UpperPen Podcast

Amiee Gibbs talks about her novel The Carnivale of Curiosities, victorian inspiration, and language, and we try to skirt around some fantastic twisty turns (aka spoilers!). I think we stayed well enough away, but let me know what you think! Get The Carnivale of Curiosities at your local bookstore or online!

You know Travis Baldree. If you don't, you've likely heard of Legends and Lattes by now at least. Bookshops and Bonedust is the prequel to L&L. Travis is a very interesting dude who does it all. I loved this fun book, check it out and let me know what you think of it.

I warn you now that there is a bit of spicy language at the beginning. Ember Holt writes spicy novels such as Brutal Rival and The Chimera Bounty! Check her out at emberholtwrites.com

Michael Mammay is the author of Generation Ship and Planetside. I am so excited to get into Planetside now that I've read Generation Ship.

Thea Guazon is a fantastic writer and extremely interesting. I loved hearing about her connection to history in the Philippines and how that history impacted her book. If you haven't seen it already there is a beautiful special edition put out by Waterstones in the UK. I've ordered my copy.

I saw this book and knew I needed to talk to Jeff. This is the first English translation of the Godzilla novels by Shigeru Kayama. I loved this book and need you to also love it, or at least like it. Mostly because I hella want a Mothra translation from Jeff.

Stephanie is one of my favorite indie authors. Her books have compelling characters, fun stories, and weird quirks! I love them. Good Neighbors is a great place to start, but so is Scales and Sensibility. I am part of her Patreon and its wonderful getting stories early and hearing what she is reading! https://patreon.com/stephanieburgis

KB Wagers has three books in the NeoG series: A Pale Light in the Black, Hold Fast Through the Fire, and The Ghosts of Trappist. They also have a wonderful series the Iridian War which begins with Behind the Throne! You can find their books online or through your local book store!

Roach is my favorite non-fiction author because she makes topics I have no experience in accessible, entertaining, and engaging. Fuzz is no different. Roach talked about getting started on the book and why understanding the interactions between animals and humans is so important.

Man, Tor Nightfire is putting out some hits. Ness Brown's The Scourge Between Stars is a short romp through the horror of being in space. Brown is an astrophysicist in training and the realism that comes from their work and education comes through in the futile and somewhat hopeless situations that the crew of the Calypso find themselves in.

If a book is horror sci-fi, I will pretty much buy it no questions asked. If a book is horror sci-fi set in space, I'll likely enjoy it. If a book is horror sci-fi set in space and is written by David Wellington, well shit, I'm gonna need to talk about it to everyone I know because the love I have for the book cannot be contained!

I was late to the game on Nova Terra but I am all in now. Seth talks about how he got started on Nova Terra and shares some interesting tidbits about self-publishing.

Chakraborty has written one of my favorite pirate novels. Amina is a fresh look at pirate life because she is retired. I cannot stress how fun this book was.

I was on a gothic literature bent and found One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig. This novel was fantastic. I love the romance, the magic system, and the mystery that is hidden at the heart of the book.

I was so excited to get to talk to RA Salvatore. I've been a fan of his for a long time now and never expected to get the chance to interact with him. Anyway, he was great to talk to and had some interesting views on the changes in the publishing industry.

There are some spoilers for the series in this podcast. I had some questions for Cale and I was on book two at the time of recording the episode.

Cockell talks about his work as an astrobiologist and his conversations with taxi cab drivers about the topic. This book is entertaining and informative. 

Hellegers is the real deal kind of actor. He talks about how getting his degree in acting helps his career as a narrator and why it is so important to support other people in the narration field. 

Valdes talks about her sci-fi series that ends with Fault Tolerance. Additionally, she talks about including Cuban-Spanish without translations in the books!

Dr. Kimmerle talks about forensic anthropology and the ethics behind digging for human remains.

Kerei talks about LitRPG and naming his books the longest thing he can think of.

Nat20 talks about starting Wyngraf and how cozy fantasy has grown over the pandemic.

Johns talks about how his time in the Marines impacted (or jumpstarted) his writing career. Additionally, he talks about the influence of different cultures in deciding the racial features of the characters. 

Smidt talks about LitRPG and Dungeon Core.

Parsneau talks about narrating the Wandering Inn and an embarrassing moment with her mother as her editor.

Mathews talks about how he got started writing and the structure of the book. Not to mention the lack of market in Jake's Magical Market.

This is an old episode from 2020.

Cale was wonderful and fun. Enjoy the interview.

We talked about how Jeff got started narrating, Soundbooth Theater, working with Matt Dinniman on Dungeon Crawler Carl, what comes next, and Soundbooth's Deep Dives! Check out Soundbooththeater.com for more on what Jeff is up to, and join the GameLit Society on Facebook (or Twitter) to follow what is happening and find out what books are coming out!

Matt Dinniman is the author of a few series, but Dungeon Crawler Carl is by and far the most popular. So, popular in fact that dozens of people sent Audible pictures of feet when his book wasn't released in a timely manner.   Go to the GameLit Society on Facebook (or Twitter) to see what is happening in the GameLit world and interact with authors and other readers!

Nick Podehl is a narrator of primarily fantasy and LitRPG. That does not mean that is what he is limited to though. He voices entire casts of books on the regular and makes it look easy!   

 His audiobooks include but are not limited to:  

The Land by Aleron Kong 

Name of the Wind and Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfus 

Awakened by C.M. Carney 

and you can find many, many, more on his website: https://www.nickpodehl.com/

Beebe Bahrami is the author of The Spiritual Traveler Spain and Historic Walking Guides Madrid. Her work has appeared in Archaeology, Wine Enthusiast, Bark, The Pennsylvania Gazette, National Geographic Books, and Michelin Green Guides, among other publications. She has written two travel apps, The Esoteric Camino France and Spain and Madrid Walks, and maintains two blogs, Café Oc, on life in the Dordogne, and The Pilgrim's Way Café, dedicated to exploring the world on foot. beebebahrami.weebly.com.

M. R. Carey is a writer who is equally at home in a wide range of media. His previous novel The Girl With All the Gifts was a word-of-mouth-bestseller and is soon to be a major motion picture based on his own screenplay. Under the name Mike Carey he has written for both DC and Marvel, including critically acclaimed runs on X-Men and Fantastic Four, Marvel's flagship superhero titles. His creator-owned books regularly appear in the New York Times graphic fiction bestseller list. He also has several previous novels, two radio plays and a number of TV and movie screenplays to his credit.  

Where to buy: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/m-r-carey/the-book-of-koli/9780316477475/ https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07W54MPDZ/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i2  

**I highly suggest getting the audio version if you are at all into audiobooks. It really adds a lot to the way the story is told!

Dakota Krout is the author of many LitRPG books, including The Completionist Chronicles. With familiarity in programming and playing games, he decided to start writing books because he was interested in creating worlds that force the main character to develop. In his stories, characters undergo serious moral dilemmas and become stronger through training and experience. This is coincidentally how he has structured his life as a professional writer as well. Dakota found self-publishing to be the route for him and has since grown as a writer and entertained thousands with his wonderful stories, as well as the stories he helps publish through Mountaindale Press.

Charlie J. Eskew is a writer from Columbus, Ohio. He is a professional comic book shop lurker and tenured Black dude in America. Please satisfy your unnatural obsession with him via Twitter @CJEskew or his website, www.askeweskew.com.  

Trapped in a dead-end job in his Ohio hometown, watching the girl of his dreams move on to a glamorous new life in a big city--Donald McDougal's aimlessness has held him back for a long time. When a lightning strike grants him superhuman powers, he jumps at his chance to finally be somebody. But the new abilities and the pursuit of superheroic fame come with a price tag, and it may not be one he can afford.  This wry debut is at once a fanboy's homage to the history of superhero storytelling in America and a keen-eyed satire of those same stories, raising questions about race and privilege that are becoming impossible to ignore.  

Where to buy: https://lanternfishpress.com/shop/tales-of-the-astonishing-black-spark https://www.amazon.com/Tales-Astonishing-Black-Spark-Charlie/dp/1941360165

Born and raised in St. Thomas of the US Virgin Islands, Kacen Callender is a bestselling and award-winning author of the middle-grade novels Hurricane Child and King and the Dragonflies, the young-adult novels This Is Kind of an Epic Love Story and Felix Ever After, and the adult novel Queen of the Conquered and its forthcoming sequel King of the Rising. They enjoy playing RPG video games in their free time. Kacen currently resides in Philadelphia, PA.  Queen of the 

Conquered synopsis: An ambitious young woman with the power to control minds seeks vengeance against the royals who murdered her family, in a Caribbean-inspired fantasy world embattled by colonial oppression.   Sigourney Rose is the only surviving daughter of a noble lineage on the islands of Hans Lollik. When she was a child, her family was murdered by the islands’ colonizers, who have massacred and enslaved generations of her people—and now, Sigourney is ready to exact her revenge.  When the childless king of the islands declares that he will choose his successor from amongst eligible noble families, Sigourney uses her ability to read and control minds to manipulate her way onto the royal island and into the ranks of the ruling colonizers. But when she arrives, prepared to fight for control of all the islands, Sigourney finds herself the target of a dangerous, unknown magic.  Someone is killing off the ruling families to clear a path to the throne. As the bodies pile up and all eyes regard her with suspicion, Sigourney must find allies among her prey and the murderer among her peers... lest she become the next victim.

Peng Shepherd is the author of The Cartographers, a novel from Nell Young's point of view. This novel is unique because there is so much love and of course, the hidden settlements in maps. Nell ends up on a journey to find out what happened to her father that she hadn't spoken to in 7 years. Along this journey, she finds out what happened to her mother and gets pulled into the same mystery that consumed her parents' lives.  I highly suggest the book. It was magical and real and I just haven't seen this much love of other people or in a craft in a long time!

Eric Ugland is the author of The Good Guys series which follows a Michigander named Montana in the world of Valdrani. If you like massively overpowered main characters who still manage to fuck up, this is your series. If you are looking for something a little more subtle, check out The Bad Guys (which I have now read all of and am eagerly awaiting the next book).  Go to the GameLit Society on Facebook (or Twitter) to see what is happening in the GameLit world and interact with authors and other readers!

If you listen to Game Lit or LitRPG you've probably heard his voice. But have you read his book? Or listened to him read his book? Legends and Lattes is a fantastic book about friendships, belonging, the quiet life, and coffee. I really highly suggest this book to anyone who has wanted to know what happens when the adventure stops and to people who have had a large change in their life and need to find their way again.  Go to the GameLit Society on Facebook (or Twitter) to see what is happening in the GameLit world and interact with authors and other readers!

Dead Silence is a great Sci-Fi Horror, you can find more about what I think in my blog post at UpperPen.com. S.A. Barnes, otherwise known as Stacey Kade, is possibly my new best sci-fi friend. She loves Aliens, Ghost Ship, and is the perfect amount of nerdy! Get Dead Silence if you haven't yet! It does not disappoint.

This video was recorded in December of 2020.   We talked about how he got started writing Noobtown, Jim as an older character, and Ryan's publishing woes for the first book. I love this series and hope you enjoy this interview even though it is older.   Also, the Facebook groups he is mentioning are LitRPG and Game Lit Society. I am more active on Game Lit Society and that is mainly because it has a bunch of authors I enjoy as active members of the group.

Jessie Mihalik has a degree in Computer Science and a love of all things geeky. A software engineer by trade, Jessie now writes full time from her home in Texas. When she’s not writing, she can be found playing co-op video games with her husband, trying out new board games, or reading books pulled from her overflowing bookshelves.

We spoke about her book Hunt the Stars, the first in the Starlight's Shadow Trilogy.