UpperPen Podcast

Author The Longwinded One joins UpperPen to discuss Get Trucked, his LitRPG reverse-isekai novel on Royal Road, and the companion app Endr, which lets readers see the in-world app used to isekai characters.

The app is out now on the Google App Store and iOS.

Get Trucked is still being released on Royal Road. Go show The Longwinded One some love for this fun book.

Author Edward Ashton joins UpperPen to discuss his new novel After the Fall, exploring love and power imbalance, personal storytelling, and the influence of Kurt Vonnegut’s dark comedy on his work.

Author Kate Quinn joins UpperPen to discuss The Astral Library, magical libraries as sanctuaries, choosing books to live inside, costume design, and the craft of building safe havens for lost and lonely characters.

The Astral Library is in stores everywhere February 17th, 2026!

Author Helen Phifer joins UpperPen to discuss her upcoming novel The Vanishing Bookstore, exploring Salem, Massachusetts, witches and womanhood, mystery pacing, and the craft behind a powerful, violent opening.

Translator Anne McKnight joins UpperPen to discuss Long Take, a collection of interviews and writings from Akira Kurosawa. We explore Kurosawa’s films, his childhood influences, the challenges of translation, and his work as a wartime propagandist filmmaker.

Author The Longwinded One and narrator Chris Tucci discuss The Breaking Annwn (Book 2 of The Four Treasures Saga), exploring tonal shifts in LitRPG series, writing with friends, and producing a multi-narrator audiobook.

In this episode, author The Longwinded One and narrator Chris Tucci talk about the evolution of The Four Treasures Saga, focusing on The Breaking Annwn, a darker, more serious second installment in the series.

Author Suzannah Rowntree joins UpperPen to discuss The Werewolf of Whitechapel. In this episode, Rowntree talks about her novel The Werewolf of Whitechapel, a dark reimagining of Victorian England that blends history, horror, and social critique. We also discuss how historical fiction can interrogate injustice, why monsters often represent systems of power, and how the past continues to haunt the present.Whether you’re a reader of historical fiction, gothic horror, or a writer interested in using real history as narrative fuel, this conversation offers insight into how fiction can reveal deeper truths.Suzannah Rowntree is the author of The Werewolf of Whitechapel, book 1 of Miss Sharp's Monsters, historical horror that reimagines Victorian England through the lens of werewolves, gender, and power. https://suzannahrowntree.weebly.com/gaslampfantasy.htmlYouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/@UpperPenPodcast

UpperPen.com

New episodes Fridays at 11 AM ESTSubscribe for conversations on craft, publishing, and books.

In this episode, acclaimed translator, poet, and scholar Jeffrey Angles takes us inside his translation of The Luminous Fairies and Mothra by Shin’ichirō Nakamura, Takehiko Fukunaga, and Yoshie Hotta, offering deep insight into the origins of the film, the cultural landscape of Japan in the early 1960s, and the complexities of bringing Japanese prose into English.

Whether you're a fan of kaiju films, Japanese literature, translation craft, or cultural history, this is a rare look at the story that helped define one of Japan’s most iconic movie monsters.

#Mothra #Kaiju #JapaneseLiterature #BookTranslation #JeffreyAngles #TheLuminousFairiesAndMothra #JapaneseHistory #Translation

Watch the interview on YouTube

Editor R.B. Wood of Ruadán Books joins UpperPen to discuss how to submit your fiction, what kinds of stories editors are looking for, how to stand out from the slush pile, and how writers can explore cities—and themselves—through storytelling.

Editor John Joseph Adams joins UpperPen to discuss curating The Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy 2025 anthology, how stories make it through the slush pile, and what editors really look for in great speculative fiction.

Welcome to UpperPen, where we explore the craft of writing, editing, and publishing.

In this conversation, John Joseph Adams—award-winning editor, publisher, and series editor for The Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy—pulls back the curtain on how anthologies come together, what he likes in a short story, and the evolving world of science fiction and fantasy publishing.

Whether you’re a reader, writer, or editor, this episode is packed with insight into the creative and editorial process behind some of today’s best science fiction and fantasy.

You can find John at JohnJosephAdams.com.

About John Joseph Adams:John Joseph Adams is the editor of numerous acclaimed anthologies and the series editor of The Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy, published annually by Mariner Books. His work has been a finalist for the Hugo and World Fantasy Awards, and he is known for championing emerging voices in speculative fiction.Find me at: UpperPen.comNew episodes Fridays at 11 AM ESTSubscribe for more conversations on writing, editing, and the publishing world.#WritingCommunity #ScienceFiction #FantasyBooks #Publishing #UpperPen #JohnJosephAdams #BestAmericanScienceFictionAndFantasy #SpeculativeFiction #BookEditing #WritersLife #Podcast #AuthorInterview