We talk with writer Bonnie Burton, author of Crafting with Feminism: 25 Girl-Powered Projects to Smash the Patriarchy. Crafting with Feminism arrives in stores and online retailers on October 18th, and features a forward from Felicia Day. The book contains projects ranging from merit badges to googly-eyed tampon puppets, and takes an enthusiastic, tongue-in-cheek approach to both crafting and defiance of the patriarchy. She has also written The Star Wars Craft Book, You Can Draw: Star Wars, and Girls Against Girls: Why We Are Mean to Each Other and How We Can Change. She is the former Senior Editor for LucasFilm’s StarWars.com, and is currently a freelancer writer for CNET. Bonnie is the co-host of Vaginal Fantasy Book Club, a YouTube series with Felicia Day and Veronica Belmont. We talk with Bonnie about the often not-very-lucrative business of being an author, and supporting writer-y pursuits with other work. She walks us through the pitch process for a crafting book, creating a viable product for existing audiences. And we discuss her long career writing for magazines and websites, from the early days of the web to the current, cluttered blogosphere.

We talk with Hugo-award-winning author Mary Robinette Kowal about her new historical fantasy novel, Ghost Talkers, available now from TOR. We discuss how Ghost Talkers came together, and we also explore the other facets of her career, including her award-winning work as a puppeteer, and her side-gig as a voice over artist reading novels and short stories for other writers.

We talk with cross-genre author Quincy J. Allen, writer of the recently released Blood Curse from WordFire Press. A western steampunk epic fantasy, Blood Curse is the second book in his Blood War Chronicles series. Quincy also creates the book layout design for all of WordFire’s print and digital offerings, manages their warehouse, and is constantly on the road, working their impressive displays at cons. We discuss juggling multiple aspects of a demanding career, realistic goal setting to guide his progress, and life on the road as an introvert who talks to hundreds of con-goers at every show.

Adron talks with New York Times Bestselling author Dayton Ward. A prolific writer with dozens of books, novellas and short stories spanning a twenty-year career, Dayton is probably best known as one of the core writers of the Star Trek novels. Along with his frequent co-author Kevin Dilmore, Dayton writes within the canon continuities of the original Star Trek series, Next Generation, and more. He has also developed new crews and characters to boldly explore the well established Star Trek universe with fresh perspectives. We talk about how Dayton kickstarted his writing career by entering a publisher’s contest back in the ‘90s. We explore the pros and cons of writing licensed work, while having to please the fanbase and the protectors of the intellectual property. Dayton explains how he works with a co-author while balancing numerous projects, and we talk about Twitter and the social media styles of professional creators.

Adron talks with author Todd McCaffrey, son of science fiction / fantasy legend Anne McCaffrey (Dragon Riders of Pern novels). Todd’s latest release is City of Angels, a near-future sci-fi thriller available now from WordFire Press. We’re also joined in this conversation by City of Angels editor Bryan Thomas Schmidt, who was an editor on the breakout Andy Weir novel The Martian. We discuss Todd’s new book, working with his mother and taking over the Pern legacy, and the many iterations a book takes before it finally lands at a publisher.

Ellen Wright is the senior publicist at Orbit Books, which is the science fiction and fantasy imprint of Hachette Book Group. Orbit's authors include Joe Abercrombie, James S.A. Corey, Karen Miller, Lilith Saintcrow and Brent Weeks. They publish approximately 60 titles each year from both established and debut authors. Ellen has been in the publishing industry for over a decade, working on both nonfiction and fiction. As a passionate genre fiction fan working at Orbit, her job is spread the word about exciting new sci-fi and fantasy releases and their authors. We explore exactly what that entails, from office communication to social media connections, fan outreach at conventions to building personal relationships with both authors and notable reviewers.

Wendy and Adron talk with Drew Chapman, author of the new thriller novel The King of Fear, published by Simon & Schuster. It’s the sequel to his first novel, The Ascendant. Drew is also an established writer from the world of television and film. He co-wrote and executive produced the second season of TNT’s Legends, starring Sean Bean, as well as the ABC limited series The Assets. He wrote and directed the feature film Stand Off, starring Dennis Haysbert and Robert Sean Leonard. Drew has written for Fox, Universal, Warner Brothers and Sony, and a notable stretch at Disney Animation, during which he was the first writer on Pocahontas.

Monkey Minion Press's first Kickstarter campaign, for their book Eureka! The Art of Science, just blew past their initial funding goal of $8,500, and will close at more than $32,000. We talk with founders Dane Ault (artist, graphic designer) and Ashlie Hammond (copywriter, crafter) about how Monkey Minion Press got started, how they both quit their day jobs to run their business full-time, and life on the road exhibiting at a ton of conventions every year. And, of course, we discuss Eureka, and what went into the creation of a very successful Kickstarter campaign.

We talk with comedy writers Geoffrey Golden and Amanda Meadows, the founders of The Devastator. Formerly a bi-annual humor anthology, The Devastator is now an all-comedy publishing company producing new novels, comics, magazines, and activity books every month. We discuss the genesis of The Devastator, the reasoning behind their move away from anthologies to one-off publications, the challenges facing independent publishers in the Direct market, and much more.

At Emerald City ComiCon 2015, we talked with superstar author Kevin J. Anderson about his work, and his publishing imprint, WordFire Press. We also spoke with WordFire authors Peter J. Wacks and R.J. Terrell, and event manager Alexi Vandenberg.