Fictitious

Fleeting and unsubtle, Sylvain Neuvel's The Test is, appropriately, all about choices. What decisions will a person make when their future is on the line? How do those choices change under pressure, when the lives of others depend on them? And who are we to judge if those actions make someone good, make them worthy?

Roshani Chokshi is the New York Times bestselling author of The Star-Touched Queen and A Crown of Wishes . Her latest novel, the young adult fantasy The Gilded Wolves , arrives in stores on January 15th from Wednesday Books. It's a fast-paced heist adventure set in a darkly glamorous version of Paris in 1889, featuring a magic system forged from a twist of biblical mythology, and a highly quotable...

Fictitious Bonus Book Review: Bleak, propulsive, and frighteningly plausible, Robert Jackson Bennett's concise novella Vigilance examines an America which has embraced gun violence as inevitable and marketable. Yet the greatest weapons wielded in this warning tale are the tools of media manipulation, used to keep a diminishing populace paranoid yet eager for more corporate-sponsored bloodshed.

Recorded at San Diego Comic-Con 2017, this live panel discussion features super-star TV-scribe Jane Espenson , Marvel's Cloak & Dagger co-executive producer Christine Boylan , young adult breakout author Tomi Adeyemi , Marvel & DC comics writer Erica Schultz , bestselling paranormal romance author Rebecca Zanetti , and Nerdist and Geek & Sundry writer Kendall Ashley . Moderated by Fictitious host...

Isaac Marion is the author of the "Warm Bodies" series, which views the zombie apocalypse from the unique perspective of one of the Dead (who is trying very hard not to be). The bestselling first novel has been translated into 25 languages and was adapted as the hit 2013 film "Warm Bodies". The series includes prequel novella "The New Hunger" and sequel novel "The Burning World", and completes wit...

Bram Stoker award-winning author Grady Hendrix's latest novel, "We Sold Our Souls", is out now from Quirk Books. It's a paranoia-drenched dark fantasy infused with horror, suspense, and a cranked-up-to-11 volume of heavy metal. We discuss the difficulty Grady encountered shaping "We Sold Our Souls" into its final form, the impact of music on the story, and his laborious revision process. 

Tade Thompson is the author of the award-winning, near-future sci-fi novel "Rosewater" (Orbit Books), set in Nigeria in 2066. The first novel in the "Wormwood" trilogy, it will be followed by the sequel, "Rosewater Insurrection", in early 2019. 

This bonus episode features Grant Faulkner, the executive director of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). The interview originally aired in 2016 on the Nerd For A Living podcast. NaNoWrimo is a program designed to motivate writers to start and complete an entire 50,000 word novel within the month of November. It's free to join at NaNoWriMo.org, which provides tools to track your daily word c...

Nicholas Eames is author of the breakout epic fantasy debut "Kings of the Wyld" (Orbit Books), the first in "The Band" series. The sequel, "Bloody Rose", was released in August 2018. Nick's novels combine edge of your seat action, rock 'n roll sensibility, laugh out loud humor, and a huge helping of heart. 

Recorded live at San Diego Comic Con 2018, the "Here There Be Dragons: Creating Fresh Stories in Fantasy" panel features authors Tomi Adeyemi (Children of Blood and Bone), Robert Jackson Bennett (Foundryside), Jason Denzel (Mystic Dragon), R.F. Kuang (The Poppy War), and Mary E. Pearson (Dance of Thieves). Moderated by Adron Buske of the Fictitious Podcast.

Author R.F. Kuang talks with Adron about her debut novel, The Poppy War (Harper Voyager). They discuss her writing process for the grim fantasy, its roots in the 20th-century history of China, and the influences of modern fantasy and animation on her work. 

Hugo-nominated author Robert Jackson Bennett (The Divine Cities Trilogy) talks with Adron about the creation process for his latest fantasy novel, Foundryside, which was just released by Crown Publishing. 

Jason Denzel, the author of fantasy novels "Mystic" and "Mystic Dragon" (TOR publishing), discusses his storytelling process and influences for creating the "Mystic" trilogy. Jason is a filmmaker, and the founder of Dragonmount.com, the leading online community for Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time saga.

Our guest this episode is Leigh Bardugo , New York Times #1 bestselling author and the creator of the Grishaverse , a young adult fantasy series which has sold over one million copies. The Grishaverse spans the Shadow and Bone Trilogy , and the Six of Crows Duology . Her latest book, The Language of Thorns , collects six short, fairy tale-infused stories, all based in her original fantasy world. I...

We're joined by Robin Furth, author of Stephen King's The Dark Tower: A Complete Concordance and co-writer of the Marvel Comics Dark Tower series. Robin was also a consultant on the recent Dark Tower film, has produced another concordance for a different Stephen King book series, and is consulting for other media properties. And she is now writing and releasing her own short stories and novels, as...

This episode features author Vivian Shaw , whose debut novel — Strange Practice — was just released from Orbit Books.  Strange Practice introduces Dr. Greta Helsing, a normal human physician working to keep the supernatural community not-alive and well in modern-day London. Having inherited her family's specialized medical practice, Greta can barely make ends meet with her treatments for local mum...

Our guest is Rebecca Zanetti , a prolific author of dark paranormals, romantic suspense, and contemporary romances. She's published more than 25 novels, many of which have appeared on bestseller lists from the New York Times, USA Today, iBooks, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble. Her books include the Scorpius Syndrome series and Realm Enforcer series from Kensington Publishing, and the Sin Brothers serie...

We talk with Lauren Shippen , the writer and creator of The Bright Sessions , a science fiction audio drama about people with supernatural abilities - in therapy. It's a serialized podcast where each episode is a therapy session between a patient and the enigmatic Dr. Joan Bright. The Bright Sessions premiered in 2015, and has been featured by iTunes, Vox, Wired, The Observer, and Popular Science....

This rebroadcast episode was recorded at San Diego Comic-Con 2015 with Daniel H. Wilson , New York Times bestselling author of Robopocalypse and its sequel Robogenesis . His books also include How to Survive a Robot Uprising , A Boy and His Bot , and Amped . Daniel's career spans books, television, and comics. He has a PhD in Robotics and a Masters in Artificial Intelligence. His book Robopocalyps...

Hugo-award winning author Mary Robinette-Kowal spoke with us during the release of her novel "Ghost Talkers" , a historical fantasy set in Europe during World War I. We talk about how that novel came together, and we also explore the other facets of her career, including her award-winning work as a puppeteer, and her side gig as a voice over artist, reading audio books and short stories for other...

Fictitious is a new podcast about writing and genre storytelling, presented by Nerd For A Living and hosted by Adron Buske. We will delve into the storytelling process and business of writing for genre entertainment. And by genre, we mean all kinds of speculative fiction - science fiction, fantasy, horror and supernatural, and all the category-bending and -blending stories in between. Fictitious w...