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I thrift most of the books I read these days and get so excited when I find someone’s old bookmark tucked inside. Sometimes it’s just a blank Post-It note or a dogeared page, but other times it’s a handwritten grocery list or a business card.

My greatest find has been this 1981 paystub from Saks Fifth Avenue. The first time I read the total, I forgot that there’s such a thing as dollars and cents and thought I’d stumbled on a millionaire’s belongings. Either way, this was super fun to find in a book published in 1970.

The second coolest things I find are the library cards at the back of books that libraries removed. Bonus points if they’re the stamp variety like this one from a book I read published in 1935.

A few months ago, I purged my book collection to make room for all of my dead pets’ urns — fun stuff! — and before I started a donate pile, I dumped each for the discarded bookmarks I’d used over the years.

Highlights include my old homeowners insurance bill and a forgotten JFK postcard plus some Monopoly money from my cousin’s wedding. I was surprised that none of the books contained boarding passes, but I guess we’ve gone digital with flights these days.

Of course nothing will compare to the impressive digital archive a California library started compiling years ago, including children’s artwork, recipe cards and family photos.

What’s the best thing you’ve found in a used book?

— Kristine

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Another 12-year tradition

The Naples Writers Workshop began 12 years ago this summer, but we just learned of another fiction workshop that also started in 2014. In India, writers have gathered every Saturday for 12 years to share their work despite a 40-day period each year known for sub-zero temps.

Using imagination to solve problems

We see articles each week about how writing fiction helps professionals in whatever field they’re in. Most feel like a stretch, but this piece by a woman in engineering rang true. She posits that writing fiction allows her colleagues to think outside the box by using their imagination.

Serializing your work on newsletter platforms

Indie writers looking to build their fan base have been serializing their fiction for years online. Now they’re also using newsletter platforms such as this one — Substack — to give readers a bit of the story at a time. Here’s how writers say it’s working for them.

A self-published book reaches 5 figures

Not bad for a debut author. Writer Ashli O’Connell explains how she used Kindle Unlimited through Amazon to publish her first book Emmaline about a teen living in poverty in 1850s Liverpool. She made about $13K in royalties over 10 weeks after investing about $9,000 in editing, advertising and design of her finished product.

A.I. writing losing contracts and movie deals

We share weekly A.I. news in a separate paid version of the weekly newsletter, but here’s a story we keep seeing new iterations of: writers suspected of A.I.-use in their novels are losing out on major deals due to copyright concerns. Just another reason to use your own brain when writing.

A short piece to read

This excerpt is from a new book by author Téa Mutonji called My Person. It’s a scene in which the narrator decides to tell a woman named Margot that she doesn’t want to be friends anymore.

Don’t miss out on A.I. news

We figured there’s so much to talk about when it comes to artificial intelligence these days that it deserves more of our attention, but it also shouldn’t detract from what we’re sharing in this edition of the newsletter. We hope you’ll consider upgrading your subscription to support us and this weekly feature on the intersection of A.I. and creative writing.

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Our latest podcast episode

Our latest podcast episode on Aug. 15 featured a short story by Tobias Wolff called Say Yes. The original link we used no longer works, so you might not be able to read this one online for free. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or our YouTube Channel. We release new episodes on the 1st and 15th of each month.

We’re always looking for more short stories to feature on our podcast. Tell us about your favorite piece of published short fiction, and we might feature your suggestion in a future episode!

Need a critique?

Need help finishing your novel? Our paid novel mentorship program provides guidance as you write or revise your manuscript over the course of 6 to 12 months.

We also offer personalized and detailed critiques on your short stories for a flat fee. We’ll read your completed story of up to 10,000 words and make macro and micro suggestions to help improve the piece. Reach out to learn more.

Email us

Join our Patreon

We bring you our newsletter on a monthly basis at no charge, but we have enabled pledges for those who’d like to pay to support our work through Substack with a monthly or annual donation. In addition, we have a Patreon for our podcast. Your donations are mostly a way to support the show, but there are a few perks as well.

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I read four books in July, which once again ran the gamut. Here’s what I thought of each.

Starlight Pass by Tom Gill

My sister bought this book for me because it’s written by a guy who shares our late grandfather’s name. Published in 1935, it’s all about this mysterious man who shows up in a small logging town in Wyoming and slowly befriends the locals. He starts working for the forest service but it turns out he knows this girl in town who’s dating the town bully. And then it turns out that the town bully is setting fires to get back at the forest service for telling him where he can and can’t log. While much of this plot felt sort of unbelievable — including a ridiculous twist at the end — it was a true Western in the sense that the good guys and bad guys were made clear and the good guys won. Much of the writing was also gorgeous, especially in describing scenery. But the dialogue was painful, and the writer had an odd habit of referring to characters by first name, first and last name, and then later by their nickname ALL IN THE SAME SENTENCE. Super confusing. Would I recommend this book? No. Am I glad I read it? Yes.

The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis

Thrifted this one because I knew I should read it, given it’s one of those classics. I knew the premise going into it and the fact that Lewis was a sort of born-again Christian who was trying to make a point. Written as a series of one-sided letters from a demon to his nephew demon who is training as an agent of Satan, it was kinda fun at first. But the format grew tiresome, and at 134-pages (for my copy at least) it definitely ended at the right time. Plus, like a lot of satire, I felt this might have been stronger had it been much shorter — maybe a single letter the length of a long essay. Once you realize that the entire premise is to understand how Satan turns men away from God, the jig is up and the writing is less affecting and clever than it is cutesy and obvious. I wanted to relieve Lewis of the work of finishing the book by telling him on page 15 that I understood and he could stop. The Narnia books were better, according to 12-year-old me.

Come and Get It by Kiley Reid

Another thrift find. I picked this one up because I’d been told that Reid’s debut novel Such a Fun Age was really well done. This was my favorite read of the month. It’s a character-driven story about several college girls, exploring class and race. It was an uncomfortable read, watching these young girls make bad choices and face the consequences. And I thought Reid did an excellent job of getting into each of their psyches with a third-person narrator. I don’t usually enjoy books told from multiple points of view, but this one had a good balance, and I found myself marveling at these really insightful turns of phrase on nearly every page. I tore through this book, and I plan to read her others.

Talk to Me by T.C. Boyle

I picked this one up at — you guessed it — the thrift store. I recognized the author from one of the very first short stories we featured on our podcast called The Lie. Like that short story, this one is full of unlikeable characters making bad choices with a car-wreck of a plot. Of course the premise was wild, too. It’s about a professor raising a chimpanzee from birth so he can teach it sign language as part of a big research project. But chimps grow up and become unruly, so he enlists college girls to help care for him. And then once the chimp gets too old for the program (ie, he becomes too strong and hormonal and wild) he has to be returned to the lab where he first came from so he can become a medical test subject as planned. Of course the chimp’s college girl caretaker ends up treating him like her child and intervenes. This one was a page turner, mostly for the insane plot. And from what I’d seen in The Lie, I knew this would be one of those books that “went there,” meaning it sort of expects you to suspend belief in a lot of ways and just go with it. That becomes super necessary when you realize that a third of the book is told in first person from the chimp. Really enjoyed this one.

— Kristine

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Cave writings and the math of Archimedes

In 1229 a monk ran out of paper, so he erased some stuff he found on a used sheet and wrote over top of it. Centuries later, super high-tech tools showed the monk had accidentally preserved some of the only known writings of the polymath Archimedes. In an unrelated, but also super old writing revelation, cave murals from the Mayans were digitally reconstructed to show some of their earliest calendrical writing.

Harvard Crimson students bemoan writing center layoff

The Harvard College Writing Center laid off its longtime director during a restructuring of its writing center which tutors students across disciplines to improve their writing assignments. The center will continue to operate but in a different capacity, and students are not happy about it. In the meantime, the writing center at Ohio University just underwent a facelift and reopened for its student tutoring sessions.

Should you switch writers groups?

Once again we’re sharing this writerly advice from Kristen Arnett over at Literary Hub after a fiction writer asked whether they should find another writing group that understands their genre: literary fiction.

Read like Obama

Former President Barack Obama has read 11 books so far this summer, according to his annual summer reading list. Included this year are George Saunders, Anne Patchett and Colson Whitehead. We’d share Trump’s list except he is widely believe to be only “semi-literate,” claiming he doesn’t read for fun unless the story is about himself, although he once listed a bunch of books he likes, including three of his own.

In a reading slump?

Warm weather will do that. Here’s how you can retrain your brain to enjoy the act of reading again with tips from 21 readers who changed their habits to include more time spent with books.

A new gay publishing house

If you enjoyed Heated Rivalry, the story of two male hockey players who fall in love, you’re not alone. The book was recently turned into an HBO series, and now it’s spawned an entire publishing house called FalconInk, specializing in the erotic.

Don’t miss out on A.I. news

We figured there’s so much to talk about when it comes to artificial intelligence these days that it deserves more of our attention, but it also shouldn’t detract from what we’re sharing in this edition of the newsletter. We hope you’ll consider upgrading your subscription to support us as we roll out our new weekly feature on the intersection of A.I. and creative writing.

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Our latest podcast episode

Our latest podcast episode on Aug. 1 featured At The Clinic by Sally Rooney, featuring the two main characters from her book Normal People. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or our YouTube Channel. We release new episodes on the 1st and 15th of each month.

We’re always looking for more short stories to feature on our podcast. Tell us about your favorite piece of published short fiction, and we might feature your suggestion in a future episode!

Need a critique?

Need help finishing your novel? Our paid novel mentorship program provides guidance as you write or revise your manuscript over the course of 6 to 12 months.

We also offer personalized and detailed critiques on your short stories for a flat fee. We’ll read your completed story of up to 10,000 words and make macro and micro suggestions to help improve the piece. Reach out to learn more.

Email us

Join our Patreon

We bring you our newsletter on a monthly basis at no charge, but we recently enabled pledges for those who’d like to pay to support our work through Substack with a monthly or annual donation. In addition, we launched a Patreon for our podcast. Your donations are mostly a way to support the show, but there are a few perks as well.

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I’ve developed a decent understanding of imposter syndrome over the years. As a journalist, readers wrote to me on a weekly basis to tell me just how bad I was at my job. I had editors who said the same. And then I started a fiction workshop.

I didn’t launch the workshop because I thought I’d be any good at moderating it. I started it because there wasn’t another one in Naples at the time that I was able to attend. The one I remember finding in 2014 met on Tuesday mornings, but I was too busy working as a “very bad” reporter to join.

I enjoyed moderating the workshop, and over the past 12 years I’ve certainly improved in my role. Though if you ask me what my credentials are, I find myself struggling:

“I write professionally.”

“Well no, I’m not a published novelist.”

“But I have published a couple short stories online.”

“No, I don’t have my masters.”

“Well I majored in newspaper journalism and minored in creative writing.”

“Yeah, I actually studied fiction in Dublin, Ireland.”

“Well, just for six weeks.”

“I love reading.”

“No, I haven’t read that book. I haven’t read that author at all, actually.”

The imposter feeling increased when we started our podcast more than seven years ago. If you read the comments and reviews on iTunes, YouTube and Spotify, you’ll see just how much people hate hearing me talk about writing.

“They pick good stories but their analysis is weak.”

“This podcast fills the niche for those who like a reactionary analysis informed by little to no background research and devoid of any analysis.”

And my favorite, in it’s entirety:

I don’t lose sleep over these comments. Not because I don’t believe them. I do. I agree that I probably shouldn’t have a literary podcast. I also don’t like Edgar Allen Poe’s writing, and I agree that makes me an idiot of sorts.

And in the meantime, I’ve learned so much by doing this podcast. And unfortunately for listeners, that learning happens in the exact moments when they’re thinking to themselves “This woman should not have a literary podcast.” Talking through my thoughts, articulating ideas, bouncing them off of my cohost — those are the moments when I realize what I think and feel about a subject, and I can feel my brain making little connections. If a story feels beyond my understanding, that’s when I have to discuss it. That’s where the learning happens.

So, I don’t lose sleep over these messages because I’ve been hearing this my entire career. And anything you could say about me in the comments, I’ve already thought about myself. Actually, if there’s one thing I’m confident in my ability to do, it’s demean myself. Many women excel in this field.

And as I near the age of 40, I realize imposter syndrome will remain the little devil on my shoulder. The one telling me I shouldn’t be writing or talking about writing or giving advice to other writers. And weirdly, I’m fine with it these days. Because I think a lot of us are out there navigating the world and feeling this way. And if we all stopped trying things we weren’t sure we were good at, nothing would get done. Certainly there’d be less art to look at, fewer books to read. I don’t think the solution is to get over imposter syndrome so much as to learn how to accept it and try anyway.

— Kristine

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How Hemingway honed his fiction skills

This piece by The Conversation revisits one of Ernest Hemingway’s first satirical news articles, making the argument that he was advancing as a journalist as he was learning to find his voice in fiction. “The Freiburg Fedora” was published in the Toronto Star Weekly in 1923.

Jealous much?

Once again, another great question and answer session over at Literary Hub where writer Kristen Arnett gives advice. This time, she’s answering the question of whether envying your friend’s writing success makes you a bad person and what to do when a friend says she’s opening a bookstore…in this economy?

A.I. news you don’t want to miss

We have a separate paid subscription for our weekly A.I. news roundup looking at its intersection with creative writing, but here’s a taste of what’s included if you want to sign up: Book publishers including Hatchette Book Group are banding together to sue Google for copyright infringement. It comes on the heels of Apple’s lawsuit against OpenAI.

The latest flash fiction from the New Yorker

This short piece in the New Yorker’s flash fiction section is called “Why Would That Help” by Diane Williams. It’s just 274 words and Williams’ second flash piece in the publication. Read her first here.

Gateway books to science fiction and fantasy reads

We’re loving this roundup of books from Book Riot for readers who are new to the sci-fi and fantasy genres. They’ve aptly headlined it “Go Easy on Me” and offer five books to get your feet wet.

Judging books by their covers

How do you decide whether to buy a book? Do you read the jacket? Skim the reviews? Open it up and read the first page or, GASP, the last page? Here’s what each says about you and why it might be a problem.

Don’t miss out on A.I. news

We figured there’s so much to talk about when it comes to artificial intelligence these days that it deserves more of our attention, but it also shouldn’t detract from what we’re sharing in this edition of the newsletter. We hope you’ll consider upgrading your subscription to support us as we roll out our new weekly feature on the intersection of A.I. and creative writing.

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Our latest podcast episode

Our latest podcast episode on July 15 featured another Denis Johnson story called “Work.” Like the other piece of his we featured, it’s a wild ride. (You can also hear my pet bird screaming in the background of this recording.) Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or our YouTube Channel. We release new episodes on the 1st and 15th of each month.

We’re always looking for more short stories to feature on our podcast. Tell us about your favorite piece of published short fiction, and we might feature your suggestion in a future episode!

Need a critique?

Need help finishing your novel? Our paid novel mentorship program provides guidance as you write or revise your manuscript over the course of 6 to 12 months.

We also offer personalized and detailed critiques on your short stories for a flat fee. We’ll read your completed story of up to 10,000 words and make macro and micro suggestions to help improve the piece. Reach out to learn more.

Email us

Join our Patreon

We bring you our newsletter on a monthly basis at no charge, but we recently enabled pledges for those who’d like to pay to support our work through Substack with a monthly or annual donation. In addition, we launched a Patreon for our podcast. Your donations are mostly a way to support the show, but there are a few perks as well.

Sorry, you can’t read this! Our weekly newsletter on the intersection of creative writing and Artificial Intelligence is for paid subscribers only. Consider upgrading your membership to our new low rate of $5 a month to support us.

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The nicer the weather is, the less I read. Last month was no exception. I read just three books in June, including one of those classics I somehow missed in high school. Here’s what I thought of each.

The Midcoast by Adam White

Loved the story itself, but the way it unspooled was unnecessary in my opinion. It’s about people living in a small town in Maine trying to figure out how one family got so rich off lobstering. Then the town finds out they’re actually criminals. I had a few problems with the way this was written, primarily that the writer head hopped so much you had trouble situating yourself. And second that the main character takes it upon himself to pseudo-investigate the family at the center of the story almost as a way to justify telling the story. So instead of just using the power of an omniscient narrator — maybe the best tool in fiction! — the main character pretends he’s going to write a book about the family and interviews them. I later learned it took Adam White 11 years to write this book, and I think he could have cut it down by at least two thirds had he stuck with a straightforward narrative.

The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits

Sad dad drives his daughter to college then keeps driving because he doesn’t feel like going back to his wife, who cheated on him years ago. He finally reaches his son on the other coast and ends up in the hospital for weird symptoms he’s been ignoring for years. I enjoyed the sort of plodding pace of this book, which maybe covered 10 days and was told in first person. But I’ll tell you what, there’s only so much you can handle from a wallflower type main character with few opinions and little drive. He basically spends the trip deciding what he wants to do as an empty nester and thinks maybe he’ll write that book he always planned on writing. But he doesn’t write the book and ultimately just goes home to his wife, the biggest revelation being that wow, yes, everyone was right that he should go see a doctor.

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

I loved the first chapter of this book, which prepped me for a sinister turn of events that never came. Going to a man’s house after he catcalls you on the street! Leaving your friend there! I thought for sure this was a murder story. Instead, you follow the character’s decline as she tries to figure out what she wants to do after her big city magazine internship and why she hates her potential fiancé so much. I enjoyed a lot of the writing and the way Plath captured the character’s thoughts in addition to all of the commentary on society at the time. Of course, knowing Plath ultimately killed herself, I couldn’t help but read this as an autobiography. By the end it all felt like a bummer, and I was a bit bored. I realize that makes me sound like a philistine.

— Kristine

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Would you write a historical novel?

The author of this essay in LitHub never had any interest in doing research for his writing, but soon learned that the adage of “write what you know” would only take him so far. That’s how he ended up writing a historical fiction book.

The Bell Jar gets a film treatment

Sylvia Plath’s best known book will soon reach the big screen following an adaptation staring singer Billie Eilish. They’ve tried it before, and it didn’t go well, so some are worried about the upcoming film.

Taylor and Travis donate to Dolly’s book org

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce got married over the weekend and gave a few million out to their favorite charities in the days leading up to the event. One of the recipients was Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library organization, which mails free books to kids from birth to age 5.

A new bookstore in Florida opens

We were excited to see that another new bookstore has opened in Estero. The Book Cafe sells coffee and a range of books, which you can take up their reading loft to enjoy. They sell fun merch and mystery book packs, too.

Were Frog and Toad dating?

A new piece by the New Yorker explores children’s book author and illustrator Arnold Lobel’s work in the context of his own sexuality. Lobel was married with kids when he came out to his wife. Some believe his story of two best friends, Frog and Toad, offered insight into his true identity.

Short stories from around the globe

Penguin just published a new anthology called The Penguin Book of the International Short Story, which features short stories from 34 writers around the world. In the past, anthologies like this one focused on writers from the U.S., Britain and France. This anthology is much more expansive and inclusive, according to reviewers.

Don’t miss out on A.I. news

We figured there’s so much to talk about when it comes to artificial intelligence these days that it deserves more of our attention, but it also shouldn’t detract from what we’re sharing in this edition of the newsletter. We hope you’ll consider upgrading your subscription to support us as we roll out our new weekly feature on the intersection of A.I. and creative writing.

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Our latest podcast episode

Our latest podcast episode on July 1 featured another Miranda July story called “Roy Spivey.” It’s fun and ridiculous and her last name perfectly aligned with the month. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or our YouTube Channel. We release new episodes on the 1st and 15th of each month.

We’re always looking for more short stories to feature on our podcast. Tell us about your favorite piece of published short fiction, and we might feature your suggestion in a future episode!

Need a critique?

Need help finishing your novel? Our paid novel mentorship program provides guidance as you write or revise your manuscript over the course of 6 to 12 months.

We also offer personalized and detailed critiques on your short stories for a flat fee. We’ll read your completed story of up to 10,000 words and make macro and micro suggestions to help improve the piece. Reach out to learn more.

Email us

Join our Patreon

We bring you our newsletter on a monthly basis at no charge, but we recently enabled pledges for those who’d like to pay to support our work through Substack with a monthly or annual donation. In addition, we launched a Patreon for our podcast. Your donations are mostly a way to support the show, but there are a few perks as well.

Sorry, you can’t read this! Our weekly newsletter on the intersection of creative writing and Artificial Intelligence is for paid subscribers only. Consider upgrading your membership to our new low rate of $5 a month to support us.

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We’ve been podcasting now for about seven years (how is that possible?), but occasionally (frequently) JC and I find ourselves going off on tangents that get edited from finished episodes.

Sometimes those tangents are funny or helpful, and we save the scraps from the cutting room floor and offer them to paid Patreon members who are absolutely rabid for our hot takes.

Other times, we find we want to have conversations that are a little more involved and potentially even insightful or fun for fellow writers. So we started live streaming those talks.

Over on YouTube, we’ve shared two live streams so far and plan to continue this as a regular feature.

Our first talk focused on writing good dialogue, using examples from the short stories we’ve featured on the podcast over the years.

In our second talk, I listened while JC offered ways to define a short story based on how writers (mostly Aristotle) have explained it over the years. It’s a conversation we’ve had countless times over the years because the way in which we define a story remains so elusive.

We have plans for talks on point of view and other elements of craft, but we’d love to hear from you about what you’d like to hear us discuss. You can send suggestions to napleswritersworkshop@gmail.com.

email us

In the meantime, each of the livestreams is available as a recording immediately after it airs, so you don’t have to tune in in real time to catch it. They’re featured on our channel alongside our regular podcast episodes.

— Kristine

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Library card policies are contributing to censorship

BookRiot has a three-part series looking at libraries and censorship across the country. The first part examined whether children should have privacy in a library setting. The second part looked at how card policies are playing a role in how books are censored. The final part will come out this week.

Could you write a book in 33 days?

This author did. Catriona Silvey describes writing the first draft of her novel Vervain Hollow in about a month one summer then spending the next year revising. The method made her feel “possessed” and she claimed she wasn’t much fun to be around for the month when the draft took over her life.

Did you know there’s a Science Fiction Research Conference?

The annual five-day event was held at Michigan State University this year with a focus on water. The international org first began meeting in 1970 and looks at ways to study science fiction and fantasy in popular culture. Read an interview with one of the participating professors on indigenous science fiction.

Historical fiction for Pride

This roundup of 10 historical fiction reads features LGBTQ+ novels newly released this year. There’s one based on a real pirate and another reimagining the Great Gatsby but with teen boys in Harlem. Not into historical fiction? Try this “genre-bending” memoir about a queer couple going through IVF. It’s called Spawning Season by Joseph Osmundson.

Why are women writing about cannibalism?

Apparently there’s a new trend in horror where female protagonists are eating people. If that sounds like your kind of spooky, there are several books you can try. The article also dives into why this might be a trend of sorts and a new genre known as femgore.

More movie adaptations on the way

Simon & Schuster has added 6,000 of its titles to something called The Black List, a searchable database for film producers looking for their next project. The list makes it easy to elevate great stories for their film treatment.

Our next livestream is today at 9:30 a.m. ET

Last month, we hosted our first livestream on our YouTube channel where we discussed good dialogue from short stories we’ve featured on the podcast over the years. If you missed it, you can watch the recording on our channel. Our next livestream will be today at 9:30 a.m. ET where we try to define what a story is. You can watch a recorded version immediately after it airs.

Don’t miss out on A.I. news

We figured there’s so much to talk about when it comes to artificial intelligence these days that it deserves more of our attention, but it also shouldn’t detract from what we’re sharing in this edition of the newsletter. We hope you’ll consider upgrading your subscription to support us as we roll out our new weekly feature on the intersection of A.I. and creative writing.

Upgrade to paid

Our latest podcast episode

Our latest podcast episode on June 15 featured another Raymond Carver story called “A Small Good Thing.” It’s a sad story that ends on a lighter note. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or our YouTube Channel. We release new episodes on the 1st and 15th of each month.

We’re always looking for more short stories to feature on our podcast. Tell us about your favorite piece of published short fiction, and we might feature your suggestion in a future episode!

Need a critique?

Need help finishing your novel? Our paid novel mentorship program provides guidance as you write or revise your manuscript over the course of 6 to 12 months.

We also offer personalized and detailed critiques on your short stories for a flat fee. We’ll read your completed story of up to 10,000 words and make macro and micro suggestions to help improve the piece. Reach out to learn more.

Email us

Join our Patreon

We bring you our newsletter on a monthly basis at no charge, but we recently enabled pledges for those who’d like to pay to support our work through Substack with a monthly or annual donation. In addition, we launched a Patreon for our podcast. Your donations are mostly a way to support the show, but there are a few perks as well.