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Galactic Chat 46 Ken MacLeod

In today's chat Helen Stubbs interviews multi-award winning Science Fiction author Ken MacLeod.  They talk about his novel Intrusion, and his most recent publication, Descent.  Ken grew up with Iain Banks and relates some heart warming anecdotes about their friendship. They also cover Ken's current work plans and his writing process.

Author Website:The Early Days of a Better Nation

Author Twitter: @amendlocke

Credits

Interviewer: Helen Stubbs

Guest: Ken MacLeod

Music & Intro: Tansy Rayner Roberts

Post-production: Sean Wright

Feedback:

Twitter: @galactichat

Email: galactichat at gmail dot com

Galactic Chat 45 Jonathan Strahan

This week Sean chats to moonlighting Mullah of Coode Street Jonathan Strahan about his career, the direction of the Science Fiction and Fantasy field and his latest year's best from Solaris.

Other topics covered include:

• How Jonathan compiles his anthologies, what processes he has in place to counte act bias
• The changes in Small Press Publishing
• Where he sees the field going.

Jonathan can be found at:

The Coode Street Podcast and on Twitter.

As we mentioned in the podcast, Solaris have kindly given Galactic Chat a couple of copies of Jonathan's The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume 8.  All you need to do is go to our Facebook page, like it or comment on the competition post.

If you're not a fan of Facebook, Sean is running a giveaway on his blog here.

Solaris will post world wide to the winners. The competition runs from 23 March until midnight Australian Eastern Standard Time 20 April. 

Galactic Chat 44 Dr Ben Peek

This week we bring you an extended chat between Sean and Dr Ben Peek.  They talk briefly about his big news, the forthcoming fantasy trilogy beginning with The Godless (TOR UK), and how much a departure it is from his well known short works. 

They also talk about his highly acclaimed collection of short stories, Dead Americans and Other Stories from ChiZine Publications.  Other topics include criticism of works in small communities, racism, and the effect of social media on discourse.

He is of course well known in Australia for his works most recently published through Twelfth Planet Press.

Note:  This podcast was recorded a day or so after the "Twitterstorm" (which in itself is a problematic term) since then there has been some interesting commentary on how events unfolded that do shed light on how early the scene begins to reset history or frame events.  Please consider reading The media spin machine at full power or This is totally not what happened | Cora Buhlert.

If you are a fan of Facebook we also have a worldwide giveaway running on our page  for Jonathan Strahan's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume 8.

Galactic Chat 43 Tehani Wessely

In today's bonus podcast Alex Pierce interviews Tehani Wessely of Fablecroft.  They discuss how Tehani came to be a boutique press publisher and the freedom and restrictions that places on the work.  They talk about some interesting projects in the works ie Dirk Flinthart's and Jo Anderton's novels.  The big excitement is however about the wondrous and slightly terrifying world of crowd funding that Fablecroft has entered into with The Cranky Ladies of History Project.

Tehani can be found on Twitter at @editormum75 the The Cranky Ladies crowdfunding site can be found here.

Galactic Chat 42 Kaaron Warren

In this our first show for 2014 David McDonald chats with Kaaron Warren about the early years of her writing, her growing recognition outside of Australia and some of her recent works including The Gate Theory from Cohesion Press and her inclusion in the upcoming Datlow anthology Fearful Symmetries.  

Warren recently visited the Aradale Asylum to hunt ghost stories and deliver a writing workshop while staying overnight. She also talks about some of the strange happenings that occurred.

 

To see the picture that Kaaron refers to in the interview please checkout our Facebook page.

 

You can find Kaaron on Twitter and at her website.

Galactic Chat 40 Andrew Macrae

This week Alex chats to Dr Andrew Macrae about his debut novel Trucksong from Twelfth Planet Press -  A dystopian science fiction novel about lost love, AI trucks and the search for meaning in a post-apocalyptic Australia.  

They talk about his PHD thesis (which is far more interesting than this sentence indicates), the soundtrack that he and his band put together for the book and the experimental version of the book written entirely in a devolved post apocalyptic language.  The book has been making noise in both  Specfic and Litfic circles.

Book website: http://trucksong.com.au/
Buy the book: http://www.twelfthplanetpress.com/products/novels/trucksong
Andrew's music: http://thetelevisionsky.bandcamp.com
Twitter: @acidic

Credits

Interviewer: Alex Pierce

Guest: Dr Andrew Macrae

Music & Intro: Tansy Rayner Roberts

Post-production: Sean Wright

Feedback:

Twitter: @galactichat

Email: galactichat at gmail dot com

Galactic Chat 39 Ambelin Kwaymullina

This week Alex chats to Natcon 2014 Guest of Honour, Ambelin Kwaymullina.  The talk about Ambelin's young adult series, The Tribe, the exuberance that teen and young adult readers bring to the genre and what we can expect from Ambelin in the near future.

Ambelin comes form the Palyku people of the Pilbara region of Western Australia, she is also a noted children's picture book author and illustrator.  The first book of The Tribe, The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf, was shortlisted in both the science fiction and young adult categories of the 2013 Aurealis Awards.

Ambelin's website is http://www.thefirstwood.com.au/

Credits

Interviewer: Alex Pierce

Guest: Ambelin Kwaymullina

Music & Intro: Tansy Rayner Roberts

Post-production: Sean Wright

Feedback:

Twitter: @galactichat

Email: galactichat at gmail dot com

Galactic Chat 38 Donna M. Hanson

Helen Stubbs talks to Donna Maree Hanson  about her writing career, including publication of her novel Rayessa and the Space Pirates and writing the sequels, and her YA Paranormal Romance, Bespelled. They also talk about the advantages of using a pseudonym and what Donna  has enjoyed reading recently, including Untamed by Anna Cowan and A Single Girl’s Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse by JT Clay.

Note: The date for Conflux Writers Day is 5 April 2014 not the 15th as stated in the podcast.

Author Website: http://donnamareehanson.wordpress.com

Author Twitter: @ Donna M Hanson

Rayessa and the Space Pirates http://www.escapepublishing.com.au/product/9780857990150

Credits

Interviewer: Helen Stubbs

Guest: Donna M Hanson

Music & Intro: Tansy Rayner Roberts

Post-production: Sean Wright

Feedback:

Twitter: @galactichat

Email: galactichat at gmail dot com

Galactic Chat 37 - Patty Jansen

This week Sean chats to Australian Speculative Fiction novelist Patty Jansen.  Patty  is a member of SFWA and winner of the second quarter of the Writers of the Future contest. She has published fiction in various magazines such as Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Aurealis, Redstone SF and the Universe Annex of the Grantville Gazette. She has also successfully self  published a number of novellas and novels. 

In this chat they talk about Patty's newest novel, Ambassador,  to be published by Australian Press Ticonderoga, the importance of diversification for any writer and current issues in the field, such as sexism and diversity.

Patty's Website

Patty on Twitter

Purchase Options for Ambassador - here

Credits

Interviewer: Sean Wright

Guest: Patty Jansen

Music & Intro: Tansy Rayner Roberts

Post-production: Sean Wright

Feedback:

Twitter: @galactichat

Email: galactichat at gmail dot com

Galactic Chat 36 Devin Madson

This week Sean talks with author/publisher Devin Madson who has recently released her debut novel.  They talk about overcoming the self publishing stigma, the highs and lows of funding your project through crowd sourcing sites such as Pozible and sourcing publishing professionals when you don't have the commercial weight of traditional publishing behind you.

Devin's website www.devinmadson.com

Devin on Twitter 

Devin on Facebook

 Credits

Interviewer: Sean Wright

Guest: Devin Madson

Music & Intro: Tansy Rayner Roberts

Post-production: Sean Wright

Feedback:

Twitter: @galactichat

Email: galactichat at gmail dot com