SAM Magazine

E118 - Meredith Hambrock is a Canadian fiction and television writer who grew up in Toronto and now lives in Vancouver. Her short fiction has appeared in several magazines, including Maisonneuve and Descant. She’s been a finalist for the CBC Short Story Prize and most recently wrote for the sitcom Corner Gas Animated. Today we’ll be talking about her debut novel, Other People’s Secrets, as well as 5 beat story structure, that vomit first draft, messy heroines and the events that occur in small towns. Thank you Meredith for joining me.

Meredith Hambrock

E117 - Award-winning sci-fiction author Edward M. Lerner joins me in the studio. On Edward’s website, it is written Edward is the perpetrator of science fiction and techno-thrillers. While you probably know Ed from his SF novels, including the InterstellarNet series and the epic Fleet of Worlds series with Larry Niven, Ed is a prolific author of acclaimed short fiction. The Best of Edward M. Lerner showcases his finest and favorite shorter works.

Edward is a physicist and computer scientist. After thirty years in the industry, working at every level from individual technical contributor to senior vice president, he now writes full-time. In addition to science fiction and technothrillers, he also writes popular science, notably including Trope-ing the Light Fantastic: The Science behind the Fiction. Edward is the recipient of the Canopus Award, a Hugo finalist for best novelette Championship B’tok; Fate of Worlds (with Larry Niven) was a Locus Award finalist, and many more.

https://www.edwardmlerner.com/

E116 - Award-winning author Benny Sims returns to the podcast and we talk about his second novel, Mile Marker Zero. Benny's love of storytelling traces back to reading Jack London’s The Call of The Wild when he was seven years old. He remembers his uncle telling him stories about being an artillery cannoneer in North Africa and Italy during World War II.

Benny grew up in Tennessee but moved to the small town of Benton in southern Illinois when he was 14. After attending college in Murray, Kentucky, he relocated back to Tennessee to work as a journalist. Later he worked for three decades in the aerospace industry in Huntsville, Alabama.

Benny and I talk about Benton, the late George Harrison, and George Harrison's sister. As well as, when is that novel really done? And how many endings do we write, before we write the ending. 

https://bennysims.com/books/

E115 - Thriller authors, Susan Jane Wright and PJ (Pamela) Donnison join me in the studio. We enjoyed a roundtable discussion about lawyers as protagonists and the hazards and legalities involved with our protagonists having that occupation. Susan Jane Wright is a Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence Finalist. Her debut novel Box of Secrets was in Amazon’s top 100 and was at the number 3 spot in the Calgary Herald Best Sellers list then went up to #2 in its second week of release. The second novel in her Evie Valentine series, The Glass Lake is being released on Nov 23, 2022. Susan was a lawyer and an executive in the energy sector before she became a writer. Her legal career took her from the board rooms in Calgary to the streets of Beijing. She’s received the PIA Public Interest Award for Southern Alberta and the Canadian Law Blog Award for her legal blog Susan on the Soapbox. Welcome, Susan.

PJ (Pamela) Donison, has been a writer in one iteration or other her entire life. Currently a practicing attorney, she is a former award-winning military journalist and acquisitions manager for a division of Harcourt Brace. Her work has been published in numerous legal periodicals, as well as chapters in three legal anthologies. Her short fiction has been published by The Dillydoun Review and Drunk Monkeys. Pamela’s first full-length novel, Death Comes for Christmas, is a murder mystery set in Regina, Saskatchewan, and the first in her Camelia Belmont series of 12.

https://susanjanewright.ca/

https://pjdonison.com/

E114 - Zachary Hagen is a Mississippi based fantasy author and editor. When he isn't busy writing his next book or working with an editing client, you can often find him walking around his neighborhood or hiking.

From a young age he was enthralled with the world of story. From the stories his parents read to him from his blue bedtime story books to the first two series that he read, The Chronicles of Narnia and A Series of Unfortunate Events. Zachary's tastes continued to develop throughout his years of reading. The influences for his first series, The Eternal Chronicles, include Christopher Paolini, J. R. R. Tolkien, and C. S. Lewis to name a few. 

Thank you Zachary for an interesting conversation about faith and using the bible for inspiration for novels.

https://zacharyhagenwrites.com/

E113 - Award-winning author JP (Jo-Anne) McLean writes urban fantasy and supernatural thrillers that readers call addictive, smart, and fun. She is a 2021 finalist for the Chanticleer Paranormal Award for Supernatural Fiction, and the Wishing Shelf Book award for Adult Fiction. Her work has won a Readers’ Favorite Award, a Gold Literary Titan medal, and honourable mentions from the Whistler Independent Book Awards and the Victoria Writers’ Society. JP is a graduate of the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business. She makes her home on the coast of British Columbia.  We talked about her paranormal thriller, setting the scene and the Big Island Book Festival in Courtenay! Thank you, JP. 

https://jpmcleanauthor.com/

E112 - Natasha Deen writes for kids, teens, and adults. She believes the world is changed one story at a time, and as a Guyanese-Canadian whose family immigrated to Canada, she’s seen first-hand how stories have the power to shape the world. When she’s not writing, Natasha enjoys visiting schools, libraries and other organizations to help people to find and tell the stories that live inside them. She also spends an inordinate amount of time trying to convince her pets that she’s the boss of the house. Natasha is the author of the Lark & Connor Ba series (CCBC Best Pick for Kids & Teens, Starred Selection) and the Guardian series (Moonbeam Award, Sunburst Award nominee, Alberta Readers’ Choice nominee). Her latest novel, In the Key of Nira Ghani, is a Junior Library Guild selection and a Barnes and Noble Top 25 Most Anticipated Own Voices novel.

Natasha enjoyed "growing up in a country of snow and flannel," but sometimes being the only mixed-race child in the classroom meant being bullied and feeling invisible. There were no reflections of kids like her on TV or in the movies. Natasha and I talked right away about inclusion in the publishing world. Thank you Natasha for a great conversation.

 ⁠www.natashadeen.com

E111 - International Amazon Bestselling author, Shoshona Freedman’s debut novel, The Faithful, was an International Amazon Bestseller, it reached the Quarter Finals in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, and was selected by Suspense Magazine as a "Best Debut of 2015.” Shoshona was on my podcast on April 10, 2021, when we discussed her novel, The Day She Died. Her latest novel, Blood Atonement, is out now. Shoshona lives in Vancouver with her husband and two children. She’s a proud member of Sisters in Crime, Crime Writers of Canada, International Thriller Writers, and Mystery Writers of America.

Shoshona and I talked about cults, being in the sometimes heavy world of our fiction, and how we come up for air, especially with regards to Blood Atonement. As well as being sensitive and respectful to the portrayal of victims. It may be fiction, but our words have impact. Thank you Shoshona. It was a pleasure.

https://www.smfreedman.com/

E110 - D.C. Gomez is a four-year army vet who has a morbid and quirky sense of humor. Her heart thumps for those who serve their country and those who support them. Her love-journey of humanity is ongoing. She is an award winning, USA Today Bestselling author, public speaker, mentor and podcaster. Her podcast is Inside the Minds of Authors. She writes multiple genres from Urban Fantasy, Contemporary Literature, YA, Children’s Books and Devotionals. I believe the current count for her novels and novellas is 18. She has an undergraduate degree in Film and Television from NYU. Born in the Dominican Republic and raised in New England, she now calls Texas her new adoptive home.

https://dcgomez-author.com/

E109 - Award-winning science fiction and fantasy author, Edward Willett, joined me on the podcast. Edward (Ed) has written over 60 science fiction, fantasy and non-fiction books for readers of all ages. His science fiction and fantasy novels are published through DAW Books in New York. Under the pseudonym Lee Arthur Chane, he is the author of the steampunk fantasy novel Magebane, and as E.C. Blake, he wrote the Masks of Aygrima fantasy trilogy, Masks, Shadows, and Faces. His novel Marseguro won the 2009 Aurora Award which honours Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy. His novel Terra Insegura was a 2010 Aurora finalist and his YA novel, Star Song, was a 2022 finalist. He has also won a Saskatchewan Book Award for his YA fantasy Spirit Singer, and been shortlisted multiple times. We had a good conversation exploring sci-fi, and I learned about the lunar brewpub. 

https://edwardwillett.com/

https://shadowpawpress.com/about/