In Episode 25 of First Impressions, I welcome back novelist Lancelot Schaubert for the second part of our chat. Now living in Brooklyn but hailing from Southern Illinois, where his excellent debut novel ‘Bell Hammers: The True Folk Tale of Little Egypt’ is set, Lance has kindly shared some more extracts from the freshly minted audiobook to punctuate our conversation (find them at 00:00, 13:48, 39:34 and 48:15). Along with the novel, we discuss his influences both literary and philosophical, and his thoughts on subjects ranging from Artificial Intelligence to learning Latin; civil discourse to snipe hunting, the latter topic inspiring me to provide a wee musical ditty at 23:39.

We also talk about the follow-up to ‘Bell Hammers’, which began as a collaboration with Lance’s late father, whose untimely death from hairy cell leukaemia and Covid was partly caused by the dangerous and insufficiently regulated work described in his fiction. Finally, we talk about a terrifying situation Lance and his wife faced on their last visit to the UK. As ever, listen through headphones if you have them and please spread the word if you enjoy the pod. Thanks! 

A few links to content connected to our conversation: 

Lance’s website: https://lanceschaubert.org/about-lancelot/ 

Lance’s book ‘Bell Hammers: The True Folk Tale of Little Egypt’ on Audible: https://www.audible.com/pd/Bell-Hammers-Audiobook/B0BXVS1WKQ

‘Bell Hammers…’ on goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/48731251 

Douglas Berman’s short story ‘Ibex Brief’ on Lance’s website: https://lanceschaubert.org/2023/05/03/ibex-brief/

David Bentley Hart’s Substack: https://davidbentleyhart.substack.com

Lance’s ‘All Who Wander’ album on Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/album/1QOE2t9zAKJjz8VySZJvRq?si=jMJNFiwDRAa2QvWmbdjwiA

Jude Edwin-Scott’s new album, ‘Rambling Rose’, available as CD/digital download on Bandcamp:  https://judeedwinscott.bandcamp.com/album/rambling-rose?pk=595&action=buy