Category: Books

Books

Exclusive Interview: “Unusual Fragments” Lead Editor Sarah Coolidge

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date April 23, 2025
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For over 10 years, Two Lines Press has specialized in bringing previously untranslated books to English readers. A mission they solidified five years ago with the launch of The Calico Series, which publishes anthologies of translated poetry and short stories.

In honor of their newest release, a collection of Japanese short stories called Unusual Fragments: 20th-Century Japanese Fiction (paperback), I spoke to lead editor Sarah Coolidge about what goes into these anthologies, and Fragments specifically.

Tags Japanese Stories, short stories, Short Story, Unusual Fragments, Unusual Fragments: 20th-Century Japanese Fiction

Books

Exclusive Interview: “Skin” Author Kathe Koja

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date April 22, 2025
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William Shakespeare once wrote, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” But not every player has everyone’s best interest at heart.

Originally released in 1993, Kathe Koja’s queer, body horror / weird fiction novel Skin is less a story and more a performance. Or so she explains in the following email interview about the new version of Skin, which Meerkat Press are rereleasing in paperback.

Books

Exclusive Interview: “Down In The Sea Of Angels” Author Khan Wong

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date April 21, 2025
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While it may sound like it mixes elements of science fiction and fantasy, author Khan Wong says his multi-timeline novel Down In The Sea Of Angels (paperback, Kindle, audiobook) is more of a “speculative / literary cross-over.”

Which may explain why, in the following email interview about it, he cites such disparate influences as David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas and the X-Men comics of Jonathan Hickman.

Books

Exclusive Interview: “The Last Boy On Earth” Author West Ambrose

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date April 18, 2025
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Genre can be a tricky thing. Some people embrace it, others feel shackled by it. And still others don’t give a crap.

And then you have someone like author West Ambrose, who, in the following email interview about his new novel The Last Boy On Earth (paperback, Kindle), seemed to work through it before ultimately saying, “Let’s call it…without any limitations; Cosmic Love.”

Books

Exclusive Interview: “Dark Diamond” Author Neal Asher

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date April 17, 2025
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For nearly 25 years British science fiction author Neal Asher has written stories set in a fictional universe he calls Polity.

But while his newest installment Dark Diamond (paperback, Kindle) is the 21st installment of this series, in the following email interview — in which he also discusses what inspired and influenced this new novel — he explains why this story may serve as a good entry point for this sci-fi saga.

Books

Exclusive Interview: “Death At A Wedding” Author Marc Watson

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date April 16, 2025
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As we all know, Death has lived a long and rewarding life. When not performing their duties as The Grim Reaper, they’ve taken a trip down the Nile, made a number of wishes of varying degrees of quality, and even gone on holiday.

But in Marc Watson’s comedic fantasy novella Death At A Wedding (paperback, Kindle) — the sequel to his 2017 novella Death Dresses Poorly — the embodiment of life always ending has to navigate an awkward social situation: being a guest at a loved one’s wedding.

In the following email interview, Watson talks about what inspired and influenced this urban fantasy / dark romantic comedy novella.

Books

Exclusive Interview: “The Only Song Worth Singing” Author Randee Dawn

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date April 16, 2025
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Watch enough episodes of Behind The Music and you quickly learn that terrible things can happen when a band goes on tour.

But I must’ve missed the episode in which a band’s tour go awry because of creatures from Irish folklore.

In the following email interview, author and rock journalist Randee Dawn talks about The Only Song Worth Singing (paperback, Kindle), in which an Irish band bring some unruly guests with them on their first U.S. tour.

Books

Exclusive Interview: “Twilight Imperium: Voice Of One” Author Tristan Palmgren

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date April 15, 2025
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Having previously written four novels about characters from Marvel Comics, author Tristan Palmgren is now turning their attention to one from a different fictional universe: the science fiction space opera board game Twilight Imperium.

In the following email interview, Palmgren talks about what inspired and influenced the sci-fi space opera spy novel Twilight Imperium: Voice Of One (paperback, Kindle).

Books

Exclusive Interview: “When We Were Real” Author Daryl Gregory

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date April 14, 2025
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There are people who are convinced that we’re all living in a computer simulation. And others who just wish it was true because they’d like to leave now, please.

But in Daryl Gregory humorous cyberpunk science fiction novel When We Were Real (hardcover, Kindle, audiobook), people know they live in a computer simulation…and not a good one, either. Which is why two friends are taking a bus trip to see the glitches.

Well, that’s not the only reason.

In the following email interview, Gregory discusses what inspired and influenced this sci-fi story, including how he decided on the specifics of the sim.