SAM Magazine

Danièle Cybulskie has been researching and writing about the Middle Ages for over a decade. She is the author of The Five-Minute Medievalist and is a featured writer at Medievalists.net. A former college professor and specialist in medieval literature and Renaissance drama, her work has been published across international magazines, spanning topics from The Hundred Years’ War to Roman togas. Her mission is to make history fun, entertaining, and engaging, as well as to draw attention to our shared human nature across the centuries.

Today, we talked about her latest book, How to Live Like a Monk. Publishers Weekly gives the book great reviews, saying, “This beautifully illustrated self-help guide . . . reimagines monastic practices to help readers live with greater peace, simplicity and purpose.”

Danièle, thank you for a thought-provoking book and discussion.

⁠https://www.danielecybulskie.com/

Amy Tector has spent more than 20 years plumbing the secrets squirrelled away in archives — whether it's uncovering a whale's ear (true story) in a box of old photographs, or working in The Hague for the United Nations' International Criminal Tribunal for War Crimes in the former Yugoslavia, she has been privy to hidden records and extraordinary secrets. Amy’s debut novel, THE HONEYBEE EMERALDS was published in spring 2022. Her second novel, THE FOULEST THINGS, is the first in a loose trilogy centered on murders and mayhem in the archives.

Amy has a PhD in English literature and lives in Ottawa with a daughter named Violet, a husband named Andrew and a dog named Daffodil. We also talked about Leonard Cohen and his song Who by Fire; having the first draft of a novel focusing on the story, then the characters; and of course her latest novel, Speak for the Dead. Thank you very much Amy for a great conversation.

⁠https://www.amytector.com/⁠⁠https://amytector.substack.com/

Mark Everglade has spent his life studying social conflict. He runs the website ⁠www.markeverglade.com⁠ where he reviews cyberpunk media and interviews other great authors. He also runs Cyberpunk Day, October 10, each year with a group dedicated to bringing dystopian fiction to a new generation. His short stories have been featured beside legendary authors like Cory Doctorow, Walter Jon Williams, and Dr. Rudy Rucker. Today, we talked about his latest novel, Inertia, as well as music, the band Rush, and binary code. Mark also has a link to writing resources ⁠https://www.markeverglade.com/writersresources⁠

Thank you Mark for a fascinating interview.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN is the USA Today bestselling author of 14 psychological thrillers, winning the genre's most prestigious awards: five Agathas, five Anthonys, and the coveted Mary Higgins Clark Award. She’s also an investigative reporter for Boston's WHDH-TV, winning 37 EMMYs. National book reviewers call her “a superb and gifted storyteller.” Her newest is the page-turning standalone THE HOUSE GUEST – a story of psychological manipulation exploring the dark heart of marriage and friendship—it’s Gaslight meets Thelma & Louise! Publishers Weekly says, “Ryan is a master of suspense!” and the Library Journal starred review calls it "Binge-worthy.”

https://hankphillippiryan.com/

Stephanie Ellis writes dark speculative prose and poetry and has been published in a variety of magazines and anthologies. Her longer work includes the novel, The Five Turns of the Wheel and the novellas, Bottled and Paused. Her short stories can be found in the collections, The Reckoning, and As the Wheel Turns.

Her poetry has been published in the HWA Poetry Showcase Volumes VI, VII and VII, as well as other publications. She has also co-written a collection of found poetry, Foundlings, with Cindy O’Quinn based on the work Alessandro Manzetti and Linda D. Addison. A gathering of her dark twists on traditional nursery rhymes can be found in the collection, One, Two, I See You. She is co-editor of Trembling With Fear, HorrorTree.com’s online magazine and also co-edited the Daughters of Darkness anthologies. She is an active member of the HWA (Horror Writers Association). 

She lives in Wrexham, Wales, yes, that Wrexham where Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds purchased the football club, and she loves heavy metal music and poetry. Thank you Stephanie for a fun interview.

⁠https://stephanieellis.org⁠

Horror Tree site : ⁠https://horrortree.com

Joe Goldberg has been a CIA covert action officer, corporate intelligence director, international political consultant, and currently he is a college instructor and author.

His work at the CIA garnered 3 Exceptional Performance Awards. In the private sector, as leader of Corporate Intelligence at Motorola, Joe received the Meritorious Award recognizing a single individual who has made significant contributions to the intelligence profession. He has consulted on numerous international presidential, prime minister, and legislative elections. Joe is the best-selling Amazon author of two awarding-winning espionage novels, Secret Wars: An Espionage Story (2014), The Spy Devils (2021) and today I interviewed him about his latest novel, Rebellious Son. 

We talked about everything from super secret things, to being a Pantzer, plotter, the avocado wars and cartels. Thank you Joe. I had a great time.

⁠https://www.joegoldbergbooks.com/

Eileen Cook is a multi-published, award-winning author. Her novels have been published in nine languages and optioned for film and TV. She spent most of her teen years wishing she was someone else or somewhere else, which is great training for a writer. She’s an instructor/mentor with The Creative Academy and Simon Fraser University Writer’s Studio Program, where she loves helping other writers find their unique story to tell. She was a keynote speaker at the Surrey International Writers' Conference, won the Battle of the Books competition and survived talking in front of a group of over 300 grade one through three students.

Eileen and I had a great talk about her novel, You Owe Me a Murder, and the just released writing resource, Build Better Settings - How To use Setting to Show Character Arc in Your Fiction, co-written with Crystal Hunt. Thank you Eileen for a fantastic interview.

https://eileencook.com/thrillers/

https://creativeacademyforwriters.com/

Kev Harrison is a British author of dark fiction, living on the outskirts of Lisbon, Portugal. His novella, Below, is out now, while his earlier novella, The Balance, is available from Lycan Valley Press. His debut collection, Paths Best Left Untrodden, is out now from Northern Republic. His short fiction has been featured in a number of anthologies and magazines, as well as on podcasts such as Tales to Terrify and The Other Stories from Hawk and Cleaver. When not writing dark tales, Kev can be found running, sampling too many craft beers for his own good, singing bizarre songs to his cats, and travelling to far flung places with his better half, Ana.

Kev and I discuss character motivation, be it a thriller novel or horror; religion and running.

Debra Purdy Kong was a criminology student and spent many hours writing about criminal behaviour for term papers. When she received her diploma from Douglas College, she realized that she’d rather write crime fiction than work for the Criminal Justice System, a decision she’s never regretted. While learning the craft of writing through courses, conferences, workshops, books, and critique groups, she worked as a secretary for accountants, academics, lawyers, and others. When she left full time employment to raise her children, she used pockets of free time to develop short fiction while she kept working on mystery novels. When her children grew older, she ventured into security work. In today's podcast we talk about 2023 being a year of transition and how transition is occurring in her personal life as well as in her writing life. We also talked about Debra's security work and how she's worked it into her Casey Holland mystery series, in particular, her latest novella, A Gold Satin Murder.

Debra Purdy Kong

Jonathan Whitelaw is an author, award-winning journalist and broadcaster. He’s worked the frontline of Scottish politics, before he moved into journalism. The subjects he’s covered have varied from breaking news, the arts, culture, sports, radioactive waste, music and fashion. He’s a reviewer for the BBC and STV. We talk about his third novel, The Bingo Hall Detectives, a fast-paced, intriguing, laugh-out-loud cozy. As well, I find out why Jonathan and his family moved from Scotland to Edmonton, Alberta during the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Thank you to the Whitelaw family for moving to Canada. Thank you Jonathan for a fun interview, and I'm glad I asked you a super hard question. Besides Jonathan's social links, I have links to the writing courses Jonathan also instructs.

Writing Courses:

https://www.alexandrawriters.org/store/p229/get-cozy-with-your-killers.html https://www.alexandrawriters.org/store/p208/online-the-zebra-got-away-with-it.html