Episode 207: Sal Amato – Hidden Powers

A conversation with actor, writer, and producer Sal Amato about his upcoming debut science fiction novel, Hidden Powers.

Website
salamato.com

Facebook
@hiddenpowersofficial

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@HiddenPowersUSA

Instagram
@hiddenpowersnovel

TikTok
@hiddenpowersofficial

About Hidden Powers

Investigative journalist Sarah Moore has exposed government corruption for years. Still, nothing prepared her for what killed her father: $47 trillion in unaccounted federal spending hidden across seventy years of black budgets. 

Her father, David Moore, a government accountant, discovered the pattern in 2009—the same representatives approving secret budgets, the same shell corporations receiving them, the same suppressed technologies that would have eliminated scarcity. He died of a “heart attack” at fifty, alone in his office at 2:17 AM.  

Sarah follows the money to 127 phantom corporations, 6,000 coordinated elites, and 847 murdered researchers whose discoveries would have freed humanity from controlled resources. Then Victoria Sterling contacts her with the answer: 

In 1954, world leaders agreed with an extraterrestrial species called the Greys—not for technology, but for permission to manage humanity as property.  Sterling, a former architect of this control system, explains there’s no grand conspiracy—just thousands of people worldwide who believe they own everyone else, coordinating through a shared worldview rather than direct communication. They’ve suppressed cures, buried innovations, and murdered whistleblowers, all while convincing the “owned” to defend the systems harming them. 

The cruelest part: people have been taught to root for their oppressors, by becoming ‘fanatical’ in trusting the shiniest marketed bulbs.  

On October 17, 2026, Sterling stands at the Washington Monument and reveals everything with irrefutable documentation that will change the course of humanity. 

About Sal Amato

Sal Amato

Sal Amato is an actor, writer, producer, and now novelist whose career has been defined by an insatiable curiosity about human nature and the stories we tell ourselves. With a long career that included attempts to develop streaming media platforms in the mid-’90s to 2000s, and a music industry insider with moderate success, Sal has never felt he’s achieved what he set out to do, but that has never stopped him.

As a performer, Sal began his journey in 1978 doing a Betty Crocker commercial. From there, he’d move on to movies (Bad Boys 1982) as well as being one of the youngest members ever at The Second City, one of the most prestigious comedy institutions in the world where he would learn the craft under the late, famed Don DePollo As time went by, Sal developed his voice performing stand-up and improvisation, learning to read audiences and craft narratives that resonate. With very odd jobs along the way, including a DJ, broadcasting, and working at grocery stores, Sal continued to try to find his way, never giving up. This foundation led to a moderate success in acting in both film and television, with appearances in The Untouchables, My Best Friend’s Wedding, Chicago Overcoat, Where It Gets You, Chicago Fire, The Big Leap, and numerous other productions, including commercials.

As a creator, Sal expanded beyond performance into writing and producing. His animated series Bakers In The Burbs, a project blending comedy with social observation, has been optioned by a production company actively seeking placement on major streaming platforms.

When not writing, Sal continues to work in entertainment, bringing stories to life across multiple platforms and as an analog-to-digital transfer specialist.

Episode 206: Alan Smale – Burning Night (Apollo Rising: Book 3)

A conversation with Sidewise Award-winning novelist (and former NASA astrophysicist) Alan Smale, talking about Burning Night, Book 3 in his Apollo Rising alternate-history science fiction trilogy.

Website
alansmale.com

Facebook
@alan.smale

BlueSky
@alansmale.bsky.social

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@AlanSmale

About Burning Night

On July 4, 1983, Vivian Carter and her NASA crew of seven set off on an audacious double flyby of Venus and Mars, a two-year mission with repurposed Apollo technology that will push their ingenuity and resourcefulness to the limit. Meanwhile, superpower conflicts escalate on Earth, mirrored by a dangerously unstable arms race and battles for valuable mineral resources on the Moon. Full-up lunar military actions and treacherous sneak attacks decimate Vivian’s friends, allies and colleagues on both sides of the Iron Curtain and threaten everything she has worked to achieve.

Vivian’s odyssey is a high adventure that will bring mankind new knowledge and unimagined insights … just as the risk of worldwide nuclear war has never been greater. Now, on her triumphant return in 1985, Vivian Carter’s path inevitably brings her back to where she began: a desperate rescue mission with no NASA support and no safety net, to a dangerous, war-torn Moon where she will be hard pressed to tell friend from foe.

In the concluding volume of Alan Smale’s highly acclaimed Apollo Rising series (“A nail-biting thriller.” – Publishers Weekly) humanity faces a stark choice: a bright new interplanetary future … or nuclear apocalypse on two worlds.

Praise for the Apollo Rising series

“A nail-biting thriller.”Publishers Weekly 

“I loved it. Great ‘hard’ science fiction with convincing space battles.”−Larry Niven

“Will delight and enthrall.”Library Journal

“A provocative science fiction novel.”Foreword Reviews

“Alan Smale is one of the brightest stars in the hard-SF firmament, and Hot Moon is his best novel yet. ”Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author

“Intriguing, adrenaline-fueled, and engaging, author Alan Smale’s Hot Moon is the perfect sci-fi meets political thriller.”Anthony Avina

“A superb mind-expanding sci-fi novel!”Grady Harp (Amazon Hall of Fame Top 100 Reviewer)

About Alan Smale

Alan Smale

Alan Smale writes alternate history, historical fantasy, and hard SF. His novella of a Roman invasion of ancient America, “A Clash of Eagles,” won the Sidewise Award for Alternate History, and his novels set in the same universe, Clash of Eagles, Eagle in Exile, and Eagle and Empire (2015-2017) are available from Del Rey in the US and Titan Books in the UK and Europe. His “Roman baseball” collaboration with Rick Wilber, The Wandering Warriors, came out from WordFire Press in 2020, and Hot Moon, his alternate-Apollo “technothriller with heart,” set entirely on and around the Moon, was launched by CAEZIK SF & Fantasy in 2022, with sequel Radiant Sky following in 2024 and the grand finale, Burning Night in 2025.

Alan has sold more than fifty stories to Asimov’s and other magazines and anthologies, and his short story “Gunpowder Treason” earned him a second Sidewise Award in 2022. His non-fiction essays have appeared in Lightspeed, Journey Planet, and Galaxy’s Edge.

Alan grew up in Yorkshire, England, and earned degrees in Physics and Astrophysics from Oxford University. Until recently, he performed astronomical research into galactic neutron star and black hole binary systems at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, and served as the Director of one of NASA’s big-three astrophysical data archives.

Episode 205: Betty Jane Hegerat – Elephants in the Room

A conversation with award-winning Calgary author Betty Jane Hegerat about her latest collection of literary short stories, Elephants in the Room.

Website
bettyjanehegerat.com

Facebook
@bettyjh

About Elephants in the Room

Fourteen jewel-like stories unveil the tender chaos of lives unlived and loves unspoken

In Elephants in the Room, Betty Jane Hegerat masterfully uncovers the quiet fractures of ordinary lives—the unspoken regrets, the buried griefs, and the fragile threads of connection that bind families across generations.

From a devoted son’s frantic dash to help his mother glimpse the Queen to a reluctant father’s stunned reunion with the daughter he never knew, from a woman dressing her mother-in-law for an eternal rest to a boy’s guilty reckoning with a bully’s untimely death, these unforgettable stories illuminate the elephants in our lives we ignore at our peril.

With tender wit and unflinching insight, Hegerat explores the weight of what we leave unsaid: the ache of lost chances, the solace of small mercies, and the stubborn grit that carries us through. As poignant as a stolen glance, as resonant as a half-forgotten lullaby, the stories in Elephants in the Room whisper the unvarnished secrets of family ties—where regrets loom large, and small acts of grace light the way home.

Praise for Elephants in the Room

“Betty Jane Hegerat is a meticulous observer of the human condition, and the family in particular. The stories in Elephants in the Room are written with succinct, unadorned prose and a gentleness that belies the strength of their messages. With warmth, humour, empathy, and intimacy, her characters search for the connection and remembrance we seek in those moments of heartbreak that punctuate all of our lives. A most moving collection of short fiction.” – Lori Hahnel, author of Flicker and Vermin: Stories

Elephants in the Room is a gorgeously beguiling collection. Individual stories are beautifully paced, with a skilful interplay between past and present. Delightful.” – Peter Midgely, writer, editor, and translator

“Betty Jane Hegerat tells her stories with intense care and in a soft-voiced, clear way that is lean on descriptions, explanations, and emotional fireworks. Even the passages of dialogue are kept short. The stories range from family members struggling to deal with everyday problems familiar to most of us that are nevertheless inescapable and painful, to the heart-shattering issues in the aftermath of broken marriages, to what to do with the willfully (or not) unfailingly incompetent family members of whom most families have at least one, to the deep love for friends whose suffering one is helpless to alleviate. In this collection, Hegerat examines with admirable restraint the serious and mostly unanswerable questions about living the ordinary life with dignity and kindness. This is a book to be loved.” – Sharon Butala, award-winning author of Leaving Wisdom

About Betty Jane Hegerat

Betty Jane Hegerat

Calgary author Betty Jane Hegerat was a social worker in a long-ago life. The stories she has written since she left that career behind reflect an ongoing need to make sense of conflict and chaos in relationships, and to find moments of laughter and even glimmers of redemption.

That seriousness aside, she loves the Calgary writing community. She has taught at the Alexandra Writers’ Centre, the Fernie Writers’ Conference and for Continuing Education at the University of Calgary, and was Writer in Residence for the Calgary Public Library. In 2015 she was honoured to receive the Writers Guild of Alberta Golden Pen Award for lifetime achievement in writing

Betty Jane’s stories have been published in anthologies and magazines. She has five previous books: a novel, Running Toward Home (Newest Press), a collection of stories, A Crack in the Wall (Oolichan Books), another novel, Delivery (Oolichan Books), and two YA novels, Odd One Out (Oolichan Books) and The Boy (Oolichan Books). The Boy is a French braid of investigative journalism, fiction, memoir, and meta-fiction. The book was shortlisted for the Calgary Book Prize, the High Plains Book Awards, and the Alberta Writers Guild Wilfrid Eggleston Non-Fiction Award.

Episode 192: Lindy Ryan – Another Fine Mess

A conversation with Lindy Ryan, award-winning author of Another Fine Mess, the sequel to her acclaimed debut horror novel Bless Your Heart.

Website
lindyryanwrites.com

Instagram
@lindyryanwrites

Facebook
@authorLindyRyan

Amazon links
Amazon.ca
Amazon.com

About Another Fine Mess

From Lindy Ryan, “one of the most electrifying voices in the horror genre” (Gwendolyn Kiste), Another Fine Mess brings the Evans women back around in this unputdownable, crackling, rollicking mystery of humor, heart, and horror.

Making sure dead things stay buried is the family business…

For over a hundred years, the Evans women have kept the undead in their strange southeast Texas town from rising. But sometimes the dead rise too quick–and that’s what left Lenore Evans, and her granddaughter Luna, burying Luna’s mother, Grace, and Lenore’s mother, Ducey. Now the only two women left in the Evans family, Luna and Lenore are left rudderless in the wake of the most Godawful Mess to date.

But when the full moon finds another victim, it’s clear their trouble is far from over. Now Lenore, Luna, and the new sheriff―their biggest ally―must dig deep down into family lore to uncover what threatens everything they love most. The body count ticks up, the most unexpected dead will rise–forcing Lenore and Luna to face the possibility that the undead aren’t the only monsters preying on their small town.

Praise for Another Fine Mess

“Vampire fans will enjoy this spine-chilling tale.”Kirkus

“Sometimes the dead can ruin your life. Lindy Ryan’s Another Fine Mess is a rich and captivating story about family legacy, history, lore, and of course murder. Delightfully alluring and richly suspenseful.”Cynthia Pelayo, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Vanishing Daughters

“If you ever thought Supernatural should have starred the Golden Girls, have I got the series for you. Smart, at times devastating, and just as funny as it is dark, Another Fine Mess is Lindy Ryan’s unputdownable follow-up to Bless Your Heart. Balancing grief and duty, monsters and men, the Evans women are characters to sink your teeth into.” Katrina Monroe, author of Through the Midnight Door

Another Fine Mess is a fast and witty sequel, and together with its predecessor makes for an entertaining and unique entry in the urban fantasy horror genre. With the second book, considered me sold on the quirky family drama and gallows humor of this series. I would love to see the Evans women return for more stories in this darkly charming Southern setting, and if that happens, I’ll definitely be back.”Bibliosanctum 

“The story builds with a creeping sense of horror that lingers long after the final page… With Bless Your Heart and Another Fine Mess, Lindy Ryan delivers an unsettling, deeply human tale of legacy and loss.”Booktrib

“Overall, this is a dark, clever, and unsettling novel that was a fast read. Readers looking for a horror novel with shocking and disturbing details plus excellent characterization, secrets, and the supernatural will likely enjoy this novel.”Mystery and Suspense Magazine 

“[An] entertaining and utterly charming horror story following a family of women who take care of their town by stopping the undead, no matter the cost.”The Library Ladies

About Lindy Ryan

Lindy Ryan

Lindy Ryan is an award-winning author, anthologist, and short-film director whose books and anthologies have received starred reviews from Publishers WeeklyBooklist and Library Journal. She also writes sweet, seasonal romance under the pseudonym Lindy Miller. Several of her projects have been adapted for screen.

​Ryan is the current author-in-residence at Rue Morgue and a columnist at BookTrib. Declared a “champion for women’s voices in horror” by Shelf Awareness, Ryan was named a Publishers Weekly Star Watch Honoree in 2020, and in 2022, was named one of horror’s most masterful anthology curators. ​She previously served on the Board of Directors for the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) and currently sits on the Board of Directors for the Brothers Grimm Society of North America.

She is an award-winning professor at Rutgers University, and a guest faculty mentor in Western Connecticut State University’s Creative Writing MFA program. Prior to her career in academia, Ryan co-founded Radiant Advisors, a business intelligence research and advisory firm, where she led the company’s research and data enablement practice for clients including 21st Century Fox Films, Warner Bros., and Disney. Ryan founded Black Spot Books, a specialty press focused on amplifying women’s voices in horror, in 2017, which was acquired as an imprint of Vesuvian Media Group in 2019.

Born and raised in Southeast Texas, Ryan currently resides on the East Coast.​​​ 

Episode 191: Jenna Greene – Summer of Rocks

A chat with Jenna Greene, award-winning Canadian children’s author, about her newest book for young people, Summer of Rocks.

Website
jennagreene.ca

Facebook
@jennabutrenchukgreene

Instagram
@authorjennagreene

TikTok
@jgreenewrites

Amazon links
Amazon.ca
Amazon.com

About Summer of Rocks

Three sisters spend an adventure-filled summer in the West Coast wilderness, exploring rock quarries, escaping bear attacks, and fighting over space in the backseat of the family pickup truck.

It’s the summer of 1990, and Amy (age 11), Beth (age 9), and Marion (age 6) are in for the family vacation of a lifetime. No, they’re not going Disneyland, Hawaii, or on a Caribbean cruise. No, they’re not flying to Germany to collect pieces of the Berlin Wall.

They will be looking at rocks, though. Lots of rocks. So many rocks.

You see, when your father is a geologist, that’s what you do on your summer vacation (as the author knows from her own childhood road trips with her geologist father). You drive for days to the British Columbia–Yukon border, strapped in the backseat of the family truck with your sisters, fighting over the Gameboy, listening to your parents tell you “fascinating” facts about the scenery, playing the Little Mermaid soundtrack on a loop, and trying not to get elbowed in the face. Doesn’t that sound like a dream vacation? Well, it’s no luxury trip, but it has its highlights—from camping under the stars to wading in natural hot springs to flying a helicopter! And for Amy, Beth, and Marion, the memories they make along the way will last a lifetime.

At least, that’s what their parents tell them…

Praise for Summer of Rocks

“A family trip that’s packed with entertainment and the making of memories.”Wanda Taylor, award-winning author of The Grover School Pledge and A Recipe for Rhyme and Rescue

“Humorous and heartfelt, Summer of Rocks perfectly captures the voices of three sisters, each with her own hopes and fears, on a family road trip into the wilderness.”Jean Mills, award-winning author of After the Wallpaper Music

“A rocky road trip through the wilds of northern Canada drives three sisters closer in this uplifting tale.”Karen Bass, award-winning author of Blood Donor and The Hill

About Jenna Greene

Jenna Greene

Jenna Greene has been writing since before she could hold a pencil, building stories with her She-ra: Princess of Power action figures and My Little Pony toys in her basement or on long car rides. Once she could pen a tale, she composed poetry and short stories, finding that she was best at writing novels.

Her first fantasy story (Imagine) came to her when she was in her first year of university, and she drafted it between essays, mid-terms, and reading assignments. Once finished university, with a B.A. in English as well as a B.Ed, she began her career as a teacher and also found time to return to her writing. While teaching middle school, she wrote and published the first books in her Imagine series.

Her Reborn Marks Series took a unique journey. While traveling home from a writers’ conference in Calgary, Jenna was hit by inspiration and formed the character of Lexil – someone who had hidden strength and talents that weren’t easily recognizable. The first half of the book was written while Jenna Greene’s mother was ill with cancer, and the second half was completed after her mother passed away. Winning the 2019 Moonbeam Children’s Book award (gold) provided an opportunity for her to express her gratitude for the inspiration her mother gave her as a storyteller, acknowledging that those we love never truly leave us, as they are in our hearts, phrases, morals, and memories – a major theme for the trilogy.

Having moved to teaching younger students, as well as the addition of a daughter to her family, Jenna has been recently inspired by Children’s Books. In 2021, her first picture book was released: Winston, the Well-Dressed Wombat. Winston is unique and friendly, with a sense of style others might not imitate.

Jenna has more writing projects on the horizon, as ideas continue to arrive in her head. But deep down, she is just a little girl creating imaginative stories with her She-Ra action figures (and possibly a Ninja Turtle or two).

Episode 190: Art Bell – What She’s Hiding

A chat with Art Bell, a writer and former television executive known for developing and launching the Comedy Channel (later Comedy Central) while at HBO, about his first novel, the thriller What She’s Hiding.

Website
artbellwriter.com

Instagram
@artbellauthor

Simon & Schuster Book Page
What She’s Hiding

Amazon links
Amazon.ca
Amazon.com

About What She’s Hiding

For readers of Harlan Coben and Laura Dave, a gripping modern-day noir thriller featuring a hotshot lawyer unexpectedly drawn into a web of violence and intrigue by the ex-wife he hasn’t spoken to since their bitter divorce, written by the former president of Court TV.

The day Henry Gladstone, a lawyer at a white-shoe Manhattan law firm, met Leslie Dunlop, he knew she was trouble—but he couldn’t say no. Their steamy affair became a marriage filled with secrets and lies that collapsed as spectacularly as it began.

Cut to today: Leslie, who Henry hasn’t heard from since their divorce, bursts into his office and announces that if he doesn’t hand over a quarter-million dollars, they’ll both be killed. Henry dismisses her story as a stupid attempt to steal his money and—despite his still-smoldering desire for her—tells her to get lost. But when he comes home to find his apartment ransacked, he begins to think this time Leslie may be telling the truth. And now that he desperately needs to find her, she’s disappeared again.

In a harrowing journey through the glittering heights and shadowy corners of New York City, where the legal world meets the dark underside of the city, Henry assembles a team that includes his best friend Aiden, a private investigator named Gabriella, and Aiden’s ex-wife Emma, to track down a missing engagement ring, stay one step ahead of the Russian mob, and uncover the secrets of Leslie’s past. As the screws turn tighter and tighter, Henry must learn who he can trust to uncover the truth…before it’s too late.

In What She’s Hiding, Art Bell masterfully weaves a noirish tale of suspense and emotional turbulence as a dangerous woman draws Henry ever further into a high-stakes game that neither one of them may survive.

Praise for What She’s Hiding

“If you love a dark, stylish thriller with a wicked sense of humor, What She’s Hiding by Art Bell is for you. With memorable characters, a noirish New York City setting, and a story that cuts like a knife, this novel will keep you reading until the wee hours. I highly recommend it!” — Douglas Preston, co-author with Lincoln Child of the famed #1 New York Times bestselling Pendergast series

“A rollicking fun thriller, both action-packed and hilarious. A smashing debut that managed to reel me in from the very first page.” — Tess Gerritsen, New York Times bestselling author of The Martini Club series 

“Stolen gems, death threats, angry ex’s with axes to grind, Russian mobsters, and private eyes all come together in Art Bell’s terrific What She’s Hiding, a raucous, twisty, dangerous, and often hilarious trip through NYC’s under, and over, world.” — Jon Lindstrom, USA Today bestselling author of Hollywood Hustle

“A darkly funny and twisty thriller that’s at once vividly contemporary and reminiscent of hard-boiled Manhattan crime tales of a bygone era. If you’re looking for suspense and smarts, you won’t regret riding this roller-coaster of a novel.” — Karen Dukess, author of Welcome to Murder Week and The Last Book Party

“Intrigue, deception, and wit sizzle in What She’s Hiding. With self-deprecating humor and a nod to classic noir style, Art Bell has crafted a thriller perfect for fans of Suits and Moonlighting.” — Sara DiVello, author of Broadway Butterfly: A Thriller

“A mysterious ex-wife, a Russian mobster, and a missing ring all add up to a satisfying romp through New York City in Art Bell’s What She’s Hiding. This noir thriller doles out laughs with a hard-boiled edge, and keeps you guessing until the very end.” — Pamela Statz, Author of Thorn City

What She’s Hiding is an action thriller that will leave any enthusiast panting. This book is for an out-and-out lover of thrillers, especially for those who like it full of twists and turns.” –– Suspense Magazine

About Art Bell

Art Bell

Art Bell is a former television executive. As president of Court TV, he oversaw daily live courtroom coverage and the production of hundreds of hours of original true-crime television series, documentaries, and movies.

His memoir Constant Comedy: How I Started Comedy Central and Lost My Sense of Humor, was a finalist in the 2020 Best Book Awards in both the memoir and business categories.

Bell has had short stories, nonfiction, and satire published in several journals, including Lowestoft Chronicle, Aethlon: The Journal of Sports Literature, The Ocotillo Review, Fiction Southeast, Castabout Arts and Literature, High Shelf Press, and Writers Read. What She’s Hiding is his first novel.

Art lives with his wife, Carrie, in Park City, Utah.

Episode 189: Dwayne Brenna – Theories of Everything

A chat with award-winning Saskatchewan author Dwayne Brenna about his new collection of short fiction, Theories of Everything.

Website
dwaynebrenna.com

Shadowpaw Press link
Theories of Everything

Amazon links
Amazon.ca
Amazon.com

About Theories of Everything

I remember thinking to myself, as I said goodbye to my friends and walked home through the dimly lit backstreets, that the past comes back to haunt everybody sooner or later.”

In this finely honed collection of short fiction, Dwayne Brenna creates a series of unforgettable characters, from academics and street people to musicians, movie stars, videogame players and their mothers, cooks, actors, boxers, and even a parrot, and, with compassion and affection (and sometimes laugh-out-loud humour) tests their mettle in a variety of fascinating locations, from Saskatoon to Victoria to Libya to Los Angeles to London to Hawaii and beyond, with familiar and homey details and a fidelity to mood and atmosphere.

Along the way, Brenna tackles a wide selection of conflicts and social ills-good versus evil, scruples and the lack of them, doing or not doing the “right thing,” yielding or not yielding to temptations, and the many other struggles of the human heart-all without being didactic or preachy, but simply by addressing the very human circumstances his characters find themselves in, and how they manage to escape, or not escape, the predicaments arising because of who they are, who they’ve been, and who they could be.

Praise for Theories of Everything

“These fifteen stories vary widely in terms of subject matter, theme, setting, and characters, yet they are unified by the strength of the writing and the narrative voice . . . there is an energy in all of these stories that propels and seduces the reader and piques her interest. And what a variety of characters! Academics, street people, ageing hippies, farmers, music producers, videogame players and their mothers, movie stars, boxers, actors, cooks, and even a parrot. The writer clearly has compassion and affection for the characters he’s created and put through their paces, sometimes with laugh-out-loud humour.” – J. Jill Robinson, author of The Land of Not Knowing

About Dwayne Brenna

Dwayne Brenna

Dwayne Brenna is the award-winning author of several books of humour, poetry, and fiction. Coteau Books published his popular series of humorous vignettes entitled Eddie Gustafson’s Guide to Christmas in 2000. His two books of poetry, Stealing Home and Give My Love to Rose, were published by Hagios Press in 2012 and 2015 respectively. Stealing Home, a poetic celebration of the game of baseball, was subsequently shortlisted for several Saskatchewan Book Awards, including the University of Regina Book of the Year Award.

His first novel, New Albion, about a laudanum-addicted playwright struggling to survive in London’s East End during the winter of 1850-51, was published by Coteau Books in autumn 2016. New Albion won the 2017 Muslims for Peace and Justice Fiction Award at the Saskatchewan Book Awards. It was also one of three English-language novels shortlisted for the prestigious MM Bennetts Award for historical fiction. His baseball novel Long Way Home was published by Pocol Press in 2022, and his theatre history text Nights That Shook the Stage (McFarland Books) came out in the spring of 2023.

His short stories and poems have been published in an array of journals, including GrainNineSpitballThe Antigonish Review, Intima, and The Cold Mountain Review.

Episode 188: David Carpenter – Hello

A chat with award-winning Saskatchewan author David Carpenter about his new collection of short fiction, Hello.

Website
dccarpenter.com

Shadowpaw Press link
Hello

Amazon links
Amazon.ca
Amazon.com

About Hello

In two novellas and seven shorter stories, award-winning author David Carpenter addresses the theme of human frailties in his distinctively empathetic style.

A disabled widower seeks comfort in memory by getting in touch with his younger self. An old drunk, assisted by his own delusions, lays his ghosts to rest. A young child escapes her oppressive family by ministering to the needs of a monster in distress. A social reject acquires a new look and becomes consumed with the need for revenge against his early tormentors. A former social worker encourages a friendship with a paroled criminal. A cleaning woman in strained circumstances, determined to support herself and her child, feels compelled to make extreme choices.

Some of Carpenter’s characters face the frailties that come with old age, loneliness chief among them. Others become vulnerable to their own compulsions and set in motion moral dilemmas. Many of these loners reach for their phones to send or receive a message that might deliver them from their isolation, but even though they hear “Hello” from the person they reach out to, there is no guarantee of deliverance.

These are tales told by a master of language, an author who uses words with skill, sureness, and grace. While his characters may not find what they’re looking for, readers of these compelling pieces of short fiction surely will.

Praise for Hello

”David Carpenter shows true mastery of the short story and the novella forms. The narratives are graceful and strong, confidently written by someone who the reader can immediately tell has handled language for many years, and the effect is not unlike hearing a pianist who has been playing for decades, whose fingers touch the keys with a skill, sureness, and grace not available to a less-experienced performer.” ― J. Jill Robinson, author of The Land of Not Knowing

About David Carpenter

David Carpenter

David Carpenter began his writing vocation as a critic and translator in Winnipeg and Toronto. Inspired by a reading by the Moose Jaw Movement (Gary Hyland, Robert Currie, Lorna Crozier and others) in Saskatoon, he switched to writing his own work, which began to emerge in 1985. He is the author of fifteen books of fiction and nonfiction and one book of poetry. His literary awards and honours include the Saskatchewan Book Awards 2010 Book of the Year for A Hunter’s Confession, the Kloppenburg Prize for Literary Excellence (2015), the Code’s Burt Award (Toronto) for The Education of Augie Merasty (2016), and most recently, the High Plains Creative Nonfiction Award (Billings, Montana) for I Never Met a Rattlesnake I Didn’t Like (2023). As well, as a recognition for his writing, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Saskatchewan (2018). He lives and writes in Saskatoon.

Episode 187: Trevor W. Harrison – Tales This Side of the Elysian Fields

A chat with authorTrevor W. Harrison about his new collection of essays recalling his world travel as a young man in the 1970s and ’80s, Tales This Side of the Elysian Fields.

Website
The Writers’ Union of Canada bio page

Shadowpaw Press link
Tales This Side of the Elysian Fields

Amazon links
Amazon.ca
Amazon.com

About Tales This Side of the Elysian Fields

“Travel takes you to places in yourself you might not otherwise visit . . .”

In this delightful and intriguing collection of essays, Trevor W. Harrison, Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Lethbridge and a well-known contributor to public media, tells sometimes light-hearted and sometimes poignant tales of his life between his late teens and early thirties, a time when, like many other young people of the era, he travelled the world, beginning with hitchhiking or driving across western Canada and the United States in the early 1970s and travelling to Europe and Asia in the mid-1970s and early 1980s.

From working on the railway in a small town to playing a Hittite soldier in a Biblical movie, from life among the hippies on a famous Greek beach to life in a houseboat on India’s Lake Dal, from bullfights in Barcelona to the towering Himalayas, Harrison invites readers to travel with him, to meet the people, see the places, and experience the events he encountered as a young man.

The stories we tell of our lives, Harrison says, are “the offspring of a pleasurable intercourse between fiction and non-fiction, gestated over time.” There is nothing more innately human than the telling of tales.

Enjoy these while you, too, are still this side of the Elysian Fields.

About Trevor W. Harrison

Trevor W. Harrison

Trevor W. Harrison is a retired Professor of Sociology at the University of Lethbridge. He is best known for his studies in political sociology, political economy, and public policy. He is the author, co-author, or co-editor of eleven books, including a book of poetry, as well as numerous journal articles, chapters, and reports. Dr. Harrison is a frequent contributor to public media, including radio and television.

Episode 186: Brad C. Anderson – Ashme’s Song

A chat with award-nominated author Brad C. Anderson about his new science fiction novel, Ashme’s Song.

Website
bradanderson2000.com

Facebook
@bradanderson2000

Shadowpaw Press link
The Sun Runners

Amazon links
Amazon.ca
Amazon.com

About Ashme’s Song

Violence has an echo, growing louder with each reverberation . . . how do you stop its echo once it starts ringing?

Ashme is a New Mesopotamian—a “Meso.” She dreams of being a hero, fighting against the brutal Ostarrichi ruling her country. She is an indigo child, her DNA modified by sentient AI, enabling her to control computer systems at will. With this power, she has something to offer the Meso resistance. Her twin brother, Shen, however, suffers from a neurological disorder and needs someone to care for him. Increasingly, that task falls on her.

How can she become the hero her people need when her brother’s needs are overwhelming? If she continues caring for Shen while joining the resistance, she risks leading Ostarrichi forces to her home. If she leaves, then looking after Shen will fall to her cousin, who is already overworked caring for his frail grandmother.

As her society collapses into violence, Ashme must choose between her fellow Mesos, her family, and her values.

About Brad C. Anderson

Brad C. Anderson

Brad C. Anderson, author of Duatero and Ashme’s Song, lives with his wife and puppy in Vancouver, Canada. He teaches undergraduate business courses at a local university and researches organizational wisdom in blithe defiance of the fact most people do not think you can put those two words in the same sentence without irony. Previously, he worked in the biotech sector, where he made drugs for a living (legally!).

His stories have appeared in a variety of publications. His short story “Naïve Gods” was longlisted for a 2017 Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic. It was published in the anthology Lazarus Risen, which was itself nominated for an Aurora Award..