Jack Campbell (the pen name of John G. Hemry) writes the New York Times bestselling SF series The Lost Fleet (Dauntless, Fearless, Courageous, Valiant, Relentless, and Victorious) which has been published in the UK, France, Germany, Japan, Spain, China, Russia, Poland, the Czech Republic and Israel. He also writes the follow-on series The Lost Fleet – Beyond the Frontier (Dreadnaught, Invincible, and Guardian) and the spin-off series The Lost Stars (Tarnished Knight and the upcoming Perilous Shield). John is also the author of the Sinclair (JAG in Space) series and the Stark’s War series. His short fiction has appeared in places as varied as the last Chicks in Chainmail anthology (Turn the Other Chick), and Analog magazine (which published his award winning stories). His non-fiction on topics ranging from Interstellar Navigation to the Legion of Superheroes has been in (among other places) the Sequart anthology Teenagers From the Future, and anthologies on Charmed, Star Wars, and Superman. John had the opportunity to live on Midway Island for a while during the 1960s, then later attended the US Naval Academy. He served in a variety of jobs including gunnery officer and navigator on a destroyer, with an amphibious squadron, and at the Navy’s anti-terrorism center. He speaks the remnants of Russian pounded into him by the perseverance of Professor Vladimir Tolstoy. After retiring from the US Navy and settling in Maryland, John began writing. He lives with his amazing wife (the indomitable S) and three great kids. His daughter and two sons are diagnosed on the autistic spectrum. He can be found on Facebook and via his website at jack-campbell.com/.
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Evie Manieri is fascinated by intricacy. She loves books with complicated plots where every detail matters. Her debut novel from Tor Books is Blood’s Pride, first in her Shattered Kingdoms epic fantasy series. Evie grew up a product of the Philadelphia public schools, played French Horn, acted in drama club, sang in show choir then went on to Wesleyan University in Connecticut, studied theater and medieval history, majoring in Taking Herself Too Seriously. Her acting past ingrained in her ideas about pacing, dramatic tension, holding audience’s attention, economy, and not dissipating energy that influence her writing. The next book in the Shattered Kingdoms trilogy, Fortune’s Blight, is due out later this year. She can be found on Goodreads, Twitter and via her website at EvieManieri.com.
SFFWRTCHT: Where’d your interest in speculative fiction come from?
Evie Manieri: Madeline L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time. Read it in fifth grade and was smote, in the biblical sense. My agent mentioned it in her bio. It’s why I queried her.
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Morgan Keyes grew up in California, Texas, Georgia, and Minnesota, accompanied by parents, a brother, a dog, and a cat. Also, there were books. Lots and lots of books. She started to keep a journal for a second-grade English class and never stopped. Journal entries turned into short stories, short stories turned into novels. In between, there were a lot of haikus and cinquains. Morgan now lives near Washington, D.C. And her debut novel, a young adult fantasy Darkbeast is out from McElderry. In between trips to the Natural History Museum and National Gallery of Art, she reads, travels, writes, wrestles with cats and reads. Because there are still books. Lots and lots of books. She can be found on Goodreads, Twitter and via her website at MorganKeyes.com.
SFFWRTCHT: First things first, where’d your interest in speculative fiction come from?
Morgan Keyes: I have always been interested in spec fic, starting with fairy tales, going on to The Hobbit. My first novel was a sequel to The Hobbit written over spring break of 7th grade with my best friend. Except I didn’t finish it.
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Doctor Charles E. Gannon is a Distinguished Professor of English at St. Bonaventure University. A Fulbright Senior Specialist in American Literature and Culture 2004-2009, his most recent non-fiction book won the 2006 ALA Award for Outstanding Book and was discussed on NPR’s Morning Edition when he was interviewed. He’s also appeared on Discovery Channel and is a member of SIGMA, a Science Fiction think tank of which clients include the Air Force, the Pentagon, and NATO. Prior to his academic career, Dr. Gannon worked eight years as a scriptwriter and producer in New York City. His latest novel is Fire With Fire, others are Extremis with Steve White and 1635: The Papal Stakes with Eric Flint, all from Baen Books. A happily married father of five, he lives north of Annapolis and can be found on twitter as @cegannon1, on Facebook and via his website at CharleseGannon.com.
SFFWRTCHT: First things first, where’d your interest in speculative fiction come from?
Charles E. Gannon: Where? Dunno. When? The cradle, I think. When I was three, I loved dinosaurs. So I wanted to be a paleontologist and write about it. When I was seven, it was zoology, and I wanted to write about it. At about nine, it was astronomy, then being an astronaut. But then I learned that space travel was still dangerous, so it was back to astronomy. And of course, write about it. You spent long, preparatory years doing immense amounts of number crunching, often living a dull existence, all so you’d get to do something uberkewl for a few days. That was not satisfying to me. But writing about it? I got to virtually live all those lives, whenever I wanted. And dive into the topix. Now that was kewl!
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Known as the “Wizard of Storytelling,” David Farland (a.k.a. Dave Wolverton) is the New York Times bestselling author of fifty novels, including novels for adults, young adults, anthologies, middle-grade readers, and picture books. As a child, he wrote short stories and dreamt of growing up to become a fantasy writer. At BYU, he wrote “On My Way to Paradise,” based on a vivid dream, and entered it in L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future contest and won the grand prize the Gold Award. He was immediately contracted by Bantam Books to turn the short story into a novel, along with a contract to write two more. On My Way to Paradise spent months on the Locus Bestseller list and won a Phillip K. Dick Memorial Special Award. He wrote Science Fiction for ten years under his given name David Wolverton then decided to try fantasy. He has amassed many awards for his short fiction in particular, and set a Guinness Record for the world’s largest book signing, a record he still holds. A dedicated teacher, he is known for having taught many great emerging writers, including Stephanie Meyer, Brandon Sanderson, Eric Flint and more. As part of his dedication to helping other writers, David writes David Farland’s Daily Kick in the Pants email bulletin for writers. He can be found on twitter as @DavidFarland, Facebook and via his website at DavidFarland.com.
[Editor's Note: David's son, Ben Wolverton, was in a tragic accident after this interview was conducted. Here's how you can help.]
SFFWRTCHT: First things first, where’d your interest in speculative fiction come from?
David Farland: Seriously, I think my interest in fantastic literature came from sitting on my mother’s knee and listening to bedtime stories. As a kid of twelve, I became a Star Trek fan-when I got to watch it in color. But my love for speculative literature really blossomed at sixteen, when I read Lord of the Rings.
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Alaya Dawn Johnson has a new young adult science fiction novel out from Scholastic/Arthur Levine titled Summer Prince, set in future Brazil that’s an awesome read. As a child, her father introduced her to Joao Gilberto and Brazilian bossa nova, a music for which this host also has great passion. She later traveled to Brazil with her sister and cousin. A Columbia University graduate with a degree in East Asian languages and cultures, she lives in New York City. She’s authored the vampire series Zephyr Hollis set in 1920s NYC, The Spirit Binders fantasy series and Twisted Journeys graphic novels. Her short fiction has appeared in anthologies like Zombies v. Unicorns, Welcome to Bordertown, Year’s Best Science Fiction 11,and Year’s Best Fantasy 6. She’s also had stories in Asimov’s and Fantasy magazines. She can be found on Twitter as @alayadj, on Facebook or at her website AlayaDawnJohnson.com.
SFFWRTCHT: First things first, where’d your interest in speculative fiction come from?
Alaya Dawn Johnson: Diana Wynne Jones was my gateway drug. Hexwood and The Homeward Bounders forever. Besides Jones, Guy Gavriel Kay is one of my favorite writers on earth, and had a huge influence on young me. Also, Ursula Le Guin for how she changed my view of the possibilities of science fiction.
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Sarah A. Hoyt is one if the headliners for my anthology Raygun Chronicles. A transplant from Portugal, whose third language is English, she lives with other authors, including her husband and sons, in Colorado. A novelist with three pseudonyms in addition to her name and eighteen novels out, her motto is “no genre is safe from me.” She’s authored popular space operas, Darkship Thieves and Darkship Renegades from Baen Books, the 1st won the Prometheus Award. A third book, A Few Good Men, came out March 5th. Her next novel in her Shifters series, Noah’s Boy, arrives this July. As Sarah D’Almeida, she writes a series of Musketeers mysteries, and as Elise Hiatt, the Daring Finds Mysteries for Berkley. She also has series called Shakespeare Fantasies, Shifters and Magical British Empire as well. Her short fiction has appeared in Analog, Asimov’s and anthologies including Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 3, Going Interstellar and Space Horrors amongst many others. She can be found on Facebook or at her website SarahaHoyt.com or blog AccordingToHoyt.com .
SFFWRTCHT: First things first, where’d your interest in speculative fiction come from?
Sarah A. Hoyt: My ten year older brother brought home science fiction and fantasy books. I got hooked. First taste was free. After that he made me go halves on the books from my allowance!
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Philip K. Dick and World Fantasy Award Winning novelist James P. Blaylock is considered, along with Tim Powers and K.W. Jeter, to be one of the Founding Fathers of Steampunk. His novels include Lord Kelvin’s Machine, The Stone Giant, The Magic Spectacles, The Last Coin and The Disappearing Dwarf. His latest novel, The Aylesford Skull (now avilabale from from Titan Books) is a Langdon St. Ives steampunk tale set in Victorian England that follows up Lord Kelvin’s Machine, Humunculus, The Ebb Tide, and The Affair of the Chalk Cliffs. He is currently director of the Creative Writing Conservatory at the Orange County High School of the Arts, where Tim Powers is Writer in Residence. Mr. Blaylock was born in Long Beach, California and studied English at California State University, Fullerton, receiving an M.A. in 1974. He lives in Orange, California, teaching creative writing at Chapman University. Many of his books are set in Orange County, California, and can more specifically be termed “fabulism” — that is, fantastic things happen in our present-day world, rather than in traditional fantasy, where the setting is often some other world. His works have also been categorized as magic realism. He can be found online at Goodreads and via his website at JamespBlaylock.com/.
SFFWRTCHT: First things first, where’d your interest in science fiction and fantasy come from?
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L. Jagi Lamplighter, is the author of the Prospero’s Daughter series from Tor Books. She lives with her husband, fellow author John Wright, and sons on the East Coast. Her short fiction has appeared in anthologies including Bad Ass Faeries, No Longer Dreams, Don’t Open This Book and Best Dreams of Decadence. She is coeditor of the Bad Ass Faeries anthology series and can be found on Facebook or at her website ljagilamplighter.com.
SFFWRTCHT: First things first, where’d your interest in speculative fiction come from?
L. Jagi Lamplighter: I have always been interested in speculative fiction as long as I can remember. As a child, my mom entertained us on the long walks my family took by telling us stories. She told wondrous stories–stuff like people riding through space on a soda bottle propelled by fizz shooting out the back. From this, I developed a love of fantasy and wonder. My goal as a writer is to share this wonder with others.
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Steven Gould is the New York Times bestselling author of Jumper. His other works include Wildside, Helm, Blind Waves, Reflex, Jumper: Griffin’s Story, and 7th Sigma as well as several short stories published in Analog, Asimov’s, Amazing, and other magazines and anthologies. He is the recipient of the Hal Clement YA Award for SF and has been on the Hugo ballot twice and Nebula ballot once for his short fiction, but his favorite distinction was being on the American Library Association’s Top 100 Banned Books list 1990-1999. Steve lives in New Mexico with his wife, writer Laura J. Mixon (a.k.a. Morgan J. Locke), and their two daughters. He’s also a current candidate for SFWA President. Jumper was adapted into the 2008 movie of the same name staring Hayden Christensen, Samuel L Jackson, Rachel Bilson and Jamie Bell. He can be found on Facebook: as Steven Gould, on Twitter as @StevenGould, and at his website eatourbrains.com/steve/.
SFFWRTCHT: First things first, where’d your interest in speculative fiction come from? And who are some of your favorite authors and books that inspire you?
Steven Gould: I was bit by the SF bug early, a book called The Runaway Robot by Lester Del Rey. Zelazny, early Heinlein, Blish. I’ve always liked Bujold but I’ve been especially pleased with the Chalion fantasies.
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Andrew P. Mayer‘s third steampunk superhero novel — a fantastic and fun read called Power Under Pressure — came out from PYR Books in January. It’s the third book of his Society of Steam trilogy, following The Falling Machine and Hearts of Smoke & Steam. These stories capture the feel of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells while being set in Victorian New York City, where Mayer was born. Mayer is a game designer who has also has written comic books and short stories. You can find Andrew online at societyofsteam.com, andrewpmayer.com/, and on Twitter as @AndrewMayer.
SFFWRTCHT: Andrew, congrats on the completion of your trilogy. What’s it like to have that complete cycle under your belt?
Andrew P. Mayer: I’m still breathing the same sigh of relief that I started when I handed in the book. It’s nice to have the completed story out in the world after six years of work.
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Damien Walters Grintalis lives in Maryland with her husband and two rescued pit bulls. At the age of eleven, she saw the movie Alien, read Stephen King’s The Shining and her attraction to all things dark and scary turned true love. A member of HWA and SFWA, her short fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Daily Science Fiction, Strange Horizons, Apex Magazine, Lightspeed, Shimmer, Shock Totem and more. She is also an Associate Editor of the Hugo Award-winning magazine, Electric Velocipede and a staff writer with BooklifeNow. Ink, released in December 2012 from Samhain Horror, is her debut novel. It’s on the 2012 recommended Bram Stoker reading list. She can be found on Twitter and Facebook or via her website at damienwaltersgrintalis.com.
SFFWRTCHT: First things first, where’d your interest in speculative fiction come from?
DW Grintalis: I’m not sure I really know where, but when I was a kid, I loved books like The Girl Who Owned a City by O.T. Nelson and Down a Dark Hall by Lois Duncan. I guess I’ve always loved the fantastic and impossible.
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E.C. Myers is the product of German and Korean parents, and was raised in Yonkers by his mother and by the public library. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Visual Arts from Columbia which he put to no use as a technical writer, former software development, and women’s programming developer for TV. Currently a writer for a Children’s hospital development department, he spends way too much time gaming and on the internet. His debut young adult science fiction novel, Fair Coin (Pyr, 2012), received rave reviews and is a current finalist for the Andre Norton Award. His second novel, Quantum Coin, was released last October. He’s a graduate of Clarion West and member of Altered Fluid, a NY writing group. His short fiction has appeared in Fantasy Magazine, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, and Shimmer, amongst other venues. His romantic short story featuring horny zombies, “In the Closet”, received Honorable Mention in The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror 2008. His nostalgic short story about horny cavemen, “My Father’s Eyes”, got an Honorable Mention in The Best Horror of the Year: Volume 3. Horny characters are thus key to his success. Myers was also a finalist in the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest. He is an avid Star Trek fan who blogs about it at The View Screen. Myers can be found online at ecmyers.net, on twitter as @ECMyers, and on Facebook.
SFFWRTCHT: I couldn’t put your book down. But first things first: where’d your interest in science fiction and fantasy come from?
E.C. Myers: Thank you! That’s always a wonderful compliment to receive. Probably from cartoons I watched as a kid, like He-Man and Thundercats. And the first science fiction novel I read, Interstellar Pig by William Sleator.
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Nancy Kress‘ latest novel is Flash Point, a young adult science fiction story about a teen who takes a job on a virtual reality TV show that’s more than she bargained for. A former columnist for Writer’s Digest, Kress has been nominated for and won one Hugos and four Nebulas. She’s currently nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award and Nebula for her novella After The Fall, Before The Fall, During The Fall. Her novels include The Probability Trilogy and The Sleepers Saga, which includes Beggars In Spain based on her award winning novella. And she’s written writing books for Writer’s Digest and more. Her short fiction has appeared in Asimov’s, Omni, Galaxy, amongst others, as well as several year’s best anthologies. Along with Robert Silverberg, Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Mike Resnick, she’s headlining the colonist science fiction anthology, Beyond The Sun, coming in July from Fairwood Press. She lives in Seattle with her husband, fellow writer Jack Skillingstead, and a spoiled toy poodle, Cosette. She can be found online at www.sff.net/people/nankress, on Twitter as @NancyKress and Facebook.
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Kelly McCullough and I met at Convergence where we had a blast creating chaos on panels together. I hadn’t had time to read his books until he agreed to guest, but Broken Blade is an adventure fantasy. I couldn’t put down Book 1, it’s followed by Bared Blade and his latest Crossed Blades from Ace Books. He is also the author of the Webmage series of five books which mix internet and sorcery, so urban science fantasy perhaps? A full time writer/cat wrangler, he’s married to physicist Laura and lives in MN where he dabbles in politics amongst other things. He can be found online at http://t.co/hfjXQIJB, on twitter as @KellyDMcC and Facebook.
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Brenda Cooper is the Chief Information Officer of Kirkland, WA by day and a Science Fiction writer by night. Her stories appeared in Analog, Asimov’s, Strange Horizons, Clarkesworld and anthologies including Fast Forward and Footprints. She’s also headlining my forthcoming space opera anthology Raygun Chronicles: Space Opera For a New Age, due out in November 2013. Her novels include Building Harlequin’s Moon with Larry Niven, The Silver Ship and The Sea and two sequels. Her last appearance was to discuss Mayan December. Her debut at Pyr Books is The Creative Fire, first in a new duology, Ruby’s Song. She can be found on twitter as @BrendaCooper, on Facebook and via her website at brenda-cooper.com.
SFFWRTCHT: We talked about this before but briefly, where’d your interest in science fiction and fantasy come from?
Brenda Cooper: I’ve always read SF and F. Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land and Time Enough for Love, Herbert’s Dune, Madeline L’Engle, Arthur C. Clarke, Nancy Kress, L. Frank Baum’s original Oz. I’m also interested in science and the future. I think those matter.
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Adam Christopher, has two novels Empire State and Seven Wonders out from Angry Robot Books. His next book, The Age Atomic, a sequel to Empire State comes out in April. He also has Shadow’s Call forthcoming from TOR. Born in Auckland, NZ, he’s not a hobbit, despite the rumors. Instead, he’s a Pertwee-era Doctor Who and Beatles fan, a child of the ‘80s who now lives in NW England. Adam’s fiction has appeared in Pantechnicon, Hub, and Dark Fiction Magazine, and in 2010, he won a Sir Julius Vogel award , Which is New Zealand’s highest fiction honor. When not writing, Adam can be found drinking tea and obsessing over superhero comics and The Cure. He can be found online as @ghostfinder on Twitter, on Facebook or via his website at http://www.adamchristopher.co.uk.
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Melinda Snodgrass has been a writer for Star Trek TNG, Wild Cards, a lawyer, an opera singer and run a natural gas company. Her Star Trek Original series novel The Tears Of The Singers (1984) was 19th in the novel series and predated her TV work for TNG. In television, she also worked on Profiler and Reasonable Doubt and is currently developing a Wild Card screenplay. Her novels include the Circuit trilogy of sciencefiction novels, the Edge series of urban fantasy novels, and several Wild Card novels and collections. As well as the fantasy Queen’s Gambit Declined and the romance Santa Fe. She can be found at her website and blog MelindaSnodgrass.com, on twitter as @mmsnodgrass and on Facebook.
SFFWRTCHT: What got you into speculative fiction?
Melinda M. Snodgrass: I was an unhappy lawyer. Went to a BBQ at Fred Saberhagen’s house. The writers rocked, wanted to join them. I wrote in secret on the first Circuit book while I learned to finish books with six romance novels. I was able to tell Fred before his death that his hospitality and friendship changed my life.
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Kameron Hurley is an award-winnng, Nebula-nominated writer who hacks out a living as marketing and advertising copywriter. She’s lived in Fairbanks, AK, Durban, South Africa, and Chicago, but grew up in Washington state. With degrees in history from the University of Alaska and the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal she survives on Coke 0, Chipotle, low-carb cooking and lots of words. Her science fiction novels God’s War, Infidel and Rapture, a series, are out from Night Shade Books. Her short fiction has appeared in Year’s Best SF 12, Strange Horizons, Talebones, and on Escape Pod, amongst others. God’s War was nominated for a Nebula, made the Honor list for James Tiptree Jr. Memorial Award and won the Kitschies Golden Tentacle. She can be found at her website and blog, on Twitter as @KameronHurley and on Facebook.
SFFWRTCHT: First things first, where’d your interest in science fiction and fantasy come from?
Kameron Hurley: My interest in science fiction came from being an imaginative kid, I guess. I spent too much time making up stories. Science fiction and fantasy was the best place to explore how things could be really different. It had the best sandbox of any genre I read. I could do whatever I wanted.
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Dave Gross is the former editor of Dragon Magazine, Star Wars Insider, and Amazing Stories. By day, he is lead writer for Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition, which reunites him with the beloved Forgotten Realms setting. Also for Realms, he wrote Black Wolf, Lord of Stormweather, and other stories and novels. More recently he’s written Prince of Wolves, Master of Devils and Queen Of Thorns for Pathfinder Tales, featuring the not-always-heroic Jeggare and his hellspawn bodyguard Radovan. Find more tales of Radovan and Jeggare online. Gross has stories in the recent or upcoming anthologies Tales of the Far West, Shotguns v. Cthulhu, and The Lion and the Aardvark. He can be found on his website as well as on Facebook on on Twitter as @frabjousdave!
SFFWRTCHT: First things first, where’d your interest in science fiction and fantasy come from?
Dave Gross: The library. And I’m not joking. My folks encouraged us to read at an early age, and then they let us loose on the library. That’s where I started discovering the horror, science fiction, and fantasy books I came to love.
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