We chat with Marie Brennan about her historical fiction her fictionalized history and all kinds of matters relating to anthropology, ethnography, archaeology and natural history. And dragons. Plus get a peek at how much glee she takes in chopping off hands. That and more insights coming your way in this interview with Marie Brennan.
We chat with Marie Brennan about her historical fiction her fictionalized history and all kinds of matters relating to anthropology, ethnography, archaeology and natural history. And dragons. Plus get a peek at how much glee she takes in chopping off hands. That and more insights coming your way in this interview with Marie Brennan.
We had a really good time chatting with Sam Sykes, author of the Aeon's Gate series. Among other things, we learned what a flying shark is good for, why he left the Horde, what a "stealfie" is, and how Sam keeps his daily threat-making to a minimum. Plus your questions!
We had a really good time chatting with Sam Sykes, author of the Aeon's Gate series. Among other things, we learned what a flying shark is good for, why he left the Horde, what a "stealfie" is, and how Sam keeps his daily threat-making to a minimum. Plus your questions! Enjoy.
And just because....
Get other formats of the video here.
We talk with Peter V. Brett about his Demon Cycle books, the grim world of dark fantasy, his old HP iPaq and why he's so big in Germany.
Peter V. Brett's website
About Peter V. Brett on Wikipedia
To get in on the D&D action at ConFusion and possibly see Myke Cole's head get shaved visit Worldbuilders.org.
And check out the Not Playing Podcast: 002 Die Hard on the Boing Boing Podcast Network!
Direct download link to podcast here!
Get a downloadable version of the video here.
We talk with Peter V. Brett about his Demon Cycle books, the grim world of dark fantasy, his old HP iPaq and why he's so big in Germany. Peter V. Brett's website About Peter V. Brett on Wikipedia To get in on the D&D action at ConFusion and possibly see Myke Cole's head get shaved visit Worldbuilders.org.
Two big reasons to cheer on this episode. One, you backed us, you really backed us, and we have 12 glorious episodes of the video Sword and Laser authors guides coming next year. Two, author Ann Leckie joins us to wrap up Ancillary Justice!
WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?
Tom: Yorkshire Gold Tea
Veronica: Water
QUICK BURNS
We funded!! Thank you so much to everyone who backed the Season 2 Kickstarter. We’ll send out updates as we get details on things like add-ons and of course shoot dates and post dates for the shows!
Own William Gibson's bomber jacket!
Neil Gaiman wrote this fairy tale short film about a girl that can fly
Crowdfunding an sf/f mag for teens
Singularity & Co. is saving the sci-fi, one pulp novel at a time.
The Top 101 Science Fiction Adventures
CALENDAR
TV, MOVIES AND VIDEO GAMES
Guillermo Del Toro's TV series greenlit
HBO no longer developing AMERICAN GODS
Adaptation Watch: Robert J. Sawyer’s TRIGGERS Optioned for Film, Sawyer to Write Screenplay
J.R.R. Tolkien Biopic Being Developed
BOOK KICK-OFF
A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent by Marie Brennan
BOOK WRAP-UP
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
EMAIL
Dear Tom and Veronica (and Tom's dogs)
Just dropping a quick line to say that I really enjoyed your Myke Cole interview - Myke came across as a really engaging, gracious and humble guy, and I've downloaded Control Point to Kindle so that I can make a start on Shadow Ops.
Thanks, as always, for Sword and Laser - I'm afraid that I'm struggling a bit with Ancillary Justice this month, but regardless of how I'm getting on with the month's read, the podcast contains so much discussion of Sci-Fi/Fantasy as a whole that it's a must-listen, each week.
All the best from the UK
Ralph aka slowfox
ADDENDUMS
This podcast is brought to you by Audible.com the internet’s leading provider of audiobooks with more than 150,000 downloadable titles across all types of literature and featuring audio versions of many New York Times Best Sellers. For listeners of this podcast, Audible is offering a free audiobook, to give you a chance to try out their service. For a free audiobook of your choice go to audiblepodcast.com/sword.
This episode is brought to you by Squarespace, the all-in-one platform that makes it fast and easy to create your own professional website or online portfolio. For a free trial and 10% off, go to squarespace.com and use offer code SWORD11.
We have the distinct pleasure of chatting with author Myke Cole about his Shadow Ops series, playing D&D with SFF authors and how he took on the challenge of writing from the POV of a 12-year-old-girl. Plus he offers free ass-kickings if you need writing motivation right now. It is NaNoWriMo, after all.
Staffers Book Review (The link to Justin's blog we promised!)
This week we introduce you to Nicholas Kaufman, author of the new book Dying Is My Business among many others! We cover questions about writing in an urban-fantasy world, whether self-publishing is worth it, and mispronouncing names (we'll give you one guess who started that topic...).
Nicholas Kaufmann's website
http://www.nicholaskaufmann.com/
Nicholas Kaufman's Live Journal
http://nick-kaufmann.livejournal.com/
[GUEST POST] Nicholas Kaufmann on Why Some Boxes Should Never Be Opened
http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2013/10/guest-post-nicholas-kaufmann-on-why-some-boxes-should-never-be-opened/
Download the video here.
Bradley P. Bealieu, author of The Lays of Anuskaya, was nice enough to take some time to chat with us about his books, his blogs and more. He's even a podcaster! We milk for details about his forthcoming book Twelve Kings in Sharakhai and put a few of your questions to him as well. Enjoy!
Bradley P. Bealieu's website Quillings.com
It's been a year since we interviewed Rob Reid and so much has changed. The price of his book has changed! His species has changed! Well, no. He's still human. But his book did become 99 cents. He explains why he loves this, and the mystery of the OTHER Rob Reid. It's spoooooooky.
YEAR ZERO EBOOK (BRIEFLY) AT 99¢ – AND THOUGHTS ON FREE VS. CHEAP VS. PRICEY
Download direct link to podcast!
Get a video download here.
We got chance to hang out (literally, Google hangout) with Robyn Schneider, author of many fine books, on top of many other talents! Find out her hidden secrets then go pick up her new book, The Beginning of Everything. Unless you're British. Then you'll need to look for Severed Heads, Broken Hearts. She'll explain it all in the show.
As an added bonus, you can watch the video version of the interview at our new YouTube channel, or download the video version here.
We've had R.A. Salvatore on the show once or twice , and we're happy to have him back once again to talk about The Companions (The Sundering #1), the upcoming Night of the Hunter, and his Kickstarter for DemonWars: Reformation! He has a lot of swords in the fire, as they say!
Sketch of Gene Wolfe by Murray Ewing
Were you expecting a wrap-up episode for Among Others? Sorry kids, Veronica decided to go on vacation, and all you get is this lousy interview with legendary author Gene Wolfe. Just kidding, the interview is awesome.
We'll be back next week with our wrap-up and kick-off for the July pick! Hope you voted!
Download the direct link for this episode!
It's part two of three of Veronica and Goodreads moderator Josh Lawrence's adventures from the Nebula Awards! Our intrepid heroes chat with the author of The Forever War, Joe Haldeman. We're posting these interviews in our off weeks from the regular episodes. Please enjoy.
Memorial Day weekend, the Sword and Laser crew journeyed to storied Santa Clara, California for BayCon deep in the shadow of the new football stadium. Lois McMaster Bujold was the guest of honor, Veronica was the Toastmaster and they graciously allowed Tom along for the ride. Ms. Bujold was a joy to talk with and the perfect Sword & Laser interviewee, having written on both sides of the ampersand. In this supersize episode you'll hear the entire interview including some excellent questions from the audience.
He's a nice guy, seriously. Photo by joelmeadows1
Veronica and Goodreads moderator Josh Lawrence headed to the Nebula Awards to chat with some great authors. We'll be posting these interviews in our off weeks from the regular episodes. This week it's the legendary (and Nebula award-winning) Kim Stanley Robinson. His latest book 2312 won the Nebula award for Novel. Enjoy!
We hop on the old Google Hangout to chat with Adam Christopher about alternate universes, superheroes, and atomic robot armies. His new book The Age Atomic is out right now! Listen to this then go read that!
You can also watch the hangout on video like you were right there with us!
Direct download link for today's podcast
As listeners of the podcast know, both Tom and I are big fans of Joe Abercrombie, and especially of The First Law trilogy. So when I found out that Joe was working on a new graphic novel based on Logen Ninefingers and his (mis)adventures (from the man himself, no less) I immediately wanted to learn more.
Joe was kind enough to answer a few questions about the series, which you can learn more about at First Law Comic.
First off, congrats on the graphic novel! That's very exciting!
It's been a long time in the pipeline - maybe 18 months since the deal was first signed - so it's great to see it go out into the world.
Who first approached you to make The First Law into a graphic novel?
Rich Young from Blind Ferret, who also edited, put the artistic team together and brought in Chuck Dixon to adapt. What interested me in particular about Rich's pitch, quite apart from his creative vision and his love for the books, was Blind Ferret's track record with webcomics and digital distribution.
Had anyone else come to you wanting to do that before, or was that something you had considered on your own?
I'd had a couple of much more traditional approaches, but the traditional comics market is pretty small and steadily dwindling, and obviously crowded with a lot of very powerful and long-established brands, I just didn't see a traditional approach getting enough momentum to make the work worthwhile.
Will this be a print edition, or digitally distributed? Both? And what will the release schedule be like?
It was the method of distribution that really sold this idea to me. In essence there's a triple approach. Firstly we're going to be serialising the adaptation, free to all comers, at www.firstlawcomic.com. The first twelve pages have gone up already, and there'll be new pages posted every monday, wednesday and friday, hopefully for several years to come, given that this is a pretty detailed and comprehensive adaptation. I just right away felt that, with free distribution, there was the potential to create a lot of goodwill and get a lot of people through the door and involved with it, and that it was potentially a good thing for the books as a whole.
But for those who aren't satisfied with a page at a time and want to get a little ahead of the game, we're also going to be distributing whole issues, for between 99 cents and $2.99, via ComiXology, which will come with guided view and a package of inks, pencils and designs as a bonus with each issue.
Finally, we'll be collecting every four issues into hard-copy collections, with further bonus material. Exact details of those to be confirmed...
One of the great things about reading is the ability to visualize your favorite characters. How do you feel about nailing down the descriptions of the characters on the comic page? Have they ended up the way you pictured them in your head, and did you have input on that for the graphic novel?
Someone was foolish enough to offer me total editorial control, but I've tried to take a reassuringly firm yet lovingly gentle touch with it. I think when you work with an artist you need to give them the freedom to draw it the way they see it, to let them interpret the work the way they want to. And as a writer you don't always have entirely vivid pictures of every character and location. So some designs were perfect right off. Others were surprising, but fitted. Others needed some tinkering with. But generally, Andie Tong, the artist, has an amazing eye for costume and location design, and I've really been able to say yes, yes, yes to a lot of things and let him produce his vision of the books, given extra verve and variety by Pete Pantazis' colours. So there'll certainly be some things that keen readers of the trilogy will see differently, but as a whole it's an adaptation that I'm very pleased with and hugely proud of.
Obviously the story needs to be trimmed down for this manner of storytelling. What was that process like? How do you pick what makes the cut?
Rich brought in Chuck Dixon, who's a hugely experienced comics writer, to do the adaptation. He's obviously got a great sense for what to pick out from a scene, what to show and how, what angles to use to get the action across. But obviously I know the books and the characters better than anyone, so I'd go over each script in some detail trying to keep as much sense of the books and the voices of the characters as possible, and maybe changing something here or there that would be important long term. It's going to be a detailed adaptation, 16 issues for the Blade Itself alone, so it hasn't been necessary to really lose that much in terms of whole scenes. it's amazing how much prose you can boil down into one carefully designed panel. In general the whole process has been quite an education for me. One that will continue for some time to come.
Do you have any plans to make any of your other books into comics?
At the current rate we probably won't be finished with The First Law for several years to come, so I'm keeping my energy for that, for the time being. I've got a fair few irons in the fire with book projects as well, of course. But I certainly wouldn't rule out adaptations of the other books. We'll see how this one goes...
More on our guest, Peter F. Hamilton!
Website:
http://www.peterfhamilton.co.uk/
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/PeterFHamilton1
Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...
The author of 22 NYT Best Sellers, creator of Drizzt Do'Urden, and all around fantasy genre luminary R.A. Salvatore joins us to talk what's next for the Drow Ranger, John Fogerty, and why you should quit writing (if you can). Enjoy!
More on our guest, R.A. Salvatore:
Website: http://www.rasalvatore.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/R_A_Salvatore
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...
More on Bob's works:
Forgotten Realms:
The Icewind Dale trilogy: http://www.goodreads.com/series/49133
The Dark Elf trilogy: http://www.goodreads.com/series/49135
The Legacy of the Drow: http://www.goodreads.com/series/49177
The Paths of Darkness: http://www.goodreads.com/series/49180
The Sellswords: http://www.goodreads.com/series/40474
The Hunter's Blades: http://www.goodreads.com/series/49178
Transitions: http://www.goodreads.com/series/49181
Neverwinter: http://www.goodreads.com/series/49183
Original Series:
The DemonWars Saga: http://www.goodreads.com/series/60432...
The Crimson Shadow series:http://www.goodreads.com/series/41638...
The Spearweilder's Tale: http://www.goodreads.com/series/42273...
The Chronicles of Ynis Aielle:http://www.goodreads.com/series/41845...
"Metaphorical Basement Lurking" by Aaron:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScRwx...
Author of the Kushiel's Legacy series, Jacqueline Carey, joins us to talk the inspirations behind her immensely popular series, the power of writing in the first person, and Veronica tries not to butcher anyone's name. Enjoy!
More on our guest, Jacqueline Carey!
On the Web: http://www.jacquelinecarey.com/index.htm
GoodReads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jacquelineca...
More on Jacqueline's Works:
Kushiel's Legacy Series:
Phedre's Trilogy: http://www.goodreads.com/series/54527...
Imriel's Trilogy: http://www.goodreads.com/series/54529...
Moirin's Trilogy: http://www.goodreads.com/series/54528...
Santa Olivia series: http://www.goodreads.com/series/50337...
The Sundering series: http://www.goodreads.com/series/44721...
Agent of Hel series: http://www.goodreads.com/series/78846...
"An Unexpected Visitor" by Aaron: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0bIMf...
We have a lovely chat with author Michael J. Sullivan, get down and dirty about Downbelow Station and celebrate the coming end of our YouTube video season!
WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?
Tom: Boont Amber Ale
Veronica: Rioja Conde de Valdemar Crianza
QUICK BURNS
Hooray for an amazing season of YouTube videos. Thanks for all the fish!
Your 2013 SF/F Award Nomination Awareness Post: Readers and Fans
Adam Whitehead's Hugo Nominations 2013 THANKS ADAM!!
VIDEO: Watch SF Legend Brian Aldiss Talk About Writing & The Passage of Time
Scott Lynch update on THE REPUBLIC OF THIEVES
INTERVIEW
Michael J. Sullivan
BOOK CHECK-IN
Downbelow Station by C. J. Cherryh
ADDENDUMS
This podcast is brought to you by Audible.com the internet’s leading provider of audiobooks with more than 100,000 downloadable titles across all types of literature and featuring audio versions of many New York Times Best Sellers. For listeners of this podcast, Audible is offering a free audiobook, to give you a chance to try out their service. For a free audiobook of your choice go to audiblepodcast.com/sword.
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