In the following email interview about his dark fantasy novel The Dissonance (hardcover, Kindle, audiobook), author Shaun Hamill not only discusses what inspired and influenced this story, but also why — despite its timeframe and because of its location — it may or may not also be an urban fantasy story…and why he doesn’t really care either way.
Like a lot of us, writer Tobi Ogundiran knows many stories about the Norse and Greek gods. And like a lot of us, he hasn’t experienced nearly as many about the Yoruba gods; though it’s not for lack of trying, but a lack of them. None of the Yoruba gods have been recruited to be superheroes in the MCU; none have fought Kratos in the God Of War games; none have had songs sung about them by Kiss or Led Zeppelin any other rock band.
It’s why Ogundiran decided to write In The Shadow Of The Fall (hardcover, Kindle, audiobook), the first in a two novella series called Guardians Of The Gods.
In the following email interview, Ogundiran talks about what else inspired and influenced this secondary world fantasy story, and this duology.
Given that he hosts a podcast about J.R.R. Tolkien, you’d expect Jared Pechaček’s dark fantasy novel The West Passage (hardcover, Kindle, audiobook) to be very Lord Of The Rings-ish.
But in the following email interview about it, Pechaček talks as much about the impact Moby-Dick, Hieronymus Bosch, and his religious upbringing had on this story as he does Frodo’s long walk.
For her new romantic fantasy saga The Four Winds, author Alexandria Warwick took inspiration from both the fairytale Beauty And The Beast and the myth of Hades And Persephone.
In the following email interview, Warwick discusses the first installment of this four book set, The North Wind (paperback, Kindle, audiobook).
Writer Benjamin Liar is not alone in having an idea gestate for years, or even decades. Or being inspired by things he enjoyed in his 20s and 30s. And he’s not the first to be inspired by Dinotopia, be it James Gurney’s novels or the TV series.
But all three? He’s got me there.
In the following email interview about his cross-genre sci-fi / fantasy novel The Failures (hardcover, Kindle, audiobook), the first book in a trilogy called The Wanderlands, Liar explains how this story came together, along with what else influenced it and this series.
Writer Hana Lee is not the first person to be inspired by the movie Mad Max: Fury Road, and she won’t be the last.
Though she might be the first who was inspired to write a Fury Road-inspired fantasy story…with motorcycles…that run on magic.
In the following email interview, Lee talks about the novel in question, Road To Run (paperback, Kindle, audiobook), including how it’s (hopefully) the first book in a trilogy.
Rosalie M. Lin isn’t the first writer to draw from her own life, and she won’t be last. And while many of them will fudge a few details here and there, Lin went full pound of chocolately goodness by moving her story to the 1930s.
In the following email interview, Lin talks about what inspired and influenced her new historical fantasy novel, Daughter Of Calamity (hardcover, Kindle, audiobook).
We’ve all had “you got chocolate in my peanut butter” thoughts, where you wonder what would happen if two seemingly disparate things came together. Like if Prince jammed with Black Sabbath. Or if someone made tacos with falafel.
Or, in the case of The Runes Of Engagement (paperback, Kindle), the new military sci-fi / fantasy novel by Tobias S. Buckell and Dave Klecha, what if marines went to Middle-earth.
In the following email interview, Buckell and Klecha discuss how this mash-up came together, and why they took is so seriously…and not seriously.