Well that was a busy day. Huge thanks to Stephanie Saulter for being a fabulous guest on the show. I seem to have monopolized most of the two hours this week. Here’s what went down.

The first half hour was all about Stephanie. We talked about her trip home to Jamaica to launch Gemsigns. We talked about her experiences at the Nine Worlds convention over the weekend. And we talked about the current state of affairs in Jamaica, which ranged from the economy to Usain Bolt and Chris Gayle to the horrific transphobic murder of Dwayne Jones.

The Nine Worlds coverage include shout outs for Hal Duncan, Rochita Loenen-Ruiz, Tade Thompson and quite likely a few other people. I also got in a mention of the fabulous new @WritersofColour Twitter account, and my friend Nikesh Shukla, who has a great article on their blog today about how brown people get used in movies.

In the second half hour I talked to Hannah Lawton, a young Bristol lady who, with her friend Jessie Van Beck, will be rowing across the Atlantic for charity this December. This is part of the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge. You can read more about Hannah and Jessie, and why they are undertaking this grueling challenge, here.

The first hour of the show is now available as a podcast here.

Hour two begins with the Lighter Look at Life segment, which this week was all about proverbs and grammar and, well, it rambled a bit. And I think we might have got a bit confused between Axioms and Maxims. Stephanie and I both feature.

Then after 15 minutes we have the Woman of the Week slot, in which I talk to Stephanie about her life, her amazing family, and how a girl from Jamaica with what might have been the best job in the world ended up in the UK and becoming a science fiction writer.

Finally we have 15 minutes on summer reading, including Jackie’s kids being charming about their love for Harry Potter and The Hunger Games. Between us Stephanie and I managed to recommend Nalo Hopkinson, Ian McDonald, Karen Lord, Juliet McKenna, Jon Grimwood and the whole of the World Fantasy Awards Best Novel ballot.

The second half hour is available as a podcast here.