This episode is brought to you by the new middle grade novel THRONES AND BONES: FROSTBORN, by Lou Anders. Smelly trolls, the walking dead, and a fire-breathing dragon are no match for Karn and Thianna, two heroes with pluck and smarts. Lou Anders’s first book is a humorous viking-inspired fantasy adventure that will appeal to fans of Rick Riordan, Brandon Mull, and Lloyd Alexander.
This novel is receiving rave reviews. Still not convinced? Read Tim Ward’s review of THRONES AND BONES, and then pick up a copy for yourself. And when you do, tell Lou Anders that AISFP sent you!
Lou Anders joins us to discuss his first published novel, THRONES AND BONES: FROSTBORN. Among the topics discussed include:
- Worldbuilding with the help of modern technology;
- Gaming culture and how that works in medieval societies;
- The distinction between YA and middle grade writing;
- Traveling to Norway to research the setting and cultural inspiration for Norrengard;
- Working with Robert Lazzarreti;
- The incredible video game found on the Thrones and Bones website, not mention other media tie-in products and experiences!
- Fractal Terrains 3, which Lou used to design his world;
- Shooting Vikings (context in the interview!);
- How important gaming can be to developing world-building skills. Lou loves Skyrim, by the way;
- Testing the module for the Thrones and Bones game with Howard Andrews Jones, Howard Tayler, Scott Lynch, Dave Gross, and Saladin Ahmed.
Book Giveaway!
We have a copy of THRONES AND BONES: FROSTBORN to give away to one lucky listener. How can you win? Simply share the news about the giveaway and this episode on social media. You can SHARE the Facebook post or tweet about it (just tag @AISFPpodcast in the tweet). Make sure you keep your eye on our social media pages in case you are announced as the winner. The winner will be announced Tuesday, September 2nd. Open to residents of North America only.
Podcast: Download (Duration: 49:02 — 34.1MB)
This looks great. Just dowloading the podcast now, so look forward to listening to it. I am a big fan of Anders and what he does. I wrote a more or less rave review for his Masked anthology over at my own blog: http://bonemachines.wordpress.com/tag/masked/.
Lou Anders, John Joseph Adams, Jonathan Strathan, Ann Vandermeer, Ellen Datlow – my favourite editors. Would love it if you got Ann or Ellen on the show! Ann and her husband, Jeff did some steampunk anthologies and Ellen, well you know she edited scifi.com, and lots of wonderful horror and fantasy anthologies.
Thank you for including the link to Fractal Terrains! It looks very promising, and just in time, too… I laboriously hand-sketched a planet the other day, and was frustrated when trying to capture all 3D aspects of it.
Thank you, Traci!