Fictitious

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...

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 —...

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...

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...

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...

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.

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Mary E. Pearson is the New York Times bestselling author of the REMNANT CHRONICLES young adult fantasy series. Last year she released DANCE OF THIEVES, which is set in the REMNANT universe. And now, she’s following up with its sequel, VOW OF THIEVES. Sparks fly in this new series when a reformed thief turned Queen’s guard becomes reluctant allies with the leader of an outlaw family on the edge of the kingdom. A turbulent romance tests their individual loyalties even as a greater, insidious...

Fonda Lee is the author of JADE WAR (Orbit Books). Her early works were the acclaimed young adult science fiction novels Zeroboxer, Exo, and Crossfire. Her first adult fantasy novel, JADE CITY, kicked off the Green Bone Saga. JADE CITY won the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel, and was nominated for both the Nebula and the Locus award. The sequel, JADE WAR, continues to explore her mafia-meets-fantasy world, where magic, martial arts, and explosive action combine with the complex drama of...

J. Michael Straczynski is well known in science fiction fandom for creating the seminal TV series BABYLON 5, and recently SENSE8 with the Wachowskis for Netflix. His body of work includes the films Changeling and Marvel’s Thor, and acclaimed comic book runs on the Amazing Spider-Man, Rising Stars, and Midnight Nation. His latest work is a memoir called BECOMING SUPERMAN. For writers, it is a prime illustration of how the craft is more than a hobby or career pursuit – it is an opportunity to...

This is the wrap-up episode for Season 3 of Fictitious. I'll be taking a short summer break to catch up on some reading, do some traveling, and work on a few projects, including updates to the show's website. Fictitious will return on Monday, July 22nd with celebrated science fiction screenwriter J. Michael Straczynski.