Host Fortunus Games reviews one of her favorite books, Philip Roth's "The Counterlife." She had previously reviewed it with co-host Tete DePunk in 2021 (Episode 70 of this podcast) (https://youtu.be/i9GJ2lkSlRs?si=HzzHUQMJxh1KBsR5), but she wants to give a more streamlined summary and review of the book in this episode. Listen to find out why she gave the book 4/5 stars. “The Counterlife” is one of Philip Roth’s lesser known works. Written in 1986, it is the fourth novel to feature Roth’s fictional novelist, Nathan Zuckerman. A string of "what-ifs," this novel explores the thin line between reality and fiction and the role of fiction in writers' lives. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fortunus-games/message Listen on Anchor: https://anchor.fm/fortunus-games Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/19SSgimyWNltGafK88wxQU?si=63ee4f80ebeb4a93

In this episode, host Fortunus Games reviews one of her favorite books, Orhan Pamuk's "My Name is Red." Set in 16th century Ottoman Empire, this book is a murder mystery at its core. The first chapter is from the perspective of a court artist who was murdered, and you have to read through the book to discover who murdered him. There’s a dizziying kaleidoscope of perspectives, including the perspective of a dog and who you could call the protagonists of this work, Black (an administrator who has returned to Istanbul after 12 years abroad) and Shekure, a widow who wants to find a new husband and father for her two boys after her soldier husband went missing four years ago. Besides its beautiful descriptions of artworks and the political and religious consequences of switching from one art style to another, "My Name is Red" is a riveting read due to Pamuk's ekphrastic writing. Ekphrastic writing describes artworks, and Pamuk uses it effectively to explore history, politics, and human psychology. Listen to this episode to see why I gave this book 4/5 stars. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fortunus-games/message Listen on Anchor: https://anchor.fm/fortunus-games Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/19SSgimyWNltGafK88wxQU?si=63ee4f80ebeb4a93

Host Fortunus Games reviews Frictional Games' SOMA (2015), a sci-fi horror game that really touched her when she played it in 2016. Find out why she gives the game 4/5 stars. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fortunus-games/message Listen on Anchor: https://anchor.fm/fortunus-games Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/19SSgimyWNltGafK88wxQU?si=63ee4f80ebeb4a93

Fortunus Games, the host of this podcast, reviews one of her favorite books, Philip Roth’s “American Pastoral.” This book explores how an all-American athlete, veteran, and business owner's life falls apart when his daughter becomes a radical anti-war protestor. A critique of the American dream and the dangers of conventionalism, "American Pastoral" is the first of Roth's American Trilogy and is followed by "I Married a Communist" and "The Human Stain." Listen to this episode to find out why Fortunus gave the book 4.5/5 stars. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fortunus-games/message Listen on Anchor: https://anchor.fm/fortunus-games Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/19SSgimyWNltGafK88wxQU?si=63ee4f80ebeb4a93

Today, co-hosts Fortunus Games (a.k.a. Imelda) and Tete DePunk talk to artist and writer Carrie Knowles about her novel, “The Inevitable Past,” which I, TeteDepunk, and R.N. Roveleh have had the pleasure of reading. Check out episodes 211, 212, and 213 for Carrie’s first appearances on this podcast, where she talked about writing fiction, writing non-fiction, and the link between visual art and writing, respectively. Here’s Carrie’s bio: Carrie Knowles is a prolific award-winning author and arts advocate. Along with her nine books, she has published short stories, newspaper and magazine articles, and received numerous awards for her writing. She was named the North Carolina Piedmont Laureate for Short Fiction in 2014. Carrie has published five novels: Lillian’s Garden, Ashoan’s Rug, A Garden Wall in Provence, The Inevitable Past, and A Musical Affair, as well as Black Tie Optional, a collection of 17 of her short stories. Her memoir: The Last Childhood: A Family Story of Alzheimer's, has been described as a “must read” for family members caring for a loved one with Alzheimer’s. During her time as the 2014 Piedmont Laureate, conducting writing workshops across five counties in North Carolina, she wrote a writing workbook aimed at providing the basic tools a new writer would need to get started: A Self-Guided Workbook and Gentle Tour on Learning How to Write Stories from Start to Finish. She writes a personal perspectives column for Psychology Today, Shifting Forward, and has recently published a collection of the first 50 stories from her column titled: Shifting Forward: Fifty Reflections on Everyday Life. To learn more about Carrie, go to her website: www.cjanework.com (http://www.cjanework.com) As for her novel, “The Inevitable Past,” which is the focus of this podcast, it was published in 2020 by Owl Canyon Press. It is a story of two women: a grandmother and a granddaughter who never knew her, and a timely look at women’s right to vote and have a voice. It challenges the notion of who we are and what compels us to make life-changing decisions. Tete and I asked Carrie the following questions: How did you develop a ghost as a strong interactive character? Most stories with ghosts are “ghost stories.” How did we, the readers, feel about the grandmother’s ghost? How was it like to publish a story that is out of the “normal” realm of what is popular in publishing today? Did it make it harder to pitch your work? Balancing a multiple-perspective story can be daunting. Especially when working first-person POV. How did you tackle that challenge? Tied in with the previous question: how would you advise writers, if they’re writing a multiple POV story, to keep each voice consistent? You did an amazing job keeping each voice of the granddaughter, the grandmother, and the Matron, respectively distinct from each other, yet unified these narratives into a complete story. The pacing is well-balanced, too. How do you know when to focus on a chapter, and when to move on, for pacing? What type of research did you have to do to create this story? When is it appropriate to research to incorporate historical facts into fiction? Buy “The Inevitable Past” from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B088JQYJ7G/ref=x_gr_bb_amazon?ie=UTF8&tag=x_gr_bb_amazon_ca-20&linkCode=as2&camp=15121&creative=330641 (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B088JQYJ7G/ref=x_gr_bb_amazon?ie=UTF8&tag=x_gr_bb_amazon_ca-20&linkCode=as2&camp=15121&creative=330641) --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fortunus-games/message Listen on Anchor: https://anchor.fm/fortunus-games Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/19SSgimyWNltGafK88wxQU?si=63ee4f80ebeb4a93

Today, co-host Tete DePunk reviews a game that had a large impact on her, Journey (2012) by thatgamecompany. Listen to find out why she loved it! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fortunus-games/message Listen on Anchor: https://anchor.fm/fortunus-games Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/19SSgimyWNltGafK88wxQU?si=63ee4f80ebeb4a93

Co-hosts Tete DePunk and Fortunus Games explore the themes explored in Dear Esther, a 2013 video game created by the acclaimed English video game company, The Chinese Room. Dear Esther explores the process of grief and emotional transcension through a vague character reflecting on the loss of his wife. Throughout the game, as the character reveals through mystic soliloquies of science and religious reveries, that the accident is indirectly their own fault. This adds another weight of guilt into the mix of grief and loss. The game lacks much interaction. Instead, the player is left with no choice, but whisked into the immersion of being drawn across the harsh landscape of a desolate, scrub-bush island. The lack of choice is fatalism played out, much like the character forced to process their own loss and realize, life, like death, is inevitable in its juggernaut of events. Fortunus and Tete ask each other the following questions to discuss Dear Esther: What do you think the game’s story is? What do you think of the biblical references? Do you consider this a game, since it is just a walking simulator with no action or puzzles? What can this kind of game offer that other types of game cannot offer? What do we make of how the character processes grief? The ending is somewhat vague. Does the character kill themselves and ascend spiritually? Or somehow transcends beyond death? Is this a good ending? What can we learn from Dear Esther? --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fortunus-games/message Listen on Anchor: https://anchor.fm/fortunus-games Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/19SSgimyWNltGafK88wxQU?si=63ee4f80ebeb4a93

Host Fortunus Games reviews a book by one of her favorite authors, Orhan Pamuk - “Silent House.” Written in 1983, “Silent House” is Pamuk’s second novel. It tells the story of three siblings - Faruk, a historian, Nilgun, a sociology student who sympathizes with leftists, and Metin, a high school nerd - visiting their grandmother Fatma in a small town near Istanbul. Unfortunately, Fortunus Games didn't really enjoy this book and gave it 2/5 stars. Find out why. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fortunus-games/message Listen on Anchor: https://anchor.fm/fortunus-games Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/19SSgimyWNltGafK88wxQU?si=63ee4f80ebeb4a93