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Exclusive Interview: “Shubeik Lubeik” Author / Artist Deena Mohamed

 

If you know anything about wishes — be they granted by djinn, monkey’s paws, or some other magical way — you know there’s often a price to be paid. But what if the price was monetary; what if the more you paid for a wish, the more likely it would come true, and with no strings attached? This is the premise (sans the djinn) of Deena Mohamed’s first graphic novel, Shubeik Lubeik (hardcover, Kindle). In the following email interview, Mohamed explains where she got the idea for this urban fantasy tale, and what influenced it.

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Exclusive Interview: “Burrowed” Author Mary Baader Kaley

 

Any new novel written about a plague or pandemic will inevitably be assumed to be about Covid. But in the following email interview about her post-apocalyptic dystopian sci-fi novel Borrowed (paperback, Kindle), Kaley notes that hers was actually inspired by previous pandemics.

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Exclusive Interview: “Arkham Horror: Lair Of The Crystal Fang” Author S.A. Sidor

 

With Lair Of The Crystal Fang (paperback, Kindle, audiobook), writer S.A. Sidor is leading his third trip to the H.P. Lovecraft-inspired world of the board game Arkham Horror. In the following email interview, Sidor discusses what inspired and influenced this cosmic horror novel.

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Exclusive Interview: “Poor Man’s Sky” Author Wil McCarthy

 

With Poor Man’s Sky (hardcover, Kindle), writer Wil McCarthy is continuing the series of hard sci-fi space opera / political spy thriller novels he started with 2021’s Rich Man’s Sky.

Though as he explains in the following email interview, you don’t need to read Rich to get Poor.

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Exclusive Interview: “Apex Magazine 2021” Co-Editor Lesley Conner

 

Six years ago, the staff of Apex Magazine chronicled their finest fictional moments in the anthology The Best of Apex Magazine: Volume 1. But in the new book, Apex Magazine 2021 (paperback, Kindle), they’ve taken a different approach by collecting all of the original sci-fi, fantasy, and horror stories they published in the titular year. In the following email interview, 2021 co-editor Lesley Conner discusses the decisions that went into making this anthology.

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Exclusive Interview: “Horror Writers Association Poetry Showcase Vol. IX” Editor Angela Yuriko Smith

 

Usually when we think of scary stories, we think of movies, novels, video games, but not poetry. This despite the fact that one of the most famous poems of all time, Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven,” is a dark and stormy night. In the following email interview, Angela Yuriko Smith, the editor of the poetry anthology the Horror Writers Association Poetry Showcase Vol. IX (paperback, Kindle), discusses what went into this new collection, as well as how “dark poetry” is not the same as “horror poetry.”

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Exclusive Interview: “Worlds Long Lost” Co-Editors Christopher Ruocchio & Sean C.W. Korsgaard

 

We’ve all heard the cliché: “You can’t judge a book by its cover.” But in the following email interview with Christopher Ruocchio and Sean C.W. Korsgaard, co-editors of the sci-fi short story anthology Worlds Long Lost (paperback, Kindle), the former inadvertently admits you kind of can with this book, since it’s what inspired this collection.

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Exclusive Interview: “Twilight Imperium: The Stars Beyond” Editor Charlotte Llewelyn-Wells

 

Like any good sci-fi space opera universe, the setting of the strategy board game Twilight Imperium has a lot of different kinds of aliens, and is thus a good place to set a lot of different stories.

Which is what editor Charlotte Llewelyn-Wells has done in the novelette collection Twilight Imperium: The Stars Beyond (paperback, Kindle, audiobook). In the following email interview, Llewelyn-Wells discusses what went into assembling this anthology.

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Exclusive Interview: “Opulent Syntax” Co-Editors Don Duncan & dave ring

 

Often, when a short story anthology is based around geography as opposed to time or “the best” of something, it’s a celebration of the location and the artistry of the people there. But in the following email interview with co-editors Don Duncan and dave ring about their anthology Opulent Syntax: Irish Speculative Fiction (paperback, ebook), they admit to taking a more aggressive stance.