The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory

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 unpa...

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...

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, illus...

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, indepe...

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, paran...

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 F...

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...

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 sani...

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 hi...

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 stubbo...

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 read...

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, coac...

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 manage...

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...

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...

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 s...

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...

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...

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 Geor...

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. Mook...

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-boo...

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-drive...

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...

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...

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 pati...