Hey, y’all! And howdy! And salutations…
In a month that’s had far more high-profile guests than I ever could have hoped to speak to… they don’t come much more high-profile, for my literary and academic dollar, than AJ Hartley, award winning and bestselling writer of more than twenty-five mystery/thriller, fantasy, historical fiction, and young adult novels!
AJ is a talented, prolific novelist, and he jumps across genres, age groups, formats, and contexts for his work(s). You also have to know that he is Robinson Professor of Shakespeare, UNC Charlotte… and that he holds the highly coveted position of professor emeritus! For the non-academics checking this out, this is basically rock star level stuff in the land of Higher Education!
AJ was generous enough to spend some time on the EnT! We talked about the various awesome creative projects he’s been involved over his decades as a writer… including his latest project, a work of historical fiction entitled Trinity… his latest in a series of ongoing literary collaborations spanning multiple formats with internationally-renowned musician, media founder, and many other things… Tom Delonge!
Forty minutes to Mars! And other #ednontech!
Matt’s Notes
Let me say that as an educator first and foremost, I was stoked to discover that AJ grew up in a household with teachers for parents! He has that in common with the inestimable Dr. Doug Reid, as a matter of fact! When I am looking towards what makes people creative… able to find modes of expression for nuanced thoughts, feelings, and wavelengths of various kinds… the home environment lands as major, surprising absolutely nobody! AJ is… among many of the things we discussed in the convo… a sort of career educator! To my way of thinking, there are few higher callings! And… for as long as I’ve been involved in this show… I’ve had to think in terms of education… and entertainment… namely my own (or OUR own, rather)… because the moment I’m not having a good time with this stuff… it’s done! I feel great when I hear from AJ… or our recent Atlantic Canadian novelist Chuck Bowie… that they take the responsibility to entertain seriously! From my standpoint, that means they reward the reader for suspending their disbelief and for spending time in their worlds… with richness of detail, believable characters, and… crucially… showing profound respect for their audience in so doing!
I’ll end the personalish commentary here! It’s hard to explain how great it is to speak with somebody as deeply gifted and profoundly accomplished across multiple fields of artistic, scholarly, and cultural endeavor generally as AJ, and the many colleagues who inform his many collaborations both on the covers of his books and behind the scenes!
Finally, in our post-recording convo… we shared the music that we thought ought to go with the episode! Perhaps unsurprisingly we both had Blink 182 among our respective YouTube clips!
Knowledge, narrative, and punk rock are for the masses! Which is my semi-punk way of saying it’s been a goddamned slice!
AJ’s Picks
Matt’s Picks
AJ, we are legit stoked you joined us! The others of you, well… you’re fine, too…
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