I had the nub of an idea for a story last night while reading the first book in the Dagger and Coin series by Daniel Abraham (loving it so far).
The idea is:
A post-apocalyptic world where the end of the world was caused by rampaging dragons, raised from their aeons-long slumber.
Whenever I get an idea like this, I chuck it in a growing Notes file on my iPhone for later retrieval (my memory is about as reliable as your average stoner). So I jotted the idea down, greatly impressed with my imagination, then went to sleep.
Woke up this morning, read the note, and realised I’d come up with the movie, Reign of Fire.
Really wanna watch it again now. It got thoroughly shitcanned as I recall, but I enjoyed it.
But coincidentally, I learned there’s a word for this phenomenon on a recent episode of one of my favourite podcasts, The Skeptics Guide to the Universe. The word?
Cryptomnesia occurs when a forgotten memory returns without it being recognised as such by the subject, who believes it is something new and original. (source: Wikipedia)
Thought that was cool enough to share, and also made me realise I could share my favourite podcasts with you. Here’s a selection:
The Skeptics Guide to the Universe
My first love in the world of podcasts. The mostly-family-members crew focus on critical thinking, science awesomeness, and the fallability of our oh-so-human brains. It’s great. And (gasp) educational. It’s a fabulous vaccine against the growing bombardment of misinformation pervading our modern world.
The Aunty Donna Podcast
Perhaps the antithesis of my first rec, this one is pure, silly, often nonsensical comedy. The Aunty Donna boys are from my hometown (Melbourne, Australia), so that might be partly why I enjoy their bullshit so much. It’s also not easy to get into, so if I had to recommend you start somewhere, maybe try Episode 320 - Optimus Prime. They’ve also made a couple of hilarious TV shows.
SFF Addicts
I don’t know about you, but I love author interviews. I love hearing about their careers, their processes, their writing habits, and the trials they’ve experienced through all of it. This poddie interviews a lot of fascinating SFF authors, plus includes panels from TBRCon when that’s running. The recent format they’ve adopted follows 1 episode of interview followed by 1 episode of masterclass with the same author, which I really enjoy.
Publishing Rodeo
Ever wanted to hear the inside scoop of the traditional book publishing industry from an SFF bent? This is the poddie for you. If you’re an aspiring writer with dreams of a book deal, this might be too much of a reality hammer, but I find it fascinating. Also have mad respect for Sunyi and Scott to be putting this stuff out there in a very closed industry.
I hope you find something you enjoy in this list. I’m thinking my next update will be a clickbaity Top 5 books of all time.
Have a great week, froods.