It may seem counterintuitive, but distraction can, for some people, be an important part of the creative process. Trent Reznor of nine inch nails once told me he had an arcade in his studio so he could clear his head when he got stuck.
But in the following email interview with author Tim Akers about his new novel, a high fantasy / hard magic thriller called Wraithbound (paperback, Kindle), he explains that when he got stuck writing it, his distraction of choice was to write another book.
As some parents learned during the pandemic, kids can be little monsters. Yes, your kids, your kids are monsters. But you still love them. Though this begs the question: What if they were really monsters? How much of a monster would your kid have to be for you to stop loving them? This is the question that’s central to Gerardo Sámano Córdova’s new novel Monstrilio (hardcover, Kindle). In the following email interview, Córdova discusses what inspired and influenced this horror fable.
Guilt can be a heavy burden. It’s something the character Ten had to deal with in Stark Holborn’s 2021 science fiction space opera Western Ten Low, and something she’s still dealing with in the dystopian sci-fi sequel, Hel’s Eight (paperback, Kindle). And in the following email interview, Holborn has to deal with the burden of my questions about influences and inspiration and connection.
I can only imagine the pain of losing a child. Which may be why there’s been a lot of stories about parents who’ve suffered this unimaginable loss…but have also refused to accept it. In her new novel The New One (paperback, Kindle, audiobook), writer Evie Green puts her main characters through this kind of suffering, but with an A.I. / cloning twist. In the following email interview, Green discusses what inspired and influenced this story, as well as why she says it’s, “a human story first, sci-fi second, and maybe horror third, with strong thriller elements, too.”
One of the hallmarks of the space opera genre is that these stories often take place across many worlds.
But while that’s also true of M.R. Carey’s new sci-fi space opera novel Infinity Gate (paperback, Kindle, audiobook), as he explains in the following email interview, those many worlds are all Earth.
While many writers follow the edict that you should write what you know, it can be a double-edged sword, as a good story in which something bad happens might make you think, “I hope this is something they don’t really know.” It’s where I found myself while conducting the following email interview with author Iori Kusano about their cyberpunk sci-fi novella Hybrid Heart (paperback, Kindle), which they call a “cautionary tale.”
In the following email interview about her new science fiction space opera adventure novel Loki’s Ring (paperback, Kindle, audiobook), writer Stina Leicht mentions a number of iconic sci-fi writers. As you would expect.
What you might not expect, though, is how many writers of non-fiction books she mentioned as well.
Given that it takes place in a colony on Mars, and there’s robots, you’d be forgiven if you thought Nathan Ballingrud’s novel The Strange (paperback, hardcover, Kindle, audiobook) was a science fiction story. But in the following email interview, Ballingrud explains why he thinks it’s more of a dark fantasy.