Big Idea Category

The Big Idea: A.M. Dellamonica

Magic has been variously described and quantified, and we hear about white magic, black magic, good magic, bad magic — but how often is it compared to toxic waste? In Blue Magic, author A.M. Dellamonica makes that comparison, and expands on what that unusual approach to magic means for the world (our world, or one […]

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The Big Idea: Lynne M. Thomas

When one’s last book of feminist essays on pop culture (Chicks Dig Time Lords) walks off with Hugos for you and your co-editor, what do you do next? If you say “maybe co-edit another book of feminist essays on pop culture,” then you’re thinking like Lynne M. Thomas, who with Sigrid Ellis has edited Chicks […]

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The Big Idea: Mary Robinette Kowal

Hugo-winning author Mary Robinette Kowal had a pretty problem to solve with Glamour in Glass. The first book in Kowal’s series, Shades of Milk and Honey, had been a Nebula-nominated success, but she knew some people would come to Glamour without having read it. How to give those new readers a complete reading experience without […]

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The Big Idea: David J. Silbey

The famous maxim says that history is written by the winners. But happens when the other side not only doesn’t write a history, but can’t? This was the challenge that Cornell historian David J. Silbey faced when writing The Boxer Rebellion and the Great Game in China — The Boxers, mostly Chinese peasants, were ill-equipped […]

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The Big Idea: Leah Bobet

When it comes to the creative impulse, never underestimate the power of watching someone else get something wrong. Author Leah Bobet, whose debut novel Above hits stores today, found her inspiration when she got aggravated at what she was seeing in her television set. And just as a bit of sand in an oyster shell […]

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The Big Idea: Anne Lyle

Alternate histories are popular, and they’re fun to write. But for the author of such works, there is the occupational hazard of reimagining the world in a way it’s been reimagined before — discovering that you’re not the trailblazer you thought you might be. When Anne Lyle sought to have Europeans discover the New World […]

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The Big Idea: Seanan McGuire

Two years ago, Seanan McGuire found herself crowned with the Campbell Award as the best new writer in science fiction and fantasy; a year after that, writing as Mira Grant, she found herself nominated for the Hugo for Feed. That’s a steep and impressive climb for a new writer. The secret? In my opinion, it’s […]

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The Big Idea: E.C. Myers

Fair Coin, the debut novel is from E.C. Myers, is about wishes, and the complications that come from getting your wishes granted. This is interestingly coincidental for me because just the other day I was talking to my daughter about “The Monkey’s Paw,” the short story in which one’s wishes are granted… badly. I was […]

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The Big Idea: Chris Gerrib

It’s not exactly a new idea that one day, humans might go to Mars. But questions worth asking are who goes to Mars, how and why. Those questions are fun because they can have multiple answers, and if you’re a writer of fiction, multiple answers mean more opportunities for fun and adventure. Ask Chris Gerrib, […]

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The Big Idea: Walter Jon Williams

Walter Jon Williams is thinking about the entertainment media of the future in his latest novel The Fourth Wall, and despite all the technological advances that have been made in entertainment — and are yet to be made — there will still be some things that are constant, for better or worse. What things will […]

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The Big Idea: Chad Orzel

A couple of years ago physics professor Chad Orzel (and his dog Emmy) endeavored to explain physics to humans with How to Teach Physics to Your Dog. That book went on to become a worldwide success, with translations into ten languages to date. How do you follow up? By diving deeper into an especially strange […]

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The Big Idea: Robert Jackson Bennett

What does YouTube have to do with the vaudeville theaters that used to pepper the United States — and what do either have to do with Art (yes, with a capital “A”)? These are excellent questions, and in the course of writing The Troupe, Shirley Jackson Prize-winner (and current Edgar and Philip K Dick award […]

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The Big Idea: Bruce Schneier

Do you trust me? And if so, why do you trust me? And what do you trust me for? “Trust” is an interesting term, with some simple definitions, and others that aren’t so simple. Or so Bruce Schneier, the noted security expert, discovered as he was putting together his latest book Liars and Outliers. The […]

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