UpperPen Podcast

Man, Tor Nightfire is putting out some hits. Ness Brown's The Scourge Between Stars is a short romp through the horror of being in space. Brown is an astrophysicist in training and the realism that comes from their work and education comes through in the futile and somewhat hopeless situations that the crew of the Calypso find themselves in.

If a book is horror sci-fi, I will pretty much buy it no questions asked. If a book is horror sci-fi set in space, I'll likely enjoy it. If a book is horror sci-fi set in space and is written by David Wellington, well shit, I'm gonna need to talk about it to everyone I know because the love I have for the book cannot be contained!

I was late to the game on Nova Terra but I am all in now. Seth talks about how he got started on Nova Terra and shares some interesting tidbits about self-publishing.

Chakraborty has written one of my favorite pirate novels. Amina is a fresh look at pirate life because she is retired. I cannot stress how fun this book was.

I was on a gothic literature bent and found One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig. This novel was fantastic. I love the romance, the magic system, and the mystery that is hidden at the heart of the book.

I was so excited to get to talk to RA Salvatore. I've been a fan of his for a long time now and never expected to get the chance to interact with him. Anyway, he was great to talk to and had some interesting views on the changes in the publishing industry.

There are some spoilers for the series in this podcast. I had some questions for Cale and I was on book two at the time of recording the episode.

Cockell talks about his work as an astrobiologist and his conversations with taxi cab drivers about the topic. This book is entertaining and informative. 

Hellegers is the real deal kind of actor. He talks about how getting his degree in acting helps his career as a narrator and why it is so important to support other people in the narration field. 

Valdes talks about her sci-fi series that ends with Fault Tolerance. Additionally, she talks about including Cuban-Spanish without translations in the books!

Dr. Kimmerle talks about forensic anthropology and the ethics behind digging for human remains.

Kerei talks about LitRPG and naming his books the longest thing he can think of.

Nat20 talks about starting Wyngraf and how cozy fantasy has grown over the pandemic.

Johns talks about how his time in the Marines impacted (or jumpstarted) his writing career. Additionally, he talks about the influence of different cultures in deciding the racial features of the characters. 

Smidt talks about LitRPG and Dungeon Core.

Parsneau talks about narrating the Wandering Inn and an embarrassing moment with her mother as her editor.

Mathews talks about how he got started writing and the structure of the book. Not to mention the lack of market in Jake's Magical Market.

This is an old episode from 2020.

Cale was wonderful and fun. Enjoy the interview.

We talked about how Jeff got started narrating, Soundbooth Theater, working with Matt Dinniman on Dungeon Crawler Carl, what comes next, and Soundbooth's Deep Dives! Check out Soundbooththeater.com for more on what Jeff is up to, and join the GameLit Society on Facebook (or Twitter) to follow what is happening and find out what books are coming out!

Matt Dinniman is the author of a few series, but Dungeon Crawler Carl is by and far the most popular. So, popular in fact that dozens of people sent Audible pictures of feet when his book wasn't released in a timely manner.   Go to the GameLit Society on Facebook (or Twitter) to see what is happening in the GameLit world and interact with authors and other readers!

Nick Podehl is a narrator of primarily fantasy and LitRPG. That does not mean that is what he is limited to though. He voices entire casts of books on the regular and makes it look easy!     His audiobooks include but are not limited to:   The Land by Aleron Kong  Name of the Wind and Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfus  Awakened by C.M. Carney  and you can find m...

Beebe Bahrami is the author of The Spiritual Traveler Spain and Historic Walking Guides Madrid. Her work has appeared in Archaeology, Wine Enthusiast, Bark, The Pennsylvania Gazette, National Geographic Books, and Michelin Green Guides, among other publications. She has written two travel apps, The Esoteric Camino France and Spain and Madrid Walks, and maintains two blogs, Café Oc, on life in the...

M. R. Carey is a writer who is equally at home in a wide range of media. His previous novel The Girl With All the Gifts was a word-of-mouth-bestseller and is soon to be a major motion picture based on his own screenplay. Under the name Mike Carey he has written for both DC and Marvel, including critically acclaimed runs on X-Men and Fantastic Four, Marvel's flagship superhero titles. His creator-o...

Dakota Krout is the author of many LitRPG books, including The Completionist Chronicles. With familiarity in programming and playing games, he decided to start writing books because he was interested in creating worlds that force the main character to develop. In his stories, characters undergo serious moral dilemmas and become stronger through training and experience. This is coincidentally how h...