Tag: urban fantasy

July 3, 2024

An Interview with Kim McDougall

I’ve been reading and adoring Kim McDougall’s Valkyrie Bestiary Series for a while now, enjoying the idea of a world where magic has ruptured into our world and magical creatures need to be dealt with by professional pest control folks. In this interview, Kim and I discuss magical creatures, world-building a magical world, and the power of urban fantasy. If...

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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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December 9, 2023

An Interview with Chadwick Ginther About Shared World Fiction and Sword and Sorcery

I had a wonderful opportunity to revisit and chat with Chadwick Ginther about his recent work, especially focussing on his recent Sword and Sorcery Work, Lovecraftian horror, creating a shared world story, and creating magical geographies in his fiction. Chadwick Ginther is the author of two short story collections: Khyber: Sinister Tales of Sword and Sorcery in a Shared World...

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September 19, 2021

What Do Dragons Eat?

A review of Kim McDougall’s Dragons Don’t Eat Meat (Wrong Tree Press, 2020)By Derek Newman-Stille Part Valkyrie and part Dryad, Kyra Greene walks between worlds. She’s cut off from her Norse roots and has no connection with dryads, and perhaps this allows her to connect to other outsiders and others who are looking for homes. Kyra works in the magical...

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September 17, 2021

Nothing As It Seems

A review of Jamieson Wolf’s Beyond the Stone (Renaissance, 2021) By Derek Newman-stille Nothing is as it seems in Jamieson Wolf’s Beyond the Stone. This is an exciting urban fantasy adventure with many twists and turns and a world standing on the precipice of massive and dangerous change. Not only is the world in a state of change, but so...

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September 6, 2021

Coming of Age at 60

A review of Lydia M Hawke’s Becoming Crone (Michem Publishing, 2021).By Derek Newman-Stille We hear popular, ageist phrases like “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks”, and “past your prime”. In our society, ageing is presumed to be a process of decline, an increase in loss, and not a time of growth or learning. Yet, of course learning never...

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December 9, 2014

RagnaROCKING Manitoba: The Road to Hel

A review of Chadwick Ginther’s Tombstone Blues (RavenStone, 2013). By Derek Newman-Stille This second book in the Thunder Road trilogy takes a turn toward the dark. The dead have risen, and Thor, who has been sitting in Hel since Ragnarok… has become dark and twisted by years of post-mortem torture. When Thor encounters Ted Callan, the first thing he notices...

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July 1, 2014

Speculating Canada on Trent Radio Episode 10: An Interview With Michael Matheson

For this episode of Speculating Canada on Trent Radio, I had the opportunity to interview SF author Michael Matheson at Ad Astra, a speculative fiction convention, this year in Toronto and discuss with him some of his thoughts about speculative fiction in Canada, and particularly LGBT speculative fiction. Please excuse the background noise. This was an interview conducted on the...

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May 30, 2014

Speculating Canada on Trent Radio Episode 5: Disability in Canadian SF

How many spaceships are wheelchair accessible? Do office buildings create light shielding for the undead who might be singed by solar exposure? Can my guide dog be a werewolf? Does one need to simply WALK into Mordor… or can one wheel in instead? SF has an interest in the body, whether it is the augmented body of sci fi, the...

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May 9, 2014

Speculating Canada on Trent Radio Episode 2: An Interview with Chadwick Ginther and Discussion of his Work

In this episode of Speculating Canada on Trent Radio, check out an interview with Winnipeg author Chadwick Ginther where he discusses his Thunder Road trilogy. In our interview we talk about notions of heroism and villainy, moral ambiguities, the interplay of Canadian legends and Norse myths, the landscape, urban fantasy and horror. After our interview, I get a chance to...

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