Tag: reading

Books

Exclusive Interview: “Devil’s Gun” Author Cat Rambo

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date August 7, 2024
2 Comments on Exclusive Interview: “Devil’s Gun” Author Cat Rambo

There are a lot of things mercenaries can do when they retire: start their own private military companies; train other mercenaries; ride off into the sunset…

But in Cat Rambo’s sci-fi space opera novel You Sexy Thing, some retired mercs started their own restaurant…only to still get into trouble of the mercenary kind.

Now they’re getting into even more trouble in Devil’s Gun, the second book in Rambo’s Disco Space Opera series. With that book newly released in paperback — and a third, Rumor Has It, coming September 24th — I spoke to Rambo about what inspired and influenced this second story, and this series.

Books

Exclusive Interview: “Go Figure” Author Rae Armantrout

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date August 6, 2024
No Comments on Exclusive Interview: “Go Figure” Author Rae Armantrout

At first, it might seem odd, or just cheeky, that Rae Armantrout has named her new poetry collection Go Figure (hardcover, paperback, Kindle).

But when you get to the point in the following email interview where she explains how she wrote these poems after she started hanging out with some 7-year-old girls…

Books

Exclusive Interview: “Storm Furies” Author Wen Spencer

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date August 5, 2024
2 Comments on Exclusive Interview: “Storm Furies” Author Wen Spencer

Not everything fits into a neat little package. Take the story Wen Spencer wanted to tell in her urban fantasy novel Harbinger, which was the sixth book of The Elfhome Series. Despite her best efforts, the story she was trying to tell in Harbinger couldn’t physically fit into one book, so she split off the second half, which has just been released as Storm Furies (hardcover, Kindle).

In the following email interview, Spencer talks about what inspired and influenced Storm Furies, as well as how the split came about, and how she originally wanted to call this second book Harbinger Book Two.

Books

Exclusive Interview: “Inland” Author Kate Risse

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date August 1, 2024
No Comments on Exclusive Interview: “Inland” Author Kate Risse

Sometimes, a story in which people are caught in a catastrophic nature-based calamity is meant simply to entertain.

But sometimes those stories are meant to be cautionary tales with (hopefully) preventative messages. Which is where we find Kate Risse’s new climate fiction novel Inland (paperback, Kindle, audiobook).

In the following email interview about it, Risse not only discusses what inspired and influenced this story, but also why she set it when she did.

Books

Exclusive Interview: “The Jaguar Mask” Author Michael J. DeLuca

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date July 29, 2024
No Comments on Exclusive Interview: “The Jaguar Mask” Author Michael J. DeLuca

There’s been a lot of novels lately that are putting different spins on classic stories. There’s Madeline Miller’s Circe, a retelling of The Odyssey from the perspective of the titular sorceress, while Jennifer Saint’s Ariadne, puts a new spin of the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur.

But in Michael J. DeLuca’s surrealist fantasy noir novel The Jaguar Mask (paperback, Kindle), he’s not so much putting a different spin on a Mayan myth as he is imagining what that mythical figure would be up to these days.

In the following email interview, DeLuca discusses where he got the idea for The Jaguar Mask, as well as what influenced how he told this story.

Books

Exclusive Interview: “Star Trek: The Next Generation: Pliable Truths” Author Dayton Ward

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date July 25, 2024
No Comments on Exclusive Interview: “Star Trek: The Next Generation: Pliable Truths” Author Dayton Ward

While DC and Marvel did it first, Star Trek was an early pioneer when it came to having a shared universe. For instance, when Star Trek: Deep Space Nine launched in 1993, it did so with an appearance from Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s Captain Picard, while the latter show’s Worf joined the former station’s staff in DS9‘s fourth season.

Now the connections between TNG and DS9 are being strengthened by Dayton Ward’s new Star Trek novel Star Trek: The Next Generation: Pliable Truths (paperback, Kindle, audiobook).

In the following email interview, Ward explains how this crossover novel came together, as well as why it doesn’t also connect with a certain Captain’s late-in-life adventures.

Books

Exclusive Interview: “The Twisted Tower Of Endless Torment” Author Rob Renzetti

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date July 24, 2024
No Comments on Exclusive Interview: “The Twisted Tower Of Endless Torment” Author Rob Renzetti

Rob Renzetti has made many kids laugh through his work on such cartoons as Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends, My Life As A Teenage Robot, and Dexter’s Laboratory.

But lately he’s been trying to scare the crap out of them with the middle-grade horror novels in his Horrible Bag trilogy.

In the following email interview, Renzetti talks about the second installment in this series, The Twisted Tower Of Endless Torment (hardcover, Kindle, audiobook), which is the sequel to last year’s The Horrible Bag Of Terrible Things.

Books

Exclusive Interview: “The Dissonance” Author Shaun Hamill

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date July 23, 2024
No Comments on Exclusive Interview: “The Dissonance” Author Shaun Hamill

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.

Books

Exclusive Interview: “In The Shadow Of The Fall” Author Tobi Ogundiran

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date July 22, 2024
1 Comment on Exclusive Interview: “In The Shadow Of The Fall” Author Tobi Ogundiran

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.