Posts Tagged ‘Eating Authors’

I’m writing this up on Sunday night, at about 11:00 p.m. I’ve just returned from the airport. A few hours before that I was in Atlanta, which is where I spent the weekend talking about science fiction and the Klingon language at a very small but very enjoyable convention where they did not allow me to go to bed. All in all, I think I’ve managed eight or nine hours of sleep for the weekend and really, what I should be doing right now is enjoying the comfort of my own bed as I study the inside of my eyelids.

But no, I need to write this up, because as Tom Hanks personally told me (well, okay, he was on the screen, but still), tomorrow the sun will rise. And when it does you need to be able to come here to this blog and read about Matthew Hughes. He is not your typical writer. Matt has an amazing voice that has often be likened to Jack Vance, and while I can see that, he’s also very much his own storyteller, and the world of science fiction is a better place because of it. And while I am a huge fan of his Archonate series, it wasn’t until preparing this introduction that I learned he also writes media tie-in work under the name Hugh Matthews, as well as crime fiction as Matt Hughes. Do take the time to click on some of the links below and check him out!

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My guest this week here on EATING AUTHORS is unstoppable. She’s earned a doctorate in chemical physics from Harvard, been a ballet dancer, two-term president of SFWA, multiple time winner of the Sapphire Award, the Prism Award, and the Nebula Award. She’s a member of SIGMA, the SF authors think tank that advises the US government. And, oh yeah, she’s a rockstar (literally).

I’m talking of course about Catherine Asaro, known to readers far and wide as the author of the Skolian Saga, a seemingly infinite series of novelettes, novellas and novels that combine politics, hard science, and romance amidst their science fiction plot lines. And despite being well known as an Analog author, she’s also found time to write fantasy, as demonstrated by her very popular Lost Continent series.

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As reported elsewhen on this blog, earlier this year I had the pleasure to attend a convention in a part of the country I had never been, at least not in my guise as an author. Part of what made this so special was it allowed me to see several old friends that I might not have run into again for a good long while, and it introduced me to some new folks I’d not yet met. One such new encounter was with Peter Orullian. We had been assigned a shared reading slot that turned out to be (ahem!) less than overflowing with eager fans. Peter and I passed the time reading to one another and chatting about our projects (and you really should check out his novel, The Unremembered), and while neither of us got the chance to thrill a rabid throng of potential new readers with our work, I know I had a pretty good time.

Naturally, I invited him to come here and tell us about his most memorable meal. Of course, that was too simple. Peter is a bit of an overachiever, as demonstrated by his graduating from high school as class valedictorian, finishing college as Magnua Cum Laude, with a Bachelors in Honors English and Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi keys thrown in for good measure. How did that manifest when I asked him this blog’s weekly question? Well, you’ll see for yourself?

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As you probably know, this year’s list of Hugo nominees was revealed over the weekend, and before we go on to talk about this week’s featured guest here on EATING AUTHORS, it’s worth posting a link for you to go back and review them at your leisure.

Well, now that that’s done, let’s talk about Charles E. Gannon. The trick with Chuck is there’s so much to cover it’s hard to know where to begin. He’s a Fulbright Fellow, a Distinguished Professor of English, a gamer, a well-established short story writer, and a member of SIGMA, the SF Think Tank. His fiction has been known to take him into other authors’ playgrounds, such as the worlds of Eric Flint’s Ring of Fire series, David Weber’s Honorverse, the Man-Kzin Wars, and more.

But perhaps the most exciting thing I can tell you about him is that tomorrow is the release date for his new novel, Fire with Fire, and I’m very pleased to share that news with you and encourage you to rush right out and pick up a copy.

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Honestly, I don’t understand where this month has gone. Time has gotten somewhat wonky, as evidenced by the calendar’s insistence that it’s now Springtime despite significant amounts of snow piling up throughout the United States. I think we need a “reset” and so I’ll be using this week’s installment of EATING AUTHORS to bounce us back and forth across the equator in an effort to restore the weather to its proper place. All of which is a rather lame setup and segue to today’s author guest, Adam Christopher.

Originally from Auckland, and the winner of the Sir Julius Vogel award (New Zealand’s highest prize for science fiction) for his work in editing a Doctor Who Fan Club publication, Adam relocated to North West England in 2006 where he promptly began writing superhero novels for Angry Robot. His third such book, The Age Atomic, comes out tomorrow. And while a fourth book, Hang Wire, is expected later this year, he’ll be making the jump from superheroes to space opera with a new work from Tor, coming in March of 2014.

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If you’re reading this on the Monday morning that it posted, understand that I may well still be asleep, recovering from a weekend away from home at a convention. I mention this because this week’s guest on EATING AUTHORS, David Walton, was also there. Now, that’s not so extraordinary, plenty of authors were present at this convention. But the thing is, David resides in the next town over from me, maybe all of five miles away, and though we’ve corresponded and hung out in the same online community for years, it required a trip of more than a hundred miles to put us face to face.

David is a native of Pennsylvania and nicely illustrates the traditional lifecycle of a science fiction writer, by which I mean he began as a short story writer (he won the second annual Jim Baen Memorial Short Story Contest with “Letting Go”) and has moved on to producing novels (his first, Terminal Mind won the Philip K. Dick Award). Which bring us up to date because his second novel, Quintessence comes out tomorrow from Tor Books. David’s a colorful fellow, as you’re about to find out.

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Welcome to another episode of EATING AUTHORS, the weekly blog feature that lures you in with false promises of literary cannibalism. It’s Monday, March 11th, which means Hugo nominations have closed and my accountant is sharpening her knives and preparing to go over my taxes. To provide myself distraction from both of these things I can think of nothing better than to introduce this week’s guest, Martha Wells.

She carries on that great tradition of Science Fiction and Fantasy authors who write from a background in anthropology. I confess, this is one of my weaknesses (doubtless the result of an early introduction to Le Guin). Martha’s talent in this area has been recognized with nominations for the Compton Crook Award, the William Crawford Award, the Imaginales Award, and the Nebula Award. She’s equally at home writing stand alone fantasy novels (e.g., City of Bones), fantasy series (check out the novels and short stories in both her Ile-Rien series and Books of the Raksura series), and media tie-in science fiction (Stargate Atlantis: Reliquary). Rumor has it she’s working on a Star Wars project even as we speak.

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Welcome to the first 2013 March installment of EATING AUTHORS. Now that it’s behind me, I can bitch confess about how difficult February was. March, by comparison, looks to be full of exciting possibilities, forks in the road of life and career, opportunities for personal growth. You know, all that terrifying stuff.

Which is as close as I’m going to get to a segue for this week’s guest, David Tallerman. His novel, Giant Thief — the first in his Tales of Easie Damasco — was described as “one of the finest débuts of 2012.” Its sequel, Crown Thief, serves up another tale, and who doesn’t like a thief-swindler-reluctant hero? And just to be clear, I’m talking about his protagonist, not David. As always, don’t take my word for any of this, go read the books!

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