Science Fiction – Page 5 – FULL CONTACT NERD

Sci-fi and fantasy author – Greg Bear interview

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

Game of Thrones and Star Wars actor – Ian McElhinney interview

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Ian McElhinney has been a stage and screen actor for close to 40 years. He’s done a wide range of roles including acting in both the Star Wars franchise, Krypton, and in Game of Thrones as Barristan Selmy. We talked at the 2018 Great Philadelphia Comic Con about acting in general, how he got into it and how he does his work, and also about his work specifically in Star Wars and GoT.

1:30 – Ian talks about how he got into acting. He started at University trying to study something serious. He was getting a degree outside of Boston, Brandeis, and they had a theater degree. He decided he loved acting too much to not get a theater studies degree.

3:55 – He went back to the British theater and taught for a few years. Then he went back into the gaming game and had to get an equity card. At age 30, he went back to Northern Ireland to work as an actor in Belfast.

5:56 – He did a lot of screen work that reflected modern Irish politics and he was often put in a box. He had more freedom on the stage.

11:00 – Ian discusses what its like playing a character in sci-fi and fantasy including the Game of Thrones.

14:50 – Wearing a knight costume gave an Ian a different sense of movement. Wearing armor and wielding a sword gives one a new sense of weight and such. Props can give you a new sense of how you relate to others.

17:20 – Ian loves being on stage and getting the feeling of having connected with the audience. He’s also started enjoying rehearsing a lot more.

19:42 – Ian addresses how he approached his roles in Star Wars and Game of Thrones.

20:30 – Ian loves acting and will keep doing it as long as he can.

21:40 – He was in a Ken Brannaugh production and he met Jack Lemmon. He had always been a big fan of Jack and loved working with him. It was the only time he did a fan thing and he asked Jack for a favor.

24:50 – He had to give up science while in school because the system required one to choose science or the arts. But he really liked science and misses having learned it.

25:55 – He’s more of a fan of gritty dramas rather than sci-fi or fantasy. However, as a child he would have liked to be able to fly and enjoy the freedom and sensation of flight.

28:18 – Ian believes that apart from entertaining people, actors can help people think outside the box and to broaden their minds.

30:00 – Ian has a twitter account @serianmc

Links of interest

https://twitter.com/SerIanMc

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: Ian McElhinney

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: science fiction, fantasy, art, artist, barristan selmy, game of thrones, star wars, rogue one, General Dodonna, sci-fi, acting, props, Belfast, Ireland, Brandeis, Krytpon, Superman

Sci-fi and fantasy writing – Jack Campbell interview

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Jack Campbell has published multiple sci-fi and fantasy book series over the years that are extremely popular. Two of his most popular series are the Lost Fleet series and the Legacy of Dragons series. In March 2018 I spoke with Jack about his writing.

1:28 – Jack Campbell talks about his latest work which is part of the Lost Fleet series.

5:01 – Jack talks about how he balances sci-fi and fantasy elements in his novels.

6:20 – He makes sure he maintains consistency in the rules of what characters can and can’t do in the world in which they live.

7:17 – Jack talks about how he meets deadlines and gets what he wants in his novels.

9:15 – His Lost Fleet series was inspired by the idea of a Long Retreat type story in Star Trek. The second inspiration was the idea of a sleeping hero returning to save the day for some society.

12:25 – Jack decided to get into writing seriously once he retired from the Navy. He felt he had stories he had to tell.

14:41 – Mixing short story and novel writing at the same time can help keep your writing progressing.

15:44 – Jack’s first success was selling a story to Analog magazine. After selling three stories he was part of the Science Fiction Writers Association.

17:31 – Attending conventions are exhausting but very energizing overall to see his fans and hear from them.

18:35 – He finds it difficult to listen to his own books as audio books. But the feedback from his audio books has made him more aware of names and language elements in his books.

21:24 – He loves Andre Norton, CJ Cherry, and Lee Brackett. He read a lot of books when he was young. But now that he writes he doesn’t have as much time to read. He does try to keep up with science discoveries though.

25:05 – He was living on Midway Island when the original Star Trek series came out. He would watch the shows on a base movie screen. He learned that it was the characters, not the special effects, that made the story. He watches a lot of anime nowadays. The mashups they create in anime can be amazing. He also loves anime soundtracks.

27:35 – The interest in time travel wanes once you have kids and you can develop a fear of doing something that could cause them to not exist.

29:58 – His website is Jack-Campbell.com.

Links of interest

Jack-Campbell.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: Jack Campbell

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: science fiction, fantasy, lost fleet, legacy of dragons, writer, sci-fi