Eight years after releasing the iconic steampunk novel Everfair, author Nisi Shawl has returned to that novel’s realm for the long-awaited sequel, Kinning (hardcover, Kindle).
In the following email interview, Shawl discusses what inspired and influenced this second book, as well as why it switches genres to AfroRetroFuturism and mycopunk.
In fiction, it’s fun to think about “What If…?” scenarios, especially where history is concerned.
For instance, what if the first human on the moon was Russian? Y’know, like in the TV show For All Mankind. Or what if the Nazis won World War II? Like they do in Philip K. Dick’s novel The Man In The High Castle and the recent Wolfenstein games.
It’s this kind of questioning that sets the stage for Nir Yaniv’s satirical military science fiction novel The Good Soldier (paperback, Kindle); a stage in which neither the first World War, nor the second, ever happened, but Europe still kneeled before Germany after the other nations split…for space.
In the following email interview, Yaniv discusses what inspired and influenced this novel, including why he made the main character so Gomer Pyle-esque.
Of the many fears looming over our heads these days (and man, it seems like there’s a lot), none seems to loom as large, but also so abstractly, as the potential military conflict with China.
But for people who can’t wait — and who want it to be, well, weird — there’s the new alternative history / military science fiction anthology Weird World War: China (paperback, Kindle), the follow-up to 2020’s Weird World War III and 2022’s Weird World War IV.
In the following email interview, Weird World War: China editor Sean Patrick Hazlett discusses what went into assembling this short story collection.
There are no set rules when it comes to geographically based short story anthologies. Some editors impose strict guidelines; others take a broader approach. But while their reasoning can be as varied as the selections in their collections, they often have to do with the realities of publishing: page count, budgets, and so on.
But in the following email interview with Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, co-editor of The Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction 2022 (paperback, Kindle), he explains why he and his co-editors Eugen Bacon and Milton Davis favored a broader approach, and not just in terms of the geography but also the genres and formats as well: “Because unity is what I believe Africans need most.”
I have always tried to be a nice Jewish boy.
But I’m rethinking this approach to life, and not just because of that saying about how nice guys finish last.
No, it’s because in his new novel The Bad Weather Friend (hardcover, Kindle, audiobook), writer Dean Koontz sicks a 7-foot-tall supernatural being on someone for being “too nice.”
To find out more about this suspenseful and comedic fantasy story, check out the following email interview with Koontz…while I hide under my desk.
Usually stories about people being frozen for a long time are firmly in the science fiction genre. Or the comic book section.
But in the following email interview about his new technothriller mystery novel Deep Freeze (hardcover, Kindle, audiobook), writer Michael C. Grumley explains how this story about a people-sicle is less of an “what if” and more of a “when.”
Whenever I play one of the Diablo games, I feel a lot of different things. Excitement. Tension. Accomplishment. And sometimes, hunger.
Yeah, hunger. That’s because Diablo III, Diablo Immortal, and Diablo IV are so effortlessly fun that I just lose track of time, and sometimes forget to eat.
But that will never happen again (yeah, right) now that I’ve got Diablo: The Official Cookbook (hardcover, Kindle), which presents “Recipes And Tales From The Inns Of Sanctuary.”
In the following email interview, Rick Barba, the writer of the “Tales” parts of the book, explains how he came to co-write this book with Andy Lunique [The Ultimate Gamer’s Cookbook], as well as which of Andy’s recipes made him the hungriest.
You’d think with all the advances in technology lately that it would be difficult to get away with a crime. But then, they probably thought the same in the ’70s and the ’50s and so on.
That’s because for every advancement in crime prevention tech and crime investigation tech, there’s just as many in the tech used to commit crimes.
How will crime, and crime prevention evolve in the future? No one knows for sure, but it’s interesting to imagine the possibilities.
Or, more apropos, to read what other people imagine are the possibilities.
Which brings me to the following email interview with Jennifer Brozek and Cat Rambo, editors of the new cyberpunk science fiction short story anthology, The Reinvented Detective (paperback, Kindle, audiobook).
In this Q&A, Cat and Jennifer discuss where they got the idea for this book, how they found the writers, and how it fits, thematically, with the previous installment of their Reinvented Anthology series, The Reinvented Heart.
One of the interesting things about the board and card game-related novels published by Aconyte Books is how many of the authors have not been hardcore players of the games they’re writing novels about. (See these interviews with Cath Lauria, Ari Marmell, and Tim Waggoner.)
But the same cannot be said of M. Darusha Wehm, who, in the following email interview about their new sci-fi adventure novel Terraforming Mars: Shores Of A New Horizon (paperback, Kindle, audiobook), talks about how being a fan of FryxGame’s board game inspired and influenced this story.