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: J.T. Nicholas

Today I am interviewing J.T. Nicholas, author of the new science-fiction novel, Re-Coil.

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DJ: Hi J.T.! Thanks for agreeing to do this interview! 

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

J.T. Nicholas: I’m a sci-fi author (primarily, anyway) who lives in North Carolina.  I’ve wanted to be an author for pretty much as long as I can remember, but it’s a long journey, so I spent a large chunk of my career in the exciting and dazzling world of insurance data analysis.  I know, I know… it’s difficult to imagine leaving something so exciting behind for a career as mundane as authordom, but such is the road I’ve taken. I’m happily married with two Australian Shepherds who have a bigger social media following than I do (@ronin_and_gambit on Instagram) one of which is whining at me right this very moment.  I love reading (unsurprising), writing (also unsurprising), games (video and tabletop) and anime.  

DJ: What is Re-Coil about?

J.T.: I think of it as a whodunnit set against the backdrop of a gritty cyberpunk/sci-fi world where mankind has conquered death by backing up the human consciousness and stuffing it into a new body (or coil in the parlance of the book) when you die.  The main focus of the story has the protagonist trying to figure out why he and his crew disappeared on what should have been a routine salvage mission. There’s corporate greed, coverups, and a dash of existential threat thrown in for good measure.

DJ: What were some of your influences for Re-Coil? 

J.T.:  L.E. Modesitt, Jr.’s sci-fi has always had an ethical twist to it, which certainly has influenced my writing.  All of the cyberpunk regular suspects (Bruce Sterling, Neal Stephenson, Richard K. Morgan, Katsuhiro Otomo) influenced my vision of the future.  Isaac Asminov and Phillip K. Dick were also big influences, particularly since I think the two of them were some of the biggest voices in the “detective sci-fi” world.  I’ve been reading sci-fi, fantasy, and mystery for 3 decades, so there are a lot of other influences. And that’s just the books. I also draw influence from movies, tv shows, anime, video games, and people watching.

Author Interview: Bryan Thomas Schmidt

Today I am interviewing Bryan Thomas Schmidt, editor of the new science-fiction anthology, Infinite Stars: Dark Frontiers, second  book in the Infinite Stars series. 

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DJ: Hi Bryan! Thanks for stopping by to do an interview! 

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

Bryan: I am primarily known as the first editor of Andy Weir’s The Martian and numerous anthologies. I have also edited books by Alan Dean Foster, Tracy Hickman, Mike Resnick, Frank Herbert, Angie Fox–all bestsellers–and numerous others. I am also a national bestselling author and was a Hugo-nominee for short form editing. I have written official tie-ins in The X-Files and Predator for Fox, as well as bestselling literary series Monster Hunter International and Joe Ledger, and my first novel, The Worker Prince, made Barnes and Noble’s Year’s Best Science Fiction in 2011. My latest novel is Simon Says, my first thriller

DJ: What is Infinite Stars: Dark Frontiers about?

Bryan: The Infinite Stars concept is to collect the best of space opera and military science fiction past and present. I collect stories going back to the 1930s through present day. About half are reprints and half are brand new stories in popular existing universes. With a few new things mixed in here or there.

DJ: What were some of the inspirations behind Infinite Stars: Dark Frontiers? 

Bryan: Space Opera and Military Science Fiction are mainstays of speculative fiction. Star Wars, Star Trek, The Orville, The Expanse, Killjoys, Firefly–these are all examples of popular culture written in this subgenre. It may well be the most familiar of all subgenres of science fiction to audiences, the face of science fiction even, if you will.

Author Interview: G.S. Denning

Today I am interviewing G.S. Denning, author of the new fantasy novel, The Sign of the Nine, fourth book in the Warlock Holmes series.

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DJ: Hi G.S.! Thanks for agreeing to do this interview!

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

G.S. Denning: Hmmm… well… I’m American. Male. My real name’s Gabe, but that’s not snooty enough so I went with my initials. I’m first-wave geek culture, meaning Star Wars came out when I was 2 and one of my earliest memories in life is the Death Star exploding. I learned to play D&D on the red-box basic set and saved my paper route money to get an original NES.

DJ: What is The Sign of the Nine and then the Warlock Holmes series about?

G.S.: The Sign of Nine is the dark middle chapter of the Warlock Holmes saga. For readers who have been following along, this is where we finally learn about Moriarty and Irene Adler. It’s where we learn the shape of the growing threat that’s going to bring humanity down and usher in the age of demons. It’s where a magical addiction drives a wedge between Watson and Holmes. And it’s funny!

The series as a whole is a direct parody of the original 60 Holmes stories. Basically, it’s Watson writing his memoirs right before the final onslaught of earth begins. He’s trying to explain to anyone who survives how he and his roommate accidentally got tricked into ending the world. Each short story is complete, but they fit together to form a much longer narrative.

DJ: What were some of your influences for the Warlock Holmes series?

G.S.: Er… Well… There’s those Sherlock stories, of course. And I’m used to genre-bending stories. I spent 15 years doing improv comedy (take your first date and do it as a Mexican Soap-Opera, or your last birthday as Shakespear would have written it). Add in a lifelong love of British comedy and there you go: Warlock Holmes.

Author Interview: Tim Major

Today I am interviewing Tim Major, author of the new sci-fi thriller novel, Snakeskins.

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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: I’m a writer of SF and weird fiction, and I live in York in the UK with my wife and two young sons. My previous books include Machineries of Mercy, You Don’t Belong Here, and a non-fiction book about Les Vampires, an amazing silent film from 1915. My short stories have appeared in lots of places, and have been selected for Best of British Science Fiction and The Best Horror of the Year. By day I’m a freelance editor, and I’m also co-editor of the British Fantasy Society fiction journal, BFS Horizons.

DJ: What is Snakeskins about?

Tim: It’s about a group of British people whose bodies rejuvenate every seven years, and in the process they produce a sentient clone known as a Snakeskin. The trouble is, the Snakeskin lives on for a while – maybe a few minutes, maybe a few days… The novel’s about what it might feel like, coming face to face with an exact copy of yourself – and it’s also about what the effect of society might be if only some people had this peculiar power.

DJ: What were some of your influences for Snakeskins?

Tim: The central idea is based on a real fact – after seven years, every cell in the human body will have been replaced. I liked the idea of that process happening not gradually, but all in a single moment. And then that idea got all mixed up with the concept of snakes shedding their skins, obviously. In terms of fiction, Snakeskins was influenced in its structure and scope by the TV series I was binging at the time. Humans was in the mix, certainly, but an even bigger influence was Deutschland 83, a terrific political thriller about an East German spy undercover in West Berlin. There’s no SF element to it, but the pacing and set-pieces influenced the novel a lot.

John Wyndham’s novels are perennial influences on my books, and the concept of the Fall is a direct homage to the meteor shower in The Day of the Triffids, the novel that introduced me to adult SF when I was around ten years old.

Author Interview: Patrick Edwards

Today I am interviewing Patrick Edwards, author of the new science-fiction novel, Ruin’s Wake.

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

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

Patrick Edwards: I’m a U.K. writer and lifelong nerd. I live in Bristol, which is very rainy but has excellent breweries.

DJ: What is Ruin’s Wake about?

Patrick: It’s a three-fold story set in a future world that has lost touch with its past. An old soldier goes looking for his estranged son, a beaten wife begins a secret affair and a fringe academic uncovers a mysterious artefact deep under a glacier.  

DJ: What were some of your influences for Ruin’s Wake?

Patrick: New Wave authors like Ballard and Herbert, certainly, for setting. Iain Banks wrote the best characters in sci-fi and provided a lot of inspiration. My real world hook was my research into life in North Korea.

DJ: Could you briefly tell us a little about your main characters? Do they have any cool quirks or habits, or any reason why readers with sympathize with them? 

Patrick: Cale is the outsider, gruff and dangerous. He’s motivated by fear of losing a child but also a lot of guilt from his past. After a lifetime of breaking things in the army he’s devoted to creativity in the form of the monolithic sculptures he carves.

Kelbee is our eye on the inside – she lives and breathes the oppressive society of the novel. She discovers how resilient she is as the illusion of peaceful society cracks around her; she has to battle with her fear of her husband and her doubts about her lover. Despite being a country girl she loves the morning sun over the city.

Sulara is a woman who’s endured a lifetime of scorn from a misogynistic society and become cynical, though her passion for her work remains. She discovers something that could change the world. She uses silence as a weapon.

Author Interview: Aliya Whiteley

Today I am interviewing Aliya Whiteley, author of the new science-fiction and fantasy novel, The Arrival of Missives.

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

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

Aliya Whiteley: Hi, and thanks for inviting me! I like to create stories that take inspiration from lots of different genres. I live in West Sussex in the UK, on the coast, and go for long walks to find new ideas. I also write non-fiction about films, books and television for online sites and magazines such as Den of Geek and Interzone, but making up stories is my passion.

DJ: What is The Arrival of Missives about?

Aliya: It’s the story of a sixteen year old girl called Shirley Fearn who has a huge crush on her teacher, and then discovers some very confusing things about him. That sounds almost straightforward, which is unlike one of my novels! It’s set in a rural village in the UK in 1920, just after World War I, so it’s historical fiction. But it’s also science fiction, in ways that I won’t give away. But love, both familial and romantic, and notions of duty and future are all examined and turned inside out.

DJ: What were some of your influences for The Arrival of Missives?

Aliya: A big influence was DH Lawrence. I’ve loved his books since I was a teenager, and there were moments in Missives where I really wanted to pay homage to his voice and themes. Also the films of David Lean were in my head when I wrote. Ryan’s Daughter – the use of landscape and also the relationship between the young woman and her teacher in that film – has fascinated me for years, so that’s definitely in the mix.

DJ: Could you briefly tell us a little about your main characters? Do they have any cool quirks or habits, or any reason why readers will sympathize with them? 

Aliya: Shirley is absolutely committed to making the world a better place, and she has ideas about how to do that which might well seem misguided or naive to us, but she believes in them totally at the start of the book. She was a wonderful character to write, with such a clear and passionate voice that smacks of youth. Everything is black and white to her, but then areas of grey begin to seep in as she spends more time with her teacher, Mr Tiller, and realises that he is a wounded man. The world becomes a much more complicated place for her, and I think we can all identify with that process of realising that we can’t solve every problem or even understand it. That’s growing up. I loved writing her, but she also broke my heart a little bit.

Author Interview: Nick Setchfield

Today I am interviewing Nick Setchfield, author of the new fantasy novel, The War in the Dark.

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DJ: Hey Nick! Thanks for agreeing to do this interview!

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

Nick Setchfield: I’m the features editor on SFX magazine and also occasionally write for Total Film. I’ve been a local journalist, a movie reviewer for the BBC and a scriptwriter for ITV’s Spitting Image. The War in the Dark is my first shot at a novel, though I’ve had the itch to write one for a while – since I was a kid, in fact. I finally nailed myself to a desk and here we are.

DJ: What is The War in the Dark about?

Nick: It’s an espionage story and a supernatural adventure, full of spies and demons, intrigue and magic. It’s set in the earliest, chilliest days of the Cold War and races across Europe in 1963, powered by a quest for an occult secret of world-changing power. It’s also about second chances, the secrets of cities and why you should never trust a man who picks the raisins from an apfelstrudel.

DJ: What were some of your influences for The War in the Dark?

Nick: James Bond was crucial – both Ian Fleming’s original novels and the movies, though the tone of the book is closer to early Connery than Moore (I love the Moore films, in all their outsized glory, but this is a darker, icier take). Indiana Jones is another huge inspiration: I love that sense of globe-trotting adventure, the sheer pulp momentum of those Lucas and Spielberg movies. I also took inspiration from my love of Hitchcock and Hammer. And the ghost stories of MR James, which have such a lovely sense of dread to them that I thought would mix nicely with a John le Carré backdrop.

Author Interview: Francesco Dimitri

Today I am interviewing Francesco Dimitri, author of the new fantasy novel, The Book of Hidden Things.

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

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

Francesco Dimitri: I am Italian. I live in London now, and I write in English, but once upon a time I used to live in Rome and publish books in Italian. At some point I decided to start from scratch in another language. The only problem being – I did not speak that language yet.

DJ: What were some of your influences for The Book of Hidden Things?

Francesco: I have very wide tastes. I think you can see traces of Robert Macfarlane, with his perfect sense of the connection between people and place, and Joe Lansdale, with his uncanny capacity to write stories you read in three hours and stay with you forever. Donna Tartt taught me the kind of magic I wanted to write about, and I regularly go back and study Angela Carter to learn new things about sensuousness in prose. That said, I try to keep the real world in mind as my main influence. I do like the real world quite a lot, with all its shortcomings.

DJ: Could you briefly tell us a little about your main characters? Do they have any cool quirks or habits, or any reason why readers with sympathize with them?

Francesco: I wanted them to act, move, and feel, like real people. Not particularly good or bad, just human, with their human foibles, incoherences, and so on. Tony is the one I feel closer to: he believes that friends and family come before everything else, and so do I.

Author Interview: Daniel Godfrey

Today I am interviewing Daniel Godfrey, author of the new science-fiction novel, The Synapse Sequence.

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

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

Daniel Godfrey: Hello! I am a science fiction writer from northern England. My first novel, New Pompeii, was included in both the Financial Times’ and Morning Star’s ‘Books of 2016’ lists. It was followed by a sequel, Empire of Time.

My latest novel, The Synapse Sequence, is a stand-alone SF thriller.

DJ: What is The Synapse Sequence about?

Daniel: The novel revolves around two competing technologies that are being used to solve crime. The first, preferred by the police, uses algorithm and AI to focus resources based on likelihood and probability. The second is the newly developed ‘Synapse Sequencer’ which allows an investigator (our hero!) to explore memories via a VR-style environment.

The central crime of the novel – the catalyst for the action – is the kidnap of a teenage girl… but the only person who might know what happened has been knocked into a coma. To prove the Sequencer has a place in law enforcement, our hero has to find the girl before the AIs and their army of bots.

DJ: What were some of your influences for The Synapse Sequence?

Daniel: I’ve been fascinated for a number of years about the deployment of AI technology. It seems to be everywhere in the news at the moment, from medicine, to law enforcement, to call centres. It got me thinking about what that would actually mean for policing in the future. Is there room for a traditional detective in this setting? Would there be room for alternative ways of solving crimes?