UpperPen Podcast

Interviews and Book Reviews

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Category: Video Episodes

  • 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…

  • Hugh Howey author of Wool now an AppleTV+ show

    May 2023 Hugh Howey is the author of the books Wool, Shift, and Dust. We talked about how he structured his books, the characters, and plot. I loved chatting with him and love watching the show, Silo, on AppleTV+! Where to buy: Your local bookstore Amazon

  • Nat Webb on his Kickstarter for Bard City Blues

    April 2023 Nat Webb is the creator of Wyngraf Cozy Fantasy magazine and now has his own book coming out: Bard City Blues. We talked about the book in this interview and the Kickstarter, which is now over, but you can head over to Wyngraf for more information on where you can purchase the book!

  • Ness Brown author of The Scourge Between Stars

    April 25, 2023 The past couple of years have seen some fantastic horror sci-fi published. Ness Brown’s The Scourge Between Stars has been on my radar since April of 2022 and it did not disappoint. If you like jump scares, high tension, and weird shit, this one is for you. Where to buy: Your local…

  • David Wellington author of Paradise-1

    April 18, 2023 I am always looking for good sci-fi, and if that sci-fi includes horror elements- I am hooked. Paradise-1 has all the horror elements. Like, all of them. Just read it. Where to buy: Your local bookstore Amazon