With Halo: Shadows Of Reach (paperback, Kindle, audiobook), author Troy Denning continues to be the writer with the most stories set in the universe of Master Chief, The Covenant, and the other denizens of this sci-fi first-person shooter series. In the following email interview, Denning discusses how this military science fiction story connects to the games and the other Halo novels, his and others, as well as why he enjoys visiting this turbulent universe of someone else’s creation so much.
They say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. And, it stands to reason, by its title, either. But you’d forgiven for doing just that with David Wong’s new comedic sci-fi novel Zoey Punches The Future In The Dick (hardcover, Kindle), the second book in his Zoey Ashe series after 2015’s Futuristic Violence And Fancy Suits.
In the following email interview, Wong discusses what inspired and influenced what we can’t help but assume is a wild and weird novel.
Since 2005, writer Carrie Vaughn has written more than a dozen urban fantasy tales about Kitty Norville, an advice-dispensing werewolf. But she’s also, in the same time, written even more short stories set in the same fictional universe. In the following email interview, Vaughn talks about Kitty’s Mix-Tape (paperback, Kindle, audiobook), the second collection of Kitty Norville short stories, as well as about her two Robin Hood-related novellas, The Ghosts Of Sherwood (paperback, Kindle) and The Heirs Of Locksley (paperback, Kindle).
There was a time when people who heard voices were thought to be possessed or be witches or have some kind of supernatutal affliction; now we know they have schizophrenia or some other mental issue. But what if they did have magic powers? This is the world that writer David R. Slayton is presenting in his comedic rural fantasy novel White Trash Warlock (paperback, Kindle, audiobook). In the following email interview, Slayton discusses what inspired and influenced this story, and why it’s only the first part of a larger tale.
As someone who covers pop culture, it’s always frustrating when a writer, game designer, or director deny that their creation is even remotely similar to someone else’s, even when it so clearly is. Which is why it was so refreshing during the following email interview about his new military sci-fi novel In The Black (paperback, Kindle, audiobook) that writer Patrick S. Tomlinson freely admitted that this story — the first in a new series — wears its influences on its sleeves.
They say that crime doesn’t take a vacation. And while this may be bad for Detective Salvi Brentt of the San Francisco Police Department in the near-future word of Amanda Bridgeman’s Salvation Series, it is good for people who enjoyed her noir sci-fi crime novel The Subjugate, since it’s why there’s a sequel, The Sensation (paperback, Kindle). In the following email interview, Bridgeman discusses both this series and this sequel, and her plans going forward to keep San Fran full of crime.
In 1996, actress Rachel True starred as Rochelle in the occult (and now cult) movie The Craft. What most people don’t know is that this was a bit of typecasting. Long before she got the role in The Craft, True was into tarot cards. It’s an interest she’s now sharing with her new book and card set, True Heart Intuitive Tarot. In the following interview, True explains how she came to write this book, and why she wrote it the way she did.
When writer Aliya Whiteley’s novellas The Beauty and The Arrival Of Missives were published in 2018, both came with bonus short stories. So it’s not surprising that she’s now releasing a collection of short stories called Fearsome Creatures (paperback). Though what’s also not surprising, given how close together those novellas were released, is that she also has five other books coming out in the coming months. In the following email interview, Whitely discusses how Fearsome Creatures came together, and how it differs from her forthcoming second short story collection, From The Neck Up, and all of the other books on her release schedule.