In This Episode
The Book Evangelists discuss their NaNoWriMo 2019 experiences along with the books This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone and The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
NaNoWriMo 2019 Wrap Up

#NaNoWriMo2019 has concluded and it is now December. And here we are.
Doing is good, but the learning is in the reflection.

How did it go?
Did you write what you said you were going to write?
What did you learn? How was this year unique?

Plansting means I think I am writing one thing and then it turns into something else partway through the month. - Lissa
Marian wrote the first 50,000 words of a British historical mystery novel with Egyptology and various levels of success in the advanced plotting. Lissa wrote 51,000 words of a story that started out writing about a woman who creates "Book Club for One" and then another reader joins, 15 years later. And then I added the "Narrator" of both of their stories, as a social worker type of influence in their stories/lives, manipulating them from outside, and then their Narrator got harried with additional workload and sent an ancient copper dragon straight from the D&D 5e Monster Manual to Topeka and the story got….a little bit different and a little bit better. And in the end, most of my novel was about how being in a book club is very very good and also how we all deserve agency in our own lives and our own stories.
This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
This blog post is spoiler-free. On the podcast, we discuss This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone in detail and our discussion in the podcast is filled with minor and major spoilers, so please read the book before you listen if you are into that kind of experience. We'll be here for you when you finish!

Marian perfectly captured why it was so hard for Lissa to talk about why she loves This is How You Lose the Time War when she shared the idea of "Meals and Snacks" from the Malcolm Gladwell MasterClass. People don’t talk about things (movies, books etc) the same way they think about them. In conversation we cling to the little “snack” moments that are easy to transmit to others, but that is different than the bits that we mull and savor over a longer period of time. As writers, we include both snacks and meals so that consumers can use what we write on multiple levels. Lissa wants to annotate a copy of the book with her friends so we can all share the jokes, but also mull over and savor the book on her own, for a long time.

The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
We agree that this book gives us SO MANY well developed characters:

Ashby - captain
Sissix - pilot
Kizzy - tech
Jenks - tech
Lovey - AI
Dr Chef - doctor and chef
Rosemary - clerk
Corbin - algaeist
Ohan - navigator
Pei - Ashby’s secret partner
“She was exactly where she was supposed to be.”

The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

What spinoff projects did we propose during this podcast?

The cookbook/craft book based on The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet. Marian will work on the recipe for smokey buns and Lissa will knit a hat for fix bots. Maybe.
This book is the first in a series! We have more stories to read!

Coming Up

Next episode: The Book Evangelists will discussing 2019 in reading and our plans, hopes, and dreams for 2020.

Music Credit: The music used during transitions in our podcast is adapted from: Jazzy Sax, Guitar, and Organ at the club by Admiral Bob (c) copyright 2018 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/admiralbob77/58382 Ft: geoffpeters