Anne Leonard’s first book JUST came out. Congrats Anne! Moth and Spark is about a Prince who has been chosen to free dragons from bondage to the Empire, but nobody’s exactly sure how he should do it, not even their riders. He meets a doctor’s daughter who discovers she’s a seer. She’s also a commoner, so he really shouldn’t fall for her How do you shine a spotlight on such a young career? It’s all in the backstory! Just watch.

Download direct link here!

Download the video here. 

As you guys know, we don’t typically post reviews here on the website, and this is mostly because Tom and I rarely have time to read books outside of the actual book club. However, we’d love to feature reviews from you, our audience! 

If you think you’d like to submit a book review for the blog, head over to the Reviews FAQ and learn more! We think this will be a great way to highlight other books as well as highlighting the talented writers we have in our very own community!

We kick off our March book pick, Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan, ponder the brief career of Jonathan Ross as LonCon MC, and discover that at least Houghton Mifflin thinks SciFi is lit.

Direct download here!

WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?    
Tom: Yorkshire Gold Tea    
Veronica: Napa Smith Brewery Wheat Beer    
    
QUICK BURNS    

The Wertzone: WorldCon 2014 announces Jonathan Ross to host Hugo Awards, controversy follows, Ross withdraws    

Another Layer of J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst’s Book Onion   

Science fiction and fantasy are now officially part of American Literature   

FINALISTS: 2013 Nebula Awards (With Free Fiction Links!) – SF Signal    

FINALISTS: 2013 Aurealis Awards – SF Signal    

CALENDAR    

TV, MOVIES AND VIDEO GAMES    

Lara Takes On HBO and Game of Thrones in an Open Letter | Saurian Saint    

The Wertzone: GAME OF THRONES Season 4 fan trailer   

NBC’s ‘Heroes’ is coming back | Inside TV | EW.com    
    
BOOK KICK-OFF    

Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan    
Altered Carbon Wikipedia article    
Richard K. Morgan Wikipedia article    

BARE YOUR SWORD    
    
Did you get to read fantasy in school?
    
Written accents annoying or what?    
    
Anthology cover reveal.    

Download direct link here for audio!

It’s our author guide to Max Gladstone! If you want an author who knows how to work the financial crisis into epic fantasy and is handy with a sword, Max is your man. We also get the final word on a showdown between him and Scott Lynch. You won’t believe who really runs the economy.

We are very excited to show you the cover art for the Sword & Laser Anthology! Created by artist Cliff Nielsen, each globe within this crazy storage center is a self-contained world. This is how we think of the Anthology itself: twenty worlds that you can easily lose yourself within. 

So yes, this means we are almost ready to send the Anthology out into the world! Just wrapping up a few tiny edits, waiting on some blurbs, and then it will be out into the universe! We hope you love it as much as we loved putting it together.

We chat with Bill Gourgey, who’s Glide Trilogy does not settle for a run-of-the-mill post-apocalyptic world. What happens AFTER the post-apocalyptic dust settles!? We also find out how a tech analyst ends up writing genre novels and poetry. You won’t believe his answer! Or maybe you will. You probably will. But you won’t know what it is, unless you watch/listen to the show!

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We’re back!!! Welcome back to the space castle, everybody! HUGE thanks to our Kickstarter supporters for making this possible. In our first episode of Season 2, we talk to Wool Omnibus author Hugh Howey.  Find out how not to get shoved outside, how George R. R. Martin motivated Hugh’s career, and his number one editing tip.

Direct MP3 download here.
Subscribe to the YouTube page here!
Or via iTunes!
Other file formats here!

Hugh Howey caused quite a stir with his findings about independent authors, but what does it mean for us readers? We also talk about the Wizard of Earthsea feminism implications and have an exciting election for the March book pick! There is a gavel involved.

Direct download here!

WHAT ARE WE DRINKING?

Tom: New Belgium Fat Tire Amber Ale

Veronica: Vina Robles Red Blend

MOTH AND SPARK GIVEAWAY

VIDEO SHOW COMING THURSDAY OMG!!!!!

QUICK BURNS

Hugh Howey’s Report

Self-published ebooks: the surprising data from Amazon

Most Amazon bestselling authors aren’t making minimum wage

WH Auden told JRR Tolkien to cut the love story from Lord of the Rings

Daemon And Influx Author Daniel Suarez On Why Innovation Has Stalled

CALENDAR

TV, MOVIES AND VIDEO GAMES

Read Them Now, Watch Them Later: Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Adaptation Watch

More on the Redshirts TV Series

What was cut to make the “unfilmable” book Winter’s Tale into a movie

BOOK CHECK-IN

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Leguin

Earthsea and Harry Potter

Women in Earthsea

Among Others and Earthsea

March Pick

BARE YOUR SWORD

A forgotten classic?

Looking for more firearms in “High” Fantasy

EMAIL

Hi Tom & Veronica,

Listening to Gregory A Wilson talk about his daughter’s name made me think of my own family. I was named after Jessica Atreides (Dune), putting me in the odd position of being named for a sci-fi character AND having one of the most common girls names of my generation.

I passed the nerd legacy onto my own children as well – my son’s middle name is Zaphod (as in Beeblebrox) and my daughter is named Aeryn (after Aeryn Sun from Farscape). Hopefully she won’t resent me for it the millionth time she has to spell it out loud for someone.

Love the show,

Jessica

We chat with Gregory A. Wilson, author of The Third Sign, about his newest novel Icarus and the graphic novel based on it that he and artist Matt Slay are working on. It’s about a being who falls from the sky to save a world from tyranny. We also find out if he named his daughter after one of his own fictional characters.

Direct download here!

Moth and Spark: A Novel

By Anne Leonard

Hey all, Moth and Spark by Anne Leonard is coming out Feb. 20 so Viking press gave us 5 copies to giveaway! The book comes out Feb. 20, so we’ll pick that day to announce a winner drawn at random from respondents to this thread.

To enter, head over to our Goodreads thread entitled “If you were a recently freed dragon, what’s the first thing you’d do?“

Listen to the show or check back in the thread on the 20th to find out who wins!