{"id":6640,"date":"2023-12-24T00:03:27","date_gmt":"2023-12-24T06:03:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/?p=6640"},"modified":"2023-12-20T22:37:50","modified_gmt":"2023-12-21T04:37:50","slug":"a-banner-year-for-prometheus-blog-interviews-2023-winner-dave-freer-frequent-finalist-karl-gallagher-author-judge-john-christmas-and-the-late-great-james-hogan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/a-banner-year-for-prometheus-blog-interviews-2023-winner-dave-freer-frequent-finalist-karl-gallagher-author-judge-john-christmas-and-the-late-great-james-hogan\/","title":{"rendered":"A banner year for Prometheus blog interviews: 2023 winner Dave Freer, frequent finalist Karl Gallagher, author\/judge John Christmas and the late great James Hogan"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Michael Grossberg<\/a><\/p>\n

This was an excellent year for interesting and informative interviews with a variety of authors, all worth reading (or rereading.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Dave Freer with his 2023 Prometheus Awards Best Novel plaque for Cloud-Castles (Photo courtesy of Freer)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
James P. Hogan (Creative Commons license)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Prometheus Blog boasted more posted interviews in 2023 than ever before \u2013 most notably, with Australian sf writer Dave Freer, the first individual from the Southern Hemisphere to win a Prometheus award; and with the late great James Hogan, a two-time Prometheus winner for Best Novel.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Hogan\u2019s wide-ranging six-part interview<\/a>, most recently posted on the blog, was based on a lengthy, long-lost and never-before-published interview about his life and career that he gave in 2001 before appearing as a major guest of honor at Marcon and LFScon in Columbus, Ohio.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Hogan wrote 26 novels, many of which were nominated for Prometheus awards and two of which won for Best Novel – Voyage from Yesteryear<\/em><\/a> (in 1983) and The Multiplex Man<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>(in 1993).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Freer, meanwhile, won the 2023 Prometheus for Best Novel for\u00a0Cloud-Castles,\u00a0<\/em>which he discussed among many other subjects in his four-part interview.<\/a><\/p>\n

The past year also saw multi-part interviews with frequent Prometheus-finalist Karl K. Gallagher and Europe-based political-thriller author John Christmas, a long-time Prometheus judge.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Karl Gallagher in his library with Heinlein anthologies (Photo courtesy of author)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gallagher, in the midst of writing his projected nine-volume Censor series (including Trouble in My Day,\u00a0<\/em>Book 6 of the series), discussed his current series and previous works in his three-part interview.<\/a><\/p>\n

Christmas, meanwhile, offered a distinctive perspective in his three-part interview,<\/a> since he both writes fiction (most recently, the financial-political thriller KGB Banker)\u00a0<\/em>and serves as a longtime Best Novel finalist judge, the combination of which gives him a unique vantage point to discuss the Prometheus awards and what makes for good fiction.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
John Christmas (Photo courtesy of author)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In each of these interviews, the authors discuss not only the themes and inspiration for their own fiction, but also what novelists inspired and influenced them \u2013 and mention some of their favorite works, including some recognized in the Prometheus Awards given over the past four decades-plus for Best Novel or Best Classic Fiction (the Prometheus Hall of Fame.)<\/p>\n

Thus, rereading or rereading the Prometheus blog interviews also can double as a good source for recommendations of what other authors and books to read.<\/p>\n

Looking back before 2023, the Prometheus blog has published several other interesting interviews worth checking out.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Wil McCarthy manning his “space ship.” Photo courtesy of Baen Books<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Perhaps the most notable in 2022 was the Prometheus interview<\/a>\u00a0with our 2022 Best Novel winner Wil McCarthy (Rich Man\u2019s Sky<\/a>).<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Leslie Fish, playing the guitar and singing her songs (Creative Commons license)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Also of interest in 2022, partly because of her special perspective as a frequent \u201cfilking\u201d guest of honor at sf\/fantasy and filking conventions across North America for the past several decades, was the Prometheus interview<\/a> with author-songwriter Leslie Fish, who won the 2014 Special Prometheus Award for her novella \u201cTower of Horses\u201d (published in the\u00a0Music of Darkover<\/em>\u00a0anthology) and related filk-song \u201cThe Horseman\u2019s Daughter.\u201d<\/p>\n

A question to LFS members:<\/em> What authors (or other interesting people) would you like to see interviewed in 2024?<\/p>\n

IF YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/strong>* Prometheus winners:\u00a0<\/strong>For the full list of Prometheus winners, finalists and nominees \u2013 for the annual Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction (Hall of Fame) categories and occasional Special Awards \u2013 visit the enhanced\u00a0Prometheus Awards page\u00a0<\/strong><\/a>on the LFS website, which now includes convenient links to the full set of published appreciation-reviews of past winners.<\/p>\n

* Read\u00a0\u201cThe Libertarian History of Science Fiction,\u201d<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0an essay in the international magazine\u00a0Quillette<\/em>\u00a0that favorably highlights the Prometheus Awards, the Libertarian Futurist Society and the significant elements of libertarian sf\/fantasy in the evolution of the modern genre.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0Watch\u00a0 <\/strong>videos of past Prometheus Awards ceremonies (including the recent 2023 ceremony with inspiring and amusing speeches by Prometheus-winning authors Dave Freer and Sarah Hoyt),Libertarian Futurist Society panel discussions with noted sf authors and leading libertarian writers, and other LFS programs on the Prometheus Blog\u2019s\u00a0Video page.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>*\u00a0Join us<\/strong>! To help sustain the Prometheus Awards,\u00a0join\u00a0<\/strong><\/a>the Libertarian Futurist Society (LFS), a non-profit all-volunteer association of freedom-loving sf\/fantasy fans.<\/p>\n

Libertarian futurists believe that culture matters! We understand that the arts and literature can be vital, and in some ways even more powerful than politics in the long run, by sparking innovation, better ideas, positive social change, and mutual respect for each other\u2019s rights, individuality and human dignity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Michael Grossberg This was an excellent year for interesting and informative interviews with a variety of authors, all worth reading (or rereading.) The Prometheus Blog boasted more posted interviews in 2023 than ever before \u2013 most notably, with Australian sf writer Dave Freer, the first individual from the Southern Hemisphere to win a Prometheus … Continue reading A banner year for Prometheus blog interviews: 2023 winner Dave Freer, frequent finalist Karl Gallagher, author\/judge John Christmas and the late great James Hogan<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1585,36],"tags":[1841,2160,101,121,1049,1385,1484],"class_list":["post-6640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction-in-the-news","category-interviews","tag-dave-freer","tag-interviews","tag-james-hogan","tag-john-christmas","tag-karl-gallagher","tag-leslie-fish","tag-wil-mccarthy"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pe8nGl-1J6","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6640"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6649,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6640\/revisions\/6649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}