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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: 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: 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 […]
The Big Idea: Ciel Pierlot
Posted on February 9, 2022 4 Comments
What’s in a name? For Ciel Pierlot, quite a bit. In this Big Idea, find out how names matter, in worldbuilding and in Pierlot’s novel Bluebird. CIEL PIERLOT: One of the earliest concepts I had for Bluebird was ‘stories in space’. I knew from day one that I wanted to write Rig as someone who’s […]
The Big Idea: S.B. Divya
Posted on February 2, 2023 3 Comments
Today — finally! — we tackle the actual meaning of life! No one has ever done this before in the history of the world! Or, perhaps, no one has done it quite like S.B. Divya is doing here, in this Big Idea for her novel Meru. S.B. DIVYA: What if consciousness is a fundamental property […]
The Big Idea: Clay Harmon
Posted on July 25, 2022 2 Comments
Power dynamics in relationships always have the capacity for drama… but what happens when some of that power is magical? Author Clay Harmon is thinking about this in his Big Idea for Flames of Mira. CLAY HARMON: Can members of a relationship exist on equal footing when power imbalances exist between both parties? This is […]
The Big Idea: Charlie N. Holmberg
Posted on November 3, 2021 1 Comment
Inspiration comes from anywhere, but for Star Mother, author Charlie N. Holmberg found inspiration from a most unusual place. But from unusual places can come stellar ideas, as you’ll discover here. CHARLIE N. HOLMBERG: The big idea behind Star Mother actually came from the cover of another book. A book I’d never read. I’d recently […]
The Big Idea: Chris Gerrib
Posted on July 22, 2022 4 Comments
When robbing a bank becomes too mainstream, try hijacking a spaceship! Author Chris Gerrib tells us a little about how he came up with the idea for his newest thriller, One of Our Spaceships is Missing. CHRIS GERRIB: Stories sometimes have more than one Big Idea. For my latest novel, I had a lot of big […]
The Big Idea: Gwynne Garfinkle
Posted on January 17, 2022
In life, we make choices, and we have to live with them. But as Gwynne Garfinkle details in this Big Idea for Can’t Find My Way Home, maybe sometimes the choices we make have consequences even beyond that. GWYNNE GARFINKLE: My novel Can’t Find My Way Home began as the story of a young actress […]
The Big Idea: Nathan Tavares
Posted on December 8, 2022 1 Comment
We all want to be a big success — in life, in our careers, in everything. But what if that’s not actually our best path through the universe? Nathan Tavares is here to consider alternate paths in this Big Idea for A Fractured Infinity. NATHAN TAVARES: The multiverse seems pretty big right now, huh? I’m […]
The Big Idea: Drew Brockington
Posted on October 29, 2021 1 Comment
Cartoon cats! And science! I mean, that sells me on Waffles and Pancake – Planetary-Yum right there. But author/illustrator Drew Brockington is here to tell us more about how a childhood love of space travel has led him to catstronauts, and the kittens who look up to them. DREW BROCKINGTON: When I was a kid, […]
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 […]
A Tale of Billboards and Burritos
Posted on December 2, 2020 37 Comments
First, you should know that Amazon took out a big damn ad celebrating The Last Emperox and put it up in midtown New York, and that got the social media folks at Tor books pretty excited. So naturally, I tried to press my advantage. The folks at Tor offered an alternative. I was, naturally, amenable […]
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: Julia Rust & David Surface
Posted on November 2, 2022 2 Comments
Sometimes walking in the woods will take you to places you never expected. During the writing of Angel Falls, authors Julia Rust and David Surface went for several walks in the woods, and this Big Idea, they tag-team tell you what they discovered. JULIA RUST & DAVID SURFACE: “I found an old trail. Maybe it […]
“The Summer EP” Now Out to Streaming and Download
Posted on October 5, 2022 7 Comments
As readers of the site well know, over the summer I wrote and recorded a number of musical tracks and posted them here and elsewhere; it was fun for me and hopefully enjoyable for other folks too, but it also meant that the individual pieces were scattered and somewhat disorganized. So I went ahead and […]
The Big Idea: Alex Shvartsman
Posted on June 2, 2022 7 Comments
Magic, monsters, and New York Style pizza. Three things you can expect to find in author Alex Shvartsman’s newest book, The Middling Afflication. Come along in this Big Idea to see what else lies within the city that never sleeps. ALEX SHVARTSMAN: The big idea behind The Middling Affliction is actually three middling ideas stacked on […]
The Big Idea: Jennifer Estep
Posted on September 20, 2022 2 Comments
Sometimes, combining your favorite things can result in something even better than the individual things you put together. Like pineapple on pizza, or peanut butter on pickles. Or in author Jennifer Estep’s case, genres. Come along in the Big Idea for her newest novel, Only Bad Options, to see which genres she chose to perfectly […]
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The Big Idea
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