Otherlands Editing Podcast
A biweekly podcast where speculative fiction and romance fiction editors and writers discuss writers craft and how best to edit and write your book.
Episodes
Midnight and Margaret are back to talk about the very real evils going on right now in Minnesota and, more broadly, against immigrants and the constitution by the Trump administration. We discuss the difference between how villainy in real life can be 1-dimensional, but in fiction, it needs nuance and for the villains to be understandable and not flat. We also address the different ways to approach villains, such as being foils, me...
Margaret and Midnight evaluate what they were able to accomplish in 2025, where they missed the mark, and discuss the importance of recognizing progress steps before setting their 2026 goals for writing, reading, and the podcast.
In this minisode, Margaret and Midnight talk about writing holiday tie in stories, how to research them, optimize them as both gifts for fans and ways to encourage new readers to try you out as an author, and recommend 4 christmas-themed books (MM, MF, and FF) for your enjoyment this year.
It's our second year looking at the latest holiday offerings from Netflix, Hulu, and Hallmark. Did the Jonas Brothers movie even make sense? Could Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Cher Horowitz team up to save Christmas? As if! Which were our favorites and which were the real duds of the 2025 Holiday Season? Also, we offer some romcom writing advice as we go both in what to do and what not to do.
This week, we have m/m author Gemini Frost as a guest contributor. We talk about the surge of Dramione fanfic being pulled to publish and becoming the literary blockbusters of 2025. We discuss what fanfic can teach you as a new author, how it's a different medium than novels, the ethics and best ways to convert fanfic to profic, and our worries about publishing now being so open about wanting to promote and put out converted fanfic...
The M&Ms talk religion, how it can motivate your character and reflect societal values, the dark side of leadership with cults, and how to world building religions in your fantasy convincingly. TRIGGER WARNING - as we discuss cults, some allusions to physical, financial, and other types of abuse of cult victims is mentioned. Also discussions of the People's Temple of Guyana and mass suicide. Please be aware before listening.
For the first of two Halloween-themed episodes, M&M talk about horror in movies and TV by comparing the works of Mike Flanagan and Ryan Murphy's American Horror Story Series, discuss favorite horror movies like the works of Romero and Jordan Peele, and then look at short fiction and why shorter horror is often more compelling. Finally, we explain why reading widely is good and that there are parts of horror that can help you wi...
This week, Margaret and Midnight take time to preview workshops they've submitted and will be part of The Writing Gals 2025 Conference. Midnight is presenting on "Writing Your Wildest Romantasy," while Margaret is presenting on "Rescuing Your WIP from being an RIP" and helping writers through their blocks. The Writing Gals and some of their other events and courses can be found at their facebook group here (https://www.facebook.com...
In this episode, the M&Ms cover adaptations, specifically adapting fairy tales. Margaret discusses her own experience adapting "The Golden Stag" into a novella. Then, they dive into Amazon Prime's Cinderella musical and the recent Disney live-action Snow White and explain why both adaptations fail. The M&Ms also discuss how to do better and succeed with any fairy tale retelling you may be planning.
This week, the M&Ms interview Harry Carpenter, horror author, who has run FrightReads Halloween Book Festival for five years. For the fifth year, they'll be bigger and better than ever at the Howard County Fairgrounds on September 13th and 14th. In this ep, we all discuss favorite horror films, how to get into horror writing, and what it takes to run a horror and Halloween extravaganza.
SPOILER ALERT - In this episode, Margaret and Midnight talk about James Gunn's Superman (2025) and explain why this is a terrific film and screenplay, what parts of it apply to your writing, and how you can make every part of your work do heavy lifting by not wasting scenes. We also contrast it, especially with how well it sets worldbuilding up efficiently, to the Snyderverse and explain the difference between indulging your charac...
Last Friday, Midnight and I were invited to cover an amazing night at locally-owned, Columbia MD bookshop Queen Takes Book. There we got to know the owners and staff as well as some creative, passionate book lovers and influencers from all over the area. Special shoutout to the people we met there including, Chloe the Reader, Annabookbestie, tmichellemoore, starrfirebookgirl, lysettemariereads, pretty poisons dark romance, and genn...
This week, Midnight and Margaret discuss the failure of the Netflix film The Electric State to adapt from a celebrated graphic novel. We also talk other adaptations like both versions of the Super Mario Brothers movie as well as Max's adaptation of Uzumaki. We help you think about adaptations and what to keep in mind when adapting and changing an aesthetic, archetype, or plot you like from a different medium like a television show ...
Today, Midnight and Margaret look at 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person points of view, give advice on how to pick the best one for your book, and how to ensure your point of view choices best serve your story and creating engaging action. Warning, we do talk about some TV shows, so there are also some spoilers for Agatha All Along and the first season of Squid Game.
Today, Midnight Voss and Margaret Bates interview spicy rom-com author, Dawn Dugle, about her advocacy online against Oklahoma State Senate Bill 593 that seeks to outlaw CSAM as well as put severe restrictions on what is considered "porn" in the state. We talk about book ban history, the current state of the despotic US government, why it matters to stop book bans even if you feel you live in a "safe" or blue state, and what you ca...
This week, Margaret and Midnight take a look at one of the most famous comedies of the 1990s, the Bill Murray classic Groundhog Day, on actual Groundhog Day. We use it as a spring board to discuss the time loop trope, how to use a MacGuffin or a spot of magical realism to take your characters on journeys of growth, and how to set expectations for readers when weird situations like time loops, time travel, or even body horror happen...
Midnight and Margaret are back and talking about types of editing, how to find your right fit with a potential editor, and how to avoid scams.
It's that time of year for New Year's Resolutions. Midnight and Margaret talk about outlining projects, the psychology of goal-setting, and talk about their own goals in both fiction and non-fiction project for the coming year.
Midnight Voss and Margaret Bates wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year as they review some of the craziest Christmas movies from Freeform, Hallmark, and Netflix (Hot Frosty, anyone?), and they explain what you can learn about good writing and committing to your premise from these films.
Margaret Bates and Midnight Voss, your faithful hosts, introduce themselves and their experiences in editing. Then, they start the podcast journey by explaining keeping promises to the reader and understanding and meeting genre and writing expectations.
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