A while back I auditioned for Iambik Audiobooks to be one of their book narrators, and landed my first gig: Matthew Hughes’s science fiction novel The Other, published by Underland Press. I had a great time reading and narrating the book, and now that it’s actually out and on sale, I’m rather trepidatiously awaiting the …
[podcast]http://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/uploads//2012/03/Salt-Tolerant-Wheat.mp3[/podcast] Having grown up on the prairies, first in Texas, then in Saskatchewan, I’ve seen, my whole life, the patches of white where nothing grows, out in the middle of the fields. And like most other prairie folk, I’ve tended to call them “alkali.” Fact is, though, that most of them, at least in Saskatchewan, …
For several years I wrote numerous non-fiction books for Enslow Publishers, ranging from science books to biographies. Among the biographies were four for a series called American Rebels, for which I wrote books on Johnny Cash, Janis Joplin, Andy Warhol…and Jimi Hendrix. For this week’s Saturday special, the introduction (complete with footnotes!) to Jimi Hendrix: …
[podcast]http://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/uploads//2012/03/Plate-Tectonics.mp3[/podcast] Our planet may look like a solid ball of rock, but if you could crack it like an egg (not actually something I’d recommend, although it would make for a fun scene in a science fiction novel or movie) you’d find it’s quite fluid inside. And, in fact, the Earth’s solid shell, called the …
This week, another early story of mine. This is one of the earliest stories I sold, to a long-defunct Canadian children’s magazine called JAM. In fact, it was the cover story, and if I ever figure out where I put the magazine I’ll post the cover art here. It’s of roughly the same era as …
Last Saturday I posted the opening to the first novel I wrote, when I was 14 years old. This week we jump ahead four or five years to when I was attending Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas (that’s a photo of the library). This story, “Follow a Song,” was a winner in the school’s annual …
I’ve worked with young writers quite a bit over the past few years, teaching the Sage Hill Teen Writing Experience for three summers in a row, serving as writer-in-residence at Riffel High School and now, of course, as writer-in-residence at the Regina Public Library. I’ve also edited the Saskatchewan Writer Guild’s magazine for young writer, …
[podcast]http://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/uploads//2012/02/Segmented-Sleep.mp3[/podcast] It’s happened to all of us at one time or another: we wake up in the middle of the night, have trouble going back to sleep, start worrying about the fact we’re having trouble going back to sleep, start worrying about the fact we’re worrying about the fact we’re having trouble going back to …
I’ve not written a lot of comics…but here’s one I did, with an environmental theme, for Communities of Tomorrow via the Saskatchewan Science Centre. It appeared (maybe it still does, I’m not sure) in an exhibit at the Science Centre. I don’t think it was ever actually printed as a comic per se. The art …
[podcast]http://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/uploads//2012/02/The-Rapunzel-Number.mp3[/podcast] It’s said that fatherhood changes you. Take me, for instance. Until I had a daughter with long hair, I had absolutely no interest in ponytails. Now I find myself making one every morning (although, thankfully, she’s now able to do her own buns for ballet class—trying to achieve perfect bunhood…bunniness?…was way too stressful for …
Magebane has been shortlisted for the Regina Book Award in this year’s Saskatchewan Book Awards. The Regina Book Award is described this way: “In recognition of the vitality of the literary community in Regina, this award is presented to a Regina author (or pair of authors) for the best book, judged on the quality of …
This was one of the first, if not the very first, science fiction short stories I ever sold. It appeared in the 1984 Canadian Children’s Annual, the year I turned 25. The photo of the lunar surface is from Apollo 17. Darryl Norton looked glumly at the dust-covered object before him. It seemed to him …
