Amelia Brown Interview Transcript
Micah (Knob Twister)Host00:00
Welcome to Tales of Bedlam. This is a special bonus podcast with an interview, our first interview where Dustin and I talked to Amelia Brown. We were privileged to run across this very talented author on our quest to find nuggets of hidden wisdom in tales both old and new. We really do hope you enjoy her modern coming-of-age fairy tales as much as we do, and please be sure to visit Amelia's blog Fairy Tale Stories and Other Tales for more amazing stories. We will list her blog site in our show notes or you can just go to fairystoriesandothertalescom. That would be fairystoriesandothertalescom. Don't forget to subscribe. Now on to the interview. Awesome, and how long have you been living in the UK?
Amelia BrownInterviewee01:03
Jeez, it feels like forever. A year and a half.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host01:06
Oh, I guess we should introduce ourselves. I'm Micah. Oh yeah, and yeah, this is Dustin.
Amelia BrownInterviewee01:13
Yes.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host01:14
I and we know who you are, so and I know who you are. It's very nice to meet you.
Amelia BrownInterviewee01:18
It's nice to meet you too.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host01:20
But I didn't think you would know whose voice was whose, but I didn't think you would know whose voice was whose. Well, maybe it did from listening to our podcast.
Amelia BrownInterviewee01:26
I feel like Micah has said a number of times things to Dustin, and so then I inferred that makes sense.
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host01:37
Yeah, I don't give my name at the beginning. I don't want people stalking me Paparazzi hanging outside my house. He's very weird like that.
Amelia BrownInterviewee01:44
That's so funny.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host01:46
Well, we're very grateful that you submitted to doing an interview with us. Yeah, this is our first interview. Yeah, we've never done one before, so if we stumble around, please forgive us.
Amelia BrownInterviewee01:59
Well, here's the full truth of it, though this is my first interview as an author.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host02:03
Oh nice.
Amelia BrownInterviewee02:06
Yeah, so I have this sort of trepidation. It was. It was kind of a big deal actually for me to say yes, I went back and forth because I think you had asked me when we were still negotiating the situation with the fairy tales and um, so I hadn't heard your podcast yet and then I heard your podcast or maybe maybe you, maybe you had asked about the interview after I had heard the podcast. But my initial thought was absolutely, these guys are so funny.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host02:33
Well, thank you, thank you very much.
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host02:37
Well, it'll be. It'll be pretty informal and fun, and Mike is really good at editing, so don't worry about any ums or ums or ahs or good to know I yeah, I have a sneaky system.
Amelia BrownInterviewee02:47
Well, who knows, who knows what I might or might not say? Apparently I forget to say a lot of things. I just realized my whole author's blurb says nothing about being an American, which is not on purpose and actually should be remedied because I need to find a US agent, the, the, uh. Having a U, a UK agent is not helpful. When I moved back, to Right.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host03:07
Yeah, we're just excited to have such an accomplished author as our first interview, so we're just tickled to death to get to do this.
Amelia BrownInterviewee03:17
Well, that's very kind.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host03:18
So I would first like to ask, because reading your stories we really felt that there was a lot of personal experience, like in the Friendly Ogre. We really felt that maybe some of that had to do with, maybe friends or family in your past. Do you write from personal experience and put it in a fairy tale genre?
Amelia BrownInterviewee03:50
Sometimes. So it's funny that you mentioned that, because one of the parts that I laughed at the loudest listening to the Friendly Ogre being read was the idea that the Friendly Ogre was based on my grandfather. But, the only grandfather that I knew was quite a skinny, tiny fellow who actually happened to be British, but I think the things that get put in my stories, more than encounters, are more philosophical concepts and thoughts.
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host04:21
Sure.
Amelia BrownInterviewee04:23
And just sort of things that have lived in my imagination. So, quite, quite possibly and I think that this might actually be true I do often create fictitious family, in part because, well, at this point, for example, my grandfather's had passed away. Um, and I think I have this idea in my head. It's sort of if CS Lewis and Tolkien had a baby, that would be my like, perfect, oh my gosh, that sort of if CS Lewis and Tolkien had a baby, that would be my like perfect grandfather.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host04:51
Oh my gosh, yeah, that would be amazing Would he be sitting in a pub drinking?
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host04:55
ale Boy, would he? Well, yeah, with his little feather pen.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host05:01
Do you do that? Have you been to that pub? That that they were I don't remember the name of it the eagle and child, or is they like? Oh, have you been there? Yes, I have no that would be on my bucket list, jealous it's pretty cool, it's I will say it's a bit so.
Amelia BrownInterviewee05:18
The first time I visited it, I was served a hot apple cider by a gentleman with a Mohawk, and I'd ever seen before, but the pub itself is still quite. They don't renovate pubs very often because they're protected historically as historical sites oftentimes here, but they have a shrine to Lewis and Tolkien and the other members of the Inklings.
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host05:43
Oh, wow. With candles and everything so wow, with the, with the pierce mohawk mohawk waiter, that's amazing I'm sure it just rolls his eyes that the flock of tourists that straight doors let's see, yeah, and I kind of have that picture in my head of the uk as an american. We watch tv and they always show the punk kids with the Mohawks and the black leather and the studs running all around. It's like they've been taken over by emos.
Amelia BrownInterviewee06:12
This is my street that I live on. I mean, just every day it's a zombie apocalypse, but instead of zombies it's Mohawk pierced leather people.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host06:22
Amazing. I'm joking, so do any of those end up in your stories.
Amelia BrownInterviewee06:27
The people that.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host06:28
I meet, yes, the Mohawk emo.
Amelia BrownInterviewee06:33
Sometimes, sometimes. Could you give us an?
Micah (Knob Twister)Host06:38
example.
Amelia BrownInterviewee06:40
Well, okay, I don't know if either of you have read the Name of the Wind. I highly suspect that you guys would like it, just because there's such an influence of myth and story in his books. The thing is, I have characters that I have based on Patrick Rothfuss, the author, who's quite a personality. So there's a story that I wrote called the old man and the whistle, and it's a story about a kid who comes across a homeless person and basically feels compelled to. He's asking for change and she feels compelled to give him change, but sort of the process that goes through her head as she's doing it now. Obviously I'm influenced by the nature of social justice and like that sort of thing as I'm going through this, but more than that.
07:29
It's more the um, the intricacies and all the different facets that surround this. But the reason why I read that story is because, uh, patrick rothfuss has a blog and he has a charity called heifer international. Well, his charity is actually called World Builders, but they donate money to Heifers International and his kid who's, I feel like he started collecting for this when he was five. Every year he spends all year collecting all the money that he possibly can, giving all of his pocket change to try and buy an animal. Which is what Heifers International does, is they donate animals to communities to try and create sustainable opportunity for people.
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host08:10
Oh very nice.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host08:11
Make an animal that they can Like a cow or a goat, or Eat or milk or get eggs from.
Amelia BrownInterviewee08:18
Exactly, usually things that they can make more of. So usually it's not for meat, because then obviously the cows or whatever it is is gone, but it might be chickens, which could be for meat but also for eggs, and then they can sell the eggs at the market, and sometimes it'll be clean water tanks and that sort of thing.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host08:37
So yeah, so.
Amelia BrownInterviewee08:38
I was very inspired by this, by Patrick Roth's son doing this incredibly amazing thing that I think a lot of kids actually have the capacity and the desire to participate in and not just kids but adults too and I think sometimes, when we think about just the world through a kid's eyes, we have a lot more confidence, weirdly. So that, yeah, that's one example of the kind of inspiration behind a lot of the tales that I write yeah, very nice.
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host09:05
I've noticed the social justice themes and the more leaning towards. I don't want to feminism. Feminism always gets people's backs up, but yeah, patriarchal than the, the stories that we read all the time in your work.
Amelia BrownInterviewee09:24
Yeah, the the Brothers Grimm. But the Brothers Grimm is so funny because I feel like sometimes it shows up in weird ways and sometimes it's not quite patriarchal, because there are these women who have these successes, but it is through virtue and I don't know. I mean, the women obviously are motivated more by virtue. I feel like all the women who succeed they have this virtue component which I guess maybe you wouldn't necessarily call feminist, but then I don't know, I feel like women and men have virtue, so I don't know.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host09:56
Well, in Barthor's Grimm too, there's a lot of men just chasing beauty. Yeah, yes, because it's always the beautiful princess, right? The smart princess, or the intriguing princess, or the clever princess yes, this is true this is very true.
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host10:16
But yeah, and like you said, they grim runs the gambit and every now and then we'll get the story. I'm remembering clever gretel yes where it was. Certainly wasn't virtue.
Amelia BrownInterviewee10:26
She just tricked the crap out of everybody at the end a little naughty, but she was very yeah, but she, yeah, she was the, the heroine of the story, and yeah, but it wasn't beauty, or there's another story I feel like there's a brother grim version, a brother's grim version of this, but there's also a russian myth about no, there's definitely Brother Grimm version, a Brother's Grimm version of this. But there's also a Russian myth about no, there's definitely a Brother's Grimm story I just can't remember what it's called where the girl, the stepmother, sends the girl down a well and she meets a witch, I think, and then works for the witch and she's used to hard work and so she continues to work, and then the witch sets her free and gives her all this gold and sends her back home I can't remember what it's called and then the stepmother sees all the gold and she's like, oh, I think that my daughter should have all this gold. So she sends the stepdaughter down, or her actual daughter down.
11:16
who's never done a day of work, but I don't know if there's any commentary in that about beauty or not, although I will say that the work that she's doing is what we might call domestic chores.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host11:26
Right, we will definitely look that one up. I'm not familiar with it.
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host11:30
That sounds really similar to the Vasilisa story. We did the Russian one, where the stepmother sent her to Baba Yaga and she worked with Baba Yaga and then sent her back.
Amelia BrownInterviewee11:42
Yeah Well, it's the same with the Father Frost story too, which is not Vasileza, it's just an N. There's a book series that's based on it right now. But someone gets the daughter gets sent to. Father Frost comes back with Richard. His stepdaughter gets sent, comes back with. Richard, yeah, it's the same as the Baba Yaga one for Vasileza the Wise.
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host12:03
We love Baba Yaga. One from Vasilisa the Wise we love Baba Yaga.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host12:06
Yeah, me too. That's always something From my childhood. I loved Baba Yaga.
Amelia BrownInterviewee12:11
Yeah, really.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host12:13
From your childhood. What were some of your favorite stories?
Amelia BrownInterviewee12:16
Boy gosh. I am a Narnia fan through and through oh nice. Yeah.
12:29
I think my mom and dad read me Narnia when I was five. Maybe the last battle was rough, but other than the last battle, I think, I think the last battle was just sort of interesting to me. It didn't feel quite like a fairy tale. The rest of it felt like like a fairytale. Actually this is a true story. I I have had a very hard time not believing that narnia is real when I was a kid, I had a extremely I went into every closet.
12:52
Yeah, oh yeah oh yeah, oh yeah, in fact. Oh, I shouldn't say this. This is like well, you can wipe it if you want. I don't know if this is humiliating or not. I I swear, my husband and I, like four months ago, decided we hadn't been in the wardrobe in our flat and we just thought why not? Who knew? So we definitely explored. Unfortunately. Well, who knows, it's the same instance that I came back, but I feel like I don't have the kind of tails I would have if I had been to Narnia.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host13:26
Well, it's good to see that you still have a sense of adventure, a childlike adventure, and you put that into your stories, so that's wonderful. What was your favorite character in the Tales of Narnia? Oh my gosh.
Amelia BrownInterviewee13:42
Boy. It's hard to remember what it was then. I really liked Mr Tumnus as a kid.
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host13:49
Yeah Well, that's the first thing that popped into my head.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host13:53
I was a Reap and Cheap fan.
Amelia BrownInterviewee13:55
Reap and Cheap. I can see that I feel like my brother was into Reap and Cheap. I really I know who I hated the most, and that was the silver chair, which the green which gosh boy, I think I still have nightmares, oh man. Definitely. My mom never read to me from the brothers Grim, definitely as a child, and even fairy tales were touching go Cause I think she thought they were too scary.
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host14:24
I don't know to think the she thought they were too scary.
Amelia BrownInterviewee14:25
I don't know what to think. The silver chair was not too scary, yeah.
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host14:31
So we've talked about that a couple of times. That man did they sit down and just tell these stories to their kids before they went to bed? I mean, wow, some of them were really gruesome and terrifying, yeah, and wow, some of them were really gruesome and terrifying.
Amelia BrownInterviewee14:45
Yeah, so there's a series of Russian fairy tales called I think it's called Old Peter's Tales I think the first publication was 1916 by a British man whose name I'm forgetting, but I think it's called Old Peter's Tales and it's told as if this grandfather is telling his grandchildren these old tales. And I've never read anything like it because it's. I mean, each tale is separated by chapters, but it's sort of like how you could imagine these stories coming up and how little kids would ask for them. And I don't know, maybe kids were. Kids are really resilient. Maybe they people are doing darker things.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host15:30
I believe that it gives them the opportunity to face the fear or put it down until they're ready.
Amelia BrownInterviewee15:37
Yeah, yeah, there's an author, neil Gaiman. I don't know if you've read any of his stuff. He's also heavily influenced by myth and fairy tale. He wrote the book Stardust, which I think is a fairy tale book.
15:51
It's fantastic, he's amazing and he's got a bazillion awards to show that he's amazing. But he is a firm believer that kids self-edit, kids know when they're ready for things. It doesn't matter, you know, really, although he has this one story where he gave his daughter I think his 10 year old daughter at the time a stephen king book and to this day, his daughter will not read stephen king yeah, I, uh.
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host16:20
I had a traumatic experience with stephen king movie when I was like 10 or 11. It and I still, I still walk wide of sewer grates, and clowns terrify me.
Amelia BrownInterviewee16:35
Yeah.
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host16:36
That was just the most awful thing I ever did to myself.
Amelia BrownInterviewee16:39
I don't think I'll ever do it to myself. I think even today I would be too afraid to watch a Stephen King movie. Besides, like Shawshank or, you know, the green mile or something, I don't think I'll ever do it to myself. I think even today I would be too afraid to watch a Stephen King movie. Besides, like Shawshank or you know, the green mile or something, I don't think I'll ever do one of his horror films.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host16:51
Do you read his books?
Amelia BrownInterviewee16:53
So I've read some of his short stories. I read a lot of his Twitter feed because he's funny. My husband is reading the Dark Tower series right now, which is his Tolkien-esque Western series.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host17:08
Nice. I have not read those yet.
Amelia BrownInterviewee17:11
It's not scary. My husband swears, but he also sort of laughed at the Shining.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host17:16
Oh my gosh my wife and I think the Shining is just fun.
Amelia BrownInterviewee17:23
What? The book or the movie?
Micah (Knob Twister)Host17:26
The movie. My wife hasn't read the book, but I've read the book, so I like them both. But maybe I'm a little morbid because I really loved Pet Sematary when I was a kid and it didn't scare me at all, man.
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host17:41
All right, I'm not on that page at all.
Amelia BrownInterviewee17:45
Do you think it's for you, Micah?
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host17:48
No, I did, like Last Unicorn and the Hobbit. Those were mine.
Amelia BrownInterviewee17:54
Yes, you know I only read the Last Unicorn last year.
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host17:58
I think, oh man, well, that was one of my favorites when I was a kid.
Amelia BrownInterviewee18:02
Gosh, that's good, and it's so clever as an adult too to see all of the commentary.
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host18:09
Yep.
Amelia BrownInterviewee18:11
Yeah, that's a beautiful story.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host18:13
Don't you find it amazing too, if you've read a book when you were a kid and then you reread it as you're older, that you get so much more from it and what you get is so different than when you were a child?
Amelia BrownInterviewee18:27
Oh, this is very true. I so rereading and I think about this when I write my stories too, and especially when I'm working on any sort of new manuscript rereading is so important to me and I think it's important. I think it's important for people to try and reread because you never, you never know what you're going to get out of it the next time. And I think and especially yeah, I mean when you're a kid and you read something, and you read something and as an as an adult, it's a profound experience to see kind of reflect on where you were as a kid. You know, like when you smell something and you've smelt it before, it takes you back to that memory.
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host19:04
Right.
Amelia BrownInterviewee19:05
I think it's the same with reading in a way, but you build so much more from what further life experience you have.
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host19:12
You can filter it through that experience.
Amelia BrownInterviewee19:15
Yeah, but nobody should publish anything ever unless it has the capacity to be reread, and I think that's the standard that people should have for the work that they do.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host19:25
Yeah, that makes perfect sense. I'm a rereader. Very good way to, I guess, judge a book.
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host19:33
Would you read it again?
Amelia BrownInterviewee19:35
Yeah, yeah, I think I'm on my like. Let's see, when was the first time I read Harry Potter? I must've been, cause the Harry Potter is the book of sort of my generation.
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host19:44
read harry potter, I must have been because the harry potter is the book of sort of my generation right?
Amelia BrownInterviewee19:46
I don't know, is it weird if the last book came out when I was like 25 and still read it this soon? As it's not weird at all but I've read it every I, so I would reread it every time a book would come out.
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host19:58
And then, a few years ago, I started just rereading it every year I did the uh exact same thing with Robert Jordan's Eye of the World series.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host20:07
Oh you.
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host20:08
Yeah, oh my gosh. Every time a new one would come out, I'd reread it all the way up to them.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host20:14
Read the new one. That's a lot of reading too.
Amelia BrownInterviewee20:17
That's a journey. I am only on the second book myself. I'm embarrassed to admit I'm in the middle of the Great Hunt and it's been two years. I've read a lot of stuff.
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host20:29
Yeah, when he died I almost drove to his grave to dig him up and smack him. I'm so mad because it was so close to the end I'm like no, you can't do that to me. I've been reading these books for 20 years.
Amelia BrownInterviewee20:42
Yeah. What are your thoughts on Brandon Sanderson?
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host20:45
He did an absolutely amazingly fantastic job, Cool. I was not the least bit disappointed.
Amelia BrownInterviewee21:03
I always get back into writing again if I've been in the middle of marking papers or lecturing my day job. I started with the Eye of the World and then I read the great hunt, and there's something about those books that makes me want to write.
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host21:11
Oh yeah, yep, I had that feeling. I never acted on it, though I one of these days.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host21:19
There's still time. Maybe you can help us with an argument that.
Amelia BrownInterviewee21:24
I've had.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host21:26
So do you think audio books are cheating?
Amelia BrownInterviewee21:33
Boy, you're asking the wrong person, so I I have a very difficult. So here's the thing I say this now. 10 years from now, my myself might be very different. So here's the thing I say this now. 10 years from now, my myself might be very different. And I hear that people when they have kids, they get into audio books a lot more for whatever reason. I just am not the biggest. I don't. I cannot get into a book if I'm listening to an audio book.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host21:58
Do I think?
Amelia BrownInterviewee21:58
it's Okay, it's a time issue.
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host22:04
I believe that's the biggest issue. It's a time, yeah, when you have kids, and I've noticed that since I've had kids three kids, a full time job and a podcast, so I have no time.
Amelia BrownInterviewee22:20
Yeah, no, this is true. So the audio book is very helpful and a lot of my friends. I'll recommend a book of my friends. I'll recommend a book and then I'll hear that they're doing the audio version and I wonder, especially if the author themselves is reading the audiobook.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host22:31
I wonder if I'm missing out I think when an author reads it it's the best. But there are some talented readers out there but, wow, the author adds just a little more, I guess, the feeling to it. So, just like if somebody sings a song that they wrote, I think they usually get the feeling in it more because it's something about it's the song part of them about their lives, whereas if somebody else goes and read does it doesn't usually get the same effect. I think that's my theory.
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host23:05
I've listened to several audio books, but they're books that I'd already read. I haven't listened to just a new book as an audio book. I kind of re-read, so I've read them before and then I listen to the audio book.
Amelia BrownInterviewee23:22
Gotcha I will say I've only ever read a Terry Pratchett book by an audio book for road trips.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host23:30
Terry Pratchett is one of my favorites.
Amelia BrownInterviewee23:34
He's yeah.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host23:35
Absolutely amazing, have you watched any of his shows.
Amelia BrownInterviewee23:39
No, I haven't, but I did so my parents are big Terry Pratchett fans. I am just getting into it, but I did I. So my parents are big Terry project fans. I am just getting into it. But I love him as a person. I I I mourned his passing. What profoundly it really actually quite. It made me so incredibly sad and I hadn't even read that many of his books. It's just him as an author and the advice he gives and the type of person he presented himself.
24:04
Oh yeah, but his audio books I actually he's not reading them. Someone else is reading them, but yeah, they're very good. Well, if you love Terry Pratchett, you will love Neil Gaiman. They were kindred spirits and quite close.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host24:20
I will check that out because I love Terry Pratchett ever, ever since I was a little kid and I discovered Discworld. I even played a computer Discworld game with my best friend at the time when I was a kid. I couldn't get enough of Terry Pratchett, you know he has books for kids.
Amelia BrownInterviewee24:34
Yes, he does Okay.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host24:36
So you know he's amazing. He was a very prolific, amazing author. So let's talk some more about you. We have a couple of questions like what in the world is 81 Words Anthology, and how do you fit in?
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host24:53
Yeah, we butchered that in the intro. On both of them we're like oh, anthology. It's hard to say.
Amelia BrownInterviewee25:01
That was really funny. Yeah, so the 81 words anthology is this guy who and it's not that big of a deal and I think anybody can participate, but it's something nice to put on a resume, it's. So it's this anthology of this guy who's taking the first, I think, 500 applicants or something like that that he likes their stories. He has to like your story. That is a story, a short story in 81 words oh, that makes sense, there we go nice yeah but he has to.
25:31
He has to get to the 500 count to have enough in the book yeah and I think he's got like 400 something and yours is one of them. Yeah, that's amazing, awesome.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host25:45
I have to read that one.
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host25:47
Has he done more than one? No, so he's on his first one.
Amelia BrownInterviewee25:53
Yeah, he's published a few other anthologies it's sort of a fun thing that writers participate in, just for kicks.
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host26:02
Yeah, that's pretty short 81 words. Yeah, that's pretty short 81 words, that is pretty short. I believe.
Amelia BrownInterviewee26:08
My story involves a woman, some magic and a compost heap nice, we like a good compost twist yeah that's wonderful.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host26:20
How about the Dead Rabbits Society? Is it society?
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host26:26
The Dead.
Amelia BrownInterviewee26:26
Rabbits Literary Press.
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host26:27
Literary Press. It's a literary thing, yeah.
Amelia BrownInterviewee26:30
Yeah, they're a new publishing company within the last five years that have developed out of New York. We connected based on my blog. They liked my stories and their tagline is that they publish things that matter, and why this meant a lot to me and why I agreed to do to um write for them in part because, well, pretty much anybody who likes my stories, I'm like, yes, I will do whatever you want.
26:58
You invalidated me as a person and, yeah, you may have all my work, but the thing is that they publish things that a lot of publishing companies will sort of skirt around because they matter. So it will be things like commentary, essay or memoir or stories. I don't know if you have seen this, but there aren't that many anthologies of short stories out there, and that's because they don't sell that many anthologies of short stories out there and that's because they don't sell.
27:26
So publishing companies often shirk, I think, their duty to publish good literature, but they have a business reason for it and I understand it's one of the great perks I think of of having a successful novel, um, or successful series, is you have this great gift where you get to write short stories and then publish them, but there's not a huge dearth, as it were. There's a dearth of short stories, anthologies out there, and Dead Rabbits is interested in that sort of thing, yeah, and in the underpinnings behind writing as well.
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host28:02
Very interesting. Yeah, we follow them on Twitter I do all the Twitter stuff. So Micah doesn't know anything about it.
Amelia BrownInterviewee28:10
Yeah, I don't know why I said that but, I did speak with you.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host28:14
I'm too busy editing and novel testing.
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host28:16
Yeah, he does all the technical stuff. I do the public face.
Amelia BrownInterviewee28:20
Gotcha.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host28:22
So you describe yourself as semi-retired, at great risk. What are your plans for the future? Are you working on your second book?
Amelia BrownInterviewee28:32
Because this was my big endeavor. I had quit my job as an academic. I had been trying to quit for years and people just kept offering me more. You know things I needed, like you know. People just kept offering me more.
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host28:44
You know things. I needed, like you know, city employment money.
Amelia BrownInterviewee28:47
And then I just sort of realized, you know, we needed to have the money right now. My husband's getting his PhD Eventually he will be employed someday and maybe we can take another stab at this but I had had so much work that we were able to save enough that I could quit my job and write, and I was very excited about this. I actually put in my bio that I was retired from teaching, which felt like the right move at the time. You know, it's a hard decision because when you get when you're, when you're in an academic world, you've worked so hard to get there. But I just felt so passionate about writing it felt, yeah, it felt like the right move, the so I quit.
29:19
Two weeks later, the woman who had been sort of above me when I'm maternity leave at the university freaked out because they didn't know what they were going to do and asked if I would help. I'm a very ethical person. I'm actually an ethicist by trade, Hence maybe the moral concerns in my tales and importance of fairy stories in general. And then so I couldn't put retired anymore importance of fairy stories in general. And then so I couldn't put retired anymore.
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host29:48
So, on a whim at the last second, because the post was going out the next day, I said can you put semi-retired, am I?
Amelia BrownInterviewee29:55
We got it. Yeah yeah, long story for that, so yeah. So I am still working in academia, maybe I will, who knows, forever. But I can't not write, so writing is definitely part of the end game. Who knows what will happen? I am working on a second novel. I do think that the agents are going to be interested in it because I'm writing it to their tone. They've asked for what they want and I'm delighted and thrilled that they think I'm a good enough writer to provide that for them. And then, who knows, one of my favorite authors, laurie R King king, writes a series called um, the mary russell series. It's a sherlock holmes kind of book, but the there's. So sherlock holmes is actually in the book, but there's kind of a female sherlock holmes okay fabulous, unbelievably well written.
30:38
The first book is called the beekeeper's apprentice. She wrote this book in 28 days. It's like a 500 page novel. Yeah, I know, it is incredible. It is so well written. It is unbelievably enthralling and no publisher would touch it.
30:55
When she first published this book, or first wrote the book, she submitted it to all kinds of different agents. No one would touch it. So she was like I think it was three years later. She was like, okay, I'll write another book. So she wrote another book. This book got picked up and then, after she had made a name for herself, she could publish the beekeepers apprentice, which her highly successful series. Now who knows?
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host31:18
Right, right, right, and that's kind of goes back to the. We were talking about the short story thing. You kind of got to get one in there and then get the, get the name recognition and of the industry for the last five years.
Amelia BrownInterviewee31:31
But I mean, people write till they die. You know, Robert Jordan, this is a lifelong pursuit and I think it should be taken seriously. And I think it should be taken. It's a privilege to be part of this world. Yeah, and it makes me delighted more than I can say that people like some of the stuff that I write. It's very exciting.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host32:10
And this is just the beginning of it. I love to hear the passion you seem to have. It definitely comes through. Maybe some of it will rub off on Dustin and I and we can take this even further.
Amelia BrownInterviewee32:25
Well, I think your podcast is hysterically funny. I I actually, if I'm completely honest, I'd never listened to a podcast before.
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host32:33
Oh, no, yeah, we'll get that quite a bit actually.
Amelia BrownInterviewee32:37
Really, yeah, Well, yeah, and I listened to it and now I'm I'm a bit like it's, it's so great and it's so fun and I don't even have a. You know it's, it's, it's England. Everybody walks everywhere. I don't even have a like car to plug in and listen to. I literally sit down at my desk and this is my time when I listened to tales of bedlam.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host32:57
Thank you Awesome, I'm just blushing.
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host33:02
So you've embarrassed my again. So when we were, we were setting this up and kind of talking earlier you'd mentioned this the fairy tale stories and other tales is where your blog is but you had some. You'd mentioned some like darker material that you had that you didn't have on there. Is that available somewhere or you want to talk about that?
Amelia BrownInterviewee33:26
The purpose behind the blog occurred to me a year and a half ago when I started. When I started fairy stories there, it would be really cool to get to put out something into the world that was full of light. So my fairy tales they never end badly. There are dark things that go through them, but on the blog it's. It's a place where, like hard things can be explored but the hope can be found.
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host33:56
Right.
Amelia BrownInterviewee33:57
And I like to think that there's hope in everything that I write, because that's something that means quite a lot to me and, I think, can be found even in the darkest of circumstances. Quite a lot to me and I think can be found even in the darkest of circumstances. Most of the things that I often write do not necessarily end happily, and not not all. I don't know. Nobody learns their lesson, or, I don't know, maybe sometimes people do. But um, so I won an award a few years ago for a short story that I submitted to a competition called Galaxy Writers of the Future, entitled A Woman at the Edge of Space, and it's still getting considered for publication and I have kind of suspicion that it might be picked up soon. It is definitely not a happy-go-lucky tale and ends quite tragically. Yeah, I guess you'd keep an eye out for it. A Woman at the Edge of Space, who knows? So the novel that I am looking that I may have to publish at a later date, for example, would be a change of pace, definitely for my fairy tales.
35:00
It's actually called An Ignorable Tale because nobody in it does anything right.
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host35:04
Oh man, that just made me think of shakespeare.
Amelia BrownInterviewee35:11
that just sounds like a shakespeare title I'm a bit obsessed I was actually trained as a shakespeare actor for a time nice there's nothing better and nothing better written than than things that are shakespeare man, maybe we'll do that sometime.
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host35:26
We'll get some Shakespeare excerpts and make Micah read them.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host35:32
Yes, that would be so funny.
Amelia BrownInterviewee35:37
It's the commentary part, that's the best to own the voices. Oh yeah, that would be so funny. Oh, especially the insults. I can imagine you two looking at each other and being like what do they mean?
Micah (Knob Twister)Host35:48
mean sometimes I wish people could see us when we're doing it, because the faces we give each other. I most of the tales dustin hasn't read, or we try so that he gets a more of a uh, a surprised response and it's funny to see his face sometimes. We recorded one just the other night. It's an American tale. It's name-wise. It was awful. What was the name?
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host36:18
It started out with a man-eating wife.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host36:20
The man-eating wife the little old woman and the morning star, and this tale goes all over the place cannibalism.
Amelia BrownInterviewee36:30
That's amazing human maracas it was just weird, very interesting, but you never know what you can learn from this, because I hear man-eating wife and I think, oh, this is going to be a tale about how to not be a man-eating wife.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host36:42
Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. You could take that from the tale. Or you could get a taste for cannibalism, I guess.
Amelia BrownInterviewee36:53
Oh man, that's disgusting. There's weird cannibalist stories and I think in some South American tales too.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host37:03
Oh, I could see that.
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host37:07
Man that hasn't been on our list yet. South America, no, it hasn't. Yeah, some African tales and Russian.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host37:15
There's so many, it just boggles my mind. When I just start doing searches, I just find new tales all over the place new tales all over the place.
Amelia BrownInterviewee37:30
What's weird is the overlap is that there are.
37:31
There are similarities between cultures that never touch. Yes, and this blows my mind like the, the tale, the russian tales and the brothers grim. There's some overlap. Um the creatures this is I get very excited about this creatures like um, the demo boy from Russian, the hearth. The hearth deities in Russian mythology act very similarly to the oh, I can't remember, I think it's the. There are these hearth creatures in British folklore, in um, a Celtic folklore, and I can't remember what they're called, but they, they, basically they. They then became the brownies and the hobs. They have such similar functions and yet these cultures didn't really touch while these stories were developing. I find this fascinating. I'd love to do a research project.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host38:23
I wish I had the time, because a lot of the stories that we read we find well, this is weird this sounds american tale is an awful lot like this german tale.
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host38:34
I wonder how they the egyptian tale was a lot like brothers grams.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host38:41
You know we did a egyptian tale that we were like are we sure this is egyptian?
Amelia BrownInterviewee38:45
yeah I know it's, it's, it's really, it's really interesting. I was actually just talking to a, a nine-year-old today, about um the percy jackson series right.
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host39:00
I don't know if you sure guys know about it, but so it's based on the they're.
Amelia BrownInterviewee39:06
They're really interesting. Um, about greek mythology and he has a series on roman mythology and a series on egyptian mythology and you know it's fictitious and he adds a lot to it, but you can see overlap between all three pretty profoundly. I guess maybe it's not surprising the similarities between the greek and the roman mythology, but the egyptian and the greek mythology close. I mean they did touch as cultures. But I don't know, it's fascinating.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host39:32
I wish I had the time to just research stuff like that. Maybe I will someday and maybe you'll get more time to do that too. Even the stories from the 1400s to now, if we look at our movies, like Gremlins I mean, the Mogwai is actually a fairy tale from the Chinese culture and yet we have it in movies today. We've kind of stolen that idea. And Spielberg again. We're always talking about Spielberg.
Amelia BrownInterviewee40:05
Well, the man's a genius. Well except for Temple of Doom. He's a good. I think he's still a genius, he just made a mistake.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host40:10
Temple of Doom yes, I agree.
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host40:13
Now we're going down a different rabbit hole. Mike and I don't agree on movies. It's very contentious.
Amelia BrownInterviewee40:24
Wait, which one of you actually enjoys Temple of doom?
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host40:27
oh well, that would have been me all right, go you way to stand out but I uh see, I really like the john wick movies and he can't stand them, and boy, I didn't say I can't stand them.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host40:43
I just don't think that if someone kills your puppy, you should kill a hundred and some people after that.
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host40:51
Anyway, we won't go down that road.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host40:56
Today is about you, Amelia, not our arguments.
Amelia BrownInterviewee41:02
I feel like there's so little out there in the world that is devoted to humor, and I wish there was more of it.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host41:11
I think you have humor in your stories the boy and the bear. I thought was hilarious.
Amelia BrownInterviewee41:18
Yeah.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host41:19
The whole idea was just exciting and and definitely made me laugh.
Amelia BrownInterviewee41:27
So yeah, well, I mean, I, I I do sometimes like to think that they're funny. I just didn't know if it came across again. Yeah, who knows.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host41:36
Well, if somebody doesn't laugh at that story, I think there's something wrong with them, because it was endearing and humorous to me for sure.
Amelia BrownInterviewee41:47
I'm glad, I'm glad.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host41:49
Is there anything that you would like to tell us about that? I mean, of course, we have a link on our website for you and we will put links for people to subscribe to your blog. Is there a shout out or anything you want to add to the interview that touts your work, or upcoming work?
Amelia BrownInterviewee42:11
Um gosh, I feel like what I should be touting is your podcast.
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host42:16
We do that.
Amelia BrownInterviewee42:20
It's just when I get excited about things I want to tell I'm like that person you know that's super annoying that talks about the same thing every time you meet them. Have you heard blah, blah, blah. Have you heard blah, blah, blah? Because I get excited about it, like the name of the wind. I tell everybody about the name of the wind which you should read it oh gosh Dustin actually already looked it up on his phone.
42:40
Oh yeah, if you like, robert Jordan. Patrick Rothfuss is kind of a funnier. Less he's got looser what's the word Morals? But he's such a good writer. The Slow Regard of Silent Things is my absolute favorite book of all time and it is a novella that is a companion book to the name of the wind. Okay, yeah, I'll talk about other authors as my last, as my last turn around, I don't know. I, I guess, if you know I, I write the, the fairy tales, because, um, I want to put something good out there yeah, and to follow your path yeah, yeah yeah
43:27
and those you do, those weekly right, I do and I sometimes wonder when will I run out, especially because I'm writing so much for publication right now and trying to finish the novel before the agents lose interest. But it's still the best part of my week. Yeah, yeah, it's coming up with I don't know crazy, weird things, and the best part about writing, I feel like, is that it is complete imagination Just put down on paper.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host43:57
Yeah Well, we will tout your blog and we will try to push people to subscribe, and even if you won't, because we enjoy your work, yep, and we're hoping that here in the future you'll let us do another one of your stories.
Amelia BrownInterviewee44:14
Oh gosh, that'd be awesome yeah.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host44:16
Heck, yeah. Well, I want to thank you very much for doing this for us.
Amelia BrownInterviewee44:22
Thank you. Thank you for liking my story.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host44:25
Thanks for being our guinea pig for our very first interview. Hopefully we were decent guests and, uh, we definitely have learned a lot from this already with my notes. I'm just thinking, oh, and next time I need to ask these sort of things well, I'm sure your novel published.
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host44:46
We'll have you back, we'll talk about that oh yes, that would be amazing.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host44:50
I mean, you'd probably be pretty busy at the time, but if you did, you'd be happy to I would do it in a heartbeat.
Amelia BrownInterviewee44:58
I really I just I maybe this won't go on, but maybe you won't put this on the thing, but I think that what you guys are doing is really, really cool.
45:07
I think, it's great for and the fact that kids can listen to you guys and adults can listen to you guys, but just I think that fairy tales are so important and I feel like I don't know. It brings to life this idea of talking about things that really matter and it makes my heart so happy that you guys are out there doing this and I yeah, I feel like I'm going to be following you guys for a long time and hitting retweet and like doing publication stuff forever because I really, I think, I guess is so awesome and hilarious and then in this, this, uh digital world.
45:46
We have to share each other in order for more people to see it yeah, well, and I think in this digital world, there's a lot of really awful things out there right and and I feel like you guys are using it as a force for good I feel like you're showing people how technology can be used as something that is wonderful and life-giving, and that's really rare.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host46:10
Well, great.
Amelia BrownInterviewee46:11
Thank you so much.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host46:12
And we wish you the best on your novel. Don't ever give up. Your passion is inspiring and we hope that it never fades.
Amelia BrownInterviewee46:22
Thank you.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host46:23
Of course we're're gonna keep following you and, um uh, maybe we. Maybe someday, when your novel comes out, I can get the audio version and you'll be reading it well, that is the great thing about being trained in the theater.
Amelia BrownInterviewee46:39
I will definitely be reading my own book awesome someday.
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host46:44
I am looking forward to it. I'll read the hardback copy.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host46:49
If I can kick some of my kids out to college, then maybe I'll be reading the hardback copy.
Amelia BrownInterviewee46:56
Yeah, that's oh, but maybe by then I'll be starting having to rear my kids.
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host47:00
There you go, and then I won't have any time for anything.
Amelia BrownInterviewee47:05
I won't be able to do the audio book. No, I'll always be able to do the audio book. Yes.
Dustin (Sofa Sitter)Host47:09
Then you'll you'll have that experience to filter your stuff through and that changes everything. Yeah.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host47:18
Thank you so much for doing that and thank your husband for letting us borrow you for just a little bit. I really appreciate it.
Amelia BrownInterviewee47:25
No worries.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host47:25
And I hope you have a great night.
Amelia BrownInterviewee47:27
Yeah, thanks again.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host47:28
Absolutely.
Amelia BrownInterviewee47:30
Thank you Bye.
Micah (Knob Twister)Host47:31
Bye.