Filk music. Never heard of it. Neither had I until I listened the Vixy and Tony’s mesmerizing song “My Heart Is Like the Moon.†They have won 2 Pegasus awards, one for songwriting, one for performing. Tony gives us the inside story on the Filk genre and the band.
interviewed by Carl Slaughter
Anatoly Belilovsky is a rising star in the steampunk subgenre. He was born in a city that went through six or seven owners in the last century, all of whom used it to do a lot more than drive to church on Sundays; he is old enough to remember tanks rolling through it on their way to Czechoslovakia in 1968. After being traded to the US for a shipload of grain and a defector to be named later (see wikipedia, Jackson-Vanik amendment), he learned English from Star Trek reruns and went on to become a pediatrician in an area of New York where English is only the 4th most commonly used language. He has neither cats nor dogs, but was admitted into SFWA in spite of this deficiency, having published stories in NATURE, Ideomancer, Immersion Book of Steampunk, Daily SF, Kasma, UFO, Stupefying Stories, Cast of Wonders, and other markets.
interviewed by Carl Slaughter
Joanna Volpe is the founder of New Leaf literary agency. New Leaf represents Veronica Roth, author of the Divergent series, now a hit movie. They also represent Leigh Bardugo, author of the New York Times best seller Shadow and Bone, which is scheduled to hit the screen in 2015. Joanna has build a stable of talented authors who share her passion for storytelling. She also hired a screen agent with an impressive resume. She has business savvy and keen editorial instinct. She has succeeded at every stage in her career. She is an agent to watch, an agent to work with.
Nathaniel Lee puts words in various orders. Periodically people give him money for this. The correlation is weak at best, but present. He lives somewhat unwillingly in North Carolina with his wife, son, and obligatory cats, where he maintains a vague sort of career that provides sufficient money to continue his writing and board game habits. Coincidentally, he is the Assistant Editor of both Escape Pod and the Drabblecast (the posts were each offered independently and without knowledge of the other). As a result, he has read enough stories about penises, serial killers, and time travel. He is also an assistant editor for the humorous anthology series Unidentified Funny Objects. Check out his blog at Mirrorshards where he does Very Short Stories. Exactly 100 words. No more. No fewer. Every day.
Flash podcast site Toasted Cake was launched in 2012 by speculative fiction author, theater buff, and painting hobbyist Tina Connolly. Toasted Cake recently posted its 100th podcast. Connolly’s first novel, Ironskin, published by Tor, is a fantasy retelling of Jane Eyre and was nominated for the Nebula award. Ironskin was followed by Copperhead. The third in the series, Silverblind, is due in the fall of 2014. Seriously Wicked, a YA novel, is due in the spring of 2015. Connolly’s short stories have appeared in Lightspeed, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Strange Horizons, and many other magazines. She is a graduate of the 2006 Clarion workshop.
interviewed by Carl Slaughter
CONNIE WILLIS TALKS ABOUT THE EXTENSIVE RESEARCH SHE DOES FOR HER WRITING, HER INTEREST IN HENRY MENCKEN, HER OPPOSITION FAKE CHANNELERS, HER DISINTEREST IN BECOMING TELEPATHIC, WHAT AUTHORS SHOULD DO AND NOT DO AT CONVENTIONS, AND HER LONGSTANDING, FRIENDLY RIVALRY WITH MIKE RESNICK FOR THE MOST HUGO NOMINATIONS.
The idea that there’s some kind of secret handshake involved in getting published. The idea that you have to trick an editor into buying your story. The idea that if you write in imitation of some successful writer’s work, his or her fans will flock to you. The idea that there’s a new movement or school you can hop aboard like a train that will take you straight to the top.
Jennifer Rush does YA and MG, sci fi and horror, prequels and sequels, male and female POVs, romance and action. Let’s just say she’s versatile.
interviewed by Carl Slaughter
Prolific Science Fiction-Detective-Humor writer Richard Zwicker has sold thirty stories to twenty-two markets in five and a half years. That’s a sale about every two months. How does he do it?
Zwicker has sold stories to Fantasy Scroll, Penumbra, Mad Scientist Journal, Perihelion Science Fiction, Kzine, Plasma Frequency Magazine, On the Premises, Eric’s Hysterics, Tales of Old, Stupefying Stories, LocoThology, Strange Mysteries, The Rejected Quarterly, Mindflights, Poe Little Thing, FlagShip, Labyrinth Inhabitant, Writing Shift, New Myths, Golden Visions, Speculative Mystery Iconoclast, and Ray Gun Revival.
interviewed by Carl Slaughter
Todd MacCaffrey has no plans to stop writing Pern books. He plans to sanction a movie but he wants the screen version done right rather than done quickly.
