Big Idea Category
The Big Idea: James L. Cambias
Posted on January 17, 2023 4 Comments
One advantage writers get when they work in different fields of writing is more tools for their professional toolbox — but as James L. Cambias points out in this Big Idea for The Scarab Mission, not every skill is directly transferable from one medium to the next, and learning which tools this is true about […]
The Big Idea: Mary Baader Kaley
Posted on January 13, 2023 5 Comments
Real life experiences from authors’ lives often inform their fiction. In the case of Mary Baader Kaley, her life experience, and the life experience of someone she loves, lives at the heart of her novel Burrowed. What is that experience? Read on to discover. MARY BAADER KALEY: My husband and I belong to an exclusive […]
The Big Idea: Jen Comfort
Posted on January 11, 2023 11 Comments
While it’s true that Phantom of the Opera is leaving Broadway, author Jen Comfort is here to bring a modern, gender-reversed version of it to your reading list with her newest rom-com novel, Midnight Duet. JEN COMFORT: “You know how the 2019 theatrical release of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats was a visual, conceptual, and financial […]
The Big Idea: Nancy Kress
Posted on January 10, 2023 10 Comments
Science fiction is just that, a blend of the science we know, and the stories we wish to tell. The mixture of these two aspects was especially important to authors Nancy Kress and Robert Lanza, who co-authored their new novel, Observer. Read on to see how they wove science into story. NANCY KRESS: WHY I WROTE […]
The Big Idea: Nathan Tavares
Posted on December 8, 2022 1 Comment
We all want to be a big success — in life, in our careers, in everything. But what if that’s not actually our best path through the universe? Nathan Tavares is here to consider alternate paths in this Big Idea for A Fractured Infinity. NATHAN TAVARES: The multiverse seems pretty big right now, huh? I’m […]
The Big Idea: Denise Crittendon
Posted on December 6, 2022 1 Comment
Author Denise Crittendon was forever changed by her trip to Africa, and she brought inspiration back with her. This led to her writing her newest novel, Where it Rains in Color. DENISE CRITTENDON: In northern Namibia where clean water is scarce, Himba women cleanse their bodies by bathing in billowing streams of smoke. In South Africa, […]
The Big Idea: Leah Vernon
Posted on December 1, 2022 9 Comments
Author Leah Vernon knows something about persistence, as this Big Idea about the years-long struggle to publish the story that would become The Union tells you. What is the story that motivated her through all this time? Read on to discover. LEAH VERNON: What would you do with boundless privilege? The kind of privilege that […]
The Big Idea: Kayleigh Nicol
Posted on November 29, 2022 2 Comments
It’s no surprise that today’s generation of authors might also be gamers… but the influence of gaming on their writing may be more substantial that you might suspect. Kayleigh Nicol, who co-wrote Crystal Awakening with Andrew Rowe, speaks to this integration of writing and gaming, and how the latter informed the former with this novel. […]
The Big Idea: David Sandner & Jacob Weisman
Posted on November 23, 2022
When two writers join forces… how does the work actually get done? David Sandner and Jacob Weisman get real on this topic, and how it was their collaboration on Hellhounds got done. DAVID SANDNER: “90% of the work, 50% of the profits.” I remember seeing that on t-shirts worn by two collaborating sf writers circulating […]
The Big Idea: Sharon Shinn
Posted on November 22, 2022 5 Comments
Everyone wants to be authentically themselves, but sometimes it can be dangerous to show your true colors. In author Sharon Shinn’s newest novel, The Shuddering City, everyone can express themselves as they truly are. Read on to see how they go about doing so. SHARON SHINN: A few years ago, I was at REI buying […]
The Big Idea: Elijah Kinch Spector
Posted on November 17, 2022 4 Comments
One can imagine another time and place for a novel, but the when and where of one’s life will find a way into the telling of that story. Or so Elijah Kinch Spector discovered in writing Kalyna the Soothsayer. Today’s Big Idea delves into this phenomenon. ELIJAH KINCH SPECTOR: The United States is simply too […]
The Big Idea: Jim Ottaviani and Jerel Dye
Posted on November 15, 2022 2 Comments
We all know Albert Einstein — he’s the personification of “scientist” in the minds of most of us — but as always, there’s more to the icon (and the man!) than we expect. Jim Ottaviani explains what this means in this Big Idea for his (with artist Jerel Dye) graphic novel retelling of the life […]
The Big Idea: Daniel Church
Posted on November 14, 2022 2 Comments
Inspiration can come from anywhere. For author Daniel Church, it came from a long and scenic train ride. Read on to see how this burst of inspiration turned into his newest novel, The Hollows. DANIEL CHURCH: It was a beautiful summer’s day in 2014, and I was on my way to a funeral where I […]
The Big Idea: Lavie Tidhar
Posted on November 11, 2022 4 Comments
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but in author Lavie Tidhar’s case, a single image he thought of was worth a whole book. Read on to see how his newest novel, Neom, came to be. LAVIE TIDHAR: For Neom, my latest SF novel set in the wider world of my Central Station universe, all […]
The Big Idea: Steve McHugh
Posted on November 10, 2022 2 Comments
Author Steve McHugh was in the middle of writing a novel when his newest novel, The Last Raven, decided it needed to be written, instead. Follow along in his Big Idea to see how it started to take shape, and what it ended up becoming. STEVE MCHUGH: I wasn’t meant to write The Last Raven. In […]
The Big Idea: Emery Robin
Posted on November 8, 2022 1 Comment
It is not what we take with us when we die, but what we leave behind. Author Emery Robin goes into some detail about this in their Big Idea for their newest novel, The Stars Undying. Read on to see what kind of things end up getting inherited by those we leave. EMERY ROBIN: What if […]
The Big Idea: Lavie Tidhar
Posted on November 3, 2022
Another year, another anthology: doesn’t editor and author Lavie Tidhar have other things to do with his time? No! (Well, maybe, but not to the exclusion of this.) Turns out, he’s on a mission, and that mission has resulted in The Best of World SF: Volume 2. Here’s Tidhar to explain. LAVIE TIDHAR: The Best […]
The Big Idea: Julia Rust & David Surface
Posted on November 2, 2022 2 Comments
Sometimes walking in the woods will take you to places you never expected. During the writing of Angel Falls, authors Julia Rust and David Surface went for several walks in the woods, and this Big Idea, they tag-team tell you what they discovered. JULIA RUST & DAVID SURFACE: “I found an old trail. Maybe it […]
The Big Idea: Joelle Presby
Posted on November 1, 2022 6 Comments
What’s in a word? For Joelle Presby, perhaps the whole world… for starters. In this Big Idea, Presby explains how a single word opens up a whole universe for her novel The Dabare Snake Launcher. JOELLE PRESBY: My big idea is a dabare. When you grow up in an area where everyone else speaks at […]
The Big Idea: J.S. Fields
Posted on October 19, 2022 4 Comments
There are many ways in which small indie presses and large traditional presses differ, and in this Big Idea for the anthology Farther Reefs, co-editor J.S. Fields identifies one that you might not expect. What’s this difference? Read on! J. S. FIELDS: Lesbians. Okay wait. Hear me out. As someone who writes in both traditional […]
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