In this lively and surprisingly candid 45th episode of The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory, Mookie Spitz sits down with fantasy author Catherine Cruzan for a deep dive into storytelling, publishing, creativity, and the realities of trying to build an audience in 2026. What starts as a conversation about conventions like WonderCon quickly turns into a masterclass on what separates compelling fiction from genre sludge.

Catherine opens up about being an introvert forced into the uncomfortable role of marketer, publicist, and salesperson. She discusses her Elfkind trilogy, the recently released Winter Forest, and the upcoming fourth book, Crown of Fire. More importantly, she explains why character always comes first, why worldbuilding often gets abused, and why readers crave emotional investment more than endless lore dumps.

The conversation ranges across the giants who shaped her imagination: J.R.R. Tolkien, Tad Williams, Raymond E. Feist, Terry Brooks, and Guillermo del Toro. Catherine shares mentorship moments that kept her from quitting, including advice to stop comparing herself to giants and simply tell her own story.

Mookie and Catherine also get brutally honest about modern publishing: the myth of being “saved” by a traditional publisher, the rise of platform-first book deals, the need for writers to build their own communities, and how millions of books including many if not most from non-human authors now flood the market every year. If you think writing the book is the hard part, think again. That may be where the real work starts.

They also tackle AI head-on. as Catherine draws a hard line: use tools if helpful, but don’t outsource your soul. She talks through her meticulous editing process for ensuring genuine dialogue, honest character voice, compelling pacing, and proven structure, making clear that authentic fiction comes from lived experience, emotional nuance, and relentless revision, not prompt shortcuts.

Catherine Cruzan brings intelligence, humility, and real craft talk to the table. Mookie brings the extraverted-introvert hand-wringing energy. Together they deliver a conversation about why stories matter, why hope matters, and why creators need to keep going even when silenced by a crowded and over-saturated media landscape.

The Guest

Catherine Cruzan grew up in Bloomington, MN, but Southern California has been her home for many years. After graduating from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, with a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering, she has worked as an engineer for a number of aerospace companies in the Los Angeles area.

Catherine’s interest in books began as a child with a voracious appetite for reading. She fondly recalls piling onto her parent’s bed with her two brothers while her mother read the Chronicles of Narnia, Treasure Island or Black Beauty. She moved on to The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings as a teenager, and Fantasy stories remain her favorite to this day.

Her writing career started with poetry and short stories published in the school newspaper. As an adult, she writes character driven Fantasy, Horror and Science Fiction. Her writing education includes Long Beach City College and the UCLA Writers Program.

Her Books & Socials

Website: www.CatherineCruzan.com

IG: @Catherine.Cruzan

Good Reads: Catherine Cruzan (Author of Elfkind) | Goodreads

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In this 44th episode of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory, Mookie dives in deep with science fiction author James Kenwood to explore his themes and best practices for storytelling. The discussion ranges from war and political power to moral responsibility, flawed heroes, pacing, worldbuilding, and the hard truth that readers do not owe writers their attention.

James explains how military history and recurring cycles of conflict shape his fiction. His serialized, work-in-progress novel Mars Fire examines settlers on Mars trapped between rival Earth powers, while his shorter fiction delivers concentrated bursts of action, sacrifice, and moral tension.

Mookie pushes the conversation further, contrasting noble archetypes with comic antiheroes, asking whether fiction should inspire, expose hypocrisy, or simply entertain. Together they dissect why some stories grip readers for life while others evaporate in their first few pages.

Together they share several best practices for authors:

• Start with pressure, not scenery. Readers care more about a problem than your skyline, spaceship, or kingdom. Introduce tension early.
• Make every chapter cost something. If nobody risks losing status, love, safety, freedom, or identity, the chapter is filler.
• Use worldbuilding in motion. Explain the Mars rover while someone is fleeing in it. Explain the airlock while it malfunctions.
• Create moral crossroads. Force characters into decisions where every option hurts. That is where personality is exposed.
• Cut repeated explanations. Once readers understand the setting, move on. Trust them.
• Give characters competing agendas. Drama spikes when smart people want different things for valid reasons.
• Build consequences forward. Every major action should create a new problem, not restore comfort.
• Use flaws strategically. Vanity, cowardice, greed, laziness, obsession—flaws generate plot better than perfection ever will.
• Earn speeches. If a character delivers philosophy, make sure tension surrounds it. Nobody wants a TED Talk in chapter six.
• Track narrative momentum. Ask constantly: does this scene increase curiosity, dread, conflict, or desire? If not, fix it.
• Write scenes readers postpone sleep for. Aim for “one more chapter” energy. That is the gold standard.
• Know your story’s fuel source. Is it suspense, wonder, romance, revenge, mystery, satire, politics? Feed that engine consistently.
• Use action to reveal worldview. A selfish character grabs the parachute first. A noble one pushes someone else toward it.
• Don’t confuse complexity with depth. Ten factions and three timelines mean nothing without emotional stakes.
• Respect the reader’s intelligence. Suggest, imply, dramatize. Stop overexplaining everything.
• Leave residue. The best stories continue in the reader’s head after the final page.

Join two writers for over two hours as they explore what stories are for, why conflict matters, and how to write fiction that actually hits.

The Guest

James Kenwood is a part-time historian and a full-time reader at night; by day, he works as a specialist in the banking industry. He currently resides in Western Europe after a recent immigration, along with his wife. He has one cat – Raver (name was inherited, not chosen) – and spends far too much time looking at the contrails over his town and dreaming of flying.

On Substack

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Saddle up for a wild ride into one of speculative fiction’s coolest frontier mashups: the science fiction western. In this episode, Mookie stirs it up with debut novelist Rick Cutler, author of Colt Ostergaard: A Man with a Gun, to talk about laser six-shooters, frontier justice, worldbuilding grit, and how the cowboy archetype still hits hard when launched into the future.

Rick breaks down why science fiction westerns work so well. The two genres combine the raw freedom and danger of the Old West with the limitless imagination of sci-fi. That means lonely gunslingers, lawless territories, strange technology, alien landscapes, and moral showdowns where survival is never guaranteed. If you love Firefly, The Mandalorian, classic Star Trek, or pulp adventure with brains, this conversation lands squarely in your lane.

The episode also tracks Rick’s impressive rise as a debut novelist. He didn’t stumble into success. He wrote for years, sharpened his craft through trial and error, submitted boldly when opportunity appeared, and turned a short-form concept into a full-length novel that found the right publisher at the right time. His story is a reminder that “overnight success” is usually built on years of quiet persistence.

For writers, Rick delivers practical no-nonsense advice:

• Treat writing like work, not waiting for inspiration
• Write consistently, even when you don’t feel like it
• Stay true to your characters and let them behave honestly
• Know your audience and write with readers in mind
• Ignore discouraging voices that kill momentum
• Find other writers who challenge and support you
• Use rejection, luck, and setbacks as fuel instead of excuses

Rick also shares his old-school writing method: drafting longhand on legal pads, rewriting by hand, then typing later. Slow, deliberate, disciplined. No gimmicks. Just craft. Their convo is a fun, insightful conversation about creativity, persistence, publishing, and why the future still has room for a man with a gun riding into the unknown.

The Guest

Writer Rick Cutler works in both Science Fiction and Fantasy, but is most famous for his Colt Ostergaard stories in the Raconteur Press “Space Cowboys” series. He also has multiple stories in other anthologies such as ‘Glitched Grimm’ and ‘Uncanny Valet’. Rick graduated from Graceland University with a degree in Sociology, followed by a Computer Tech degree from Rockhurst University. He has been an usher and a tour guide; worked on an archeological dig; and sold vacuum cleaners door-to-door before settling down to sell advertising for 20 years in the South and Midwest. He retired, then jumped into a new career for 21 years doing tech support and data management for a major corporation. Colt Ostergaard: A Man with a Gun is his first published full-length novel. He now lives in Kansas with his wife Doris Day. No cats. No dogs. But that could change at any moment.

His Books

His Website

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