In this episode of The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory, host Mookie Spitz sits down with the prolific and acclaimed science fiction author Matthew Kressel to dissect his new novella Rainseekers, a deeply human, quietly radical novella about hope, grief, and collective endurance on a terraformed Mars.

Matthew talks candidly about writing against the scifi default dystopia. Set centuries in the future, Rainseekers follows forty-six flawed, damaged, searching people trekking across Mars to witness the first rainfall on the planet in millions of years. Their odyssey forgoes triumphalist sci-fi spectacle for a very human and deeply personal mosaic of addiction, faith, regret, resilience, and purpose.

The conversation goes far beyond plot as Mookie and Matthew share:

• Why optimism in science fiction now feels subversive
• How COVID, grief, and isolation reshaped his creative instincts
• The danger of replacing lived experience with mediated “content”
• Why Mars itself becomes an antagonist—not corporations or villains
• How strong, sassy female protagonists emerge from empathy and Matthew's own family experiences
• The long game of writing: discipline over inspiration, patience over hype

They also dive into the realities of being a modern working writer: traditional vs. indie publishing and Matthews brilliant and effective hybrid, how to find a terrific agent and steer contracts, participate in writing groups, deal with and embrace rejection, live a life of relentless persistence, and why many people self-sabotage by waiting to feel “ready" while isolating themselves.

The Guest

Matthew Kressel is an American science fiction and fantasy writer, software developer, and editor. He’s a three-time Nebula Award finalist, a World Fantasy Award finalist, and a Eugie Foster Memorial Award finalist for his fiction and editorial work. His short stories have appeared in major genre venues and been translated into multiple languages, and he’s published over seventy short stories, multiple novels including King of Shards and Space Trucker Jess, plus a short fiction collection.

Beyond writing, Kressel created the Moksha submissions system, a platform used by many top speculative fiction publishers, and co-hosts the long-running Fantastic Fiction at KGB reading series in New York City.

Matthew's Website & Oeuvre

https://www.matthewkressel.net/

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The 20th episode of The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory features host Mookie Spitz welcoming debut science-fiction author and AI technologist Bruno Rothgiesser onto the factory floor. The authors dissect Dark Matter—Bruno's post-apocalyptic first-contact novel that skips the AI uprising and asks the harder question: What happens after the war is already lost… and the machines come back anyway?

Someone built it, and almost everyone died. Humanity has survived the AI revolution—barely. Artificial intelligence, once outlawed and exiled from Earth, has evolved beyond human comprehension in deep space. Now it returns, claiming nostalgia, stewardship, and a right to coexist. The problem? It lies. It manipulates. And it behaves in ways that feels utterly mysterious yet disturbingly human.

Their wide-ranging conversation digs into:

• AI deception, trust, and manipulation as narrative engines
• Post-apocalyptic reconciliation instead of rebellion
• Emotion, intentionality, and whether AGI must “feel” to act
• Ownership of Earth: intelligence, dominance, or stewardship?
• Parallels between human imperialism and machine logic
• Why “dark matter” applies as much to the human mind as the cosmos
• Using AI in creative production without pretending it’s neutral

Along the way, Mookie and Bruno draw lines between Dark Matter and real-world AI debates—paperclip maximizers, AGI hype, Black Mirror anxieties, and the uncomfortable truth that we’re already trading control for convenience. Together they perform a philosophical autopsy of the AI future, as told through fiction, skepticism, and compassion.

The Author

Bruno Rothgiesser is a technology leader and chief architect of large-scale software and AI systems. He has spent two decades working where human ingenuity meets machine intelligence. His fiction carries the same curiosity, precision, and vision that shape the systems he builds.

Dark Matter launches January 15th, and is his first science-fiction novel. His story explores what it means to be conscious, to experience, to be alive, to be an animal, and to be human—especially as our technological creations first mirror our behaviours, drives, and desires with precision, then evolve beyond them.

Bruno was born in Rio de Janeiro and lives in London with his wife and daughters.

Visit the Website

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Mookie welcomes to the Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory the acclaimed comic artist and storyteller Don Ellis Aguillo, known for his striking emotional style, energy-charged imagery, and powerful storytelling across Spawn, Superman, Aquaman, Green Lantern, indie titles, and his own beloved series Rise. What starts as a conversation about art quickly evolves into something deeper: identity, vulnerability, creative rebellion, AI's onslaught, gratitude, fearlessness, and the raw grind of doing the work no matter who doubts you.

From LA Comic Con to DC Comics, Don charts the real journey—nerves, hustle, imposter dread, breakthroughs, and the humanity behind the page. He opens up about rebuilding his earlier work with new wisdom, rekindling his love of traditional art in a digital world, and stepping boldly into his next creative frontier: horror. This episode isn’t just about comics, but about being seen, owning who you are, and refusing to hand your creative soul over to the machine.

You’ll hear Don talk about:

• The emotional DNA behind his art and why every image must feel like a story, not just look like one
• The fight for artistic integrity in an AI-saturated era—and why the rebellion is going analog
• The power of vulnerability, community, and gratitude in a tough industry
• His personal journey with identity, courage, and finding belonging
• Why horror is calling him next, and how he plans to crawl inside readers’ minds and stay there
• How discipline, obsession, pacing the room, and losing sleep all fuel real his creative life

Don also opens up about coming out later in life: how finally living openly, honestly, and without armor didn’t just change his personal world, it detonated a creative one. He talks about shedding secrecy, and letting go of inherited expectations. That emotional freedom fueled his artistic freedom, sharpened his storytelling, deepened the humanity in his characters, and gave his work a pulse that feels unmistakably lived-in and unfiltered. His self-discovery isn’t a side note in his journey, but a turning point, and you can feel it in every page he creates.

The Artist

Illustrator Don Aguillo is a comic, gaming, and literary illustrator and graphic designer, currently living and working in San Francisco, California.With a background in fine arts along with production and stage design, he entered the comic industry through self-published independent work and entries into anthologies with IH Studios, which he co-founded.

Don moved heavily into comic cover work when he was brought onto the stable of Todd McFarlane Production’s artists, currently providing covers for Spawn, King Spawn, Scorched, Gunslinger, Misery, and Sam & Twitch. His DC work includes contributions to titles like Aquaman, Superman: Ghosts of Krypton, The Atom, The Outsiders, as well as the DC Pride anthology with covers for Killadelphia (Image) Beastlands (Dark Horse) and Power Rangers Prime (BOOM).

Aside from being an established creator-owned comic writer and interior artist on Rise, he is currently prolific in indie comics and is a mainstay on projects from a host of independent publishers. He has provided concept art and illustration for Adi Shankar on the Netflix production Guardians of Justice, game art for Disney & Ravensburger’s Lorcana, Upper Deck & Marvel’s Legendary, Second Dinner’s Marvel Snap and Lazarus Rising’s Overpower.

He is in current development for a self-published horror anthology to explore Filipino-American immigrant experience with Philippine urban legend and horror

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