Big Idea Category
The Big Idea: Zac Topping
Posted on July 19, 2022 4 Comments
“Better to bring a casserole to your neighbor’s house than a shotgun” is a Midwest saying that rings extra true in author Zac Topping’s new novel, Wake of War. Follow along in his Big Idea as he takes you through war-torn streets of the near-future — streets that are all too familiar. ZAC TOPPING: Crumbling, […]
The Big Idea: Alex White
Posted on July 18, 2022
Sacrifices in stories generally tend to be noble ones. Characters are made to suffer but always for the greater good. Author Alex White shows us that sometimes things are just plain bad, and sacrifices are no fun. So how do the main characters in August Kitko & The Mechas From Space manage to find any joy in […]
The Big Idea: Ryan Van Loan
Posted on July 15, 2022 1 Comment
In Ryan Van Loan’s third installment of The Fall of the Gods series, the author sheds light on an important fact: being smart doesn’t guarantee being wise. This makes a world of difference for the protagonist of The Memory in the Blood. RYAN VAN LOAN: My Big Idea for The Memory in the Blood began with a […]
The Big Idea: A. C. Wise
Posted on July 14, 2022 1 Comment
Are the bad guys inherently bad, or did they choose to be bad? Author A. C. Wise takes us into the mind of one of literature’s most famous villains in her new novel, Hooked, in order to shed some light on this question. A. C. WISE: Part of me wants to be a little bit […]
The Big Idea: Kimberly Unger
Posted on July 13, 2022 5 Comments
Sure, we’ve all wished to visit the imaginary or virtual worlds of fiction and dreams… but when it’s time to come home, will we always find the exit? This is a question Kimberly Unger is considering in her latest novel, The Extractionist. KIMBERLY UNGER: I suspect most of us can agree that imaginary worlds have […]
The Big Idea: Mia V. Moss
Posted on July 12, 2022 4 Comments
Futuristic stories often take their cues from the present, and this is certainly the case in Mia V. Moss’s new novel, Mai Tais For the Lost. Set in an alarmingly realistic future Earth, Moss’s story is part mystery, part sci-fi, and all underwater. MIA V. MOSS: What if the world’s wealthiest individuals, gazing from the decks […]
The Big Idea: Rachel Swirsky
Posted on July 11, 2022 10 Comments
For a country with an at-best-precarious social net, the idea of a Universal Basic Income can be beguiling. But how would it work in hard reality? Rachel Swirsky has decided to take a swing at giving an answer to this in her new work, January Fifteenth. And if you think this would be easy to […]
The Big Idea: K.B. Jensen
Posted on July 8, 2022 2 Comments
With a story collection title like Love and Other Monsters in the Dark, you might think that author K.B. Jensen has a skewed view on, well, love. But as she explains in this big idea, it may be not all that skewed, when you dig into what love really means for each of us. K.B. […]
The Big Idea: Erin Flanagan
Posted on July 6, 2022 4 Comments
The road to recovery is often long and hard one, but for the protagonist of Erin Flanagan’s newest novel, Blackout, recovery has a mysterious added challenge — one that threatens more than just the recovery itself. ERIN FLANAGAN: When I started the novel Blackout, I asked myself two questions: what makes me mad and what […]
The Big Idea: Lucas J.W. Johnson
Posted on July 1, 2022 3 Comments
Rome wasn’t built in a day — and its fall took even longer. But what if… that fall never happened at all? Lucas J.W. Johnson is on it with The Clockwork Empire. LUCAS J. W. JOHNSON: There’s something compelling about the fall of the Roman Republic and its transformation to Empire—Caesar and Augustus and the […]
The Big Idea: Victoria Aveyard
Posted on June 30, 2022 1 Comment
Fantasy is a world of your making, and for New York Times bestselling author Victoria Aveyard, she wanted her world to be inclusive. Read all about how she wanted Blade Breaker to take place in the world that teenage her dreamed of. VICTORIA AVEYARD: I like to say that all writers share three things. Hard work, […]
The Big Idea: Andrew Liptak
Posted on June 29, 2022 5 Comments
Cosplay. You know it, you love it. And so does author Andrew Liptak. Follow along in the Big Idea for his book, Cosplay: A History, to see how cosplay isn’t just about costumes, it’s about community. ANDREW LIPTAK: When you’re doing something that seems patently ridiculous, it helps to have friends who’re there with you. I’ve […]
The Big Idea: Elizabeth Bear
Posted on June 28, 2022 4 Comments
Few storytellers alive can spin a tale like Elizabeth Bear, and in this Big Idea for The Origin of Storms, the concluding novel of a trilogy, Bear digs just a little into the elements that make this particular story the one to tell right now. ELIZABETH BEAR: What if you inherited a broken world from […]
The Big Idea: Karen Heuler
Posted on June 16, 2022 3 Comments
Cats and witches are a duo as old as time. But when the cat is a frenemy rather than a familiar? Now that’s a little more unique. Come along in Karen Heuler’s Big Idea to see the dynamic she created between a witch and her most unusual co-worker in The Splendid City. KAREN HEULER: It […]
The Big Idea: Stephen Cox
Posted on June 15, 2022
How do you write a book that reaches past its target audience, to readers that have never tried your genre before? According to author Stephen Cox, you have to lean into the things that make it genre defying in the first place. Follow along in his Big Idea to see how he does this in […]
The Big Idea: Sam J. Miller
Posted on June 14, 2022 1 Comment
It’s been said that you should write what you know, and for author Sam J. Miller, that’s pop culture. Read on to discover how he transformed the pop culture that inspired him growing up into his own story of his own making, Boys, Beasts & Men. SAM J. MILLER: My first stories were fanfic. When […]
The Big Idea: Maya Deane
Posted on June 9, 2022 3 Comments
How many ways are there to tell a classic story? As many ways as there are people to tell it. In Wrath Goddess Sing, author Maya Deane finds a new way to tell one of Western Civilization’s oldest tales. MAYA DEANE: I’m going to let you in on a secret: there is no one single […]
The Big Idea: Ren Hutchings
Posted on June 8, 2022 1 Comment
They say not to meet your heroes, but that’s exactly what Ren Hutchings’ protagonist, Uma Ozakka, does by means of time travel. Travel through the Big Idea behind Under Fortunate Stars and see how their fates intertwine. REN HUTCHINGS: I’ve loved time travel stories for a very long time. As a child, I was fascinated by […]
The Big Idea: Samit Basu
Posted on June 7, 2022 1 Comment
We all want to be heroes, but how realistic is an individual saving the world? Author Samit Basu explores this idea in his newest book, The City Inside, making his characters focus on what they can save in their own worlds. SAMIT BASU: My Big Idea, initially, was to write a near-future story set in my city. […]
The Big Idea: Dave Creek
Posted on June 6, 2022 2 Comments
Today’s Big Idea is Super-Sized, because author Dave Creek has not just one, but two, new books out in the world, released simultaneously. How did this happen and how do his books — Watcher of the Skies and Chanda’s Homecoming — relate to each other? Dave is here to give you all the details about […]
Whatever Everyone Else is Saying