Signal Boost

In today’s episode of Signal Boost, Elizabeth talks to Steph Matuku, author of the debut novel, Flight of the Fantail, and the children’s book, Whetū Toa and the Magician. Both are out from HUIA Publishers in New Zealand. The two talk about how Steph treated the environment as a character, the influence her Maori culture has on her books, how she was sponsored (and published!) through the Te Papa Tupu writing program, the tough reality of writing, and more!

Then Jen reminisces about UCSC (GO SLUGS!) with author Bethany C. Morrow for hours and hours. Kidding! The two explore Bethany’s historical fantasy science fiction novel, MEM, her YA debut novel, A Song Below Water, and her upcoming YA anthology, Take the Mic: Fictional Stories of Everyday Resistance. They discuss the effect that omitting whiteness has upon a story, the importance of resistance to her writing, the sinister reality of west coast liberal racism, and much more.

We hope you enjoy the episode!

Show Notes:

* Steph Matuku (00:54 – 15:54)

* Steph’s Website

* Steph on Twitter

* Flight of the Fantail and Whetū Toa and the Magician (GO BUY THEM!)

* Bethany C. Morrow (16:09 – 43:24)

* Bethany’s Website

* Bethany on Twitter

* MEM (GO BUY IT!)

If you have a question you’d like us to answer, feel free to shoot us a message on our contact page.

Our new intro and outro music comes from “Dimension” by Creo (CC BY 4.0), which has been slightly modified to include sound effects and for length purposes.

In today’s episode of Signal Boost, Shaun talks to Sabrina Vourvoulias about the re-release of her incredibly prescient novel, Ink. They discuss how the book’s conversation about immigration is more timely than ever, the courageousness of Rosarium Publishing, what it means to be primed to notice the signs of authoritarianism, journalism, and much more!

Then Elizabeth has a chat with Stephanie Gunn about her new novella, Icefall. They talk about the colonialist issues of mountain climbing, the challenges of being a female mountineer, how technology can reduce accessibility rather than improve it, and the co-existence of science and spirituality.

We hope you enjoy the episode!

Show Notes:

* Sabrina Vourvoulias (00:54 – 25:23)

* Sabrina’s Website

* Sabrina on Twitter

* Our Previous Interview on Ink

* Ink (GO BUY IT!)

* Stephanie Gunn (25:38 – 38:02)

* Steph’s Website

* Steph on Twitter

* Icefall (GO BUY IT!)

* Twelfth Planet Press

If you have a question you’d like us to answer, feel free to shoot us a message on our contact page.

Our new intro and outro music comes from “Dimension” by Creo (CC BY 4.0), which has been slightly modified to include sound effects and for length purposes.

In today’s episode of Signal Boost, Jen talks to Betsy Dornbusch, author of the Seven Eyes series and much more, about her new novel, The Silver Scar. Betsy shares with us a little about the story, why she decided on a blending of genres to create the setting, the way in which the religious war is more about resources and power than it is religion, what compels her to write male protoganists, and why she included a queer relationship!

Then Shaun hangs out with Dax Murray, author of several queer novels, to talk about feir brand new lesbian space goddess novel (in verse!), Birthing Orion. They discuss how Dax was inspired by astrophysics, why fey decided to tell this story in verse, and about the incredible artwork in the book, then Dax shares with us what feir next project is (hint: it involves unicorns!).

We hope you enjoy the episode!

Show Notes:

* Betsy Dornbusch (00:54 – 15:41)

* Betsy’s Website

* Betsy’s Instagram

* Betsy on Twitter

* The Silver Scar (GO BUY IT!)

* Dax Murray (15:56 – 34:08)

* Dax’s Website

* Dax on Twitter

* Birthing Orion (GO BUY IT!)

* Dax’s Cats

* “Why Pépito the Cat is More Famous Than You” by Allison Tierney

If you have a question you’d like us to answer, feel free to shoot us a message on our contact page.

Our new intro and outro music comes from “Dimension” by Creo (CC BY 4.0), which has been slightly modified to include sound effects and for length purposes.

In today’s episode of Signal Boost, Shaun talks to DC, creator of the table-top role-playing game, Mutants in the Night. They discuss how Mutants in the Night utilizes the Forged in the Dark RPG system to explore marginalization, what inspired them to create RPGs in the first place, how RPGs allow us to create a space that isn’t plagued by problems of colonization, the way that language, ttrpgs, and jazz are connected, and their next project!

Then our special guest host, Tonia Thompson, founder and executive producer of Nightlight Podcast, talks to Chinelo Onwualu, Nommo finalist short story writer of the phenomenal “Read Before Use” and co-founder and editor of Omenana magazine. Chinelo shares the history of her writing career, the themes of “Read Before Use” and how they were inspired by her home country of Nigeria, how living between two worlds influences her writing, her work on and the goals of both Omenana and Anathema magazines, and so much more!

We hope you enjoy the episode!

Show Notes:

* DC (00:55 – 24:59)

* DC’s Website

* DC on Twitter

* Mutants in the Night (GO BUY IT!)

* Chinelo Onwualu (25:13 – 43:34)

* Chinelo’s Website

* Chinelo on Twitter

* Omenana (GO BUY IT!)

* Anathema (GO BUY IT!)

* Tonia Thompson

* Tonia’s Website

* Tonia on Twitter

* Nightlight Podcast (GO LISTEN!)

* Nightlight on Twitter

If you have a question you’d like us to answer, feel free to shoot us a message on our contact page.

Our new intro and outro music comes from “Dimension” by Creo (CC BY 4.0), which has been slightly modified to include sound effects and for length purposes.

In today’s episode of Signal Boost, Shaun talks to Charlie J. Eskew, author of the debut novel, Tales of the Astonishing Black Spark! Charlie tells us all about his new book, Black superheroes, dealing with contemporary issues through the superhero genre, tokenism, why he decided not to set his book in Metropolis, and so much more!

Then Jen talks to Danny Lore, a queer writer of color with multiple published short stories, an acquiring editor at FIYAH Literary Magazine, a comic book editor, and more! Danny talks about how they use werewolves to tell stories about transformation, anxiety, and the Black experience, their work to bring Black stories to light through FIYAH, and all about their work editing The Wilds, a comic by Vita Ayala & Emily Pearson!

We hope you enjoy the episode!

Show Notes:

* Charlie J. Eskew (00:53 – 22:43)

* Charlie’s Website

* Charlie on Twitter

* Tales of the Astonishing Black Spark (GO BUY IT!)

* Danny Lore (22:57 – 42:26)

* Danny’s Website

* Danny on Twitter

* The Wilds (GO BUY IT!)

* Death of the Horror Kickstarter (GO SUPPORT IT!)

If you have a question you’d like us to answer, feel free to shoot us a message on our contact page.

Our new intro and outro music comes from “Dimension” by Creo (CC BY 4.0), which has been slightly modified to include sound effects and for length purposes.

In today’s episode of Signal Boost, Jen talks to C.L. Polk, author of the debut novel Witchmark from Tor.Com Publishing. We learn what inspired C.L. to set the novel in an allegorical post-WWI England, how she developed a complex governmental and class system around a simple magic system, what compels the m/m romance that is central to the plot, what we can look forward to in book two of the series, and more!

Then Jen sits down with her boss over at Nightlight Podcast, Tonia Thompson. They discuss how Tonia’s work in horror has taken on a multi-media life, what makes the form of Twitter horror so compelling, why she started Nightlight Pod, what you can expect to find over there during the month of October and all year long, and much more! Plus, Tonia shares her favorite form of torture.

We hope you enjoy the episode!

Show Notes:

* CL Polk (00:55 – 16:22)

* C.L.’s Website

* C.L. on Twitter

* Witchmark (GO BUY IT!)

* Tonia Thompson (16:37 – 36:07)

* Tonia’s Website

* Tonia on Twitter

* Nightlight Podcast (GO LISTEN!)

* Nightlight on Twitter

If you have a question you’d like us to answer, feel free to shoot us a message on our contact page.

Our new intro and outro music comes from “Dimension” by Creo (CC BY 4.0), which has been slightly modified to include sound effects and for length purposes.

We know, we know. It’s been an age and a half since Shaun and Jen sat down to have a conversation, but we’re back to let you know about a very special month at Skiffy and Fanty — Black Speculative Fiction Month! October was designated Black Speculative Fiction month in 2013 by Milton Davis and Balogun Ojetade (who also co-edited the anthology Steamfunk), and after hearing about it, we knew that we had to celebrate it. In consultation with Tonia Thompson of Nightlight Pod and our very own Teri.Zin (who has a new amazing essay over at Uncanny Magazine that you should go read immediately), we’re working on some amazing content for you guys.

In addition to discussing our upcoming month of awesome, we also explain why we’ve been gone and briefly tackle the mess over at Goodreads regarding how they deleted two magazines, Fiyah and Anathema, by and for people of color. And, as always, we share some awesome things for our mini-boosts.

We hope you enjoy the episode!

Show Notes:

Mini-Boosts

* Shaun’s Boosts:

Wrestling with the Devil: A Prison Memoir by Ngugi wa Thiong’o

* Bodyminds Reimagined: (Dis)ability, Race, and Gender in Black Women’s Speculative Fiction by Sami Schal

* Jen’s Boosts:

* Eye on Sci-Fi Podcast

* Nightlight Pod

Additional Links:

* Happy Black Speculative Fiction Month

* This Month (And Every Month), Black Sci-Fi Writers Look To The Future

* Black Speculative Fiction Brought Out My Most Magical Self

* October is Black Speculative Fiction Month…Y’all Ready for This?

* All Issues of FIYAH Literary Magazine Removed from Goodreads

If you have a question you’d like us to answer, feel free to shoot us a message on our contact page.

Our new intro and outro music comes from “Dimension” by Creo (CC BY 4.0), which has been slightly modified to include sound effects and for length purposes.

In today’s episode of Signal Boost, Jen talks to to Rhonda Parrish and Greg Bechtel, the co-editors of Edge Publishing’s anthology Tesseracts 21: Nevertheless. They discuss how each got involved with this collection of optimistic speculative fiction stories, how the theme was impacted by the 2016 US election, how persistence, specifically, became a dominant message, and a little bit about how an editor of anthology comes up with a title and an contents order (hint: it might involve beer).

Then Paul speaks with Peter Tieryas about his new stand-alone novel in the United States of Japan universe, Mecha Samurai Empire. They discuss the influence that Philip K. Dick’s Man in the High Castle had on Peter’s books, delve into the main characters of Mecha Samurai Empire, explore how Kaiju play a roll in a surprising way, and hint at the connection to the Records of the Three Kingdoms from Chinese history. Also, Mecha!!!

We hope you enjoy the episode!

Show Notes:

* Rhonda Parrish & Greg Bechtel (00:55 – 19:43)

* Twelfth Planet Press’ Website

* Rhonda’s Website

* Rhonda on Twitter

* Greg’s Website

* Greg on Twitter

* Tesseracts 21: Nevertheless (GO BUY IT!)

* Peter Tieryas (19:58 – 46:23)

* Peter’s Website

* Peter on Twitter

* Mecha Samurai Empire (GO BUY IT!)

If you have a question you’d like us to answer, feel free to shoot us a message on our contact page.

Our new intro and outro music comes from “Dimension” by Creo (CC BY 4.0), which has been slightly modified to include sound effects and for length purposes.

In today’s episode of Signal Boost, Elizabeth talks to Dr. Tansy Rayner Roberts, writer and editor extraordinaire, about 12th Planet Press’s robot creation anthology, Mother of Invention, which Tansy co-edited with Rivqa Rafael! The two discuss a bit of Tansy’s experience as an editor, how much she enjoyed going through the Kickstarter progress, what the anthology is about and how they gathered the stories (including one by Elizabeth! Yay Elizabeth!), and much more!

Elizabeth stays down-under with an interview with Sam Hawke about his debut novel, City of Lies! They discuss how Sam’s love of food inspired a central premise of the story, what made her decide to focus on a sibling relationship and how that relationship was complicated by the physical limitations of one of them, the myth that women don’t write epic fantasy, and more!

We hope you enjoy the episode!

Show Notes:

* Dr. Tansy Rayner Roberts (00:53 – 21:34)

* Twelfth Planet Press’ Website

* Tansy’s Website

* Tansy on Twitter

* Mother of Invention (GO BUY IT!)

* Sam Hawke (21:48 – 38:24)

* Sam’s Website

* Sam on Twitter

* City of Lies (GO BUY IT!)

If you have a question you’d like us to answer, feel free to shoot us a message on our contact page.

Our new intro and outro music comes from “Dimension” by Creo (CC BY 4.0), which has been slightly modified to include sound effects and for length purposes.

After a long break, we’re back with not two but THREE WHOLE INTERVIEWS! Because you deserve it (and also we need to catch up).

In today’s episode of Signal Boost, Paul talks to Claire O’Dell (the pen name of Beth Bernobich) about the first book in her new science fiction mystery series inspired by Sherlock Homes, A Study in Honor. They discuss why Claire chose both the specific new voices for Watson and Sherlock, how the setting came about, the intersections of race, class, and power that she explores, and more!

Then Becca is joined by Daniel Hansen, author of The Trickster’s War Series, the short story collection, This Coyote’s Life as Told by an Old NDN, and so much more. They discuss the influence that the stories of his childhood have had on his work, why his work might be identified as magical realism, the differences between writing novels and short stories, and, as always, more!

Last, but certainly not least, Paul is joined by Ilana C. Myer about the sequel to Last Song Before Night, Fire Dance! They discuss how Fire Dance builds upon the first book but still remains accessible to new readers, the real world models that influenced the world-building, the consequences of bringing magic into a world that hadn’t had any, and the power of Ursula K. LeGuin.

We hope you enjoy the episode!

Show Notes:

* Claire O’Dell (00:53 – 16:10)

* Claire’s Website

* Claire on Twitter

* A Study in Honor (GO BUY IT!)

* Daniel Hansen (16:24 – 28:03)

* Daniel’s Website

* Daniel on Twitter

* Daniel’s Books (GO BUY BOOKS!)

* Ilana C. Myer (28:18 – 43:03)

* Ilana’s Website

* Ilana on Twitter

* Fire Dance (GO BUY IT!)

If you have a question you’d like us to answer, feel free to shoot us a message on our contact page.

Our new intro and outro music comes from “Dimension” by Creo (CC BY 4.0), which has been slightly modified to include sound effects and for length purposes.