If You're Just Joining Us with Jon Armstrong

Paul Witcover Talks Lost, Clocks, Writing, Style, Entertainment, Sales

admin — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 19:37:28 +0000

Paul Witcover returns to the podcast to talk about his wonderful new novel, Emperor of All Things (Amazon UK).

Paul is the author of several novels, including Tumbling After, and Waking Beauty (Amazon links), and a collection of short stories.

Paul and I talk clocks, writers and readers, the TV show Lost, and writing styles among many other things. And we’ll get to why that link above to his book is to the store in the United Kingdom.

Gretchen McNeil Talks Singing, Circus, Religion, Upcoming Books, Christopher Pike

admin — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 02:27:20 +0000

Gretchen McNeil is is a former coloratura soprano and a writer. Her young adult horror novel, Possess, was about a teen exorcist. Her follow up was a young adult horror/suspense novel about ten teens trapped on a remote island with a serial killer titled Ten.

Gretchen blogs with The Enchanted Inkpot and is a founding member of the vlog group the YARebels where she can be seen as “Monday.”

She and I talk about her singing, her experiences performing in with Cirque Berzerk (an LA based circus), a little about religion, and an encounter with author Christopher Pike.

Her website is: GretchenMcNeil.com

Richard Bowes Talks What’s Forbidden, Writing, The Underwear Collector, Memory

admin — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 12:46:49 +0000

Richard Bowes has published five novels, two collections of short fiction and fifty short stories and articles. Recent and forthcoming stories appear in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and the Digital Domains, Best Gay Stories, Beastly Bride, and many more. He had been short-listed for many awards and won the World Fantasy Award for his story “Streetcar Dreams”.

Richard and I talked about his many upcoming books and stories, gay bars in the very recent past, his writing process, a peculiar underwear collector from his childhood in Boston, memory, and much more.

Paul Tremblay Talks Donkeys, The Subconscious, Fear, and Dystopia

admin — Sat, 20 Oct 2012 18:50:52 +0000

Paul Tremblay is the author of the novels The Little Sleep,No Sleep Till Wonderland, and his latest is Swallowing a Donkey’s Eye. His two short story collections are Compositions for the Young and Old and In the Mean Time. Paul has published two novellas, and his essays and short fiction have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Five Chapters.com, and Best American Fantasy 3. He is a busy guy.

We talk about Swallowing a Donkey’s Eye, humor, the discovery writing process versus writing outlines, plotting, dystopia and utopia, among many other things.

If you’re a long time listener, welcome back and sorry for the longer – than – planned hiatus!

Eugene Myers Talks His YA Novel Fair Coin, Fantasy and SciFi, Parallel Universes, Spoilers.

admin — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 18:25:38 +0000

Eugene has published science fiction and fantasy short stories in a number of magazines and anthologies such as Sybil’s Garage, and Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine.

Fair Coin (Amazon) is his first novel.

In Fair Coin, Myers builds a terrifying and magical universe full of diverse and interesting characters, with a teenage heart beating squarely at its center. – Matthew Kressel, editor and publisher of Sybil’s Garage

Eugene and I talk about his book, his background, parallel universes, spoilers, Fringe, and many other things.

Eugene’s website is http://ecmyers.net/

Book Reviewer Paul Goat Allen Talks 2011′s Best Apocalyptic Fiction and Pajama Jeans

admin — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 17:03:26 +0000

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, Kirkus Reviews, and BarnesandNoble.com.

In my opinion, 2011 has been the high-water mark thus far in this new Golden Age of apocalyptic fiction.
– Paul Goat Allen

Paul returns to the podcast to discuss his list of best apocalyptic fiction releases of 2011, disaster movies of the 70′s, the end of the word, duct tape, and pajama jeans.

Michael Dempsey Talks Death, Noir, The Future, Writing for TV, and Jerry Seinfeld’s Porsche

admin — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 14:38:14 +0000

Michael Dempsey’s first novel, Necropolis (Amazon), is not his first foray into writing. Not by a long shot. He’s a veteran of Hollywood most notably CBS’s Cybill starring Cybill Shepherd and has sold and optioned screenplays and television scripts.

So why stop writing for movies and TV to create a genre-busting mix of scifi and crime? Michael and I talk about that, the business of TV writing, the pain and difficulty of coming back to life, an encounter with Jerry Seinfeld’s Porsche, and more.

Find out more at Michael’s site for his book: NecropolisTheNovel.com. Follow him on Twitter at: Twitter.com/demzer.

Douglas Lain Talks His New Novella, Bizarro Writing, Philosphy, Publishing

admin — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 18:15:57 +0000

Douglas Lain is the author of Last Week’s Apocalypse, Fall Into Time, which are both short stories collections. Douglas returns to talk about his new novella, Wave of Mutilation (Amazon Link).

Jeffrey Ford said it’s, “…a story that generates itself as it devours itself… Terrific writing, good laughs, and the flawless execution of a fictional tightrope walk between “reality” and nothing.”

We talk about his new novella, meta fiction, the writing process, his upcoming work, and much more.

Douglas is the host of Diet Soap Podcast. His site is douglaslain.com.

Lauren Beukes Talks Zoo City, Research, Slumlands of Johannesburg, Face Recognition

admin — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 19:39:54 +0000

Lauren Beukes is the author of Zoo City, (Amazon) an alternate world thriller about crime, magic, the music industry, refugees and redemption set in a re-imagined Johannesburg. It won the 2011 Arthur C. Clarke Award, and has been short listed for numerous other awards.

Lauren and I talk about her book, writing, animals, journalism, face recognition, a harrowing experience at a church in Johannesburg, among many other things.

Lauren’s website is laurenbeukes.com.

In the podcast she mentioned a rehabilitation program Khulisa.

David Anthony Durham Talks Acacia, YA, Writing Rituals, Scottland

admin — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 17:00:12 +0000

David Anthony Durham, who returns to the podcast for the third time, has just finished his fantasy trilogy with The Sacred Band: Book Three of the Acacia Trilogy (Amazon).

We talk about writing rituals, long walks, Scotland, the Acacia Trilogy, and several other writing projects he’s working on.

Anthony’s website is davidanthonydurham.com.

Jon Armstrong and Chris Moriarty Talk About Magic In Their Magic and Their Writing

admin — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 01:15:28 +0000

Jon Armstrong (besides having a killer name!) is an award winning magician who has performed worldwide. He gives his take on what magic is for him personally and professional. He also talks about how audiences and a comic book he’s helping to write with a magic theme titled Smoke and Mirrors.

Chris Moriarty is a Philip K. Dick Award winning science fiction author whose new book, The Inquisitor’s Apprentice (Amazon), uses magic in unique ways. We talk about the book, the main character, the time period (New York in the 1900s) and how she used magic to talk about work.

Jon’s website is CardJon.com. The comic he’s helping to write is Smoke and Mirrors.

Chris can be found at ChrisMoriartyBooks.com. A website for her latest book is at InquisitorsApprentice.com.

Lev Grossman Talks The Magicians, Fantasy and Modernism, Meeting JK Rowling, Reads from The Magician King

admin — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 15:19:32 +0000

Lev Grossman is a bestselling novelist and journalist. His books include: Warp, Codex, The Magicians, and his forthcoming The Magician King (Amazon links). He is also a senior writer and book critic for Time Magazine.
We talked about how the Codex, The Magicians came to be, the influence of his twin brother, Lev’s upcoming sequel The Magician King , the modern novel and the fantasy novel, his meeting with J.K. Rowling, and the difference between violence in books and movies, among many other things.

Lev’s website is: levgrossman.com.

Grey and Yarn are now Audiobooks at Audible.com!

admin — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 01:09:30 +0000

This show is a behind-the-scenes peek at the people behind the audio book versions of my two novels: Grey and Yarn. First I speak with Steve Feldberg who is Senior Director, Editorial Business Development at Audible.com about what they do and how they select books.

I then speak with the narrators for Grey and Yarn, Macleod Andrews and Mark Boyette, respectively. We get some background on who they are, why they do audiobooks, how long they take, why they can be a blast, and the special challenges of my books.

Also included are a couple clips from the audiobooks!

Help support the If You’re Just Joining Us Podcast and try Audible now. You’ll get a Free audiobook download with a 14 day trial. Choose from over 85,000 Titles, including my novels Grey and Yarn!

M. D. Lachlan Talks Norse Myth, Magic, Stand-Up Comedy, Pen Names

admin — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 00:32:01 +0000

M. D. Lachlan is the pen name of British writer Mark Barrowcliffe. After working as a journalist, and also as a stand-up comedian he started wrote his first novel, Girlfriend 44 and achieved early success in the late 1990s as part of the Lad Lit movement.

His latest work, Wolfsangel (Amazon), is quite different from his first works. We discuss his bloody fantasy novel, it’s unique magic system, and where the series is going. We also talk about stand-up comedy and choosing the right and wrong pen name.

Douglas Lain Talks Urban Foraging, Memoir, Mystical Experiences, Young Adult Novels

admin — Tue, 24 May 2011 17:08:58 +0000

Douglas Lain is the author of Last Week’s Apocalypse (Amazon) which was published by Night Shade Books. Most recently, he completed a new book, Pick Your Battle: Your Guide to Urban Foraging, Hollywood Movies, Late Capitalism, and the Communist Alternative (a memoir) (Amazon). He is also the host of The Diet Soap Podcast.

We talk about how his new book came to be, urban foraging, mystical experiences while at work, and Doug’s his own very curious wedding. This is Doug’s second visit to IYJJU.