Interview with Author Alison Cochrun

Alison Cochrun is a former high school English teacher and a current writer of queer love stories, including her debut novel, The Charm Offensive. She lives outside of Portland, Oregon with her giant dog and a vast collection of brightly colored books.  She controversially believes Evermore is the greatest Christmas album of all time, and she’s probably sitting by a window right now hoping for snow. You can find her on Instagram and Twitter at @AlisonCochrun.

I had the opportunity to interview Alison, which you can read below.

First of all, welcome to Geeks OUT! Could you tell us a little about yourself?

Yes! Hello! I’m Alison and my pronouns are she/her. I live outside of Portland, Oregon, and I was a high school English teacher for eleven years, but I’m currently experimenting with writing full-time and seeing how that goes! 

As a writer, what drew you to the art of storytelling, specifically romance?

I’ve always been obsessed with happily ever afters in stories. My dad raised me on While You Were Sleeping and Sleepless in Seattle, and I just love the magic and joy that comes with a well-earned happy ending. I also began writing my own stories when I was nine and first started struggling with depression. Fiction became a safe way to explore my emotion when I was too young to fully name them. These two things sort of dovetailed into my passion for writing love stories, but it wasn’t until I discovered the romance genre in 2018, and then read my first queer romance in 2019, that I fully grasped the power of storytelling. 

What can you tell us about your upcoming novel, Kiss Her Once for Me? What was the inspiration for this project? What tropes can we expect?

Kiss Her Once for Me is about a bisexual artist named Ellie who is in the midst of a quarter-life crisis, working as a barista and barely getting by financially. So, naturally, when the wealthy and charming landlord of the coffee shop where she works, Andrew, proposes a fake marriage so he can access his inheritance, she agrees (in exchange for a chunk of the money, of course). But when they agree to spend Christmas at his family’s cabin to maintain the ruse, Ellie discovers Andrew’s sister is the woman she fell in love with last Christmas. It sounds ridiculous, but my inspiration for this book came from the movie While You Were Sleeping, and the fact that Bill Pullman looks like a hot, butch lesbian in it. So, this is my homage to the fake-engagement, sibling love-triangle shenanigans of that movie. You can expect all the classic tropes: only-one-bed, snowed-in, second-chance romance, hurt/comfort, forced proximity, idiots in love. 

Since the protagonist Kiss Her Once for Me is involved in animation, I was wondering if there were any animation projects you yourself personally loved? 

I mean, I love Laika Studios and all of their films, especially Coraline. I reference them in my book in a more negative context, but I am a genuine fan! I also read Heartstopper for the first time in the summer of 2020. It was the first queer graphic novel I’d ever read, and it really ignited my interest in visual storytelling. I now have a large collection of queer graphic novels.

Your debut novel, The Charm Offensive, in addition to being a story about queer people in a dating show, was praised for its mental health and Aspec representation. How did you approach writing these elements into your book?

To be honest, neither of these elements were planned when I had the initial idea for the book. I was intrigued by the idea of writing a story about what would happen if someone like me went on a show like The Bachelor, so I disguised myself as a handsome tech genius with abs and began writing. The first draft of the book literally poured out of me– I wrote seventy-thousand words in six days. And when I awoke from that creative fever dream, I found a story staring up at me that was different than what I expected. I’d written about my own experiences with anxiety and depression, and I’d written about a questioning twenty-eight-year-old coming to understand his queerness, which included being on the asexual spectrum. I had drafted the book so fast, that I couldn’t filter myself. What I wrote was honest and deeply personal, and I was proud of myself for sharing those parts of myself. So, through the revision process, I nurtured those elements of the book. I did a lot of research and worked with beta readers to ensure I was handling those topics as sensitively as possible.  

Growing up, were there any stories in which you felt touched by/ or reflected in, in terms of personal identity? If not or if so, how do you think this personally affected you as a writer? 

I can’t think of a single story I consumed in adolescence that centered on a queer woman, which definitely impacted my personal identity. I grew up thinking there was only one kind of love story, and it involved heterosexual, neurotypical people. But ironically, I had my “Ring of Keys” moment when I saw the play Fun Home in Portland. The way I felt watching a lesbian coming-of-age story was not a straight girl’s response, and it came at the time in my life when I was finally ready to start questioning my sexuality. 

As a writer, who or what would you say are some of your greatest creative influences and/or sources of inspiration in general? 

The romance community is such a beautiful, inclusive space, and I take so much inspiration from my fellow authors and the vulnerability they show as writers. Especially Casey McQuiston, Mazey Eddings, Chloe Liese, Jasmine Guillory, Helen Hoang, and Rachel Lynn Solomon. I’m also inspired by the queer media I consume like Our Flag Means Death and A League of Their Own. Finally (and narcissistically), I draw a lot of inspiration from my own life and my conversations with my therapist. 

What are some of your favorite elements of writing? What do you consider some of the most frustrating and/or difficult? 

I love when the writing is good– when the words come so quickly and so easily, it feels like I’m nothing more than a conduit for the story. I love when I can get so immersed in the fictional world I’m creating, I write scenes in my sleep. I love when I can sit in front of my computer for five hours and it feels like it’s been five minutes. Writing is frustrating when it’s not good. When it takes an hour to write a single sentence (that I just delete anyway). When I sit in front of my computer for five minutes and it feels like five hours. When every single word is ridiculously hard and none of the pieces are fitting together as they should. I think being a writer is about accepting both sides of writing as part of the process and figuring out how to keep going anyway. 

Aside from writing, what are some things you would want others to know about you?

Sometimes, I think there is this illusion that once you get published, everything is easy. The truth is, writing is challenging no matter what stage of the publishing process you’re in, and I would want readers to know that I struggle, too! I don’t have some magical talent, and writing doesn’t come effortlessly to me. But it’s something I love, so I have to find ways to push through the hard times as much as I savor the good ones. 

What’s a question you haven’t been asked yet but that you wish you were asked (as well as the answer to that question)?

Oh gosh! I feel like I’ve been asked so many good questions. But Kiss Her Once for Me takes place in Portland, Oregon, and features a reference to the famous VooDoo donuts. So I wish someone would ask me: Who makes the actual best donuts in Portland? And I would happily inform you, it’s Angel’s donuts on Alberta. Their blueberry old fashion is the actual love of my life. 

What advice might you have to give for aspiring writers?

Find a writing community! Find other people who are passionate about writing to share your joys and sorrows with you during the journey. Get on Twitter and find online friends who can beta read for you, and find critique partners whose feedback seems authentic to your voice. Write together and brainstorm together. Writing can be incredibly lonely and isolating, and I didn’t have a community of writing friends when I started. Now, the friends I have are sometimes the only thing keeping me afloat. Don’t try to go at this alone! 

Are there any other projects you are working on and at liberty to speak about?

My third book was just announced! I call it my “sapphic road trip romcom about death.” Its actual title is Here We Go Again, and it’s about two childhood best friends-turned-rivals who agree to team up to fulfill their former English teacher’s dying wish by driving him across the country. It’s kind of a romdramedy, but I love it and I’m so excited to share it with readers! It comes out spring of 2024.

Finally, what LGBTQ+ books/authors would you recommend to the readers of Geeks OUT? 

So many! In terms of queer romance, some of my favorite authors are Timothy Janovsky, Ashley Herring Blake, Kosoko Jackson, Alexandria Bellefleur, Talia Hibbert, Anita Kelly, and Casey McQuiston. If you’re looking for more sapphic holiday books, check out IN THE EVENT OF LOVE by Courtney Kae and SEASON OF LOVE by Helena Greer! 


Header Photo Credit Hayley Downing-Fairless

Interview with Author Foz Meadows

Foz Meadows (all pronouns) is a queer Australian author, essayist, reviewer, and poet. She has won two Best Fan Writer awards (a Hugo Award in 2019 and a Ditmar Award in 2017) for yelling on the internet and has also received the Norma K. Hemming Award in 2018 for her queer Shakespearean novella, Coral Bones. Her essays, reviews, poetry, and short fiction have appeared in various venues, including Uncanny Magazine, Apex Magazine, Goblin Fruit, The Huffington Post, and Strange Horizons. Foz currently lives in California with her family. A Strange and Stubborn Endurance is her fifth novel.

I had the opportunity to interview Foz, which you can read below.

CW: Discussion Of Abuse And Sexual Assault

First of all, welcome to Geeks OUT! Could you tell us a little about yourself?

Thank you for having me! I’m a bi, genderqueer Australian SFF writer currently based in California, though I also lived in the UK for five years. I have a queer portal fantasy duology out with Angry Robot – the first volume, An Accident of Stars, is getting reissued in June! – and my newest book, A Strange and Stubborn Endurance, an m/m fantasy romance, is out from Tor in July.

What inspired you to get into writing, particularly romantic speculative fiction? Were there any writers or stories that sparked your own love and interest in storytelling?

I grew up in a house full of books with parents who wrote for a living, so it’s no surprise that I started making up stories a very young age. I gravitated pretty quickly to all things fantastic and mythological, but I didn’t really figure out my relationship with romance until I was an adult. Hollywood romcoms frustrated the hell out of teenage me, but I loved the romances I saw in Austen and Shakespeare; it wasn’t until I started learning about things like tropes, sexism and heteronormativity that I understood where the disconnect lay and why. I started reading straight romances – some historical, some urban fantasy – because they were what I could access at the time, but what really made the genre click for me was fanfiction, not just because it was overwhelmingly queer, but because the act of seeing tropes labelled and leaned into was a series of lightbulb moments. It was as if I’d been eating a series of desserts, only some of which I enjoyed, and trying to identify which ingredients worked for me by taste alone, and then someone came along and gave me a recipe book. Like, oh, I see now: I like mutual pining, but not if it’s paired with cartoonishly forced miscommunication, which explains why I enjoyed story A, but not story B. And once I’d written enough fanfic of my own to feel confident that I loved writing romance as much as I loved reading it, the next logical step was to pair it with SFF!  

What can you tell us about your upcoming book, A Strange and Stubborn Endurance? What inspired this story?

A Strange and Stubborn Endurance is an arranged marriage romance between Velasin, a gay man from a homophobic culture, and Caethari, a pan man from a queernormative one, that deals with trauma, healing, autonomy and political intrigue. On one level, it’s a purely self-indulgent book: I initially started writing it for fun back in 2015 when I was briefly between deadlines, because it was the kind of thing I wanted to read. But the more I wrote, the more personal it became. I’ve read a lot of great stories about queer people finding love within or despite their bigoted societies, but particularly in the case of queer historicals, I always have a sort of latent ache for the characters, even when they get happy endings, because they still have to navigate prejudice and secrecy in the wider world. And as much as I also love SFF stories with purely queernormative settings, sometimes you want both the grappling with queerness as a necessarily political identity and the happily ever after in a world that accepts you, because that messy combination is, for many of us, the one most true to real life. We might grow up in a homophobic household or just an unhelpfully heteronormative one, figuring ourselves out in any number of ways – fearfully, defiantly, piece by piece, self-destructively or as an act of healing, or perhaps both at once – until we find our place and our people, which might be on the other side of the country, all the way across the world, in the next town over or right where we’ve always been, but seen through new eyes. Even when we become queer revolutionaries, it’s not the first thing that most of us aspire to: we just want to be ourselves, which means first having the freedom to figure out what that means, and so we end up fighting out of necessity and kinship and a basic desire to be treated as people, not because we’re all naturally ornery (though of course, as with any group, some of us are), but because the alternative is abnegation. 

And so I wrote Velasin: a man who grows up hiding his identity, who suddenly finds himself in a nation that accepts his queerness, but under traumatic, emotionally fraught circumstances. There’s all these wider political implications to his marriage that he has to navigate – and those are further explored in the sequel, which I’m currently working on! – but at the same time, he still gets hung up on things like I didn’t realise I could hold my husband’s hand in public, or the whole idea of marriage as I understand it is based on heteronormative gender roles, so what am I meant to do, actually, as a husband’s husband? And meanwhile Caethari, by virtue of having grown up in a different, more accepting context, can’t always get a read on what Velasin is thinking, because he doesn’t have the same hangups. So they have to work to understand one another – and to stay alive, because see above, re: political implications – while also figuring out what’s going on, in a way that both is and isn’t about navigating queerness.           

This book was said to be written with the intention of creating a story that centers queer joy and queer thriving in the wake of trauma. Could you expand on that, please?

To try and answer this question properly, I’m going to talk first about the trauma, and then about the thriving. So, this is a slight spoiler – there’s a trigger warning for it at the start of the book, and it happens very early on, but skip this paragraph if you’d rather go in unprepared – but after Velasin is betrothed, his ex-lover shows up and assaults him; they get caught together, but the act isn’t recognized by the witnesses as rape, and this is how Vel is outed, which is what causes the visiting envoy to say, well, if you don’t like women, that’s fine, you can marry a man instead. Which is obviously horrifically traumatizing for Velasin: not just the rape itself, but the betrayal it represents and the fear it engenders around his marriage. I’ve seen a couple of reviews describe the scene as graphic, and obviously that kind of content will hit everyone differently, but to me, it’s foremost about psychological hurt, not brutalization – a sort of literalised metaphor for cultures of shame and silence around sexuality. In a context where even consensual sex is stigmatized, how do you report an assault? This is a fundamental issue of rape culture, and it applies equally to members of the queer community as to straight cis women. When visible, violent damage is considered the only real “evidence” of assault, a different kind of violence is done to the victim: you weren’t hurt enough where I can see it, so therefore you weren’t hurt at all. And when the relevant authorities are more critical of the victim’s sexual identity than the perpetrator’s motives, there’s no real way to get justice, which is what Vel is dealing with at the start of the book: he can’t say he’s been assaulted, because his queerness is considered the greater crime.   

But then we go from Vel’s homophobic home nation to the queernormative culture next door, and we see what queer thriving can look like. Caethari is a big part of that – not just because of his kindness to Vel, but in the contrast between their lived experiences. Cae has grown up accepted for who he is, able to love and liaise as he pleases, and as such, he has healthier expectations of a world that loves him back. His whole concept of marriage and family is fundamentally different to Vel’s by virtue of not being tied to heteronormativity: his sister and her wife, for instance, are in the process of negotiating paternity for the child they plan to have, and that’s just a normal part of life. So when they first meet, Cae is frustrated that Vel doesn’t seem to want to work with him towards a successful marriage: he has no framework for how alien the notion is to Vel, even without his recent trauma. But once he earns Vel’s trust and the two of them start to cooperate, we see Vel begin to process the differences between how he was raised and the place he is now, and what that means for the person he wants to become. It’s hard to say more about that aspect of things without deeper spoilers, but Vel’s arc is very much intended as a healing one, and I hope I’ve done it justice. 

What are some of your favorite elements of writing? What do you find to be some of the most challenging?

My favourite part of writing is when I get into a groove: I can see everything laid out in my head, the exact trajectory from where I’m picking up the story to a given emotional endpoint, and it all flows out like water poured from a cup. When that happens, it’s the best feeling in the world: any time I break to eat, I’ll be rushing through it, eager to get back to the story, and hours will pass in a flash because I’m genuinely enthralled. By contrast, the most challenging bits are, inevitably, the places where I get stuck. The way my brain works, it’s like I’ve got an underlying instinct for how the story works, but I can’t always access it consciously, so when I start to go the wrong way, the subconscious brain throws up a red flag – “Stop!” – without actually telling me why. So I’ll be sitting at the keyboard thinking, Wait, what’s wrong, why can’t I write this scene? And my brain just goes: Can’t. And so I have to go away and do something else until I figure out what the problem is. 

Link scenes, or what I think of as link scenes, also tend to be a slog, because they’re deceptively tricky: little stretches of description or dialogue that tie everything together and steer the narrative along without actually being emotionally load-bearing. They’re often some of the most quietly important bits in a book, because getting them wrong can leave the reader thinking the story doesn’t make sense – wondering why the characters didn’t communicate properly, for instance, or why a certain action is happening now instead of later, or how the plot logic works – but when you get them right, they’re invisible. 

In addition to being a writer, what are some things you would want readers to know about you?

Functionally, I am several raccoons in a trenchcoat, and would describe my general level of online-ness as somewhere between internet poisoned and terminal. I have a nine-year-old son and three cats, and I’ve thus far enjoyed nearly fifteen years of marriage to a professional logician, which is a subgenus of philosopher who does maths about existence. This means I have spent more time in pubs debating nonsense with drunken academics than is strictly healthy, which possibly goes some way towards explaining how and why I’ve spent thirteen years on the cursed bird app without throwing my phone in a lake. Also, I’m a little obsessed with the k-pop group Stray Kids. Their latest album is amazing.

What advice would you have for aspiring writers, especially other queer writers?

Literary trends begin with agency wishlists and end on bookshelves, not the other way around: by all means, take inspiration from what’s being published, but if you’re aiming to capitalize on or be part of the next big thing, look at what agents are collectively interested in acquiring now, not what’s already selling in stores. That being said, I think it’s best to write for yourself first – and that means any version of yourself: the person you were, the person you are, the various people you might become – and for other people second. You also need to remember that it’s impossible to please everybody: that there’s no such thing as the perfect book, only the perfect reader. Which doesn’t mean that it’s pointless to do the research, or to think carefully about whether you’re the best person to tackle a given narrative, or to develop your craft as a writer – all of those things matter. It just means that you have to be judicious about the criticism you accept and the criticism you ignore; to decide whose opinions matter to you, and why, and to carry that energy with you into your dealings with the wider publishing industry. 

What’s a question you haven’t been asked yet, but wish you were asked (as well as the answer to that question)? 

I can’t really think of a specific question, but I would like to say that the last two years have been really hard for just about everyone. We’re living through a period of intense global trauma, so even if you personally haven’t lost someone to the pandemic or been sick with COVID or struggled to find work, this is your reminder to be kind to yourself, because the constant stress and anxiety have still been impacting us all. 

Are there any other projects you are currently working on and at liberty to talk about? 

Aside from the sequel to A Strange and Stubborn Endurance, I’ve got two other epic fantasy drafts on the backburner: one is about an apprentice monster vet-slash-zoologist getting embroiled in politics, and the other is an angry sort of murder mystery romance in a setting where mages get their power from being touched by gods. I’m really excited about both of them, and I hope I get to share them with you eventually!  

Finally, what LGBTQ+ books/ authors would you recommend to the readers of Geeks OUT?

There’s so many awesome queer books out right now, but some standout recent favourites are Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo, She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan, The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri, and the Broken Trust series by Juliette Wade, which begins with Mazes of Power. Check them out! 

The Geeks OUT Podcast: Star Wars – The Rise of Streaming Services

Geeks OUT Podcast: Star Wars – The Rise of Streaming Services

In this week’s episode of the Geeks OUT Podcast, Kevin (@Gilligan_McJew) is joined by writer David Nora (@davidnorajr) as they discuss all the details that were released about Disney+, take a look at the new Charlie’s Angels revival, and celebrate Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker as our Clip of

In this week’s episode of the Geeks OUT Podcast, Kevin is joined by David Nora, as they discuss all the details that were released about Disney+, take a look at the new Charlie’s Angels revival, and celebrate Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker as our Clip of the Week.

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BIG OPENING

KEVIN: Disney+ launch date, price, and rumored series confirmed
DAVID: New teaser for AHS: 1984

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DOWN AND NERDY

KEVIN: Hellboy, Missing Link, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
DAVID: Pet Semetary, Camp Strange, Fluffy’s Revolution

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STRONG FEMALE CHARACTER

First look at new Charlie’s Angels revival

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THIS WEEK IN QUEER

Sequel to Love, Simon series coming to Disney+

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CLIP OF THE WEEK

New teaser trailer for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

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THE WEEK IN GEEK

MOVIES

The MCU won’t see the X-Men for a while
• New trailer for The Lion King “live-action” remake
New trailer for The Addams Family animated movie
• New trailer for Anna

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TV

• First look at The Mandalorian
Hawkeye series featuring both Clint & Kate coming to Disney+
• Monsters, Inc series, Monsters at Work coming to Disney+
• New trailer for new Netflix horror series Chambers
Pose returning June 9th
• First teaser for the Veronica Mars revival
• Season 2 of AMC’s horror anthology The Terror: Infamy to premiere in August
• AMC orders new Walking Dead spinoff centered on young female leads
Killing Eve renewed for season 3

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COMIC BOOKS

• DC releases trailer for Under the Moon: A Catwoman Tale
• Brian K. Vaughan reveals Saga will go to issue 109

The Geeks OUT Podcast: Finding Your Family w/ Shazam!

Geeks OUT Podcast: Finding Your Family w/ Shazam!

In this week’s episode of the Geeks OUT Podcast, Kevin (@Gilligan_McJew) is joined by @JonHerzog (on Instagram) as they discuss found families in Shazam!

In this week’s episode of the Geeks OUT Podcast, Kevin is joined by Jon Herzog, as they discuss found families in Shazam! the movie, marvel at Captain Marvel’s (over) $1 billion box office, and celebrate Michelle Pfeiffer cracking that whip as our Strong Female Character of the Week.

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BIG OPENING

KEVIN: Captain Marvel has made over $1 Billion
JON: New trailers for Avengers: Endgame

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DOWN AND NERDY

KEVIN: Pet Semetary, Twilight Zone, Major X
JON: Shazam!, Sabrina, Binge Mode: Game of Thrones

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STRONG FEMALE CHARACTER

Michelle Pfeiffer proves she can still whip it

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THIS WEEK IN QUEER

Netflix orders animated gay spy series Q-Force

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CLIP OF THE WEEK

New trailer for The Dead Don’t Die

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THE WEEK IN GEEK

MOVIES

Rachel Weisz & David Harbour in talks to join Black Widow
• Kumail Nanjiani may join The Eternals
Fox/Disney teasing sequels to Aliens, Kingsmen, Planet of the Apes, & more
• New teaser for Joker
New photos from Terminator: Dark Fate
New trailer for My Spy

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TV

• New trailer for Netflix’s The Society
• John Cho cast as lead in live action Cowboy Bebop series
• Netflix renews The Umbrella Academy for season 2
Gotham teases new look of their “not The Joker”
• New trailer for season 5 of Fear the Walking Dead
• First peak at the host of the reboot of Creepshow

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COMIC BOOKS

• DC’s DCeased getting horror movie variants
DC’s Walmart exclusives no longer exclusive

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SHILF

• KEVIN & JON: Zachary Levi, Adam Brody, Ross Butler, and DJ Cotrona

The Geeks OUT Podcast: Queer Stories to Tell in the Dark

The Geeks OUT Podcast

Opinions, reviews, incisive discussions of queer geek ideas in pop culture, and the particularly cutting brand of shade that you can only get from a couple of queer geeks all in highly digestible weekly doses.

In this week’s extended episode of the Geeks OUT Podcast, Kevin is joined by Brett Mannes from the Comic Book Queers Podcast, as they discuss the new teaser of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, get happy about Marvel announcing a new Valkyrie solo series, and celebrate all the winners of this year’s GLAAD Media Awards in This Week in Queer.

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BIG OPENING

KEVIN: New teaser trailer for Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark
BRETT: New trailer for Twilight Zone reboot

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DOWN AND NERDY

KEVIN: Star Trek: Discovery
BRETT: X-Tremists, Detective Comics #1000, Mr. & Mrs. X

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STRONG FEMALE CHARACTER

Marvel announces new Valkyrie solo series

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THIS WEEK IN QUEER

Steven Universe, Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles, and The Elder Scrolls Online: Sommerset win GLAAD Media Awards

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CLIP OF THE WEEK

Sneak peak at season 6 of Agents of SHIELD

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THE WEEK IN GEEK

MOVIES

New trailer for Annabelle Comes Home
• Child’s Play reboot adds Mark Hamill
New trailer for Brightburn
• New trailer for Netflix’s The Silence
Angelina Jolie in talks to join The Eternals

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TV

• Runaways renewed for season 3
• New trailer for NOS4A2
Arrow is losing Felicity before it’s final season
• New trailer for Legends of Tomorrow
• First look at Stargirl & update on Swamp Thing’s premiere
• New teaser trailer for Pennyworth series
• Netflix renews The Order for season 2
The Dragon Prince renewed for season 3
• New trailer for season 2 of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power
Apple TV+ announced

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COMIC BOOKS

Wiccan & Hulkling returning for limited series by Tini Howard
DC teases the year ahead

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SHILF

• KEVIN: Roy Harper
• BRETT: Booster Gold & Blue Beetle

The Geeks OUT Podcast: Netflix & Kill

The Geeks OUT Podcast

Opinions, reviews, incisive discussions of queer geek ideas in pop culture, and the particularly cutting brand of shade that you can only get from a couple of queer geeks all in highly digestible weekly doses.

In this week’s episode of the Geeks OUT Podcast, recorded from C2E2, Kevin is joined by Eric Green and Seth Schindehette, as they discuss the new trailer for Chilling Adventures of Sabrina: Part 2, discuss the problematic elements of Netflix’s Love, Death & Robots, and celebrate the casting of Chella Man as Jericho on Titans in This Week in Queer.

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BIG OPENING

KEVIN: Supernatural is ending next season
ERIC: Marvel announces the return of Jonathan Hickman with House of X & Powers of X series
SETH: Netflix accused of shuffling Love, Death & Robots based on sexuality

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DOWN AND NERDY

KEVIN: Black Lighting
ERIC: Age of Apocalypse
SETH: D&D Real Play Podcasts

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STRONG FEMALE CHARACTER

New trailer for Chilling Adventures of Sabrina: Part 2

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THIS WEEK IN QUEER

Titans cast deaf trans actor as Jericho

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CLIP OF THE WEEK

New trailer for Stranger Things season 3

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THE WEEK IN GEEK

MOVIES

It’s official, Disney now owns Fox
• New trailer for Toy Story 4

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TV

• DC Universe will be free for a day on March 30
Castle Rock season 2 to give origin to Misery
• David Boreanaz teases something for Angel’s 20th anniversary
• Anson Mount not returning for season 3 of Star Trek: Discovery

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COMIC BOOKS

• Marvel announces Absolute Carnage and Secret Warps events
• New Kickstarter for queer focused graphic novel Masked Prejudice

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SHILF

• KEVIN: Quentin Quire
• ERIC: Nightcrawler
• SETH: Superman

The Geeks OUT Podcast: Avengers – A Hair in Time

The Geeks OUT Podcast

Opinions, reviews, incisive discussions of queer geek ideas in pop culture, and the particularly cutting brand of shade that you can only get from a couple of queer geeks all in highly digestible weekly doses.

In this week’s marvelously extended episode of the Geeks OUT Podcast, Kevin is joined by Jason Conover, as they discuss Black Widow’s hair journey in the latest Avengers: Endgame trailer, marvel at Disney’s decision to bring James Gunn back, and question JK Rowling’s decision to continue to gay-bait Harry Potter fans in This Week in Queer.

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BIG OPENING

KEVIN: James Gunn returns to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3
JASON: New international trailer for Shazam!

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DOWN AND NERDY

KEVIN: The Passage, Apocalypse Now, Uncanny X-Men: Winter’s End
JASON: Captain Marvel, Umbrella Academy, Thor, Mister Miracle

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STRONG FEMALE CHARACTER

New trailer for Tuca & Bertie

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THIS WEEK IN QUEER

JK Rowling continues to gay-bait Harry Potter fans

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CLIP OF THE WEEK

New trailer for Avengers: Endgame

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THE WEEK IN GEEK

MOVIES

Ezra Miller & Grant Morrison working on Flash script
• Teaser for Alien 40th Anniversary shorts
• New trailer for Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
• Sony teases 7 or 8 years worth of Spider-Man properties
New trailer for Disney’s live action remake of Aladdin
Disney will officially “acquire” Fox this week
Namor teased by Doctor Strange 2 director
Shang-Chi gets Asian writer & director

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TV

• Netflix cancels One Day at a Time
• Starz renews American Gods for season 3
• Esai Morales joins season 2 of Titans
DC Universe offering free previews of shows
Supergirl teases a new romance between Alex & Jimmy’s sister
• Taika Waititi joins Time Bandits tv series
Marvel’s What If? coming to Disney+

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COMIC BOOKS

Marvel & DC introducing new Asian heroes
• New Kickstarter for queer focused graphic novel Masked Prejudice

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SHILF

• KEVIN: Luthor
• JASON: Klaus

The Geeks OUT Podcast: The Marvelous Ms. Larson

The Geeks OUT Podcast

Opinions, reviews, incisive discussions of queer geek ideas in pop culture, and the particularly cutting brand of shade that you can only get from a couple of queer geeks all in highly digestible weekly doses.

In this week’s marvelously extended episode of the Geeks OUT Podcast, Kevin is joined by Jon Herzog, as they salute the success of Brie Larson and Captain Marvel, take a peak at the new trailer for Game of Thrones, and celebrate Mr. Rogers and 20BiTeen in This Week in Queer.

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BIG OPENING

KEVIN: Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge opening up sooner at Disney
JON: New trailer for final season of Game of Thrones

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DOWN AND NERDY

KEVIN: Captain Marvel, Star Trek: Discovery, Prisoner X
JON: How To Train Your Dragon 3, Binge Mode: Game of Thrones Podcast

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STRONG FEMALE CHARACTER

Captain Marvel has the 6th highest opening ever

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THIS WEEK IN QUEER

Mr. Rogers was bisexual

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CLIP OF THE WEEK

New trailer for Good Omens

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THE WEEK IN GEEK

MOVIES

New trailer for Shazam!
• First tease of Jared Leto as Morbius and character breakdowns
• New trailer for Midsommar
• New Line developing Hello Kitty movie
New poster for Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
New trailer for Tolkien
New trailer for Brightburn

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TV

• New trailer for season 2 of Cobra Kai
• New trailer for season 3 of Queer Eye
• New teaser for Love, Death, & Robots
• Freeform orders Motherland: Fort Salem about witches in the military
• Riverdale dedicating every episode this season to Luke Perry
Arrow is coming to an end
• New photos of Jon Cryer as Lex Luthor on Supergirl
• New teaser for NOS4A2

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COMIC BOOKS

• A sequel to Kwanza Osajyefo’s Black is being Kickstarted
• The Kickstarter for The Closet of Secrets surpasses its goal

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SHILF

• KEVIN: Talos
• JON: Yon-Rogg (Jude Law)

The Geeks OUT Podcast: I Choose You! Ryan Reynolds!

Geeks OUT Podcast: I Choose You! Ryan Reynolds!

In this week’s super-sized episode of the Geeks OUT Podcast, Kevin (@Gilligan_McJew) is joined by @JWCrump as they discuss the latest trailer for Detective Pikachu, fan cast an out gay actor for Marvel’s The Eternals, and celebrate Matt Bomer speaking out about the importance of queer superheroes in This Week

In this week’s super-sized episode of the Geeks OUT Podcast, Kevin is joined by J.W. Crump, as they discuss the latest trailer for Detective Pikachu, fan cast an out gay actor for Marvel’s The Eternals, and celebrate Matt Bomer speaking out about the importance of queer superheroes in This Week in Queer. 

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BIG OPENING

KEVIN: Marvel reportedly seeking openly gay actor for The Eternals
J.W.: New trailer for Critters: A New Binge

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DOWN AND NERDY

KEVIN: The Dragon Prince, Buffy, X-Tremists
J.W.: Betrayal Legacy

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STRONG FEMALE CHARACTER

Book of Enchantment series focusing on villains coming to Disney+

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THIS WEEK IN QUEER

Matt Bomer speaks about the importance of LGBTQ supereheros

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CLIP OF THE WEEK

New trailer for Detective Pikachu

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THE WEEK IN GEEK

MOVIES

New trailer for Hellboy reboot
• Captain Marvel brings back Magic Eye posters in new promo
• New trailer for Dark Phoenix
• A View-Master movie is being developed
Black Manta cast as Jordan Peele’s Candyman
Rotten Tomatoes makes some changes

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TV

• Syfy orders Resident Alien to series
• Netflix orders dramedy of The Baby-sitters Club
• New teaser for Love, Death & Robots
• New trailer for season 2 of The OA
• New trailer for season 2 of The Tick
Star Trek: Discovery renewed for season 3
• New trailer for season 2 of Cloak & Dagger
• New trailer for Hulu’s Into the Dark: Treehouse

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VIDEO GAMES

• First look at Pokemon Sword & Shield for Nintendo Switch
• IGN releases Alien: Isolation web series based on the game

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SHILF

• KEVIN: Iceman (X-Tremists)
• J.W.: Elasti-girl

The Geeks OUT Podcast: Wakanda For-Oscars

Geeks OUT Podcast: Wakanda For-Oscars

In this week’s episode of the Geeks OUT Podcast, Kevin (@Gilligan_McJew) is joined by @LynaeDePriest as they discuss Black Panther making history at the Oscars this year, take a peak at the new Twilight Zone trailer, and celebrate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez getting her own comic for our Strong Female Character of

In this week’s episode of the Geeks OUT Podcast, Kevin is joined by Lynaé DePriest as they discuss Black Panther making history at the Oscars this year, take a peak at the new Twilight Zone trailer, and celebrate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez getting her own comic for our Strong Female Character of the Week. 

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BIG OPENING

KEVIN: Black Panther & Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse win Oscars
LYNAÉ: New international trailer for Us

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DOWN AND NERDY

KEVIN: The Umbrella Academy, The Orville, Runaways
LYNAÉ: The Passage, Russian Doll, Jook Joint

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STRONG FEMALE CHARACTER

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is coming to comics

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THIS WEEK IN QUEER

Katy Keene to feature drag queen co-star

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CLIP OF THE WEEK

New trailer for revival of The Twilight Zone

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THE WEEK IN GEEK

MOVIES

Captain Marvel’s 1st reactions are glowing, despite trolls bombing Rotten Tomatoes
• Hugh Jackman & Patrick Stewart win Guinness World Records
• New teaser for Angry Birds 2
• New trailer for Rocketman

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TV

• Netflix adapting Turn of the Screw for new The Haunting of Bly Manor
• Netflix orders Medical Police series
• New trailer for The Order
• Tyler Posey joins The Lost Boys pilot
• Syfy cancels Nightflyers
• Syfy reboots The Banana Splits as a horror movie
• New trailer for His Dark Materials
• New Gremlins animated series being developed

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BSHILF

• KEVIN: Spectrum
• LYNAÉ: Meteor Man