The epic poem “Beowulf” has been adapted and reworked in numerous ways over the years. Neil Gaiman, for instance, not only cowrote the screenplay for the animated movie, but he also wrote his own poetic version, called “Bay Wolf” (from his collection Smoke And Mirrors), as well as a modernized novella titled The Monarch Of The Glenn (from his collection Fragile Things). And now writer Zach Weinersmith is retelling the tale — but with (and for) kids — in his new comic adaptation Bea Wolf (hardcover, Kindle). Though as he explains in the following email interview, he uses the word “kids” rather loosely.
With Alien: Enemy Of My Enemy (paperback, Kindle, audiobook), writer Mary SanGiovanni isn’t just putting her spin on this sci-fi series, she’s also concluding a loose trilogy that started with David Barnett’s Alien: Colony War and continued in Philippa Ballantine’s Alien: Inferno’s Fall. In the following email interview, SanGiovanni discusses what inspired and influenced her sci-fi horror thriller, as well as how it connects, and disconnects, from the other two books.
If movies, TV shows, and books have taught me anything, it’s that you should never dismiss the warnings of someone when they claim you’ve disturbed the dead. Of course, without people heeding this lesson, there would be no cool movies, shows, or books about people wishing they hadn’t disturbed the dead, so… Which brings me to Leopoldo Gout’s supernatural / historical horror novel Piñata (hardcover, Kindle, audiobook), in which, well, I think you know. Or do you…?
When people read a horror story, they often keep going, long into the night, because they want to know what happens next. But in the following email interview with author Ben Monroe about his horror novel The Seething (paperback, Kindle), he admits that he writes these kinds of scary stories because he wants to know what happens next, too.
It’s often interesting to hear where an author got the idea for their new book. Like, say, author Mia Tsai, who says in the following email interview that her xianxia-inspired contemporary fantasy novel Bitter Medicine (paperback, Kindle, audiobook) was partially inspired by someone else’s kid’s parents dropping the ball.
In the darkly humorous cyberpunk sci-fi novel Mickey7, worker’s comp isn’t a thing…and for a rather unfortunate reason.
But job security must be because that story’s titular worker is back for, well, more work.
In the following email interview, author Edward Ashton discusses what inspired and influenced the sequel, Antimatter Blues (hardcover, Kindle, audiobook).
While some fantasy novels have a bit of romance in them, writer Sarah Hawley is taking the opposite approach with her new series, Glimmer Falls, by having them be fantasy rom-coms. In the following email interview, Hawley discusses both this series, and the book that kicks it off, A Witch’s Guide To Fake Dating A Demon (paperback, Kindle, audiobook).