Category Archives: Featured Guest

03Feb/17

Arshad Ahsanuddin

Featured Guest, , , ,

February 3, 2017

It gives us great pleasure to announce Arshad Ahsanuddin as the guest on episode 096: Write to Let the Demons Out

This week Arshad Ahsanuddin joins the show to talk about his two series Pact Arcanum and Interscission, how his background led to his stories, gay romance themes in science-fiction/fantasy, and the joys of managing all the self-publishing tasks.

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Bio:

Arshad is a hematopathologist living in Canada. The irony of a physician who specializes in blood disease creating a series of vampire novels has been remarked upon by roughly every person he has ever met.

He’s always been fascinated by the creative arts, and has dabbled in various media from poetry to prose, film photography to digital design. The idea for the Pact Arcanum Saga has been kicking around in his head for over ten years. Why vampires? Because Joss Whedon made them popular back then, just like Stephanie Meyer has now. The story was a product of its times, and he created it purely for fun, never intending to write it down.

He had always wanted to write a novel, though, and started with the story that he had played around with in his head for so long. Purely for practice, you understand. It wasn’t until the words were on paper that he realized how complex and detailed the story had grown. The people he showed it to pushed him into adapting it for publication, and here we all are. It has been an enjoyable obsession and a labor of love.

 

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27Jan/17

Joe Okonkwo

Featured Guest, , , ,

January 27, 2017

It gives us great pleasure to announce Joe Okonkwo as the guest on episode 095: The Greatest Love of All

This week Joe Okonkwo joins the show to talk about his book Jazz Moon, how he captured historic Harlem and his writing process.

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Bio:

Joe Okonkwo’s debut novel Jazz Moon, set against the backdrop of the Harlem Renaissance and glittering Jazz Age Paris, was published by Kensington Books in 2016. David Ebershoff, author of The Danish Girl and The 19th Wife has called Jazz Moon “A passionate, alive, and original novel about love, race, and jazz in 1920s Harlem and Paris — a moving story of traveling far to find oneself.”

His short stories have appeared in Promethean, Penumbra, Cooper Street, Storychord, LGBTsr.org, Chelsea Station, Shotgun Honey, Best Gay Stories 2015, Best Gay Love Stories 2009, and Keep This Bag Away From Children.

His short story “Cleo” was nominated for a 2015 Pushcart Prize.

Upcoming work will appear in The New Engagement and Gossamer Valentine Stories 2017.

Joe is Prose Editor for Newtown Literary, a journal featuring work by writers from Queens, New York, and Editor of Best Gay Stories 2017 published by Lethe Press.

A cum laude graduate of the University of Houston with a B.A. in theater, Joe made his living in theater for a number of years as an actor, stage manager, director, playwright, and youth theater instructor.

He earned an MFA in Creative Writing from City College of New York.

Joe Okonkwo is represented by the Baldi Literary Agency.

He is a proud resident of the New York City borough of Queens.

 

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20Jan/17

Scott Alexander Hess

Featured Guest, , , ,

January 20, 2017

It gives us great pleasure to announce Scott Alexander Hess as the guest on episode 094: I Know It’s Not a Tweet… But…

This week Scott Alexander Hess joins the show to talk about his writing, reviews, switching between genres and audience reach.

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Bio:

Scott Alexander Hess earned his MFA in creative writing from The New School. He blogs for The Huffington Post and his writing has appeared in Genre Magazine, The Fix, and elsewhere. Hess co-wrote Tom in America, an award winning short film starring Sally Kirkland and Burt Young. His novel The Butcher’s Sons was named a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2015. Originally from St. Louis, Missouri, Hess now lives in Manhattan, New York with his partner.

 

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13Jan/17

Michael Jensen

Featured Guest, , , , ,

January 13, 2017

It gives us great pleasure to announce Michael Jensen as the guest on episode 093: Plans for the Blue Hoodie!

This week Michael Jensen joins the show to talk about his start as a journalist, the evolution of LGBT voices, historical figures in fiction, and self publishing.

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Bio:

Michael Jensen is an author and editor. His books of gay historical fiction include two series, The Drowning World, which is set in 5500 B.C., and The Savage Land, which takes place on the American frontier. Man & Monster, the second book in The Savage Land series, was a Lambda Award Finalist (under the title Firelands).

Michael is also the co-founder of AfterElton.com, which covered pop culture for gay and bisexual men, and eventually became one of the largest and most influential LGBT websites on the internet. In 2006, AfterElton.com was sold to MTV/Viacom in a multimillion dollar deal. As editor, Michael interviewed hundreds of writers, directors, and actors, breaking numerous stories and advancing the issue of LGBT visibility in Hollywood.

Michael lives in Seattle, WA with his husband, writer Brent Hartinger.

 

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23Dec/16

Jeff Mann – Southern Charm

Featured Guest, , , , , , , ,

December 23, 2016

It gives us great pleasure to announce Jeff Mann as the guest on episode 091: Southern Charm!

This week Jeff Mann joins the show to talk about his journey from poetry through creative non-fiction and balancing gay identity with Southern/Appalachian identity.

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Bio:

Jeff Mann grew up in Covington, Virginia, and Hinton, West Virginia, receiving degrees in English and forestry from West Virginia University. His poetry, fiction, and essays have appeared in many publications, including Arts and Letters, Prairie Schooner, Shenandoah, Willow Springs, The Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide, Crab Orchard Review, and Appalachian Heritage.

He has published three award-winning poetry chapbooks, Bliss, Mountain Fireflies, and Flint Shards from Sussex; five full-length books of poetry, Bones Washed with Wine, On the Tongue, Ash: Poems from Norse Mythology, A Romantic Mann, and Rebels; two collections of personal essays, Edge: Travels of an Appalachian Leather Bear and Binding the God: Ursine Essays from the Mountain South; three novellas, Devoured, included in Masters of Midnight: Erotic Tales of the Vampire,Camp Allegheny, included in History’s Passion: Stories of Sex Before Stonewall, and The Saga of Einar and Gisli, included in On the Run: Tales of Gay Pursuit and Passion; four novels, Fog: A Novel of Desire and Reprisal, which won the Pauline Réage Novel Award, Purgatory: A Novel of the Civil War, which won a Rainbow Award, Cub, and Salvation: A Novel of the Civil War; a book of poetry and memoir, Loving Mountains, Loving Men; and two volumes of short fiction, Desire and Devour: Stories of Blood and Sweat and A History of Barbed Wire, which won a Lambda Literary Award.

In 2013, he was inducted into the Saints and Sinners Literary Festival Hall of Fame. He teaches creative writing at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia.

 

This Podcast Episode is
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Or on Soundcloud:

https://soundcloud.com/wrotepodcast/jeff-mann-ep91-southern-charm

09Dec/16

Brent Hartinger and Tim O’Leary

Featured Guest, , , , ,

December 9, 2016

It gives us great pleasure to announce Brent Hartinger and Tim O’Leary as the guests on episode 088: Cockshrubbery!  They join us to talk about LGBTQ Film and Television from an insider’s perspective and the increasing need for diversity.

Connect with and support Brent Hartinger:

Connect with and support Tim O’Leary:

Bio:

For the last twenty years, Brent Hartinger has made his living writing just about everything that involves words: novels, screenplays, plays, web content, even greeting cards. These days, he writes in lots of genres in many different mediums. His latest project is a dark and edgy gay teen book — part horror, part puzzle box thriller — called Three Truths and a Lie (published by Simon & Schuster).
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Tim O’Leary is a Los Angeles-based screenwriter, ghostwriter, author, and playwright. On his website, timolearyonline.com, you will find news about his latest projects, including his various webseries and the next book in his adults-only Greek myth book series, The Lusty Journey of Perseus.

 

This Podcast Episode is
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Or on Soundcloud:

https://soundcloud.com/wrotepodcast/brent-hartinger-and-tim-oleary-ep88-cockshrubbery

 

https://soundcloud.com/wrotepodcast/tim-oleary-and-brent-hartinger-ep89-cockshrubbery-part-2

03Dec/16

Rita Oakes

Featured Guest, , , ,

December 2, 2016

It gives us great pleasure to announce Rita Oakes as the guest on episode 087: Live Outside the Page!

This week Rita Oakes joins the podcast to talk about her work Comrades-in-Arms, attending Odyssey Writing Workshop the year Harlan Ellison was Writer-in-Residence, weaving characters into history, and writing across the spectrum of all characters.

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Bio:

Rita Oakes writes short stories, generally horror, dark fantasy, and historical fiction. She graduated from the Odyssey Writing Workshop the year Harlan Ellison was Writer-in-Residence. Her work has appeared in the anthologies The Many Faces of Van Helsing, Time Well Bent, and Zombies: Shambling through the Ages, as well as in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Aeon Speculative Fiction, and Paradox. Her collection, Comrades-in-Arms, features mostly gay protagonists in a variety of historical settings from the Napoleonic Wars through WWII, is available from Lethe Press and Amazon.com in print, Kindle, and audio formats.

 

This Podcast Episode is
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Or on Soundcloud:

https://soundcloud.com/wrotepodcast/rita-oakes-ep87-live-outside-the-page

25Nov/16

Steve Berman

Featured Guest, , , ,

November 25, 2016

It gives us great pleasure to announce Steve Berman as the guest on episode 086: Unconvicted Criminal Accomplice!

This week Steve Berman joins the podcast to talk about his writing, establishing and running Lethe Press, gay publishing, and he shares a special holiday coupon code for listeners!

SPECIAL BLACK FRIDAY PROMO –

Go to Lethepressbooks.com and use “WROTEPODCAST” (all caps, sans quotes) and receive 33% off your purchases from the Lethe Press online bookstore now (11.25) to 12.10.16!

Follow and support Steve’s work:

Bio:

Steve is a writer. He mostly writes queer speculative fiction (fantasy, horror, surreal and quirky) for teens and adults.
He’s also an editor. He adores short stories and has edited a fair number of acclaimed anthologies.
He established and owns Lethe Press, one of the larger LGBT presses in the nation.
He lives in New Jersey, the only part of the United States that has an official devil.

 

This Podcast Episode is
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Or on Soundcloud:

https://soundcloud.com/wrotepodcast/steve-berman-ep86-unconvicted-criminal-accomplice

18Nov/16

Philip Dean Walker

Featured Guest, , , ,

November 18, 2016

It gives us great pleasure to announce Philip Dean Walker as the guest on episode 084: Bars Are Where Our History Happened!

This week author Philip Dean Walker shares with us the importance of our gathering places, his new book, and the urgent need to tell and record our stories.

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Bio:

Philip Dean Walker is a Pushcart Prize nominee whose work has appeared in literary journals such as Big Lucks, Collective Fallout, Jonathan, Glitterwolf Magazine, The Newer York, Driftwood Press, Lunch Review, and Carbon Culture Review. His short story “Three-Sink Sink” was named as a finalist for the 2013 Gertrude Stein Award in Fiction from The Doctor T.J. Eckleburg Review and appears in the anthology Pay for Play (Bold Strokes Books). He holds a B.A. in American Literature from Middlebury College and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing (Fiction) from American University. He lives in Washington, D.C. This is his first book. 

 

This Podcast Episode is
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Or on Soundcloud:

https://soundcloud.com/wrotepodcast/philip-dean-walker-ep84-bars-are-where-our-history-happened

11Nov/16

2nd Annual GRL Roundup

Featured Guest, Spotlight, , , ,

November 11, 2016

It gives us great pleasure to announce J Scott Coatsworth and Angel Martinez as the guests on episode 083: The 2nd Annual GRL Roundup!

This week J. Scott Coatsworth (Moderator of Queer SciFi) and Angel Martinez (of Mischief Corner Books) join us to talk about their recent experiences at GRL!

Connect with and support J. Scott Coatsworth:

Connect with and support Angel Martinez:

Bio:

J. Scott Coatsworth has written more than a dozen short stories. He also runs the Queer Sci Fi (http://www.queerscifi.com) site, a support group for writers of gay sci fi, fantasy, and supernatural fiction.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Angel Martinez writes Science Fiction and Fantasy centered around gay heroes. She’s also one of the founders of Mischief Corner Books (http://www.mischiefcornerbooks.com), who give voice to LGBTQ fiction by publishing a diverse range of genres and topics.

 

This Podcast Episode is
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Or on Soundcloud:

https://soundcloud.com/wrotepodcast/grl-roundup-take-two-ep83