Charlie and Nikki May (This Motherless Land) discuss her childhood in Lagos and moving to England, various ways Nikki's story changed over time (quite a lot!), the Nigerian women's relay team of 1992, and the upcoming TV adaptations of both This Motherless Land and Wahala.

Please note that there is some swearing in this episode.

General references:
About the Nigerian Women's Relay team win at the 1992 Olympics
Rocks (2019)
Nikki made the shortlist of the Nigerian Prize for Literature

Books mentioned by name or extensively:
Enid Blyton: The Famous Five (series)
Jane Austen: Pride And Prejudice
Jane Austen: Emma
Jane Austen: Mansfield Park
Nikki May: Wahala
Nikki May: This Motherless Land

Release details: recorded 29th July 2025; published 27th October 2025

Where to find Nikki online: Website || Instagram

Where to find Charlie online: Website || Instagram || TikTok

Discussions

01:50 Being inspired by Jane Austen and Mansfield Park and introducing the way that the book is inspired by Nikki's own life
05:27 Expanding on how this book is inspired by Nikki's childhood in Lagos, Nigeria, and later move to England
08:52 About Nikki's brother, to whom This Motherless Land is dedicated
09:56 Talking about the Ikoyi club in Nigeria Nikki's family was a part of
11:03 The story changed so much during the writing! We discuss a few different areas - Liv, romance, JoJo
16:10 Somewhat like Funke, Nikki changed her name when she moved to England. We also discuss switching between Nigerian English and British English
20:33 Funke's father's grief
23:42 Brief discussion on how Jane Austen's sister couldn't attend her funeral
24:53 Easter eggs - carnation milk, and differences with food between the nations in this context
27:39 Could Liv have been believed about Kate?
29:27 The story beyond the pages and brief info about both This Mother Land's and Wahala's TV adaptations
33:40 Making each book different
35:30 What Nikki is writing at the moment; discussing ageism and the difference between men and women in that context
39:53 About Billy the parrot
41:06 Nikki's dogs and doing a combined dog and plot walk

Charlie and Jim C Hines (Kitemaster) discuss how his story developed over a number of years, including wonder and physics reasoning in the book, his excellent study of grief (and humour in that context), and his unique and choices in regards to the book world's belief system of an afterlife.

Please note there is some very mild swearing in this episode, as well as discussions of cancer and death. Please also note, on a very different subject, that there are spoilers for The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe as well as Serenity (Firefly) and, sort of, for Star Wars: A New Hope. I doubt anyone but me will mind, but I'm including the info regardless.

General references:
Cancelled Fable Legends game
Jim's link-to-all-posts on his poses as women on the covers of fantasy books
Jim's post about the physics of the kiteships
17 Again

Books mentioned by name or extensively:
C S Lewis: The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe
Jim C Hines: Slayer Of Old (referenced as Unchosen Ones)
Jim C Hines: Kitemaster
Jim C Hines: Fable: Blood Of Heroes
Jim C Hines: Magic Ex Libris (series)
Jim C Hines: Goblin Quest

Release details: recorded 23rd June 2025; published 13th October 2025

Where to find Jim online: Website || Instagram || Facebook

Where to find Charlie online: Instagram || TikTok

Discussions

02:03 Struggling to come up with Kitemaster's summary
02:33 Selling the book
04:27 The parts of Kitemaster that have remained over the time Jim had been writing the story
06:44 Jim's work on the physics of how the kiteships would work
09:38 The grief in the book
13:35 Including Ossa, Nial's grandmother, who accompanies her in the form of a spirit kite, and discussions of how she would be the sum of her entire life's personalities and ages
21:11 Vikaan and Xao
26:02 Working with the cloud sky serpents and dragons, the god-like nature of the latter
28:36 World building
33:27 Everyone holds Nial's wrist!
35:25 Working with humour when you've got a theme of grief
41:38 The fictional old oral history texts Jim includes
42:58 The importance of Jim's characters to him
46:02 Queen Kavaya's thread conclusion
47:39 Could there be other stories in this world?
49:17 Jim's next book, now called Slayers Of Old

Charlie and Julie Kagawa (Fateless) discuss video games, working with fate and destiny, Julie's brilliant world building and magic system, and the decisions she made about where to end the book.

General references:
Charlie and Julie's pre-show chat (which is the reason Charlie knows Julie meant Final Fantasy X)
My episode with Samantha Sotto Yambao is 122

Books mentioned by name or extensively:
Julie Kagawa: The Iron Fey
Julie Kagawa: The Blood Of Eden
Julie Kagawa: Talon

Games mentioned:
Assassin's Creed
D&D
Final Fantasy X
Final Fantasy X-2
Guild Wars 2
Hitman
Prince Of Persia
Splinter Cell
Tomb Raider

Release details: recorded 19th May 2025; published 22nd September 2025

Where to find Julie online: Website || Instagram || Facebook || YouTube (Minecraft channel)

Where to find Charlie online: Website || Twitter || Instagram || TikTok

Discussions

01:35 The video game inspirations (this becomes a longer discussion)
06:09 Writing the main characters
09:36 The fatechasers as a people
11:38 Working with an ensemble cast of characters
14:34 How Julie came to choose when to reveal the details of being fateless to the character
16:39 Writing the slow burn romance
18:56 Julie's awesome world building and unique magic system
22:22 Raithe's world and what we might learn about it in book two
24:07 Kovass' religion and how Julie worked with different sects of it
27:33 On Julie's decisions as to killing characters off
29:45 Choosing where to end this book
32:29 More about book two