Big Idea Category
The Big Idea: Chris Panatier
Posted on April 18, 2022 2 Comments
How do we know what we know? In Stringers, author Chris Panatier posits a wild premise… and an even wilder way of getting that knowledge out into the world. CHRIS PANATIER: Stringers features individuals who have knowledge they can’t explain called, well…“Stringers”. Our main character Ben’s knowledge centers on three distinct areas: nitty-gritty of animal […]
The Big Idea: John Dodd
Posted on April 15, 2022
As writers, we all have the Story The Got Away From Us. For John Dodd, however, that story was the one he came around to once more. Here he is to talk about Ocean of Stars, and how it was written, when the time was right. JOHN DODD: It started with a book that couldn’t […]
The Big Idea: EC Ambrose
Posted on April 14, 2022 1 Comment
Footnotes, side comments, errata, vague asides — sometimes these don’t matter much. But sometimes, as E.C. Ambrose discovered, they do. And sometimes, as in the case of Drakemaster, you get a book out it! E.C. AMBROSE: Sometimes, the big ideas come from very small places… I was happily reading along for no particular purpose, in […]
The Big Idea: Nancy Werlin
Posted on April 13, 2022 9 Comments
Hey, do you remember the 90s? Nancy Werlin does, and one of the reasons she does involves her latest novel, Healer & Witch. Her latest novel… but perhaps not her most recent novel. Werlin is here now to explain how that works, and why she’s delighted this novel is now out in the world. NANCY […]
The Big Idea: Wil Wheaton
Posted on April 12, 2022 27 Comments
For most of the readers here, the name Wil Wheaton is a familiar and even beloved one: Actor, television host, famous nerd, and award-winning, best-selling audiobook narrator. And also, in case you didn’t know, an accomplished writer and essayist. In Wil’s new book, Still Just a Geek, he revisits an earlier work, revises and expands […]
The Big Idea: Adam Oyebanji
Posted on April 7, 2022 4 Comments
In his novel Braking Day, author Adam Oyebanji wants to take humans into deep space. But just because he wants to take them into deep space doesn’t mean he’s going to make it easy and simple for them to get there… or stay there. ADAM OYEBANJI: I fear I’m here under false pretenses. I don’t […]
The Big Idea: Leah Cypess
Posted on April 5, 2022 2 Comments
Reuse and recycle: If it’s a good idea for physical things, can it also be a good idea for story concepts? Leah Cypess suggests that it might be — and explains how this has direct bearing on her novel Glass Slippers. LEAH CYPESS: Let me start with a confession: I used the same Big Idea […]
The Big Idea: Marion Deeds
Posted on March 30, 2022 5 Comments
Whether in the real world or in a world of fantasy, power is a currency that always compels. In this Big Idea for Comeuppance Served Cold, author Marion Deeds essays the persuasiveness of power, and how it informs the alternate Pacific Northwest she’s created. MARION DEEDS: Magic is a form of power. Who has it? […]
The Big Idea: Jess Montgomery
Posted on March 29, 2022 1 Comment
William Faulkner once said “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” It’s a sentiment that Jess Montgomery can certainly appreciate, since her new novel, The Echoes, deals with something very close to that idea. Here she is to explain further. JESS MONTGOMERY: Can we ever outrun our pasts? I think the answer is… […]
The Big Idea: Gareth L. Powell
Posted on March 28, 2022 7 Comments
If you don’t think that science fiction is affected by the events of moment, than Gareth L. Powell has some news for you: oh, boy, is it ever. In this big idea for Stars and Bones, Powell explains how world events caught up to his story in strange and unexpected ways. (Disclosure: As you can […]
The Big Idea: Joe R. Lansdale
Posted on March 25, 2022 8 Comments
Frankly put, Joe R. Lansdale is an American literary treasure, and his characters Hap and Leonard are a substantial portion of the reason why this is so. So a collection of Hap and Leonard stories? Yes, sir, more please, sir. Here’s Lansdale talking about his collection Born for Trouble, and where he, and his characters, […]
The Big Idea: Kenneth Hite
Posted on March 22, 2022 2 Comments
Location is everything — or, if not everything, then still quite a lot, especially when considering the work of foundational fantasist H.P. Lovecraft. For Tour de Lovecraft: The Destinations, master games writer Kenneth Hite gets out the map and takes us traveling, from Arkham to Innsmouth, in pursuit of terror and tourism. KENNETH HITE: The […]
The Big Idea: C.G. Volars
Posted on March 21, 2022 5 Comments
There are tropes in literature that we all know, and, well, maybe not always love. For Static Over Space, author C.G. Volars thought about the tropes and what might happen if you flip them… and them flip them again, in an entirely different direction. C.G. VOLARS: Here’s a bit of irony for you: I first […]
The Big Idea: J.D. DeLuzio
Posted on March 11, 2022 8 Comments
With a book title like Live Nude Aliens, it’s obvious that J.D. DeLuzio is going to be writing from perspectives other than his own. But in this Big Idea, DeLuzio shares how when it comes to writing the other, he gets by with a little help from his friends. J.D. DeLUZIO: Imagine that in 1953, […]
The Big Idea: Max Gladstone
Posted on March 9, 2022 8 Comments
Fasten your seatbelts, folks: Max Gladstone is about to take you on a trip. It goes to his past, and through it, and winds up at the heart of his latest novel, Last Exit. MAX GLADSTONE: In the summers, we packed the van and left. My parents were high school teachers then. We didn’t have […]
The Big Idea: Khan Wong
Posted on March 8, 2022 2 Comments
What is the purpose and meaning of art? Ask a thousand artists, you’ll get a thousand answers — and in this Big Idea for The Circus Infinite, author Khan Wong offers his take… and it’s a compelling one. KHAN WONG: I have long understood that the arts hold greater capacity than to merely decorate or […]
The Big Idea: Sarah Tolmie
Posted on March 4, 2022 4 Comments
You may know of the short, stocky horses of Iceland. But Sarah Tolmie discovered something interesting about the horses of Iceland, and decided that therein would lie a tale, entitled, of course, All the Horses of Iceland. SARAH TOLMIE: Attending the Iceland Writers Conference in 2018, I had the opportunity to ride an Icelandic horse […]
The Big Idea: Katherine Cowley
Posted on March 3, 2022 5 Comments
If you think “fake news” is a new innovation, well, Katharine Cowley has news for you: It’s rather older than you think. She offers an example from the pages of history, and explains how it became a part of her novel, The True Confessions of a London Spy. KATHERINE COWLEY: I like giving myself constraints. […]
The Big Idea: G.R. Macallister
Posted on March 2, 2022 10 Comments
When you sense something is lacking in a genre you love, how much effort does it take you as a writer to address it? For G.R. Macallister, quite a lot — and in writing her novel Scorpica, she learned that sometimes it means digging down into the language itself to make the story sing. G.R. […]
The Big Idea: Sean Patrick Hazlett
Posted on March 1, 2022 3 Comments
Editor Sean Patrick Hazlett has an anthology about war coming out at, shall we say, an evocative time — and as he explains in this Big Idea, the stories in the Weird World War IV anthology are not blind to the events in the world as it happened over the last couple of years. SEAN […]
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