BLACK CANARY: BREAKING SILENCE author Alexandra Monir talks about writing for the DC Icons young adult series, adapting the fan-favorite Black Canary and Court of Owls in a prose novel, and how she got the job of writing a major media tie-in. This DC Icons young adult novel reimagines the fan-favorite DC comics superhero Dinah Lance as a teenager living in a near-future dystopian Gotham City. Decades ago, Gotham and its vigilante heroes fell to a violent shadow organization called the Court of O...
Dec 18, 2020•54 min•Ep. 58
WE HEAR VOICES author Evie Green talks about creating her new horror / science fiction novel. We discuss her leap into horror after writing many thriller and YA books, juggling complicated thematic elements, and why readers love the "creepy kids" trope. In near-future England, the economy is collapsing, humanity makes plans to leave earth for other worlds, and a deadly pandemic steals the lives of children. But, when some kids manage to survive, they return from the brink of death with new "imag...
Dec 10, 2020•48 min•Ep. 57
MONSTRE VOL. ONE author Duncan Swan talks about launching his debut sci-fi/horror thriller via a successful Kickstarter campaign, the decision to split the long dual-narrative novel into two volumes, and writing for multimedia adaptability. In this genre-blending action adventure, a catastrophic event at a research installation unleashes a slowly advancing worldwide apocalypse. A squad of marines are sent on a desperate mission into The Cloud, a dark wave of devastation swallowing Europe, lookin...
Dec 01, 2020•49 min•Ep. 56
Essa Hansen is the author of NOPHEK GLOSS . This debut science fiction adventure follows Caiden, a teenage mechanic who discovers his simple but highly regimented life is actually one of servitude on a hidden slave planet. When his entire colony is sent to slaughter, Caiden alone survives, fleeing the vicious creatures who devoured his people. After taking refuge in a strange, abandoned vessel, he is saved from capture by a band of explorers, and whisked off planet—with only trauma and rage as m...
Nov 07, 2020•46 min•Ep. 55
I’m pleased to welcome author Alix E. Harrow back to the show. Alix’s debut fantasy novel, THE TEN THOUSAND DOORS OF JANUARY , got nominated for—like—all the major awards, was on all of the best-of lists, and was basically a "whole thing". Her new novel, THE ONCE AND FUTURE WITCHES , follows three estranged sisters as their lives uncomfortably re-entwine in late 1800’s New Salem. A patriarchal society has stamped down women’s magic as taboo in the name of control and moral purity. But the Eastwo...
Oct 16, 2020•47 min•Ep. 54
In this episode, I’m pleased to be joined again by author Leigh Bardugo. She's well known for her expansive Grishaverse series of young adult fantasy novels, including the original Shadow & Bone trilogy, the Six of Crows duology, and the King of Scars duology. Outside of the Grishaverse, she has also released an official Wonder Woman novel, and the supernatural thriller Ninth House . Today we’ll be talking about her latest release, THE LIVES OF SAINTS . This lavishly illustrated collection e...
Oct 08, 2020•58 min•Ep. 53
In this episode, I’m joined by Ryan Van Loan, author of THE SIN IN THE STEEL. This debut Fantasy adventure sets a Sherlockian teenage street rat investigator and her troubled ex-soldier partner against political intrigue and violent piracy. In a world where pistoles and steel compete with mad mages and vengeful gods, Buc and Eld are sent to solve a tangled mystery that threatens to destabilize trade and society. But each are haunted by failures from their pasts, and their present—full of meddles...
Sep 24, 2020•45 min•Ep. 52
I’m joined in this episode by Andrea Stewart, author of THE BONE SHARD DAUGHTER. This outstanding Fantasy debut novel features seafaring adventures, a unique and cruel magic system, an ambitious Emperor’s daughter with holes in her memory, a wanted smuggler chasing a specter from his past, magic animal companions, creepy mystical constructs, and so much more. THE BONE SHARD DAUGHTER arrived in stores on September 8th from Orbit Books. About Andrea Stewart Andrea Stewart is the daughter of immigr...
Sep 10, 2020•43 min•Ep. 51
I’m joined in this episode by Richard Kadrey, author of the long-running urban fantasy series, SANDMAN SLIM . These novels follow the paranormal misadventures of James Stark, a hard-to-kill, half-human magician who spent 11 years stuck in Hell as an arena gladiator and pet hitman for his demon masters. After carving a bloody path back to earth, Stark re-emerges in Los Angeles, hellbent on killing the circle of humans who sent him to suffer Downtown. But to live and avenge in LA requires grit, ge...
Aug 25, 2020•48 min•Ep. 50
Peng Shepherd is the author of THE BOOK OF M. This debut speculative fiction novel examines a near future world, fallen to an inexplicable epidemic called The Forgetting. All around the world, people have lost their shadows, and soon after, their memories incurably erode as well. Society has collapsed as the Shadowless spread, and their Forgetting warps aspects of reality in alarming and unexplainable ways. Hidden away at a secluded resort hotel, Ory and his wife, Max, have survived several year...
Aug 18, 2020•42 min•Ep. 49
In this episode, I’m excited to welcome Martha Wells, author of THE MURDERBOT DIARIES. This award-winning science fiction series features the introverted, cynical, and frequently hilarious security robot that thinks privately of itself as MurderBot. It's a half-machine, half-organic construct, corporate owned and rented out to space-exploring organizations. There’re plenty of SecUnit’s just like it, except MurderBot hacked its systems to allow greater autonomy — which mostly consists of slacking...
Aug 13, 2020•37 min•Ep. 48
Emily B. Martin is the author of SUNSHIELD (HarperVoyager, available now), an adventurous eco-fantasy that weaves together the lives of a desert outlaw, a young ambassador, and a political prisoner. Known as the Sunshield Bandit, a former slave named Lark roams desolate canyons, attacking the wagons of human traffickers, and taking from the rich to feed her team and their rescued captives. Translator and minor noble Veran has journeyed to a foreign court in hopes of halting injustices perpetuate...
May 28, 2020•47 min•Ep. 47
In this episode by debut author Alina Boyden. Her new historically-inspired Fantasy novel is STEALING THUNDER , available May 12th from ACE Books. It follows Razia, a sought-after dancer and courtesan with a wealthy and powerful clientele. She is also a thief, stealing from clients in cooperation with her found family of hijras. But though her late night thievery poses constant danger, her greatest fear is the reveal of her past identity. Because Razia was once the crown prince of a nearby kingd...
Apr 21, 2020•56 min•Ep. 46
Menna van Praag is the author of THE SISTERS GRIMM (available now from HarperVoyager Books). It's a dark and evocative tale of four seemingly unrelated young women united by a surreal, supernatural origin. Goldie, Liyanna, Scarlet, and Bea are all on the cusp of 18, each burdened by complicated family relationships, and all filled with a deep sense of longing for something they can’t quite remember. As children, they found each other in Everwhere, an unchanging world outside of their world, of m...
Apr 09, 2020•46 min•Ep. 45
This episode features my first return guest — Dan Stout! His new novel, TITAN'S DAY (DAW Books) is the sequel to one of my favorite books of 2019, TITANSHADE. TITAN’S DAY returns us to the city of Titanshade, our police investigator protagonist Carter, and his two-mouthed, mandibled partner, Ajax. Their discoveries in the first novel have changed the fate and fortunes of their dirty, cold and crime-ridden city — whether for good or ill, who yet can say? But bodies are still showing up in alleywa...
Apr 06, 2020•46 min•Ep. 44
Tricia Levenseller is the author of THE SHADOWS BETWEEN US (available now from Feiwel & Friends). It’s a young adult fantasy novel that’s been quite accurately described as a “Slytherin romance”. It follows the charming and cunning Alessandra, the second daughter of mid-level nobility, for years left to pursue her own lusts and liaisons while her favored older sister awaited a suitor. Now of age and availability to be brought to society, Alessandra has her sights set on a singular target — t...
Mar 25, 2020•44 min•Ep. 43
K.B. Wagers is the author of A PALE LIGHT IN THE BLACK (HarperVoyager). It’s a good vibes military space opera that follows the Near Earth Orbital Guard, essentially a spacefaring Coast Guard protecting humanity within our solar system. The Neo-G crew of the Interceptor ship Zuma’s Ghost prepares for the annual Boarding Games — a multi-military competition which carries huge prestige, bragging rights, and useful inter-branch clout. But this tight-knit found family faces destabilization as their ...
Mar 03, 2020•50 min•Ep. 42
Season 5 of Fictitious kicks off with Brian Keene, one of the writers on the new Serial Box and Marvel production, THOR: METAL GODS . Brian has authored more than 50 horror, crime, and fantasy novels, and written for DC and Marvel Comics properties and other media tie-ins, including Doctor Who and The X-Files . Now, as part of the Serial Box team, he is co-writing a prose and audio drama space adventure series that follows fan favorite Asgardians Thor and Loki on a quest for a dangerous alien ar...
Jan 16, 2020•43 min•Ep. 41
K. Eason is the author of HOW RORY THORNE DESTROYED THE MULTIVERSE — out now from DAW Books. This charming and subversive fantasy-meets-space opera tale follows a young princess who is uprooted from her planet, and her throne, sent off-world to be a pawn for intergalactic politics. But Rory Thorne is no run-of-the-mill fantasy princess, and is definitely no pawn. Rory must use all of her wits, gifts, and determination to turn a manipulative Regent’s plot against him, rescue a mislaid prince she ...
Oct 31, 2019•46 min•Ep. 40
This episode focuses on National Novel Writing Month – NaNoWriMo – in November 2019. Host Adron Buske shares his own experiences participating in NaNo and his plans for this year's project. The episode also includes a rebroadcast discussion with Grant Faulkner, the executive director of the NaNoWriMo non-profit organization.
Oct 23, 2019•34 min
Madeleine Roux is the author of the adult sci-fi thriller SALVAGED (Ace Books). Set in deep space, SALVAGED follows Rosalyn Devar, a bioengineer from an influential family who has fled past traumas for the unglamorous life of a "space janitor". When catastrophic failures leave valuable ships floating in the void full of dead crew, Rosalyn and her fellow salvagers are sent out to clean up the human remains and send the ships home. Her latest assignment delivers her to the Brigantine, a research v...
Oct 14, 2019•58 min•Ep. 39
Clay McLeod Chapman is the author of meta-horror thriller THE REMAKING (Quirk Books). The tragic campfire tale of a mother and daughter burned as witches haunts the imagination of a small town local – including a budding horror director. When child actress Amber Pendleton is cast in a '70s B-movie about the urban legend, it seems like a springboard to a Hollywood career. Instead, the traumatic events of the film follow her into a medication-saturated, cash-poor 1990s adulthood. She makes her liv...
Oct 08, 2019•50 min•Ep. 38
Annalee Newitz is the author of the sci-fi time travel novel, THE FUTURE OF ANOTHER TIMELINE (Tor Books). In a world where present-to-past time travel is an accepted fact, geo-scientist Tess uses her university-funded temporal travels for both research and resistance. While a subversive group of travelers seeks to alter history and solidify the subjugation of women, Tess works in secret to minimize the damage of their "edits" and keep them from permanently locking the timeline. But although a di...
Sep 30, 2019•54 min•Ep. 37
Jennifer Giesbrecht is the author of THE MONSTER OF ELENDHAVEN (Tor.com Publishing). This dark fantasy novella follows the unkillable, not-exactly human Johann as he slinks about the smokey, dark corner of the industrial-gothic city of Elendhaven. Johann murders and steals with unnatural anonymity, until he develops an obsession with Florian – a prominent, old-money accountant who is, in fact, a sorcerer. In a poisoned land ravaged by magical misuse, being a mage is illegal and will call hunters...
Sep 24, 2019•40 min•Ep. 36
Heli Kennedy is a writer on ORPHAN BLACK: THE NEXT CHAPTER , a new continuation of the popular BBC America TV series, this time brought to life as a prose serial, and audio drama narrated by the show’s award-winning star, Tatiana Maslany. ORPHAN BLACK follows a group of young women who discover they are all identical clones, created and monitored by a nefarious technological group, and pursued by other scientific and religious groups for being abominations of nature. Set 8 years after the end of...
Sep 16, 2019•44 min•Ep. 35
Recorded live at San Diego Comic-Con 2019, this panel discussion is called 10 Points to Slytherin: Why Good Fans Love Evil Characters. It features an awesome group of writers: Marissa Meyer ( The Lunar Chronicles , Renegades ), Renée Ahdieh ( The Wrath and the Dawn series, The Beautiful ), Keto Shimizu ( Legends of Tomorrow , Arrow ), Caitlin Starling ( The Luminous Dead ), and Shaun Barger ( Mage Against The Machine ). With their fascinating backstories, dangerous aesthetics, and devil-may-care...
Sep 10, 2019•50 min•Ep. 34
Hugo Award-winner Alix E. Harrow is the author of the historical portal fantasy, THE TEN THOUSAND DOORS OF JANUARY (Orbit Books / Red Hook). In the early years of the 20th century, a young girl named January finds herself the ward of a wealthy aristocrat, Mr. Locke. A dark-skinned girl of ambiguous ethnicity, January is a source of curiosity and skepticism for her benefactor’s society of affluent, white, would-be treasure hunters. Amongst Locke’s peculiar collection, she discovers an even more p...
Sep 03, 2019•58 min•Ep. 33
Katy Rose Pool is the debut author of the young adult fantasy novel, THERE WILL COME A DARKNESS. It’s a world shaped by seven great prophets who, after a two-thousand year reign, vanished a century ago. Now, their secret and final prophecy is coming to fruition, and with it, comes an Age of Darkness. Amidst chaos and conflict, five young people from wildly different backgrounds are pulled together to fulfill unexpected roles in the prophecy – to either save their world, or irrevocably break it. ...
Aug 26, 2019•47 min•Ep. 32
K. A. Doore is author of THE PERFECT ASSASSIN, a suspense-driven fantasy adventure set in a sand-strewn city of platforms rising above the desert wastes. A young historian takes his first rooftop leaps into the life of an assassin, a noble family tradition with definitive rules of conduct and contracts. But when he discovers the body of a prominent city leader, it falls on his shoulders to solve the crime before conspiratorial intrigue and angry spirits tear his world apart. THE PERFECT ASSASSIN...
Aug 19, 2019•48 min•Ep. 31
Evan Winter is the author of the epic fantasy debut, THE RAGE OF DRAGONS (Orbit Books). In a caste-driven society that has known only war for generations, a low-born commoner name Tau's life is destroyed by the very people he was born to serve. Though his path is blocked by ruthless nobles, magic-enraged warriors, and the Gifted who call down the fire of dragons, Tau dedicates his life to a singular ambition — do anything necessary to have his revenge on the men who took away all that he loved. ...
Aug 12, 2019•53 min•Ep. 30
