Posts Tagged ‘Eating Authors’

I’m writing this the weekend before it posts because I’m out in the Pacific Northwest attending Norwescon, and come Monday while I will no longer be in Seattle, I’ll still be out west, having moved some three hours or so south to Portland where I’m doing a book event at Powell’s. We’ll see if I get to sign the sacred pillar (and cross off another square on my author bingo card).

In the meantime, let me tell you about this week’s EATING AUTHORS guest, Kevin Hearne. I’ve actually been attempting to lure Kevin to this blog for a while now, but it never fit his schedule. Then he went off and read Barsk and began posting very flattering remarks about it to social media. Being no fool, I took advantage of his sudden infatuation to recruit him, and his most memorable meal appears below.

But what else to tell you about Kevin? You surely are already familiar with his Iron Druid Chronicles (number eight in the series, Staked, was released just two months ago), and about this time last year, he also released a well received Star Wars novel, Heir to the Jedi.

I’m pretty certain that Kevin and I have never met. We keep just missing one another as we both bounce around the country for promotional purposes, but if there’s anything to the notion of regression toward the mean it’s only a matter of time until we smack into each other in person. Until that time, here’s his meal.

Read the rest of this entry »

More and more it seems to me that, as I write the introductions for each week’s EATING AUTHORS guest, I’m doing so from the road. That impression is particularly strong today because I recently had dinner with Patrice Sarath a few week’s ago when I was in Dallas, Texas, and because I’m writing this from a hotel room in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Then again, it could all be a side effect of a bit of altitude sickness. Who can say?

But let’s shift focus to more important things, and talk about Patrice. In addition to being a delightful dining companion, she’s the author of the Books of Gordath (Gordath Wood, Red Gold Bridge, and The Crow God’s Girl) trilogy, with a fourth book planned.

Her most recent novel, The Unexpected Miss Bennet, is a solid jump away from the fantasy elements of Gordath and into the romance genre. It’s a sequel to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Taking on such a classic is a pretty daring thing, which probably tells you more about Patrice than I ever could.

Read the rest of this entry »

The middle of March is a strange time. Locally, we seem to be grappling with a daily question of whether spring has arrived early (as in 80 degree weather this past Friday) or winter is hanging in there (40 degree low Saturday night). If you’re a basketball fan (and I’m not), there’s the whole March Madness coming up. And if you’re a science fiction author, then you’re painfully aware that we’re midway through both voting for the Nebula Awards and submitting nominations for the Hugos. Speaking as someone who’s been nominated for the former and is hoping that translates into a nomination for the latter too, March is a time of no small anxiety.

Fortunately, EATING AUTHORS is here to provide some much needed distraction, and so let me introduce you to this week’s guest, Kelly Swails, a writer who last January transformed from the writer of a couple dozen short stories into a novelist with the release of This May Go on Your Permanent Record from Silence in the Library Publishing. The premise is a premiere novel’s dream, including computer hacking, super smart youth, and plans for world domination. Best of all, it’s only the first in a promised series!

Read the rest of this entry »

Every now and then, several of the things that push my buttons come together, such as showcasing an author here on the occasion of their first novel, or highlighting another author who’s an alum of the Taos Toolbox Master Class, or pointing at a book from a small press. This week’s EATING AUTHORS guest, Larry Hodges, hits the trifecta. He climbed the mountain in New Mexico years ahead of me, and his first novel releases tomorrow from World Weaver Press.

As you’ll discover shortly from his recounting of his most memorable meal, Larry has a level of notoriety that few can claim; he is a major figure (if not the major figure) in the world of American Table Tennis. Not content to simply be a champion at the sport, he’s literally written the book (actually, several of them) on the topic. In addition he’s penned more than 1500 articles and another 1000+ blog entires, coached Olympic players, founded a national organization, and edited a nationwide magazine. And while I’ve not had the privilege of watching him in action, rumor is he has a killer serve and a wicked backhand.

He’s also got a pretty good sense of humor too.

Read the rest of this entry »

As previously noted on this blog, last month I escaped the winter storms of the northeast by attending Confusion in Novi, Michigan. Among the many folks I met that weekend was this week’s EATING AUTHORS guest, Victoria (V.E.) Schwab, who is easily among the most delightful of folks you’re likely to encounter at a convention. I’d long since invited her to visit here and shill her next book (A Darker Shade of Magic comes out from Tor Books tomorrow), and our conversations and encounters in Michigan just confirmed what great fun she is.

Victoria leads something of a double life, publishing YA fiction under her full name (e.g., her Archived and Everyday Angel series), while using just her initials to release fantasy works and even the occasional superhero novel (actually, Viscious is a supervillain novel. Have you read it yet?).

If you’re not already familiar with her work, I strongly encourage you to check out her fiction. And not just because you’ll find her on the shelf not far from my own stuff.

Read the rest of this entry »

As you know, Bob, timing is everything. While this is especially true of comedy, all writers appreciate good pacing in a story, and even in life there’s surely something to be said for being in the right place at the right yadda yadda. I mention this because while you may be reading this on Monday morning when it posts to the intarwebs, on the preceding and lovely Valentine’s weekend I was in Dallas, enjoying my first visit to ConDFW, where this week’s EATING AUTHORS guest, Melanie Fletcher, was also present. That’s not so unusual though, there were dozens of authors at the convention, and she’s from around here. But the convention began with Melanie and I seated next to one another on the opening panel of the day, followed by a shared autographing slot, after which I went off to have dinner with my wife and some friends, and guess who showed up at the same restaurant and crashed the party? Like I said, timing. Melanie’s clearly got it.

She also has a solid history writing speculative fiction, from fantasy to horror to SF to whatever other labels you care to apply, and she’s done it at both short and long lengths. What I didn’t know before inviting her to share a meal here, was that she has a secret life under the name Nicola M. Cameron, where she writes high fantasy erotic romance, such as her popular Olympic Cove series and the recently released Empress of Storms.

It’s probably worth noting as well that Melanie has been a member of the SFWA Musketeers. I have also personally observed her in the act of knitting. And you think you know a person…

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m preparing this week’s post from the road, as I am “touring” with Barsk, which in this instance means I’ve traded in the cold snow drifts of Philadelphia for the warmer climes of North Carolina (though there has been some good bit of rain). This has been a new piece of the writer’s life for me to experience, and I’m coming to appreciate it as being equal parts exhilarating and exhausting.

But less about me and more about this week’s EATING AUTHOR guest, Karina Sumner-Smith, who should perhaps first be identified as one of that class of talented authors who call Toronto home (or rather, she did before moving to a more rural site in Ontario). She’s a Clarion graduate, as well as a past Nebula Award nominee for best short story. But the odds are good that you know her already for her novel-length fiction, specifically her Towers Trilogy.

Read the rest of this entry »