With Jackal, Jackal (paperback, Kindle), writer Tobi Ogundiran is collecting all of his published stories into one handy take home container. In the following email interview, he discusses what went into this collection, including its title.
Tag: Author Interviews
Fifty-six years ago, a young Mexican American man named Raúl Herrera found himself on a Swift Boat during the Vietnam War. It’s an experience that’s stayed with him all these years, and one he’s now exploring, publicly, with his new memoir Capturing Skunk Alpha: A Barrio Sailor’s Journey In Vietnam (paperback, Kindle). In the following email interview, Herrera discusses why he wanted to tell this story, as well as why it took him so long.
Sometimes it feels like it’s the end of the world as we know it, and no one feels fine. But while the apocalyptic feeling hanging in the air over us may get oppressive, people still like reading — and seeing, and playing… — stories about the world coming undone. Which is where we find the stories in the new anthology, The First Five Minutes Of The Apocalypse (hardcover, paperback, Kindle); not in the laboratories or halls of government where they started the endtimes, or are trying to stop it, but on the ground, among the people whose lives are directly effected by the impending end. In the following email interview, First Five Minutes editor Brandon Applegate discusses how this short story anthology came together, and why he concentrated on the small side of the big end.
What was it that Michael Corleone said in The Godfather, Part III? “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!”
It’s a sentiment that Emiko Soong can relate to in Ebony Gate (hardcover, Kindle, audiobook), a new urban fantasy novel by writers Julia Vee and Ken Bebelle.
To find out what Emiko was out of, and is now back in, and why — and, y’know, what inspired and influenced this story — check out the following email interview with Julia and Ken.
Sometimes it seems like every fantasy novel is set in modern times, the renaissance, or medieval times, and in places that resemble America or Europe. But in his new historical fantasy novel The Judas Blossom (paperback, Kindle, audiobook), the first book in a trilogy called The Nightingale And The Falcon, writer Stephen Aryan is telling an adventure set in the relatively unexplored realm of 13th century Persia. In the following email interview, Aryan discusses why he set it then, and there, and what else inspired and influenced this story.
Like a lot of people, Kemi Ashing-Giwa picked up a new habit during the pandemic: drinking tea. But unlike people who took up baking bread or working out or playing Animal Crossing, Ashing-Giwa translated her newfound love into a novel, a sci-fi space opera story called The Splinter In The Sky (hardcover, Kindle, audiobook) that — in the following email interview — she calls a, “spy thriller in space.”
Despite what you may think, the woman in the classic rom-com When Harry Met Sally who says, “I’ll have what she’s having” isn’t looking to have an orgasm in the middle of a restaurant; she just wants a sandwich so good that it makes you cry out in ecstasy. And you can only get that in a Jewish deli like Katz’s, the one in Sally. But what if you’re not familiar with Jewish delis, or know what’s different about them from regular delis? Where can you go to learn about Jewish delis? Well, okay, there’s a movie, but given the title of this piece, you should know where this is going: to my email interview with Ben Nadler, the writer and artist of a new graphic novel called The Jewish Deli: An Illustrated Guide To The Chosen Food (hardcover, Kindle). L’chaim.
While most of the novels based on the Assassin’s Creed video games are obviously connected to specific games, the ones in Kate Heartfield’s series The Engine Of History are exceptions in that they’re set in the same fictional universe, but are not directly tied to any specific game. Though, as she explains in the following email interview we did about the newest Engine installment, Assassin’s Creed: The Resurrection Plot (paperback, audiobook), the Engine books are directly connected.
With The Lost Fleet: Outlands: Implacable (hardcover, Kindle, audiobook), science fiction writer Jack Campbell is not only concluding the Outlands trilogy, but possibly the entire Lost Fleet series as well. In the following email interview, he discusses both this military sci-fi space opera novel, as well as this epic saga.