B58 Mini Interviews with Scott Edelman, Sarah Beth Durst, and Andrea Hairston!

Welcome back to the Boskone 58 Mini Interview Series! Get to know some of the top authors, scientists, artists, and creators in the science fiction, fantasy and horror industry, why they’re looking forward to Boskone, and perhaps a sneak peek at what they’re working on next.

Hope you enjoyed out first video response last week! We are happy to present another one again in this week’s Boskone 58 Mini Interview Series with Scott Edelman, Sarah Beth Durst, and Andrea Hairston!

Scott Edelman

Scott Edelman has published 100+ short stories in magazines such as Analog, Postscripts, The Twilight Zone, and Dark Discoveries, and in anthologies such as Why New Yorkers Smoke, Crossroads: Southern Tales of the Fantastic, Chiral Mad 3, and MetaHorror. His collection of zombie fiction, What Will Come After was a finalist for the Shirley Jackson Memorial Award, and his science fiction short stories have been collected in What We Still Talk About from Fantastic Books. His most recent collections include Tell Me Like You Done Before: and Other Stories Written on the Shoulders of Giants and Things That Never Happened. He has been a Stoker Award finalist eight times, both in the category of Short Story and Long Fiction. Edelman also worked for the Syfy Channel for 13+ years as editor of Science Fiction Weekly, SCI FI Wire, and Blastr. He was the founding editor of Science Fiction Age, which he edited during its entire eight-year run. He has been a four-time Hugo Award finalist for Best Editor. He’s also the host of the Eating the Fantastic podcast, which since February 2016 has allowed listeners to eavesdrop on his meals with creators of science fiction, fantasy, horror, comics, and more.

Visit Scott Edelman on their Facebook, Twitter, and Website!

VIDEO RESPONSE!

Sarah Beth Durst

Sarah Beth Durst is the award-winning author of over twenty fantasy books for adults, teens, and kids, including The Queens of Renthia series, Drink Slay Love, and Spark. She won an ALA Alex Award and a Mythopoeic Fantasy Award and has been a finalist for SFWA’s Andre Norton Award three times. She is a graduate of Princeton University and lives in Stony Brook, New York, with her husband, her children, and her ill-mannered cat. For more information, visit her at sarahbethdurst.com.

Visit Sarah Beth Durst on their Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, and Website!

What you most looking forward to at virtual Boskone 58?

I am looking forward to my kaffeeklatsch (always love those!), to my panels, and to not having to worry about missing my train to Boston due to a blizzard. Let it snow!

If you were planning a holiday or vacation and could visit any location, whether in the real world or fictional worlds, where would you go? Why?

Well, I shouldn’t visit any of my own fictional worlds. I have zero survival instincts and would last about five minutes before being torn to pieces by a malevolent nature spirit or devoured by a sea monster. So it would be best if I visited a nice, friendly fictional world — perhaps Narnia, shortly after the defeat of Jadis the White Witch. I spent a LOT of my childhood checking the back of my closet for a way into Narnia. And I still keep any eye out for Faun Tumnus whenever I’m near a lamp-post.

Authors, artists, and creators often listen to music while they work. If you have a playlist you’d like to share or an album to recommend, please add it here. We’ll be compiling a list of lists to help Boskone attendees get their creative juices flowing.

soundtracks to How to Train Your Dragon, Wonder Woman, Moana, and Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland

What are you currently working on? Any new releases that fans should know about?

I have two new books coming out in 2021, and I’m really excited about them!

THE BONE MAKER, a standalone epic fantasy, will be out on March 9th from Harper Voyager. It’s about five heroes, twenty-five years after they defeated the great evil that threatened their world. One is broken, one has gone soft, one is pursuing a simple life, one is stuck in the past, and one is dead. It’s a book about second chances. And a lot of bone magic.

And my next book for kids, EVEN AND ODD, comes out from HMH / Clarion Books on June 15th. It’s about two sisters who can work magic but only on alternating days. There’s also a unicorn named Jeremy.

I had so much fun writing both these books and can’t wait for people to read them!

Andrea Hairston

Andrea Hairston is a playwright, novelist, and scholar. She has published three novels: Will Do Magic For Small Change, a New York Times Editor’s pick; Redwood and Wildfire, winner of the Otherwise and Carl Brandon Awards; Mindscape, winner of the Carl Brandon Award. She also published Lonely Stardust, a collection of essays and plays “Griots of the Galaxy,” a short story, appears in So Long Been Dreaming: Postcolonial Visions of the Future. A novelette, “Saltwater Railroad,” was published by Lightspeed Magazine. “Dumb House,” a short story appears in New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color. Andrea has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Her latest novel, Master of Poisons, came out in September 2020 from Tor.com. In her spare time, Andrea is the Louise Wolff Kahn 1931 Professor of Theatre and Africana Studies at Smith College and the Artistic Director of Chrysalis Theatre. She bikes at night year round, meeting bears, multi-legged creatures of light and breath, and the occasional shooting star.

Visit Andrea Hairston on their Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Website!

What you most looking forward to at virtual Boskone 58?

Talking with the other science fiction and fantasy folk who will be at the con. I miss my tribe! I want to find out what people are thinking, what they’ve been dreaming and scheming! I want to know what folks are reading or what they’ve been watching/streaming since last we met. I want to hear what new projects writers/creators are juiced about. I want to feel connected to the community that is spread across the globe, hear voices, see eyes light up, laugh together.

If you were planning a holiday or vacation and could visit any location, whether in the real world or fictional worlds, where would you go? Why?

So I want to be everywhere at once–so I’d probably get on a star ship that had beaming capabilities. I’d travel the galaxy see and take in the wonders beyond us and when back near Earth, beam to the places I did not get to visit in 2020. I join friends wherever they wanted to hook up. I love the mountains so I would visit the Alps, the Maine Coast, and the West coast north of San Francisco. I’d visit the Georgia Sea Islands too even though it’s flat land, but I do appreciate the forests to the sea..

Dirty Computer; Faun: Märchen & Mythen https://napalmrecords.com/english/maerchen-mythen-cd.html

What are you currently working on? Any new releases that fans should know about?

MASTER OF POISONS, Trade Paperback (TPB) edition: Sept 2021

A poison desert blows across the Arkhysian Empire. People want to deny this and do nothing, but getting caught in a void-storm is death. Djola, advisor to the Emperor, is trying to save the land, the people, the weeds and wild things. Awa, friend to bees, crows, wild dogs, and horses seeks the story power to conjure the world she wants. Both Djola and Awa are tested, and both make enormous sacrifices trying to save the people – and the world – they love.

I am working on my next novel, ARCHANGELS OF FUNK which is part of my five book deal with TorDotCom. Five Books! I can barely believe it–but each word I write makes it more real. ARCHANGELS is the story of Cinnamon Jones, scientist, artiste, and hoodoo conjurer and takes place in an alternate present after Water Wars have scrambled the world. Bad Boys and Desperados roam the roads wreaking havoc. Invisible Darknet lords troll the internet solidifying their power. Cinnamon and her Circus-Bots are part of a community of Motor Fairies, Pedal-People, and Co-Ops trying to hold on to who they’ve been while coming up with the next world. Of course not everybody has the same vision for the future–so who gets to tell the story of our lives?

TorDotCom will release REDWOOD AND WILDFIRE February 2022.

Curious about who else is coming to Boskone 58? With 3 days of over 100 top-notch items paired with top authors, scientists, artists, and creators in the science fiction, fantasy and horror industry, you won’t want to miss out. Join your fellow fans and writers by registering today!

Don’t miss out! Register for Boskone 58 today!