Travis interviews fantasy author Anna Stephens about The Stone Knife, the first book in The Songs of the Drowned trilogy from Harper Voyager. It's set in a Central American inspired jungle world where a magical empire is attempting to conquer its neighboring tribes, who happen to be a bit busy fighting the reptilian siren monsters lurking in the water.

Anna and Travis discuss dealing with imposter syndrome, historical Italian longsword fighting, and why grimdark fantasy books should never be shelved in the children's section of the book store.

About Anna Stephens:

Anna is a UK-based author of gritty epic fantasy. Her debut novel, Godblind, was published through Harper Voyager in June 2017, with the sequels coming in 2018 and 2019. You can sign up to her newsletter here: https://anna-stephens.com/get-in-touch/

Anna has a BA (Hons) in Literature from the Open University and has wanted to be a writer for as long as she can remember. She much prefers the worlds she makes up to the real thing, even if most of her characters meet sticky ends.

Anna lives with her husband, a huge book, music and movie collection, and no pets. She intends to remedy this lack of furry friends as soon as fame and fortune strike.

You can help her realise her twin dreams of being an author and a proud dog-walker by buying her book. Thanks.

Find Anna Stephens on Twitter, Instagram, or at her website anna-stephens.com/. Check out her Patreon at patreon.com/annastephenswordseeker.

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The blog post accompanying this episode can be found at https://thefantasyinn.com, along with fantasy book reviews, author interviews, and more fantasy content.

Travis interviews author and sound designer Essa Hansen about Nophek Gloss, her debut space opera from Orbit Books. It has a bit of everything: an epic quest for revenge, a vast multiverse full of alien creatures, and a wholesome crew that becomes a found family.

Essa and Travis discuss sound designing the Marvel Cinematic Universe, how to write found families, and the process of creating a bubble multiverse that bends the laws of physics.

About Essa Hansen:

Essa Hansen grew up in beautifully wild areas of California, from the coastal foothills to the Sierra Nevada mountains around Yosemite, before migrating north to the Canadian Rocky Mountains. She has ranched bison and sheep, trained horses, practiced Japanese swordsmanship, and is a licensed falconer. She attended the Vancouver Film School and works as a sound designer for SF and fantasy feature films (IMDB). Essa lives with her British Shorthair cat Soki in the San Francisco Bay Area.

You can find Essa Hansen on Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram, or at her website essahansen.com.

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The blog post accompanying this episode can be found at https://thefantasyinn.com, along with fantasy book reviews, author interviews, and more fantasy content.

Travis interviews author Christopher Paolini about To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, the first Fractalverse novel from Tor Books. Paolini's debut science fiction novel is a massive standalone space opera following a xenobiologist. It has first contact gone wrong, meticulously researched faster than light travel, and an epic adventure across the universe.

Christopher and Travis discuss the secret Eldest film that almost was, what readers can expect for the future of the Fractalverse, and perhaps most importantly: the timeless art of the terrible pun.

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About Christopher Paolini:

Christopher Paolini is the author of the international bestsellers Eragon, Eldest, Brisingr, and Inheritance, as well as The Fork, the Witch, and the Worm. His debut science fiction novel, To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, is now available. He resides in Paradise Valley, Montana, USA.

You can find Christopher Paolini on Twitter as Paolini, Instagram as Christopher_Paolini, or at his website paolini.net.

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The blog post accompanying this episode can be found at https://thefantasyinn.com, along with fantasy book reviews, author interviews, and more fantasy content.

It's all in the title really: what makes a great character? This week, the Fantasy Inn tries to work out their feelings on the topic.

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The blog post accompanying this episode can be found at https://thefantasyinn.com, along with fantasy book reviews, author interviews, and more fantasy content.

Travis interviews author R.F. Kuang about The Burning God, the final novel in The Poppy War trilogy from Harper Voyager. The series reimagines the Second Sino-Japanese War set in a fantasy analogue of the Song Dynasty following a protagonist who parallels Mao Zedong's rise to power.

Rebecca and Travis discuss her conflicted emotions at saying goodbye to the Poppy War series, revisit her powerful acceptance speech after winning the Astounding award for best new writer, and question the role of fantasy in a world whose problems may demand a more direct response.

About R.F. Kuang:

Rebecca F. Kuang is a Marshall Scholar, Chinese-English translator, and the Astounding Award-winning and Nebula, Locus, and World Fantasy Award nominated author of the Poppy War trilogy. Her work has won the Crawford Award and the Compton Crook Award for Best First Novel. She has an MPhil in Chinese Studies from Cambridge and an MSc in Contemporary Chinese Studies from Oxford; she is now pursuing a PhD in East Asian Languages and Literatures at Yale.

You can find R.F. Kuang on Twitter and Instagram as @kuangrf, or at her website rfkuang.com.

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The blog post accompanying this episode can be found at https://thefantasyinn.com, along with fantasy book reviews, author interviews, and more fantasy content.

Travis interviews author Yoon Ha Lee about Phoenix Extravagant, his latest novel from Solaris Books. This standalone story follows a nonbinary painter as they team up with a pacifist mecha dragon against an evil empire, and it takes place in a magical version of Korea during the Japanese occupation.

Yoon and Travis discuss Yoon's experience with watercolor and animation, the important role of art in culture, and how colonization seeks to undermine and destroy that role.

About Yoon Ha Lee:

A Korean-American sf/f writer who received a B.A. in math from Cornell University and an M.A. in math education from Stanford University, Yoon finds it a source of continual delight that math can be mined for story ideas. Yoon’s novel Ninefox Gambit won the Locus Award for best first novel, and was a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, and Clarke awards; its sequels, Raven Stratagem and Revenant Gun, were also Hugo finalists. His middle grade space opera Dragon Pearl won the Locus Award for best YA novel and was a New York Times bestseller. Yoon’s short fiction has appeared in publications such as F&SF, Tor.com, and Clarkesworld Magazine, as well as several year’s best anthologies.

You can find Yoon on Dreamwidth, on Twitter as @deuceofgears, and on Instagram as @deuceofgears. You can find his art at deuceofgears.com and his music at soundcloud.com/deuceofgears.

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The blog post accompanying this episode can be found at https://thefantasyinn.com, along with fantasy book reviews, author interviews, and more fantasy content.

Travis interviews fantasy author Alix E. Harrow about The Once and Future Witches, her latest novel from Redhook. This standalone story follows three sisters whose fight to bring back witchcraft parallels the women's suffrage movement.

Alix and Travis discuss the power of stories, her unique method for crafting memorable prose, and weaving witchcraft into an alternative history.

About Alix E. Harrow:

Alix E. Harrow is an ex-historian with lots of opinions and excessive library fines, currently living in Kentucky with her husband and their semi-feral children. She won a Hugo for her short fiction, and has been nominated for the Nebula, Locus, and World Fantasy awards. Find her at @AlixEHarrow on Twitter, or at her website alixeharrow.wixsite.com/author.

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The blog post accompanying this episode can be found at https://thefantasyinn.com, along with fantasy book reviews, author interviews, and more fantasy content.

Travis interviews fantasy author P. Djèlí Clark about Ring Shout, his newest novella from Tordotcom. It follows three Black women in the 1920s as they fight the literal demons within the Ku Klux Klan, and blends fantasy, horror, and historical fiction.

Djèlí and Travis revisit his blog post on diversity in the Wheel of Time TV show, discuss the founding of FIYAH Literary Magazine, and talk about the history of slavery in film.

About P Djèlí Clark:

Born in New York and raised mostly in Houston, P. DJÈLÍ CLARK spent the formative years of his life in the homeland of his parents, Trinidad and Tobago. P. Djèlí Clark is the author of the novellas The Black God’s Drums, winner of a 2019 Alex Award from the American Library Association; The Haunting of Tram Car 015; and A Dead Djinn in Cairo. His short story “The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington” (Fireside Fiction) has earned him both a Nebula and Locus award. He is loosely associated with the quarterly FIYAH: A Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction and an infrequent reviewer at Strange Horizons. He currently resides in New England and ruminates on issues of diversity in speculative fiction.

You can find him on Twitter as @pdjeliclark, at his website www.pdjeliclark.com, and at his blog disgruntledharadrim.com.

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The blog post accompanying this episode can be found at https://thefantasyinn.com, along with fantasy book reviews, author interviews, and more fantasy content.

It's time for our first bonus episode! We've been promising to release one as soon as we reach $25 on Patreon, and we finally hit it! Thank you so much for helping to make this happen, we really could not do this without you. This is an extra episode in addition to our weekly releases... after all, it's a bonus!

For a while now, we've been asking podcast guests to share a couple of books that they just absolutely love. The only requirement? They have to be from currently-writing authors. We've compiled the recommendations from ten amazing authors into one special episode.

S.A. Chakraborty Loves:

Kate Elliott Loves:

Devin Madson Loves:

Jonathan Strahan Loves:

Benedict Patrick Loves:

Linden A. Lewis Loves:

Django Wexler Loves:

Karen Osborne Loves:

Andrea Stewart Loves:

C.L. Polk Loves:

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The blog post accompanying this episode can be found at https://thefantasyinn.com, along with fantasy book reviews, author interviews, and more fantasy content.

Travis interviews fantasy author C.L. Polk about their latest novel, The Midnight Bargain. It's a standalone fantasy of manners story from Erewhon Books about a woman who must choose between love and magic, set in a world where women are forbidden from practicing the art of summoning and binding magical spirits.

Cee and Travis talk about adding emotional churn to your writing, the big gorgeous dresses of 18th century fashion, and her time as an extra in the Canadian television industry.

About C.L. Polk:

C. L. Polk (she/her/they/them) is the author of the World Fantasy Award-winning debut novel Witchmark, the first novel of the Kingston Cycle. Her newest novel, The Midnight Bargain, is upcoming in 2020 from Erehwon Books.

After leaving high school early, she has worked as a film extra, sold vegetables on the street, and identified exotic insect species for a vast collection of lepidoptera before settling down to write silver fork fantasy novels.

Ms. Polk lives near the Bow River in Calgary, Alberta, in a tiny apartment with too many books and a yarn stash that could last a decade. She rides a green bicycle with a basket on the front.

She drinks good coffee because life is too short. She spends too much time on Twitter. You can subscribe to her free newsletter on Substack.

Her website is clpolk.com.

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The blog post accompanying this episode can be found at https://thefantasyinn.com, along with fantasy book reviews, author interviews, and more fantasy content.