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Monday, February 24, 2020

Space Opera Libretti author interview: Lizz Donnelly

Good evening, passengers of the good spaceship Space Opera Libretti! I'm still reeling from last week's trip into the wormhole, so I only briefly forgot that Monday exists. Now, unless you are a stowaway who snuck aboard at our last pitstop, you know that we invite one of our authors up to the cockpit every Monday to discuss their story available now in Space Opera Libretti. (and if you are a stowaway, we're cool with that. We always bring extra snacks.)

Today's guest is Lizz Donnelly. Lizz and I were both published for the first time in Circuits & Slippers, and then we realize that we lived in the same town. I have had the pleasure of meeting her personally and she is lovely and she is a fan of Nikola Tesla, as am I.

Lizz's story Groovy is a, well, groovy tale about aliens, man.


In 10 words or less, how would you describe your story?
First contact meets Woodstock? Or maybe the benefits of arts and humanities curriculum in higher education? 

What was the inspiration for this story? Be as brief or detailed as you want.
I honestly don't remember. It was a prompt of some sort, from one of the writing prompt twitter bots. I wrote the first draft of Groovy in July 2018 when I did Zoetic Press' Write Like You're Alive event. 31 stories in 31 days is the goal so it was all kind of a blur. But I remembered it when I read the call for submissions to this anthology and thought it was a perfect fit.  

If your story had a theme song, what would it be?
I think it would have to be the Beach Boys "Good Vibrations" 

Tell me a little bit about yourself.
I'm so bad at this part. I work for a small town accountant even though I have two english degrees and spend my free time writing, knitting and spoiling my cat. I'm also a little obsessed with the Great British Baking Show and sometimes I try to make things that are waaaay out of my league. They usually turn out edible, but it always requires every dish I own, no less than three hours, and making a huge mess of my kitchen. Also, I am a wealth of information about 80s crime shows and musical theater. 

What was the last book you read? Did you like it?
Wilder Girls by Rory Power. I did like it--the premise was really cool and I liked both the main narrators. My only complaint is that the ending felt super rushed but I'm expecting a sequel since the end was literally open water. 

Do you have anything you want to promote? Other stories or books, your Etsy shop, a cool video you found online of dancing llamas that you think the world needs to see?
Um... check out my Patreon I guess? www.patreon.com/LizzDonnelly 
I'm in the weird limbo of the end of the year right now but 2020 is going to be my Year of Reading (exclusively) Women authors so there should be more interesting content coming soon. 
And to promote something that isn't mine, check out The Octavia Project. www.octaviaproject.org --a friend from grad school started this organization that brings a completely free 4 week writing day camp to teenage girls and nonbinary youth in Brooklyn every summer. It's awesome, and I try to spread the word about it every chance I get. 

Anything else you want to say?
Thank you to Brian and Jennifer for the chance to work with you both! I'm excited for this anthology :)

Every story in Space Opera Libretti is accompanied by a title page. Groovy's features a cute lil alien and a lot of flowers. Too many flowers? Possibly. But definitely not as many flowers I wanted. I restrained myself.

Lizz Donnelly is a writer, knitter, cat lady, baking enthusiast, and occasional actor. She writes speculative fiction of all lengths, essays, and even the odd short play. Her work has been published recently in Speculative City, Brave New Girls Volume 4, and Grimm, Grit and Gasoline, among others. She is the founder of The (K)indred Experiment, an extracurricular writing club for middle school students. You can find her on Twitter @LizzDonnelly and on Patreon, where she blogs monthly about books, shares new fiction, and will be undertaking a year-long project of reading exclusively female authors in 2020.




Wednesday, February 19, 2020

Space Opera Libretti author interview: Minerva Cerridwen

Good afternoon. This is your co-captain of the good ship Space Opera Libretti speaking. Thank you for bearing with us with our recent delay. Our goal is still to invite one of our authors up to the cockpit every Monday to discuss their story available now in Space Opera Libretti. However, when traveling through space and time, one faces many challenges. One of these challenges is apparently remembering that Monday exists. I think we took a detour, ended up with two Sundays in a row.
But never fear. Brian has taken over the controls and says I can have them back when I remember how to use a calendar!
Until then, let's hear from Minerva Cerridwen, author of Stars From The Stars! I've been in several anthologies with Minerva in the past, and the future, and we were delighted


In 10 words or less, how would you describe your story?
The Universe's Got Talent. Or most of it, anyway...

What was the inspiration for this story? Be as brief or detailed as you want.
I thought it would be fun to write about a siren who's really bad at the one thing sirens are all, according to Greek mythology, really good at. And then to put that siren in a talent show in space. As I was watching a bunch of shows for more inspiration, I really started noticing how often they use variations of the phrase: "You've got what it takes to be a star." And that's how Stars from the Stars happened.

If your story had a theme song, what would it be?
Something like, but not quite, the Britain's Got Talent intro jingle.

Tell me a little bit about yourself.
I'm Minerva, a queer writer and pharmacist from Belgium. My first language is Dutch. 
I used to play the piano, but in the past few years I haven't really found time for it. I love movie soundtracks and musicals, and tend to randomly burst into song in daily life—if not too many people are around to hear it. Currently, my favourite music is probably the Good Omens soundtrack and everything Queen.

What was the last book you read? Did you like it?
I'm currently reading Five Minutes at Hotel Stormcove, edited by E.D.E. Bell, and I'm liking it very much. The Hotel has such a pleasant atmosphere. And of course this anthology has some very good writers in it. ;)

Do you have anything you want to promote? Other stories or books, your Etsy shop, a cool video you found online of dancing llamas that you think the world needs to see?
You can find my other published works here on my website! They range from steampunk Sherlock Holmes over horror poetry to fantasy flash fiction and sweet queer fairy tales.
I've got an upcoming publication in Neon Horror Zine, an anthology of brightly coloured LGBTQIA+ horror stories, comics, and artworks. And I'll also have a story in Community of Magic Pens, a collection of kind and hopeful stories about pens, from Atthis Artsedited bySpace Opera Libretti author E.D.E. Bell! You can preorder Community of Magic Pens here.

[Jen‘s note: I also have a story in Community of Magic Pens!]




Minerva Cerridwen is a Belgian writer and pharmacist. She has short stories in the anthologies Unburied Fables and Love & Bubbles. Her first novella The Dragon of Ynys came out in 2018. For updates on her newest projects, check out her
website http://minervacerridwen.wordpress.com/ or follow her on Twitter (@minerva_cerr). 



Each story in Space Opera Libretti is accompanied by a title page, which I made with free clipart and a design program. Here is Minerva's

Monday, February 10, 2020

Space Opera Libretti author interview: Dean Anthony Brink

Attention Space Opera Libretti passengers: we are now at a comfortable cruising altitude of… one moment, I have to Google something, um… very high. And, seeing as we are flying… very fast… we will reach our destination… when we get there.
You know what, i'm gonna invite another one of our authors up to the cockpit for an interview! Dean Anthony Brink, come on down!


Dean blew us away with his story, The Threepenny Space Opera, because it isn't a story at all--it's an opera! This proved slightly challenging for me personally, because I did not know how to edit or format a libretto. Thank the stars for Google, because no way were we going to let this magnificent story pass us by.


In 10 words or less, how would you describe your story?

A sordid battle for our embodied hearts 


What was the inspiration for this story? Be as brief or detailed as you want.

When Brian suggested someone write a space libretto based on the Three Penny OperaI got right to work. I had been playing Kurt Weill’s songs on the piano for a few years and noticed his works with Brecht—whose theory of epic theatre I love—brought out a more playful as well as dissonant style in his compositions. I tried to emulate this spirit in line with all the tropes of space opera.


If your story had a theme song, what would it be?

But of course, “Mack the Knife.”


Tell me a little bit about yourself.

I grew up with immigrant stories on both sides of my family, and, well, live the American dream by becoming an immigrant myself—in Taiwan, where I have dual citizenship (and daughters). 


What was the last book you read? Did you like it?

Philip K. Dick’s Time Out of Joint. There are amazing scenes and running ironies that resonate with all sorts of social questions then and now.


Do you have anything you want to promote? Other stories or books, your Etsy shop, a cool video you found online of dancing llamas that you think the world needs to see?

Links to more writing can be found on my blog, interpoetics.blogspot.com


Anything else you want to say?

I took the call for libretti literally, and wrote a libretto (not a story). Anyone interested in developing music for a production (influenced by Kurt Weill’s original music for Brecht’s Three Penny Opera or not) please get in touch with me.


Read this story and 19 others in Space Opera Libretti, available wherever hilarious space opera anthologies are sold. So… You know. The Internet.






Originally from Tacoma, Washington, Dean Anthony
 Brink now holds dual citizenship in Taiwan (ROC) where he
 teaches science fiction and creative writing at National Chiao
 Tung University. His speculative fiction has appeared in Every
 Day Fiction (“Mr. Coffee”), Helios Quarterly (“The
 Migration,” “The Scarlatti”), the Incarceration anthology (“The
 San Francisco Funhouse”), the Itty Bitty anthology (“The
 Bellenfants”), the Like a Woman anthology
 (“DearDeparted®”), and Seit und Werden (“The Last Testament
 of a Pacifist in Tokyo, 2047”). Poems have recently appeared
 in Cordite Poetry Review, ecozon@, New Writing,
 and Nimrod. Research interests include studies of Japanese and
 Taiwanese poetry, experimental writing by Amiri Baraka, John
 Ashbery, Richard Wright, and Pierre Guyotat, and philosophy of
 science in the Kyoto School. He is author of Japanese Poetry
 and Its Publics: From Colonial Taiwan to
 Fukushima (Routledge, 2018). Updates and recipes are posted
 at his blog: interpoetics.blogspot.com.

Monday, February 3, 2020

Space Opera Libretti author interview: Spruce Wells!

Good afternoon. This is your co-captain of the good ship Space Opera Libretti speaking. Thank you for choosing us as the anthology of choice on this voyage into the mystical and melodic, the hilarious and the harmonious. The stewards will be coming around shortly with the drink cart. Until then, I’m inviting one of our crew up to the cockpit to tell you about her story, available now in Space Opera Libretti! I'll be doing this every Monday until we reach our destination.



Spruce Wells’ story was an instant hit in the editing room, and we were surprised to hear that The Banda Plays On was her first ever submission. I think you’ll be seeing a lot of her work in the future!


In 10 words or less, how would you describe your story?
Riddling music! Buffet tables! An autistic heroine! The vast unknown!

What was the inspiration for this story? Be as brief or detailed as you want.
I wanted so desperately to read a science fiction story with an autistic heroine where her autism was her strength, not a weakness to overcome. When I heard the prompt open up for Space Opera Libretti, I knew that this was a great chance to see that come to life and I was so happy to find such a perfect fit for this weird, little story about the inter-communicative struggles of running an orchestra in space. 

Do you have anything you want to promote? Other stories or books, your Etsy shop, a cool video you found online of dancing llamas that you think the world needs to see?
Shout out to AI Weirdness, run by Janelle Shane a www.aiweirdness.com! I’m a huge fan. Her neural network experiences always crack me up and are amazing case studies in how we work with machines to think and learn. Her experiments are a great way to highlight how strange it is that humans think the way we do.

Anything else you want to say?
I’m ecstatic to have worked with Jennifer Lee Rossman and Brian McNett on this anthology! They are true experts in pulling an anthology together and it’s been such a learning experience for me as a new writer. Any readers who dive into the worlds in this anthology are in for a treat.

Spruce Wells is an autistic writer and word researcher in Pennsylvania. When she is not at work researching workplace communication tactics and dialect differences, she spends her time writing about interplanetary miscommunication and alien sociolinguistics. You can follow Spruce on Twitter at @SpruceWells. This is her first publication



Each story in Space Opera Libretti is accompanied by a title page, which I made with free clipart and a design program. Here is Spruce’s.