Join co-hosts Adrian M. Gibson and M.J. Kuhn as they chat with award-winning author Adrian Tchaikovsky about his new novels Days of Shattered Faith and Alien Clay, growing up on Doctor Who, how TTRPGs inspire him, ideation and the strangeness of nature, empathizing with aliens and non-human characters, creativity and limitations, authoritarianism and bureaucracy in The Tyrant Philosophers series, experimenting with multiple POVs and vignettes, colonialism, symbiosis and much more.
Tor Books
SFF Addicts Ep. 127: Convincing Details & Descriptions with Nghi Vo (Mini-Masterclass)
Join Adrian M. Gibson and guest co-host Greta Kelly as they delve into a mini-masterclass on Convincing Details & Descriptions with award-winning author Nghi Vo. During the episode, Nghi gets into the nitty gritty of details, exploring what details/descriptions can do for readers, how to approach details in your writing, delivering effective details, setting expectations for your descriptive style, description in short vs. long form fiction, surface detail vs. hyper detail, describing characters, character actions, world details, plausibility and more.
SFF Addicts Ep. 126: Nghi Vo talks The City in Glass, Love, The Great Gatsby & More
Join Adrian M. Gibson and guest co-host Greta Kelly as they chat with award-winning author Nghi Vo about her new novel The City in Glass, The Singing Hills Cycle (The Empress of Salt and Fortune and its sequels), Siren Queen and Hollywood history, The Chosen and the Beautiful and reimagining The Great Gatsby, cities and evocative settings, vibes vs. plot, angels, demons and love, change, character growth and much more.
SFF Addicts Ep. 125: Omniscient Narration & POV with Cat Rambo (Mini-Masterclass)
Join co-hosts Adrian M. Gibson and M.J. Kuhn as they delve into a mini-masterclass on Omniscient Narration & POV with award-winning author Cat Rambo. During the episode, Cat lays out all there is to know about omniscient narration, exploring what it is and when to use it, the benefits and challenges of an omniscient POV, finding a narrative voice, how to transition between characters, internal vs. external characterization, experimenting with POV styles, the viability of omniscient stories with agents/editors and more.
Book Review: Blood of the Old Kings by Sung-Il Kim
TL;DR Review: Compelling, colorful, and complex. Epic storytelling that sinks into your bones and keeps you turning pages. Synopsis: Powered by the corpses of sorcerers, the Empire has conquered the world. It claims to have brought peace and stability to its conquered lands, but some see that peace for what it is—a lie—and will give […]
Book Review: Swordcrossed by Freya Marske
TL;DR Review: High on the steam, spice, and sass. An insightful exploration of the burdens of duty and the cost of desire. Synopsis: Low stakes. High heat. Sharp steel. Mattinesh Jay, dutiful heir to his struggling family business, needs to hire an experienced swordsman to serve as best man for his arranged marriage. Sword-challenge at […]
SFF Addicts Ep. 124: Cat Rambo talks Disco Space Opera, SFWA, Teaching & More
Join co-hosts Adrian M. Gibson and M.J. Kuhn as they chat with award-winning author Cat Rambo about their new novel Rumor Has It, the Disco Space Opera series, writing in different formats and genres, working as an editor, teaching and paying it forward, SFWA and the SFF community, found family, subverting tropes, writing a long series, cooking, foodie culture (in space!) and much more.
Starter Villain by John Scalzi
Synopsis Inheriting your uncle’s supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who’s running the place. Charlie’s life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the […]
SFF Addicts Ep. 116: Writing from the End with Julia Vee & Ken Bebelle (Mini-Masterclass)
Join co-hosts Adrian M. Gibson and M.J. Kuhn as they delve into a mini-masterclass on Writing from the End with co-authors Julia Vee & Ken Bebelle. During the episode, Julia and Ken work back from the end, exploring endings that they love, how to plan your ending while leaving room for spontaneity, writing endings for sequels and series, managing subplots and side characters, effective foreshadowing, pacing and middles, character choices, emotional payoffs, ending anxiety and more.
SFF Addicts Ep. 115: Julia Vee & Ken Bebelle talk Blood Jade, Co-Writing, Sequels & More
Join co-hosts Adrian M. Gibson and M.J. Kuhn as they chat with authors Julia Vee & Ken Bebelle about their new novel Blood Jade, how they met in middle school, co-writing vs. solo writing, going from self-publishing to traditional, worldbuilding and mythology in The Phoenix Hoard, setting stories in San Francisco and Tokyo, creating characters that feels real, the challenges of writing sequels and much more.
GUEST POST: The Essential Hero’s Toolkit by R.R. Virdi
There are three tools all heroes must possess. Know them by their shape and their names. They are the candle, cloak, and cane.
Magic swords, magical horns, and magic powers. Heroes throughout myth and modern fiction have had no end of magical macguffins to seek or draw upon. But when crafting Tales of Tremaine, I wanted to look back through history, and mythology, to what heroes have often had or needed, but perhaps not always got the spotlight.
So, where did I begin?
EXCERPT: Ch. 1 of ‘The Doors of Midnight’ (Tales of Tremaine #2) by R.R. Virdi
This excerpt is part of The Doors of Midnight virtual book tour.
The Doors of Midnight by R.R. Virdi releases on Aug. 13, 2024 and is available to pre-order now.