Brainstorm #115 (Guest Host: Beth Cato)

Beth Cato – author of the Clockwork Dagger tales, the Blood of Earth trilogy, and more – explores what makes a “strong character”, the magic of urban fantasy/steampunk, and critique readers

Lee Harris – editor at Angry Robot Books and Chair of the British Fantasy Society – returns to the Roundtable to discuss a sci-fi/romance presented by author and blogger Kevin O. McLaughlin. Having two experienced literati on the show really kicked the discussion into high gear and we cover a lot of ground, exploring the logistics of moonbases and deadly plagues, romance in the depths of space, and ratcheting up the tension.

Dan Wells – author of “The Hollow City”, “Partials”, the John Cleaver series, and co-host of the Parsec-award winning “Writing Excuses” Podcast – returns to the Roundtable to add his experience and insights to this weeks workshop. Our Guest Writer is Dan Absalonson – an author with two tales on Amazon and his own podcast – who brings a marvelous zombie/robot scifi thriller tale to the table. The discussion is brisk, moving from one intriguing topic to the next, each stop revealing more literary gold. This is classic RTP goodness, friends… join us!

Myke Cole – author of The Shadow Ops Series (including “Gemini Cell”, “Javelin Rain” and the forthcoming “Seige Line” – returns to the Big Chair in the RTP virtual studios to lend his brainstorming-fu to a tale of future warfare, powered armor, and artificial intelligence.

Jeanne Cavelos – author, editor, and founder of the exceptional Odyssey Writers Workshop – returns to the Big Chair at the Roundtable, bringing her storytelling mojo to the brainstorming of a tale about the discovery of aliens on a near-future Earth… but are they here to help us defend ourselves from a threat beyond the stars or are they the true threat?

Our brainstorming table is set by Guest Writer, Jeff Brackett, whose tale of alien manipulation of the human race and its accidental revelation to the entire planet serves a fine spring board for a brainstorming feast. With co-host Nicholas Fife (who is contributing a tale to the very cool Folklore: The Affliction game), we delve into the tale and discover – beneath the alien conspiracy – a veritable trove of Literary Gold. There’s plenty to go around, so come and get yours!

Seanan McGuire is the full artistic package, the triple threat, expressing the keen edge of her spirit through paint, pixel and pen, producing web comics and other traditional art. She commandeered a time machine exclusively for this podcast so she could actually have an hour to sit in the Big Chair and help us workshop a story. Our Guest Writer, Gloria Sigountos, serves up an fresh and innovative tale of kidnapping, intrigue, mercenary scoundrels, magical siblings, and general mayhem. It’s a delightful frothing tale that launches everyone into an amazing discussion. Grab hold of something and hit that PLAY button!

With Bryan Lincoln as Guest Host, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to put his diverse skill set to use and workshop a good sci-fi story. Enter Tracy Bodine, offering up a truly epic space opera for discussion around the Roundtable. We had a great time (and you will, too) exploring some of the possibilities of his tale that includes aliens, time-travel, bio-augmentation, galactic intrigue and the multiverse. So sit back, fire up your Quantum Spectrometer, and enjoy!

[image credit: Fan Ming] Brian Kirk – author of the newly released “We Are Monsters” returns to the Big Chair at…

John Mierau – whose literary endeavors span genres and media with intriguing tales that explore the boundaries of speculative fiction – returns to the Big Comfy Chair at the Roundtable to help workshop a tale offered by writer and podcaster Jay Langejans. Jay’s dystopian aquatic scifi story generated a lot of excitement around the table and ​everybody​ dove in and splashed around. This is classic Roundtable goodness, friends… a fabulous story idea, a brilliant guests, and literary gold flying around at every turn.

E. C. Myers – author of the acclaimed “Fair Coin” and “Quantum Coin” – returns to the Big Chair to bring his superb insights and aesthetic to help Brion and I workshop a very cool YA SciFi tale offered up by podcaster and Gentleman Twitter-kin Richard Green.

Richard brings a delightful tale of an alien school field trip on Earth that goes horribly wrong that inspires a great discussion about the qualities of YA stories, defining character arcs and relationships, and a superb exploration of how to take a great idea and make it even better (which is kinda what we do, right?). Literary Gold is pretty much a foregone conclusion.

J. Robert King – author of Guild Wars: Edge of Destiny, the Mad Merlin series, and Hellmaw: Incubus Tweets – returns to the Big Chair at the Roundtable to lend his considerable storytelling mojo to brainstorming a scifi tale of humanity on the brink of interstellar expansion and a tormented man who has the potential to save it from a dark conspiracy or bring it all crashing down.

Our Guest Writer, Terry Mixon is a repeat offender… er… has appeared in the Guest Writer chair before and this time he brings us a tale of extreme future sports in a solar system where warp drive is possible, but strictly controlled, and dark violent forces are arrayed to seize power for their own ends. With Serving World’s John Mierau returning to the co-host chair, we strap in for from the jump to Awesome Space and havest asteroids loaded with Literary Goal. It’s a heck of a haul… you can get some for yourself by clicking that play button! (and if you want even more writerly goodness, check out Rob’s fabulous 20 Minutes With… episode!)

Brion and I are joined by authors Colin F. Barnes, Alasdair Stuart, Starla Hutchton, and Stephen Godden to discuss the challenges of writing near-future scifi in a world where science fact keeps out pacing our imaginations. Along the way we manage to debunk the reported “death of cyberpunk” as well as explore the sources of the trend towards genre mash-ups.

Seth Harwood’s career and influence as a Crime Fiction creator continues to expand (we talk about that a bit during the opening segment) so we’re double delighted that he made the time to help us on this Workshop Episode. This week we’re joined by a multifaceted creator of wonders both audio and literary, David Sobkowiak, who brings a fascinating mashup of no less than FOUR genres into a single story. The idea makes for some dazzling dialog around the table!