Invaders From Planet 3 (Robin Shantz)

Author, editor and professor Nalo Hopkinson joins us for our first episode of 2019. Nalo talks about her first loves in speculative fiction, including Harlan Ellison's "Shattered Like a Glass Goblin", Michael Crichton's The Andromeda Strain, and Kurt Vonnegut's "Welcome to the Monkey House". And she shares what it was like having the freedom to read what she wanted when she was growing up, with her library technician mother loaning Nalo her library card and letting her explore the stacks at work; and her mother and actor/poet/playwright/high school English teacher father letting her choose from their collection of books at home. We also talk about an early reading experience that didn't work out so well: her encounter with an Alfred Hitchcock anthology. And she tells us how her desire to become a writer was first sparked by a collection of Clarion short stories.

Our conversation then turns to the subject of diversity, with Nalo reflecting on Caribbean voices in the stories she encountered growing up. She talks about representation in speculative fiction, and the importance of seeing herself (or the effect of the absence of people like her) in the sf she was reading. She then discusses how this affected her own writing and her choices of how she populates her stories.

Next, we talk about Nalo's experiences working with publishers and artists to get the look of her book covers — and specifically the characters on them — right. She then goes into detail about what this has been like recently in her role as a writer contributing to the expansion of Neil Gaiman's Sandman universe at DC-Vertigo Comics. This leads to an examination of what it's like to step into a world created by another author and to make parts of it her own.

From there we move back to a discussion of what it was like to move from the Caribbean to the US and Canada, and how that shaped Nalo's writing. Here, she also reflects on her time working at Bakka-Phoenix Books, Toronto's sf specialty bookstore. Nalo talks about meeting sf legend Judith Merril during her time in Toronto as well. We also discuss what it's like in her current role teaching sf writing at the University of California Riverside.

Our discussion wraps up with a look at what Nalo's working on for 2019, including more House of Whispers stories for the Sandman comics, and her new novel that's in progress, Blackheart Man.

Our interview took place in October 2018 at the Surrey International Writers' Conference.

You can learn more about Nalo Hopkinson and her stories on her website:
https://nalohopkinson.com/index.html

To listen to Invaders From Planet 3, or subscribe, visit Libsyn, iTunes, Stitcher, Overcast and Spotify. Be sure to rate and review the show while you're there!

In this episode, we're joined by author Kit Reed, who tells us how the Oz books — the ones penned by Ruth Plumly Thompson, rather than the originals by L. Frank Baum — were her gateway to speculative fiction. She'll talk about other early influences, like F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ray Bradbury, Theodore Sturgeon, and John Collier, and how her reading continues to range across a wide variety of genre and non-genre authors and subjects.

We'll hear how being the child of a navy officer who moved around a lot meant having to adapt to new communities and situations, teaching her to observe group behaviour and in turn contributing to some of the themes in her stories. Kit then discusses how her career as a journalist also helped shape her approach to writing fiction.

And we'll talk about her love of comics, from early favourites like Superman and Batman, to more recent fare, including Preacher and Snow Piercer. She'll also tell us why — apart from her childhood creation of Harbour the Bunny — she hasn't taken a crack at writing comics herself.

Our interview took place in October 2015 via a Skype connection between Kit's home in Connecticut and my studio in the lair of bloginhood, located deep beneath the Niagara Escarpment.

Find out more about Kit and her works at:

kitreed.net

Visit iTunes to subscribe to Invaders From Planet 3 and download episodes, and be sure to rate the show while you're there!

Our special bonus season of the Invaders From Planet 3 podcast continues, this time with author Melinda Snodgrass as our guest. I've journeyed deep into the catacombs beneath the Lair of bloginhood (still currently located in a fort made of old, half-used rolls of Christmas wrapping paper in your great-aunt Tilly's basement closet because social distancing lockdown rules prevent the Lair from shifting across space as it normally does) and discovered a previously unaired mini interview with Melinda where she shares her list of her Top 5 favourite works of speculative fiction by other writers.

Bear in mind, it's been a couple of years since we chatted, so some of her favourites may have changed.

Be sure to contact your local bookstore or library to find out how you can get copies of the stories on her list (or check your favourite video streaming service to find the movie Aliens), and pick up a couple of Melinda's novels while you're there!

To learn more about Melinda or her stories, check out her website:
melindasnodgrass.com

To listen to Invaders From Planet 3, or to subscribe, visit Libsyn, iTunes, or your other favourite podcatching service. Be sure to rate and review us while you're there!

In this episode, we're joined by author, podcaster, and video game dialogue & plot writer Minister Faust. Minister tells us how his love of speculative fiction started with the original Star Trek series and Robert A. Heinlein's Red Planet. We also talk about Frank Herbert's Dune as one of his early influences, along with the merits and faults of the various incarnations of Dune over the years.

Also of particular interest are Minister's reflections on the significant role his mother played in his early development as a reader and a writer. How she introduced him to science fiction — and literature in general — and allowed him to read anything in the house. How she gave him a sense of the importance of having someone to talk about stories with. And how she fostered his enthusiasm for the wonder of the universe.

We'll talk about his books and how they struggle with the question of redemption and the humanity of both heroes and villains. On the subject of heroes, we'll discuss superheroes and comics, and how his novel Shrinking the Heroes (formerly known as From the Notebooks of Dr. Brain) uses the tropes of this sub-genre to grapple with the dangers of both poorly practiced psychology and the US government under the George W. Bush administration.

As we talk about superhero movies like Mystery Men and TV shows like Breaking Bad (which he contends is actually science fiction), Minister will share his thoughts on what he wants out of novels, comics, and other forms of entertainment. Our conversation will branch out into an exploration of the nature of communication and perception. And we circle back to the topic of heroes with a discussion on Canada's difficulty with heroes and mythology, nationalism versus regionalism, and the effects of our history.

Our interview took place in October 2015 via a Skype connection between Minister's headquarters at the Grand Lodge of Imhotep in Edmonton, and my location in the lair of bloginhood, located aboard a refurbished airship moored to the peak of Mt. Garibaldi.

Find out more about Minister Faust and his works at:

ministerfaust.com

Season 4 of Invaders From Planet 3 launches with an all-new "Voice of the Fans" episode, recorded at the Dublin Worldcon this summer. In fact, there were so many fans who came out to share their stories about their first loves in science fiction, fantasy, comics and all points in between, that I had to expand it to three "Voice of the Fans" episodes!

In this first instalment, we'll hear from Ed Beecher, Dr. Wanda Kurtcu, Scott "Kludge" Dorsey, and Octocon co-chair Janet O'Sullivan.

Stay tuned for more "Voice of the Fans" episodes in the weeks ahead, as well as our regular, full-length interviews!

Sad news: Mike Cleaver, a veteran broadcaster and the man who provided the opening voiceover for the Invaders From Planet 3 podcast — becoming the herald for our Invasion — died on Sunday, February 10, 2019. In this episode, we pay tribute to a good friend.

It's been a while, but we're back! The Invaders From Planet 3 bonus season continues with the return of author Kristi Charish!

In this previously-unaired mini interview, Kristi shares her list of her Top 5 favourite speculative fiction movies.

Keep in mind, it's been a couple of years since we had this conversation, so Kristi's favourites may have changed since then. But they're certainly worth searching for on your favourite streaming service.

Meantime, be sure to visit your local bookstore or library and ask how you can get copies of Kristi's books!

For more information on Kristi or her stories, visit her website:
www.kristicharish.com

To listen to Invaders From Planet 3, or to subscribe, visit Libsyn, iTunes, or your other favourite podcatching service. Be sure to rate and review us while you're there!

Welcome to the inaugural episode of Invaders From Planet 3, a bi-weekly podcast about science fiction, fantasy, and all points in between.

In this episode, you'll get a quick overview of what we'll be talking about with our guests, and why the name Invaders From Planet 3 was chosen.

I look forward to hearing from you on this page, on bloginhood.com (the staging point for the invasion), or on my Twitter feed: @bloginhood.

Author David Nickle returns to Invaders From Planet 3 as our bonus season continues!

I've recently returned from an expedition into the vaults beneath the Lair of bloginhood (finally able to cautiously skip across dimensions to its new current location beneath the ruins of an old cannery pier in the Fraser River near Steveston), where I've uncovered a previously-unaired mini interview with David where he shares a Top 5 list of speculative fiction stories worthy of attention.

Keep in mind that our conversation took place a few years ago, so a few of his choices might be different now.

That said, it's worth contacting your local bookstore or library to find these stories. And be sure to ask them for copies of David's books while you're there!

To learn more about David and his stories, check out his blog, The Devil's Exercise Yard:
http://davidnickle.blogspot.com

To listen to Invaders From Planet 3, or to subscribe, visit Libsyn, iTunes, or your other favourite podcatching service. Be sure to rate and review us while you're there!

Our special bonus season of the show continues! Even though the coronavirus restrictions are slowly starting to ease in some places, life still isn't back to normal, and the lockdown continues for some people, so I'm continuing to post mini episodes.

This time, I've combed through the archives in the Lair of bloginhood (still currently located in a fort made of old, half-used rolls of Christmas wrapping paper in your great-aunt Tilly's basement closet because social distancing lockdown rules prevent the Lair from shifting across space as it normally does) and discovered this previously-unaired conversation with author Matt Ruff. In it, Matt shares his list of his Top 5 favourite works of speculative fiction by other writers.

Bear in mind that it's been a couple of years since we chatted, so his favourites may have changed.

That said, contact your local bookstore or library to find these stories. And be sure to pick up Matt's novels while you're there!

To learn more about Matt and his books, visit his website:
www.bymattruff.com

To listen to Invaders From Planet 3, or to subscribe, visit Libsyn, iTunes, or your other favourite podcatching service. Be sure to rate and review us while you're there!

In this episode, author and editor Claude Lalumiere talks about his love of the TV show Ultraman and comics like The Avengers during his formative years. We'll also hear about the importance of Interzone magazine, and the influence of Philip Jose Farmer, Robert Silverberg, Roger Zelazny, and others on his development as a writer. He shares his thoughts on the two stages of his writing career, what it's like to look back at his older stories, and the state of speculative fiction today.

Our interview took place in May 2015 in the lair of bloginhood, located in a habitat module on an asteroid in the Oort cloud.

Find out more about Claude and his latest stories and anthologies at:

claudepages.info

Once again I've been digging through the Invaders From Planet 3 archives deep beneath the lowest cellars of the Lair of bloginhood (still currently located in a fort made of old, half-used rolls of Christmas wrapping paper in your great-aunt Tilly's basement closet because social distancing lockdown rules prevent the Lair from shifting across space as it normally does) to find another previously unaired interview for our special bonus season.

This time, author Claude Lalumiere (our first guest on the show!) shares his Top 5 favourite speculative fiction works by other authors. Of course, that was a couple of years ago, so his Top 5 list may (or may not) have changed since then.

Be sure to look for the stories he mentions in your local bookstore or library, and, by all means, find Claude's books while you're there too!

To learn more about Claude Lalumiere and his works, visit his website:
claudepages.info

To listen to Invaders From Planet 3, or to subscribe, visit Libsyn, iTunes, or your other favourite podcatching service. Be sure to rate and review us while you're there!

Comedian, author, podcaster and performer Sean Cullen joins the Invasion for this episode. Sean talks about how his love for speculative fiction started with works such as Tolkien's The Hobbit, Mr Bass's Planetoid by Eleanor Cameron, Stephen R Donaldson's Lord Foul's Bane, and Asimov's Foundation and Robot stories. We discuss the ups and downs of following a series, especially a long-running collection. And he talks about what makes a good story.

Sean and I dissect the Star Wars franchise, especially the prequel trilogy and the latest stand-alone focussing on Han Solo. We also talk about Space 1999 and Star Trek, and how science fiction is often a product of its time, and whether it's possible to go back to and enjoy your first loves in the genre. We then get into a discussion of more recent favourite books, including the works of Neal Stephenson, Dan Simmons, and Kim Stanley Robinson. And we reminisce about the madcap fun of The Hilarious House of Frightenstein.

We also talk about the books Sean has written for kids, including Hamish X and the Cheese Pirates and The Prince of Neither Here Nor There, as well as a superhero-themed novel he's currently writing for adult audiences. And Sean shares his thoughts on occasionally working science fiction references into his stand-up comedy.

Our interview took place in June 2018 via a Skype call between Sean's headquarters aboard The Seanpod, currently drifting along the bottom of James Bay, and my studio in the Lair of bloginhood, located in a sumptuous beach house on the shores of a methane lake on Saturn's moon Titan.

Find out more about Sean Cullen, his books, and his comedy albums on his website:
seancullen.com

Listen to episodes of The Seanpod on his podcasting page:
theseanpod.com

Watch Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs on TV or YouTube.

And check the listings at your local comedy club to see when he'll be performing in your town.

To listen to Invaders From Planet 3, or subscribe, visit Libsyn, iTunes, Stitcher, Overcast and Spotify. Be sure to rate and review the show while you're there!

In this episode, we're joined by author, podcaster and scientist Kristi Charish, who tells us about how important the Indiana Jones movies were to her as a young fan — especially The Temple of Doom — and why they still resonate so powerfully in pop culture and sf. She'll talk about reading Heinlein and Asimov, and some of her favourite Marvel Comics series over the years, including Excalibur and Ultimate Avengers. She'll also tell us about her love of video games, especially Dragon Age, Uncharted and Mass Effect, and how they influenced her writing.

Kristi shares the story of her roundabout path from being a kid who wanted to be Short Round, to becoming an archaeology student who switched to genetics, to branching into a career as a writer. She'll talk about how that background in science is as important to her writing as her enjoyment of speculative fiction has been. She'll explore the nature of urban fantasy. And we'll discuss how hard science underlies her urban fantasy stories, and how she works to ensure that doesn't interrupt the storytelling.

Our interview took place in October 2015 at VCon — the Vancouver Science Fiction, Fantasy and Games Convention (in a lounge along a main thoroughfare, which is why you'll hear the comings and goings of conventioneers in the background).

Find out more about Kristi and her works at:

kristicharish.com

Visit iTunes to subscribe to Invaders From Planet 3 and download episodes, and be sure to rate the show while you're there!

We're counting down towards the end of our special bonus season of Invaders From Planet 3 with just three mini episodes to go — this time with the return of author Sebastien de Castell! 

An extensive search of the archives in the Lair of bloginhood (currently located beneath a concession stand in an abandoned Japanese theme park) has yielded a previously-unaired interview where Sebastien shares his Top 5 list of some of his favourite speculative fiction stories by other writers.

This conversation took place a couple of years ago, so his favourites may have changed. But they're all still worth reading, and you should contact your local bookstore or library about finding copies.

And while you're there, be sure to pick up copies of Sebastien's books as well!

To learn more about Sebastien or his stories, check out his website:
https://decastell.com

To listen to Invaders From Planet 3, or to subscribe, visit Libsyn, iTunes, or your other favourite podcatching service. Be sure to rate and review us while you're there!

Author and podcaster Minister Faust returns to lead the Invasion once again in the season 3 finale of Invaders From Planet 3! We talk about The Coyote Kings vs. the Myconauts of Plutonium City — his new, serialized novel — and his plans to unite all of his stories within the single, overarching MFU (the Minister Faust Universe). As part of this, we also discuss why he decided to keep this instalment in the adventures of the Coyotes in the 1990s, rather than bringing our heroes up to date.

Minister also shares some of his thoughts about writing, including mining old, half-developed ideas for material that can be refurbished and combined with other content into something new and compelling; how a writer decides when a story's time has come; and how deciding to publish a new novel as a serial, rather than a single, finished book, is a source of pressure, but also offers a lot of positive opportunities. He talks about the importance of letting the real world provide the conflict in a story, rather than its artificial elements. He discusses how to expand the focus of the story to give supporting characters time at centre stage, without losing the thrust of who the story is really about. And he explores the reality of being a creator in a world where writers (and other artists) have to consider expanding their work into other media platforms, and thus need to always be ready to make a pitch.

Along the way, we talk about the current Golden Age — or Gold Rush, as Minister suggests — of television. We also take time to debate the movie adaptation of The Martian. And we discuss why British TV productions are often more interesting and entertaining than their Hollywood counterparts.

Minister also teases some of his upcoming projects, including a novel about Dread Scott Jahplin (one of the supporting characters in The Coyote Kings vs. the Myconauts of Plutonium City), and a new novel called Shango, God of Thunder City.

Our interview took place in February, 2019, via a Skype connection between his headquarters at The Grand Lodge of Imhotep in Edmonton, and my studio in the lair of bloginhood, currently located beneath a small island in an ornamental duck pond in that new condo development just down the street.

You can learn more about Minister Faust and his stories on his website:
ministerfaust.com

And you can listen to his podcast, MF Galaxy, on various platforms, including his Patreon site:
https://www.patreon.com/mfgalaxy

To listen to Invaders From Planet 3, or subscribe, visit Libsyn, iTunes, Stitcher, Overcast and Spotify. Be sure to rate and review the show while you're there!

In this episode, we're joined by author Charles Stross who talks about discovering his love of sf when he was 5 and started reading Andre Norton's books at his local library. By the time he was 15, he'd read everything in the genre. Charlie also reflects on how growing up in Britain of the 1970s — a place he describes as a "malfunctioning society" — affected his perception of the American speculative fiction he read. He also discusses the shift that took place in British culture  in the 80s, and how that steered him towards a career as a pharmacist — at least until he shifted to computer science and then technical writing.

Charlie tells us about his development as a writer, from his beginnings at age 12, to his first attempts to get published in his teens, to selling stories in his 20s, including a novel. He goes on to discuss how working as a pharmacist and in computers gave him insight into how organizations of different sizes function (or malfunction), leading to an understanding of bureaucracy as a villain. He also talks about his ideas around artificial intelligence and the Turing Test, and its relation to the Fermi Paradox.

And Charlie also shares some details about his new novel, The Labyrinth Index, as well as an upcoming book, Invisible Sun (in the Empire Games series), and a space opera story called Ghost Engine that's in the works.

Our conversation took place in October 2018 at the Vancouver Science Fiction, Fantasy & Games Convention (VCon).

You can learn more about Charles Stross and his stories on his website:
https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/

To listen to Invaders From Planet 3, or subscribe, visit Libsyn, iTunes, Stitcher, Overcast and Spotify. Be sure to rate and review the show while you're there!

Author Walter Jon Williams joins us in this episode! We talk about his first loves in science fiction, including Heinlein's Have Spacesuit — Will Travel and John Schealer's Zip-Zip Goes to Venus. And Walter tells us about his evolution as a writer: from feeling the compulsion to write at age 3, to getting a rejection letter from the editor of The New Yorker, to writing historical fiction novels, to getting into sf. He also reflects on the nature of his compulsion to write, including finding a balance between the business needs of writing and the compulsion, and eventually watching the compulsion die.

We also talk about the universe of science fiction publishing, and the change from the days of limited selection to today's huge output of stories, and the challenges of maintaining a sense of what the community is talking about. We discuss Walter's time in the spotlight in the 1980s when his cyberpunk novel Hardwired garnered love and hate. And he shares the story of his involvement in the Wild Cards mosaic superhero novels, including his coining of "toaster" as a derogatory term for androids.

And Walter shares some details from his two newest novels, Quillifer the Knight (published in late 2019), and the latest, as-yet-untitled Praxis novel, due later this year.

Our conversation took place in the impromptu studio of bloginhood in the Dublin convention centre last summer at Worldcon 2019.

To learn more about Walter and his novels, visit his website:
www.walterjonwilliams.net

To listen to Invaders From Planet 3, or to subscribe, visit Libsyn, iTunes, or your other favourite podcatching service. Be sure to rate and review us while you're there!

Just in time for St. Patrick's Day, it's this season's third and final Voice of the Fans episode, recorded at the 2019 Worldcon in Dublin, Ireland!

The quartet of commentators in this episode includes:

Author Daniel Bensen
www.thekingdomsofevil.com

Reviewer Carien Ubink
www.mcpigpearls.blogspot.com

Academic and author Dr. Tiffani Angus
www.tiffani-angus.com

And aspiring writer and Glasgow Worldcon bid volunteer Robin Duncan

Stay tuned for more regular-length interviews with authors, editors, artists, performers and others involved in science fiction, fantasy, comics, and all points in between.

To listen to Invaders From Planet 3, or to subscribe, visit Libsyn, iTunes, or your other favourite podcatching service. Be sure to rate and review us while you're there!

Another deep dive into the vaults beneath the Lair of bloginhood (still currently located in a fort made of old, half-used rolls of Christmas wrapping paper in your great-aunt Tilly's basement closet because social distancing lockdown rules prevent the Lair from shifting across space as it normally does) has yielded more buried treasure for our bonus season of Invaders From Planet 3.

This time, we have a previously unaired short interview with author Alex Renwick (a.k.a. Alexandra Renwick, a.k.a. Zandra Renwick, a.k.a. Camille Alexa), where she shares her Top 5 favourite works of speculative fiction by other writers. At least, her Top 5 from a couple of years ago when we had our interview — her choices may have changed since then.

Be sure to talk to your local bookstore owner or librarian about finding books by the authors on her list. And look for Alex's own stories while you're there.

To find out more about Alex's work, visit her website:
alexcrenwick.com

To listen to Invaders From Planet 3, or to subscribe, visit Libsyn, iTunes, or your other favourite podcatching service. Be sure to rate and review us while you're there!

It's the springtime of coronavirus and everyone's got the quarantine doldrums. What to do?

I recently recalled that I've got a bunch of unused interview material that I've been sitting on for a couple of years, buried deep in the archives here in the Lair of bloginhood (currently located in a fort made of old, half-used rolls of Christmas wrapping paper in your great-aunt Tilly's basement closet). So, to give you something to listen to during the lockdown — and to give me something to do — I've decided to use these previously-unheard clips to post a special bonus season of Invaders From Planet 3!

Over the next little while, I'll be posting mini episodes — just a few minutes long — a couple of times per week, featuring past guests from the show's first two seasons. Each guest will share their Top 5 list of their favourite works of speculative fiction from other creators.

And we'll start things off in this episode with a Top 5 from author Kit Reed, who sadly passed in 2017. Kit's work often touched on themes of personal and group isolation — something that probably hits home for many of us these days. Be sure to look up her novels and short story collections in your local bookstore or library.

To listen to Invaders From Planet 3, or to subscribe, visit Libsyn, iTunes, or your other favourite podcatching service. Be sure to rate and review us while you're there!

Sebastien de Castell, author of the Greatcoats fantasy series, joins us in this episode. We talk about how his love of fantasy started with CS Lewis' The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and the importance of the story to him at a time when he was dealing with one of the toughest experiences a child can face. As well, he shares his thoughts about fantasy's role in highlighting the wonder of the real world, rather than just being a means of escape.

Sebastien then discusses how a rainy camping trip with a copy of Keith Taylor's Bard ultimately inspired his career path: music, swordplay, and storytelling. We explore how his writing has been shaped by what he's learned as a musician. As someone who's coordinated sword fighting scenes for stage productions, he also talks about how technique with a blade is often less important to writing a fight scene than the other experiences one has during a duel.

He explains the benefits of having a good working relationship with his editor, and having beta readers who will help him hash-out a story. Sebastien also talks about the challenges of transitioning from writing one book to another, and of shifting gears when he has multiple stories on the go at once (at the time of our conversation, he was working on three books simultaneously: the upcoming Greatcoats instalment Tyrant's Throne, the also soon-to-be-released Spellslinger, and a third book that's in development).

We talk about the problems that arise when people try impose a personal frame on art. This leads to a discussion about the 2016 Hugo Awards controversy.

Our interview took place in June 2016 at Sebastien's home in Vancouver, BC.

Find out more about Sebastien de Castell and his works at:

decastell.com

Visit iTunes to subscribe to Invaders From Planet 3 and download episodes, and be sure to rate the show while you're there!

It's time for another episode of the bonus season of Invaders From Planet 3! This time, I've uncovered an interview with author Robert J. Sawyer in the stockpile of previously-unaired extra audio buried deep in the vaults beneath the Lair of bloginhood (still currently located in a fort made of old, half-used rolls of Christmas wrapping paper in your great-aunt Tilly's basement closet because social distancing lockdown rules prevent the Lair from shifting across space as it normally does).

Rob shares his Top 5 list of his favourite science fiction stories by other writers. Bear in mind, it's been a couple of years since Rob and I had our chat, so his favourites may have changed.

Be sure to get in touch with your local bookstore or library to find the stories on his list. And while you're there, ask them about Rob's own novels.

To find out more about Rob's stories, visit his website:
www.sfwriter.com

To listen to Invaders From Planet 3, or to subscribe, visit Libsyn, iTunes, or your other favourite podcatching service. Be sure to rate and review us while you're there!

Author Chris Beckett joins us in this episode, where he talks about his first loves in sf, including Heinlein's Starman Jones, CS Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia, and The Space Merchants by Frederik Pohl and CM Kornbluth. He describes the importance of being able to explore his father's book collection and coming from a family with a scientific background, and what his father thought of his eventual decision to become a writer.

We also chat about how Chris' career as a social worker has influenced both his own writing and his views on other science fiction. As part of this, we talk about the connection between the science fictional mindset and that of social work, and sf's value as escapism.

Chris also discusses his latest novel, America City, and drops a hint about his next, as yet untitled, work.

Our interview took place in June 2018 via a Skype connection (and I apologize in advance for audio dropouts or Skype artifacts in the recording) between Chris' home in Cambridge, UK, and my location in the Lair of bloginhood, buried in the stone bulwark at the end of the White Rock pier.

Find out more about Chris Beckett on his website:
www.chris-beckett.com

To listen to Invaders From Planet 3, or subscribe, visit Libsyn, iTunes, Stitcher, Overcast and Spotify. Be sure to rate and review the show while you're there!

Comic book artist Dan Schoening joins us for this episode of the Invasion. Dan talks about some of his genre first loves that influenced his decision to become an artist, including the 1980s video game Dragon's Lair, Disney's Alice in Wonderland, and various Saturday morning cartoons.

He discusses how he initially studied animation before turning to comic artistry, and how a project with Cereal Geek Magazine's James Eatock that ultimately didn't pan-out opened the door for Dan to work with IDW. From there, Dan tells us about working on IDW's Ghostbusters for the last seven years with writer Erik Burnham and colourist Luis Delgado. He shares his thoughts about having a team that can read each other's minds, flushing out the look of the Ghostbusters world by adding Easter eggs, how to keep things fresh and not get bored after a long story arc, and the importance of planning ahead.

Dan also teases a couple of projects he's got on the go for 2019, as well as his upcoming appearance at the Ghostbusters Fan Fest in June.

Our interview took place in late October 2018 via a Skype connection between Dan's home on Vancouver Island, and my studio in the lair of bloginhood, currently located in a geodesic dome at the bottom of a side canyon in the Valles Marineris on Mars.

You can find Dan's art in issues of IDW's Ghostbusters in your local comic shop, or on his Instagram page at:
https://www.instagram.com/dannyschoening/

To listen to Invaders From Planet 3, or subscribe, visit Libsyn, iTunes, Stitcher, Overcast and Spotify. Be sure to rate and review the show while you're there!

In this episode, we're joined by author Robert Charles Wilson, who tells us about how he fell in love with speculative fiction — including stories such as Louis Slobodkin's The Space Ship Under the Apple Tree, the Mushroom Planet books by Eleanor Cameron, and Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time —  as soon as he learned to read. We'll learn how sf's juxtaposition of the ordinary with the extraordinary fascinated him, and how exploring the genre and its ideas was a reaction to growing up in an incurious family.

Bob also talks about how he became a writer, and overcoming his anxiety about his work — an anxiety that gave him nightmares. We'll discuss some of the tropes frequently addressed in his stories, including unfathomable cosmic forces and how humanity deals with them, and how he'll sometimes examine them from different perspectives across several unrelated novels. We'll also talk about the presence of characters in his books who are on the autism spectrum.

And we'll hear about some of the stories he's developing (including his novel Last Year, which was released in December 2016, a couple of months after our interview).

Our interview took place in September 2016 near Bob's home in the Greater Toronto Area.

Find out more about Robert Charles Wilson and his books on his website:

robert-charles-wilson.com

Visit iTunes to subscribe to Invaders From Planet 3 and download episodes, and be sure to rate the show while you're there!

Author Naomi Novik joins us for the season 4 finale of Invaders From Planet 3!

Naomi tells us how her love of fantasy and science fiction was born when her mother read Polish fairy tales to her, such as Agnieszka "Piece of the Sky". At the same time, her parents were reading the Disney picture book version of Peter Pan to her, along with Tolkien's The Hobbit, and other works. She tells us how the Polish stories helped create a bond between her and her mother's past, and how her love of Disney's version of Peter Pan got her started down the road to creating her own stories... or, at least commissioning them at that point.

We also talk about the evolution of Naomi's relationship with fan fiction, from reading it in university, to her early days as a writer when she began creating it, to her eventual decision that it was too constraining for a story she wanted to tell: the story of Lawrence and the dragon Temeraire in her breakout Temeraire series of novels. And she talks about how, even after building a career around her own unique stories, she still enjoys writing fanfic.

Naomi also tells us about feeling liberated when the Temeraire series came to an end. And she discusses the importance of having control over a story's ending, right from the start.

Our conversation took place in the impromptu studio of bloginhood in the Dublin convention centre last summer at Worldcon.

To learn more about Naomi and her stories, visit her website:
www.naominovik.com

To listen to Invaders From Planet 3, or to subscribe, visit Libsyn, iTunes, or your other favourite podcatching service. Be sure to rate and review us while you're there!

In this episode, we're joined by author and editor Silvia Moreno-Garcia. She tells us how HP Lovecraft and Peter S Beagle were among the English language authors who made an early impression on her. Silvia then goes on to discuss what it was like coming back to Lovecraft while doing thesis work, analyzing the attitudes towards race and sex in his stories, and how some of her own works have responded to him. She also shares the importance of Silvina Ocampo, one of the few female authors writing magic realism in Spanish during the 1950s.

We also talk about Silvia's experience with overlapping cultures — growing up in Mexico while also being exposed to American culture, then moving to Canada — and how this has influenced her writing, as demonstrated in her luchador superhero short story "Iron Justice versus the Fiends of Evil" (from the Masked Mosaic anthology). This leads us into a discussion about the phenomenon of Latin American speculative fiction authors getting recognition in their home countries only after moving overseas and writing in English. And she tells us what needs to happen for Latin American countries and Spain need to build their own strong, local speculative fiction communities.

Silvia also teases her upcoming novel, The Beautiful Ones (set for release in October, 2017).

Our interview took place in October 2016 at VCon 41 in Surrey, BC.

Find out more about Silvia Moreno-Garcia on her website:
silviamoreno-garcia.com/blog/

Visit iTunes to subscribe to Invaders From Planet 3 and download episodes, and be sure to rate the show while you're there!



Let the invasion begin!

This is it: the final episode of the special bonus season of Invaders From Planet 3! I hope you've enjoyed hearing these mini interviews with some of our previous guests over the past few months as we've shuffled through the strange days of the pandemic.

I'm going to be taking a little break, but stay tuned for a regular season of full-length episodes in a few months with a new batch of guests. And, by all means, go back and re-listen to some of our classic episodes.

But for now, author Kelly Robson closes the season with a previously-unaired feature where she shares her Top 10 favourite works of science fiction by other writers. Keep in mind, it's been a few years since we had this conversation, so her favourites may have changed. But you should still check them out at your local bookstore or library. And be sure to look for Kelly's books, and anthologies and magazines with her stories, while you're there!

To learn more about Kelly Robson and her work, visit her website:
https://kellyrobson.com

To listen to Invaders From Planet 3, or to subscribe, visit Libsyn, iTunes, or your other favourite podcatching service. Be sure to rate and review us while you're there!

We're joined by author and editor Matthew Hughes in this episode. Matt talks about his first love in sf: Jack Vance's "The Dragon Masters", as well as Galactic Derelict by Andre Norton, along with his discovery of Asimov, Heinlein, Bradbury and AE van Vogt. He also discusses some of the historical fiction novelists who influenced him, such as Geoffrey Trease, Henry Treece and Rosemary Sutcliff.

Matt talks about being "a guy just passing through" as he shares stories from his early years, starting with an unstable home life where his father, trying to stay one step ahead of money problems, occasionally uprooted the family at a moment's notice — sometimes in the middle of the night to move half-way around the world. There's the story of his teenaged knife fight. And he tells us how taking LSD made him a nicer person.

We also hear about Matt's evolution as a writer, from the teenager writing stories, to the newspaper reporter and editor, to the go-to speechwriter for Canadian federal politicians, their provincial counterparts in BC, and business leaders as well. He talks about his first sale of a fictional story, "Fishface and the Leg", and how he developed his career writing crime stories, and science fiction and fantasy.

Matt also shares details of the new speculative fiction novel he's developing, about a man in his Jack-Vance-Dying-Earth-inspired world who wakes up with amnesia and finds himself on the road to a confrontation with wizards.

Our interview took place in October 2018 at the Vancouver Science Fiction, Fantasy and Games Convention (VCon).

You can learn more about Matthew Hughes and his stories on his website:
https://www.matthewhughes.org

To listen to Invaders From Planet 3, or subscribe, visit Libsyn, iTunes, Stitcher, Overcast and Spotify. Be sure to rate and review the show while you're there!

In this episode, we're joined by author Kelly Robson. We talk about her first love in the genre, Star Wars — how it was big, exciting and sexy, but also an escape from family drama at home; and what it's like to look back on the movie now as an adult and a professional speculative fiction writer. We talk about other early sf pleasures, like the original Battlestar Galactica; books by Piers Anthony, Anne McCaffrey, Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, and others; and the genre magazines of the 70s and 80s. Along the way, we also discuss the early superhero Zorro (and specifically the George Hamilton movie Zorro — The Gay Blade), and why you may have to read Heinlein before a certain age in order to enjoy his stories.

Turning to her own career, Kelly tells us how the Connie Willis story "Blued Moon" reprogrammed her brain and made her want to become a writer. She talks about the positive aspects of starting her career in middle age, and how, despite writing being a selfish line of work, she's still able to be happy as an author married to another author. We also talk about how growing up on a farm in a small town in rural Alberta has influenced her work.

As well, we discuss Kelly's unique suggestion to resolve the Sad/Rabid Puppies controversy that wracked the Hugo Awards in 2015 and 2016.

And Kelly tells us about some of her recent stories, including "A Human Stain" on Tor.com, and her contribution to the Kickstarter project NASTY — Fetish Erotica for a Good Cause.

Our interview took place in December 2016 via a Skype connection between Kelly's home in Toronto, and my studio in the Lair of bloginhood, located in the rafters of an abandoned whisky distillery in the Highlands of Scotland.

Find out more about Kelly Robson on her website:
kellyrobson.com

Visit iTunes to subscribe to Invaders From Planet 3 and download episodes, and be sure to rate the show while you're there!

The bonus season of Invaders From Planet 3 continues, this time with the return of author Alyx Dellamonica!

My excavations of the archives in the Lair of bloginhood (currently located in a porch swing converted to a blanket fort, somewhere in Waterloo) have uncovered a previously-unaired mini interview with Alyx, where she shares her Top 5 list (and more!) of her favourite speculative fiction stories by other writers.

Keep in mind, this conversation took place a couple of years ago, so her favourites may have changed.

That said, contact your local bookstore or library to find out how you can get your hands on these stories. And be sure to ask them for copies of Alyx's books while you're there!

To learn more about Alyx or her writing, visit her website:
alyxdellamonica.com

To listen to Invaders From Planet 3, or to subscribe, visit Libsyn, iTunes, or your other favourite podcatching service. Be sure to rate and review us while you're there!

After a two-week hiatus, the bonus season of Invaders From Planet 3 is back! Miss me? Probably not — you were probably too busy 3-D printing your own custom-made set of The Starlost action figures. But we're back anyway!

This time, I've returned from the vaults deep beneath the Lair of bloginhood (still currently located in a fort made of old, half-used rolls of Christmas wrapping paper in your great-aunt Tilly's basement closet because social distancing lockdown rules prevent the Lair from shifting across space as it normally does) with a previously-unaired interview segment with author John Jantunen.

In this mini episode, John shares his Top 5 list of his favourite works of science fiction by other writers... well, all by one writer in this case! Bear in mind that it's been a couple of years since John and I had this chat, so his favourites might have changed.

In any case, be sure to contact your local bookstore or library to find out how you can get your hands on these stories. And be sure to ask for John's novels while you're at it.

To listen to Invaders From Planet 3, or to subscribe, visit Libsyn, iTunes, or your other favourite podcatching service. Be sure to rate and review us while you're there!

It's a pretty terrible weekend with all that's going on in the world, but I've given it a lot of thought, and I think it's valid that the bonus season continue. The people who make the speculative fiction stories we love show us new perspectives, through their own work, as well as when they share their recommendations for stories by others. It seems that the world is seriously in need of different perspectives and understanding right now, so the show's going on. If nothing else, some listeners may just need a break from all of the awfulness out there.

So, with that in mind, this episode welcomes author Minister Faust back to the show! I've uncovered a previously-unaired mini interview where he shares his list of his Top 5 favourite works of speculative fiction by other writers.

Keep in mind, his his opinions may have changed in the past couple of years since we had our conversation. But these are all good stories anyway, and you should ask your local bookstore or library how you can find them.

While you're at it, be sure to ask them for copies of Minister's books too, or look for them online.

Find out more about Minister Faust and his works at:
ministerfaust.com
Be sure to listen to his podcast, MF GALAXY, on iTunes!

To listen to Invaders From Planet 3, or to subscribe, visit Libsyn, iTunes, or your other favourite podcatching service. Be sure to rate and review us while you're there!

The bonus season of the Invaders From Planet 3 podcast continues with another mini episode.

This time, I've returned from the vaults deep beneath the Lair of bloginhood (still currently located in a fort made of old, half-used rolls of Christmas wrapping paper in your great-aunt Tilly's basement closet because social distancing lockdown rules prevent the Lair from shifting across space as it normally does) with a previously-unaired conversation with author Silvia Moreno-Garcia.  In it, Silvia shares her Top 5 list of her favourite works of speculative fiction by other writers.

Keep in mind, our conversation took place a couple of years ago, so Silvia's favourites may have changed since then.

That said, contact your local bookstore or library and ask how you can get your hands on these stories. And be sure to ask them for copies of Silvia's books while you're at it!

To learn more about Silvia or her stories, check out her website:
www.silviamoreno-garcia.com/blog/

To listen to Invaders From Planet 3, or to subscribe, visit Libsyn, iTunes, or your other favourite podcatching service. Be sure to rate and review us while you're there!

I'm doing something a bit different in this episode: instead of the usual interviews with authors, editors, performers, artists, fans and others, I'm posting a short radio play I've put together with some friends.

Why?

As some of you know, I'm currently taking a Bachelor of Education degree, and one of my course assignments is to write something and publish it. Last summer, a friend and I were kicking around the possibility of doing a radio play. We talked about doing a take on HG Wells' The War of the Worlds, except from the Martian perspective. And, since we're both former newspeople, we talked about presenting it as a nightly newscast on Mars, updating its citizens on the progress of the invasion. When I had to start thinking about the assignment for my course, I decided to see what I could do with the radio play idea, and since I've got this podcast channel already, I have a place to post it.

Admittedly, I was a little pressed for time in putting the radio play together, so the editing isn't quite as tight as I'd like it in places, and a couple of the music beds could use some fading here and there, and a little more production for theatre of the mind effect would help. But, all things considered, I think it's a reasonably good production.

If you enjoy the show, be sure to leave a comment below this post, send an email, or get in touch via social media and let me know. Maybe I'll look into producing a full series from start to finish if enough people are interested.

Finally, a huge thank-you to my friends who helped with the voice acting:

Mark Karjaluoto as Kram the reporter.

Maya Gal as Political Pundit #1.

Chris Shunamon as Political Pundit #2.

Kienan Burrage as Political Pundit #3.

Author Alyx Dellamonica joins us in this episode of the podcast. She tells us about her first loves in the genre, including Spider-Man comics, Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time, and Ray Bradbury's The Illustrated Man. We'll also talk about how she grew up in a home where, from a very young age, she was free to read anything, from children's books like Island of the Blue Dolphins, to more adult fare like Jaws.

We'll also talk about her development as a writer, starting with her first attempts at "Dr. Seuss-inspired doggerel" during childhood, to submitting stories to magazines at 16, and her eventual success in getting published. Alyx tells us about how being steeped in the world of theatre helped her writing, and what other writers can learn from the dramatic arts. She also talks about why she feels most at home writing speculative fiction, and we discuss some of her work, including her Hidden Sea Tales trilogy, and her contribution to the 007-inspired anthology License Expired: The Unauthorized James Bond.

And Alyx tells us about some of her latest stories. Those include the short story "Tribes" in the anthology Strangers Among Us: Tales of the Underdogs and Outcasts and "Bottleneck" in The Sum of Us: Tales of the Bonded and Bound — both collections published by Laksa Media as  a benefit for people with mental health challenges. She's also working on a novella, "Of Things" and a novel, Win Conditions — both set in a world of resource scarcity where popularity is like currency.

Our interview took place in December 2016 via a Skype connection between Alyx's home in Toronto, and my studio in the Lair of bloginhood, located on a house-sized chunk of ice in the rings of Neptune.

Find out more about Alyx Dellamonica on her website:
alyxdellamonica.com

Visit iTunes to subscribe to Invaders From Planet 3 and download episodes, and be sure to rate the show while you're there!

The Invasion has resumed! Season three of the Invaders From Planet 3 podcast kicks off with a new Voice of the Fans episode, where I interview a group of fans about their first loves in science fiction, fantasy, video games, comics, movies, TV — whatever!

My guests include Ryneld Starr, Sarah Corbeil, Jose Palacios, and Sam McCreath. Our interviews took place over the summer of 2018 via Skype calls between their homes and my studio in the Lair of bloginhood, currently located in a pillow fort in your mom's basement.

And because every fan's voice is important, I'd love to hear from you too! Leave a note in the Comments section below telling us about your first love in speculative fiction. And if you'd like to be part of next year's Voice of the Fans episode, contact me at talktobloginhood@gmail.com.

Meanwhile, don't forget to tune in over the coming weeks for the next episodes of the show. I've got interviews with some cool authors, performers and artists coming up this season, and I think you'll enjoy these conversations as much as I did.

To listen to Invaders From Planet 3, or subscribe, visit Libsyn, iTunes, Stitcher, Overcast and Spotify. Be sure to rate and review the show while you're there!

It's been a while, but now that my B.Ed program has wrapped up, Invaders From Planet 3 is back on the air! (Congratulations to all of my fellow rookie teachers from the UBC B.Ed program of 2020!)

We're down the second-last episode of the show's bonus season, and this time, I've unearthed a mini interview I did with author Joe Haldeman a few years ago at VCon. He shares some of his favourite works of sf by other writers from over the years, with a special emphasis on comics.

Bear in mind that it's been a couple of years since we spoke, so his favourites may have changed since then. That said, be sure to check out the backissues bins of your local comic store to see what kinds of treasures you can find. Meanwhile, hit your local bookstore or library and ask for copies of Joe's books.

To learn more about Joe and his stories, check out his website:
http://www.joehaldeman.com

To listen to Invaders From Planet 3, or to subscribe, visit Libsyn, iTunes, or your other favourite podcatching service. Be sure to rate and review us while you're there!

Author and editor Melinda Snodgrass joins us in this episode, telling us how she began her journey into speculative fiction with 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. She'll talk about how Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom books, Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and Heinlein's juveniles were important to her as a smart kid who wanted adventure and escapism, why she's still fond of them as an adult, and the influence the stories of her youth have had on her own writing. Melinda will share her thoughts on what it's like to read the works of friends versus books written by people she doesn't know. She'll talk about some of the business aspects of writing, such as the cross-pollination that takes place between different types of media. And she has some words of wisdom for older fans about the next generation of science fiction and fantasy lovers who have come to the genre by different paths.

Our interview took place in August 2015 at Sasquan, the 73rd World Science Fiction Convention in Spokane, Washington (in a lounge area near a hallway in the convention centre, which is why you'll hear some background noise).

Find out more about Melinda and her works at:

melindasnodgrass.com

Visit iTunes to subscribe to Invaders From Planet 3 and download episodes, and be sure to rate the show while you're there!

Author Mark Barrowcliffe (also known under his pen names MD Lachlan and Mark Alder) joins us in this episode.

Mark tells us about his first loves in sf, including Alan Garner, Ursula K Le Guin's Earthsea series, Tolkien, Moorcock, and Andre Norton. He talks about his enjoyment of Tolkien and Garner injecting mythology into their fantasy, and Moorcock's ability to challenge his readers by posing difficult questions.

When discussing his own writing, Mark reflects on the exhilaration of letting his characters tell their own story, and how this helps when writing characters that come from different backgrounds than his own. He also shares his thoughts on how his experiences practicing boxing, martial arts and fencing give him insight into the scariness of fighting, and how youthful experimentation with hallucinogenic drugs provided inspiration for writing the unreality of a werewolf's state of mind. And he talks about using the trappings of fantasy in storytelling without descending into escapism, and why it's important to refuse to impose modern sensibilities on characters from other periods in history.

We talk at length about his latest — and final — instalment in the Wolfsangel series, The Night Lies Bleeding. He discusses the difficulties of writing a story set partially in a Nazi concentration camp, his research into some of the prisoners who were kept there, and the story's exploration of the problems faced by characters who try to maintain a distance from the world, and who descend into evil.

We also chat about Mark's experiences with Dungeons & Dragons: from his teenaged years dealing with trolls both in and out of the game's quests, dressing for the part, his ruminations on that period of his life in his book The Elfish Gene, and returning to roleplaying years later.

And Mark gives us some hints about the latest story he's working on: a swashbuckling fantasy about a female fencer in the court of Versailles, inspired by the adventures of a real woman known for her duelling victories and romances.

Our interview took place in June 2018 via a Skype connection between Mark's home in Brighton, UK, and my studios in the Lair of bloginhood, currently located in a century-old, unused plantation irrigation tunnel in a mountain on Kauai.

You can find Mark's books under his various pen names at your local bookstore.

To listen to Invaders From Planet 3, or subscribe, visit Libsyn, iTunes, Stitcher, Overcast and Spotify. Be sure to rate and review the show while you're there!

For the final episode of season 2 of Invaders From Planet 3 (posted on the final day of 2017) we're joined by author, editor, columnist, podcaster and musician Spider Robinson.

As we jump into our conversation, already in progress, Spider shares his thoughts about the loss of his wife and sometime collaborator, Jean; the passing of his daughter; and facing one's own mortality. He recounts his experience of dealing with a medical condition in his youth that caused his lungs to collapse frequently, the painful surgical procedure to cure it, and how listening to a Duke Ellington marathon on the radio got him through it.

On the science fiction front, Spider talks about his longstanding love for the works of Robert A. Heinlein, starting with Rocket Ship Galileo. He also mentions some of his other favourites, ranging from the classics to more recent fare, like James Alan Gardner's All Those Explosions Were Someone Else's Fault.

He also discusses writers' block, and what Theodore Sturgeon once said about an extended break from writing.

My conversation with Spider took place in October 2016 at the Vancouver Science Fiction Convention.

Find out more about Spider Robinson on his website:
www.spiderrobinson.com

Visit iTunes to subscribe to Invaders From Planet 3 and download episodes, and be sure to rate the show while you're there!

Author Robert Charles Wilson returns to the show as our bonus season continues!

I've recovered a previously-unaired mini interview with Bob that was lying around in the archives of the Lair of bloginhood (currently located aboard a houseboat adrift on a methane lake on Saturn's moon Titan). In it, he shares his Top 5 list of his favourite speculative fiction stories by other writers.

Keep in mind, our conversation took place a couple of years ago, so his favourites may have changed. But you should still contact your local bookstore or library to find out how you can get your hands on them. And pick up a couple of Bob's books while you're there.

To find out more about Bob or his stories, visit his website:
https://www.robert-charles-wilson.com

To listen to Invaders From Planet 3, or to subscribe, visit Libsyn, iTunes, or your other favourite podcatching service. Be sure to rate and review us while you're there!

On Spec Magazine Managing Editor and Sunburst Award Board of Directors Chairperson Diane Walton joins us for this episode. She talks about her first love in science fiction, Andre Norton's novel The Stars Are Ours!, and reading everything in the genre she could get her hands on, including the works of Clifford Simak and James Blish.

Diane also shares the story of how an Alberta writers' group gave rise to On Spec Magazine (one of Canada's major speculative fiction magazines), and how she eventually ended up in the Editor's chair. She tells us about the challenges of finding funding for the publication, navigating a publishing universe where print and electronic versions of the magazine are available, what this means in terms of garnering a global readership, what it's like running the operation off the side of her desk, and the kinds of stories that get her excited.

And we learn about how the Sunburst Award (Canada's juried award for literature of the fantastic) ignited. Diane talks about what's involved in running the award, and why Canada even needs two awards for speculative fiction. Lastly, she reflects on how Canada's sf&f scene has changed over the years.

Our conversation took place in the impromptu bloginhood studio in the Dublin convention centre at the 2019 Worldcon last summer.

Find out more about On Spec Magazine on its website:
https://onspecmag.wpcomstaging.com

And you can discover which novels and short stories have won the Sunburst Award on its page:
http://sunburstaward.org

To listen to Invaders From Planet 3, or to subscribe, visit Libsyn, iTunes, or your other favourite podcatching service. Be sure to rate and review us while you're there!

*Note: In the interests of disclosure, at the time of this interview, and as of the time of the posting of this episode, I have served as a member of the Sunburst Award board of directors. This in no way influenced my line of questioning during the interview, or the editing of this episode.

In this episode, we'll talk with author and editor Alex Renwick (a.k.a. Camille Alexa) about how Watership Down, Childhood's End, and A Canticle for Leibowitz switched her on to literature and speculative fiction when she was a child. She'll tell us about her love for the TV shows The Bionic Woman and Ark II, and how she later discovered the Regency romance novels of Georgette Heyer. Along the way, we'll find out about how a long train ride played a key role in her transformation into a writer, and Alex will talk about creating short fiction versus novels.

Our interview took place in May 2015 in the lair of bloginhood, located in a sub-aquatic citadel on the floor of the Bay of Fundy.

Find out more about Alex and her latest works at:

alexcrenwick.com

Author, editor and kung-fu mathematician James Alan Gardner joins us in the latest episode of the podcast! Jim starts off by talking about how comics were his first speculative fictional love, especially Marvel's The Avengers and DC's Crisis on Earth One! and Crisis on Earth Two!, leading eventually to science fiction like Heinlein's juveniles, and later, in university, to fantasy by Tolkien and Stephen R Donaldson, and horror by Stephen King.

We talk about his decision to study Math at university, and how a student work internship in Toronto with nothing to do at night gave him the opportunity to start developing his abilities as a writer. Jim tells us about how a writing workshop in Banff allowed him to further hone his skills and find his own voice, and we later discuss how this differed from his experience at Clarion. We also talk about Jim's early work writing science fictional stage plays and radio plays, like Curio (a paranormal investigative series predating The X-Files) and Percy Pulsar, Space Accountant. And he discusses his first prose science fiction stories that were published.

Coming back to superheroes, we talk about Jim's novel All Those Explosions Were Someone Else's Fault — a story pitting metahumans against vampires, werewolves and other paranormal monsters. And he teases its upcoming sequel, They Promised Me the Gun Wasn't Loaded, and the two other novels he's working on in the series. Jim also gives some hints about a haunted house novel he's developing.

Our interview took place in October 2018 at the annual Vancouver Science Fiction, Fantasy & Games Convention (VCon).

Find out more about James Alan Gardner and his stories on his website:
https://jamesalangardner.wordpress.com

To listen to Invaders From Planet 3, or subscribe, visit Libsyn, iTunes, Stitcher, Overcast and Spotify. Be sure to rate and review the show while you're there!

We're joined by author John Jantunen in this episode. John starts off by telling us about his early influences, including David Gerrold's War Against the Chtorr series, Stephen King, old Hammer horror vampire films starring Peter Cushing, and post-apocalyptic movies like The Road Warrior, Escape from New York, A Boy and His Dog, The Quiet Earth, and Night of the Comet.

We also talk extensively about John's love for the works of Philip K Dick, especially Counter-Clock World; Valis; A Scanner Darkly; Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said; and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? He also discusses watching Bladerunner when it first hit the theatres, what it's like rewatching it now versus his experience as a kid, and how it compares with 'Androids. While John talks about how Dick's weird ideas and the fundamental desperation of his writing were the biggest influence on his own development as a writer, he also discusses the slippery slope of reading too much PKD.

And we go into detail about John's love of the post-apocalypse as subject matter, and specifically the question he continuously asked himself as a kid in the shadow of the Cold War in the 70s and 80s: what would a Canadian apocalypse look like? These thoughts fed into his eventual development of his short story "The Body Politic", and most especially his novel A Desolate Splendor, which we examine.

Our interview took place in December 2016 via a Skype connection between John's home in Guelph, Ontario, and my location in the Lair of bloginhood, located in a cave beneath a hill fort in Kent.

Look for John Jantunen's books in your nearest bookstore or online.

Visit iTunes to subscribe to Invaders From Planet 3 and download episodes, and be sure to rate the show while you're there!

The invasion resumes!

In this episode, bridging season 1 and 2, we hear from a group of fans about their first loves in science fiction and fantasy. Our guests include the owners of Vancouver's White Dwarf science fiction bookstore, Jill Sanagan and Walter Sinclair; Vancouver film critic Thor Diakow; and fans-about-town Geordie Howe and Brandon Wong.

Some of the interviews were conducted around Greater Vancouver (accounting for the non-stop construction noise in the background), while others were held in the lair of bloginhood, located in an abandoned coal mine deep beneath the Cumberland village centre park on Vancouver Island.

Be sure to tune in over the coming weeks for more episodes from our new season of Invaders From Planet 3!

Visit iTunes to subscribe to Invaders From Planet 3 and download episodes, and be sure to rate the show while you're there!

Let the invasion begin!

In this episode, we'll chat with author Joe Haldeman. We're also joined by Joe's wife, Gay — and the resident murder of crows at the hotel hosting the convention.

Joe shares some of his early sf favourites with us, including Lester del Rey's Rocket Jockey, Robert A Heinlein's Red Planet, and the TV series Tom Corbett, Space Cadet. He talks about meeting some of the science fiction authors that influenced him during his youth. And he'll tell us about his enjoyment of the Year's Best anthology series at this stage in his life.

Joe also muses about the way the world and the ability of people to access information and entertainment has changed over the years, and how one's personality and experiences affect one's tastes. He tells us about how his letters home from Vietnam formed the basis of his first novel. And he talks about being a writer, and how science fiction authors differ from their mainstream counterparts.

At various points in our conversation, we talk about gatekeepers — people who have played an important role in introducing him to science fiction, and his own part in fostering someone else's appreciation of the genre.

Our interview took place in October 2015 at VCon — the Vancouver Science Fiction, Fantasy and Games Convention (in the hotel's courtyard, which accounts for the crows adding their two cents to the conversation).

Find out more about Joe and his works at:

joehaldeman.com

Visit iTunes to subscribe to Invaders From Planet 3 and download episodes, and be sure to rate the show while you're there!

Author, editor, blogger and activist Cory Doctor joins us for this episode. Cory shares his thoughts on speculative fiction that made an impression on him at an early age, including Doctor Who — and specifically, TV Ontario's presentation of Doctor Who episodes along with introductions by sf legend Judith Merril (who, along with Tanya Huff, would later become one of Cory's mentors) — and Star Wars. He also discusses his ongoing love of the works of Stephen Brust.

We also talk politics, from current affairs in Ontario, to his father's repurposing of Conan stories into "sword and socialism" tales for Cory's daughter. Cory also tells us about how his politics and activism inform his writing. From there, we get into a discussion about his writing process, including his current effort to enhance his ability to revise his work. And we talk about his professional balancing act and how he allocates time to writing, activism, journalism, and other endeavours.

And Cory gives us a look at some of his upcoming stories, including a new Little Brother novel, and a children's picture book called Poesy the Monster Slayer.

Our conversation took place in July, 2019 via a Skype call between Cory's home, and my studio, currently located in an abandoned Ewok treetops play set on the Island of Misfit Toys.

You can read Cory's editorials and find out about his stories and other work on his websites:

craphound.com

and

boingboing.net

To listen to Invaders From Planet 3, or to subscribe, visit Libsyn, iTunes, or your other favourite podcatching service. Be sure to rate and review us while you're there!

In this episode, author & editor Robert J. Sawyer tells us about getting an early start in adult-level science fiction reading books by David Gerrold and Isaac Asimov. He'll talk about why the original Star Trek was such a great TV series, and share his opinions about how science fiction has evolved and sometimes taken steps backward over the years. We'll also chat with Rob about how well old sf novels hold up, specifically some of the works of Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke. Reflecting on his own writing, Rob will tell us about what he learned from interviewing some of the giants in the field back in the 1980s, how he's tried to synthesize the approaches of Larry Niven and Mike Resnick, and  his reputation for being an optimist. He'll also give us some hints about what to expect from his newest novel, Quantum Night.

Our interview took place in August 2015 at Sasquan, the 73rd World Science Fiction Convention in Spokane, Washington.

Find out more about Rob and his works at:

sfwriter.com

Author Matt Ruff joins us in this episode, where he talks about how books like Bertrand R. Brinley's The Mad Scientists' Club made him fall in love with scientific thinking and science fictional ideas. He also tells us how being given a box of Robert A. Heinlein's adult books at the age of 9 got him thinking critically about stories, and how they could be written better. And he discusses other influences over the years, such as Stephen King, John Crowley's Little, Big, Neal Stephenson, and William Gibson.

Matt shares his thoughts on writing, including how to know when something is written well, crafting stories that are in conversation with the works of other authors, and why he doesn't like to go back over the same ground. We also talk about a trope he frequently explores in his stories: the challenges of dealing with power — getting on in a world where power imbalances exist.

This leads us into a discussion about Matt's latest work: his mosaic novel Lovecraft Country, about an African-American family in the 1950s dealing with the supernatural machinations of a Lovecraftian cult, as well as the day-to-day horrors of racism in the U.S. Matt talks about confronting the racism and sexism in Lovecraft's work. He also shares this thoughts about the importance of doing a good job on the writing, and of finding common ground, as a white author writing about African-Americans. And we talk about last week's announcement that Jordan Peele, Misha Green, and J.J. Abrams will be producing a Lovecraft Country series for HBO, and how he's okay with adaptations and letting TV writers play with his ideas.

Our interview took place in May 2017 at Matt's home in Seattle.

Find out more about Matt Ruff on his website:

bymattruff.com

Visit iTunes to subscribe to Invaders From Planet 3 and download episodes, and be sure to rate the show while you're there!

Author and editor David Nickle joins us for this episode. He tells us about works of speculative fiction that influenced him early on, including the TV series Lost in Space (and what it has in common with Larry Niven's Ringworld), Lester del Rey's novel The Runaway Robot, and the stories of Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Richard Matheson, Shirley Jackson, Harlan Ellison, and Stephen King. On the subject of enjoying King, David talks about how he and his wife, author and editor Madeline Ashby, read a chapter of Salem's Lot out loud every night before bed. But also in our discussion of the giants of the genre, he also explains why Robert A. Heinlein isn't among his favourites.

On the subject of being an author, David recounts the tale of his first stab at writing: dictating Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons fanfic to his mother for transcription when he was four. He talks about how being a journalist has helped his writing. And David shares his thoughts on whether national identity plays a role in writing Canadian sf these days. He also discusses the challenges he and Ashby faced as co-editors wrangling the legal ins-and-outs of the anthology License Expired: The Unauthorized James Bond, which was released only in Canada due to copyright laws.

And David tells us about his new book, VOLK: A Novel of Radiant Abomination.

Our interview took place in December 2016 via a Skype connection between David's home in Toronto and my studio in the Lair of bloginhood, located in a bunker beneath a picnic table at Long Beach near Tofino.

Find out more about David Nickle on his website:
davidnickle.blogspot.ca (a.k.a The Devil's Exercise Yard)

Visit iTunes to subscribe to Invaders From Planet 3 and download episodes, and be sure to rate the show while you're there!

The Invasion takes us back to Dublin for the second Voice of the Fans episode recorded at the 2019 World Science Fiction Convention!

Joining us to share their stories about their first loves in sf are:

Performer and artist Galina Rin of Death Ingloria
www.deathingloria.com
www.Facebook.com/deathingloria

Author D. A. Lascelles
https://dalascelles.co.uk

Author Kim ten Tusscher
www.kimtentusscher.com

Author J. Sharpe
www.jsharpebooks.com

and

Author and narrator R. B. Watkinson
https://rbwatkinson.wordpress.com

Stay tuned for more regular-length interviews and Voice of the Fans episodes in the weeks ahead.

To listen to Invaders From Planet 3, or to subscribe, visit Libsyn, iTunes, or your other favourite podcatching service. Be sure to rate and review us while you're there!