The Book Plank

Darker Gods by James A. Moore Religion as a Dark Force in Fantasy It’s an interesting thing, religion. In the right hands and mindset it can make amazing things happen. Communities can get together and build villages in pretty quickly. Homes and farms ruined by natural forces can be restored in short order because neighbors and friends can gather together and work as a unit. Often times those units are started by the religious leader in an area. The Amish raise barns in a day that no single person could manage in a month. But then we have to look at the other side of that coin. Atrocities have been committed in the name of God or gods. The witch hunts in Europe devastated tens of thousands. Wars were fought in the name of God, not because it was a different god, but merely because the ways of worshipping said god did not match up. Well, okay, and because there was land and gold to consider, but it was all done in the name of the one god. The Crusades. The Holy Inquisition....

Author Interview with Patrick S. Tomlinson Author bio: Patrick S. Tomlinson is the son of an ex-hippie psychologist and an ex-cowboy electrician. He lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with a menagerie of houseplants in varying levels of health, a Ford Mustang, and a Triumph motorcycle bought specifically to embarrass and infuriate Harley riders. When not writing sci-fi and fantasy novels and short stories, Patrick is busy developing his other passion for performing stand-up comedy. You can find Patrick online at his website: www.patrickstomlinson. com , on Twitter @stealthygeek  and on  Facebook . -------------------------------------------------------------- Hi Patrick, welcome over at The Book Plank and for taking your time to answer these few questions for us!  BP: First off, can you give us a short introduction of who Patrick S. Tomlinson is? What are your hobbies, likes and dislikes? PT: Patrick S. Tomlinson is an author/comedian about yay high wh...

Media Alert: A NEW OPEN DOOR PERIOD AT ANGRY ROBOT   The tides of publishing are changing rapidly and Angry Robot remains right at the forefront, surfing through the storms on an insulated circuit board. Another wave is coming down the pipe, this time of our own creation. That’s right, it’s time for another Open Door period! (Brief pause for cannons, confetti, random cheap fireworks…)   As you may have noticed, we normally only accept submissions for new Angry Robot books from literary agents or people known to us. But for a couple of months every year we are delighted to open our doors wide and encourage proposals from one and all. In fact, several of our most notable novels over the years have come to us through our Open Door periods. If you know Angry Robot, you surely know Wesley Chu’s award-winning Tao series – The Lives of Tao, The Deaths of Tao, The Rebirths of Tao . Wesley’s debut came to us as an Open Door discovery, as did Philip K Dick Award-nominated...

Time Salvager by Wesley Chu, Time Salvager #1 Convicted criminal James Griffin-Mars is no one’s hero. In his time, Earth is a toxic, abandoned world and humans have fled into the outer solar system to survive, eking out a fragile, doomed existence among the other planets and their moons. Those responsible for delaying humanity’s demise believe time travel holds the key, and they have identified James, troubled though he is, as one of a select and expendable few ideally suited for the most dangerous job in history. James is a chronman, undertaking missions into Earth's past to recover resources and treasure without altering the timeline. The laws governing use of time travel are absolute; break any one of them and, one way or another, your life is over. Most chronmen never reach old age; the stress of each jump through time, compounded by the risk to themselves and to the future, means that many chronmen rapidly reach their breaking point, and James Griffin-Mars is ...

Guest Blog: Creating and Recreating Renaissance Italy by Craig Cormick Big question 1: Can you write about somewhere effectively if you have never been there? Big question 2: If you’re creating a fantasy world, is there anywhere that you can visit that will actually be like it? So I was asked to blog about my Italian influences and world building, in relation to my two books the Shadow Master and the Floating City . They are both set in a version of Renaissance Italy, where science works like magic.  Where that idea came from is easy to tell. I was in Florence for a work conference – thankfully out of season – and after spending a few days sitting in conference rooms with ornate paintings and frescos, I went to visit the Galileo Museum. It’s a pretty awesome place – if you ever get the chance to visit. So I’m walking around and looking at all these telescopes and pulley-machines and all these marvellous things that he invented, and I’m thinking that these ...

Guest Blog: Just the Two of Us: On Back-to-Back Releases by Carrie Patel The release of a first book is an exciting moment for a new author. There are months of anticipation as the date draws nearer and then weeks of guest posts, interviews, bookstore signings, and happy mayhem when it finally rolls around. Often, it’s at least a year before you start that dance all over again. In my case, four months are passing between the release of The Buried Life and its sequel, Cities and Thrones . That’s fast by the standards of traditional publishing, which must account for printing schedules, editorial work, and typesetting for a whole catalogue of books. It’s a reason to be thankful for Angry Robot, my nimble publisher, and their ability to release books fairly quickly after acquisition. It’s also an illustration of blessings in disguise. Originally, The Buried Life was scheduled to release in July of 2014. However, the sale of Angry Robot delayed my book and a...