Category :: Interview

With the recent release of STARS UNCHARTED, we asked author(s) S.K. Dunstall if we could ask a few questions. They graciously answered.
Elitist Book Reviews: S.K. Dunstall actually stands for a sister-writing duo. We think that’s pretty awesome. Please introduce yourself to our readers.
Sherylyn: Thank you for having us. I’m Sherylyn, the ‘S’ part of the name.
Karen: And I’m the ‘K’. Karen. We both live in Melbourne, Australia. As you noted, we are sisters.
Sherylyn: Some people think the Dunstall part is a made-up name. It’s not. It’s our real surname.
EBR: Tell us a little about your writing history and how you came to be published authors?
K: We always told and wrote stories. Originally, we wrote separately. Sherylyn was my sounding board, and my first reader, and vice-versa. We critiqued each other heavily.
S: So much so that one day another of our sisters (we come from a big family) who was listening to one of our discussions, told me off for being mean to Karen.
K: We […]Read the rest of this post »

If you’ve read our review of AMBERLOUGH then you already know that we enjoyed Lara Elena Donnelly’s unconventional mix of spy/thriller/cabaret fantasy. While originally published as a standalone, Donnelly’s first novel was followed by ARMISTICE, which we also thought was well worth reading. After enjoying the first two books we knew we would love to ask Lara some questions and she was gracious enough to share her thoughts with us!
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Elitist Book Reviews: Thanks for the opportunity for this interview. We want to start out by giving you a chance to introduce yourself, and tell our readers why they should be reading your stuff.
Lara Donnelly: Hi! I’m Lara. And while I clearly think you should be reading my stuff so that I earn out my advance, I also think you should read it because it is lush and sexy and will probably make you cry. Also, I want publishers to grok there’s a market for the weird stuff. Fantasy with no magic. Fantasy set any time […]Read the rest of this post »

EBR: Who is Steven Brust, in that “Inside the Actors’ Studio” way, and tell us a little bit about yourself? What would people enjoy about your novels, besides the true crime story in an epic fantasy novel series you’ve had running for a few decades?

Steven Brust: You ask hard questions for someone raised to believe that one doesn’t talk about one’s self. I do need to rewatch some “Inside the Actors’ Studio” though, thanks for reminding me. In the meantime, I’m not sure how to answer that. Born in Minnesota, I’ve lived here most of my life. I was raised by proletarian revolutionists, and still consider myself Trotskyist sympathizer. I also consider myself extraordinarily fortunate to be able to make a living doing what I love, not just in the sense of writing fantastical fiction, but that (so far) I’ve been able to survive writing the next book I want to read. The next book I want to read usually has a fair bit of wit, some action, characters that I want to follow around to see what they do next, and enough “chewy bits” ((tm) Emma Bull) to reward rereading.
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Fran Wilde, author of UPDRAFT and CLOUDBOUND, sat down with EBR to answer a few questions. If you enjoy smart Young Adult novels with unique settings and complicated characters, these books are for you.

Elitist Book Reviews: First, thanks for agreeing to answering a few questions for our readers at Elitist Book Reviews. We’d like to give you a chance to introduce yourself to the readers and maybe even brag a bit. Why should everyone be reading your work?
Fran Wilde: Thanks to Elitist Book Reviews for having me visit! My work so far includes the high-flying fantasies UPDRAFT and CLOUDBOUND for Tor Books, the novella “The Jewel and Her Lapidary” from Tor.com Publishing, and science fiction and fantasy short stories in Asimiov’s, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Shimmer, and Tor.com.  I also write essays for publications including Tor.com, The Washington Post, and GeekMom.com.
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Game design is fascinating to me. Board games, video games, and especially roleplaying games. As it happens, one of our resident reviewers here at EBR, Alan Bahr, is also a game designer. He was the designer for the Schlock Mercenary RPG, PLANET MERCENARY, which was absurdly successful on Kickstarter. And now, his most recent game, TINY FRONTIERS, is on Kickstarter.

I figured I’d ask Alan to give all of us some insight on his company, Gallant Knight Games, and on his game, TINY FRONTIERS. So. Here we go.
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Jason Denzel may be a familiar name for many of you Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson fans as the architect of Dragonmount.com, the leading online fan community for The Wheel Of Time (WoT) series. Despite being busy with Dragonmount, JordanCon, and other endeavors, he was able to publish his first novel this past November: MYSTIC. Elitist Book Reviews wanted to ask Jason a few questions about his experiences and he graciously accepted.
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Subterranean Press–a specialty press run by the amazing Bill Schafer–is easily my favorite publisher. Everything they do has an extra layer of quality to it. The paper. The art. The binding. When you get a book from SubPress, you automatically know it is worth the premium price you paid. In an age where ebooks seem to be holding us collectors hostage, SubPress comes out and reminds us that all is well. Recently I was fortunate enough to conduct a quick interview with Yanni Kuznia, who is the Director of Production over at Subterranean Press. I’ve always wanted to know more of what went on behind the curtain over at SubPress, and I figured our readers here at EBR would be equally curious. So here we go.

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Elitist Book Reviews: Yanni, tell us about yourself, and about Subterranean Press. This is your moment to indulge in a little bragging, both for yourself and the publisher.

Yanni Kuznia: Subterranean Press is a small press that specializes in signed, limited editions of genre fiction. We strive to make our books readable pieces of art.

I found my forever home at Subterranean Press in 2007. I started out doing work for Bill Schafer and Subterranean Press as a freelance proofreader and narrator. About six months later, Bill made me an offer for a full time job I couldn’t refuse. I didn’t know working in publishing, and specifically for SubPress, was my dream job, but here I am, still in love with my career and thankful that Bill took a chance on somebody with no formal training in publishing.
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We sat down with our very own Steve Diamond (hey boss!) to discuss his upcoming book from Ragnarok Publications, RESIDUE! (Amazon)

From the blurb on Ragnarok’s website:

RESIDUE follows 17-year-old Jack Bishop after his father is abducted and a monster is let loose in his small town. As he looks for his father, he begins to notice that he can see the psychic residue left behind by monsters and murder victims. Along with the mind-reading Alexandra (Alex) Courtney, Jack uses his growing ESP abilities to stop the deaths in the town, and find out why his father was taken.

(In the interest of full disclosure, in our personal lives, Steve and I are very good friends. However, rest assured, that only makes me a harsher critic in the review you’re going to read soon.)
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Today we have an interview with Peter Orullian. Though the relationship between EBR and Orullian started rather poorly, we have since become very good friends. We asked Peter if he could take some time out of his schedule for an interview. The release of THE UNREMEMBERED: The Author’s Definitive Edition (Amazon) is this week.
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Stephen Blackmoore is a pulp writer of little to no renown who once thought lighting things on fire was one of the best things a kid could do with his time. Until he discovered that eyebrows don’t grow back very quickly.

He is the author of the urban fantasy novels CITY OF THE LOST, DEAD THINGS and the upcoming BROKEN SOULS. His short stories and poetry have appeared in Plots With Guns, Needle, Spinetingler, Thrilling Detective, Shots, Demolition, Clean Sheets , Flashing In The Gutters and a couple of anthologies with authors far better than he is.

I loved CITY OF THE LOST and just knew I had to get an interview with Stephen for Elitist Book Reviews. This is that interview.
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