Category Archives: Action

SURVIVE! on an Alien Planet with Charles P. Graham, Episode #85

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Books and Brews: the place where beer and literature meet!

Charles P Graham author of the Survive! series


Dr. Charles P. Graham: sci-fi author author of the Survive! series, semi-retired chiropractor, Navy nuclear submarine veteran, survivalist, squadron leader, search and rescue pilot and more! 

After serving aboard the USS Plunger during the Cold War, Charles built a chiropractic practice in St. Johns, Michigan, and became a leader in Civil Air Patrol and search and rescue work. 

He Survive! series — Marooned on Planet Tau Ceti g, First Alien Contact, and the soon to be released Galactic War — draws on his extensive experience in survival training and search and rescue. When he’s not writing or treating patients, he develops puzzle games on Steam and Google Play under Simple Software Solutions. 

We talked about Charles’ experience in search and rescue—can you really eat that?—how his books stand out in the sci-fi field, the writing craft, his scariest airplane experiences and more. Oh, and of course—are Bigfoot and Dogmen out there?

This was an especially fun interview as Charles and his wife happened to be traveling very close to our home so we got to do an in-person interview. He was going to read to the sheep but it was a very muddy day so we didn’t do that!

What drinks would you pair to readings about a strange new alien creature, an attack by a bear-like animal, and a man alone on a damaged spaceship?

00:00 START
03:16 Drink 1: High Canopy Sour
04:44 Reading 1: Jay Meets the Pidogg
14:52 Writing ourselves into corners
17:01 Life in Search and Rescue 
21:46 Drink 2: Growing Friendship Cucumber Cooler
23:12 Reading 2: Risking Wild Alien Animals for Water
30:17 A futuristic take on women and flawed heroes
34:47 Balancing the amount of science presented in fiction
40:27 Drink 3: Heroes Risk-Taker Dacquiri
41:50 Reading 3: Lezah Faces the End
51:30 Faith in sci-fi 
55:03 Civil Air Patrol and airplane disasters
 
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If you enjoy our interviews or have benefited from them, we invite you to help us continue our work. It takes a great deal of time and money to produce Books and Brews. We’ve been doing interviews since January 2017 as a free service to authors. We continue to promote those authors on our social media for years after their interviews.

  • Subscribing, following, liking, commenting and sharing all help us to keep doing what we do.
  • A $5 tip helps us pay for our many expenses: Libsyn hosting, web hosting, Google meets, providing the drinks for the interview and the many hours of preparation and editing that go into each episode.
  • Patreon: patreon.com/BooksandBrewswithLauraVosika
  • Tip Jar: paypal.me/booksandbrewsMN * Books and Brews products:
    https://www.zazzle.com/store/books_an… (more to come)
  • Sponsor an episode to promote your product or service: contact us booksandbrewslive@gmail.com

COMING NEXT: 
Barry Black — former FBI master bomb technician
Randy Lerch — former MLB player

UPCOMING EVENTS:
Gabriel’s Horn is accepting submissions for its anthology NEW THEMES: CHILDREN and AMERICA
See Laura’s interview at Central Valley Talk
Our theme music is from www.bensound.com.

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel to get notifications of all our new videos. We have now interviewed more than 115 authors around the world! Would you like to be featured? Leave a comment.

If you liked this episode, you might also like these Books and Brews episodes:

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel to get notifications of all our new videos. We have now interviewed more than 115 authors! Would you like to be featured? Leave a comment.

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Women’s Fiction with Judith Granahan, Episode #13

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Books and Brews: the place where beer and literature meet

Judith Granahan writes women's fiction

Fiction Author, Judith Granahan of Minnesota writes women’s fiction: books about strong, intelligent, inventive women who get in trouble. The question is who will survive, who won’t?

Women have alternately been described as super human to sniveling child, intelligent to incompetent, collaborator to cut throat. With such varied attributes in mind, Granahan creates novels full of compelling characters dealing with mystery, danger, thrills, romance, horror, and difficult choices.

Someday she may even write science fiction, fantasy or historical novels.
www.judithgranahanbooks.com

Judy’s Readings:

  • Rose Teaches her Sons to Hate (See That House) – 10:48
  • Hailey Goes Off the Mountain (See That House) – 23:47
  • Anna Mae Shoots Her Husband’s Grave (Dancers of the Third Age) – 41:25

Michael’s Beer Pairings:

  • Obsidian Stout, Deschutes Brewery (paired to Rose Teaches her Sons to Hate) – 6:54
  • Zombie Dust, 3 Floyd’s Brewing Company (paired to Hailey Goes Off the Mountain) – 21:10
  • BOMB!, Prairie Artisan Ales (paired to Anna Mae Shoots Her Husband’s Grave) – 36:58

Interview Highlights:

  • Starting the Night Writers group – 12:23
  • What kind of research goes into writing about corporate financial shenanigans? – 19:16
  • How do you get inside the head of characters completely unlike yourself? – 25:26
  • Writing people who are despicable in many ways–but not two dimensional bad guys. – 31:37
  • Revenge is not the answer to evil–what is? – 34:02
  • Your characters do a lot of shooting! What’s your background with guns? – 45:46
  • What drew you to writing about an abused woman? – 47:40
  • Why do some people get the strength to leave abusive situations? – 50:54

COMING NEXT MONTH:

Film maker and novelist John Gaspard.

Our theme music is from www.bensound.com.

If you liked this episode, you might also like these Books and Brews episodes:

HELP US GROW

If you enjoy our interviews or have benefited from them, we invite you to help us continue our work. It takes a great deal of time and money to produce Books and Brews. We’ve been doing interviews since January 2017 as a free service to authors. We continue to promote those authors on our social media for years after their interviews.

  • Subscribing, following, liking, commenting and sharing all help us to keep doing what we do.
  • A $5 tip helps us pay for our many expenses: Libsyn hosting, web hosting, Google meets, providing the drinks for the interview and the many hours of preparation and editing that go into each episode.
  • Patreon: patreon.com/BooksandBrewswithLauraVosika
  • Tip Jar: paypal.me/booksandbrewsMN
  • Books and Brews products:
    https://www.zazzle.com/store/books_an… (more to come)
  • Sponsor an episode to promote your product or service: contact us booksandbrewslive@gmail.com

A Magician Writes Sci-fi: Bob Miller, Episode #3

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Bob Miller has been a professional magician for twenty years, performing on stage and table-side magic. He has also created several of his own tricks which he sells on his website. ​

In addition to magic, Bob works as a programmer. He has created software for magicians to track customers and shows, and software for writers based on K.M. Weiland’s workbook, Outlining Your Novel.​

As if that’s not enough, Bob is now writing a five book
thriller series, Chrysalis Chronology. The series is about genetically-altered
humans with special powers. The first two books – The Smart Kid and The Time
Leaper – are currently available, with others to follow.​​

http://bobmillermagic.com/blog/​

http://bobmillerauthor.com

http://chrysalischronology.com

https://www.facebook.com/BobMillerAuthor/​

​Bob’s Readings: ​

  • The Trap at Lincoln from The Smart Kid, Book
    One​ – 13:08
  • The Falls from The Time Leaper, Book Two​ –
    33:00
  • Date Night from The Proxy Agent, Book Three​-
    45:55

Michael’s Beer Pairings: ​

  • Black Ops, Brooklyn Brewery​ (paired to The Trap at Lincoln) – 11:02
  • Sea Quench, Dogfish Head Brewery​ (paired to The Falls) – 30:33
  • Siracusa Nera, Dogfish Head​ Brewery (paired to Date Night) – 43:35

Interview Highlights: ​

  • Bob’s life as a magician​ – 20:25
  • The Pre-Date Calendar trick​ – 22:40
  • The Chrysalis Chronology novel series – 26:38
  • Why does it matter for characters to change
    throughout a story?​ – 40:33
  • The plots in magic, the plots in writing​ – 52:25

Upcoming Events:

  • Bob performs table side magic and balloon
    animals every Friday night at EL TORO, 10901 Douglas Drive, Champlin, MN, 6 to
    8 pm. ​Free to all customers!​
  • Launch of Startled by JOY 2019, new poetry in
    classical forms, edited by Laura Vosika.​
  • Next Chapter Booksellers, 38 South Snelling Drive,
    2 to 3:30 pm​. Music, free wine and hors d’oeuvres.

COMING NEXT MONTH:

Kathryn Kysar, Twin Cities poet

Our theme music is from www.bensound.com.

If you liked this episode, you might also like these Books and Brews episodes:

HELP US GROW

If you enjoy our interviews or have benefited from them, we invite you to help us continue our work. It takes a great deal of time and money to produce Books and Brews. We’ve been doing interviews since January 2017 as a free service to authors. We continue to promote those authors on our social media for years after their interviews.

  • Subscribing, following, liking, commenting and sharing all help us to keep doing what we do.
  • A $5 tip helps us pay for our many expenses: Libsyn hosting, web hosting, Google meets, providing the drinks for the interview and the many hours of preparation and editing that go into each episode.
  • Patreon: patreon.com/BooksandBrewswithLauraVosika
  • Tip Jar: paypal.me/booksandbrewsMN
  • Books and Brews products:
    https://www.zazzle.com/store/books_an… (more to come)
  • Sponsor an episode to promote your product or service: contact us booksandbrewslive@gmail.com