Quite often I mention on here Scott Sigler and for those of you who do not know who he is, and dont go over to look at his website (http://scottsigler.com/) I’ve been listening and reading Scott Sigler’s work for a good six years now and I am currently going through his podcasts and listening to them again. In some cases I have not listened to the audio yet but I have read the books.
Sigler is one of my role models. He has gone from an unknown author to a New York Times best selling author. Part of how he got to where he is was through giving away his work as a free podcast. Realising an episode a week. He is one of the pioneers of podcasting, although I would imagine a lot of people look at his success and think its easy.
He engages with his fans, who are lovingly called Junkies. There is a strong community at his website (I really need to spend more time there).
He is almost too in your face, but as its Scott Sigler, A.K.A The Future Dark Overlord, its cool because its all done in a very tongue in cheek, good humoured way. Most of this comes through from his personality, which can also be heard in his narrations.
Sigler has a little help in his business partner A Kovacs, who is one of those people who seems very capable at getting things organised and done.

All this may seem good and well, but even the best, most passionate writer would not find success if their product was rubbish. Sigler does not have this problem, his writing is incredibly impressive. His characters are memorable, plot lines creative and pacing is all but spot on. One thing I’d like to mention about his characters is that many of the main ones are quite unlikable, but not enough to put you off reading on.
The settings and cultures of his stories are intriguing also. In his The Crypt and the Galactic Football League universe we see a huge galaxy with multiple races and cultures. Different political and religious elements within the same race. Sigler does not cheat here, unlike a lot of mainstream sci-fi we don’t see any other alien that is humanoid. (me and Owen have humanoid aliens in our work) the aliens in Sigler’s universe do have human traits but I love the way he has made them alien.

The best compliment that us readers can pay to a writer is that something they have created has moved us. That it has struck at the emotional triggers we have all have. Scott Sigler more then entertains me with his writing. It is addictive, but in two specific cases he has moved me with what he has written. In his book Infected there were bits that made me flinch and the ending of Contagious hit me hard and I sat for about half an hour afterwards just thinking about it.

Scott Sigler is a powerhouse writer who I believe everyone should at least check out. He has a big publisher book deal, but he is also releasing his work that his publisher does not want through his own company, Dark Overlord Media. He and A Kovacs know what they are doing and I hope they do it for a long time to come.