Latest / Mythmakers / Behind the Scenes at the Oxford Centre for Fantasy – Part 2: Where Next?

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Behind the Scenes at the Oxford Centre for Fantasy – Part 2: Where Next? · Mythmakers

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  And now here's part two.
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  Find out what the Oxford Centre for Fantasy has planned for you and for the future.
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  And what I'm so delighted to say is that we have actually done far more than I thought.
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  Yes.
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  So the original thought, oh, I wouldn't it be nice to buy the house?
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  You know, it wasn't really very, it was that.
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  That was where I started.
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  But actually, what I've ended up doing is forming a literary centre,
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  which has all sorts of things going on around it,
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  which honors the inklings in very creative ways.
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  So we have online courses for, there's a six week course, which is an introduction.
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  And that is with other writers and editors that give you a sort of groundwork.
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  And then there's an online novel in a year.
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  Course, which has been running for over a year and a couple of classes have gone through that.
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  Again, with other tutors, not just me, not a one man band on that.
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  I've got a whole range of tutors who join me on that.
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  But the idea of holding somebody's hand as they go through a year of producing a fantasy novel.
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  And the reason we wanted to focus down on fantasy is that very often in
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  the master's programmes that you come across,
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  they tend to be more about a literary novel.
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  And genre novels tend to get, I don't know, they're perhaps a bit sniffed at.
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  So people can feel very much at home, they can talk about their love for planetary exploration,
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  because we do sci-fi too, or awkes and elves, you know, whatever it is you're writing about.
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  You're very welcome with us. We will take fantasy seriously and we won't mock it in any way.
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  Because of course, when you look at the great works of literature, these are often fantasy novels.
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  The Tempest, Bear Wolf, the stories within the Canterbury Tales,
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  Frankenstein, you can go on and on and find that actually fantasy is a thread that's run all
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  the way through literature. And I think perhaps maybe at university's people are turning around
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  and teaching fantasy with more honour than they used to. Certainly now it's possible to study
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  Tolkien in a way that it wasn't in the 1980s when I was at college. But still writing it, you should
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  feel well at home if you come one of our courses. We also do in-person courses, so far we've been
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  running them based in colleges. So last year we had one week at Merton College, which was Tolkien's
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  college where he was a professor, and also where he retired and he died in college accommodation.
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  In 1973. And then the second course was in Mordlin, which is obviously CS Lewis's college,
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  but also wonderfully the place where the inklings met most Thursday evenings. And we also had a
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  visit during that one from a very good friend of mine, Simon Horobin, who holds the professorship
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  there, that was CS Lewis's professorship, and he teaches the medieval literature. So it was
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  this you kind of as close as you can get to being by CS Lewis on that course. And on those weeks we go
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  and explore the places which are the sort of real middle-earth inspirations. New Zealand is
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  fabulous, but of course Tolkien never got there. So you visit the villages, the
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  Sehr Mill, which was the inspiration for Hobbiton, the White Horse, which is this amazing iron age
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  geoglyph. A sort of geoglyph is a drawing on a hillside and a barrow, all of those who have read
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  the barrow-white section in Lord of the Rings would sort of know what I'm talking about then.
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  Anyway, so we sort of show how just within a small radius around Oxford were places that
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  were then turned into these fantasy landscapes, which of course is inspiring for people's own
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  home where they come from, what can they do with their own inspirations on their back door.
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  So those courses have limited seats, right? So if someone wants to, and we'll put this in the show
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  notes for everyone, but if someone wants to attend one of the online courses or even the in-person
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  courses, those are seats are limited and they should really go to the website and see, yes.
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  We can't do, I mean it's nice to have smaller cohorts because part of the aspiration is once
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  people have been on one of the courses is they get to know each other and they stay together for
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  like a modern version of the Inklings and there are several groups that just are still running
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  years or years or so later where they meet regularly. We sort of host them, but they do their own
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  thing and they support each other, they hear each other's working progress. One group is already
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  inviting guests, for example. So yeah, that is one of the most joyful things about it and also for
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  me, I've got to know wonderful writers from all over the world who've come through the courses.
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  So I don't think I've got mother, I'm so proud of them all. No, that's awesome. So not only can you
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  take the course, but you get to meet Julie as well. Well, you do get to meet me and that's the
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  downside. Sorry. Can I get a selfie? Can I get a selfie with you if we can? You can. Okay.
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  So we've got, we've got the in-person courses, the online courses for Oxford. Of course,
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  there's all the pictures and information from that. Even some photos of the courses are on the
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  website, Oxford Center for Fantasy.org. The other thing that came out of this is the MythMakers
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  podcast, which we're on right now. Yeah. That's you. That's your friend. Well, it's a, you've
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  had hundreds of episodes and I'm looking at a report on my screen of the top episodes.
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  And I thought I'd I thought I'd mentioned you what the top five episodes were.
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  So if you're not subscribing to the MythMakers podcast, hit that subscribe button wherever you find
• 7:05
  your favorite podcast. But are there any episodes from the last year or two that stand out to you?
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  I know they're probably all amazing. Is there one or two that you say I really enjoyed
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  interviewing that guest or was there a guest you had that that stands out to you?
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  Yeah. So I did a run of interviews with some urban fantasy writers. I don't I feel
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  bit mean picking them out, but I mentioned one. So there's a writer called TA White, who writes a
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  number of series. And I'd come across her just, you know, through I think reading her on Kindle
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  and then read then following her audiobooks. I hadn't realized until I met her. She very kindly
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  agreed to come on the podcast. Just how fascinating her background was. It's one of those times
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  where you meet someone and having read their books, say, oh, right. Because she turned out to have
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  been a service person who had served in Afghanistan. And I suddenly realized that the number of her
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  heroines have this background that they've they've had war experience. And it's reading her work
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  very different from reading somebody who hasn't experienced it. She's very good at the relationship
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  between the equivalent of the truth or the soldiers. So they might be vampires or they might be
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  dragon riders or they might be sort of pathfinders in or somebody is one
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  the firebird chronicles, which is a space story. They're very different. But there is this thread.
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  So for me, that was a complete delight because I thought, oh, you know, now I know, now I understand.
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  So I recommend her books. And as I do the Lisa Redmans and the many other people I talk to in
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  that little phase of talking to authors. So outside my fellow authors, I've enjoyed talking to
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  illustrators. And I've enjoyed talking to cartoonists. You put me in touch with a couple of cartoonists
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  and butchartman who does the fairly odd parents. And of course, the who could forget the creator of
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  well, one of the creators of Scooby Doo. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Well, by me, Squire, Squire Rushnell.
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  Squire Rushnell, that's right. I was a senior moment there. And it's having someone who was involved
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  in the creation of like quite so iconic was amazing. Yeah. So I've really enjoyed
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  ranging outside the writers to talk to other people. I'm always looking for suggestions for guests.
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  And we always reach out. Someone sends in a suggestion. We then do reach out to people.
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  Yes. So if there's, if you, as a listener who have an idea, please send it into our website,
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  Oxford Center for Fantasy.org. And Julia does see every comment that comes in. And she'd love to
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  do that. But here's a couple, here's a couple, I'm looking at the top 10. And this is in in just by
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  by downloads and listens. So interesting. The Andy circus episode about the audio book of Lord
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  of the Rings is our is our most listened to podcasts in the history of myth makers. Then you did
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  a one called Oxford as a fantasy hotspot, where I think you just you laid out what Oxford means to
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  you. And why? And that was number two on the list of podcasts. And then the rings of power
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  released from Amazon Prime. You did first reactions. And that was extremely listened to everyone
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  love that one. And then the last one I'll mention is things you don't know about Tolkien.
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  That was that was yeah. So people, people love that. And then it goes on and on and on.
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  But literally thousands and thousands of listens a week. And so I'm really thankful for those
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  of you who listen. And if you don't subscribe, click that subscribe button and tell a friend.
• 11:21
  Yeah, we don't have any advertising on it. So you won't have to stick through, you know, tedious
• 11:25
  and adverts for, you know, farm fresh food, whatever it is, go daddy. Yeah. So they can give us some,
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  you know, although, yeah, if go daddy like on the roof, that's right.
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  It's just it's definitely aimed at thinking about you. It's actually what the burgeoning
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  of creativity. That's what it's about. Anything that sort of is sparking off ideas. So if you are a writer
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  or thinking about it, it's also good to listen to the stuff from other perspectives like
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  the illustrators and the cartoonists, because I always learn something from listening to people
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  sort of trying to produce something, but in a different medium. Right. Or there's also one with
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  a composer, for example, that's fascinating. Yeah. In fact, the level species podcast episodes are
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  about AI, revolution, the role of artificial intelligence and graphics and writing. And so we
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  won't give away those stories, but people come us into those. Yeah, we definitely haven't got to
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  the bottom of that one. I don't think anyone has, but we did try and approach it sensitively.
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  That's yeah. So what's what's next? What where does Oxford Center for Fantasy go next?
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  Well, of course, the big thing that's happening is this year is the 50th anniversary since talking
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  past away. It's also a 60s since CS Lewis past away. So it's one of those years. And so I'm
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  that we are a charity and we've got three trustees who kind of sit and, you know, check where
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  spending the money where we should and feed in their ideas. And they said, well, what we'd really
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  like you to do is set up a literary prize. So, and I thought, yeah, that's a great idea. So
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  rather than just do here's a lump sum of money well done, I thought what I would really like to
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  give somebody is a path to publication. And through my writing career, I've obviously got
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  contact with quite a few publishers. And I knew that probably the best people to go to are those
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  who actually can care about somebody on a on a on a on a smaller level. So you don't want to go
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  to one of the big publishers because they like supermarkets. You want to go to the corner shop
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  at equivalent. And I've been very impressed by the fantasy output of a London independent publisher
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  called the Pushkin Press. In fact, and they produced one of my favorite novels of the last 10 years
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  called the murderers ape, which is a middle grade grade fantasy with wonderful wonderful illustrations,
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  highly recommended do go and read that. But Daniel Ceton, who I talked to and reviewed many of
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  the books that he's an editor on, I went to him and said, how about joining us for this year.
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  And so we've set up a fantasy prize where there is prize money of £2,000. But really, I'm sure
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  the biggest prize of it all is that you get to be mentored by the Pushkin Press. Hopefully,
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  taking you so that you can go through it to be published at the other end of it. You can't guarantee
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  that because it depends on how well that mentoring process goes. But there is a path there which can be
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  trod if the person who wins this prize wishes to take, you know, that's a real goal. And I would be
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  so delighted if that prize winner then becomes a successful writer. That will be just, you know,
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  that would just be what we want to do. We want to increase the creativity in the world.
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  I have this little talk I give about leaving behind a big creative footprint. We all want small
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  carbon footprints, but we should all aspire to big creative ones. And I'd like to see somebody
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  else's creative footprint grow because of what we have helped them to achieve.
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  So on the website, in the very top menu, it says the fantasy prize. So the Oxford Center for
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  fantasy.org. And you've got to the end of May to submit your manuscript. So that in the end of May
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  of 23. That's right. This is after that. Yeah. And I tell you why.
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  Five weeks time. It's amazing the amount of entries that have come in. So I'm really,
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  there's a lot of interest in this. And I'd say if you're interested in this, click fantasy prize
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  on the menu and on the Oxford website. And you can learn more about that and get your entry in
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  before the end of May of 2023. Yeah. Everyone will have their sample read. And
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  who knows, you know, it's that thing. It could be. Yeah. That's good. So you've got a running
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  topic in all of your podcasts where you choose the best place in all the fantasy world to
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  do something. Yeah. And so for this, for this podcast, since we're all a virtual team and
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  I'm in New York City and you're in, in the United Kingdom. Yeah, I'm just thinking Brian,
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  before we do that, we should just explain who you are. So Brian isn't employed.
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  He's not sitting with me in the Oxford Center for Fantasy. Brian, you are somebody I go to for
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  kind of the marketing and social media support. You know, really, you're much more than that because
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  we talk about ideas and all sorts of things as well. But the actual Oxford Center for Fantasy
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  Employees are just two people. It's myself and my admin Joyce. And then we thought this was
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  the most economical way of doing it. And then we have a whole range of collaborators like our tutors
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  and other people. And Brian's team supplies us with the marketing and the publicity support.
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  So if you're worried about what we're doing with it, we're not like having a massive team with
• 17:24
  loads of overheads. We buy in what we need. So if you've been following our social media,
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  wonderful social media output on all sorts of different platforms, that's the very creative
• 17:33
  folk at Brian's outfit who know how to do it. And so, you know, that's an economy for me,
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  because I haven't got to train somebody up to do that. And I get lovely colleagues to work with.
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  So that's how, yeah, that's how it works. Brian's, so Brian's is part of the team, but is not
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  on the payroll in that way. Yeah, we're honored to be part of it. That's the word, isn't it?
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  That's it. Yeah. But do you know what an honor and, you know, we like working with people we like.
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  And so that certainly includes you and your team and your husband. And no, our, we have a global
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  team of marketing experts in all areas of marketing, in traditional PR, digital PR, podcasting,
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  video, etc. And so, you know, for those of you at home, you know, what we do is we meet with
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  Julia on a regular basis, a weekly basis. And what's happening, what's trending, what can we do?
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  Oh, here's an idea. Mythmakers podcast came out of that. But like, you know, this is people want to
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  hear the behind the scenes. Let's make a podcast that came out of this. But what also is so lovely
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  is that because this was a COVID friendship, is that we've also managed, there was still a
• 18:54
  little bit of COVID around, but we did actually manage to meet and spent, spent a day together in
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  London just before Christmas, just over a year ago. And that was so great because what's, I mean,
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  the inklings are about friendship. And every time I see something we're doing, increase the
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  quotient of friendship in the world, I'm delighted. So, you know, we're all doing it because we enjoy
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  what we're talking about, what we're celebrating. You know, hopefully people are also finding
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  their writing and their other imagination skills are growing as part of coming in one of our courses.
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  But the actual making friends of it is a huge part of what we do too.
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  We're a little tribe, a little tribe of Tolkien enthusiasts.
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  It's a good group. And you've got a very great accent. I like, I like listening to you talk
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  anyway. So my New York accent is not very interesting. So we have assembled a team.
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  Yeah. And for those of you, we've got, here's who works on this team. We've got Oxford,
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  we've got UK, we've got in the UAE, we've got a team member, we've got Tokyo, Japan, we've got a
• 20:10
  team member, South Africa, a team member, North Carolina, United States, a team member,
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  even the California team member, and I'm in New York. So, quite a worldwide team putting
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  the Oxford Center for Fantasy together and collaborating. And that's really what it is.
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  It's a great collaboration of friends and people who support the cause. So what is the best place
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  in all the fantasy world to assemble a team? Yeah. So when I was thinking of teams, two
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  immediately came to mind. So it's a bit like the Batman versus Superman thing,
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  Godzilla versus King Kong. There's, you could have a whole range of superos like the Marvel
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  team, the Avengers, or it could be a Dungeons and Dragons team where you've got your wizard,
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  your, your paladin and so on. I'm not very often, but I've just seen the, I've just seen the
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  Dungeons and Dragons film, so that's why I'm thinking about that. But there are set
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  characters for that kind of epic fantasy. So I suppose I'm trying to work out, is it better to be
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  in a Marvel universe, or is it better to be in a Dungeons and Dragons universe, or of course,
• 21:25
  back in dear old Tolkien's Middle Earth, where you're the Fellowship. The problem about the
• 21:31
  Fellowship is a bit poor on female participation. I don't think you'd write it like that today,
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  but you know, I'm amazed when you talk about teams today, you know, when I grew up,
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  to make a call, you had to make a collect call, or you had to make a long distance call,
• 21:54
  and you had to get an operator on the phone, and you had to hit zero first, or the US at least,
• 22:01
  and you had to pay a long distance. If you had to call another city, you had to pay by the minute.
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  There was very complicated ways to even have a team. Here in 2023, teams are easier than ever.
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  You can be texting, you know, slacking video, and all of a sudden, borders and time zones are
• 22:24
  almost nonexistent. So the team today versus the team 15 years ago, well, the difference,
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  because you're not stuck in your neighborhood, or even your state, it literally is anywhere
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  or all that you can, someone has access to Internet. So that reminds me of another good fantasy
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  world team, which might be the best one, which is the Star Trek team, the crew of the Enterprise.
• 22:54
  I think probably I'm thinking of next generation, that team, so maybe that is the best one,
• 23:03
  because it has a mixture of training, and you do arguably the Avengers, they're also
• 23:10
  together without much training for them, which leads to quite a bit of friction. So when they're
• 23:18
  saving the world for the 50th time, they're not always on the same page, whereas on the Starship
• 23:26
  Enterprise, they have saving the universe for the 100th time, and they do seem to know more
• 23:34
  or less what they're doing as a team. So I think probably my vote, but where is the best place to
• 23:39
  form a team in all the fantasy worlds, it might well be the Star Trek universe. I would disagree,
• 23:47
  and they've assembled folks from different planets, and different languages, and they've overcome
• 23:54
  communication issues, and they've worked together as a team, so I think that's a very good choice.
• 23:59
  Yeah, good for you. Well, thank you very much for one. Yeah, this has been a lovely conversation,
• 24:07
  and again, for those of you listening, please subscribe to the Mythmakers podcast, wherever you
• 24:12
  find your favorite podcast. I think we're on almost a hundred different platforms globally,
• 24:17
  and tell a friend, and if you're interested in one of the courses that Julia mentioned,
• 24:23
  visit OxfordCenterForFantasy.org, and you can see all that on the main menu there,
• 24:30
  and you can learn more about how to subscribe, and how to attend one of the in-person courses
• 24:36
  in Oxford, and have a coffee or a tea with Julia. No, you get much more than that. You get
• 24:42
  taken around, so it's a huge deal. You'll get taken down into a burial mound and round a castle.
• 24:50
  It's much more than just tea. That's great, that's great. There is tea too.
• 24:54
  That's awesome. Thank you so much, Julia. Thank you very much.
• 25:02
  Thanks for listening to Mythmakers podcast.
• 25:05
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• 25:09
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• 25:13
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