FanFiAddict
A gaggle of nerds talking about Fantasy, Science Fiction, and everything in-between. They also occasionally write reviews about said books. 2x Stabby Award-Nominated and home to the Stabby Award-Winning TBRCon.
Every Friday, we’re highlighting a panel from the TBRCon2025 all-virtual SF/F/H convention, looking back on the incredible variety of discussions that we had the honor of hosting.
This week, join moderator/author Adrian M. Gibson and authors Suyi Davies Okungbowa, Rebecca Campbell, Syr Beker, Nick Snape and Brenda Peynado for a TBRCon2025 panel on “What is the Future of Dystopian Sci-Fi?”
Join co-hosts Adrian M. Gibson and Greta Kelly as they chat with bestselling, award-winning author John Scalzi about his new novel When the Moon Hits Your Eye, luck and career longevity, major changes in the publishing landscape, Old Man’s War book 7 and writing without pressure, fandom and avoiding burnout, turning the moon into cheese, using the lunar cycle as a story structure, writing dozens of POV characters, cheese science, research, touring and much more.
Join co-hosts Adrian M. Gibson and Greta Kelly as they delve into a writing masterclass on How to Train Your Character with award-winning author C. L. Clark. During the episode, Cherae works out the fundamentals of character strength and training, including the body and the stories we tell ourselves, convincing fictional examples of physicality, how the body affects plot and character, biological sex, body type and societal standards, how to determine your character’s starting strength, an early defeat and setting the stakes, finding the ideal method for training your character, satisfying climaxes, boss battles, injuries and more.
Join co-hosts Adrian M. Gibson and Greta Kelly as they chat with award-winning author C. L. Clark about her tie-in new novel Ambessa: Chosen of the Wolf, Arcane, League of Legends and writing for a major IP, giving Ambessa more heart and complexity, the Magic of the Lost series, the influence of The Wheel of Time on her writing, teaching and editing, melding big and small-scale themes, writing badass female characters and much more.
Join co-hosts Adrian M. Gibson and Greta Kelly as they delve into a writing masterclass on Mythological Retellings with author Gourav Mohanty. During the episode, Gourav delves into humanity’s ancient relationship with mythology, including why mythology has appealed to us across time, the popularity of mythological retellings, how to choose which myth to retell, pairing a myth with a genre/theme, reframing ancient stories for modern audiences, expectations and how close to stick to the original, bringing your voice to established stories, the sustainability of mythological retellings and more.
Join co-hosts Adrian M. Gibson and Greta Kelly as they chat with author Gourav Mohanty about his new novel Dance of Shadows, The Raag of Rta series, grimdark and the Indian SFF market, the influences of both A Song of Ice & Fire and Toni Morrison, being a writer, lawyer and stand-up comedian, storytelling across career types, his sense of humor and Indian politics, writing a large cast of characters, showing world and setting through characters, the challenges of writing a sequel, depictions of violence, action scenes and much more.
Join co-hosts Adrian M. Gibson and Greta Kelly as they delve into a mini-masterclass on Creating a Shared Universe with bestselling author Richard Swan. During the episode, Richard lays out the foundations for creating a fictional shared universe, including what a shared universe is, examples of shared universes (such as the MCU, Star Wars and Discworld), giving your world depth through details, languages, geography and more, the chronology of a shared universe, keeping track of world history, loose shared universes vs. linear shared universes, avoiding problematic plot holes, writing in different formats and more.
The votes are in for the 2024 FanFiAddict Awards, and we are proud to announce four winners in the following categories: “Best Indie Debut Novel”, “Best Indie Novel”, “Best Traditionally Published Debut Novel” and “Best Traditionally Published Novel”.
Join co-hosts Adrian M. Gibson and Greta Kelly as they chat with bestselling author Richard Swan about his new novel Grave Empire, his lifelong love of video games, Star Wars and science fiction, The Art of War series and his experiences in self-publishing, working in law, lessons learned from publishing, leaving beloved characters behind, his historical fascinations, the brutalities of warfare and colonialism, soldiers and diplomacy, the afterlife, the ocean, sharks, fear and much more.
Join co-hosts Adrian M. Gibson and Greta Kelly for a masterclass panel on Choosing Your Publication Path, featuring authors Christopher Ruocchio and Tatiana Obey. During the panel, Christopher and Tatiana share their publishing experiences, discussing the dream of being an author vs. the reality, querying and literary agents, the essentials of being an indie author, self-publishing costs/cover art/marketing, writing series and/or standalones, hybrid publishing, getting indie books into stores, publishing contracts and rights, compromises and making mistakes, writing supplementary books, crowdfunding/Kickstarter, trends, community and more. We hope this panel helps any of you out there trying to decide your publication path.
Join co-hosts Adrian M. Gibson and Greta Kelly as they delve into a mini-masterclass on How to Write Great Dialogue with author/editor Ed Crocker. During the episode, Ed chats about the keys to great dialogue, including the importance of dialogue in fiction, examples of great dialogue, worldbuilding through dialogue vs. exposition, character voices and rhythm, developing relationships through dialogue, managing dialogue/environment in group scenes, speech and action tags, Crocker’s 5 Golden Rules for dialogue and more.
Join co-hosts Adrian M. Gibson and Greta Kelly as they chat with author/editor Ed Crocker about his debut novel Lightfall, his writing journey (and meandering twenties), freelance editing, publishing traumas and querying, the benefits of writing courses, vampires and a world without humans, class systems, poverty and the politics of blood, immortality and the dynamics between vampires, werewolves and sorcerers, creating a powerful enemy, overcoming fear/rejection as an author and much more.
