Speculating Canada: Canadian Horror, Science Fiction, and Fantasy

May 29, 2024

An Interview with Una Verdandi

I had the wonderful opportunity to talk to Una Verdandi about her Norse-inspired speculative fiction work and was able to listen to some amazing Norse tales as we were chatting. I am excited to share Una’s brilliance with all of you Una Verdandi is a writer of science fiction and fantasy novels. When she is not exorcising her muses into...

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May 7, 2024

An Interview with Eric Desmarais

You may recall my recent interview of Jen Desmarais, who talked about collaborations with her partner, Eric. Now I’ve had the opportunity to talk to both of them. Eric and I talk about collaborative writing, uses of romance in speculative fiction, and the use of role-playing games as story generators. Éric Desmarais has had an eclectic career which ranges from...

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April 26, 2024

An Interview with MJ Lyons

I recently had a chance to chat with MJ Lyons about his ongoing speculative fiction writing and his exploration of fabulous smut. I think there is so much power in the ability to explore the fantastic and the unabashedly sexy, and am excited that I was able to hear from MJ about his work, including his latest work Queer Werewolves...

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April 12, 2024

An Interview with Melanie Marttila

I had the great opportunity to talk to Canadian poet Melanie Marttila just before the launch of her new poetry collection The Art of Floating. In today’s interview, we discuss speculative poetry, small local writing groups, and writing for a community. We talk about disability, ageing, and neurodiversity. Melanie Marttila (she/her) is an #actuallyaustitic SFF author-in-progress, writing poetry and tales...

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April 3, 2024

An Interview with Lydia M Hawke

In today’s interview of the brilliant Lydia M Hawke, we explore ageing, coming-of-age stories, parents in coming-of-age stories, paranormal fiction, gender and feminism. Lydia gives us some amazing insights into her Crone series. Lydia M. Hawke is an award-winning urban fantasy and paranormal women’s fiction author and a proud crone living just outside of Ottawa. When worlds collide or apocalyptic...

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April 1, 2024

An Interview with Carolyn Charron

I finally get the opportunity to interview Carolyn Charron and we talk about ageing in fiction, disability, historical fiction, pirates, short stories, and so much more. Carolyn Charron is a speculative fiction writer who’s always wanted to be a pirate or a wizard preferably with a dragon companion. Her short stories have appeared Renaissance Press’ Nothing Without Us, an anthology...

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March 20, 2024

An Interview with Ashley Caranto-Morford on Digital Humanities

Folks may not know this, but Speculating Canada is a Digital Humanities project (a way to engage with the digital in scholarship or teach through the digital). I have been very lucky to have Dr. Ashley Caranto-Morford to educate me about Digital Humanities (DH) and all of the complexities of DH. In this interview, Ashley and I explore decolonial Digital...

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February 27, 2024

An Interview with Eric Choi About Alternative Histories

In this interview with Eric Choi, we examine the interweaving of Eric’s roles as an aerospace engineer and science fiction writer and the way that he breaks down the barriers between the arts and sciences. We examine Eric’s work looking at alternative histories and imagining a world that could have turned out differently if not for chance moments in time....

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February 20, 2024

An Interview with Melissa Yuan-Innes (Melissa Yi)

Ever thought to yourself “I would love to get a doctor’s perspective on this murder mystery”… well, great news, Dr. Melissa Yuan-Innes writes murder mysteries informed by her perspective as a doctor. In this interview, we examine the way that Melissa’s medical perspective informs her fiction writing, the incredible work Melissa did in converting one of her books to a...

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February 4, 2024

An Interview with Douglas Smith About The Dream Rider Saga

Douglas Smith returns to the Speculating Canada studio to talk about his latest book series The Dream Rider Saga. We explore ideas of mental health and disability, poverty and homelessness, the role of the city, urban fantasy, the superhero, and how to write powerful characters Douglas Smith is a multi-award-winning author described by Library Journal as “one of Canada’s most...

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