Community News

"simon han‘s exceptional debut “nights when nothing happened” about a chinese family coming to the the american suburb of plano, texas was the topic of discussion on the book club this week." Read more on the blog.

"A brand new Avatar Dining Club story." Read more on the blog.

"roseanne a. brown‘s debut novel “a song of wraith and ruin” is a wonderfully rich fantasy novel, a celebration of storytelling as means to preserve cultural memory. written for young folks, but thoroughly enjoyed by at least one adult [me!], it combines bits of west-african folklore tradition with a nod to sprawling epics like “lord of the rings”." Read more on the blog.

"what utter horror: we spent this week’s book club inside a classroom with a “no exit” sign on the only door, surrounded by cardboard cut-out suburban houses with happy people [also made of primwood!], big chain stores [asda anyone?], all watched over by the übermensch on the roof & a stoner metal band in the back while professor lars iyer lectured on german philosopher friedrich nietzsche" Read more on the blog.

"Enjoy a conversation about scifi, representation in the publishing biz, a fresh and decidedly anti-colonialist take on rudyard kipling’s work and how a video game writer/goddess wants to teleport/wire herself disguised as money back home to the philippines:" Read more on the blog.

"jonathan lethem in the house, again, as yellow duck [as we find out the reason is hidden in plain sight of his story “forever, said the duck” from “the wall of the sky, the wall of the eye”]. we discuss “they live”, the great 80s movie by marxist scholar john carpenter, we find out about how to make loads of $$$ in a game called yet another world [is it a game?] & we also get a dose of post-apocalyptic bliss in a beach front village before “the arrest” commences" Read more on the blog.

"a.c. wise has written a sequel of sorts to j.m. barrie’s “peter pan” and it dives deep into the darker side of, well: child’s play i guess? miss wise was kind enough to be as patient as a corgi [her avatar of choice] with us childish second lifers, vying for her attention and of course unconditional love. “wendy, darling” is ready for your preorder and the big question post show is of course = will wendy … oops sorry i meant alison … come back to neverland … oops i mean second life? …. will she?" Read more on the blog.

"nino cipri is an author with a sprawling imagination: their short story collection “homesick” is bursting with nutty premises and colorful worlds but “finna” and the brandnew sequel “defekt” take it up a notch by presenting litenvärld aka your neighborhood ikea from hell, where the multiverse is real, sucking up customers while the occasional mean-spirited luxury toilet attacks loyal worker bees." Read more on the blog.

"Episode three of The Avatar Dining Club Mysteries. Each episode is an audio recording of me reading one of my short stories about a group of metaversians who meet in real life for a monthly meal and a mystery." Read more on the blog.

"sam j. miller writes magical fiction, situated firmly in the “real” world of gentrified cities, exploitation of labor, depicting the immoral dominance of capital, hell bent on extracting value no matter what and shining a light on the plight of the poor, addicted and struggling in his hometown of hudson, ny, as well as in imagined future places like in “blackfish city”." Read more on the blog.

"Episode two of The Avatar Dining Club Mysteries. Each episode is an audio recording of me reading one of my short stories about a group of metaversians who meet in real life for a monthly meal and a mystery." Read more on the blog.

"rg penner is a debut author who wrote tons of fantastical short stories, a few wacky and deep novels, edited the big echo criticial science fiction blog of stories and interviews. how come? well he was and is william squirrell but for today’s show he is a chicken and “strange labour” is on the menu: a “low key” [his words!] post-apocalyptic tale that i would call an elegy, a meditation, a gigantic puzzle/metaphor that stays with you for a long time." Read more on the blog.

"Here’s a new thing (for me): a podcast. Today sees the release of the first episode of season one of The Avatar Dining Club Mysteries. Each episode is an audio recording of me reading one of my short stories about a group of metaversians who meet in real life for a monthly meal and a mystery. I’ll be releasing one episode every Tuesday for the next six weeks and, if people enjoy it, release a second season later in the year." Read more on the blog.

"fernando sdrigotti is our guest today. chris marker fan, hater of progressive rock [allegedly!!!], lover of minor literatur[s] and master of synthesizing complex thoughts in short stories that just 100% nail the experience we all share, not only since social media started to dominate everything: a sense of being in and out of place and time, a feeling of not being at home in one place but possibly any place?" Read more on the blog.

"our guest today is elsa isaacs with expressed permission from one nika thought-werk to answer questions about this amazing adventurer, a porcelain doll containing an intricate clockwork inside of her, abandonded by her maker, accompanied by a sheep called “postage”, out there, exploring a world of danger and wonder alike" Read more on the blog.

"simon stephenson was the very first author who contacted us at the sl book club and i was not aware of his work, shame on me. “set my heart to five” is such a wonderful and original take on the well-known “robot seeks feelings” genre" Read more on the blog.

"cauvery madhavan‘s book “the tainted” is a story of tragic love set against the struggle for independence in ireland as well as india in the early 20th century. it skips a bunch of decades and a generation or two and resumes in the 1980s to conclude in the most heart-wrenching way drax could envision." Read more on the blog.

"a panel of 4 published authors that are also active second life residents: jessika jenvieve, lori alden holuta, first time novelist ana valladares rubi also known as ruby geek in our circles and of course r. jacques aka gospeedraser. that is what is on the menu today: a talk about world building, marketing, craft, inspiration, specific to a subset of writers who are native to our wonderful universe." Read more on the blog.

"the indie publisher the parliament house press bills itself via their website as a place where authors are helped to produce “brilliantly bizzare” stories and i have to agree after devouring 3 books from their vast catalogue." Read more on the blog.

"eliot peper came to “town” [or the club?] to discuss his analog trilogy [bandwidth, borderless and breach]. in a bit over 60 minutes we of course could only scratch the surface of the intersection of big ideas in fiction and imagining them being applied to the “real world”. enjoy the conversation with this profilic and refreshingly independent author." Read more on the blog.

"courttia newland appeared on my radar via twitter recommendation and i could not believe that his ouevre [books, tv work, plays] had escaped me prior? maybe it was good to start with the super ambitious “a river called time” and then work backwards because sprawling, unapologetically non-compliant to genre expectations, epic, time/identiy/history challenging narrative is – as listeners know – totally my thing, so: enjoy a wideranging conversation and pick up that book!" Read more on the blog.

"a poet, a novelist, a short story writer, an author of so many wonderful words and sentences and paragraphs that become coherent in their chosen form, including children’s books and a newspaper column that unearths wisdom even in somewhat pedestrian topics such as road closures." Read more on the blog.

"today on the show czech writer julie novakova, prolific crafter of short stories, novels in her native language, translations from czech into english of amazing talent from her home country, mother, scientist, advocate of educational outreach and most importantly = a connossieur of pan tau." Read more on the blog.

"Today on the show: heidi james. and yes: i discovered her via twitter. as much as i despise algorithmically driven “social” media, i have to say it works in the sense of “you have ordered from influx press before, you may like bluemoose books & specifically heidi because her fictional mothers are quite evil!”" Read more on the blog.

"samit basu is on the show today. he has a thing for ducks although he really does not know why but at least he knows how to write awesome speculative fiction that is relevant to the current moment in indian society, comic books and bollywood movie scripts …. enjoy:" Read more on the blog.