David Wellington interview about his science fiction novel “The Last Astronaut” (Orbit, 2019)

David Wellington interview about his science fiction novel “The Last Astronaut”

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Interview Timeline

David Wellington has been writing fantasy for years [and] before turning his hand to science fiction. His latest novel The Last Astronaut is a look at horror in deep space. The book was nominated for the 2020 Arthur C. Clarke award and we spoke about the story, about horror and sci-fi, and about writing in general.

0:33 – Dave talks about why he wrote this book. he talks about being a huge monster fan.

3:34 – Dave talks about The Last Astronaut being hard sci-fi and being as scientifically accurate as possible.

5:28 – Dave talks about how he got interested in science fiction.

7:37 – Dave talks about the details of the novel and what it’s about.

10:12 – Dave talks about the research he did for the book and how much he has followed NASA’s work.

14:51 – Dave talks about what most surprised him when he interviewed two astronauts.

17:29 – Dave talks about a commercial space company in his book.

18:18 – Dave talks about the horror aspect of his novel.

20:53 – Dave talks about his horror inspirations.

24:56 – Dave talks about Predator as sci-fi and horror.

26:31 – Dave talks about humanoid versus weird monsters.

28:42 – Dave talks about the fantasy novels he enjoys.

31:30 – Dave talks about not listening to music while writing.

33:45 – Dave talks about the book having a synth-wave soundtrack.

36:56 – Dave talks about having worked as a data entry temp with the United Nations.

39:46 – Dave talks about having re-written Last Astronaut from scratch six times.

44:41 – Dave talks about having wanted to be in space when he was young. he also discusses the space shuttle tragedies.

48:17 – Dave talks about how his main character suffers from not having been able to go to Mars.

49:49 – Dave talks about recently finishing a horror novel.

54:00 – Dave talks about writers who are able to make money and tie-in writers.

55:37 – Dave can be found at davidwellington.net and on twitter @lasttrilobite and contactmonster@hotmail.com

Links of interest

https://amzn.to/35vVtyQ

https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/david-wellington/the-last-astronaut/9780316419550/

https://davidwellington.net/

https://twitter.com/lasttrilobite?lang=en

Contact Information

For more “Full Contact Nerd” please follow me at crisalvarez.com, on Facebook at CrisAlvarezFCN, on youtube at Cris Alvarez on twitter @CrisAlvarezFCN, on Instagram @crisalvarezscifi, and on Apple Podcasts / Google Podcasts / Stitcher / Spotify for the podcast. Please see historyrabbithole.com for a list of my dozen or so blogs and podcasts. You’re sure to find something you like.

Guests: David Wellington

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: Books, audio interviews, author, podcast, Orbit, science fiction, fiction, Clarke award,

Check the book out here https://amzn.to/35vVtyQ

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Alice James interview about her vampire mystery novel “Grave Secrets” (Solaris, 2020)

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Alice James interview about her vampire mystery novel “Grave Secrets”

Check the book out here https://amzn.to/2R2nXI6

Interview Timeline

Alice James has followed a fascinating path to writing and publishing her first novel. She’s worked in the coroner field, been a financial reporter, worked in public relations, and is a silversmith. Now she has published a vampire mystery set in the English countryside in which she grew up in. We spoke about the book, about vampires, about Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and about how she was able to find and agent and get published.

0:31 – Alice talks about why she wrote Grave Secrets.

2:10 – Alice talks about the elements of the book and it’s light-hearted approach to the paranormal.

3:28 – Alice talks about the main character being very English.

4:55 – Alice talks about the cozy mystery element of the book.

6:42 – Alice talks about the horror and gore elements of the book as well as the gothic elements.

7:49 – Alice talks about how familiar she is with the English countryside which is the setting of this book.

9:08 – Alice talks about how she is a trained silversmith and how fiction books always get smithing wrong.

10:41 – Alice talks about growing up as a coroner’s daughter and her knowledge of that work.

12:33 – Alice talks about how delicately coroner work was dealt with in the small town she was from.

15:05 – Alice talks about the random country life facts she knows because of her upbringing.

17:55 – Alice talks about loving fantasy and loving anything with dragons when she was young.

21:10 – Alice talks about how she loved the Hobbit and Smaug.

22:55 – Alice says the book would have a gothy Sisters of Mercy type of feel to it but also with a lighter tone.

23:31 – Alice talks about her approach to writing.

25:15 – Alice talked about being a geek and studying computer science. She also talks about how she wasn’t a very good engraver.

27:53 – Alice talks about attending reenactment fairs.

29:17 – Alice talks about still doing a little bit of smithing.

30:47 – Alice talks about accidentally becoming a financial reporter.

33:10 – Alice talks about trying to work in PR for a hedge fund.

34:20 – Alice talks about how she ended up getting published.

36:10 – Alice talks about how she developed her creative writing skills.

37:45 – Alice talks about writers whose style she enjoys.

40:37 – Alice talks how much she wrote before getting published.

41:38 – Alice talks about how she approaches writing.

44:09 – Alice talks about how she wanted a magic barge when she was a child.

47:35 – Alice talks about she was able to get an agent.

52:24 – Alice talks about the time span of the series and the world building.

54:36 – Alice can be found on twitter @toniwindsor and at alicejames.co.uk

Links of interest

https://amzn.to/2R2nXI6

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Grave-Secrets/Alice-James/9781781088616

https://www.alicejames.co.uk/

https://twitter.com/toniwindsor

Contact Information

Guests: Alice James

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: audio interviews, author, books, fiction, mysteries, podcast, Solaris, the occult,

Check the book out here https://amzn.to/2R2nXI6

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Ellen Datlow interview about her Horror, fantasy, and sci-fi book “Edited By” (Subterranean, 2020)

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Ellen Datlow interview about her Horror, fantasy, and sci-fi book “Edited By”

Check the book out here https://amzn.to/32D4McZ

Interview Summary

Ellen Datlow has been editing horror, fantasy, and science fiction short stories and novellas for over forty years. She’s won numerous awards and accolades for her work and has edited numerous best of anthologies along with short stories for magazine and book publishers. Subterranean Press is releasing a book on some of the best stories she’s edited. I spoke to Ellen about her work as an editor, about genre fiction, and about the business in general.

0:32: Ellen talks about how she got into editing and editing anthologies.

(2:25: I think Ellen meant 1979 not 1989)

4:39 – Ellen talks about her work at OMNI and then how she got into anthologies.

8:32 – Ellen talks about hating doing writing herself.

11:29 – Ellen talks about how she chooses stories.

13:05 – Ellen talks about how she approaches stories that might need extensive edits and rewrites.

15:49 – Ellen talks about the tone and style of writing.

17:28 – Ellen talks about the time period “Edited by” covers and the genres included. She discusses her anthology work.

20:30 – Ellen talks about the difficulties of getting her pitches accepted.

23:46 – Ellen talks about how she manages an anthology project and deals with the writers in the anthology.

26:37 – Ellen talks about how she deals with anthology publishers when pitching an idea.

27:22 – Ellen talks about trends in writing.

31:29 – Ellen says that mostly all she gets to read are the things she edits. She also talks about how she is able to read so much.

33:05 – Ellen talks about some of what she is reading.

34:58 – Ellen talks about the length of stories she prefers. She talks about flash fiction past and present.

37:46 – Ellen talks about reading stories out loud. She talks about punctuation and commas.

39:24 – Ellen talks about how her editing style has changed over the years.

40:37 – Ellen talks about computer editing and track changes.

42:33 – Ellen talks about stories she has edited in the past.

46:46 – Ellen talks what she looks for in horror stories.

48:27 – Ellen talks about the publishing industry.

49:40 – Ellen talks about e-books.

50:21 – Ellen talks about editing works with art elements.

58:53 – Ellen talks about sci-fi horror.

1:01:16 – Ellen can be found on facebook and twitter @ellendatlow.

Links of interest

https://amzn.to/32D4McZ

https://subterraneanpress.com/news/announcing-edited-by-ellen-datlow/

https://www.facebook.com/EllenDatlow

https://twitter.com/EllenDatlow

Contact Information

Guests: Ellen Datlow

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: Books, audio interviews, editor, podcast, fantasy, science fiction, horror, fiction, award, hugo award, Subterranean,

Check the book out here https://amzn.to/32D4McZ

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

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