I was working in a bookstore in Austin, Texas when the first original Star Wars novel – Heir To the Empire – was published in 1991. The book hit the New York Times best sellers list, and to use a cliche, I remember that book flying off the shelf – purchased by Star Wars fans young and old eager for new stories in the Star Wars universe. Heir to the Empire is part of the Star Wars expanded universe, and takes place five years after the events of Return of the Jedi.

Heir to the Empire was the first novel in the Thrawn trilogy written by Zahn, a popular hard science fiction novelist, and it ushered in a stream of widely read and loved Star Wars media tie-in novels. The Star Wars publishing program has been going strong ever since – numerous Star Wars universe novels written by many well known science fiction writers including Kevin J. Anderson, Steven Barnes, and many others.

With the debut today of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, it’s worth asking. Why haven’t DC or Marvel been able to replicate the success of Star Wars (and the perennially popular Star Trek media tie-in novels)? Is the comic book fan base just not interested in novels featuring their favorite super heroes and super villains? Are these characters inherently popular only in the graphic format of a comic book or on a movie screen?

If you look at the strong success of the Star Wars and Star Trek media tie-in publishing programs, I’d argue that that’s not the case. For both companies, the media tie-in publishing strategy seems scattershot at best, with no overarching plan or strategy. DC has tried.

A few years ago, they published two DC novels by noted science fiction author Kevin J. Anderson – Enemies and Allies and
The Last Days of Krypton.

Enemies and Allies by Kevin J. Anderson
As America and the Soviet Union race to build their nuclear stockpiles, two extraordinary heroes must form an uneasy alliance. These studies in opposites – shadow and light – must overcome their distrust of each other to battle evil and injustice.

Sputnik silently circles in the skies above the fabled cities of the United States as danger lurks in the Earth’s darkest corners. In Gotham, the shadowy vigilante known as the Batman haunts Gotham’s streets … and the police are just as afraid of this Dark Knight as the city’s criminals are.

In Metropolis, the notorious Lex Luthor is leveraging international tensions to build LuthorCor into a military-industrial empire, competing against his business rival Wayne Industries, which is run by Gotham’s enigmatic millionaire, Bruce Wayne. Luthor’s activities have raised teh interest of Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane, who is beginning to realize that Luthor may stop at nothing to achieve success.

At the same time, Clark Kent and Jimmy Olsen are investigating the rumored crash of a flying saucer. Clark is desperate to know if there may be other lost interplanetary visitors on Earth secretly living among them – visitors like himself.

When Batman’s and Superman’s paths cross, their lives change, and history will never be the same.

The Last Days of Krypton by Kevin J. Anderson

The Last Days of Krypton is a 2007 novel that chronicles the rise of General Zod, and Jor-El’s history, up to the destruction of the planet Krypton. It merges elements of many disparate versions of the Superman mythos into one coherent story.

Recently, there have been a few paperback original Batman novels: Batman Arkham Knight The Riddler’s Gambit by Alex Irvine (a Batman video game tie-in novel – how’s that for meta fiction), Batman: Inferno by Alex Irvine, Batman: Dead White by John Shirley, and Batman: Fear Itself by Michael Reaves and Steven-Elliot Altman. Despite striking, exciting covers that evoked everything there is to like about the Batman character, none of these books were bestsellers.

Currently, with the exception of a JR novelization for kids listed, there is no official Batman v Superman novelization available at bookstores. (If that changes, I’ll update this post). What does that lack of a basic movie novelization tell you about DC’s commitment to pursuing a robust Batman media tie-in novel universe?

That decision leaves me scratching my head. Why not double-down and fully commit to a vibrant Batman and DC Comics novel publishing program? These characters are iconic pop culture icons – Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, etc. Why not publish short story anthologies featuring best-selling science fiction, fantasy, and comic book writers chronicling their favorite superheroes in prose? Why not approach best-selling crime writers about writing Batman or DC Comics novels or novellas? Can you imagine a Lee Child Batman novel? Sure, maybe Lee Child would turn them down. But, I’m sure DC would find popular, best-selling crime and mystery writers eager to write a DC Comics story.

And, a strong, visionary editor could plot out a 2 or 3 year plot and character arc that plays out across multiple novels and multiple superheroes.

Right now, none of that is happening. Instead, Batman and DC Comics fans have to resign themselves to random, hodge podge Batman novels occasionally being published with no overarching strategy or thought. Sad . . .

And, just look at what he wrote before the massive popularity of GAME OF THRONES: vampires on Mississippi riverboats; space operas; superhero shared world novels; screenplays for the Beauty and the Beast TV series; and a creepy horror story about a fat, slovenly neighbor.

Martin is hard at work on The Winds of Winter, the next volume in the Song of Ice and Fire. However, if Martin’s phone rang with a panicked phone call from J.J. Abrams, we think he’d answer the call.

Devoted Star Wars fans would howl, weep, and beat each other senseless with plastic light sabers at the news, but we’d like to imagine a Star Wars 7 script penned by George R.R. Martin.

Beloved Characters Would Die Horrible, Unexpected Deaths

The Star Wars brain trust tried this once before when R.A. Salvatore was given the unenviable task of killing Chewbacca in the Star Wars novel – VECTOR PRIME.

Martin would shrug his shoulders, put on some large headphones to drown out the screams of fans, and write a Star Wars 7 script littered with the dead bodies of our favorite characters.

Can you imagine? Han Solo getting decapitated with a sizzling light saber half-way through Star Wars 7. Movie theaters would need to provide barf bags to the audience on the way in, but Martin’s mission would be complete, “I know you care about these characters, but let’s make you cling to them even more, when you know they could die at any moment.”

An Underdog Would Steal Our Hearts

Someone on the edges of the story, someone who no one thought would be cool, would emerge as the coolest character ever. Maybe the little droid that Chewbacca roars at in Star Wars: A New Hope. Maybe a Jawa? Maybe an EWOK? MAYBE JAR-JAR? Yeah… no. I think we can agree that Martin, like every other 6 billion people on this planet, loathe Jar-Jar!

An Updated Cantina Scene Would Snag an NC-17 rating

We don’t need to get into details here do we?

The Enemy Would Come From Within

No Dark Jedi needed here, except as saber fodder. The real bad guy would be someone we know, someone we never expected could be behind such a sinister plot. Someone in the shadows, unassuming but sharp. Someone who the other characters always had misgivings about, but couldn’t quite put their fingers on why.

Like Wedge. Or 3PO. Or JAR-JAR! … sorry…

Beloved Characters Would Have Sex

In the 2010s, America’s schizophrenia about sex and violence is in full effect on the front page of every news website and newspapers.

When a woman posts an innocent breast-feeding photo on Facebook, Zuckerberg’s algorithms ban her account within minutes – only moments after people wail and punch their keyboards to report lewd photos on their Facebook wall. Meanwhile, chubby guys and gals who’d be comfortable at most science fiction cons, are walking into their nearest 7-11 toting semi-automatic rifles and crowing about Open Carry.

Killing beloved characters in Star Wars 7 would earn Martin the enmity of millions, but introducing sex into the canon would stir even more controversy.

What do you mean Star Wars characters wile away their time on long space travels by cavorting naked through the halls of their spaceships screwing each other in every sexual position they can invent in zero g.? We don’t need no s-e-x cluttering up our visions of the future!!

Sure, all those humans and aliens are probably screwing their eyes out at every opportunity, but we shouldn’t ever, ever know or talk about it!

Tyrion’s Exile Revealed

SPOILER, SPOILER ALERT!! Tyrion’s exile following his indulgence in patricide was frustrating for readers following his absence in A FEAST FOR CROWS. Many fans were frustrated with Tyrion’s meandering plot line in A DANCE WITH DRAGONS as he gets closer and closer to meeting Daenerys.

Martin could solve this frustration by writing Tyrion into Star Wars 7. In a pivotal scene, R2-D2 goes through his litany of beeps and groans, then R2-D2’s lid pops off, and Tyrion sticks his head out, “This idiotic metal suit of armor is hotter than a whorehouse at midnight in July!”

A Trilogy – Yeah Right?

As the last scene of Star Wars 7 rolls to a stop, with the audience begging, weeping, at Martin’s treatment of their beloved canon, a teaser for the next film would fill the screen. Stay tuned for Star Wars 8, coming to theaters in 5, 6, or 7 years (it’ll be here eventually whenever he finishes the damn script). Star Wars 8, the second movie in the new Star Wars pentalogy (5 movies).

What do you think would happen if Martin wrote the script for Star Wars 7? We’d like to know. Let us know in the comments.

Warning: spoilers – I recommend reading the story FIRST!

In 1975, Vernor Vinge and former wife, famed SF author Joan D. Vinge, collaborated on a short story entitled “The Peddler’s Apprentice.” This is a high adventure in the classic style of pulp fiction- or at least, it appears to be so at first. In Vernor’s Collected Stories, the introduction to this story poses an interesting riddle: where did Vernor stop writing and Joan take over? (Most collaborative works are not written with an easy answer to this- but this story was.)

It seems Vernor Vinge only had the beginnings of a story and the vaguest of notions where to take it. After a certain story beat, he let then-wife Joan continue the tale; only giving suggestions thereafter. Joan ably picks it up and takes it into territory made infamous by Aldous Huxley- with barely a hint of that destination until the climax! I was stunned by how well the tale turns from “Conan” to “Brave New World.” Bizarrely, I had randomly pulled out Huxley’s book the night before reading the Vinges’ story. Correlations and “coincidences” once again…!

When Joan had completed the story, she then wrote a “frame” for it, including an intro and an “afterword” from the perspective of the protagonist as a older, much different, man. I personally found the “frame” an unnecessary addition that does nothing for the tale, even possibly detracting from it. It adds almost nothing with the intro, and little with its retrospective ending. The reinforcement of the pulp flavor of a classic “swords and sorcery” tale is all you really get here. But the majority of the story has enough of that without the “frame.”

The only other criticism I have with the story is that the best sentence in it (written by Joan) should have been its opening line… but that’s the kind of trouble writers will run into when writing a story piecemeal. Can’t you see how much more immediately a reader would be drawn into a story with a line like “a week after his seventeenth birthday, Wim Buckry had killed a ten thousand year old man”!? Especially versus the actual opening line: “Lord Buckry I of Fyffe lounged on his throne, watching his two youngest sons…”? I’d like to rewrite the story myself… as writing/editing practice, and to see how the “re-staging” of the plot would look.

The best SF tales are like a wizard’s trick- you don’t see the sleight-of-hand until it’s too late. The Vinges manage to pull off this show superbly. As the Peddler, Mr. Jagit, says: “A good magician never tells how. You have to watch and figure how for yourself.”

Keith Phillips – An inveterate jack of all trades, Keith has been hoping to become a published writer for about 3 decades now. Some of his previous careers have included photographer, plumber, groundskeeper, forklift driver and bookstore manager. He has also “worked” for 10 years in the LARP field.

Just last night, I was remarking to a friend online about her HP Lovecraft quote. It reads in full:

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age. ~Call of C’thulu

While this sentiment is not entirely unexpected from a master of dark psychological horror stories, I was “hitherto” unfamiliar with the quote. (Hitherto is a wonderful, old-fashioned word- Tolkien has Gandalf use it- meaning “up until now.” As an aside: I will note that Lovecraft was writing before WWII, hence the “harmed us little” was then accurate.)

I jokingly took exception to the first part with my friend, saying that as I got older, I found the ability to correlate increasingly useful. My mind has always worked in a “sparkly” serendipitous fashion, seeing correlations everywhere and zipping off to investigate them, usually to the detriment of my focus. But this strange ability gives me a particular facility with research and seems to be one I share with many writers, particularly writers of science fiction and fantasy. And it has showed me, time and again, that even the diverse notions can often have a common thread, which we ignore at our peril.

Shortly thereafter, I put away the computer, and settled down to a more relaxed and old-fashioned method humanity developed to share ideas- reading a book. Tonight’s read was The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge. Some of the stories in this collection date back to the early sixties, and the age of these stories provide the reader with an interesting perspective, given the many changes in the world since then. The collection, however, was published in 2001, and includes a new novella, Fast Times at Fairmont High (which I later found only mildly interesting- more on that in a forthcoming essay).

But I, with my sparkly brain, was drawn to a short story entitled “Gemstone,” first published in 1983. This amazing story turns out to be almost precisely what I needed to read! Correlations, “coincidences…” People throw that last term around incautiously, without understanding it has no meaning. Just a word to explain what has no explanation. Yet serendipity often blesses us with a meaningful correlation or “coincidence” that seems strangely tailored to our needs. Religious people assume the intervention of some helpful divine being. I don’t presume to know how it works, or why it happens… I’m just happy to use it! (And, unlike Lovecraft, thankful for it!)

My own novel in progress has a young teen as a protagonist, thrown into a strange home with an even stranger grandparent, and he must rise to a desperate challenge. Vinge’s “Gemstone” has almost the same premise! In 1957, Sanda, a girl of 13, is spending her summer with her wealthy, dotty old grandmother. The grandmother lives in a sprawling Queen Anne “gingerbread” house in Eureka, California, and shortly after she arrives, Sanda discovers her dream vacation isn’t to be as wonderful as she’d hoped.

For one, her grandma’s severity and rigid ideas (she’s a queen of OCD, this one) puts a damper on the pair’s relationship… but even worse, there’s an unseen presence haunting the upper floors of the house! It only seems to come out at night, leading Sanda to believe it may be a ghost, possibly the ghost of her deceased grandfather. Every evening, the girl is troubled by a dark foreboding of cold, endless cold, shadows and stillness- and terrible loneliness. Echoes of her grandfather Rex’s expedition to Antarctica seem to be “broadcast” nightly. Sanda is driven to sleep lightly on the balcony, as far from the presence as she can get without alerting her grandmother. She’s certain the old woman will dismiss her perceptions as the foolish fears of a child.

During those restless evenings on the balcony, she notices strangers in a white car watching the house on several occasions, always at night. The plot deepens! One night, a man surreptitiously prowls from the car to the house’s electric meter, then back to his Ford and drives away. Sanda’s fear grows, especially after she notices rocks and plastic flowers in her grandmother’s odd terrarium upstairs have moved about- overnight. Her dread is palpable, and lends the story its most credible note. This is how I want my own novel to progress- as if the reader were walking alongside the protagonist, feeling the same fears and worries as he. This story is my novel’s first part in embryo. Talk about correlation!

But as in any really good science fiction, what seems supernatural is not always so. The craft of writing this very modern form of fantasy is difficult, but highly rewarding, to both writer and reader, when done well, as Vinge manages in “Gemstone.” The best of SF plays with our expectations, and even in a short story of only 22 pages, Vinge is able to keep his readers delightedly guessing. What seems a fearful specter is neither a spirit nor a monster, but more of a friendly pet. While Grandma increasingly seems a mad harridan, once her secret is discovered, she is willing to risk everything for love. And as is often the case, the true villain is man himself, not the alien, nor the irrational, but the ignorant and the greedy.

Vinge has outdone himself here. “Gemstone” is a highly recommended short read. I will avoid the obvious clichés in describing it here. (“It sparkles!” “It’s quite a gem of a story!” Your groans are appreciated.) I will also keep the rest of the plot to myself, hoping to encourage someone to read Gemstone! In Vinge’s introduction, he refers to the story as the most unbalanced thing he’s ever written, but I quite disagree. Every element seems perfectly aligned.

The story’s serendipitous arrival into my life will continue to haunt me. At the very least, it confirms my rejection of “coincidence” as an easy excuse for dismissing those strangely apt correlations that sometimes manifest in our lives. Lovecraft may consider ignorance and inability to correlate a blessing, but I have a far more hopeful view of humanity. Let those who are so terrified of the truth of “our pieced-together knowledge” flee, I will stand in the light and rejoice at humanity’s newly correlated “vista of reality.”

Keith Phillips – An inveterate jack of all trades, Keith has been hoping to become a published writer for about 3 decades now. Some of his previous careers have included photographer, plumber, groundskeeper, forklift driver and bookstore manager. He has also “worked” for 10 years in the LARP field.

Futebol!

What are the best soccer books? Here are 6 soccer books to keep you reading during the World Cup and beyond. If you have a favorite Soccer book that we didn’t include, let us know in the comments below.

The Ball is Round: A Global History of Football, by David Goldblatt

This massive tome (992 pages in hardcover) is the definitive history of soccer.

In this extraordinary tour de force, David Goldblatt tells the full story of soccer’s rise from chaotic folk ritual to the world’s most popular sport-now poised to fully establish itself in the USA. Already celebrated internationally, The Ball Is Round illuminates soccer’s role in the political and social histories of modern societies, but never loses sight of the beauty, joy, and excitement of the game itself.

The Complete Book of the World Cup

The Complete Book of the World Cup is the most comprehensive history ever written about the quest for world sport’s most coveted trophy.

First published in 1998, this is the first time Cris Freddi’s masterpiece has been made available as an ebook. It describes every major action in the World Cup finals, on and off the pitch, from the first tournament in 1930 through to Spain’s victory in 2010. An ideal companion for the 2014 tournament in Brazil. Written in his sharp and uncompromising style, it includes match reports, line-ups, goalscorers, attendances, and much more for every game ever played in the World Cup finals.

Freddi’s research is meticulous. He has closely studied film and television footage and has scoured the world for previously untapped primary sources to separate fact from fiction. Freddi tells the story as he sees it. This is not an official history and he is not afraid to voice his opinion. Most people bow to FIFA’s decision to credit Ronaldo with 15 goals in the finals. But Freddi points to Brazil’s opening goal against Costa Rica in the 2002 finals, where the video evidence clearly shows it to be an own goal. So Freddi lists Ronaldo only as the joint all-time leading scorer in the finals alongside Miroslav Klose and Gerd Muller. He also deprives Rio Ferdinand of his first goal for England!

Why Soccer Matters by
Pelé and Brian Winter

Before Messi, before Ronaldo, before Beckham, there was Edson Arantes do Nascimento—known simply as Pelé. A national treasure, he created pure magic with his accomplishments on the field: an unprecedented three World Cup championships and the all-time scoring record, with 1,283 goals in his twenty year career.

For the first time ever Pelé explores the recent history of the game and provides new insights into soccer’s role connecting and galvanizing players around the world. He has traveled the world as the global ambassador for soccer and in support of charitable organizations such as Unicef, promoting the positive influences soccer can have to transform young men and women, struggling communities, even entire nations. In groundbreaking detail and with unparalleled openness, he shares his most inspiring experiences, heartwarming stories and hard-won wisdom, and he puts the game in perspective.

The Miracle of Castel di Sangro: A Tale of Passion and Folly in the Heart of Italy by Joe McGinniss

When Joe McGinniss sets out for the remote Italian village of Castel di Sangro one summer, he merely intends to spend a season with the village’s soccer team, which only weeks before had, miraculously, reached the second-highest-ranking professional league in the land. But soon he finds himself embroiled with an absurd yet irresistible cast of characters, including the team’s owner, described by the New York Times as “straight out of a Mario Puzo novel,” and coach Osvaldo Jaconi, whose only English word is the one he uses to describe himself: “bulldozer.”

As the riotous, edge-of-your-seat season unfolds, McGinniss develops a deepening bond with the team, their village and its people, and their country. Traveling with the miracle team, from the isolated mountain region where Castel di Sangro is located to gritty towns as well as grand cities, McGinniss introduces us to an Italy that no tourist guidebook has ever described, and comes away with a “sad, funny, desolating, and inspiring story–everything, in fact, a story should be” (Los Angeles Times).

Eight World Cups: My Journey through the Beauty and Dark Side of Soccer by George Vecsey

On the eve of the 2014 World Cup, New York Times sports columnist George Vecsey offers a personal perspective on the beautiful game

Blending witty travelogue with action on the field—and shady dealings in back rooms—George Vecsey offers an eye-opening, globe-trotting account of the last eight World Cups. He immerses himself in the great national leagues, historic clubs, and devoted fans and provides his up-close impressions of charismatic stars like Sócrates, Maradona, Baggio, and Zidane, while also chronicling the rise of the U.S. men’s and women’s teams.

Vecsey shows how each host nation has made the World Cup its own, from the all-night street parties in Spain in 1982 to the roar of vuvuzelas in South Africa in 2010, as the game in the stadium is backed up by the game in the street. But the joy is sometimes undermined by those who style themselves the game’s protectors.

With his characteristic sharp reporting and eye for detail, Vecsey brings this global event to vivid life and has written a perfect companion for the upcoming 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby

Nick Hornby has been a soccer fan since the moment he was conceived. Fever Pitch is his tribute to a lifelong obsession. Part autobiography, part comedy, part incisive analysis of insanity, Hornby’s award-winning memoir captures the fever pitch of fandom—its agony and ecstasy, its community, its defining role in thousands of young men’s coming of age stories. Fever Pitch is one for the home team. But above all, it is one for everyone who knows what it really means to have a losing season.

So who are Wilson and Beaulieu?

Gregory A. Wilson is currently an Associate Professor of English at St. John’s University in New York City, where he teaches creative writing, fantasy and science fiction along with various other courses in literature. His first academic book was published by Clemson University Press in 2007; on the creative side, he has won an award for a national playwriting contest, and his first novel, a work of fantasy entitled The Third Sign, was published by Gale Cengage in 2009. He is a regular panelist at conferences across the country and is a member of Codex, the Writers’ Symposium, the Origins Library,Backspace, and several other author groups on and offline. He is currently in the process of submitting his third novel, Grayshade, to publishers, and has recent short stories out in anthologies like Time Traveled Tales, alongside authors like Mike Stackpole and Timothy Zahn, and the critically acclaimed When The Villain Comes Home, edited by Ed Greenwood and Gabrielle Harbowy.  

Bradley P. Beaulieu is the author of The Winds of Khalakovo, the first of three planned books in The Lays of Anuskayaseries, published by Night Shade Books. In addition to being an L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Award winner, Brad’s stories have appeared in various other publications, including Realms of Fantasy Magazine, Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show, Writers of the Future 20, and several anthologies from DAW Books. His story, “In the Eyes of the Empress’s Cat,” was voted a Notable Story of 2006 in the Million Writers Award. Brad lives in Racine, WI with his wife and two children. He is a software engineer by day, wrangling code into something resembling usefulness. 

For more information about the Speculate! podcast, here’s a Q&A with co-host Bradley Beaulieu:

1. Please describe Speculate for someone who hasn’t listened to the podcast before.

Speculate is a genre fiction podcast that highlights authors and books by providing interviews, reviews, and writing technique, but we do so in such a way that we “deep dive” into the books we choose. How do we do that? Well, our typical format is to group shows into “triptychs”, a set of three episodes in which we choose a book, read and review it in a reader response show, follow up with an interview episode, and complete the run with a show that digs into the writing technique used in the book. It’s a fun way for readers and fans and burgeoning writers to get something different out of the same book, but we’ve found that many people like listening to all three episodes, because they get something different out of each.

We also have one-off interviews with guests, who can be writers, artists, editors, and even fellow podcasters.

2. What prompted you to launch Speculate?

As writers do at conventions, Greg and I were sitting down to dinner at World Fantasy in 2009 and we got to chatting about what we’d read recently, and we stumbled upon Kij Johnson’s powerful short story, “Spar”, a story we’d both read but held differing points of view about it. It was a lively but fun discussion. Later, after the convention, Greg pinged me and asked if I’d be interested in teaming up with him to form the show. It didn’t take too long to decide to do just that. I was nervous, I’ll admit, as I hadn’t done anything like that in the past, but it seemed like a great opportunity to read some great fiction, to network with other authors, and to talk about the stuff we both love: science fiction and fantasy. I’m really glad Greg asked and that I decided to join him, as it’s been a really wonderful ride so far. We’re looking to a ton more episodes in the future.

3. You recently reached your 100th episode. How did reaching that milestone feel?

Triple digits was something we’d been looking forward to for a long while. It feels like a real accomplishment in the podcasting space, so I certainly felt rewarded, but also pleased, because Greg and I take pride in the product we put out, and we’re both very pleased with the material that’s come out in our 100 episodes. That doesn’t mean we didn’t have some things to learn. We did, and we still do, but that’s part of the fun, learning new things even while we’re sharing what we love.

4. Do you listen to other podcasts? What other podcasts do you listen to – book-related or otherwise? 

I don’t find time for a lot of them, but I do occasionally listen to the SFSignal podcast, Functional Nerds, Writing Excuses, and now Rocket Talk over at Tor.com.

5. I know it’s tough to pick favorites, but what 3 episodes of Speculate would you recommend for someone who has never listened to the podcast before? 

This is always tough—narrowing down a list to just a few—but I think some good ones to get your feet wet would be:

• Episode 6 – Our Kij Johnson interview as part of a triptych we did on her and her work. This one is interesting since, as I mentioned above, Greg and I started the show based on a discussion of Kij’s “Spar”.
• Episode 70 – The interview with Robin Hobb/Megan Lindholm as part of her triptych. Robin is a master craftsman, and it was frankly engrossing to talk to her about her two (quite different) writing selves.
• Episode 66 and Episode 67, Parts 1 and 2 of our interview with Peter V. Brett and Myke Cole. Both Peter and Myke gave some fascinating and very personal answers to our questions in this show. Well worth the listen.

6. Is there a dream guest/author that you’d like to interview that you haven’t interviewed yet?

Three words: Neal. Freaking. Gaiman.