Escape Velocity 2018

Sci-fi and fantasy author – Greg Bear interview

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Author Greg Bear has had and continues to have a prolific and successful career as a sci-fi and fantasy writer. Blood Music is one of his more famous novels and he also helped co-found the San Diego Comic-Con.

2:14 – Greg Bear starts by talking about how he got into writing as a little kid. He talks about all the speculative fiction he was into at the time. He read a lot of paperbacks at the Kodiak base library when he was growing up.

4:02 – He started by trying to write Tom Swift type books and Burroughs type of works.

6:03 – in the 1960s there was a lot more interesting writing coming out and many more interesting writers as well. He started attending sci-fi conventions and meeting writers he liked.

8:26 – Greg Bear talks about how he chooses between making a story a short or turning it into a novel. New York publishers in the 80s were resistant to publishing hard cover science fiction. They turned them into paperbacks.

10:50 – Heinlein loved anyone who had been in the military.

12:18 – Greg Bear talks about his big success in the UK while the same book was sold as a paperbook in the US.

13:30 – Michael Crichton said he didn’t write sci-fi and disparaged it but wrote “techno-thrillers.” Publishers seem to hate genre except for mystery.

15:24 – People in the military love sci-fi but New York is not technically oriented and doesn’t understand sci-fi.

18:04 – A lot of sci-fi writers don’t have steady homes with publishers. Greg Bear has worked on different genres.

19:39 – He’s into every kind of science. He loves studying it all plus politics and military issues. He also loves, mythology, language and history. He’s been writing FBI novels too.

22:53 – Greg Bear talks about the transition from working on typewriters to computers. He also talks about how he tries to please himself in his writing first and hopes he has an audience for it.

24:52 – He’s working on a fantasy novel now.

26:24 – He has a website, GregBear.com and he’s on Facebook too.

 

Links of interest

GregBear.com

 

For more of “The Art and Design of Sci-Fi and Fantasy, Mystery and Horror” please follow me on Facebook at crisalvarezwlc, on youtube at Cris Alvarez and on Instagram @crisalvarezscifi

 

Guests: Greg Bear

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: science fiction, fantasy, writer, novelist, killing tital, hull zero three, Halo, hard sci-fi, military sci-fi

Fantasy Flight Games game producer – Molly Glover interview

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Molly Glover is a game developer for Fantasy Flight Games. I spoke to her at Escape Velocity 2018 about how she got into the business, her inspirations, the gaming business and what she does in the field.

1:15 – Molly Glover talks about how she first got into game development. She started in games sales. She then moved into development and production. She started as a geeky child who played a lot of games.

3:50 – She did LARPing when young and as an adult she got more into it including Arkham Horror.

5:30 – She read a lot of large novels when she was young. Stephen King was an influence.

7:20 – When she worked in sales, she dealt with some people who didn’t think girls understood games well enough and preferred dealing with men. But things have gotten better in the last few years.

9:05 – She’s a big Star Wars and Marvel fan. She also likes Asimov and Star Trek.

11:50 – She used to be on Citadel BBSs and played those games like Legends of the Red Dragon.

12:50 – There’s a lot of narrative in games now. There are a lot of young people in gaming too.

16:50 – The average person can find good educational games on Amazon or local game stores. There are a lot of brick and mortar game stores. People can also write to the game manufacturers to get games.

19:20 – Talking to people at conventions and just playing games are good ways to get inspired for new game development.

20:10 – She always wanted to be able to teleport.

21:50 – We discuss gamifying game production itself. Non gaming industries should try to gamify their workplaces.

 

Links of interest

Fantasy Flight Games – https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/index/

 

For more of “The Art and Design of Sci-Fi and Fantasy, Mystery and Horror” please follow me on Facebook at crisalvarezwlc, on youtube at Cris Alvarez and on Instagram @crisalvarezscifi

Guests: Molly Glover

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: science fiction, fantasy, board games, arkham horror, game development, educational games, Marvel, Star Wars, Star Trek, Fantasy Flight games, Cosmic Encounter

Sci-fi armor and weapons – James Johnson interview

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

James Johnson is a builder with ShotanKazori Studio. I spoke with him about his work at Escape Velocity 2018.

2:33 – James talks about the props Shotan Kazori creates. They build every genre, Star Wars, Star Trek, Babylon 5, armor, guns, weapons.

4:09 – Everything they build has a visual component, an auditory component, and a kenistetic component. They’ve even added sound amplification for helmets.

6:28 – Their Mandalorioan Wraith Armor is fitted to James. They fit any armor to the person who buys it. They build light to heavy armor.

7:42 – They brought a Kyber shield to Escape Velocity.

9:17 – James collected toys until he was 18 and stopped until he was 48. He loves Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Babylon 5, LOTR and so on. They love anime and James is into Halo.

11:08 – A Grendel rifle would take a month to make. Armor could take a week to many months depending on how detailed the buyer wants their armor. They build from scratch to finish.

13:23 – They also have an Apax Mnemnon lightsaber built for Escape Velocity. It has 137 points of detail. They also consider the “era” the weapons is from.

16:27 – James wanted to be the Hulk when he was young and still does. He also loves Tony Stark and feels like him in the shop.

17:22 – He’d love to build something very challenging. He’d want to build the Mech Armor for a group of four.

18: 22 – They’re exclusively on instagram at shotan kazori. They’re just outside of Atlantic City and can be reached on instagram. They also teach how to make props on instagram.

Links

Instagram Shotan_Kazori

For more of “The Art and Design of Sci-Fi and Fantasy, Mystery and Horror” please follow me on Facebook at crisalvarezwlc, on youtube at Cris Alvarez, on twitter @crisalvarezwlc, and on Instagram @crisalvarezscifi

Guests: James Johnson

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: science fiction, fantasy, art, artist, props, builder, mech, grendel, lightsaber, rifle, flame thrower, armor