Interviews

Tips for the Aspiring Rare Bookseller: An Interview with Kenneth Welch of Serpentine Books

May 27th, 2015

Photos via Kenneth Welch I met Ken Welch a few years ago, and he’s become the guy I call for my John Greenleaf Whittier fix, or if I’m in want of a collection of Victorian fairytales. The next time you’re out on an errand run and forget to pick up a 17th century volume of the history of England, Serpentine Books should have you covered.

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10 Questions with Richard Thomas

May 26th, 2015

If you’re a regular visitor to LitReactor, Richard Thomas needs no introduction, because you’ve either taken one of his classes, or you regularly read his hugely popular Storyville columns.

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10 Questions With Lynn Kostoff

April 15th, 2015

Photo by Austin Kemmerlin There are certain writers whose work comes with such rarity, that it’s almost cause for celebration whenever they publish a new book. For literary fiction, it’s folks like Thomas Pynchon, James Salter, and Marilynne Robinson. With horror/weird fiction it’s Robert McCammon and Thomas Ligotti. With crime fiction it’s James Sallis, Daniel Woodrell, and Lynn Kostoff.

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Rob Hart vs. Bryon Quertermous: The Grudge Match Interview

April 8th, 2015

If you read my Path to Publication column, you know my journey to bookshelves has been fraught with peril. Exhibit A, an imprint of Angry Robot, signed me to a two-book deal last year. Then, after six months of stringing me along, Exhibit A shut down. My contract was among several that were canceled. It was a dark time. The story has a happy ending. Jason Pinter at Polis Books picked up New Yorked, and it's coming out in June, with a sequel to follow.

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10 Questions With 'The Mercy of Night' Author David Corbett

April 8th, 2015

A new novel from David Corbett is a cause for celebration, so I hope you all have your party hats ready. I was first introduced to David when I started working for MysteriousPress.com, which was putting out his backlist as eBooks. I generally try to pick up at least one book for each of our authors so I can familiarize myself with them. So I read The Devil's Redhead, his first, and was blown away. 

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10 Questions with Owen Laukkanen

March 17th, 2015

Image by Alex Urosevic via National Post I can’t say I’m exactly the biggest fan of traditional thrillers. The fact is, unless I’m being paid to read and review them, I don’t read thrillers. (By the way, if you’re a thriller fan, don’t get your panties in a bunch, because I’m not saying you shouldn’t read them, or that I think they’re bad, they’re just not my cup of coffee.) But there are exceptions.

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10 Questions with Ed Kurtz

March 4th, 2015

Ed Kurtz is a hell of a writer. Last year he asked me to blurb his novella, Freight. I jumped at the chance because, hell, I would get to read it before anyone else! Here's what I ended up saying about the book:  In less sure hands, Freight would be an unending train of grief, but Ed Kurtz has this amazing ability to present the darkest corners of society, and then reveal the good and decent human heart that beats underneath.

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The Black Hood Returns: An Interview with Duane Swierczynski

February 25th, 2015

Denizens of LitReactor should be familiar with Philadelphia’s Duane Swierczynski.

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10 Questions with Richard Lange

February 10th, 2015

The very first eBook I ever bought was Richard Lange’s debut short story collection, Dead Boys. When I bought it, I had just gotten my first iPhone and I wanted a book that would occupy me during the more dead eyed, soulless moments of my job at the time. I thought a short story collection would be a good way to momentarily transport me away from my 2 PM cubicle for a couple of minutes, and wouldn’t distract me too much from work.

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10 Questions with R. P. Lester

February 4th, 2015

One evening, between gentlemanly conversations about the news of the day (arguing about comic book movies), Thuglit editor and bartender extraordinaire Todd Robinson showed me a book he had recently acquired. The opening line: "Let me tell you who the fuck I am." The thing clearly had verve—as well as a gun, a hypodermic needle, and a goat on the cover. It went on my Books I Should At Some Point Read list.

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