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PODCAST

The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory

Hosted by writer and ranter Mookie Spitz, the SFFF is where science fiction & fantasy creators, fans, and technologists transform imagination into reality. Each episode explores how writers, filmmakers, and world-builders bring their universes to life, with personal stories about turning wild ideas into finished projects that connect, inspire, and thrill. From indie authors to visionary engineers, Mookie uncovers the creative engines powering the future of sci-fi & fantasy storytelling!

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All Episodes

56:37

Sebastian Howarth's The Synthetic Hunger: Starving...

The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory ·

2026/10/01

Space is infinite. The menu is not. Sebastian Howarth joins Mookie in the Science Fiction and Fantasy Factory from Johannesburg, South Africa, to break down The Synthetic Hunger, his debut novel built on a premise that should've occurred to a hundred sci-fi writers before him and somehow never did: every war in human history eventually comes down to food, so what happens when one company controls the only food left? Howarth hands humanity's entire interstellar diet to the Panterran Nutritiona...

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53:21

Blake Anderson's The Great Awakening Sounds the Alarm...

The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory ·

2026/09/29

Blake Anderson joins Mookie in the Science Fiction and Fantasy Factory to talk about The Great Awakening, his debut novel built around an amazing premise: every person on Earth shares the exact same near-death-style dream overnight, wakes up transformed, and watches the world's tribalism dissolve into universal empathy. Blake traces the idea back to a debate he watched between Ben Shapiro and Alex O'Connor about religion and open-mindedness. As an atheist, he started asking himself what kind ...

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48:24

Dungeon Crawler Mookie: How Indie Authors Become...

The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory ·

2026/09/25

Mookie flies solo on the Science Fiction and Fantasy Factory podcast to unpack why Matt Dinniman's Dungeon Crawler Carl has become the decade's breakout indie sensation, and why the rise looks almost identical to one that happened ten years earlier with Andy Weir's The Martian. Both writers built an audience from nothing on a serialized platform, both let readers shape the story as it grew, and both books ended up capturing the mood of the exact moment they were written in: Weir's post-Obama ...

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80:33

Vinx the Mercenary Minx: Ranting and Reading Chapter 2

The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory ·

2026/09/22

Vinx the Mercenary Minx is a prequel spinoff of Mookie's flagship series, Jonnie Fazoolie and the Transfinite Reality Engine, and it answers a question the main story never stops to ask: how did Jonnie's tantalizing, savage love interest claw her way up to become the second most powerful being inside the all-powerful agency? Mookie got the idea for the whole project from conversations with LitRPG and military science fiction authors he'd had on the podcast, which sparked the thought that one ...

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84:57

Gus James' The Xeno Files: Alien Sex, Bad Decisions,...

The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory ·

2026/09/11

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,...

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57:23

A.G. Meier's Champions Awakening: Interstellar War,...

The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory ·

2026/09/08

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 c...

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74:34

Dennison Smith's The Westward Hours: Nightmare of a...

The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory ·

2026/09/01

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 id...

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26:12

Vinx the Mercenary Minx: A Bloody Good Prequel to the...

The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory ·

2026/08/24

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 i...

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63:34

Matt Witten's 51%: How Debt and AI Fuel American...

The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory ·

2026/08/18

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 co...

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72:52

Dave Freer Ignites YA Sci-Fi with Storm-Dragon

The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory ·

2026/08/07

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 f...

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69:45

Elliot Blake: Skip the Permission, Launch the Sci-Fi...

The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory ·

2026/08/05

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 ...

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74:16

James Stuart Kinsey: Crime Scenes to Fantasy Kingdoms

The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory ·

2026/07/06

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...

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56:57

Jef & Mindy on the Liberating Power of Comedy,...

The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory ·

2026/06/30

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. Con...

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100:08

Cedar Sanderson: Prolific Pulp Pantser

The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory ·

2026/06/07

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 ...

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52:10

Debbie Bishop on Creativity, Entrepreneurship, and...

The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory ·

2026/06/03

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 be...

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116:31

Leanna Renee Hieber: Gothic Storyteller and Haunted...

The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory ·

2026/05/28

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 tr...

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60:52

B.K. Gibson Debuts with Freedom's Vow

The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory ·

2026/05/22

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 encour...

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47:37

D. Scott Allen Goes Skyborne with The Aerie Protocol

The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory ·

2026/05/21

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 co...

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65:18

Sam Robb Brings A Sense of Murder to Selene Press

The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory ·

2026/05/09

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 c...

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90:25

Marc Neuffer: From Naval Nuclear Engineer to Starship...

The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory ·

2026/05/08

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 scif...

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69 results

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