In the midst of the current pandemic, one thing has become perfectly clear: If a writer makes a mistake of even hinting that they have a pet, I will ask a stupid question about it. Which is exactly what happened when I did the following email interview with writer and cat owner Essa Hansen about her sci-fi space opera / space fantasy novel Nophek Gloss (paperback, Kindle), which is the first part of The Graven trilogy.
Everything comes with a price. Which is what Malachi learns when someone offers to graft him a new tongue, thus restoring his ability to speak, in T.C. Farren’s new speculative fiction horror thriller novel The Book Of Malachi (paperback, Kindle, audiobook). In the following email interview, Farren discusses what inspired and influenced this story, as well as why she didn’t write it as a movie.
We’ve all heard the saying: “Write what you know.” It’s advice that writer and virtual reality video game producer Kimberly Unger has taken to heart with her first novel, Nucleation (paperback, Kindle), which she calls a “nanotech space opera.” In the following email interview, Unger explains what inspired and influenced this cyberpunk sci-fi space opera story, and not just the stuff from her day job.
While many books are just words on a page, sometimes writers like to do interesting things with how those words are place on those pages. Case in point: XX (hardcover, Kindle), the new science fiction novel by writer, graphic designer, illustrator, and comic book artist Rian Hughes. In the following email interview, Hughes explains why XX is a typographically interesting novel, as opposed to just a graphic one, as well as what inspired and influenced its story.
Sometimes we become so focused on our goals that we don’t consider what might happen if we achieve them. Just ask the scientists from Jurassic Park. It’s also the position Rory finds herself in K. Eason’s sci-fi space opera / space fantasy novel How The Multiverse Got Its Revenge (hardcover, Kindle), the sequel and aftermath to Eason’s How Rory Thorne Destroyed The Multiverse ((hardcover, paperback, Kindle, audiobook). In the following email interview, Eason discusses what inspired and influenced this other half of the duology, as well as her plans for some Rory-free stories in the same space.
With Halo: Shadows Of Reach (paperback, Kindle, audiobook), author Troy Denning continues to be the writer with the most stories set in the universe of Master Chief, The Covenant, and the other denizens of this sci-fi first-person shooter series. In the following email interview, Denning discusses how this military science fiction story connects to the games and the other Halo novels, his and others, as well as why he enjoys visiting this turbulent universe of someone else’s creation so much.
They say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. And, it stands to reason, by its title, either. But you’d forgiven for doing just that with David Wong’s new comedic sci-fi novel Zoey Punches The Future In The Dick (hardcover, Kindle), the second book in his Zoey Ashe series after 2015’s Futuristic Violence And Fancy Suits.
In the following email interview, Wong discusses what inspired and influenced what we can’t help but assume is a wild and weird novel.
They say that crime doesn’t take a vacation. And while this may be bad for Detective Salvi Brentt of the San Francisco Police Department in the near-future word of Amanda Bridgeman’s Salvation Series, it is good for people who enjoyed her noir sci-fi crime novel The Subjugate, since it’s why there’s a sequel, The Sensation (paperback, Kindle). In the following email interview, Bridgeman discusses both this series and this sequel, and her plans going forward to keep San Fran full of crime.