Mookie Spitz welcomes A.C. Wise to the 24th episode of The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory: a Canadian-born, award-winning speculative writer, and one of the most incisive critics across genre circles. Wise boldly crosses boundaries between science fiction, fantasy, and horror, and her decades-long career has explored them from both sides of the page as creator and critic.

Mookie and Alison chat about her work as an author of novels like Wendy, Darling and Hooked — quirky, character-driven stories that reveal trauma, identity, and belonging through fantastical lenses, written alongside her celebrated short fiction such as those in The Ghost Sequences collection, where ghosts, monsters, and eerie impossible moments become mirrors for alienation and self-discovery.

Alison's prolific contributions to creative writing and literary criticism have sharpened her discerning eye, making her an even more insightful author and reviewer. From Apex Magazine to Locus, A.C. brings dedication, empathy, and rigor to all her pursuits as she constantly asks herself and her readers: whose story is being told, who gets to tell it, and what does that choice reveal about us?

Their lively conversation explores:

• Her philosophy of criticism as a creative discipline, not just a thumbs-up / downswing based on her own subjective tastes.
• How themes of alienation, memory, and self-discovery thread through her characters: from haunted cityscapes to fractured identities.
• The mutual influence between her reviewing and her own storytelling, and how criticism sharpens her empathy, craft, and lived experiences.
• Why atmosphere and character matter more than spectacle, and why good speculative fiction inhabits moody worlds with complex characters.
• Exploration of the bleak, the melancholic, the unresolved, and why those states are where the most compelling drama emerges.

Alison goes beyond writing as merely a craft, and treats storytelling as a way of better understanding the world and ourselves, and of questioning what others overlook. Mookie wholeheartedly agrees: the true power of speculative fiction resides in exposing the flaws, the pain, and the very human hope that by telling these tales we might discover things we've somehow known and felt all along.

The Guest

A.C. Wise is the author of the numerous novels and novellas, and over a hundred short stories. Her work has won the Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic, and has been a finalist for the Nebula Awards, Stoker, World Fantasy, Locus, British Fantasy, Aurora, Lambda, and Ignyte Awards. In addition to her fiction, she contributes a review column to Apex Magazine.

Her Website: https://acwise.net/

Want to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!

Support the show

What happens when the people who trained for catastrophe watch society ignore every warning sign?

In the 23rd episode of The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory, host Mookie Spitz asks that question and many others of Helen Hynson Vettori—former EMT, senior medical intelligence analyst for the Department of Homeland Security, and award-winning author of the Black Swan speculative thriller series. Their conversation is a bracing, no-nonsense examination of disaster, denial, and what happens when systems fail.

Helen doesn’t speculate from an armchair. She’s worked emergency calls. She’s planned federal responses to pandemics, biological threats, and mass-casualty events. And when COVID hit, she watched—first incredulous, then outraged—as hard-won playbooks were ignored, communication collapsed, and politics overran preparedness. That frustration became fuel for her Black Swan novels: character-driven thrillers that explore pandemics, catastrophic earthquakes, and human-caused biological terror events not as abstract “what-ifs,” but as entirely plausible futures.

Their conversation ranges wide and cuts deep:

• Why the pandemics wasn't just a medical crisis, but a communication failure
• How “Black Swan events” actually unfold: from small sparks to systemic collapse
• Why people resist obvious safety measures, even when lives are at stake
• What emergency planners know that the public usually ignores
• The uncomfortable truth about how long you may be on your own when disaster hits, and how you should best prepare
• How speculative fiction can function as a societal after-action report

Helen also breaks down practical preparedness: what actually matters if the grid goes down, help doesn’t arrive, and normal life evaporates. Her recommendations are devoid of clickbait paranoia and cosplay survivalism, and full of practical advice. She takes a clear-eyed look at vulnerability, responsibility, and the dangerous assumption that “someone else will handle it," and uses the power of storytelling not only to warn, but guide for a safer future.

The Author

Helen Hynson Vettori is an award-winning author and the creator of The Black Swan Trilogy, a sci-fi political thriller series grounded in her real-world experience. Before turning to fiction, she served as a paramedic with the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Rescue Squad and later as a Senior Medical Intelligence Analyst and emergency manager for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, specializing in planning and preparing for biological incidents, including pandemics. Her work in emergency response and national security gives her novels a credible edge, blending chilling plausibility with gripping storytelling. Black Swan Impact and Black Swan Shock have earned critical praise and international awards, and her third installment is in development.

Her Website & Novels

helenhynsonvettori.com

Want to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!

Support the show

The 22nd episode of The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory features the crew of indie science-fiction authors who gathered together at Pasadena Comic-Con 2026 to bark their books, network, and rally around their shared sci-fi passion. Together on the pod they crack open their creative process, and wrestle with the future of storytelling in the age of AI.

Welcome to their post-Con roundtable on writing, publishing, fandom, hustle, technology, and the tough but fun reality of being a creator in 2026. Recorded days after the event, Mookie Spitz, Ingrid Moon, Greg Sorber, and Blake & Sherry Shimshock share their candid lived experiences as indie authors:

• What it’s like selling books face-to-face at conventions
• How indie writers survive in a world dominated by algorithms and mega-publishers
• Why audio books are becoming the dominant format — and how hard they are to produce
• The emotional toil of writing in isolation — and the joy of live fan engagement
• Co-writing novels as a married duo (and how it actually works)
• The ethics, fear, hype, and creative promise of artificial intelligence
• Whether AI is a tool, a threat, or the next inevitable evolution of art

Along the way, you’ll hear behind-the-scenes breakdowns of current sci-fi and fantasy projects — including galaxy-spanning space operas, cursed wanderers lost across magical realms, emotionally scarred interstellar agents, divine assassins, and multiverse-hopping con men — plus the unfiltered realities of writing, marketing, networking, rejection, burnout, ambition, and hope.

Any Netflix content hunters out there? No worries and no hurries: Along the way to zero-guaranteed stardom, the scribes are having a blast.

Ingrid Moon

Ingrid Moon is an author, editor, and science teacher. She currently has four science fiction novels, three audiobooks, and three science reference books for worldbuilding, with more on the way. Ingrid is a Southern California native who can't surf because she spent most of her youth navigating mountains and watching sci-fi television, all of which inspired her writing career.

https://ingridmoon.com

Greg Sorber

"I’m a lifelong fan of science fiction, fantasy, and comic books. Some of my earliest memories are of Land of the Lost, Speed Racer, and The Six Million Dollar Man. Seeing Star Wars in the theater for the first time in 1977 was a life-changing experience. An avid reader from an early age, I’ve always loved books that engaged my imagination. Reading The Hobbit in 7th grade English class and writing a short story that same year set me down the path of becoming a writer. I live in Riverside, California with my family and two dogs."

www.gregerationx.com

Blake & Sherry Shimshock

Blake and Sherry Shimshock are the interstellar storytellers behind the Firebird Award winning Chronicles of Derek Fade: The Hunt for Valdune, introducing readers to Senior Agent Derek Fade, whose quest for justice spirals into a galaxy-spanning vendetta. The sequel, The Edge of the Abyss, delves deeper into Fade's turmoil, blending action with emotional depth. Together, the novels challenge readers to question the boundaries of duty and vengeance.

https://www.scifibyshimshock.com/

Want to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!

Support the show