Episode 073 of Sonitotum with Matthew Wayne Selznick features an interview with author P. A. Cornell — the first interview since episode 10 in 2018!
P.A. Cornell is a Chilean-Canadian writer who penned her first speculative-fiction story as a third-grade assignment (a science-fiction piece about shape-shifting aliens). While her early publications were in non-fiction, she has been steadily selling her short fiction since 2016.
An active member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association and 2002 graduate of the Odyssey Writing Workshop, her stories have appeared in several professional anthologies and genre magazines, including Galaxy’s Edge, Cossmass Infinities, and Compelling Science Fiction, an anthology from Flame Tree Press.
Her debut science fiction novella Lost Cargo was published in 2022 by Mocha Memoirs Press.
You can learn more at pacornell.com or find her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Our conversation covers P. A.’s early and current influences, why and what she writes, her definition of success, developing the intuition to know when a story’s going to work, creating around depression and anxiety, and a whole lot more.
This episode was recorded on February 27th, 2023. The conversation with P. A. Cornell was recorded on January 18th, 2023.
Links and Topics Mentioned in This Episode
- My day job? I’m a creative services provider helping authors, podcasters and other creators. How can I help you?
- You can now name your own price (at least a buck; upper limit determined by your generosity and means) on all of my e-books when you purchase them directly from me. Check out what’s available.
- Why’d I move to a “name your own price” model? Listen to Sonitotum with Matthew Wayne Selznick 070 for the details, or you can read this Scribtotum article.
- Hazy Days and Cloudy Nights: “How It All Got Started” is a free fiction serial provided free and exclusively to the members of my mailing list community. Get a new installment of eighties-flavored fiction delivered to your inbox every week when you subscribe for free!
- Shadow of the Outsider is my current major work in progress. While we all wait, you can catch up with its predecessors, the novel Light of the Outsider and the novelette “The Perfumed Air at Kwaanantag Bay.” And don’t forget — you can name your own price for the e-books!
- The last time I published an interview in an episode of Sonitotum with Matthew Wayne Selznick was this conversation with musician Emma Wallace.
- What is felt art?
- P. A.’s great-uncle was a personal friend of Pablo Neruda. You should get to know him, too!
- What’s a Drabble?
- Among P. A.’s contemporary influences are the authors Sarah Pinsker and Derrick Boden.
- Who was Lester Dent?
- Author Jeff VanderMeer’s funny tweet (okay, one of…)
- If you’re a writer and you haven’t yet seen Barton Fink… fix that.
- I mentioned the web and smartphone app Focus@Will for background music to help you… well, focus!
- Both P. A. Cornell and I swear by the use of natural light light bulbs.
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