11. Fantasy & world building (part 2) with Elizabeth Knox & Stephanie Bretherton

Lessons in fantasy & world building (part 2) from Elizabeth Knox & Stephanie Bretherton: They discuss with We'd Like A Word presenters, Paul Waters & Stevyn Colgan, how to construct imagined worlds from top to bottom, dual narratives, fantastic naturalism, combining fantasy, speculative fiction & science fiction. Elizabeth's new book, The Absolute Book, published by Penguin / Michael Joseph, is out now. It's massive & the cover is lovely. Elizabeth joins us from the land of tomorrow - ie New Zealand. She teaches world building at Victoria University in Wellington. She's the author of 13 novels and other other works besides. Literary non-realism, she sometimes calls it. Her books have won plenty of awards & she has an honour herself - Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit. Stephanie is the author of Bone Lines, published by Unbound, and various short stories. She's has not (yet) been honoured by royalty, but she's revered as a kind and effective support by many, many new authors. She's currently working on the sequel to Bone Lines - part 2 in her Children of Sarah series.

We also hear about inspiration from JRR Tolkien, George RR Martin, Lionel Shriver, Anne McCaffrey, Black lace women's erotica, Suzie Wilde, Sue Clark, Ursula Le Guin & Richard Powers. And also about author (& former We'd Like A Word guest) Dougie Brimson's new TV & film production company, Red Bus Movies. He's ex-RAF & wants ex-military to apply.

We'd Like A Word is a podcast and radio show from authors Paul Waters and Stevyn Colgan. We talk with writers, readers, editors, agents, celebrities, talkers, poets, publishers, booksellers, audiobook creators about books - fiction and non-fiction. We go out on various radio and podcast platforms. Our website is www.wedlikeaword.com - which is where you'll find information about Paul and Steve and our guests. We're also on Twitter @wedlikeaword and Facebook @wedlikeaword and our email is wedlikeaword@gmail.com - and yes, we are slightly embarrassed by the missing apostrophes. We like to hear from you - your questions, thoughts, ideas, guest or book suggestions. Perhaps you'd like to come on We'd Like A Word in person, to chat, review, meet writers or read out passages from books. . .