UpperPen Podcast

Charlie J. Eskew is a writer from Columbus, Ohio. He is a professional comic book shop lurker and tenured Black dude in America. Please satisfy your unnatural obsession with him via Twitter @CJEskew or his website, www.askeweskew.com.   Trapped in a dead-end job in his Ohio hometown, watching the girl of his dreams move on to a glamorous new life in a big city--Donald McDougal's aimlessness h...

Born and raised in St. Thomas of the US Virgin Islands, Kacen Callender is a bestselling and award-winning author of the middle-grade novels Hurricane Child and King and the Dragonflies, the young-adult novels This Is Kind of an Epic Love Story and Felix Ever After, and the adult novel Queen of the Conquered and its forthcoming sequel King of the Rising. They enjoy playing RPG video games in their...

Peng Shepherd is the author of The Cartographers, a novel from Nell Young's point of view. This novel is unique because there is so much love and of course, the hidden settlements in maps. Nell ends up on a journey to find out what happened to her father that she hadn't spoken to in 7 years. Along this journey, she finds out what happened to her mother and gets pulled into the same mystery that co...

Eric Ugland is the author of The Good Guys series which follows a Michigander named Montana in the world of Valdrani. If you like massively overpowered main characters who still manage to fuck up, this is your series. If you are looking for something a little more subtle, check out The Bad Guys (which I have now read all of and am eagerly awaiting the next book).  Go to the GameLit Society on...

If you listen to Game Lit or LitRPG you've probably heard his voice. But have you read his book? Or listened to him read his book? Legends and Lattes is a fantastic book about friendships, belonging, the quiet life, and coffee. I really highly suggest this book to anyone who has wanted to know what happens when the adventure stops and to people who have had a large change in their life and need to...

Dead Silence is a great Sci-Fi Horror, you can find more about what I think in my blog post at UpperPen.com. S.A. Barnes, otherwise known as Stacey Kade, is possibly my new best sci-fi friend. She loves Aliens, Ghost Ship, and is the perfect amount of nerdy! Get Dead Silence if you haven't yet! It does not disappoint.

This video was recorded in December of 2020.   We talked about how he got started writing Noobtown, Jim as an older character, and Ryan's publishing woes for the first book. I love this series and hope you enjoy this interview even though it is older.   Also, the Facebook groups he is mentioning are LitRPG and Game Lit Society. I am more active on Game Lit Society and that is m...

Jessie Mihalik has a degree in Computer Science and a love of all things geeky. A software engineer by trade, Jessie now writes full time from her home in Texas. When she’s not writing, she can be found playing co-op video games with her husband, trying out new board games, or reading books pulled from her overflowing bookshelves. We spoke about her book Hunt the Stars, the first in the Starlight'...