Q&A with Henry Coutinho-Mason

  

Henry Coutinho-Mason is the author, with Rohit Bhargava, of the new book Future Words: A Non-Obvious Glossary of Terms That Don't Exist (But Soon Will). His other books include The Future Normal. He is an expert on consumer trends, and he's based in the London area.

 

Q: What inspired you to write Future Words?

 

A: After The Future Normal, Rohit and I kept seeing how people recognised the changes we were describing, but there weren't the words to talk about them. 

 

Think of the challenge of deciphering how much of what you see online is AI-generated. Or the satisfaction when supposedly godlike technology fails in public. Feelings many of us have, but surprisingly hard to describe cleanly.

 

We also liked the challenge of distilling years of research and thinking into a single word. With so much competing for everyone’s attention, how much meaning could we pack into a few syllables?

 

We also hope this could well be our most impactful book. Trend reports and business books have relatively narrow audiences. Words get used every day. 

 

Q: How did you choose the words to include, and do you have a few favorites?

 

A: For the most part, the words followed from the ideas, rather than starting with the words themselves. We've both been writing and thinking about the future for nearly two decades, so we've got a lot of experience in identifying early signals of emerging behaviors.  

 

I love joie de faire, and its positive vision of the future of work; also botique, the slightly counter-intuitive idea that an automated experience could be a luxurious one. Glitchenfreude, that delight when technology fails, is another one that still makes me smile.

 

Rohit will have his own shortlist. We don’t agree on everything, which helped!

 

Q: How did the two of you collaborate on the book?

 

A: We started by going back through our writing from the past few years, looking for tensions we kept returning to. Then we built a giant Google Sheet with hundreds of ideas. Occasionally the word came first; there were other times when we knew exactly what we wanted to describe but couldn’t find a name that worked.

 

We spent hours on calls, including with etymologist Jess Zafarris, who helped us think through how the words were formed. Some of our longest debates were about how a word felt in your mouth. You can have a clever idea on the page that’s hopeless when you try to say it aloud.

 

AI helped us explore and test thousands of options, too. We always made the final choices, but the back-and-forth often took us somewhere neither of us would have reached alone.

 

Q: What trends do you see when it comes to words of the future?

 

A: A lot of the need for new words comes from technology changing everyday experiences. We’ve got new frustrations at work, new dilemmas as parents, and feelings stirred up by algorithms that are hard to explain. 

 

What's fascinating is how personal it becomes. A conversation about AI quickly becomes a conversation about whether you still feel valued, or whether you can trust what you’re seeing.

 

I suspect the words that last will be the ones that help you explain something to a friend. Words are always shared, and that was one of our core tests: would you want to use this word? 

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: We’re launching Future Words, which came out on 10 November, and I’m packing for FICP in New Orleans, where several hundred event planners will get an early look at the book. 

 

I’m also developing VisuAIse Futures, my “multiplayer keynote” format. The audience helps imagine the future together, bringing their own experiences and ideas into the session. It’s brought an exciting twist to my work as a speaker, in much the same way I hope Future Words does to my life as a writer. 

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I’d love someone to open the book and say, “Oh, there’s a word for that!” Especially if it’s a feeling they’ve been trying to explain for months. That would be a big win for us. 

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Wendy M. Barnhart

  

 

 

Wendy M. Barnhart is the author of the new novel Scaled Vengeance. Her other books include the young adult novel The Rampart Guards. She lives in the Denver area.

 

Q: What inspired you to write Scaled Vengeance, and how did you create your characters Emerson and Cassidy?

A: Because I love to read thrillers, I’d long wanted to challenge myself to write one, intimidating though that was. But during the pandemic, a number of things aligned which in turn inspired me to take the thriller-writing plunge.

 

One of the things that pushed me toward the plunge also directly led to the creation of my female serial killer, Emerson Kemp, who is on death row and nearing execution.

 

Emerson was born from my imagination after I attended a Zoom call where a woman shared that she’d interviewed a convicted rapist for her work in progress and was now in a romantic relationship with him.

 

That revelation sent my mind whirling with whys and hows and wondering about motivations. I wanted to more deeply explore what might be happening in the mind of a convicted felon who engages in a relationship with a “fan.” Enter Emerson Kemp.

 

Equally important to me was the perspective of the other party in the relationship, whether that relationship was mere interest, or friendship, or something deeper. From there came Cassidy Vickers, a former true crime podcaster who was focused on serial killers and studied the Scales Killer (aka Emerson Kemp) before she was apprehended and convicted.

 

Q: How would you describe the dynamic between them?

A: Their relationship starts with some element of respect for each other. Before she was captured, Emerson followed Cassidy’s podcast and her discussions about serial killers. Emerson was especially impressed when Cassidy posted about the then-active “Scales Killer” and hypothesized that the killer was female before anyone in law enforcement.

 

Cassidy comes in with a repressed pseudo-respect for Emerson in that Emerson’s victims were abusive people who escaped the justice system. Removing them meant an innocent person was saved, which seems good. Yet murdering someone is bad. Ergo, Cassidy thinks Emerson must be bad. As Cassidy gets to know Emerson, she struggles more with that moral dilemma.

 

Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?

A: I did know how the novel would end and was actually surprised that it did still end the way I’d planned. My previous novels did not – lol.

 

But Scaled Vengeance still took some unexpected turns. I believed one character would remain unlikeable throughout the novel but their arc changed, even though I initially refused to allow it. In revisions, I finally gave in because it made the story stronger.

 

I also expected someone else to die, yet they survived. And I had to cut one character I loved because the number of words it took to keep them wasn’t adding enough to the story. (I suspect I’ll see them in a future novel.)

 

Q: How did you research the book, and what did you learn that especially surprised you?

 

A: My research started with reading about female serial killers. I read books on the subject as well as reviewing online resources. (Of note: No AI was used in my research. There were no publicly available LLMs when I started this project back in 2021.)

 

What surprised me the most is that female serial killers through history were often financially motivated to commit their murders.

 

There are historical references to women who posed as someone who would, for a fee, help a family with an unwanted baby, promising to get them adopted. Instead, they would drown or incinerate the child.

 

There are other instances of women running boarding houses who would kill their residents then cash their ongoing Social Security checks. Or nursing homes where the proprietor pressured her residents to add her to their wills, and then poisoned them.

 

Which is not to say there are not recorded female serial killers who killed for reasons other than money. There definitely are, and they are definitely brutal. But the financial motivation for some was unexpected.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

A: I have an outline for the last novel in my YA fantasy series, but it needs revision. I originally completed the outline in 2021 before I got distracted by the shiny object of Scaled Vengeance and put the fantasy novel on the back burner. But the outline is on the front burner now, and I expect that final story to be released in 2027.

 

I’m also noodling and pondering and chewing on an idea for my next thriller. I mentioned a character I had to cut from Scaled Vengeance...well, she seems determined to tell her story. The book won’t be a direct sequel to Scaled Vengeance, but it will take place in the same world where we meet Cassidy and Emerson.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I held my breath waiting for reviews of Scaled Vengeance. Since this was my first thriller, I figured there was a chance reviewers might say I had no business in the thriller genre.

 

But thankfully and happily, that is not the case. Kirkus Reviews, Foreword Clarion, and BlueInk Reviews have all had positive things to say about Scaled Vengeance (along with early reviewers on Goodreads and NetGalley), and that has been both a relief and a delight. :)

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Mathangi Subramanian

  

 

 

Mathangi Subramanian is the author of the new book Our Periods, Ourselves: An Empowered Teen's Guide. Her other books include A People's History of Heaven. She is also an educator, and is the founder of Moon Rabbit Writing Studio. She lives in Denver. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write Our Periods, Ourselves?

 

A: A few years ago, I wrote a story for Kirkus about a new anthology by editors Aida Salazar and Yamile Saied Méndez of short stories from BIPOC authors about first periods.

 

In the course of reporting the story, I learned that BIPOC kids often get their periods earlier than white kids – sometimes as early as 8 years old, At the time, I had a 7-year-old, and I thought I had tons of time before I had to give her the menstruation talk.

 

In a panic, I bought her a bunch of books about menstruation. We read them together, but as I was reading them, I realized that nothing felt like the book that she or her friends needed. They also definitely didn’t feel like the book I needed when I became a menstruator!

 

That’s when I decided to write Our Periods, Ourselves. The book has chapters on menstruating while neurodiverse, disabled, fat, gender conforming or genderqueer, and working class.

 

It also has chapters on menstruation and climate justice, menstruation and capitalism, and menstruation and immigration. Every page is packed with information about how to have the period that is right for you.

 

I hope the book will be a resource for menstruators of all identities, not just for my daughter and her friends! 

 

Q: How did you research the book, and what did you learn that especially surprised you?

 

A: Although I of course grew up with period taboos, I never knew that many of them developed from corporate interests. Period stains and smells, for example, were never shameful before the 1920s, when Western industrialists cultivated shame around them purely to sell industrially made tampons and pads.

 

Another less insidious fact that surprised me was that only 2 percent of the world’s species menstruate: humans, some primates, some bats, elephant shrews, and spiny mice. It’s fascinating to me that menstruation is such a singular experience!

 

Q: How was the book’s title chosen, and how would you compare it with the classic book Our Bodies, Ourselves?

 

A: Growing up in the 1980s, I was a huge fan of Our Bodies, Ourselves. It was exactly the kind of empowering, feminist text that I needed at the point in my life when I was going through puberty.

 

I picked the title Our Periods, Ourselves to reflect that spirit of empowerment and inclusivity, and to pay homage to all the menstruators who blazed a trail before me and made my writing and my gender identity possible.

 

It was bittersweet that Gloria Steinem, who was a huge proponent of Our Bodies, Ourselves and sat on the advisory board, passed away a few months before this book’s publication. I’m not sure if she would’ve come across Our Periods, Ourselves, but if she had, I hope she would’ve been proud.

 

Q: The Publishers Weekly review of the book says, “This comprehensive, sensitive, and thorough exploration of menstruation and its ramifications for every body sets a new standard for informed self-care.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: This was absolutely my dream review. I started writing this book in January of 2025, around the time that the federal government took down the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) page on gender affirming care. The chapter on menstruation and gender was the first chapter I wrote, so I watched this happen as I was searching for sources.

 

The loss of that page made me hyperaware of how important this book could be, simply because I was preserving and curating information that the world is now actively trying to hide from genderqueer youth.

 

When the review mentioned “every body,” this is the first thing that came to my mind. I not only wanted this book to be a repository of information that, in the current transphobic, racist, ableist culture of book banning, may be hard to find, but also I wanted the tone of the book to be affectionate and self-affirming.

 

I want readers to leave the book not just knowing more about their bodies, but also loving those bodies a little bit harder and a little bit more knowledgeably.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’m always working on a million things! Right now, I have a picture book in process with Tulika Press in India, and I have a newsletter that I publish weekly. This year, I’m focusing on shorter work like personal essays, book reviews, and short stories. I hope to have updates on those soon!

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Please spread the word about this book! This book contains information that is hard to find, either on the internet or in books. I am doing a publicity push because I really want young people to know that this resource is out there for them, so the more folks know that it exists, the more I hope will use it to speak up for themselves and the menstruators they love.  

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Nov. 13

 

 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
Nov. 13, 1850: Robert Louis Stevenson born.

Q&A with Jared Schoch

  

Jared Schoch is the author of the new memoir Solar Coaster: The Untold Story of the Solar Industry and One Man's Journey Leading with Soul. He is the founder of TurningPoint Energy, and he's based in Colorado. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write Solar Coaster?

 

A: I felt spiritually called to share what I’ve learned after almost 30 years in business and life. This is about paying it forward and helping, educating and inspiring others to navigate their own path with more clarity and purpose.

 

Q: How was the book’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?

 

A: “Solar coaster” is a phrase people in the industry have used for years to describe its incredible highs and lows. Policy changes, financing, interest rates, technology, commodity prices, and politics can completely change the economics of a project or the direction of the industry. You learn very quickly that you have to adapt.

 

It was the natural title because that has been my professional life for nearly 20 years. But it also describes my personal journey and the importance of leading with soul. There were tremendous highs and some very difficult lows, and I learned that what keeps you grounded through all of it is knowing what you value and why you're doing the work in the first place. 

 

Q: What do you see looking ahead for clean energy?

 

A: Solar energy, battery storage, and wind energy are the dominant forms of new energy generation coming onto the energy system in the U.S. and globally for the foreseeable future. 

 

If you combine solar, wind, hydro and nuclear, we are at roughly 46 percent of total energy generation combined for the U.S. today, which is a huge leap forward over the last 20 years. If you look forward, we will soon be over 50 percent carbon neutral energy sources on our way to 60 or 70 percent in the coming 10 to 20 years. 

 

While I'm optimistic, the road ahead will not be simple. Electricity demand is growing dramatically, particularly with AI and data centers, and we're going to need a lot more power.

 

Solar, wind, and battery storage can play a major role because they can be deployed relatively quickly, but we also have real challenges involving the grid, transmission, interconnection, permitting, land use, and community acceptance. 

 

I don't think the future is about one technology winning. It's about building a more flexible, reliable energy system and figuring out how different technologies can work together. Solar has already proven that it can adapt, and I believe it will remain an important part of that future.

 

Q: What do you hope readers take away from the book?

 

A: I hope readers come away understanding that Solar Coaster isn't only a book about solar. It's about finding and leading with your soul,  navigating uncertainty and change without losing yourself along the way.

 

One of the biggest lessons of my career is that success can't be measured only by money, titles, or the size of the company you build. You have to ask what you're building, who you're becoming while you're building it, and whether your decisions are aligned with your values and doing the ultimate good you are meant to do, that you are meant to contribute to the world. That's what I mean by leading with soul.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: After more than a decade building TurningPoint Energy, I've stepped away from the day-to-day management of the company but am running the board as chairman. 

 

This shift has given me  more freedom to think about where I can have the greatest impact next. I'm still deeply engaged in clean energy, but I'm also spending more time on writing, speaking, and exploring ways to support work around climate change, education, poverty, and spiritual growth.

 

The book is part of that next chapter. I'm trying to take what I've learned from business and put it to work in ways that have a broader impact. Similar to every other major phase of my life, I am faithfully walking a path I don’t know where will lead me trusting that God will lead me to what I am to do next. 

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: This is more than a book. It’s a project about educating, inspiring, and starting conversations, working with students, businesses, and communities, and helping people lead in a more purposeful way to create a better world.  Paying it forward. 

 

One hundred percent of any net profit I make from this book will go directly to for- and not-for-profit investment funds set up to help move the needle on education, homelessness, climate change, and/or spiritual growth…as my wife and I have felt called to do.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb 

Q&A with Marc J. Gregson

  

 

 

Marc J. Gregson is the author of the new novel Behind the Glass. His other books include the young adult Above the Black trilogy. He is a former middle school English teacher. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write Behind the Glass, and how did you create your character Malcolm?

 

A: Well, I wanted to explore a universe where the earth is dying because people are living in very powerful simulations—as real as life—and so people escape the real world to live in a false one. But the earth’s only dying because of the reactors that power these simulations. It’s a horrible cycle.

 

When writing Malcolm, I wanted to challenge myself by writing a character that needs redemption even if he doesn’t recognize it or feel worthy of it.

 

When he is conscripted by the corporation that’s killing the planet, he’s forced into addiction to SICO (Synthetic Incentive for Combat Operatives). This gives him a little jolt of joy from his brainchip whenever he kills an enemy soldier.

 

At the beginning of the book, he’s an addict, and more beast than man, and I wanted to explore his journey back to his human side.

Q: This is your adult science fiction debut—why did you decide to write for a new audience?

 

A: Interestingly enough, my agent and I initially submitted this to publishers as a young adult title. It wasn’t until we started getting some feedback that we realized this needed to be shifted to the adult audience. So, I had to do some revisions and smooth over a few details.

 

That being said, I do believe older teen fans of my Above the Black series will still find lots to enjoy here. It feels like a crossover title to me.

 

Q: Can you say more about the inspiration for the world in which the novel is set?

 

A: Some of it came from my fears of how people are living their lives digitally through social media and online and maybe not always living in the real world anymore. I also had some concerns about the power that some major corporations we have now.

 

I wrote this before data centers and AI were a fear (I signed with my agent for this book back in 2020) but I think the book’s timely on those subjects now, too.

Q: What do you hope readers take away from the novel?

 

A: I hope readers enjoy the plot, characters, and worldbuilding, but I also hope they realize the dangers of false realities. Some of us are addicted to social media, living out our lives on screens.

 

Beyond that, I hope they recognize the dangers of automation, corporate rule, greed, and data centers and what they will do not just to humanity, but the planet itself.

 

Ultimately, Malcolm’s story is one of redemption in the face of overwhelming obstacles, so I hope readers find hope in that message.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I am working on Bright Sky and its sequel. These are the first two books in a prequel trilogy set hundreds of years before the events of my Above the Black series. I went back in the timeline a bit because I didn’t want to run into the prequel trap where readers can predict what will happen at the end.

 

It’s been a lot of fun expanding the Skylands universe, and while the Below the Black series doesn’t launch until fall 2027, I can tease readers about the main character in this new series has creature companions and they’re awesome.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Readers can follow me on TikTok, Instagram, Threads, or Twitter with my handle @mjg_write or on my YouTube channel MarcJGregson. They can also find me at my website at www.marcjgregson.com.

 

Beyond that, I’m also open to events and you can reach out on my contact page. I’m a former teacher, so I have lots of experience in schools if you’d like me to come speak.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Marc J. Gregson. 

Q&A with Matthew Aquilone

  

 

 

Matthew Aquilone is the author of the new novel The Stager. He works for the staging company Vesta, and his work has appeared in a variety of publications, including The Bellingham Review. He lives in Brooklyn. 

 

Q: How much did your own experience in staging inspire your new novel?

 

A: Ironically, I started this book before I ever staged an apartment. I was working for an interior decorator who was designing model apartments for a new luxury high rise. 

 

That's similar to staging of course, but it wasn't until I began to work for an actual staging company that I saw what the industry itself was like. It's nowhere near as idiosyncratic (or expensive!) as full interior design.

 

Fundamentally though, the idea is the same: to give a human presence to an otherwise unoccupied home, and to give the prospective buyer a chance to imagine themselves inside it.

 

Of course, my background in design - as a stylist, window dresser, showroom designer - played a big part. For years I had wanted to write something that touched on that other part of my creative background.

 

Q: Why did you decide to set the novel during the Covid pandemic?

 

A: The pandemic provided the perfect vehicle in which to let Maya's character play out - her insecurity, self-delusion, denial, as well as her optimism and persistence all got flame tested in her isolation.

 

Also, The Stager is a real New York story, and we were hit in a particularly hard way by the pandemic, but we also came together in unprecedented way. I wanted to show all that too.

 

Q: How did you create your character Maya?

 

A: I knew I wanted a character who just wouldn't give up, although I wasn't going to make it easy for her. Framing the book in the first person really helped. Let's face it, Maya lives a lot in her head. Once I put myself in there with her, she just blossomed.

 

Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?

 

A: I didn't have the ending until very late in the process. I wanted Maya to be transformed by the end and I knew that she and her friend Clarissa were going to have to come to terms with their broken friendship. 

 

So I knew generally where I was headed but I made a lot of changes along the way. It was so much fun following Maya and watching as she made decisions good and bad.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I am finishing a novel based on my experiences in the fashion industry. It's centered around another female protagonist, a fashion exec who is confronting life choices as she balances motherhood, middle age and a changing industry. It's another New York story, funny and satirical. 

 

I am also continuing work on a memoir project based on the AIDS crisis and how it affected my family. It is a story of our Brooklyn brotherhood.

 

I had a writing residency this summer in Connecticut. I had a lovely little cabin beside a pond. It was the perfect environment to concentrate on challenging material like this, and to recharge my creative energies.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: The Stager is the tenth book that I've written and the first to get published. I had a lot of close calls along the way. If I'm like Maya at all it's that I've learned that maybe the biggest part of success is just refusing to give up. If you believe in your work and in yourself you're 80 percent there already.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb