This week’s cover story is a profile of Fort Worth novelist Roxanne Longstreet Conrad, a prolific urban fantasy writer who for many years has published under various pen names. She’s finally become an international bestseller as Rachel Caine, author of the young adult Morganville Vampires series, which is set in a vampire-ruled West Texas college town.
Here’s a 2010 interview with Conrad/Caine by RT Book Reviews, discussing the most recent Morganville book Ghost Town. Here’s a short promotional piece – conducted at last year’s San Diego Comic Con — between Conrad/Caine and Heather Brewer, author of the young adult Chronicles of Vladimir Tod series.
One of Roxanne’s big influences from childhood is the mindtrippy Chronicles of Amber series by fantasy writer Roger Zelazny, who died in 1995. These novels inspire a rabid geek enthusiasm, as evidenced by all the online Zelazny tributes. In a funny and persuasive nine minute video, a fanboy named Lycanfan nicely explains the Amber phenomenon. (“Now what makes the people of Amber so goddamn special? In general… they’re the biggest fucking badasses ever.”). If you want a more to-the-point review, check out “The One Minute Critic,” in which a first-time Zelazny reader borrows her fanboy husband’s book and explains what she found.
