Ciao! La professoressa Fulton Brown è tornata da Roma! And what did she see on her Roman Holiday? Maybe a better question would be, what did she feel? Fresh back from Italy and giving a talk on St. Francis as the great herald of the King, the Professor regales KC with the amazing feeling she got by simply being in the Eternal City. With all of the churches, and ancient structures, and so much famous artwork you might literally walk into on the street, you would be forgiven for assuming that she felt excited, or awestruck, because who wouldn’t? But you might also be surprised to learn that what she mostly felt was a calmness that was brought on by the city itself — a city that was built for people. Have a listen, and if you have been lucky enough to have visited this great city, too, share your impressions in the comments! — Streamed July 11, 2025

On tonight’s episode of the Mosaic Ark, the ladies welcomed BasedCon founder and author Rob Kroese to talk about his latest Kickstarter (his fifteenth!) for his new book series, Ransom’s Law, which he described as a space opera where Better Call Saul meets The Expanse. Rob is a prolific writer who has authored thirty-six novels in a variety of genres, both humorous and dark. In addition to the Kickstarter, we also talked about Rob’s creative process, how everybody hates marketing his own work, and Rob’s spooky habit of writing somewhat prophetic story lines. This stream wound its way to 2 hours and 30 minutes, but be sure to catch the last hour, as for some reason the crackling noise that had plagued Rob’s audio mysteriously stopped and it became perfectly clear (we think the kind words spoken about AI may have placated our robot overlords). Please leave your thoughts in the comments, and if you can, help support Rob’s Kickstarter; he’s a great storyteller. —Streamed June 26, 2025

Back Rob’s Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/robkroese/ransoms-law

Read Rob’s other 36 books: https://badnovelist.com/

Register for BasedCon: https://basedcon.com/

Quinn Kimball joined the ladies on tonight’s Mosaic Ark to discuss his epic fantasy poem, The Monster and the Foundling. Quinn joined Professor Rachel Fulton Brown’s Telegram chat, the Dragon Common Room, way back in the Covid days of 2020. He saw her challenge to learn to write poetry and responded by writing an epic fantasy poem in 50 stanzas of perfect Spenserian verse! He talks about how his tale of monsters and magic and redemption combined his affection for Lovecraftian lore with his desire to create a more hopeful, Christian monster story. We also talk about how finding the Dragon Common Room and helping to create its reading list, helped him to focus his own reading efforts and writing goals. —Streamed June 20, 2025

• Quinn’s Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/agardenerinawar/p/the-monster-and-the-foundling
• DCR Onboarding Guide: https://www.dragoncommonroom.com/_files/ugd/096a8a_e0ecbe7b12404832a2f467daa6b58278.pdf