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 […]
Tor Books
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.
SFF Addicts Ep. 110: Making Old Monsters New Again with Christopher Buehlman (Mini-Masterclass)
Join co-hosts Adrian M. Gibson and M.J. Kuhn as they delve into a mini-masterclass on Making Old Monsters New Again with author Christopher Buehlman. During the episode, Christopher uncovers the mysteries of old monsters, exploring examples of classic monsters, human psychology and allegory, advantages of using classic monsters, monster films and why some monsters feel dated, approaches for different genres/monsters, researching monsters, atmosphere, setting and emotion, gore vs. psychological horror, new takes on old monsters and more.
Review: Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Adrian Tchaikovsky can do no wrong. Service Model is an utter triumph of fun sci-fi with an added edge of things being a liiiiittle too close to home. Told entirely from the perspective of Charles, a personal valet robot who embarks on quite the journey.
Charles at the start of the book is a very unintentionally humorous robot, and his observations of the world around him are so very naive. I really enjoyed the first quarter of the book where he’s interacting with other robots who are following their routines, and the lack of human interaction is messing with their systems. A particular favourite was the detective and doctor robots, it was for me the first realisation of just how funny this book can be.
SFF Addicts Ep. 109: Christopher Buehlman talks The Daughter’s War, Atmosphere, Voice & More
Join co-hosts Adrian M. Gibson and M.J. Kuhn as they chat with author Christopher Buehlman about his new novel The Daughter’s War, The Blacktongue Thief, renaissance fairs, “Christoph the Insulter,” comedy and empathy, creating an engrossing atmosphere, writing a range of voices and tones, invention vs. research, trusting your characters and much more.
SFF Addicts Ep. 104: Outlining Your Story with Veronica Roth (Mini-Masterclass)
Join co-hosts Adrian M. Gibson and M.J. Kuhn as they delve into a mini-masterclass on Outlining Your Story with bestselling author Veronica Roth. During the episode, Veronica lays out some foundations for flexible outlines, including how she became an outliner, starting a new outline, characters/world/plot as a “soup,” outlining (and re-outlining) complex plots, how to pace using an outline, planning plot twists and foreshadowing, getting feedback during outlining, themes, flexibility and more.
SFF Addicts Ep. 103: Veronica Roth talks When Among Crows, Slavic Folkore, Dystopias & More
Join co-hosts Adrian M. Gibson and M.J. Kuhn as they chat with bestselling author Veronica Roth about her new novella When Among Crows, Divergent and managing success, dystopias and surveillance, writing adult SFF vs. YA, The Witcher and Polish folklore, writing novellas and multiple POVs, shifts in the publishing industry, worldbuilding approaches and much more.
SFF Addicts Ep. 102: Thieves & Rogues in SFF with James Logan (Mini-Masterclass)
Join co-hosts Adrian M. Gibson and M.J. Kuhn as they delve into a mini-masterclass on Thieves & Rogues in SFF with author James Logan. During the episode, James dons his hood to discuss thieves, rogues and ne’er do wells, including why they’re fascinating to read and write, thieves and rogues in relation to setting, the relationship between world, characters and power dynamics, the act of negotiation, moral grayness, city settings, mood, humor and more.
SFF Addicts Ep. 101: James Logan talks The Silverblood Promise, Editing, Debuts & More
Join co-hosts Adrian M. Gibson and M.J. Kuhn as they chat with author/editor James Logan about his debut novel The Silverblood Promise, editing and working in publishing, Indiana Jones, Locke Lamora and inspirations, creating compelling main characters, the path to publication, launching a debut novel and much more.