S2 Ep.26 Listener Q&A

Listener Q & A  - Transcript

[KARLI] Is this burning sensation normal? [Jamie chuckles]

[JAMIE] Your number one question. Lots of people asked it?

[KARLI] So many. No, just one and that was enough for me because that is specifically why I put what—what are your burning questions because I really wanted somebody to ask. [laughs]

[JAMIE] I'm always there to come through [chuckles]

[KARLI] That folks, is my—[laughing] my sense of humor in a nutshell. I really appreciate you looking out for me.

[INTRODUCTION MUSIC PLAYS]

[JAMIE] Welcome to The Act Break, where we're talking about all things story.

[KARLI] Take a break from your creative endeavors and hang out with us.

[JAMIE] Have a little simulated human interaction.

[KARLI] Because internet friends totally count.

[INTRO MUSIC FADES]

[KARLI] I'm just mainlining this coffee in the hopes that it will uh, make me have coherent thoughts.

[JAMIE] Yeah. Do that.

[KARLI] Welcome back to The Act Break podcast where we definitely know what we're doing.[JAMIE] All the time.

[KARLI] [laughing] All the time. Some of the time, most of the time, part of the time, it's fine. It works out in the end, somehow. We get episodes out. So yay us. I'm Karli. And I'm... [sighs]

[JAMIE] Okay. I just want everybody to know that when I confirmed the the time with Karli, when I looked at it this morning, it said read, 1:38 AM. [laughs] So I am feeling Karli's been up a little bit late. [laughs] Might be a contributing factor.

[KARLI] I have nothing—yesterday. Yeah. Yesterday was the mechanic's first day off, in like a month, we lived it up.

[JAMIE] Exactly. I'm just saying. [laughs] These are all contributing factors.

[KARLI] I'm not saying that I regret it. But I'm not not saying that.

[JAMIE] Yeah, got it, got it.

[KARLI] Yeah.

[JAMIE] And I'm Jamie. I am a speculative fiction author who nobody really has that many questions. I had very few. And most of them were jokes. [laughs]

[KARLI] I like it. I like it. We decided to do a Q&A. So on our social media, we put up a ask us anything. And you guys asked us a few questions. And so we're going to endeavor to answer them in a semi-entertaining way. Do you want to start us off with one of the questions that you got?

[JAMIE] Let's see. Well, I have very few.

[KARLI] I mean you said that.

[JAMIE] I don't know if maybe we should be like um—

[KARLI] [laughs] How few is very few?

[JAMIE] I think, I think in total real questions, I got maybe three. My favorite question. Number one favorite question is, Who do you think you are? [both laugh]

[KARLI] I love that. And whoever sent it is my favorite.

[JAMIE] I know he was being facetious, but I'm gonna answer it anyway.

[KARLI] Oh good.

[JAMIE] Which I didn't prepare to do. So. [Karli laughs] Who do you think you are? I feel like that's the existential question of 2022. Who do you think you are?

[KARLI] Right.

[JAMIE] What narrative do you tell yourself, about yourself, that paints the picture of what your life means?

[KARLI] Listen, that's between me and my therapist. [both laugh]

[JAMIE] And we said asked me anything. We did not say that we would answer.

[KARLI] [laughing] Correct.

[JAMIE] I feel like I answer that question every day, or every podcast. This is who I am.

[KARLI] This is who I am.

[JAMIE] This is the very carefully cultivated image that I [laughing] personify to the outside world. There's a follow-up question to that. Where do you find the audacity? [laughs]

[KARLI] Oh, I don't really have to dig down that deep. Surprisingly. I thought that I would have to dig down deep to have the audacity for this sort of thing. But it actually comes easier than I thought.

[JAMIE] It just materializes. You don't even have to reach for it.

[KARLI] I have so much audacity.

[JAMIE] It's true. I've seen it in person. [Karli chuckles] It's egregious. [Karli laughs] All right, real questions. You go.

[KARLI] Okay. We'll start out easy. We got a lot of questions about beverages.

[JAMIE] Really?

[KARLI] We did. We got, we got a lot of people wanted to know things about beverages. Let's start with, what is your favorite beverage of choice while writing?

[JAMIE] In the morning, it's coffee. And in the afternoons, it would be iced matcha lattes.

[KARLI] Mmm. I could agree with those. It depends on the weather for me. I'm a very—it's a very situational thing. First thing in the morning, obviously coffee, but sometimes tea.

[JAMIE] And I try not to drink like a lot of caffeine, like on the regular, like one cup of coffee. But if I'm drafting like heavy drafting, all the rules are out the window.

[KARLI] Copious amounts of caffeine.

[JAMIE] However much you feel like you need to just keep going.

[KARLI] That's right.

[JAMIE] Oh, or a nice Thai iced tea.

[KARLI] Oooo. We need to go get Thai.

[JAMIE] Like, now?

[KARLI] I'm hungry.

[JAMIE] Can we be done?

[KARLI] Okay, we'll be back later guys. [Jamie laughs] Speaking of things to eat. What's our favorite writing snack?

[JAMIE] I like to get like the, the popcorn, like a bag of popcorn, like pre made popcorn. I don't know why I like it better than freshly popped poppedcorn.

[KARLI] I like that stale—

[JAMIE] I love processed food.

[KARLI] Slightly stale and processed with just as sprinkling of MSG,

[JAMIE] Preferably kettle corn. Because—well, I mean because you know, popcorn is slightly better than like chips. But if you cover it in sugar, [both chuckle] then then it's really good. Then I really love it. [both laugh] But I like to have something that's like you can eat a fair amount of it without it being like, super heavy. Because if I'm snacking while I write, I'm pretty mindlessly snacking. [chuckles]

[KARLI] Yeah, I am similar. I want something that I can continue to pop in my mouth as I go because I'm going to be sitting there. I like popcorn too, Goldfish crackers.

[JAMIE] Because its what's around.

[KARLI] I mean it's readily available. Only one of my kids seems to enjoy it and only occasionally but I still buy it at Costco because why not? I'll eat it. You know, it's become a problem, lately especially because I grab—they're like the snack packs that are supposed to go in their like lunch boxes or whatever—and I don't go out and just grab one. I'm like, I'm gonna have to get up and come out here again because I'm going to have two or three bags. [laughs]

[JAMIE] Yeah, they're for children. And I'm an adult. [laughing] I need an adult sized portion of Goldfish.

[KARLI] I like the way you think. [laughs]

[JAMIE] I also, my other one is—because I kind of have a problem—and this is not just writing related but chips, potato chips. I love crunchy snacks.

[KARLI] Salty snacks.

[JAMIE] I could eat like a whole bag of potato chips in one day if I wasn't careful.

[KARLI] I don't buy potato chips for that reason, because I will eat it all in one sitting.

[JAMIE] I have a chip problem, you guys. I'm sorry.

[KARLI] Pretzels, chips, potato—Lay's potato chips, specifically like [sighs]. We have more beverage questions. What's your favorite coffee and way to drink it?

[JAMIE] I don't know. I don't feel like I'm that specific. I do have to have some sort of sweetener or creamer in my coffee but like: cold brew, sure, latte, sure, coffee with cream, sure. It's—I'm not, I'm not that picky.

[KARLI] I am someone I like just like coffee but I do have a favorite and that is an extra dry cappuccino with a little bit of raw sugar in it.

[JAMIE] Fancy girl.

[KARLI] I feel so bougie that I have an espresso machine and can make that for myself.

[JAMIE] You are so bougie, bougie-est. When was the last time you actually made one of those for yourself?

[KARLI] Oh, like a year. [both laugh]

[JAMIE] Thank God you have that machine.

[KARLI] My annual cappuccino, okay. [Jamie laughs] Anyways, moving right along. Favorite alcoholic drink.

[JAMIE] I don't drink much.

[KARLI] We differ there.

[JAMIE] We do. Opposite sides of the spectrum. I because I don't like hops. I don't like beers. Ugh. Beers? Gross.

[KARLI] Sad, sad.

[JAMIE] So if I'm gonna drink anything, if it's like a summer time thing and I'm by a pool, I maybe want a cider. If I'm gonna have like a drink with a meal. Like steak. I'm gonna have an old fashioned. You?

[KARLI] Um, I'm like Nick Miller. I'll have an alcohol.

[JAMIE] I need an alcohol! [Karli chuckles]

[KARLI] I do love a good old fashioned. I don't know, I just, I like well crafted drinks.

[JAMIE] Yeah, sometimes what drink you want is gonna depend on your meal. There's different times call for like a margarita.

[KARLI] Or gin and tonic, so long as there's lime in it. So let's move away from the beverage portion of this podcast. It's been [Jamie laughs] ten minutes.

[JAMIE] [silly voice] We're a writing podcast. Blah.

[KARLI] You know, those are important. We have already answered the important questions, obviously. But there are more. More, more important questions.

[JAMIE] More, more important questions. [Karli laughs]

[KARLI] More importanter.

[JAMIE] Let's do the more, more ones.

[KARLI] More, more. Okay. Do you have a more, more one?

[JAMIE] This is a great question. What have you both learned about yourselves since The Act Break podcast started?

[KARLI] I kind of wish we had gone over these so I had time to like think and give a really good answer. Instead, you're just gonna have to get whatever pops in my head.

[JAMIE] I think two things stand out to me, you can really learn anything. We're very lucky to be in a day and age where you can go on the internet. And you can basically find out how to do something, any—in any field. Whether you know, you're good at that, [chuckles] that's totally a different thing. But the information is out there. I know, that's not something I've learned about myself. But that's like, I didn't really put that into practice. But I've really learned that I love [chuckles] organization and schedules, which is pretty obvious, I guess, if you know me, but I didn't think I was capable of this level of organization that I've reached since starting. It's definitely grown my skills with time management, grown my skills as a producer. And I think I've just, I'm like, oh, I can rise to more occasions than maybe I was pushing myself to before.

[KARLI] Nice. Um, it must be so fun for you to try to manage me, who, I have reached an all time low in time—[laughing] in time management.

[JAMIE] [chuckling] Oh, man.

[KARLI] Well, maybe not all time. But no, that's funny. You have learned that you can apply yourself to learn anything, I guess mine would be. I didn't think that I was going to be as comfortable doing this. I've really learned how to be more comfortable in my own skin, doing this and just having opinions and voicing them and being willing to be wrong and learn new things. It's, it's been good.

[JAMIE] Nice. That was such a fantastic question.

[KARLI] Yeah it was.

[JAMIE] Thank you, listener.

[KARLI] [whispers] Thank you. [normal voice] All right, another podcast question. How has podcasting helped you as a writer?

[JAMIE] I think that through the course of different episodes, we choose to like talk about things, and I research them even more in depth than I ever had before. And so just through having conversations about them, and then doing that research, I feel like I've learned about specific tropes or aspects that we've talked about throughout the the two seasons.

[KARLI] I have learned how to challenge my own perspective. I don't know really how to elaborate on that. Except that I feel like because of the podcast, I am looking at things from angles that I hadn't before.

[JAMIE] I think the other thing that is come from the podcast is when we talk to other people, we have guests, that kind of helps when you're surrounded by creative people. It kind of lights a fire under you sometimes.

[KARLI] Yeah.

[JAMIE] I mean, the fire burns out pretty regularly, but [Karli laughs] then it reignites

[KARLI] Well, and different guests have different ways of looking at things and different approaches. And yeah. Okay, this one. The audacity of this one, what's the life schedule you aspire to?

[JAMIE] The dream, right? That's what we're talking about here?

[KARLI] It’s, it's an aspiration. So.

[JAMIE] Hmm. I want to wake up in the morning, and have a beautiful woman bring me coffee. No, I'm sorry. I'm describing my husband's life. [Karli laughs] No, I want to have a leisurely coffee in the morning in a quiet environment, which luckily I already have. And then I want to write or do creative type work for a solid four to five hours. Have somebody bring me lunch. [laughs]

[KARLI] For real.

[JAMIE] I mean, if it's aspirational, I mean—

[KARLI] Yeah.

[JAMIE] Why limit ourselves?

[KARLI] Go big. I love how—[laughing] love how we say, go big and we're like, I just want somebody to bring me a sandwich. [laughs]

[JAMIE] [dramatic voice] Just bring me a sandwich, please. [normal voice] Then maybe work for like another two hours, and then be done for the day. That would be—that'd be glorious. I basically just want to be able to treat this like my day job.

[KARLI] But what about like your free time? Like like fun, fun things like you know life schedule, not just work schedule.

[JAMIE] Oh…

[BOTH] Life schedule.

[KARLI] Like, what else is included in there for you?

[JAMIE] When I'm done working, I go to my private jet. [laughs]

[KARLI] Alright, now we're getting to it. Now we're getting to it. [laughs]

[JAMIE] I'm sorry, I'm sorry. No, what is yours? Tell me. Tell me what I'm supposed to be thinking. [Karli laughs] I'm aiming too low. [laughs] The bar is so low for me right now.

[KARLI] I'd like to work like half of my day, go for a nice walk. And then do whatever I want. I don't know.

[JAMIE] See, it's hard.

[KARLI] Video games. Go for a hike.

[JAMIE] It's almost like the question was, how do you be happy? What would make you happy? And then we're [imitates stupid voice] I don't know, sandwich?

[KARLI] I mean, you're not wrong.

[JAMIE] I know, we were just too hungry for this today. Anyway, let's go to the next question. [laughs] Okay, I have some other different questions about our work. Oh, what is your wildest success dream moment you can imagine in your writing career?

[KARLI] Having an author that I, like, respect and admire, read my work and like it.

[JAMIE] That's a good one. You want a blurb from Neil Gaiman?

[KARLI] I mean, uh, yeah, yeah. I mean, I'd take that, you know, if he was offering, that'd be cool.

[JAMIE] I guess I could take it.

[KARLI] I guess I could take that.

[JAMIE] Since it is the wildest success dream. Mine would be that I can write a screenplay for one of my novels, that then gets picked up, and preferably directed by like, Edgar Wright.

[KARLI] Ooh, yeah, that'd be awesome.

[JAMIE] Well talk about wildest—

[KARLI] I mean, they said wildest—like, I like that.

[JAMIE] Like, you know, you got the baseline of like, please just publish me to, like, make this into a movie to like, I would like to also be the screenwriter for it, even though I have no experience, screenwriting and I would also like to be present for what was happening, you know, the kind of things they don't allow any more.

[KARLI] Cast—be in charge of the casting. And... [both laugh] I mean, another one that I, I would find this very successful for myself, I would like to be able to travel and write. Like, if I want to set something in a certain location or something like that, be able to go to that place. And write there for, you know, six weeks or whatever. And just be able to afford that.

[JAMIE] Even better, somebody pays you to do that.

[KARLI] Oh, hell yeah.

[JAMIE] That's the that's the dream. [laughs] Your publisher's like, oh, that's where you want to write it?

[BOTH] We'll send you there.

[KARLI] Oh, yeah.

[JAMIE] Yeah, yep. Also a thing they don't do.

[KARLI] Right.

[JAMIE] But you know.

[KARLI] Hey, wildest dreams here. [chuckles]

[JAMIE] All right. This is another question that—Karli's gonna be so upset—in a few words, what is your current WIP about? WIP is a work in progress—

[KARLI] [laugh groaning] Noooo.

[JAMIE] For anybody who does not know. And Karli just, just turned into ash and fell on the floor. [chuckles]

[KARLI] That is accurate. I am now talking pile of ash.

[JAMIE] It says in a few words.

[KARLI] In a few words.

[JAMIE] You don't have to—Karli's never been able to tell what her WIP is about in a few words, her entire life. [laughs]

[KARLI] I mean, seriously.

[JAMIE] It's a real challenge.

[KARLI] I will have her come over and I'll be like, okay, I have to talk this out. And I'm going to try to do it quick. Twenty minutes go by. And Jamie's like, we—we're just at the catalyst, Karli, you need to move on. [laughs]

[JAMIE] No, it's good. Because it's like, this is real, real nebulous. You don't need details, like my current WIP is going to be a road trip-esque, estranged best friends reconnect, while hallucinations plague one of them. [laughs]

[KARLI] [laughing] Sounds like a great time.

[JAMIE] I don't know if I want to say that. Yeah, obviously, it's a comedy.

[KARLI] [laughs] Ab—uh, duh.

[JAMIE] And we'll see how it goes.

[KARLI] Mine is a dungeon punk—No, mnmm, I don't want to say that. How do people do this? I don't understand. [laughs]

[JAMIE] You—you almost got it. Come on. You got it. Guess what? You can always change it.

[KARLI] Mine is, messed up fictional people trying to get their shit together [laughs] so that they can start a revolution because the government's bad. Yeah, with some fun magic in there somewhere. Maybe.

[JAMIE] Like a light sprinkling?

[KARLI] No, it's pretty heavy. Actually.

[JAMIE] Oh, okay.

[KARLI] It's really burdened with magic. [laughing] Burdened with glorious purpose. Okay, I'm done now.

[JAMIE] Okay. In your opinion. What's your favorite author's worst book? Can anybody really pick their favorite author?

[KARLI] It's hard. I I'm gonna need I'm gonna need Google. Um, okay. I mean, yeah, I would say um, the Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. I enjoyed it. But compared to his other books that I love, it was fine.

[JAMIE] Yeah. Isn't that is that a children's book?

[KARLI] Eh, like Coraline is, which is not—I mean, it's—

[JAMIE] Like a creepy...

[KARLI] Yeah, it's creepy and I think Coraline's creepier though, which kind of makes me like it more. But yeah, like, again nothing wrong with it. It was good, but I like his other work way better. And so now that we've answered the more like intense existential questions, we can go into some fun favorites.

[JAMIE] I think it's funny that you're like the existential—there was one question about your WIP. It was just like, what is it?

[KARLI] I need to know, there was like life, life aspirations and like, you know, what have you learned about yourself to make you like a better writer. You know, things like that, that really, really have me sweating over. [chuckles]

[JAMIE] [imitating Karli] I didn't expect people to ask us questions about ourselves or writing, like our podcast is about. [laughs]

[KARLI] I was—I was honestly, just kind of hoping nobody would ask any questions. [laughs] No, that's not entirely true. I love to talk about myself.

[JAMIE] You should be thankful people ask questions, because if people hadn't asked questions, I would have asked you questions. [Karli vocally cringes] And they would have been even more intensely about your work.

[KARLI] They would have. And we would have just pretended like people actually asked questions.

[JAMIE] This is all a farce.

[KARLI] Okay, favorites. What are your top five favorite movies?

[JAMIE] All right, I'm not going to think too hard about it. And these are in no particular order. I'm gonna say The Matrix, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Back to the Future, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and... [makes thinking noises with her mouth] maybe like Scott Pilgrim, I don't know. Those are five movies that I think are great. I can watch over and over.

[KARLI] Five of mine. Um, give me a second. I literally—I see the cover. I—it's one of my favorites. See, this is what happens when people ask me questions. I panic.

[JAMIE] Snatch.

Well, yeah, Snatch. I was I wasn't gonna say that first. But yeah, Snatch. Van Helsing. Wow, there it is. Okay, Snatch, Van Helsing. I don't, I don't know movies. I don't watch any movies.

[JAMIE] I've never seen a movie before.

[KARLI] I've never seen a movie before. No movies. Perfect Score. Warcraft and…The Saint. Anyways, um, okay. Top five books.

[JAMIE] This is so much harder than usual. [chuckles]

[KARLI] I know.

[JAMIE] Top five books. I'm gonna need my little I'm gonna need the internet. What is it called? It just went plumb out of my brain. Dark Matter by Blake Crouch, All Our Wrong Todays by Elon Mastai. I love the novelization of Red Dwarf. It's so good. I want, I—in fact, I'm probably going to need to re-read it this winter. [Karli gasps] The first Ready Player One. I know that's controversial. But I enjoy it. I've read it dozens of times. The second one can hurl into the sun for all I care.

[KARLI] I haven't read it yet.

[JAMIE] I don't know how many I've named so far. But I also love The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

[KARLI] Nice.

[JAMIE] Harry Potter. I mean, I'm kind of basic and I love it. No apology.

[KARLI] All right. Let's see. I'm gonna go with—I'm just trying to decide which Neil Gaiman book.

[JAMIE] It's just all five, are all just Neil Gaiman books. [laughs]

[KARLI] We'll just go with American Gods because that's, that's in my head. I love The Haunting of Tramcar 015. Elantris, The Heroes.

[JAMIE] What is The Heroes?

[KARLI] Oh, that's Joe Abercrombie. It's a stand alone in his First Law world. I like I can't—books. Why is this so frickin' hard? I'll go with Red Dwarf as well. Like, that is fantastic. I—

[JAMIE] It's so fun. I haven't read it in years now.

[KARLI] I haven't either. So maybe we need to do like a re-read this winter. But a buddy—buddy re-read.

[JAMIE] Buddy read.

[KARLI] Okay, there's more and even harder. Top five favorite songs.

[JAMIE] Oh, let's just do like right now.

[KARLI] Yeah, right now. Not necessarily like of all time.

[JAMIE] “Stick Season” by Noah Khan is one of my new favorites. “Sweet Dreams” by Borns. “Drivin’" by Willow Avalon. This is all very much like heading into fall. There's also an instrumental of “Sweater Weather” that I've been listening to on repeat. [chuckles] And of course, “I Lied” by Lord Huron and “Love Me Like You Used To” by Lord Huron, are my top favorites right now.

[KARLI] So we're just going with like things we've been listening to a lot right now.

[JAMIE] That's what I'm thinking.

[KARLI] I like, I like it.

[JAMIE] Right now because like you said, it's too difficult. All time is too hard. I would need to intensely sit down and study all, all of history of music.

[KARLI] There would have to be like a ranking system and… be a chart.

[JAMIE] All right, what are your top five?

[KARLI] Okay, so the ones—I mean, I have been listening to a lot of music right now and there's a lot of favorites right now. So this is gonna be really hard. But “Dopamine” by Siiickbrain. Always, “Dreams,” Fleetwood Mac. “It's All Right,” Mother, Mother. “Good F**King Music,” Solence. Sorry, you have to edit that. “C'est La Vie,” Weathers and “Insane” by Black Griff0n and Baasik. Those are—I don't know, that might be more than five. But those are the things—I've been listening to those on repeat lately.

[JAMIE] I wanted to —I'm like, oh, you said dopamine. I also enjoy “Dopamine” by Borns.

[KARLI] Oh, I love “Dopamine” by Borns. Give me all the dopamine. If you've got a song that has dopamine in it, I want it.

[JAMIE]  I need all the dopamine. And “Vienna” by Billy Joel.

[KARLI] Oooo Billy Joel. Okay. I had a Walkman. Billy Joel, was my jam. Flipped the sides, flipped it again, flipped it. I mean, just like back to back, man. Yes, it was a cassette tape. Yes, I am that old. I don't care. I loved it. I was like eight.

[JAMIE] I think a majority of our listeners—

[KARLI] Are that old.

[JAMIE]  Can relate. It's okay.

[KARLI] Yeah, I was like eight. And I just like walked around listening to Billy Joel all day long. Uh, yeah, that's it. That's That's all folks. [makes vague Porky Pig sounds] Thank you so much for asking us questions. We hope this wasn't too torturous for you. And thanks for listening. You guys are awesome. Really appreciate you. You can find us on social media. All of the links are in the description of this episode. And you can sign up for newsletter and transcripts and all of those things. It was fine. Not great, but fine. This is fine.

[JAMIE] This is fine.

[BOTH] [laughing] Everything is fine.

[KARLI] There are flames around me.

[JAMIE] Thank you so much, everyone.

[KARLI] Yes. Thank you.

[JAMIE] Talk to you next week.

[KARLI] Bye. [chortles]

[JAMIE] Bye.