Explore every episode of the podcast The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| C.S.E. Cooney Is Knocking on Saint Death's Doorway | 18 Feb 2026 | 01:56:18 | |
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: Against 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: The 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 Guest C. 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. | |||
| A.C. Wise Sings the Ballad of the Bone Road: Criticism & Craft from Haunted Cities | 06 Feb 2026 | 01:06:56 | |
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:
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 Guest A.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/ | |||
| Voicing the Infiniverse: A Cornish Poet Becomes the Spider Genius | 17 Dec 2025 | 00:57:17 | |
Out on the Science Fiction & Fantasy Factor floor is Cornish poet and performer Bert Biscoe, who voices two sections from Jonnie Fazoolie and the Transfinite Reality Engine audiobook as a teaser reel. The first reading shares the infinitale of Kreo Bonsai, a sardonic, alien spider scientist who has built the Jar—the ultimate simulation machine that instantiates every possible universe, one Planck-second at a time. As Kreo marvels over how his Jar works, we hear how he also endures abuse by bureaucrats, scientists, and rich fools, and how he uses cynicism and laziness to avoid both responsibility and love. His monologue is interrupted when the Jar is hacked by Alice Void, the avatar of a transcendent being who proves its power by deleting entire universes mid-sentence while looping a taunting message: solve her riddles, or watch all of Reality vanish. The second reading jumps to later in the novel, when Agency executives arrive with military escorts, multidimensional admirals argue with bureaucrats and scientists over control, and an inter-universal civil war ignites around them Two-dimensional warships fold into three-dimensional weapons, universes blink out of existence, and various alien species wrangle for control of the Jar, as the fate of the Infiniverse rests with an anthropomorphic alien spider who just wants everyone to go away and leave him alone. Throughout both sections, Biscoe’s Cornish cadence—wry, grounded, irreverent, and unmistakably human—adds grit and humor to the cosmic scale, turning dense ideas about infinity, power, and annihilation into something immediate, sharp, and enticingly intimate. These excerpts aren’t just a sample of the story, they’re a lively and lovely demonstration of how voice and text lock together in the entertaining audiobook to come... The Voice Bert Biscoe is a Cornish poet, songwriter, local historian, playwright, and former Mayor of Truro, best known for his work rooted in Cornish identity, language, politics, and cultural activism. A bard of the Cornish Gorsedh with the bardic name Viajor Gans Geryow, he has published several books of verse and prose — including Maudlin’ Pilgrimage, Rebecca (1996), The Dance of the Cornish Air (1996), At a Wedding with Yeats in Turin (2003), Trurra (winner of a Waterstones award at the Holyer an Gof Publishers’ Awards 2012), Words of Granite, On Yer Trolley: Poems Made During Complete Bed Rest! (2008), and White Crusted Eyes: Tales of Par (2009) — and performs widely across Cornwall. A long-time independent councillor on Cornwall Council and later Truro City Council, he’s also chaired local heritage groups, written on Cornish history, and regularly performs poetry and songs that blend local political commentary with folk tradition. The Novel Jonnie Fazoolie & the Transfinite Reality Engine was published this June, with the audiobook featuring Bert Biscoe and other voices, available soon. | |||
| Phasers Set to Snark: Warp-Speed Smartassery | 14 Dec 2025 | 01:30:41 | |
What happens when two Gen-X science-fiction lifers turn on the mic, set themselves loose, and argue about everything? You get the 14th episode of SFFF. Host Mookie Spitz welcomes longtime friend and fellow sci-fi heretic Lee Kantz for a sprawling, sharp-tongued, no-sacred-cows conversation that tears through Star Trek, Star Wars, Spielberg, Nolan, AI, wokeness, anti-wokeness, bad writing, great ideas, worse dialogue, and the slow death of subtlety in modern science fiction A rant sampling:
If you want polite takes, this is not your show. The Guest Lee Kantz is Mookie Spitz's high school friend and fellow science fiction raving fan and critical maniac. Together they get to let loose their opinions, including Lee's love of all things Deep Space Nine, and Mookie's visceral hatred of string theory, world building for its own sake, and all the gratuitous pizza delivery in Stephenson's Snow Crash. | |||
| Virtual Rebel J.Z. Pitts Unwraps His Christmas Demons | 25 Nov 2025 | 01:11:47 | |
J.Z. Pitts doesn’t posture, pretend, or pose behind “author brand” theatrics. He comes on the Factory floor to pod with Mookie Spitz, where they tell the truth about what it costs to write, to fail, to get back up, and to self-publish when the world is drowning in content and nobody’s handing out golden tickets. In this episode, Pitts walks us through Virtual Rebel, his YA sci-fi novel about a teenage girl fighting through a virtual-reality dystopia: equal parts Ready Player One, coming-of-age, and “wake the hell up” critique of soft, digital tyranny. He breaks down how Ava, his protagonist, isn’t some chosen-one cliché; she’s a kid who has to decide whether freedom is worth wrecking her own comfort. And yes, the parallels to our dopamine-addled online lives are intentional, all while he stubbornly refuses to preach. Pitts and Spitz then go dark and human with The Christmas Demon, his Bavarian-Alps novella born out of a brutal period in his own life. Pitts lays out how the story started as pure character work, riddled with addiction, grief, marital implosion before he realized he could thread it all through the mythology of Krampus himself. Not the goofy, Loki-lite version—Pitts went full folklore demon. He talks craft: tension that suffocates one paragraph at a time, horror that hides in the walls until you can’t ignore it, and the payoff that only works when the characters’ internal fractures are already cracking. They also get real about the indie grind: the disappointment after a launch that doesn’t match the fantasy, the predatory swamp of “book marketing services,” the Amazon ads treadmill, the endless content burden, and the emotional crash no one warns new authors about. Pitts doesn’t sugarcoat it, as he tried all the tricks, learned what was bullshit, and landed where real writers land and kept going, is writing the next book, building community, and not chasing Hugh Howey’s ghost. By the end, Pitts and Spitz are knee-deep in the raw stuff: why we write, why stories matter, why characters eventually grab the steering wheel, and why holding your own printed book is a quiet, defiant middle finger to a world obsessed with metrics. The conversation is indie authorhood without the Instagram filter, a bruised, determined, funny, anxious, honest, and absolutely worth hearing exchange between two writers with heart, grit, and tons of imagination. The Guest J.Z. Pitts crafts stories where hope and danger walk hand in hand. In Virtual Rebel, the fight for freedom begins in a world too eager to give it up. In The Christmas Demon, survival means facing the darkness outside—and within. His Info | |||
| The Astrophysicist Who Loves Space Operas | 23 Nov 2025 | 01:12:13 | |
The twelfth episode of the SFFF features Mookie chatting up the genre with Princeton astrophysics grad student turned tech consultant Ed Powell, where they immediately launch into hard science, bad science, and unraveling state of a genre that used to dream big and think smart. Ed walks in with his PhD, his plasma-physics past, and his lifelong obsession with Clarke and Asimov. He remembers buying The Sands of Mars on the Jersey shore; Mookie counters with his own gateway drug, Asimov’s nonfiction. From there, the two discuss the difference between "hard" sci-fi grounded in real physics, the "space opera" where the tech is mere geeky atmospherics and moody backdrop. They bring up Her, Alita, Terminator, the whole spectrum — as the conversation widens into deep space and deeper cynicism. Mookie shares the Dark Forest hypothesis, Hawking’s worry about SETI, humanity’s tendency to destroy anything it finds — including itself — and the depressing likelihood that our species wouldn’t handle first contact any better than we’ve handled anything else. Ed agrees, and offers the planetary-colonizer version: every advanced civilization in human history used its tech advantage to crush someone weaker. Why would aliens be different? Why would we be? From there you both tear into Hollywood’s relationship with science — the good, the bad, and the bloviating. Apollo 13 gets credit for its engineering accuracy and slapped for its cinematic liberties. The Martian gets praise for its cleverness and a punch to the throat for that idiotic Iron Man scene the studio couldn’t resist. 2001, Forbidden Planet, Silent Running, the golden era they both grew up on. They cover aliens, AI, spaceflight, bad editors, good engineering, nostalgia, disappointment, hope, fear, quantum brains, audiobooks, collapsed attention spans, and how most modern sci-fi publishing these days has the structural integrity of a flimsy 50s movie set, but without the old school charm and nostalgia. Where have all the good sci-fi times gone? Perhaps indie authors are the spark! The Guest Ed Powell received his PhD in Astrophysics (Plasma Physics and Controlled Thermonuclear Fusion) from Princeton University and has worked as a contractor for the Department of Energy, Department of Defense, and the Intelligence Community since graduating. Today he owns his own consulting company specializing in systems and simulation architecture and engineering. | |||
| Robert Reif Debuts Frontier One | 19 Nov 2025 | 01:01:06 | |
This episode of the SFFF drops you straight onto the factory floor with Robert Reif, the Zoomer indie author who somehow writes like a pulp-era wanderer inebriated on optimism. His debut novel, Frontier One, feels like Tarzan meets Sally Ride, wrapped in that old-school, high-adventure energy that so much of science fiction abandoned when it got moody, preachy, and self-righteous. Robert riffs about Charlie, the jungle-raised flat-world himbo who treats the sky like a ceiling; Talina, the astro-zoologist who drags him into the cosmos and immediately questions every life choice; and the 12-world star system loaded with giant bugs, Cold War moons, and a rogue planet firing off creepy signals. Reif drives the action through character collisions: Charlie crushes, Talina blocks, the crew bickers, and every twist comes from real human choices, not world-building geekery. The new novel hums with pulpy momentum, the kind a Gen Z author has no business writing but pulls it off anyway. We tear through the plot without spoiling the bigger beats: oxygen-jacked megafauna, inter-moon political brinksmanship, relationship friction, philosophical clashes, and a complex solar system poised for the sequels. Along the way, their conversation takes the scenic route through everything sci-fi fans love to talk about:
Meet a new author who rejects nihilism and writes with actual wonder, and loves to talk classic sci-fi, real space exploration, while offering a preview of his expanding 12-world universe. Grab a copy, settle in, and leave him a stellar review. The Guest Robert T. Reif is an American science fiction writer, filmmaker, world adventurer and amateur astronomer. He was born in New York City, raised between New York and Connecticut, and studied at Sarah Lawrence College. While writing, he worked behind the scenes on documentaries, commercials and television productions. Frontier One is his first novel. | |||
| Rare Earth Elegance with Lou Iovino | 19 Nov 2025 | 01:34:45 | |
Mookie gets chatty with speculative-fiction author Lou Iovino about the long, uneven road to becoming a working writer. Lou shares how his creative life started in comics through co-authoring a ten-issue graphic novel on his commute to Manhattan, hiring artists out of pocket, and learning the discipline of concise storytelling and crisp dialogue. That foundation carried Lou into screenwriting and eventually novels. He explains why he didn’t chase traditional publishing at first, how Hugh Howey’s indie success shifted his thinking, and why hiring a professional book editor and cover artist was non-negotiable to reach the widest possible audience. Lou walks through the ideas behind his books, from Earth’s rotation suddenly stopping to a future shaped by data harvesting, privacy battles, or rare-earth scarcity. He explains how these “what if” questions and frequent focus on technology somehow stopping anchor his stories in real-world concerns, those of science versus faith, technology versus autonomy, and the cost of progress. Highlights and Best Practices
He also shares how to find time when you have none, finish projects that feel too big, and navigate the tension between writing for yourself and writing for readers. Whether you’re a working writer, an aspiring one, or just someone curious about how stories actually get made, this episode offers an honest look behind the scenes of science fiction creativity. The Guest Lou Iovino’s debut novel SKYBOUND was named a Kirkus Reviews Indie Book of the Year in 2021 and praised for its emotional resonance and cinematic scope. His follow-up, the sci-fi thriller DATA MINE, dives into the darker corners of digital surveillance, political power, and the choices that shape identity. Lou also co-authored the original graphic novel THE LAST WEST and has contributed to several comic book titles for Zenescope Entertainment. His hour-long television pilot COASTLINERS won the 2016 Set in Philadelphia TV Prime Time Award. Outside of fiction, Lou has spent over two decades working in advertising and currently serves as an executive at one of the world’s largest global agencies. He teaches advertising at Villanova University and has also taught writing and literature at Rutgers and Temple Universities, bringing a deep understanding of narrative craft and audience connection to his work. He lives in New Jersey with his wife and two grown sons. | |||
| Blake & Sherry Shimshock Rock the Derek Fade Series | 15 Nov 2025 | 01:04:35 | |
Mookie is thrilled to chat with Blake and Sherry Shimshock, the husband-and-wife team behind the Chronicles of Derek Fade: a fast-paced sci-fi adventure series that fuses James Bond swagger, Star Wars style, and Firefly heart. Their partnership echoes the creative chemistry of The Expanse’s Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck: Blake provides the action, imagination, and cinematic energy of a screenwriter, while Sherry crafts the emotional core, depth, and prose that make the characters human. Together, they reveal how two opposite creative temperaments—his extroverted vision and her disciplined storytelling—fuse into one seamless voice. Their conversation explores:
They also dive into nostalgia for Space: 1999 and the pulp adventures that shaped them, trading indie publishing war stories, book cover secrets, and marketing lessons learned along the way. If you’ve ever dreamed of writing a series, building your own fictional galaxy, or finding a creative partner who shares your madness and work ethic, this episode delivers the blueprint with humor, heart, and honesty. The Guests Blake 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. Blake is a lifelong enthusiast of science fiction literature and films who spent much of his childhood creating wild stories and sketching elaborate scenes of faraway worlds in his schoolbooks (much to the frustration of his teachers). He also loved hanging out at the theaters where his dad was a projectionist and chasing around his hometown of Riverside, California making short films with friends using an 8-millimeter movie camera. Sherry Brass grew up an insatiable reader, enamored with the power of language thanks to such trailblazing classical writers as Charles Dickens and George Eliot, along with the inspiring work of children's writers such as Madeleine L'Engle. When her nose was not in a book, Sherry was known to pen her own stories and coerce her friends into helping her act them out using her cool super 8 millimeter movie camera. Inevitably, their paths would cross. Blake and Sherry met in college and connected over their mutual love of storytelling. Today, the Shimshocks enjoy sitting around over a cup of tea on a Sunday morning (or a glass of wine on a Saturday night) bouncing around story ideas, diagramming plots, and deliberating character motivations. Together they make childhood dreams come true as they bring the huge fictional universe Blake always imagined to life. | |||
| Nathan J Pearce Launches Faith Faraday & the Cyber Samurai | 03 Nov 2025 | 03:02:19 | |
The engines of creativity are humming, the publishing lights are flickering, and an electrifying story just streamed off the line. On this launch-day episode of The Science Fiction Factory, host Mookie Spitz welcomes indie author Nathan J. Pearce, whose debut cyberpunk thriller Faith Faraday and the Cyber Samurai hits screens and shelves today! Set in 2076 Tokyo, the book follows Faith Faraday, a daemon hunter chasing rogue AIs that masquerade as digital ghosts. Think Men in Black for machine intelligence—Blade Runner grit colliding with Gilmore Girls wit. Faith is part Batman, part Kim Possible, part existential therapy session. Pearce calls her a “self-insert with better hair and bigger guts,” and he’s on point. Mookie and Nathan explore how to write and flourish in the indie trenches:
They discuss how to fund a launch, build an audience, and make peace with algorithms that couldn’t care less about art. Their chat is raw, funny, and unfiltered about building worlds, building characters, and building as an independent creator. Today is the day Faith Faraday comes online, and with her the future of indie sci-fi! The Author After photojournalism school, Nathan J. Pearce spent a year in Tokyo teaching conversational English. The people, the country, and the culture gave him a fresh perspective on his home country of the United States. Inspired by books like Shogun, Ender's Game, WOOL and Snowcrash, Nathan is eager to share his unique perspective with his readers. The Novel In 2076, a revolutionary AI elevates Japan as the world’s only technological mega-power. Samu, the Empress’s ‘Restorative AI’, leads a tech renaissance inventing quantum fusion, practical quantum computing, and a faster-than-light drive, promising a Japan-first colonization of the stars. That promise is broken when the colony ship explodes on launch, killing all aboard, including Hope Faraday. Home: https://www.faithfaraday.com/ Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FXP37XVR | |||
| Polishing Diamond Dragons: Welcome to Matthew Carauddo's World | 31 Oct 2025 | 02:40:32 | |
The seventh episode of The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory explores how speculative fiction actually gets made — the grind, the vision, and the madness behind the worlds we can’t stop dreaming about. Hosted by writer, ranter, and raconteur Mookie Spitz, he sits down with Matthew Carauddo, creator of the Diamond Dragons saga — a richly illustrated six-book fantasy series blending martial arts, mysticism, and philosophy. But Matthew isn’t just an author: he’s a stunt performer, fencing instructor, voice actor, and videographer who’s spent decades creating worlds in motion — from live saber duels to psychological dragon warfare. Together, they dive into the guts of creativity and world-building:
And yes — there’s a spirited feud. When Mookie challenges Matthew on how to catch the attention of an “OMG backer” (that rare investor or champion who can catapult a creative project into orbit), Mookie says it’s about attention, audacity, and bold branding. Matthew fires back that true backers follow excellence and integrity, not algorithms. The disagreement highlights the essence of decision for indie artists circling the same truth from opposite poles. What emerges is not just a conversation about fantasy — but about creation itself: why we build worlds, why we destroy them, and why some of us refuse to play by the rules. The Guest Matthew Carauddo is an American author, actor, and martial-arts choreographer best known as the creator of the Diamond Dragons fantasy saga. A veteran of over three decades in performance and stage combat, he’s a licensed fencing instructor through the Fédération Française d’Escrime and has trained hundreds of students in California. Carauddo blends his theatrical background with epic world-building, crafting Diamond Dragons as a six-book series that merges mysticism, martial discipline, and cosmic fantasy. He founded Diamond Dragons Entertainment to expand the universe across books, animation, and interactive media. | |||
| A Sci-Fi Novel Comes to Life: Engineering the Transfinite Reality Engine | 30 Oct 2025 | 02:35:59 | |
What do you get when a dopamine-deficient bald guy, a stack of manuscript pages, and an accidental reader with a doctorate walk into a podcast? You get this wild, heartfelt, and honest episode of The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory—where Mookie Spitz, podcaster, ranter, and writer talks about the creation of his latest science fiction novel: Jonnie Fazoolie and the Transfinite Reality Engine. In a full-circle moment of gratitude and literary soul-searching, Mookie hands the mic to Michelle Waugh — the sharp-eyed first reader who flipped through his draft and called him out, pushed him harder, and helped bring his sprawling vision into the light. Together, they go deep. Topics include:
Michelle Waugh doesn’t just ask questions — she reads from the novel, and her performance of “Alice Unchained” captures some of the mystery and madness. Writers, readers, and anyone trying to make peace with their fractured attention span and haunted dreams will dig this episode -- One that's for anyone wondering if meaning still exists in a world of infinite versions of you. For anyone who’s ever created something and whispered, if only I could love the result as much as I love writing. So tune in for an interview that's a cross-dimensional dive into fiction, failure, love, and redemption. The Novel | |||
| The Black Swan Trilogy: Helen Hynson Vettori Warns Us All | 02 Feb 2026 | 01:34:21 | |
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:
Helen 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 Author Helen 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 & Novels | |||
| Sounds of the Biohunter: Making of a Sci-Fi Audiobook | 29 Oct 2025 | 01:04:07 | |
Sci-fi author Ingrid Moon and voiceover wizard Scott Allen join your host, Mookie Spitz, for an unfiltered ride through the making of audiobook for Biohunter—a post-apocalyptic sci-fi love story between a deadly alien tracker and a teenage human target. They talk shop about audiobooks, content repurposing, and self-publishing in the age of AI. Ingrid reveals how the novel began as a pseudonymous writing challenge—complete with a mystery book cover and fake name—and ended as a full-fledged sci-fi saga complete with morally conflicted characters and actual emotional stakes (imagine Dances with Wolves meets The Most Dangerous Game, with fewer buffalo and more cloning). Mookie compares notes on the struggle of doing bad German dominatrix accents while reading his own fiction out loud. Scott shares war stories from behind the mic—including the horror of accepting a voice gig before reading the manuscript, only to find out midway that it goes full weird. They deep-dive into audiobook production (hint: color-coded dialogue and wrestling with audio files), the psychological toll of switching voices like a caffeinated sociopath, and what it’s like to hear your own writing read back to you in someone else's voice—better than you imagined but also slightly unsettling, like hearing your dog say your name. Then it gets existential. AI narration, KDP’s soulless “Read Now With a Robot” button, and the philosophical death spiral of bots making content for other bots. Can real emotion survive a whispering LLM? Do the robots stutter convincingly yet? Does anyone really read anymore, or are we all just huffing 10-minute audio chunks while reheating lasagna? It’s a heartfelt, hilarious, and occasionally unhinged conversation about storytelling, collaboration, and fighting for human creativity in the face of algorithmic mediocrity. Perfect for writers, listeners, aspiring voice actors, and anyone terrified that their next favorite novel might be written—and narrated—by Skynet. Spoiler: Ingrid and Scott are still human. For now. And Mookie remains bald. Surprise! The Author Ingrid 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. Her Resources book website: https://bit.ly/biohunter author website: https://ingridmoon.com Sign Up for Newsletter: https://bit.ly/moon-news The Voice Talent Ingrid On the Pod https://www.buzzsprout.com/2549048/episodes/18084835 | |||
| Ingrid's Moonstruck Musings on Indie Sci-Fi | 28 Oct 2025 | 01:25:06 | |
Your sci-fi obsessed host Mookie Spitz sits down with science educator, technologist, and multi-genre author Ingrid Moon to dissect writing and self-publishing — and why it’s so damn hard to do it well. They start with Ingrid’s journey from tech marketing to science classrooms to building reference books for sci-fi authors who don’t know enough science. Astrofiction, Biofiction, Robofiction — yes, those are real, and they’ll save your story from embarrassing “space magic"... Then it’s all in on the struggles:
Mookie rants about trying to hack attention in a world drowning in content. He describes how his first 500-page illustrated Santa Claus epic baffled readers who couldn’t tell if it was for kids or deranged adults. Then he reveals why his latest sci-fi novel, Jonnie Fazoolie & the Transfinite Reality Engine finally nailed it:
They tear into why many indie authors fail at story — chasing intricate lore instead of broken people trying to survive. Why character arcs matter more than your perfectly mapped kingdoms. Why even if your idea is another alien invasion or Mars colonization, it’s your twist, your voice, your messed-up characters that breathe life into tired tropes. Also on deck:
If you’ve ever wanted to write (or just watch two writers spiral into their own creative hangups), you’ll feel right at home. The Guest Ingrid 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. Her Resources author website: https://ingridmoon.com editor website: https://ingridmoon.com/authors goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5035674.Ingrid_Moon amazon author page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Ingrid-Moon/author/B0CKKMRL88 instagram: @ingridmoonauthor facebook (author business): https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61553084507674 | |||
| Mechhaven Dreams: Talking Indie Shop with Greg Sorber | 23 Oct 2025 | 01:40:46 | |
Step back inside The Science Fiction Factory, where host Mookie Spitz joins fellow indie author Greg Sorber as they transform vivid imagination into great storytelling. Recorded fresh off LA Comic Con 2025, this episode dives into what it means to build worlds, fight algorithms, and write science fiction without a corporate mothership. Greg opens up about the making of his Mechhaven saga—a gritty space opera he describes as “Transformers meets Braveheart”—where 200 sentient robots struggle for peace, freedom, and identity on a faraway planet after galactic war. Mookie and Greg dissect the high-stakes life of indie authors: grinding out manuscripts nightly between day gigs, pitching from booths in underground artist alleys, and competing with algorithms and apathy for reader attention. Together they explore:
From nostalgic Star Wars awakenings to deep talk on trauma, AI, and literary obsession, The Science Fiction Factory celebrates every dreamer soldering their imagination into the infinite verse. “It’s not just about robots or rockets,” says Greg. “It’s about creators who refuse to wait for permission to build their own worlds.” Greg 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." | |||
| Top 10 Reasons We Love Science Fiction | 22 Oct 2025 | 01:38:46 | |
We can't get enough science fiction! But why...? Science fiction isn’t just a genre, but the way we see the world and ourselves. Great science fiction is where philosophy meets spectacle, where we project our fears, fantasies, and future selves into strange new worlds to see reflections of our possibilities. After talking to die-hard fans, veteran writers, and creators across the sci-fi spectrum, I started noticing patterns — emotional, intellectual, even spiritual. Beneath the laser battles and alien languages, the same obsessions kept resurfacing. So I made a list — ten deep reasons we love science fiction, can't get enough, why great sci-fi keeps shaping everything from our politics to our childhood dreams. Here's my attempt to decode why sci-fi matters more than ever, and why we love it so much:
What do you think? Mookie can't wait to hear from you -- and welcome you onto the podcast to share your own opinions as a sci-fi writer, artist, producer, or raving fan! | |||
| Welcome to the Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory | 21 Oct 2025 | 00:02:00 | |
What makes science fiction & fantasy great? Step onto the shop floor where imagination meets machinery. The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory is where writers, artists, filmmakers, and dreamers reveal how the genre gets made—story by story, world by world, effect by effect. Join your host Mookie Spitz to talk about the craft and chaos behind your favorite futures: from character arcs to cosmic engines, from special effects to imaginary and planetary-scale ideas. Think of the show as a behind-the-scenes pass to the creative assembly line that keeps science fiction & fantasy alive and thriving. Whether you're a creator, a fan, a marketer, or just someone who gets a rush from the smell of rocket fuel and ink, dragon breath and demons, you’ll find your tribe here. Get ready for The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory—where we build enthralling realities, one episode at a time. | |||
| Pasadena Comic Con & Beyond: The Singularity Scribes Weigh In | 31 Jan 2026 | 01:04:04 | |
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:
Along 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 Moon Ingrid 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. Greg 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." Blake & Sherry Shimshock Blake 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/ | |||
| Matthew Kressel Seeds Sci-Fi Optimism in The Rainseekers | 21 Jan 2026 | 01:23:10 | |
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:
They 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 Guest Matthew 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 & Oeuvre https://www.matthewkressel.net/ | |||
| Bruno Rothgiesser Unveils Dark Matter: When AI Reclaims the Earth | 13 Jan 2026 | 01:04:48 | |
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:
Along 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 Author Bruno 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. | |||
| Don Ellis Aguillo: Color in Motion, Emotion Unleashed | 31 Dec 2025 | 01:06:22 | |
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:
Don 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. Illustrator 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 | |||
| Ingrid Moon Wins 1st Place at the 2025 Outstanding Creator Awards | 23 Dec 2025 | 01:00:17 | |
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 winners Visit Ingrid's Website to join her mailing list and buy her books Dive into Mookie's Website to trip on the Transfinite Reality Engine | |||
| The 2026 Sci-Fi Anthology: Steve Gibson Shares New Voices, New Futures | 18 Dec 2025 | 01:00:28 | |
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:
Mookie 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:
The upcoming Science Fiction Anthology (2026 edition) is available for Kindle preorder now, with print release scheduled for February. The Guest S.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 Kindle https://www.amazon.com/2026-SciFi-Anthology-Science-Novelists-ebook/dp/B0G62WP5Z6 Visit SA Gibson's Author Page http://amazon.com/author/sagibson | |||
| Daniel P. Douglas: Two Minds United Against the Machine | 17 Dec 2025 | 01:30:55 | |
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:
Threaded 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 Duo Daniel 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. | |||