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Welcome to my weekly Author Spotlight. I’ve asked a bunch of my author friends to answer a set of interview questions, and to share their latest work. Today: Richard Thomas is the award-winning author of nine books: four novels—Incarnate (Podium), Disintegration and Breaker (Penguin Random House Alibi), and Transubstantiate (Otherworld Publications); four short story collections—Spontaneous Human Combustion (Turner Publishing—Bram Stoker finalist), Tribulations (Cemetery Dance), Staring Into the Abyss (Kraken Press), and Herniated Roots (Snubnose Press); as well as one novella of The Soul Standard (Dzanc Books). His over 175 stories in print include The Best Horror of the Year (Volume Eleven), Cemetery Dance (twice),Behold!: Oddities, Curiosities and Undefinable Wonders (Bram Stoker Award winner), The Hideous Book of Hidden Horrors (Shirley Jackson … Read more

We’re in an extended season of change, some of it good, much of it bad. And some of it even tragic. The world itself is shifting. Climate change is no longer a distant threat, It’s here, and it’s taking a toll on our forests and coastlines, slipping through our atmosphere with invisible hands, and turning everything inside out. It’s the end of December, and I am still picking tomatoes and peppers from my garden. Political change is sweeping the world too, as populist right-wing governments march into power, riding waves of voter anger into office. They promise the wrong solutions … Read more

I recently had a fascinating talk with a relatively new author in our local writer’s group. We all have a bi-monthly lunch together, which gives us time for casual chats about the practice and business of writing. I mentioned that I was an additive writer – that is, that my stories tend to get longer in later drafts, especially in the second, as I smooth out the work and layer in more details about the characters and the world around them. I liken it to an artist who starts with a pencil sketch on canvas, adds the base colors, and … Read more

Welcome to my weekly Author Spotlight. I’ve asked a bunch of my author friends to answer a set of interview questions, and to share their latest work. Today: Stephen B. Pearl is a multiple-published author whose works range across the speculative fiction field. His writings focus heavily on the logical consequences of the worlds he crafts. Stephen’s Inspirations encompass H.G. Wells, J.R.R. Tolkien, Frank Herbert, and Homer, among others. Stephen uses local settings in his works where appropriate. His Chronicles of Ray McAndrews series, Nukekubi and Revenant, are set in the GHA and surrounding areas. His Tinker’s World series, Tinker’s … Read more

Welcome to my weekly Author Spotlight. I’ve asked a bunch of my author friends to answer a set of interview questions, and to share their latest work. Today: Always fascinated with history and literature, as an imaginative child Jay devoured books of all sorts, especially adventure novels. At Miami University he earned an undergraduate Bachelor of Arts in English Composition and later a master’s degree from Ohio University. While in school he won an international poetry and began publishing short stories. In 1989 Jay began a successful free-lance writing career providing games and defining new worlds for TSR, Inc. the … Read more