The Writers of Sci-Fi and Fantasy series;
Juliet E McKenna – The Green Man’s Heir
A very special episode of the Writers of Fantasy podcast! I interviewed Juliet E McKenna about her brand new book, The Green Man’s Heir. It is a modern day fantasy novel that delves into folk tales and stories against the backdrop of the Peak District countryside.
Juliet talks about the experience of moving from traditional epic fantasy and towards something new. We delve into the treatment of female characters in both epic and modern fantasy, and also dip into police procedurals a bit. It’s a great interview. Check it out!
Lucy Hounsom Interview – Worldmaker
Our latest interview for the Writers of Fantasy podcast is with Lucy Houndsom. She is the author of the Worldmaker series as well as a co-host of the amazing podcast Breaking the Glass Slipper.
We talked about representation of disabilities in fantasy, feminism, bookselling, and a huge range of issues. Lucy is an amazing writer and her advice is great to hear for any aspiring authors or even established ones.
Michael Dante DiMartino Interview
This week on the Writers of Fantasy podcast my guest is Michael Dante DiMartino; he is a writer, artist, and perhaps most famously, the co-creator of Avatar the Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra! He is also the author of a new fantasy series, Rebel Genius!
We talk about building characters, worlds, themes, and more besides. Check it out as we delve into Avatar and more!
Anna Smith-Spark Writers of Fantasy Interview
My guest this week is Anna Smith-Spark! She is the author of the Court of Broken Knives.
She has previously been published in the Fortean Times and the poetry website greatworks.org.
We talk about gender in fantasy, writing, characters and world building. Also there are some jokes about Tony Blair.
Leigh Bardugo Interview
Welcome to the Writers of Fantasy, a podcast for scififantasy network dot com.
My guest this week is Leigh Bardugo! She is the author of the best selling Greishaverse books, from Shadow and Bone to the Six of Crows. She has also written for Wonder Woman and has published countless short stories for Tor.com and more besides!
Give it a listen.
Elizabeth Bear at WorldCon Helsinki
Elizabeth Bear is an American author who won the 2005 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, the 2008 Hugo Award for Best Short Story for “Tideline”, and the 2009 Hugo Award for Best Novelette for “Shoggoths in Bloom”.
We caught up at WorldCon in Helsinki and had a chat about her career, her writing style, and what she’s working on next. Check it out!
Victoria Schwab Interview – Writers of Fantasy Podcast
For this week’s episode of the Writers of Fantasy Podcast, I got to talk to Victoria Schwab, aka V.E. Schwab. She is an American fantasy author best known for her 2013 novel Vicious, the Shades of Magic series, and her children’s and young adult fiction.
We had a really good, long talk about world building, characters, writing, and gender issues in science fiction and fantasy. Check it out!
Fran Wilde Interview – Writers of Fantasy
Fran Wilde is an author perhaps best known for her Compton Crook Award-winning and Nebula-nominated novel Updraft and its sequels Cloudbound, and Horizon. Her short stories appear in Asimov’s, Tor.com, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Nature and more. Also, her Nebula-nominated novelette The Jewel and Her Lapidary is available from Tor.com
We had a chat about her work, how she’s grown as a writer, and the issues facing writers in the ever changing world of publishing. Check it out!
Foz Meadows – Writers of Fantasy Interview
A new series of the Writers of Fantasy Podcast from Scifi-fantasy network!
Joel Cornah talks to Foz Meadows, author of An Accident of Stars! Foz is a genderqueer author, blogger, essayist, reviewer and poet.
In 2014, she was nominated for a Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer for her blog, Shattersnipe; she is also a contributing writer for The Huffington Post and Black Gate, and a contributing reviewer for A Dribble of Ink, Strange Horizons and Tor.com.
Give the episode a listen here, or on iTunes!
Zen Cho
She is the author of Crawford Award-winning short story collection Spirits Abroad and editor of anthology Cyberpunk: Malaysia. She was nominated for the Campbell Award for Best New Writer and honour-listed for the Carl Brandon Society Awards for her short fiction.
Her debut novel Sorcerer to the Crown (Ace/Macmillan), about magic, intrigue and politics in Regency London, won a British Fantasy Award for Best Newcomer and was a Locus Awards finalist for Best First Novel.
We talk about writing, characters, diversity, and the state of the publishing industry!
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Pete Sutton
Pete Sutton has had stuff published, online and in book form, including a short story collection called A Tiding of Magpies. His new book Sick City Syndrome is coming soon from Kensington Gore and we got to talk a bit about that.
He wrote all about Fishponds for the Naked Guide to Bristol and has made more money from non-fiction than he has from fiction and wonders if that means the gods of publishing are trying to tell him something. Pete is a member of the North Bristol Writers.
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Joanne Hall
This week’s Writers of Fantasy interview is with Joanne Hall, author of The Summer Goddess. She has a lot of tips and insights into writing. And you probably want to listen to her as she is an acquisitions editor. That’s right, she is one of the people who decides if your book will get published if you submit it. So she knows what she’s talking about.
Check it out!
This is a video interview.
WATCH HERE
Gemma X Todd
This week’s Writers of Sci-Fi interview is with Gemma X Todd. She is an author, Mobile Librarian and LEGO enthusiast! Her new books, The Voices series, begins with Defender, which comes out in January 2017! So be on the lookout!
As a librarian and all round cool person, she has plenty of unique perspectives on the state of sci-fi and fantasy in the book world. Check it out!
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Steven Poore
Steven Poore Interview – The High King’s Vengeance
This week’s Writers of Fantasy Interview is with British Fantasy award nominated Steven Poore, whose new book – The High King’s Vengeance – came out at Fantasy Con this year. His novel, Heir to the North, was nominated for best novel at this years British Fantasy Awards. So we talked a bit about that, a bit about his life as a writer, and how he develops his characters. Check it out!
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Mary Robinette Kowal
“Alien is a big old puppet show” says Kowal. She talks the Glamourist Histories, theatre and more. Mary Robinette Kowal interview for writers of fantasy.
Mary Robinette Kowal is a multi-award winning author, best known for the Glamourist Histories series, as well as being a professional puppeteer. She talked about her writing process, about puppetree, and how even some of your favourite sci-fi movies, like Alien, are big old puppet shows.
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RJ Barker
This week’s Writers of Fantasy Interview is with RJ Barker, who talks to us exclusively about his debut fantasy trilogy, Age of Assassins! I met RJ at FantasyCon by the Sea earlier this year and knew right from the get go that this is an author who is going places, so we’ve nabbed an exclusive with an author you should deffinately look out for.
If you’re an aspiring author yourself, this interview also touches on the writing process and beyond! Check it out!
Read it here
Juliet E McKenna
This week’s interview on Writers of Fantasy is with Juliet E McKenna, author of The Tales of Einarinn, The Aldabreshin Compass, The Hadrumal Crisis and the upcoming Shadow Histories of the River Kingdom, launching at BristolCon this October!
Juliet is an incredibly thoughtful and talented writer with countless books under her belt. We talked about the changing landscape of fantasy fiction, the rise of eBooks, politics, feminism, Doctor Who, and of course some good old fashioned writers’ advice.
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David Anthony Durham
Our Writers of Fantasy Interview series continues with David Anthony Durham, best known for the Acacia trilogy and his new book The Risen. We talked about building fantasy cultures, characters, and wider themes of representation and more!
This is a text interview.
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Kelly Robson
This week’s interview in our Writers of Fantasy series is with Kelly Robson, author of Waters of Versailles, which won the Prix Aurora Award and was a finalist for the World Fantasy Award and the Nebula Award. We had a really great conversation about the ins and outs of writing, the life of a writer, and how the industry is changing its attitudes. Take a listen, or check out the key quotes in the link if you can’t listen right now.
This is an audio interview
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Charlie Jane Anders
The latest interview for our Writers of Fantasy series is Charlie Jane Anders, author of All the Birds in the Sky!
She has also written a number of shorts, novellas and more that you can find on Tor.com, Strange Horizons, and Flurb. She’s a brilliant writer and has plenty of experience to draw on, so strap in and enjoy!
This is a written interview
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Aliette De Bodard
Aliette De Bodard! She is best known for her incredible historical fantasy novel The House of Shattered Wings. She is a master of both short fiction and long novels, with a number of historical fantasy settings that have kept readers hooked for years.
We talked about her development as a writer, comparing her short stories to novels, the writing process, character building and much, much more. Take a listen!
LISTEN HERE
A M Dellamonica
A. M. Dellamonica is the author of Child of a Hidden Sea, A Daughter of No Nation, and over thirty short stories. She writes science fiction, fantasy, and alternate history.
We talked about how she has changed in her craft over the years, what it takes to build characters and worlds, her theatre background, and the importance of representation and diversity.
This is an audio interview.
Listen here
Kameron Hurley
The latest interview in our Writers of Fantasy series is with Kameron Hurley, author of the Gods War series, The Mirror Empire, and her new book of essays, The Geek Feminist Revolution (which is pretty amazing).
We talked about how she develops her cultures in writing, explores gender and sexuality, as well as building characters around stories. She has a lot of experience and is well worth listening to!
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Becky Chambers
Becky Chambers is Best known for her phenomenal ‘A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet’, Becky talks about her writing process, her history, and how she developed her characters.
Moreover, she gives an insight into how and why she tackled social issues such as gender, sexuality, and humanity’s place in the universe.
This is an audio interview but the website has key quotes if you can’t listen to it right now.
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Karen Miller
Karen Miller is best known for her epic fantasy novels such as the Innocent Mage (Kingmaker, Kingbreaker series) as well as her new book, The Falcon Throne.
She has also written Star Wars and Stargate novels and under the pen-name K.E. Mills writes the Rogue Agent series, about a wizard with special skills who works for his government under unusual circumstances.
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Martha Wells
Martha Wells has been writing ground-breaking fantasy for over two decades now.
Her Books of Raksura series in particular has challenged gender stereotypes and more in every way imaginable and she still has more coming!
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Seanan McGuire
Seanan McGuire, author of the recent bestseller Every Heart A Doorway, as well as the incredible October Daye series. She’s also a musician but we didn’t get into that. Probably would have gone against the aesthetic of the series, but maybe another time!
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David J Howe
David J Howe runs Telos Publishing, a multi-award-winning independent press specialising in high quality books for everyone interested in cult TV, film, health and spirit and – including through the Telos Moonrise digital imprint – all kinds of genre fiction.
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Robert Shearman
Robert Shearman is best known for his Doctor Who story Dalek, as well as plenty of Big Finish audio adventures (some featuring the talking penguin Frobisher), he is also a playwright and author.
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Andrew Smith
Andrew Smith is Best known for being the youngest writer for Doctor Who back in 1980, he penned the Fourth Doctor story Full Circle. Now, thirty years later, he has returned and has written numerous audio adventures for Big Finish.
The latest UNIT series has just been released and features two stories by Andrew, Death in Geneva and The Battle of the Tower. Both of which are available from Big Finish here.
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Mark Lawrence
Mark Lawrence is the author of Prince of Thorns (Broken Empire series) and his new book The Wheel of Osheim (Red Queen’s War, Book 3) is out now!
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Steven J. Guscott
Steven J. Guscott’s first novel, The Book of Prophecy, was released last year to great success through independent publishers Grimbold Books, and now he is releasing a short novella, The Diary of V. Frankenstein.
The Diary of V. Frankenstein is an Alternate-Reality look at the classic Frankenstein tale by Mary Shelley.
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Lauren Jankowski
Lauren Jankowski is an author and blogger best known for her sci-fi series The Shapeshifter Chronicles, and her work on Asexual Artists. She is a bright and staggeringly eloquent speaker, her most recent presentation was entitled “Where are the Asexual Voices” at C2E2.
With her Asexual Artists page having now featured nearly three hundred openly asexual artists.
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Joanne Hall
Fight Like A Girl, the brand new anthology of short stories written by and about women in science fiction and fantasy is out now! As we mentioned back in March, Fight Like A Girl promises to be a powerful collection of science fiction and fantasy ranging from space operas and near-future factional conflict to medieval warfare and urban fantasy.
I had the chance to talk to the editor and brain behind the anthology, Joanne Hall, and she gave us the low down on what it means to Fight Like A Girl.
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Ellen Croshain
At this year’s Fantasycon I got to interview Ellen Croshain, author of the haunting and devilish Cruelty, published by Kristell Ink.
The book came out this year and has already garnered some attention across the web for its strange nature, its creepy tones, and the deep magic that leaps right out of Irish mythology.
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Brandon Sanderson
Brandon Sanderson is the author of the Mistborn series and his new novel Shadows of Self. Brandon was promoting the latest book in his new series, set several decades after the initial Mistborn epic fantasy trilogy.
We chatted about his writing process, how he went about creating his world and where new readers can jump into his works.
You can also listen to an interesting chat on finishing the Wheel of Time.
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Steven Poore
I had a chance to talk to Steven Poore about his new book, Heir to the North. This epic fantasy novel was released at FantasyCon this year and caused quite a stir.
With new and surprising twists on a lot of classic fantasy tropes, Heir to the North is set to be one of the most anticipated small press releases of the year.
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Jake Jarvi
I had the pleasure of talking to Jake Jarvi, the creator, producer, writer and co-star of The Platoon of Power Squadron. You can read my report on the web series HERE.
We talk about how the show got started, what sort of issues have come up during production, and the writing process.
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Ari Bach
I had the chance to interview Ari Bach, author of the Valhalla series. He has a near infamous blog on Tumblr, facts-i-just-made-up where he posts, as you might expect, ‘facts’ that he just made up. His books have exploded in popularity recently so I wanted to talk to him about them and about his experience as a writer.
Valhalla takes place in a futuristic Scotland filled with people who have brain implants and other enhancements and where war is obsolete. It is a fast paced and sometimes graphically violent rampage through adventure, mystery and legend.
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Alyssa Franke
A lot has been said about Doctor Who and politics, and Alyssa Franke’s blog has been a powerful voice in that conversation. Whovian Feminism has been running for over three years and has tackled a lot of serious issues raised by the show as well as celebrating when the writers get it right.
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Cameron K McEwan
I had a chance to interview Cameron K McEwan, founder of Blogtor Who. He is also the author of The Who’s Who of Doctor Who and the Doctor Who Big Book of Lists.
We talked about his books, his experience as a writer, and more besides.
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Tom Siddell
Tom Siddell is the writer and artist responsible for Gunnerkrigg Court. I previously wrote a review of sorts for the comic back here, and now I got a chance to interview the author.
We discussed story telling, art style, story structure, characterisation and more!
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Joanne Hall
Joanne Hall is the author of the staggeringly beautiful Art of Forgetting series. It is a sweeping coming of age tale but with sharp and painful twists.
Emotionally powerful at times, painfully hilarious at others, both volumes of this epic will stay with you long after you’ve finished.
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Joel Cornah 