Salon Futura

Dr. Maria Gerolemou is a Classicist based at the University of Exeter. One of her interests is in ancient automota. Here she talskto Cheryl about their joint fascination with the early origins of robots.  

Cheryl talks to Anne Corlett and Kevlin Henney about the new, online convention, WiFi SciFi. How did it come to be? Has it worked for audiences? What problems have theyfound with online conferencing software?

In this interview Cheryl talks to Tate Hallaway, the mysterious, night-dwelling alter-ego of mild-mannered novelist, Lyda Morehouse. The conversation touches on Lyda's AngeLINK novels, Tate's work, and of course the newly released Unjust Cause.

In this interview Cheryl talks to Juliet E. McKenna about the re-issue of her Tales of Einarinn series, back in print for the first time in years. Other topics discussed include free fiction for lockdown reading, book three in the Green Man series, and a potential River Kingdom novel.

Kate Macdonald is the founder of Handheld Press, an innovative British small press specialising in recovering forgotten works by women writers. In this interview, first broadcast on Chery's Women's Outlook show on Ujima Radio, Kate talks about why she founded the company and some of her more successful projects.  

This interview was originally broadcast on the Women's Outlook show on Ujima Radio in August 2018. It mainly concerns the novella, The Deep, based on the clipping song of the same name.

Ellen Datlow is a multi-award winning editor and is generally regarded as the top editor in horror short fiction. This interview was recorded at the 2019 Eurocon, TitanCon, in Belfast. Cheryl talks to Ellen about a range of topics including how she got her start in the business, how the industry has changed since she started, what "best of the year" anthologies mean, and who is the only horror writer ever to have scared her.

This is an interview that Cheryl did with author Heather Child on the Women's Outlook show on Ujima Radio. The Undoing of Arlo Knott is Heather's second novel, following the successful Everything About You.

This is an interview that Cheryl did on her radio show back in September 2018. She talks to Anne Corlett about Anne's debut novel, The Space Between the Stars. The conversation covers the journey to getting published, reproductive rights, and disability rights.  

This is an interview that Cheryl did with Chinese science fiction advocate, Regina Wang, while they were at Åcon X in Mariehamn earlier this year. Here are some links to things mentioned in the interview: Ken Liu Chen Quifan Clarkesworld Magazine The Xia Jia collection Kickstarter The Wandering Earth on Netflix The Chengdu Panda Sanctuary

This interview with Farah Mendlesohn & Cathy Butler was recorded at BristolCon in 2018. We are releasing it now because the conference it refers to is taking place this coming weekend (August 9-11, 2019)

This interview was recorded at Åcon X in Mariehamn in June 2019. Most of it was originally broadcast on the Women's Outlook show on Ujima Radio. This is the full version, though not being on the radio I can't include the music. The interview covers a range of issues including world politics, Brexit and poetry, but the main discussion covers This is How You Lose the Time War, the novella that Amal has written with Max Gladstone.  

This is an interview that Cheryl made following an event in Oxford where Maria got to talk to experts in Anglo Saxon literature about her work on Beowulf. The interview covers a number of topics, including what it is like to follow in the footsteps of Tolkien. There is also a fair amount of discussion of modern US politics, feminism, and the failings of previous translations.  

This is another interview that Cheryl did at FantasyCon 2018. It is with Joanne Harris. They talked about Joanne's career as a fantasy writer, Norse myths, her new book, and who might play Loki if her books about him ever get filmed. The Blue Salt Road is now available from good bookshops everywhere. Joanne and Cheryl also talked about the Child Ballads, which are the inspiration for some of Joanne's recent work.

While Cheryl was at FantasyCon in 2018 she caught up with Tade Thompson. Their conversation covered the success of Rosewater, the scariness of The Murders of Molly Southborne, and what it is like for black writers to live in a post-Black Panther world. A shorter version of this interview as originally broadcast on Ujima Radio Women's Outlook.

This interview from Cheryl's radio show, Women's Outlook, is with Bristol-based author, Heather Child. Heather's first novel is a fascinating science fiction look at how smart digital assistants might develop in the near future. In Everything About You the protagonist, Freya, discovers that an AI can be a very dangerous friend to have. As usual with interviews from Women's Outlook, we have had to remove the ads and music from the podcast version.

Cheryl welcomed Jonathan L Howard onto her radio show to discuss his latest novel, After the End of the World. The book is set in an alternate universe in which the Nazis won World War II. There is much discussion about how this turned out to be much more topical that Jonathan expected when he wrote the book, and about the merits of Nazi-punching. After the End of the World is the sequel to the critically acclaimed Carter & Lovecraft, featuring descendants of HP Lovecraft and Randolf Carter. There is also discussion of Jonathan's other projects, including the Johannes Cabal series, the Goon Squad superhero adventures, and a brand new video game.

This is an interview that I did with Tade Thompson about a year ago when his novel, Rosewater, was first released. I ran parts of it on Ujima, but the quality of the recording was not good so I was a bit worried about putting the whole thing out. However, Rosewater has just become the first ever winner of the Best Novel prize in the Nommo Awards from the African Speculative Fiction Society. It seems like there should be a lot of renewed interest in the book, and in Tade's other work, and that therefore I should share this podcast with you. In the interview Tade talks about some of the ideas behind Rosewater, about his now released novella, The Murders of Molly Southbourne, and about writing a ghost story.

At Worldcon 75 Cheryl recorded a number of interviews with women writers of color. This one is with Jamaican author, Stephanie Saulter, whose (R)Evolution series has been very well received. For more information about that series, see Cheryl's previous interview with Stephanie here. Parts of this interview were originally broadcast on the Women's Outlook show on Ujima Radio.

In this interview Cheryl talks to Australian author, Foz Meadows, about her recently published novel, An Accident of Stars. Topics covered include women-centered novels, writing trans characters and matriarchal societies.