Issue 37: Robo Waitress Assassins, workshops, and pre-orders!
Marching forward, as we do.
Mostly because marching backward would be extra difficult.
And we are very tired.
NEW STUFF
Let’s finally talk about our Joy Who Lived theater festival performance of our pilot, Robo Waitress Assassins!
It was a truly magnificent experience. Our cast was so, so good, the audience seemed really into it, and it’s the first time we’ve done any kind of live show.
When we write for television, it takes over a year to come out, and we watch it at home and look up reactions online after. It’s the same with comics, or with Long Away (outside of the few times we’ve been present at a screening with an audience).
The immediate feedback and reactions of people who are right there experiencing your story for the first time was just incredible. Hearing them laugh when we wanted them to was amazing. Hearing them laugh at times we hadn’t anticipated getting a laugh was wild! Talking with people right after the show and hearing their thoughts, and how it impacted them, what surprised them… it was just really special. This is how people get addicted to performing, isn’t it? It’s kind of a rush.
Our amazingly talented friend J. W. Hendricks came to the show and surprised us with photos he took during the performance! He’s the sweetest. Here’s a few more of his shots!
We definitely want to try to be part of the festival again next year, whether it be with another pilot reading or something new we write just for the stage. It was such an amazing experience, to be able to get our story out there without any cishet gatekeepers forcing us to mute it, subdue it, or change it because its inherent queerness and transness made them uncomfortable.
And to then perform it for an audience of queer and trans people, in a space where we all knew we were safe? And to be able to say “this story is for you”? Just an incredible thing.
Of course it’s for cisgender heterosexual people too, but to not be made to change it to suit that audience over the community that we belong to? It’s everything.
If you watched the livestream you couldn’t see this, but on the sides of the theater near the stage, they hung photos of trans people in history, our ancestors who came before under even more restrictive conditions, but persevered as best they could. And they also hung photos of trans artists, because this festival is all about supporting trans art.
And look what was up on that wall.
WE were up on that wall!
That’s a photo of us taken at last year’s Joy Who Lived festival! At one of the parties after a show they had a pro photographer who set up a photo booth, and they took our photo, printed it, framed it, and hung it up there.
Our entire hearts have melted.
The entire festival was such a wondrous experience.
There was a small sound issue with the livestream, where audio cut out for about a minute early on. Apologies to anyone watching it live if that affected your enjoyment!
The good news is it was a streaming issue and not a recording issue, so a new version with all the audio was uploaded and the link sent out to everyone who had a streaming ticket. If you didn’t get the link to the new, corrected version, please let us know so we can get it to you!
And you can watch it again, as many times as you want, until April 30!
The Musings of a Middle-Aged Geek blog did a nice writeup of the show, if you want to check it out!
A Middle Aged Geek
And everything we heard from friends and folks who posted on social media after streaming it was overwhelmingly positive. We’re so delighted that it connected with folks!
We know this photo from our WonderCon Long Away panel was in last week’s newsletter, but we love it so much you get to see it again!
We’ve received word on the footage from the panel, which is being processed, and we should have it soon!
This is a little more than half of the attendees of the Pilots and Pitching workshop that Tilly ran as part of the Joy Who Lived’s workshop week. Some of the attendees weren’t comfortable being photographed, which is common for trans folks (Tilly has been there).
It seemed to go really well, and hopefully they all feel like they better understand things and have the tools to tackle them!
A lot of people have lamented that they weren’t in LA to attend the class, or asked if we might do a virtual one, so… we’re doing one!
If you’re queer/trans/nonbinary/gender nonconforming, and want to learn about writing television pilots and pitching projects, sign up! There’s limited space because we want to be sure everyone has time to ask questions and get them answered. Only ten bucks!
We were on the TrekCulture podcast to talk a little about Star Trek Voyager: Homecoming, and also Star Trek in general. If you want to find out what we’d throw out of Trek entirely, or what our Hot Takes on Trek are, definitely have a listen.
We were also on the Part-Time Fanboy podcast to talk just about Star Trek Voyager: Homecoming, and it’s always a delight to be on that show. So check that out, too!
Kristian
And listen, until preorders close we’re going to keep reminding you that preorders make or break books, so if please direct yourselves to the two books we have out this August:
Star Trek Voyager: Homecoming, the complete series collected in a trade paperback!
Doug Moench
And our YA queer trans romcom, Just Another Summer, available in paperback and hardcover!
WHAT WE’RE WORKING ON
We had to do a last minute, short turn-around pitch for… a thing we can’t tell you about, that’s related to the one graphic novel we finished writing in 2024 that still hasn’t been announced yet.
We’ve been told this book is looking at a first-quarter 2027 release, so you truly should be seeing the announcement for it any time now! We’re very excited, it’s Decidedly Cool…
We also revised the Robo Waitress Assassins pilot, based on the live show! No script survives contact with actors, by which we mean seeing talented, living human beings bring your characters and world to life will invariably change things (for the better).
As we moved through the RWA rehearsals, we found lines that weren’t working, wording that needed to be changed, and a way to deepen some parts based on what the actors did while performing. And we liked those tweaks for the live show so much, we wanted to keep them and have them in the actual pilot script that our manager sends out to try and get us staffing gigs (and pitch meetings, because we really would love to make that show).
We also revised one of our graphic novel proposals based on what our new literary agent needed, which included picking artists (and including art samples) that we felt had a style that would be a good fit for the book.
We’re waiting to hear back on notes for that, and then we’ll make any needed tweaks and they’ll take it out to publishers! Very exciting. The first project of ours they’re taking out is the one we have that we’re the most excited about, because it would be the most fun to write.
Back to crossing all your fingers and toes for us, please!
TRANS TUESDAY UPDATE
Trans Tuesdays had two installments in a row with terrible titles, despite them being important things to talk about. But sometimes there’s just nothing better to call a thing, so…
We discussed DISCRIMINATORY BUREAUCRACY, and how so much of the world is set up by and for cis people, and to not even acknowledge that trans people exist, that it can cause all kinds of difficulties and roadblocks that you might not expect.
And then we discussed INCLUSIVE BUREAUCRACY, and how it’s actually really easy to have systems set up to help trans people, if you want to.
RECOMMENDATIONS
We’ve all heard of the Luddites, and it’s still a common shorthand for someone who “doesn’t like” technology. But that definition does serious disservice to the Luddites, who were actually some bad ass mofos who put their lives on the line while trying to save their industry.
This book goes into how far reaching and how big the Luddite movement really was, how entire communities of people were destroyed by the new technology being brought in (which was inferior), and how people were starving to death as their livelihoods were completely stripped away while the government did absolutely nothing to protect them. To read this book today definitely resonates in unexpected (and let’s face it, some expected) ways. Many, many people fought very hard, and scored some real victories over a long period of unrest. While some sections that pulled from more dramatized sources were a little over the top, it’s a sobering read.
THE DIRTBAG DISPATCH
Izzy tried to swat Artemis II out of the sky during launch, but thankfully her attempts were unsuccesful.
Henry, meanwhile, wants you to know all he thinks about is wrecking your shit, and it’s so good it curls his toes.
WHAT’S IN THE BIG TIME?
Big Time issue 37 talks about what goes into being a good panel moderator, which is something altogether different from being a panelist. And how it’s your job to be sure things don’t go south! We’ve also got exclusive character concept art from Robo Waitress Assassins!
Sign up for it at birdguestbroadcast.com and help us pay rent and eat food and stuff!
THE END
Hire us to make Robo Waitress Assassins.
Please?
It’ll be, like, so good. We promise.
SOCIALS
