Big Idea Category
The Big Idea: Isabella Maldonado
Posted on June 2, 2023 2 Comments
In her Big Idea for her new novel A Killer’s Game, author Isabella Maldonado touches on popular party events, adrenaline, and your long-lost ancestor, Grog. How do they all fit together? Like a puzzle. ISABELLA MALDONADO: The big idea behind A Killer’s Game was the explosion in popularity of escape rooms, which provide the dopamine […]
The Big Idea: Beth Cato
Posted on June 1, 2023 5 Comments
Be warned: In A Thousand Recipes for Revenge, author Beth Cato can get… well, a little cheesy. But, perhaps, not exactly in the way you might expect. BETH CATO: I suppose other people might start work on a novel set in a musketeer-era fantasy world because they want the opportunity to write swashbuckling adventures, rapier […]
The Big Idea: Yukimi Ogawa
Posted on May 26, 2023 3 Comments
It’s a special talent to write in a language that you’ve learned along the way. In this Big Idea for author Yukimi Ogawa’s new collection of short stories, Like Smoke, Like Light, she explains why this choice was an essential one for her. YUKIMI OGAWA: Years ago, somewhere on the internet, I saw someone remark […]
The Big Idea: Jean Marie Ward
Posted on May 25, 2023 4 Comments
Sometimes, it takes more than one try to really nail down a story. In author Jean Marie Ward’s case, the third time was the charm, resulting in her new novel, Siren Bridge. Read on to see how each iteration of this story came together to form this final novel. JEAN MARIE WARD: I stole the first […]
The Big Idea: William C. Tracy
Posted on May 23, 2023 4 Comments
Don’t judge a book by its cover. Or in this case, don’t judge a monster by its mushrooms. Author William C. Tracy’s Big Idea brings us back into The Biomass Conflux series with his newest novel, To A Fungus Unknown. WILLIAM C. TRACY: Forty years after landing on Lida, the colony still isn’t finished. Agetha has survived […]
The Big Idea: Scott Fulford
Posted on May 18, 2023 8 Comments
How was the state of your wallet during the prime pandemic years? As Scott Fulford explains in this Big Idea for The Pandemic Paradox, for many Americans it was not nearly as bad as it could have been, and indeed, possibly the opposite. SCOTT FULFORD: The novel coronavirus suddenly seemed to be everywhere in March […]
The Big Idea: Jacqueline Vogtman
Posted on May 16, 2023 1 Comment
Some things are worth the wait, as Jacqueline Vogtman found out in Girl Country, her short story collection. Time and circumstance changed it from what it once was to something new, with a particular theme running through the whole thing. JACQUELINE VOGTMAN: My book, Girl Country, is a collection of short stories, and while the […]
The Big Idea: Jules Sherred
Posted on May 11, 2023 11 Comments
Cooking is for everyone, and Jules Sherred is reminding everyone of that with his new book Crip Up the Kitchen: Tools, Tips and Recipes for the Disabled Cook, which aims to help make the activity more accessible to those who might have previously felt excluded from it. JULES SHERRED: If you were to ask my […]
The Big Idea: Lisa Brideau
Posted on May 9, 2023 2 Comments
There’s no time like the present when it comes to making positive change. That’s certainly the case for author Lisa Brideau regarding policies on climate change. Follow along in her Big Idea to see how she crafts this changed world in her new novel, Adrift. LISA BRIDEAU: I work all day on climate policy. I am […]
The Big Idea: Dorothy A. Winsor
Posted on May 8, 2023 8 Comments
Sometimes, a “big idea” is a collection of smaller ideas, which, when grouped together, are greater than the sum of their parts. Dorothy A. Winsor knows a little about this, and in this Big Idea for Glass Girl, she puts it all together for you. DOROTHY A. WINSOR: Big Ideas don’t always (often? ever?) leap […]
The Big Idea: Jarrett Lerner
Posted on May 5, 2023
In A Work in Progress, author Jarrett Lerner’s character is wrestling with a monster of a problem. It’s the same problem that Lerner himself had to wrestle with in his time — a monster of a problem that is, alas, all too common. JARRETT LERNER: I’ve always loved monster stories. I can’t remember a specific […]
The Big Idea: Mick Ryan
Posted on May 4, 2023 3 Comments
There are many people who have written about war in the future, including the proprietor of this particular site. But Major General Mick Ryan (ret.) may have, by profession and inclination, a unique insight into the matter. In this Big Idea for White Sun War, he explains how his insight is married to a now-classic […]
The Big Idea: L.R. Lam
Posted on May 3, 2023 3 Comments
Dragons! Everybody loves them and they wing their way into all sorts of places in the fantasy genre. Author L.R. Lam was determined to find a fresh spin on the familiar creatures, however, and in Dragonfall, they may just have found one. L.R. LAM: For years, I’d really wanted to write myself a Big Ol’ […]
The Big Idea: Julie Nováková, Lucas K. Law and Susan Forest
Posted on April 27, 2023 2 Comments
There’s more to life than humanity, and in the hybrid anthology Life Beyond Us, editors Julie Nováková, Lucas K. Law and Susan Forest dig into the differences, why they matter, and why they should matter to us. JULIE NOVÁKOVÁ, LUCAS K. LAW, SUSAN FOREST: Imagine that the fate of a whole planetary biosphere rests in […]
The Big Idea: Cory Doctorow
Posted on April 26, 2023 13 Comments
For years, Cory Doctorow has carved one of the most idiosyncratic paths in the genre of science fiction and fantasy, combining feats of speculative fiction with a life of political and social advocacy in the tech sphere. So it’s no surprise that his new novel Red Team Blues combines elements of both for something new […]
The Big Idea: Kat Howard
Posted on April 25, 2023 2 Comments
Some stories beg to be written, and sometimes characters do the same. In author Kat Howard’s case, she intentionally left a door open for her character to walk through so she could write her again. Read on to see how this turned into her newest novel, A Sleight of Shadows. KAT HOWARD: Dear Reader: I’m afraid […]
The Big Idea: Philip Plait
Posted on April 18, 2023 7 Comments
Here on Earth, we have a pretty decent view of the universe (when it’s not cloudy, or when there’s light pollution, or the sun is out, or…). But the universe looks different depending on where in you stand. Or so Dr. Philip Plait suggests, in his new book, Under Alien Skies. PHILIP PLAIT: As someone […]
The Big Idea: Melissa Scott & Amy Griswold
Posted on April 13, 2023 8 Comments
The Victorian Era is a world we think we know… but as Melissa Scott and Amy Griswold tell us in this Big Idea for Death By Silver, beneath what we think we know is a world that must be inferred… and then explored. MELISSA SCOTT & AMY GRISWOLD: It’s not too much of an exaggeration […]
The Big Idea: Piper J. Drake
Posted on April 12, 2023 4 Comments
People are a mish-mash of where they or their ancestors have come from, and where they are now (among, of course, many other things). But as Piper J. Drake makes clear in this Big Idea for Wings at Once Cursed and Bound, these elements of who were are are often in unexpected combinations… and may […]
The Big Idea: Chika Unigwe
Posted on April 11, 2023 3 Comments
All too often, people can do the wrong things for what they think is the right reasons. In author Chika Unigwe’s Big Idea, she goes into detail about how things done out of “love” can end up hurting people, and how this sort of situation inspired her new novel, The Middle Daughter. CHIKA UNIGWE: The Middle […]
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