If You're Just Joining Us with Jon Armstrong

Author Cherie Priest talks Steampunk, Seattle Underground, her new novel, Boneshaker, and the ritual of dressing up.

jon@ifyourejustjoiningus.com (Jon Armstrong) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:54:12 +0000

Cherie Priest is a novelist based in Seattle, Washington. Her novels include: Four and Twenty Blackbirds, Not Flesh Nor Feathers, Fathom, and her newest, Boneshaker. (All Amazon links.) Boneshaker is something of a departure from her Southern Gothic and horror roots. The setting is post Civil War Seattle and combines pulp and steampunk elements.
Cherie and I talked about that novel, the Seattle Underground, the ritual of dressing up, and her writing methods and schedule.

Visit Cherie’s site at CheriePriest.com and follow her on twitter at twitter.com/cmpriest.

Campbell Award Winning Author, David Anthony Durham Talks Book and Writing

jon@ifyourejustjoiningus.com (Jon Armstrong) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 19:25:05 +0000

David Antony Durham is the author of Gabriel’s Story: A Novel, Walk Through Darkness, Pride of Carthage, Acacia: The War with the Mein (Acacia, Book 1), and his latest, The Other Lands (Acacia, Book 2). (All Amazon links.) David won the Campbell Award for Best New Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer in 2009. We talk about that experience, writing, telling anecdotes, and his new book, Acacia, The Other Lands. If You’re Just Joining Us fans will remember that David has been on before and is the first repeat guest on the podcast. It couldn’t have happened to a better guy! If you’d like to visit David’s website, it’s http://www.davidanthonydurham.com/

Fantasy and SciFi Literary Agent, Ginger Clark, Talks Agents, Publishing, and the Future

jon@ifyourejustjoiningus.com (Jon Armstrong) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 15:01:17 +0000

Ginger Clark has been in publishing for eleven years. She has been a literary agent with Curtis Brown since 2005, and has been my agent since 2004.

We talked about how to get an agent, how not to approach an agent, several agent myths, the future of publishing, and a little about how we met.

If you’re an aspiring writer, this podcast is for you. Follow Ginger Clark on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/Ginger_Clark

Author Jeff VanderMeer talks fantasy, noir, writing, book covers, and a wild boar charge.

jon@ifyourejustjoiningus.com (Jon Armstrong) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 17:17:26 +0000

Jeff VanderMeer is an award-winning writer, editor, and publisher. His books include: City of Saints and Madmen, Veniss Underground, and Shriek: An Afterword. In this podcast, we talk about his upcoming novel, the fantasy noir, Finch. (All links to Amazon)

Jeff reviews and essays have appeared in The Washington Post Book World, Publishers Weekly, and many others. He is also a regular columnist for the Amazon book-culture blog and has a great blog under his own name: jeffvandermeer.com.

Jeff and I talked about his childhood in Fiji, hiking and animals in Florida, writing, book covers, his new novel Finch, and so much more!

The show’s intro was recorded by blogger and fan, Charles Tan.

Lastly, a word of warning: I believe there is one swear word that may not be appropriate for all listeners.

Building a Toaster From Scratch Might Sound Fairly Easy. It wasn’t. Just ask Thomas Thwaites.

jon@ifyourejustjoiningus.com (Jon Armstrong) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 17:41:50 +0000

When I first I saw Thomas’s project on-line, it seemed funny maybe even frivolous — and there are humorous moments in his telling, like when he calls British Petroleum and tries to get a barrel of oil from them to try and make plastic — but below his near-futile exercise, is a thought provoking experiment about design, sustainability, consumerism, technology, and the environment.

Thomas Thwaites is a design student from The Royal College of Art in London. There is more information about this project at his site: The Toaster Project.

He and I talk about smelting iron in a microwave oven, trying to make plastic, and rubber, and the moment when he presented his toaster and first plugged the thing in …

A few more photos:
The toaster in the foreground and the equipment that Thomas used to build it. Photo by Nick Ballon.

I think this is a later version of the toaster. Photo by Daniel Alexander.

The toaster and the equipment used to make it with Thomas in the background. Photo by Nick Ballon

TV Writer and Producer Rob Long Talks about Hollywood, Cheers, Humor, and Writing on a Container Ship

jon@ifyourejustjoiningus.com (Jon Armstrong) — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 02:00:34 +0000

Rob Long is a TV writer and producer who wore and produced the hit show Cheers among others. He hosts a behind-the-scenes look at Hollywood life radio commentary: Martini Shot. (It’s also a podcast. - iTunes link). He is also a contributing editor for the National Review and Newsweek International and others.

Rob and I talked about writing, how to book yourself onto a container ship to get some actual work done in this modern world, the TV show Cheers, humor, drinking, and how he got his start in Hollywood.

Amazon links to Rob’s books: Conversations with My Agent and Set up, Joke, Set Up, Joke. And a link to his Twitter feed.

Author Richard Kadrey Talks about Fantasy, George Bush, and Heavy Drinking

jon@ifyourejustjoiningus.com (Jon Armstrong) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 12:04:13 +0000

Richard Kadrey is a novelist, freelance writer, and photographer based in San Francisco. Starting over 20 years ago as one of the first major writers of cyberpunk, with the classic Metrophage, his other novels include Kamikaze L’Amour, Butcher Bird and his latest, Sandman Slim.

Richard and I talk about his transition from cyberpunk to fantasy, George Bush, heavy drinking, and writing.

Sandman Slim: A Novel (Amazon)

The Youtube video that is quoted in the piece.

Download Richard’s Butcher Bird for free (scroll down just above the download for my novel!) at Nigh Shade Books.

Download Metrophage, Richard’s first novel.

“My T-Shirt Says It All” A Documentary about Life Death and T-Shirts

jon@ifyourejustjoiningus.com (Jon Armstrong) — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 22:46:37 +0000

My guest this show is Jacob Fenston. He’s a freelance journalist in Oakland, California, whose work has appeared on NPR, KQED, and Public Radio Stations across America.

I heard Jacob’s excellent (and often hilarious) piece “My T-Shirt Says It All” and wanted to talk to him about it. This show features many cuts from that work, but if you’d like to hear the whole piece, please do so at Jacob Fenston’s website. This links to Jacob’s homepage.

Author Paul Witcover talks writing, publishing, golf, and more.

jon@ifyourejustjoiningus.com (Jon Armstrong) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 02:02:01 +0000

Paul Witcover is the author of three novels, several non-fiction books, many short stories and is the co-creator, with Elizabeth Hand, of the cult comic book series Anima. He has served as the curator of the New York Review of Science Fiction reading series. His new collection is titled Everland and Other Stories.

We talk about his writing, his writing career, publishing, an odd job writing about golf, and more.

Menswear designer Jhane Barnes talks Star Trek, Secret Japanese Technology, and Fashion

jon@ifyourejustjoiningus.com (Jon Armstrong) — Thu, 21 May 2009 12:37:06 +0000

Jhane Barnes designs men’s sportswear, casual, and tailored clothes. Besides menswear, she also designs eyewear, textiles, furniture, carpets, and more. She was recently on NOVA to talk about how she uses fractals in her designs.

I recently visited Jhane’s design offices in New York, and we talked about being a fashionable nerd, fractals, secret Japanese factories, and Star Trek.

Show notes:
In the second half of the podcast, she shows me her top-of-the-line shirt, titled Dentrite. See it here.

Jhane’s website is JhaneBarnes.com. I also mentioned her slightly hidden outlet store, which is called JBXtras.com, where you can pick up extras and last-season’s items at a discount.

Fantasy Author, James Enge, talks about writing, unicorns, talking squids and more…

jon@ifyourejustjoiningus.com (Jon Armstrong) — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 19:55:59 +0000

James Enge’s fiction has appeared in Black Gate, Flashing Swords, and everydayfiction.com. He is an instructor of classical languages at a Midwestern university. His first novel, Blood of Ambrose, was just released by Pyr Books.

James and I talked about his pseudonym, sci-fi and fantasy, writing, unicorns, and talking squids.

His website is www.jamesenge.com. Pyr Book’s page for James Enge’s book has free sample chapters. Blood of Ambrose at Amazon.
(Author photo: ©J. M. Pfundstein)

Journalist Rowenna Davis Discusses China’s Illegal “Gold Farms”

jon@ifyourejustjoiningus.com (Jon Armstrong) — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 15:56:03 +0000

Rowenna Davis is freelance journalist from north London. As a features writer, she specializes in social and political affairs, and has written opinion pieces for the The Independent, The Guardian, the New Internationalist, and many other publications.

She and I discuss several recent articles were she explored the murky world of “Gold Farming,” which is the illegal world of video game cheating - often for the very popular World of Warcraft.

Link to her article: Welcome to the new gold mines: Being paid to play games all day long sounds like a dream job – but for thousands of Chinese ‘gold farmers’, the virtual reality is sheer hard graft.

More Guardian.co.uk articles by Rowenna Davis.

Lou Anders discusses the iPhone, Tricorder, Batmobile, writing and more!

jon@ifyourejustjoiningus.com (Jon Armstrong) — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 13:44:43 +0000

Lou Anders is the editorial director of Prometheus Books’ science fiction and fantasy imprint Pyr, as well as several anthologies. In 2000, he served as the Executive Editor of Bookface.com, and before that he worked as the Los Angeles Liaison for Titan Publishing Group. He is the author of The Making of Star Trek: First Contact (Titan Books, 1996), and has published over 500 articles in such magazines as The Believer, Publishers Weekly, Dreamwatch, DeathRay, free inquiry, Star Trek Monthly, Star Wars Monthly, Babylon 5 Magazine, Sci Fi Universe, Doctor Who Magazine, and Manga Max.

Lou and I talked about the iPhone, tricorders, the batmobile, writing, errings, and his wife’s cooking among other things.

Interview with Textile Scientist, Robert Beaulieu Part Two

jon@ifyourejustjoiningus.com (Jon Armstrong) — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 19:40:23 +0000

Professor Robert Beaulieu teaches textile science and development at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology. This is the second part of our talk.

This time he discusses wool, those labels in all our shirts and clothes, distressing leather jackets, and case of about a mouton collar.

Interview with Textile Scientist, Robert Beaulieu

jon@ifyourejustjoiningus.com (Jon Armstrong) — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 14:53:16 +0000

Professor Robert Beaulieu teaches textile science and development at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology. I took an introduction to textile science class more than ten years ago, but I think about the class often and have told stories borrowed from Robert’s lectures at cocktail parties.

We talk about Levis Strauss, jeans, denim, polyester leisure suits, pills, and more. And this is part one of the interview, which will continue soon.

FIT’s Textile Development and Marketing home page.

A link to the YouTube movie of the guitar prodigy who plays Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head.