UpperPen Podcast

Interviews and Book Reviews

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Author: UpperPenPodcast

  • John Chu

    About The Subtle Art of Folding Space The Subtle Art of Folding Space, is the exhilarating debut science fiction novel from Nebula and Hugo Award-winning author John Chu channels unhinged physics, generational trauma, and the comfort of really good dim sum. This isn’t your usual jaunt through quantum physics. Ellie’s universe—and this one—is falling apart.…

  • Jennifer Mandula rewrites Mary Anning’s life

    About The Geomagician When a Victorian fossil hunter discovers a baby pterodactyl, she vows to protect him, with the help of a fellow scholar—her former fiancé—in this enchanting and transporting historical fantasy. Mary Anning wants to be a geomagician—a paleontologist who uses fossils to wield magic—but since the Geomagical Society of London refuses to admit…

  • The Longwinded One joined me for a 3rd time!

    About Get Trucked Ever wonder why you hear about so many people getting hit by trucks? Yeah. That’s me.  My name is Max. State Trooper by day, and Endr by night. I work for the Bureau of Afterlife Dispatch. It’s my job to send the chosen into the next realm to serve their calling. The Endr…

  • From Mickey 7 to After the Fall: Edward Ashton on Dark Comedy & Power

    About After the Fall Humans must be silent. Humans must be obedient. Humans must be good. All his life, John has tried to live by those rules. Most days, it’s not too difficult. A hundred and twenty years after The Fall, and a hundred years after the grays swept in to pick the last dregs…

  • The Astral Library

    Interview with author Kate Quinn About The Astral Library Alexandria “Alix” Watson has learned one lesson from her barren childhood in the foster-care system: unlike people, books will never let you down. Working three dead-end jobs to make ends meet and knowing college is a pipe dream, Alix takes nightly refuge in the high-vaulted reading…

  • The Vanishing Bookstore: Salem, Witches, and Mystery with Helen Phifer

    author Helen Phifer chats about her new book The Vanishing Bookstore About The Vanishing Bookstore 1692. On the outskirts of Salem, a bookstore stands covered in overgrown vines. Inside, a young woman hides a linen-wrapped journal under a loose floorboard and runs away, panicked by the sound of hounds barking in the distance. The bookstore vanishes…

  • Inside Akira Kurosawa’s Mind

    Translator Anne McKnight talks about the difficulties of the well loved filmmaker About Long Take A multifaceted portrait of the great Japanese director For years, Akira Kurosawa resisted writing about himself. “It would turn out to be nothing but talk about movies,” he said. “In other words, take myself, subtract movies, and the result is zero.” The memoir he finally…

  • From Book One to Book Two: Raising the Stakes in The Breaking Annwn

    The Longwinded One and narrator Chris Tucci talk about book 2 of The Four Treasures Saga About The Breaking of Annwn, The Four Treasures Saga Book 2 After uncovering the truth about his origins, Bren begins a desperate effort to rally the scattered forces of the Celtic Otherworld against the Overking. But he’s not the…

  • Monsters, Murder, and Women’s Power in Victorian England

    Interview with Suzannah Rowntree on Rewriting the Past About The Werewolf of Whitechapel Murder, monsters…and a disreputable Victorian lady’s maid. A killer stalks the grimy streets of Whitechapel—but Scotland Yard seems determined to turn a blind eye. With one look at her best friend’s corpse, Liz Sharp already knows the truth: the killer is a…

  • Inside Mothra: Kaiju and post WWII Japan

    Interview with Jeffrey Angles, translator of The Luminous Fairies and Mothra About The Luminous Fairies and Mothra The original story that hatched Mothra, one of the most beloved monsters in the “kaijuverse”—available in English for the first time Mystical and benevolent, the colossal lepidopteran Mothra has been one of the most beloved kaiju since 1961,…