From the moment I first encountered Kate Elliott’s short story, ”I am a handsome man, said Apollo Crow,” I knew I was in the hands of a master storyteller. Kate is an incredibly talented and prolific author who has written so many cool, fun, enriching books - and they serve as the spine of our conversation today.
One of her most recent books, Unconquerable Sun, is a gender-swapped story of Alexander the Great set on an interstellar scale. It's operatic. It's beautiful. It's also deeply researched - essentially everything you're reading in the book is pulled from the various tellings of the story of Alexander the Great. You’ll get an inside look into Kate's mind to understand what it takes to write a book of this scope that’s just brimming with insight, historical nuance, and texture.
This conversation was a powerful exploration of craft, history, identity, of what it is to step into our calling despite resistance, despite even risk of loss of life - which is true for so many of the characters that Kate writes about.
Show Notes:
Visit kateelliott.com
twitter.com/KateElliottSFF
youtube.com/@SFWA
Subscribe to Kate’s Newlsetter
Support Kate on Patreon
Check out The Sun Chronicles Series
“We know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don't know we don't know.” - Donald Rumsfield
Dmitri Shostakovich
Alexander the Great
Ptolemaic Dynasty
The Crossroads Trilogy (Spirit Gate, Shadow Gate, and Traitors Gate by Kate Elliott)
The Cold Magic Trilogy (Cold Magic, Cold Fire, and Cold Steel by Kate Elliott)
Widukind of Corvey, 10th Century Chronicler
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#113 Unconquerable Sun (with Kate Elliott)