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Welcome to the RPS Xmas Special 2024! We take a look at some of the best seasonal books like Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol", movies like Lethal Weapon (!), and all the classic music we enjoy at this time of year. Like "Wassail The Night Away"! We also discuss the possibility of us collaborating on a Christmas novella TOGETHER in 2025...

It's a fun, if slightly rambling and disjointed episode, but hey, it's Christmas. God bless us, everyone.

The History Quill Convention 2025

https://thehistoryquill.com/convention-2025/

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Jane Johnson is from Cornwall and has worked in the book industry for 30 years as a bookseller, publisher and writer. For many years she was responsible for publishing the works of JRR Tolkien, and later worked on Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, spending months in New Zealand with cast and crew (she wrote the official visual companions to the films). The authors she publishes include George R.R. Martin, Dean Koontz, Robin Hobb, Mark Lawrence and Raymond E Feist.

While she was in Morocco in 2005 to research The Tenth Gift she met her soon-to-be husband, a Berber tribesman from a village in the Anti-Atlas Mountains. Returning home, she gave up her office job in London, sold her flat and shipped the contents to Morocco and they were married later that year. They now split their time between Cornwall and Morocco, and Jane still works remotely as a Fiction Publishing Director for HarperCollins.

We met Jane in Dartington Hall at the HNS Conference back in September and you can listen to that short episode (and watch the video on our Youtube channel), but when we read her CV, we knew we had to get her back for a full episode.

Welcome back to RPS, Jane Johnson!

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Matthew Harffy has a new book out on December 5th called Shadows of the Slain. We chat about it in this episode, and you can buy it at the link below!

Buy the book: https://mybook.to/ShadowsOfTheSlain

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Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/RockPaperSwordsPodcast Dr Ian Mortimer is best known as the Sunday Times-bestselling author of the four Time Traveller's Guides - to Medieval England, Elizabethan England, Restoration Britain and Regency Britain - as well as four critically acclaimed medieval biographies, a prize-winning novel and several other titles. His books have been translated into sixteen languages. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. He has been described by The Times as 'the most remarkable medieval historian of our time'. He lives in Devon, where Steven and I met him recently at the Historical Novel Society Conference. We had a lovely chat with him there and you can listen to that episode or even watch the video on our YouTube channel. But we didn’t have time for a full episode and there were so many more questions we wanted to ask, so we are delighted to have Ian back on the podcast.

Welcome back to RPS, Ian!

Useful links: https://www.ianmortimer.com/

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https://mybook.to/HereticPriory Steven's new winter novella is out today! Well, it's actually TWO stories in one collection - The Heretic of Haltemprice Priory is the main story, a novella that sees Tuck, Will and Little John joining forces again to investigate some eldritch happenings at a medieval priory just before Xmas. The second tale, The Christmas Hunt, features Tuck and John searching for Will who's gone missing after chasing some thieves off his farm during a snowstorm on Xmas Eve.

Find out a little bit more about the stories in this bonus episode and please do buy the new book here: https://mybook.to/HereticPriory

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We're thrilled to welcome a true writing legend to the podcast today, and one of my favourite authors! With a career spanning over four decades, Joe R. Lansdale is the award-winning author of more than 50 novels and countless short stories, spanning horror, crime, westerns, and more. His unique voice, dark humor, and vivid storytelling have earned him fans all over the world, TV series and film adaptations of his work, and numerous accolades, such as the British Fantasy Award, the American Horror Award, the Edgar Award, and eleven Bram Stoker Awards!

Most recently he has published Sugar on the Bones, the latest in the extremely popular Hap and Leonard series, and the movie of his novel, The Thicket, starring Peter Dinklage, Juliette Lewis and James Hetfield has just been released. In October he has a collection of stories coming out entitled: In the Mad Mountains: Stories inspired by H. P. Lovecraft.

Welcome to RPS, Joe R. Lansdale.

Useful links: https://www.joerlansdale.com/

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Last year we released a festive rock song called "Christmas is Coming" (you can find the normal version AND an acoustic version on streaming services) and we had so much fun that we decided to do it again this year.

"Wassail The Night Away" is our best song yet! We hope you all love it and it helps make Christmas 2024 the best one ever. Find it on all major streaming services like Spotify, Amazon Music, iTunes, YouTube etc and add it to your winter playlists!

Support us on Patreon! Our Top Fans and Producers got to hear "Wassail The Night Away" days ago and you too can get bonus content by supporting us and helping us with our running costs from as little as £1 per month!

patreon.com/RockPaperSwordsPodcast

Today we're discussing the master of cosmic horror himself, HP Lovecraft! Author of stories like The Call of Cthulhu, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, The Thing on the Doorstep, and a ton more. Howard Phillips Lovecraft was born on August 20, 1890 and died March 15, 1937 when he was just 46. He's inspired authors like Stephen King and bands like Metallica. Was he any good? Join us this Halloween to find out!

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HPL’s works for FREE online - https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/

“The Case of Charles Dexter Ward” - https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/cdw.aspx

Audible - https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/The-Complete-Fiction-of-HP-Lovecraft-Audiobook/B07NRT2886

Francois Baranger - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dunwich-Horror-Francois-Baranger/dp/1624650775

LOVECRAFTIAN MUSIC:

Sulphur Aeon - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3QYogaCuP8&ab_channel=vanrecords

Ulthar - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBS6giWHZPA&list=OLAK5uy_nJIYHBigjHNxQkChry2S06JNgP9MosXfk&index=2&ab_channel=Ulthar-Topic

Nile - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3iQbAB_yrY&ab_channel=Nile-Topic

Metallica - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vSH9pMzHm0&ab_channel=Metallica-Topic

Morbid Angel - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYACQcg3_Fg&ab_channel=EaracheRecords