Kit Anderson Interview - Second Shift & Safer Places

I’ve been thinking of stories as transportation lines recently, maybe that’s because I’ve been trying to catch up on some older Star Trek episodes lately and thinking about how transporters work too much, but there’s something fascinating about that idea of being transported from the physical space in which you reside and into the one fabricated in your mind especially when someone builds some entertaining scaffolding for you in a narrative. Now the special ones, they pull a magic trick and get you trapped in between those two worlds. I believe the bougie term is a liminal space, but those stories possess a certain something that makes them legendary. I’m thinking the wardrobe in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, Luke Skywalker training in the swamp on Dagobah, or anything really from David Lynch. I absolutely love these types of stories, so it is my pleasure to host cartoonist Kit Anderson on the show with me today who knows a thing or two about playing in liminal spaces. Kit is an Ignatz Award Nominee and the creator behind one of my favorite books of last year, Safer Places, which I have continually raved about, and she has new graphic novel called Second Shift dropping in July from Avery Hill in much the same vein. Safer Places From the publisher From road trips to doctors’ offices to the mysterious spaces under the house, these short stories explore the secrets and magic typically unseen in everyday life. A walk through the forest, a family move, a day in a normal life—Anderson’s depictions of these ordinary moments transform them with a double-take, revealing the strangeness, surreality, and transformation within. With powerful and personal emotional writing and art, thoughtfully combining magic and life as we all know it—these stories establish Kit Anderson as a presence in short comics-format fiction. Second Shift From the publisher The future. AI and algorithmic influence has become prevalent. Humans are groomed to be usefully applied by the megacorporations that control Earth. Some “choose” to work on new colonies off-world. Most of the time they spend as “Drop-Ins,” suspended in a digital environment. They live out intricate artificial lives, are entertained, socialise with AIs, and undergo occupational training. Until they are woken… Alone on a TERRACORP outpost, Birdie Doran and a few other employees serve on isolated shifts processing comets and asteroids for terraforming. When Birdie discovers a second station, abandoned and strange, she starts to see what her job--her life--really is. Ignatz Award-nominated author Kit Anderson presents a psychological science fiction exploration of the lines between reality inside and outside the mind. PATREON We have a new Patreon, ⁠⁠⁠CryptidCreatorCornerpod⁠⁠⁠. If you like what we do, please consider supporting us. We got two simple tiers, $1 and $3. Want to know more, you know what to do. ARKENFORGE Play TTRPG games? Make sure to check out our partner ⁠⁠⁠Arkenforge⁠⁠⁠. Use the discount code YETI5 to get $5 off your order. THE LANTERN CATALOG Created on the premise of creating light in the dark, this is the the go to resource to keep you up to date on the indy projects and the creators you love. You can find them at ⁠⁠⁠https://www.thelanterncatalog.com/⁠⁠⁠. Make sure to check out our sponsor ⁠⁠⁠2000AD⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices