EP 407 - An Evening With A Drink And A Friend With Kevin J. Anderson

Mark has a virtual beer with Kevin J. Anderson while they talk through various aspects about writing and publishing. This episode is from a live chat that was hosted on the evening of Sunday March 16, 2025.

This episode is sponsored by Superstars Writing Seminars: Teaching you the business of being a writer which takes place in early Feb 2026 in Colorado Springs, CO and where Mark will be a guest speaker.

Use code: STARK100 to get $100 off your registration.

In their chat Mark and Kevin talk about:

• The loss of author and poet Danny Peart, Neil Peart's brother and how the first story Kevin and Neil wrote together named the main character after Neil's brother
• Mark and Kevin's Rush and beer connection
• Kevin's "music starter kit" to his grand-kids
• The significance of the Rush album Grace Under Pressure to both Kevin and Mark
• How the Columbia Music Record Club is what led to Kevin discovering Rush (because he was looking for sci-fi style album covers and Rush's 2112 jumped out at him)
• The back-story to Kevin's Terra Incognita novels
• Writing a novel that was a tie-in to a Rush album
• How Kevin has been able to leverage Kickstarter to produce products that no New York publisher would likely ever get behind
• The way a tribute song "No Words" about Neil Peart led to a new friendship and collaboration with Kevin
• The music behind the Terra Incognita trilogy
• Kevin's Kickstarter for Terra Incognita funding in 14 minutes, but the ultimate goal of earning back the high investment he has already put into it
• The number of novels that Kevin has written
• Benefits of being able to order books directly from the author versus going through the multiple layers of traditional publishing
• Superstars Writing Seminars, the conference that Kevin, his wife Rebecca, Dave Farland, Eric Flint, and Brandon Sanderson started more than 15 years ago
• The Masters of Creative Writing with a focus on Publishing that Kevin teaches at Western Colorado University
• The annual anthology that this program publishes thanks to sponsorship from Draft2Digital
• The latest musical collaboration Kevin recently announced
• Kevin coming to Toronto's Massey Hall for RushFest on August 1, 2025
• What books Kevin and Mark are currently working on
• Favorite advice for running a Kickstarter and the real costs of shipping and handling
• Kevin's love of hiking and dictating when he writes
• And more . . .

 

Links of Interest:

• Kevin J Anderson's Website
  • WordFire Press
  • Kevin's Terra Incognita Kickstarter
  • Western Colorado University Publishing Masters
• Superstars Writing Seminars
• Buy Mark a Coffee
• Patreon for Stark Reflections
  • How to Access Patreon RSS Feeds
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