Critters, creatures, and things that crawl -- part of the fun of building a new world is getting to populate it with not just sapient characters, but all the flora and fauna. And sometimes, that means the things you find in the smallest corners and crevices. Guest Premee Mohamed joins us to talk about the role of bugs and other biology in worldbuilding!
Bugs are a critical part of our world, performing so many essential functions that we never think about and that writers often neglect -- so, why is that? Where does our tendency towards squeamishness about bugs overlap with fears of body horror -- and how have SFF stories magnified those fears to create memorable antagonists like Xenomorphs and monsters like Shelob? How can a worldbuilder think about the health of their whole ecosystem, from those itsy-bitsy bugs all the way up to the apex predators -- and if the health of the ecosystem reflects the health of the world, how can that provide some good plot hooks for characters? All this and many, many scientific factoids are packed into this episode!
[Transcript TK]
Our Guest: Premee Mohamed is a Nebula, World Fantasy, and Aurora award-winning Indo-Caribbean scientist and speculative fiction author based in Edmonton, Alberta. She has also been a finalist for the Hugo, Ignyte, Locus, British Fantasy, and Crawford awards. Currently, she is the Edmonton Public Library writer-in-residence and an Assistant Editor at the short fiction audio venue Escape Pod. She is the author of the 'Beneath the Rising' series of novels as well as several novellas. Her short fiction has appeared in many venues and she can be found on her website at www.premeemohamed.com.
Episode 29: Cornerstones and Building Blocks
Episode 28: Framing the Concept
Episode 27: Potpourri 2: 2 Pot, 2 Pourri (Welcome to Season 2!)
Episode 26: Take Pride in your Worldbuilding featuring K.A. DOORE!
Episode 25: Rebel Scum and the Evil Empire Featuring ANDREA STEWART!
Episode 24: Dress for the Quest You Want Featuring MELISSA CARUSO!
Episode 23: We Are Gathered Together Featuring TOCHI ONYEBUCHI!
Episode 22: First We Eat (Featuring CASS MORRIS!)
Episode 21: Medicine and the Concept of the Body (Featuring FREYA MARSKE!)
Episode 20: When Two Wizards Love Each Other Very Much... (feat. Cat Sebastian!)
Episode 19: Triskadekaphilia
Episode 18: Monuments and Wonders
Episode 17: A Brief History of... (featuring S.A. Chakraborty)
Episode 16: A Game of Anything But Thrones
Episode 15: Potpourri
Episode 14: Have Yourself A Merry Little Something
Episode 13: And Now A Reading From The Sacred Text... (feat. Tasha Suri)
Episode 12: The Play’s The Thing (feat. Cass Morris!)
Episode 11: Threads of Life
Episode 10: Death Becomes Us
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