Episodes

Humans have always looked up at the stars and wondered if there is life beyond this world, and science fiction writers have spent years exploring this idea. In the earliest works, such as Kepler’s Somnium and Voltaire’s Micromégas, the aliens are giants, but humanoids. When we get to HG Wells’ The War of the Worlds, […] The post Aliens want PHDs too – with Annalee Newitz first appeared on Breaking the Glass Slipper.

We are seeing summer out with a bang. Yes it’s just us three – Megan, Lucy and Charlotte – talking about the changes we’ve observed in the publishing industry. It all began when Meg watched a video on YouTube about the downfall of rock music and she thought it sounded worryingly familiar… “I recently watched […] The post Is publishing broken? first appeared on Breaking the Glass Slipper.

We’re very excited because in this episode we get to talk to another podcast! Not just any podcast but the folklore world’s hottest up and coming show, WyrdFolk Pod! This show doesn’t just talk folklore and share folktales, it describes itself as a duelling podcast which invites its audience to listen to two stories written […] The post Folklore in the 21st century – with WyrdFolk Pod first appeared on Breaking the Glass Slipper.

For many fantasy writers, one of the great joys of writing a book is the opportunity it gives you to build a brand-new world. It can be based on the one we live in but with key differences. What if animals could talk? What if fairies were real? The possibilities are endless. However, no matter […] The post Ways of running the world – with K.L Kaine first appeared on Breaking the Glass Slipper.

The beauty of myth is that it grows with us, that every generation brings its own perspective and interpretation to ancient stories to create something fresh, new and relevant to the concerns of a contemporary audience. Honeysuckle by Bar Fridman Tell was inspired by the Welsh myth of Blodeuwedd, in which a magician creates a […] The post Creation, consent & control – with Bar Fridman-Tell first appeared on Breaking the Glass Slipper.

Dark academia is a genre that has proven pretty popular. We’ve all been to school and plenty of us have been to university, so is it the pull of nostalgia that attracts readers? Or were our school days so dull that we crave reimagining them with a healthy dose of magic? Perhaps the boiling pot […] The post In the halls of learning – with Danielle Knight first appeared on Breaking the Glass Slipper.

In this month’s episode, we are taking you to the ballet, where stories are told through the medium of body and music. Just as this art can bring things to magical life, so too can it foster obsession in those who strive to achieve the perfect form. The Apple and the Pearl by Rym Kechacha […] The post Theatre as portal fantasy – with Rym Kechacha first appeared on Breaking the Glass Slipper.

The beauty of science fiction is that it can be pretty much anything. It can be people on spaceships exploring the stars. It can be settlers being stalked and killed by an alien monster. It can be about an alien trying to blend in with humans. It can be bold, scary, amusing, or heartbreaking. What […] The post Far future food – with Lavanya Lakshminarayan first appeared on Breaking the Glass Slipper.

Something a little bit different this month! Anyone who follows us on social media will be aware that we were completely thrilled and surprised to win the 2025 British Fantasy Award for Best Audio last month. In our somewhat unprepared acceptance speech, we said that sometimes it feels like no one out there is listening, […] The post Conventions – with Katie Bruce first appeared on Breaking the Glass Slipper.

So, this is a bit of an unusual episode. Normally, we get an author on to discuss their new book. But today we have three authors talking about a brand new non-fiction book they’re part of, and two of them are your hosts! The book in question is Writing the Magic, the fourth in an […] The post Writing the magic – with Juliet E. Mckenna first appeared on Breaking the Glass Slipper.

For many writers, history can be both an inspiration and a source of plot. No one is going to call a fantasy writer out for “making it up”. With historical fiction, however, you have to be more careful – there are always a bunch of readers out there ready to spot anachronisms. But some writers […] The post Alternate histories – with Sarah Brooks first appeared on Breaking the Glass Slipper.

Zombies first shambled onto our cinema screens in the 1932 film White Zombie staring Bela Lugosi. Early incarnations involved voodoo reanimation and lacked the whole brain-eating aspect. (There’s a really interesting article by Carnegie Mellon University that charts the early history of the zombie). But let us jump to what modern audiences consider a zombie. For that, […] The post Zombies are us – with Leigh Radford first appeared on Breaking the Glass Slipper.

Part of a murder mystery’s charm is the narrative movement from chaos to order. The natural balance of justice is overturned and it’s up to ordinary people – rather than the law – to fix it. The uncovering of clues, red herrings, the many suspicious characters – all of these are essential to a good […] The post Big deck energy – with Frances White first appeared on Breaking the Glass Slipper.

Fairy tale retellings are always popular. Fairy tales are some of the first stories we learn as children. As well as being entertaining, they are instructive. Don’t stray from the path. Don’t trust wolves, or men. Fill your pockets with stones, not breadcrumbs. If you’re going to steal some herbs for your pregnant wife, be […] The post Unspinning Sleeping Beauty – with Georgia Leighton first appeared on Breaking the Glass Slipper.

It seems like these days you can’t go into a bookshop without seeing a display of romantasy books. It’s a broad term that applies to everything from secondary fantasy worlds with devilishly handsome princes to witches running cafes and falling for the leader of the coven. You can also get every flavour of spiciness under […] The post Why choose? – with Elizabeth Helen first appeared on Breaking the Glass Slipper.

We live our lives burdened with responsibilities, and expectations of how we should act. Those expectations are placed on us by society, by family, and even by ourselves. However, fiction allows us a space in which to examine what would happen if we stepped outside those expectations. What if, for example, we weren’t dutiful children […] The post Pacifism and principles – with Maithree Wijesekara first appeared on Breaking the Glass Slipper.

We are back for 2025! We took a hiatus during the second half of 2024 due to our lives becoming that much busier. But loving what we have built with the show over the almost 10 years we’ve been running (!) we wanted to find a way to continue with BtGS. To that end, we’re […] The post Women on trial – with Grady Hendrix first appeared on Breaking the Glass Slipper.

We're on holiday! But don't worry, we will be back before you know it! The post Summer holidays! first appeared on Breaking the Glass Slipper.

We have a lot of authors on our podcast, talking about their books, what inspired them, how they’ve written them etc. Quite often they’ll get drawn into the TV series or films that inspired them [*coughs* Star Trek]. But a medium we don’t often touch upon is comics & graphic novels, even though some of […] The post Writing horror comics with Corissa Grant first appeared on Breaking the Glass Slipper.

When we say the word “novel,” most of us think of a book written in prose, split into chapters and possibly parts. But every now and again, we come across novels that defy our expectations. Pratchett’s early work not only eschewed chapters – instead presenting the reader with continuous prose divided by section breaks – […] The post The poetry of space – with Oliver K. Langmead first appeared on Breaking the Glass Slipper.

A few decades ago, if you said the word “Gothic haunted house novel,” the phrase would very definitely have brought to mind something with a rambling Victorian mansion, tortured heroines, mad women in the attic, sombre men, and wailing ghosts. It probably wouldn’t have brought to mind a little old lady baking scones and conducting […] The post Secrets and killers with Kaaron Warren first appeared on Breaking the Glass Slipper.

A short story isn’t just a novel in miniature form. It isn’t even a shortened novella. It is a creature of its own devising. There’s only time for a snapshot of reality, and in the space of a few thousand words, you have to be able to draw in a reader, make them feel for […] The post Keeping it short – with Gianni Washington first appeared on Breaking the Glass Slipper.

The literature of our past is littered with casual gender biases. You describe someone as a “witch” and the natural assumption is that they are female. But according to Diane Purkiss, while mostly women were accused in the English witch trials, in some of the Scandinavian countries, men were in the slight majority. In fact, […] The post Secret societies & the occult – with S.T. Gibson first appeared on Breaking the Glass Slipper.

“In space, no one can hear you scream.” It’s an iconic tagline that can be applied to so many modern stories about space travel and exploration (except, perhaps, our beloved Star Trek). Obviously, space travel in real life can be incredibly perilous, but the perils of space in fiction have moved beyond the worry about […] The post The horror of space travel with SA Barnes first appeared on Breaking the Glass Slipper.