Horror author & editor Kevin Lucia stops by to talk about his latest novella collection (perfect for Halloween), “October Nights”, out now from Crystal Lake Publishing. Kevin talks about always wanting to release a weird Halloween story, and the opportunity arose with the chance to explore unexplainable happenings in Clifton Heights, NY, the fun he has exploring the avenues horror stories take him down, and more. He also talks about how many of his stories come from questions he starts...

Mystery author Spencer Quinn (AKA Peter Abrahams) stops by to talk about Tender is the Bite and It’s A Wonderful Woof, the newest books in the wildly entertaining Chet & Bernie series. Peter talks about how Chet and Bernie got started, the importance of Chet being a first person narrator and NOT a talking dog, and getting observations related to the mystery from a dog’s perspective right, and so much more. And we truly need a collected edition of all the Chet & Bernie short...

Otto Penzler, proprietor of The Mysterious Bookshop and editor of Penzler Publishers and Mysterious Press, stops by to talk about the last in the Big Book short fiction series, The Big Book of Victorian Mysteries. He talks about his love of mystery fiction, the appeal of creating a Victorian mysteries collection, of publishing and republishing many of these stories for a new audience, and so much more. And if you need more mystery short stories, check out “The Mysterious Bookshop Presents...

Debut YA author Ginny Myers Sain stops by to talk about her debut teen supernatural thriller, Dark and Shallow Lies. She talks about the inspirations for the town and the characters in her story, as well as for the prevalence of psychic abilities amongst the townsfolk, and how those elements play their parts in the central mystery. Ginny also goes into building the YA thriller structure for this story, and putting the pieces together so that the protagonist gets to the solution in a logical...

Aaron J. French, PhD is the co-editor of a new collection of spiritualism horror stories, There Is No Death, There Are No Dead, the latest anthology from Crystal Lake Publishing. Along with Jessica Landry, Aaron helped curate this experimental collection, bringing insight from experience as a professor of Religious Studies. He was keen on taking the broad idea of spiritualism and letting the stories create the space for the ghosts and their stories about their connections to those still...

Award-winning thriller author Mark Edward Langley stops by to talk about his Arthur Nakai Mysteries series and the newest story in the series, When Silence Screams. Mark talks about the storytelling lessons learned from the mystery-thriller giants that impacted his love of reading and stories, and how he created Arthur Nakai from those influences. With this new story, he wants to draw more attention to the seemingly ignored or overlooked issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women in the...

YA author Diana Rodriguez Wallach stops by to talk about her newest Latinx YA horror thriller, Small Town Monsters. Diana talks about going darker and darker with the fiction she’s writing, how the story behind The Conjuring movies inspired this as her first venture into YA horror storytelling, studying the mentality and group behaviors of cults to inform the attitudes in the town, and so much more. TED Talk: Philip Zimbardo: The Psychology of Evil Web: dianarodriguezwallach.com Twitter:...

Urban Fantasy author Laurell K. Hamilton stops by to talk about the first book in her new series, A Terrible Fall of Angels, which happens to also be her first with a male lead protagonist. Laurell talks about her new detective hero, angel expert Zaniel Havelock, his history and the journey he will be going on, and more. It’s a tough job when you know Armageddon has rules but you’re not allowed to know exactly what those rules encompass. She also talks about her research into angels and...

Urban fantasy author Richard Kadrey stops by to talk about King Bullet, the final volume in the Sandman Slim series, the series as a whole, the impetus for the evolution of James Stark, the balance of powering up and knocking down a fantasy hero to keep things interesting, and much more. Richard also talks about his comics writing time, on Hellblazer and Lucifer especially, and writing a world more like the one we live in, and more. And keep an eye out in 2022 for “The Dead Take the A-Train”...

Screenwriter and author J. Michael Straczynski stops by to talk about his two newest books, Becoming a Writer, Staying a Writer, and Together We Will Go. Joe talks about writing this newest book on writing not about the craft of writing novels or screenplays, but more about what tools you may need to cultivate in yourself in order to get to the next level of successfully writing — and storytelling — for a living. He also talks about the background behind why he wrote Together We Will Go,...

Epic fantasy author Bradley P. Beaulieu talks about his latest novel, A Desert Torn Asunder, the conclusion of his “Song of the Shattered Sands” saga. Brad talks about how his interest in gaming led to meeting well-known fantasy & science fiction authors at conventions (starting with GenCon), taking writing seminars before diving into writing his own stories. He also goes into the reasons why he chose the desert setting and customs and technologies designed for desert dwellers and...

Science fiction author Neil Sharpson stops by to talk about his debut novel, When the Sparrow Falls. Neil talks about his journey from playwright to novelist, including struggling through a mental health crisis, performing the play before it was converted to a novel, building the society that is cybernetics paranoid to the extreme, his writing process while converting and expanding this story from script to prose, and more. And yes, we ran off the rails a little bit with the comics, since...

Co-editors Jenn Northington & Swapna Krishna stop by to talk about their Arthurian fantasy collection Sword Stone Table: Old Legends, New Voices. Swapna & Jenn talk about what drove them to want to curate a reimagining and retelling of Arthurian legends from more modern perspectives and settings, their history growing up with Arthurian tales and wanting to see what new stories from new storytellers could create, and more. They also talk about how much work putting together an...

Fantasy & Steampunk author P. Djèlí Clark stops by to talk about his first novel, A Master of Djinn. Phenderson talks about the appeal of the clockwork/steampunk settings and how imagining a Cairo developing uninfluenced by a colonizing superstructure, building the magic from that and from the previous shorter stories in this world, and more. Website: pdjeliclark.com Twitter: @pdjeliclark Instagram: @/pdjeliclark Let us know! Send Summer an email, or have your say in the comments...

Epic fantasy author John Gwynne stops by to talk about The Shadow of the Gods, the first in his new series, “The Bloodsworn Trilogy”. John talks about his appreciation of the Norse mythologies and what led to him wanting to write his own saga in that setting, and how he began (learned) writing fiction. Web: john-gwynne.com Twitter: @johngwynne Instagram: @john_gwynne_author What elements keep you reading epic fantasy, and keep you coming back for more? Let us know! Send Summer an...

Science Fiction author Christian Cantrell stops by to talk about his newest novel Scorpion. Christian talks about his immersion in technology and his curiosity about the influences on people’s lives, and how he prefers to differentiate between science fiction and technothrillers, and how those affect his approach to writing his different stories. And yes, the Complete Works of Shakespeare, Annotated by Isaac Asimov is still one of the most unusual books I’ve found buried in a used...

New York Times Best-selling Horror author Josh Malerman stops by to chat about the stories and the mysteries of the town of Goblin told in his new novella collection "Goblin". He talks about how each story's main character comes from a different place, how they all tie back to Goblin and all of the feelings and secrets that Goblin encompasses, and how that affects all of the people we come across. Josh also talks about the production studio he's set up and the process of going through...

Epic fantasy author Steven Erikson stops by to talk about the latest novella set in the Malazan world, "Fiends of Nightmaria". Steven talks about how the series of novellas fits in with the rest of the Malazan novels, and what appeals to him about writing in fantasy settings, and thanking (blaming?) Peter Crowther of PS Publishing for jumpstarting the novellas series, and about how his academic training in anthropology and archaeology influenced his world-building. Web:...

Filmmaker and science fiction author J. S. Dewes stops by to talk about her space opera debut, "The Last Watch". Jen started out as a freelancer in the independent film industry before the volatility led her to choose different paths, which also included writing fan fiction for "Dragon Age 2" and "Fallout 4" before diving into writing her own stories. She considers "The Last Watch" mostly as "Night's Watch in Space" (for those Game of Thrones fans), and the characters in this situation...

Dark fantasy and Horror author Christina Henry stops by to talk about her newest book "Near the Bone", a story about the dark secrets a girl kept in isolation on a mountain by her abusive husband, and how her understanding of her life begins to unravel when another monster invades the carefully constructed bubble of her world on the mountain. Christina talks about getting a handle on how the long-term pressure on Maddie affects how she tries to process what's going on, and choosing to so...

Journalist and YA author Kate M. Williams stops by to talk about her debut fantasy trilogy, "The Babysitter's Coven", and the recently released second novel, "For Better or Cursed". Kate talks about where the ideas for the series came from, and the types of relationships between the babysitters and the groups of adults in their lives, along with dealing with the supernatural elements they have to battle along the way. She also talks about how Stephen King's "On Writing" took her down...

Fantasy author Kim Neville stops by to talk about her debut novel, "The Memory Collectors". Kim describes how the story is a mashup of several genres added to fantasy, how the story grew from a previous short story and some work at Clarion West, and how she wanted to explore her protagonists' magic around the energy of memories. Web: kimneville.com Twitter: @kaneville13 Instagram: @neville_kim What genre blends do you enjoy the most? Let us know! Send Summer an email, or have your...

Fantasy author Sarah Beth Durst stops by to talk about her latest stand-alone novel, "The Bone Maker". Wondering what happens long after the heroes won the day, then finding out the evil threatening the land really isn't gone, and those older heroes need to step up again is what led Sarah led to her ideas for this story, and she talks about what appeals to her most about reading and writing fantasy, her writing process and how she approaches writing advice, and so much more. Sarah also...

Acclaimed fantasy author Jennifer Roberson stops by to talk about "Sinners and Saints", the latest in her new "Blood and Bone" series. She used this series to take her first venture into writing contemporary fantasy, inspired by so much of the television shows she'd been watching over the years (cue Supernatural, Charmed, Grimm, Once Upon A Time and Sleepy Hollow), because pop culture is a fun place to have her main protagonists Gabe and Remi play in. Jennifer talks about how she never...

Science fiction authors David Weber and Chris Kennedy stop by to talk about "Into the Light", the sequel to the best-selling "Out of the Dark". David talks about expanding the original short story into the first novel, and collaborating with Chris to expand the original novel even further. David also talks about the storytellers who mentored and encouraged him, and how he looks at doing these collaborations as his way of paying what he learned forward to a new generation of...