We’ve all done dumb things in the pursuit of love.
But what’s terrible in real life can often be good in fantasy. Or, in the case of author Samantha Mills and her new novel The Wings Upon Her Back (paperback, Kindle), secondary world fantasy / science fantasy.
In the following email interview, Mills discusses the kind of trauma that inspired Back, as well as the things that influenced this story.
With First Light (hardcover, Kindle), writer Liz Kerin is concluding the vampiric duology she started earlier this year with her horror / family drama novel Night’s Edge.
In the following email, Kerin discusses what inspired and influenced this second half, how it differs from Night’s, as well as her plans for more stories about blood suckers.
We’ve all met people who have good bullshit detectors.
But in Izzy Lee’s psychological thriller / supernatural horror mystery novella I Can See Your Lies (paperback, Kindle), she has a woman who can actually see when someone is lying. Though whether that will help her find her missing mom…
In the following email interview, Lee discusses what inspired and influenced this story, which includes her work in the film industry.
When we think of fairies, we typically think of someone like Tinkerbell, some little sprite who’s friendly but maybe a little feisty as well.
But in his new novel of magical realism, The Miraculous Life Of Rupert Rocket (paperback, Kindle), writer Mark Salzwedel has instead opted for a fairy of the Irish isles, who are known for being financially motivated.
In the following email interview, Salzwedel discusses what inspired and influenced this story, as well as why he had the fairies be Irish as opposed to from some other magical land.
We’ve all had experience with our “fight or flight” response. Like when a fly cruises past our ear and we panic run for the front door of our house yelling, “BEE!! BEE!!”
Or is that just me?
It’s this instinct that — in the following email interview — writer Catherine McCarthy says was the inspiration for her psychological horror novella The House At The End Of Lacelean Street (paperback, Kindle).
Well, that and the dentist.
Rage is a strong emotion. And it can be a powerful motivator.
Just ask A.D. Sui, who, in the following email interview about her new “anti-military and anti-empire sci-fi” novella (paperback, Kindle) says that it was inspired by, “Rage, mostly rage. We don’t talk enough about disabled rage and how disabled people can often feel like some version of their future was taken away from them following injury.”
Under normal circumstances, writers talking about their process isn’t nearly as interesting as they think it is. Certainly not as interesting as when they talk about their books. Or about cake.
But when editing the following email interview with author Elwin Cotman about his new short story collection, Weird Black Girls (paperback, Kindle, audiobook), one line about how he writes single-handedly made me more excited for this book: “Whenever I write a new story, I’m trying to write something different from the story before.”
They always tell writers that they should write what they know…something that always puts me on edge when what they’ve written is a horror story.
Which is not to say you should be worried about writer A.G.A. Wilmot. While there are a lot of real and personal connections between them and the main character in their new horror novel Withered (paperback, Kindle), as they explain in the following email interview, it’s those personal connections that make this haunted house story, “…a different sort of haunting.”
With Wicked Problems (paperback, Kindle, audiobook), writer Max Gladstone is presenting the middle piece of The Craft Wars Trilogy, a new subseries connected to his epic urban fantasy hexalogy, The Craft Sequence.
In the following email interview, Gladstone discusses what inspired and influenced this second book of three, how this series connects to The Craft Sequence, as well as whether or not you need to go back to the beginning of that series to comprehend this new one.