Welcome to Literary Friction. I'm Carrie Plitt here with my co-host, Octavia Bright. Hi, Octavia. How are you?

Hi, Carrie. I am good. I'm in my pajamas and it's a good place to be. But much more importantly, how are you? You have COVID. I've had COVID for a long time now.

Let me say, it's also very retro of you. I know. Although it is around. Lots of people have it.

Oh, I know. Yeah, I've been in, this has been a bad one. I've been in bed for, I've lost track of how long I've

been in bed, but I was out of work

since last Wednesday, and it's now Saturday when we're recording this. And that's not even

the Wednesday past, that's the Wednesday before that. I live in bed now. I haven't got outside

for almost a full two weeks. So yeah, there's a real mole energy going on over here.

Also, trooper energy, because you are still recording from the mole.

What is a mole's layer called?

A hill?

Dispatches from the mole hill with carry plans.

Yeah, I'm actually in bed.

But I am feeling a lot better than I was. And it's nice to just be chatting with you, honestly. So I'm hoping this won't be too taxing for me. But if I start

trailing off, please forgive me, listeners. All will be forgiven immediately. But before we get into it,

let's get business out of the way.

If you like, you can support us on Patreon by subscribing at patreon.com forward slash lit friction,

where you will also get access to an extra minisode each month.

There are now, I've lost count, more than 30, waiting for you.

And you can also suggest themes for us to chat about that.

You can. But now back to Minisode 45 and thanks for tuning in. The format for these minisodes

between full shows is for the next half hour or so, we'll first have an informal conversation

...