Alan Dean Foster is the author of more then one hundred science fiction and fantasy books. He is best known for his science fiction novels set in the Humanx Commonwealth, many of which feature Philip Lynx (Flinx), and his constant companion Pip, a flying snake.

Alan’s latest book, Predators I Have Known (Amazon), is a collection of stories about animals, specifically predators he has encountered in his numerous trips to Africa, South America, and the East.

Alan and I talk writing lots of books, sharks, lions, leaches, and how to kill tsetse flies with a Frisbee.
(Photo of Alan Dean Foster by Michael Medford.)

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This is a special edition of If You’re Just Joining Us. I am interviewing all of the other nominees of the 2010 Philip K. Dick Award.

Alexander O Smith is the translator of Project Itoh’s Harmony (Amazon) a dystopian novel set in a medical nanotechnology future.

Alexander is founder of Kajiya Productions and has been translating video games, novels, manga, and lyrics from Japanese to English professionally since 1998.

SPOILER ALERT!

Alex and I talked about Project Itoh, his novel Harmony including several spoilers, my own PKD Award nominated novel Yarn, the differences between Japanese and American authors, and translating for game Final Fantasy.

Also, Alex is the translator of The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino (Amazon). It’s an atmospheric noir that’s getting really good reviews from some big places like the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.

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This is a special edition of If You’re Just Joining Us. I am interviewing all of the other nominees of the 2010 Philip K. Dick Award.

Elizabeth Bear is the author of Chill, (Amazon) a science fiction novel about a generation ship. It is part of her Jacob’s Ladder Trilogy (Dust, Chill, and Grail).

Elizabeth has won multiple awards, including Hugos, and was the recipient of the the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 2008.

Elizabeth and I talked about her novel Chill, (Amazon), her novel titling secret, writing process, Las Vegas, and the evils of word counts.

Her own site is elizabethbear.com, and Shadow Unit is the serial Web fiction she mentioned written by Elizabeth, Emma Bull, Sarah Monette, and Will Shetterly.

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This is a special edition of If You’re Just Joining Us. Over the next month or so, I’ll be interviewing all of the other nominees of the 2010 Philip K. Dick Award.

James is a computer programmer by day, writer by night. State of Decay is his debut with sequels already out!

James and I talked about early reading, naming characters, getting a job in computing, book readings and signings that don’t go well.

His websites are: stateofdecay.net and james-knapp.com.

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This is a special edition of If You’re Just Joining Us. Over the next month or so, I’ll be interviewing all of the other nominees of the 2010 Philip K. Dick Award.

For several years she was involved with Aurealis, Australia’s science fiction and fantasy magazine, first as copy editor and then as associate editor. Song of Scarabaeus was her debut published in 2010 by Eos, and the sequel Children of Scarabaeus will come out a year later.

Sara and I talked about her biology degree, science fiction and romance, nationality, and dead bodies down stairs.

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This is a special edition of If You’re Just Joining Us. Over the next month or so, I’ll be interviewing all of the other nominees of the 2010 Philip K. Dick Award.

A former BBC writer, editor and web producer, Mark Hodder and I talked about being British in Spain, selling and then writing his first novel, and that night he smelled a ghost.

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This is a special edition of If You’re Just Joining Us. Over the next month or so, I’ll be interviewing all of the other nominees of the 2010 Philip K. Dick Award.

My first is Alden Bell, which is actually the pen name of Joshua Gaylord. His book, The Reapers Are the Angels, (Amazon) is a zombie apocalypse set in a fallen America.

We talked about zombies, bonding with his dad, teaching, prep school, his pen name, and being nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award.

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For this special show, I replay some clips from the past year (or so), and also find a few extras that hadn’t quite made it before. It’s a smorgasbord!

Guests (In Order of Appearance):

Lou Anders is the editorial director of Prometheus Books’ science fiction and fantasy imprint Pyr, as well as several anthologies.

David Antony Durham is the author of Gabriel’s Story: A Novel, Walk Through Darkness, Pride of Carthage, Acacia: The War with the Mein (Acacia, Book 1), and his latest, The Other Lands (Acacia, Book 2). (All Amazon links.) David won the Campbell Award for Best New Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer in 2009.

Mary Robinette Kowal is an author and puppeteer. Her first novel, Shades of Milk and Honey (Amazon link) was recently published.

Rowenna Davis is freelance journalist from north London. As a features writer, she specializes in social and political affairs, and has written opinion pieces for the  The Independent, The Guardian, the New Internationalist, and many other publications.

Douglas Lain is the author of dozens of short stories and two novels. His upcoming novel, Billy Moon: 1968, tells the story of Christopher Robin Milne’s fictional involvement with the French general strike in May of 1968. It is due out from Tor Books in 2011.

Jeff VanderMeer is an award-winning writer, editor, and publisher. His books include: City of Saints and Madmen, Veniss Underground, and Shriek: An Afterword. In this podcast, we talk about his upcoming novel, the fantasy noir, Finch. (All links to Amazon)

The award-winning Elizabeth Hand is that special kind of writer who can seemingly do anything. She’s written novels (including: Generation Loss,
Mortal Love, and most recently, Illyria, short stories, comics (Anima), and movie and television spin-off novels.

Professor Robert Beaulieu teaches textile science and development at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology.

Jeffrey Ford is the author of such novels as: The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque: A Novel, The Girl in the Glass, and The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque: A Novel. He has written numerous short stories, including the collections: The Empire of Ice-Cream, and The Drowned Life.

If You’re Just Joining Us is hosted by Jon Armstrong, author of Grey and Yarn.

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Paul Goat Allen has been a full-time book reviewer specializing in genre fiction for almost the last two decades. He has written more than 6,000 reviews for companies like Publishers Weekly, The Chicago Tribune, and BarnesandNoble.com.

Paul and I discussed how he became a reviewer, changes in the industry, his basement full of books, writers: Ken Scholes and Claude Lalumière, the pleasure of re-reading, and his thoughts about my new novel, Yarn.

Visit Paul at The BN SciFi and Fantasy Blog

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Anthony Palumbo graduated from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 2002 and has been exhibiting in fine art galleries in Philadelphia, New York, and Connecticut since. His work as a freelance illustrator has appeared in publications by Night Shade Books, Wizards of the Coast, and Heavy Metal Magazine among others.

I spoke with Anthony because he did the cover painting for my novel Yarn. I asked him how he got the job, what was he told about the novel, and how did he work, among many other things. The were several surprises along the way!

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Anthony Palumbo’s Illustration Website

See all the sketches for Yarn!

I have also created a video based on the podcast with more of his art and some of the referenced material in a slide-show format. Enjoy!

Anthony Palumbo Talks Painting, The Process of Producing Book Cover Art, Yarn from jon armstrong on Vimeo.