Every Tuesday, get to know a bit about the stories behind the books you love, and discover your next favourite novel.

Zilla: The most incredible stories start at home—sometimes in the depths of our own family history. Andre Narbonne fictionalized his family’s story in Those are Pearls, and he’s here to tell us about it. Andre, how does the story go?

Andre: From the seeds of an impoverished boilermaker’s adoration for a rich doctor’s daughter grows a sweeping story of a family whose personal passions are woven into the tapestry of world history. Harry Short first rides into battle at the beginning of the Boer War, in 1895, to win the heart of Margaret Roll. In 1914 he enlists again, to escape her. With Margaret, he sires a family that takes the reader through generations and across continents. They arrive in Canada as prairie homesteaders, witness the Winnipeg Riot of 1919, and survive the Great Flood of 1950 as well as marriage to bootleggers and communists, police investigation, unlikely heroism on the battlefield, and, all but one, a torpedo. 

Zilla: What inspired you to write this book?

Andre: I was inspired by my own family’s history, which I have fictionalized. The most extraordinary parts of the novel are the parts that are true. My great-grandfather got a tropical disease after falling off a boiler in Cape Town, South Africa, for which his doctor prescribed moving to Winnipeg. My great-aunt’s gravestone reads, “Old Socialists Never Die, They Organize the Angels.” At the beginning of the Second World War, my mother spent her summer in the “Clean Air Camp” for poor children outside of Winnipeg where she won a medal for the child who gained the most weight. None of my inventions can top those that history.

Zilla: What would it be like to meet your characters?

Andre: My characters lived through three wars, the influenza pandemic, the Winnipeg General Strike and, later, the Winnipeg flood, they lived through the untimely deaths of family members, including the death by suicide of a favourite sister. All this and they still kept their religion. 

I expect they would ask me why I lost mine.

Zilla: Who is your favourite fictional character someone else wrote? 

Andre: Ishmael. It’s his emotional buoyancy I admire the most. He suspects the universe might be one colossal joke of which he is the butt and is willing to laugh at the joke. He can do that because Ishmael is a connoisseur of irony in the way that other people are connoisseurs of wine. The best line in Moby Dick is typical of his observations: “Better to sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunk Christian.” What other 19th-century sailor would use a coffin as a floatation device?

Zilla: What’s the secret to editing?

Andre: Here’s four:

Don’t edit when depressed.

Don’t be afraid of changing things—allow for play in your drafts. Important characters can become less important, as can passages of dialogue, actions, and scenes. 

Keep your first save. This is the ‘honest’ save. If you get sidetracked by your changes in subsequent drafts, the honest save will tell you what the story intends to mean. 

Know your audience. A work that’s done, is done. Why change it? The only reason I can think of is to reach an audience. Keep in mind that at this stage you are shaping your work according to the interests of people you will likely never meet and try to imagine them fully and critically.

Zilla: Who did you imagine reading your book as you wrote it?

Andre: My first audience was my wife, who was not my wife at the time. In that regard, the novel has proven a great success.

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?

Andre: You can find me here. My book is here, and my press is here.

Every Tuesday, get to know a bit about the stories behind the books you love, and discover your next favourite novel.

Zilla: We’re big fans of libraries around here. In the real world, they’re necessary collective spaces for sharing information and community. And in the fictional world, they’re that plus a bit more. So The Library Cosmic, by Ben Berman Ghan, caught our attention! Ben, can you describe your speculative fiction collection for us?

Ben: My next book is a collection of loosely connected novellas and novellettes titled The Library Cosmic, in which people throughout time and space are confronted with terrifying giants and monsters and systems of oppression that are worth fighting even when the odds seem impossible. A ghost builds a library in the spiritual plane that grows to the size of a planet. A golem adopts children throughout the universe as stars collapse, while on Earth, a young man chases a legend of a disappearing library. There is one cute robot.

Zilla: Only one? I kid, I kid. What inspirations did your story draw on?

Ben: When I think of the scale and the creatures of The Library Cosmic, I think of the work of Jack Kirby. I think of the Celestials as he depicts them through The Eternals. I think of his Galactus as the devourer lands on Earth in the pages of Fantastic Four. He was Jack “The King” Kirby for a reason. Fighting Nazis and dreaming in a scale our cosmos can barely contain.

Zilla: If you could meet your characters, what would you say to them?

Ben: I would either say “Yikes! Get away from me!” And then run, or I would offer a hug, and an apology, and a coffee. All my characters are tragedies, or devils, or me.

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?

Ben: You can find me online at or on Bluesky at @inkstainedwreck.ca or on Instagram @ink.stained_wreck! And you can pre-order The Library Cosmic from your local bookstore, or directly from the publisher.

Every Tuesday, get to know a bit about the stories behind the books you love, and discover your next favourite novel.

Zilla: Claris Lam is a prolific Chinese Canadian indie author & poet. We’re never certain what she’ll have crafted next time we talk to her, but we’re always excited to find out! This time she’s going to tell us about her children’s book Sadie Rowe And The Missing Necklace. Claris, take it away!

Claris: After losing her grandma’s necklace, Sadie must work together with a fairy named Pearl in order to find it. But can Sadie learn to trust Pearl as they continue working together, or will her doubts about others keep them from finding the necklace at all?

Zilla: What inspired you to write this book?

Claris: Reading Gwyneth Rees’ Fairy Dust book series and Daisy Meadows’ Rainbow Magic book series were major inspirations for writing this book! 

Zilla: What about them inspired you?

Claris: The illustrations from Gwyneth Rees’ Fairy Dust book series really helped inspire me! They’re quite detailed for a kids’ chapter book, and I wanted to bring that same level of detail to Sadie Rowe And The Missing Necklace.

I am grateful and fortunate that I had the opportunity to work with artist Lora Elezovic for Sadie Rowe. She did a fantastic job designing and illustrating the book’s illustrations and cover while keeping the original inspiration in mind! 

Zilla: What drives you to write?

Claris: What drives me to write is to create some hopeful stories. It’s so easy to find so many stories that lack hope, that are dystopias with tragic endings. So, my hope is that by writing more hopeful and/or optimistic works, it’ll help balance out what’s out there to read! 

Zilla: What’s your next writing project?

Claris: I’m currently writing a cozy fantasy novel…Or I might be completely done writing the final version of it by the time of this interview being published, who knows!? I write quite quickly, so that helps!  

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?

Claris: Check out Sadie Rowe And The Missing Necklace here. Find all links to my socials here.

Every Tuesday, get to know a bit about the stories behind the books you love, and discover your next favourite novel.

Zilla: Darkness blends with crime and murder mysteries in Lucy A McLaren’s latest novel, Echoes of the EtherStone. Lucy, can you tell us about your gothic book?

Lucy: Absolutely! Echoes of the EtherStone is a dual-POV gothic horror fantasy book. Here’s the blurb:

Beth lives a seemingly perfect life of luxury in the city of Alpinside. Her upcoming betrothal to the eligible Lord Ashford is all she can focus on… until she meets El, a young woman from the slums whose father was a victim of the Scrubbers’ Stalker, the ruthless killer haunting the city. 

Thrown together by the dreadful murders, the two decide to investigate. The catch? The evidence points towards Beth’s own brother as the Stalker. Their new-found friendship is tested as their investigation begins to reveal far deeper secrets than either of them were prepared for, uncovering a truth which rots the very core of Alpinside.

Zilla: What inspired you to write this book?

Lucy: This story was inspired by Jack the Ripper and came about after I’d read The Five by Hallie Rubenhold, a book exploring the traumatic and tragic lives of the victims of the infamous killer. This left me wanting to write a story about two women being empowered to bring down the murderer and, in doing so, fighting the patriarchal system in which he operates… and Echoes of the EtherStone was born. This story is dark, exploring themes of religious and patriarchal oppression, childhood trauma, grief and addiction, as well as the more hopeful elements of found family and fighting oppression. 

Zilla: What drives you to write?

Lucy: I write because I love stories (obviously!!) but, more than that, I use my writing to explore societal, political, and mental health issues. With everything going on in the world, writing is both my escape and my means of trying to process what is going on. And I hope my stories also provide that for readers, too. 

Zilla: What’s your next writing project?

Lucy: My next project is This Loathsome Monster (another gothic horror fantasy), a story of love, obsession, rage, repression, and revenge, where two women must learn to embrace their powers in order to free themselves from their oppressors. I’m currently querying it in the hope of finding a literary agent.

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?

Lucy: Thank you for featuring me!

If you’re interested in checking out Echoes of the EtherStone on ebook or paperback, you can do so here: https://linktr.ee/lucyamclaren 

I have a newsletter which you can sign up for at the bottom of my author website (https://lucyamclarenauthor.co.uk). On this I share writing and book news as well as my latest reads/watches/games. You can also follow me on Instagram to keep up to date with my book and writing news: https://www.instagram.com/lucy_a_mclaren/

Every Tuesday, get to know a bit about the stories behind the books you love, and discover your next favourite novel.

Zilla: Not only is Joseph Picard a very cool person, he also writes awesome cyberpunk that challenges what we think it means to be human. Today he’s telling us about his novel Daughter of Erebus: Sparrow. So, Joseph, can you introduce us to your book?

Joseph: No good deed goes unpunished.

Before he was defeated, Erebus killed millions.

But it’s okay; he left a synthetic daughter, Sarah, with all the best intentions. She just needs to deal with the legacy of being made of the same nanotech that ripped through two and a half cities.

She’s doing her best. A job, dear friends, and a synthetic lizard covering her tracks as she secretly volunteers at the hospital using her controversial abilities.

Her already shaky public opinion takes a sharp turn for the worse when a new entity emerges with deadly intent. Sarah finds herself as the prime suspect and is forced into drastic measures to keep ahead of the law while she hunts the true culprit.

Taking to the skies in a small new body, Sarah is driven to save her friends and her city from the Spark, whose very body – and rage – is made of any electrical charge it can absorb.

Zilla: What inspired you to write this book?

Joseph: The protagonist, Sarah Amanda Hartford, was left with a lot of unresolved questions at the end of Echoes of Erebus, so she’s getting her own series! She has doubts about the validity of her synthetic existence, (She’s made entirely out of nanotech, which carries a lot of baggage in a world that’s suffered millions of deaths at the hands of her creator), and the validity of her emotions. She hadn’t counted on the quietly growing emotions of one of her best friends, through, and that’s just going to complicate things further.

But of course it can’t even be as easy as a chat over coffee. Another entity, based entirely on electrical charge and signals, fled for its freedom, and sought relief to its pain. In the process, it killed a more than a few people. (Unintentionally?) But the disturbance has the government looking to Sarah, since she’s a known factor made of dangerous tech. And she’s gotta run. Away from the life she’s built, and her loved-ones. But running’s not enough this time. A less obvious body? A smaller one that can blend in, and maybe fly…?

Zilla: If you could meet your characters, what would you say to them?

Joseph: “Nananananana don’t be shy, GO ON AN KEES DE GURL!”

Zilla: And if your characters met you, what would they say to you?

Joseph: “Why don’t you write out sex scenes? I mean, we’re gettin it on OFFSCREEN?! Break out the lube, ya prude!”

Zilla: Why do you write?

Joseph: The characters have things they need to get done. It’s not my idea. Blame them.

Zilla: What’s your next writing project? 

Joseph: The next 2 books will round out the “Daughter of Erebus” series, and end a lot of things from across all my books… but after that? Who knows?

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?

Joseph: Sparrow is here in the US, and here for my fellow Canucks. And www.ozero.ca is my main site. I’m on FB (joseph.n.picard) and Discord (ozeroakajosephpicaed) a lot. And my email’s joe@ozero.ca.

Every Tuesday, get to know a bit about the stories behind the books you love, and discover your next favourite novel.

Zilla: Fantasy takes us unexpected places—and never more so than in David Ly’s novel Not All Dragons. First of all, David, that is a stunning cover. But the important thing is what’s inside! Can you tell us about your story?

David: Not All Dragons is my interpretation on dragons and destiny. I hope this is done from a perspective that readers aren’t familiar with, exploring how an identity is shaped beneath story and prophecy. The story’s protagonist, Rhys, sets out on a dangerous journey with a mermaid named Delia to discover who he is, or was, and who he might become. When I established that he were to embark on this quest, the world opened up, allowing me to populate it with other magical creatures portrayed in unique ways with rich histories: witches who change between beast forms, Mernese who can shed their tails for legs, among other enigmatic creatures.

Zilla: What inspired you to write this book?

David: An obsession with dragons that hasn’t left since childhood! I wanted to write a story about the mythical beasts in a way that felt refreshing and unique to me, but maintain the air of awe, fear, and mystery that dragons have always had for me.

Zilla: Delving a bit deeper, what kicked off this story in particular as your take on the creatures?

David: In many ways, Not All Dragons sprung from a poem in my debut poetry book Mythical Man called “Boy.” The image of this boy hiding in the forest, covered in moths, stuck with me for years and I began asking myself the story of how this boy ended up in the image I saw.

Zilla: And overall? What drives you to write—from poetry to prose?

David: I think that I write to play, driven by imagination and my obsession with myths. Doing so, I feel like everything I write is in response to things I felt as a child.

Zilla: If you could meet your characters, what would you say to them?

David: I would say to Rhys that he is safe and understood now, and that he can keep moving forward. to Delia, I’d thank her for being the friend Rhys needed. To Nico, I’d tell him that his regrets don’t define him.

Zilla: What’s your next writing project?

David: My next project is my third poetry collection called Ritual, Interrupted is currently in the editing phase. The book is a poetic grimoire that uses imagined worlds as tools for self-discovery, drawing on experiences with depressive disorder and anxiety. I hope this collection shows how vulnerability and imagination are acts of resistance, vital to a compassionate life.

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: I’m mostly active on Instagram at @davidlywrites. Not All Dragons can be found here.

Every Tuesday, get to know a bit about the stories behind the books you love, and discover your next favourite novel.

Zilla: In our current environmental crisis, we need stories that imagine different worlds. I invited Lauren C. Teffeau here to tell us about her eco-thriller Accelerated Growth Environment, which gives us adventure, sapphic romance, and science fiction. Lauren, take it away!

Lauren: Dr. Jorna Benton is proud to be the Principal Scientist for the Climasphere, a massive, sea-going ecological nursery capable of supporting nearly every biome on Earth. On its inaugural mission to restore and re-wild collapsing ecosystems along the Atlantic coast, Jorna manages the Climasphere’s habitat and harvest, while her colleague—and inconveniently attractive commander—Ava Kaysar directs the rest of the vessel’s critical operations. When an explosion rocks the Climasphere, Jorna’s carefully-managed world is thrown into chaos, threatening both her personal and her professional future. And worse: she’s the prime suspect. To clear her name, save the mission, and preserve her chance at a future with Kaysar, Jorna must finally confront the secret she’s been running from all these years: a family and a faith that could destroy her.

Zilla: What inspired you to write this book?

Lauren: With the world fragmented and the informationsphere weaponized against collective action, democratic freedoms, and the realities of climate change, I wanted to showcase a future where it was possible to do “big” things for the betterment of all. Once upon a time, the vast majority of countries around the world worked together to curb chlorofluorocarbon emissions that were depleting the ozone layer of the atmosphere. And it worked! But now we’re rolling back climate protections in America and fighting with allies and enemies alike, making such collaborations at that scale seem impossible. In Accelerated Growth Environment, I wanted to show what it would look like if our countries worked together to create a symbol of hope—the Climasphere—a seaworthy habitat capable of nurturing the plants necessary to rewild the earth and repair the damage by the fossil fuel industry, and the people committed to such a mission. We need to be able to imagine such possibilities in order to work toward a brighter future together.

Zilla: That makes so much sense as a goal for your writing. What about visual inspiration—did any visual images inspire your world building?

Lauren: The most influential visual reference I had for the Climasphere, the setting of my novella, was BioSphere2, a massive human-made biodome just north of Tucson, Arizona that contains a bunch of different biomes and was intended to be a self-sufficient system with its own power, water, air, and all the plants and equipment necessary for food production for the scientists who volunteered to spend two years sequestered there away from the rest of the world. The facility is huge, and the architecture still has a futuristic vibe decades later. Now, it is a research laboratory to test out new approaches to growing plants and how to construct man-made habitats in extreme environments like the moon, Mars, and beyond.

Zilla: If you weren’t a writer, what do you think you’d do instead?

Lauren: Probably architecture or interior design. We did an architecture segment in technical education in eighth grade, and I loved being able to design my own building—very much like the worldbuilding I do on the regular with my writing. I also really enjoy making my home feel welcoming and finding ways to optimize its function. The challenge of finding just the right spot for the chair that came from my grandmother, or the painting from my aunt, or the knickknack I picked up from the thrift store is so much fun—navigating the constraints of what you have and the unexpectedness that results, a creative process in its own right.

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?

Lauren: 

Author Links:

Website: http://laurencteffeau.com/ 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lteffeau/ 

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/teffeau.bsky.social 

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/teffeau 

Book Links:

Shiraki Press: https://www.shirakipress.com/books/accelerated-growth-environment/ 

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G3Z82PGJ 

Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/accelerated-growth-environment-lauren-c-teffeau/1149394456 

Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/p/books/accelerated-growth-environment-lauren-c-teffeau/702dfb200d67fc3b