Category: Episodes | Page 10 | The Worldshapers

February 19, 2023September 10, 2023

Episode 128: Eli K.P. William

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An hour-long chat with Eli K.P. William, Japanese literary translator and author of the Jubilee Cycle science fiction trilogy, set in a near-future Tokyo.

Website
elikpwilliam.com

Facebook
@elikp.william

Twitter
@Dice_Carver

Eli K.P. William’s Amazon Page

The Introduction

Eli K.P. William is a novelist and Japanese literary translator. He is the author of the Jubilee Cycle trilogy, set in a near future Tokyo, where every action—from blinking to sexual intercourse—is intellectual property owned by corporations that charge licensing fees. The series includes Cash Crash Jubilee, The Naked World, and A Diamond Dream. It has been compared to works of classic cyberpunk by William Gibson and Neal Stephenson and to traditional dystopian literature by Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, and Phillip K. Dick.

Born in Toronto, Canada, he has spent most of his adult life in Japan, and is the only member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of Japan (SFWJ) who writes fiction in English. He also contributes book reviews and essays in both English and Japanese to such publications as Subaru, The Japan Times, and The Pacific Rim Review of Books, and has translated literature by some of Japan’s most renowned authors. His translations include Keiichiro Hirano’s bestselling novel A Man and various essays and short stories for Granta, Monkey, Kyoto Journal, The Southern Review, and more.

February 5, 2023February 5, 2023

Episode 127: Monte Schulz

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An hour-long chat with Monte Schulz, novelist, composer, owner of the Santa Barbara Writers Conference, and eldest son of the late Peanuts cartoonist Charles M. Schulz.

Websites
www.monteschulz.com
www.metropolisthebook.com

Facebook
@monte.schulz.7

Twitter
@monteschulz

Monte Schulz, author of the dystopian coming-of-age novel Metropolis (Fantagraphics), received his M.A. in American Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He published his first novel, Down by the River, in 1990, and spent the next twelve years writing a novel about the Jazz Age, available as a whole in Crossing Eden, or in three parts: This Side of Jordan, The Last Rose of Summer, and The Big Town. He wrote it for his father, the late cartoonist, Charles M. Schulz.

Monte is also a composer, songwriter, and producer whose most recent album is titled Seraphonium. In 2010, he became the owner of the Santa Barbara Writers Conference. He lives in Santa Barbara, CA.

January 22, 2023January 22, 2023

Episode 126: Robin Stevens Payes

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An hour-long chat with Robin Stevens Payes, author of four novels in the Edge of Yesterday series, intended to entertain young adult readers and spark an interest in STEM/STEAM careers, especially for girls.

Website
edgeofyesterdaybook.com

Facebook
@RobinStevensPayesAuthor

Twitter
@robinstevenspayes

Instagram
@robinstevenspayes

Robin Stevens Payes’s Amazon Page

About the Author

Robin Stevens Payes is the author of four novels for middle-grade to YA readers. She offers workshops on storytelling and is in the process of launching a company that focuses on relationship solutions for mothers and their teen daughters. She was founding editor-in-chief of LearnNow, an online publication on the science of learning, and has written for The American Leader, Discovery Education, the National Girls Collaborative Project, and the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Her Edge of Yesterday series is intended to entertain young adult readers and spark an interest in STEM/STEAM careers, especially for girls. Robin lives around the DC beltway in Maryland.

January 9, 2023

Episode 125: Brian Trent

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An hour-long chat with Brian Trent, award-winning author of Redspace Rising and Ten Thousand Thunders plus numerous short stories.

Website
www.briantrent.com

Facebook

Brian Trent’s Amazon Page

Brian Trent’s work regularly appears in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Analog Science Fiction and Fact, the New York Times-bestselling Black Tide Rising anthologies, The Year’s Best Military and Adventure SF, Terraform, Flash Fiction Online, Daily Science Fiction, Apex, Pseudopod, Escape Pod, Galaxy’s Edge, Nature, and numerous year’s-best anthologies.

The author of the science fiction novels Redspace Rising and Ten Thousand Thunders, Trent is a winner of the 2019 Year’s Best Military and Adventure SF Readers’ Choice Award from Baen Books and a Writers of the Future winner. He is also a contributor to the Baen anthologies Weird World War III, Weird World War IV, Weird World War China, and the newly released Worlds Long Lost. Trent lives in New England.

December 29, 2022December 29, 2022

Episode 124: Chadwick Ginther

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An hour-long chat with award-winning Canadian fantasy writer Chadwick Ginther, author the Thunder Road Trilogy.

Website
chadwickginther.com

Facebook
@chadwickginther

Twitter
@chadwickginther

Instagram
@chadwickginther

Chadwick Ginther’s Amazon Page

Chadwick Ginther is the author of When the Sky Comes Looking for You, the Thunder Road Trilogy, and Graveyard Mind. His short fiction has appeared in many magazines and anthologies, and his story “All Cats Go to Valhalla” won the 2021 Prix Aurora Award for Best Short Story. He lives and writes in Winnipeg, Canada, spinning sagas set in the wild spaces of Canada’s western wilderness where surely monsters must exist.

November 27, 2022

Episode 122: Brad R. Torgersen

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An hour-plus chat with Brad R. Torgersen, Dragon Award-winnning (and Hugo, Nebula, and Campbell-nominated) science fiction and fantasy author.

Website
www.bradrtorgersen.com

Facebook
@brtwrites

Twitter
@bradrtorgersen

Brad R. Torgersen’s Amazon Page

The Introduction

Brad R. Torgersen is a multi-award-winning science fiction and fantasy writer whose book A Star-Wheeled Sky won the 2019 Dragon Award for Best Science Fiction Novel at the 33rd annual DragonCon fan convention in Atlanta, Georgia.

A prolific short fiction author, Torgersen has published stories in numerous anthologies and magazines, including several Best of Year editions. Brad is named in Analog magazine’s who’s who of top Analog authors, alongside venerable writers like Larry Niven, Lois McMaster Bujold, Orson Scott Card, and Robert A. Heinlein.

Married for almost thirty years, Brad is also a United States Army Reserve Chief Warrant Officer—with multiple deployments to his credit—and currently lives with his wife in the Mountain West.

November 15, 2022November 15, 2022

Episode 121: Joan He

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An hour-long chat with Joan He, bestselling author of The Ones We’re Meant to Find, Descendant of the Crane, and Strike the Zither, the first in a duology, recently released by McMillan.

Website
joanhewrites.com

Instagram
@joanhewrites

Twitter
@joanhewrites

Joan He’s Amazon Page

The Introduction

Joan He was born and raised in Philadelphia but still will, on occasion, lose her way. At a young age, she received classical instruction in oil painting before discovering that storytelling was her favourite form of expression. She studied Psychology and East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Pennsylvania and currently splits her time between Philly and Chicago.

She is the bestselling author of The Ones We’re Meant to Find, Descendant of the Crane, and Strike the Zither, the first in a duology, recently released by McMillan.

October 18, 2022October 18, 2022

Episode 119: Olesya Salnikova Gilmore

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An hour-long chat with Olesya Salnikova Gilmore, author of the critically acclaimed new historical fantasy novel The Witch and the Tsar (Ace Books).

Website
olesyagilmore.com

Facebook
@olesyaauthor

Twitter
@OlesyaAuthor

Instagram
@olesyaauthor

Olesya Salnikova Gilmore’s Amazon Page

The Introduction

Olesya Salnikova Gilmore was born in Moscow, Russia, raised in the US, and graduated from Pepperdine University with a BA in English / political science, and from Northwestern University School of Law with a JD.

She practiced litigation at a large law firm for several years before pursuing her dream of becoming an author. She is happiest writing historical fiction and fantasy inspired by Eastern European folklore.

She lives in a wooded lakeside suburb of Chicago with her husband and daughter. The Witch and the Tsar is her debut novel.

Praise for The Witch and the Tsar

“Gilmore impresses with this feminist retelling of the Baba Yaga folktale set in 16th-century Russia…Gilmore’s immersive prose steeps readers in this wonderfully epic folktale full of magic and myth.”
—Library Journal (Starred Review)

“A rich and well-woven story centered on subverted folklore played out against the backdrop of historical events. The Witch and the Tsar is not to be missed.”
—Booklist

“Gilmore’s enchanting debut adds to the growing genre of mythological retellings that reframe the acts of supposedly villainous women…this epic tale brings both history and folklore to vivid life. It’s a fresh, exciting take sure to capture fans of Madeline Miller’s Circe and Jennifer Saint’s Ariadne.”
—Publishers Weekly

October 2, 2022October 2, 2022

Episode 118: Sangu Mandanna

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An hour-long chat with Sangu Mandanna, critically acclaimed author of children’s books like the Kiki Kallira series and The Celestial Trilogy, as well as The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches, her first novel for adults.

Website
www.sangumandanna.com

Twitter
@SanguMandanna

Instagram
@sangumandanna

Sangu Mandanna’s Amazon Page

The Introduction

Sangu Mandanna was four years old when an elephant chased her down a forest road and she decided to write her first story about it. Seventeen years and many, many manuscripts later, she signed her first book deal.

Sangu now lives in Norwich, a city in the east of England, with her husband and kids. She is the author of critically acclaimed children’s books like the Kiki Kallira series and The Celestial Trilogy, as well as The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches, her first novel for adults.

August 28, 2022August 28, 2022

Episode 116: Lawrence M. Schoen

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An hour-long chat with Lawrence M. Schoen, Hugo- and Nebula-nominated author of the Barsk series and much more, and founder of the Klingon Language Institute.

Website
www.lawrencemschoen.com

Facebook
@lawrencemschoen
The InstituSchoen (public group)

Twitter
@kllingonguy

YouTube
@klingonguy

Lawrence M. Schoen’s Amazon Page

The Introduction

Lawrence M. Schoen holds a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology and psycholinguistics. He spent ten years as a college professor, doing research in the areas of human memory and language. This was followed by seventeen years as the director of research for a medical center in Philadelphia that provided mental health and addiction services.

He’s also the founder of the Klingon Language Institute, and since 1992 has championed the exploration and use of this constructed tongue throughout the world. In addition, he works occasionally as a hypnotherapist specializing in authors’ issues. And, too, he is a cancer survivor.

In 2007, he was a finalist for the Astounding Award for Best New Writer. He received a Hugo Award nomination for Best Short Story in 2010 and Nebula Award nominations for Best Novella in 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2018, for Best Novelette in 2019, and for Best Novel in 2016.

Some of his most popular writing deals with the ongoing humorous adventures of a space-faring stage hypnotist named the Amazing Conroy and his companion animal, Reggie, an alien buffalito that can eat anything and farts oxygen.

His Barsk series represents his more serious work and uses anthropomorphic SF to explore ideas of prophecy, intolerance, political betrayal, speaking to the dead, predestination, and free will. It’s also earned him the Cóyotl Award for Best Novel of 2015, and again in 2018.

Lawrence lives near Philadelphia with his wife, Valerie, who is neither a psychologist nor a Klingon speaker.