Madeline Davis – See Post
Madeline and I met in the Fantasy Sci Fi Writer’s Alliance and enjoy helping each other with story feedback. Her insights and editing tips have been invaluable. I love Madeline’s imaginative stories infused with the elements of her classical education and feel privileged to share in her writing journey.
Madeline is a harpist and an avid student, currently working towards her undergraduate degree in the Classics, as that field allows her ample exploration in her favorite subjects–literature, philosophy, theology, history, and languages–all at the same time.
She also enjoys poring over ancient texts and researching in her chosen subjects to incorporate the results into her fantasy genre stories. She hopes to give others a share of the delight she has derived from so many fine tales. And I’m delighted she is joining me for a Q&A, so she can pass that on to you.
Isa Ottoni – See Post
I also met this up and coming fantasy writer who resides in Portugal through the Fantasy Sci Fi Writer’s Alliance, and like Madeline, Isa is extremely generous with her feedback and support for all of us there. For me, she has been an inspiration and invaluable to my writing journey.
Isa started her career writing science and teaching English as a Second Language, before falling in love with crafting her own fantastical universes. Her comic fantasy tale Braza is featured in Funemployment Press’s Quarterly Summer of Year One. She lives with her husband and their dog in a flat that overlooks the ocean, and spends her days writing, reading, and wondering about the what-ifs of life. I can’t wait for her visit, so we can all experience her joy and generosity.
I’m excited to add here that The Fantasy Sci Fi Writers Alliance just launched its website and Isa provided the very first blog, How Finding a Writing Community Changed My Life. Check it out!
Sevannah Storm – See Post
Sevannah is a sci fi fantasy romance author I met through NaNoWriMo in 2021, and wow is she a writing machine. Her progress is always motivating. And she has a fantastic collection of books on Amazon for you to check out.
Sevannah was born and raised in Africa and is a slave to her internal muse, Reginald. She writes action-packed romances with happily-ever-after and is a firm believer in relatable characters who are strong, capable yet bowled over by love.
Her home is a land south of Wakanda, where animals roam free. Born in Zimbabwe, she grew up in South Africa. The crisp blue skies with cotton-candy sunsets expand her heart and soul, encapsulating a sense of freedom. Check out her website and newsletter. I can’t wait to chat with her about her writing life and insights.
Jorma Kansanen – See Post
Jorma Kansanen relaunched his series this February with fantastic new elements his fans will love. We are members of the Fantasy Sci Fi Writers Alliance, and when he started talking about his plans for February, I jumped on the chance to have him stop by and talk about this exciting event.
Jorma has worked in the newspaper and media business. His name has been seen on the byline of publications from Manchester, England to San Diego, California.
For his whole life, the Canadian-born Finnish American has been a fantasy and science-fiction aficionado. From “The Hobbit” and the original “Star Wars” as a child to diving head first into “Game Of Thrones” and “The Mandalorian” as an adult, Jorma has immersed himself in imagination. You can see the latest about Jorma here. But stop by the post first and jump into our great conversation about a writer’s life and the passion it takes to create an entire fantastical series.
Graham Streeter – see Post
Graham Streeter is an American film director, screenwriter and cinematographer, and was stoked when he joined me as one of my two Spotlight Features in March!
Graham was raised in northern California until high school, which is when we met. Yep. We go way back. He lived in Osaka, Japan for 10 years while working in film and television. He was the reason I got to travel to Japan for three months, which was a pivotal experience in my life. We were supposed to meet up and travel together, but it didn’t happen. That’s a long story for another day.
He returned to the United States and attended California State University, Sacramento, earning a double degree in international business administration and Japanese, then worked for Nippon Television in Los Angeles as a television field producer and ultimately founded Imperative Pictures in Hollywood.
His 2018 film I May Regret was selected for the San Diego International Film Festival and won the Grand Prix at the Vienna Independent Film Festival.
We got to chat about his journey into filmmaking, day-to-day life as a creator, and his amazing body of work.
Writing Battle – See Post
Max and Teona, the creators of Writing Battle, stopped by all the way from Nova Scotia to talk about this phenomenal peer-powered writing competition, how it came about, and the amazing community of writers taking part. Here is a glimpse of how it started, straight from Teona!
Once upon a time, Max was a software engineer for a large defence company and unhappy in the lack of creativity he was able to exercise in his job. As an amateur screenwriter himself, he had come across writing contests before but knew there was room for the framework to improve. His wife Teona, was coming to the end of her maternity leave and so Max, with the long term goal of making this his full time job, took over as full time parent by day and used the very little time in between kiddo naps and nights to mould the contest. With iteration after iteration, integrating suggestions from his brother, the writing battle community, and a lot of long nights full of doubt, he has finally gotten to a place where the contest works remarkably well. Battle season nights can now be spent enjoying wine, reviewing feedback and chatting with Teona instead of sweating over the keyboard to ensure the forums that he built from scratch are ready for the next day (yes that really did happen). Now we are in year three, just wrapped up battle number 9 and Teona has been officially “hired.” We are so excited to watch the community grow and thrilled to hear people enjoy the tournament as much on the writers’ side as we do behind the scenes.
A huge thank you goes out to our community and supporters like Darci who make this dream work for us! 🙂
Dustin Frueh see Post
Enjoy this candid conversation with my friend Sci Fi Fantasy Writer and reviewer Dustin Frueh. We discuss a writer’s life, including coping with life’s toughest challenges while pursuing our creative passion.
Dustin also shares for the first time a fabulous poem, and check out the mind-blowing number of books he’s tallied up on Goodreads.
Dustin grew up in a small town in the beautiful Pacific-Northwest, where he found solace in the macabre stories made popular in the 1980s and 90s. In addition to his fascination with dark and seedy things, he strove to understand why evil had to happen. His work in progress is a fantasy-science fiction hybrid, featuring elements of horror, which attempts to explore the fallacy of human nature, our innermost fears, and the surprising connections between science and magic. Dustin Frueh still haunts the Pacific-Northwest, alongside his family and four rambunctious felines. Connect with him online: Instagram or on Goodreads
Nicolas Lemieux – See Post
Sci Fi writer Nicolas Lemieux was one of those really nice surprises on Twitter last year. When he shared his free story Cradle with a signup to his newsletter, his story pitch really grabbed me. Then, I read the story and it grabbed me. I can’t wait for the full series. We’ve been chatting on a regular basis, digging deep into a writer’s life and our respective creative journey’s. We share our take-aways with you in this two-way interview, doing something a little different, which will involve my side of the interview being shared in Nicolas’ Blog. A true conversation.
Nicolas lives in Montreal with his wife Marie-Claude in a third-story apartment overlooking an interesting, green back-alley. Although French is his first language, he likes to write in English primarily. His chosen writing genre is science fiction, principally space opera.
He gets his kicks out of dreaming up astonishing worlds packed with a sharp palette of badass, quirky characters who get tangled up in all manner of meaningful trouble. Often funny, sometimes disquieting, always exciting.
You can sign up for your free copy of Cradle here or click the book.
By D. L. Lewellyn 