Andi and Lise discuss and deeply appreciate multiple award-winning spec fic writer Nicola Griffith’s novel Spear (current Nebula finalist!)—a queer Arthurian story that will bring you right into the era from a perspective you didn’t know you absolutely needed. If, like them, you grew up on Arthurian/Camelot stories, Spear is like coming home to the people you wanted and needed to see in those tales.  Nicola Griffith’s website HERE.  Info about Spear HERE.  List of this year’s Nebula finalists HERE.  Shout-outs: Lise started watching the Netflix series Lockwood and Co., about teen ghosthunters/ghost battlers in a Britain overrun by spirits that can kill with a touch. Adapted from the first two books in the Lockwood and Co. series by Jonathan Stroud. Andi shouts-out the ol’ skool show Forensic Files which she’s watching on Hulu. The episodes are about 22 minutes long without commercials, and she’s ended up learning a lot and making it a family affair.  We’re still hanging in there on Twitter: @LGOPodcast, @andimarquette, @LiseMacTague.  You can also find Andi and Lise on Instagram, posting fun photos, same handles: @andimarquette, @LiseMacTague  LGO is available on tons of platforms; please like and subscribe. It helps! Thanks! 

Andi and Lise jumped into the current zeitgeist and watched the first episode of the first season of The Last of Us on HBO Max, the TV series adapted from the video game of the same name (by Naughty Dog and Sony Interactive Entertainment, released in 2013). The storyline involves a post-apocalyptic U.S. in which survivors live in totalitarian walled cities while a fungus-ravaged world (Cordyceps, in case you wondered which fungus) outside the walls infects humans, who prey on the non-infected. Joel (Pedro Pascal), a survivor who engages in black market smuggling in Boston, is tasked with taking teenager Ellie (Bella Ramsey) across the U.S. Gripping, intense, brutal. But the story-telling is amazing. So…one and done? One and fun? Or One and One More? Find out!  The Last of Us trailer HERE.  Find it on HBO Max. Official website HERE.  Shout-outs: Lise is trying to avoid Twitter, which is an even worse hellscape now, so she put an app to play Sudoku on her phone, which provides a nice respite during the day and doesn’t generate anxiety. Andi is finding fluffy niceness in the cozy mystery series on BritBox, Shakespeare and Hathaway, which follows a couple of mis-matched private investigators in Stratford-upon-Avon. More info HERE; watch on Acorn (DVD), BritBox, and Amazon Prime (S1).  Even on the Twitter hellscape, find us @LGOpodcast, @andimarquette, and @LiseMactague. Also find Andi and Lise on Instagram and Facebook, same handles.  Please like and subscribe so we can expand our content! Thanks! 

Lise is laid up this week and can’t get the latest episode edited and uploaded. While she recovers, please enjoy this conversation with Karin Kallmaker.

Andi and Lise watched the 1986 film Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (the whale movie!) to determine if it holds up after all these years. Here, the Star Trek crew has to save Earth from destruction by an alien probe. To do that, they need…whales. Trust us on this! It’s a great plot device! Unfortunately, whales have been extinct for centuries. So the crew devises a way to go back in time to late 20th-century Earth to find whales to save the Earth of the future. Does it hold up? Listen and find out!  Also note the tribute to the crew of the space shuttle Challenger at the beginning of the film. Challenger exploded January 28, 1986, killing all seven crew members. Star Trek IV premiered in theaters November 26, 1986. More on the tribute at THIS LINK.  Star Trek IV original trailer HERE.  Shout-outs: Lise actually  has a HALP shout-out—she’s working on a project and would like recommendations for cozy mystery series, especially those that include animals. If you have some, hit LGO up on Twitter or Lise (see below for links). Andi shouts out the PS4 game Horizon Zero Dawn, which she’s currently playing on “story” mode because she’s decided she’s actually a hoarder gamer and would much rather explore the world and collect resources.  Twitter links: @LGOpodcast, @LiseMacTague, @andimarquette  And please like and subscribe! Thank you! 

Andi and Lise rave about season 1 of the Netflix series Wednesday, which follows Wednesday Addams (a fabulous Jenna Ortega) of the iconic Addams family as she’s expelled from yet another high school and ends up at Nevermore Academy, a school for paranormal misfits where her parents first met. While there, Wednesday navigates tensions with the nearby townspeople, teen angst, her relationship with her mom, and a mystery in which something is killing people and it might have ties to the town’s distant past. Excellent script, tight pacing, and wonderful secondary and tertiary characters. This is full of thrills, chills, teen angst and comedy, and a mystery that will keep you guessing.  Wednesday trailer HERE  Shouts-outs: Lise just finished Season 2 of the animated series The Legend of Vox Machina (link HERE) on Prime, which is beautiful to look at but is also well-done and well-written and well worth people’s time. Andi is watching Poker Face (link HERE) on  Peacock starring Natasha Lyonne in a quirky, raunchy mash up of epic road trips, odd jobs, and cat-and-mouse as Nicole’s character Charlie is on the run from a Vegas casino owner in this mystery-of-the-week series.  We’re still on Twitter: @LGOpodcast, @andimarquette @LiseMactague  And you can find Andi and Lise on Instagram and at Facebook, same handles.  Please like and subscribe! Thanks! 

Andi and Lise loved K.B. Wagers’ A Pale Light in the Black, the first installment of Wagers’ NeoG series. A fast-paced, diverse character-driven space opera meets sports story meets mystery with some of their fave elements: strong diverse characters with issues we can all relate to; space opera adventure; found family; sporting competition; creepy mystery.  Find out more and get buy links at Wager’s website HERE.  Shout-outs: Lise is getting ready to get her arm sleeve completed by a specific tattoo artist. It’s been five years, and she’s psyched about it. Andi has been playing the game Silk Rose Murders on Nintendo Switch, a fun murder/puzzle game set in an ancient Chinese dynasty.  You can still find us on Twitter: @LGOpodcast; @LiseMacTague; @andimarquette  Also find Andi and Lise on Facebook and Twitter (andimarquette, LiseMacTague).  LGO is available on numerous platforms; please like and subscribe! THANKS!

In this episode, Andi Marquette and Lise MacTague discuss the first episode of Disney Plus’ new series National Treasure: Edge of History, based on the movies but starring a different cast with interesting takes on the characters and some of the issues they’re dealing with. Like the movies, this is a quest-themed movie that Andi likens to watching a quest game. Puzzle-solving, conspiracy theories, clues—episode 1 ticks all these boxes. Andi and Lise will let you know whether this is a One and Done or One and Fun!  Trailer for NT: Edge of History HERE. Available on Disney Plus.  Shout outs: Lise is very excited to be reading the second in K.B. Wagers’ NeoG series—space opera meets sports drama! Book 2 is Hold Fast Through the Fire. Andi shouted out Book 1 in that series, A Pale Light in the Black. Andi also shouted out the first in John Sandford’s latest thriller series starring badass/kickass Letty Davenport, The Investigator.  Find LGO and episodes at lezgeekoutcast.com as well as lots of other platforms. LGO is on Twitter: @LGOpodcast, @LiseMactague, @andimarquette.  Please like and subscribe! MUAH! 

Andi and Lise chat about the changing of the year, taking stock, calendars, and a few of the things they’re looking forward to in terms of books, TV shows, and games, and also their dreams to win powerball and fund game studios.  Lise:   Tears of the Kingdom, the next Legend of Zelda game, available in May  K.B. Wagers’ 2023 and 3rd installment in their NeoG sci fi series, The Ghosts of Trappist, but read the whole series!  The space exploration/epic journey game Starfield, by Bethesda, hopefully out in 2023  Andi:  Author Kalynn Bayron’s latest, My Dear Henry: A Jekyll and Hyde Remix, is out in 2023. Bayron remixes fairy tales and other stories into diverse, queer awesomeness. Andi plans to read all her stuff.  The Mandalorian Season 3, slated to drop March 1  Heartstopper on Netflix, Season 2. Andi’s going to give this series a try because it’s supposed to be heartwarming and we could all use more of that  Lez Geek Out! is available on bunches of platforms; please like and subscribe! THANK YOU!  LGO, Andi, and Lise are still hanging out on what’s left of Twitter. Find us:  @LGOpodcast, @andimarquette, @LiseMacTague 

For this, the last show of 2022, Andi and Lise watched some LGBTQ Holiday (Christmas) movies based on a list published by Cosmopolitan Magazine (we know. We were all “WHAT?” too). They chat about the movies they saw, and throw out some other recommendations (also on the list). And also, Happy Holidays to all y’all!  Cosmopolitan list of LGBTQ movies list HERE.  Lise:  A New York Christmas Wedding (2020) – Alt-timeline to show the lead what could have been. None of this should have worked, but somehow it did. Nia Fairweather as the lead and Adriana DeMeo as the love interest. Majority Black and Latinx cast. Trailer HERE. See it on Netflix.  Under the Christmas Tree (2021) – classic holiday rom-com tropes, but really cute film and the leads have great chemistry. Elise Bauman as the lead, Tattiawna Jones as the love interest, and fun supporting cast including Ricki Lake. Trailer HERE. See it on Hulu.  Let it Snow (2019) – Rom-com based on the 2008 YA novel Let it Snow: Three Holiday Romances, the film follows 6 people in the same town during a snowstorm and their evolving stories. Fun. Trailer HERE. See it on Netflix.  Andi:  Christmas at the Ranch (2021) – another classic holiday rom-com trope by Tello Films: city girl returns to the ranch where she grew up to try to save it from financial trouble. Fluffy with fun characters. Laur Allen as the city girl and Amanda Righetti as the ranch hand country mouse. Supporting characters include Lindsey Wagner (The Bionic Woman, y’all!) and Archie Kao. Trailer HERE. See it on Peacock, Prime, or Apple TV.  The Bitch Who Stole Christmas (2021) – The drag show Christmas movie you’ve been waiting for. Hilarious, raunchy, over-the-top dragfest in which RuPaul as evil editor sends reporter to a small town to dig up dirt on its winter ball celebration, which features a cast of queens from Drag Race. Trailer HERE. Rent it on Apple TV; buy it on Prime.  You can still find us on Twitter: @LGOPodcast, @andimarquette, @LiseMacTague.  Also, Lise’s latest book (paranormal werewolves!) drops just in time for Christmas! Find more info about Winter’s Moons at Bella Books HERE!  Shout-out to everybody this holiday season and we hope you find time to have some fun! 

Andi and Lise loved this collection of self-curated short stories (plus one novella) by majorly award-winning spec fic writer Marjorie Liu. These stories represent a collection from roughly 2009 until more recently, and span a range of spec fic genres, including paranormal, post-apocalyptic, fairy tale, superhero, and steampunk. Liu writes multi-layered character-driven stories that will suck you right in and leave you wanting more. Do yourself a favor and definitely pick up a copy of The Tangleroot Palace: Stories.  Find out more about Liu and her work at her website HERE.  Find out more about Tangleroot Palace: Stories HERE.  Shout-outs: Lise is psyched about the game Slay the Spire (shout-out to author Meghan O’Brien, who posted about it on social media), which is a cool fusion of card games and roguelikes in a single-player deckbuilder game. Andi shouts out all the people managing to stay kind during these times, and also shouts out the late Octavia Butler, one of the high-ups in her pantheon of writers.  You can still find us on Twitter, even as it’s rife with chaos under new management:  @LGOPodcast  @LiseMactague  @andimarquette  And find us on most podcast platforms. Don’t forget to like and subscribe! Thanks! 

Andi and Lise spent some time trying to process the recent mass shooting at Club Q, an LGBTQ+ club in Colorado Springs, Colorado. They’re angry, devastated, and horrified. Sometimes, in order to find some support, you need to reach out and talk/vent and claim some space for yourself to do that. We hope that you’re able to do the same—to reach out to your networks and find some support. Because it’s okay to not be okay in the middle of all this horrible crap.  We encourage you, too, to reach out to local organizations in your communities that are doing the on-the-ground work for oppressed people and offer time and money to them so they can continue to provide care and resources to local communities.  There is a GoFundMe for survivors and victim of the Club Q shooting: LINK  As we recorded this episode on November 20, the day after the Club Q shooting, we’d also like to recognize that Nov. 20 is Transgender Day of Remembrance. If you’re so inclined and able, you might consider donating to local trans organizations that are doing the hard work of sustaining and building communities.  Find Lise on Twitter: @LiseMactague  Find Andi on Twitter: @andimarquette  And find the podcast on Twitter: @LGOpodcast  Thank you, all, for listening. 

This week, Andi and Lise are doing a new kind of segment, in which they watch one episode (generally the first) of a series and determine if it’s One and Done (won’t watch anymore) or One and Fun, in which case they’re willing to go on and watch more episodes.  They’re starting with the 2022 Marvel series She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, available on Disney Plus. Tatiana Maslany is attorney Jennifer Walters, cousin of Bruce Banner. Because of an accident, she ends up with Hulk-ness like her cousin, but with some twists. The show plays for laughs but digs into issues that affect Jen on the job and that deal with operating in the world as a woman. The first episode introduces us to Jen and how she acquired Hulk-ness and how it affects her.  So is it one and fun or one and done? Listen and find out!  Trailer for She-Hulk HERE.  Shout-out to Lise and all the people doing NaNoWriMo this year! You’re crushing it! YEAH!  Find us (for now) on Twitter:  LGOPodcast  andimarquette  LiseMactague  And please like and subscribe! It’s a huge help. Thanks! 

This week, Andi and Lise discuss the 1993 animated Tim Burton musical film, The Nightmare before Christmas (one of Lise’s faves). This film was nominated for an Oscar but lost out to Jurassic Park that year. Here, Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King and linchpin of Halloween, is searching for something more and ends up trying to replicate Christmas, which does not go over well. Themes of self-discovery, finding community, and realizing your mistakes are interwoven throughout. Creep factor can be a little high, and there were a few problematic element, but overall, it’s still a visually stunning film and ultimately uplifting.  Original trailer LINK HERE.  SHOUT-OUTS: Lise just got another tattoo – shout-out to Matt Terry at Sweetheart Tattoo in Fredericksburg, VA! Listen in to find out what it is. And Andi just finished reading The Icepick Surgeon: Murder, Fraud, Sabotage, Piracy, and other Dastardly Deeds Perpetrated in the Name of Science, about how science isn’t always ethical. Please remember to utilize your local libraries for your reading needs.  Find Lise on Twitter: @LiseMacTague  Find Andi on Twitter: @andimarquette  Find the podcast on Twitter: @LGOpodcast  Please remember to like and subscribe; it helps other find us. AND TWEET YOUR HALLOWEEN COSTUMES AT US.  

Andi and Lise are finally back! YAY! And they wanted to rave about the series Paper Girls (2022), first season available on Amazon Prime. This is adapted from the comic series written by Brian Vaughn and illustrated by Cliff Chiang. The story is about four young teen girls who are paper delivery girls in the Midwest in 1988. One morning, after Halloween, they’re out delivering papers and end up inadvertently getting sucked into a time war between two factions. As a result, they’re flung into the future (2019) and have to navigate figuring out what’s happening and how to get back to their own time. They also end up meeting their older selves, and negotiating those relationships is tense. This is a fabulous coming-of-age story set against time travel and a time war. What is not to love????  Sad caveat—Amazon decided not to renew this for a second season, but it is being shopped around to other platforms and we hope this happens because this definitely needs another few seasons. Great story, great writing, and great characters.  Trailer HERE.  Comic info HERE  Series on Amazon Prime HERE.  Shout-outs: Lise watched Season 1 of The Sandman on Netflix, adapted from Neil Gaiman’s comic series. The Sandman is Morpheus/Dream, god of dreams, who is imprisoned in the human world for a hundred years, and as it turns out, dreams are important in the human world; without them, things go to crap. Once Morpheus is out, he gets to work trying to set things right. Andi is watching the latest Star Wars spinoff, Andor (Disney Plus) about Cassian Andor, who you met in the movie Rogue One. This is his backstory, detailing how he got into the Rebellion. Andi loved Rogue One, so getting Cassian’s backstory is really cool. 

As Lise and Andi dig out from the terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad couple of weeks they’ve had, please enjoy this rerun of one of their favorite episodes. They had a fantastic time geeking out with fabulous sci-fi author Kameron Hurley. Back next week, promise!

This week, Andi can’t make it, so Lise talks to one of her friends about the British sci-fi television show Dr. Who. Nyssa (AKA Feverwood), a Dr. Who superfan, regales Lise with all the reasons why Dr. Who, in general, is a fantastic show, and why the thirteenth Doctor, in particular is so wonderful. Along the way, Nyssa recommends the podcasts Verity!, Radio Free Skaro, Two Minute Time Lord, Reality Bomb, and The Queer Archive for anyone who wants to do a real deep dive into the show. For her shoutout, Nyssa recommends the second book in Lise Gold’s Resort Series: After Sunset. Lise (MacTague) talks about how much she enjoyed the second season of Only Murders in the Building on Hulu.

Lise and Andi had too much come up and weren’t able to record this week. They’ll be back next time, but for now, enjoy this rerun episode of Paper Girls, an awesome graphic novel series we loved, and a hint about the topic for the next episode.

Andi and Lise really enjoyed this movie starring Michelle Yeoh that explores various themes around the idea of connection and finding meaning in our lives against the backdrop of the multiverse, absurdist comedy, action adventure, and moments of poignancy. Here, Yeoh plays Evelyn Wang, who lives above the laundromat she and her husband own. They’re being audited by the IRS; her husband is trying to serve her with divorce papers but she doesn’t realize it because so much is going on; her father is living with them and she doesn’t have great history with him; and she’s practically estranged from her daughter. And then suddenly, she’s brought into the multiverse as the one person who might be able to save it from a potential threat.   So many layers! This is one they’ll be thinking about for a while. A few minor spoilers, but they don’t detract from the impact of this movie.  Movie Trailer HERE  LA Times article with the movie writers (mild spoilers)  Rent it on Amazon Prime.  Shout-outs: Lise is jazzed about Adrian Tschaikovsky’s Final Architects sci fi series. She read the first book, Shards of Earth, and the world-building is amazing. She ran right out and bought the second because she had to know what happened next. Andi is reading the second in the Dread Nation series by Justina Ireland, Deathless Divide. Alt-history zombies. What’s not to love? She also started watching the TV adaptation of the comics Paper Girls on Amazon Prime and is really enjoying it. Tense and creepy! 

Andi and Lise talk about the writing life, and a bit about what’s involved if you decide to “go professional” with your writing. How does that change your creativity? What does it mean for you if you decide to go professional and get published? What do writers have to think about should they decide to go the publishing route? Andi and Lise address some of the misunderstandings about a writing life and career, and yes, some of the realities that they’ve dealt with in their own writing arcs.  Shout-outs: Lise has discovered the video game Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, which is based in ancient Greece and is loving it. Andi is finishing up the first season of Star Trek: Discovery and wow! Twists and turns! Available on CBS and the apps that stream CBS.  Find us on many podcast platforms and at our website, lezgeekoutcast.com. Also find us on Twitter! @andimarquette, @LiseMacTague, @LGOPodcast.  If you dig this podcast, please like and subscribe! Thanks! 

Andi and Lise really, really enjoyed author Sarah Hollowell’s Locus-nominated YA fantasy, A Dark and Starless Forest (2021), which deals with a group of young women and girls, each with specific magical gifts, who are cloistered in a house near a mysterious forest, overseen by a man whose true motivations are suspect. Told from the POV of one of the young women, this is a wonderfully crafted novel that will definitely leave you thinking long after you’ve finished it the first time (and second…and third…). Highly recommend!  Find Sarah Hollowell:  Website link HERE  Buy links HERE  Shout-outs: Lise has been spending a lot of time with binoculars spying on her frog ponds from her back windows, watching tadpoles turn into polliwogs turn into froglets and finally, FROGS! Andi appreciates spying on nature, as she was doing the same with this year’s group of Canada goose goslings inhabiting a nearby river bank. Both Andi and Lise highly recommend checking out nature as you can.