Welcome back to the Boskone 56 Mini Interviews! We hope that all of you have been thoroughly enjoying them so far! We are going to keep the fun going today with Paul Di Filippo, Sarah Beth Durst and David B. Coe!

Paul Di Filippo

With his first story sale in 1977, Paul Di Filippo has passed his fortieth anniversary of telling beautiful lies for money. His newest books are a story collection from WordFire, INFINITE FANTASTIKA, and a novella from PS Publishing, AEOTA. He continues to inhabit a home with 14,000 books in Providence, approximately 200 yards from the marker that denotes Lovecraft’s birthplace. His partnership with Deborah Newton surpasses his writing career by one year.

Visit Paul on his Facebook and Website!

With many conventions to choose from and limited time in your schedule, what attracts you to Boskone?

The people are brilliant and friendly, both organizers and attendees. The programming is a fine blend of hardcore literary themes and whimsicality. The GOHs are always awesome. And Boston is beautiful and rich and rare!

If you could relive your first experience with any book or film, which one would you pick? What is it about this book or film that you want to experience again for the “first time?”

I would like to be nineteen years old again, having my mind blown by GRAVITY’S RAINBOW in the fraught year of 1973. Pynchon is the essence of the twentieth century.

What is your favorite memory of a fan interaction at a convention? It could be you as a pro interacting with one of your fans or you as a fan meeting someone you admire.

When the son of the man who wrote the pop song “Mairzy Doats” came up to me and said he liked my story of the same name.

Can you share some details about upcoming projects or what you’re working on now? Do you have releases in 2019 that readers should look for?

My second crime novel THE DEADLY KISS-OFF appears in April 2019. Also sometime in that year arrives my novella from PS Publishing, AEOTA.

Who is your favorite literary character of all time? What is it about this character that you admire?

Mr. Gissing, the canine hero of Christopher Morley’s WHERE THE BLUE BEGINS. He undoes his safe and placid existence because of vague mystical yearnings. He’s a doggo Buddha.

Sarah Beth Durst

Sarah Beth Durst is the award-winning author of seventeen fantasy books for adults, teens, and kids, including The Queens of Renthia series, Drink Slay Love, and The Stone Girl’s Story. 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, where she spent four years studying English, writing about dragons, and wondering what the campus gargoyles would say if they could talk. Sarah 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 on her Facebook, Twitter, Website, and Tumblr!

With many conventions to choose from and limited time in your schedule, what attracts you to Boskone?

I love Boskone! It’s filled with awesome people who love awesome books. I’m very happy that my schedule worked out this year so I can come. Really looking forward to it!

If you could relive your first experience with any book or film, which one would you pick? What is it about this book or film that you want to experience again for the “first time?”

I was going to say Star Wars, because I was so young when I first saw it that I can’t remember the wonder of seeing it for the first time. But I wouldn’t want to lose the thousands of times I’ve seen it since. That movie — really, the whole original trilogy — is so ingrained in my mind and heart that it defines the entire concept of story for me.

In fact, I don’t want to choose any of my favorite books or movies because I don’t want to sacrifice the years of loving them.

So I think I’ll pick Jumanji Welcome to the Jungle, because I was so shocked that that movie was actually really good. I’d like to re-experience all the laughing-with-surprise-that-it’s-funny.

Do you have a favorite photo from a book event or literary convention? If so, when and where was it taken? What do you enjoy most about this photo?

I look like I’m about to take flight in this photo, and I love it because I remember I was incandescently happy. It was taken at Boskone in 2007, shortly after my first book came out, and I was on a panel with Tamora Pierce and Jane Yolen. I’d wanted to be a fantasy writer for as long as I can remember, so this was a dream-come-true moment.

Can you share some details about upcoming projects or what you’re working on now? Do you have releases in 2019 that readers should look for?

I write fantasy books for kids, teens, and adults. My current YA book is FIRE AND HEIST, which was inspired by Ocean’s Eleven… with were-dragons! My next book for adults (coming in March) is THE DEEPEST BLUE, which is a standalone epic fantasy in my world of Renthia, about a young woman who is an oyster diver with the power to control sea monsters. And my next book for kids (coming in May) is SPARK, about a girl and her lightning dragon and how even a quiet voice can change the world. I’m really excited about all of them!

Who is your favorite literary character of all time? What is it about this character that you admire?

Alanna from ALANNA by Tamora Pierce. I love her determination. I read it when I was ten years old, and I have this crystal clear memory of closing the book and thinking, “If Alanna can become a knight, I can become a writer.”

And my runner-up choice is Silk from THE BELGARIAD by David Eddings. My mom introduced me to those books when I was ten years old and had finished devouring all the fantasy in the children’s room of our library. Silk was the first smart, irreverant, Trickster-type of character I remember reading, and I will always treasure him for the way he made me laugh.

David B. Coe

David B. Coe/D.B. Jackson is the author of twenty novels and as many short stories. As D.B. Jackson (http://www.DBJackson-Author.com), he is the author of TIME’S CHILDREN (October 2018), the first book in The Islevale Cycle, a time travel/epic fantasy series from Angry Robot Books. He also writes the Thieftaker Chronicles, a series set in pre-Revolutionary Boston that combines elements of urban fantasy, mystery, and historical fiction. Under his own name (http://www.DavidBCoe.com) he has written the Crawford Award-winning LonTobyn Chronicle, the critically acclaimed Winds of the Forelands quintet and Blood of the Southlands trilogy, the novelization Ridley Scott’s, ROBIN HOOD, and a contemporary urban fantasy series, the Case Files of Justis Fearsson. He is the co-author of How To Write Magical Words: A Writer’s Companion. He is currently working on several projects, including his next book for Angry Robot, his first editing endeavor, and a tie-in project with the History Channel. David has a Ph.D. in U.S. history from Stanford University. His books have been translated into a dozen languages.

Visit David on his Facebook, Twitter, and Website!

With many conventions to choose from and limited time in your schedule, what attracts you to Boskone?

First of all, Boskone has a reputation for being fun, welcoming, literary in its programming emphasis, and extremely well run. And so I leapt at the opportunity to attend. I live in the Southeast — Tennessee — and I rarely get a chance to attend conventions in the Northeast, which is sad for me because I was born and raised in that part of the country, and lived for several years in New England. Again, that made me all the more eager to attend. And finally, one of my more recent series, the Thieftaker Chronicles, is set in 1760s/70s Boston. I have Ph.D. in U.S. history and have long been fascinated by that period. So having the chance to visit the city, to connect with fans with whom I haven’t had as much contact as I would like, and to return to my old stomping grounds — well, it was too much to turn down.

If you could relive your first experience with any book or film, which one would you pick? What is it about this book or film that you want to experience again for the “first time?”

I am a huge fan of Guy Gavriel Kay. I believe he is one of the finest (if not THE finest) fantasy authors of the last half century. I’ve read everything he’s written and I have, in recent years, been fortunate enough to strike up a friendship with him (based on our both being fantasists, our politics, our love of Scotch, and our devotion to a certain baseball team from, well, let’s just say, points south of Boston). I still have a vivid memory of reading THE SUMMER TREE, the first volume in his first series, the Fionavar Tapestry. I was blown away by the depth of his character work, the richness of his world building, and the elegance of his prose. There is a pure joy to be derived from “discovering” a new writer, and when I read THE SUMMER TREE, I felt as though I walked through a door into a new world. By that time, I knew I wanted to write fantasy for a living, but I hadn’t yet found an author whose voice spoke to me the way Guy’s did. His work became the standard by which I judged everything I wrote. That joy I found in his first book, that sense of finally understanding what sort of writer I wanted to be — that is something I would love to experience again.

Can you share some details about upcoming projects or what you’re working on now? Do you have releases in 2019 that readers should look for?

This past year, Angry Robot Books put out TIME’S CHILDREN, the first novel in my new epic fantasy/time travel series The Islevale Cycle. I believe it’s the best thing I’ve published to date, and so I am incredibly excited about the second book in the series TIME’S DEMON (written as D.B. Jackson) which will be published in May 2019. The Islevale books have a lot of moving parts — time travel will do that to a narrative. In addition to time travelers, there are assassins and demons, spies and pirates. There is intrigue and action and a bit of romance. I love these books, and I hope you’ll love them as well.

And then, as David B. Coe, I have a book coming out that is a tie in with the History Channel’s Knightfall series. The book is called KNIGHTFALL: THE INFINITE DEEP, and if will be out in March. Knightfall is about the Knights Templar — it’s a fun series, and writing in that universe presented some intriguing challenges.

Register for Boskone 56 today!