Occasionally, one encounters a short story that really strikes a chord, provokes thought, and evokes emotion. Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s story “Elites” did that for me when I heard it on Escape Pod a couple of months back. But that story is just the tip of this author’s creative iceberg. Kristine Kathryn Rusch is a long-time pro, with novel and short story credits that go on for miles not only under her own name but also under three successful pen names. She’s up for a Hugo Award this year for her novella, “Recovering Apollo 8,” which appeared in Asimov’s Science FictionContinue readingAuthor Interview Series #16 – Kristine Kathryn Rusch

As a fellow resident of Nebraska (how few of us there are), I first encountered Robert Reed some years ago at a local science-fiction convention in the early days of his writing career. He has built an extensive and award-winning body of work as a science-fiction author, primarily along hard-SF lines. In spite of a tremendously busy writing schedule, he still finds time to attend and support the local cons. If there’s a magazine that publishes science-fiction, it’s a good bet you’ll find Robert Reed stories.

I first became aware of Dru Pagliassotti when I had my first short story publication in The Harrow, a monthly online journal for horror and dark fantasy. She’s been the editor at that fine publication for some years. Her name is so distinctive that I recognized it immediately when I saw her first novel, Clockwork Heart, on the shelf in Border’s. The book has been called steampunk, urban fantasy, fantasy romance. By all accounts, it’s hard to classify, but it’s getting good reviews. She’s also one of the editors of two horror anthologies, Fear of the Unknown and Midnight Lullabies.Continue readingAuthor Interview Series #12 – Dru Pagliassotti

Award-winning Kevin J. Anderson kicked his writing career into high gear working on some of the biggest properties in the SF field, Star Wars, the X-Files, and Dune, which are probably the places most people have seen his books. I first encountered his work in the Star Wars Jedi Academy trilogy. But he created an impressive body of original work both before and after those series, and in recent years, he has branched out into film production and comics. And with all that work in hand, soaring among the stratosphere of SF-dom, he still took the time to answer aContinue readingAuthor Interview Series #11 – Kevin J. Anderson

I must admit that I hadn’t heard of Michael Mehas before we discussed doing an interview, but I had heard of the legal case in which he was involved–the story of Jesse James Hollywood, the youngest person ever to make the FBI’s Most Wanted list, who now sits on death row for his crimes. The story of this young man formed the basis for Michael Mehas’s book Stolen Boy, and for the feature film Alpha Dog. It’s a story of suburban middle-class kids gone bad, descending into a world of drugs and sex and ultimately murder. Michael made the transitionContinue readingAuthor Interview Series #10 – Michael Mehas

This week in the author interview series we meet Daniel Arenson. Like many writers out there, he’s made that quantum jump to published novelist, but only very recently. With a number of poems and short fiction sales, his first novel Firefly Island has been released in library edition hardcover by Five Star Publishing. One of the things that I find most interesting about this interview series is how certain elements are held in common by all the authors, while at the same time varying in numerous ways. I’ll leave it to you to figure out what those are, but sufficeContinue readingAuthor Interview Series #9 – Daniel Arenson

I first became aware of the name Jack Ketchum whilst reading On Writing Horror, a collection of essays and articles by everyone who’s anyone in the horror genre. (Previous interviewees Joe Lansdale and Richard Dansky also have essays in this book.) Jack’s essay, “Splat Goes the Hero: Visceral Horror” was one of those that opened my eyes to what good horror fiction is. It’s not just splattering viscera; it’s making the reader care whether a character’s viscera is about to be splattered. Writing good horror is about having the guts to look the blackness square in the face, and forcingContinue readingAuthor Interview Series #8 – Jack Ketchum

As a kid, I had always had a love of the horror genre, be it movies, comics, or films, but it had lain dormant for a long, long time. I first heard of Edward Lee when I sensed a reawakening of my interest in horror, so I asked a friend (who is a HUGE horror geek) who she would recommend, and she recommended Joe Lansdale (whose interview you can find below), and she also mentioned Edward Lee, but then added (and I’m paraphrasing), “But only read Ed Lee if you’re really twisted.” That sounded like a throw-down to me, soContinue readingAuthor Interview Series #5 – Edward Lee