AISFP 136 – Bryan Thomas Schmidt

September 10, 2011 By Shaun Farrell

This episode is brought to you by MAYAN DECEMBER, the exciting new science fiction novel from Brenda Cooper.

Dr. Alic Cameron is a famous scientist devoted to studying ancient Mayan culture. In December 2012 she finds herself on the Yucatan Peninsula with her daughter, Nixie, fellow scholars, end of the world crazies, and even the President of the United States. It all sounds wonderful until Nixie disappears into the past. Featuring a handsome dreadlocked time-traveler, an ancient shamam, a high ranking Mayan couple, a computer nerd, and an eleven year old child, Alice must traverse the past in a search for the meaning of life and a way to save two worlds.
You can follow Brenda on Twitter, and please tell her Adventures in Scifi Publishing sent you!

http://aisfp.media.farpointmedia.net//aisfp/AISFP_136_092011.mp3

Show Notes:
Bryan Thomas Schmidt, author of THE WORKER PRINCE and creator of the Twitter #SFFWRTCHT weekly interview series, which has featured an impressive list of guests, joins us to discuss religion in science fiction, working with a new publisher, writing good characters, his love of Star Wars, starting books off with an emotional punch, and much more. Read the untwittered transcripts at Grasping for the Wind. Once THE WORKER PRINCE is available for order, which should be any day now, we’ll post it here.

Links to things I mentioned in this interview:

http://www.jamierubin.net/ — SF writer Jamie Todd Rubin who blogs about Golden Age SF and more.

http://www.facebook.com/TimothyZahn?ref=ts — Timothy Zahn has yet to set up a website but he does have this Facebook page where he’s very active at communicating with fans

http://www.wordfire.com/ — Website of Author/Editor Kevin J. Anderson

www.bryanthomasschmidt.net/sffwrtcht — Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer’s Chat which I host and which also has a Facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sffwrtcht-Science-Fiction-and-Fantasy-Writers-Chat/144219588975058

www.majipoor.com — the closest Robert Silverberg comes to an official website.

http://sciencefictionfantasybooks.net/ — Moses Siregar III’s site. He’s cohost of the podcast and author of “Black God’s War” which I highly recommend.

http://www.brenda-cooper.com/ — Author of “Mayan December” who blurbed my novel and is mentioned also above as sponsor of this episode

http://www.diminishedmediagroup.com/Home_Page.html — my publisher’s page

September: Adventures In SciFi Publishing & SFFWRTCHT Partnership

September is cross promotion month and we are teaming up with Adventures In Science Fiction Publishing Podcasthttp://www.adventuresinscifipublishing.com/ for a month of special guests and cross promotion. For those unaware, AISFP is a great podcast which interviews industry people regularly on important topics. Led by Shaun Farrell, it also features contributions from Author Moses Siregar III, Brent Bowen, Brenda Cothern, Matt Hughes, D.T. Conklin and Steven Klotz. So we’ll be talking with some of them as well as a couple of authors who will be guests on their show.

Here’s the September line up:

9/07/11— Greg Van Eekhout
9/14/11— Daniel Polansky
9/21/11 — Moses Siregar
9/28/11 —ASFP Podcast/Shaun Farrell

Los Angeles native Greg Van Eekhout writes books for kids and adults. He has worked as an ice cream scooper, a political fundraiser, a comic book store clerk, a bookseller, a bookstore assistant manager, an educational multimedia developer, and a college teacher (of English and of multimedia development), among other things. His books are titled: The Boy At The End Of The WorldKid Vs. Squid and Norse Code. He can be found online via his website at http://writingandsnacks.com or via Twitter and Facebook.

Baltimore native Daniel Polansky is a new author whose book Low Town releases from Doubleday in August. He can be found online via his website http://www.danielpolansky.com/us/ or on Twitter as @DanielPolansky and on Facebook.

Moses Siregar III, Co-Host and New Correspondent for Adventures in Scifi Publishing is the author of THE BLACK GOD’S WAR, a dramatic epic fantasy novel inspired by Homer; you can sample it for 99 cents at Amazon or Smashwords. He lives with his family at high elevation in Prescott, AZ, and blogs about passion for the writing life at Moses and Dionysus Walk Into a Bar …

Shaun Farrell, Editor-in-Chief and Co-Host,  started Adventures in Scifi Publishing because he loves speculative fiction. Plain and simple. He has written articles for Strange Horizons, Clarksworld Magazine, and Far Sector SFFH. Some of his favorite writers are Ray Bradbury, Dan Simmons, Kay Kenyon, Frank Herbert, Ursula K. LeGuin, and Tobias Buckell, to name a few. In addition to loving great literature, Shaun is an aspiring novelist and actor. He recently completed principle photography in his first major role in a feature film, Death Dress, to be released in 2011. Shaun lives in Northern California with his beautiful and supporting wife, Brenna, and two children. You can follow Shaun on Twitter. He is on facebook as well.

To learn more about Adventures in Scifi Publishing Podcast, please check out this promo. And Join us in September for an exciting month of conversations.

AISFP_2011_Promo