Category Archives: Books

The Side of Good/The Side of Evil is a book of superheroes and super villains by some of your favorite authors, including Larry and me! It’s available for pre-order now here: https://amzn.com/1942990030  Now enjoy one of several interviews as our authors take you behind the scenes!

eSpec Books interviews Robert Greenberger, contributor to The Side of Good / The Side of Evil, a Superhero Flipbook anthology, https://tiny.cc/SoGSoE.

eSB: What drew you to this project?

RG: Danielle’s winning smile as she explained what the book was about so I asked her if I could come play. After all, I grew up on comics and super-heroics is in my DNA.

eSB: Which side are you writing for?

RG: I’m writing for the side of good. Most super-hero comics are serialized and with the reboots and all, the major heroes never retire, never really question when the time comes. With the freedom of a short story, I decided that would make for an interesting story.

eSB: What got you interested in superheroes/villains?

RG: I was six and home sick with bronchitis. Mom brought me an issue of Superman and I was hooked. Something about the colorful figure, the super-powers, and – I am guessing here – the not being ill was really appealing. Since then I like the larger than life figures, which is why I am also drawn to mythology.

eSB: If you could have one superpower, what would it be and how would it work?

RG: I usually say I want a power ring which can do so many things, great and small. Or, I would love to fly. First, it would cut down on my commute to school and second, it would just be damn cool.

eSB: What would your weakness be and why?

RG: My current weakness is peanut M&Ms. A bag of those and I weaken, my will becomes shot.

eSB: Describe your ideal super suit.

RG: Something akin to speedskaters, sleek in design, not overly colorful. Or something with a cloak so I can hide the paunch from the M&Ms.

eSB: Who is your favorite superhero and why?

RG: I am drawn to many but usually will tell you its Green Lantern. First of all, he’s fearless (save the psychobabble about that for another time) plus out of billions of people, the ring chose him to join this corps that is out to protect the universe. That’s an awesome power matched with an awesome responsibility.

eSB: Who is the villain you love to hate, and why?

RG: I don’t think I hate any one villain, but I do hate the C-list guys who have a cheesy name or poor motivation. They’re badly conceived by lazy or desperate writers then hang on when other writers need cannon fodder.

eSB: In your opinion, what characterizes a hero?

RG: Using power (however it has been derived) for the greater good. Willing to sacrifice yourself for higher ideals. Doing what must be done regardless of the obstacles.

eSB: In your opinion, what characterizes a villain?

RG: Using power (however it has been derived) for selfish gain. Unwilling to serve society and acting entirely against the public good.

eSB: What is your viewpoint on Sidekicks?

RG: Many benefit from having someone to watch your back or someone to talk to. There’s a great deal of loneliness that comes with power so this can help ground the hero. Of course, not all sidekicks should be minors, that brings up other issues.

eSB: What other comic or superhero-related work have you done in the past?

RG: 20 years at DC and 1 year at Marvel mean tons of heroes and villains have crossed my desk. I am particularly proud of a series I helped create, Suicide Squad, now becoming a feature film. As a writer, I have written an Iron Man novel, The Essential Batman Encyclopedia, co-written The Batman Vault and The Essential Superman Encyclopedia; and two young reader Batman books. I’ve also done short fiction with Zorro and Captain Midnight so I get around.

eSB: If there was one comic franchise you could work on, which would it be and why?

RG: Can I say the entire DC Universe? If not, the one series I always wanted was Green Lantern (are you detecting a thread here?).

eSB: Fiction or comics, which is your favorite medium and why?

RG: They both appeal in different ways. Fiction is you and your imagination, using strictly words to bring your reader to other places. Comics is collaborative (which I love) and blends words with pictures which is a unique storytelling experience.

eSB: Please tell us about your non-comic related work.

RG: I am a cofounder of Crazy 8 Press, a digital press hub where I write original fiction. The next work there will be a story in the Pangaea anthology, debuting at Shore Leave. I am also a high school English teacher in Maryland. As an author, I have co-written The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes; Murder at Sorrow’s Crown, with Steven Savile, due out in December from Titan Books.

eSB: Please let us know where you can be found on social media.

RG: I can be found at www.bobgreenberger.com or on Facebook or twitter @bobgreenberger

eSB: Thank you for allowing this glimpse beneath your alter-ego. We’re looking forward to more super heroics and evil geniuses to come.

Q:  Why don’t you tell us about your novel?

Bryan Thomas Schmidt: The Worker Prince is the story of Moses with a Star Wars feel. Two groups of colonists, enemies on Earth, wind up by a twist of fate as neighbors in a far galaxy and one enslaves the other. Years later, the prince of the Boralians finds out he was secretly adopted from slaves and is a Vertullian. As he begins to discover what that means, it puts him at odds with friends and family, especially his Uncle Xalivar who leads the Boralian Alliance. Then a tragic accident sends him on the run. And he has to decide who he is and where his loyalties lie. The decisions he makes could change the lives of everyone he knows forever. It’s full of action, political scheming, family drama, a little romance, friendship, rivalries and alien races.

Q: Is it true you came up with the story when you were a teenager?

BTS: Yeah, I spent a lot of time dreaming and imagining stories and ideas in my teens, and I had a dream of writing for television and film. I came up with the idea originally as a TV miniseries and did a lot of story planning but those notes have disappeared. The only things that remained really were the idea of an epic Moses retelling and Lord Xalivar, the name of the antagonist, and Sol, the name of Davi Rhii’s father. Beyond that, when I finally sat down to write it in 2009, I just started from scratch.

Q: This is a rerelease called the Author’s Definitive Edition. The book originally released in 2011 by a micropress. What led to the new release?

BTS: Well, when it came out, the book got some great praise and reviews but the press was a micropress and focused toward a smaller market segment. They were also a Christian press, so I think that may have limited the audience. I always intended the book to be for general market, and since the press fell apart and I wanted to finish the series, I decided to go back and revise the book after finishing the final novel in the trilogy, bring the writing style up to date with my present skills, fix some of the issues critics had pointed out, create better unity to the trilogy overall, and revise it to be sure it was the best fit for general market. It remains appropriate for all ages but it is not a Christian book and was never intended to be one, so I downplayed some religious aspects a lot more and expanded some worldbuilding in ways I hope will make it more appealing. Kevin J. Anderson gave me a chance to publish it with WordFire Press, so I jumped at it.

JB:  The Worker Prince is the first book in a trilogy.  Do you have a schedule for the other 2 books?

BTS: Book 2, The Returning, is being polished and updated as well and will likely show up in Spring 2016. Book 3, The Exodus, is tentatively scheduled for next Summer.

Q:  Who were your favorite authors when you were growing up?

BTS: I love Robert Silverberg. Also grew up a big fan of Stephen R. Donaldson, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Alan Dean Foster, Timothy Zahn, Mike Resnick, Orson Scott Card, David Eddings, W.E.B. Griffin, Nicholas Sparks, John Grisham, Tom Clancy (early stuff),and Stephen King.

Q: The Worker Prince has been compared to Star Wars. Was that a big influence?

BTS: In fact, my goal was to capture the feel of the original Star Wars¸ and according to reviews, I seem to have succeeded. But I also give nods to other influences throughout via snippets of dialogue, plot elements, etc. such as Christopher Reeve’s Superman, the original Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek and more. My goal was to tell the Moses story as a space opera but without the ten commandments, parting of the Red Sea, and other particularly religious elements. The story is just such a great one and I felt would lend itself well to space opera.

Q: You have come to be known more as an editor than an author, I know. How do you think of Bryan Thomas Schmidt?

BTS: I’m both and I have a passion for both, but my first love remains writing and I hope somehow I can have some success at both, maybe even equally. This is a story I have been passionate about for a long time and have spent the last seven years writing, on and off, and 30 years dreaming about. So there is a great satisfaction in finally getting it out there, and I was a bit disappointed that while the original release sold 1500 copies in six months, book two’s launch got delayed and confused and it never really took off. This is my chance to share this story with the world, and to perhaps gain a little respect as a writer not just an editor, so fingers crossed. I’d love to be writing as much as I am editing.

Q:  Do you have a preference between science fiction and fantasy?

BTS: Well, space opera is my first love, but epic fantasy is a close second. But science fiction was what started it for me.

Q: How has your editing work influenced your writing?

BTS: Well, you know, I had not read The Worker Prince for over four years when I went back to edit it so I really had fresh eyes. I had read one scene I use a lot in readings but not the rest more than skimming. It was really a lot like editing a different author, not just from objectivity but from the fact my craft has grown so much. I have written two sequels, two fantasy novels, two other novels and dozens of short stories since I wrote this book, not to mention editing novels and anthologies, so I came back to it with an editor’s perspective. I fixed a lot of first novelist errors and issues, and I was able to also clarify things that needed strengthening, add things that had been called out as missing, and add things I now knew from writing two more books which will add more unity overall to the trilogy, and I can honestly say I couldn’t have done that three years ago, so I think editing as helped me a lot.

Q: You’ve edited some of your favorite writers like Silverberg, Resnick, etc. and you also edited The Martian, which of course is a big bestselling book and smash hit movie. What is that like and how did it come about?

BTS: Networking has made my career. Jennifer Brozek, my co-editor on Shattered Shields, was childhood friends with Andy Weir and he came to her about the novel but she felt they were too close to risk working together and recommended me. So I worked with Andy on it in 2013 and six months or so later heard he’d sold it to Crown and had a movie deal with Ridley Scott. Andy has been sending me business by recommending me, so I have started talking about it. It was the first hard science fiction I edited and it was fun. He is a nice guy and easy to work with. As for Resnick, Silverberg, et al, I just asked. Resnick I met at World Fantasy in 2010 and had corresponded with a bit first. We both have a mutual interest in African culture and I had seen his many African influenced short stories. We hit it off and he took me under his wing. To a degree, Silverberg has done the same after I bought a story from him for my short-lived magazine gig, Blue Shift and my Kickstarter anthology Beyond The Sun, and since then we have started having annual meals every World Con and corresponding. Others came along much the same with me asking and them agreeing and I try and make it a fun experience, so they fortunately keep coming back.

Q: Your latest anthology Mission: Tomorrow released two days after The Worker Prince from Baen and has been getting good reviews. It’s core science fiction, hard science fiction, right? Stories similar to The Martian in some ways?

BTS: Correct. In fact, I tried to get Andy to write a story for it but he was just too busy at the time. The concept was with NASA having been defunded a bit and space exploration downgraded in priority with both the public and government, what will space travel look like in the near future? Private? Corporate? Etc. And so authors wrote various takes on it, some humorous, some tragic, all thoughtful, and I got to work with an incredibly great group. I am thrilled it is being well received. My hope is to do one core SF anthology each year. I missed 2014 but we have Galactic Games coming in 2016, and I am shopping ideas for 2017.

Q: Thanks for making time to sit down with us. To close, if people haven’t read The Worker Prince, why should they give it a shot?

BTS: Well, it did make Barnes and Noble’s Year’s Best Science Fiction in 2011, Honorable Mention, and that was compiled by one of the top speculative fiction critics in the field, Paul Goat Allen. Paul thought it was a blast and retro in feel without being dated. Jonathan Maberry and Robin Wayne Bailey felt the same when they blurbed the current edition. Maberry said: “The Worker Prince breathes dynamic new life into the space opera genre. Rich characters, wild action, and devious plotlines collide in a thoroughly entertaining book!” and Robin described it as  “A brisk science fiction novel full of rich characters and settings, it embodies ‘sense of wonder’ in the best traditions of classic science fiction. Well worth your time!” Those are two New York Times Bestselling authors, far less biased than I am. Those are three reasons. Beyond that, if you like fun, escapist science fiction, then this book is for you. But it also touches a bit on ideological discrimination and themes of bigotry in some very relevant ways as well, without being heavy handed or preachy (so I hope and am told), so I think it also has relevance for those looking for more substantial fare as well. Also, some fun aliens, planets, and good humorous banter as well with lots of action. You won’t be bored, for sure.

by Lucy Blue

My creative writing instructor in college used to say there are two kinds of story:  character stories where the action is created by the personalities and motivations of the characters, and situation stories where characters are placed in a carefully constructed situation and have to fight their way out. By this system, most of the stories I’ve published—romances of one kind or another—have been character driven, unfolding as they do because of the passions and prejudices of a unique protagonist.

But mysteries are situation stories. A murder is committed; the jewels are stolen; a man’s wife disappears. Well-drawn characters are still essential, of course, just like a good action plot can make all the difference in a romance. But some of the best and most successful mystery writers use the same fascinating protagonist in book after book—Hercule Poirot, Alex Cross, Kay Scarpetta, Sherlock Holmes. These same characters can be put in an endless series of new situations to create new stories because the situation is what really grabs the reader and carries them through to the end. When I got ready to write “The Fairy Pool,” my entry in An Improbable Truth: The Paranormal Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, a new anthology from Mocha Memoirs Press, I had some of the best characters ever created to play with. But to construct the perfect situation, I had to throw out my romance writer’s playbook and work it the other way around.

1. Setting:  The submission call said we could write our Holmes  into any era we liked, but I (like most of my co-authors) wanted the classic Victorian Holmes. Because these are the paranormal adventures of the great detective, I tried to think of a unique paranormal phenomenon that I actually knew something about that would make sense in that period. English fairy lore has been a running thread through a lot of my work, and fairies and fairy tales were a Victorian obsession. Plus the idea of a fairy-haunted Holmes was too delicious to pass up. So Victorian fairies. Then Holmes needed clients. I kept coming back to the Brontë sisters, Emily, Jane, and Charlotte, who wrote some of the most gloriously lurid romantic fiction of the 19th century—the precise opposite of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s tales of deductive reason. But they pre-date Holmes by fifty years—so they would have to be elderly ladies. So a pair of spinster novelists living in the Lake District where people believed in fairies would call in the services of Holmes. But why?
2. Situation:  My first thought was a murder, but fairies, generally speaking, aren’t really known for killing people. Their worst crime is usually abduction, stealing a child away—so my story would have a missing child, and Holmes would have to find her. I figured out who the child was and her connection the old ladies and how Holmes would be brought into the case.
3. Solution: If I had been writing any other kind of story, I would  have started there, scene one, and worked my way through the story to the end as a kind of super-reader, discovering what happens in the story as I went along. But for a mystery—at least for a mystery writing novice like me—that was never going to work. My next step was to figure out who or what had taken the child and why. In listing out possible suspects and their motives, more characters came into focus, including an important role for Watson’s patient and lovely fiancée, Mary, one of my favorites. I didn’t carve the outcome in stone in my mind just in case something better came to me along the way of writing, but I had a pretty clear idea of who could have done it and how and why. Now I had to figure out how Holmes would figure it out.
4. Clues:  Working backward, I was able to come up with a series of clues that, taken together, would lead Holmes deductively to this correct but highly improbable solution. Because a paranormal explanation would hardly be Holmes’ first instinct, I also tried to make these same clues add up to another much more pragmatic solution that I could then shatter with one final clue. Planting these clues and working out how Holmes would discover each one gave me the plot outline for the rest of the story. Then I was ready to write.

I didn’t follow my original outline exactly, and almost every scene needed much more space than I had expected it would. (When you read the anthology, you’ll see my story is one of the longest.) But this framework is what carried me forward to a conclusion that felt satisfying to me and will hopefully feel satisfying to readers. A lot of the time, I felt like I was writing backwards, but it was exhilarating. I had never written a full-on mystery before, but I’ll definitely do it again.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:  

Lucy Blue’s first publication was in 1998 as one of the two writers of Forever Knight: These Our Revels, a tie-in novel that put TV vampire detective Nick Knight in Shakespeare’s London for the premiere of Hamlet. Currently she is an author and editor for Little Red Hen Romance. In between, she published six historical paranormal romances with Pocket Books/Simon and Schuster. She is married to artist Justin Glanville, and they live in a crumbling Craftsman in Chester, South Carolina, with their Jack Russell mix, Luke, and enough uninvited backyard wildlife to get them a show on Animal Planet.

SOCIAL MEDIA CONTACT:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lucy.blue.1800

Twitter: @LucyBlueCastle

Blog(s): https://lucybluecastle.wordpress.com/

From “The Fairy Pool” by Lucy Blue

“Watson, where are you going?” The ambush came as he’d expected from the dim recesses of Holmes’ library, a shout through the open door.

“I told you.” He placed his case by the door and went calmly to the cupboard for his overcoat and hat. “Mary and I are going to visit an old school chum of hers in the country.”

Sherlock popped out of the library like a jack from a box. “It’s a lie.”

“It is not.” Watson smiled the mild smile of the righteous man. “Why should I lie?”

“Well done, John.” His friend’s color was high and dramatic. Either he had already imbibed some chemical stimulant at nine in the morning, or the mere fact of John’s leaving had sent him into the first stages of frenzy on its own. “For once, you’ve hit upon the crux of the question without prompting. Why indeed?” John removed the train tickets from his pocket, and Sherlock snatched them from his hand. “Ravenglass,” he read.

“In the Lake District,” John said, taking them back. “Mary’s friend Seraphima grew up there. It’s meant to be quite lovely.”

“In summer perhaps.” The great detective was obviously unconvinced. “In October it will be a miserable bog. And really, John, Seraphima? Is that the limit of your invention? Seraphima is the name of an Italian carnival dancer, not the school chum of one’s respectable fiancée.”

John was inclined to agree. “Nevertheless, that is her name. Her aunts are the novelists Nora and Mirabel May. Perhaps one of them chose her name.”

Sherlock frowned. “That does seem plausible.” He took the tickets again and sniffed them. “As spinsters and the most prominent and financially successful members of the family, they would no doubt exert a certain influence over the naming of offspring, particularly those from poorer branches of the clan.”

“Seraphima was orphaned at an early age and brought up by the aunts,” John said. “So I’m sure you must be right.”

“One hardly follows the other, but yes, I must be.” He sniffed the tickets again. “When did you purchase these?”

John took them back. “Yesterday afternoon.” He put them back in his pocket. “I had just returned from the station when I told you about our trip.”

Sherlock’s smile was positively demonic. “That is a lie.”

“Holmes, really—“

“Those tickets rested for no small time in close proximity to the bare skin of your fiancée—next to her bosom, unless I miss my guess.”

John’s eyes popped. “I do beg your pardon!”

“They reek of her perfume—an ordinarily subtle scent intensified precipitously by abundance, heat, moisture, or some combination of the three. Since Mary is an extremely hygienic young woman not given to bathing herself in perfume or acts of great physical exertion, I deduce that she carried the tickets next to her skin while in a state of anxiety which resulted in greater than usual perspiration.”

“Have you been sniffing my fiancée?!?”

“Don’t be absurd.”

“No, but really!” Ordinarily Holmes’ deductions were a source of wonder and no small delight to his friend, but this seemed not only improper but highly perilous. “Who are you to recognize her scent?”

“I recognize the presence of Mrs. Hudson’s favorite hack driver by the lingering aroma of horse shit on my hall rug,” Holmes said. “This in no way represents a symbolic romantic attraction.” Now that he had the upper hand, his smile was almost warm. “Tell me the truth, John. Why are you going to the Lake District? What has Mary so frightened?”

“She isn’t frightened, Holmes; don’t be so dramatic.” He handed over the newspaper clipping Seraphima had enclosed with her frantic letter. “Merely concerned.”

“Search continues for missing child,” Holmes read the headline. “Hope fast slipping away—good lord, who writes this drivel?”

“The missing girl apparently has some connection to Seraphima and her family,” John explained. “She’s only seven years old, and Seraphima feels responsible for her in some way. She wrote Mary to ask if I might come and offer my assistance to the police.”

“You?” He handed back the clipping. “She asked for you?”

‘Why not?” John said, trying to remain unruffled. “She has read my accounts of your exploits, so she is aware of my expertise in such matters.”

“Your accounts, my exploits.” Holmes was heading for his bedroom. “Expertise indeed—do they want a nicely typed story for the newspapers, or do they want the girl found?”

“Perhaps they don’t want their lives turned upside down by a raving madman whose methods of investigation require the emotional ruin of everyone even remotely involved.” John followed and found him throwing a seemingly random collection of personal belongings into a case of his own. “Holmes, you are specifically not invited.”

“Nevertheless, I shall go.

BUY LINK:  

Mocha Memoirs:  https://mochamemoirspress.com/store/

by K.L. Nappier

Does “elegant horror” seem like an oxymoron to you? It shouldn’t. There was a time when horror shared the same literary and theatrical heights as classical romances or tragedies. Then somewhere on the timeline of entertainment history, mainstream horror veered. It went not so much the way of erotica as porn, if you will.

Now, for me, particularly cinematically speaking, one of the great harbingers of elegant horror’s return was actually billed as a sci-fi flick. Bet you know which one I mean: Ridley Scott’s Alien. Some may argue that The Exorcist holds the honor of beginning the rebirth, but I see that classic as being a hallowed outlier, a rebel in a rising age of schlocky living deads, shocky chainsaw massacres and scream-queening slasher nightmares that still, of course, rule a considerable kingdom of gruesome.

Is it weird, then, that I -an author often billed as a horror writer- never learned to love the likes of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween or Saw? Well, not really, when you consider that my early influences were Edgar Allan Poe and Rod Serling. It’s true that the morés of Poe’s and Serling’s times repressed the grotesque. But I believe, even if that were not the case, Poe and Serling would have still insisted that the gore serve the story. Not the other way around.

Which brings me back to our modern times and why I feel we are enjoying a new age of elegant horror. Literarily speaking, it’s been coming for a while now. Consider Guillermo del Toro (whether in books or movies, dude kicks elegant horror ass), Thomas Harris, Anne Rice and Peter Straub. Now, don’t be snippy because I didn’t include Stephen King. I am a great admirer of Stephen King. He is legendary. But I don’t believe his work can be defined as elegant horror, even though some very elegant horror movies have been made based on his novels.

Cinematically speaking, today’s return to elegant horror occurs more often on the small screen (if you can call today’s t.v. screens small) than the great, silver one: The Walking Dead, American Horror Story, Penny Dreadful, my personal favorite Hannibal and even the Netflix yawner Hemlock Grove fits the mold. Were you a fan of Dexter? I can see that.

And it should come to no one’s surprise that many of the above mentioned are riffs off elegant horror tomes. The film industry has mined the best and brightest from literature for decades, and we have all benefited.

So. What’s my point? My point is that there is, and always has been, a large audience enthralled with the kind of horror that cuts deeper than a meat clever or a chainsaw; that probes softer, more vulnerable parts of our humanity than mere muscle tissue and organs. The old masters understood how to do that. So do the contemporary masters. And I am in absolute, chilled-to-the-bone heaven to see the literary and cinematic worlds return to their senses and re-embrace them.

* * * *

Think you might be a closet elegant horror fan? Here’s some of my favorites to cut your teeth on…or deeply into your soul:

Movies: The Exorcist, Alien, The Shining, Rosemary’s Baby, Pumpkin Head (much ignored and underrated), Let the Right One In (the original Swedish flick), Let Me In (the British/American version of Let the Right One In), The Silence of the Lambs, The Sixth Sense, The Others

TV series: Hannibal, The Walking Dead, American Horror Story, Penny Dreadful

Authors: Thomas Harris, Anne Rice (her earlier works), Peter Straub

* * * *

K.L. Nappier is the author of “The Full Wolf Moon Trilogy”, “Voyagers”, “Strange Eight” and other supernatural thrillers and dark fiction. For more information, go to www.KLNappier.com

1. What’s your favorite part of writing a new book or story? What do you like the least?

My favorite part of writing a new book is learning the rules of the world. Figuring out what the rules of society or, in the case of The Tethering, the rules of magic are is fascinating to me. I love finding a problem and creating a whole new way to solve it while getting to know my characters better.

My least favorite part is teaching my fingers to type a new protagonist’s name. I’m not the best typist, and teaching my fingers to type Margret quickly was terrible.

For The Tethering I did a lot of research on old fables of magic. I also climbed a mountain to make sure it would work for the story and did a lot of research on Latin roots of words with my husband, who is chief spell linguist for The Tethering.

2. Who are your favorite fictional characters—your own, and from other books, TV shows and movies?

My favorite fictional character of my own would have to be Jacob Evans of The Tethering Series. He is the heart of the story. However, Claire is another favorite just for her snarky sense of humor. She is from The Tethering and featured in my short story At the Corner of the Garden Wall in Athena’s Daughters 2.

As for favorites in others works, I love Lucy in The Chronicles of Narnia. I adore Septimus and Niko in the Septimus Heap series. And I really love Balthazar Blake in the Sorcerer’s Apprentice and Hiccup and Toothless in How to Train Your Dragon.

3. What do you read for fun?

I usually read fantasy and mystery, but I really love a good sci-fi or romance as well. It’s really just whatever catches my interest at the moment. Right now, I’m reading a novel from the Star Trek Universe.

4. Was there a book you read in your childhood or teen years that changed your world? Tell us which book and how it made a difference for you.

I would have to say The Chronicles of Narnia. I read them every few years and gain something new from them every time. Seeing how much a book can affect someone made me want to write, and I find new wonder in the series every time I go back to it. Further up and further in. Let the world grow with each step forward.

Click here to listen to a reading of The Tethering on our sister site.

What is the title of your newest book or short story? What’s it about? Where can readers find it?

My newest short story is At the Corner of the Garden Wall, which is a part of the Athena’s Daughters 2 anthology, currently up for preorder on Kickstarter.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/103879051/athenas-daughters-volume-2/description

How did you choose to become a writer?

I really didn’t. I’m an actor by trade, so I spend all my time living in imaginary worlds. During a not so artistically-fulfilling production, I began to write a story. It was about a boy who was all alone, waiting for a girl to come back. Finding out who that boy was and helping him became The Tethering. The same sort of thing has happened with all my projects. I write because I want to tell a story.

What inspired your new book or story?

When I found out about the open submissions for Athena’s Daughters 2, I knew I wanted to write something from the world of The Tethering. Figuring out who to write about was a challenge. I was afraid of creating spoilers in the series, and that left me with very few choices. My favorite character in the series is Claire, a twelve-year-old witch who is sarcastic, funny, and loves all things pink. I was afraid that she wouldn’t fit in with the rest of the characters in Athena’s Daughters 2, but a good friend encouraged me to write about her anyway. I did, and At the Corner of the Garden Wall was born. All about Claire, and a pink cat.

Where can readers find you on social media? (Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Library Thing, Redd It, etc.)

On Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ORussellauthor

On Twitter https://twitter.com/MeganORussell

My website and blog MeganORussell.com

On TSU https://www.tsu.co/MeganORussell

And on goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8061709.Megan_O_Russell

What advice would you give to an aspiring writer?

Sit down and write. Don’t worry about commas or where in the room the couch is. Just tell your story. Get it all out. Then either you’ll feel finished (getting a whole story out is a huge accomplishment), or you’ll want your characters to go out into the world. If you want your story read, then you begin revisions and edits. But that’s a problem for another day. First, just write.

Click here to listen to a reading from Megan on our sister site.

What is the title of your short story?  What’s it about?  Where can readers find it?

My new short story, Crow Bait and Switch, is part of the Athena’s Daughters, Volume 2 anthology to be published by Silence in the Library Publishing.  Athena’s Daughters, Volume 2 is a collection of short works of science fiction, fantasy, and speculative fiction written by women, edited by women, illustrated by women, and about women and girls.  The diverse stories, written by very diverse authors, celebrate women and girls of all ages and races, abilities and physical attributes.

Athena’s Daughters, Volume 2 is being funded via Kickstarter.  We are at the end of the campaign and we really hope that you will support this fantastic anthology that gives under-represented characters a voice in exciting stories.  Our Kickstarter page is here.

What inspired Crow Bait and Switch?

My last published fiction was in Star Wars Gamer over ten years ago with my awesome co-author, Chris Cassidy. Though I have written lots (and lots and lots) of derivative work for 20 years, my last original story was for a writers’ workshop with the late Aaron Allston. Aaron was very much on everyone’s mind at Origins 2014 and, while there, I summoned his positive spirit (and my courage) and participated in a writing seminar with Mike Stackpole and Tim Zahn, who had both been so supportive when I was writing and working with them in Star Wars.  Also at Origins, Janine Spendlove, one of the editors of Athena’s Daughters, Volume 2, told me that Silence in the Library Publishing had an open call for short stories for the anthology and encouraged me to submit something.

With this collective encouragement, I began Crow Bait and Switch by dusting off the story I had written for Aaron’s workshop. The USDA Beagle inspector with a nose for maggots and rotten Sicilian cheese became a bossy, genetically engineered Border Collie. In addition to loving dogs and enjoying giving a literal voice to them in my writing, I am also very fond of the family corvidae, to which crows, magpies, and other canny birds belong. I have seen these advanced tool users steal car keys and flashing lights. As such, it was not surprising that, in the tradition of her astonishingly clever forbears, Morgana, the Jurassic Park-quoting, talking crow, flew into Crow Bait and Switch and stole it from everyone else.

Who are your favorite fictional characters—your own, and from other books, TV shows and movies?

Although I have many favorites, across many genres, examples of some of my favorite fictional characters are on display in Crow Bait and Switch.  I love talking sentient animals, like the dragons in Temeraire and Dragonriders of Pern, the Looney Tunes Bugs Bunny, the talking dogs in 101 Dalmatians, and the birds and beasts in the Chronicles of Narnia.  Science fiction also gives us genetically modified, fully sentient animals in stories like the Planet of the Apes, the Island of Dr. Moreau, and Startide Rising.  In Crow Bait and Switch, the animal tricksters of folklore, like Coyote, Reynard, Anansi, and Brer Rabbit,  are as much Morgana’s forbears as the velociraptors in Jurassic Park.

With these many favorites and inspirations, what I especially wanted to do in Crow Bait and Switch was to write characters like Morgana, not as a human with feathers, but as a real bird who also happens to be fully sentient.  In the story, the main protagonist, Dr. Jesse Harris, will realize that though Morgana speaks like a human, nothing about her is the least bit human. Morgana is a bird, truly alien, and far closer to dinosaurs than to any humans.  Morgana will prompt a crisis of conscience that will force Jesse to decide whether she stands with the Pan-Laurasian Fleet or with those who don’t have opposable thumbs.

Thank you again and I hope you’ll support the Athena’s Daughters, Volume 2 Kickstarter!

Listen to a special reading of Crow Bait and Switch on our sister site by clicking here.

* * *
Tish E. Pahl is a principal in a law firm.  At her day job, she advises on the federal regulation of drugs, dietary supplements, cosmetics, foods, and medical devices and regularly teaches a crash course in drug law.  With Chris Cassidy, Tish wrote for Star Wars, with stories published in the Tales from the New Republic and Star Wars Gamer magazine.  Tish is also a prolific producer of derivative genre, fantasy, and science fiction content.  She lives in the Washington, D.C. area with her husband, son, and two demanding dogs.