Have you signed up to be a DIY MFA Radio Insider yet? This is an exciting new monthly newsletter especially for our podcast listeners. Every month, you’ll get an email from our podcast producer with recaps of the most recent episodes, a curated Listening List of episodes on a particular theme, and other fun goodies we only share via email. Best of all, it’s free to join! The theme for January is Career Shifts, and you can become an insider by signing up with your email at diymfa.com/insiders.

In this episode Mary Robinette Kowal and I discuss:

• How she wrote a mash-up of old Hollywood glamour and a futuristic space setting.
• Why it was important to use fluid pronouns in this novel and what she learned writing it. 
• What she has learned over the course of writing ten books and how to reset.

Plus, her #1 tip for writers.

About Mary Robinette Kowal

Mary Robinette Kowal is the four-time Hugo, Locus, and Nebula Award-winning author of The Glamourist Histories series, Ghost Talkers, the Lady Astronaut Universe, and The Spare Man. She is a cast member of the award-winning podcast Writing Excuses and has received the Astounding Award for Best New Writer. Her stories appear in Asimov’s, Uncanny, and Year’s Best anthologies. Mary Robinette is a professional puppeteer, and she also performs as a voice actor (SAG/AFTRA), recording fiction for authors including Seanan McGuire, Cory Doctorow, and John Scalzi. She lives in Nashville with her husband Rob and over a dozen manual typewriters.

You can find her on her website or follow her on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Goodreads.

The Spare Man

Tesla Crane, a brilliant inventor and an heiress, is on her honeymoon on an interplanetary space liner, cruising between the Moon and Mars. She’s traveling incognito and is reveling in her anonymity. Then someone is murdered and the festering chowderheads who run security have the audacity to arrest her spouse. Armed with banter, martinis and her small service dog, Tesla is determined to solve the crime so that the newlyweds can get back to canoodling—and keep the real killer from striking again.

If you decide to check out the book, we hope you’ll do so via this Amazon affiliate link where, if you choose to purchase via the link, DIY MFA gets a referral fee at no cost to you. As always, thank you for supporting DIY MFA!

Link to Episode 443

(Right-click to download.)

If you liked this episode…

Head over to iTunes, Stitcher Radio, Spotify, or Google and subscribe so you’ll be first to know when new episodes are available.

Also, remember that sharing is caring so if you know anyone who might enjoy this podcast, please tell them about it or leave us a review so other listeners will want to check it out.

Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome!

The post Episode 443: Writing Diverse Characters via Nuanced Shifts in Language – Interview with Mary Robinette Kowal appeared first on DIY MFA.

Today we’ll be discussing her debut novel, Nophek Gloss.

In this episode Essa and I discuss:

• What Essa does to develop her story’s language using etymology and words with multiple meanings.
• Why lead characters like Caiden need agency in their own story.
• How her experiences as a sound designer helped her create an audibly visceral world, and think outside the box creatively.

Plus, her #1 tip for writers.

About the Author

Essa Hansen is an author, swordswoman, and falconer. She is a sound designer for science fiction and fantasy films at Skywalker Sound, with credits in movies such as Doctor Strange and Avengers: Endgame.

To learn more about Essa visit her website and follow her on Twitter. 

NOPHEK GLOSS

When a young man’s planet is destroyed, he sets out on a single-minded quest for revenge across the galaxy in Nophek Gloss, the first book in this epic space opera trilogy by debut author Essa Hansen, for fans of Star Wars and Children of Time.

Caiden’s planet is destroyed. His family gone. And, his only hope for survival is a crew of misfit aliens and a mysterious ship that seems to have a soul and a universe of its own. Together they will show him that the universe is much bigger, much more advanced, and much more mysterious than Caiden had ever imagined. But the universe hides dangers as well, and soon Caiden has his own plans. 

He vows to do anything it takes to get revenge on the slavers who murdered his people and took away his home. To destroy their regime, he must infiltrate and dismantle them from the inside, or die trying.

If you decide to check out the book, we hope you’ll do so via this Amazon affiliate link, where if you choose to purchase via the link DIY MFA gets a referral fee at no cost to you. As always, thank you for supporting DIY MFA!

Link to Episode 330

(Right-click to download.)

If you liked this episode…

Head over to iTunes, Stitcher Radio or Google Play and subscribe so you’ll be first to know when new episodes are available.

Also, remember that sharing is caring so if you know anyone who might enjoy this podcast, please tell them about it or leave us a review so other listeners will want to check it out.

Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome!

The post Episode 330: World Building in a Space Opera – Interview with Essa Hansen appeared first on DIY MFA.

Kristyn is an author who’s obsessed with SFF, food, video games, and her dog. She lives in Tucson, Arizona, and her book Fortuna launches a new space opera trilogy that will hook you from the first crash landing.

In this episode Kristyn and I discuss:

• How a NASA discovery and a TV show inspired the world and story of Fortuna
• Techniques for building multiple worlds
• Creating complex family and cultural dynamics
• Using dual perspectives to create balance and expand world-building
• How to grapple with real-world issues in a speculative story

Plus, her #1 tip for writers.

About Kristyn Merbeth

Kristyn Merbeth is obsessed with SFF, food, video games, and her dog. She resides in Tucson, Arizona. Check out her website, or connect with her on Twitter or Facebook.

Fortuna

Fortuna launches a new space opera trilogy that will hook you from the first crash landing.

Scorpia Kaiser has always stood in Corvus’s shadow until the day her older brother abandons their family to participate in a profitless war. However, becoming the heir to her mother’s smuggling operation is not an easy transition for the always rebellious, usually reckless, and occasionally drunk pilot of the Fortuna, an aging cargo ship and the only home Scorpia has ever known.

But when a deal turns deadly and Corvus returns from the war, Scorpia’s plans to take over the family business are interrupted, and the Kaiser siblings are forced to make a choice: take responsibility for their family’s involvement in a devastating massacre or lay low and hope it blows over.

Too bad Scorpia was never any good at staying out of a fight.

Perfect for fans of Becky Chambers and Catherynne M. Valente, Fortuna introduces a dazzling new voice in science fiction.

If you decide to check out the book, we hope you’ll do so via this Amazon affiliate link, where if you choose to purchase via the link DIY MFA gets a referral fee at no cost to you. As always, thank you for supporting DIY MFA!

Link to Episode #281

(Right-click to download.)

If you liked this episode…

Head over to iTunes, Stitcher Radio or Google Play and subscribe so you’ll be first to know when new episodes are available.

Also, remember that sharing is caring so if you know anyone who might enjoy this podcast, please tell them about it or leave us a review so other listeners will want to check it out.

Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome!

The post Episode 281: The Art of the Space Odyssey — Interview with Kristyn Merbeth appeared first on DIY MFA.

Today I have the absolute pleasure of speaking with Glynn Stewart on the show!

Glynn was liberated from a bleak future of being an accountant by his unstoppable writing habit which led him to write several science-fiction, space opera, and fantasy series.

He is the author of the Starship’s Mage, a bestselling science fiction and fantasy series where faster-than-light travel is possible—but only because of magic. His other works include science fiction series Exile and Castle Federation, as well as the urban fantasy series ONSET and Changeling Blood.

Glynn is also the author of the space opera trilogy Duchy of Terra as well as its sequel series Light of Terra, the first book of which (Darkness Beyond) was released in October of 2018.

I am in the midst of reading the first book in the original Duchy of Terra series, and OMG it is so awesome! It combines my two favorite things, pirates and outer space, into one epic story.

So listen in as Glynn and I talk about this amazing series, and turning the tropes of military science fiction upside down.

In this episode Glynn and I discuss:

• Crafting a strong female protagonist in military science fiction the right way.
• The art of using a point of view that is both limited and omniscient.
• How to create alien species that don’t feel earthbound.
• Worldbuilding through phased info dumps.
• Using history to inform your science fiction.

Plus, Glynn’s #1 tip for writers.

About Glynn Stewart

Glynn Stewart is the author of Starship’s Mage, a bestselling science fiction and fantasy series where faster-than-light travel is possible—but only because of magic. His other works include science fiction series Exile, Duchy of Terra, Castle Federation and Vigilante, as well as the urban fantasy series ONSET and Changeling Blood.

Writing managed to liberate Glynn from a bleak future as an accountant. With his personality and hope for a high-tech future intact, he lives in Kitchener, Ontario with his wife, their cats, and an unstoppable writing habit.

To connect with Glynn check out his website at www.glynnstewart.com.

Duchy of Terra Trilogy

Book 1: The Terran Privateer

Earth is conquered.

Sol is lost.

One ship is tasked to free them.

One Captain to save them all.

When an alien armada destroys the United Earth Space Force and takes control of the human homeworld, newly reinstated Captain Annette Bond must take her experimental hyperspace cruiser Tornado into exile as Terra’s only interstellar privateer.

She has inferior technology, crude maps and no concept of her enemy, but the seedy underbelly of galactic society welcomes her so long as she has prizes to sell and money to spend.

But when your only allies are pirates and slavers, things are never as they seem—and if you become all that you were sworn to destroy, what are you fighting for?

Book 2: Duchess of Terra

When Terra knelt to an alien Imperium

They guaranteed our safety and our future

But now their enemies are coming for us

To preserve humanity’s survival and freedom in a hostile galaxy, Annette Bond tied her world to the A!Tol Imperium, taking on the mantle of Duchess of Terra to rule humanity in the Imperium’s name.

The A!Tol have provided technology, ships, and money to uplift the new Duchy of Terra, but those gifts come with strings attached. The Imperium has their own plan for Terra—but Bond has tricks of her own.

With enough time, she can build Earth a place in the galaxy. But as Bond’s many enemies gather their forces, the clouds of war threaten not only the recovering Terra but the entire Imperium.

Book 3: Terra and Imperium

Secrets both ancient and new.

Powers great and greater—

With Terra caught in the middle

Humanity’s first colony is a project neither the Duchy of Terra nor the A!Tol Imperium can allow to fail. The planet Hope in the Alpha Centauri system has been lavished with resources and attention—but when an unknown alien force attacks the system, all of that is in danger.

An ancient alien artifact is the apparent target of the attack, an artifact older than known galactic civilization. Suddenly, the backwater colony of a second-rate power is the gathering point for a confrontation of the galaxy’s greatest powers.

Duchess Annette Bond might be pregnant. She might be five light years away. She might have another galactic power on her doorstep demanding she surrender their rebels who’ve settled on Earth.

But she speaks for both Terra and the Imperium—and the galaxy will listen.

If you decide to check out the books in the Duchy of Terra series—The Terran Privateer, Duchess of Terra, and Terra and Imperium—we hope you’ll do so via this Amazon affiliate links, where if you choose to purchase via the link DIY MFA gets a referral fee at no cost to you. As always, thank you for supporting DIY MFA!

Link to Episode 241

(Right-click to download.)

If you liked this episode…

Head over to iTunes, Stitcher Radio or Google Play and subscribe so you’ll be first to know when new episodes are available.

Also, remember that sharing is caring so if you know anyone who might enjoy this podcast, please tell them about it or leave us a review so other listeners will want to check it out.

Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome!

The post Episode 241: Twisting the Tropes of Military Science Fiction — Interview with Glynn Stewart appeared first on DIY MFA.