Big Idea Category
The Big Idea: Elayne Audrey Becker
Posted on August 31, 2021
A picture, they say is worth a thousand words. But as Elayne Audrey Becker is about to tell you in this Big Idea for her novel Forestborn, two pictures may be worth an entire book. ELYANE AUDREY BECKER: The idea for Forestborn began, not with words, but with two pictures in my mind. The first: […]
The Big Idea: Cassie Hart
Posted on August 25, 2021 2 Comments
As a madeleine was to Proust, so was a video game to Cassie Hart: A thing which spurred something inside, which then became art — the novel Butcherbird. CASSIE HART: It started in Minecraft. Glancing up from the water between two rows of wheat I was thrown back into my childhood when we used to […]
The Big Idea: R.W.W. Greene
Posted on August 24, 2021
Author R.W.W. Greene has someone he wants you to meet. It’s a person — well, entity — you’ve met before. And for Greene’s new novel Twenty Five to Life, it’s someone who was very important in setting the stage for the events detailed therein. R.W.W. GREENE: Moloch whose mind is pure machinery! Moloch whose blood […]
The Big Idea: Adrian Goldsworthy
Posted on August 19, 2021 5 Comments
The past is another country — especially when you are trying to write a novel in it. Historian Adrian Goldsworthy had the skills and expertise to write about the Roman-era military encampment that is at the heart of his novel The Fort… but how to bring that place and time alive? Goldsworthy talks about it […]
The Big Idea: Richard Kadrey
Posted on August 18, 2021 6 Comments
It’s the end of an era: with King Bullet, New York Times Bestselling Author Richard Kadrey puts a capper on the long-running and fabulous Sandman Slim series of fantasy novels. In today’s Big Idea, Kadrey tells us how it all came to this, and how one faces the end of a thing both the author and […]
The Big Idea: E. J. Wenstrom
Posted on August 17, 2021 3 Comments
In the novel Departures, author E. J. Wenstrom shows us what a true utopia might look like — but of course there’s a catch to such an optimized world, as Wenstrom explores in this Big Idea. E. J. WENSTROM: Every book starts with a little seed of an idea, and with Departures, that seed was […]
The Big Idea: Josh Rountree
Posted on August 12, 2021
Author Josh Rountree believes in bringing the reader the best of both worlds. Or, in this case, many worlds. Dive into his Big Idea as he tells you about all the different genres that have played a part in crafting his diverse collection of short stories, Fantastic Americana. JOSH ROUNTREE: Here’s my problem. I’ve never been […]
The Big Idea: Susan Forest and Lucas K. Law
Posted on August 11, 2021 4 Comments
People age — it’s what happens if you get to live for a while — but how aging is portrayed in literature is often one note. As editors Susan Forest and Lucas K. Law want to show in their new anthology Seasons Between Us: Tales of Identities and Memories, there’s a symphony of experiences going […]
The Big Idea: Elijah Menchaca
Posted on August 10, 2021 3 Comments
Losing friends can be hard, especially when you and your friends are a group of adventure-seeking heroes. Come along in Elijah Menchaca’s Big Idea as he tells you why he decided not to focus on one character, but an entire friend group in his debut novel, They Met in a Tavern. ELIJAH MENCHACA: The story of […]
The Big Idea: Jadie Jang
Posted on August 6, 2021 5 Comments
Fantasy stories as often as not have their roots in reality, and for Monkey Around, author Jadie Jang wanted to root her book in her own lived reality — one other people might think they knew, but often only saw one aspect of. JADIE JANG: When I first conceived of and outlined Monkey Around, we […]
The Big Idea: Matthew Hughes
Posted on August 5, 2021 14 Comments
Good things always have to come to an end. Or do they? Author Matthew Hughes is determined not to let the good name of Jack Vance and his fantastical worlds end. Follow along in his Big Idea as he tells us about his newest novel under the Paladins of Vance series, Barbarians of the Beyond. MATTHEW […]
The Big Idea: Nicole Willson
Posted on August 3, 2021
Author Nicole Willson, who has been a lifelong horror fan, gives us a little backstory on how she came up with the idea for her newest novel… or rather, the backstory on how she realized she was having an idea for Tidepool. NICOLE WILLSON: My first rule of developing novel ideas: Realize that you’re having […]
The Big Idea: Brad Parks
Posted on July 29, 2021 7 Comments
Sometimes the Big Idea of one’s book is… well. Not something that you would contemplate in real life, but might make an intriguing premise for one’s novel. Brad Parks knows a little bit about this, as it relates to his newest work, aptly entitled Unthinkable. BRAD PARKS: I love my wife very much. So, naturally, […]
The Big Idea: Greg Van Eekhout
Posted on July 27, 2021 8 Comments
There’s a special time in everybody’s life, and by “special” we mean “really confusing and also seriously what the heck is going on?” It’s that special time that Greg Van Eekhout covers in his novel Weird Kid, and along the way he gets into why being a weird kid is, kinda, sometimes, awesome. GREG VAN […]
The Big Idea: Nicholas Bowling
Posted on July 22, 2021 8 Comments
Open your chakras and come along in author Nicholas Bowling’s Big Idea, as he tells you of his journey for happiness. Or at least, his journey to writing his new novel, The Follower. NICHOLAS BOWLING: The Big Idea for The Follower started out as (and perhaps still is) a pretty stupid joke. There was a […]
The Big Idea: Catherynne M. Valente
Posted on July 20, 2021 9 Comments
Humans are garbage. Or perhaps, as author Catherynne M. Valente has it, it’s more accurate to say that the world that people live in is actual garbage. Come along in her Big Idea as she tells you all about Garbagetown, the not-so-trashy setting for her newest novel, The Past Is Red. CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE: Wonderful […]
The Big Idea: Dan Rice
Posted on July 19, 2021 4 Comments
In author Dan Rice’s Big Idea, he shows us a world beyond our own, alongside a world that happens to be our own. How is this possible? Follow along as he tells us a bit about his inspiration for his debut novel, Dragons Walk Among Us. DAN RICE: Is there a world before our eyes […]
The Big Idea: Nicole Kornher-Stace
Posted on July 15, 2021 4 Comments
They say you should always know your audience, but in author Nicole Kornher-Stace’s case, she took this saying literally. Follow along in her Big Idea as she tells you about who she wrote Jillian VS Parasite Planet for, and why. NICOLE KORNHER-STACE: Since approximately five minutes after I started publishing, my mom has been telling me I should […]
The Big Idea: Ada Hoffman
Posted on July 14, 2021 2 Comments
In the face of adversity, it’s easy to think everyone is going to turn on each other. Author Ada Hoffman shows us that the opposite might also true, in the Big Idea for her newest novel, The Fallen. ADA HOFFMAN: When I wrote The Outside I had the luxury of writing an apocalypse. Cosmic horrors […]
The Big Idea: Ryan Van Loan
Posted on July 13, 2021
You know what they say about power, right? So does Ryan Van Loan, and for his novel The Justice in Revenge, he looks at the famous saying, and tries to seek the truth of it. RYAN VAN LOAN: My Big Idea began with that old saw: “power corrupts”. The actual quote is “power tends to […]
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