Fictitious

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...