Comic artist Eddy Rivera joins Sam and Marnie for a hard look at how our personal histories affect the characters we create and the kinds of stories we want to tell. Also in this episode: gendering corn plants, the tools we use to create more richly developed characters, the ethics of incorporating or appropriating other people's stories in to our fiction, and how real Indiana stacks up against Pawnee.

Sam recommends: the Parker novels by Donald E Westlake AKA Richard StarkMarnie recommends: "H is for Hawk" by Helen Macdonald

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For more on Eddy Rivera, visit www.http://eddyrivera.com

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