Michael Dempsey’s first novel, Necropolis (Amazon), is not his first foray into writing. Not by a long shot. He’s a veteran of Hollywood most notably CBS’s Cybill starring Cybill Shepherd and has sold and optioned screenplays and television scripts.

So why stop writing for movies and TV to create a genre-busting mix of scifi and crime? Michael and I talk about that, the business of TV writing, the pain and difficulty of coming back to life, an encounter with Jerry Seinfeld’s Porsche, and more.

Find out more at Michael’s site for his book: NecropolisTheNovel.com. Follow him on Twitter at: Twitter.com/demzer.

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Douglas Lain is the author of Last Week’s Apocalypse, Fall Into Time, which are both short stories collections. Douglas returns to talk about his new novella, Wave of Mutilation (Amazon Link).

Jeffrey Ford said it’s, “…a story that generates itself as it devours itself… Terrific writing, good laughs, and the flawless execution of a fictional tightrope walk between “reality” and nothing.”

We talk about his new novella, meta fiction, the writing process, his upcoming work, and much more.

Douglas is the host of Diet Soap Podcast. His site is douglaslain.com.

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Lauren Beukes is the author of Zoo City, (Amazon) an alternate world thriller about crime, magic, the music industry, refugees and redemption set in a re-imagined Johannesburg. It won the 2011 Arthur C. Clarke Award, and has been short listed for numerous other awards.

Lauren and I talk about her book, writing, animals, journalism, face recognition, a harrowing experience at a church in Johannesburg, among many other things.

Lauren’s website is laurenbeukes.com.

In the podcast she mentioned a rehabilitation program Khulisa.

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David Anthony Durham, who returns to the podcast for the third time, has just finished his fantasy trilogy with The Sacred Band: Book Three of the Acacia Trilogy (Amazon).

We talk about writing rituals, long walks, Scotland, the Acacia Trilogy, and several other writing projects he’s working on.

Anthony’s website is davidanthonydurham.com.

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Jon Armstrong (besides having a killer name!) is an award winning magician who has performed worldwide. He gives his take on what magic is for him personally and professional. He also talks about how audiences and a comic book he’s helping to write with a magic theme titled Smoke and Mirrors.

Chris Moriarty is a Philip K. Dick Award winning science fiction author whose new book, The Inquisitor’s Apprentice (Amazon), uses magic in unique ways. We talk about the book, the main character, the time period (New York in the 1900s) and how she used magic to talk about work.

Jon’s website is CardJon.com. The comic he’s helping to write is Smoke and Mirrors.

Chris can be found at ChrisMoriartyBooks.com. A website for her latest book is at InquisitorsApprentice.com.

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Lev Grossman is a bestselling novelist and journalist. His books include: Warp, Codex, The Magicians, and his forthcoming The Magician King (Amazon links). He is also a senior writer and book critic for Time Magazine.
We talked about how the Codex, The Magicians came to be, the influence of his twin brother, Lev’s upcoming sequel The Magician King , the modern novel and the fantasy novel, his meeting with J.K. Rowling, and the difference between violence in books and movies, among many other things.

Lev’s website is: levgrossman.com.

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This show is a behind-the-scenes peek at the people behind the audio book versions of my two novels: Grey and Yarn. First I speak with Steve Feldberg who is Senior Director, Editorial Business Development at Audible.com about what they do and how they select books.

I then speak with the narrators for Grey and Yarn, Macleod Andrews and Mark Boyette, respectively. We get some background on who they are, why they do audiobooks, how long they take, why they can be a blast, and the special challenges of my books.

Also included are a couple clips from the audiobooks!

Help support the If You’re Just Joining Us Podcast and try Audible now. You’ll get a Free audiobook download with a 14 day trial. Choose from over 85,000 Titles, including my novels Grey and Yarn!

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M. D. Lachlan is the pen name of British writer Mark Barrowcliffe. After working as a journalist, and also as a stand-up comedian he started wrote his first novel, Girlfriend 44 and achieved early success in the late 1990s as part of the Lad Lit movement.

His latest work, Wolfsangel (Amazon), is quite different from his first works. We discuss his bloody fantasy novel, it’s unique magic system, and where the series is going. We also talk about stand-up comedy and choosing the right and wrong pen name.

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Douglas Lain is the author of Last Week’s Apocalypse (Amazon) which was published by Night Shade Books. Most recently, he completed a new book, Pick Your Battle: Your Guide to Urban Foraging, Hollywood Movies, Late Capitalism, and the Communist Alternative (a memoir) (Amazon). He is also the host of The Diet Soap Podcast.

We talk about how his new book came to be, urban foraging, mystical experiences while at work, and Doug’s his own very curious wedding. This is Doug’s second visit to IYJJU.

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Will McIntosh, who won a Hugo Award for best short story, has just published his first novel, Soft Apocalypse (Amazon). Set in a near future collapse where the protagonist trades charged batteries for food and wanders the Georgia countryside, dodging local cops and designer diseases.

Will is a psychology professor at Georgia Southern University who studies internet dating among other things. We talk about Soft Apocalypse, dating in the collapse, seeing a movie made of one of his short stories, how he found his wife, and the day he proposed to her and conked out!

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