writers of the future

StarShipSofa No 472 Richard Johnson and George Nikolopoulos

February 8, 2017 by Jeremy Szal

Amy H. Sturgis – Hocus Pocus Comics

Main Fiction: “In Apprehension How Like a God” by Richard Johnson

Originally published in Writers of the Future

Richard Johnson is an award-winning writer of science fiction having won the Gold Award at the Writers of the Future Competition in 2011 and the Jim Baen Memorial Writing Contest in 2012. He has previously appeared on Starship Sofa with his flash fiction A Friend in Need (and you’ve also accepted my Writers of the Future winging story although that hasn’t appeared yet).

His day job as a structural engineer has taken him all over the world from the UK and Dublin to Singapore and Hong Kong. He currently lives in Melbourne, Australia with his wife and two young sons.

He blogs at RPLJohnson.com and his previously published short stories can be found at all ebook retailers.

Narrated by Mikael Naramore

Mikael Naramore has worked in the audiobook industry since 2001 when, fresh out of college, he was hired as a recording engineer for publisher Brilliance Audio (now Brilliance Publishing, subsidiary of Amazon.com). Over time, he transitioned to Director, all the while absorbing technique and nuance from the best actors in the business. To date, Mikael has narrated well over 100 titles, under his own and assumed names. Authors range from best-sellers Nora Roberts, Lisa Gardner, Edward Klein and Clive Barker to sci-fi rising stars Wesley Chu, Ramez Naam and Mark E. Cooper.

He was recently chosen to narrate prolific playwright and Oscar-nominated screenwriter Robert Ardrey’s seminal Nature of Man series which includes the international best-sellers African Genesis and The Territorial Imperative, titles which reportedly had a very heavy influence on Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick in their development of 2001: A Space Odyssey as well as Kubrick’s adaptation of A Clockwork Orange.

Mikael is also an active writer, musician and recording artist, having scored the soundtrack to an independent short film, produced and engineered critically acclaimed rock records, and written, performed and recorded several “silly little lo-fi rock songs” of his own.  He currently resides in the wild and scenic Columbia River Gorge outside of Portland, Oregon with his wife, two small boys and their beloved Golden Retriever.

Short Fiction: “A Human’s Life” by George Nikolopoulos

Originally published in Galaxy’s Edge

George Nikolopoulos is a speculative fiction writer from Athens, Greece. His short stories have been published in several magazines and anthologies worldwide, including Galaxy’s Edge, Grievous Angel, Helios Quarterly and Unsung Stories.  He has been a semi-finalist in the Writers of the Future contest. He is a member of Codex Writers’ Group. He blogs at georgenikolopoulos.wordpress.com

Narrated by: Kaushik Narasimhan

Kaushik is a management consultant by day and a writer by night with a keen interest in psychedelics and role playing video games. Website: http://kazarelth.net, twitter: @Kazarelth

 

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StarShipSofa No 469 J. W. Alden

January 18, 2017 by Jeremy Szal

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Main Fiction: “The Sun Falls Apart” by J. W. Alden

Originally published in Writers of the Future Volume 32

J.W. Alden is fascinated with the fantastic. He lives near West Palm Beach, Florida with his wife Allison, who doesn’t mind the odd assortment of musical instruments and medieval weaponry that decorate his office (as long as he brandishes the former more often than the latter). Alden is a 1st Place Writers of the Future winner, a graduate of the Odyssey Writing Workshop, and an active member of SFWA. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Nature, Daily Science Fiction, Cast of Wonders, and other places. Read more from him at www.AuthorAlden.com.

Narrated by: Spencer DiSparti

Spencer DiSparti hails from the ashes of Phoenix, AZ. He is a musician, published poet and professional voice actor. You can find most of his voice work on Pseudopod and Escape artists. You can find his poetry and flash fiction at skeletopia.wordpress.com and shoemusicpress.com.

 

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StarShipSofa No 459 Martin L. Shoemaker

November 9, 2016 by Jeremy Szal

 

Main Fiction: “Unrefined” by Martin L. Shoemaker

Originally appeared in Writers of the Future #31

Martin L. Shoemaker is a programmer who writes on the side… or maybe it’s the other way around. Programming pays the bills, but a second place story in the Jim Baen Memorial Writing Contest earned him lunch with Buzz Aldrin. Programming never did that! His work has appeared in Analog, Clarkesworld, Galaxy’s Edge, Digital Science Fiction, Forever Magazine, and Writers of the Future Volume 31. His novella Murder on the Aldrin Express was reprinted in Year’s Best Science Fiction Thirty-First Annual Collection and in Year’s Top Short SF Novels 4. His short story “Today I Am Paul” will be reprinted in Year’s Best Science Fiction: Thirty-third Annual Edition, The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume One, The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy, and The Year’s Top Ten Tales of Science Fiction 8, and will appear in French translation in Galaxies magazine.

Narrated by: Mark Nelson

Mark Nelson (aka Harry Shaw) has been recording audiobooks since 2006, starting as a Librivox volunteer and later for such producers as Audible, Audible Frontiers, Hachette, Wonderaudio, Listen2aBook and Iambik. Recording as Mark Nelson and as “Harry Shaw”, he’s narrated more than fifty commercial audiobooks, including classics, horror, mysteries, and contemporary and classic science fiction. He still regularly contributes to Librivox, which he credits for getting him out of Human Resources and into something useful. Visit his website at www.markdouglasnelson.com.

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StarShipSofa No 441 William Ledbetter

June 29, 2016 by Jeremy Szal

Fact: Science News by J J Campanella

Main Fiction: “The Rings of Mars” by William Ledbetter

Originally published in Writers of the Future Volume 28.

William Ledbetter is a writer with more than forty speculative fiction stories and non-fiction articles published in markets such as Fantasy & Science Fiction, Jim Baen’s Universe, Writers of the Future, Escape Pod, Ad Astra and Baen.com. He’s been a space and technology geek since childhood and spent most of his non-writing career in the aerospace and defense industry. He administers the Jim Baen Memorial Short Story Award contest for Baen Books and the National Space Society, is a member of SFWA, the National Space Society of North Texas, a Launch Pad Astronomy workshop graduate, is the Science Track coordinator for the Fencon convention and is a consulting editor at Heroic Fantasy Quarterly. He lives near Dallas with his family and too many animals.

Narrated by: J.S. Arquin

J.S. Arquin is an actor, writer, musician and pessimistic optimist.  He lives in Portland, Oregon and spends a large portion of his time producing The Overcast, a speculative fiction podcast featuring breathtaking stories from the Pacific Northwest and Beyond. Find it at: www.peoples-ink.com/the-overcast

 

 

 

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StarShipSofa No 428 Stephen Kotowych

March 23, 2016 by Jeremy Szal

Jeremy Szal on Hugos and StarShipSofa

Main Fiction: “Saturn in G Minor” by Stephen Kotowych

Originally published in Writers of the Future: Volume 23

STEPHEN KOTOWYCH is a Writers of the Future Grand Prize winner (for “Saturn in G Minor”) and past finalist for the Prix Aurora Award, Canada’s top SF prize. His stories have appeared in StarShipSofa (#259), Interzone, Intergalactic Medicine Show, numerous anthologies, and been translated into a dozen languages.

His first collection of short fiction, Seven Against Tomorrow (which includes, among other stories, “Saturn in G Minor” and the Nikola Tesla murder mystery novella “Under the Shield”), is available now in both ebook and dead-tree formats. For more details, please visit his website at www.kotowych.com

Stephen is currently completing work on his first novel–a secret history about the real-life friendship between Mark Twain and Nikola Tesla. He enjoys guitar, tropical fish, and writing about himself in the third person.

Check out his blog at www.kotowych.com

Narrated by: Nick Camm

Nick is an actor, audio-book narrator and voice-overer. He recently did a few scenes on the telly with Derek Jacobi, which made him tingle. He’s just finished shooting the feature film ‘Slapper and Me’, which mostly involved him sitting in a sleazy pub for 12 hours a day smoking herbal cigarettes, drinking tepid, non-alcoholic ale and pretending to be in the 1970’s. He thinks it should be out in the autumn, but they’re not telling him, probably because they don’t want him turning up at the première in his cheap suit.

Audio-bookwise, Nick is currently four books into narrating the mystery/thriller ‘Eddie Malloy Series’, written by Richard Pitman and Joe McNally. Set in the skullduggerous world of horse-racing, reluctant part-time detective Eddie gets involved in various capers and generally solves stuff. It’s the first time in many a year that Nick has read, and enjoyed, a set of novels where spaceships refuse to appear. Notwithstanding, Nick has made a polite suggestion to the authors that shiny, future-type stuff might feature in the next of the series (a Hawking-drive, killer robot horse, perhaps). This has fallen on deaf ears.

If you want him to narrate a book for you, he can be found on Twitter, here: @NickCamm1

Or, if you want him to do some acting for you, here: http://amberltd.co.uk/?client=nicholas-camm

My Sci-fi Marc Zicaree

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