Category: Episodes | Page 5 | The Worldshapers

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.

A small selection of books by Lawrence M. Schoen.

August 13, 2022August 13, 2022

Episode 115: Dawn Greenfield Ireland

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A one-hour chat with Dawn Greenfield Ireland, award-winning author of novels, nonfiction books, and screenplays, running the gamut from science fiction and fantasy to cozy mysteries.

Website
dawngreenfieldireland.com

Facebook
@dawn.ireland.18

Twitter
@dawnireland

Instagram
@dawngreenfieldireland

Dawn Greenfield Ireland’s Amazon Page

The Introduction

Dawn Greenfield Ireland is the award-winning author of novels, nonfiction books, and screenplays. She has twenty-four published books consisting of five series (cozy mystery, sci fi/fantasy, billionaire shapeshifters, and dystopian), and a stand-alone sci-fi romantic adventure story

Her former day job as an award-winning technical writer played a major role in her fiction writing. She is detailed-oriented, the organizational queen of the known universe, and never misses a deadline. Dawn has a certificate from the Professional Program in Screenwriting from UCLA.

July 24, 2022July 24, 2022

Episode 114: Honor Raconteur

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An hour-long chat with Honor Raconteur, author of multiple series, mostly in the fantasy genre, including The Case Files of Henri Davenport, the Advent Mage series, the Ancient Magicks series, and more. Her latest novel is Rise of the Catalyst.

Website
www.honorraconteur.com

Facebook
@hraconteur

Honor Raconteur’s Amazon Page

Ever since Honor Raconteur was a toddler, she has been making up stories. She would entertain anyone willing to listen to her wild fantasies about unicorns and gargoyles and amazing people. At 13, she started writing the stories down. At 23, she finished the first book that was good enough to publish.

She put Jaunten out as an ebook, created a website and forum so that fans could communicate with her, and spread the word as best she could. Within three months, Jaunten was selling internationally. Within five months, Honor was making enough to quit the day job and sit at home, writing full time.

Honor has continued to write and publish the rest of her books through Raconteur House. When she’s not writing or editing, Honor likes to go out into the community and give presentations of how to be an author. Even if Honor abruptly stopped selling books tomorrow, she would still continue to write. Creating characters and worlds is that much fun.

June 6, 2022June 6, 2022

Episode 111: Jean-Louis Trudel

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An hour-plus conversation with Jean-Louis Trudel, author of twenty-nine books in French for both young adults and adults, more than a hundred short stories in French and English, and one-half with Yves Meynard of the nom de plume Laurent McAllister.

Blog
culturedesfuturs.blogspot.com

Facebook
@jeanlouis.trudel.3

Jean Louis Trudel’s Books on Goodreads

The Introduction

Jean-Louis Trudel is the author of twenty-nine books in French for both adults and young adults, as well as a history of science fiction in Quebec (among other works of science fiction criticism). He is also the author of more than a hundred short stories in French published in magazines such as imagine… and Solaris, as well as in Canadian, French, and Belgian anthologies. He has collaborated with Canadian writer Yves Meynard on several stories, in French and in English, writing under the pen name Laurent McAllister.

In English, he is the author of short stories published in multiple anthologies and magazines, including Asimov’s and ON SPEC. A few more stories have appeared in English translation. Finally, he is the author of a handful of poems, most recently “Summer Encroaching, Winter Yielding”, a 2022 Rhysling Award nominee.

He’s also translated, into French, stories by Canadian author John Park and, into English, stories by French author Jean-Claude Dunyach, among others. He was the translator, from the French, of the novel The Dragon’s Eye (Tor, 1999) by Joël Champetier. His translations into French of the young adult novels of Monica Hughes’ Isis Trilogy came out in 2002 and 2003.

Jean-Louis Trudel has been an Aurora Award finalist and winner many times since 1992, a Prix Boréal finalist and winner more than once since 1994, and one of the three finalists in 1994, 1995, 1999, and 2001 for the Grand Prix de la Science-Fiction et du Fantastique québécois, winning in 2001. In 1996, he was among the finalists for Ontario’s Trillium Book Award in the French-language category. His stories have been translated into English, French, Russian, Greek, Portuguese, Italian, Chinese, and Romanian. He has organized or helped organize science fiction conventions and festivals including Boréal and the World Science Fiction Convention.

His educational background includes a bachelor’s degree in physics at the University of Ottawa, a master’s degree in astronomy at the University of Toronto, a second master’s degree in history and philosophy of science and technology at the University of Toronto, and a doctorate in history from the Université du Québec à Montréal. He has taught in five different universities.

May 15, 2022May 15, 2022

Episode 110: David Boop

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An hour-plus chat with author, editor, screenwriter, and award-winning essayist David Boop.

.Websites
davidboop.com
longshot-productions.net

Facebook
@dboop.updates

Twitter
@david-boop

David Boop’s Amazon Page

David Boop is a Denver-based speculative fiction author and editor. He’s also an award-winning essayist and screenwriter. Before turning to fiction, David worked as a DJ, film critic, journalist, and actor. As Editor-in-Chief at IntraDenver.net, David’s team was on the ground at Columbine, making them the only internet newspaper to cover the tragedy. That year, they won an award for excellence from the Colorado Press Association for their design and coverage.

David’s debut novel is the sci-fi/noir She Murdered Me with Science from WordFire Press. A second novel, The Soul Changers, is a serialized Victorian Horror novel set in Pinnacle Entertainment’s world of Rippers Resurrected.

David was editor on the bestselling and award-nominated weird western anthology series, Straight Outta Tombstone, Straight Outta Deadwood, and Straight Outta Dodge City, for Baen. He’s currently working on a trio of Space Western anthologies for Baen starting with Gunfight on Europa Station.

David is prolific in short fiction, with many short stories and two short films to his credit. He’s published across several genres, including media tie-ins for Predator (nominated for the 2018 Scribe Award), The Green Hornet, The Black Bat and Veronica Mars.

Additionally, he does a flash fiction mystery series on Gumshoereview.com called The Trace Walker Temporary Mysteries (the first collection is available now.) He does a quarterly comic strip about a new author’s experiences with Sign Here, Please, and runs an author-themed t-shirt shop called Author-Centric Designs by Longshot Productions.

David works in game design, as well. He’s written for the Savage Worlds RPG for their Flash Gordon (nominated for an Origins Award) and Deadlands: Noir titles.

He’s a Summa Cum Laude Graduate from UC-Denver in the Creative Writing program. He temps, collects Funko Pops, and is a believer. His hobbies include film noir, anime, the Blues and History.

April 17, 2022April 17, 2022

Episode 108: Roy M. Griffis

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An hour-long conversation with award-winning writer Roy M. Griffis, author of historical, alternate-history, and the humorous Cthulhu, Amalgmated fantasy cycle, as well as poetry, plays, and screenplays.

Website
www.roymgriffis.com

Facebook

Roy M. Griffis’s Amazon Page

The Introduction

Roy “Griff” Griffis calls himself a “Storyteller” for a lot of reasons.

He decided to be a writer when he was ten and never looked back. Along the way, he’s done all the usual starving artist jobs (janitor, waiter, bookstore clerk) and a few unusual ones (he was the 62^nd Aviation Rescue Swimmer in the US Coast Guard––he doesn’t just write action-adventure, he lived a little of it himself).

He’s written poetry, plays, and screenplays. He’s also the author of twelve novels, including the epic historical fiction saga By the Hands of Men and the alternative history series The Lonesome George Chronicles, as well as the comic fantasy Cthulhu, Amalgamated cycle. In 2018 he received the first The John Milius Screenwriting Award for his original film script Cold Day in Hell.

April 3, 2022April 3, 2022

Episode 107: Sherrilyn Kenyon

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An hour’s chat with New York Times #1 and internationally bestselling author Sherrilyn Kenyon, author of numerous popular series, with more than 70 million books in print worldwide.

Website
sherrilynkenyon.com

Facebook
@MySherrilyn

YouTube
@DarkHunterSeries

Twitter
@mysherrilyn

Pinterest
@sherrilynkenyon

Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Amazon Page

The Introduction

Defying all odds is what #1 New York Times and international bestselling author Sherrilyn McQueen writing as Sherrilyn Kenyon does best. Rising from extreme poverty as a child that culminated in being a homeless mother with an infant, she has become one of the most popular and influential authors in the world (in both adult and YA fiction), with dedicated legions of fans known as Paladins–thousands of whom proudly sport tattoos from her numerous genre-defying series.

Since her first book debuted while she was still in college, she has placed more than 80 novels on the New York Times list in all formats and genres, including manga and graphic novels, and has more than 70 million books in print worldwide. Her current series include: Dark-Hunters®, Chronicles of Nick®, Deadman’s Cross™, Eve of Destruction™, Nevermore™, Lords of Avalon® and The League®.

Over the years, her Lords of Avalon® novels have been adapted by Marvel, and her Dark-Hunters® and Chronicles of Nick® are New York Times bestselling manga and comics and are #1 bestselling adult coloring books.

A Small Sampling of Covers

March 27, 2022March 29, 2022

Episode 106: Richard Paolinelli

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An hour-long chat with award-winning science fiction and fantasy novelist and short-story writer, publisher, and podcaster Richard Paolinelli.

Website
scifiscribe.com

Facebook
@scifiscribe

Richard Paolinelli’s Amazon Page

The Introduction

Richard Paolinelli began his writing journey as a freelance writer in 1984 and gained his first fiction credit serving as the lead writer for the first two issues of the Elite Comics sci-fi/fantasy series Seadragon.

After nearly a quarter of a century in the newspaper field, in 2010, Richard retired as a sportswriter and returned to his fiction-writing roots. Since then he has written several award-winning novels, two non-fiction sports books, and has appeared in over 20 anthologies including eight of the 11-book Tuscany Bay Books’ Planetary Anthology Series and five Sherlock Holmes collections. He also blogs and writes some fan fiction on his website and is co-owner of Tuscany Bay Books.

He runs weekly features on his website, including an occasional podcast, and serves as a regular co-host on LA Talk Radio’s The Writer’s Block. He sometimes leads the show whenever Jim Christina’s horse runs off and leaves him stranded in the middle of the desert.

He currently resides in Western Colorado.