Need I reiterate that one can meet the most interesting people at Cons? In the very final interview with folks I was fortunate enough to meet at World Con, allow me to introduce an up and coming new writer in the spec-fic community, Lisa Mantchev.  At the Weird Tales party, I encountered a statuesque woman attending the official Weird Tales table and showing off a unique selection of intriguing art.  Another one of those, “Oh, you’re a writer, too?” conversations later, and we arrive here at this interview. I know I’ll be looking for her book, Eyes Like Stars inContinue readingAuthor Interview Series #40 – Lisa Mantchev

Check out the interview with me this week on the Sci Fi Surplus podcast. http://scifisurplus.com/2008/12/22/scifi-surplus-082-travis-heermann-plus-bailout/

Best wishes go out for a speedy recovery this week to the subject of our interview, Tobias Buckell.  Soon after we conducted our interview, Toby suffered a heart embolism that left him hospitalized.  Such a medical condition is actually one of the dangers of the writing life. Spending long hours planted in a chair with little physical activity puts a person at risk for blood clots, so get out there and exercise, people! Tobias Buckell is a professional blogger and speculative fiction writer, born and raised in the Caribbean on numerous tropical islands, and has successfully published stories in severalContinue readingAuthor Interview Series #38 – Tobias Buckell

Now, nearing the end of 2008, I’m finally coming to the end of the interviews with authors I happened to encounter at the World Con back in August.  I sat in on a panel on where various authors discussed the business end of writing professionally, and one of them was Cynthia Felice.  When I asked her if she would be willing to give an interview, she quite graciously agreed, in spite of the fact that she very rarely grants interviews. So I feel fortunate and honored to have her grace the little 1s and 0s that give shape to BloggingContinue readingAuthor Interview Series #37 – Cynthia Felice

E. E. Knight is a relative newcomer, even though, like most authors, he’s been writing for a LoOoOng time. I was most intrigued by how his path through a series of publishing house nightmares led to a mass market deal.  As a veteran of publishing house nightmares myself (see the Cautionary Tales Part 1 page link nearby and the link in the post immediately below), I applaud those authors who are not deterred by the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. Since he finally shepherded Way of the Wolf into a mass market deal in 2003, he’s released seven novelsContinue readingAuthor Interview Series #36 – E. E. Knight

Elizabeth Bear won the 2008 Hugo Award for Best Short Story for her story “Tideline,” which is about a sentient robotic battle tank and its relationship with a human child.  I didn’t get the chance to meet Elizabeth Bear at World Con this year, but I was pleased that at least someone I voted for actually won. “Tideline” also won the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial award for Best Short Story.  She also took home the John W. Campbell award for Best New Writer in 2005.  So it seems that while she hasn’t been neck deep in the industry for all thatContinue readingAuthor Interview Series #35 – Elizabeth Bear

We’re approaching the end of a long string of authors whom I met at World Con in August. This week we meet Francis Hamit, a gentleman and a scholar who’s just released his novel The Shenandoah Spy. As a history buff myself, I can certainly appreciate a great story set in a meticulously researched milieu. The history of spying is a fascinating topic that goes back millennia, and the American Civil War has been underrepresented in espionage fiction, overshadowed in recent decades by the Cold War and then the War on Terrorism. His new book certainly sounds like something outContinue readingAuthor Interview Series #34 – Francis Hamit

As a perfect horror-ific bracket around Halloween to accompany Ramsey Campbell’s interview last week, I bring you Carrie Vaughn. One of the cool things about SF/F/H fandom is that one can meet the most unexpected people at a con … and still not know who they are.  At the Omaha Science Fiction Festival last July, I met Carrie Vaughn briefly, when everyone is moving from panel to panel, but at the time, I had no idea who she was.  Dummy me. Then, at World Con in August, I attended the Weird Tales magazine party, and here was the same womanContinue readingAuthor Interview Series #33 – Carrie Vaughn

Just in time for Halloween, I would like to present a fantastic interview with the Grand Master of Horror, Ramsey Campbell. Few authors, unless their last names are King or Koontz, can match the number of awards he was received in his long writing career, the Bram Stoker Award, World Fantasy Award, British Fantasy Award, and the list goes on. I encountered his work in my late teens, around the time I discovered H. P. Lovecraft–since much of Campbell’s work is so closely intertwined with Horror’s beloved Bard of Arkham.  I read his novel The Hungry Moon way back then.Continue readingAuthor Interview Series #32 – Ramsey Campbell