Voices in Your Head

In Paul Malmont's debut novel The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril, he explores the world of pulp magazines and the men who created them. He uses the interesting tactic of populating his novel with famous pulp writers as protagonists. In this interview, Paul discusses with host Dave Slusher such subjects as how to write in styles that reflect other authors without becoming mere pastiche, the moral lessons that can be learned from pulp fiction and the lasting effects of the pulp era on science fiction and pop culture.

Scott Sigler's first novel, EarthCore, was slated to be published by Time Warner Publishing's iPublish.com imprint and was the highest rated of the books scheduled for publication under that label. When Time Warner rolled up the carpets on iPublish Scott was left without a publisher. In the most recent Voices In Your Head, Dave Slusher talks with Scott about his success with podcasting EarthCore, the first novel to be initially available only as a podcast.

What does free WiFi have to do with revenge? And what can you do with last year's high tech gizmo that is worth less than a dollar today? Science fiction author, blogger and Internet activist Cory Doctorow speaks with Dave Slusher about wireless community networks, high tech art made from trash, free speech and his new novel.

We've all imagined teleporting from place to places and making clones or copies of ourselves. But have you ever wondered what might happen if we were actually able to do so? Host Dave Slusher speaks to renowned science fiction author Wil McCarthy about what these advancements might mean and about technology, science and us.

The music-industry incumbents are threatened by the new technologies of music distribution. How are they reacting, and how are musicians using the Internet on their own to make more money for themselves? In this interview with two music-industry insiders, Dave Slusher discovers the current state of digital music and possible courses for the future. David Kusek and Gerd Leonhard are the authors of the new book "The Future of Music" from Berklee Press. Kusek is a musician, co-inventor of electronic drums and the MIDI standard, and is currently vice-president of Berklee Music. Leonhard is a music futurist and entrepeneur, former CEO of LicenseMusic.com, and is currently CEO of the ThinkAndLink advisory agency.

Dave Slusher interviews John Buckman, the founder of Magnatune Records, on Voices in Your Head on IT Conversations. Magnatune Records is an online record label with the slogan "We Are Not Evil." As a company, Magnatune has embraced Creative Commons licensing, internet streaming and distribution of music, and introduced innovations such as customer-chosen pricing for albums. As of this writing, their catalog consists of 185 artists with 356 albums available and climbing. In this interview we discuss his motivations in forming Magnatune, his experiences and surprises in the first years of operation, the potentials for online distribution of music, and much more.

James P. Hogan and host Dave Slusher discuss how the film '2001' started Hogan on a career as an author, on his relationship with Marvin Minsky and the world of artificial intelligence, on writing about space and space travel, whether there is a feedback loop between scientists and science fiction writers, the post-scarcity economics of distributing entertainment online and much more.

Author Eileen Gunn has most recently released he"</em> which collects work from across her writing career. She is the editor and founder of the online magazine "Infinite Matrix". In this interview, we discuss the effect one's work has on a person, Richard Nixon as a man and a pop-culture icon, generational effects on dystopic views and much more. Audio from the IT Conversations series "Voices in Your Head", hosted by "Dave Slusher".

Voices in Your Head, a new IT Conversations series hosted by Dave Slusher: Author James Patrick Kelly is known for his award-winning and powerful short fiction, including such works as "Think Like a Dinosaur, Mr. Boy" and "Undone". He is the long-time columnist on internet issues for Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. In this interview, Dave and Jim discuss the birth of cyberpunk as a sub-genre, how science fiction can help us face the future, the value of using the internet to distribute fiction, and much more.