Buy The End Has Come, edited by John Joseph Adams and Hugh Howey

Buy The End Has Come, edited by John Joseph Adams and Hugh Howey

In collaboration with editors John Joseph Adams and Hugh Howey, A Dribble of Ink is proud to introduce a series of interviews with the authors of The End Has Come, the final volume in the The Apocalypse Triptych. Following on The End is Nigh, and The End Is Here, The End Has Come contains 23 stories about life after the apocalypse.

Interview with Jonathan Maberry about “Jingo and the Hammerman”

(Interview by Hannah Huber)

What do you think it is about zombies that make them work as the source of an apocalypse?

Zombies are the perfect storytelling metaphor if you want to spin a tale about an extreme crisis, which makes them perfect for apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic storytelling. They represent a massive shared threat: something so big that it impacts every person, every relationship, every aspect of infrastructure, and every element of culture. Nothing escapes that impact. The zombie’s nature, threat, and potential are all easy to grasp, so once they’ve been introduced, they often fade into the background so the story can concentrate on what is most important: human people in the midst of life-changing events. People facing crises is the basis of all drama, and therefore the writer is able to tell any kind of story he or she wants. No other monster is so generous in enabling this, or in sharing the stage.

In a zombie apocalypse the crisis is so overwhelming that there is no time for us to maintain our affectations of who we pretend to be in day-to-day life. None of us are ever really ourselves – we edit ourselves depending on the situation. We are different people in public, at home alone, at work, in love, when heartbroken, and so on. Often we play roles that are vastly different from our natural selves, such as feeling ‘powerful’ because we have money, good looks, or position. In a zombie apocalypse, none of that matters. A captain of industry or a supermodel expect deference as a matter of course, but they might be the first to fall in an apocalyptic scenario. Whereas the bag-boy at the local supermarket might have tremendous but untapped leadership and survival skills. Steel is forged in the heat of a furnace, not while it is ore in the ground. Read More »

Buy The End Has Come, edited by John Joseph Adams and Hugh Howey

Buy The End Has Come, edited by John Joseph Adams and Hugh Howey

In collaboration with editors John Joseph Adams and Hugh Howey, A Dribble of Ink is proud to introduce a series of interviews with the authors of The End Has Come, the final volume in the The Apocalypse Triptych. Following on The End is Nigh, and The End Is Here, The End Has Come contains 23 stories about life after the apocalypse.

Interview with Carrie Vaughn about “Bannerless”

(Interview by Jude Griffin)

What was the seed for “Bannerless”?

“Bannerless” is something of a prequel to an earlier story of mine, “Amaryllis,” which was nominated for a Hugo in 2011. In almost the first line of “Amaryllis,” the narrator wonders about her mother and why would have tried to go through with an unauthorized pregnancy. “Bannerless” is the answer to that question. I’ve been wanting to tackle this story for a long time, based on the premise that the answer isn’t what anyone would have expected. Read More »

Cover art for The Mirror Empire by Kameron Hurley

Buy The Mirror Empire by Kameron Hurley: Book/eBook

Today, Angry Robot Books announced that they have purchased The Broken Heavens, the concluding volume to Kameron Hurley’s Worldbreaker Saga, which began last year with The Mirror Empire (Review).

“The Mirror Empire saw her burst from the gates as a fully-formed A-list fantasy author,” said Marc Gascoigne, Publisher at Angry Robot Books. “Empire Ascendant, as readers will soon discover for themselves, shows her relaxing into her powers, utterly in command of her characters and their world. Now it’s time to see what she does by way of a third act and I, along with her many fans, cannot wait.”

What can readers expect from the final volume in the trilogy? “Get ready for the end of the world – Hurley style,” the author said.

Empire Ascendant, the second book in the trilogy, is due for release in October 2015. However, somewhat curiously, readers will have to wait until Fall 2017 for The Broken Heavens—the delay being the result of Angry Robot’s sale in 2014. Sandwiched between the releases is The Stars Are Legion, Hurley’s space opera from Saga Press, due out in 2016.

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Huzzah!

Tide of Shadows and Other Stories is now officially available worldwide! The collection of five short stories is my first book, and I’m immensely proud to finally pass these stories from my hands to the hands of all the wonderful SFF readers out there in the world!

To begin the week, I’ve got an interview with The G. at Nerds of A Feather, followed by an appearance at SF Signal on Tuesday, Fran Wilde’s Book Bites on Wednesday, a guest post at Theo Taylor’s blog on Thursday, and wrapping the week is an appearance at /r/fantasy as their “Writer of the Day.” Fun times!

Buy Tide of Shadows and Other Stories for $2.99

An Excerpt

You can read an except from Tide of Shadows and Other Stories on Medium for free!

About the Collection

From Aidan Moher—Hugo Award-winning editor of A Dribble of Ink—comes Tide of Shadows and Other Stories, a collection of five science fiction and fantasy stories spanning adventure, comic whimsy, and powerful drama—from a star-faring military science fiction tale of love and sacrifice, to a romp through the dragon-infested Kingdom of Copperkettle Vale.

“A Night for Spirits and Snowflakes” is the story of a young man reliving the last moments of his fellow soldiers’ lives; “The Girl with Wings of Iron and Down” tells the tale of a broken family and a girl with mechanical wings; “Of Parnassus and Princes, Damsels and Dragons” introduces a typical prince, princess, and dragon—and a not-so-typical love triangle; “The Colour of the Sky on the Day the World Ended” follows a girl and her ghost dog as they search for a bright light in the darkness; and “Tide of Shadows” is about a soldier and his lover, a mother, and planetwide genocide.

In addition to the five stories (four originals and one reprint), Tide of Shadows and Other Stories also includes story notes for each tale. These give readers insight into the origins of the story and explore some of the ways they’ve impacted me as a writer.

The cover illustration is by Kuldar Leement, a wonderful digital illustrator and graphic designer from Estonia, and the design/layout is by me. A print of the original illustration is available through Leement’s online store.

Relevant Links

Buy The End Has Come, edited by John Joseph Adams and Hugh Howey

Buy The End Has Come, edited by John Joseph Adams and Hugh Howey

In collaboration with editors John Joseph Adams and Hugh Howey, A Dribble of Ink is proud to introduce a series of interviews with the authors of The End Has Come, the final volume in the The Apocalypse Triptych. Following on The End is Nigh, and The End Is Here, The End Has Come contains 23 stories about life after the apocalypse.

Interview with Chris Avellone about “Acts of Creation”

(Interview by Georgina Kamsika)

Tell us a little about “Acts of Creation.”

Aside from an obsessive drive to gamemaster superhero role-playing games (pen and paper superhero games, like Dungeons and Dragons, except… superheroic), Acts of Creation was my first foray into science-fiction prose – the idea of exploring a universe populated by artists with the potential to crack suns and detonate fleets with the ease of painting with watercolors appealed to me. Not only that, but exploring the idea of how you would attempt to contain and disarm such weapons in the wake of the apocalyptic war they won… in a manner of speaking.

I played around with a few other ideas and stories in the universe. Strangely enough, the stories often veered into family and romantic relationships, often with a mentor figure seeking to inspire a disciple with far more potential, sometimes older, sometimes younger, a character set-up I’ve often used in digital role-playing prose as well, from Planescape: Torment, to Knights of the Old Republic II, to New Vegas. I guess I haven’t quite gotten a satisfying answer on it yet, but arguably, each game universe comes with its own interesting twist that makes it fresh again in my eyes.

I always carried the hope of being able to share the story one day. And when John Joseph Adams brought up The End Has Come anthology and asked if I wanted to contribute, it seemed a great fit. And it helps that John and Hugh (Howey) are nice folks – Hugh, in fact, writes some of the nicest critiques I’ve ever seen from an editor, he makes sure you know what you’re doing well along with what you need to improve on. Read More »