When President Donald Trump started talking about establishing the U.S. Space Force, a lot of people — myself included — thought it was an idea whose time had not yet come.
But as I learned while doing the following email interview with C. Stuart Hardwick, the editor of the new short story and essay anthology Tales Of The United States Space Force (paperback, Kindle), the Space Force’s roots actually go all the way back to the Cold War, albeit under other names, including President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative.
In the following email interview, Hardwick discusses how this anthology came to be, as well as how it reflects both the truth and the possible future of the Space Force, while not shying away from the snarky comments of us doubters.
There are a lot of anthologies ever year that claim to present the best science fiction, fantasy, and horror short stories.
But one book actually puts them to the test: the annual L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers Of The Future anthology, which presents the winners of the yearly Writers Of The Future contest. [https://www.writersofthefuture.com]
In the following email interview, Jody Lynn Nye, the editor of the newest installment, Writers Of The Future, Volume 40 (paperback, Kindle, audiobook), talks about what this series is all about, how the winners are chosen, and what went into this new installment.
When you refer to yourself as a “cheerful Goth,” you probably like to keep people guessing.
Which seems to be what writer Angela Sylvaine is doing in her first collection of short stories, The Dead Spot: Stories Of Lost Girls (paperback, Kindle).
In the following email interview, Sylvaine discusses how this collection came together, as well as what inspired and influenced the stories in it.
Under normal circumstances, writers talking about their process isn’t nearly as interesting as they think it is. Certainly not as interesting as when they talk about their books. Or about cake.
But when editing the following email interview with author Elwin Cotman about his new short story collection, Weird Black Girls (paperback, Kindle, audiobook), one line about how he writes single-handedly made me more excited for this book: “Whenever I write a new story, I’m trying to write something different from the story before.”
Under normal circumstances, I cannot abide the “throw it all away” philosophy of Marie Kondo. I just like my stuff too much.
But sometimes, decluttering can be good.
Which brings me to writer Danielle Ackley-McPhail who — as she explains in the following email interview — put together her new steampunk short story collection Echoes Of The Divine And Other Steampunk Stories (paperback, Kindle) when she realized she, “…had a lot of short stories … just sitting around cluttering up my hard drive.”
In the following email interview about their first collection of short stories, Bugsy & Other Stories (paperback, Kindle, audiobook), writer Rafael Frumkin somewhat defers when asked about genre.
But when asked whether this collection has an underlying theme, there’s no equivocation: “life on the margins.”
Edward Willett is clearly a lazy person. Sure, he’s a writer, runs Shadowpaw Press, and hosts The Worldshapers podcast. But what has he done lately?
Well, the answer to that is Shapers Of Worlds Volume IV (hardcover, paperback, Kindle), an anthology of science fiction and fantasy short stories by writers who’ve appeared on The Worldshapers.
In the following email interview, Willett discusses how this series got started, and what went into this fourth volume.
Of the many fears looming over our heads these days (and man, it seems like there’s a lot), none seems to loom as large, but also so abstractly, as the potential military conflict with China.
But for people who can’t wait — and who want it to be, well, weird — there’s the new alternative history / military science fiction anthology Weird World War: China (paperback, Kindle), the follow-up to 2020’s Weird World War III and 2022’s Weird World War IV.
In the following email interview, Weird World War: China editor Sean Patrick Hazlett discusses what went into assembling this short story collection.