Ranger’s Apprentice written by author John Flanagan is a young adult series that focuses on the life of main character Will.  Following Will, reader’s will be thrown into a life-long journey starting with book one The Ruins of Gorlan. You’ll meet shady characters, explore an organization known as the Rangers, run into odd creatures, and wish to be there with a multitude of the characters. With eleven other books to explore any reader will find themselves embracing the clear and beautiful world-building Flanagan provides, whether it be the forests of Araluen or the frozen tundra of Skandia. Not only is the world-building well done, John Flanagan is a master of imagery. From intense battles to mundane coffee-making he gives the reader a stable backing to understand and see what is going on.
 
For fans of fantasy, writers in the making, avid readers, or someone in need of new series to start, John Flanagan’s Ranger’s Apprentice is a must read. The imagery and world building showcase how a simple plot can expand into something much more. Even if you aren’t a fan of world building, each character introduced has dynamic potential as each may not appear to be what they actually are. You can also follow the series as it continues to expand on John Flanagan’s Facebook page. In addition, if you need more after Ranger’s Apprentice, John Flanagan also has two other series that share the same world. One is a prequel series that focuses on events that happened before events in the Ranger’s Apprentice. The other series is known as the Brotherband Chronicles and focuses on Skandia and the youth growing up there.
 
Link: http://www.worldofjohnflanagan.com

Do you like superheroes? Do you like teenagers… okay you might be one? How about teenage superheroes? Well, that’s just what you get when you listen to The Bright Sessions, a science fiction podcast created by Lauren Shippen. The show follows a group of teenage atypicals, or people with strange and usual abilities, and their mysterious psychiatrist who focuses on atypicals, Dr. Joan Bright. Atypical powers range from mind reading, to spontaneous, panic-induced time travel, and mind control. The Bright Sessions can be found on Spotify, YouTube, and Luminary.
           
​The early episodes are structured as Dr. Bright’s recordings of her therapy sessions with her different patients, with her voice memos to herself about each case at the end of each recording. There is little to no sound effects, keeping the focus on the characters and their words. In the first few episodes the main characters are introduced, one-by-one, via Dr. Bright’s sessions with them. The first is Caleb; he is a high school football player who can feel other people’s emotions. Then there’s Chloe, a college artist who can hear people’s thoughts. Sam is a very shy and a time-traveler. Damien can coerce people into doing his bidding, normally bad things, that would send people to jail or at least prompt a conversation with the police. They are all connected of course by Dr. Bright, who may not be as altruistic as she seems in marketing her services to “strange and unusual” types who don’t know where to go for help.
           
Aside from the thrill of eavesdropping on someone else’s therapy session, the acting and the slowly unwinding conversations are compelling and reveal details about the characters and their relationships with each other. And the sinister government conspiracy they may all be unwilling a part of. The Bright Sessions cover a range of topics from love, mental health, and adolesence.
           
The episodes are short, around 15-30 minutes long, with the longest being an hour. The podcast sometimes jumps in time between episodes, as if it’s working through an archive of Dr. Bright’s recordings that isn’t quite complete or organized. The show is great for binge listening because seemingly throwaway details often become important later on giving you the eureka feeling when the detail is brought up again. They’re also mini-episodes within the main episodes; these are not essential to the storyline, but they give you more information about the characters while not progressing the plotline.
           
Since its release in October 27, 2015, the main series has ended and a spin-off series on Luminary has started, The AM Archives, with episodes slowly being released to Spotify. This podcast picks up right where The Bright Sessions ended. So, listen to The Bright Sessions first or fear the spoilers!
           
Lauren Shippen hasn’t stopped there, either; in 2017 she announced that a TV adaptation is in the works. Lauren has also written a book, The Infinite Noise, with the plan to release two more books each following various characters from the podcast. The Infinite Noise is about Caleb and his classmate, Adam, a love story that started with The Bright Sessions. This book takes a look at what happen away from Dr. Bright’s recorder.
 
 
Link: http://www.thebrightsessions.com

​When the family of renowned crime novelist Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) gathered to celebrate the patriarch’s 85th birthday, events transpired that they could have never predicted: at some point in the night following the party, Harlan Thrombey was murdered.  

​This blockbuster who-dun-it murder mystery film was released on November 27, 2019, and currently remains in theaters until February 25, 2020. It comes on DVD at the end of November 2020 on Netflix. The movie pays homage to the style of Agatha Christie with an all-star cast, which includes but is not limited to: Jamie Lee Curtis, Chris Evans, Michael Shannon, Christopher Plummer and Daniel Craig as the debonair Detective Benoit Blanc who tries to find the truth in the pandemonium that is the Thrombey family. Their sheer disarray led to a series of quirky red-herrings from a mismatched band of investigators that no one would expect to advance into the case.

Overall the film received a 97% Certified Fresh and a 92% Audience Score on Rotten Tomatoes and an increasing acclaim for the film itself. The film had an incredible amount of twist and turns in the stories that left the audience guessing and suspecting who the true murderer was. The story itself was unlike one I had ever seen in a who-dun-it where Johnson took his own liberties with the genre. It is this wild cast of characters and a mystery that makes the audience question every turn that would pique everyone’s interest.

I have always enjoyed murder mysteries, especially ones that add humor into the story line to keep you interested and engaged. As suspicious and problematic as the characters were, in their own way, they were incredibly interesting and well done. A well-executed murder mystery is a true test of a good writer, and so to experience an example such as Knives Out help could inspire writers to write quirky characters and plotlines.  
 
 
Link: https://youtu.be/xi-1NchUqMA

This January, in the midst of creating the fourth edition of Hot Dish Magazine, our editors sat down with former editor Tanner Jensen. Tanner had assisted in creating Hot Dish Magazine’s earlier editions, particularly playing a hand in the third issue. Now, however, Tanner attends graduate school in the city of Boston. He is working to get his Masters in publishing and writing at Emerson University. In addition to graduate school, Tanner is also working as a paid intern for a remote internship where his bosses live not only in the United States but also internationally.

Tanner was generous enough to take time in his busy schedule to talk to the current Editors of Hot Dish and discuss how he got involved and learned from his time working on the magazine. Tanner was quick to say how the real-world application of Hot Dish has helped him with a multitude of class assignments and his internship so far. Furthermore, he commented on how Buena Vista University’s Digital Media program had also assisted him and furthered his ability going into graduate school. Tanner recalled in one of his classes that they had to work with a new program and almost none of the other students knew how to work it. But thanks to his time in Digital Media at BVU, he understood the software quickly.

Some advice Tanner left for the Hot Dish crew included keeping focused on what is ahead of the team in the editorial process and being sure to remember that we are working with high school students. Due to the fact we do work with high schoolers, the editors had to make sure they not only understood the editorial process, but that the students were continuously given support for their work and as writers who have had the courage to submit their work for possible publication.

​Tanner left us with one last piece of advice before getting back to work by saying, “I hate cities.” We expect to see Tanner back in the small-town Midwest soon after graduation.