Way, way back in the mists of time—last October, at the World Fantasy Convention in Columbus, Ohio, to be precise—I sat down for a wild, wide-ranging, and totally serious conversation with Brent Bowen for Adventures in SciFi Publishing.
The full recording of our conversation can be found here.
I think it came out pretty well, even if our conversation was completely dour and not at all lighthearted or frivolous.
I met Brent at ConQuesT in Kansas City last May. (Where I also had a chance to catch up with expat New Mexico SF writer Terry England. Hi, Terry.) He was incredibly kind, and actually went to the trouble of driving into town and joining the convention for a few hours in order to come to my signing. (Things like that stick out in my mind. Because, you know, when I do signings at conventions the lines are SO VERY LONG.) And it turned out we know some of the same folks online (even though, as Brent politely points out in the interview, I am a complete failure at social networking).
Our conversation took place just after I had returned from Australia, where I had spoken with my editor during Worldcon. So the information I gave during this conversation about the publication delay for The Coldest War was up to date at the time, but it was quickly superseded by more recent developments from February/March of this year.
This is the second podcast conversation/interview I’ve done, and I have to say I really enjoy these. Both Tom and Veronica at Sword and Laser, and Brent with AISFP, were really fun and easy to talk to. It’s to their credit that I find myself fairly relaxed in these situations. (No less socially awkward than normal, of course. But at least I’m relaxed about it.) I enjoy the format where we basically just have a conversation. It feels like I’m just hanging out with new friends, rather than trying to sound halfway intelligent.
Anyway, check out the podcast. We had a good time with it.
Good interview, Ian. It was especially interesting to find out that the person we all think is GRRM is really his bodyguard and that he held (holds?) you captive in a pirate tramp steamer.
Thanks, Steve!
I’m probably in a lot of trouble for revealing one of the most closely held secrets of the publishing world…
‘Twas good to see you last year, too, but now you say you ain’t coming this year. Aw. That’s OK, it’s likely Ill be at Bubonicon. (Where’s that held again? Abquerky, Akuberque, Albaquirky, Albaturkey — something like that. Hope it’s on a map somewhere.)
Ian … you’re too kind … and much too modest — you’re an easy interview. You were missed at ConQuesT this year, but your presence was felt both in spirit — and in my pocket book. Parris donated three of the Wild Cards anthologies that you and your cohorts signed. The three copies raised around $300 (one came home with me) for Joplin relief and, with Parris’ other efforts, raised more than $4,000 total for Joplin relief. Thank you! Regardless of whether it’s on the record, I’ll look forward to chatting again soon at Bubonicon.
Well, it was definitely a conversation! And a very fun one!
I was bummed that ConQuesT didn’t fit into my plans this year, but– wow! It’s awesome that the WC books raised some money for Joplin. And it sounds like Parris really brought home the bacon– that’s just fantastic. I hadn’t heard about that.