Wendy and Amy break out the bubbly and share what's in store for Season 2. More prosecco, more prose, and a fun new Handful of Hyperbole discussion format. See what's in their TBR stack and get ready for a popping second season!
Wendy and Amy break out the bubbly and share what's in store for Season 2. More prosecco, more prose, and a fun new Handful of Hyperbole discussion format. See what's in their TBR stack and get ready for a popping second season!
Transcripts for Prosecco N Prose | A Book Club
Prologue: Pop A Cork to Season 2
November 4, 2020
(Cork pops and music starts….)
AMY: Welcome to Season 2 of Prosecco N Prose, still a deep-dive and spirited virtual book club that focuses on all types of prose
WENDY: …and all types of Prosecco. I’m Wendy…
AMY: And I’m Amy. Hey you don’t sound so mad this season. [laugh]
WENDY: Okay Ms. I can’t say reqwest, let’s leave Season 1 in the past and move forward to our new and improved version of Prosecco N Prose.
AMY: Your feedback was so important and helpful to us. Wasn’t the epilogue fun, Wendy?
WENDY: It was soooo much fun! Our listeners, you know our friends seemed a tad surprised to see the uncouth side of us.
AMY: Let’s also file that term away with Season 1 and just call it unladylike…sort of like my shirt. But we have such great listeners who offer some of the best comments and feedback.
WENDY: They do. But we’re both refreshed and have done quite a bit of reading and writing over the break. Anything new with you, Amy?
AMY: Well we upgraded our car to fit our golf equipment.
WENDY: What?
AMY: I know…so ridiculous. Hubs went with a Volvo.
WENDY: Volvos are good cars.
AMY: Yeah, they are boxy but good. But it’s like a hearse on wheels.
WENDY: What?
AMY: A hearse on wheels.
WENDY: I thought that is what you said.
AMY: It could hold like two coffins, a football team and several cases of prosecco—
WENDY: BONUS!
AMY: Well maybe two golf bags, our two push carts, one coffin, and a bottle of prosecco.
WENDY: I prefer the cases.
AMY: UHHHH HUMMM! At least it’s not Army camo colored. That’s where I put my foot down. And...started a buddy read on Facebook in between the seasons. So, What’s new with you, my friend?
WENDY: I took a course on how to set up our website … which put my poor little brain into technical overload.
AMY: So you know what it’s like to edit our podcast episodes.
WENDY: Yes, well I don’t know about that, but I know it was really really fun learning something new. I ran the Army 10 miler. Read so many amazing books. I know we were scrolling about that many times. Finally finished the last bottle from our 3-case batch of prosecco …
AMY: She said three cases.
WENDY: I don’t know. I think that is quite productive.
AMY: Sounds busy … ? Should I be worried? Do you still even like prosecco?
WENDY: Do I like prosecco: Of course! You’ve got to drink that stuff fresh, Amy. Prosecco has a shelf life, surprised you didn’t know that.
AMY: I just drink it to keep the hubs from finding out how much I purchased. But I too read a plethora of incredible books over the break… new season, new literature …
WENDY: …and some new ideas for the podcast.
AMY: The podcast? Don’t you mean our podcast? I knew my midnight text scrolls were coming to an end. You’re cutting me loose, aren’t you!
WENDY: What?!? You think I could even deem to do this without you? I can only handle one technology. I’m just trying to reign us in a bit … you know we go overboard.
AMY: Us? What do you mean? Was it the pages? Scrolls? Notebooks?
WENDY: Maybe all of that? We are going to taper the number of talking points we share down just a bit …
AMY: … well … we did have a few listeners share that it was sometimes overwhelming to keep up with all the themes and symbols that we covered in each episode.
WENDY: We talk too much. What I think they were trying to say was that they are getting the hang of finding some of the deeper themes and symbols and they’d like to take a turn for themselves.
AMY: Gotcha…My days as a pirate going on a scavenger hunt are over. Oh, and is this why you were asking me to think of a play on words about five parts or sections or things having to do with each piece of prose?
WENDY: Yes…What I asked Amy to do was to come up with a fun teachery phrase…she’s amazing at it, guys…that helps us keep each episode narrowed to only five areas of interest. It’s a very teachery thing to do.
AMY: So, I literally took her for her word…you know the word five, and I wanted to have a little alliteration fun. Me being the older co-host, knew of the archaic verb for invent or imagine—It’s feign. F-E-I-G-N…FEIGN! I chose feigning five. What did you say? Tell them!
WENDY: I said feigning? . . . you mean lying or in the least pretending?
AMY: So, we both went to the Googlewebs and looked up feigning and we were both right, but I did digress as we couldn’t expect most people to learn the language of Plato or Aristotle.
WENDY: Some may like it, but being that you (both of us) love to exaggerate …
AMY: I call it amplification …
WENDY: … mmmm … and you said something about a handful being like five
AMY: … giving it context …
WENDY: … which was actually very helpful because … I came up with something I think we can both agree on . . . drumroll please (bell ringing) … or our new Press for Prosecco bells from Grandma Sue are perfect (bell ringing)… A Handful of Hyperbole.
AMY: And I loved it…and yes this is something that we can run with for Season 2. But hey listeners…don’t even think about taking all the themes and symbols away from me next season. It’ll never happen. Can we at least keep the Voodoo Name book? And…what’s this handful of hyperbole going to look like?
WENDY: We have to. Okay so I am glad you asked. Our new format will be thus: prosecco 101 and tasting, got to do that… author bio, character intros, brief summary …
AMY: … with spoilers!
WENDY: Of course, there will always be spoilers, but we give that warning. Then we will inject our Handful of Hyperbole, Okay? 1: we will talk about one or two themes; 2: we will discuss a few symbols and/or motifs … 3: we will dive into Amy’s always insightful Voodoo Name Book …
AMY: It is actually called The Nomenology Project’s Hidden Truth of Your Name: A Complete Guide to First Names and What They Say About the Real You. We have found character names to be so telling and fitting that we just had to have it be a regular part of our discussion.
WENDY: It’s actually one of my favorites to research and discuss.
AMY: Same! Sometimes it really does change the prose for me.
WENDY: It certainly brings a fun new spin. 4: we will play a game, maybe related to the book … maybe related to us … with Mr. Perlage or our new Press for Prosecco bells... (bell rings)
AMY: … or whatever other random game piece we may come up with. As teachers, we are a little bit of creative.
WENDY: And finally, 5: in our handful is something random, like I’m thinking, an interesting setting, maybe the structure of the piece, maybe literary theory or criticism, or whatever. It’s random. But, no more than five talking points in an episode.
AMY: Like five little inventions as in feigning five? Why couldn’t it have worked?
WENDY: Well, Amy … you were the one who initially did not even like the word five (sounds angry).
AMY: True … it just wasn’t bubbly enough. For me.
WENDY: Is a handful of hyperbole bubbly enough for you?
AMY: As long as it has persistent Perlage … kind of like the Josh prosecco we had for our Chernobyl short in Episode 6 of Season 1.
WENDY: Trust me! It is going to give us more time to do some personal writing on our blogs, review novels and short stories, or help our teacher friends out with some standards-based literary lessons with all the bells and whistles. (Music starts)
AMY: Sounds perfect…but we need to share with our friends what we have in store prose-wise for Season 2.
WENDY: We have a great line-up that is a mix of listener requests and some pieces we have had in our TBR lists.
AMY: Now Episode 1 is Claire Gibson’s novel Beyond the Point. It is a fictional account of three young female cadets before, during, and after their time at West Point. The novel will not disappoint. We wanted two pieces of military literature during the month of November to honor our men and women Veterans.
WENDY: We will have a special guest with us on this episode—a mother of female twins who are West Point grads. Many of you military spouses will know her; she is no stranger to the military aviation community.
AMY: She is one of the most genuine military wives, mothers, and friends I’ve ever met. Now in Episode 2, we will discuss Mark Twain’s short story “Luck,” which is about a very lucky General. AND….Friends, remember we always give you a link to short stories in our show notes so you can read the literature online.
WENDY: Episode 3, will be Lucy Foley’s The Guest List and Episode 4 will be Barbara Robinson’s The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.
AMY: And I cannot wait to discuss Imogene Herdman. I hope that name is in the Voodoo Name Book.
WENDY: Amy, I kind of have a feeling your younger self is a page right out of this book.
AMY: True statement. Episode 5 is a listener’s request The Third Policeman by Flann O’Brien. Episode 6 is another listener’s request…a little Young Adult LGBTQ literary novel by Casey McQuiston Red, White, & Royal Blue.
WENDY: Episode 7 is Brit Bennett’s The Vanishing Half, and Episode 8 is a short story “Ugly” by Mary Gordon. Episodes 9 and 10 are open for listener requests, either novels or short stories, you choose. (Music Stops)
AMY: We’re glad to be back. (Music starts) We’re raring to get started with the new season. Please subscribe to Prosecco N Prose wherever you listen to podcasts to get notifications when episodes drop.
WENDY: Don’t forget to star-rate and review us on Apple podcast. And always feel free to reach out to us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram or on our new website, www.prosecconprose.com.
And as always: POP A CORK AND READ! (Both ladies together)