The Functional Nerds Podcast

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Chuck Wendig, author of The Staircase in the Woods.

About The Staircase in the Woods: Five high school friends are bonded by an oath to protect one another no matter what.

Then, on a camping trip in the middle of the forest, they find something extraordinary: a mysterious staircase to nowhere.

One friend walks up—and never comes back down. Then the staircase disappears.

Twenty years later, the staircase has reappeared. Now the group returns to find the lost boy—and what lies beyond the staircase in the woods…

About Chuck Wendig: Chuck Wendig is the New York Times bestselling author of Wanderers, The Book of Accidents, Wayward, Black River Orchard, and more than two dozen other books for adults and young adults. A finalist for the Astounding Award and an alumnus of the Sundance Screenwriters Lab, he has also written for comics, games, film, and television. He’s known for his popular blog, terribleminds, and books about writing such as Damn Fine Story. He lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, with his family. His agent is Stacia Decker, with Dunow, Carlson and Lerner.

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© 2025 Patrick Hester

The post Episode 660-With Chuck Wendig appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Mary Robinette Kowal, author of The Martian Contingency.

About The Martian Contingency: Years after a meteorite strike obliterated Washington, D.C.?triggering an extinction-level global warming event?Earth’s survivors have started an international effort to establish homes on space stations and the Moon.

The next step – Mars.

Elma York, the Lady Astronaut, lands on the Red Planet, optimistic about preparing for the first true wave of inhabitants. The mission objective is more than just building the infrastructure of a habitat – they are trying to preserve the many cultures and nuances of life on Earth without importing the hate.

But from the moment she arrives, something is off.

Disturbing signs hint at a hidden disaster during the First Mars Expedition that never made it into the official transcript. As Elma and her crew try to investigate, they face a wall of silence and obfuscation. Their attempts to build a thriving Martian community grind to a halt.

What you don’t know CAN harm you. And if the truth doesn’t come to light, the ripple effects could leave humanity stranded on a dying Earth…

About Mary Robinette Kowal: Mary Robinette Kowal is the USA TODAY bestselling author of the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus award winning alternate history novel The Calculating Stars. This title is the first book in the Lady Astronaut series, which continued in 2025 with its fourth installment, The Martian Contingency. She is also the author of The Glamourist Histories series, Ghost Talkers, The Spare Man, and has received the Astounding Award for Best New Writer, four Hugo awards, the Nebula and Locus awards. Her stories appear in Asimov’s, Uncanny, and several Year’s Best anthologies. Mary Robinette has also worked as a professional puppeteer, is a member of the award-winning podcast Writing Excuses, and performs as a voice actor (SAG/AFTRA), recording fiction for authors including Seanan McGuire, Cory Doctorow, and Neal Stephenson. She lives in Denver with her husband Robert, their dog Guppy, and their “talking” cat Elsie. Visit her online at maryrobinettekowal.com.

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© 2025 Patrick Hester

The post Episode 659-With Mary Robinette Kowal appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Brandon Crilly, author of Serpentine Scenarios: Five New Adventures for B.O.A..

About Serpentine Scenarios: Five New Adventures for B.O.A.: The Bureau of Agents (B.O.A.) follows a simple mandate:

Serpentine Scenarios is the first supplement for B.O.A. and offers five unique missions for this rules-light TTRPG. Missions can be played as standalone one-shots, or as part of a longer campaign.

About Brandon Crilly: Brandon Crilly is a Canadian novelist, games writer, and speaker specializing in weird worlds with doses of cli-fi, characters on the sidelines and outside-the-box adventures. His debut novel Catalyst won an IPPY Award for Fantasy in 2023; Castoff will be his second novel, completing the Aspects of Aelda duology in 2025. He has more than 50 published short works to date, in markets including Fusion Fragment, Apex Magazine, and Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction. Brandon is also a freelance games writer, contributing to award-winning IP lines like The Expanse RPG and Shadowrun and publishers including Kobold Press and Gallant Knight Games. Find out more about his upcoming releases by following him on Instagram or signing up for his newsletter via brandoncrilly.com.

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© 2025 Patrick Hester

The post Episode 658-With Brandon Crilly appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Jim C. Hines, author of Kitemaster.

About Kitemaster: Nial Sarnin is twenty-one years old, far too young to have lost her beloved husband Jika. One year after Jika’s death, Nial is preparing to fly a kite sewn from the shirt Jika wore at their wedding, to carry his spirit to the stars and beyond.

Instead, Nial finds herself launched on an adventure that will change the fate of her world. The spirit kite doesn’t flow at the mercy of the winds, but responds to Nial’s control, marking her as a Kitemaster—a rare and valuable gift on a magical world where the winds forever blow.

Her powers bring her to the attention of Captain Wolf of the kiteship Midnight Rain. Wolf has joined forces with the runaway Prince Vikaan to attempt to thwart Queen Kavaya’s plan to conquer the skies and start a war against neighboring kingdoms.

Nial could be the key to stopping Queen Kavaya and saving countless lives—including the lives of her own family—but only if she can learn to truly understand her gift before the Queen and her agents rain death across the kingdoms.

Every gust of wind in this inspiring tale promises hope and a chance to reshape a world on the brink in this spellbinding adventure of loss, resilience, and transformation.

About Jim C. Hines: Jim C. Hines’ first novel was Goblin Quest, the tale of a nearsighted goblin runt and his pet fire-spider. Actor and author Wil Wheaton described the book as “too f***ing cool for words,” which is pretty much the Best Blurb Ever. After completing the goblin trilogy, Jim went on to write the princess series, four books often described as a blend of Grimm’s Fairy Tales with Charlie’s Angels. He’s also the author of the Magic ex Libris books, which follow the adventures of a magic-wielding librarian from northern Michigan; the Fable: Legends tie-in Blood of Heroes; and the humorous Janitors of the Post-Apocalypse trilogy.

Jim has written more than fifty published short stories. His first professional story sale was the award-winning “Blade of the Bunny,” published way back in 1999. He also won the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer in 2012.

He has an undergraduate degree in psychology and a Masters in English. He currently lives in Michigan.

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© 2025 Patrick Hester

The post Episode 657-With Jim C. Hines appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome James J. Butcher, author of Cold Iron Task.

About Cold Iron Task: Grimshaw Griswald Grimsby may have one case under his belt, but he’s still a novice Auditor in Boston’s Department of Unorthodox Affairs. And he’s already made mistakes.

Desperate to repair his fraying friendships, he doesn’t ask too many questions when a mysterious patron offers him the chance to join a heist of an otherworldly vault—and in the process find answers that could make things right.

Complications arise when Grimsby learns that his partner, Mayflower, is keeping secrets about his past. Between facing new demons, old horrors, and monsters—both Usual and Unorthodox—Grimsby soon realizes nothing is how it appears and that not asking enough questions just might be his downfall.

About James J. Butcher: James J. Butcher spends most of his time in places that don’t exist; some of which he even made himself. What little time he has left is usually spent writing or exercising. He is the son of #1 New York Times bestselling author Jim Butcher, who introduced him to books, movies and games. He lives in Denver, and is working on his next novel.

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© 2025 Patrick Hester

The post Episode 656-With James J. Butcher appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Tochi Onyebuchi, author of Harmattan Season.

About Harmattan Season: Veteran and private eye Boubacar doesn’t need much?least of all trouble?but trouble always seems to find him. Work has dried up, and he’d rather be left alone to deal with his bills as the Harmattan rolls in to coat the city in dust, but Bouba is a down on his luck deux fois, suspended between two cultures and two worlds.

When a bleeding woman stumbles onto his doorway, only to vanish just as quickly, Bouba reluctantly finds himself enmeshed in the secrets of a city boiling on the brink of violence. The French occupiers are keen to keep the peace at any cost, and the indigenous dugulen have long been shattered into restless factions vying for a chance to reclaim their lost heritage and abilities. As each hard-won clue reveals horrifying new truths, Bouba may have to carve out parts of himself he’s long kept hidden, and decide what he’s willing to offer next.

About Tochi Onyebuchi: Tochi Onyebuchi is the author of Goliath. His previous fiction includes Riot Baby, a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and NAACP Image Awards and winner of the New England Book Award for Fiction, the Ignyte Award for Best Novella, and the World Fantasy Award; the Beasts Made of Night series; and the War Girls series. His short fiction has appeared in The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy, The Year’s Best Science Fiction, and elsewhere. His non-fiction includes the book (S)kinfolk and has appeared in The New York Times, NPR, and the Harvard Journal of African American Public Policy, among other places.

He has earned degrees from Yale University, New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, Columbia Law School, and the Paris Institute of Political Studies.

He currently resides in Connecticut.

This week’s picks:

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© 2025 Patrick Hester

The post Episode 655-With Tochi Onyebuchi appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Catriona Silvey, author of LOVE AND OTHER PARADOXES.

About LOVE AND OTHER PARADOXES: Cambridge University, 2005: Student Joe Greene scribbles verses in the margins of his notebook, dreaming of a future where his words will echo through the ages, all while doubting it could ever happen.

Then, the future quite literally finds him—in the form of Esi. She’s part of a time-traveling tour, a trip for people in the future to witness history’s greatest moments firsthand. The star of this tour? Joe Greene. In Esi’s era, Joe is as renowned as Shakespeare. And he’s about to meet Diana, a fellow student and aspiring actress, who will become his muse and the subject of his famous love poems.

But Esi is harboring a secret. She’s not here because she idolizes Joe—actually, she thinks his poetry is overrated. Something will happen at Cambridge this year that will wreck Esi’s life, and she’s hell-bent on changing it. When Esi goes rogue from her tour, she bumps into Joe and sends his destiny into a tailspin. To save both their futures, Esi becomes Joe’s dating coach, helping him win over Diana. But when Joe’s romantic endeavors go off-script—and worse, he starts falling for Esi instead—they both face a crucial question: Is the future set in stone, or can we pen our own fates?

About Catriona Silvey: Catriona Silvey was born in Glasgow and grew up in Perthshire and Derbyshire, which left her with a strange accent and a distrust of flat places. She overcame the latter to do a BA in English at Cambridge, and spent the next few years there working in scientific publishing. After that she moved to Edinburgh and did a PhD in language evolution, in the hope of finding out where all these words came from in the first place.

Following stints in Chicago and back in Cambridge, she returned to Edinburgh, where she lives with her husband and children. When she’s not working as a technical writer for a software company, she writes character-driven science fiction. Her debut novel Meet Me in Another Life was published in 2021. Her next book, the time-travel romantic comedy Love and Other Paradoxes, will be released in 2025.

This week’s picks:

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© 2025 Patrick Hester

The post Episode 654-With Catriona Silvey appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome Allison Epstein, author of Fagin the Thief.

About Fagin the Thief: Long before Oliver Twist stumbled onto the scene, Jacob Fagin was scratching out a life for himself in the dark alleys of nineteenth-century London. Born in the Jewish enclave of Stepney shortly after his father was executed as a thief, Jacob and his open-minded mother, Leah, are each other’s whole world. But Jacob’s prospects are forever altered when a light-fingered pickpocket takes Jacob under his wing and teaches him a trade that pays far better than the neighborhood boys could possibly dream.

Striking out on his own, Jacob familiarizes himself with London’s highest value neighborhoods while forging his own path in the shadows. But everything changes when he adopts an aspiring teenage thief named Bill Sikes, whose mercurial temper poses a danger to himself and anyone foolish enough to cross him. Along the way, Jacob’s found family expands to include his closest friend, Nancy, and his greatest protege, the Artful Dodger. But as Bill’s ambition soars and a major robbery goes awry, Jacob is forced to decide what he really stands for—and what a life is worth.

About Allison Epstein: Allison Epstein earned her MFA in fiction from Northwestern University and a BA in creative writing from the University of Michigan. A Michigan native, she now lives in Chicago, where she enjoys good theater, bad puns, and fancy jackets. She is the author of historical novels including A Tip for the Hangman, Let the Dead Bury the Dead, and Fagin the Thief.

This week’s picks:

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© 2025 Patrick Hester

The post Episode 653-With Allison Epstein appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome John Scalzi, author of WHEN THE MOON HITS YOUR EYE.

About WHEN THE MOON HITS YOUR EYE: The moon has turned into cheese.

Now humanity has to deal with it.

For some it’s an opportunity. For others it’s a moment to question their faith: In God, in science, in everything. Still others try to keep the world running in the face of absurdity and uncertainty. And then there are the billions looking to the sky and wondering how a thing that was always just there is now… something absolutely impossible.

Astronauts and billionaires, comedians and bank executives, professors and presidents, teenagers and terminal patients at the end of their lives — over the length of an entire lunar cycle, each get their moment in the moonlight. To panic, to plan, to wonder and to pray, to laugh and to grieve. All in a kaleidoscopic novel that goes all the places you’d expect, and then to so many places you wouldn’t.

It’s a wild moonage daydream. Ride this rocket.

About John Scalzi: John Scalzi writes books. He’s best known for writing science fiction, including the New York Times bestseller “Redshirts,” which won the Hugo Award for Best Novel. He also writes non-fiction, on subjects ranging from personal finance to astronomy to film, was the Creative Consultant for the Stargate: Universe television series. He enjoys pie, as should all right thinking people. You can get to his blog by typing the word “Whatever” into Google. No, seriously, try it.

This week’s picks:

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© 2025 Patrick Hester

The post Episode 652-With John Scalzi appeared first on The Functional Nerds.

This week on the podcast, Patrick and Tracy welcome L.J. Cohen, author of Litany for a Broken World.

About Litany for a Broken World: A young girl’s disastrous first foray through the multiverse cleaves her from her family and abandons her in a homeless encampment, adrift in a world and a body not her own.

A doctor struggling with grief volunteers for the annual Boston homeless census and is confronted by the impossible and her deeply buried childhood trauma.

A lonely, disaffected seer, rejected by those he seeks to help, is drawn from his home by a desperate call across the world walls.

When the three strangers, each broken in some way, are pulled into a conflict between those with the ability to travel the multiverse and the organization seeking to exploit them, they must risk everything that matters to heal the fractured places in themselves and throughout reality.

About L.J. Cohen: LJ Cohen is a poet, novelist, blogger, ceramics artist, local food enthusiast, Doctor Who fan, and relentless optimist. She lives on a homestead farm in Central Massachusetts with her partner and two dogs (only one of which actually ever listens to her). When she doesn’t have her hands busy in dirt, clay, or yarn, LJ can be found writing, which looks a lot like daydreaming.

LJ is a member of SFWA (Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America) and Broad Universe, a national organization promoting women and other marginalized gender writers of science fiction, fantasy, and horror.

This week’s picks:

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© 2025 Patrick Hester

The post Episode 651-With L.J. Cohen appeared first on The Functional Nerds.