Vinx the Mercenary Minx is a prequel spinoff of Mookie's flagship series, Jonnie Fazoolie and the Transfinite Reality Engine, and it answers a question the main story never stops to ask: how did Jonnie's tantalizing, savage love interest claw her way up to become the second most powerful being inside the all-powerful agency? Mookie got the idea for the whole project from conversations with LitRPG and military science fiction authors he'd had on the podcast, which sparked the thought that one of his own characters could carry that kind of story.

Vinx has been sitting near the bottom of his priority list lately, buried under a full plate that includes a nonfiction book on the Sri Lankan Civil War, the Jonnie Fazoolie sequel, and an interactive audiobook, so reading Chapter Two here is Mookie's way of reigniting his own interest in the project. He uses the rest of the episode to rant his way through the same forces pulling at his attention everywhere else: the gender and generational conflict running underneath both of his novels, and where AI is taking indie authors hunting for readers who'd actually love their work. The through line for all of it is simple. Mookie loves throwing content out into the world, rants and readings alike, whether or not anyone's there to catch it.

Here's Chapter 1

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