Science fiction is full of lovable rogues, from Star Trek‘s James T. Kirk and Star Wars‘ Han Solo or Firefly‘s Mal Reynolds and the MCU’s Star-Lord.
But in the following email interview, author A. Zaykova says the lovable rogue at the center of her noir sci-fi space opera novel Galaxy Grifter (paperback, Kindle, audiobook) is actually more rogue than lovable. “Levi isn’t based on anyone I personally know,” she says, “and if I did, I’d stay far away from them.”
Detective Philip Marlowe is one of the most iconic noir characters in both film and literature, the former of which has seen him played by everyone from Humphrey Bogart and Robert Mitchum to Liam Neeson.
Now Marlow is coming to a different visual medium in Raymond Chandler’s Trouble Is My Business (hardcover, Kindle), a graphic novel adaptation of Chandler’s 1950 novella.
In the following email interview, writer Arvind Ethan David — who worked with illustrator Ilias Kyriazis and colorist Cris Peters to adapt Business — talks about how this adaptation came to be, how its structure differs slightly from Chandler’s original novella, as well as his plans to adapt some of Marlowe’s other iconic cases.
In 1994, art director Paul Karasik worked with iconic author Paul Auster and comic book artist David Mazzucchelli [Batman: Year One] on a graphic novel adaptation of Auster’s 1985 noir detective mystery novel City Of Glass.
But while Glass was never a lone detective story — it was actually part of a series with 1986’s Ghosts and 1986’s The Locked Room that Auster called The New York Trilogy — graphic novels of the other two books were not to be.
That is, until now. In Paul Auster’s The New York Trilogy: The Graphic Adaptation (hardcover, Kindle), fans of the titular novels not only get the original adaptation of City Of Glass, but also new graphic novels of Ghosts and The Locked Room.
In the following email interview, Karasik — who served as the art director on the collection, as well as the artist on The Locked Room — talks about how this came together, how Glass happened back in the day, and how Auster was involved in both.
Some authors like to put their own spins on classic novels. Others like writing sequels to those iconic stories.
But with Don’t Sleep With The Dead (hardcover, Kindle, audiobook), author Nghi Vo is having her martini and drinking it too by writing a sequel to her 2021 novel The Chosen And The Beautiful, which was her reworking of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic 1925 novel The Great Gatsby.
In the following email interview, Vo discusses what inspired and influenced this noir historical fantasy novella, as well as how it connects to Chosen.
The city of Los Angeles is currently preparing to host the 2028 Olympics.
So what does longtime L.A. resident Bob Brill do? He writes a noir mystery novel about hackers planning to steal billions from the Olympics.
Good town spirit, Bob…
I’m kidding, of course; everyone in L.A. is trying to figure out how to rob the Olympics. Breakfast burritos ain’t free.
As for Bob, you can learn more about his novel, :05-Seconds To Die (Kindle) in the following email interview.
Just don’t get any ideas.
You know what I hate? When you finally get released from prison, but the person waiting for you is the one who double-crossed you. And it’s not like you can avoid them, since you’re on a space station. In the future. Where are you going to go? McDonalds!?!
But as so often the case, annoying situations in real life make for interesting ones in fiction. Which is why I wanted to do the following email interview with author Makana Yamamoto about their noir sci-fi crime story / cyberpunk lesbian space heist novel Hammajang Luck (paperback, Kindle, audiobook).
It used to be that if someone was murdered in a house, no one would want to live there. And for some people, that’s still true.
But for others, being the site of a gruesome murder is a selling point. Or at least a reason to attend the open house.
It’s the decision to embrace or deny its murderous past that the town on Rainier has to grapple with in author Shelley Burr’s noir murder mystery thriller Murder Town (paperback, Kindle, audiobook). And a decision that the residents have to grapple with further when someone turns up dead.
In the following email interview, Burr discusses what inspired and influenced this murderous story.
Over the last fifteen years, author Seb Doubinsky has written ten stand-alone novels in his dystopian noir and more series, the City-States Cycle, including the newest, the sci-fi and espionage-infused The Sum Of All Things (paperback, Kindle).
But while he went into writing The Sum thinking it would also be the end of the story, it seems this series has different ideas.
In the following email interview, Doubinsky talks about why The Sum was going to be the end of the City-States Cycle, why it’s not, and how thinking it would be influenced how he wrote it.