The Functional Nerds Podcast

On this week’s Functional Nerds podcast, Patrick and John chat about some big life changes affecting the podcast, including some fantastic news from John, as well as the coronavirus, working from home, Journey and the attempted coup from the drummer and bass player, life, and… You just need to listen to this one, okay? Links: * John Anealio on Twitter * Patrick Hester on Twitter * The Functional Nerds Patreon Page * Patrick Hester on Instagram * Patrick’s Book: Into the Fire (available everywhere) © 2020 Patrick Hester and John Anealio This podcast contains original music by John Anealio.

This week, Patrick and John welcome Shannon Lawrence, author of a SLEW of horror short stories (see what I did there?), published all over the place and links to which can be found on her website www.thewarriormuse.com. About Shannon Lawrence: A fan of all things fantastical and frightening, Shannon Lawrence writes in her dungeon when her minions allow, often accompanied by her familiars, Cleopatra and Nefertiti. She writes primarily horror and fantasy. Her stories can be found in several anthologies and magazines, including Space and Time Magazine, Once Upon a Scream, The Literary Hatchet, The Deep Dark Woods, and Dark Moon Digest. Her short story collection, Blue Sludge Blues & Other Abominations, came out March 2018. When she’s not writing, she’s hiking through the wilds of Colorado and photographing her magnificent surroundings. Though she often misses the ocean, the majestic and rugged Rockies are a sight she could never part with. Besides, in Colorado there’s always a place to hide a body or birth a monster. What more could she ask for? Find her at www.thewarriormuse.com. This week’s picks: * Shannon: Dark Matter: Reading the Bones edited by Sheree R. Thomas * Patrick: Hunters (Prime) Links: * Shannon Lawrence on Twitter * John Anealio on Twitter * Patrick Hester on Twitter * The Functional Nerds Patreon Page * Patrick Hester on Instagram * Patrick’s Book: Into the Fire (available everywhere) © 2020 Patrick Hester and John Anealio This podcast contains original music by John Anealio.

This week, Patrick and John welcome KB Wagers, author of the Indranan War trilogy, the Farian War trilogy and the new book – A Pale Light In The Black. About KB Wagers: K.B. Wagers is the author of the Indranan War trilogy as well as There Before the Chaos, the start of the Farian War trilogy with Orbit Books. They hold a bachelor’s degree in Russian Studies and a second-degree blackbelt in Shaolin Kung Fu. A native of Colorado, K.B. lives at the base of the Rocky Mountains with their partner and a crew of recalcitrant cats. In between books, they can be found attempting to learn Spanish, dying in video games, dancing to music, and scribbling new ideas in their bullet journal. They are represented by Andrew Zack of The Zack Company. About A Pale Light In The Black: For the past year, their close loss in the annual Boarding Games has haunted Interceptor Team: Zuma’s Ghost. With this year’s competition looming, they’re looking forward to some payback—until an unexpected personnel change leaves them reeling. Their best swordsman has been transferred, and a new lieutenant has been assigned in his place. Maxine Carmichael is trying to carve a place in the world on her own—away from the pressure and influence of her powerful family. The last thing she wants is to cause trouble at her command on Jupiter Station. With her new team in turmoil, Max must overcome her self-doubt and win their trust if she’s going to succeed. Failing is not an option—and would only prove her parents right. But Max and the team must learn to work together quickly. A routine mission to retrieve a missing ship has suddenly turned dangerous, and now their lives are on the line. Someone is targeting members of Zuma’s Ghost, a mysterious opponent willing to kill to safeguard a secret that could shake society to its core . . . a secret that could lead to their deaths and kill thousands more unless Max and her new team stop them. Rescue those in danger, find the bad guys, win the Games. It’s all in a day’s work at the NeoG. This week’s picks: * KB: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (TV – Disney+) * Patrick: The Temeraire books by Naomi Novik * Patreon Pick 1: OMNI Magazine (Amazon) Picked by JT Evans (Note: I couldn’t find a link…) Links: * KB Wagers on Twitter * John Anealio on Twitter * Patrick Hester on Twitter * The Functional Nerds Patreon Page * Patrick Hester on Instagram * Patrick’s Book:

On this week’s Functional Nerds podcast, Patrick and John chat Star Trek Picard, Discovery, birthdays, music, not having a plan (we’re looking at you, Disney), The New Universe, Brandon Sanderson and more… Links: * John Anealio on Twitter * Patrick Hester on Twitter * The Functional Nerds Patreon Page * Patrick Hester on Instagram * Patrick’s Book: Into the Fire (available everywhere) © 2020 Patrick Hester and John Anealio This podcast contains original music by John Anealio.

This week, Patrick and John welcome author, Sarah Kozloff, whose Nine Realms epic fantasy quartet is complete and will be released by TOR one a month starting today, February 18th, with A Queen in Hiding! About Sarah Kozloff: Sarah has spent her life immersed in literature, narrative, and film. After a degree in English at Dartmouth she worked in film production in NYC. She earned a Ph.D. from an interdisciplinary program at Stanford University, joining the Film Department of Vassar College in 1988. In 2009 she was awarded the William R. Kenan Jr. Endowed Chair. In 2012, while teaching a senior seminar on American Women Directors, she realized that neither the books nor films of Lord of the Rings could pass the Bechdel Test. That summer, she grabbed her laptop and started imagining a world that awaited the return of the queen. She didn’t know then that this leap into creative writing would spark a new career. Her epic fantasy quartet, The Nine Realms, is forthcoming from TOR. All four books, A Queen in Hiding, The Queen of Raiders, A Broken Queen, and The Cerulean Queen, will be published January through April 2020. She lives in the Hudson Valley with her husband and a shifting menagerie of pets, who mistakenly believe they are suitable replacements for grown sons. About A Queen in Hiding (The Nine Realms Book 1): Orphaned, exiled and hunted, Cerulia, Princess of Weirandale, must master the magic that is her birthright, become a ruthless guerilla fighter, and transform into the queen she is destined to be. But to do it she must win the favor of the spirits who play in mortal affairs, assemble an unlikely group of rebels, and wrest the throne from a corrupt aristocracy whose rot has spread throughout her kingdom. This week’s picks: * Sarah: For All Mankind (Apple TV+) * John: Reader Come Home:The Reading Brain in a Digital World by MaryAnnE Wolf * Patrick: Weather by Huey Lewis & The News * Patreon Pick 1: Locke & Key (NETFLIX) Picked by Paul Jackson Links: * Sarah Kozloff on Twitter * John Anealio on Twitter * Patrick Hester on Twitter * The Functional Nerds Patreon Page * Patrick Hester on Instagram * Patrick’s Book: Into the Fire (available everywhere) © 2020 Patrick Hester and John Anealio This podcast contains original music by John Anealio.

On this week’s Functional Nerds podcast, Patrick and John chat about building community, writing music and lyrics, writing fiction, collaborating, patrons, time, Babylon 5, business, family, conventions, Mama’s Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To be Cowboys, anthologies and more… Links: * John Anealio on Twitter * Patrick Hester on Twitter * The Functional Nerds Patreon Page * Patrick Hester on Instagram * Patrick’s Book: Into the Fire (available everywhere) © 2020 Patrick Hester and John Anealio This podcast contains original music by John Anealio.

This week, Patrick and John welcome long time listener, supporter, writer and musician, Stace Johnson! About Stace Johnson: By day, Stace Johnson is a mild-mannered IT guy for a Colorado 9-1-1 facility, but at night, he transforms into a mild-mannered writer, poet, and musician with an affinity for the Oxford comma. Stace has written more than thirty non-fiction articles for computer magazines such as ComputorEdge and Rocky Mountain TechLine, and his fiction has appeared most recently in Martian Magazine and Edward Bryant’s Sphere of Influence. He received an Honorable Mention in the Fall 2009 Writers of the Future Contest, and his short story “Sphere of Falling” was chosen to be presented orally at Stories for All Seasons, a Denver literary series, in 2003. His poetry has appeared in numerous places, including Tales of the Talisman, the Apex Book Company website, and cream city review‘s inaugural I/O issue. He is a long-standing member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association. This week’s picks: * Stace Pick 1: 5,000 Words Per Hour: Write Faster, Write Smarter by Chris Fox * Stace Pick 2: Soundbrenner Core smartwatch designed for musicians * John: Dispel Illusion (Impossible Times Book 3) by Mark Lawrence * Patrick: The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold * Patreon Pick 1: Daisy Jones & the Six By Taylor Jenkins Reid Picked by Robert Junker * Patreon Pick 2: Clockwork Angels by By: Kevin J. Anderson, Neil Peart Picked by Pat Smythe Links: * Stace Johnson on Twitter * John Anealio on Twitter * Patrick Hester on Twitter * The Functional Nerds Patreon Page * Patrick Hester on Instagram * Patrick’s Book: Into the Fire (available everywhere) © 2020 Patrick Hester and John Anealio This podcast contains original music by John Anealio.

On this week’s Functional Nerds podcast, Patrick and John chat about everything under the sun, including but not limited to, Rush, The Dragon Prince, Doctor Who, The Witcher, Journey, Dracula, The Eagles, Willie Nelson’s guitar (Trigger), Salt N’ Pepa, Whitesnake, The Expanse, Travelers, Lost In Space 2, Queen, The Beach Boys, The Dresden Files, and more… Links: * John Anealio on Twitter * Patrick Hester on Twitter * The Functional Nerds Patreon Page * Patrick Hester on Instagram * Patrick’s Book: Into the Fire (available everywhere) © 2020 Patrick Hester and John Anealio This podcast contains original music by John Anealio.

This week, Patrick and John welcome Travis Heermann, author of Legend of the Ronin and, under the name T. James Logan, Dawn of the Deadly Fang. About Travis Herrman: Freelance writer, novelist, award-winning screenwriter, editor, poker player, poet, biker, roustabout, Travis Heermann is a graduate of the Odyssey Writing Workshop and the author of The Ronin Trilogy, Rogues of the Black Fury, and co-author of Death Wind, plus short fiction pieces in anthologies and magazines such as Apex Magazine, Alembical, the Fiction River anthology series, Historical Lovecraft, and Cemetery Dance’s Shivers VII. As a freelance writer, he has produced a metric ton of role-playing game work both in print and online, including the Firefly Roleplaying Game, Battletech, Legend of Five Rings, d20 System, and the MMORPG, EVE Online. About Legend of the Ronin: In 13th Century Japan, Ken’ishi is a young ronin, a masterless samurai, orphaned as a baby by forces he does not understand. His only link to his past is his father’s sword, Silver Crane, an ancient blade that may well have a mind of its own. When he wanders into a strange village looking for food, he soon discovers he is decidedly unwelcome… About Dawn of the Deadly Fang: A mysterious plague is spreading, a plague that grants the ability to shapeshift—but with an insatiable hunger for fresh meat. Infected with the plague herself, sixteen-year-old Mia is a special case. Thanks to a strange mutation in her DNA, her blood might be the key to a vaccine. For Mia and many of the Infected, it’s a curse, but others, the Bad Dogs, revel in their new powers. For them, humans no longer belong at the top of the food chain. The Bad Dogs don’t want any vaccine, and they have a plan to end human dominance forever. Organized, powerful, and relentless, they’re willing to do anything for their cause—like abducting a busload of Mia’s classmates. Mia must enlist the help of her teenage werewolf pack in a desperate gamble to rescue her friends. Maybe even save the world. This week’s picks: * Travis: Becoming Superman: My Journey From Poverty to Hollywood by J. Michael Straczynski * John: The Last Wish: Introducing The Witcher by Andrzej Sapkowski * Patrick: Locke & Key Trailer (Netflix) * Patreon Pick: Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road by Neil Peart Picked by Stace Johnson Links: * Travis Heermann on Twitter * John Anealio on Twitter * Pat...

On this week’s Functional Nerds podcast, Patrick and John return from the holidays to ring in the New Year and the roaring ’20s chatting about: The Far Side, 1992, nostalgia, the ’90s, Family Guy, Disney+, Mad About You, The Transformers, The VW Bug, Panic at the Disco, The World According to Garp, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Witcher, Netflix, The Mandalorian, Prime, Iron Fists and Kjng Fu Kicks, and more… Links: * John Anealio on Twitter * Patrick Hester on Twitter * The Functional Nerds Patreon Page * Patrick Hester on Instagram * Patrick’s Book: Into the Fire (available everywhere) © 2020 Patrick Hester and John Anealio This podcast contains original music by John Anealio.

On this week’s Functional Nerds podcast, Patrick and John chat about music, including The Red Headed Stranger, the Nashville sound, Stevie Ray Vaughan, The Rolling Stones and The Grateful Dead. We also meander around several other topics, including: The Mandalorian, The Black Hole, Gina Carano, Haywire, Black Widow, Mulan, CBS randomly using the Star Trek logo, Austin City Limits, guitars, Marvel and, of course, The Rise of Skywalker. Side note – this is our last episode of the year! We wish you all the best and a safe, happy holiday season! See you next year

This week, Patrick and John welcome NY Times Bestselling author, Tosca Lee, author of A Single Light, the sequel to her critically acclaimed dystopian thriller, The Line Between. About Tosca Lee: Tosca Lee is the award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of 11 novels including The Progeny, Firstborn, Iscariot, The Legend of Sheba, and The Books of Mortals series with New York Times bestselling author Ted Dekker. Her books have been translated into 17 languages and been optioned for TV and film. Tosca received her B.A. in English from Smith College. A lifelong world adventure traveler, she lives in Nebraska with her husband and three of four children still at home. To learn more about Tosca, please visit ToscaLee.com. About A Single Light: Six months after vanishing into an underground silo with sixty others, Wynter and Chase emerge to find the area abandoned. There is no sign of Noah and the rest of the group that was supposed to greet them when they emerged—the same people Wynter was counting on to help her locate the IV antibiotics her gravely ill friend, Julie, needs in order to live. As the clock ticks down on Julie’s life, Wynter and Chase embark on a desperate search for medicine and answers. But what they find is not a nation on the cusp of recovery thanks to the promising new vaccine Wynter herself had a hand in creating, but one decimated by disease. What happened while they were underground? With food and water in limited supply and their own survival in question, Chase and Wynter must venture further and further from the silo. Aided by an enigmatic mute named Otto, they come face-to-face with a society radically changed by global pandemic, where communities scrabble to survive under rogue leaders and cities are war zones. As hope fades by the hour and Wynter learns the terrible truth of the last six months, she is called upon once again to help save the nation she no longer recognizes—a place so dark she’s no longer sure it can even survive. This week’s picks: * Tosca: V Wars (Netflix) * John: The Way of Zen by Alan Watts * Patrick 1: Bose Solo3 Wireless Headphones * Patrick 2: Crisis On Infinite Earths (CW) * Patreon Pick 1: His Dark Matters (BBC/HBO) Picked by Paul Jackson * Patreon Pick 2: Battletech – Picked by JT Evans Links: * Tosca Lee on Twitter * John Anealio on Twitter * Patrick Hester on Twitter...

On this week’s Functional Nerds podcast, Patrick and John share more Patron picks while talking about Robert Johnson, documentaries, Netflix, The Dragon Prince Season 3 (holy epic season!), Supernatural, Doctor Who, Spotify, Ken Burns County Music, Disney+, Jedi: Fallen Order, The Witcher, Crisis on Infinite Earths (CW), Kickstarter, The Blues, American mythology and some new show you might have heard about – Mando something… The Mandalorian…? Patron Picks: * V Wars (Netflix) Picked by J.T. Evans * Devil At The Crossroads (Netflix) Picked by Stace Johnson Links: * John Anealio on Twitter * Patrick Hester on Twitter * The Functional Nerds Patreon Page * Patrick Hester on Instagram * Patrick’s Book: Into the Fire (available everywhere) © 2019 Patrick Hester and John Anealio This podcast contains original music by John Anealio.

This week, Patrick and John welcome back Paul Levinson, author of 19 books and – as long time listeners remember from way back in episode 40 – is also a musician. His new LP is out – Welcome Up: Songs of Space and Time will be released in early 2020! About Paul Levinson: Paul Levinson, PhD, is Professor of Communication & Media Studies at Fordham University in NYC. His science fiction novels include The Silk Code (winner of Locus Award for Best First Science Fiction Novel of 1999), Borrowed Tides (2001), The Consciousness Plague (2002), The Pixel Eye (2003), The Plot To Save Socrates (2006), Unburning Alexandria (2013), and Chronica (2014) – the last three of which are also known as the Sierra Waters trilogy, and are historical fiction as well as science fiction. His stories and novels have been nominated for Hugo, Nebula, Sturgeon, Edgar, Prometheus, and Audie Awards. His nonfiction books, including The Soft Edge (1997), Digital McLuhan (1999), Realspace (2003), Cellphone (2004), New New Media (2009; 2nd edition, 2012), McLuhan in an Age of Social Media (2015), Fake News in Real Context (2016), and Cyber War and Peace (2017), have been translated into twelve languages. He co-edited Touching the Face of the Cosmos: On the Intersection of Space Travel and Religion in 2016. He appears on CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, the Discovery Channel, National Geographic, the History Channel, NPR, and numerous TV and radio programs. His 1972 LP, Twice Upon a Rhyme, was re-issued in 2010. He was President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, 1998-2001. He reviews television in his InfiniteRegress.TV blog, and was listed in The Chronicle of Higher Education’s “Top 10 Academic Twitterers” in 2009. This week’s picks: * Paul 1: The Man In The High Castle: Final Season (Prime) * Paul 2: Everybody Hates Elves – Kari Maaren (Album) * John: Star Wars: Resistance Reborn by * Patrick: The Mandalorian * Patrick 2: Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (PS4) * Patreon Pick 1: Watchmen (HBO) – Picked by C david Dent * Patreon Pick 2: The Outside by Ada Hoffmann – Picked by Stephen Geigen-Miller Links: * Paul Levinson on Twitter * John Anealio on Twitter * Patrick Hester on Twitter * The Functional Nerds Patreon Page

On this week’s Functional Nerds podcast, Patrick and John discuss everything from Disney+ to Echo in the Canyon, and beyond. We start with an intense look at… MUSICAL GEAR! Specifically, guitars and amplifiers and software, which leads us into the Echo in the Canyon documentary, The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, Rickenbackers, the Rolling Thunder Review, the Country Music docuseries on PBS, community building and, of course, a 100% spoiler free mention of The Mandalorian… Links: * John Anealio on Twitter * Patrick Hester on Twitter * The Functional Nerds Patreon Page * Patrick Hester on Instagram * Patrick’s Book: Into the Fire (available everywhere) © 2019 Patrick Hester and John Anealio This podcast contains original music by John Anealio.