Today I interview Steven Erikson who in my mind nothing less than writer who brought Sword & Sorcery elements into contemporary, even literary fiction and creating a landscape all his own. The author of my favorite series of all time (you can check out my thoughts upon completing The Malazan Book of the Fallen). Let’s do this!
protoculture hoarding, devil fruit eating, chilling in a house of leaves. Check me out at Fukijama
Gareth Edwards is not what you probably picture when you think of a special effects artist turned science fiction director: he’s personable and energetic, as charming to look at as he is to listen to, and utterly enthusiastic about his new movie, Monsters. If you haven’t heard about it, it’s a near-future in which a NASA probe brought back life from one of Jupiter’s moons, and the creatures have taken over half of Mexico.
Elena Nola is the imperial movie critic and the colder half of the Ladies of Ice and Fire.
This week my guest is a multiple Word Fantasy Award winning author and editor of efforts that have become recent fixtures in fan favorite lists, writing a brand of fantastic fiction that the Guardian admits “Could well be creating one of the dominant literary forms of the 21 century”. From City of Saints and Madmen, to Veniss Underground, to his collection Secret Life and now his latest work Shriek: an afterword to a book that doesn’t exist, every journey undertaken has been one to a different place, even if at times occurring in the same location or a few steps from it.
protoculture hoarding, devil fruit eating, chilling in a house of leaves. Check me out at Fukijama
Today we are pleased to present an interview with Charlie Huston. Coming off of a run on Marvel’s Moon Knight Charlie Huston is a writer who also has several novels to his credit, including being three books into the continuing vamp noir adventures of Joe Pitt, and The Hank Thompson trilogy. More recently, the Edgar nominated author, switched perspectives and wrote the stand-alone Shotgun Rule. The fourth book in the Joe Pitt Casebooks, Every Last Drop, is scheduled for a September 2008 release.
protoculture hoarding, devil fruit eating, chilling in a house of leaves. Check me out at Fukijama
I have always enjoyed reading interviews of George R.R. Martin. Not because they offer informative illuminating aspects to his masterpiece (and yes they do exist in epic fantasy) series A Song of Ice and Fire, which due to its multiple perspectives and often times subtle narrative at once offers the chance of being exposed to provocative information as well as the opportunity to be strung along on multiple elaborate red herrings. He historically refrains from talking about specifics regarding plot and characters. Neither is it especially because of any tendency by Martin to be controversial in his statements. What I find oddly compelling is that when I read interviews of Martin, I get this image of a busy writer who would rather be doing anything else but talking about himself while he has a book to write, and damn it, there’s something admirable about that.
protoculture hoarding, devil fruit eating, chilling in a house of leaves. Check me out at Fukijama
This week our featured author is critically acclaimed, award-winning writer Guy Gavriel Kay, author of the soon-to-be released novel Ysabel, and many other historical fantasies including The Last Light of the Sun and Tigana.
A big thanks and welcome to Mr. Kay!
My guest today is a less than a week away from seeing his debut hit the shelves in the U. and a month away until it debuts in the U.S. The book, The Lies of Locke Lamora, is the first installment in a planned seven book cycle titled The Gentlemen Bastards.
I first read the book in October of last year, reviewed it, and after reading it knew that Scott Lynch was somebody I needed to talk to.
protoculture hoarding, devil fruit eating, chilling in a house of leaves. Check me out at Fukijama
This week our guest is World Fantasy Award winning author Dr. Zoran Živković. Publishers in the UK and USA have snapped up Živković’s stories, written in his native Serbian, in English translation at an ever-increasing rate as his literary star has risen. His work has been compared to that of Calvino and Borges and has received praise from such notable authors as Jeff Vandermeer and Michael Moorcock. His tightly written novels and collections, beginning with The Fourth Circle and continuing to such recent publications as Seven Touches of Music and Twelve Collections and The Teashop, combine modern characters with fantastic, sometimes absurd situations, that reward careful reading but do not demand a single interpretation. His fiction often weaves a connected whole out of many seemingly separate parts—which, come to think of it, is precisely what an interview attempts to do as well.
Matt Denault has never lost the seriousness of a child at play—especially when it comes to reading. He lives just outside Boston.
After a long and trying journey into the Azath I was finally able to track down one of the architects of the Malazan world that I find myself completely addicted to. When I first read Ian Cameron Esslemont’s first book Night of Knives, I must admit my reaction was a bit lukewarm, not unwelcome but not a piece that impacted me. After I added more pieces to the puzzle and studied the ones I had with more scrutiny I tackled the book again and it was one of those books that made me review it.
protoculture hoarding, devil fruit eating, chilling in a house of leaves. Check me out at Fukijama
For the longest time I knew I had conducted an interview with Peter V. Brett but for some reason maybe the file never carried over during various iterations of the site. I finally found a copy in my email circa 2008. This would have been right before his debut novel was released and I recall vividly I had one question I really wanted to ask him after reading, so I knew my interview wasn’t something I was just imagining. Here it is and I must say he gave some great thoughtful answers to some rather base questions by yours truly.
protoculture hoarding, devil fruit eating, chilling in a house of leaves. Check me out at Fukijama
I’m returning in style. One of my favorite writers in fiction, I was introduced to her work through my very past interview experience. The very first guest I had was one K.J. Bishop, and after I tied her up and demanded she give up writers of similar quality she finally uttered two names. One was Jeffrey Ford — the other was Catherynne M. Valente.
protoculture hoarding, devil fruit eating, chilling in a house of leaves. Check me out at Fukijama
Behind Door Number Three is The Gift of The Impossible Bird…
When I decided to re-read Patrick O’Leary’s novels to see if they were as good as I remembered them to be I also set out to track him down. I wanted to see if he was still writing and if he had anything coming out as it had been awhile since we heard from him. I hoped that his pen wasn’t silent. After some digging around I heard from him and he agreed to talk to me and luckily he’s still writing. What follows is most of our discussion.
Brian loves both kinds of books — fiction and non-fiction. He is an all around book john and reviewing roustabout.
Aaron Dembski-Bowden is a new author for The Black Library, Games Workshop’s publishing arm. Though only three novels into his Black Library writing career, he has fast developed a devoted following of both die-hard Warhammer 40K fans and people only recently brought into the fold. His radical approach to writing and his outspoken and uncensored view of both the 40K world and the challenges of writing within it have sparked discussion and controversy in equal measure.
Phillip is an Existential Psychotherapist and Teacher by day and a writer, gamer and all round geek in the hours of darkness. He claims to be enjoying the creative process enormously and secretly harbours the hope of publishing a novel one day…
Empire in Black and Gold was published by Pan Macmillan in July of this year, and kicked off the Shadows of the Apt series. Today we have a chat with its author, Adrian Tchaikovsky, to tell you all you need to know about him and a new Fantasy series coming from a publisher who has a a bit of a reputation of being on the ground floor when it comes to names we will all later know.
Time to talk bugs, empires, epics and ask the one question that matters with Adrian!
protoculture hoarding, devil fruit eating, chilling in a house of leaves. Check me out at Fukijama
First off, I’d like to thank Michael Cisco for agreeing to this interview and welcome him as our guest at Boomtron. Michael Terry Cisco is an American writer and teacher. He currently resides in New York City and probably best known for his first novel, The Divinity Student, which has won the prestigious of the International Horror Guild Award for Best First Novel of 1999. Other works by Cisco include The Tyrant (2003), The San Veneficio Canon (2004) and two books published last year, The Traitor and Secret Hours.
Today I have Matthew Stover in for an interview I conducted last month. Stover’s novels chronicling the adventures of Caine are always among my most anticipated books and recently he delivered with the publication of his third Caine novel, Caine Black Knife, published by Del Rey last October. He is a NY Times Bestselling author of several Star Wars titles including Shatterpoint and the novelization of Revenge of the Sith. His next project is another Star Wars novel, Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor.
protoculture hoarding, devil fruit eating, chilling in a house of leaves. Check me out at Fukijama
Joe Abercrombie is the author of the First Law trilogy and Best Served Cold. I have been a fan since the first book in the First Law found me in a bookstore, so I was very excited to ask him a few questions. We talk shop on everything from doing research for fantasy books to the inspiration behind his next book to his favorite curse word and more.
Elena Nola is the imperial movie critic and the colder half of the Ladies of Ice and Fire.
Adam Rex is an amazingly talented children’s illustrator, as well as being an author of both children’s and YA novels. I had the pleasure of meeting him in person last month at BEA, and I made sure to line him up for an interview later before we parted ways. His new novel, Fat Vampire, is due out next month, and it ‘s not your typical vampire novel. Nor is it your typical coming of age novel.
Here I’ve got Adam talking about his inspiration for the story, his influences as a writer, his view of what it would be like to live forever (hint: it’s not all sunshine and roses), and much more. Sink your teeth in and enjoy!
Elena Nola is the imperial movie critic and the colder half of the Ladies of Ice and Fire.
Not quite two years ago I was reading The Guardian and came across a list of Top 10 Weird Fiction, offered by China Mieville. The list featured writers and works of known quality — dare I say superiority — that included the likes of M. John Harrison, Mervyn Peake, Philip K. Dick, Charlotte Bronte, Lewis Carroll, Stefan Grabinski, H.G. Wells, Max Ernst, the prodigious Jane Gaskell, and ended with an author previously unknown to me residing in the 10 spot. Being rather impressionable, I ran — not walked — to get my copy of Kelly Link’s collection Stranger Things Happen, an investment of which that was not marred even when it became available free for download, instead it was a rare moment of unselfishness, a gratitude that others would be able to share in the fantastic trips offered by Link, in what was, and explicitly still is,one of the most noteworthy collections in recent years.
protoculture hoarding, devil fruit eating, chilling in a house of leaves. Check me out at Fukijama
Ekaterina Sedia’s second novel, The Secret History of Moscow, has made her a new author to watch. It has garnered critical praise, from no less than Neil Gaiman and is selling quite well.
The novel is set in Post-Communist Russia, where everyone is suffering under the growing pains of capitalism gone amuck. Thugs and gangs share the stage with those used to the old communist way of doing things, poverty and uncertainty abounds, and yet there is an excitement in the air.
Author of SEA, SWALLOW ME (2008), BEREFT (2013) & SKINDEEPMAGIC (Summer 2014). Lammy Finalist, Moonbeam Bronze Award, Silver IPPY Award
Later this year on August 1st today’s guest is releasing the concluding installment in a duology titled The Sundering. Following up Banewreaker, Godslayer will cap off an epic tragedy story that is a testament to her versatility. Prior to this, her Kushiel’s Legacy series, a thus far three book sequence, that includes, Kushiel’s Dart, Kushiel’s Chosen, and Kushiel’s Avatar, introduced readers to the setting of Terre d’Ange, where through the adventures of Phedre, Jacqueline Carey would become a fantasy fixture, while penning some of the most progressive genre work during the time.
protoculture hoarding, devil fruit eating, chilling in a house of leaves. Check me out at Fukijama
Patrick Rothfuss is a new author who has generated lots of buzz in the last couple of months, and now he’s on Boomtron. His debut novel, The Name of the Wind, is the first installment of the The Kingkiller Chronicles trilogy.
Enough with the introduction – and on to Patrick Rothfuss…
Sarah is the author of “Pop Culture Cocktails,” a collection of cocktail recipes for popular television shows across a variety of genres. She continues to drink recreationally and watch television professionally while hanging out with her cats.
My guest today is a name that has been a fixture in epic fantasy for more then a decade now, and an award nominated author even before that under the name Megan Lindholm. She is responsible for fan favorite series like the Farseer, Live Ship Traders, and Tawny Man trilogies. This year she leaves the successful and familiar setting of the 6 Duchies and with her latest release, Shaman’s Crossing, introduces us to the Kingdom of Gernia, an all new canvas to kick off the The Soldier Son trilogy.
Today Robin Hobb, where she touches on Shaman’s Crossing, Peter Jackson, why first is better than third, and her love for spoilers.
protoculture hoarding, devil fruit eating, chilling in a house of leaves. Check me out at Fukijama
This week my guest is Charles Stross, who is having one hell of a good year. The versatile author is nominated for this year’s Hugo for Best Novel for his novel Singularity Sky, not to mention has 2 novellas nominated for the Best Novella of the year. He is also nominated by Locus this year for Best Science Fiction Novel for Iron Sunrise, and for Best Fantasy Novel honors with the first installment of his Merchant Princes series, Family Trade. The second part of the Merchant Princes, The Hidden Family, was just released, and I want to thank Stross for spending some time with me amidst a very busy writing schedule.
protoculture hoarding, devil fruit eating, chilling in a house of leaves. Check me out at Fukijama
Boomtron is proud to introduce the Bestselling author tandem of Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. They were kind enough to answer some questions after just releasing their new book Bones of the Dragon (Dragonships of Vindras).
We are talking about the creators of Dragonlance!
One of the partners/admins here at the site. We do what we want.
Recently I was given the chance to have a phone chat with best-selling author Marjorie M. Liu, author of the “Dirk & Steele” paranormal romance series and “Hunter Kiss” urban fantasy series; Marjorie is also a current writer for Marvel Comics with “X-23” and “Daken.”
In anticipation for Marjorie’s latest Dirk & Steele novel, In the Dark of Dreams, we discussed the D & S series, working on comics, and the best way to bribe her if you want spoilers for her upcoming releases!
It is said in the annals of time that once Lexie had never, ever picked up a book. Obviously time lies because her parents swear she was born reading.
L.E. Modesitt, Jr., is the best-selling author of several fantasy and science fiction series, and a name you can’t get through any bookstore’s SFF section without encountering. I am only familiar with his work on the Imager Portfolio. From the first book it became one of my favorite fantasy series, so I couldn’t resist the opportunity to talk about the books with him. While I did get some great insight into certain elements in the series, the discussion somehow veered off into cultural territory that I found even more fascinating. Note on that: I’m breaking from my usual interviewing presentation and leaving my responses intact, even when they are long, because I’m not sure his answers would make sense without my set-ups. That being said, I hope you enjoy the perspective!
Elena Nola is the imperial movie critic and the colder half of the Ladies of Ice and Fire.
Sharon Shinn is the author of nearly two dozen fantasy novels, including the bestselling Twelve Houses and Samaria series. She has won the William C. Crawford Award for Outstanding New Fantasy Writer and was twice nominated for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer.
Elena Nola is the imperial movie critic and the colder half of the Ladies of Ice and Fire.
Mark Charan Newton is an urban fantasy author who’s currently two novels into his writing career and, judging by the sheer tonnage of critical acclaim which now includes a place in Library Journal’s top 5 best SF/F of 2010, is only just getting warmed up. For those of you already familiar with his work, Nights of Villjamur and City of Ruin, I suspect he needs no introduction…but I’m going to do it anyway.
Phillip is an Existential Psychotherapist and Teacher by day and a writer, gamer and all round geek in the hours of darkness. He claims to be enjoying the creative process enormously and secretly harbours the hope of publishing a novel one day…
For me this is the interview to end all interviews.
It’s not often one gets to interview a personal hero; I suspect this is mostly because heroes don’t enjoy mopping up fanboy drool, and frankly, who can blame them? This is going to be a little different from my other interviews, because while the others have been with relatively new talent, Dan Abnett has been writing for around 27 years and has done everything, and I do mean everything, from Marvel comics to Mr. Men, as well as a phenomenal novel set in a world of his own creation.
Phillip is an Existential Psychotherapist and Teacher by day and a writer, gamer and all round geek in the hours of darkness. He claims to be enjoying the creative process enormously and secretly harbours the hope of publishing a novel one day…
This one’s for those of you who like to know what goes on before the book falls off the bookstore shelf into your hands. Lou Anders is the editorial director of Pyr books, as well as being the man behind many anthologies on a wide variety of topics. Over the past week or so I’ve had the pleasure of picking his brain about how he chooses manuscripts, how he builds anthologies, what he sees as the current state of science fiction and fantasy, and more. If you’re a young editor, or someone trying to break into the field as a writer, or just someone who’s curious about the publishing industry from an insider’s perspective, be sure to read this interview!
Elena Nola is the imperial movie critic and the colder half of the Ladies of Ice and Fire.
Lynn Kurland is the author of the Nine Kingdoms romantic fantasy series, as well as a best-selling romance author. For all my love of dark, bloodspurting, knights who say–er, frak–fantasy, I also love the lighter side of fairy-tale, love-story high fantasy, so this series fits right in to one of my reading sweet spots. I enjoyed the chance to ask Lynn some questions about how this series came about, what’s been most different for her in switching between genres, how far the story might go, and more. Keep reading to find out what she had to say!
Elena Nola is the imperial movie critic and the colder half of the Ladies of Ice and Fire.
Shana Abé is a bestselling author normally found in the Romance section, but whose latest books are fantasy (or at least fairy tale) crossovers. She’s also a personal favorite of mine–verify on our favorites page, if you doubt–and has just finished up her fabulous historical-fiction shapeshifter series that started with 2006’s The Smoke Thief and continued through five books to last month’s The Time Weaver. I was beyond pleased when she agreed to an interview and completed my trifecta of conversations with my favorite writers.
Elena Nola is the imperial movie critic and the colder half of the Ladies of Ice and Fire.
Our guest this week is Brent Weeks, author of The Night Angel Trilogy, recently published by Orbit Books. Unless something changes in the next few weeks before the end of the year, The Way of Shadows will be my favorite book of the year. Not since Wes Unseld (NBA Players for the Bullets), in 1969, have I seen a rookie that has put together such a strong first showing. Brent was a great fellow and even as I pull off an embarrassing interviewer faux pas and asked him pretty much the same question twice, and he answers them both, what a guy. Now without further delay, let us all welcome Brent Weeks.
One of the partners/admins here at the site. We do what we want.
Back in the nineties, I had the pleasure of working with Charlie Adlard on Topp’s The X-Files comic. Ages later, the man who draws The Walking Dead was kind enough to spend some time catching up on Skype. And it all went something like this…
Stefan Petruchaspent his formative years moving between the big city and the suburbs, both of which made him prefer escapism. A fan of comic books, science fiction and horror since learning to read, he later added a love for all sorts of literary work, eventually learning that the very best fiction always brings you back to reality, so, really, there’s no way out.
My guest this week recently saw her debut novel Melusine released. A gifted short story writer who has forthcoming projects in an anthology by Ace in February titled The Queen of Winter with a story in the Melusine setting, and the sequel to Melusine, The Virtu scheduled for July of 2006.
I really enjoyed reading Melusine and I want to thank Ms. Monette for accepting my invitation as we talk Melusine, a passion for short stories, Tolkien, her future work and more.
protoculture hoarding, devil fruit eating, chilling in a house of leaves. Check me out at Fukijama
Today we present an interview with novelist Paul Kearney the author of series like Monarchies of God and Sea Beggars among other books. His most recent work is soon to be published by Solaris and entitled The Ten Thousand.
One of the partners/admins here at the site. We do what we want.
I was finally able to get in touch with Irene, as she has a very busy schedule. This interview was all prompted from meeting Irene at last year’s New York Comic Con where I think I interrupted her lunch. Being the courteous person that I am, I figured I would let her finish lunch and track her down a bit later. That bit later took some stalking on my part and some annoying emails. I think Irene ended up finishing this interview just so I would not bother her anymore. All joking aside though I am very happy to introduce Irene Gallo, the Art director for Tor, Forge, and Starscape Books. I also want to thank Nicole Cardiff, one of my favorite young fantasy artists, who helped me with the questions for this interview.
One of the partners/admins here at the site. We do what we want.
The Mirrored Heavens by debut author David J. Williams is described by Stephen Baxter as “Tom Clancy interfacing Bruce Sterling.” Williams combines future technology and espionage with a richly imagined political climate, with action and mordant humor to spare. The main characters–the Razor (hacker) Claire Haskell and the Mech (assassin) Jason Marlowe hunt the terrorist group Autumn Rain through virtual and real worlds, not sure who to trust–even their own memories. The book is a rollercoaster ride, but Williams’ future is grimy and intense–this isn’t shiny new gadgets–and there is a serious exploration of the clash between the developing world and the first world.
Mr. Williams, fellow DC dweller and my occasional drinking buddy, graciously agreed to be interviewed for Boomtron.
Author of SEA, SWALLOW ME (2008), BEREFT (2013) & SKINDEEPMAGIC (Summer 2014). Lammy Finalist, Moonbeam Bronze Award, Silver IPPY Award
Jim C. Hines began writing in the early 90s, while working on a degree in psychology from Michigan State University. For many years, he focused on short fiction. His work has appeared in Realms of Fantasy, Turn the Other Chick, Sword and Sorceress XXI, and over thirty other magazines and anthologies.
Maria is the author of a few short stories, including the anthology Sage: Tales from a Magical Kingdom. She enjoys reading, cooking, gardening and forums. Stop by her website, BearMountainBooks.com and say hello.
On November 10th (2007) best selling author Paul S. Kemp joined us live for a chat in our chat room. Kemp has written several books perhaps most notable those featuring the adventures of his creation, Erevis Cale, in the Forgotten Realms setting. He also wrote an installment of the R.A. Salvatore presented War of the Spider Queen series, Resurrection, bringing it to a conclusion.
One of the partners/admins here at the site. We do what we want.
A couple weeks ago I had the pleasure of speaking with Jessica Bendinger, screen writer, director, and now author. Her best-known work, at least in my age demographic, is writing Bring It On. Jessica also wrote and directed Stick It, with Missy Peregrim and Jeff Bridges, and last December she published her first novel with Simon & Schuster, titled The Seven Rays. It’s a young adult caper into karma and destiny and love and teenage hilarity, and I got the scoop on her inspirations, intentions, and more in our conversation…which you can read below!
Elena Nola is the imperial movie critic and the colder half of the Ladies of Ice and Fire.
Boomtron recently got the chance to interview up and coming actress, Michelle Page. At age 24, she has gotten many great performances under her belt with more on the way. She talked about being an actress in different medians and working with other actors.
Sarah is the author of “Pop Culture Cocktails,” a collection of cocktail recipes for popular television shows across a variety of genres. She continues to drink recreationally and watch television professionally while hanging out with her cats.
We recently interviewed Hannah Marks, the young star currently portraying Lindsay Santino on the new USA show Necessary Roughness. We talked about her previous acting gigs and new starring role.
Sarah is the author of “Pop Culture Cocktails,” a collection of cocktail recipes for popular television shows across a variety of genres. She continues to drink recreationally and watch television professionally while hanging out with her cats.
The extremely talented author James Rollin is with me today to talk about his latest Sigma Force novel, the 7th in the series, The Devil Colony. Was America originally supposed to have 14 instead of 13 colonies? Who is a largely forgotten Founding Father whom you probably have never heard about in school? Did the Lost Tribes of Israel make it to America and settle here? From the dark secret origins of the United States to cutting edge nanotechnology, the action-packed and suspenseful novel The Devil Colony might be the best Sigma Force book yet!
I intend to get to the bottom of this and find out the answers to these and even more Burning Questions by water boarding–er, I mean interviewing James Rollins. Will there be any broken bones? I can’t promise that, for legal reasons. You’ll just have to read the following interview to find out for yourselves!
Professor Crazy here! I have obtained degrees from numerous colleges & universities both Major and Minor, with an emphasis on all of the Various & Sundry schools of Thought & Discipline.
I majored in Rhetoric at the University of Illinois, obtained a Master’s degree in English at Arizona State University In Tempe, AZ., and another Master’s in Secondary Education at UALR, in Little Rock, AR.
Then, there are the years I spent with the Swedish Bikini Team, touring throughout Europe…fond memories, those…especially that time in Amsterdam….
