What happens when thirty-two years of walking into crime scenes collides with a lifelong love of Tolkien, Zelazny, and Edgar Rice Burroughs? You get James Stuart Kinsey — retired forensics investigator, Navy submariner, and the world-builder behind the Gifts of Olmith fantasy series.

In this 58th episode of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory, host Mookie Spitz sits down with Kinsey to unpack the sprawling world he's spent years constructing: a heroic-fantasy setting populated by humans, elves, and dwarves, anchored by his debut novel Strand of Hope and expanding through companion short fiction like The Emperor's Bath. They trace Kinsey's literary DNA back to a small Texas town with a population of 100, a childhood spent devouring Burroughs' Tarzan and John Carter novels, and the fateful day a high school teacher handed him a copy of The Hobbit — the book that cracked his imagination wide open.

But the real heart of the conversation is what Kinsey brings to fantasy that most world-builders can't: three decades on the front lines of crime scene investigation. He and Mookie dig into how confronting the darkest corners of human behavior — and choosing to see even the worst offenders as people who made bad choices — shaped the moral complexity, empathy, and psychological depth in his characters. It's a conversation about how fiction becomes a container for hard-won truths, why fantasy functions as an escape valve for people who've seen too much, and why "the mighty fall and are replaced" isn't just a plot beat but a worldview.

Along the way: the influence of Michael Moorcock and Roger Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber on multiverse storytelling, the self-publishing calculus for authors who don't want to wait, the case for human-authored fiction in an AI-saturated market, and why Kinsey's real audience is seven grandkids who'll someday say "my granddad wrote this."

Join James and Mookie for a heartfelt conversation about world-building, mortality, memory, and why the best fantasy is built on things that actually happened.

The Guest

James Stuart Kinsey writes muscular fantasy with a heart. His heroic tales of courage, sacrifice, and hope leave room for wit, warmth, and quieter moments of wonder. Drawing on a lifetime of real-world experience in military service and criminal investigation, Kinsey grounds his stories in human struggle, moral consequence, and hard-won truth, even when the tone turns lighter or more reflective. Influenced by the classic traditions of heroic fantasy, his work blends visceral action with emotional depth, valuing honor over nihilism and meaning over empty spectacle. Whether epic or intimate, Kinsey crafts fantasy meant to entertain, resonate, and linger with the reader.

HIs Work

https://www.bloodandlightmedia.com/

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What do gardening, balloon animals, pulp fiction, Japanese manga, military science fiction, homeschooling, cover design, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and peeing basset hounds have in common? Cedar Sanderson, obviously.

In this lively and often hilarious episode, Cedar joins Mookie Spitz for a sprawling conversation that begins with flowers and parenting and somehow winds its way through publishing, illustration, pulp fiction, education, storytelling, creativity, and the peculiar neuroses that drive writers to spend years inventing people who don't exist.

Cedar shares her winding journey from entertainer, face painter, and balloon twister to scientist, entrepreneur, illustrator, publisher, and prolific author. Along the way, she explains why kids are the toughest audience on Earth, how writing a story for her daughter launched her fiction career, and why characters often refuse to follow their author's instructions.

The conversation quickly enters the kind of nerdy territory both participants clearly enjoy. Mookie and Cedar debate pantsing versus plotting, discuss the strange alchemy of creativity, and compare notes on the ways writers trick themselves into actually finishing books. Cedar talks about her fascination with pulp fiction and classic adventure storytelling, while Mookie defends his self-imposed obsession with writing entire novels in rigid three-line blocks like some sort of literary Lego set assembled by an ADHD mad scientist.

They also tackle bigger questions. Has modern publishing become too safe? Why do so many contemporary books feel interchangeable? Are readers being fed diluted versions of stories that were once richer, stranger, and more ambitious? Cedar argues that many writers no longer read deeply enough, while Mookie ironically wonders whether entire genres have become victims of their own formulas.

The discussion veers into cover design, independent publishing, doing one's own art, storytelling in video games, the collapse of critical thinking, the value of constraints in creative work, and why writing "important messages" into fiction usually produces unreadable garbage.

Somewhere in the middle, they also manage to talk about Cedar's books. She discusses her most popular Pixie Noir, newly released fantasy detective novella Child of Crows and the origins of Tanager's Fledglings, a surprisingly intimate science fiction adventure that begins with a young man, a starship, and a basset hound demonstrating a stubborn refusal to be housebroken on a starship.

Part writing workshop, part publishing insider discussion, part cultural critique, and part two smartasses wandering down fascinating rabbit holes, this episode is a reminder that today's storytelling is too often faked by formulas, focus groups, and committees. the good stuff instead created by curious people willing to follow strange ideas wherever they lead. And occasionally by people who spend twenty years collecting pulp novels and arguing about paragraph lengths.

The Guest

Cedar Sanderson is a multifaceted creator whose work spans both the literary and visual arts. She is celebrated for her engaging storytelling and her ability to captivate audiences with her vibrant imagery and thoughtful narratives. Her work not only entertains but also invites readers and viewers into worlds where science meets magic, and the mundane becomes extraordinary.

Her books, such as "Pixie Noir" and "Tanager’s Fledglings," showcase her unique blend of fantasy, science fiction, and mystery, often infused with a touch of humor and deep human insight. Her art, varying from traditional sumi-e painting to digital creations, reflects a love for both the whimsical and the scientific, with influences from her passion for history, infectious disease, and food anthropology. Known for her eclectic career that includes roles as diverse as balloon twister, face painter, and scientist, Cedar has channeled her wide range of experiences into her writing and art.

Her Books

Amazon

Her Website

https://www.cedarwrites.com/

Her Substack

https://cedarlila.substack.com/

Want to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text!

Support the show