MF GALAXY

LISTEN/DOWNLOAD    Maybe you’ve been chained at the centre of the earth and the mole-people have been jamming your wifi since you got there, and that’s why you don’t know about the breathtaking Marvel blockbuster Black Panther. If so, I don’t know how you’re hearing this podcast, but my sympathies to you and I’ll try to lower a pitcher of lemonade on a long rope. But for everyone else, as of February 21, not even a week after opening day, the $200M-budget movie has earned $441 million worldwide. The idea that a completely Africentric science fiction film with a pan-African cast, set in a fictional African country, with no major European stars, and written and directed by Africans, could achieve one of the biggest opening weeks ever was, even a few years ago, unthinkable. You could even say the idea of that success itself was Africentric science fiction. And now, it’s reality. Ryan Coogler and Joe Robert Cole wrote it, Coogler directed it, and Chad...

THE NEW FICTION CATEGORY THAT MIGHT BE YOUR BEST WRITING AND MARKETTING NICHE; THE POWER OF NAMES: FROM PEN NAMES TO THOSE STOLEN FROM HER ANCESTORS; HOW YOUR YA WRITING CAN HELP KIDS BECOME SUPERHEROES LISTEN/DOWNLOAD   Natasha Deen is pretty awesome. She’s a YA and children’s writer who’s written more than a dozen books, including The Not So Secret Case Files of Billy Vale, P.I ., the Guardian series, and the Retribution series. She criss-crosses Canada teaching new writers and visiting classrooms, and she’s won a string of accolades including nominations for the Sunburst and the Alberta Readers’ Choice Award and wins for the Moonbeam, CCBC Best Pick for Kids and Teens. Readers keep coming back for her mix of mystery, action, horror, and humour, some of which arise from her own real-life experiences, and teachers keep booking her because her workshops and teaching guides offer genuine value. Deen met with me at the food court of Westmount Mall in Edmonton on Septem...

SCOTT BOURGEOIS, ZIG ZAG CLAYBOURNE, NATASHA DEEN, FISH GRIWKOWSKY, KHAALIDA MUHAMMAD-ALI AND STEPHEN NOTLEY ON THE MOST LOVABLE KLINGON EVER LISTEN/DOWNLOAD Full disclosure: I grew up watching the original Star Trek in re-runs. Star Trek: The Next Generation debuted the first year I went to university, and it was a major disappointment in many ways, but especially for how it handled Klingons: how they behaved and whom they represented. Mostly they behaved as obnoxious, single-minded, bloodthirsty brawlers, to be avoided and feared, mostly artless and without sophistication, and to be laughed at for their pompous seriousness and quaint and disgusting customs. Despite growing up among humans, Worf is such an idiot that with august earnestness he calls prune juice a “warrior’s drink.” He’s so violent and stupid that in the Next Generation pilot episode “Encounter at Farpoint” he aims a phaser pistol at the bridge viewscreen when the bad guy Q appears on it because he apparen...

WHOSE ADVICE IS WORTHWHILE OR WORTHLESS FOR CHANGING YOUR WRITING—AND WHY; SURPRISING REALITY ABOUT JUST HOW LITTLE PUBLISHERS KNOW ABOUT SELLING BOOKS; WHY NOT TO WRITE WHAT’S HOT   Plenty of aspiring writers think writing for children is easy, and getting published that way is even easier. Wrong! As almost any writer will tell you, unless you’re a star, the business is never easy and is definitely never a sure thing. On May 20, 2017, a group of children’s writers met at the Capital City Press writers conference in Edmonton for a panel called “From Aliens to the Zodiac: The A-Z's of Writing for Kids and Teens.” Who organised the event? Why, the outstanding Katherine Gibson of the Edmonton Public Library and author S.G. Wong who’s Capital City Press’s featured writer, and they assembled terrific writers to help you learn what you need to break into Kidlit or advance your career there. Those panelists are Marty Chan, Joan Marie Galat, and Tololwa Mollel, and th...