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.
Masterclass
SFF Addicts Ep. 139: Richard Swan talks Grave Empire, Warfare, History & More
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.
SFF Addicts Ep. 138: Choosing Your Publication Path with Christopher Ruocchio & Tatiana Obey (Masterclass Panel)
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.
SFF Addicts Ep. 132: Writing for IP with Peter F. Hamilton, Mike Chen & James L. Sutter (Masterclass Panel)
Join co-hosts Adrian M. Gibson and M.J. Kuhn for a masterclass panel on Writing for IP, featuring authors Peter F. Hamilton, Mike Chen and James L. Sutter. During the panel, Peter, Mike and James explore the intricacies of writing for intellectual properties, including how to get involved in IP, deadlines and contracts, the pressures of writing in an established universe, love of the IP vs. the realities of earnings, editors and author freedom, translating visual IPs to prose and vice versa, catering to existing fanbases, author voice, IP attachment and more.
SFF Addicts Ep. 131: Writing Multiple POVs with Lavanya Lakshminarayan (Mini-Masterclass)
Join host Adrian M. Gibson as he delves into a mini-masterclass on Writing Multiple POVs with author Lavanya Lakshminarayan. During the episode, Lavanya unmasks the many faces of multiple points-of-view, including why you would write multiple POVs, how to choose the right POV characters and tenses, making character voices unique, connecting with characters (as readers and writers), structure and pacing in a multi-POV story, viewing the same scene from different perspectives and more.
SFF Addicts Ep. 130: Lavanya Lakshminarayan talks Interstellar MegaChef, Food, Video Games & More
Join host Adrian M. Gibson as he chats with author Lavanya Lakshminarayan about her new novel Interstellar MegaChef, The Ten Percent Thief, working in the video game industry, storytelling and worldbuilding, cultural identity and imagined futures, VR and future technologies, blending culinary arts with space opera, food as cultural exchange and history, cooking TV shows, contrasting characters and much more.
SFF Addicts Ep. 129: Fictional Family Dynamics with Tasha Suri (Mini-Masterclass)
Join co-hosts Adrian M. Gibson and M.J. Kuhn as they delve into a mini-masterclass on Fictional Family Dynamics with award-winning author Tasha Suri. During the episode, Tasha unpacks the complexities of family, exploring what makes family dynamics compelling, the role of family in her work, the key to successful fictional families, types of family dynamics, conveying individual and group character growth, external forces that can shape a family, romantic partnerships, marriage, found family and more.
SFF Addicts Ep. 127: Convincing Details & Descriptions with Nghi Vo (Mini-Masterclass)
Join Adrian M. Gibson and guest co-host Greta Kelly as they delve into a mini-masterclass on Convincing Details & Descriptions with award-winning author Nghi Vo. During the episode, Nghi gets into the nitty gritty of details, exploring what details/descriptions can do for readers, how to approach details in your writing, delivering effective details, setting expectations for your descriptive style, description in short vs. long form fiction, surface detail vs. hyper detail, describing characters, character actions, world details, plausibility and more.
SFF Addicts Ep. 125: Omniscient Narration & POV with Cat Rambo (Mini-Masterclass)
Join co-hosts Adrian M. Gibson and M.J. Kuhn as they delve into a mini-masterclass on Omniscient Narration & POV with award-winning author Cat Rambo. During the episode, Cat lays out all there is to know about omniscient narration, exploring what it is and when to use it, the benefits and challenges of an omniscient POV, finding a narrative voice, how to transition between characters, internal vs. external characterization, experimenting with POV styles, the viability of omniscient stories with agents/editors and more.
SFF Addicts Ep. 123: Modernity & Building Believable Futures with T. R. Napper (Mini-Masterclass)
Join co-hosts Adrian M. Gibson and M.J. Kuhn as they delve into a mini-masterclass on Modernity & Building Believable Futures with award-winning author T. R. Napper. During the episode, Tim unpacks the complexities of modernity, exploring what modernity is, its relationships with hardboiled fiction and cyberpunk, confronting modernity in real life, relevancy and genre expectations, worldbuilding and crafting believable futures, thematic resonance, historical context fact vs. fiction and more.
SFF Addicts Ep. 121: Researching for Fantasy with Christian “Miles” Cameron (Mini-Masterclass)
Join co-hosts Adrian M. Gibson and M.J. Kuhn as they delve into a mini-masterclass on Researching for Fantasy with author Christian “Miles” Cameron. During the episode, Miles takes a deep dive into research, exploring how research provides convincing surface details, methods for researching, balancing historical fact and creative freedom, lived research and reenactment, combat and swordfighting, systems and worldbuilding details, when to stop researching and more.
SFF Addicts Ep. 119: Content Creation 101 with Evan Leikam, Mike’s Book Reviews & Kay’s Hidden Shelf (Masterclass Panel)
Join co-hosts Adrian M. Gibson and M.J. Kuhn for a masterclass panel on Content Creation 101, featuring Evan Leikam from Book Reviews Kill, Mike from Mike’s Book Reviews and Kayla from Kay’s Hidden Shelf. During the panel, Evan, Mike and Kayla lay out the fundamentals for getting into content creation, including how they started, the big content platforms, editing software and recording equipment, content length on different platforms, algorithms and originality, connecting with your audience, monetization and advertising, reviewing books, receiving ARCs, relationships with publishers/authors and more.