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Zombie Book Club
Welcome to Zombie Book Club! We're a Podcast that's also a book club! We talk about Zombie / Apocalyptic horror novels, TV and movies.
Zombie Book Club
The Zombie Re-Erection: Only Sex Can Save Us with Special Guest Polly Morphous-Lee | Zombie Book Club Ep 73
In this provocative episode, we welcome English erotica author Polly Morphous-Lee to discuss her daring novella, The Zombie Re-Erection: Only Sex Can Save Us. We delve into the concept of "humbies"—zombies driven by pleasure rather than hunger—and explore the satirical elements that critique contemporary political landscapes. Our conversation also touches on the portrayal of a bi-utopian society where sex work is a choice, prompting discussions on consent, societal norms, and the challenges of publishing erotica in today's media environment.
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Hi everybody. This is Leah. I'm just getting a start with this episode to let you know that we do indeed talk about sex in the apocalypse in this episode, but not in great detail, and so if it's an episode you want to skip, that's totally okay, but I would say we do not get into anything explicit. We do reference BDSM and body parts and a couple of sex toys and I would say, if that sounds okay to you, but you're still not 100% sure, I would say it's kind of like when you tell somebody to read a zombie book and they're like I don't like zombie books or that's not my thing. This story is so much more than just a smut story, so if you're curious, come take a listen. It's a really, really great episode with Polymorphous Lee who wrote the zombie re-erection.
Speaker 2:Only sex can save us yay, welcome to Zombie Book Club, the only book club where the book shouldn't be talked about at holiday dinner table, for a number of reasons, Sounds very ominous, and it's not. I'm Dan and while I'm not chopping cucumbers into tiny pieces with a very large knife, I'm writing a book and after reading the Zombie Reerection, I'm writing a book and after reading the zombie re-erection, I regret not giving my zombies giant cucumber dongs.
Speaker 1:Missed opportunity. I'm Leah and I would really love to live in a bisexual utopia of 3169, where maybe what we're about to talk about could be totally acceptable at the dinner table. Dan, yeah, in the future, but I don't want to have sex with a humby, you know I hope it's not normal.
Speaker 2:I just don't want to have those conversations with my mom.
Speaker 1:I mean that's okay, it's all about your own personal choice.
Speaker 2:You know I could only imagine sitting at the dinner table and she looks out the window and she's like here comes one of those humbies with their giant cucumber dongs.
Speaker 1:That could be a sequel to the book we're about to talk about, which I think are totally awesome.
Speaker 1:Well, today we are chatting with Polly Morphous Lee, the author of the Zombie Reerection Only Sex Can Save Us. Polly Morphous Lee is an English smut writer with a love for humor, kink and exploring diverse relationships. An omnisexual, slash bisexual, she brings bold, unapologetic passion to every page. I can verify, it's true. She's here to talk with us today about the sexiest zombie apocalypse story we've ever read on the podcast, the zombie re-erection. Only sex can save us. And the zombies are called humbies, so we'll be calling them humbies a lot in this episode. Know that that means zombies. Welcome to the show, polly. How are you doing today? Fine, thank you, we're so happy to have you on the show. Thank you for being willing to sit on your stairway for about an hour and a half to chat with us, just so that we have good internet from across the pond.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Polly shared with us that she spent all of COVID working from her stairs yeah, which sounds awful, but survived. And here you are. Yeah, and you knew exactly the place to go for this, and here you are.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you knew exactly the place to go for this interview. So worth it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I've tested the whole house, and this is even with a newly purchased different machine and everything. It's just the house, I think it's yeah.
Speaker 2:I've been in those situations before. So let's get into this, let's go, let's do some rapid fire questions. So just, uh, your first gut response um, don't worry, we're only judging you from these questions. So uh which apocalypse would you rather live through? A humby outbreak in 2169.
Speaker 1:3169.
Speaker 2:Okay, yes, it's much more in the future. 3169. Or the next four years with Trump as the President of the United States.
Speaker 3:I think the Humvee apocalypse? No question, you know you've got options there, you know you can step back and relax and you know you're going to return to your bi-utopia eventually. I'd much rather go for the Humvees.
Speaker 1:I'm with you. I really want this bisexual utopia you speak of. I'm disappointed it's so far in the future.
Speaker 3:I was thinking about that as I came home today, because we're in a situation now, living near London, where Putin's actually threatening us now for providing weapons to attack Ukraine, and so, yeah, I'm like, well, we could have a full-blown apocalypse, then recover, and then by 3169, we've found our utopia. Yeah, it's just, you know what comes in between, that's the question mark.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean revolutionary change usually comes with that revolution so, now that we know that you'd prefer to live in the humby apocalypse, uh, what would be your sex toy weapon of choice to help save the humvees?
Speaker 3:Ooh, you want something. It depends what you want to achieve. If you're trying to be my second book is Humvee Hunters, who have to actually attract the humvees Then I think I'd go for something like a flashing butt thug. I think that would be.
Speaker 1:Does the light attract them? I think well for something like a flashing butt thug.
Speaker 2:I think that would probably be very effective, I think.
Speaker 3:well, just the fact that it's drawing attention to that part might attract some. Otherwise you're looking at, just trying to find whatever brings you the most pleasure that would make them interested enough to experience enough pleasure that their humbism ends.
Speaker 1:Yeah, their cucumber-like appendage explodes.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, in pure pleasure, and it's all over, yeah.
Speaker 2:Also, I don't know if we'll dive into the topic, so I just want to say it right away the visceral moment of a cucumber appendage exploding was very reminiscent of zombie movies when, like, somebody kicks in a door and blasts a shotgun in the or a bus, a zombie in the face, yeah, like I, like that's what I was picturing the skin and hair and yeah, gunk going everywhere yeah, I think I kept having like the image of um because I kept thinking you know what's it like when you stretch it that far?
Speaker 3:yeah, it's that kind of pressure, yeah, and it's it's got that balloon to it, but it's also flesh, but it's also cucumber, it's that kind of mix.
Speaker 1:Um, yeah, I, I had a lot of fun finding kind of um alliteration to go with those moments it was a very strange combination of like extremely sexy, beautifully written, and then moments where I'm like oh my god yeah.
Speaker 3:I had to the first review. Anybody wrote it said did I find myself thinking what the fuck? Yes. Did I find myself thinking what the fuck? Yes, did I enjoy it? Yes, and that's like I think. That's the thing. You know. My audience is out there, but they're quite a strange audience, I fear.
Speaker 1:Well, we're in that, thank you. This one's a little bit of a lighter question from the first two. Would you choose a nice cup of?
Speaker 3:British tea or a cheeky pint to soothe your soul in the humby apocalypse. I'm going for cheeky pints at the moment and now I'm like, yeah, yeah, I'm just like. Recently I've got into belgian beer and I'm like would I still have access to belgian beer?
Speaker 2:I don't know you need to start pilot now. It'd be valuable yeah, yeah I mean yeah yeah that was gonna be my follow-up question, but I guess I've got the answer. I I'd I'd be going local, I guess in your case. Yeah, for a guinness. Yeah, I like uh, yeah dark um, I, I like.
Speaker 3:I like some stouts, but guinness wouldn't be my favorite. There's so many different beers these days I I would go for something else, I think beer is more disgusting than a humby, so um, that's my so you'd go for the, I'd go for the honey the yeah the humby is not a choice like okay okay, I'd go for the tea.
Speaker 2:Yes, leah's leah's just like I want some cucumber.
Speaker 3:Um, okay, last question, most important question uh, yellow toupee or cucumber appendage which is the scarier part of the humby oh um, I think probably actually the yellow toupee and the way it steals the identity of the individual who is who gets it. I think this is a problem. The character half of the characters I used were actually from other stories I wrote and even though, even though I'm writing erotica, I have huge emotional attachment to each one of the characters. So to to have my my perfect mistress sullied in this way, those kinds of things to have have my, my cat woman with a yellow toupee, I'm just like no, no, the picture in my mind of this, this once perfect character, um, with a yellow toupee, I'm just, oh, yes, that's this yeah, so in in the, the universe of your writing, then, like is is the humby outbreak, now canon uh, yes, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:But the problem is I think I'm gonna have to do a bit of a simpsons thing. I've been thinking this through because I like the year 3169. I'm well. Everything has to happen in 3169, but lots of things will happen. And so I'm like it's going to have to have that kind of it's a busy year, yeah, that kind of. Yeah, so like he's permanently, whatever grade he is, I think everybody's permanently in 3169.
Speaker 1:Because it turns into 3170 and you've lost something 69, because it turns into 3170 and you know you've lost something. Yeah, yeah, yeah, well, it is. Uh, the zombie re-erection is nothing short of a wild, sexy, disturbing ride. And, um, dan and I have been calling it the world war z of erotica. Did you ever read the the world war z book or see the movie? Um, I don't think I have.
Speaker 3:I'm a bit behind on my my zombies.
Speaker 1:Um, that's okay I've watched some more since I wrote it but I think um the world war z book, specifically, not the brad pitt movie. It's a terrible thing, but what's similar is that your story has um, a historian, slash journalist, and then you have a collection of other people's first person accounts and that's exactly what world war Z is, except for yours is smut, and we love it. So I'm wondering if you could just give us a brief summary of the story and the world you've created before we dive in universal basic income has changed everything.
Speaker 3:Nobody has to work, so everybody is working in ways they want to work. Everybody is very happy. Then, unfortunately, a historian starts making whether they're equivalent of YouTubers videos about the past and about Ronald Hump, as he is called, and they kind of get people excited by the thought of bringing him back.
Speaker 3:People start to want a terrible, terrible idea, and because these mainly men, that they want that patriarchal world back again. They no longer have that power. Um, maybe they feel belittled in some way or other by the world they now live in. Um, and they, they want to find that get that power back. So they, they fail at resurrecting him physically, but they succeed in resurrecting his spirit and they get infected and then they start to infect the rest of the. I think I've decided the US Perfect. I've decided they infect so quickly, because that's the thing. Having been through COVID, like you know, how long does it take to infect someone becomes really clearly a part of how something spreads. So this is almost immediate. There's no time to get on a plane and have it kick in, so it ends up very much limited to to a landmass, um it sounds like a karma is lucky.
Speaker 1:A karmic thing for the united states yes, yeah how, yeah, how, is humbyism spread?
Speaker 3:it is spread by a bite or a scratch, and so that's kind of the first. The first urge of the humby is to spread humbyism by scratching and biting. Um, and then their second urge is pussy, they, they, they, they, they use that. It's still saying brains, brains, they go pussy, pussy, and they, they spread out looking for what to each of them that pussy is, and it's not necessarily literally pussy. However, if they find somebody who's not been infected before, they'll go straight immediately to trying to convert them. So you're not at that kind of risk at that point. It's, in fact, only once most people are immune that it becomes more of a risk that they'll see you in that way. But it's still the only once most people are immune that it becomes more of a risk that they'll see you in that way. But it's still the only word they can say. Their only word is pussy pussy, pussy, pussy.
Speaker 1:I read, uh, I read your story out loud to dan, and there were so many different ways that the word pussy was used by humbies. I was doing my very, very best to uh to get the tone that you were you were going for. I don't know how well I did, but I sure tried that's the thing.
Speaker 3:Sometimes it's like how many years do I need here? Yeah, I need a lot of views here. This is a pussy and other places it'd be. You know it'd be a much softer um incidents of it, but yeah or like there's an angry pussy.
Speaker 2:I forget who that was demanding.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like pussy. Yes uh do they?
Speaker 2:have any weaknesses? Is there a way to stop a humvee? Humvee, not a humvee. Um well, I was in the army.
Speaker 3:So they start, they started out trying things yeah, this is this. I imagine they're like well, okay, we've got to get rid of them. And the clear, obvious thing is this giant cucumber-shaped appendage. What happens when we chop those off? And they found, unfortunately, that just killed them straight away. Very sad, there was no return from just having it chopped off. That doesn't work. Fortunately, unfortunately, that's what must have happened to all those original Humvees who tried to resurrect Ronald Hump. So you know, they got their comeuppance nice and quickly. But you know that's the first. One of the stories is that moment when they discover that actually, if you excite a Humvee, that is their only weakness. If you get them to a point of of ecstasy, they will explode and they will not be a humby anymore yeah, like sheds off them like a skin, but more explosive and more explosive.
Speaker 3:Yes, yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah um yeah, follow up to the cucumber appendage.
Speaker 2:Um I I couldn't help but wonder why do the humbies have giant cucumber dongs instead of tiny little button mushrooms?
Speaker 3:well, at the time I was that I. I was just about to go down the garden to my cucumbers and. I started thinking, oh no, I hope Trump isn't re-elected. And then I started playing with re-election, re-erection and I got out to the the shed, kind of like half greenhouse shed, and yeah, that that kind of combines the fact that I was spending a lot of time looking at cucumbers. And yeah, it just all came together.
Speaker 2:Cucumbers kind of are the zombies of the garden. Like you plant a cucumber plant, they all spread and you've got an outbreak on your hands.
Speaker 1:I mean, it could have been zucchini too. I think zucchini could have been a runner.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah, but I think the cucumbers, the cucumbers that I grow, are knobbly. Oh yeah, the second book has actually got one of my actual cucumbers on the front.
Speaker 1:I know that picture.
Speaker 3:yes, yeah, yeah, with a bit of changing the color to make it look more horrific, but yeah, yeah, and they're such individual shapes? Yeah, as are other types of appendix it's just true yeah, that's something I was gonna ask.
Speaker 2:It's like you know you've got your your big um bulbous ones, you know. Are there also like short little curled ones, that kind of curl up like a hook? Are there some that are more not than others?
Speaker 3:I think. I think to a certain extent, except that because they're kind of, they're also performing. So part of the logic as well is, you know, that obsession with what people have in their pants and with the, the Humvees. You know what they have. They have a giant cucumber thing. So it has to be giant, it has to be visible, it has to be really, really noticeable, because it's a way of saying, well, actually these Humvees, they're all in the same kind of position or carrying the same kind of power. It's, yeah, it's, it's. It's got extra meanings that come out in my mind every now and again.
Speaker 1:There's so much that is underneath their brains are in the cucumber.
Speaker 2:Cut off the cucumber and the the body dies oh yes, yeah, yeah so they're directed by their cucumber appendage.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this all makes sense.
Speaker 3:It's, it's definitely, yeah, I I worked out a bit more of the science of it, um, when, when I was writing the second one, because I was like, well, well is, does it perform all the other functions of a penis or not? And I decided not, but it kind of sits in front of wherever the urinal tract is that's where it sits so, yeah, I that's. This is the good thing, and the problem about writing is I want it to make sense and I'm scared of the reader who will go.
Speaker 1:This makes no sense so I'm constantly making, making more sense of how this world works well, I think it helps because it's such an absurd concept that you bring a little bit of realism that it becomes believable. One of my favorite parts that is very cucumber like because I've seen cucumbers and zucchinis do this is there's one character who their cucumber like appendage is like pushing through some bars because they're in a cage and it starts to get really big on the other side of the cage and I've absolutely seen that happen to a cucumber where like has to go through an obstacle, and then it's like swollen.
Speaker 1:So I appreciated that realism. I got to say what inspired, what inspired this like of a future by utopia disrupted by humbies. That is not a an idea that, like I feel like you may be the only one who's ever had this idea.
Speaker 3:It's very unique well, it's a very. It's a build-up of different ideas, because I I started writing other stories in this utopia partly because I wanted to write stories where there wasn't the same issue that there could be seen with sex work today. I wanted to write about a place where, if you chose to make your money, um, by selling sex, it was no different to choosing to use your body or your brain or whatever other part of you to sell something else, um. So I was like well, you've got universal basic income so that there every job has the same. It's no, no job is for survival, right. And so then I could create a fun world where it's. That was.
Speaker 3:The first place I created in this bi-utopia was a brothel where people choose to be there. There is no need to be there because there is no need for money. I love that, but it's a choice. It's a choice and it's what you want to do. If you want to, you might do it full time, you might do it one day a month. You know there's loads of different possibilities of how sex work is acceptable and part of everyday life, but it doesn't have the ethical issues it has when people are starving, um yeah people get stuck in the business.
Speaker 3:Yeah, people who are doing it because of necessity, not because they feel called to it, yeah, or coercion or all the things, yeah, yeah, yeah, and, and, and you know it's just it's and the things I wrote for that world I could not put on amazon. Really I would not, because, well, they have. It's awkward because they have quite strict rules, they don't always keep to. I was wondering about this. So, yeah, the lines are drawn, but they're drawn quite clearly. There should be no non-con, non-consenting, and there should be no dub-con dubious consent on anything on Kindle. But there's stuff I've read that you're like this doesn't fit. And even though I've created a bi-utopia where there is no dubious consent to, because because normally sex work would be considered dubious consent, um, when it comes to amazon, to, to my understanding, I've created a world where that isn't the case. But I don't want to lose my amazon account uh, yeah, because they're not gonna.
Speaker 1:They're not gonna look at it from 31 69 or they might not no, no, no, yeah, just in case.
Speaker 3:And so yeah, I've, I've written stuff that hasn't has been kind of semi published in that world until I got to the humbies. So it's like I'm, I'm the one I've published on kindle is kind of in the middle of what I've written about it. It's kind of I've already got half the characters are kind of part of me already. Um and um, yeah, it was interesting to to put them into a more kind of dramatic moment history than just you know what they were doing in the room.
Speaker 2:They'd hired um in the brothel, um, yeah, I do love that you are using some recycled characters that you have like a history with. Um, yeah, do you have a favorite in in this book?
Speaker 1:oh, um, is that like asking you to pick your favorite child?
Speaker 3:it is similar. I'm just trying to think. Because I'm trying to think through the, through the different stories, because, because, now that I've written a second, the second one as well, I'm like which ones did I put in this one?
Speaker 1:I'm like well, you had the paperbacks in front of me yeah, tara lara mara sara, those are my face, yeah, yeah is it mistress devil or? Mistress devil it's, it's.
Speaker 3:Well, this is the. I don't want to be in trouble with Disney moments. Well, there's, there's how shall I spell this? And yeah, it's it. I think it's kind of Deville, more than it's devil, but it's kind of either it's yeah, yeah and yeah I, I.
Speaker 3:I do really like her. It's funny cause she she came to my via carl. Carl was actually the link that brought her in. Oh, so I wrote um a collection of short stories about carl, which then led into and so yeah, it's, and Oscar. So who is? Who is Mr Stavill's kind of henchman kind of character?
Speaker 2:I kind of introducing characters like that, like they don't start off as your main character, but like, because they come in through another means, become. They become more important over time, and then after a while you just love them. You didn't know that you were going to, you didn't design them that way, no, they just became that way.
Speaker 3:The thing is, I think the um Carl's, carl's um original story, he just I, I started off writing these because the idea was um. I started off writing these because the idea was there's. The idea is in this world you choose your own body. Wow, and that's just completely normal. You know, technology is such that you can have a body mod. You can lose a body mod. Who cares? Very cyber, there really is, yeah, and there really is no. You know, there's no, no, yeah I. I spent some time thinking about this because I was thinking about how difficult the situation is with um transgender um care, with um gender affirmative care, and I was thinking would would your universal basic income be enough to cover it or not? I, I was going through all that in my head and in the end I decided yes, it would at a basic level. It's up to you if you want something more fabulous. So some of my characters have absolutely ridiculous body mods and they would have worked for those.
Speaker 2:But the basics that's why there's people working at McDonald's is that they're like I'm trying to afford some body mods.
Speaker 3:Exactly Any job you're doing is for those extras in life. So you know, and the story that Carl originally appeared in, it is a character's first fabulous outing in the brothel as a cat person Love it. And so Carl is one of the the characters there, but he misbehaves. Oh, he is he. He does not do what he should have done because he's controlled by his mistress and he's meant to come along and get terribly frustrated and instead he has a very sexy dream and feels very guilty. Blah, blah, blah. And so that's how we get to the point where we meet his. The next set of stories I wrote were called Carl's Contrition. He is punished for being bad in the first, and then the Sand Fan, yeah. And then it's yeah, his. Then he gets into this Humby world because oscar, who actually loves him very much, uh, has tried to rescue him, but being bitten by a humby in the process.
Speaker 1:So I thought that love story was, um, very evident. There's a few like really clear emotional connections too amongst your characters, so knowing that they're from other stories makes that make sense. But you, even not knowing any backstory, you can really feel it like there's a moment yeah, I'm forgetting which of the auras it is are are. So, for those who have not read this yet, there is like a I'm calling it a sex band, for lack of a better term. Yeah, yeah I think.
Speaker 3:I think that's that's what they are.
Speaker 2:Yeah, our questions was like are they a band, are they an only fan?
Speaker 1:I think they're an only fans band.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but yeah, yeah, I think they yeah there's a moment between two of them and it is like this is what really just struck me about your book is like there's this extreme absurdity of the cucumber, like appendages, and the humvees, but then there's like this moment between two of them where, like she's seeing stars and it like really gets to the sacredness and connectedness of sex and like how much she loves this person and it was just so beautiful, yeah. And then there was green goo everywhere and I was like all right, yeah.
Speaker 1:Then a cucumber exploded that was my favorite part, though. Yes, yeah, it was beautifully written. Like I think I've only read read free smut on the internet before, and I think I need to be investing in reading the good stuff, Because it was like yeah, I will be honest and say we were not expecting it to be incredibly beautifully written, and that's probably just because I've been reading. What's the word I'm looking for? Like bored. Like, not Reddit. Like fanfic yeah, like fanfic. I'm thinking there's a website called Literotica Like like fanfic yeah, Like fanfic. I'm thinking they're like there's a, there's a website called literatica, like stuff like that. That's just you know, not, not not your stuff. I'll put it that way. There's a big difference.
Speaker 2:That's also why we call it the world war Z of erotica.
Speaker 1:Yeah, cause there's a full story are fleshed out, you care about them, and then it's kind of hot and then something gross happens and you're like it all fits together. Um, what made you decide to write a satirical sex story that critiques trump specifically? Um, that was just very beautifully well done and it was subtle in some points and other times pretty overt.
Speaker 3:Um I think. I think the whole feeling of not being able to do anything from here is part of it. Just watching it unfold, yeah, yeah, and really caring about it and not having anything I could really do. One of the things that's made me happiest with it is a couple of other writers who are in the group I was in. They told me they read it together and they kind of did a little read party together from there and they'd never actually met or anything but they read it at the same time and they both live in places where they look out the window and there's Trump flags on every yard and just knowing that they appreciated it, that I gave them a moment of happiness, but also the fact they said it was very believable.
Speaker 3:Yes, strangely, yes, yeah, and I just, you know, I feel like I haven't reached many people with it and I really, really hoped it would become utterly irrelevant. On November the 5th, I was writing this thinking, you know, oh well, this is going to be a very irrelevant thing, very, very fast and good and good, and I'm like, and and I, you know, around the after the fifth, I was just like, I want people to know this exists, but I do not want to talk about it. At the same time, I you know it's a a horrible thing had happened and I couldn't just go please read my book. Um, no, it is, yeah, it is, even, even if it might cheer you up, um, but it might not.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, it's awkward, um it's funny, though, paulie, because I think it's like there was the immediate aftermath and I think I mean we're still in it. It's 20 days later. The day that we're recording this is the 25th. For those who are listening to this in 3169 um it's 25th 24 right now record right.
Speaker 2:Yes, a horror story a historical record.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, and I, I saw that for me and I was, I I felt for you because what you, I can imagine in that moment, like right, like right after he was re-elected, did I want to read the book? No, but I can tell you that right now, 20 days later, I really need that. I need these stories and we're gonna get a sequel and if you write more, we will read more sequels, because they're just for me personally and I think, like that's the beauty of a book, there's also consent. People are choosing to pick it up, um, for me personally, I need the humor, um, and I need the and I need the bi-utopia, right, like, like a reminder that there could be, things could be different. It's so much more than just smut what you wrote, and so I just want to say thanks for that.
Speaker 1:Thank you for making us laugh in a really hard time over here in the US and the world. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Thank you. I've got a. I've got a little like a little follow-up question, because you were talking about how you kind of felt powerless and I imagine it's probably very frustrating to see so many people rally behind somebody who's so clearly incompetent and dangerous and dangerous. Let's imagine a world this is for me, this is for my own research let's imagine a world where something really terrible happened in America and it's because of this guy that everybody loved. Yeah, seemingly from across the pond, like, oh, everybody voted for it. Yeah, think that, like, the sentiment of people outside of the us would be that, like, maybe the horrible thing that happened, uh, maybe america deserves it, with all the like, the, the fights that america's picked and the decisions that america's made as a people, would they be deserving?
Speaker 2:I mean, obviously you're not gonna be like, yeah, americans suck, but like I just mean like the general temperature of like the rest of the world, like the news headlines that you would expect to see, like or at least the people around you.
Speaker 3:You know, like the sentiment, you think you were here yeah, because I think, you know, because I, I find it interesting you're going to work um on november the 6th and meeting an American colleague and how absolutely devastated she was and how we all understood how she felt. When Trump visits, people fly balloons in his shape. Generally as a continent, a lot of people do not like Trump or the very idea of him, and I don't think there's not even any feeling for him amongst the people who share similar politics as a rule here. Interesting, you know, I don't think he affects our politics that way. There's other horrific ways, american politics, but we thought that too Twice. Yeah, three times. Yeah, yeah, cause, you know, I, I remember, I remember I've worked in the same place since Brexit and before and the day after Brexit it was.
Speaker 3:You know, people were really, really sad and the thing is, you know any natural disaster or anything along those lines, if anybody knows you have any connection to that place, they will ask is everybody? You know? Okay, you know it's. You know, after the, I have a friend in Florida and I was. I haven't been in touch for ages, but you know you message when there's been the hurricane. I'm going to make sure I'm using the right term. Yeah, you know, ix, she was okay and everyone around her was okay and so on, and that's it. We're all connected. Now. People know people from around the world and we worry about our friends and family and I feel there is that connection.
Speaker 3:If something bad is is happening, um, and yeah, you know, I I've I've been reading a lot of the whys about trump being re-elected and you know it's, it's getting different perspectives on it. It's just how to make it not happen. Again and again and again. You know it's the and and I think that's the problem everywhere. You're right right now with we. We have a labor government here, which one with such a landslide, um, it's incredible, um, but are they behaving much like a labor government? Yes and no, you know, that's the thing. You know they're not necessarily doing what they said they would. They're not necessarily very left-wing compared to some of us might wish they were so not a bisexual utopia with with universal.
Speaker 1:No, we're not heading that way.
Speaker 3:No, no, no no, no, I hear I hear, you know ubi gets mentioned more and more, which is good, yes. Um, I feel you hear UBI gets mentioned more and more, which is good, yes. I feel that it's becoming more and more of a discussion and the way I see it is, we have two options. As a global society, we go back to Victorian times, where a lot of people have not enough work and we have to find Victorian ways to deal with it. Or because AI is taking over so many jobs and AI and robotics will be the logical replacement for human, and either we go the Victorian direction, prior to the rights and so on that were gained during that period, or we head towards something like universal basic income, and we on that were gained during that period, or we head towards something like universal basic income and we get that leisure that was always meant to be the point of those robots in the first place.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Please, please, please, let us go that way. People forget about that.
Speaker 2:The Jetsons' future was that we're supposed to have less work to do with these robots. I want the thing in.
Speaker 1:Star Trek, where I'd just be like I would like a hot chocolate please, and it appears I want a hot chocolate, please. I also want to be able to teleport so badly. Yeah, um, yeah, going off track here yeah, that would be so great.
Speaker 2:Yeah, um, this, this question might be, might be a difficult question, but uh, um, we're to go with it. If you could assign your book to any one political figure to read, who would it?
Speaker 3:be and why. Well, I've had people say, send it, send it to him, but he doesn't know how to read. I'm like I don't know that I want that level of trouble. Actually, I'm kind of like the wrong. People haven't found the book yet. That's good, and were they to, were they to, it might get a bit tricky, but they haven't, so I'm quite happy for them not to.
Speaker 2:So I wonder. I mean, he might be flattered by it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, all kind of attention. Would it make Biden laugh?
Speaker 2:Would Biden enjoy it? Let's imagine Biden read the book He'd call in.
Speaker 1:I'm imagining Biden and Jill together reading the book like I read it to you and that makes me kind of happy. I'm imagining Jill Biden like say pussy 1,000 times in different ways.
Speaker 2:Polly, we read your book. Jack Jill said pussy so many times.
Speaker 1:It was amazing and I'm racing right after I hope that biden sang the lyrics to the what's the? Oh, I can remember the order of them, but the ara ara ara ara band, yeah which I also did to dan and I think I was pretty I think I was pretty good at it, if I may say, I think I had a good tune yeah for your song. Yeah, because I, I, when I, when I read a good tune yeah for your song?
Speaker 3:yeah, because I I, when I, when I read it to myself, I do sing it too, and I was thinking about that today. I was like, well, if will I, will I ever? Because I I've also thought maybe I should try making an audio book myself with it, and would I actually sing those lyrics?
Speaker 1:um, I'm like I don't know you do not have to, but you could right now, yeah, yeah, I'm like, yeah, I don't know, you do not have to but you could right now, yeah, yeah, I'm like, yeah, I don't know, it has a tune in my head.
Speaker 3:It definitely does.
Speaker 1:I would love to hear it, even if we remove it. Yeah, if you don't want it on the podcast.
Speaker 3:I'm just looking for it now. I've got the book on my lap and I'm opening the wrong book.
Speaker 1:This is literally my dream. It was the first thing I said when I sang it.
Speaker 3:I was like I wonder how close I am it kind of goes in my head I'm not a good singer. Something along the lines of undress me. But no, it doesn't sound at all like that in my head I think it's kind of like trying to make it come out of your mouth. I can hear it in my head so much better than it comes out my mouth. Um, unfortunately we don't yet have mind merges, which?
Speaker 2:is something coming up in one of my other stories.
Speaker 3:I'm like, maybe if I hum it without the words, yeah, do that. It's very basic.
Speaker 1:That's pretty close to what I did actually.
Speaker 3:I think it's just about that rhythm yeah yeah, but then you know the drum and the bass and the. You know it's yeah, yeah, it sounds better with all the other instruments. So, yeah, I think one of the things that made me put a tune in was I vended up. You know, I meant to have, you know, a nice, nice, nice, pure bookstagram based instagram feed, but I don't. I'm like so many cool bands like that I'd never hear unless they were on instagram. And yeah, and, and I kind of imagined, every now and again I'll watch a different band and go, oh, you could be the ara ara ara band, you could be do you have any share that you think could be the?
Speaker 1:Oh, it's Ara, ara, ara band.
Speaker 3:Okay, yeah, yeah, because Ara Ara, ara Ara, it's actually Japanese. It's a surprise sound in Japanese. Oh Ara, ara, ara Ara is a kind of I speak Japanese. It's kind of like, yeah, it's a surprise, it's a kind of sound, I speak Japanese, but it's kind of like, yeah, it's a surprise, it's a kind of a sound you make out of surprise. It's fitting, because you normally just do it twice, but there's four of them and I kind of had that because I've lived in Japan. I had that kind of image of how their bands work, but except, but not being as, but not replacing the characters, as replacing people as they go along in the same way, that kind of very well trained, very good at dancing. Except we're in the future and you know we have sex bands now.
Speaker 1:With drones.
Speaker 2:Filming it. Yeah, yeah, in a post on Instagram you mentioned having to do a lot of research for your stories. But maybe, but you thought, maybe people didn't realize how much research you put in what kind of things you have to research for your book.
Speaker 3:This particular one, I think, had a bit less research than some. But you know, it's just those little things. I have written things in different periods and I wanted this one. I haven't quite published yet. It's all written, it's got a cover and everything. I just keep not getting around to publishing it.
Speaker 3:There's a setup where I want the king to have had a crush on a soldier, so I need the barracks to be at the castle, so I need a period of time when there would have been barracks at the castle, and so I end up Googling to death when would there have been barracks in a castle? So that I know what period I'm dealing with, even though my reader never does. Oh, interesting, but they could figure it out. So yeah, if they were really interested they could go well.
Speaker 3:Actually this isn't really quite medieval, this is early modern, even though I'm not specifying the country, I'm not specifying the year, but I know, I know that actually I'm closer to 1600 and 1500. That actually I'm closer to 1600 than 1500. And you know, I need that kind of knowledge while I'm writing, even if it doesn't actually end up in words. So you know, for the Humby Hunters I decided that one scene is going to take place at the sappiest place on Earth. The sappiest place on Earth, yes, because I don't want to get in trouble. Um, so I can't, yeah, um, but it's it. It has long sunk into the sea, oh the sappiest place falling apart.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yes, um and um. So you know, with problems with global warming, getting that, you know kind of. So I get Google Maps out to check, you know. Am I being reasonable here? Do I have to change this? Do I? Can I get you know? And it's that kind of and it's what I remembered, right? Am I using the right phrase? There's a lot of kind of little things just like oh, oh, I want that to be accurate, even though my reader won't necessarily know, I think yeah, yeah, it's.
Speaker 1:What they know is that the world feels real, and that's probably because you've done that research yeah yeah, yeah, I find myself doing the same thing.
Speaker 2:it's weird being like um, how can I make a zombie virus super realistic and believable and it's like in reality it wouldn't exist because it's not realistic. Yeah, yeah, but you jump through so many hoops to bring it together, to make it believable. But it's like how much do you have to do to actually convince the reader that it's real?
Speaker 1:Well, I think, the taking of the real elements like the fact that you've real well, I think, like the taking the real elements, like the fact that you've taken even just concepts like universal basic income that are familiar to some people nowadays, or like, yeah, I thought that the climate change was part of the reality of 3169, which makes me a little sad, but also realistic. Poly, uh, I think that's real. Um, yeah, I just think that that makes it feel relatable. Something I want to talk with you about, with the second story in um, the zombie re-erection, is the bdsm dungeon story and, yeah, yeah, something that I thought was really interesting was just the challenge of the consent question and knowing whether the humvees, yeah, could consent, knowing that their brains were currently in their large cucumber appendages, and I'm I'm just curious if you could just say more on how you thought through that part of it.
Speaker 3:Well, I really didn't. I wanted a future where consent is just everybody knows that that is the only option. Their consent, everybody is brought up with the concept of consent and there's not going to be any breaking of that, and it's it's a big part of the second book. Is that trying to get past that and it's the? So that's why I was like, well, it would make sense if, if, if you in once they've discovered that a turned on humby can become a human again, then some will be really easy to convert. But then some, who are very kink-based humans, they will need a very kink-based cure. They're not going to, you know, you can't just undress in front of them. They'll be like, yeah, I'm not excited.
Speaker 3:And so I came up with this kind of situation where the, the, the humbies are put in the cages watching the scene below, so that nobody is touching the humbies because they, they can't consent. Um, and that's that's, you know, because, and that's where I kind of got stuck, not stuck, but I was kind of like, yeah, I'll leave it there. And I think I don't know that I was going to write the second book until I had two fans. I'm like I have two fans, I have to write another book, and and it's just like, and then I thought it through some more, and then I thought it through some more and I thought, well, you can't initiate with a Humvee, really, because they don't care if you're interested or not. They have lost that concept of consent themselves. Good point, because they're.
Speaker 2:Humvees.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they wouldn't have consent. They're Humvees.
Speaker 3:They want to just grab the pussy. Yeah, exactly, they are grabbing whatever by the pussy and therefore they consent isn't part of them. So you, you, you can't force yourself on them. Really it's not possible if they are the one who does everything yeah, but there's also ended up being inside too, though yes, yeah, and it's that thing and the the world I'd already created.
Speaker 3:Everybody has a consent panel that they take into sexual interactions with them Inspired in part by my short time on dating apps, where somebody did send me basically a consent panel. Which of these things would you be up for? Somebody did send me basically a consent panel. Which of these things would you be up for? And so everybody, when they come of age 18, fills out their first consent panel and they may edit that through their lives so that they can say you know, this is what I'm up for and this is what I really don't want. And it's very easy for people to communicate this to each other, in even group situations, so that you know it's it's consent, is is everything, and so it's trying to make sure things don't happen, even when these characters are Humvees that they wouldn't want when they were humans.
Speaker 1:It's really, it really is a utopia. I'm just saying it's really, it really is a utopia. I'm just saying, yeah, and the thing about that's kind of cool is like, um, there's the thing that makes them not a humby is something unique to them, like something that unique that they, uh, find evocative, erotic, would make their cucumber, like appendage, explode, and so it's like that seed of humanity that's inside of them literally is what you're pulling upon. Yeah, and that's kind of cool. Yeah, your story is like it's just I'm kind of blown away by how much it is just more than a hot sex story, like there's a whole world you've imagined that I want to live in. It feels transgressive, like it's just so much more happening and I did not realize that I had all these stereotypes in my head about the genre.
Speaker 3:And now I do. Now I know that it's possible to write like a truly politically brilliant sci-fi future story with humbies and sex. I was like what genre have I written in? I came up with a phrase for it, I don't know if I can remember now. It's like sci-'s, like I don't. It was like sci-fi protest erotica. That isn't a category on Amazon yet. So you know you need to start it, you know you had a.
Speaker 2:You wrote a post somewhere and I tried to find it and I couldn't.
Speaker 3:And now I'm wondering if I just imagined it, but I think the post went along the lines of like you were trying to write something else, like something that was like more serious and not erotica, but as you were writing, it just became erotica yeah, I, I'm finding that because I I started trying to write something closed door because you know that's what some people want to read, and then I was like, oh, maybe I can kind of isolate out the erotic parts, make it specific chapters so that you know somebody who doesn't want to read the erotica can skip those chapters. But then, as I'm writing, I'm finding no, there's far too much emotional communication in those erotic moments. Yeah, and and even if there aren't words to me, you know, you can have totally meaningless sex, it can be fun, but the best sex to me has meaning, it has communication. And to take that out of the story is just unnatural to me. To me that's not realistic. To go and then the next morning, or even that whole, you know, do you end up having to have all sex confined to certain spaces, certain times, if you can see it as an add-on, whereas to me it's not an add-on, it's part of life and an important part of life to me, and I don't know it won't be important to everyone.
Speaker 3:And I, you know I've questioned all those things in my mind. You know what happens to a Humvee who is asexual? How do we deal with that? I already decided you cannot become a Humvee unless you're over 18. I was just like, okay, I don't know why that's smart, you have to be an adult. It's like, yeah, you have to be an adult, it only affects. Adults know viruses can work that way, illnesses can work that way. So yeah, I'm okay with that. But yeah, things like you know what, what happens if, if, if I suppose you know, for example, if you're demisexual, you'd have to have somebody who really loved already, would have to be the one getting you out of that situation.
Speaker 1:That's me. It's like, um, better be dan. Yeah, dan's gone, I'm, yeah, I'm being it forever. That's it like yeah, I don't because you guys, because I can no longer form new connections, because I'm a humby right, so like yeah, yeah, yeah if we, if we were both well I guess, yeah, I don't think. Well, yeah, if the partner wasn't demi, then they could get healed.
Speaker 2:And then, yes, and then yeah, yeah could zombies cure each other?
Speaker 3:I don't think so. No, because they don't see each other that way. Okay, humvees, humvees, humvee. Because because, um, in the second one I end up with kind of the concept of kind of packs of humvees, and um, mistress deville is kind of leading a pack, you know they, they instinctively follow her because she, she is, she has that powerful presence, whether humvee or human, um, but you know they, they don't, they don't feel that way about other humvees. In the same way that they can't convert another humvee, they, they, their pussy instinct can't be, can't be directed towards another humvee.
Speaker 1:That's unfortunate if I was a humvee yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Let's hope this never happens I hope so I.
Speaker 1:But again, you know, I'm like you, I would choose the humvee apocalypse over our current political situation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so going back, like were you always a smart writer, or when did that start for you?
Speaker 3:Well, I used to write. I am so old, I used to write letters and I used to write letters to boyfriends and therefore I used to write erotica. And I'd be sat on a train writing what I hoped would turn on somebody that I knew I wasn't going to get to see for some time and and I knew I enjoyed that kind of writing and I always thought I wanted to do that when I retired. And I kept putting it off yeah, I'll do that when I've retired. And I then I got to the point I was like well, who knows if I'll ever retire, who knows if I'll be that old any day, you know you just don't know these things um, yeah, you know I I can't.
Speaker 3:I got to the I can't keep waiting stage and I'm like I want especially I know I enjoy writing this way. Yeah, you know, he's it, it's it. Once I start writing it just feels so good and it feels it feels like a part of me that I've I've suppressed for a long time. Um, and it's, you know, it's just really good to to, because I think, because I I studied um literature at university and I think I was kind of overwhelmed by how well other people wrote. And you get to that feeling of, well, if I can't write as well as them, why am I writing? Or you end up feeling pretentious while you're writing, and I think that's what's wonderful about writing erotica is I can never feel too pretentious because it's erotica.
Speaker 3:And I can never feel too silly because it's erotica, and I can never feel too anything because it's erotica, not because erotica doesn't matter to me it does, but just because as a genreica doesn't matter to me it does, but just because, as as a genre, you know, I I don't have to do it one way or another and I, you know, I think that's the great thing about being able to self-publish I can, as long as I keep within amazon's rules, which, uh, they're to protect them from losing business. Um, I can write whatever, and if I want to break their rules, I can find somewhere else that lets me break their rules, yeah.
Speaker 2:You know, I the same reason that you describe why you write erotica, is the same reason why I write zombie apocalypse. I think that in both of them are like perfect backdrops for any type of story you want to tell, okay, yeah, are like perfect backdrops for any type of story you want to tell, um, okay, yeah. I think you've proven that by combining both erotic stories and the zombie apocalypse into the same genre. Like you you're telling, you're telling a story that's not about going out and bashing humby heads, but, like you've, told us about like bashing it.
Speaker 1:You know, banging each other. It's so much more than both of those.
Speaker 2:No, yeah, it's deeper than that and you told the story that you wanted to with both of those things and that's that's like a perfect example of that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thank you and also on the note of like being worried about writing. I just want to say to you that that and I wish I forgot to bring the book down here in our little zombie bunker that we recorded and otherwise I'd read the part for you. But I'll just say briefly there's a part where you describe exactly what really special sex feels like and it's actually experienced, where you see things and I'd never seen anybody write that down and I felt so seen and also like okay, this is a thing that other people experience.
Speaker 1:That was really powerful for me.
Speaker 3:I find it really hard because I don't write romance, I write erotica because my experience of love is so intense. I don't feel people would believe it and I feel, you know, I've read so many things that go, oh, this is unrealistic, nobody does this. And you're like my life? And people go, ah, instant love? You can't have instant love, that's not real.
Speaker 2:And you're like, oh yeah, love at first sight Isn't real.
Speaker 1:All these rules we create for each other that are just arbitrary or like because Somebody else Hasn't experienced it.
Speaker 3:I, I, I, I, I. I hasn't experienced it. I worry for the younger generations, in that they're trying to say only these very set things are love. That's infatuation, that's not love, that's this, that's not love, and it's like well, why, why not just go? It's all love, and it's not necessarily forever and it's not necessarily always combined with other things that are good, but it can still be loved.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And I just feel like trying to to limit what we call love is is is limiting human experience. You know it's. It doesn't make much sense to me, yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean same same in all aspects of life, like anybody to me. Um, yeah, I mean same same in all aspects of life like anybody. I've always felt that anybody that tells me that there is one specific way to do something, to experience something, to see the world in a certain way, um they're. They're just too short-sighted to see other possibilities. They're they're just going to be.
Speaker 3:Yeah I think it's that, it's, um, I'd see it as a lack of imagination in lots of things and I think I think a lot of the isms come from that, that that lack of imagination of of what somebody else's life might be like yes um, and and and I.
Speaker 3:I don't really understand that lack of imagination um, not to yourself, and that other person's shoes, that empathy and imagination that is to me part of being a human, and how people either lose that or don't gain it. I find that quite fascinating. Or they narrow it down into just their in-group.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's what I I was gonna say was just like. What you're describing is exactly why we have. I think people aren't calling them turfs anymore. It's something different now. I don't know if you know, but you know what I'm talking about trans. I think there was somebody made it the word fart or something funny, and I can't remember yeah, yeah stands for now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, but regardless, or just anybody who's grown up in a world that sees heterosexual cis marriage for life in a deeply Christian context, for example which is a very big thing here in the United States just cannot imagine that there could be anything different. Therefore, there can't be anything different, and I think that I never thought of it as a lack of imagination. So that really reframed some things for me. I think about like I used to teach for those who listen, they know this, but for your sake, I used to teach anthropology in Augusta, georgia, in the South, and there were these interesting moments where I could see just because I was talking about different cultures and they did things differently, I could see people's brains light up.
Speaker 1:And I could also see when they would shut down poly, when, like something I would share would just so fundamentally push against. What they've been told is a rule, and it is a rule that cannot be broken, Otherwise you're bad, and I could like watch some people in my class get really uncomfortable and I I'd never thought about the fact that they'd been trained to not have an imagination. That's like yes, I've stated I think, yeah, I, I find it.
Speaker 3:I think our turfs are potentially worse, but also a lot of them really see that then they did not start out right wing. Yeah, I think that really is the difference they, they, they're not, they're not, they will not be likely to be christian, particularly. That's not part of what's going on there for us. I think it, it really it's. It feels like they missed a bit of of the time I went through.
Speaker 3:You know the times when I, when I was first meeting trans people in the 90s, you know it's like, yeah, because that's that's when I was a teenager, um, and, and you know, getting they, I kind of always hoped it was people a little bit older than me, but I don't think it necessarily is. It's just people who hadn't had those those experiences, hadn't met those people. And it was one of a close friend who who now we seem to have fortunately ghosted one another. She was so confident that when she told me she'd been to her MP to complain about trans women being in the bathrooms, that I would agree with her. And this is quite some time ago now.
Speaker 3:I don't think we solved that already. And the weirdest thing is it's just here. I hear terrible stories about American toilets having too many gaps in them and stuff. It's not like that here at all. You know, we've got cubicles, we really have solid cubicles. Oh my God, it's the future. There's no privacy.
Speaker 1:Whenever? I go places like that I'm always really happy, but it's rare here. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:It's the norm here and sometimes it's, you know, know, literally like concreted ceiling to floor. You know, you're like, oh wow, how did somebody import that fear from the states when our reality is so different? Um, and, and it's it is, it is so so strange. I, uh, I, I don't get it and I just hope it's the stage that we get over, but it just doesn't feel like the politics going that way and I'm like my utopia. I want Because I remember this feeling as a teenager as well, as I read different sci-fi. You had the utopias and the dystopias and I'd be reading them one after the other other, because I read quite a lot of science fiction as a teenager and you'd just be like, well, can we go towards one of these utopias please? Can we please, truly? And it's yeah, and it's just watching, watching modern politics, and going, oh, I know there has to be backlashes. Let's just hope these are mini backlashes and we're actually making progress towards a world where people can be themselves without other people getting upset by it.
Speaker 2:You know, um, yeah, well, the yeah, I don't, I I don't want to like distill it to left or right, but like, just for the sake of like our understanding of how things work in this day and age, things are left and right. There is, like this binary that we talk about, um, but historically, and I think this is true that, like, when you measure progress in society, it's always, it's always heading left and heading right is always like a like.
Speaker 2:That's not. That's not what we look at in the history books and say, yeah, yeah, that's where we went. Right, that was a good idea.
Speaker 3:It's always a bad idea.
Speaker 2:When you like, really read history, you realize that it's. You know, there is, there is a direction of progress, and it's about being being more compassionate.
Speaker 1:I hope so yeah.
Speaker 1:I'll tell you I can't think about the longterm of things, cause I I don't know if I believe in the concept of progress, like I'm not sure that things are just always getting better or always getting worse. I think it's always more complicated than that, and what gets me hopeful is like discovering someone like you who we would never know, um, and realizing, like you're out there and you're doing your part, and there's so many of us that are doing our part, and that's why we're not going to. That's why we're not going to, that's why we're not going to ultimately lose, if that makes sense, like there will always be enough of us pushing, yeah, and maybe, maybe in our lifetime we're not going to get basic universal income by topia.
Speaker 2:Um, but yeah, we can get closer, we can try a little bit, or by trying a little bit at least we don't go further in the other direction than we would if we just gave up.
Speaker 1:So, um, I think you're doing your part. Thank you, yeah, through beautiful sex stories.
Speaker 2:Anyway, on the same thank you topic, um kind of you know with, with the political landscape also, like the social media landscape kind of follows the same, the same path, where it's just like it's like these are the things that are acceptable and if you don't follow these rules, we're going to punish you. Um, so what kind of challenges are you facing as a, as an erotica writer, trying to like, write and promote your stories?
Speaker 3:yeah, it's, it's awkward because, you know, I don't want under 18s reading my books, really, which is why I ended up, uh, putting a little 18 symbol on book and then, like maybe a couple of days before or days after I released it, that became the big deal on on Bookstagram. Was the fact we shouldn't have to do that. Yeah, interesting and I'm like, but, but I have a cartoon cover. That's really cartoon. Okay, it has the word sex. It has the word sex in the middle of it, but, but you know, I'm just like, I just, you know I am writing for over 18s. Yeah, and um, I, I am absolutely useless at creating anything that tiktok will show to somebody who's not my follower.
Speaker 3:I wait, I just don't seem to be able to do it well I can't even get to my followers well, a few of them at least. You know it's like to get it into the um fyp thing. It's just like you, I, if I show any bare skin, no, if I um, obviously no rude words. You have to do weird things to them to make them harder to read. Um, if you, if you use um cat cuts, um, no, um, and it's just like. That's why I ended up on instagram.
Speaker 3:So I had to play with tiktok and I'm just like I put effort into that and now nobody gets to see it and it's awkward because, you know, tiktok is apparently a better place for actually generating interest than Instagram, but on Instagram, it's very much only the people who follow me who get to see anything I create. That's really annoying. It is, and it's like 200 views, 300 views, 100 views, whatever, but it's all people who've already know what I'm up to and it's nice when they appreciate it and it's lovely having little chats and so on and I, you know I really enjoy all of that, but it's like I'd like more people to be able to see it too, something.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, it's tricky. I'm I'm currently seeing I like my preferred social media is like micro blogging, so like Twitter, and then threads became like a thing that I really got into when when that launched, and now threads is kind of like going the same direction, where it's like it's less about boosting you and more about holding you back. Yeah, yeah, now I'm making yet another shift into blue sky, and then you know, yeah, I made my account yesterday, oh yay, I'm making mine too.
Speaker 1:We're gonna follow you yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I've got like 10 followers on blue sky and I'll get three times the engagement that I do on threads where I have 3,500 followers.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I think so. I with threads. I started and I was like Ooh, no, I kind of. I. I looked quite, quite hard to begin with and the way threads works, you, you, it gives you followers while you're lurking, you don't have to post and it decides oh, this person's following you. Yeah, it's weird, yeah, it's a very odd system. So you get that, what's the right word? You get that buzz out of the fact that more and more people are following you without having done anything yet, and it's most bizarre. And then they boost your very first post.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's most bizarre.
Speaker 3:And then they boost your very first post, yeah, so I held out until I'd worked this out and I my my first post was um, I think the cover of um the humby hunters, and yeah, it got some likes and and so on and some views and since then, I think about seven people see each post. Yeah, it's like you know, it's it's know. I enjoy threads a lot. I think I enjoy the fact it's text-based because I am comfortable that way and I don't have to scroll through loads of videos in order to interact with people. And my first attempt at turning on Blue Sky it's like. I apologize, it's men, men, men men.
Speaker 3:The front page I'm getting. It takes scroll, scroll, scroll until I see anything by a woman and it's, you know, not that men don't have something to say, but you know, it just felt rather unbalanced from that point of view and I'm not quite sure how to hone that so that I get to see a mix of different people, like I've already managed to hone it in instagram and in threads so that I get a variety of voices.
Speaker 2:Um, that's unfortunately the same, yeah, the same way, which is like following and liking and doing all that stuff. But yeah, at the same time, it's like getting started is tough, because they're like do you want to see something from this famous man? I'm like, no, I yeah, yeah, I don't need any more broad pit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's on blue sky, but I think broad pit's like my yeah stereotype I like to pick on. So, paulie, I'm loving this conversation and I want to respect, uh, your time. I know we're coming up towards the end of it. I have one more question for you. Um, before we okay, before you share with us where people can find you. Um, do you know much about bonobos and how they solve conflicts?
Speaker 3:no, I don't. They're the ones with the funny noses, aren't they?
Speaker 1:bonobos look like chimps and they're just slightly more closely related to us than chimpanzees oh, okay so the reason why I wanted to ask you about bonobos is because, bonobos, the way that they solve conflict is sex. They're just fucking each other all the time and I was like I was wondering if this was like only sex can save us, with some sort of nod to our relative the bonobo but I think you would really enjoy reading about them, because that's what they do.
Speaker 1:They just like we have a conflict. I think we need to fuck it out. That's how we fix things. Yeah, it's amazing. That sounds a good, a good system so where can people find you um poly and what's next for you in the humbies?
Speaker 3:um, well, it's uh, polymorphously um across all the different things. I put things mainly on Kindle Unlimited so far. And yeah, I do have Reem, but I haven't really put much up there yet. And yeah, instagram, tiktok, facebook I don't really use, but I have a Facebook account as well, but yeah, mostly Instagram, I would say, and Threads I use most.
Speaker 1:And put all of those show notes, yeah, and blue sky. Well, add your blue sky, maybe you'll get some more women. Yeah, from this episode yeah yeah yeah, I hope I can think of a couple yeah well, I just want to say thank you, um, for bringing such a lovely, sexy satire to life in a time when, honestly, I needed it more than I expected when we first started chatting back in September, and really appreciate you joining us on Zombie Book Club. This was a lot of fun. Please keep writing zombie erotica.
Speaker 3:It's been great fun, thank you.
Speaker 2:What a great interview, leah. Now that we are after the interview and we're recording this part now- it really was.
Speaker 1:It's funny. I also just recorded the content warning that we're going to put at the beginning of this and as I was thinking about it, I'm like it's true. When I first heard about this story I was like, okay, that'll be funny and it'll be sexy. And then the evidence is in this interview. Like the story is so much more. There's a lot happening in terms of dreaming of a better future, political commentary, deep connection and love. It's wonderful.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Ideas of consent yeah, really thoughtful After zombieism.
Speaker 1:Yeah, worth listening to, for sure. I hope you all enjoyed it as much as we did. You can get the zombie re-erection Only Sex Can Save Us on Kindle and you can get it on Amazon, and I highly recommend that you give Polymorphously a follow on Instagram. Sounds like they also have a Blue Sky, so go check them out over there, especially if you're a woman.
Speaker 2:Give Poly a reason to stay on Blue Sky.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and please go get their book.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and the sequel? Yeah, we need to read the sequel. We need to read the sequel.
Speaker 1:We're going to be purchasing that you can get them in hard copy too, which we got a hard copy of zombie reerection.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, it's a. It's a short story, so, like you can, you can breeze through it and it's great.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 45 seconds or 45 seconds. That's how long the book takes. I mean, that's how long some Whoa, my joke just died there.
Speaker 2:That's how long some people last Funny joke I'm just saying Big thanks to Polymorphously for coming on to the podcast. It's really amazing to meet authors of all kinds. Like if you asked me two years ago if I was going to be talking to a smut writer for writing inspiration, I'd say I'm already doing that Because I have a friend who writes smut who won't tell me what their pen name is.
Speaker 1:But now you have a whole other smut writer who's like someone to look up to. An incredible writer, yeah. I got a lot of, a lot of very interesting ideas, tips, life experiences from this podcast, so I, I, uh, I really enjoyed this interview yeah, and I would say one more thing if you really don't want the erotic part of it, you could actually read the intro and the outro and still enjoy some of the world building that polly did there is an amazing amount of world building that I was not expecting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, um. So next month we're going to be diving into the non-essentials by z martin brown, um, and I believe we have a an interview planned with with z mr z himself we do.
Speaker 1:We're actually talking to him uh way back in the past when this comes out we're going to the first, but the episode is coming out way into the future, in january, because it's now, which is now when you're listening to this, because we figured y'all might be busy in the couple, you know, the last couple weeks of december. So I wanted to make sure it was during a time where you'd have more space to listen to the awesome author, zachary Martin Brown. So stay tuned for that and go check out Z Martin Brown on Instagram. Go get the book, the non-essentials, so that you can follow along with us when we're having a conversation with them. We're going to be reading it very soon.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't remember what it's about, but I do remember, when I heard the elevator pitch, that I was like that sounds amazing and it's exactly what I want from a zombie story.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're going to be reading it together this week on my week off, which is Thanksgiving week in the United States.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Make sure to join the zombie horde. If you listen to this, you're already infected, so maybe it's just a matter of time before you join the horde. But anyways, why don't you just give in? Just give in, yeah, let the virus take over your ear holes. That's what I've been trying to tell people grow a giant cucumber like a pendant cucumber and join the horde. We would love to connect with you on a deeper way, the way that only zombies can yeah, I want this space to be a conversation.
Speaker 1:I know it's us like in your ear holes for an hour and a half most weeks, but I love chatting with people who are listening. Some of my favorite people on the absolute planet now are folks we've met through the podcast.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we have all of our links. They're down there in the description. We have a link tree. We also have other links. Mostly, you can find us on Instagram at zombie book club podcast. That's the main place we are, but who knows where we'll be in the future.
Speaker 1:But the real chat is going down in brain munchers. Zombie collective discord.
Speaker 2:There are conversations happening in the discord. It's true.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a fun time over there. So if you're a discord fan, check it out. And, in the meantime, if you want to rock yourself some zombie merch Meantime, if you want to rock yourself some zombie merch, check out our store for zombie shirts and stickers. I've been drawing these very silly little zombies that we're going to turn into stickers.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and there'll be more to coming soon. I'm going to be making some stuff soon, now that I'm off of work. Spoiler alert.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and last but not least, if you are an author yourself and you would like to send us a voice recording or a voice message of you talking about what your book's about for like three minutes, we'll put it on air for our elevator pitch segment. We really love those. Yeah, you can send it at 614-699-0006.
Speaker 2:Um, it's a, it's a voicemail, we're not gonna pick up now we let it go to voicemail.
Speaker 1:It's a google voicemail. I don't even know somebody called until it doesn't even ring.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I guess if we were logged in, maybe it would.
Speaker 1:I don't know yeah, if you really want to get a hold of us, the best place is the discord or dms and instagram. I tried to be a quick email responder and failed. Yeah, speaking of which you?
Speaker 2:could email us at zombie book club podcast at gmailcom.
Speaker 1:leah will not respond I will well, in a timely manner, pretty much anywhere. Now I'm slow to respond because I have this thing called a day job that I have to focus on Gross. I know and I do. I actually like my job. I'm grateful for what I do. How did you even bring up the J word? I'm so sorry, I'm just being realistic that I just always want to say to people if I don't respond to you right away, it's not you.
Speaker 2:It's me, but uh, thanks for listening everyone. We really appreciate everybody who uh gives their support, gives us a listen. Um, it means the world to us because, uh, we love zombies and I guess you love zombies too.
Speaker 1:I don't know and we love you we love you.
Speaker 2:We do uh with with all of our hearts all of our undead hearts. Undead hearts, yes, but you know the end is nigh.
Speaker 1:Bye-bye, bye-bye.
Speaker 2:Don't die.
Speaker 1:Or do, but then come back undead. Yeah, you can do that. I think it's done now, bye.
Speaker 2:Bye.
