A Conversation With Kage Baker
An interview with Nick Gevers
On saving creatures from extinction:
"...took root at an early age. I remember my mother reading to me from a National Geographic
about coelacanths, supposedly extinct for millions of years but in reality very much alive, which impressed me no end. And at
about the age of four, I had a little book about a puffin, with a rhyming story, and for some reason my mother was under the
impression that puffins were extinct. She solemnly explained that there were no puffins anymore, and I used to cry about the
poor sad puffins, until I discovered she'd been mistaken. By then I was permanently scarred, of course."
A Conversation With R. Scott Bakker
An interview with Victoria Strauss
On world-building:
"The big thing, for me, has always been names. I make lists of them, drawn from any number of different sources, so that when
the urge to flesh out more of Eärwa hits me, I have this ready reservoir waiting for me. I'm not entirely sure why, but for some
reason, when I have the names, the world often seems to build itself. Things just occur to me, then I get bored and move on
to 'real life' (though now that I'm making a living doing this, it's actually become real life!)."
All Action Boy: an interview with James Barclay
conducted by Sandy Auden
"Age is critical in mercenary fighting
because it doesn't take you very long before you start losing your edge. Even in the first volume, Dawnthief,
The Raven had been going for ten years. They were just past their prime and already living on their wits, as much as their skill."
A Conversation With James Barclay
Part 2 of an interview with John Berlyne
On names in fantasy:
"I try not to have names that are difficult to pronounce. Now 'Xetesk' is one and I know it has confused people but I just like
the X at the front so that's tough! I could have made it a Z, but Z makes it a bit sort of crap fantasy. I
don't use Z's very much at all. But the names are not horribly dissimilar to names you find here on Earth
but they're unusual in that you couldn't say, oh well that's like an Indian name, or that's like a Russian name."
A Conversation With James Barclay
Part 1 of an interview with John Berlyne
On his career in the theatre:
"Always liked to act, it has to be said. I've always done the old 'am-dram', schools plays, things like
that. Like most of us who want to act, I expect. The thing was that when I actually left college I had no idea
what I wanted to do but because I quite liked acting, I thought, bugger it -- I'll think I'll stay in education
and do a year's training. I did a one-year post-grad course at The London and International School of
Acting. Some of the teachers were great, some were horrible but that's life for you!"
A Conversation With James Barclay
An interview with Wayne MacLaurin
On inspiration:
"I also look around at what dedication can achieve and I find that inspiring. Particularly athletes -- the regime
of a top athlete is extraordinary but they give up what they have to in order to achieve their dreams. I used to
be one of the many that said 'I'd love to write a book,' and now, having been fortunate enough to have been
published, I give the same response I was given: 'Well, sit down and write one, then.'"
Trapped Ashes: A New Twisted Horror Movie: an interview with Dennis Bartok
conducted by Sandy Auden
If you're a fan of classic horror anthology movies like Tales from the Crypt and Creepshow, then you should check
out new movie Trapped Ashes. It features seven strangers, locked inside an infamous House of Horror during a Hollywood movie
studio tour, who are forced to tell their most terrifying personal stories to get out alive. But nothing is ever what it seems…
A Man in Shorts: an interview with Stephen Baxter
conducted by Sandy Auden
"If you're aspiring to write, a short story of twenty pages is a lot easier to visualise than a novel of five hundred pages, and a lot
easier to study. But paradoxically it's just as hard in a different way. For me, it was a relatively low cost
way in, and a way to learn the basics of fiction writing."
Gregory Benford
An interview with Stephen M. Davis
Gregory Benford is a physicist and astronomer at the University of California, Irvine.
He is the author of a series of hard SF novels, beginning with In the Ocean of Night (1978) and
following quickly with works such as Timescape (1980)...
Ann Benson
An interview with A. John O'Neill
Ann Benson had four bestsellers in the bead and needleart field when
she decided to undertake something entirely different.
Combining a passion for medieval history with her love of biological sciences,
she wrote her first novel, The Plague Tales...
A Conversation With John Betancourt
An interview with Jayme Lynn Blaschke
On writing an Amber cycle book:
"Unfortunately, Zelazny is fading in the public's memory. I have a feeling that, if not for new projects such as
The Dawn of Amber, he will be completely out of print and forgotten in 20 years. I note that Zelazny's regular publishers
have let most of his titles go out of print. It's a sad fact of publishing, but new books from authors keep their older titles in print
and selling, even in the case of classics. Compare Roger Zelazny to classic authors of the 60s and 70s who died 20 years ago, and
the future for Zelazny isn't looking pretty. Leigh Brackett, James Blish, etc. published scores of great titles... and they're gone now."
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Like a Virgin: A Conversation with Jayme Lynn Blaschke
Part 2 of an interview with Rick Klaw
On his favourite aspect of interviewing:
"Just the interconnection with the interview subjects. I've met so many people through the interviews, and a number of them I've kept in contact with. It's kind of a friendship level. There's networking, but I've never been a really tremendous, tremendously impressive networker. I kind of accumulate acquaintances and contacts and everything, but I'm not working the angles so I can get in so-and-so's next book. Possibly a lot of ambitious authors out there would dog me for that and say, "Aw, you're squandering such opportunities; you should be flogged." "
Like a Virgin: A Conversation with Jayme Lynn Blaschke
Part 1 of an interview with Rick Klaw
On Preparation for an interview:
"I don't just show up, no. That's the kiss of death. You learn that early on in journalism as a reporter. If you show up, your ignorance will be on display for everyone to see and snicker at, and even when you do prepare, a lot of times your ignorance is on display because you haven't prepared enough, even if you do an extensive amount of preparation. "
Scurrying Over The Rocks: an interview with Ben Bova
conducted by Sandy Auden
"The Asteroid Wars start when the Earth faces an ecological collapse.
Greenhouse warming has struck, suddenly and disastrously. Most of the world's major cities are either
inundated by global flooding or bursting at the seams with refugees.
Faced with this, some people look out to the natural resources to be found in space, particularly the metals and minerals of the asteroids."
A Conversation With Keith Brooke
An interview with Jeff VanderMeer
On his Nick Gifford persona:
"I did have fun creating Nick's online presence, though, particularly
his monthly journal at www.nickgifford.co.uk, which has turned into a blend of truth and one or two slight
fabrications. As Nick's first novel was a vampire novel, he wrote about keeping pet vampire bats (called
Harker, Mr Lugosi and Flopsy) at the bottom of his garden -- one of the commonest questions I was asked as Nick
in the first year or so was how it was to keep vampire bats as pets. More recently, if you believe his journal,
Nick has been doing a book tour of rather obscure English towns and villages."
A Conversation With Terry Brooks
An interview with Sandy Auden
On helping to generate ideas:
"I tell everybody that when I'm stuck and I'm looking for ideas or even when I just want ideas to come, the best thing
is to either take a long dive where your mind is freed up and you can just let it go; or get in a situation where's
there's water -- showers are great. I get lots of ideas in the shower. It's amazing. In there it's like a white-noise
state and your mind just suddenly releases and you begin to follow all these possibilities in your head. It's real
magic! Although sometimes nothing happens and you have to try again later."
Druidic Intrigue: an interview with Terry Brooks
conducted by Sandy Auden
"I think most authors are fairly devious anyway. We're manipulating our characters, manipulating our stories,
creating things out of thin air, and playing god in a lot of different ways on a very small scale. It's already
a part of the craft and it occasionally spills over into the plotting of things too."
A Conversation With Meghan Brunner
An interview with Cindy Lynn Speer
On family:
"It's something I've been discovering over the years. Don't get me wrong; some of my blood relatives are
fantastic. But there are people I'm just as close to who don't share my DNA. They're family, too. And I
think people underestimate those bonds."
A Conversation With Ed Bryant
An interview with A.L. Sirois
On movies:
"Movies are one of my passions, probably because of heavy exposure when I was a kid. Back in the 50s,
when I lived on the ranch, my uncle the rodeo star also loved film. Two or three times a week, we'd drive
26 miles to town to see what was usually a double feature at the Ramona Theatre, the only movie house in 80 miles."
Algis Budrys
An interview with A. John O'Neill
Algis Budrys may be the closest thing we have to a true renaissance man. He began his career in the 1950s with
some of that decade's most memorable SF, including the classics Who? (1958) and Rogue Moon (1960).
His more recent fiction includes novels such as Michaelmas (1977) and Hard Landing (1993)...
A Conversation With Michael A. Burstein
An interview with Steven H Silver
On Isaac Asimov as an inspiration:
"I could write a whole article about Isaac Asimov. Come to think of it, I have, for the fanzine Mimosa, and
it's available on my website. It would be far too long to reproduce here. But the short version is that Asimov,
being as prolific and open about his life as he was, gave the rest of us a blueprint to follow if we wanted to do so."
A Conversation With Jim Butcher
An interview with Alisa McCune
On the inspiration for Harry Dresden:
"A deep and abiding admiration for the character of Peter Parker, by and large. Petey has always been a complex and admirable
hero-character -- and is somewhat unique among comic book characters in that he has a very real, complex, and believable personality which
exists wholly within the character of Peter Parker and is not at all dependent upon his sideline as the Amazing Spider Man. The
things that make Peter a hero are not his superpowers or his combat record with the Hulk -- what makes SpiderMan a hero is that Peter
Parker is dedicated to what he believes and refuses to abandon his fellow human beings when they are in danger or need."
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