Author Interview: Kathe Koja

Today I am interviewing Kathe Koja, author of the new short-fiction collection, Velocities. 

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DJ: Hi Kathe! Thanks for stopping by to do this interview! 

For readers who aren’t familiar with you, could you tell us a little about yourself?

Kathe Koja: Hi, and thanks for the invitation! I’m a writer – working on my 18th book now – and an event creator, putting together creative artists from various disciplines to make immersive events. 

DJ: What is Velocities about?

Kathe: Velocities is my second fiction collection, bringing together stories I chose that seemed to have a similar feeling, or mood, or attitude. It wasn’t a strict or even really conscious process, more like arranging a bouquet of strange flowers than assembling a construct.

DJ: What were some of the inspirations behind Velocities? 

Kathe: I’ve written a lot of short stories. And my last collection, Extremities, came out quite awhile ago. And I had two unpublished stories I wanted to share, so  . . . It was the right time to put together a new collection. 

DJ: What kinds of stories can readers expect in the anthology?

Kathe: There are straight-up horror stories here, there are historical stories, there are totally unclassifiable stories. But all of them offer a reader a moment of connection with a character. All my fiction, stories and novels, begins always with a character.

Author Interview: Jon Skovron

Today I am interviewing Jon Skovron, author of the new fantasy novel, The Ranger of Marzanna, first book in The Goddess War trilogy.

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DJ: Hi Jon! Thanks for agreeing to do this interview! 

For readers who aren’t familiar with you, could you tell us a little about yourself?

Jon Skovron: Hi DJ! I live just outside Washington DC with my two teenagers and two cats. My first novel was published way back in 2009. It was a YA novel from Amulet called Struts & Frets. I went on to write three other YA novels before deciding to switch to writing “adult” novels. Well, not really deciding, I guess. I just started writing it and after about six chapters realized it was not YA. That ended up becoming Hope and Red, my debut adult fantasy novel, and the first book of the Empire of Storms trilogy from Orbit Books, which was completed back in I think 2017? Or thereabouts. My editor wanted me to release them nine months apart, so that whole period in my life is a little bit of a blur… 

DJ: What is The Ranger of Marzanna about?

Jon: The Ranger of Marzanna is set in a wintery fantasy landscape inspired largely by my ancestral Poland and Czarist Russia. It’s a land that was conquered two decades before by a vast empire. Those who tried to stop the empire from their conquest, the fabled and mysterious Rangers of Marzanna, were nearly exterminated in the aftermath. Only one elderly Ranger managed to escape the purge but he manages to pass on his mystical secrets to a young woman named Sonya. When Sonya’s father is murdered by the empire, she resolves not merely to get revenge, but to liberate her people from the empire. Unfortunately, her younger brother Sebastian, a profoundly gifted wizard, becomes enthralled by the charismatic imperial commander and decides to join the empire instead, setting the siblings on a collision course that gets very messy indeed. 

Author Interview: Breanna Teintze

Today I am interviewing Breanna Teintze, author of the new fantasy novel, Lady of Shadows, second book in the The Empty Gods series.

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DJ: Hi Breanna! Thanks for agreeing to do this interview! 

For readers who aren’t familiar with you, could you tell us a little about yourself?

Breanna Teintze: Hi there! I’m always having to wrack my brain to figure out what would be interesting about me–outwardly I have a fairly plain life. I’m a registered nurse, I live more or less in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by orchards and onion farms, and I was homeschooling my three kids before the entire world had to start emergency homeschooling. I’ve been writing since I was small, and last year Jo Fletcher Books published my debut novel, Lord of Secrets, about the extremely unlucky, bad-at-adulting wizard Corcoran Gray.

DJ: What is Lady of Shadows and then The Empty Gods series about?

Breanna: Mostly the book is about consequences: the after-effects of saving the world. Outlaw wizard Corcoran Gray and his partner, Brix Rivest, are trying to rebuild their lives and adapt to the weird challenges that happen when people who have done extraordinary things try to return to normal life. Of course, life doesn’t stay normal for long, and they wind up forced to work with the organization that Gray has been spending most of his life avoiding in order to stop a magical plague.

That’s right–a plague, which is a little difficult in this present day! But I wrote the book in 2018 specifically thinking about grit, recovery, and optimism. I hope that even right now–maybe especially right now–people will find the story both fun and cathartic.

DJ: What were some of your influences for the The Empty Gods series? 

Breanna: It’s difficult to narrow them down! I think both the action and the humor in my novels owe something to 1999’s The Mummy, as well as the great over-the-top, full-of-beasties, so-bad-they’re-good space fantasy epics of the 1980s like Krull. As for actual storylines, after seeing too many stories that didn’t know what to do with a relationship once the pair got together, I wanted to write about a couple kept having adventures.

Author Interview: Matthew Ward

Today I am interviewing Matthew Ward, author of the new epic fantasy novel, Legacy of Ash, first book in the Legacy trilogy. 

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DJ: Hi Matthew! Thanks for agreeing to do this interview! 

For readers who aren’t familiar with you, could you tell us a little about yourself?

Matthew: I’m English – a Midlander by birth, for my sins. Though I love cities (especially ones steeped in history) I’m much more at home a footstep away from the wilderness. In a past life, I was employed at Games Workshop, building the Warhammer, Warhammer 40,000 and The Lord of the Rings game worlds through rules writing, range planning and fiction. These days, I split my time between being an author and working as a creative consultant.

DJ: What is Legacy of Ash about?

Matthew: Legacy of Ash is a tale of a new generation fighting the mistakes of the one that came before. The decaying Tressian Republic faces an invasion from the Hadari Empire to the east and strife from within – for the first time in a generation, long-held truths are ripe for challenge. Gods are stirring. What comes next turns on the actions of a handful of characters and their choices – whether they’ll uphold the enmities and compromises of the past, or set aside old quarrels and build something greater for the future.

It’s epic fantasy shaped by the choices of its characters. Lots of action, intrigue and impossible choices. 

DJ: What were some of your influences Legacy of Ash and the series? 

Matthew: The Lord of the Rings has always been a huge influence on my writing, though these days it’s present much more in ‘behind the curtain’ disciplines like worldbuilding and mythology. More direct influences spring from television shows like Babylon 5 and Jack Pulman’s I, Claudius and the works of Bernard Cornwell.

Visually, I draw a lot from Britain’s wealth of historical sites – particularly North Wales and Cornwall, as well as older cities like York. I like places where you can close your eyes and feel the past resonating around you. That sense that there’s something vast lurking somewhere just out of sight.

Author Interview: Tim Lebbon

Today I am interviewing Tim Lebbon, author of the new eco-horror thriller novel, Eden. 

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DJ: Hi Tim! Thanks for agreeing to do this interview! 

For readers who aren’t familiar with you, could you tell us a little about yourself?

Tim: It’s a pleasure, thanks for having me! I’ve just hit 50, and I’ve been writing for a living for 14 years, with a few years before that writing part-time. Since my first novel was published over twenty years ago I’ve had over forty novels published, dozens of novellas, hundreds of short stories. I’ve had two movies made from my books, with a few other TV and movie projects ticking over at various stages of development. I live in a nice village in South Wales with my wife and two lovely kids (they’re 21 and 17, and they’d hate me calling them kids). I’ve read compulsively since I was young, a love instilled in me by my mother. I read James Herbert’s The Rats when I was ten years old, and it didn’t do me any harm. Did it? I love real ale, endurance sport, walks in the countryside, nature, and cake.    

DJ: What is Eden about?

Tim: Eden is one of a number of Virgin Zones established in the near future to fight climate change. Given back to nature, these zones are off limits to humanity, and intended to become the lungs of the Earth. But there are always people tempted by such wild places, and adventure racing teams target the zones as the most challenging, dangerous locations to race across. One such team enters Eden––each member with her or his own personal agenda––and they discover that here, Nature no longer welcomes humanity.

DJ: What were some of your influences for Eden? 

Tim: My fear for the planet, and the increasing urgency in acting to try and slow down the climate change we’ve caused. Also my love of endurance sport, and my growing desire the older I get to embark on a big wild adventure of my own. I would rather not visit Eden, though.

Author Interview: Michelle Black

Today I am interviewing Michelle Black, author of the new fantasy romance novel, The Outsiders. 

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DJ: Hi Michelle! Thanks for agreeing to do this interview! 

For readers who aren’t familiar with you, could you tell us a little about yourself?

Michelle Black: Hello. I’m a doctor and baker who really enjoys reading and writing. I’ll admit I end up reading more manga and light novels than actual books these days, but it keeps me happy. 

DJ: What is The Outsiders about?

Michelle: It’s a fantasy romance novel that follows Ray Telor, an attorney from London who wishes for a break from his everyday life. It leads him to a village named Aesil, where he meets the hated Gale, a healer shunned by the other villagers. Aesil is a land lost in time, just like its inhabitants. Ray falls for the quiet, but gentle Gale, and learns of his gift to heal with his hands, and why the other villagers hate him. Gale’s gift allows him to stop death by bringing about death. 

Drawn into the village life and Gale, Ray embarks on a journey of discovery and adventure, to find missing children and men, to search for the other extraordinary inhabitants of the mystical land, and an unfortunate battle against a man-eating demon.

DJ: What were some of your influences for The Outsiders? 

Michelle: There weren’t any influences really. The Outsiders was supposed to be a short story about a healer, but it turned into what it is now. I can’t explain how that happened.