My guest this week is author Becky Chambers! Becky is known for her breakout science fiction Wayfarers series, which began in 2015 with A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. Wayfarers books have been nominated for a whole bunch of awards, and won the Hugo for best series in 2019. Becky is also the author of the Monk and Robot series as well as a number of short stories. Becky and I chat about beekeeping and our love of the natural world, and the way hope and wonder helps fuel our writing. We...

My guest this week is author Beth Cato! Beth is known for her Clockwork Dagger series and Blood of Earth Trilogy, and is a widely-published science fiction and fantasy poet and short story writer. Beth also runs a wonderful recipe blog called Bready or Not. She has a new swashbuckling fantasy novel out on June 1st called A Thousand Recipes for Revenge. Beth and I chat about her upcoming book, and we talk about food. Seriously, we spend a good forty-five minutes talking about food so if you’re...

My guest this week is audio narrator and bestselling author Travis Baldree. Travis is a former video game developer, having worked on well-known games like Torchlight and Torchlight II, and has built himself a new career narrating science fiction and fantasy–in particular Will Wight’s bestselling Cradle books. Travis recently broke into writing with his smash hit, the cozy fantasy Legends and Lattes. The sequel, Bookshops and Bonedust, is out this November. We talk extensively about an...

My guest this week is author Michael Stackpole. Michael has a long and fantastic career highlighted, among many things, by his work on the Star Wars X-wing books in the 90’s. He’s written in both his own original worlds and for intellectual properties, including Star Wars, Battletech, and World of Warcraft. As a long time gaming writer and enthusiast, he’s worked on both tabletop RPGs and computer games. Michael is kind enough to let my inner teenager gush about Star Wars and chat about his...

My guest this week is the youtuber and instragramer known as Bookborn. Bookborn is a video essayist and reviewer primarily of science fiction and fantasy, engaging in deep dives on tropes, philosophical questions, community, authors, and more. She’s also one of the judges for the popular Self Published Fantasy Blog-off. Bookborn and I chat about the difficulty of gauging success on the internet and the emotional complications of reviewing media when you know there are real-life people on the...

My guest today is science fiction and fantasy author Ken Liu! Ken is known for his wonderful silkpunk epic fantasy series the Dandelion Dynasty and has written numerous award-winning short stories and novellas. He also speaks and consults all over the world on many different topics. Ken and I chat about his experience having a story adapted by Netflix’s Love, Death, and Robots and the glut of stories available to entertain us in the modern world. We talk extensively about his work as a...

My guest this week is game developer Aaryn Flynn! Aaryn is the CEO of Inflexion Games, whose first title, Nightingale, will hit early release on Steam sometime this year. Aaryn spent much of his career at Bioware, where he worked his way up from tools programmer to Studio General Manager. He had his hands in a number of massive titles including the Mass Effect series, the Baldur’s Gate series, the Dragon Age series, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old...

My guest this week is author Django Wexler. Django is probably best known to my fans as a fellow progenitor of the current flintlock fantasy subgenre with his Shadow Campaigns series. He’s written the young adult Forbidden Library series and the Wells of Sorcery. Django’s newest book, Emperor of Ruin, number three in the Burningblade and Silvereye series, came out just last week and is available for purchase now! Django and his wife Casey also have writing craft discussions over on their...

My guest this week is author Max Gladstone! Max is best known to fantasy readers for his wonderful Craft Sequence. He’s written extensive serialized fiction with the Book Burners and the Witch Who Came in from the Cold, and has a huge backlist of short fiction published on Tor.com and in various magazines and collections. He’s also the co-author of This is How You Lose the Time War, a multi-award-winning novella. Max and I chat about the state of publishing a decade ago and how his unique...

My guest this week is artist, writer, and narrative designer Grace P. Fong! Grace has created art content for speculative fiction publications and promotional material for authors - including designing the weapons for my very own Powder Mage RPG - and has exhibited regularly at conventions. She’s also published short fiction in Uncanny Magazine. For her day job she’s worked as a narrative designer for Magic: the Gathering, and spent ten years as a senior technical artist on blockbuster movies...

My guest this week is author Piper J Drake. Piper is a prolific romance author who puts the saucy into all of our favorite SFF subgenres. She’s written a pair of suspense series in True Heroes and Safeguard, the science fiction Triton Experiment series, the paranormal London Shifters series, and many standalone novels and short stories. She has a new contemporary fantasy series, Mythwoven, coming in April 2023 with the first book Wings Once Cursed and Bound. Piper is also the cohost of the 20...

My guest this week is author RR Virdi. Ronnie has written the urban fantasies Grave Report and Books of Winter, LitRPG Monster Slayer Online, and space western Shepherd of Light. He’s probably best known to epic fantasy fans for his new Tales of Tremaine duology, starting with the First Binding that came out in August of 2022. Ronnie and I chat about his time working as a mechanic and his love of cars, our authorial anxieties, and our massive lack of skills outside making up fantasy worlds....

My guest this week is comedy writer and podcaster Sean “Seanbaby” Reiley. Seanbaby is an old-school Cracked alumni known for his work with fellow Page Break guest Robert Brockway on 1900hotdog.com and its podcast, Dogg Zzone 9000. Seanbaby has also written and performed for Attack of the Show, Adult Swim, Cracked.com, and numerous internet venues. Seanbaby and I chat about the strange things he researches, trying to get the tone of a joke across in text, and the balance between creating and...

My guest this week is the prolific, award-winning science fiction and fantasy author Adrian Tchaikovsky. Adrian is known for his early epic fantasy, Shadows of the Apt, and for his lauded Children of Time series, the third book of which should be out by the time this podcast airs. He’s also got the brand-new stand-alone City of Last Chances and a whole massive backlist of novel and short stories. Adrian and I chat about his early career in the British legal system, our experiences...

My guest this week is New York Times bestselling author and wargame blogger Robison Wells! Rob is known for his breakout young adult suspense novel Variant and it’s sequel Feedback, as well as a number of other science fiction and fantasy novels. He also co-wrote The Warning with James Patterson, and now runs a popular wargame hobby website, the Wargame Explorer. Rob and I chat at length about the wargaming industry and its various quirks and foibles. We touch on Rob’s struggle to maintain...

My guest this week is epic fantasy author Nicholas Eames! Nick is known for his breakout King of the Wyld and its sequel, the Bloody Rose. We chat about his forthcoming third book and the themes of the series, as well as our habits as writers—getting bogged down in details, leaning into the fantastical, and the hooks that bring the reader along for the ride. We also discuss eating out, our mutual love of video games, and music and the celebrity of music. Enjoy my conversation with Nicholas...

Hey everyone! Check out the Kickstarter for my new Glass Immortals novella, Montego! The Kickstarter will go from today, November 8th, through December 8th. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest this week is international bestseller Amie Kaufman! An author of science fiction and fantasy for young adults, Amie is known for her Starbound Trilogy and Unearthed series, which she co-wrote with Meagan Spooner; the Illuminae Files and Aurora Cycle, which she co-wrote with Jay Kristoff, and her Elementals trilogy. Amie and I chat about international travel, the joys of a quiet hotel room, and touring as a YA author. She tells me about her mutually-constructive relationship with her...

My guest this week is Australian cosplayer Nichameleon! Nic is known for her massive presence on Twitter and Instagram, where she puts a sexy spin on favorite characters from pop culture around the globe. She also streams on Twitch and TikTok and designs her own clothing line with the Lonely Kids Club. Nic and I chat about bring proud of what you do for a living, the variety of small skills you need to learn to run a creative business, and the disconnect between our public and personal faces....

My guest this week is writer, artist and illustrator Ursula Vernon! Ursula and I talk about talk about gardening, Ursula’s love of anthropomorphic animals, and writing the books we want to read. We discuss just how weird early science fiction and fantasy could be and what happens when a beloved series that goes off the rails. We also dig into the business side of what we do – travel, making money, and the complications of printing and self-publishing. Enjoy my conversation with Ursula...

My guest this week is video game narrative designer Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz! Mat is best known for his twelve years with CD Projekt Red where he worked as a quest designer and principal narrative designer on the Witcher 2, the Witcher 3, and Cyberpunk 2077. He has recently moved over to Riot Games where he is the principal narrative designer for their upcoming MMO. Mat and I chat about his time with CDPR and the challenges of leaving his friends and coworkers to move halfway around the world to...

My guests this week are Howard and Sandra Tayler! Howard is best known as the writer and artist of the massively popular Schlock Mercenary webcomic, as well as one of the founding hosts of the Writing Excuses podcast. His wife Sandra has been his long-running partner, acting as editor, business manager, and jack-of-all-trades for Schlock Mercenary and other projects, as well as her own writing and presenting. The three of us chat about the genesis and development of their business and...

We kick off season two with my guest science fiction author Ty Franck. Ty is best known as one half of the writing partnership James SA Corey, creators of the wonderful Expanse books and producers and writers for the TV show of the same name. Ty also worked as a personal assistant for George RR Martin and has written for Star Wars and gaming properties. Ty and I chat at length about his partnership with Daniel Abraham, the other half his pseudonym, including where they started and how the...

Brian's guest this week is author, editor, and game designer Shanna Germain! Shanna is best known as the co-founder, co-owner, and managing editor of Monte Cook Games. Over her career she’s published everything from poems and articles to short stories and novels, as well as taught classes on publishing and writing. Her latest works include Numenera novels Tomorrow’s Bones and The Night Clave. Shanna and Brian chat about her work at Monte Cook Games, her changes in creative focus, and the...