Jeremy L. C. Jones is a freelance writer, editor, and teacher. He is the Staff Interviewer for Clarkesworld Magazine and a frequent contributor to Kobold Quarterly and Booklifenow.com. He teaches at Wofford College and Montessori Academy in Spartanburg, SC. He is also the director of Shared Worlds, a creative writing and world-building camp for teenagers that he and Jeff VanderMeer designed in 2006. Jones lives in Upstate South Carolina with his wife, daughter, and flying poodle.
INTERVIEW by Jeremy L. C. Jones in Issue 64 – January 2012
The writing of The Troupe started for Robert Jackson Bennett with the image of "a boy in the dark, muddy and wounded, holding a body in his arms, and singing." He wrote the novel to understand who the boy is and how he got there. Bennett jokingly calls himself an "accidental horror" writer. Much of […]
INTERVIEW by Jeremy L. C. Jones in Issue 63 – December 2011
Aliette de Bodard describes her Obsidian and Blood series as a cross between "historical Aztec fantasy and a murder-mystery, featuring ghostly jaguars, bloodthirsty gods and fingernail-eating monsters." Think Philip Marlowe slogging through the mud and blood of Mesoamerica or Sam Spade sleuthing among the Aztecs, shadow beasts, and flesh-eating star-demons. Imagine the lone detective in […]
INTERVIEW by Jeremy L. C. Jones in Issue 62 – November 2011
What is The Weird? "The Weird speaks with over a hundred voices from more than a hundred years about alien territories of the human mind," said Leena Krohn, the Finnish writer best known in the US for her brilliant short novel Tainaron: Mail From Another City. "Some of these territories are repugnant or terrifying, some […]
INTERVIEW by Jeremy L. C. Jones in Issue 61 – October 2011
Frontier survival, nano-technology, drug runners, crooked cops, spies, martial arts, Western landscapes, and a (somewhat) post-apocalyptic setting — Steven Gould's 7th Sigma has the savory ingredients of any number of genres and sub-genres. Yet this is no hodge-podge or mis-mash-up. It is a coming of age science fictional adventure about doing what's right regardless of […]
INTERVIEW by Jeremy L. C. Jones in Issue 61 – October 2011
Joan Slonczewski's last novel, Brain Plague, was released in 2000. Much has changed in the world since then, and so has Slonczewski's writing. Her recent novel, The Highest Frontier, is both more concerned with politics than her previous novels and somehow more gentle. Slonczewski is the author of the Elysium Cycle, which consists of the […]
INTERVIEW by Jeremy L. C. Jones in Issue 60 – September 2011
Hollow bones and brass casings, wires and cogs... Genevieve Valentine's Circus Tresaulti is a place of aerialists, dancing girls, and strong men, of spectacle and secret hatreds—a world of wild wonders and brilliant beauty. "Genevieve Valentine writes like no one else," said Ekaterina Sedia, author of Heart of Iron and The House of Discarded Dreams. […]
INTERVIEW by Jeremy L. C. Jones in Issue 59 – August 2011
Introduction "Epic fantasy is as rich, vibrant, meaningful and wonder-provoking as we choose to make it," said Robert V. S. Redick, the author of The Red Wolf Conspiracy, The Ruling Sea, and the recent The River of Shadows. "But to write it well is an immense undertaking, akin to setting off on a walking tour […]
INTERVIEW by Jeremy L. C. Jones in Issue 59 – August 2011
Minister Faust subverts conventions. And he speaks his mind. In other words, he likes to take risks. "When you stop taking risks, you stop making discoveries and doing truly remarkable things. You'll make mistakes via risk, and plenty of them, but the road to success is covered with the gravel of with mistakes. The road […]
INTERVIEW by Jeremy L. C. Jones in Issue 58 – July 2011
Introduction "Fantasy," said Elizabeth Bear, the author of The Sea Thy Mistress and the forthcoming The Tempering of Men (with Sarah Monette), "is the purest form of the imagination, and it gives us courage and persistence." It gives us courage and persistence. "Epic Fantasy is built into us, part of our most fundamental human fabric, […]
INTERVIEW by Jeremy L. C. Jones in Issue 57 – June 2011
Erin Hoffman's first novel, The Sword of Fire and Sea, opens on an island. And the brief paragraph reveals most of what we need to know about the central character: Though the coastal island of Siane's Eye was lush with whispering palms and tropical flowers too exotic for the names of men, the wind that […]
INTERVIEW by Jeremy L. C. Jones in Issue 56 – May 2011
South African novelist Lauren Beukes enjoys writing. And it shows in every word and on every page of her fiction. "It's a great privilege to be able to play, to make up stuff, to see where it takes me," Beukes said. "I love the craft and assembly of it. I love how type on a […]
INTERVIEW by Jeremy L. C. Jones in Issue 56 – May 2011
Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson have been writing together since the late 1990s. They've both had active solo careers in addition to their Dune collaborations. Brian Herbert is the author of such novels as Sidney's Comet, Prisoners of Arionn, and Sudanna Sudanna. He points to his Timeweb Chronicle novels as a landmark in his […]
INTERVIEW by Jeremy L. C. Jones in Issue 55 – April 2011
In the opening scene of Fuzzy Nation, a dog named Carl steps on a detonator panel and sets off more than just the plot. The novel, as Scalzi says, is a "reimagining of the story and events in Little Fuzzy, the 1962 Hugo-nominated novel by H. Beam Piper." Scalzi borrows the story arc, character names, […]
INTERVIEW by Jeremy L. C. Jones in Issue 54 – March 2011
Cory Doctorow has a pretty straight-forward job. All he has to do is, as he says, "keep up with new technological developments" and write prose that makes his readers want to live life as though it were, to borrow from Dennis Lee and Alasdair Gray, the first days of a new and better world. To […]
INTERVIEW by Jeremy L. C. Jones in Issue 53 – February 2010
David Weber has been writing about Honor Harrington for twenty years. The original proposals, as sent to Jim Baen back in the 90s, promised space opera featuring a female naval officer. Harrington was supposed to die in the fifth book in the series. That was half a dozen books ago. Harrington owes her longevity to […]
INTERVIEW by Jeremy L. C. Jones in Issue 52 – January 2011
"I don't have an agenda for science fiction," said Walter Jon Williams. "It's the thing that turns me on, both as a reader and a writer, and that's enough for me." A sense of playfulness and wonder pervades Williams' stories, a sense that he is exploring the whole sandbox, every dimension, every tool, and not […]
INTERVIEW by Jeremy L. C. Jones in Issue 51 – December 2010
There is a crystalline quality to Theodora Goss' poetic lines — clear, sharp, prismatic. The cumulative effect of those lines is breathtaking. She writes gorgeous poems of fountains and ravens, pomegranates and isinglass. Take, for instance, the first stanza of "The Bear's Daughter": She dreams of the south. Wandering through the silent castle, Where snow […]
INTERVIEW by Jeremy L. C. Jones in Issue 50 – November 2010
Miles Vorkosigan is back. He's been around, here and there, for the last few years, but with the release last month of Cryoburn he's really back. It's been a while, definitely. His story could've ended with A Civil Campaign or with Diplomatic Immunity. But, for now, he's back and death is on his mind. Miles […]
INTERVIEW by Jeremy L. C. Jones in Issue 50 – November 2010
Cherie Priest writes everything from steampunk to horror to alternate history to Southern Gothic to urban fantasy. Sometimes she seems to be pulling the best from all the genres and subgenres and twisting them into harrowing rides for her characters. And there are few authors who can torment her protagonists quite like Priest does. A […]
INTERVIEW by Jeremy L. C. Jones in Issue 49 – October 2010
A village girl sold by her father to be raised as a courtesan and trained to kill. A dwarf with sewn together lips. A mechanical man. A city on the brink of destruction. Secret societies, giant mechanisms in the sky, top secret airplanes, and an equatorial wall reaching to the sky. These are but a […]
INTERVIEW by Jeremy L. C. Jones in Issue 49 – October 2010
Mary Robinette Kowal is the author of the story collection Scenting The Dark & Other Stories, and the novel Shades of Milk & Honey. In her words, she is a writer "interested in people and their relationships." Her short story "Evil Robot Monkey" was nominated for the 2009 Hugo. Typical of Kowal's fiction, the story […]
INTERVIEW by Jeremy L. C. Jones in Issue 48 – September 2010
Canadian novelist Karin Lowachee's experiences have spanned the Western hemisphere. She was born in South America and raised in Canada. Her time spent working in the Arctic greatly influenced her most recent The Gaslight Dogs, as did her love of the Wild West, Victoriana, and Inuit culture. In 2001, Lowachee won the Warner First Novel […]
INTERVIEW by Jeremy L. C. Jones in Issue 48 – September 2010
Australian fiction writer Angela Slatter has two beautiful story collections out, Sourdough & Other Stories (Tartarus Press [UK]) and The Girl with No Hands & Other Tales (Ticonderoga Publications). They are beautiful inside and out — both the stories that make up the books and the books themselves. Slatter's stories are startling and exuberant and […]
INTERVIEW by Jeremy L. C. Jones in Issue 47 – August 2010
Altered Fluid is a speculative fiction critique group that includes writers such as N. K. Jemisin, Matthew Kressel, and Saladin Ahmed. Altered Fluid is the story of a creative writing class that grew into much more. It's also the story of Terry Bisson's generosity toward and respect for his students, who wanted to continue working […]
INTERVIEW by Jeremy L. C. Jones in Issue 46 – July 2010
Scott Eagle grew up in Winston-Salem, NC. He now lives in Greenville, NC and serves as the assistant director of the School of Art and Design at Eastern Carolina University. Eagle is a southerner. Yet, there is nothing overtly southern in his paintings. Imagine Flannery O'Connor on LSD without the Catholicism but with all the […]
INTERVIEW by Jeremy L. C. Jones in Issue 45 – June 2010
Born in Ireland, raised in Alabama, Caitlín Kiernan now lives in Rhode Island. Each of these evocative locales has influenced her science fiction and dark fantasy novels and short stories. An early interest in paleontology, archaeology, and snakes led her to a career in paleontology and teaching. A love of reading led her to […]
INTERVIEW by Jeremy L. C. Jones in Issue 44 – May 2010
Elizabeth Bear's first novel, Hammered, launched the Jenny Casey series and Bear's career as an award-winning novelist. With each new novel and each new series, Bear's writing continues becomes impossibly richer, brasher and more stunning. Her worlds are breath-taking and her characters as real as bone and steal. These are but a few of the […]
INTERVIEW by Jeremy L. C. Jones in Issue 44 – May 2010
Reviewers call Marly Youmans' work angelic, beautiful, magnetic, wonderful and immersive. And it is all those things. She is praised for her boundless creativity and her uncanny ability to surprise even her most dedicated fans over and over again. She has often been referred to as a best kept secret of American poetry, of fantastic […]
INTERVIEW by Jeremy L. C. Jones in Issue 43 – April 2010
A simple walk, rich with impending doom. A chance encounter, taut with peculiar familiarity. A main character whose back-story drips into the surface action with maddeningly beautiful precision and poignancy. Last month, N. K. Jemisin’s short story "Non-Zero Probabilities," was nominated as a finalist for the 2009 Nebula Award. A well-deserved honor. "N. K. Jemison […]
INTERVIEW by Jeremy L. C. Jones in Issue 42 – March 2010
Kij Johnson didn't really want to be thought of as "a tentacle-porn girl," but she knew her story, "Spar," worked as a story so she sent it off. Last month, "Spar" was nominated as a finalist for the 2009 Nebula Awards in the short story category. "This is a story I love," Johnson says below, […]
