Clare and Hannah read "Ready Player One," Ernest Cline's 2011 LitRPG novel in which every challenge can be solved by being chronically online. Contestants plug in to the OASIS, a virtual universe where anything is possible, if you have the credits and enough one-joystick two-button dexterity to totally kick butt in Black Tiger. Finally, knowing Monty Python and the Holy Grail word for word is useful for something. It's a masterpiece of 80s nostalgia for the Gen-Xers and nihilism for the Millenials.

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We provide links and other resources to help you find and enjoy the things we talked about on this episode! Note that some of these may include “affiliate” links to books and other products. When you click through and purchase, the price of the item is the same for you. In fact, most of the time you’ll get a discount! But the company gives us a little somethin’ somethin’ to say “thanks” for sending you their way! This helps you enjoy the website and the podcast EVEN MORE by eliminating intrusive advertisements. Thanks for clicking!

Theme music: “Splanchnics Riff” composed and performed by Clare T. Walker

Clare is an independent author who would love it if you checked out her books! If you like exciting thrillers featuring an “everyman” hero who rises to his or her full potential in the face of peril—-you might enjoy The Keys of Death. It’s a veterinary medical thriller about a small-town animal doctor who gets tangled up in a whistle-blowing scheme against a big biotech company. Or, if you prefer shorter fiction, try Startling Figures, a collection of three paranormal urban fantasy stories.

Story structure is what makes us love stories in the first place. We love a nice set of bookends. We root for characters who save cats. A hero's journey "there and back again" resonates with the human psyche. In this episode, Clare and Hannah talk about several kinds of story structures, including Three-Act, Five-Act, Chiastic, Save the Cat, and the Hero's Journey.

Some of the books we mention in this episode:

The Heroine’s Journey by Gail Carriger

Save the Cat! by Blake Snyder

Screenplay by Syd Field

The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler

The Hero With a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell

You can pick up these books and many more at our Bookshop.org affiliate link. You can support your favorite nerdy mother-daughter podcast, get a discount on your purchase, plus support independent bookstores everywhere! Thank you!

We’d love to hear your thoughts! Click here to send us a text message!

Support the show

We provide links and other resources to help you find and enjoy the things we talked about on this episode! Note that some of these may include “affiliate” links to books and other products. When you click through and purchase, the price of the item is the same for you. In fact, most of the time you’ll get a discount! But the company gives us a little somethin’ somethin’ to say “thanks” for sending you their way! This helps you enjoy the website and the podcast EVEN MORE by eliminating intrusive advertisements. Thanks for clicking!

Theme music: “Splanchnics Riff” composed and performed by Clare T. Walker

Clare is an independent author who would love it if you checked out her books! If you like exciting thrillers featuring an “everyman” hero who rises to his or her full potential in the face of peril—-you might enjoy The Keys of Death. It’s a veterinary medical thriller about a small-town animal doctor who gets tangled up in a whistle-blowing scheme against a big biotech company. Or, if you prefer shorter fiction, try Startling Figures, a collection of three paranormal urban fantasy stories.

This episode, Clare and Hannah talk about Flannery O'Connor's first novel, Wise Blood, published in 1952. O'Connor's stories are rich with symbolism, from a beat-up jalopy of a car to a stolen gorilla suit, and from a preacher's blindness to a shrunken mummified body in a museum. It's a darkly comic and often grotesque ride.

Flannery O’Connor has her own section at Clare’s Bookshop.org page. Click through if you’d like to get your own copy of Wise Blood or any other book by and about O’Connor.

We’d love to hear your thoughts! Click here to send us a text message!

Support the show

We provide links and other resources to help you find and enjoy the things we talked about on this episode! Note that some of these may include “affiliate” links to books and other products. When you click through and purchase, the price of the item is the same for you. In fact, most of the time you’ll get a discount! But the company gives us a little somethin’ somethin’ to say “thanks” for sending you their way! This helps you enjoy the website and the podcast EVEN MORE by eliminating intrusive advertisements. Thanks for clicking!

Theme music: “Splanchnics Riff” composed and performed by Clare T. Walker

Clare is an independent author who would love it if you checked out her books! If you like exciting thrillers featuring an “everyman” hero who rises to his or her full potential in the face of peril—-you might enjoy The Keys of Death. It’s a veterinary medical thriller about a small-town animal doctor who gets tangled up in a whistle-blowing scheme against a big biotech company. Or, if you prefer shorter fiction, try Startling Figures, a collection of three paranormal urban fantasy stories.