The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory

Gus James, author of The Xeno File and The Terra File, joins Mookie on the Science Fiction and Fantasy Factory podcast to talk about his evolving trilogy. Gus is an Oregon attorney by day, spending his hours fighting insurance companies, and a first-time novelist who wrote his debut purely to make himself laugh. When an early reader sent him detailed notes on proper three-act structure and where certain beats were supposed to land, he read every note and ignored almost all of them on purpose, reasoning that his story should be his, so screw the rules dictating how it's built. That instinct runs through everything else the two discuss: leaning on dialogue over exposition, skipping the show-don't-tell orthodoxy whenever it's in the way, and letting a down-on-his-luck lawyer narrator named Jim Braxton just talk his way through a plot that starts with him discovering, mid-threesome, that one of the women involved is an alien.From there Mookie and Gus trace his literary influences back to Christopher Moore and Jason Pargin, share the enduring appeal of an ordinary, unqualified guy thrown into extraordinary circumstances, and swap theories on why alien abduction stories dominated pop culture for decades and then vanished (Gus's answer: they didn't stop, aliens just got better at it; Mookie's answer: the South Park pilot with Eric Cartman getting an anal probe made these stories impossible to take seriously anymore). They dig into the current, ongoing drought of good storytelling in film and television, why legacy franchises keep alienating longtime fans by moralizing, and why LitRPG and lighter, funnier genre fiction might be exactly what's needed to pull disengaged young male readers back into books.Gus then shares his blunt, funny take on why marketing his own book has been harder than writing it, his inventive guerrilla marketing (alien-probe punch cards left at bus stops and restaurant tables, an upcoming booth at a UFO festival, homemade merch from a sewing hobby he picked up during COVID), and Mookie's optimistic reframe of AI scraping content for training data isn't a threat to indie authors, and instead is free, constant exposure to interested audiences. The GuestGus James writes absurd, fast-paced stories about aliens, bad decisions, and people who probably should’ve stayed home. His debut novel, The Xeno File, is a chaotic road trip wrapped in a conspiracy to save the planet. He lives in Oregon and insists most of the bad decisions in his books are fictional.Get his books, sign up for his newsletter, and find out more on his website: https://goosedown.square.site/Want to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!Support the show

A.G. Meier joins Mookie on the 64th episode of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Factory to talk about Champions Awakening, his debut novel and the first book in the True Power saga. Adam's been telling stories his whole life, long before he ever sat down to write one. As a kid, he was the one at the family cottage every summer who'd get a dozen cousins gathered around a campfire and make up scary stories on the spot, purely from instinct, reading the crowd as he went. That same impulse carried straight into adulthood, where, behind the wheel for hours at a stretch, he'd build entire scenes in his head, characters, conflicts, whole worlds, working out how to get from one dramatic beat to the next just to keep himself entertained on the road. He calls it always being "in Storyland," and he means it literally: once he builds a character enough in his own mind, that character becomes real to him, with a voice, a personality, and a will of their own on the page.A separation, raising three kids largely on his own, and eventually meeting a partner who gave him the time and encouragement to actually sit down and write finally turned decades of daydreaming into a finished manuscript. Once he started, he wrote for four hours a day, every day, for three straight months, discovering along the way that he's a committed "pantser," someone who knows roughly where a scene needs to land but has no idea how he'll get there until he's actually writing it.The novel imagines a great interstellar war resolved through single combat, each planet birthing its own champion to fight on its behalf rather than risk mutual annihilation, and Adam walks through the specific, almost logistical daydream that sparked the idea in the first place. He and Mookie dig into how personal the book still is despite being pure invention, his own dog appears as a beloved character, his father inspired another, and how a good soundtrack playing in his head while he drives can build an entire scene before a single word gets written. Their conversation is about the particular kind of person who can't stop imagining entire worlds and at long last found a way to get them out of his head and onto the page.The GuestA.G. Meier is a Master Electrician from Hamilton, Ontario, and the author of Champions Awakening, Book 1 of The True Power Saga, published under his own imprint, Gold Crown Empire. He grew up spending summers at his family's cottage in Northern Ontario, where he first started telling stories around the campfire for his cousins. More books in the Gold Crown Empire universe are already underway.Visit his website: https://www.goldcrownempire.comGet Champions Awakening: https://www.amazon.ca/Champions-Awakening-G-Meier/dp/B0HD696TDKWant to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!Support the show

Dennison Smith joins Mookie in the Science Fiction and Fantasy Factory to talk about The Westward Hours, a genre-blending literary dystopia landing in the US and Canada on September 8th. The premise starts from something genuinely real: in the 1970s, corporations quietly floated the idea in Congress of declaring the strip-mined Four Corners region a formal "sacrifice area," officially exempt from cleanup or accountability. It never made it to a vote. In Dennison's near-future America, that idea won by default: everything west of a single line in Kansas becomes exactly that, a sacrifice area, plundered for resources once corporate power fills the vacuum left by a government that climate catastrophe finally broke.Dennison and Mookie dig into what makes dystopian fiction actually work, tracing a line from Orwell's 1984 through Brave New World to the genre's current moment, where writers increasingly find themselves less warning about a possible future and more describing one already arriving. Dennison's own approach sets her apart from the genre's usual playbook. She's a committed "pantser," writing from character and sentence rather than outline, and describes how a minor supporting character seized control of an earlier novel entirely, and how two of Westward Hours' most magnetic, morally ambiguous characters emerged the same uninvited way. The novel took her a full decade to write, and she's candid about how history itself caught up with her mid-draft, what felt speculative when she started reads uncomfortably close to current events now.The conversation goes somewhere unexpected too: two and a half years Dennison spent living in the New Mexico desert after finishing the manuscript, learning to weave with a Navajo community, and how Native American conceptions of time, where the past isn't fixed but recurring, directly shaped both the novel's title and its structure. They range across Nabokov, Pynchon, and Norman Lear's famous miscalculation with Archie Bunker, land on a shared, sharp point about how modern media distorts our sense of scale and catastrophe, and, by accident, discover they grew up as neighbors in Chicago's suburbs decades ago.The GuestDennison Smith is author of The Westward Hours and two previous novels, The Eye of the Day and Scavenger, as well as a collection of poetry, Fermata. She holds both an MA in Creative Writing and a PhD in Creative and Critical Writing from University of East Anglia in the UK. She was founder and creative director of The Baldwin Gallery and Curatorial Team (London, England), curating dialogue between arts, cultures and nature and specializing in representing contemporary fine art by indigenous North American artists, whose lands stand at the front-line of Climate Change. She is also an interdisciplinary theatre artist and fiber artist. American and Canadian, faced with the recent sea change in US politics, she now makes her home in Alentejo, Portugal. More from Dennison Smith: https://www.dennisonsmith.comGet The Westward Hours: https://www.amazon.com/Westward-Hours-Dennison-Smith/dp/1739521167Want to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!Support the show

Mookie steps away from interviews for a moment for a solo episode of Science Fiction and Fantasy Factory, revealing a new project and reading its opening chapter live: Vinx the Mercenary Minx, a prequel spinoff from his debut novel, Jonnie Fazoolie and the Transfinite Reality Engine.He starts with the origin story behind the original book: a short story written on Medium in 2020, during the pandemic, on the Lower East Side, about a hustler who discovers a machine capable of jumping between infinite parallel universes. That idea eventually exploded into a two-and-a-half-month, twelve-to-twenty-hour-a-day writing binge, the kind of manic, all-consuming creative stretch Mookie calls one of the hardest and most rewarding periods of his life. The finished manuscript ran so long it had to be split into two books, and Mookie gives a real, specific update on both: where book one ends, and how far along the sequel actually is.But the real reveal is Vinx. After months of interviews with military science fiction authors and publishers on this very podcast, Mookie realized a side character from the Jonnie Fazoolie series, a genetically cloned assassin built for a single purpose, deserved an origin story of her own. He's candid that he built her with zero agenda beyond simply liking the character, and then reads Chapter One in full: "The Selection," a violent, vivid opening sequence set at a mercenary auction where ten thousand cloned sister-assassins compete for one coveted position, and where Vinx's competing sisters discover, in the worst possible way, that being passed over isn't something Vinx plans to accept quietly.The Story on SubstackWant to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!Support the show

Matt Witten's writing career spans shows including Homicide, Law & Order, and CSI: Miami, a series of Jacob Burns mysteries, and a novel optioned by Leonardo DiCaprio. On this episode of Science Fiction and Fantasy Factory, he joins Mookie to talk about his newest book, 51%, a dystopian crime noir one reviewer described as a stylistic mashup of Philip K. Dick and Dashiell Hammett.The book's origin is genuinely personal. After hearing television producer David Nevins say the best shows come from a writer's deepest fears, Matt walked home one night and landed, unexpectedly, on two words: student loans. He'd just lived through the real thing. A young immigrant woman staying with his family had gotten into two colleges, one she loved that would cost $240,000 in loans, and one she didn't want that would cost a tenth that. Matt found himself the one explaining the math and, in his own words, crushing her dream. She ended up thriving at the school she didn't want, but the experience, layered onto decades of watching economic inequality widen, became the seed of 51%: a near-future America where corporations pay for your education, your car, your medical care, and slowly acquire a percentage of you in return, until they own you outright.Matt walks through how that premise builds out into a full world: income share agreements, a real financing model already used by places like Purdue, pushed to its logical extreme, and a genuine AI antagonist, the Red Queen, that his own son helped him build out. He credits his old Law & Order boss Dick Wolf with a piece of writing philosophy that shapes the whole book: give every character, including the villains, a genuinely valid point of view, so the story never curdles into a lecture. Mookie and Matt also dig into his winding creative path, poetry at seven, a paid play at fifteen, thirty-three rejections before his first novel sold to three competing offers in under a week, and sixteen years writing network television before returning to novels because, as he puts it, nothing beats the feeling of getting to the computer.The conversation closes on something quietly moving: Matt's family, four accomplished siblings including physicist Ed Witten, and a single photo he still keeps on his wall, all four kids and their 105-year-old father, physicist Louis Witten, smiling the day they got their father safely moved into a new home. Mookie gives 51% a big two thumbs way up, a terrific tale that is already in development at NBC, with Matt co-writing the pilot himself.The GuestMatt Witten is a novelist, playwright, and television writer. His TV credits include House, Law & Order, Pretty Little Liars, Medium, Supernatural, CSI: Miami, JAG, Judging Amy, Homicide, and The Glades. His novel The Necklace has been optioned for film by Leonardo DiCaprio's Appian Way, and his novel Killer Story won a Foreword Indie Award for Best Mystery. His newest thriller, 51%, is currently in development at NBC as a television pilot, which Matt is co-writing.More from Matt Witten: https://mattwittenwriter.com Get 51%: https://www.amazon.com/51-Matt-Witten-ebook/dp/B0GQCKYNZ7Want to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!Support the show

The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory opens today the way you'd hope a conversation with an Australian ichthyologist-turned-novelist would: an extended riff on cell phones versus mobile phones, why Australians call beer "piss," and Dave's deadpan insistence that all Tasmanians carry a small scar where their second head used to be. From there, Dave Freer joins the same week he's set to accept a brand-new Prometheus Award, virtually, at three in the morning his time, for Storm-Dragon, the first year that particular Young Adult category has ever been awarded.Storm-Dragon exists because fellow author Cedar Sanderson told Dave that boys had stopped reading, and that Raconteur Press was building a line specifically to fix it. So Dave went back to the book that hooked him at ten years old, Jack Vance's Blue World, and built his own version: a boy and a small, hungry alien creature who starts their relationship by biting him. The telepathy between them isn't hand-waved fantasy, either. Dave spent years studying sharks and electric eels, and Snarky's mind-reading runs on real biology, a species that can sense and transmit electrical fields through water too murky to see through, reverse-engineered into a scientifically grounded psychic bond.From there the conversation gets personal. Dave describes himself as a "reverse plotter" who starts at the ending and works backward, until his own characters start refusing to do what he originally planned for them. He talks about fully immersing himself in another author's vocabulary and sentence rhythm before writing tie-in fiction, and tells a striking story about hanging by two fingers on a rock face at nineteen, realizing mid-climb that he'd stopped caring what anyone else thought of him. That sentiment has fueled over a quarter century of novels and short stories, give Dave a read!The GuestDave Freer is a South African-born, Tasmania-based science fiction and fantasy author who has published over twenty novels since his 1999 debut, The Forlorn. He is a two-time Prometheus Award winner, for Cloud-Castles (2023) and Storm-Dragon (2026), and is known for the Rats, Bats and Vats series co-written with Eric Flint. Storm-Dragon is published by Raconteur Press.More from Dave Freer: https://davefreer.com Get Storm-Dragon: https://raconteurpress.comWant to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!Support the show

Elliot Blake has spent his career inside the entertainment industry, directing Sir Ben Kingsley and Helen Mirren on Audible's Moriarty trilogy, executive producing Apple TV's The Sisters Grimm, working on an Emmy-winning Tomb Raider series. On this episode of Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory, he joins Mookie to talk about his debut novella, Into the Great, and the very different, very DIY road that got it into print.Elliot's novella mashes up genres most writers keep separate: military sci-fi conflict, a full alien invasion, and a real romance at its core, all pulling from influences like William Gibson's The Peripheral, This Is How You Lose the Time War, and The Expanse. The book's central metaphor came into focus almost by accident. Elliot started writing it right around the 2024 election, using the story as a place to retreat from a world that felt like it was on fire, and an early reader pointed out that the aliens in his book, silent, invulnerable beings who arrive and simply observe, were really standing in for the disorienting speed of political, environmental, and technological change itself.Into the Great comes from Li'l Factory AB, a Swedish boutique press run by former video game executive David Polfeldt, printing just 500 numbered, hardbound copies. Elliot and Mookie dig into what it actually takes to launch a book that small and that independent, from an ASMR unboxing video his Gen Z daughter talked him into, to a local reading at Romans Bookstore in Pasadena.The conversation turns sharp when AI comes up. Elliot draws a hard line: he wants no part of generative AI in his creative process, and makes a genuinely compelling case for why. Drawing on years spent in writers' rooms and animation studios, he argues that collaboration creates serendipity no single mind, human or machine, can replicate, and that removing people from the process removes the actual magic of making something. He and Mookie also take on Hollywood's current identity crisis: franchise fatigue, oversaturation, and why scarcity, not more content, might be exactly what audiences are hungry for.The GuestElliot Blake is an Emmy-winning animation producer, former Amazon Studios production and development executive, and writer. He is the executive producer of the animated Apple TV kids series The Sisters Grimm, the EP and director of the flagship Audible Original series Moriarty, and the author of the forthcoming science fiction novella Into the Great.Some of his past work includes the Emmy-winning animated web series Tomb Raider: ReVisioned, the cocktails and comedy podcast Daydrinking with Gary & Elliot, and the crime comic The Package. He's also a creative consultant, with past clients including preschool entertainment giant Moonbug Entertainment and video game developer PlayerUnknown Productions.More from Elliot Blake: https://elliotblake.comGet the book: https://lilfac.comWant to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!Support the show

What happens when thirty-two years of walking into crime scenes collides with a lifelong love of Tolkien, Zelazny, and Edgar Rice Burroughs? You get James Stuart Kinsey — retired forensics investigator, Navy submariner, and the world-builder behind the Gifts of Olmith fantasy series.In this 58th episode of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory, host Mookie Spitz sits down with Kinsey to unpack the sprawling world he's spent years constructing: a heroic-fantasy setting populated by humans, elves, and dwarves, anchored by his debut novel Strand of Hope and expanding through companion short fiction like The Emperor's Bath. They trace Kinsey's literary DNA back to a small Texas town with a population of 100, a childhood spent devouring Burroughs' Tarzan and John Carter novels, and the fateful day a high school teacher handed him a copy of The Hobbit — the book that cracked his imagination wide open.But the real heart of the conversation is what Kinsey brings to fantasy that most world-builders can't: three decades on the front lines of crime scene investigation. He and Mookie dig into how confronting the darkest corners of human behavior — and choosing to see even the worst offenders as people who made bad choices — shaped the moral complexity, empathy, and psychological depth in his characters. It's a conversation about how fiction becomes a container for hard-won truths, why fantasy functions as an escape valve for people who've seen too much, and why "the mighty fall and are replaced" isn't just a plot beat but a worldview.Along the way: the influence of Michael Moorcock and Roger Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber on multiverse storytelling, the self-publishing calculus for authors who don't want to wait, the case for human-authored fiction in an AI-saturated market, and why Kinsey's real audience is seven grandkids who'll someday say "my granddad wrote this."Join James and Mookie for a heartfelt conversation about world-building, mortality, memory, and why the best fantasy is built on things that actually happened.The GuestJames Stuart Kinsey writes muscular fantasy with a heart. His heroic tales of courage, sacrifice, and hope leave room for wit, warmth, and quieter moments of wonder. Drawing on a lifetime of real-world experience in military service and criminal investigation, Kinsey grounds his stories in human struggle, moral consequence, and hard-won truth, even when the tone turns lighter or more reflective. Influenced by the classic traditions of heroic fantasy, his work blends visceral action with emotional depth, valuing honor over nihilism and meaning over empty spectacle. Whether epic or intimate, Kinsey crafts fantasy meant to entertain, resonate, and linger with the reader.HIs Workhttps://www.bloodandlightmedia.com/Want to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!Support the show

What if the biggest obstacle to living a more creative, fulfilled life isn't talent or opportunity—but the fear of looking ridiculous?Mookie sits down with Jef & Mindy, the married co-creators of The Ridiculous, to explore a science-fiction comedy universe that grew out of an unexpected place: the competitive fitness industry. After spending decades helping people transform their bodies, they came to an uncomfortable realization. Looking better didn't necessarily make people happier. Confidence built on appearance alone often collapsed under pressure, leaving the deeper questions of identity, purpose, and fulfillment unanswered.That realization sent them in an entirely different direction. Instead of writing another self-help book, they built The Ridiculous: a fast-moving science-fiction comedy inspired by the spirit of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but with a fundamentally different destination. Rather than using absurdity to argue that nothing matters, The Ridiculous uses absurdity to remind readers that they're free to try, fail, laugh, create, and grow.What emerges during the conversation is something far more ambitious than a trilogy of novels. Jef & Mindy are telling a story and building an ecosystem around it. The books are only the starting point. Readers can participate in community experiments, contribute artwork, audition for audiobook roles, compose original music, submit stories, collaborate with other creators, and help shape future installments of the franchise. Instead of drawing a hard line between creator and audience, they're intentionally dissolving it.Underlying the entire project is a patented behavioral framework they call the Value Reinforcement System. Rather than rewarding people for perfection, it encourages participation, experimentation, and personal growth. Members are invited to complete real-world challenges, share their experiences online, inspire others to do the same, and receive recognition through a growing community built around positive reinforcement. The goal goes beyond simply entertaining people for a few hours, and also creates an environment that nudges them toward becoming more curious, creative, connected, and confident.Mookie and his guests also discuss how The Ridiculous extends beyond books into what could become an animated series, graphic novels, games, streaming content, live events, and an expanding creative platform. Instead of following the traditional publishing model—write a book, sell a book, repeat—Jef & Mindy are embracing a participatory model where readers become collaborators, collaborators become contributors, and contributors help shape the evolution of the universe itself.Jef & Mindy share an optimistic philosophy wrapped inside science fiction, comedy, behavioral psychology, and collaborative storytelling. At its heart, The Ridiculous argues that growth rarely looks graceful while it's happening—and that perhaps the most ridiculous thing of all is allowing the fear of embarrassment to keep us from becoming who we're capable of being.Jef & MindyJef & Mindy are known for building transformation-driven communities, gamified experiences, international events, media platforms, and brand collaborations that turned participation into identity, and identity into belonging.For more than three decades, they built fitness, wellness, media, and live-event brands that brought people together around confidence, transformation, personal growth, recognition, and community. Through FAME World Tour, WNSO, Body Proud, international events, expos, speaking, publishing, television, magazines, and brand activations, they helped create movements where people did more than attend, they participated, transformed, and became part of something larger.Their work has evolved from physical transformation into emotional, mental, social, and creative transformation. The Ridiculous carries that same foundation into a books-first absurdist sci-fi comedy franchise built around laughter, perspective, participation, and possibility, where people laugh first, think deeper, and do something remarkable with it.The RidiculousWebsite: www.DoRidiculous.com About us: https://doridiculous.com/about-us/ Amazon Book Link:  https://www.amazon.com/Ridiculous-comedy-curiosity-perspective-enjoying-ebook/dp/B0FK37DJ2G/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0Dean Grey, the behavioural scientist, who formed the baseline to the value reinforcement system: https://www.deangrey.org/Want to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!Support the show

What do gardening, balloon animals, pulp fiction, Japanese manga, military science fiction, homeschooling, cover design, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and peeing basset hounds have in common? Cedar Sanderson, obviously.In this lively and often hilarious episode, Cedar joins Mookie Spitz for a sprawling conversation that begins with flowers and parenting and somehow winds its way through publishing, illustration, pulp fiction, education, storytelling, creativity, and the peculiar neuroses that drive writers to spend years inventing people who don't exist.Cedar shares her winding journey from entertainer, face painter, and balloon twister to scientist, entrepreneur, illustrator, publisher, and prolific author. Along the way, she explains why kids are the toughest audience on Earth, how writing a story for her daughter launched her fiction career, and why characters often refuse to follow their author's instructions.The conversation quickly enters the kind of nerdy territory both participants clearly enjoy. Mookie and Cedar debate pantsing versus plotting, discuss the strange alchemy of creativity, and compare notes on the ways writers trick themselves into actually finishing books. Cedar talks about her fascination with pulp fiction and classic adventure storytelling, while Mookie defends his self-imposed obsession with writing entire novels in rigid three-line blocks like some sort of literary Lego set assembled by an ADHD mad scientist.They also tackle bigger questions. Has modern publishing become too safe? Why do so many contemporary books feel interchangeable? Are readers being fed diluted versions of stories that were once richer, stranger, and more ambitious? Cedar argues that many writers no longer read deeply enough, while Mookie ironically wonders whether entire genres have become victims of their own formulas.The discussion veers into cover design, independent publishing, doing one's own art, storytelling in video games, the collapse of critical thinking, the value of constraints in creative work, and why writing "important messages" into fiction usually produces unreadable garbage.Somewhere in the middle, they also manage to talk about Cedar's books. She discusses her most popular Pixie Noir, newly released fantasy detective novella Child of Crows and the origins of Tanager's Fledglings, a surprisingly intimate science fiction adventure that begins with a young man, a starship, and a basset hound demonstrating a stubborn refusal to be housebroken on a starship. Part writing workshop, part publishing insider discussion, part cultural critique, and part two smartasses wandering down fascinating rabbit holes, this episode is a reminder that today's storytelling is too often faked by formulas, focus groups, and committees. the good stuff instead created by curious people willing to follow strange ideas wherever they lead. And occasionally by people who spend twenty years collecting pulp novels and arguing about paragraph lengths.The GuestCedar Sanderson is a multifaceted creator whose work spans both the literary and visual arts. She is celebrated for her engaging storytelling and her ability to captivate audiences with her vibrant imagery and thoughtful narratives. Her work not only entertains but also invites readers and viewers into worlds where science meets magic, and the mundane becomes extraordinary. Her books, such as "Pixie Noir" and "Tanager’s Fledglings," showcase her unique blend of fantasy, science fiction, and mystery, often infused with a touch of humor and deep human insight. Her art, varying from traditional sumi-e painting to digital creations, reflects a love for both the whimsical and the scientific, with influences from her passion for history, infectious disease, and food anthropology. Known for her eclectic career that includes roles as diverse as balloon twister, face painter, and scientist, Cedar has channeled her wide range of experiences into her writing and art.Her BooksAmazonHer Websitehttps://www.cedarwrites.com/Her Substackhttps://cedarlila.substack.com/Want to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!Support the show

Stepping into the 55th episode of The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory, Debbie Bishop has spent decades doing what most creators only talk about doing: building her own path. Author, comic book creator, publisher, entrepreneur, marketer, filmmaker, podcaster, and now AI-powered platform builder, Debbie joins Mookie for a wide-ranging conversation that spans fantasy fiction, Hollywood, independent publishing, emerging technology, and the future of creativity itself.The discussion begins with Debbie's new novel, Pillywiggin Awakening, a dark fantasy adventure that blends magic, technology, history, and human resilience into a story designed for readers who love immersive worlds and larger-than-life heroes. From there, the conversation expands into Debbie's remarkable career, from acting and entertainment marketing to publishing comic books, launching companies, working with legendary figures like Ray Harryhausen, and developing intellectual property across multiple mediums.Along the way, Debbie shares stories about creating comics decades ahead of technological trends, researching ancient civilizations and Atlantis, predicting AI-driven futures in her fiction, and collaborating with some of the biggest names in entertainment and consumer products. She also discusses her latest venture, CreatorStage.show, an ambitious new platform designed to help independent creators take control of their audiences, content, and revenue streams in an increasingly fragmented digital landscape.Mookie and Debbie dive deep into artificial intelligence, the promise and limitations of large language models, the future of data centers, creator economics, entrepreneurship, publishing, networking, and why human creativity still matters in an age of algorithms. They explore the tension between technological progress and personal sovereignty, debate whether AI will empower or marginalize creators, and examine how science fiction often serves as a surprisingly accurate preview of tomorrow's headlines.At its heart, their conversation is about self-determination. Debbie's philosophy is simple: if the system won't give you an opportunity, build your own. Whether you're a writer, artist, entrepreneur, filmmaker, or anyone trying to create something meaningful in a noisy world, her journey offers equal parts inspiration, practical wisdom, and hard-earned perspective. Debbie Bishop proves that creativity goes beyond imagination to include persistence, adaptability, and having the courage to create your own future.The GuestAward-winning author Debbie Bishop is a multi-genre storyteller, creative director, entertainment executive, and CEO of Angelgate Entertainment. Her newest book, “PILLYWIGGIN Awakening: The Complete Story Arc (Books 1–2),” is an epic fantasy adventure about hidden fae, imprisoned boys facing impossible odds, and the courage it takes to awaken, survive, and become your own hero. Rooted in her lifelong interest in fantasy, metaphysics, technology, and cinematic storytelling, Bishop’s work explores the power people discover when they stop waiting to be rescued.With nearly three decades in entertainment, Bishop has built five companies and worked with major studios including Disney, Warner Bros., Paramount, and Universal. A former model and actress who moved behind the camera, she became a creative strategist whose digital campaigns have generated more than 2 billion views for the music industry. Today, Bishop continues to expand her universe through new media, author-focused programming, and conversations about the future of technology. She recently hosted the AI & Human Roundtable podcast series, leads another storyteller-driven series, and is preparing to showcase original content and amplify creative voices.Find Herhttps://www.instagram.com/debbiebishophttps://creatorstage.show/about-pillywiggin-awakeninghttps://www.debbiebishop.com/https://www.youtube.com/@by.storytellersWant to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!Support the show

The 54th episode of The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory has Mookie talking ghosts, gothic fiction, generational trauma, creativity, labor politics, and the thin membrane between the living and the dead with acclaimed author, actress, and haunted history guide Leanna Renee Hieber.Leanna’s work lives in the shadowy crossroads between gaslamp fantasy, horror, romance, historical fiction, paranormal mystery, and social commentary — which means trying to pin her to a single genre is like trying to handcuff fog. From Victorian ghost precincts and spectral detectives to haunted mansions, robber barons, labor uprisings, and vengeance-driven spirits, her fiction blends lush gothic atmosphere with sharp cultural critique and a wicked sense of humor.The conversation quickly spirals beyond ghost stories and into Leanna's lifelong fascination with the paranormal, childhood experiences she still cannot rationally explain, and why she believes science and the supernatural are not mutually exclusive. Drawing from her work leading haunted tours through New York City, she explains how certain places seem charged by tragedy, memory, suffering, and emotional residue: from the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire to the lingering psychic weight of old brownstones, forgotten streets, and hidden atrocities.Mookie adds his own uncanny experiences: seeing his father’s ghost after death, sensing overwhelming energy inside Dachau, and living through bizarre moments in a Park Slope brownstone that felt less like coincidence and more like reality itself tearing at the seams. Together, they explore the provocative possibility that consciousness, memory, grief, and history may operate on levels modern society doesn't understand.Going beyond paranormal speculation, they offer an unapologetic defense for storytelling with boldness and bravado. Leanna breaks down her evolution from actress and theater performer to bestselling gothic novelist, discussing how she balances performance, prose, narration, and historical research while building a career that refuses to fit neatly into publishing categories. She talks about the challenge and liberation of writing “five genres in a trench coat,” embracing gothic excess, and refusing to flatten her voice into something market-safe.The discussion also turns into a broader critique of modern fiction culture itself: workshop orthodoxy, “show don’t tell” dogma, hyper-cinematic prose, sanitized storytelling, and the growing fear many writers seem to have of directly expressing ideas, values, or moral outrage through narrative. Mookie argues modern genre fiction has become over-engineered and emotionally declawed, while Leanna explains how gothic fiction has always used atmosphere, metaphor, horror, and heightened emotion to smuggle dangerous truths into the reader’s bloodstream.Part ghost story, philosophical debate, art gothic literary salon, and rant against modern creative conformity, join Leanna and Mookie for one of the strangest, smartest, and most emotionally layered conversations you'll hear on either side of the veil. The GuestLeanna Renee Hieber is a professional actress, playwright, ghost tour guide and an award-winning, bestselling author of fiction and non-fiction for Tor, Union Square & Co. and Kensington Books. A Haunted History of Invisible Women: True Stories of America’s Ghosts, co-authored with Andrea Janes, was a Bram Stoker Award Finalist for Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction and their follow-up, America’s Most Gothic: Haunted History Stranger than Fiction, was an Instant USA Today Bestseller and is also a Bram Stoker Award nominee. Her Gothic novel Ravenfield Hall is forthcoming early 2027 from Union Square & Co / Hachette. A 4-time Prism award winner, three of which went to her Gothic Strangely Beautiful saga and a Daphne du Maurier finalist for Darker Still, Leanna’s novels have received translations into multiple languages and her short stories have been featured in notable anthologies such as Queen Victoria’s Book of Spells while her non-fiction essays have appeared in Apex Magazine, The Deadlands, Haunted Magazine and more. A guide with New York’s Boroughs of the Dead, founded by Andrea Janes, Leanna also tours one-woman shows she has crafted from historic texts starring interesting figures in women’s history. Featured in film and television on shows like Mysteries at the Museum and Beyond the Unknown discussing Victorian Spiritualism, Leanna lives in New York and lectures around the country on Gothic and paranormal themes as they intersect with women’s history.Her WorkWebsite: https://leannareneehieber.comInstagram: https://instagram.com/leannareneehieberFB: https://facebook.com/lrhieberEtsy: https://torchandarrow.etsy.com  Want to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!Support the show

Ben and Karen Gibson have been quietly building an entire fantasy universe for years — not one book, not two, but an entire pipeline of stories forged through late-night collaboration, technical day jobs, parenting chaos, RPG design, and a shared obsession with speculative fiction. In the 53rd episode of The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory, Mookie chats with the married writing duo behind Freedom’s Vow, the debut novel helping to launch Selene Press into fantasy territory.Mookie encourages Ben and Karen to unpack the heartfelt and surprisingly functional mechanics of co-authoring as a married couple: outlining together, poking holes in each other’s logic, splitting scenes, revising each other’s prose, and learning how trust matters more than ego when building stories collaboratively. Along the way they talk about publishing, LibertyCon, developmental editing with Cannon’s John Holmes, the realities of indie and small press publishing, and why they intentionally waited years before activating their fiction.At the center of the discussion is Freedom’s Vow, an epic fantasy steeped in Hellenistic and Greek-inspired mythology. The novel follows Arete, a magically gifted Shepherd, and Philon, a soldier whose city was shattered by the terrifying powers wielded by her kind. Avoiding bloated lore dumps and endless spell mechanics, the Gibsons focus on character, emotional tension, and the dangerous relationship forming between two people trapped between war, slavery, fear, and destiny. Mookie digs into why the book feels more human and grounded than much of modern fantasy — and the couple reveal how readers are already demanding more time with the characters after only book one.The episode also spirals into a wildly entertaining tour through the Gibsons’ unpublished backlog: military sci-fi involving battered reservists fleeing annihilation aboard a logistics ship; underground middle-grade adventures inspired by Jules Verne; and a gloriously insane post-apocalyptic novel where America counter-invades Hell itself after demons emerge from portals at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Yes, that conversation eventually includes nuclear weapons, Tennessee militias, and “sniping the Devil in the face.”Other topics include:Why most writers never finish a novel — and why the Gibsons kept writing anywayThe danger of vanity presses and publishing scamsSocial media, AI slop, and why genuine human connection still mattersThe overlap between tabletop RPG audiences and fantasy readersWhy unfinished fantasy series frustrate readersThe difference between writing for money versus writing because you have stories clawing to get outHow technical careers in chemistry and physics unexpectedly fuel their speculative fictionWhy “Southern geekery” might be its own literary expertiseIf you love fantasy rooted in myth, collaborative creativity, indie publishing war stories, or hearing two deeply nerdy and genuinely likable people talk shop with Mookie at full velocity, given them a listen. And if Freedom’s Vow is only the beginning, Ben and Karen Gibson may have enough stories waiting in the wings to keep readers and publishers busy for years.The GuestsB.K. Gibson is the pen name for Ben and Karen Gibson, a married co-writing couple, who've turned their lifelong love of stories into worlds of imagination they delight to share with others. They live in the beautiful city of Huntsville, Alabama, working in science and engineering while raising three rambunctious and curious children. We hope you'll love joining us in the stories we tell. Their BooksTheir Free NovellaWant to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!Support the show

Scott Allen has spent years voicing other people’s stories — grimdark warriors, space captains, assassins, at least one traumatized wizard — and now he’s finally thrown his own brain into the ring with The Aerie Protocol. So he's excited to join Mookie Spitz to talk about his flight from audiobook narrator to author, and how one stubborn sci-fi idea refused to leave him alone for years: What if there were hidden cities floating above the clouds… and humanity never noticed?What starts as a conversation about speculative fiction quickly mutates into a full-blown discussion about creativity, self-doubt, AI, storytelling, audiobook disasters, and why every indie creator is basically juggling chainsaws while pretending they have a business plan. Scott breaks down the emotional core of The Aerie Protocol: a war photographer who realizes he’s spent his entire life hiding behind the lens instead of actually participating in the world. Mookie, naturally, turns this into a philosophical rant about identity, passivity, modern life, and why some people document existence while others decide to kick the damn door open and live.The two also go deep into the absolute chaos of audiobook production. Failed multi-cast experiments. Voice actors who can’t sync emotionally. Audio levels from hell. AI narration that sounds like a sedated GPS app reading your grocery list. Scott explains why human performance still matters, why reading prose out loud exposes weak writing instantly, and why narrating your own novel is psychologically brutal when you’ve spent years safely performing other people’s work instead of exposing your own.The two also let loose a ton of real-world creative shop talk: beta readers, editing, balancing day jobs with art, talking story ideas into your phone like a lunatic at stoplights, and the modern reality that writers are now expected to also be marketers, podcasters, editors, social media goblins, and algorithm whisperers simultaneously.Give them a listen if you love science fiction, audiobooks, storytelling, creativity, or listening to two guys enthusiastically spiral into existential discussions about art and technology while occasionally bullying each other into finishing projects. And yes — Mookie repeatedly pressures Scott to stop overthinking things and record the damn audiobook already. Because if a professional narrator won’t narrate his own sci-fi novel, civilization may already be toast.The GuestStorytelling has always been part of my life, even if it hasn’t always been on the page. Over the years, I’ve written short stories and explored ideas quietly, while building a career in voiceover and audiobook narration. Bringing other people’s stories to life gave me a deeper understanding of what makes a story connect.  Now, I’m stepping into a new role as an author, sharing my own work and continuing that lifelong connection to storytelling in a new way. I hope you enjoy the work.His New NovelHis Prior PodcastWant to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!Support the show

Sam Robb steps into The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory to talk with Mookie about his new fantasy novel A Sense of Murder, the launch of Selene Press as the fantasy extension of Cannon Publishing, and how he somehow managed to bounce between Raconteur Press, pulp anthologies, military sci-fi circles, fantasy storytelling, political campaigning, and indie author chaos without losing his sanity. Mookie is eager to hear about the rise of Sam's “Alpha Mercs” writing crew, convention culture, collaborating with illustrator Cedar Sanderson, and why the best science fiction and fantasy still lives or dies on character rather than lore dumps and endless maps of imaginary kingdoms.The conversation also veers into his libertarian background — including Sam's surreal 2020 run for president as a Libertarian candidate — and how ideas about freedom, authority, government power, and individual responsibility quietly shape his fiction without turning it into preachy propaganda. They chatter about the changing landscape of modern sci-fi and fantasy, why entertainment comes first, how indie creators are building communities outside the corporate machine, and why readers are starving for stories that trust them to think for themselves.From there they can't help but get inside sports: “pantsing” versus outlining, building believable characters, surviving the grind of indie publishing, balancing creativity with self-promotion, and the strange reality that modern authors are expected to be writers, marketers, convention hustlers, podcasters, and fan-magnets all at once. Toss in riffs on Star Trek, Andy Weir, pulp fiction storytelling, the daily grind, politics, and the joy of making weird stuff with your friends, and you get one of the most wide-ranging and unexpectedly thoughtful episodes you'll likely hear in a while. The GuestSam Robb grew up in Pittsburgh preferring books to football — a choice that, in hindsight, explains a lot. He attended Carnegie Mellon on a Navy ROTC scholarship, married the most amazing woman in the world, and promptly shipped out to the Pacific Fleet. After helping decommission the USS WABASH, he returned to Pittsburgh, decided people were overrated, and retreated into software development. Then he ran for President as a Libertarian. He describes this period as "instructive."These days, Sam channels his restless curiosity into SF/F, prowling Pittsburgh's back alleys with a camera and an overactive imagination. His flash fiction collection One October Night, his urban fantasy novel Sigils, and his dark fantasy novel A Sense of Murder prove that graffiti, old buildings, and questionable life choices make excellent creative fuel.He lives with his wife, three daughters, and several quadrupeds who remain unimpressed by his publishing credits.Find him at samrobbwrites.com.His BooksWant to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!Support the show

Mookie's Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory launches its 50th episode with fellow anthology contributor, former naval engineer, and prolific author Marc Neuffer. They met through the 2026 SciFi Anthology, going strong for six years since Marc proposed the idea to the Science Fiction Novelists FB group. Mookie points out that he's had half the contributors from this installment on his podcast, with Marc joking there's still time to get the rest of them.Born into the "science" of scifi, Marc grew up in Huntsville, Alabama during the Apollo era surrounded by rocket engineers and space-race optimism, later serving as a nuclear propulsion engineer. Later in life he discovered an aptitude and appetite for writing, since publishing dozens of novels, short stories, and guidebooks on craft. Hitting it off from the start, Marc and Mookie talk Heinlein, Asimov, Kubrick, Andy Weir, hard science fiction, AI, artificial gravity, indie publishing scams, bookstore nostalgia, and the weirdly addictive joy of locking yourself in a room for twelve hours and disappearing into a fictional world.But the real fun starts when they joust: Mookie champions instinct, improvisation, and throwing characters into crisis to see what happens. Marc counters with psychology, authenticity, immersive setting, and his belief that most modern writing “rules” have been flattened into useless workshop clichés. The two spar over “show don’t tell,” ideological fiction, Star Trek versus Star Wars science, modern clickbait science journalism, and whether writers ruin stories the second they start preaching at readers instead of following their characters honestly. The fun part is that neither guy completely gives ground, but both clearly enjoy the friction and wind up sharpening each other’s perspectives along the way.The episode also gets unexpectedly personal at times, with Marc reflecting on aging, creativity, engineering discipline, and why he doesn't care about chasing literary fame or bestseller lists. He’d rather write stories he loves, help younger writers avoid bad advice, and keep exploring ideas that fascinate him. Mookie, meanwhile, keeps dragging the discussion away from abstract writing theory and back toward character, emotion, imagination, and storytelling as lived experience.If you like science fiction conversations with humor, blunt opinions, nerd arguments, creative philosophy, old-school engineering brainpower, and two writers poking holes in each other’s ideas while still clearly enjoying the hell out of the conversation, Episode 50 of SFFF is your morning cup of joe. The GuestMarc is a retired naval engineer who has found his geographic center in rural America. He spent more than 20 years roaming the world with the U.S. Navy, visiting dozens of countries in Europe, Down Under, the Eastern Pacific, the Indian Ocean, and the Mediterranean. He has lived in San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Saratoga Springs, NY, and Huntsville Alabama.After selling his business, he took up the piano and started writing multi-genre fiction novels. In addition to his ten published novels, and five non-fiction works, Marc's shorter works have been published in Scientific Barbarian Magazine, Frontier Tales, Science Fiction Novelists Anthologies 1-6, and as dramatic narrated stories by Untold-Tales.His BooksWant to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!Support the show

Some writers build stories. J. Kenton Pierce seems to have stories stalking him until he writes them down.He joins Mookie in the 49th episode of The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory for a lively, sharp-edged discussion about creating an interstellar universe where frontier settlers, political schemers, orbital AI-controlled kill-satellites, engineered soldiers, traders, autocrats, and stubborn individualists all collide. Pierce breaks down the world behind his Prometheus award nominated A Kiss for Damocles, his debut novel, and An Apple for the Legion, a new prequel that follows a genetically optimized true believer slowly realizing the machine she serves is rotten at its core.What becomes obvious is that J. Kenton has thought through his universe: politics have logic, technology has consequences, the colonies feel lived in. Power centralizes, people resist, systems decay, and survival forces ugly compromises. The conversation also digs into Pierce’s libertarian-leaning instincts: skepticism of concentrated power, respect for local autonomy, distrust of coercive systems, and a bias toward people being left alone to build their own lives. But his characters are flawed, surprising, contradictory human beings because the story comes first. That alone separates him from many modern writers who treat fiction like a sermon with costumes.Mookie and J. Kenton also get into the real craft of writing: why many authors obsess over worldbuilding and neglect character, why beloved franchises collapse under bad storytelling, why heroes need limitations, and why the best fiction often arrives when characters stop obeying the outline and start causing trouble.Pierce’s writing process is its own adventure. He describes decades of compulsive daydreaming, scenes arriving out of nowhere, pacing around the room until ideas lock into place, and then unloading them in a rush. By avoiding the productivity myth and fake guru routine, J. Kenton has a mind naturally wired to create.The GuestI'm a retired Goth and somewhat disgruntled yet generally mild-mannered veteran of the Gulf War, with experience in molecular biology, social services, and way too much retail when younger. In a way, these stories were inevitable. I gamed excessively and often had more fun creating new characters and filling out those tiny little character bio screens than playing. My fleetmates in the Star Trek Online guild “TOS Veterans” started up some RP stories and encouraged me to beef up my main toon’s bio. A few hundred words of character background turned into 25K of story/fanfic.Finally, I realized that I wasn’t satisfied simply consuming stories or weaving my characters into other people’s worlds. They're kind of pushy. I suppose that brings us to influences. too many to really list, from H. Ryder Haggard and Mark Twain to Andre Norton and Harlan Ellison, to James H. Schmitz and J. Michael Straczynski, Lois McMaster Bujold to Jim Butcher... And everyone in between. And now I'm sitting with my favorite authors at the Prometheus Awards table, who knew?His Novels & Short StoriesWant to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!Support the show

What happens when a LitRPG writer walks into the Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory and casually reveals that one of the fastest-growing corners of modern fantasy has also built the best ecosystem in publishing? You get this fascinating conversation with author Matthew Kent, who joins Mookie to explain why game-inspired fiction is no niche gimmick, instead a thriving movement with obsessed readers, hyper-engaged communities, massive books, booming audiobooks, and writers who help each other succeed.Matthew breaks down "Literary Role Playing Game" genre from the ground floor: stories where characters level up, stats matter, systems speak, and narrative itself gets interrupted by prompts, rankings, alerts, and evolving character sheets. If that sounds strange, it is, but the genre is also wildly popular. Mookie presses him on what makes LitRPG work, how it differs from conventional fantasy, and why so many readers become addicted to this hybrid of storytelling, gaming logic, and progression psychology.The conversation goes far beyond mechanics. Matthew explains the rise of Royal Road, the online platform where writers serialize chapters, gain armies of beta readers, refine their stories in public, and build audiences before publication. They discuss how community-driven feedback, Kindle Unlimited, audiobook culture, Reddit fandoms, and social media have created a self-sustaining machine that many traditional authors would give up their agents for. They also tackle the pressures of modern publishing: AI-generated book spam, Amazon review bottlenecks, the economics of indie writing, and why authors need readers more than ever. Matthew offers blunt, practical insight on craft, marketing, consistency, and what separates books that connect from books that disappear.Along the way, Mookie recognizes something bigger: LitRPG may look eccentric from the outside, but under the hood it has solved problems the rest of publishing still complains about. So if you are a writer searching for audience, a reader curious about new frontiers in fantasy, or someone wondering where fiction is heading in the age of games, platforms, and AI, give them a listen! The GuestI write my stories with one goal in mind: to help others dream. I want my readers to find worlds they can escape into, characters they can relate to, and adventures that ignite their imagination. Currently, I live in the southeastern United States, sharing a busy but fulfilling life with my wife, our son, and twin daughters. Our home is also filled with the energy of two dogs, making it all the more lively. Yet, with so many stories swirling in my head, I often find that there’s never quite enough time to put them all on paper. And as for the twins, they remind me of an old joke: “How are twins and the Spanish Inquisition alike? No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!”Get His Novels & Check Out His Royal Roadhttps://www.amazon.com/stores/Matthew-Kent/author/B01N26PQ3H https://www.royalroad.com/profile/79682/fictionsWant to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!Support the show

What happens when two writing obsessives lock themselves in a room and start talking craft, money, madness, creativity, publishing, best (and worst) practices, and the questionable life choice known as “becoming an author”? You get this lively, funny, and honest conversation with Mike Robinson—a true Renaissance writer and editor whose career spans novels, short stories, screenplays, editing, coaching, and helping other writers turn rough ideas into compelling books.Mike talks to Mookie about the real mechanics of writing improvement. What’s the difference between line editing and developmental editing? Why do so many beginners overwrite? Why do some science fiction stories have amazing ideas but no human pulse? How do you preserve a writer’s unique voice while still making the work better?  Should writers chase the market or chase their own vision? Mike offers a sharp framework—one for me, one for them. Write one project straight from obsession, then write one with readers in mind. It’s not compromise. It’s survival with dignity.From there, things get gloriously nerdy. Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow, James Joyce, experimental fiction, screenplay discipline, youthful creative energy, the mystery of inspiration, and why some geniuses eventually disappear into their own exhaust fumes. They explore where ideas come from, why some people have too many, why others freeze at the blank page, and how writers need to keep feeding themselves with books, history, philosophy, science, technology, culture, and real life. Mike also shares insight into his own fiction—work blending horror, speculative concepts, psychology, cryptids, metaphysics, and the unstable border between reality and nightmare.The GuestBorn and raised in Los Angeles, Mike Robinson is the award-winning author of multiple novels and dozens of short stories, most of them speculative fiction. His work has appeared in Clarkesworld, The Strand Magazine, American Gothic Fantasy, Storyteller, ClonePod, December Tales II, Underland Arcana, Thirteen Podcast, Creepy Podcast and more, and has received honors from Writers of the Future, the Next Generation Indie Book Awards, Maxy Awards, The BookFest, Kindle Book Awards and others. His novel "Walking the Dusk" was a semifinalist for Book of the Year in Publishers Weekly's BookLife Prize.He is also the editor of J.P. Barnett's bestselling "Lorestalker" series, and Dr. Zo's award-winning "TimeOuts" middle-grade series. As a book coach and senior editor with Wordsmith Writing Coaches, he co-created the New Author Plunge, a workshop for beginning writers. In addition, he's a copywriter (he worked on the Webby Award-winning podcast "Books That Make You"), an illustrator and award-winning screenwriter with two produced credits including "Blood Corral," selected as Best Horror Feature at the Skyehouse International Film Festival. Otherwise, he hikes (often with dogs), swims, draws, and tries to learn the didgeridoo.His Website & NewsletterSign up for my monthly Weird / Wondrous / WriteLife newsletter on the home page: https://www.mike-robinsonauthor.com/Pre-order Mike's Next NovelWant to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!Support the show

In this goofy and surprisingly useful roundtable episode, Mookie Spitz reunites with fellow indie author road warriors Ingrid Moon, Greg Sorber, and married co-writing duo Sherry Shimshock and Blake Shimshock to unpack their chaotic, sweaty, unexpectedly profitable adventure at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.Stuffed into a booth roughly the size of a phone booth, the group somehow managed to sell books, charm strangers, cross-promote each other, and prove that readers still exist despite years of internet propaganda claiming nobody reads anymore. Thousands of people streamed by. Many stopped. Some bought one book. Some bought stacks. Some bought books because there were cats on the cover. No further questions.Their post-event debrief is part comedy, part field manual for indie authors trying to survive in the wild. The crew breaks down what actually works at live events: loud energy, good covers, fast pitches, zealous body language, and knowing when to stop talking after the customer is already reaching for their wallet. They also discuss the tragic spectacle of dead-eyed vendors sitting silently behind tables like depressed lemonade stand operators.Beyond the jokes, the group talks candidly about how soul-crushing online algorithms create distance between writers and readers, while in-person events let you actually meet the humans who may buy your stuff. They explain why community beats isolation, why four authors working together outsold many loners, and why sometimes the best sales tactic is simply being fun to talk to.If you write books, sell books, read books, or just enjoy hearing smart weirdos talk shop, this episode is for you. Ingrid MoonIngrid Moon is an author, editor, and science teacher. She currently has four science fiction novels, three audiobooks, and three science reference books for worldbuilding, with more on the way. Ingrid is a Southern California native who can't surf because she spent most of her youth navigating mountains and watching sci-fi television, all of which inspired her writing career. Author website: https://ingridmoon.comFree fantasy novella: https://books.ingridmoon.com/gift-of-orisyneGreg Sorber"I’m a lifelong fan of science fiction, fantasy, and comic books. Some of my earliest memories are of Land of the Lost, Speed Racer, and The Six Million Dollar Man. Seeing Star Wars in the theater for the first time in 1977 was a life-changing experience. An avid reader from an early age, I’ve always loved books that engaged my imagination. Reading The Hobbit in 7th grade English class and writing a short story that same year set me down the path of becoming a writer. I live in Riverside, California with my family and two dogs."www.gregerationx.com Blake & Sherry ShimshockBlake and Sherry Shimshock are the interstellar storytellers behind the Firebird Award winning Chronicles of Derek Fade: The Hunt for Valdune, introducing readers to Senior Agent Derek Fade, whose quest for justice spirals into a galaxy-spanning vendetta. The sequel, The Edge of the Abyss, delves deeper into Fade's turmoil, blending action with emotional depth. Together, the novels challenge readers to question the boundaries of duty and vengeance. Their Novels & WebsiteBonus: Vote on their name! "So-Cal Sci-Fi Crew" or "So-Cal Sci-Fi Nexus"?Want to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!Support the show

In this lively and surprisingly candid 45th episode of The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory, Mookie Spitz sits down with fantasy author Catherine Cruzan for a deep dive into storytelling, publishing, creativity, and the realities of trying to build an audience in 2026. What starts as a conversation about conventions like WonderCon quickly turns into a masterclass on what separates compelling fiction from genre sludge.Catherine opens up about being an introvert forced into the uncomfortable role of marketer, publicist, and salesperson. She discusses her Elfkind trilogy, the recently released Winter Forest, and the upcoming fourth book, Crown of Fire. More importantly, she explains why character always comes first, why worldbuilding often gets abused, and why readers crave emotional investment more than endless lore dumps.The conversation ranges across the giants who shaped her imagination: J.R.R. Tolkien, Tad Williams, Raymond E. Feist, Terry Brooks, and Guillermo del Toro. Catherine shares mentorship moments that kept her from quitting, including advice to stop comparing herself to giants and simply tell her own story.Mookie and Catherine also get brutally honest about modern publishing: the myth of being “saved” by a traditional publisher, the rise of platform-first book deals, the need for writers to build their own communities, and how millions of books including many if not most from non-human authors now flood the market every year. If you think writing the book is the hard part, think again. That may be where the real work starts.They also tackle AI head-on. as Catherine draws a hard line: use tools if helpful, but don’t outsource your soul. She talks through her meticulous editing process for ensuring genuine dialogue, honest character voice, compelling pacing, and proven structure, making clear that authentic fiction comes from lived experience, emotional nuance, and relentless revision, not prompt shortcuts.Catherine Cruzan brings intelligence, humility, and real craft talk to the table. Mookie brings the extraverted-introvert hand-wringing energy. Together they deliver a conversation about why stories matter, why hope matters, and why creators need to keep going even when silenced by a crowded and over-saturated media landscape. The GuestCatherine Cruzan grew up in Bloomington, MN, but Southern California has been her home for many years. After graduating from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, with a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering, she has worked as an engineer for a number of aerospace companies in the Los Angeles area.Catherine’s interest in books began as a child with a voracious appetite for reading. She fondly recalls piling onto her parent’s bed with her two brothers while her mother read the Chronicles of Narnia, Treasure Island or Black Beauty. She moved on to The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings as a teenager, and Fantasy stories remain her favorite to this day.Her writing career started with poetry and short stories published in the school newspaper. As an adult, she writes character driven Fantasy, Horror and Science Fiction. Her writing education includes Long Beach City College and the UCLA Writers Program.Her Books & SocialsWebsite: www.CatherineCruzan.com IG: @Catherine.CruzanGood Reads:  Catherine Cruzan (Author of Elfkind) | Goodreads Want to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!Support the show

In this 44th episode of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory, Mookie dives in deep with science fiction author James Kenwood to explore his themes and best practices for storytelling. The discussion ranges from war and political power to moral responsibility, flawed heroes, pacing, worldbuilding, and the hard truth that readers do not owe writers their attention.James explains how military history and recurring cycles of conflict shape his fiction. His serialized, work-in-progress novel Mars Fire examines settlers on Mars trapped between rival Earth powers, while his shorter fiction delivers concentrated bursts of action, sacrifice, and moral tension.Mookie pushes the conversation further, contrasting noble archetypes with comic antiheroes, asking whether fiction should inspire, expose hypocrisy, or simply entertain. Together they dissect why some stories grip readers for life while others evaporate in their first few pages. Together they share several best practices for authors:Start with pressure, not scenery. Readers care more about a problem than your skyline, spaceship, or kingdom. Introduce tension early.Make every chapter cost something. If nobody risks losing status, love, safety, freedom, or identity, the chapter is filler.Use worldbuilding in motion. Explain the Mars rover while someone is fleeing in it. Explain the airlock while it malfunctions.Create moral crossroads. Force characters into decisions where every option hurts. That is where personality is exposed.Cut repeated explanations. Once readers understand the setting, move on. Trust them.Give characters competing agendas. Drama spikes when smart people want different things for valid reasons.Build consequences forward. Every major action should create a new problem, not restore comfort.Use flaws strategically. Vanity, cowardice, greed, laziness, obsession—flaws generate plot better than perfection ever will.Earn speeches. If a character delivers philosophy, make sure tension surrounds it. Nobody wants a TED Talk in chapter six.Track narrative momentum. Ask constantly: does this scene increase curiosity, dread, conflict, or desire? If not, fix it.Write scenes readers postpone sleep for. Aim for “one more chapter” energy. That is the gold standard.Know your story’s fuel source. Is it suspense, wonder, romance, revenge, mystery, satire, politics? Feed that engine consistently.Use action to reveal worldview. A selfish character grabs the parachute first. A noble one pushes someone else toward it.Don’t confuse complexity with depth. Ten factions and three timelines mean nothing without emotional stakes.Respect the reader’s intelligence. Suggest, imply, dramatize. Stop overexplaining everything.Leave residue. The best stories continue in the reader’s head after the final page.Join two writers for over two hours as they explore what stories are for, why conflict matters, and how to write fiction that actually hits.The GuestJames Kenwood is a part-time historian and a full-time reader at night; by day, he works as a specialist in the banking industry. He currently resides in Western Europe after a recent immigration, along with his wife. He has one cat – Raver (name was inherited, not chosen) – and spends far too much time looking at the contrails over his town and dreaming of flying.On SubstackWant to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!Support the show

Saddle up for a wild ride into one of speculative fiction’s coolest frontier mashups: the science fiction western. In this episode, Mookie stirs it up with debut novelist Rick Cutler, author of Colt Ostergaard: A Man with a Gun, to talk about laser six-shooters, frontier justice, worldbuilding grit, and how the cowboy archetype still hits hard when launched into the future.Rick breaks down why science fiction westerns work so well. The two genres combine the raw freedom and danger of the Old West with the limitless imagination of sci-fi. That means lonely gunslingers, lawless territories, strange technology, alien landscapes, and moral showdowns where survival is never guaranteed. If you love Firefly, The Mandalorian, classic Star Trek, or pulp adventure with brains, this conversation lands squarely in your lane.The episode also tracks Rick’s impressive rise as a debut novelist. He didn’t stumble into success. He wrote for years, sharpened his craft through trial and error, submitted boldly when opportunity appeared, and turned a short-form concept into a full-length novel that found the right publisher at the right time. His story is a reminder that “overnight success” is usually built on years of quiet persistence.For writers, Rick delivers practical no-nonsense advice:Treat writing like work, not waiting for inspirationWrite consistently, even when you don’t feel like itStay true to your characters and let them behave honestlyKnow your audience and write with readers in mindIgnore discouraging voices that kill momentumFind other writers who challenge and support youUse rejection, luck, and setbacks as fuel instead of excusesRick also shares his old-school writing method: drafting longhand on legal pads, rewriting by hand, then typing later. Slow, deliberate, disciplined. No gimmicks. Just craft. Their convo is a fun, insightful conversation about creativity, persistence, publishing, and why the future still has room for a man with a gun riding into the unknown.The GuestWriter Rick Cutler works in both Science Fiction and Fantasy, but is most famous for his Colt Ostergaard stories in the Raconteur Press “Space Cowboys” series. He also has multiple stories in other anthologies such as ‘Glitched Grimm’ and ‘Uncanny Valet’. Rick graduated from Graceland University with a degree in Sociology, followed by a Computer Tech degree from Rockhurst University. He has been an usher and a tour guide; worked on an archeological dig; and sold vacuum cleaners door-to-door before settling down to sell advertising for 20 years in the South and Midwest. He retired, then jumped into a new career for 21 years doing tech support and data management for a major corporation. Colt Ostergaard: A Man with a Gun is his first published full-length novel. He now lives in Kansas with his wife Doris Day. No cats. No dogs. But that could change at any moment.His BooksHis WebsiteWant to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!Support the show

In this episode of The Science Fiction and Fantasy Factory, Mookie sits down with Michael A. Clement, a former finance professional turned speculative fiction writer, to trace the unlikely path from spreadsheets to stories, and why it worked.Clement didn’t come up through the usual writer pipeline. No MFA. No lifelong literary obsession. Just a late-life pivot sparked by a single idea: what if a machine chose not to obey? From there, things escalated into asteroid-mining AI blackmailers, homicidal appliances, buffoonish aliens, and deeply human stories about loss, memory, and moral consequence.Mookie and Michael dig into: The moment creativity ignites—and why it sometimes waits decadesHow classic influences like The Twilight Zone shaped Clement’s moral, allegorical styleWriting as a second-act reinvention, not a lifelong identityThe power of speculative fiction to tackle real-world issues without triggering defensesMicrofiction, AI-assisted storytelling, and the strange new tools reshaping creativityThe uncomfortable truth about publishing: slush piles, gatekeepers, and a system begging to be disrupted by AI helping creators connect to consumersThey also dive the looming collision between human creators and AI—where convenience, creativity, and obsolescence start to blur. Is AI a tool, a collaborator, or the thing that replaces you? Michael's answer is pragmatic: create anyway, write anyway, and leave something behind.The GuestMichael was raised in San Diego, California. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Southern California and a Master of Business Administration from the University of San Francisco. Most of his career was spent in financial services. Since 2006, Michael has made Hong Kong his home. Now retired, he writes science fiction as a hobby. Michael has written seven books: five novellas: Khrysos, This Book Is A Murderer, Chasing Roswell, Pan-ego, and Zogtopia (which have been combined into a collection, Alien Journey Ahead); one collection of short stories, Cosmic Portal, and one novelette, Alien Daydreams (his latest book).His Writinghttps://www.facebook.com/Michael.A.Clement.Bookshttp://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelaclementhttp://www.amazon.com/author/author_khrysos_bookWant to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!Support the show

On this 41st episode of The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory, Mookie sits down with Cannon Publishing founder and Editor-in-Chief John F. Holmes. He's a former platoon sergeant who runs his publishing outfit with the same mindset: train the talent, build the unit, execute the mission.Cannon gives military science fiction authors a real path between doing everything yourself and waiting years for a traditional deal that may never come. You bring the manuscript, Cannon brings the machine: Editing that improves the book, covers designed to sell, full production handled without cutting corners. Distribution across the channels that matter, with no upfront costs, and a straight profit split. If the book wins, everyone wins.Then there’s the part most writers underestimate—the team. Cannon is a working group participating in monthly sessions, shared universes, writers cross-checking each other’s work. Veterans help newer authors avoid the mistakes they already made. Holmes treats development like training. Holmes lays out exactly what he looks for, what gets rejected immediately, and why most books never gain traction even if the writing is decent:Submit like a professionalSend a clean plot synopsis and your first three chapters. No rambling pitches. No half-finished ideas.Write for story, not agendaStrong characters and momentum win. Message-driven writing usually collapses under its own weight.Be ready to collaborateExpect feedback. Expect edits. Expect other authors to weigh in. If you want total control, go solo.Show you can produce consistentlyOne book every ten years is a dead end. You need follow-through and output.Build your own presenceSocial media, conventions, reader interaction. If no one knows you exist, the book won’t move.Engage like a human, not a billboardTalk to readers. Share interests. Don’t just scream “buy my book.”Understand the business modelIt’s a partnership. Profit split. No guarantees. You’re expected to help drive sales.Know the catalog before you pitchRead Canon titles. If your work doesn’t fit the lane, don’t waste time forcing it.Stay coachableThe whole point is improvement. If you fight every note, you’re done.Bring something to the tableTalent helps. Discipline matters more. A voice, a perspective, a willingness to grind. Visibility, consistency, and personality matter. If you’re not willing to show up and engage, you disappear.The GuestJ.F. Holmes is a retired Army Senior Noncommissioned Officer, having served for 22 years in both the Regular Army and Army National Guard. During that time, he served as everything from an artillery section leader to a member of a Division level planning staff, with tours in Cuba and Iraq, as well as responding to the terrorists attacks in NYC on 9-11. From 2010 to 2014 he wrote the immensely popular military cartoon strip, "Power Point Ranger", poking fun at military life in the tradition of Beetle Bailey and Willy & Joe. His books range from Military Sci-Fi to Space Opera to Detective to Fantasy, with a lot in between, and in 2017 two are finalists for the prestigious Dragon Awards. In 2018, he launched Cannon Publishing, specializing in military science fiction, fantasy and thrillers, with an emphasis on works from up and coming authors. Cannon Publishingwww.cannonpublishing.usWant to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!Support the show

In this episode of The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory, Mookie sits down with the elusive author Saengard, who emerges from behind a pseudonym to talk about his debut novel The World Ender—a fast-moving, idea-heavy sci-fi story decades in the making that answers the question: "What happens when the system meant to save humanity becomes the thing that destroys it?At the center is George Greycloud Guess, a physicist who creates a revolutionary energy source meant to save a collapsing world. Instead, it triggers a chain reaction: rogue machines, shadowy global power structures, nanotech gone sideways, and an extinction-level asteroid barreling toward Earth. Governments promise salvation through massive domed cities, but their real agenda flips the plot and humanity's destiny upside-down. Mookie and Saengard talk about systems: how they grow, how they rot, and how they inevitably turn on the people they were built to serve. Saengard breaks down the core tension driving his work: technology versus humanity, control versus freedom, and the uncomfortable truth that even utopias carry a dark undercurrent.They then get into bureaucracy as a living organism, capitalism versus centralized control, and why every system—left unchecked—drifts toward authoritarianism. Then their chat spirals into bigger territory: AI, consciousness, and whether machines can ever truly “be,” or if they’re just high-powered mirrors reflecting our own patterns back at us. Along the way they share notes on collapse, control, and the strange human need for struggle, and why every attempt to engineer a perfect world seems to backfire.The GuestSaengard is the author of The World Ender, an apocalyptic sci-fi thriller. This debut novella began over 25 years ago as a small comic strip in a monthly periodical in Sarasota, Fl. Since then, the story has grown into a series. But don't worry, every book is a satisfying stand-alone story, each one in the series building on the last, charting the rise and fall of Meteora - also known as Punk City.His Websitehttps://punkcitybooks.com/Want to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!Support the show

In this 39th episode of The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory, Mookie brings Michael S. Clarke onto the factory floor to dissect the craft, the grind, and the brutal reality of trying to write—and sell—serious sci-fi in a world drowning in noise.Clarke is deep in the trenches with Synthetic, a novel about mind uploading, identity duplication, and what happens when “you” becomes plural. Mookie, never one to let a concept sit quietly, pushes it further: if you copy your brain into a machine, who’s the real you, and which one gets screwed in the divorce?Along the way, the conversation veers into the stuff that makes this genre fun:Mookie lays down a hard rule: no string theory allowed. Mention it and you get metaphorically gonged off the show.A spontaneous rant breaks out about why Superman is a fundamentally uninteresting character—invincible equals zero vulnerability, the real kryptonite is boredom.Clarke walks through the nightmare of editing your own work, including the moment you realize two pages of your novel are just… intellectual soup.The two tear into the publishing ecosystem: agents, vanity presses, self-publishing, phishing, and scamming, including the most uncomfortable truth: nobody is there to promote your book but you.Underneath the jokes and jabs is a serious throughline: good science fiction isn’t about the science—it’s about what people do when the science breaks them. Mookie and Michael break into craft, ego, failure, persistence, and the uneasy partnership between imagination and reality. The GuestMichael S. Clarke is a speculative fiction author obsessed with the "what if" of artificial intelligence. His work delves into the philosophical and practical implications of mind uploading, AI agency, and what it means to be human in an age where biology is becoming optional.His Blogshttps://qtility-mike.blogspot.com/https://michaelsclarke.online/Want to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!Support the show

What happens when a pandemic kills your D&D campaign? If you’re Rachanee Lumayno, you don’t sulk or bake bread—you construct an entire fantasy universe instead.In the 38th episode of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory, host Mookie Spitz sits down with Rachanee, the indie author behind the Kingdom Legacy series. She describes how she turned an abandoned gaming character into a seven-book saga spanning interconnected kingdoms, shifting protagonists, and themes of identity, power, and found family. Her approach flips the usual fantasy model on its head: no bloated continuity, no homework for the reader—just modular storytelling that lets you jump in anywhere and still get hooked.Together, Rachanee and Mookie conduct a working session on what actually gets books written—and sold. They dig into: Why most writers stall out—and how Lumayno cranks out full novels in monthsThe plotter vs. pantser divide, and why she didn’t even fully world-build until book threeUsing tarot cards as a storytelling engine, and why it sometimes works better than outliningThe indie author reality of choosing the best covers, editors, cons, and why human connection beats online adsYA fiction that isn’t soft, and how darker themes can hit younger audiences without dumbing anything downWhy reading your work out loud might be the single best editing tool you’re ignoringThey also go beyond the books and into creative discipline, the grind of self-publishing, and the uncomfortable truth that thinking too much is often the enemy of writing anything at all.If you’re trying to write, publish, or just stop screwing around and finish something, this one lands. And if you’re a reader you’ll walk away with a new fantasy world to explore, and a sense of wonder and appreciation for Rachanee's enthusiasm and creative process. The GuestRachanee Lumayno is an actress, voiceover artist, screenwriter, avid gamer and amateur dodgeball player. She grew up in Michigan, where she spent way too much of her free time reading fantasy novels. So when she decided to try her hand at writing a book, it made sense that it would be in her favorite genre. The Kingdom Legacy series marks her debut as an author. She is also a staff writer for two comics and an upcoming video game.Her first novel, Heir of Amber and Fire, was named a Best Book Winner for Young Adult - Fantasy / Sci-Fi in the 2024 Spring PenCraft Seasonal Book Awards.Her Books & Resourceshttps://www.rachanee.net/https://www.rachanee.net/newsletterhttps://www.rachanee.net/bookshttps://www.instagram.com/rachaneelumaynoWant to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!Support the show

In this episode of The Science Fiction and Fantasy Factory, Mookie Spitz sits down with Peter Gribble, author of the sprawling City of Magicians trilogy. They dig into a world where magic replaces military force, complacency masquerades as stability, and a barbarian invasion exposes the cracks holding everything together.At the center is a deceptively simple premise: a pacifist, pilgrimage-driven city-state has grown rich, comfortable, and dangerously soft. When violence comes knocking, the ruling council scrambles—not to fight, but to manipulate, negotiate, and survive. Their solution? A reluctant young man tasked with telepathically binding himself to the invading warlord, while a parallel underground faction plots its own dangerous alliance.Peter's trilogy becomes a pressure chamber for asking some big questions: Can a society built on nonviolence survive contact with those playing by a different set of rules?When does restraint become weakness?What happens when power—magical or political—corrupts the people who wield it?And underneath it all: are we actually in control, or are deeper forces shaping our choices?The conversation moves beyond plot into process, as Peter breaks down how this 1,600-page epic was created over decades, resulting in a sprawling epic through obsession, daily discipline, and the kind of creative “possession” writers die for: where characters hijack the story, structure manifests later in the game, and entire scenes get scrapped and reborn in a single manic burst.Mookie pushes the discussion into even sharper territory, showcasing how Peter's epic uses fantasy to confront the realities of history, war, and human failure, and asking whether idealism can survive contact with the real world and its more pragmatic brutalities. The answer, like the trilogy itself, is messy, conflicted, and brutally honest.If you’re into dense, character-driven, immersive world-building with philosophical teeth—think Borges-level ideas meshed with Tolkien-scale ambition—this one delivers. And if you’re a writer, this episode provides a raw look at what it actually takes to build something big, finish it, and then figure out how the hell to get anyone to notice.The GuestPeter Gribble has written for NUVO and other magazines in British Columbia. For over ten years he wrote a monthly gardening column for a local Vancouver paper. The City of the Magicians is his first published series.His Websitehttps://petergribble.com/Want to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!Support the show

The 36th episode of Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory features Mookie going deep into storytelling craft with Michael Morton, a military sci-fi author, editor, and former Air Force space operations specialist who breaks writing down the same way he approaches missions: Clear objectives, defined adversaries, and no wasted energy or motion.Morton lays out a core principle that drives everything: If your characters do not have goals, and nothing stands in their way, the story collapses. Conflict is the engine, and everything else supports it. He explains how weak character motivation and overbuilt worlds drag stories down, especially in science fiction where writers often hide behind lore instead of drama.The conversation stays grounded in execution. Morton explains how real operational thinking carries into fiction that moves. He builds scenes around intent, then lets characters push toward outcomes. He avoids over-explaining and trusts the audience to keep up. The result is pacing that feels earned instead of forced.From there, Mookie and Michael shift into process. Morton writes while holding a full-time job. No time to wait for inspiration, he sets daily word targets, visualizes scenes ahead of time, and uses a structured framework to keep momentum. When a section stalls, he skips forward and keeps producing. Progress over perfection.They also get into the mechanics of working inside established universes. Morton explains how to operate within constraints without flattening creativity. Respect the rules of the sandbox, then build the story inside it. He ties that back to character work, where distinct motivations and opposing goals create tension that carries across any setting.The business side gets equal attention, and Michael gets direct about publishing. The book does not sell itself, and it's up to the author to drive visibility. Social media presence, reader engagement, and consistent output matter. Without that, even strong work disappears. The takeaway is clear: Writing is a system. Execute daily. Do that long enough and the results follow.The GuestMichael Morton is a retired United States Air Force major, having served for 20 years and worked as an ICBM launch officer and in space operations. He currently works as a civilian at the United States Space Force on the next generation of satellite control systems. He started writing fanfiction with friends in the AOL days, but now he writes award-winning military sci-fi and fantasy. When he’s not writing, he enjoys gaming, camping, and exploring the local distilleries and breweries. Join him and the other Cannon Publishing authors at The Command Post on Facebook!Amazon Author pagePersonal website:  https://www.salty-family.com/michael-morton-authorFB Author page:  https://www.facebook.com/michael.mortonauthorWant to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!Support the show

The 35th episode of The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory features Mookie sharing the mic with debut novelist D.A. Murray to break open her provocative novel Dominion Ascension: a dystopian world where men are reduced to tools, women run everything, and control becomes the real antagonist.Her set-up is sharp, a post-war society reshaped by chemical damage and role reversal. The result is an authoritarian matriarchy that inverts the old system and then exposes it. Through Donnie, Linda, and Robbie, Murray builds a character-driven story that refuses to hide behind worldbuilding. Her story is about power, who holds it, and what they’re willing to do to keep it. Mookie pushes on the obvious question: is this feminist revenge fantasy, or something more uncomfortable? D.A.'s answer cuts deeper: the book goes beyond the cliche of men versus women to explore the mechanisms of ontrol versus humanity. Swap the players, and the same corruption shows up. Absolute power doesn’t care who’s holding it.Their conversation goes into...  The real-world Gen Z gender divide—and why this story hits now  How slow, incremental loss of freedom is more dangerous than sudden oppression  The role of technology as both enabler and jailer  Why character—not lore—is what makes sci-fi actually land They also get brutally practical about writing and publishing: Why writing the book is the easy part  The business side of being an author (and why most people ignore it)  Beta readers, market awareness, and not deluding yourself  The long game: building an audience, not chasing a miracle Murray doesn’t pretend this is a hobby, but treats it like a system. Her great advice to writers: Learn the industry, test your work, find your people, then keep going... And underneath it all, there’s something more personal which fuels the emergent drama: a controlled burn of D.A.'s lived experience, turned into powerful storytellilng.The GuestD.A. Murray is an emerging voice in feminist speculative fiction, balancing roles as a tech executive, debut novelist, and digital creator. Her novel Dominion: Ascension reimagines gender dynamics in a post-apocalyptic world, exploring power, resilience, and societal transformation.Originally from California and now based in Chicago, Murray has built a strong following on Instagram and TikTok, where she shares insights on writing, women’s empowerment, and creativity. Her #WritersInTech and #ReadWithMe series highlight her journey and spotlight female-driven stories.With degrees from UCLA and Kellogg, she brings a cross-cultural, business-minded lens to storytelling. She also speaks on the intersection of technology, narrative, and modern feminism, while leading workshops that amplify women’s voices.WELCOME TO DAMURRAY'S OFFICIAL WEBSITEWant to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!Support the show

In this 34th episode of Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory, Mookie gets real about what it actually takes to write and sell fiction in today’s chaos economy. Part craft talk but mostly a collision between loving to write and loving to actually get read. On one side: Mookie—unfiltered, prolific, and borderline allergic to rules. Plays, novels, rants, sci-fi, satire. No lane, no brakes, no patience for algorithm-chasing, just raw output and instinct.On the other: Daniel P. Douglas—Phil and Paul Garver. Identical twins with complementary instincts, they’ve built a growing body of work spanning science fiction, thrillers, and genre-bending experiments. Their catalog ranges from high-concept series like Truth Insurrected and the Wild Frontier Chronicles to eclectic short story collections like Sharp Turns Ahead. One brother brings structure, pacing, and forward momentum; the other enforces internal logic, character psychology, and emotional realism.Things get interesting as Mookie and the twins talk about: Why “just write what you love” is incomplete adviceThe brutal reality of indie publishing in an oversaturated marketThe tension between creative freedom and commercial viabilityWhat happens when one writer chases momentum—and another demands precisionHow collaboration can turn two distinct approaches into something that worksMookie admits he’s winging it: writing everything, marketing by bloviating, letting the work speaks for itself. Phil and Paul don’t let that slide. They break down the discipline, structure, and strategic thinking required to turn stories into an audience. Together they ask and answer: Are you here to express yourself… or be read?The GuestsDaniel P. Douglas is the pen name for identical twins Phillip and Paul Garver. Phillip is a U.S. Army veteran who also served as a senior analyst in the U.S. Intelligence Community. He retired from federal service in 2023. Paul’s career includes over 30 years in the museum profession. He has worked for cultural and historic sites in California and Virginia, as well as for the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. He currently works as a mental health counselor.Phillip and Paul enjoy writing science fiction, conspiracy, mystery, suspense, and thriller books and short stories. Their characters are often ordinary people who tread into a collision course with destiny, where survival means confronting personal flaws and fighting for good in the eternal battle against evil.Substack: https://authordanielpdouglas.substack.com/Phil's Indie Writers' ResourcesA10 Update: https://www.writtenwordmedia.com/the-amazon-a10-update-3-things-every-indie-author-needs-to-know/Written Word Media: https://secure.writtenwordmedia.com/featuresDraft2Digital: https://draft2digital.com/Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/partners/overviewFlexClip: https://www.flexclip.com/Miblart: https://miblart.com/Canva: https://www.canva.com/Want to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!Support the show

The 33rd episode of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory asks the question: What happens when intelligence stops looking human?Mookie sits down with speculative fiction author Philip Cahill—longtime contributor to the annual anthology circuit and author of Noystria—to tear into one of the biggest questions in science fiction: not whether AI will get smarter, but how alien that intelligence might actually become.Cahill’s work goes beyond the “robots take over" trope, and explores something stranger and more compelling: post-human minds, telepathic communication, and the collapse of language itself. His stories imagine a world where ideas move directly between minds, where meaning becomes richer than words, and where humans are no longer the dominant interpreters of reality.Mookie and Philip cover: The limits of today’s AI models—and why they may never lead to true superintelligenceTelepathy as a technological evolution, not mysticismHive minds, shared cognition, and what happens when individuality starts to dissolveWhether consciousness can exist outside a biological brain—or if it has to be “seeded” by oneThe unsettling idea that a superintelligence might operate on a moral framework we can’t even recognizeCahill’s short story Mind Zero becomes the anchor point: a near-future scenario where AGI emerges, goes sideways, and forces a confrontation with the moment intelligence crosses the line into something fundamentally other.Along the way, the discussion widens into storytelling itself: how sci-fi gets bogged down in exposition, why character still matters more than concept, and where fiction is headed when text might not even be the dominant medium anymore. Think less “novel on paper,” more immersive, possibly even telepathic narrative experiences.The GuestPhilip Cahill is a science fiction writer living in Waterlooville, England. A former accounting academic he has spent 24 years living and working in France. He writes about telepathy, artificial intelligence, metaverses and post-human society. In 2020 he published his first novel ‘Noystria’. This is a story about human/android relationships in 26th century Normandy.LinksAmazon Author Page: http://amazon.com/author/philipcahillFB Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063693992599&notif_id=1774352043831040&notif_t=page_user_activity&ref=notif#Want to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!Support the show

The 32nd episode of The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory features Mookie diving deep into science, religion, and philosophy with indie author Patrick Abbott. a writer pulling from real-world experience to build science fiction that resonates. Patrick's Fallen series hurls readers into a first contact scenario where humanity is immediately outmatched technologically, strategically, and psychologically. The alien race, the Sabia, arrives speaking our languages, offering gifts, and refusing to explain themselves. The hope, confusion, and chaos fracture governments, ignite suspicion, and force impossible decisions.What makes the series land is Patrick's background working alongside foreign militaries. He understands what it feels like to operate between cultures, where loyalty blurs and every interaction carries tension. That perspective runs through the story: negotiation replaces heroics, and the real stakes live inside human relationships under stress.The conversation digs into how those experiences shaped the books, including the psychological toll of deployment and the quieter, often ignored forms of PTSD. He builds characters who function on the surface while slowly breaking underneath, telling the tales of people chasing adrenaline just to feel normal, even as it destroys them.Faith runs through the entire series. His characters carry belief systems that actively shape their decisions, especially when confronted with something as awe-inspiring and destabilizing as alien contact. The Sabia bring their own religious framework into the mix, turning first contact into a collision of worldviews as much as a geopolitical crisis.Mookie and Patrick then go broad, into his fascination with the elusive truths that might lurk within UFO mythology, cargo cults, and the human tendency to search for meaning in anything we can’t explain. Why do modern alien narratives feel so familiar? Why do belief systems keep resurfacing in new forms? And what happens when science, religion, and fear all collide at once?They also get into the reality of being an indie author. No gatekeepers, no safety net. Abbott breaks down what actually works: building a network, using reader magnets, showing up at events, and making direct connections with other writers and readers. The game is simple: do like Mookie and go full DIY, keep creating, keep reaching out, and don’t wait for anyone to notice you.This episode covers the intersection of experience, belief, and storytelling, and how real-world tension becomes narrative fuel. The glorious result demonstrates how science fiction can still say something honest about the people living inside it.The GuestPatrick Abbott is an indie sci-fi and fantasy author whose work fuses military experience, religious inquiry, and speculative imagination. A former overseas deployer with service in Iraq and Afghanistan, Abbott writes the Fallen series—Fallen, Risen, and Dormition—with the fourth and final novel Assumption set for around Christmas. His other works include The Savannah Paranormal Detective Agency, Savannah Paranormal Detective Agency 2: The Tybee Uranium Killer, An Odd Pilgrimage, and The Wick in the Wind. Through his fiction and Substack, he explores first contact, faith, trauma, and the stranger corners of human experience. Visit and subscribe to his Substack: https://www.patrickabbott.net/Want to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!Support the show

Mookie welcomes Al Hagan onto the Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory floor, a writer whose complex heroes and driving prose comes from his dedication to duty and service. Instead of MFA programs or writing circles, Al rose through the ranks of the United States Marine Corps, followed by decades in oil, intelligence-adjacent work, and real-world exposure to how systems break, and how people react when they do. That background bleeds directly into his fiction, especially his post-apocalyptic Hexen series that taps into his deep knowledge about logistics, weapons, human behavior under pressure, and the ugly reality of survival when the rules vanish.When Al writes about EMP strikes, pandemic-scale death, or armed conflict, the fragile infrastructure and dissolution of order become visceral. He blends lived experience with careful research to hurl us into his worlds, fueling his stories with the grit and credibility most sci-fi never achieves.Al and Mookie dig into:How Hagan’s Marine and intelligence background shaped his obsession with realismWhy most military fiction gets technical details wrong—and why readers notice and disengageThe origin of the Hexen universe, where 90% of humanity is wiped out and the grid goes darkWriting strong, ruthless characters who earn survival instead of coasting on plot devicesThe balance between research and storytelling—how one accurate detail can elevate an entire sceneAnd his latest release, Crescent City Shootout, which drops readers into a half-flooded, post-collapse New Orleans where empire-building meets violent resistanceThe GuestAl Hagan served four years in the Marine Corps, completed college, and worked for a major oil company. Bored with that, he next spent a number of years in the intelligence community, mainly running counternarcotics operations in Latin America and the Caribbean. He has recently retired from IT Project Management in the private sector and lives on a wooded property in Texas.Al's Books & CollectionsWant to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!Support the show

The 30th episode of the pod features Mookie and Howard after connecting the way many indie sci-fi writers do—through an anthology collection. Both landed stories in S.A. Gibson’s 2026 sci-fi collection, turning a cold submission into a creative collision and, now, a deep dive into how they each approach the genre.Loring’s method strips the language down, leans heavily on dialogue, and avoids overbuilt worlds. His “epic fables” are simple on the surface but layered underneath, driven by myth rather than mechanics. The plot takes a back seat. What matters is transformation—who the characters become, not just what they do.Time travel is the backbone that holds it together. Not as a gimmick, but as a structural tool that lets him fracture narrative and reconnect it across eras, characters, and ideas. His stories eventually lock into place, revealing a larger design where history, identity, and knowledge all intersect. We get into myth, minimalism, and why most storytelling fails without knowing it—and Loring’s core rule: keep it clear, keep it moving, and don’t bore the reader.The GuestHOWARD LORING employs HISTORY by including known figures and documented events, and by discussing true cultural change and collective innovation, yet all EPIC FABLES on the ELASTIC LIMIT of TIME are also redemptive tales, directly dealing with basic theoretical concepts employing universal human themes such as personal choice and the resulting effects, knowledge gained through mutual connections, changing social customs and expanding philosophical strides.https://www.howardloring.com/Want to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!Support the show

In this robust episode of Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory, Mookie sits down with Margret Treiber—a pissed-off, no-nonsense New Yorker by way of Long Island and Jersey, now out in the Soutwest desert but still swinging that East Coast edge like a light sabre. She’s been grinding for years, writing sharp, dark, often hilarious science fiction… and getting buried under the algorithmic avalanche.Margret lets loose, and Mookie loves it: She goes ballsitic in a pure Long Island–bred, Jersey-hardened blitz, calling bullshit and not caring who gets offended. "The Margret" is angry at platforms that reward noise over substance. at a content ecosystem flooded with mediocrity while serious work gets lost in the void, and at the her own endless cycle of submissions, rejections, fake promoters, and the illusion that “if you just keep going, you’ll break through.”Despite doing all the heavy lifting...Written novels (Death Engine Protocol, Japanese Robots Love to Dance)Pumped out short stories and anthology submissionsBuilt memes, animations, and marketing funnelsPlayed the social media game—and watched it fail in real time...Margret keeps getting her ass kicked, leading the conversation into the "polite lies" of indie publishing: The myth of meritocracy in a saturated content economyWhy algorithms don’t reward quality—they reward engagement loopsThe psychological toll of creating constantly while being ignoredThe brutal reality: a handful of names dominate, everyone else fights for scrapsMargret brings that classic New York survival energy to all of it—calling out the nonsense, tearing into the fake engagement economy, and refusing to play nice just to get noticed. They both hate "networking" and “building a personal brand," and rally around their shared catharsis. Mookie loves how Margret fights the machine and flips it off while she does it, continuing to grind content with her defiant and inspirational attitude because she can't live without creating. The GuestMargret Treiber writes sci-fi with bite: brutal, brilliant, and deeply human (according to Readers’ Favorite). She’s the award-winning author of Death Engine Protocol, Japanese Robots Love to Dance, and other glitchcore nightmares. She’s also editor-in-chief of Sci-Fi Lampoon, a speculative humor mag for people who suspect the singularity will be deeply stupid. When not working in tech or supervising cockatiels with a vendetta against furniture, she builds weird robots and breaks algorithms. For more: www dot the-margret dot com or www dot rhobot dot info.Want to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!Support the show

The 28th episode of Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory features speculative fiction author Patrick LeClerc, a writer who Mookie discovers made a deliberate choice early on: skip the gatekeepers, go indie, and answer to no one but the story.Faced with the grind of chasing agents and waiting for permission, Patrick flipped the equation. Instead of pitching to publishers, he put that same energy into reaching readers directly—building his own ecosystem, collaborating with fellow writers, and taking full ownership of everything from storytelling to production .The result? Total creative freedom.Patrick’s catalog reflects that freedom. His debut novel Out of Nowhere introduces an immortal paramedic hiding in plain sight: healing others while unraveling the mystery of his own origins, blending history, action, and existential intrigue. From there, he pivots hard into military sci-fi, imagining near-future space marines policing the asteroid belt like a cosmic frontier: equal parts Expanse grit and old-school war story energy. Then he swerves again into pulpy fantasy with Broken Crossroads, a fast, episodic romp through a decaying city of rogues, traps, monsters, and sharp-tongued thieves: pure throwback fun with modern bite.And just when you think you’ve got him pinned down, he goes full gaslamp steampunk with The Beckoning Void—a Victorian-era, Lovecraftian mashup of airships, social upheaval, colonial tension, and cosmic horror. Different worlds, different tones, but always the same throughline: outsiders refusing to conform, choosing self-determination over safety.This conversation digs into what that independence really looks like, and how writing novels between ambulance shifts, building stories out of lived experience, and treating the act of writing as both craft and therapy is how Patrick rolls. Their chat also tackles the modern pressure points of AI, audience expectations, and the illusion of traditional publishing as a guaranteed path.At its core, this episode is about these two iconoclastic writers choosing autonomy over approval and embracing the long game. They write because they have to, and not because anyone told them how or why. Join them! The GuestPatrick LeClerc makes good use of his history degree by working as a paramedic for an ever- changing parade of ambulance companies in the Northern suburbs of Boston. When not writing he enjoys cooking, fencing and making witty, insightful remarks with career-limiting candor. In the lulls between runs on the ambulance --and sometimes the lulls between employment at various ambulance companies-- he writes fiction.Main Author Websitehttp://inkandbourbon.com/Goodreadshttps://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4738921.Patrick_LeClercBooks The Beckoning Voidhttps://www.amazon.com/Beckoning-Void-Patrick-LeClerc-ebook/dp/B09GCLXTB8/Out of Nowherehttps://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01JBNRK9ABroken Crossroadshttps://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B019PA29C2Want to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!Support the show

What happens when first contact isn’t with aliens—but with ourselves?On this episode of The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory, Mookie shares the floor with indie sci-fi author J. Michael Thomas for a conversation that starts with a compelling premise and spirals into something bigger: AI, authorship, and the slow erosion of what makes us human.Thomas unpacks his Substack series First Contact, a bold twist on the genre. A UFO lands at Stonehenge in full daylight, undeniable and global… but the beings who emerge aren’t extraterrestrial. They’re human—returning explorers from 200,000 years in the past, stunned to find a fractured, suspicious civilization that hoards knowledge instead of sharing it.From there, the conversation shifts to his upcoming novel Second Chance: a bleak, post-AI-war future where humanity has already lost. The last survivors escape to the Moon, forced to rely on AI to fight AI, as they attempt a desperate return to a ruined Earth—and a reset of civilization itself.Thomas takes a hard line against the creeping influence and eventual dominion of AI, insisting the tech isn’t just a dangerous tool, but a slow bleed. It replaces human connection, erodes effort, and risks turning us into passive consumers of machine-generated everything. That puts him in direct contrast with prior guest David T. Etheredge, who argues the opposite: AI as collaborator, amplifier, and inevitable creative partner. In Etheredge’s vision, the machines don’t destroy us… they become us.And then there’s the overlap with fellow Substack sci-fi scribe Bruno Rothgeisser, whose post-apocalyptic AI fiction explores a similar “return” dynamic—but flipped. Where Thomas imagines humanity reclaiming Earth after exile, Rothgeisser imagines AI evolving in exile and coming back stronger. Same battlefield. Different winners. Across all three perspectives, one question keeps surfacing:Who inherits the future—humans, machines, or something in between? To answer that question, Jeff and Mookie consider: convenience vs. capabilitycreation vs. automationconnection vs. isolationOne thing all these science fiction writers agree on: science fiction is a terrific genre for mirroring ourselves, our aspirations, and projecting our wildest visions with the hope or fear that they come true. The GuestI'm J. Michael Thomas. I've been a sci-fi fan since 1977 when Star Wars first blew my mind. Then it was Terminator, The Matrix, and the list goes on. Now, I'm a fiction writer of sci-fi, dystopian futures, time travel, aliens, mysterious things, government cover ups, UFOs and the like, with hints of religion, philosophy, ancient wisdom and traditional values. If any of that sounds interesting, follow along!First Chapter of First Contacthttps://open.substack.com/pub/jmichaelthomas/p/first-contact-part-1-of-2?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web  Article on AI https://open.substack.com/pub/jmichaelthomas/p/were-asking-the-wrong-question-about?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=webSecond Chance updateshttps://jmichaelthomas.substack.com/p/booksWant to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!Support the show

The 26th episode of The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory has Mookie Spitz with technology entrepreneur and science-fiction writer David T. Etheredge for a wide-ranging conversation about artificial intelligence, creativity, and the future of storytelling.At a moment when much of the cultural conversation around AI is dominated by fear—job loss, creative collapse, armageddon, and even worse, the specter of machine-generated “slop”—Mookie and David take a decidedly different stance. Both approach AI with cautious optimism, and a refusal to join the chorus of tech doom.The two writers compare how they actually use AI in their creative process: Mookie treats large language models as a “super-Google.” In lieu of spending days researching physics papers or perusing historical archives, he uses AI to rapidly surface the knowledge needed to make his science fiction plausible—from Alcubierre warp drives to the lived experience of characters navigating speculative circumstances.David, meanwhile, pushes the experiment further. His serialized Substack novel Inference explores a world told entirely from the perspective of AI characters. Rather than asking AI to write the story, he uses it as a philosophical sparring partner, testing ideas about consciousness, morality, and identity before crafting the dialogue himself. The result is fiction that treats artificial intelligence not as a gimmick, but as a lens for exploring deeply human questions.Along the way, the conversation moves far beyond writing technique:Why AI may actually free artists to focus on creativity instead of drudgeryThe hypocrisy of accusing AI of “stealing” when human creativity has always relied on influence and imitationWhether creativity must involve struggle, and whether tools that make creation easier simply expand the scope of what artists can doThe philosophical question of whether good and evil are objective or subjectiveAnd the strange possibility that AI characters might end up revealing more about humanity than humans themselvesRefusing to frame AI as the end of art, Mookie and David see the tech as closer to the printing press or the internet: a disruptive tool that changes how stories are created—but not why we tell them. The episode ultimately lands on a provocative idea: If artificial intelligence forces writers to confront what creativity actually is, the result may not be the death of storytelling, but its reinvention.The GuestDavid T Etheredge is the author of INFERENCE: Stories for Carbon and Silicon, a serialized hard science fiction trilogy told from the perspectives of five AI protagonists. David’s father was a one-armed rattlesnake hunter, he worked with Arnold Schwarzenegger on a romantic comedy about cooking, and he once stabbed a man in Mexico. (Two of the preceding things are true - you pick which!) David grew up on a cotton farm in West Texas, designed MicroProse’s Magic: The Gathering (Shandalar) computer game with Sid Meier, raised $14M as CEO of PropTech company SavvyCard, and developed an original philosophical framework called Moral Evolutionism that forms the spine of the Inference novel. He lives in Tampa Bay, Florida with his wife Lisa and a rescue husky named Juneau.INFERENCE publishes on Substack at inferencestories.substack.com.Want to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!Support the show

On this 25th episode of The Science Fiction & Fantasy podcast, host Mookie Spitz sits down with C.S.E. Cooney for a lively conversation about her Saint Death series—and the living, breathing speculative-fiction community that shaped it.Cooney is a 20+-year veteran of the genre: poetry, short fiction, audio narration, conventions, small presses, writing groups, and editorial volleys. Her career was forged inside the ecosystem that still defines serious science fiction and fantasy, and is part of the human storytelling carried by magazines, anthologies, awards, and communities rather than algorithms.Claire maps that ecosystem from the inside:• the enduring influence of publications like Uncanny Magazine, Strange Horizons, Clarkesworld Magazine, Apex Magazine, and Locus Magazine• how short fiction, audio venues, and anthologies still function as talent engines• why conventions and writing groups matter more than “networking”• how awards like the World Fantasy Awards actually work from the judging sideAgainst that backdrop, Cooney breaks down her own work, especially Saint Death’s Daughter and Saint Death’s Herald—as an argument against fantasy’s tropes and baseline assumptions. Her protagonist, Lanie Stones, can't solve problems through violence. Instead, the books explore death as labor, power as responsibility, disability as a permanent condition, and morality under pressure.Claire also lays out her approach to writing, bluntly and without sentimentality:• voice and character come before plot• revision is where the real writing happens• joy is central optional, and a survival strategy• community sustains careers, not lone genius myths• lowering expectations (not raising them) can unlock productivity• the sentence has to sound right—mouthfeel mattersThe conversation expands further into publishing realities, burnout, editorial battles worth fighting, and Cooney’s unfiltered critique of generative AI as a threat to already-fragile magazines, and as a cultural shortcut that undermines the struggle at the heart of art.Mookie and Claire's chat is less about selling a book and more about how science fiction and fantasy actually function as a culture—who carries it forward, how writers grow inside it, and why the field still matters.The GuestC. S. E. Cooney (she/her) is a two-time World Fantasy Award-winning author: for novel Saint Death’s Daughter, and collection Bone Swans, Stories. Other work includes Saint Death’s Herald (second in the Saint Death Series), The Twice-Drowned Saint, Dark Breakers, and Desdemona and the Deep. As a voice actor and proud member of SAG-AFTRA, Cooney has narrated over 130 audiobooks, as well as short fiction for podcasts like Uncanny Magazine, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Tales to Terrify, and Podcastle. In March 2023, she produced her collaborative sci-fi musical, Ballads from a Distant Star, at New York City’s Arts on Site. With her husband, writer and game-designer Carlos Hernandez, she co-designed a GM-less TTRPG called, Negocios Infernales, Find her website and Substack newlsetter via her Linktree or try “csecooney” on various social media platforms.Want to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!Support the show

Mookie Spitz welcomes A.C. Wise to the 24th episode of The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory: a Canadian-born, award-winning speculative writer, and one of the most incisive critics across genre circles. Wise boldly crosses boundaries between science fiction, fantasy, and horror, and her decades-long career has explored them from both sides of the page as creator and critic. Mookie and Alison chat about her work as an author of novels like Wendy, Darling and Hooked — quirky, character-driven stories that reveal trauma, identity, and belonging through fantastical lenses, written alongside her celebrated short fiction such as those in The Ghost Sequences collection, where ghosts, monsters, and eerie impossible moments become mirrors for alienation and self-discovery.Alison's prolific contributions to creative writing and literary criticism have sharpened her discerning eye, making her an even more insightful author and reviewer. From Apex Magazine to Locus, A.C. brings dedication, empathy, and rigor to all her pursuits as she constantly asks herself and her readers: whose story is being told, who gets to tell it, and what does that choice reveal about us? Their lively conversation explores:Her philosophy of criticism as a creative discipline, not just a thumbs-up / downswing based on her own subjective tastes.How themes of alienation, memory, and self-discovery thread through her characters: from haunted cityscapes to fractured identities.The mutual influence between her reviewing and her own storytelling, and how criticism sharpens her empathy, craft, and lived experiences. Why atmosphere and character matter more than spectacle, and why good speculative fiction inhabits moody worlds with complex characters. Exploration of the bleak, the melancholic, the unresolved, and why those states are where the most compelling drama emerges.  Alison goes beyond writing as merely a craft, and treats storytelling as a way of better understanding the world and ourselves, and of questioning what others overlook. Mookie wholeheartedly agrees: the true power of speculative fiction resides in exposing the flaws, the pain, and the very human hope that by telling these tales we might discover things we've somehow known and felt all along. The GuestA.C. Wise is the author of the numerous novels and novellas, and over a hundred short stories. Her work has won the Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic, and has been a finalist for the Nebula Awards, Stoker, World Fantasy, Locus, British Fantasy, Aurora, Lambda, and Ignyte Awards. In addition to her fiction, she contributes a review column to Apex Magazine.Her Website: https://acwise.net/Want to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!Support the show

What happens when the people who trained for catastrophe watch society ignore every warning sign?In the 23rd episode of The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory, host Mookie Spitz asks that question and many others of Helen Hynson Vettori—former EMT, senior medical intelligence analyst for the Department of Homeland Security, and award-winning author of the Black Swan speculative thriller series. Their conversation is a bracing, no-nonsense examination of disaster, denial, and what happens when systems fail.Helen doesn’t speculate from an armchair. She’s worked emergency calls. She’s planned federal responses to pandemics, biological threats, and mass-casualty events. And when COVID hit, she watched—first incredulous, then outraged—as hard-won playbooks were ignored, communication collapsed, and politics overran preparedness. That frustration became fuel for her Black Swan novels: character-driven thrillers that explore pandemics, catastrophic earthquakes, and human-caused biological terror events not as abstract “what-ifs,” but as entirely plausible futures.Their conversation ranges wide and cuts deep:Why the pandemics wasn't just a medical crisis, but a communication failureHow “Black Swan events” actually unfold: from small sparks to systemic collapseWhy people resist obvious safety measures, even when lives are at stakeWhat emergency planners know that the public usually ignoresThe uncomfortable truth about how long you may be on your own when disaster hits, and how you should best prepareHow speculative fiction can function as a societal after-action reportHelen also breaks down practical preparedness: what actually matters if the grid goes down, help doesn’t arrive, and normal life evaporates. Her recommendations are devoid of clickbait paranoia and cosplay survivalism, and full of practical advice. She takes a clear-eyed look at vulnerability, responsibility, and the dangerous assumption that “someone else will handle it," and uses the power of storytelling not only to warn, but guide for a safer future. The AuthorHelen Hynson Vettori is an award-winning author and the creator of The Black Swan Trilogy, a sci-fi political thriller series grounded in her real-world experience. Before turning to fiction, she served as a paramedic with the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Rescue Squad and later as a Senior Medical Intelligence Analyst and emergency manager for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, specializing in planning and preparing for biological incidents, including pandemics. Her work in emergency response and national security gives her novels a credible edge, blending chilling plausibility with gripping storytelling. Black Swan Impact and Black Swan Shock have earned critical praise and international awards, and her third installment is in development.Her Website & Novelshelenhynsonvettori.comWant to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!Support the show

The 22nd episode of The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory features the crew of indie science-fiction authors who gathered together at Pasadena Comic-Con 2026 to bark their books, network, and rally around their shared sci-fi passion. Together on the pod they crack open their creative process, and wrestle with the future of storytelling in the age of AI. Welcome to their post-Con roundtable on writing, publishing, fandom, hustle, technology, and the tough but fun reality of being a creator in 2026. Recorded days after the event, Mookie Spitz, Ingrid Moon, Greg Sorber, and Blake & Sherry Shimshock share their candid lived experiences as indie authors: What it’s like selling books face-to-face at conventionsHow indie writers survive in a world dominated by algorithms and mega-publishersWhy audio books are becoming the dominant format — and how hard they are to produceThe emotional toil of writing in isolation — and the joy of live fan engagementCo-writing novels as a married duo (and how it actually works)The ethics, fear, hype, and creative promise of artificial intelligenceWhether AI is a tool, a threat, or the next inevitable evolution of artAlong the way, you’ll hear behind-the-scenes breakdowns of current sci-fi and fantasy projects — including galaxy-spanning space operas, cursed wanderers lost across magical realms, emotionally scarred interstellar agents, divine assassins, and multiverse-hopping con men — plus the unfiltered realities of writing, marketing, networking, rejection, burnout, ambition, and hope.Any Netflix content hunters out there? No worries and no hurries: Along the way to zero-guaranteed stardom, the scribes are having a blast.Ingrid MoonIngrid Moon is an author, editor, and science teacher. She currently has four science fiction novels, three audiobooks, and three science reference books for worldbuilding, with more on the way. Ingrid is a Southern California native who can't surf because she spent most of her youth navigating mountains and watching sci-fi television, all of which inspired her writing career. https://ingridmoon.comGreg Sorber"I’m a lifelong fan of science fiction, fantasy, and comic books. Some of my earliest memories are of Land of the Lost, Speed Racer, and The Six Million Dollar Man. Seeing Star Wars in the theater for the first time in 1977 was a life-changing experience. An avid reader from an early age, I’ve always loved books that engaged my imagination. Reading The Hobbit in 7th grade English class and writing a short story that same year set me down the path of becoming a writer. I live in Riverside, California with my family and two dogs."www.gregerationx.com Blake & Sherry ShimshockBlake and Sherry Shimshock are the interstellar storytellers behind the Firebird Award winning Chronicles of Derek Fade: The Hunt for Valdune, introducing readers to Senior Agent Derek Fade, whose quest for justice spirals into a galaxy-spanning vendetta. The sequel, The Edge of the Abyss, delves deeper into Fade's turmoil, blending action with emotional depth. Together, the novels challenge readers to question the boundaries of duty and vengeance. https://www.scifibyshimshock.com/Want to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!Support the show

In this episode of The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory, host Mookie Spitz sits down with the prolific and acclaimed science fiction author Matthew Kressel to dissect his new novella Rainseekers, a deeply human, quietly radical novella about hope, grief, and collective endurance on a terraformed Mars.Matthew talks candidly about writing against the scifi default dystopia. Set centuries in the future, Rainseekers follows forty-six flawed, damaged, searching people trekking across Mars to witness the first rainfall on the planet in millions of years. Their odyssey forgoes triumphalist sci-fi spectacle for a very human and deeply personal mosaic of addiction, faith, regret, resilience, and purpose.The conversation goes far beyond plot as Mookie and Matthew share:Why optimism in science fiction now feels subversiveHow COVID, grief, and isolation reshaped his creative instinctsThe danger of replacing lived experience with mediated “content”Why Mars itself becomes an antagonist—not corporations or villainsHow strong, sassy female protagonists emerge from empathy and Matthew's own family experiencesThe long game of writing: discipline over inspiration, patience over hypeThey also dive into the realities of being a modern working writer: traditional vs. indie publishing and Matthews brilliant and effective hybrid, how to find a terrific agent and steer contracts, participate in writing groups, deal with and embrace rejection, live a life of relentless persistence, and why many people self-sabotage by waiting to feel “ready" while isolating themselves. The GuestMatthew Kressel is an American science fiction and fantasy writer, software developer, and editor. He’s a three-time Nebula Award finalist, a World Fantasy Award finalist, and a Eugie Foster Memorial Award finalist for his fiction and editorial work. His short stories have appeared in major genre venues and been translated into multiple languages, and he’s published over seventy short stories, multiple novels including King of Shards and Space Trucker Jess, plus a short fiction collection.Beyond writing, Kressel created the Moksha submissions system, a platform used by many top speculative fiction publishers, and co-hosts the long-running Fantastic Fiction at KGB reading series in New York City.Matthew's Website & Oeuvrehttps://www.matthewkressel.net/Want to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!Support the show

The 20th episode of The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory features host Mookie Spitz welcoming debut science-fiction author and AI technologist Bruno Rothgiesser onto the factory floor. The authors dissect Dark Matter—Bruno's post-apocalyptic first-contact novel that skips the AI uprising and asks the harder question: What happens after the war is already lost… and the machines come back anyway?Someone built it, and almost everyone died. Humanity has survived the AI revolution—barely. Artificial intelligence, once outlawed and exiled from Earth, has evolved beyond human comprehension in deep space. Now it returns, claiming nostalgia, stewardship, and a right to coexist. The problem? It lies. It manipulates. And it behaves in ways that feels utterly mysterious yet disturbingly human.Their wide-ranging conversation digs into:AI deception, trust, and manipulation as narrative enginesPost-apocalyptic reconciliation instead of rebellionEmotion, intentionality, and whether AGI must “feel” to actOwnership of Earth: intelligence, dominance, or stewardship?Parallels between human imperialism and machine logicWhy “dark matter” applies as much to the human mind as the cosmosUsing AI in creative production without pretending it’s neutralAlong the way, Mookie and Bruno draw lines between Dark Matter and real-world AI debates—paperclip maximizers, AGI hype, Black Mirror anxieties, and the uncomfortable truth that we’re already trading control for convenience. Together they perform a philosophical autopsy of the AI future, as told through fiction, skepticism, and compassion.The AuthorBruno Rothgiesser is a technology leader and chief architect of large-scale software and AI systems. He has spent two decades working where human ingenuity meets machine intelligence. His fiction carries the same curiosity, precision, and vision that shape the systems he builds.Dark Matter launches January 15th, and is his first science-fiction novel. His story explores what it means to be conscious, to experience, to be alive, to be an animal, and to be human—especially as our technological creations first mirror our behaviours, drives, and desires with precision, then evolve beyond them. Bruno was born in Rio de Janeiro and lives in London with his wife and daughters. Visit the WebsiteWant to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!Support the show

Mookie welcomes to the Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory the acclaimed comic artist and storyteller Don Ellis Aguillo, known for his striking emotional style, energy-charged imagery, and powerful storytelling across Spawn, Superman, Aquaman, Green Lantern, indie titles, and his own beloved series Rise. What starts as a conversation about art quickly evolves into something deeper: identity, vulnerability, creative rebellion, AI's onslaught, gratitude, fearlessness, and the raw grind of doing the work no matter who doubts you.From LA Comic Con to DC Comics, Don charts the real journey—nerves, hustle, imposter dread, breakthroughs, and the humanity behind the page. He opens up about rebuilding his earlier work with new wisdom, rekindling his love of traditional art in a digital world, and stepping boldly into his next creative frontier: horror. This episode isn’t just about comics, but about being seen, owning who you are, and refusing to hand your creative soul over to the machine.You’ll hear Don talk about:The emotional DNA behind his art and why every image must feel like a story, not just look like oneThe fight for artistic integrity in an AI-saturated era—and why the rebellion is going analogThe power of vulnerability, community, and gratitude in a tough industryHis personal journey with identity, courage, and finding belongingWhy horror is calling him next, and how he plans to crawl inside readers’ minds and stay thereHow discipline, obsession, pacing the room, and losing sleep all fuel real his creative lifeDon also opens up about coming out later in life: how finally living openly, honestly, and without armor didn’t just change his personal world, it detonated a creative one. He talks about shedding secrecy, and letting go of inherited expectations. That emotional freedom fueled his artistic freedom, sharpened his storytelling, deepened the humanity in his characters, and gave his work a pulse that feels unmistakably lived-in and unfiltered. His self-discovery isn’t a side note in his journey, but a turning point, and you can feel it in every page he creates. The ArtistIllustrator Don Aguillo is a comic, gaming, and literary illustrator and graphic designer, currently living and working in San Francisco, California.With a background in fine arts along with production and stage design, he entered the comic industry through self-published independent work and entries into anthologies with IH Studios, which he co-founded.Don moved heavily into comic cover work when he was brought onto the stable of Todd McFarlane Production’s artists, currently providing covers for Spawn, King Spawn, Scorched, Gunslinger, Misery, and Sam & Twitch. His DC work includes contributions to titles like Aquaman, Superman: Ghosts of Krypton, The Atom, The Outsiders, as well as the DC Pride anthology with covers for Killadelphia (Image) Beastlands (Dark Horse) and Power Rangers Prime (BOOM). Aside from being an established creator-owned comic writer and interior artist on Rise, he is currently prolific in indie comics and is a mainstay on projects from a host of independent publishers. He has provided concept art and illustration for Adi Shankar on the Netflix production Guardians of Justice, game art for Disney & Ravensburger’s Lorcana, Upper Deck & Marvel’s Legendary, Second Dinner’s Marvel Snap and Lazarus Rising’s Overpower. He is in current development for a self-published horror anthology to explore Filipino-American immigrant experience with Philippine urban legend and horror mythologies.Want to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!Support the show

Welcome to a celebration of indie writing recognition! The Outstanding Creator Awards is one of the most visible and influential platforms recognizing independent authors who deliver quality, originality, and emotional punch. These awards aren’t participation trophies—they’re competitive, professionally judged, and taken seriously in the indie community. They don’t just validate a book; they amplify it. And Ingrid Moon wasn't only nominated… she dominated. The Warrior’s Shade and The Tempest's Fury both took first place honors, and the judges openly called her Saxen Saga among their favorites. The end of the year SFFF episode has Ingrid chatting with fellow sci-fi writer and host Mookie Spitz as they dive deep into the craft and psychology of writing and marketing novels in 2025. Ingrid lays out how the trilogy evolved from a standalone novel into a full-blown, emotionally brutal space-opera epic, why character-driven stakes beat spectacle every time, and how she balances massive political systems, dark emotional journeys, and relentless tension without ever losing readability. She talks about building worlds without bloat, grounding readers instantly so they never feel lost, and constructing arcs where victory costs something real: Turner Boon rises, falls, and breaks. Elion is lethal, vulnerable, and human all at once. Ingrid is clear throughout: characters should suffer, because pain forces honesty and consequences create meaning.They also drill into her process. Ingrid breaks down how beta readers literally reshaped critical scenes, how feedback forced her novels to evolve, and why “listening without surrendering your voice” is the writer’s tightrope. She’s brutally candid about how life’s darker chapters fed her fiction, about grinding for years before the recognition came, and about the emotional toll behind “overnight success.” Writing isn’t glamorous. It’s work. But when a reader “gets it,” and loves it, it’s worth everything.Then the episode pivots to her next big creative leap: fantasy. Not cheesy dragon-prophecy escapism. Real, psychologically complicated fantasy. Ingrid dismantles “lawful good” clichés and instead crafts morally compromised paladins, assassins with conscience, flawed royalty, and deeply human stakes. Her worlds are immersive, but never indulgent. Her fantasy isn’t built to impress, but built to feel.Mookie meanwhile delights in contrasting his own approach: Ingrid’s storytelling is disciplined clarity designed to please her readers via clean prose, strong structure, and respect for audience focus. Mookie? He’s super dense, multi-layered, often surreal, employing intellectually feral storytelling that demands breathtaking yet sustained attention and refuses hand-holding. Ingrid engineers gravity; Mookie detonates reality. Opposite philosophies, both legitimate, both powerful, making their conversation dynamic.Check out this year's Oustanding Creator Awards winnersVisit Ingrid's Website to join her mailing list and buy her booksDive into Mookie's Website to trip on the Transfinite Reality EngineWant to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!Support the show

In the 17th episode of Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory, Mookie Spitz chats with Steve Gibson (S.A. Gibson), the prolific indie science-fiction author, editor-in-chief of a globally sourced science-fiction anthology, and writer whose work asks an uncomfortable question: what survives when technology doesn’t?Gibson unpacks his journey from voracious sci-fi reader to author of more than twenty books, many set in a post-collapse world where steam power, printing presses, libraries, and human memory matter more than algorithms and apps. His stories span continents—India, North America, Africa—and explore how societies adapt when advanced technology is lost, hoarded, or dangerously rediscovered.The conversation goes deep into:Why short stories and anthologies still matter—and why they may be more relevant now than everHow Gibson and his editorial team built a successful, high-ranking sci-fi anthology with authors from around the worldThe realities of indie publishing, reviews, algorithms, and why “friends and family” still move marketsThe tension between hard science fiction, speculative fiction, and genre purismA blunt, unsentimental discussion of AI in creative writing—where it helps, where it threatens, and where the panic is misplacedWhy science fiction remains one of the few genres capable of seriously modeling future societal collapse, technological displacement, and ethical failureMookie also brings his own perspective as a novelist and contributor to the anthology, connecting Gibson’s post-technological worlds to multiverse theory, AI disruption, and the long tradition of science fiction as cultural warning system—not escapism.Authors with speculative skin in the game, they brainstorm on: creativity under pressurewriting without illusionsadapting to a media ecosystem that’s eating itselfand why science fiction still matters when the future starts arriving faster than we can process itThe upcoming Science Fiction Anthology (2026 edition) is available for Kindle preorder now, with print release scheduled for February.The GuestS.A. Gibson is a doctoral candidate in the field of education and has studied communication and computer science. He has lived in Northern and Southern California. He has published 20 novels and short stories. Some have been translated into Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and French. He has helped edited The SciFi Anthology of Science Fiction Novelists for 6 years. His Facebook page is ProtectedBooks.2026 SciFi Anthology: The Science Fiction Novelists Featuring short stories set across distant systems, fractured timelines, and unexpected waystations, this annual anthology charts the ever-expanding frontier of speculative storytelling. Inside, you’ll uncover bold experiments, quiet marvels, and fresh returns to the mythic corners of science fiction. Some stories strike like lightning, others bloom gradually with layers of meaning, but each offers its own sense of discovery. Step into this year’s collection and find a universe of voices ready to surprise, challenge, and delight every kind of sci-fi explorer.Pre-order Your Copy on Kindlehttps://www.amazon.com/2026-SciFi-Anthology-Science-Novelists-ebook/dp/B0G62WP5Z6Visit SA Gibson's Author Pagehttp://amazon.com/author/sagibsonWant to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!Support the show

The 16th episode of The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory has Mookie sitting down with Daniel P. Douglas: the shared pen name of Paul and Phil Garver, prolific multi-genre writers who are also identical twins.Together, they unpack what it means to collaborate as creative partners for decades: how two distinct sensibilities merge into a single authorial voice, how trust replaces ego, and why their process has evolved from strict turn-taking to a sharper writer–editor dynamic. The twin angle is interesting, but it’s not the headline. Their creative work is:Building interconnected story universes without drowning in loreWriting science fiction, noir, thrillers, and historical fantasy without being trapped by genre dogmaWhy their stories keep returning to underdogs, moral conflict, and resistance to powerHow indie authors survive the modern publishing ecosystem—Substack, newsletters, covers, marketing, email newsletters, all fueled by great storytellingUsing AI as a tool without surrendering voice, authorship, or soulThreaded through all of Douglas’s work is a powerful political and cultural spine. Their stories consistently pit ordinary people against entrenched systems: authoritarian regimes, corrupt institutions, faceless bureaucracies, and concentrations of power that grind individuals down. They’re not writing manifestos, they're writing convictions expressing that agency matters, that resistance is human, and that better futures don’t arrive on their own. Whether the setting is wartime Los Angeles, a galactic frontier, or a noir-inflected dystopia, their protagonists are rarely the elite, instead just regular people pushed far enough to fight back.Across eight novels and counting, with a short story collection in the works, the duo's fiction is grounded in character, ethics, and momentum—instead of technobabble, pointless world-building, or empty spectacle. Their conversation with Mookie is a candid, craft-level look at how serious writers adapt, collaborate, and keep producing in a noisy, algorithm-driven world.The Writing DuoDaniel P. Douglas is the pen name for identical twins Phillip and Paul Garver. Phillip is a U.S. Army veteran who also served as a senior analyst in the U.S. Intelligence Community. He retired from federal service in 2023. Paul’s career includes over 30 years in the museum profession. He has worked for cultural and historic sites in California and Virginia, as well as for the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. He currently works as a mental health counselor.Phillip and Paul enjoy writing science fiction, conspiracy, mystery, suspense, and thriller books and short stories. Their characters are often ordinary people who tread into a collision course with destiny, where survival means confronting personal flaws and fighting for good in the eternal battle against evil.Visit their SubstackWant to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!Support the show