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Ex Urbe Ad Astra

Ada Palmer

Historian and novelist Ada Palmer and author and vocateur reader Jo Walton interview other fiction authors, historians, scientists, editors, and friends, interspersed with bonus episodes where they discuss topics such as history, gelato, and the craft of writing.

20 - Ex Urbe Ad Astra #13 - The Florentine Renaissance with Larry Rothfield

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20 - Ex Urbe Ad Astra #13 - The Florentine Renaissance with Larry Rothfield
In this episode, Ada and Jo speak with historian Larry Rothfield about the political nuances of 15th century Florence, and the shifting perspectives of the Renaissance to come since then.
Tue, 13 Feb 2024 - 1h 47min
19 - Ex Urbe Ad Astra #12 - Pacing with Ken Liu
In this episode, Ada and Jo discuss the merits of good pacing across a range of story lengths with Hugo and Nebula award-winning author, Ken Liu.
Tue, 09 Jan 2024 - 1h 52min
18 - Ex Urbe Ad Astra #11 - The Problem of Evil in Narrative with Alexis Shotwell
In this episode, Ada and Jo speak with Alexis Shotwell about the issues that arise from ill-intentioned characters, and the moral questions they present to readers.
Tue, 05 Dec 2023 - 1h 43min
17 - Ex Urbe Ad Astra #10 - Setups and Payoffs with Jon Evans
In this episode, Ada and Jo speak with Jon Evans about the remote research versus travel, short stories, beleivability, and setting up shocking twists for striking payoffs.
Tue, 17 Oct 2023 - 1h 43min
16 - Ex Urbe Ad Astra #9 - Stopping Reading
In this episode, Jo and Ada discuss a number of reasons to put a book down without finishing.
Tue, 29 Aug 2023 - 1h 35min
15 - Politics in Disability and Fiction with William Alexander
Award winning children's author William Alexander joins Jo and Ada to talk about using politics and disability in fiction for children and adults.
Mon, 31 Jul 2023 - 1h 49min
14 - Ex Urbe Ad Astra Ep. 7: Shakespeare And Language, With Writer Greer Gilman
Greer Gilman has been writing stories set in Cloud, her Northern mythscape, for a quarter of a century. Her books are written for the ear, as much as for the understanding. Like the earliest stories, they are meant to be sung. Greer Gilman website
Wed, 09 Nov 2022 - 1h 39min
13 - How Writing Is Like Fencing, With Writer Max Gladstone - Part 2
Note to Patreon backers: You received this episode on January 12, 2022, but due to an oversight, it was never posted here. Normally you hear episodes a week in advance, but this one you received seven months in advance! Thank you to everyone for your patience. This is conclusion of the interview. Anything you can call "writing" (science fiction, fantasy, screenwriting, comics, games) Max Gladstone does. He's also a fencer and martial artist. This episode explores connections between these two types of things. This interview ran long, so this is part one of two. Numerous topics covered include: the similarities shared by the crafts of writing and fencing; struggles when writing descriptions of physical spaces; why we don’t see cluttered spaceships in science fiction movies; when to include potatoes in your medieval fantasy setting; designing the layout of museum exhibits, video game spaces, and Walt Disney World; and more! Max Gladstone website Substack newsletter Twitter
Wed, 03 Aug 2022 - 1h 09min
12 - Ex Urbe Ad Astra Ep. 5: Writing The Near Future, With SF Writer Naomi Kritzer
Note to Patreon backers: You received this episode on November 10, 2021, but due to an oversight, it was never posted here. Normally you hear episodes a week in advance, but this one you received eight months in advance! Thank you to everyone for your patience.
This episode is brought to you by Perhaps The Stars, the fourth and final novel in the Terra Ignota series, available now from (referrer links) Amazon, Barnes And Noble, Books-A-Million, Apple Books, and Indiebound.
Naomi Kritzer has been publishing her science fiction and fantasy for the last twenty years. She lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota, US, and likes to think about ways to describe the future both near and far. Her new book is Chaos on CatNet, the sequel to Catfishing on CatNet published by Tor Teen.
Naomi Kritzer's homepage
Naomi Kritzer's Twitter
Wed, 13 Jul 2022 - 1h 14min
11 - Ex Urbe Ad Astra Bonus Ep. 4, Part 2: Chapters
This is the second half of a conversation between Ada Palmer and Jo Walton, about writing chapters. This was a two-hour conversation, so our previous episode had the first hour, and this episode has the second hour.
Wed, 01 Jun 2022 - 52min
10 - Ex Urbe Ad Astra Bonus Ep. 4, Part 1: Chapters
This is the first half of a conversation between Ada Palmer and Jo Walton, about writing chapters. This was a two-hour conversation, so this episode has the first hour, and the next episode will have the second hour.
Sat, 21 May 2022 - 1h 00min
9 - Bonus Ep. 3, Part 2: The Author-Reader Contract
This is the final half of a conversation between Ada Palmer and Jo Walton, about how an author can craft the early part of a novel to set up the reader's expectations about what kind of a book to expect. This was a two-hour conversation, so our previous episode had the first hour, and this episode has the second hour.
Wed, 02 Mar 2022 - 48min
8 - Ex Urbe Ad Astra Bonus Ep. 3, Part 1: The Author-Reader Contract
This is part one of a conversation between Ada Palmer and Jo Walton, about how an author can craft the early part of a novel to set up the reader's expectations about what kind of a book to expect. This was a two-hour conversation, so this episode has the first hour, and the next episode will be part two.
Wed, 09 Feb 2022 - 56min
7 - How Writing Is Like Fencing, With Writer Max Gladstone - Part 1
This episode is brought to you by Perhaps The Stars, the fourth and final novel in the Terra Ignota series, available now from (referrer links) Amazon, Barnes And Noble, Books-A-Million, Apple Books, and Indiebound. Anything you can call "writing" (science fiction, fantasy, screenwriting, comics, games) Max Gladstone does. He's also a fencer and martial artist. This episode explores connections between these two types of things. This interview ran long, so this is part one of two. Numerous topics covered include: the similarities shared by the crafts of writing and fencing; struggles when writing descriptions of physical spaces; why we don’t see cluttered spaceships in science fiction movies; when to include potatoes in your medieval fantasy setting; designing the layout of museum exhibits, video game spaces, and Walt Disney World; and more! Max Gladstone website Substack newsletter Twitter
Mon, 03 Jan 2022 - 1h 05min
6 - Ex Urbe Ad Astra Ep. 4: Bright and Dark Ages with historian and journalist David Perry
David Perry is a freelance journalist covering politics, history, education, and disability rights. He was a professor of Medieval History at Dominican University from 2006-2017, and now works as an academic advisor in the history department of the University of Minnesota. His scholarly work focuses on Venice, the Crusades, and the Mediterranean World. Numerous topics covered include: Reasons to study history; how historical figures and institutions claimed legitimacy; calling an Age "Dark" or "Golden" in order to get legitimacy; patronage of the arts to prop up legitimacy; fake innovation and fake continuity; bastardy; parrots and coconuts in medieval Europe; and more! David Perry website David Perry Patreon "The Bright Ages: A New History of Medieval Europe" by Matthew Gabriele and David M. Perry
Wed, 27 Oct 2021 - 1h 24min
5 - Ex Urbe Ad Astra Ep. 3: Hopepunk and positive futures with writer Ruthanna Emrys
Ruthanna Emrys is an author of science fiction and fantasy such as The Innsmouth Legacy series and Deep Roots, which are hopeful Lovecraftian fantasy, and the forthcoming A Half-Built Garden, a hopeful science fiction novel of first contact.
Ruthanna Emrys Patreon
"Reading The Weird" column on Tor.com
Ruthanna Emrys homepage
Wed, 13 Oct 2021 - 1h 15min
4 - Ex Urbe Ad Astra Bonus Ep. 2: Manga for non-manga readers
This will probably become a series of occasional bonus episodes in which Ada Palmer and Jo Walton discuss manga and anime with an eye to its innovations, cultural norms, and wider implications for the media landscape. - Gender and age marketing categories in manga. - Translation of Japanese onomatopoeia (sound-effect words). - The influence of organized communities of fandom on a medium. - A story-formula and set of character archetypes called "moe" (MO-ay). - Moe's reliable merchandising profit, resulting in more moe. - Availability of manga on devices both broadening and narrowing market categories. And more!
Wed, 15 Sep 2021 - 1h 23min
3 - Ex Urbe Ad Astra Ep. 2: Mars & How To Help Science Fiction Writers With Science, With Astrogeologist Jonathan Sneed
Jonathan Sneed is an astrogeologist and expert in Mars wind and erosional science. He also consults with science fiction authors, and has the skill of giving the sort of answers to science questions that are useful when writing fiction.
Numerous topics covered include - open questions in Mars science; panspermia; wind tunnels; and how entertainment technology is often ahead of technology made for any other industry. Also weird ideas for novels such as: an alien animal species that incorporates knowledge from brains through digestion; why a savannah planet can't work and how to make it work anyway; and a ninja in Florence! All this and much more.
As mentioned in the episode, he has a guest post on Ex Urbe, "What Color Is Pluto?"
Thu, 26 Aug 2021 - 1h 19min
2 - Ex Urbe Ad Astra Bonus Episode 1: Complicity
In this bonus episode, Ada Palmer and Jo Walton have a craft of writing discussion of complicity, i.e. when and how the author gets the reader or audience on the side of characters they would not expect to root for, and how that can be used in fiction.
Thu, 19 Aug 2021 - 1h 18min
1 - Ex Urbe Ad Astra Ep. 1: Speculative Resistance With Writer Malka Older
Novelist and political scientist Malka Older, author of Infomocracy and its sequels, shares an interest with Ada Palmer in the development of political systems. With Jo Walton providing examples from her broad knowledge of the history of F&SF, they discuss speculative political systems, historical disaster response, and forms of organization with which populations can respond to their needs.
Malka Older on Twitter: @m_older
https://malkaolder.wordpress.com
Read the first five chapters of Infomocracy:
https://www.tor.com/2016/02/22/excerpts-malka-older-infomocracy-chapter-1/
Thu, 05 Aug 2021 - 1h 34min

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