Big Idea Category
The Big Idea: Karen Heuler
Posted on June 16, 2022 3 Comments
Cats and witches are a duo as old as time. But when the cat is a frenemy rather than a familiar? Now that’s a little more unique. Come along in Karen Heuler’s Big Idea to see the dynamic she created between a witch and her most unusual co-worker in The Splendid City. KAREN HEULER: It […]
The Big Idea: Stephen Cox
Posted on June 15, 2022
How do you write a book that reaches past its target audience, to readers that have never tried your genre before? According to author Stephen Cox, you have to lean into the things that make it genre defying in the first place. Follow along in his Big Idea to see how he does this in […]
The Big Idea: Sam J. Miller
Posted on June 14, 2022 1 Comment
It’s been said that you should write what you know, and for author Sam J. Miller, that’s pop culture. Read on to discover how he transformed the pop culture that inspired him growing up into his own story of his own making, Boys, Beasts & Men. SAM J. MILLER: My first stories were fanfic. When […]
The Big Idea: Maya Deane
Posted on June 9, 2022 3 Comments
How many ways are there to tell a classic story? As many ways as there are people to tell it. In Wrath Goddess Sing, author Maya Deane finds a new way to tell one of Western Civilization’s oldest tales. MAYA DEANE: I’m going to let you in on a secret: there is no one single […]
The Big Idea: Ren Hutchings
Posted on June 8, 2022 1 Comment
They say not to meet your heroes, but that’s exactly what Ren Hutchings’ protagonist, Uma Ozakka, does by means of time travel. Travel through the Big Idea behind Under Fortunate Stars and see how their fates intertwine. REN HUTCHINGS: I’ve loved time travel stories for a very long time. As a child, I was fascinated by […]
The Big Idea: Samit Basu
Posted on June 7, 2022 1 Comment
We all want to be heroes, but how realistic is an individual saving the world? Author Samit Basu explores this idea in his newest book, The City Inside, making his characters focus on what they can save in their own worlds. SAMIT BASU: My Big Idea, initially, was to write a near-future story set in my city. […]
The Big Idea: Dave Creek
Posted on June 6, 2022 2 Comments
Today’s Big Idea is Super-Sized, because author Dave Creek has not just one, but two, new books out in the world, released simultaneously. How did this happen and how do his books — Watcher of the Skies and Chanda’s Homecoming — relate to each other? Dave is here to give you all the details about […]
The Big Idea: Erica Friedman
Posted on June 3, 2022
We are all part of some sort of fandom, and some fandoms are better known than others. In By Your Side, author Erica Friedman explores a vital, but possibly lesser-known, group of fans. ERICA FRIEDMAN: Every day someone discovers a new fandom. How awesome is that? Right away that new fan takes in all the […]
The Big Idea: Alex Shvartsman
Posted on June 2, 2022 7 Comments
Magic, monsters, and New York Style pizza. Three things you can expect to find in author Alex Shvartsman’s newest book, The Middling Afflication. Come along in this Big Idea to see what else lies within the city that never sleeps. ALEX SHVARTSMAN: The big idea behind The Middling Affliction is actually three middling ideas stacked on […]
The Big Idea: B. L. Blanchard
Posted on June 1, 2022 12 Comments
If you could rewrite history, what would your version of it look like? Author B. L. Blanchard took up the challenge in her newest book, The Peace Keeper. Find out how her new past looks today. B. L. BLANCHARD: What if North America had never been colonized? Sit with that idea for a minute, and really […]
The Big Idea: Bishop O’Connell
Posted on May 31, 2022 11 Comments
From small beginnings, big things can arise — and when they do, suddenly you may find yourself doing a lot more worldbuilding than you originally planned. In this Big Idea, author Bishop O’Connell goes into detail about how the world of Two-Gun Witch became a more intensive project than its tuneful origin might have implies. […]
The Big Idea: Kate Heartfield
Posted on May 24, 2022 6 Comments
They say behind every great man is a great woman, but what happens when that woman has a magic book and has decided she’s had enough of the patriarchy? Author Kate Heartfield takes us back through history, with a brand new perspective. Follow along in her Big Idea for The Embroidered Book to hear a new […]
The Big Idea: Oliver K. Langmead
Posted on May 19, 2022 2 Comments
Punching billionaires: Can it be done? Should it be done? In this Big Idea for Glitterati, author Oliver K. Langmead offers a mechanism for it that is (probably) unlikely to get one landed in jail for it. OLIVER K. LANGMEAD: Capitalism isn’t working too well right now, and one of the most grotesque symptoms of […]
The Big Idea: Jeff Macfee
Posted on May 17, 2022
Life is full of choices… and not all choices will make you happy. But they might move the plot along. In today’s Big Idea for Nine Tenths, author Jeff Macfee talks about choices and protagonists and how the matters how the latter performs the former. JEFF MACFEE: Most of us live on the edges. There […]
The Big Idea: David Towsey
Posted on May 13, 2022 5 Comments
There are times when you feel not quite yourself, and David Towsey gets what you mean. In fact, in Equinox, you could say he’s written a book in which not being quite yourself — just like everybody else — is a remarkably common occurrence. DAVID TOWSEY: Most of us have experienced moments when we’re in […]
The Big Idea: Liz Michalski
Posted on May 5, 2022 1 Comment
A dream about a well-loved fantasy world brings attention to what’s not being paid attention to… and from there, Liz Michalski tells a story in Darling Girl from a point of view long left underappreciated. LIZ MICHALSKI: My first draft of my book Darling Girl came from a dream, in which boys in Peter Pan-green […]
The Big Idea: Mark Matthews
Posted on May 4, 2022 3 Comments
Editor Mark Matthews has experience with the world of horror, and the terrors of addiction. In the anthology, Orphans of Bliss, both are explored, with the help of a host of authors who craft stories with both in mind. Here’s Matthews to get under the skin of the anthology. MARK MATTHEWS: Orphans of Bliss: Tales […]
The Big Idea: Dan Koboldt
Posted on May 3, 2022 9 Comments
When I decided to write science fiction, one of the things I thought was, well, I won’t have to do a lot of research because I can just make things up! I was, shall we say, quickly disabused of that notion. In fantasy, it’s a very much a similar situation, as Dan Koboldt, the editor […]
The Big Idea: Kali Wallace
Posted on April 28, 2022
Current events have had a hand in Kali Wallace’s newest novel Hunters of the Lost City, but as Wallace points out in this Big Idea, some elements of it are taken from facts that are perennial, for better or worse. KALI WALLACE: You ever have one of those ideas that you really, really wish you […]
The Big Idea: Alma Katsu
Posted on April 26, 2022 2 Comments
Do we learn from the past? And how does the past inform today, and the art that is created in it? These are questions Alma Katsu is confronting in this Big Idea for The Fervor, and is inviting you to confront them as well. ALMA KATSU: The Fervor is a novel about the Japanese internment. […]
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