MythBehaving

We welcome the fascinating author, Marie Bilodeau, to the show in Episode 43.

Marie was born in Montreal (Canada) to a family with nomadic tendencies. As a result her childhood was spent roaming from town to town in Eastern Ontario. In 1996 she roamed further west in the province, attending Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo. Along with earning a Bachelor’s Degree in Religion and Culture with a minor in Archaeology (fields she has never once come close to working in, although they do come in handy for plot development), she also served two terms as President of the school’s Science Fiction and Fantasy Club, an honor that she will never live down. Not that she cares to.

When not writing fantasy novels, Marie can be found engaged in the act of storytelling in any location where two or more people have gathered. She tells mostly original stories of her own creation or adaptations of fairy tales and myths.

Visit her official website at www.mariebilodeau.com.

A disappearing watch. A thief in the night. Whispers around every corner…

Then a mist rolls into town and refuses to dissipate.

Alva Viola Taverner has lived in her small town all of her life, working as a car tech while saving for her little sister to go to university. But everything is about to change as the veil between our world and the world of the faeries weakens and falls.

Suddenly, even the smallest bump in the night can prove the deadliest.

**This is the first installment of a serialized novel

This episode features Jen Ryan, an editor and publisher with Ellysian Press. We get a special peek behind the scenes to find out about some of the nuts and bolts of both editing and publishing.

Jen Ryan is a professional editor who has been reading and editing most of her life. She has a degree in English Literature, and teaches English composition and writing at the local college. She also owns and runs her own editing company, Imagine That Editing. Jen loves reading speculative fiction of all kinds. She enjoys growing her own fruit and vegetables for canning and makes a pumpkin butter that is simply to die for (Maer here – I can personally attest to this.)

You can find Jen at these links:

Ellysian Press believes that their passion for books is a necessary element in their publishing process. They love stories, characters, and their creators. They are always looking for fresh voices and unique ideas.

Ellysian Press is committed to producing quality books with engaging stories and believable characters.

They are currently accepting manuscripts in the following genres:

Science Fiction

Fantasy

Paranormal

Paranormal Romance

Horror

Young Adult in the above genres

You can out more about Ellysian Press and their submission requirements at their website:

New releases always fill us with joy, and this week is no exception! Maine author Amy Bai joins us to talk about her debut novel SWORD: an epic fantasy with deeply realized characters, awesome worldbuilding, and pretty nifty swordplay. We geek out about history and the writing craft, and a good time is had by all…except Paul, whose power was struck down by poor weather. We deeply missed him!

Amy Bai has been, by order of neither chronology nor preferences, a barista, a numbers-cruncher, a paper-pusher, and a garmhand. She likes thunderstorms, the enthusiasm of dogs, tall boots and long jackets, cinnamon basil, margaritas, and being surprised by the weirdness of her fellow humans. She lives in New England with her husband and her dogs, and travels, with her husband (though not the dogs, alas) as often as she can get away.

When she’s not writing in hermit-like solitude or plotting world domination via a silly-string war, you can catch Amy procrastinating on her blog.

Visit Amy here!

Author Site

For over a thousand years, the kingdom of Lardan has been at peace: isolated from the world, slowly forgetting the wild and deadly magic of its origins. Now the deepest truths of the past and the darkest predictions for the future survive only in the verses of nursery rhymes.

And prophecies are just nursery rhymes for gullible fools. Right?

So thinks Kyali Corwynall, daughter of the Lord General and the court’s only sword-wielding girl. She’s never bothered believing in faery stories. But one day, an old nursery rhyme she’s heard since childhood begins to come true, naming her as Sword and her brother and best friend as Song and Crown, saviors of the kingdom. When that ancient magic wakes, the future changes for everyone. In the space of a single night, her life unravels into violence and chaos.

Now Kyali must find a way to master the magic her people have abandoned, or watch her world – and her closest friends – fall to a war older than the kingdom itself.

We sit down with author P.C. Haring to chat about cyberpunk, tech, podcasting, and all sorts of general geekery. Turns out that he has a bit of history with one of our hosts…hilarity and hijinx ensue!

A fan of Science Fiction from an early age P.C. Haring has always been one of those who looked up at the night sky and wondered “what if…”

On 01/01/10, he began exploring those questions when he made his debut as a writer and podcast novelist with the release of the Cybrosis Podcast.  Since then he has not looked back.  He has contributed short stories to Scott Sigler’s The Crypt: Book 1 — The Crew podcast, Philippa Ballantine’s Chronicles of the Order, audio anthology, and Tee Morris and Pip Ballantine’s Tales from the Archives anthology where his podcast of “The Seven” won the 2012 Parsec Award for “Best Short Story.”

When he’s not writing and podcasting, P.C. Haring puts his Accounting degree, his MBA, and his CPA credentials to good use as a corporate accountant in the Chicagoland area.

For Agent Ciris, the mission should have been simple: get in, apprehend the target, get out. But when the simple snatch and grab goes horribly awry, the world’s first cyborg finds herself backed into a corner. At odds with her superiors, she becomes embroiled in two conspiracies — one intended to destroy her with a cybernetic virus that will neutralize the technology that keeps her alive, the other intended to keep hidden the untold secrets of her origin. With the walls closing in around her, Ciris becomes a rogue agent with no one to trust and only one objective — unravel the shrouds of secrecy before time runs out.

Cybrosis is the debut novel by P.C. Haring. This cyberpunk action adventure was made available as a free podcast in 2010 and is the first in what promises to be a long line of titles by this author.

You can find Cybrosis at

What a fun, interesting interview with collaborating authors Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris. Paul and Katie were already acquainted with this awesome duo, but Maer got a delightful treat by getting to interview the two of them. Fun-filled action…just like their books!

Born in Wellington, New Zealand, Philippa has always had her head in a book. For this she blames her father who thought Lord of the Rings was suitable bedtime reading for an eight year old. At the age of thirteen she began writing fantasy stories for herself.

She first earned a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and Political Science and then a Bachelor of Applied Science in Library and Information Science. So soon enough she found herself working in the magical world of libraries where she stayed for over a decade

Her first professional sale was in 1997, and since then she has gone on to produce mostly novel length fiction. In 2006 she became New Zealand’s first podcast novelist, and she has voiced and produced Weaver’s Web, Chasing the Bard, Weather Child and Digital Magic as podiobooks. Her podcasts have been short listed for the Parsec Awards, and won a Sir Julius Vogel award.

Philippa is the author of the Books of the Order series with Ace- Geist and Spectyr and Wrayth out now, and Harbinger to follow. She is also the co-author of the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences series with Tee Morris. Phoenix Rising debuted in May 2011 and The Janus Affair came out in May 2012. She also has the Shifted World series with Pyr Books, with the first book Hunter and Fox out now.

When not writing or podcasting, Philippa loves reading, gardening, and whenever possible traveling. With her husband, Tee and her daughter, she is looked after by a mighty clowder of three cats.

Tee Morris began his writing career with his 2002 historical epic fantasy,MOREVI The Chronicles of Rafe & Askana. In 2005 Tee took MOREVI into the then-unknown podosphere, making his novel the first book podcast in its entirety. That experience led to the founding of Podiobooks.com and collaborating with Evo Terra and Chuck Tomasi on Podcasting for Dummies and its follow-up, Expert Podcasting Practices for Dummies. He won acclaim and accolades for his cross-genre fantasy-detective Billibub Baddings Mysteries, the podcast of The Case of the Singing Sword winning him the 2008 Parsec Award for Best Audio Drama. Along with those titles, Tee has written articles and short stories for BenBella Books’s Farscape Forever: Sex, Drugs, and Killer Muppets, the podcast anthology VOICES: New Media Fiction, BenBella Books’ So Say We All: Collected Thoughts and Opinions of Battlestar Galactica, and Dragon Moon Press’ Podthology: The Pod Complex.

Tee brought all these skills to the award-winning Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences series which he wrote with his wife, Pip Ballantine. When he is not writing, Tee enjoys life in Virginia alongside Philippa Ballantine, his daughter, and three cats.

You can find Pip and Tee at these links:

Co-authors Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris ingeniously reimagine England’s Edwardian Era in Phoenix Rising—a hilarious, rip-roaring steampunk fantasy romp that the voracious fans of New York Times bestseller Gail Carriger will eagerly devour with great relish. In this outrageous, non-stop adventure, Ballantine and Morris introduce us to Agents Books and Braun of the ultra-secret Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences—the most delightful duo of very British evil-bashers since The Avengers, Emma Peel and John Steed. With its malevolent secret societies, earth-shattering conspiracies, breathtaking derring-do, and absolutely wondrous weapons, Phoenix Rising out-Sherlocks Robert Downey, Jr.’s Sherlock Holmes.

You can find Phoenix Rising at

Welcome to Khalid Muhammad with his novel, Agency Rules! This episode features a fascinating look at a spy thriller set in Pakistan. Please join us for an intriguing interview with Khalid and some surprising insight into an area many of us know little about.

By day, Khalid Muhammad is a mild-mannered business executive keeping himself busy running a marketing and brand management company. He takes someone else’s product and creates concepts, ideas and brand stories—things that make consumers want to buy, invest and save their hard-earned money.

By night, his alter ego emerges; one that has a penchant for sadistic retribution towards those who have wronged him, and that spends its time devising intricate and detailed plans for a nefarious end.

If he hopes to continue to have friends and family, though, he has to keep his alter ego under control.

So, Khalid chooses to write novellas, novels and short stories to let the wickedness escape; the other option means a great deal of blood, numerous torture implements and…well, infinite ways to dump a body. The writing is better for everyone involved and less dangerous for the guilty… until he writes them into another story.

 You can find Khalid at these links:

Read on for more!

Excerpts from Episode 37

Khalid on how he got his start writing: “Writing became an outlet for me that progressed over time…”

Khalid on chararcters or story coming first: “It’s two-fold for me…Pakistan has been struggling with terrorism and extremism since the 1970s…It gave me the chance to tell the story from where we actually started from and how it’s affected the country.”

Celebrated as a ragtag force that defeated and broke the Soviet Union, no one predicted the Mujahideen would bring with them a plague that would spread like wildfire through Pakistan in the years to follow. When the battle-worn fighters returned with no enemy or war to fight, they turned their sights on the country that had been their creator and benefactor.

From the same battlegrounds that birthed the Mujahideen, a young Kamal Khan emerges as a different breed of warrior. Discarding his wealthy family comforts, Kamal becomes a precision sniper, an invincible commando and a clandestine operative bringing intimidation, dominance and death with him to the battlefield. Ending the plague is his prime directive.

Shrouded in political expediency, hampered by internal power struggles, international espionage and doublespeak that makes Washington’s spin doctors proud, Kamal’s mission is a nightmare of rampant militant fundamentalism that threatens to choke and take Pakistan hostage. For him, the fight is not just for freedom, but the survival of a nation.

You can buy Agency Rules at the link below:

It was especially cool to interview M. Joseph Murphy. I’ve had the chance to get to know Joe over social media and work with him on several projects. Not only is he a talented author, he is also the cover artist for my Modern Magics series. Yep, he did the entire series.

Joseph Murphy was born and raised in Ontario, Canada. He earned his geekdom at an early age. He read X-Men comics from at the age of 8 and it only went downhill from there.

As a teenager he wrote short stories and wanted to be the next Stephen King. Instead of horror, however, he kept writing fantasy stories. After surviving high school as a goth with a purple mohawk, he studied English and Creative Writing at the University of Windsor.

When not writing, Joseph works as Lead Accounting instructor at Everest College. He also lectures to other businesses on outside-the-box marketing. He lives in Windsor, ON (right across the stream from Detroit, Michigan) with his husband, two cats, and shy-but-friendly ghost.

You can find Joseph at these links:

Website     |     Facebook     |     Twitter 

Read on for more!

Excerpts from Episode 36

Joseph on writing a genre-bending novel: “As soon as you start creating new races, the magic system has to change.”

Joseph on cover art: “I think someone people forget, but I think the font choice is as, if not more important than the image itself.”

Three hundred years ago, a group of heroes imprisoned a dark god and his lieutenants in a hell dimension known as the Void. Since then, the people of Maghe Sihre have lived in relative peace. Now, a secret war brews at the edge of civilization.

Tadgh Dooley, a young man from Earth, is burdened with a dangerous and impossible power. He has the ability to warp the fabric of reality, to make his wishes come true. The armies of evil see him as a weapon. They will not rest until they control him.

A mysterious force transports Tadgh to Maghe Sihre and, in doing so, ruptures the Void. Worse, each time he uses his ability, the Void cracks open a little further. Prisoners start to escape. If Tadgh can’t control his power, he risks shattering the Void completely, unleashing the dark god on an unprepared world.

And what does the appearance of the Sword of Kassandra mean for the people of Maghe Sihre?

 You can find A Fallen Hero Rises at these retailers

Ebook:  Amazon     |      Kobo     |     Smashwords     |     iTunes

What a treat to welcome Katie Bryski and Paul Ellis to the show as our new co-hosts! Carla Clifton is on hiatus and MythBehaving is very fortunate to add Katie and Paul to our lineup, along with Maer Wilson. Episode 35 is a Roundtable where our three hosts discuss their writing and books.

KT Bryski is a Canadian author and podcaster. She made her podcasting and publishing debut with Hapax, an apocalyptic fantasy with Dragon Moon Press (2012) and she has stories in Black Treacle Horror Magazine, When the Hero Comes Home Vol. II (Dragon Moon Press) and Tales from the Archives Vol. III (Imagine That! Studios). Select playwriting credits include various scripts for Black Creek Pioneer Village and East o’ the Sun and West o’ the Moon: a Children’s Opera (Canadian Children’s Opera Company). KT also manages The Black Creek Growler: the official blog of the Black Creek Historic Brewery. She is currently at work on her next novel while pursuing her MFA through the Stonecoast Creative Writing Programme at the University of Southern Maine. As you may have guessed, she also has a mild caffeine addiction.

Visit her atwww.ktbryski.com and www.blackcreekbrewery.wordpress.com

Read on for more about Katie and Paul!

Paul Ellis, Storyteller, Maker, and Unrepentant Nerd, joins the MythBehaving team with episode 35 because they needed someone weird. Ta-Da!

OK now for his real biography:

Paul began with a hardscrabble existence as a street rat on the grim and grimy roof tops and dank and dangerous alleyways of Agrabah … ah … no … wrong story. I’ll come in again.

Born in a sleepy, little Alabama town, nestled in the crook of the Tennessee River, Paul began telling stories as soon as he could walk. Indeed, in his formative years, when friends were otherwise engaged, he roamed the nearby woods, spinning yarns to himself. Not that is in anyway creepy.

He was first published in the National Junior Achievement Magazine, winning a writing contest for the best short story describing JA in the future. In 1987, he won the Excellence Award for Best Radio Documentary from the Society of Professional Journalists and went on for a thirteen year (he says fifteen, but it is actually thirteen) career in radio and television.

However, the lure of easy money chasing the Y2K bug was more than he could bear. In 1998, he succumbed to his darker nature and left broadcasting for the murky world of Information Technology.

In 2008, those pent up creative forces erupted and Paul found himself writing again,this time with the now defunct Sord & Sworcery, Science Fiction & Fantasy APA. Then, one day while listening to the Dead Robots Society, he heard about an open call for a cross genre anthology, and Jack Dupre was born.

Along the way, Paul fast talked a normally sensible young woman into marrying him. They reside, with their three daughters, square in the middle of the Virginian Piedmont.

Paul’s first published short story, “The Winds,” is part of “Dirty Magick: Los Angeles” – an anthology exploring the crossroads between urban fantasy and noir; mean streets, dirty magic! Available for Kindle and Nook.

Along with finding Paul hanging out occansionally at paulkellis.com, you can also find him at these fine venues:

Paul on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulKEllisAuthor

Paul on Twitter:  http://twitter.com/#!/paulkellis

Paul on Google Plus: https://plus.google.com/117124862064605265895

Paul at Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00H4QWZRO

Paul at About Me:  http://about.me/paulkellis

Paul on Tunblr: http://paulkellis.tumblr.com/

Dirty Magick : Los Angeles is available at

It’s a pleasure to welcome Justin Macumber to the show! Justin is a perfect example of just how small the publishing world is. I actually know him through various groups, which wouldn’t be odd if most of these groups were not rather small. It’s fun to run into the same people in completely different places. Let’s find out more about this talented author and podcaster. And give a listen to his awesome interview!

Justin Macumber is the author of Still Water, Haywire, and A Minor Magic. When not hard at work on his next story he hosts the popular Dead Robots’ Society podcast. He and his lovely wife live in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex along with their motley pack of dogs and cats that they think of as their children. 

Read on for more about Justin and his work…

 Excerpts from Episode 34

Justin on beginning writers and first drafts: “The first pass, just get the story down. You don’t have to make it pretty.”

Justin on writing horror: “Horror is a bit different because it’s a genre that requires a deep, emotional connection between the reader and a writer.”

Coal is the hard, black heart of the mountain town of Stillwater, West Virginia, but far beneath it lies something much darker, an evil beyond time, waiting to rise and bathe the world in blood and fire once more. When unwitting miners dig into its tomb, only Kyle – Stillwater’s prodigal son – and paranormal investigator Maya stand between humanity and Hell. Time is short and evil runs deep in… STILL WATER.

You can get all of Justin’s books at Amazon. Here are a few:

Still Water

Kindle                                                       Paperback

Haywire

Kindle                                                      Paperback

A Minor Magic

Kindle                                                    Paperback

You can find Justin at these links:

Justin’s Website

Justin on Facebook

Justin on Twitter

Dead Robot’s Society

What a treat to have Michael Cassutt on the podcast! Author, screenwriter, producer, Michael brings a wealth of information to our newest episode. I first met Michael at a book festival in Southern California through our mutual friend, Tim Powers. Michael’s extensive experience, with over thirty years in the TV and publishing industries, make for some great stories and fun times. Please join us for his fabulous interview on our newest episode!

Michael Cassutt is a writer of fiction, non-fiction (fourteen books, thirty short stories, two-hundred articles), and over sixty television scripts.  His most recent novel is Heaven’s Fall, with David S. Goyer (Ace paperback, August 2014), the last of a trilogy already sold to Warner Studios as a feature film series.  His short stories, largely SF and fantasy, have appeared in Asimov’s SF Magazine and The Year’s Best SF.

As a writer of non-fiction, his specialty is the American and Russian space programs.  He co-authored a pair of astronaut biographies (Deke! and We Have Capture) and contributes to Air & Space/Smithsonian.  He has also made several appearances on The History Channel.

Among his television credits are The Twilight Zone, Max Headroom, Eerie, Indiana, Beverly Hills 90210, and The Dead Zone.  He is currently Co-Executive Producer of SyFy Channel’s forthcoming Z Nation, premiering in September 2014.  And he is collaborating with George R R Martin on an original concept for HBO.

Michael is also an adjunct professor at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts.

Read on for more about Micheal and his exciting career…

 Excerpts from Episode 33

Michael on having original ideas for writing: “The idea you think is brilliant, unique and original is being pitched at the same time by somebody else who you’ve never met or heard of.”

Michael on getting his start as a writer: “What a lot of people my age started writing were science fiction short stories and getting them published in the magazines and anthologies back in the 1970s.”

Twenty years have passed since the mysterious Near-Earth Object nicknamed Keanu appeared in the night sky and transported an assortment of humans from all over Earth into its interior. There they discovered that Keanu was an immense long-range spaceship—and they were not its only inhabitants. They joined forces with the aliens called the Architects, who had come from a distant galaxy to seek help in fighting the vicious Reivers. And they defeated them—or so they thought.Now Keanu has reestablished contact with Earth—and discovered that the Reivers have, in fact, taken over the planet, placing most of the population under their dominion. A few scattered pockets of humanity, constantly in danger of being assimilated, have mounted a resistance.

As the Reivers prepare a devastating strike against the Architects, Rachel Stewart, who grew up in Keanu, leads a small band of human survivors in an attempt to infiltrate the massive Reiver fortress in the American West. But their only hope for victory may yet be somewhere inside the NEO.

If the men and women still in Keanu cannot find it, humanity will be finished. And the galaxy will be next.

Get Michael’s books at Amazon!

Heaven’s Shadow

Kindle                                      Paperback

Heaven’s War

Kindle                                      Paperback

Heaven’s Fall

Kindle                                      Paperback

You can find more info at these links:

Michael’s Amazon Page

Heaven’s Shadow Trilogy on Facebook