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Behind the Screens: Tuesday Author Interview
Every Tuesday, get to know a bit about the stories behind the books you love, and discover your next favourite novel.
Zilla: I’m always here for some fantasy—and romantasy!—so we got Karen Eisenbrey in to talk to us about her works. Karen, can you tell us about your writing?
Karen: I write fantasy, sci-fi, and superhero novels. My current project is Tales from Deep River, which comprises a cozy fantasy adventure trilogy and two cozy romantasy interludes for a total of five books. The trilogy can be read with or without the interludes; the interludes can also be read on their own or in series order.
Zilla: What inspired you to write this book?
Karen: A Quest for Hidden Things (Tales from Deep River Book 1) was inspired by a brief dream featuring two wizards and at least three plot twists in a scene that seemed to occur late in a story. In working out what happened before and after, I accidentally built a world and populated it with characters I wanted to know better. It took me 25 years to get that first book right, which allowed plenty of time to write sequels and spinoffs.
Zilla: Unfortunately for authors, we know that writing is only half the battle—then we need to edit. What’s your secret to editing?
Karen: I don’t know if this is a secret, but you have to accept that writing the book and editing the book are two different jobs. It helps me to set the work aside for long enough that I can come at editing as if the writer was someone else. It doesn’t pay to be too precious about a beautiful passage that doesn’t fit the tone of the book or the experience of the point-of-view character. (But it’s okay to save the beautiful passage in another document, in case it can be used later.)
Zilla: Who did you imagine reading your book as you wrote it?
Karen: Although I wasn’t actively writing it as young adult (YA), I imagined writing this series for a bookish 14-year-old girl like I was. In reality, even for my overt YA titles, most of my readers have been adults. That’s okay; there’s no upper age limit on young adult.
Zilla: What’s your next writing project?
Karen: After I wrap up the fifth book in the Tales from Deep River, I plan to work on book 3 of my St. Rage garage rock/superhero series. It is currently a thin, messy draft that I look forward to sorting out and plumping up. After that, I have plans for another fantasy trilogy, this one using teen comedy tropes in a high fantasy setting. We’ll be doing Accidental Roadtrip, Fake Dating, and Save the Rec Center.
Zilla: Thanks for sharing your story and your process. We’re looking forward to reading! Where can the Night Beats community find you and your book?
Karen: Website: https://kareneisenbreywriter.com/my-books/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7577611.Karen_Eisenbrey
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KarenEisenbreyWriter
X/Twitter: @kareneisenbrey
Bluesky: kareneisenbrey.bsky.social
Our Cookbook has been Meme’d!!!
Our dream in life is to be parodied on Tumblr, and a million thanks to timrousbeastie for making that dream come true! You can see her original post here.
Plus, if you haven’t see Slow Horses yet, you absolutely should, and not just because of this excellent meme.
Behind the Screens: Tuesday Author Interview
Every Tuesday, get to know a bit about the stories behind the books you love, and discover your next favourite novel.
Rachel: Nick Mamatas and I go way back on the internet, but it was only last summer that we finally met in real life. He was launching the first issue of a new zine, Billions Vs. Billionaires, which is so my jam it’s not even funny (unlike the zine, which is hilarious). The second issue is out now, and Nick is here to talk about it!
Tell us a little bit about the project. Why use a zine to fight back against the fascist billionaire class?
Nick: Well, there are forces at work. Forces inspired by DOGE and the weird nerds who enthusiastically signed up as Elon Musk’s anti-spending budget-cutting squad. While DOGE actually didn’t cut much out of the federal budget despite expansive claims about millions of dead people on Social Security rolls etc, plenty of damage was done. USAid for example, was all but destroyed–all the good stuff the program did was cut, but the imperial interventions (spying, funding dirty little wars etc.) were just integrated into the State Department without the public-facing vaccination programs or cultural programs.
The idea, from a former acquaintance of Musk, was to try to make Elon seem less cool to the sort of very online audience that he had cultivated. And the acquaintance had a little bit of money. So zines via itch.io, YouTube shorts, RPGs, bumper stickers and badges to be handed out at science fiction cons and the like.
Rachel: I remain big sad that I didn’t get one of the badges at Worldcon.
So even for a zine, there’s a ton of formal experimentation in Billions Vs. Billionaires, from a fold-out one-page RPG to…math questions??? (Dear readers, I promise they will make you wish you paid more attention to math in high school.) Did you seek this out, or did it happen organically?
Nick: Surely seeking something out is organic! We use our spongy brains to do things. But we basically wanted multiscale meme warfare, so any bundle of ideas is good.
Rachel: What can we expect to see in the second issue? Is there anything that really stood out for you?
Nick: The infographic! A little two-page play (but with three actors, so a role for an entire polycule!), a story by Rich Larson, who is a very successful short story writer (which is why nobody has ever heard of him).
Rachel: I’m clearly one of the cool kids, having hung out with Rich Larson on several occasions. He’s rad af.
Whenever I go to zine fairs, I’m impressed that there are more, and more sophisticated zines, than there were even before social media and print-on-demand made the photocopier less of an influential technology. What’s the state of the zine publishing scene?
Nick: Print is back, baby. The algorithm, and the five big social media platforms that are all just screenshots of the other four, have ruined online, so people are returning to print, and with the graphic design skills people learned online.
Rachel: I’m here for it.
Given the level of surveillance and repression of speech in the US, were you and/or other American contributors worried about putting this out?
Nick: We had a brief conversation about even using the word “antifa” in the zine, and we always ask if contributors wish to be pseudonymous. We also recommend people print out the zines in such a way that printer-identification marks can’t be used to trace where the zine was printed. But thankfully, as Musk himself once said, “comedy is legal.”
Rachel: What’s next for Billions Vs. Billionaires, and where can we find you/more of your work?
Nick: At least two more volumes of the zine:
COMMUNIQUES FROM THE GRIMES LIBERATION FRONT
And
ENTER…THE KILLIONAIRE K-HOLE.
And if anyone wants to produce the play “Grimes and Elon In..Roko’s Basilisk!” from our new zine BREAD AND JAM FOR BIG BALLS and put it online as a tiktok or reel or short or or or or…drop me a line!
Wrong Genre Covers
| The Story of the Donner Party as a children’s book was suggested by Dale.Have a funny idea for a Wrong Genre Cover? Email us at nightbeatseu@gmail.com, and if Rachel likes your suggestion, she’ll make it in a future issue. Or @ us on basically any of the socials. |
Behind the Screens: Tuesday Author Interview
Every Tuesday, get to know a bit about the stories behind the books you love, and discover your next favourite novel.
Zilla: We’re delighted to have Jeffrey Vernon Matucha here to tell us about the punk scene—starting with the music and going from there! Your latest book stars two punk musicians who meet an unexpected visitor. Can you tell us about it?
Jeffrey: Trieste is the story of power punk couple Miranda and Preston, and how the appearance of a pixie punk upends their world, as their bygone fast lane living days rise up to confront them about past sins. It’s a tale, not just about the punk scene, but also the culture of the working class.
Zilla: What inspired you to write this book?
Jeffrey: This work is based on a true story, something that happened to a friend of mine. When you live a wild club and music life, especially when it’s rife with drugs and booze and lots of fooling around, the past can come back to haunt you, especially in unexpected ways. I would say more, but I don’t want to give away too much before people have a chance to experience the story.
Zilla: What would it be like to meet your characters?
Jeffrey: In a way I have met them. Not them literally, but Preston and Miranda are based on the many punks, musicians, and wild burnouts I’ve known over the years. Miranda is loosely based on my late friend Marian Anderson, the singer of The Insaints. Marian has been the inspiration for many of my hardcore characters throughout my writing career.
Zilla: Who is your favourite fictional character someone else wrote?
Jeffrey: Dre from Dani Dassler’s PR is my favorite character from the genre of punk fiction. Her book has been a big inspiration for my writing, especially when it comes to the subject of culture clashes. One of my favorite scenes from my novel A Long Slow Aftermath, when Preston takes his blind friend to her first punk show, is based off of a key scene in PR.
Zilla: Why do you write?
Jeffrey: I was a wild clubber back in eighties and nineties San Francisco. I have way too many stories to tell, and not just wild rock and roll stories. I’ve been in the trenches with the working poor, those living in poverty, and I know the struggles of the homeless. There’s so much more to what I’m writing than crazy club and drug stories. I’ve opened the eyes of some of my readers, and I want to continue to do so. I also would like to tell the muggles what it’s like to do a stage dive, or mosh in a circle pit, or collect all your loose change so you can have some Top Ramen for dinner.
Zilla: Who did you imagine reading your book as you wrote it?
Jeffrey: I appeal to a lot of scenesters, old and not-so-old punk, goths, and musicians when I market my books, but my stories just remind them of their own lives. They do get the satisfaction of seeing their world in the written word. But the people I really want to reach, who also happen to be the kind of people who appreciate my writing the most, are the civilians who don’t know what these worlds are like, the realms of crazy punks, of drug addicts, and of the working class. Those are the people I want to reach. I want them to experience these cultures through my works.
Zilla: What’s your next writing project?
Jeffrey: I currently have the manuscripts for books six and seven of my Skye Wright series prepared, and I am writing the manuscript for book eight. I launched a Kickstarter in January 2026 to help fund the launch of these books—funds for professional editors, cover art, and book design. I also set it up so that it can take late donations after it expires, if people want to contribute.
Zilla: Thanks for sharing your story and your process. We’re looking forward to reading! Where can the Night Beats community find you and your book?
Jeffrey: All of my books can be found on my website. The book itself is here: https://needlepictures.com/tbd/book/trieste/
Book Report Corner
by Rachel A. Rosen
In the preface that opens this collection of sci-fi, fantasy, and horror from Palestinian writers in the diaspora, editor and contributor Sonia Sulaiman writes, “Someone once said that all Palestinian fiction is speculative; we are always grappling with the past and living in expectation of the future.” These stories are those of writers violently unmoored from home and belonging. What is more speculative than dreaming of the future, despite a past of dispossession?
There are many standout stories in this collection, which is the first of its kind to be published in Canada. From the unsettling horror of Ziyad Saadi’s “The Third Or Fourth Casualty,” in which a group of boys die while swimming as we are reminded of the insignificance of their deaths, to the triumphant DIY space project of Samah Serour Fadil’s “Gaza Luna,” to the heartfelt queer longing of Nadia Afifi’s “The Generation Chip,” this diverse and imaginative collection is at once a cry of rage and a flickering of hope in the darkness. It’s a must-read.
Behind the Screens: Tuesday Author Interview
Every Tuesday, get to know a bit about the stories behind the books you love, and discover your next favourite novel.
Zilla: As activists and card-carrying science fiction nerds, we could not be more excited at Night Beats to welcome Helena Trooperman’s novel Power Within to our bookcases—and Helena herself to our interviews. Helena, can you start off by telling us about your book?
Helena: She’s a tech genius. But unless she can invent a daring rescue, her soulmate will die.
Toronto 2032, in a subtly alternate reality. Innovator Athena Cartwright wants to change the world with her self-charging coms device. But her focus shifts when her life-partner and oil company CEO leaves on an emergency trip to a stricken rig off the African coast. And when she learns the worst has happened, she takes matters into her own hands to save him.
With everyone from the catastrophe presumed dead, Athena is furious the authorities refuse to take further action. But her partner carries one of her prototypes… and he’s just called. Though bringing him back alive will pit her against corrupt governments, greedy conspirators, and deadly high-seas pirates.
Can Athena’s daring strategy outwit global foes who want him dead?
Zilla: What inspired you to write this book?
Helena: In these times of climate change, where the world leaders are participating in the last great grab of land, power, and resources, I chose to embrace the other future that’s on offer, the sustainable future of cooperation, abundant power, and technological revolution. It’s exciting, problematic, fraught with dangers, and has a steep learning curve. Plus, I wanted to empower my growing teenagers that sci-fi is a great way to imagine better friendships, family, embrace diversity, inventiveness, and technology to help communities thrive sustainably.
Zilla: Is there a visual image that inspired you? A picture that sums up your hopes for a better future?
Helena: It felt great to have our say in Toronto. You don’t have to be an activist, and campaigning doesn’t have to be negative. Freedom of speech isn’t just for haters. Ordinary people can make a difference because we have power. Together that power is magnified!
Zilla: If you could meet your characters, what would you say to them?
Helena: To Athena, I’d say, “Thank you. Your small acts of courage and dealing with your fears, helped me be more courageous in my writing.” And to James, I’d say, “I don’t believe being in oil makes you evil. I think it makes you stubborn. Use the cash you donate to governments to help your organization. Are you courageous enough to pioneer transition away from fossil fuels?”
Zilla: And what would they reply?
Helena: “I catch my negative self-talk these days,” Athena would say. “And now, I make things happen, rather than let them happen to me. It takes every scrap of energy and determination I have.”
“Fossil fuel organizations are considered the villains but there was a time when we were heroes,” James would say. “Demand is still there but Athena’s right, the time is fast approaching where alternate energies could meet the world’s energy requirements. It’s time to transition.”
Zilla: Who is your favourite fictional character that you didn’t write?
Helena: El from the El Donasii series by Laurence Dahners. El is an inventor who hates hurting anyone. She’s humble and she’s kind. If she has to she’ll stand her ground, defend herself and those about her.
Zilla: Thanks for sharing your story and your process. We’re looking forward to reading! Where can the Night Beats community find you and your book?
Helena: Power Within is book one in the Age of Unity. Find out more at my website. Check out my (almost) monthly newsletter, Reader Hat On, and how Athena (green power) and James (Mr. Oil) meet, in my free downloadable Origin novella: Always On.
Behind the Screens: Tuesday Author Interview
Every Tuesday, get to know a bit about the stories behind the books you love, and discover your next favourite novel.
Zilla: From a gorgeous cover art to a thrilling plotline, F. David Schultz’s political fantasy Crown of Horns stands out. We got him here to tell us all about it—so David, take it away!
David: I recently published my first novel: Crown of Horns. It’s a political fantasy-–think 1984 meets The Witcher—about the fight against authoritarianism in a world inspired by the history and culture of Ukraine.
Zilla: What inspired you to write this book?
David: My partner introduced me to her family’s rich, Ukrainian culture, and I fell in love. Not only with her, but with her traditions and the joy with which she celebrated them. I got to join in those celebrations and learn a lot along the way.
Growing up, I didn’t have a cultural identity. Canadian was the only meaningful descriptor, offering little beyond national pride. It wasn’t until adulthood that I learned that much had been stripped away in the name of assimilation.
This became one of the central themes in my book: the celebration of culture versus the forces that strip it away in the name of unity.
Zilla: I know that you’re creative in a lot of mediums—why do you write?
David: I have a theatre background. Acting offers an opportunity to explore ideas outside my own, and to step into the mind of another person. I adjust my thinking, feeling, and actions based on the playwright. When I’m writing, I can shape the direction of my exploration.
It’s funny. Sometimes I slip so fully into my characters that I stop thinking about them objectively. I once had a reader call Siranna, a young artist in Crown of Horns, incredibly naïve. I was shocked. Her actions felt so justified and honest. Looking back… yep, she’s very naïve.
Zilla: And after writing comes the dreaded editing! So what’s the secret to editing well?
David: I took a wild approach while editing my novel. Realizing my early changes had big impacts on the ending, I jumped to the last chapter. Then to the chapter right before that. Before I knew it, I was spinning a wheel to decide what I’d edit next. While a little bonkers on the face of it, the method left me more aware of the sequence of events.
If someone were looking for advice, I wouldn’t necessarily suggest spinning a wheel. I would say that a good working knowledge of the piece is key, so you are aware of how changes will impact other parts of the work.
Zilla: What’s your next writing project? Is there a next?
David: I didn’t plan to write a sequel… but I fell in love with the world. Since publishing, I’ve written the first draft of a sequel, with ideas for two to three more books after that.
I’m excited for my next, still unnamed, novel. Crown of Horns was a political fantasy with an underline beneath political. This next one has an underline beneath fantasy. Less political thriller and more magic, monsters, and mystery. I love the change in tone—and the alliteration!
Zilla: Thanks for sharing your story and your process. We’re looking forward to reading! Where can the Night Beats community find you and your book?
David: Check out my website for more on the book. You can follow me in many places, as @EmpyClaw. I’m most active on Mastodon and would love to connect:
Wrong Genre Covers
| A Court of Thorns and Roses as an LSAT prep booklet was suggested by Dale. Have a funny idea for a Wrong Genre Cover? Email us at nightbeatseu@gmail.com, and if Rachel likes your suggestion, she’ll make it in a future issue. Or @ us on basically any of the socials. |
Behind the Screens: Tuesday Author Interview
Every Tuesday, get to know a bit about the stories behind the books you love, and discover your next favourite novel.
Zilla: From Blade Runner to The Expanse, Maltese Falcon to The Brick, noir has delighted audiences—not to mention readers. Lisa de Nikolits offers us her own take on the genre with a modern tale. Lisa, can you tell us about Mad Dog and the Sea Dragon?
Lisa: Mad Dog and the Sea Dragon is a modern-day noir caper with gangster villains of old and a glamorous kick-ass heroine. Murder, drug running, organized crime and danger, this book has it all, in a hard-boiled satirical style laced with dark humor.
Zilla: Is there a visual image—a painting or a photo—that inspired you?
Lisa: An exhibit by Arthur Fellig featured a pic of Mad Dog Esposito. I immediately crushed on Mad Dog Esposito; his dishevelled sexiness, his moral anarchy, his casual, oversized trench coat, the torn shirt and ripped jacket revealing a manly chest with the right amount of chest hair, his handsome features completing his poster boy persona for a complete disregard for civilized life.
Zilla: If your characters met you, what would they say to you?
Lisa: Fascinating! In 15 years of interviews I’ve never been asked this!
JESSICA AND DONATELLA: CHAPTER 33
Donatella leads Jessica through a maze of dimly lit, thickly carpeted corridors. Jessica reflects that it wasn’t just the living room that looked like an African safari had taken root in the Swiss Alps, it was the whole house. The corridor smelled musty and odd, like cloves mixed with rotting carpets and mildew. Lisa rounds the corner and bumps into them.
DONATELLA
What you doing here, bitch? You gotta lotta nerve.
JESSICA
Yeah Lisa, what are you doing here?
LISA
Talk about a warm welcome. I wanted to know if you guys were happy with the way I wrote you.
DONATELLA
(laughs sarcastically)
You want our blessing? Bad timing, honey. But in general yeah, you did an okay job. But you coulda been kinda about the nose candy. I think you fell into a bucket of hyperbole.
JESSICA
Ignore her, Lisa. I’m happy too. I started out a bit spineless but I got my groove on. But couldn’t you have figured out something else for Daisy?
LISA
(chagrined)
I tried. I really did. I’m sorry.
DONATELLA
Yeah hug it out bitches, then Lisa, make like a magician and vanish.
Zilla:Is your work more plot-driven or character-driven? Or a secret, third thing?
Lisa: It’s a secret third thing! Imagine a kaleidoscope made up of a thousand different puzzle pieces, and those puzzle pieces are scenes from aquariums, movies, books, people I see on the subway, art galleries, overheard conversations, dreams (nightmares) of my own, late-night TV true crime documentaries at 2 am when I can’t sleep. And then I reach down into my heart and pull out a wish list of a book I’d love to have written. And then I set out to write it, and I spin the kaleidoscope until it makes sense – sense to me anyway, and then I pretend I’m on one of those reality TV shows where only one person makes it to the top of Mount Everest and I tell myself that I’m that person and then I write the book and nothing else exists until it’s finished.
Zilla: What’s your next writing project?
Lisa: In the Interests of Transparency, a novella, That Time I Killed You (coming in May 2026). “A story of iced cakes and malice, this compulsively readable novel about ordinary people doing very bad things will captivate you from the first page to the last.”
Zilla: Thanks for sharing your story and your process. We’re looking forward to reading! Where can the Night Beats community find you and your book?
Lisa: You can find me on Facebook and Instagram, or on my website. You can get my book on Amazon.
Night Beats Extended Universe 