In this loaded episode, your follically-challenged host Mookie Spitz sits down with science educator, technologist, and multi-genre author Ingrid Moon to dissect writing and self-publishing — and why it’s so damn hard to do it well.

They start with Ingrid’s journey from tech marketing to science classrooms to building reference books for sci-fi authors who don’t know enough science. Astrofiction, Biofiction, Robofiction — yes, those are real, and they’ll save your story from embarrassing “space magic"...

Then it’s all in on the struggles:

• The agony of finishing a book when your brain craves endless worldbuilding.
• The harsh truth that most “new ideas” are stale genre tropes — and why that might actually be a good thing.
• How finding a close-knit writers’ group is the secret weapon to stay sane and keep your plot from face-planting.

Mookie rants about trying to hack attention in a world drowning in content. He describes how his first 500-page illustrated Santa Claus epic baffled readers who couldn’t tell if it was for kids or deranged adults. Then he reveals why his latest sci-fi novel, Jonnie Fazoolie & the Transfinite Reality Engine finally nailed it:

• A raw, savage take on the mess that is 2025, crammed into tight three-line blocks that read like Twitter poetry on meth.
• A bad guy that’s literally a Boltzmann brain floating at the edge of a dying universe — obsessed with a loser she can’t have.
• A narrative style chopped into tweet-sized punches that force every line to matter — and rewrite your brain on how to read).

They tear into why most indie authors fail at story — chasing intricate lore instead of broken people trying to survive. Why character arcs matter more than your perfectly mapped kingdoms. Why even if your idea is another alien invasion or Mars colonization, it’s your twist, your voice, your messed-up characters that breathe life into tired tropes.

Also on deck:

• How to edit your work so it stops sucking, and why line editing is more brutal (and necessary) than you think.
• The tension between satisfying genre fans who crave familiar beats vs pushing the story into new places.
• Why finished is always better than perfect, and why marketing your book is a separate beast that no one warns you about.

If you’ve ever wanted to write (or just watch two writers spiral into their own creative hangups), you’ll feel right at home.

The Guest

Ingrid Moon is an author, editor, and science teacher. She currently has four science fiction novels, three audiobooks, and three science reference books for worldbuilding, with more on the way. Ingrid is a Southern California native who can't surf because she spent most of her youth navigating mountains and watching sci-fi television, all of which inspired her writing career. 

Her Resources

author website: https://ingridmoon.com

editor website: https://ingridmoon.com/authors

goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5035674.Ingrid_Moon

amazon author page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Ingrid-Moon/author/B0CKKMRL88

instagram: @ingridmoonauthor

facebook (author business): https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61553084507674

Sign Up for my Newsl

Send the host a text! Let him know what you think

Support the show