I met Becky Cloonan at the 2022 Columbus Galaxy Con, where we discussed her comic book writing, the influence of comics on the movies made from them, and the sweet freedom that comes from self publishing. Listen in to find out why she loves comics.
I don’t think comics necessarily are influenced by [comic book-based] movies. I think it’s the other way around, and I think it should always be that way.
Becky Cloonan
“I’m great at multitasking,” some people say. But does leading a harried existence of constant interruptions, shifting our attention when the boss calls, or when a client needs “just a minute of your time,” or when the spouse or kids need you right now have a cost? All of these interruptions shift our focus, tear us away from what we’re doing. Individually, changing focus seems minor, just another part of modern life, but researcher Dr. Gloria Mark says interruptions add up and they’re stripping away our ability to have sustained focus. Dr. Mark, prolifically published psychologist and University of California’s Chancellor Professor of Informatics, has recently published Attention Span. Among her research findings is that the average attention on any screen was two minutes, 30 seconds in 2004. It was 75 seconds in 2012. In the last five to six years, it’s 47 seconds.
Are you still with me?
Listen in to hear more about her findings and what kinds of hope she sees for our ability to focus.
We know from decades of laboratory research that when people shift their attention [there’s a] correlation between the stress as measured on heart rate monitors and attention shifting… We also know people make more errors when they switch their attention.
Gloria Mark
Genre-spanning singer/songwriter Roberta Lea writes soul, pop, RnB, and country songs and was named one of “12 Artists to Watch in 2022” by Nashville Scene’s Country Almanac. Her single “Sweet Baby Ray” was awarded Song of the Year at the 2022 Veer Music Awards and was recently inducted into CMT’s Next Women of Country Class of 2023. She will be in Columbus with Joe Crookston and Six String Concerts on February 17.
Listen in to hear about her songwriting process, having friends pressure her into releasing a song, and why her husband is blameless for another of her songs. YOu can learn more about her at iamrobertalea.com
Imagine being a slave on a southern plantation whose mistress died and you were under suspicion. Obviously, you would need to leave as soon as possible before retribution. The most reasonable course of action would seem to be going north, but what if you don’t know anyone in the north? Without family, who would help you? Who could you trust?
That’s the conundrum facing John Billingsly, the protagonist of Eric Walker’s book Lost Souls Recovered, who must leave his mother and their slave cabin on a plantation in Richmond, Virginia, to find safety with a cousin in Mount Hope, Alabama, a decidedly southern direction or, as Walker puts it, “into the belly of the beast.”
Author and amateur genealogist Walker heard stories throughout his life from family members describing the struggles of their African American ancestors. Eventually, he decided to take these stories and make them into a fictional representation of his family with this book.
The creation of the book itself is a saga years in the making, with Walker putting it down for a decade after it was written and edited. Listen in to hear about how he got started with his writing, how he wound his way through a variety of publishing options, and what he’s working on now.
Some authors plot out their books in detail. Some write by the seat of their pants. And some, like JD Blackrose, combine these approaches to create works in a variety of genres. Her books include The Devil’s Been Busy, A Wrinkle and Crime, and The Summoner’s Mark series. Her dark fantasy story “Welcome, Death” appears in The Jewish Book of Horror and looks at the pogroms of 1918 and 1919. She also has an urban fantasy series, a genre she finds attractive because “one of the great things about urban fantasy is that a lot of the writers are female.” You can read more about her work at www.slipperywords.com.
When someone asks “Where are you from?” is your answer a region? An area of a state or country? Or do you think of the home where you lived as a young person?
For Trent Wagler and the other members of the Steel Wheels, where they’re from is all of this and more, an amorphous assortment of memories that have meaning to them. As Trent put it
“when we talk about home, sometimes you really do think about the old windows or the drafty heat, or the weird wobbly floors of an old building as home. But, of course, for most of us, it’s the experience of the sounds and smells of dinner being cooked or the laughter of your friends or family in that space.”
If you’d like to catch up with the sounds and smeels of home, the Steel Wheels will be in town with Six String Concerts on January 21, when you can buy their latest, Everyone a Song Volume Two, featuring the song “Where I’m From.”
Once again, Craft Studios and Ready-to-Bake Pizzas offers you the finest in Halloween merriment, from psycho killers stalking the innocent to teachers struggling with urges to massage therapists with unexpected clients – we aim to entertain and inform. We hope you’ll have nightmares because of enjoy this year’s smorgasbord of madness. If not, that’s just part of the terror of Halloween.
Every so often a hero arises. A hero who can take the most far-out questions about science, do the research, and crunch the numbers so we get the answers we need.
Randall Monroe, author of WHAT IF? 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions, is just such a hero.
Listen in as we discuss such vitally important questions as
If that doesn’t make your day, I don’t know what will.
The daughter of a 1950’s widowed working mother, Carolyn Aaron grew up in an unusual circumstances, some of which she’s used in her acting. She calls her civil rights activist mother an “inverse influence” on her character of Shirley Maisel, because her mother “would not have any relationship to Shirley whatsoever.”
Aaron has plenty of other projects besides acting, including her podcast Angst And Daisies, a call to political action, which she looks at as “I feel like everything I do… has to do with…how do we make things better?” For her, it comes down to taking a measured view and not trying to make huge changes but to “make a difference to one [person].”
So make a difference to your day by listening to Carolyn Aaron.
Comic Sumukh Torgalkar will return to central Ohio after a few years on the West Coast to record his second comedy album at Madlab on June 3. Listen in as we discuss his comedy interests, the impact of the pandemic, and what kind of comedy he prefers to do.
