezos/Washington Post drama: https://mailchi.mp/poynter/is-bezoss-new-mission-for-the-post-already-bombing?e=e5489eccb5
• A podcaster translates an ancient Roman history book and puts it on the bestseller list: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/feb/24/book-sex-scandals-roman-emperors-bestseller-charts-the-lives-of-the-caesars-tom-holland
• See more of The Rest is History, a podcast from historian Tom Holland, in their Suetonius series: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/emperors-of-rome-sex-secrets-of-the-caesars-part-1/id1537788786?i=1000685187106
• And check out Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics and her episode on Suetonius for some funny history, too: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000czlf
• Insensitive dialogue in a highly anticipated book ends with a cancellation: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/05/books/sophie-lark-sparrow-vine-bloom-books-cancelled.html
• For more on ARCs and why they matter, check out our episode on an ARC we got from our forever fave, Chuck Tingle: https://theinksink.substack.com/i/135909146/loving-chuck-tingle-is-our-favorite-thing-to-do
• And for more from our perennially relevant episode on problematic authors, you can check out the transcript here: https://theinksink.substack.com/p/return-of-the-problematic-authors
• Now, time to celebrate historically marginalized peoples killin it in publishing! Specifically: Clarion celebrates funding its trans writers workshop: https://www.clarionwest.org/2025/01/27/announcing-a-scholarship-for-trans-writers/

You can also look at all the books we talked about on our bookshop page:

• Dungeon Crawler Carl (Matt Dinniman): This series is so good, Kali’s husband bought it all because he couldn’t wait for her to come home and give him the copies she already had. https://bookshop.org/a/55633/9780593820247
• Shadow and Bone (Leigh Bardugo): Read the book that inspired the Shadow Daddy GIFs. https://bookshop.org/a/55633/9781250027436
• The Lives of the Caesars (Suetonius and Tom Holland): Gossip rags WISH they were as cool as this. https://bookshop.org/a/55633/9780143107705
• The Last Sun (K. D. Edwards): A fallen prince finds himself in an Uncharted-style treasure hunting story. https://bookshop.org/a/55633/9781633884236
• Bury Your Gays (Chuck Tingle): A Hollywood writer faces red tape, surveillance, and horrors while his aro-ace bestie is too fabulous for this world. https://bookshop.org/a/55633/9781250874665

Disclaimer: If you buy a book from one of our links, we may get a commission. But more importantly, Bookshop.Org gives back to independent bookstores with every purchase. Check them out now!

00:00 Intro

06:47 What is a “Shadow Daddy”?

13:38 News: WaPo and the White House are making it weird out here

26:26 Somehow, Suetonius has returned

31:41 Sophie Lark gets cancelled

38:15 Celebrating trans authors with Clarion

39:35 Kali is reading “The Last Sun” by K.D. Edwards

41:43 Annie is reading “Bury Your Gays” by Chuck Tingle

45:32 Kali Coda: You can always walk away

TW: murder, exploitation, kidnapping, violence againstchildren

True crime is extremely popular today. Where did this wave come from?

If that’s not your cup of tea, we’ll leave you with somelinks to organizations that are helping victims:

• RAINN: https://rainn.org/
• NOND: https://notournativedaughters.org/

Heads up, we do some cursing in this episode. People are f****** obsessed with some of this s***.

Have feedback for us? Reach us wherever you scroll: https://linktr.ee/inksinkpodcast

Here are some of our sources:

• “True crime podcasting: Journalism, justice or entertainment?” by Kelli S. Boling (https://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10.1386/rjao_00003_1)
• “Barbara Newhall Follett: The Child Novelist Who Later Vanished Into Thin Air” by Jake Rossen (https://www.mentalfloss.com/posts/barbara-newhall-follett-author-mystery)
• “True Crime Podcasting as Participatory Journalism: A Digital Ethnography of Collaborative Case Solving” by Sarah Witmer and David O. Dowling (https://www.mdpi.com/2673-5172/5/4/104)
• “Mortality, moral regulation, and (im)moral entrepreneurship in My Favorite Murder” by Richard Green and Bethan Michael-Fox (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10304312.2023.2215971)
• “Death and mourning in technologically mediated culture” by Margaret Gibson (https://doi.org/10.5172/hesr.2007.16.5.415)
• The Curious Case of Natalia Grace on HBO Max (https://www.max.com/shows/curious-case-of-natalia-grace/d8da0110-568f-4ab2-94fd-fd72c705c44f)
• I’ll be Gone in the Dark on HBO Max (https://www.max.com/shows/ill-be-gone-in-the-dark/a823014d-fa0b-4bbe-ab98-14ea00e551bb)
• 11 Minutes on Paramount+ (https://www.paramountplus.com/shows/11-minutes/?searchReferral=desktop-web&source=google-organic&ftag=PPM-23-10bfh8c)
• “News Media Can’t Shake ‘Missing White Woman Syndrome,’ Critics Say” by Katie Robertson (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/22/business/media/gabby-petito-missing-white-woman-syndrome.html)

00:00 – Trigger warning

00:18 – Intro

01:35 – The Top Tens

04:27 – Where Does It Come From?

10:54 – Why Do People Love It?

29:19 – Racism in True Crime

32:55 – Capitalism Rears its Head

36:34 – Our Recommendations

42:44 – Kali Coda

43:23 – Thanks for Listening

Supervillains past and present show us why reallife is stranger than fiction.

Follow, support, and message us wherever you scroll! https://linktr.ee/inksinkpodcast

Warning: We have some bad words in this episode. Sometimes random s*** just happens.

Hear some of our favorite “stranger than fiction” stories today (a spiritual successor to our first Stranger Than Fiction episode: https://youtu.be/9K4XteCYGR4.)

Our sources for this episode:

• “‘Uh-oh’: psychic’s prediction of ‘sense of loss’ for Trump unnerves Fox News host” from The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/jan/03/donald-trump-psychic-jesse-watters-fox-news
• (This is somehow 100% real) “Montana Man Pleads Guilty to Federal Wildlife Trafficking Charges as Part of Yearslong Effort to Create Giant Hybrid Sheep for Captive Hunting” from the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/montana-man-pleads-guilty-federal-wildlife-trafficking-charges-part-yearslong-effort-create
• “Nefarious Intentions and Persecuted Victims: On the Rise of Conspiracy Theories” from LitHub: https://lithub.com/nefarious-intentions-and-persecuted-victims-on-the-rise-of-conspiracy-theories/
• “Here Lies the Skull of Pliny the Elder, Maybe” from New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/14/science/pliny-archaeology-skull-vesuvius.html
• “‘Everybody Is a Bit on Edge’: Sailors Trade Tips onSteering Clear of Orcas” from the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/15/world/europe/orcas-attacks-boats.html
• “Hundreds of 19th Century Americans Tried to Conquer Foreign Lands. This Man Was the Most Successful” from History.com: https://www.history.com/news/manifest-destiny-william-walker-filibuster-nicaragua-mexico-invasion
• “Journalist questioned by police because car crash reports were so ‘in depth’” from the Press Gazette: https://pressgazette.co.uk/news/police-question-journalist-in-depth-crash-reports/

Have feedback? Email us at inksinkpodcast@gmail.com!

Chapters:

00:00 Intro
00:51 Stranger Than Fiction?
02:36 Fox News’ Tarot Reader Has Unexpected Message
06:13 Supervillains Are Into Sheep Now
10:51 Shakespeare’s Secrets Revealed!
14:30 Did an Ancient Greek Eagle Kill a Man With a Turtle Bomb?
20:17 The Orcas Fear the Death Metal
25:40 Manifest Destiny + Drunk Louisianans = Central American Conquerers?
30:06 British Reporter Too Good at Job, Police Suspicious
32:19 Thanks for listening!

Comic books finally hit phones – now to scroll through Gotham.

See and support wherever you scroll: https://linktr.ee/inksinkpodcast

Warning: We curse. Dick Grayson is DC’s pinup boy and we’re not mad.

News:

• New comics format: ⁠https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/comics/article/96545-dc-launches-vertical-scroll-webtoon-series-dc-go.html⁠
• Comics raise prices: https://screenrant.com/comics-expensive-price-economy-indie-publishers/
• B&N expands: https://www.morningbrew.com/daily/stories/barnes-and-noble-open-60-new-locations-this-year
• Do YOU like AI poetry? https://view.e.bookriot.com/?qs=a677d0d3b0be70c8f4462ba6f5262de712c5ffe6945a32f415b3648729e6fbb181d0699668adcd0281cc5b272f6659fe310502a54918dc7222243e862e975b2dcfaec1247d162c5df73be5a920343fcc442872aa04b3712c
• Kali's rec: “The Applicant”: https://lithub.com/i-asked-chatgpt-to-write-its-own-versions-of-iconic-poems-and-they-are-not-great/
• Cozy fiction + cats? https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/07/books/healing-fiction-japan-korea-before-the-coffee-gets-cold.html
• Support local lit orgs: https://bookriot.com/how-to-fight-book-bans-and-censorship-in-2024/
• Baltimore: County Board minutes and agendas: https://www.bcpl.info/about-us/board-trustees. Local news on books: https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/topic/culture/books/
• Book trailer with a movie it inspired: https://www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?issue=4865&share=true#m65933

Celebrating minorities: "Authors saw their median income surge 73%." (https://janefriedman.com/romance-authors-thrive-in-the-self-publishing-era/)

Kali is reading fanfic: https://archiveofourown.org/works/53155222/chapters/134498068

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
03:51 New Comics Format
10:35 Pricier Comics
18:18 B&N Is OK
23:29 Robot Poetry?
29:06 Healing Fantasy
32:01 Help Books
34:10 Movie Inspo
37:59 Celebrations
41:35 Kali is Reading...
45:10 Coda

Oh we’re *cool podcasters now*.

Your favorite book news is now coming with soundproofing and professional equipment!

Warning: We now swear in HD.

We haven’t been as consistent with the Ink Sink as we’d like to be, and we want to thank all of you for sticking with us!

Follow, shop, support: https://linktr.ee/inksinkpodcast

Kali has been watching Agatha All Along and reconnecting with the fun parts of a living fandom. Annie, meanwhile, can’t get over how quiet it is and how good they sound in their new studio! Shout out to the Baltimore County Public Library for having pro studios available for patrons. Support your public libraries, friends!

Some of our sources for today’s show:

• Green and lean! HC makes small changes with big impact: https://www.fastcompany.com/91071102/harper-collins-made-a-tiny-tweak-to-its-book-design-and-has-saved-thousands-of-trees-as-a-result

• Dolly Parton’s Dollywood is amazing at recycling: https://www.visitmysmokies.com/blog/attractions-pigeon-forge/why-no-recycling-bins-dollywood/
• Anyway, here are how your favorite authors voted in the "Best books of the century (so far)" roundup: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/books/authors-top-books-21st-century.html
• Absolutely WILD merch idea: https://www.billboard.com/culture/product-recommendations/walmart-spicy-books-hot-sauce-yulin-kuang-buy-online-1235748106/
• Why the deals for ongoing content licensing really matter: https://www.morningbrew.com/daily/stories/2024/04/07/tech-companies-find-the-edge-of-the-internet
• The numbers are in: people buy books: https://countercraft.substack.com/p/yes-people-do-buy-books
• A quick run through the latest stats in book publishing: https://kathleenschmidt.substack.com/p/what-do-cost-saving-measures-sales
• Insights from the book industry on where we are now and where we’re headed: https://bookriot.com/publishers-weekly-us-book-show/
• Man, remember when Google’s motto used to be “Don’t be evil “? Now they platform pirated books, ban real ones, and threaten to punish those who complain: https://publishingperspectives.com/2024/06/major-publishers-sue-google-over-ads-for-pirated-ebooks/
• Celebrations: These indie bookstores are fighting the system: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/10/books/counterculture-bookstores-social-movements.html

Thank you so much for listening! We hope to be coming into your ears much more often now that we have a dedicated studio space. We really appreciate everyone sticking with us.

00:00 Intro 06:15 Harper Collins Green and Lean 10:16 NYT Century’s Best Books 14:06 Spicy Marketing 17:51 Robots Asking Nicely 27:45 Wait, Do People Still Buy Books? 33:46 Google, Your Evil is Showing 37:20 Indie Bookstores Are Community Hubs 39:04 Thanks for Listening

This library accepted cat pictures instead of charging late fees. We didn’t tell you about it when it was first happening, but we’re making up for that now.

While we record new episodes, we bring you some highlights from the cutting-room floor.

Warning: We’re up in our feelings about anti-library s*** this episode. Listen with caution if you don’t like cursing.

Send us pictures of your pets (and support us!) wherever you follow: https://linktr.ee/inksinkpodcast

Our sources for this episode:

• Part of "March Meowness" last month, the Worcester Public Library in Massachusetts accepted cat pictures as payment for lost or damaged items: https://www.mentalfloss.com/posts/cat-photos-replace-library-fines

• On the topic, here are some cool people (many of them authors) with their cats: https://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/jill-krementz-photo-journal-a-celebration-of-cats/

• Why are we seeing so many new online bookstores lately? https://todayinbooks.substack.com/p/rupaul-launches-an-online-book-marketplace

• Related, RuPaul's new store immediately sees controversy: https://www.vulture.com/article/rupaul-bookstore-allstora-controversy-explained.html

• From Sanderson's blog: He's reached a deal with the company (which he can't talk about yet) that he says gives more fair deals to authors: https://www.brandonsanderson.com/regarding-audible/

• Spotify matches Audible's $9.99 subscription tier: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/94483-spotify-launches-9-99-audiobook-subscription-tier.html

• Scientists behaving badly: how Chat-GPT is getting into the scientific record: https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2024/03/20/the-latest-crisis-is-the-research-literature-overrun-with-chatgpt-and-llm-generated-articles/

• In season two, we talked about how we can recognize what’s truth, and what’s not, on the internet: https://youtu.be/hqL48_yWJRE

• From Reddit: Why ChatGPT is bad at math: https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatGPT/comments/zl4e1f/why_is_chatgpt_bad_at_math_answer_inside/

• Speaking of AI: a good roundup of how different companies are responding to the new content-scraping reality: https://pressgazette.co.uk/platforms/news-publisher-ai-deals-lawsuits-openai-google/

• Legal Zoom’s silliest laws list: https://www.legalzoom.com/articles/top-craziest-laws-still-on-the-books

• Publishing is getting slightly more diverse: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/94466-new-lee-low-diversity-baseline-survey-finds-minor-changes.html

• Change your smoke alarm batteries and run the self-clean on your oven. Your regular "let's abolish genres" hot take is here! https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/nov/27/the-big-idea-should-we-abolish-literary-genres

Want to stand up to Amazon and support independent bookstores and also support our podcast? Check us out on Bookshop.org! https://bookshop.org/shop/theinksink

• Kali returns to reading for fun with more cozy fantasy: https://bookshop.org/a/55633/9798987850206

Disclaimer: We receive a commission if you buy a book from one of our book lists. But more importantly, Bookshop.Org donates a portion of its revenue to independent bookstores with over $33 million raised so far!

00:00 Welcome Back! 00:27 March Mewness + Authors and Their Beloved Cats 04:41 RuPaul’s Allstora Faces Pushback 14:20 Sanderson Celebrates Audible Negotiations 19:24 Spotify Also Coming for Audible 22:41 What’s Going on With the Robots This Week? 35:17 Genres Are Good, Actually 39:43 Kali Is Reading Cursed Cocktails 41:20 Thanks for Listening!

Supervillains, past and present, show us exactly why real life is stranger than fiction.

Follow, support, and message us wherever you scroll! https://linktr.ee/inksinkpodcast

Warning: We have some bad words in this episode. Sometimes random s*** just happens.

Welcome back to the Ink Sink! We’re taking a stroll through some of our favorite “stranger than fiction” stories today (a spiritual successor to our first Stranger Than Fiction episode which you can listen to here: https://youtu.be/9K4XteCYGR4.)

Our sources for this episode:

• “‘Uh-oh’: psychic’s prediction of ‘sense of loss’ for Trump unnerves Fox News host” from The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/jan/03/donald-trump-psychic-jesse-watters-fox-news
• (This is somehow 100% real) “Montana Man Pleads Guilty to Federal Wildlife Trafficking Charges as Part of Yearslong Effort to Create Giant Hybrid Sheep for Captive Hunting” from the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/montana-man-pleads-guilty-federal-wildlife-trafficking-charges-part-yearslong-effort-create
• “Nefarious Intentions and Persecuted Victims: On the Rise of Conspiracy Theories” from LitHub: https://lithub.com/nefarious-intentions-and-persecuted-victims-on-the-rise-of-conspiracy-theories/
• “Here Lies the Skull of Pliny the Elder, Maybe” from New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/14/science/pliny-archaeology-skull-vesuvius.html
• “‘Everybody Is a Bit on Edge’: Sailors Trade Tips on Steering Clear of Orcas” from the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/15/world/europe/orcas-attacks-boats.html
• “Hundreds of 19th Century Americans Tried to Conquer Foreign Lands. This Man Was the Most Successful” from History.com: https://www.history.com/news/manifest-destiny-william-walker-filibuster-nicaragua-mexico-invasion
• “Journalist questioned by police because car crash reports were so ‘in depth’” from the Press Gazette: https://pressgazette.co.uk/news/police-question-journalist-in-depth-crash-reports/

Have feedback? Email us at inksinkpodcast@gmail.com!

Chapters:

00:00 Intro
00:51 Stranger Than Fiction?
02:36 Fox News’ Tarot Reader Has Unexpected Message
06:13 Supervillains Are Into Sheep Now
10:51 Shakespeare’s Secrets Revealed!
14:30 Did an Ancient Greek Eagle Kill a Man With a Turtle Bomb?
20:17 The Orcas Fear the Death Metal
25:40 Manifest Destiny + Drunk Louisianans = Central American Conquerers?
30:06 British Reporter Too Good at Job, Police Suspicious
32:19 Thanks for listening!

Hugo Awards’ scandal continues + What are the BookTok-ers angry about today?

(Please note that this episode was recorded before the accusations around Neil Gaiman were published. If you or someone you know needs support, there are confidential resources here to help. Please take care of yourselves and remember that you are valued.)

Book buddies! Media maniacs! Fiction fiends! Anyone who wants to know just a little bit more about their favorite stories – and what’s next – welcome!

Follow, support, and yell at us wherever you’d like! All links on our LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/inksinkpodcast

Note: there is some cursing in this episode. Sometimes the chosen one has to nope out of an adventure with some strong language. And we support that.

Listener Feedback: Luna tackles Hugo

We spoke about the controversy around the Hugo Awards a few months ago. The back and forth hasn’t stopped, but our friend Luna took a deep dive and helped us out. So the Hugo Awards organizers seem to have pre-emptively excluded creators that they thought would not go over well at an awards ceremony in China… and forgotten that the rest of the world might have a problem with that? Whew, what a cluster.

If you found a better rabbit hole on a story we covered and want to tell us more, please do! Email us at InkSinkPodcast@gmail.com or reach out on our Facebook or Instagram, our DMs are open!

Also, how are you feeling about the Hugo Awards now? Let us know!

Diving into the news today:

• Follow Publisher’s Weekly’s “This Week in Libraries” newsletter: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/edition/libraries.html

• A Wired writer is big mad at “Fanbinders” for making a profit on other people’s work: https://www.wired.com/story/pull-to-publish-fanfic-senlinyu-manacled-fanbinding/

• From TikTok, this situation feels the same, but legally it’s extremely different: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTLJLgBkP/

• We talked about ARCs in Season 2: https://youtu.be/T_UFw1qwsVc

• Cozy fantasy gets some mainstream love: https://reactormag.com/coming-to-terms-with-cozy-fiction/

• Love T. Kingfisher? So do we! See some of her books on our recent reads list: https://bookshop.org/lists/what-we-re-reading-20648183-3934-47b4-aebd-e8457216d11f *

Celebrating marginalized peoples in publishing means we are all in on celebrating Ada Limon’s amazing achievement in being named one of Time’s Women of the Year for 2024. But also one of her poems is going to space!

Read with us!

• Mark of the Fool by J.M. Clarke is a cozy fantasy adventure that centers around a hero who has had quite enough of this, thank you. It isn’t available on Bookshop.org, but you can find it at your favorite store through Goodreads.

• Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur tore Annie’s heart out and then healed it back together. Now, you. *

• Annie’s also reading Mass Effect: The Complete Comics, because we’ve gotta keep it high and low out here. *

* Disclaimer: if you make a purchase from one of our affiliate links, we may earn a commission. But more importantly, Bookshop donates to small independent bookstores with every purchase. It has raised over $32 million to date!

It's National Poetry Month! In honor of Kali's favorite month, we are sharing one of her favorite episodes: Poems Make You Cry

We have an annotated transcript for this one up on our Substack, here: https://open.substack.com/pub/theinksink/p/poetry-words-and-rhythms-to-make

Scroll, shop, and chat with us wherever you'd like: https://linktr.ee/inksinkpodcast

Spotify’s audiobook service is here! But what does it mean for independent authors? We dive into the publishing news. Plus, we celebrate two unsung women from history who finally get their due!

Warning: We swear in this episode. Leigh Bardugo’s protagonist has to put up with some bulls***.

You can support us and see our transcripts on our LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/inksinkpodcast

Our sources for this episode:

• A breakdown of high fantasy and low fantasy from Book Riot: https://bookriot.com/high-fantasy-vs-low-fantasy/

• Spotify boosts popular audiobooks: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/audio-books/article/94253-spotify-reports-exponential-audiobook-growth.html

• As the publishing industry digests Spotify's audiobooks program, independent authors notice the terms have shifted: https://writerbeware.blog/2024/02/19/outrage-over-new-terms-of-use-at-findaway-voices-forces-change/

• This sad but necessary story about what librarians have to put up with: https://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/story/School-and-Public-Librarians-describe-on-the-job-harassment-censorship

• Very cool new literature prize: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/04/books/inside-literary-prize.html

• A long-overdue congratulations to Hannah Bond, whom you can now read about in depth: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/14/books/hannah-crafts-biography-gregg-hecimovich.html

• Celebrations: Ángela Ruiz Robles invented an early e-reader: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/10/obituaries/angela-ruiz-robles-overlooked.html

Read the books we talked about in this episode: Disclaimer: If you purchase a book through one of our Bookshop links, we receive a commission. But more importantly, Bookshop also supports independent bookstores with every book sold. They’ve raised over $30 million so far!

• Harrow the Ninth: a devastating, dizzying book written in second person that Annie will love til her dying day: https://bookshop.org/a/55633/9781250313218

• The Ninth House: dark academia meets gritty urban detective meets magic secret societies, it’s every bit as good as it sounds: https://bookshop.org/a/55633/9781250751362

Chapters:

00:00 Intro 03:35 Corrections corner 06:37 Spotify boosts audiobooks, what’s it costing independent authors? 15:52 Librarians are still dealing with bulls*** 19:29 A new literary prize for incarcerated people debuts 22:22 Celebrating two amazing women who never got their due 28:44 Annie is reading The Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo 35:28 Kali Koda – No, wait, it’s the outro

We’re still on Goodreads, and we’re not ashamed. But the Hugo Awards are a P R O B L E M.

Join us for this week’s news as we dive into the latest from the world of books and reading.

This is our podcast for book nerds, fiction fiends, and lit witches! (NOT liches!)

Warning: There is some cursing in this episode. Annie ******* loves the Olympics.

Subscribe, support, and shop on our LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/inksinkpodcast

Our sources for today’s show:

• Okay but just LOOK at T. Kingfisher’s cool book covers: https://bookshop.org/search?keywords=T.+Kingfisher
• Kali’s love for LeVar Burton means that we are HYPED: https://bookriot.com/butterfly-in-the-sky-reading-rainbow-documentary-coming-out/
• You can check out “LeVar Burton Reads,” the podcast where this man’s incredible voice is on full display: https://www.levarburtonpodcast.com/
• Smithsonian Magazine rounds up libraries’ most checked-out books of 2023: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/the-most-borrowed-books-from-public-libraries-in-2023-180983521/
• Some good news: 3 in 4 adults can discern real headlines from fake ones: https://journalistsresource.org/media/post-truth-fake-news-real-news/
• Parisian booksellers get to stick around during the Olympics! https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/14/world/europe/paris-olympics-booksellers.html
• Congress hears from the publishing industry on how AI will impact its future: https://pressgazette.co.uk/north-america/conde-nast-ceo-roger-lynch-ai-senate/
• What’s going on with the Hugo Awards: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/awards-and-prizes/article/94229-resignations-censures-follow-in-wake-of-hugo-awards-controversy.html
• A measured look at the "Goodreads situation": https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/feb/17/god-forbid-that-a-dog-should-die-when-goodreads-reviews-go-bad
• Shondaland celebrates women making waves in publishing: https://www.shondaland.com/inspire/books/a45897413/these-women-represent-the-future-book-publishing-industry/
• Black women being awarded for unpublished manuscripts: https://publishingperspectives.com/2023/10/cassava-republic-a-30000-nonfiction-prize-for-black-women/

You can browse the books we talked about on our BookShop.Org page. We get a commission if you buy from our lists, but more importantly, BookShop supports independent bookstores with every purchase! They’ve raised over $30 million so far!

• Lessons in Chemistry, where a woman takes her science background to the masses through a cooking show (Bonnie Garmus): https://bookshop.org/a/55633/9780385547345
• I’m Glad My Mom Died, an account of a former child star (Jennette McCurdy): https://bookshop.org/a/55633/9781982185824
• Spare, the buzzy memoir from Prince Harry the Duke of Sussex: https://bookshop.org/a/55633/9780593593806
• Fourth Wing, a book about dragons and the people who love them (Rebecca Yarros): https://bookshop.org/a/55633/9781649374042
• Verity, the romance bestseller that’s been all over your FYP (Colleen Hoover): https://bookshop.org/a/55633/9781538724736
• Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, a tale of two friends making a video game (Gabrielle Zevin): https://bookshop.org/a/55633/9780593321201
• Crush, a poetry collection about love and loss in a modern world (Richard Siken): https://bookshop.org/a/55633/9780300107890

Chapters

00:00 Welcome back!

03:34 Reading Rainbow documentary coming soon!

07:02 Americans’ favorite library books

09:30 Phew: We CAN spot fake news

12:57 Paris + Olympics: Bookselling Drama

15:50 Media is begging Congress to curb AI

21:16 Hugo Awards bowed to China

25:25 What is going on with Goodreads RN?

35:58 Celebrating the future of publishing and unpublished manuscripts from black women!

38:58 Kali is reading “Crush”

41:46 The Kali Coda

42:49 Thanks for listening!

2023 was WILD (we do a recap today). That’s probably why we loved our cozy fantasy books last year (we tell you our favorites today, too).

Follow/support/see us on our LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/inksinkpodcast

Warning: We swear a bit in this episode. As we said, 2023 was WILD.

Our sources for this episode:

- The independent romance author who faked her own death and then somehow things got worse? https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jan/14/romance-novelist-faked-death-susan-meachen

- Book bans continued to come in hard in 2023: https://www.npr.org/2023/09/20/1200647985/book-bans-libraries-schools

- As of this writing, this is the latest in the Texan book-rating law: https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/court-refuses-revive-texas-public-school-book-rating-law-2024-01-17/

- The Spine Collector, the spiritual impetus of this podcast, will be deported to a country that will have him: https://www.vulture.com/2023/03/book-thief-filippo-bernardini-gets-no-jail-time-deported.html

- We’re in a new era of digital content. Separately (?) we’re in a new era of AI. We unpack it here: https://theinksink.substack.com/p/buzzfeed-falls-and-ai-rises

- From WSJ: “Libraries Are the New Front Line in America’s Mental-Health Crisis” (https://www.wsj.com/health/healthcare/library-services-homeless-mental-health-e1f513b7)

- Dolly Parton, America’s gem, expands her Imagination Library: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-book-news/article/92981-dolly-parton-s-imagination-library-expands-national-reach.html

Want to pick up books from our storefront? You should! Bookshop.Org supports independent bookstores with every book sold. (Disclaimer: we also get a small commission when you buy from one of our links.)

- Camp Damascus, the story of a queer woman reclaiming her mind, her love, and her community (by Chuck Tingle): https://bookshop.org/a/55633/9781250874627

- All We Can Save, essays from women around the world who offer hope and encouragement in the fight against climate change (edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine K. Wilkinson): https://bookshop.org/a/55633/9780593237083

- The Song of Achilles, a soulful, beautifully written retelling of the Iliad from the perspective of Patroclus as he fights for his love, Achilles (by Madeline Miller): https://bookshop.org/a/55633/9780062060624

- Beware of Chicken, cozy journey through a fantasy land with farming, roosters, and mystical quests (by Casualfarmer): https://bookshop.org/a/55633/9781039448094

- Swordheart, the hijinks of a suburban widow and her mystical guardian as they travel through a wild fantasy world (by T. Kingfisher): https://bookshop.org/a/55633/9781039448094

00:00 Welcome back to the Ink Sink!
03:22 Romance author says “JK, I’m alive!”
06:07 Book bans keep rolling
12:54 The Spine Collector Saga
16:59 The new world of digital news
23:38 Publishing jobs are growing
26:10 Librarians are bada**
30:42 Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library expands
32:00 Favorite books: Swordheart
34:03 Favorite books: Beware of Chicken
37:23 Favorite books: Song of Achilles and All We Can Save
41:58 Favorite books: Camp Damascus and Effin Birds
45:16 Looking forward to Season 3!
50:05 Thanks for listening!

Enemies? Lovers? Marys? Sues?

It's time for part two of our Ink Sink Tropefest! This is the second Holiday Replay episode for Season 2 as we prepare for Season 3!

Find out how to keep up with us and support the show here: https://linktr.ee/inksinkpodcast

Warning: We curse in this episode. We have FEELINGS about internet trolls.

Listen to part one where we covered ⁠The Chosen One and the Three Witches⁠.

In this episode, we cover Annie's favorite trope: Enemies to Lovers.

We also cover one of the most maligned tropes in fiction: The Mary Sue.

Check out our sources here:

• Some fan commentary from Reddit: ⁠https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/ue11mp/mary_sue_isnt_real_and_she_cannot_hurt_you/⁠
• Some fan commentary from Fansplaining: ⁠https://www.fansplaining.com/articles/mary-sue⁠
• An academic study into Mary Sue characters: ⁠http://www.merrycoz.org/papers/MARYSUE.xhtml⁠
• A history deep dive from Smithsonian Magazine: ⁠https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/these-women-coined-term-mary-sue-180972182/⁠
• The TV Tropes wiki: ⁠https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MarySue⁠   
• Summary of the Epic of Gilgamesh: ⁠https://www.history.com/news/what-is-the-oldest-known-piece-of-literature⁠
• A master list of enemies-to-lovers TV couples: ⁠https://www.buzzfeed.com/hannahmarder/best-tv-enemies-to-lovers-couples⁠

AI apps are taking my newsfeed by storm. Things like Midjourney and DALL-E (which make images) and ChatGPT (which makes text) are everywhere. Schools, businesses, and freelancers are all grappling with how to handle it. There are some wins, some losses, and some questions in the publishing business. Our sources for this episode: - AI roundup from the Morning Brew: https://www.morningbrew.com/daily/stories/ai-is-creating-problems-publishers-human-authors - CNET pauses AI-generated articles: https://www.editorandpublisher.com/stories/cnet-pauses-publishing-ai-written-stories-after-disclosure-controversy,241859 - ChatGPT making fake citations: https://blogs.library.duke.edu/blog/2023/03/09/chatgpt-and-fake-citations/ - BuzzFeed doubles down: https://pressgazette.co.uk/publishers/digital-journalism/buzzfeed-chatgpt/ - We covered the end of BuzzFeed investigations last year: https://youtu.be/MNRec-TVk6Y - Another measured take on AI, from the business side: https://whatsnewinpublishing.com/drama-angst-and-potential-abuse-dark-side-of-ai-for-the-publishing-industry/ - Breathtakingly annoying take on egg prices from WSJ: Just stop eating breakfast: https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/cpi-report-today-january-2023-inflation/card/to-save-money-maybe-you-should-skip-breakfast-fSd6mz0miaAPhUFb2jgy - BuzzFeed News shuts down: https://www.axios.com/2023/04/21/buzzfeed-news-digital-media - Vice News Tonight shuts down: https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/27/media/vice-news-tonight-canceled/index.html Follow/Support/Learn from our LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/inksinkpodcast

00:00 Welcome Back to the Ink Sink 01:47 The AI Juggernaut 14:08 Farewell BuzzFeed News 15:56 Thanks for listening!

Erotic cookbooks and romantic baking – finally we get to the meat of our cookbook obsession. (Okay, the puns stop here. We’re sorry.)

Kali and Annie dive down into the history of cookbooks and then they take a look at the erotic cookbooks of the 1970s and the ways that writers use food to set the stage in popular fiction.

This is the beginning of our series on cookbooks, we will absolutely do Part 2. So please send us your food literature obsessions to InkSinkPodcast@gmail.com.

Warning: There is cursing in this episode. Servants in the olden days had some sh** to deal with.

Some of our sources for this episode:

·       The Folger Shakespeare Library’s exhibit on consumerism in London in the 1500s-1700s: https://folgerpedia.folger.edu/Consuming_Splendor:_Luxury_Goods_in_England,_1580%E2%80%931680

·       The History of Cookbooks and Where We Are Today, UCLAHCI https://eatwell.healthy.ucla.edu/2021/03/08/the-history-of-cookbooks-and-where-we-are-today/

·       A cool look into early cookbooks: The Library of Congress has a cookbook that was presented to Queen Elizabeth I, purporting to be from 1390, published in the 1700s: https://www.loc.gov/item/44031282/

·       Apropos of nothing: Here’s a horror movie about Winnie the Pooh that was made as soon as Pooh got into the public domain. We’re pretty sure they did this just because they knew Disney couldn’t sue them for it? We are constantly in awe of the human race’s capacity for ridiculous things! https://www.imdb.com/title/tt19623240/

·       Using cookbooks to study genealogy and local history: https://repository.ifla.org/bitstream/123456789/2793/1/s07-2023-brannock-en.pdf

·       Food "fakelore" has been a part of cookbooks going back centuries: https://daily.jstor.org/the-fakelore-of-food-origins/

·       A deep dive on cooking in anime: Why Anime About Food and Cooking Became So Popular: https://www.cbr.com/gourmet-anime-genre-about-food-cooking-eating-why-popular/

·       Many cookbooks come from book packagers, which is a business you can hear more about in our episode about why you’re wrong about Goosebumps: https://theinksink.substack.com/p/book-packaging-why-youre-wrong-about

·       And yes, of course, we have a link to Anime with Alvin – a show where a chef recreates dishes from anime: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcLTe8MoAV4&list=PLopY4n17t8RAHz5OSGQP6I9z7UZqAZ4WW

·       Check out Quincy’s Tavern and support fellow podcast creators! https://www.quincystavern.xyz/

·       And check out some of the themed cookbooks we talked about here: https://bookshop.org/lists/pop-culture-takes-over-cookbooks

·       Esquire's review of the 1961 Playboy cookbook: https://www.esquire.com/food-drink/a21050/playboy-cookbook-food-15268930/

·       A history of erotic cookbooks from Eater: https://www.eater.com/23160117/erotic-cookbooks-history-sexuality-playboy

·       What’s the Point of Food in Fiction? by Adam Gopnick: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/04/09/cooked-books

·       "This Wizard of the Cooking Stove": How P.G. Wodehouse Contributed to the Field of Gastronomy Through Anatole, the French Chef, in the Jeeves-and-Wooster Series: https://arrow.tudublin.ie/ejfds/vol1/iss2/5/

·       Romance Novels Are Increasingly Getting Hot and Heavy in the Kitchen by Bettina Makalintal: https://www.eater.com/23188870/summer-romance-novels-baking-cooking

Are you ready to diversify your kitchen? See our list of cookbooks by marginalized authors here! https://bookshop.org/lists/diversify-your-kitchen

00:00 Welcome Back! 01:32 Corrections Corner 03:11 We’re Talking About Cookbooks! 06:37 The History of Writing Down Food Stuff 18:48 Where Do the Ladies Fit In? 23:26 Pop Culture Takes Over 31:33 Time for Some Erotic Cookbooks 40:12 Food in Romance and Pop Fiction 46:27 Kali Coda 47:06 Thanks for Listening!

This week, we’re looking through trends, tools, and new words!

Warning: We do curse in this episode. We amuse the s*** out of each other.

Stalk us wherever you scroll: https://linktr.ee/inksinkpodcast

Notes:

• Friends clip of Phoebe getting sick and having a sexy voice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXBOQAkrHAo

• The episode of Freakonomics on how horrible meetings are: https://freakonomics.com/podcast/season-9-episode-20

• New words from Dictionary.com: https://www.dictionary.com/e/new-dictionary-words-fall-2023/

• A viral roundup of famous nepo babies from Vulture: https://www.vulture.com/article/what-is-a-nepotism-baby.html

• Our episode on the rise of AI in digital media: https://youtu.be/icUnI1AgL1A

• Jordan Peterson adds another problematic thing to his list of problematic things: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/sep/01/society-of-authors-calls-use-of-bad-reviews-for-book-blurbs-morally-questionable

• In our episode on the “fall” of English majors, we talked about a bookstore that was sticking it to haters by printing one-star reviews on t-shirts: https://youtu.be/T_UFw1qwsVc

• Read the article from Vulture that’s getting the bookish corners of the internet to roll their eyes: https://www.vulture.com/article/fanfic-romance-reylo-publishing-trend.html

• Elsewhere, Mashable rounds up some novels featuring social media: https://mashable.com/article/tech-fiction-books-novels-sillicon-valley-startups

• Millie Bobby Brown wrote a book. Or did she? https://todayinbooks.substack.com/p/millie-bobby-browns-novel-isnt-great

And if you have any funny publishing stories or meeting stories to share with us, please do! Email us at InkSinkPodcast@gmail.com.

Fall down the rabbit hole with us as we figure out how to tell if what we see on the internet is true. Plus, we hunt the bushes for Wikipedia editors (and Batman).

You can follow, subscribe, and support us here: https://linktr.ee/inksinkpodcast

Warning: We swear in this episode. We REALLY don't like online misinformation.

Some of our sources:

• Our episode on fact-checking: https://youtu.be/c-eS6lS584w
• Be careful about journal studies. There are best practices for looking at those: https://journalistsresource.org/health/two-studies-examine-preprints/

• Some journalists don’t look at peer-reviewed scholarly work for their stories: https://journalistsresource.org/home/user-survey-journalists-research-habits/
• Ground News: https://ground.news/
• The Associated Press: https://apnews.com/
• AI fact-checking tools from Journalism Tools: https://journaliststoolbox.ai/ai-fact-checking-tools/
• Tineye: https://services.tineye.com/

Welcome back! This week, we dig into some existential book problems: book bans and book excess. How do all these issues affect diverse voices? We’ll talk about it.

Warning: Annie curses in this episode, she can't pronounce "horror."

Our sources for this episode:

· Pritzker (who doesn’t have a starched collar) officially signed a law to force libraries to comply with new regulations that should make it harder to ban books: https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/12/us/illinois-public-libraries-schools-book-bans/index.html

· Responses from some librarians: https://www.news-gazette.com/arts-entertainment/town-hall-should-state-cut-off-funding-to-those-who-ban-books-local-librarians-weigh/article_3df07d1b-c3fb-5f89-ac23-55241797a645.html

· Meanwhile, media jobs being cut left and right: https://www.axios.com/2023/06/13/media-job-cuts-record

· Our episode on the new era of digital media: https://theinksink.substack.com/p/buzzfeed-falls-and-ai-rises

· Book jobs aren’t safe either: https://fortune.com/2023/07/18/penguin-random-house-buyouts-editors-book-publishing-layoffs/

· One major problem with the book business: excess and lack of planning: https://news.yahoo.com/photo-publishing-company-pile-brand-040000727.html

· KKR buys S&S: https://slate.com/business/2023/08/simon-schuster-kkr-private-equity-publishing-consolidation.html

· Our episode on the slow death of local news: https://youtu.be/wXKAPMCHx_E

We recommend supporting diverse authors by buying their books! Here are some collections:

· Books by trans authors (from The Mary Sue): https://bookshop.org/lists/books-by-trans-authors-the-mary-sue

· Books by breakout Latina authors (from Refinery29): https://bookshop.org/lists/books-by-breakout-latina-authors-r29

Follow/Listen/Watch/Troll: https://linktr.ee/inksinkpodcast

This week, we talk about good news out of bookstores and student newspapers. Plus, what’s up with publishers versus libraries?

Warning, we do some cursing in this episode. Small dogs can be VERY violent.

Check us out on FB/IG/YT: https://linktr.ee/inksinkpodcast

- Some good news: more bookstores! https://lithub.com/good-news-there-are-more-bookstores-in-the-us-this-year-than-last

- The ongoing Internet Archive debate: “Information wants to be free” or “information wants to be profitable” https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/13/business/media/internet-archive-emergency-lending-library.html

- Heck yes, student newspapers! https://mailchi.mp/poynter/3m735bk8za?e=e5489eccb5

- At this point, they're trolling us, right? https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/92897-judge-finds-revived-amazon-e-book-monopoly-suit-should-proceed.html

- The new president of poetry: https://lithub.com/the-academy-of-american-poets-has-named-its-first-latino-president/

- Dolly expands her Imagination Library with new commitments from Alabama and Washington: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-book-news/article/92981-dolly-parton-s-imagination-library-expands-national-reach.html

Check out the books we talked about this week*:

- Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle: https://bookshop.org/a/55633/9781250874627

- Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir: https://bookshop.org/a/55633/9781250313225

- Yellowface by R. F. Kuang: https://bookshop.org/a/55633/9780063250833

- Monstress by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda: https://bookshop.org/a/55633/9781632157096

* If you buy a book from one of our links, we earn a commission. But more importantly, a portion of every purchase through Bookshop.org goes to support independent bookstores. Thank you!