Zilla Novikov's Blog, page 16
February 19, 2024
The best books where the narrator won’t stay out of the (meta) story
February 16, 2024
Book Report Corner
by Rachel R.
This is a gritty, gripping tale in the tradition of Golden Age sci-fi but with very contemporary sensibilities. Olgo, an agent for a megacorporation whose CEO has found religion and a sudden conscience, is sent to Mars to ensure that the company’s subcontractors adhere to labour standards. Suong is a 12-year-old worker in an industrial city who dreams of the stars. Their paths become entwined when Olgo runs afoul of a corrupt cartel determined to suppress the underground unions that have been emboldened by their efforts.
If you love works like the Expanse (realistic physics, working-class characters) and badass + adorable child duos, this is absolutely the novella for you. It’s a quick, action-packed read with a ton of heart, and an exciting introduction to the Cold Rush universe.
February 14, 2024
Wrong Genre Covers
February 13, 2024
Behind the Screens: Tuesday Author Interview
Every Tuesday, get to know a bit about the stories behind the books you love, and discover your next favourite novel.
Sabitha: Ready for a space opera adventure that will take you around the solar system? We’ve got you covered. A.L. MacDonald, can you tell us about your book Orbiting Fortunes ?
A.L.: Orbiting Fortunes is a science fiction novel set in the not-too-distant future. Alan Mercier has left his life as a cop on Mars behind and now flys a space junker, fighting over valuable debris in Earth’s orbit. One find in particular pulls him into the dangerous and murky world of pirating. He discovers that it’s harder to walk away from the cop life than he thought.
Sabitha : Dramatic! What inspired you to write this?
A.L.: I love space and spaceships. Lots of people say that, sure, but I love them ten times more. I am a huge fan of Star Wars, Andy Weir and Chris Hadfield (both as an astronaut and an author). I regularly watch hours of live stream footage of SpaceX assembling their new starship in Texas. I wanted my book to imagine what the future of those starships will be. We can’t fly them yet, so this is as close as we can get.
Sabitha : What book do you tell all your friends to read? And what about them do you love?
A.L.: The Martian and Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. Also, The Apollo Murders by Chris Hadfield. When people say those books get a little lost in the technical detail, those are my favourite parts!
Sabitha : Since technical details are fun for you, I bet you go for scientific accuracy when you write! How much research did you need to do for your book?
A.L.: I am not sure why, but I spent several hours – possibly days – researching spacecraft reentry. Specifically the distance between the atmosphere interface and the splashdown/landing point. I probably should have just gotten rid of the scene, but then how would I have shown off all the stuff I’d learned!?
Sabitha : Have you ever killed off a character your readers loved?
A.L.: No, no. Well, I mean, don’t get me wrong, I slaughter characters, but they are usually quite evil or at the end of their usefulness to the story—I’m kidding! I don’t mean to ruin peoples’ days by reading my book! My aim is to put smiles on faces! Chuckles would be even better. I dream of guffaws.
Sabitha : Thanks for sharing your story and your process. We’re looking forward to reading! Where can the Night Beats community find you and your book?
A.L.: My book is right here. You can’t turn around without finding me on social media: Twitter, Instagram, and my website.
February 12, 2024
Sad Bastards in the news!
We will forever be excited when actual news outlets take our ridiculous cookbook seriously. I mean, it is a serious cookbook, with real recipes, but it’s also ridiculous. You know how it goes.
Which is to say that Brock Weir from the Penticton Herald wrote an article on The Sad Bastard Cookbook, Rachel A. Rosen, and chronic pain. Read the gloriousness here.
As always, get your free e-book copy of the cookbook here.
February 8, 2024
Armed with a Book: Indie Recommends Indie
If you’re looking for your next great read, how do you find it?
Armed with A Book asks indie authors to suggest their favourite indie reads. Dale Stromberg is the author of Melancholic Parables, a collection of short stories exploring the questions, “Are we the same person we were last year? Or last week? Or last story?”.
His 5 recommended reads includes Night Beats’ own Query, plus 4 other amazing books. Check it out here!
February 6, 2024
Behind the Screens: Tuesday Author Interview
Every Tuesday, get to know a bit about the stories behind the books you love, and discover your next favourite novel.
Sabitha: Even dragons have hard days! Sarah’s children’s book, Henry the Sneezing Dragon, shows the importance of loving and accepting everyone. Sarah, can you tell us more about your writing and your stories?
Sarah: Absolutely! I write children’s books. My first book, Henry the Sneezing Dragon, was published in June 2023.The blurb reads: Life as a dragon should be amazing. You have the ability to soar across the sky and breathe fire. However, when you are a young, clumsy dragon who sneezes fire at all the worst moments, it makes life a little challenging. Desperate to make a friend and to finally feel accepted, Henry takes off across the savanna, but trouble seems to follow him at every turn.
I have another book, To the Moon: A Jacob and Trevor Adventure, coming out this spring. My boys are especially excited for this book because they are in it. It’s based on a make-believe game we play in our backyard about going to the moon. Here is the summary: Jacob and Trevor are brothers and the best of friends. They have avid imaginations and love to play make-believe. Whether they are pretending to be pirates or running from imaginary dinosaurs, they know how to have fun. Their favorite thing to do is play on their saucer swing and pretend to fly to the moon. One day, after Jacob loses a tooth, the tooth fairy leaves something very special for the boys. Jacob and Trevor’s adventures are about to change in a way neither of them could ever have imagined.
Sabitha: What inspired you to write Henry the Sneezing Dragon?
Sarah: My son Jacob inspired me to come up with the story Henry the Sneezing Dragon. It was a story I created for him when he was only two years old. He was always asking me to tell him a story. Often, he would give me a topic (such as dragons or dinosaurs) and I had to craft a story from whatever details he gave me. When my second son, Trevor, was born I decided it was time to start putting my stories into print.
Sabitha : Someone who crafts stories like that must be a lover of books! What books do you read and recommend?
Sarah: I love SOOOO many books. If I’m talking to someone who enjoys romance—I love Perfect by Judith McNaught, Montana Sky by Nora Roberts, Loving Scoundrel by Johanna Lindsey, The Outsider by Penelope Williamson, and The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh – to name a few. I’m also in a huge Emily Henry phase right now.
I also love books like The Host by Stephanie Meyer, Dear Child by Romy Hausmann, and The Whisper Man by Alex North. I really enjoyed the Dr. Charlotte Stone series by Karen Robards, and of course, The Hunger Games and the Divergent series are a must. I’ve also just finished Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros and am dying to get my hands on the second book, Iron Flame.
Sabitha : Who did you imagine reading your book as you wrote it? And who ended up reading it?
Sarah: Honestly, my kids are my audience. I create stories that they enjoy. However, once I started to write my stories down on paper—I would imagine parents cuddling up and reading with their little ones. As a mom and a language arts teacher, I think it is so important to read to children when they are young and help engage them in stories. Plus, nothing beats quality time spent with your kids.
Sabitha: What’s your next writing project?
Sarah: I currently have a book, To the Moon: a Jacob and Trevor Adventure, in the works. It is currently in the hands of my publisher and I’m hoping it will be available in print this spring.
I also have a story titled The Water Bear Astronaut that has been written. I just need to decide if I am going to move forward with publishing.
A story I’m currently writing is The Stow Away Bear. My kids and I visit Mackinac Island every year – and this is a story about a bear that manages to make his way to the island in search of fudge. It is still a work in progress.
Sabitha : Thanks for sharing your story and your process. We’re looking forward to reading! Where can the Night Beats community find you and your book?
Sarah: Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me.
People can find Henry the Sneezing Dragon at Amazon or Barnes and Noble, and they can learn more about it from Goodreads. They can find me on Facebook.
January 31, 2024
Rraey Breaded… mushrooms paired with Old Man’s War by John Scalzi
Fiction To Sink Your Teeth Into, a feature from author and professional chef Rohan O’Duill!
This is a recipe the Rraey celebrity chefs came up with, but I decided to bread mushrooms rather than the original breaded meal in this sci-fi novel. Mostly because it’s legal and mushrooms are tasty.
Snack – serves 2/3
Ingredients
• 1 punnet of chestnut mushrooms
• 50g flour
• 2 eggs
• Dash of milk
• 100g breadcrumbs
• Salt and pepper
• Rapeseed oil for frying
• Mayonnaise, chives and garlic.
Utensils
Pot or deep fat fryer.
3 bowls
Method
• Wash or rub any dirt from the mushrooms.
• Set up a panne station of three bowls. One with flour, one with the eggs and milk and one with the breadcrumbs.
• Dip the mushroom into the flour then the egg and finally the breadcrumbs.
• Pour about 5cm of oil into a pot and heat up to gas mark
• Gently place the mushrooms into the oil and cook until golden brown. Open frying is extremely dangerous so supervise the pot at all times and make sure there are no kids or cats with a death wish in the immediate vicinity.
• Serve with the garlic and chive mayo and a nice glass of Chianti. Sit back and enjoy the book.
January 30, 2024
Behind the Screens: Tuesday Author Interview
Every Tuesday, get to know a bit about the stories behind the books you love, and discover your next favourite novel.
Sabitha: Poetry and nature come together in Su Zi’s poetry collection, Chirp . Su, can you say a bit about your work?
Su: The book linked is Chirp, a book of poems from Hysterical Books that was released just as Covid hit. However, the book was written some years before by the following process: every morning, regardless of weather, I go outside to care for my live-outside family (they are not humans, but they are my family). During the year I wrote the book, I would come back inside and write a poem that recorded the moments just before, with an especial emphasis on birds. I think the presence or absence of birds tells us everything about the health of an ecosystem; people who don’t notice bird populations tend to not notice the world beyond humans. Thus, the poems are naturalist notes of a year’s duration.
I did reference the Cornell site for certain aids in species identification to correctly name who I had seen. Originally, I wrote each poem daily onto a social media platform that had limitations on characters for posts, so I used haiku. I liked that the platform had a bird logo and I was posting bird-naturalism poems. The title is thus a pun.
Sabitha : What’s your next writing project?
Su: There’s a part two manuscript to the work, which is not yet published, but which continued this anachronistic idea of observing the local world and the other life forms with which we exist. I continued to post these daily—where they continued to be as observed as clouds. However, the platform I was using allowed for more character usage, so I used tanka. I hope to see this book fly into physical existence.
The incidence of “naturalism” is in all the work i do—written, visual, or physical; it is a life-long commitment. In truth, I am a second-generation eco-feminist. It informs every aspect of my life.
Since I also review literary works of any genre, I have seen trends in the writing community which tend toward urban violence. Given our times now, this doesn’t strike me as a good direction for the writing community, although it is a bit popular or common. There’s also the perennial reminder of craft—something well-crafted in any art form takes flight in us.
Sabitha : Thanks for sharing your story and your process. We’re looking forward to reading! Where can the Night Beats community find you and your book?
Su: Chirp can be found on the publisher’s website, and it might be available still through Amazon or book fetch sites. I can be found on instagram (xsuzi00) on Etsy (xsuzi00) and on Bluesky (suzi00).
Copies of the artist-book, poetry chapbook series Red Mare are only available through Etsy—contact me for international shipping. Submission guidelines are pinned to the Facebook page Pink House.
January 25, 2024
Wrong Genre Covers
