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Worldbuilding for Masochists

worldbuildingformasochists

A podcast by three fantasy authors who love to overcomplicate their writing lives and want to help you do the same.

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S8 · E6
Wednesday · 1 hr 24 min
Episode 188: Building Better Infrastructure
That's right! It's infrastructure week at Worldbuilding for Masochists! So we're talking about the systemic underpinnings of a nation and its economy, the fixed installations that it needs in order to function -- which, admittedly, might sound like the exact sort of overly-detailed, tedious, weighty worldbuilding that people sometimes complain about. Okay, except, so much in your plot probably depends on things like how people, goods, and information move around! This makes infrastructure perhaps the most iceberg-y of the iceberg things that your reader should only see the tip of, but that you might need to think a lot more deeply about. So -- Who builds the roads, bridges, dams, and canals in your world? Who maintains transportation hubs and communication networks? Who controls all those points of access to both utilities and information? Who benefits from these systems? Who gets screwed over by them? And, critically, what does this mean for your plot and your characters? Whether you're riding horses over vast plateaus or zipping around at lightspeed, the logistics of time and space are likely to have some kind of an impact. How easily a message can get passed along -- or delayed -- can have serious implications. (Just ask Romeo). Points of change like revolutions or technological advances can seriously upset people's daily lives and the direction of whole nations. In this episode, we explore the ways that infrastructure can give you plot hooks, character motivations, and complicating factors. [Transcript TK] Resources: Educational Video from Dr. Esmé Louise James: Was it possible to get finger-blasted inside a Regency carriage? ORBIS: The Stanford Geospatial Network Model of the Ancient Road UNRV: How Did the Ancient Romans Send Messages? Bret Devereaux's Resources for Worldbuilders (many articles about logistics) History of the Gander International Airport Overly Sarcastic Productions: Trope Talk: Space Westerns
S8 · E5
August 12 · 1 hr 14 min
Episode 187: Building Better Magic
Magic is a lot of what makes fantasy fantasy. So, how can you do it better? What makes magic good and fun to read in the first place? Here at Worldbuilding for Masochists, we feel pretty strongly that magic systems should be more than an infographic, a D&D table, or a Sorting Hat. How, then, do we build magic into a world in a way that makes sense? And, even more importantly (because absurd and mysterious magic can certainly exist), how can we choose our magic intentionally in a way that allows us to explore something interesting both in the invented world and as commentary on our own? We interrogate how things like our world's education system and capitalism may have detrimentally influenced the current vogue for "hard magic" systems, clearly delineated and highly transactional. Magic often seems both ancient and calcified; what happens when you make it something that is still being discovered and learned about, or something in a state of change? What systems of power have been built around magic, and how can navigating those create problems for your characters? In this episode, we poke at a lot of assumptions about magic and imagine some ways to draw out engaging plot hooks and character dynamics. Also! If you'll be at LA WorldCon in two weeks, here are our schedules: Marshall | Cass | Natania [Transcript TK] Resources: Cass's handout on Making Magic Overly Sarcastic Productions: Trope Talk: Magic
S8 · E4
July 29 · 50 min
Episode 186: Does It Hurt When You Do This? ft. JESSE ARAGON
Fantasy protagonists are highly prone to getting stabbed, sliced, impaled, poisoned, bonked on the head, dropped off cliffs, and otherwise wounded. Which means they need someone to patch them up! So who does that in your invented world, and how do they learn to do it? Guest Jesse Aragon joins us to discuss emergency medicine and other issues of healing. How much reality can you -- and should you -- bring into the medical components of your world? Waving a wand and curing all ills is easy, but potentially unsatisfying, but on the other hand, our heroes can rarely spare six months away from their Quest to let bones knit or infections pass. So just how much magic -- or sci-fi technology -- can you bring in to smooth the process along, and how do you make those things fit in with the rest of your world? Are there medical schools, or do you learn in a master-apprentice type system? How much experimentation is there? How well do your characters understand the real workings of the human body? And, most importantly: How do you get plot hooks out of it? [Transcript TK] Our Guest: Jesse Aragon* is a writer of sci-fi and fantasy, usually both at the same time. Her work features morally complicated protagonists, horror, tragedy, the numinous, and deep dives into the darkest, messiest parts of human nature. She grew up overseas, and “home” for her is everywhere from Brussels, Belgium to Albuquerque, New Mexico. She has a Psychology BA, an EMT-I license, and a BSN. She has been an usher, a cashier, a server, a home health aide, an EMT, an ER tech, and a trauma RN—her jobs have consistently been much stranger than any fiction she writes. When she’s not writing, she enjoys weightlifting, video games, and horror movies. She loves cats, green chiles, and UFO lore. Her debut novel, THE DEMON STAR, is forthcoming from DAW/Astra in July 2026! *Yes, this is a real name. No, it has nothing to do with Lord of the Rings. No, she is not (so far as she knows) a descendant of Catherine of Aragon. It is a very common surname for people of Hispanic descent in Mexico and the Southwestern US.
S8 · E3
July 15 · 1 hr 13 min
Episode 185: How Much Is That Wyvern in the Window? ft. JOHN WISWELL
People and animals have lived together in lots of ways for thousands upon thousands of years -- and humans, as we know, will attempt to pack-bond with anything. But what does the domestication of animals mean in worlds that might have fantastical creatures or critters who can talk? Guest John Wiswell joins us to discuss the friend-shaped beings that inhabit our fantasy worlds. When did your culture domesticate animals, and which ones, and why? What distinguishes a merely domesticated animal from a true companion? Which creatures might be normal pets, and which ones are more off-beat or even taboo? What does it mean if you can tame a dragon, or if your kitty familiar can talk to you? And then, of course, writers also need to consider what role these animals play in the story: Do they serve a narrative purpose? Or are they just there to fill out the world and acknowledge that, yes, humans generally love animals and want them around? [Transcript for Episode 185 TK] Our Guest: John Wiswell is a Nebula-winning and Locus-winning author who lives in the middle of the woods. His debut novel, SOMEONE YOU CAN BUILD A NEST IN, was released from DAW Books in the U.S. and Arcadia Books in the U.K. in April 2024. John's work has appeared in Uncanny Magazine, Tor.com, LeVar Burton Reads, Nature Magazine, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Weird Tales, the No Sleep podcast, Nightmare Magazine, Cast of Wonders, Podcastle, Escape Pod, Pseudopod, and other fine venues. He has been a finalist for the Hugo, World Fantasy, and British Fantasy Awards. His fiction has been translated into ten languages. He graduated Bennington College in 2005, and attended the Viable Paradise 17 workshop in 2013. He has multiple disabilities including a neuromuscular syndrome, and thinks healthy people's capacity to complain is very funny. He finds a lot of things very funny and would like to keep it that way. He is frequently available for interview and for talks at conferences. He has done panels at places such as Worldcon, the Nebula Awards Conference, and the World Fantasy Convention.
S8 · E2
July 1 · 1 hr 31 min
Episode 184: Building Better Cities
So, you're building a fantasy city: Plunk a castle in the middle, put some houses around it, make sure there are some inns and taverns, maybe a church or temple, slap it on a nice body of water, and call it a day, right? NAH. We can do better than that. In this episode, we explore ways that you can create cities that feel natural, lived-in, and unique. Cities are idiosyncratic creatures. So many factors contribute to the development of a city, whether intentionally planned or chaotically organic: the climate, the geography, natural disasters, wars, disease, social priorities, governmental and administrative needs -- They all mean that every city has its own personality. So how can you use those various factors to make sure that your fantasy cities don't all feel like they've been copy-pasted from one very basic mold? We've got thoughts, and we share some of our favorite resources about how cities come to be. Also: Hugo Award voting is open until August 8th! Learn more, register to vote if you haven't already, get the massive voter packet crammed full of goodies, and submit your ballot on the LA WorldCon website. Resources: Collections: The Lonely City, Part I: The Ideal City – A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry, by Bret Devereaux Collections: The Lonely City, Part II: Real Cities Have Curves – A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry, by Bret Devereaux Great Courses: Cities of the Ancient World by Stephen L. Tuck Also on Audible Great Courses: London: A Short History of the Greatest City in the Western World by Robert Bucholz Also on Audible Cities that Shaped the Ancient World, John Julius Norwich The Great Cities in History, John Julius Norwich A Day in the Life of Ancient Rome, Alberto Angela On the Map, Simon Garfield The Map of Early Modern London Boston garbage map Largest Cities in the World (3700 BCE - 2050 CE) Time Lapse Growth of New York City
S8 · E1
June 17 · 1 hr 35 min
Episode 183: Tell Me What You Want, What You Really, Really Want
It's the start of our eighth season! And we thought this would be a good time to examine what, exactly, we mean when we say "worldbuilding". There's been a lot of Discourse about it recently, and... yeah, we're a little spicy and spiky about it! So we're addressing, head-on, what we think are some popular misconceptions about what worldbuilding even is (hint: it's not tomes of lore, and it is in every story, whether SFF or not), shifting definitions of "good worldbuilding", and how we have Some Kind of Feelings about the extent to which these trends (or at least the perception of them) are shaping publishers' choices. And then we try to figure out: What does an author do with all of that? How do we frame worldbuilding for ourselves? What's our relationship to it as it helps us discover our stories and our characters? And what hills are we willing to die on? We also take a little time to explore the state of the podcast, looking back on some favorite past episodes, and the state of the podcasters! [Transcript TK]
S7 · E26
June 3 · 1 hr 20 min
Episode 182: Stranger than Fiction, ft. GABRIELLA BUBA
Sometimes, the truth is weirder and stranger than anything we could make up -- and that's something a worldbuilder can use to their benefit! Guest Gabriella Buba joins us to talk about building real science into our magical worlds -- and the implications that can, in turn, have about a society's relationship with information, education, and the power structures that both derive from and control them. When blending science and magic together, writers can play with a lot of different factors and considerations. Is magic in a given world really about the movement of electrons or the interaction of chemicals, or is it a truly unexplainable force? What do your characters think about the scientific realities of their world? How do they test theories, and do they have a magical R&D department? And what might be the difference between how much the writer needs to know, how much the characters need to know, and how much the reader needs to know? Finding the balance can be tricky, and won't be the same for every project, but getting it right can add invaluable texture to your world. [Transcript for Episode 182] Our Guest: Gabriella Buba is a mixed Filipina-Czech author-illustrator and chemical engineer based in Texas who likes to keep explosive pyrophoric materials safely contained in pressure vessels or between the covers of her books. She writes epic fantasy for bold, bi, brown women who deserve to see their stories centered. Her debut SAINTS OF STORM AND SORROW, a Filipino-inspired epic fantasy, was shortlisted for the 2025 Aldiss Award for World Building in Speculative Fiction. The sequel DAUGHTERS OF FLOOD AND FURY was a top trending Spotify LGBTQ+ Audiobook title. Her work as part of the anthology Witchcraft: Folk Tales & Horror Short Stories edited by Marie O'Regan & Paul Kane was a #1 New Release on Amazon. She has a Gothic Novella set during the Japanese Occupation of Manila coming with Absinthe Books Spring 2027. Alchemist of Bohemia her next novel will be out May 2027 with Titan Books. She has a Filipino Fantasy short stories in the anthologies Strange Religion: Speculative Fiction of Spirituality, Belief, & Practice & Of Stardust: A Queer Fantastical Anthology volume 1 & 2, Short stories placed with the Sci Phi Journal and PodCastle Fiction and essays on Filipino Identity in Prairie Fire Press and With Love: What We Wish We Knew About Being Queer and Filipino in America.
S7 · E25
May 20 · 1 hr 18 min
Episode 181: Journey to the Past, ft. SHANNON CHAKRABORTY
History underpins so much of what we do in the fantasy genre, directly and indirectly. So how do we make that history feel real in an invented world? What makes it feel old and settled as opposed to a culture that popped up out of the snow like a daisy to give the protagonist their story? Guest Shannon Chakraborty joins us to chat about why we love history, how we study it, and how we weave it together with the fantastical. History’s not only about what was, but what is, how a society constructs the myth of itself, shapes its values, claims legitimacy, and that means it's not just the source of tomes of lore -- it's so much of what influences who your characters are, how they think, and what obstacles are in their way. Depicting history is also a commentary on today, part of an ongoing project of how we shape our ideas of ourselves and whose stories get to be heard. That makes it a powerful tool to use in crafting fantasy narratives. [Transcript for Episode 181 TK] Our Guest: Shannon Chakraborty is the critically acclaimed, New York Times bestselling author of The Daevabad Trilogy and The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi. Her work has been translated into over a dozen languages and nominated for the Hugo, Locus, World Fantasy, Crawford, and Astounding awards. You can find her online at www.sachakraborty.com or on Instagram at @SAChakrabooks.
S7 · E24
May 6 · 1 hr 17 min
Episode 180: Subgenre Spin, ft. FONDA LEE
In previous episodes, we've discussed how some genres are more aesthetic-driven (like sci fi & fantasy) and others are more structure-driven (like romance and mystery). So how do subgenres within SFF play with elements of both? How can we blend tropes and reader expectations to put fresh spins on familiar subgenres? Four-time guest and friend of the podcast Fonda Lee joins us to explore the possibilities and potential pitfalls. A lot of "genre" is really about marketing and packaging, so we also discuss the effects of knowing that end result on the process itself. How is it different if we start out with an idea of "I am going to write This Subgenre Thing" versus starting out with less of that marketing-minded specificity? How much do we play into or subvert a reader's expectations? Navigating that can be a high-wire act, trying to present new things that will delight and surprise a reader without knocking them out of the story. And what do we do if the packaging, which authors often have no control over, doesn't quite paint the right picture of the actual book? We also talk about some recent trends and shifts within SFF subgenres. [Transcript TK] Our Guest: Fonda Lee is the award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of the Green Bone Saga, consisting of the novels Jade City, Jade War, and Jade Legacy, along with a prequel novella The Jade Setter of Janloon and a short story collection, Jade Shards. Her newest book is the science fiction novel The Last Contract of Isako. She is also the author of the fantasy novella, Untethered Sky and several young adult novels: Zeroboxer, the Exo duology, and the Breathmarked duology, co-written with Shannon Lee. Fonda is a winner of the World Fantasy Award, the Locus Award, and a six-time winner of the Aurora Award (Canada’s national science fiction and fantasy award), as well as a multiple finalist for the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award. Her novels have garnered multiple starred reviews and appeared on Best of Year lists from NPR, Barnes & Noble, Syfy Wire, and others. Jade City has been translated into fifteen languages, named to TIME Magazine’s Top 100 Fantasy Books of All Time, and optioned for television development. She has also written acclaimed short fiction and been an instructor at writing workshops including Clarion West, Viable Paradise, and Aspen Words. Fonda is a former corporate strategist and black belt martial artist who loves action movies and Eggs Benedict. Hailing from Canada and the Pacific Northwest, she now resides in the Boston area.
S7 · E23
April 22 · 1 hr 15 min
Episode 179: That's Me in the Spotlight, Worldbuilding My Religion, ft. VAISHNAVI PATEL
Faith is an element of society that intersects with a lot of other structures of power and privilege -- So what do we need to think about when incorporating real-world religions into our fantasy worlds and stories? Guest Vaishnavi Patel joins us to discuss Using cultures of faith respectfully but not fearfully! From gender roles to the afterlife, from guiding moral compasses to provoking conflict, religion has the potential to affect many different components of your characters' lives, whether they are themselves particularly devout or not. Does it put restrictions on their bodily autonomy, the jobs they can hold, or their social class? What role do religious rituals play in daily life -- or in holidays and special events? We also discuss how these considerations can influence character arcs, like crises of faith, redemption arcs, and social reformation. [Transcript for Episode 179] Our Guest: Vaishnavi Patel is the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of Kaikeyi, Goddess of the River, and Ten Incarnations of Rebellion. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, Bustle, Paste, Ms. Magazine, and Buzzfeed. She is a lawyer specializing in constitutional law and civil rights, including issues of gender and racial justice. She has lived in five states in the last five years, but Chicago is home.
S7 · E22
April 8 · 1 hr 6 min
Episode 178: Character and Conflict, ft. CARISSA BROADBENT
It's an oft-cited (though poorly citationed) aphorism of writing that you should “chase your character up a tree and throw rocks at them." Well, worldbuilding is what gives you the tree and the rocks! So how does your world provide opportunities and obstacles for your characters? Guest Carissa Broadbent joins us to explore making the relationship between character and conflict feel natural and organic through the world they exist in. Characters are products of their circumstances – So how has the world shaped those for them? What systems and structures have shaped their pasts, and how has that past shaped what they want, what they expect, and what they think is possible? Where does that collide with what other characters want and think? The world also provides the conditions that can push people together or pull them apart, for good or ill -- it can provoke challenge & change, whether you're trying to save the world or get to the kissing bits. [Transcript for Episode 178] Our Guest: Carissa Broadbent is the #1 New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Crowns of Nyaxia series. She has been featured in Elle and Publishers Weekly, and her books have been reviewed in Library Journal, Marie Claire, Popsugar, and Vulture, among others. She writes novels that blend epic fantasy plots with a heaping dose of romance. She lives with her husband, her son, and one perpetually skeptical cat in Rhode Island.
S7 · E21
March 25 · 1 hr 32 min
Episode 177: Getting in Tune: Music in Worldbuilding, ft. MIA TSAI
Music is a cultural universal, something human societies have been producing since our very earliest days – So how do we use it when writing novels? How do we put the audial experience onto the page? Guest Mia Tsai joins us to discuss how to go beyond just slapping a bunch of lyrics down on the page! Music is about emotion and communication, so part of the craft of writing it into a book will mean exploring how your characters feel about it, as well as the mental and physical responses they have when they hear a certain tune. Music can be the tool of the propagandist or the rebel; it can be sacred or profane; small and homey or huge and orchestral. Both its structure and its role in society can vary wildly by time and place, and interesting worldbuilding with music will benefit from looking outside the confines that Western imperialism built around the art. We also talk about building soundtracks for our novels! [Transcript for Episode 177] Our Guest: Mia Tsai is a Taiwanese American author of speculative fiction. Her debut novel, a xianxia-inspired contemporary fantasy titled Bitter Medicine, was published by Tachyon Publications on March 14, 2023. Her sophomore novel, an adult science fantasy titled The Memory Hunters, will be published on July 29, 2025, by Erewhon Books. Mia lives in Atlanta with her family, and, when not writing, is a hype woman for her orchids and a born-again Knicks fan. Her favorite things include music of all kinds and taking long trips with nothing but the open road and a saucy rhythm section. She has been quoted in Glamour and Washington Post's The Lily and, in her other lives, is a professional editor, photographer, and musician. Mia is on BlueSky at @itsamia.bsky.social and Instagram at @mia.tsai.books. She is represented by Anne Tibbets at Donald Maass Literary Agency. Please contact Anne for all business inquiries.
S7 · E20
March 11 · 1 hr 1 min
Episode 176: Atmospheric Conditions, ft. H.M. LONG
One of the things that can make a novel memorable is its atmosphere. So what do we mean, exactly, when we use that word, and how do we craft it? Guest H. M. Long joins us to attempt to answer that question amid the nebulous, numinous clouds of vibes and aesthetics. Not every author's going to interpret it the same way, but it's a bit about the mood, a bit about how the setting creates the mood, a bit about the characters' sensory experiences and their memories of those sensory experiences, a bit about what details you use to pull the reader into the character's experience of the world. It's a bit about weather, a bit about lighting, a bit about the score and soundtrack you're trying to put in a reader's head. Writers can use common shorthands, familiar references, quick sketches of setting, vocabulary choices, and other tools to hack their reader's minds and invoke a particular energy and vibrance for their story. [Transcript for Episode 176] Our Guest: Hannah (H. M.) Long is a Canadian fantasy author. She inhabits a ramshackle cabin in Ontario with her family, but she can often be spotted snooping about museums or wandering the Alps. Hannah writes for Titan Books and is the author of the Four Pillars Quartet (Hall of Smoke), the Winter Sea Trilogy (Dark Water Daughter), the Entwined Duology (2026), Ashmarked (2027), and more. For the latest updates, follow Hannah on TikTok (@hmlongbooks), Instagram (@hmlongbooks), and Twitter (@hannah_m_long).
S7 · E19
February 25 · 1 hr 4 min
Episode 175: Folklore Monsters and Their Origins, ft. AMÉLIE WEN ZHAO
From creatures to avoid in the woods to superstitions about numbers, folklore not only gives us inspiration for stories, but also stories for the characters in your world to tell. So where do folktales come from, and how can we use them in our worldbuilding? Amélie Wen Zhao joins us to investigate the roots of folkloric monsters and their narrative potential! We talk about the sometimes blurry lines between folklore, mythology, fables, and legends. Sometimes, that distinction is about the scale of the story: are we talking about the creation of the world, or are we talking about the little creature that lives in your oven to keep your bread warm? Folklore is often more personal as well as more localized, and thus the stories are often very culturally-specific -- and that means they can communicate a lot about your characters' beliefs and values, representative of the world they've grown up in! You also get to decide... are these creatures only stories within your world, or are they really real there? [Transcript for Episode 175] Our Guest: Amélie Wen Zhao was born in Paris and grew up in Beijing, where she spent her days reenacting tales of legendary heroes, ancient kingdoms, and lost magic at her grandmother’s courtyard house. She attended college in the United States and now resides in New York City, working as a finance professional by day and fantasy author by night. In her spare time, she loves to travel with her family in China, where she’s determined to walk the rivers and lakes of old just like the practitioners in her novels do.
S7 · E18
February 11 · 1 hr 4 min
Episode 174: Stress-Testing Your Worldbuilding, ft. ANDREA STEWART
We often start the worldbuilding process with a lot of exciting ideas, shiny notions, and fun experiments -- so then, how do you make it make sense? Even in an invented world with its own history, geography, magic, and other special conditions, we generally still want it to feel like the society could plausibly have developed as we're presenting it. Guest Andrea Stewart joins us to discuss how we can create systems of power and culture-making in invented worlds that still reflect how real people really behave. [Transcript for Episode 174] Our Guest: Andrea Stewart is the daughter of immigrants, and was raised in a number of places across the United States. Stewart is a Sunday Times Bestselling author whose short stories can be found in such venues as Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Daily Science Fiction, Galaxy’s Edge, and others. Her debut epic fantasy novel, The Bone Shard Daughter, was a finalist for the Locus Award for Best First Novel, the British Fantasy Award for Best Novel, the Goodreads Choice Award for Fantasy and Debut Novel, and the BookNest Award for Best Traditionally Published Novel. She now lives in sunny California, and in addition to writing, can be found herding cats, looking at birds, and falling down research rabbit holes
S7 · E17
January 28 · 1 hr 37 min
Episode 173: Talking about Writing: A Crossover Episode with SFF ADDICTS (Adrian M. Gibson, M.J. Kuhn, & Greta Kelly)
There comes a time in the life of every author when they have to do that truly terrifying thing: Talk about their book. In this special crossover episode with SFF Addicts, we talk about talking about writing! A lot of that involves the beast we all face these days: social media. Branding, marketing, algorithms, trends, parasocial relationships -- It's a lot. How much do you really need to do, and how can you set boundaries around your public and private selves? But there are also times and places an author may need to talk about their book beyond social media and marketing. Sometimes, you have to do it in (gasp!) real life! What techniques can we use to get more comfortable with public speaking? What's good etiquette for being on a panel at a convention or conference? How can you engage with readers one-on-one in a way that makes them see you as an interesting person, not just a book-shilling Gollum incapable of taking about anything except your precious? We share our experiences and offer our perspectives on navigating those situations! Our Guests: SFF Addicts is a weekly sci-fi, fantasy and writing craft podcast co-hosted by Adrian M. Gibson and fellow authors M.J. Kuhn and Greta Kelly, bringing you interviews and writing masterclasses with your favorite SFF authors. Past guests include: George R.R. Martin, Brandon Sanderson, Jim Butcher, Robin Hobb, James S.A. Corey, Scott Lynch, Christopher Paolini, Martha Wells, Joe Abercrombie, John Scalzi, Chuck Wendig, Fonda Lee, Mark Lawrence, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Nicholas Eames, Michael J. Sullivan, Andrea Stewart, Travis Baldree, Mary Robinette Kowal, Gareth L. Powell, Hugh Howey, Robert Jackson Bennett, Rebecca Roanhorse, Chelsea Abdullah, RJ Barker and many more. The full episode archive can be found here. You can also subscribe to the FanFiAddict YouTube channel, where all episodes are available in full video. The Book of Spores anthology is a mind-altering, multi-genre anthology, featuring 16 strange stories by authors from the FanFiAddict book blog and SFF Addicts Podcast. Kickstarter | Pre-order here Adrian M. Gibson is an award-winning Canadian SFF author, podcaster and illustrator (as well as occasional tattoo artist). He was born in Ontario, Canada, but grew up in British Columbia. He studied English Literature and has worked in music journalism, restaurants, tattoo studios, clothing stores and a bevy of odd jobs. In 2021, he created the SFF Addicts podcast, which he co-hosts with fellow authors M. J. Kuhn and Greta Kelly. The three host in-depth interviews with an array of science fiction and fantasy authors, as well as writing masterclasses. Adrian has a not-so-casual obsession with mushrooms, relishes in the vastness of nature and is a self-proclaimed “child of the mountains.” He enjoys cooking, music, video games, politics and science, as well as reading fiction and comic books. He lives in Quito, Ecuador with his wife and sons. His debut novel is MUSHROOM BLUES, which is available to purchase here. www.adrianmgibson.com @adrianmgibson on Instagram, Bluesky, X and Threads M.J. Kuhn is a fantasy writer by night and a mild-mannered marketer and business owner by day. She is the internationally bestselling author of Among Thieves and Thick as Thieves, cohost of SFF Addicts podcast, and lives in the metro Detroit area with her very spoiled cats, Evie and Thorin Oakenshield. www.mjkuhn.com @mjkuhnbooks on Instagram and TikTok Greta Kelly is the author of the critically acclaimed adult fantasy novels THE FROZEN CROWN, THE SEVENTH QUEEN and THE QUEEN OF DAYS (Voyager) and the co-host of SFF ADDICTS Podcast. Her writing has also appeared in Nerdist, i09 and Writer’s Digest. She currently lives in the U.S. with her husband EJ, and daughters Lorelei and Nadia who are doing their level-best to take over the world. You can follow her on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok @gretakkelly. www.gretakkelly.com
S7 · E16
January 14 · 1 hr 14 min
Episode 172: Inquiries and Interrogatives
It's our first episode of 2026, and that means it's time for another listener Q&A episode! From nitty-gritty craft details like writing good dialogue and measuring your pacing to broader concepts like "How do you make worldbuilding fun again after burnout?", we answer your burning questions about the work we do and how we do it. And as a sidebar: If you want to be eligible to nominate for the 2026 Hugo Awards -- perhaps, say, for your favorite worldbuilding podcast? -- you need to secure a WSFS Membership by January 31st! [Transcript for Episode 172]
S7 · E15
Dec 31, 2025 · 1 hr 17 min
Episode 171: Eight Days a Week
As we turn the pages of our own calendars, let's think about how the cultures we build in fantasy and science fiction mark the passage of time! What shapes the patterns of life for your characters? Do they judge years and seasons and months by the movement of celestial bodies, by agricultural phenomena, by winds and rains and storms, or by something else? The lunisolar calendar is a frantic hodgepodge in our own world; how does that change if your planet has multiple moons? Does your month divide into smaller units like weeks, or not? Different cultures will conceive of all these things in varying ways, and attention to detail with your calendar can communicate a lot about your world to your reader. The calendar and timekeeping can touch on everything from religion to labor practices to human biology. Your culture's choices might reflect their priorities and values -- or, perhaps, what those priorities and values were at some time in the past when the calendar was set. And then, of course, you might also have to name all those months and days of the weeks! So how do you handle that? Our own world has been wildly inconsistent with the choices, which means so can your invented societies! We also look back at our writing years of 2025 and our intentions and hopes for 2026! [Transcript for Episode 171] PS: Find your birthday in the French Revolutionary calendar!
S7 · E14
Dec 17, 2025 · 1 hr 5 min
Episode 170: Save It for the Patreon
We know we’re worldbuilding masochists – But when is too much really, really too much? Some of us try to do all our worldbuilding at the start of a project -- and some of us do it as we go. However you work, where's the line between worldbuilding that's helpful to you and worldbuilding that's become a way to evade actually writing? And, does that line change depending on what your own intentions and goals are? Often, it's important to consider the difference between the worldbuilding you need as an author in order to get the full scope of a project straight inside your own head and the worldbuilding that a reader needs in order to understand the story. If worldbuilding is an iceberg, just how much do you let float up to the surface, and how do you shape the worldbuilding that you put on the page? Worldbuilding often works best when it can pull double-duty, also serving to reveal character, communicate stakes, and set the atmospheric mood. We also talk about what you can do with the worldbuilding that doesn't make it on the page! Tolkien had his appendices, but writers today have all sorts of options: You can include them as bonuses for pre-order campaigns, put them on a blog or a Patreon, or, I dunno, make a podcast about them! [Transcript for Episode 170]
S7 · E13
Dec 3, 2025 · 1 hr 15 min
Episode 169: For the Cartography-Curious
Few things are more glorious than opening up a fantasy book and seeing a gorgeously detailed map right up front. So what goes into making that masterpiece for you to feast your eyes and imagination upon? In this episode, we discuss our love of maps, some of the ways we make maps, and the relationship between the map and the text. We also share some of our favorite maps, as well as exploring some non-traditional types that we'd love to see more of in fantasy and sci-fi novels. Creating a solid map for your world is something that might seem basic at first, but doing it well involves a lot of different skills and knowledge bases: everything from geology and plate tectonics to linguistics and political science. A map really can be a microcosm of your world and its story. How are you going to create yours? And, as promised, here are some of the links we said we'd drop in the show notes! Marshall's Maradaine Maps Inkarnate (a classic fantasy map generator) Watabou City Generator (make a town or city) Azgaar (spin up some worlds!) Tectonic Explorer (lets you play with crashing continents into each other) The enormous maps of our co-created world Time lapse video of border changes in Western Europe (ie, smash the HRE with a hammer) The Holy Roman Empire Germany in the 18th century Cross-section of life in a medieval castle Official Star Wars galaxy map Less official but more granular Star Wars galaxy map The medieval-style Star Wars map Star Trek galaxy map [Transcript for Episode 169]

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