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

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

Zilla: I’m a big fan of dark fantasy—particularly starring nuanced, dangerous women. L. N. Holmes delivers exactly that in her latest novel, The Floating Castle. L.N., can you describe the story for our readers?

L.N.: To secure her position as the emperor’s favorite daughter, Princess Fu Liling sails across a monster-infested sea to marry and subdue Elias of House Zartisval, crown prince of a rival kingdom. When she meets Elias, however, he unexpectedly refuses to marry her. At risk of being cut off from the imperial family, Liling tries to force the wedding, only to discover that Elias is a murderer and she is his disposable hostage. 

 Liling resolves to expose this betrayal to her father and plots an escape, relying on a reluctant guard and a rebel witch to aid in her flight. Elias, who’d rather see them all dead than free, gives chase. The ensuing battle may cause the Floating Castle to literally fall, and Liling must decide: surrender and die to keep the peace or dishonor her father in exchange for her own life and liberty. The repercussions of her choice will ripple across a continent. 

Fans of Game of Thrones and The Witcher will appreciate this epic fantasy for its morally gray women, dangerous political intrigue, and sinister magic. 

Zilla: I love everything about this—you could have written this book for me. Who did you write this book for?

L.N.: When I was a young woman, I needed stories about women who could survive despite the extreme adversity they were facing. Thankfully, I stumbled upon stories like The Handmaid’s Tale and The Hunger Games, but I struggled to find the stories that I needed in epic fantasy, especially ones that didn’t center a romance. I became so frustrated with the lack of those stories that I decided to write one instead. That’s how The Floating Castle came to be. I hope it will find its way into the hands of women who need to see other women surviving.

Right now, mostly other writers (horror and fantasy writers) are reading my book. I hope to reach more readers at festivals and other in-person events coming up this year.

Zilla: You have a really personal reason for writing this book. What’s the reason you write overall?

L.N.: Stories are one of our most powerful and effective ways to communicate with one another. I’m not a gifted speaker, but if I have time to think about and refine my ideas, I feel like I can communicate at least somewhat well with my writing. I ultimately just long to connect with other people, to love and understand those who are different (or even the same) as me.

Zilla: What’s your next writing project?

L.N.: Besides finishing The Dragon Gate series? I have two horror stories haunting my brain, demanding attention.

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?

L.N.: You can find The Floating Castle in six independent bookstores: The Crafty Bookstore, The Cozy Book Nook, The Bookworm (Omaha), Amethyst and Ink Books, Snapdragon Books & Gifts, and The Floating Bookshop. I would encourage you to buy from them first. The purchase links are on my website.

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

Zilla: Honey Novick is a singer, poet, writer, among her other talents! She’s here to tell us about her work. Honey, can you tell us a bit about what you’ve created and what drives you?

Honey: I’m considered a song/poet, someone who sings, writes and interprets poetry.  My writing is shared only when it is positive and hopeful.  I believe that that is why I write and sing – to offer hope.  It is a personal struggle as I tend to be discouraged but in my writing and singing, I find a strength, a spiritual connection and that is what I like to offer and share with others.

Zilla: What inspires you? How do you start a song?

Honey: I was feeling discouraged one afternoon.  Sitting on my bed, I felt I had to get out of this funk.  I started saying to myself, “I am a winner”  then I’d think, “You are one, too.”  Then I thought, “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, I know something really great!!!” That became a song.  I had the opportunity to sing at a Voice of Women conference and performed that song with motions.  Unbeknownst to me, a United Nations representative was in the audience and loved it.  She invited me to send all my material to the UNESCO Education department.  I was honored and knew my words had a positive effect.

Zilla: Thanks for sharing your positive creations and your process. We’re looking forward to seeing more! Where can the Night Beats community find your work?

Honey: Night Beats people can find me on Google, Youtube and Facebook. I’m a technical luddite and don’t know how to provide a link to my books but they are all archived at the National Art Gallery of Canada, General Idea Reading Room

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

Rachel: We’re delighted to have Nina Munteanu, author of Gaia’s Revolution, here to talk with us about eco-fiction, the climate crisis, and slime molds! Nina, please tell us us a little about your creative work. And what inspired you to write it?

Nina: My latest novel is Gaia’s Revolution, the first of The Icaria Trilogy, clifi eco-fiction that explores a collapsing capitalist society in Canada through ravages of climate change, societal decisions, and a failing technology. Gaia’s Revolution opens in Berlin, 2022, then moves to Canada, where ambitious twin brothers Eric and Damien ignite a revolution that could save the planet—or erase humanity altogether. Fanatical deep ecologist, Monica Schlange plays the brothers like chess pieces in her gambit to ‘rule the world.’ She captures three orphans in a web of intrigue to reshape humanity and its place in the natural world. But the orphans will ultimately determine the direction of humanity and launch a new set of rules no one envisioned.

This is a story about Canada’s future, a fast-paced political thriller that touches on issues Canadians may soon or already face: environmental devastation of climate change, social unrest and polarization, eco-terrorism, DNA-targeted plagues, techno-clones, environmental technocracy and behaviour engineering.

I originally wrote what eventually became the middle book of the current trilogy back when I was a teenager in the late 60s. The story, originally called Caged in World, featured a world forced inside sealed domes to escape the harsh uninhabitable environment destroyed by climate change (Yes! I knew about climate change back then!) and effects of unruly human greed. A teenager in high school, I was acutely aware of what we were doing to the planet; it inspired me to write this story, and this dystopia became the first full length novel I would write.  

Rachel: I did something similar, both in terms of conceiving of the middle book first, and in tackling the effects of the climate crisis in Canada. And, as it turns out, writing rather morally grey lead characters. Ecofiction these days often tends towards the utopian, with well-intentioned characters doing their best. Why did you decide to focus on manipulative and extremist characters instead?

Nina: The morally ambiguous character appeared much truer to what is going on with our current climate / environmental dilemma and what the trilogy is about. Our world is fast becoming more fractured, polarized and extremist in worldviews and actions; and we are growing less tolerant of any divergences. Under extraordinary circumstances, ordinary people may be driven outside their comfort level, to extremism and moral ambiguity. I wanted to explore that possibility by featuring actors deeply involved through their convictions in the big decisions that face humanity; questions that touch on ecocentrism vs. anthropocentrism; deep ecology, sustainability, and selfish vs selfless motivations. When faced with truly existential questions and extreme divergences in worldview, innocence is the first casualty.

The true—and the only innocent—protagonists in this story are the three orphans, who must navigate the harsh environment their elders have left them. In some ways they—and the casualty of their innocence—are at the heart of the story.

Rachel: Can you explain a little about limnology and how your background in ecology plays into your writing?

Nina: Limnology is the ecological study of freshwater. It is a multi-disciplinary field that incorporates chemistry, physics and biology to create big-picture analyses of systems and their surroundings. For that reason, limnologists also look at watersheds and land use, given their effect on water systems. I’ve brought much of my science background into my fiction writing—mostly for premise and background, but also as theme in many of my works (the majority of which are eco-fiction). My love for Nature and my study of the environment have informed my fiction incredibly: in the language, the direction of my works, in my choice of protagonists, even. When I was ten years old all I wanted was to be a paperback novelist. But I took some turns and pursued a science degree instead and became a science teacher and environmental consultant, only to return to writing books. The universe in its wisdom, provided me with the tools I needed to be the writer I was meant to be: a science-informed eco-fiction science-fiction writer of high-concept ideas with large scope.

Rachel: What is the role of speculative fiction in combatting the climate crisis?

Nina: The climate crisis and associated environmental issues are largely a global phenomenon—concerns like water and air quality and quantity, environmental exploitation and fossil fuel extraction, impacts to biodiversity and rampant extinction. Science fiction (and speculative fiction particularly) is the literature of consequence that explores large issues faced by humankind; This largely metaphoric writing can provide an important vehicle in raising environmental awareness. Literature in general has always served as a cultural reporter on themes important to humanity.  Critic Frederic Jameson argues that the literature of “science fiction is in its very nature a symbolic meditation on history itself.” The science fiction genre—and speculative fiction particularly—explores premises based on current scientific and technological paradigms. What if we kept doing this?…What if that went on unchecked?… What if we decided to end this?… These are conveyed through the various predictive visions from cautionary tales (e.g., Atwood’s Oryx and Crake) to dystopias (e.g., Huxley’s Brave New World). The power of speculative fiction over realist fiction or non-fiction reportingh to do with environment and climate change is in “showing us” instead of simply “telling us.” Using the tools of metaphor and personal dramatization, speculative fiction provides a palatable, and more meaningful narrative that readers can truly experience and connect with, learn and act on. 

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

Nina: I’ve already done it! And I’m still doing it! I was an ecologist / limnologist, working as an environmental consultant for various clients, educating them and helping them comply with regulations and become better environmental citizens. I’d like to teach ecology in primary and secondary school, if such a program existed—which it doesn’t, unfortunately. Either way, both of these are aimed to educate toward more environmental awareness and sustainable choices. You could say, I’m doing that with my writing now, which is why I love it as a career. I currently teach writing at The University of Toronto. I also write non-fiction articles for various magazines and on my blogs, which see over 80,000 visitors a month.

The other pursuit I would have loved to follow is in the field of lichenology (the study of lichens) or mycology, (the study of fungi and slime molds). As it turns out, I’ve become a pretty good amateur mycologist and lichenologist. I walk the nearby forests daily and often come out with photos and an article in my head about some interesting specimen. Check out the blog on my site The Meaning of Water for some of them.

Rachel: I’m low-key obsessed with the strange organisms that make up our very real world. So…could you tell our readers a few interesting facts about slime molds?

Nina: I’d love to! Perhaps because—or in spite of—the bizarre designs of their fruiting bodies, their intriguing behaviour and success and ubiquity while remaining rather invisible and overlooked—slime molds have both defied taxonomic identification and been given some of the most colourful, disgusting, and wonderful common names. Some include: Moon Poo Slime, Wolf’s Milk Slime, Tree Hair Slime, Dog Vomit Slime, Bubble Gum Slime, Scrambled Egg Slime, Tapioca Slime, and Chocolate Tube Slime.

Slime molds are bizarre life forms, once classified as fungus—because they sort of looked like fungi. Unlike a fungus that is not capable of absorbing and digesting their food internally, a slime mold can. They can also move—unlike fungus; slime molds conduct phagocytosis—just like the amoeba I studied in school. They can move several millimeters in an hour and some may charge into a rapid movement of over 1 mm/second. That’s visible to the naked eye! Think Steve McQueen and The Blob. Shades of science fiction! Lastly, slime mold has been proven to have intelligence, able to navigate the most efficient route to a food source. We have much more to learn about these tiny intelligent beings who are silently taking over the world.

Rachel: While I am off forming a new punk band called Moon Poo Slime, where can our readers find you and your work?

Nina: Readers and other interested parties can find me and my work on several sites. www.NinaMunteanu.ca is dedicated to my writing; www.NinaMunteanu.me showcases weekly articles with my latest news and articles on writing; I post weekly articles on www.TheMeaningOfWater.com which explores all things environmental and about water, particularly. I’m also active on several social media platforms, including Bluesky, Twitter, and Linked-In.