Big Idea Category
The Big Idea: Elizabeth Bear
Posted on October 22, 2020 15 Comments
Things work… until they don’t. And when they don’t, what then? Elizabeth Bear has thoughts on this, and how they relate to her latest novel, Machine. ELIZABETH BEAR: Hello, everybody! Thanks for this moment of your time. I’m here to tell you about The Big Idea (or at least one or two of the big […]
The Big Idea: Alexander Dan Vilhjálmsson
Posted on October 21, 2020 6 Comments
If you’ve ever tried to learn another language, or grew up bilingual (or tri or quad), you know that there are some words in each language that just simply can’t be translated. Author Alexander Dan Vilhjálmsson experiences this dilemma in the translation of his novel, Shadows of the Short Days. Read on to see how this […]
The Big Idea: James S. Murray
Posted on October 20, 2020 1 Comment
Have you ever felt the crippling anxiety of being lost? How about the feeling of being watched? Or both at the same time? Author James S. Murray (writing with Darren Wearmouth) explores this fear in his Big Idea for his new novel, Don’t Move. JAMES S. MURRAY: I’ve only been lost in the woods once. […]
The Big Idea: Carrie Vaughn
Posted on October 16, 2020 3 Comments
When the main character is away, the side characters and antagonists will play! Ever wonder what goes on behind the scenes in a novel? Read on to hear about Carrie Vaughn’s newest book, Kitty’s Mix-Tape and see what lies beyond the first-person perspective. CARRIE VAUGHN: Sometimes a big idea is the culmination of a lot of […]
The Big Idea: Amanda Bridgeman
Posted on October 15, 2020 8 Comments
Ever feel like your tech knows too much about you? Like it’s literally in your head reading your thoughts? What if it was literally in your head? In Amanda Bridgeman’s newest novel, The Sensation, she explores a world in which neural implants are a reality, but much like the tech we have today, it might do more […]
The Big Idea: C.L. Polk
Posted on October 14, 2020 3 Comments
As C.L. Polk reveals in this Big Idea for her latest novel The Midnight Bargain, the state of affairs in our world can have a significant effect about the state of affairs in a fictional one… even if the connections are not immediately evident on surface of thing. C.L. POLK: When people talk about The […]
The Big Idea: Christen Carter
Posted on October 13, 2020 4 Comments
Few things in this world are as quirky a choice of fashion as a button, and according to author Christen Carter, few things encapsulate a story as well as one, too. This is their power — which might be why the title of the book Carter co-wrote with Ted Hake is called Button Power. CHRISTEN […]
The Big Idea: Sean Patrick Hazlett
Posted on October 7, 2020 12 Comments
It might not surprise you that the stories in the fantasy collection Weird World War III have at least some basis in reality — the Cold War actually was thing, after all. But what might surprise you is which things were based in reality. Editor Sean Patrick Hazlett is here to lay all the weirdness […]
The Big Idea: Jane Yolen
Posted on October 2, 2020 7 Comments
Come one, come all, down to Nebula award-winning author Jane Yolen’s Big Idea, where she will be the ringmaster and show you her dark carnival of short stories that is Midnight Circus. JANE YOLEN: I admit it. I like small pieces of writing. I was a poet first, even as a child. I sold poems […]
The Big Idea: Tom Doyle
Posted on October 1, 2020 5 Comments
The human brain comes in almost infinite varieties, but for the future that Tom Doyle imagines in his novel Border Crosser, his question is: Will all of those brains, and the humans who possess them, be welcome? TOM DOYLE: Does the far future have a place for mental illness? This is a question at the […]
The Big Idea: Rebecca Coffindaffer
Posted on September 30, 2020 2 Comments
Sometimes, despite all your efforts to the contrary, you have to think about being the hero. Or so author Rebecca Coffindaffer might argue, in the context of her novel Crownchasers. REBECCA COFFINDAFFER: I love a reluctant hero. I’ve loved them ever since I sat, wide-eyed, as my dad read The Fellowship of the Ring out […]
The Big Idea: Lauren Shippen
Posted on September 29, 2020 5 Comments
Do you love a good villain story? Who doesn’t enjoy a nice anti-hero now and again, right? Take a trip to the dark side with author Lauren Shippen’s newest release, A Neon Darkness, and see just how bad a good person can be. LAUREN SHIPPEN: I never thought I would write a villain story. It isn’t that […]
The Big Idea: R. B. Lemberg
Posted on September 22, 2020 4 Comments
Who needs to be the Chosen One at the age of thirteen, or to save the world at sixteen? With The Four Profound Weaves, author R. B. Lemberg takes us on a fantastical journey with an older character, one whose story has just begun. R. B. LEMBERG: I’ve been writing in Birdverse, my LGBTQIA+ centered […]
The Big Idea: Karen Osborne
Posted on September 21, 2020 5 Comments
Sometimes, good things can emerge from bad circumstances. Author Karen Osborne’s newest book, Architects of Memory, is a prime example of that. What started as a medical emergency spiraled into a novel about facing one’s fragility. Read on as the author shares her emotional journey from pain to novel. KAREN OSBORNE: An orthopedist once saved my […]
The Big Idea: Hannah Abigail Clarke
Posted on September 17, 2020 2 Comments
Hey, remember all those teen movies with the girl cliques? So does Hannah Abigail Clarke. Their new novel The Scapegracers is one of the things that happened when these films and the author collided. HANNAH ABIGAIL CLARKE: I wrote The Scapegracers when I was 19 because I was lonely and pissed. Let me elaborate. At […]
The Big Idea: J.R.H. Lawless
Posted on September 16, 2020 3 Comments
Everybody come on down to The Rude Eye of Rebellion! In today’s prize package we have: dark comedy, torture based reality entertainment, and a slow-brewing Marxist revolution! Now please put your hands together for your host, J.R.H. Lawless! J.R.H. LAWLESS: If The Rude Eye of Rebellion, the second book in the General Buzz series, could […]
The Big Idea: Mark Oshiro
Posted on September 15, 2020 4 Comments
Sometimes, it takes a try or two, or a rewrite here and there, to really nail down a story. Author Mark Oshiro tells us about just that as he takes us through his Big Idea, Each of Us a Desert, and shows us that we shouldn’t be afraid of reframing our narratives. It might turn out […]
The Big Idea: Paul Michael Anderson
Posted on September 14, 2020
Assassination isn’t always personal, sometimes it’s just business. And sometimes the people carrying out the business are from a different dimension and are dressed like nightmarish monsters. It’s all part of the gig in author Paul Michael Anderson’s newest sci-fi/horror novel, Standalone. PAUL MICHAEL ANDERSON: At the kick-off of what I’ve been calling The Standalone Promo […]
The Big Idea: Elaine Mongeon and Glen Zipper
Posted on September 11, 2020 1 Comment
Doing the right thing isn’t always easy, and a lot of the time, it’s easier just to do nothing. But when you decide to make a stand, are you willing to risk everything, even your life, for the cause? Authors Glen Zipper and Elaine Mongeon explore this idea of self-sacrifice for the greater good in […]
The Big Idea: Dan Hanks
Posted on September 10, 2020 5 Comments
There’s a line, made famous from the movies, that Dan Hanks is thinking about with his newest novel, Captain Moxley and the Ember of the Empire. The problem is… that line doesn’t go far enough. DAN HANKS: “It belongs in a museum.” That’s the quote we all know and love, uttered as the bad guys […]
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