Big Idea Category
The Big Idea: Lif Strand
Posted on July 30, 2020 2 Comments
Music can be life changing, but as Lif Strand found out in writing Evolution Device, turning that life-changing feeling into a novel can be a challenge worthy of the gnarliest of musical performances. LIF STRAND: Music is powerful stuff. It enters the ears and takes over the brain. If that isn’t power then I don’t […]
The Big Idea: Richard Cox
Posted on July 29, 2020 8 Comments
Good things come to those who wait… and learn. That might be the theme of this Big Idea by Richard Cox, for his novel House of the Rising Sun, which experienced a pause in its writing and in doing so just may have arrived at precisely the right time. RICHARD COX: Before I started work […]
The Big Idea: Ferrett Steinmetz
Posted on July 28, 2020 9 Comments
What does your cell phone or XBox have to do with AI-laden weapon systems? Ferrett Steinmetz has an inkling, and in this Big Idea for his new novel Automatic Reload, he lays it out for you. FERRETT STEINMETZ: You’re already too slow for technology. You knew that the first time you used a calculator; it […]
The Big Idea: Cindy Lynn Speer
Posted on July 27, 2020
So, what is The Key to All Things? Aside from the title of the new novel by Cindy Lynn Speer? The good news is, we have Speer here to tell you what it might be, and how it relates to her tale. CINDY LYNN SPEER: I came through the central driving idea for The Key […]
The Big Idea: Ryan Van Loan
Posted on July 22, 2020
For Ryan Van Loan, unexpected voices led him to take an equally unexpected journey — one that would result in his new novel, Sin in the Steel. RYAN VAN LOAN: My Big Idea started with a literal whisper in the dark. “Let a man think you weak, let him think you vulnerable, and he’ll never […]
The Big Idea: Michael R. Underwood
Posted on July 21, 2020 7 Comments
For his Big Idea for Annihilation Aria, author Michael R. Underwood is examining the part of the story that usually gets skipped over — unfairly so, in Underwood’s opinion. MICHAEL R. UNDERWOOD: “Happily Ever After.” A famous phrase that signals the end of many stories, from faerie tales to action movies to romance novels. Growing […]
The Big Idea: Madeline Ashby
Posted on July 17, 2020 9 Comments
In today’s Big Idea, Madeline Ashby is talking about monsters, what they might mean to each of us, and what hers in particular meant to her latest novel, ReV. MADELINE ASHBY: “It’s a rape revenge story? Is that what you said?” It was October of 2016. It was a rainy morning in London just days […]
The Big Idea: Kenneth Schneyer
Posted on July 16, 2020 5 Comments
As he begins his Big Idea for his collection Anthems Outside Time and Other Strange Voices, author Kenneth Schneyer will ask you to think of a certain sort of writing perhaps differently than you do now. Don’t worry, he explains himself as he goes along. KENNETH SCHNEYER: A story is not an action by a […]
The Big Idea: Tiffani Angus
Posted on July 15, 2020 8 Comments
Time travel — and horticulture? The two entwine in Threading the Labyrinth, the new novel from Tiffani Angus. How did the author cultivate these two into a single novel? The answer awaits you below. TIFFANI ANGUS: The big idea behind Threading the Labyrinth started in a garden. Well, it started with a garden. Okay, to […]
The Big Idea: Steven H. Silver
Posted on July 13, 2020 14 Comments
Steven H. Silver knows just a bit about alternate histories: He created a well-respected genre award for stories in that subgenre. Now he’s trying his hand at writing an alternate history: After Hastings. Where does his history take a fictional turn, and why? He’s here to tell you. STEVEN H. SILVER: While in grad school, […]
The Big Idea: Catherine Asaro
Posted on July 9, 2020 16 Comments
Finally! An author brave enough to give an answer to The Question all writers get! The author: Catherine Asaro. Her newest book: The Vanished Seas. Her answer? Read on! CATHERINE ASARO: “Where do you get your ideas?” The dreaded question. It’s also a good one, deserving a good answer. Unfortunately, I never have a good […]
The Big Idea: Sarah Henning
Posted on July 8, 2020 4 Comments
From the title alone, The Princess Will Save You suggests there will be some trope-flipping involved in the story. But as author Sarah Henning explains in today’s Big Idea, flipping the trope isn’t enough. There has to be more. SARAH HENNING: The Princess Will Save You is the story of Princess Amarande of Ardenia, whose […]
The Big Idea: C.T. Rwizi
Posted on July 2, 2020 5 Comments
Many authors have learned that just because a character comes out of your own head doesn’t mean they won’t fight you from time to time. Author C.T. Rwizi learned this very thing while writing Scarlet Odyssey. The details await you below. C.T. RWIZI: The big idea behind Scarlet Odyssey begins at my little sister’s preschool […]
The Big Idea: Alma Alexander
Posted on July 1, 2020 6 Comments
In this week’s Big Idea for The Second Star, author Alma Alexander goes big… and then gets small… and then tells how it’s all connected. ALMA ALEXANDER: There isn’t just one Big Idea in The Second Star – there are half a dozen of them, interwoven into a complex story tapestry. This is at once […]
The Big Idea: Dorothy A. Winsor
Posted on June 29, 2020 8 Comments
If you think creating a new world for your fiction means you’ve left behind the troubles of this one, you may be right — but now you have to think about the troubles of the new world, and what they mean for your characters. Dorothy A. Winsor have some thoughts about new worlds and their […]
The Big Idea: Max Booth III
Posted on June 26, 2020 1 Comment
Unusually, today’s Big Idea starts with an author’s note before the main body of the Big Idea piece. As you read, however, I think you’ll see why author Max Booth III thought it important to put it in, and why some aspects of his new novel Touch the Night are almost eerily in sync with […]
The Big Idea: Paris Wynters
Posted on June 25, 2020 4 Comments
For Issued, author Paris Wynters looked at marriage and the military, and a speculative way at combining the two of them to create her story. PARIS WYNTERS: Writing has always been a way for me to express myself creatively. Ask me to draw, you’ll get stick figures. Color, not so great at that either even […]
The Big Idea: Katherine Addison
Posted on June 24, 2020 16 Comments
When Katherine Addison gets hold of the Victorian Era in her new novel The Angel of the Crows, she does things to it that no one expected — possibly most of all herself. Here she is to tell you how and why she’s done what she has, and why she had so much fun with […]
The Big Idea: Doug Engstrom
Posted on June 16, 2020 2 Comments
Doug Engstrom is thinking about today’s troubles and woes, and how some of them rely on people one thing and corporations… doing another. From there it’s just a hop, skip and jump to the world of his new novel, Corporate Gunslinger. DOUG ENGSTROM: One of the things that’s appalled me as I’ve grown older isn’t […]
The Big Idea: Ryk Spoor
Posted on June 15, 2020
When thinking about epic fantasy, how epic is epic enough? And at what point might things become too epic for a single band of heroes? Author Ryk Spoor has opinions on these questions, and how they helped to inform his latest (epic!) novel, The Mask of Ares. RYK SPOOR: Epic fantasy has a lot of […]
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