Episode 207: Sal Amato – Hidden Powers

A conversation with actor, writer, and producer Sal Amato about his upcoming debut science fiction novel, Hidden Powers.

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salamato.com

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@hiddenpowersofficial

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@HiddenPowersUSA

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@hiddenpowersnovel

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@hiddenpowersofficial

About Hidden Powers

Investigative journalist Sarah Moore has exposed government corruption for years. Still, nothing prepared her for what killed her father: $47 trillion in unaccounted federal spending hidden across seventy years of black budgets. 

Her father, David Moore, a government accountant, discovered the pattern in 2009—the same representatives approving secret budgets, the same shell corporations receiving them, the same suppressed technologies that would have eliminated scarcity. He died of a “heart attack” at fifty, alone in his office at 2:17 AM.  

Sarah follows the money to 127 phantom corporations, 6,000 coordinated elites, and 847 murdered researchers whose discoveries would have freed humanity from controlled resources. Then Victoria Sterling contacts her with the answer: 

In 1954, world leaders agreed with an extraterrestrial species called the Greys—not for technology, but for permission to manage humanity as property.  Sterling, a former architect of this control system, explains there’s no grand conspiracy—just thousands of people worldwide who believe they own everyone else, coordinating through a shared worldview rather than direct communication. They’ve suppressed cures, buried innovations, and murdered whistleblowers, all while convincing the “owned” to defend the systems harming them. 

The cruelest part: people have been taught to root for their oppressors, by becoming ‘fanatical’ in trusting the shiniest marketed bulbs.  

On October 17, 2026, Sterling stands at the Washington Monument and reveals everything with irrefutable documentation that will change the course of humanity. 

About Sal Amato

Sal Amato

Sal Amato is an actor, writer, producer, and now novelist whose career has been defined by an insatiable curiosity about human nature and the stories we tell ourselves. With a long career that included attempts to develop streaming media platforms in the mid-’90s to 2000s, and a music industry insider with moderate success, Sal has never felt he’s achieved what he set out to do, but that has never stopped him.

As a performer, Sal began his journey in 1978 doing a Betty Crocker commercial. From there, he’d move on to movies (Bad Boys 1982) as well as being one of the youngest members ever at The Second City, one of the most prestigious comedy institutions in the world where he would learn the craft under the late, famed Don DePollo As time went by, Sal developed his voice performing stand-up and improvisation, learning to read audiences and craft narratives that resonate. With very odd jobs along the way, including a DJ, broadcasting, and working at grocery stores, Sal continued to try to find his way, never giving up. This foundation led to a moderate success in acting in both film and television, with appearances in The Untouchables, My Best Friend’s Wedding, Chicago Overcoat, Where It Gets You, Chicago Fire, The Big Leap, and numerous other productions, including commercials.

As a creator, Sal expanded beyond performance into writing and producing. His animated series Bakers In The Burbs, a project blending comedy with social observation, has been optioned by a production company actively seeking placement on major streaming platforms.

When not writing, Sal continues to work in entertainment, bringing stories to life across multiple platforms and as an analog-to-digital transfer specialist.

Episode 206: Alan Smale – Burning Night (Apollo Rising: Book 3)

A conversation with Sidewise Award-winning novelist (and former NASA astrophysicist) Alan Smale, talking about Burning Night, Book 3 in his Apollo Rising alternate-history science fiction trilogy.

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alansmale.com

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@alan.smale

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@alansmale.bsky.social

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@AlanSmale

About Burning Night

On July 4, 1983, Vivian Carter and her NASA crew of seven set off on an audacious double flyby of Venus and Mars, a two-year mission with repurposed Apollo technology that will push their ingenuity and resourcefulness to the limit. Meanwhile, superpower conflicts escalate on Earth, mirrored by a dangerously unstable arms race and battles for valuable mineral resources on the Moon. Full-up lunar military actions and treacherous sneak attacks decimate Vivian’s friends, allies and colleagues on both sides of the Iron Curtain and threaten everything she has worked to achieve.

Vivian’s odyssey is a high adventure that will bring mankind new knowledge and unimagined insights … just as the risk of worldwide nuclear war has never been greater. Now, on her triumphant return in 1985, Vivian Carter’s path inevitably brings her back to where she began: a desperate rescue mission with no NASA support and no safety net, to a dangerous, war-torn Moon where she will be hard pressed to tell friend from foe.

In the concluding volume of Alan Smale’s highly acclaimed Apollo Rising series (“A nail-biting thriller.” – Publishers Weekly) humanity faces a stark choice: a bright new interplanetary future … or nuclear apocalypse on two worlds.

Praise for the Apollo Rising series

“A nail-biting thriller.”Publishers Weekly 

“I loved it. Great ‘hard’ science fiction with convincing space battles.”−Larry Niven

“Will delight and enthrall.”Library Journal

“A provocative science fiction novel.”Foreword Reviews

“Alan Smale is one of the brightest stars in the hard-SF firmament, and Hot Moon is his best novel yet. ”Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author

“Intriguing, adrenaline-fueled, and engaging, author Alan Smale’s Hot Moon is the perfect sci-fi meets political thriller.”Anthony Avina

“A superb mind-expanding sci-fi novel!”Grady Harp (Amazon Hall of Fame Top 100 Reviewer)

About Alan Smale

Alan Smale

Alan Smale writes alternate history, historical fantasy, and hard SF. His novella of a Roman invasion of ancient America, “A Clash of Eagles,” won the Sidewise Award for Alternate History, and his novels set in the same universe, Clash of Eagles, Eagle in Exile, and Eagle and Empire (2015-2017) are available from Del Rey in the US and Titan Books in the UK and Europe. His “Roman baseball” collaboration with Rick Wilber, The Wandering Warriors, came out from WordFire Press in 2020, and Hot Moon, his alternate-Apollo “technothriller with heart,” set entirely on and around the Moon, was launched by CAEZIK SF & Fantasy in 2022, with sequel Radiant Sky following in 2024 and the grand finale, Burning Night in 2025.

Alan has sold more than fifty stories to Asimov’s and other magazines and anthologies, and his short story “Gunpowder Treason” earned him a second Sidewise Award in 2022. His non-fiction essays have appeared in Lightspeed, Journey Planet, and Galaxy’s Edge.

Alan grew up in Yorkshire, England, and earned degrees in Physics and Astrophysics from Oxford University. Until recently, he performed astronomical research into galactic neutron star and black hole binary systems at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, and served as the Director of one of NASA’s big-three astrophysical data archives.

Episode 205: Betty Jane Hegerat – Elephants in the Room

A conversation with award-winning Calgary author Betty Jane Hegerat about her latest collection of literary short stories, Elephants in the Room.

Website
bettyjanehegerat.com

Facebook
@bettyjh

About Elephants in the Room

Fourteen jewel-like stories unveil the tender chaos of lives unlived and loves unspoken

In Elephants in the Room, Betty Jane Hegerat masterfully uncovers the quiet fractures of ordinary lives—the unspoken regrets, the buried griefs, and the fragile threads of connection that bind families across generations.

From a devoted son’s frantic dash to help his mother glimpse the Queen to a reluctant father’s stunned reunion with the daughter he never knew, from a woman dressing her mother-in-law for an eternal rest to a boy’s guilty reckoning with a bully’s untimely death, these unforgettable stories illuminate the elephants in our lives we ignore at our peril.

With tender wit and unflinching insight, Hegerat explores the weight of what we leave unsaid: the ache of lost chances, the solace of small mercies, and the stubborn grit that carries us through. As poignant as a stolen glance, as resonant as a half-forgotten lullaby, the stories in Elephants in the Room whisper the unvarnished secrets of family ties—where regrets loom large, and small acts of grace light the way home.

Praise for Elephants in the Room

“Betty Jane Hegerat is a meticulous observer of the human condition, and the family in particular. The stories in Elephants in the Room are written with succinct, unadorned prose and a gentleness that belies the strength of their messages. With warmth, humour, empathy, and intimacy, her characters search for the connection and remembrance we seek in those moments of heartbreak that punctuate all of our lives. A most moving collection of short fiction.” – Lori Hahnel, author of Flicker and Vermin: Stories

Elephants in the Room is a gorgeously beguiling collection. Individual stories are beautifully paced, with a skilful interplay between past and present. Delightful.” – Peter Midgely, writer, editor, and translator

“Betty Jane Hegerat tells her stories with intense care and in a soft-voiced, clear way that is lean on descriptions, explanations, and emotional fireworks. Even the passages of dialogue are kept short. The stories range from family members struggling to deal with everyday problems familiar to most of us that are nevertheless inescapable and painful, to the heart-shattering issues in the aftermath of broken marriages, to what to do with the willfully (or not) unfailingly incompetent family members of whom most families have at least one, to the deep love for friends whose suffering one is helpless to alleviate. In this collection, Hegerat examines with admirable restraint the serious and mostly unanswerable questions about living the ordinary life with dignity and kindness. This is a book to be loved.” – Sharon Butala, award-winning author of Leaving Wisdom

About Betty Jane Hegerat

Betty Jane Hegerat

Calgary author Betty Jane Hegerat was a social worker in a long-ago life. The stories she has written since she left that career behind reflect an ongoing need to make sense of conflict and chaos in relationships, and to find moments of laughter and even glimmers of redemption.

That seriousness aside, she loves the Calgary writing community. She has taught at the Alexandra Writers’ Centre, the Fernie Writers’ Conference and for Continuing Education at the University of Calgary, and was Writer in Residence for the Calgary Public Library. In 2015 she was honoured to receive the Writers Guild of Alberta Golden Pen Award for lifetime achievement in writing

Betty Jane’s stories have been published in anthologies and magazines. She has five previous books: a novel, Running Toward Home (Newest Press), a collection of stories, A Crack in the Wall (Oolichan Books), another novel, Delivery (Oolichan Books), and two YA novels, Odd One Out (Oolichan Books) and The Boy (Oolichan Books). The Boy is a French braid of investigative journalism, fiction, memoir, and meta-fiction. The book was shortlisted for the Calgary Book Prize, the High Plains Book Awards, and the Alberta Writers Guild Wilfrid Eggleston Non-Fiction Award.

Episode 200: Annmarie SanSevero – The Butterfly’s Stroke and Other Stories

A conversation with Annmarie SanSevero about her new science fiction/fantasy short story collection, The Butterfly’s Stroke and Other Stories, just released by Stark Publishing.

Website
asansevero.com

Facebook

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@theItalianMuse

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@theitalianmuse

About The Butterfly’s Stroke and Other Stories

An intricate and harmonious dance between humanity and technology

Dive into Annmarie SanSevero’s gripping collection of speculative fiction, where suspense, mystery, and the supernatural collide with the frontiers of science.

Each story pulses with themes of hope, resilience, and the ethical complexities of technological advancements. A testament to the human spirit, these tales weave suspense, mystery, and supernatural elements into a tapestry of speculative fiction that resonates with contemporary societal issues.

Don’t miss your chance to experience these unforgettable narratives and embark on a journey that both challenges and inspires.

About Jonathan Handel

Annmarie SanSeverol

Annmarie SanSevero grew up in New York City but was transplanted to the south in high school.  She writes stories about hope, courage, and resilience in fantasy, science fiction, steampunk, and mystery. She loves exploring the human experience and wants readers to feel like they can do more than survive.

When she’s not writing, Annmarie enjoys learning just about everything, playing violin, and singing.  She can occasionally be found tap dancing or playing D&D. One day, she wants to go LARPing.

To keep up with her latest releases, writing news, and exclusive content, join her author newsletter

Episode 185: James Bow – The Sun Runners and Tales from the Silence

A chat with Aurora Award-winning YA author James Bow about his new science fiction novel, The Sun Runners, and its companion anthology, Tales from the Silence.

Website
bowjamesbow.ca

Facebook
@james.bow

Shadowpaw Press links
The Sun Runners
Tales from the Silence

About The Sun Runners

“Hello, people of Mercury. This is planet Earth. Are you receiving this? Please respond.”

Lieutenant Adelheid Koning was only twenty-three when the Earth’s long fight against its environment ended in collapse and nuclear war. Earth’s sudden silence leaves the colonies of the inner solar system without lifelines, in various stages of self-sufficiency.

Or, in Mercury’s case, not.

To help her fellow stranded colonists of Mercury survive starvation and a breakdown of order, Adelheid fights some cold equations and makes some hard choices, ending up wearing an iron crown as queen of one of the rail cities of Mercury, constantly moving to stay ahead of the Sun.

Fifty years later, Adelheid’s granddaughter, Frieda, is a seventeen-year-old princess who would rather be an engineer. Frieda’s life is shattered when a suspicious accident takes one of her arms—and is then turned upside-down when her mother dies from that accident. Frieda is left a young and vulnerable queen, locking horns with her grandmother, who is now regent and dowager.

When the Earth makes contact again, after fifty years of silence, Frieda is eager to end Mercury’s isolation, but Adelheid is suspicious of the Earth’s sudden return, and wary of the other latitude towns’ desires to accept all that the Earth is offering, without question.

With thousands of lives on the line, is it wise to hope for healing? Or are we forever defined by what we do in the dark?

About Tales from the Silence

On August 4, 2151, the world will end.

It’s been a long time coming: climate disasters brewing conflict, conflict breeding chaos. But on that fateful day, someone will set off the nukes. On August 4, 2151, human civilization on Earth will fall silent.

There are survivors, of course—and not just on Earth. There are scientists on the Jovian moons. Miners in the asteroid belt. Thriving colonies on the surface of Mars and above the clouds of Venus. Far more precarious ones on Mercury. When the silence falls across human space, one thing is clear: Earth’s space-born children are on their own. No more supplies are coming. No more orders. No more meddling. No more help.

Set in the universe of James Bow’s new novel, The Sun RunnersTales from the Silence is a gathering of award-winning science fiction, fantasy, and YA authors who explore the worlds the Earth left behind, as well as the Earth itself, as they struggle through Earth’s new dark age.

Join James Bow, Phoebe Barton, Kate Blair, Cameron Dixon, Mark Richard Francis, Jo Karaplis, Kari Maaren, Fiona Moore, Ira Nayman, Kate Orman, and Jeff Szpirglas as they tell the stories of what happens after the end of the world.

About James Bow

James Bow

James Bow writes science fiction and fantasy for both kids and adults. He’s been a fan of science fiction since his family introduced him to Doctor Who on TV Ontario in 1978, and his mother read him classic sci-fi and fantasy from such authors as Clifford Simak and J.R.R. Tolkien. James won the 2017 Prix Aurora Award for best YA Novel in Canada for Icarus Down.

By day, James is a communications officer for a charitable land trust protecting lands from development in Waterloo Region and Wellington County. He also loves trains and streetcars. He lives in Kitchener, Ontario, with his two kids, and his spouse/fellow writer/partner-in-crime, Erin Bow.

Episode 166: Jennifer Anne Gordon – The Japanese Box and Other Stories

A chat with award-winning horror author Jennifer Anne Gordon about her new short story collection, The Japanese Box and Other Stories.

Website
jenniferannegordon.com

Facebook
@JenniferAnneGordonAuthor

Instagram
@jennifergenevievegordon

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@JenniferAnneGo5

Jennifer Anne Gordon’s Amazon Page

Amazon Links for The Japanese Box and Other Stories
Amazon.com
Amazon.ca

About the Book

A collection of short stories contemplating horror, grief, and trauma.

Simulacrum: A dark comedic tale about college life, and love. It is the story of what happens when two sociopaths attend art exhibits, drink lemon vodka, and spar over everything and anything.

Periods.

Coloring books.

Art.

This is the story of our unnamed narrator . . . an origin story of a would-be, hopes to be, serial killer.

The Japanese Box: Story that blends memoir, creative nonfiction, and the horror of a coming-of-age story, and a coming of middle-aged story.

Imagine growing up with a reflection that is often absent, and a Japanese box that is filled with things that should never have been there.

Memories.

Violence.

“The Japanese Box” is a love letter to anxiety, trauma, grief, and longing. It is a story of a child becoming an adult, and all the ghosts and misfortunes that happen in order to survive.

The Lithium Moon: Simone is an artist by day, and an emotionally abused wife at night. She is a successful artist with a long history of schizoid effective disorder with bipolar tendencies.

When her marriage goes from good to bad, she suffers her first miscarriage. The tragedy coincides with a wolf moon-Trauma and magic converge seem to converge in Simone’s head.

This story explores sadness, illness, hallucinations, full moons, and the creative process.

What Stage of Grief is not a poem, or a song, but a dirge.

Fantasy and facts, this poem walks a fine line between nightmares and memories. Grief stories and love stories. Dogs, and drama. Nightmares, and nevermore.

Praise for The Japanese Box and Other Stories

“The precision of observation here speaks not only to the honesty of the writer, but to the respect granted in all phases of life; Jennifer Anne Gordon is on full display. Smart, full of character, vibrant. You will feel, you will feel big, and you will return, too, to the richest moments of your own history, landmarks that bring you to both smile and weep.”Josh Malerman, New York Times best-selling author of Bird Box and Daphne

“I compulsively read anything Jennifer Anne Gordon writes. Like the best contemporary filmmakers stitching together grief and horror, her storytelling is a sharp needle that both pierces and tugs us close. Compulsive and genre-slashing, with exquisite, rhythmic prose, THE JAPANESE BOX is an extraordinary exploration of alone-ness that beats and breathes: grief is horror, grief is love. We as readers are drawn ever closer to this beautifully haunted narrator until we’re face-down in the box with her. Does she feel us? She thinks she is alone. We all think we are alone. By the end we’ve become the ghosts in her black room, reaching out to gently touch her hair and whisper we’re here.”Diane Zinna, author of The All-Night Sun

About Jennifer Anne Gordon

Jennifer Anne Gordon

Jennifer Anne Gordon is an award-winning author and popular host of the Vox Vomitus podcast. Her novel Beautiful, Frightening and Silent won the Kindle Award for Best Horror/Suspense for 2020 and Best Horror 2020 from Authors on the Air, and was a finalist for American Book Fest’s Best Book Award- Horror, 2020. It also received the Platinum 5-Star Review from Reader’s Choice as well as the Gold Seal from Book View.

Her latest novel Pretty/Ugly, won the Helicon Award for Best Horror for 2022, as well as the Gold Medal from Literary Titan.

Jennifer is a member of Mystery Writers of America, the Horror Writers Association (where she served on the jury for the Stoker Awards), and is an A&E chair of the New England Crime Bake Committee. 

Episode 148: Christopher Rowe

An hour-long chat with Christopher Rowe, Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy (and others) shortlisted author of the critically acclaimed novellas The Navigating Fox and These Prisoning Hills, as well as the story collection Telling the Map.

Website
christopherrowe.net

Facebook

Instagram
@cvrowe1234

Twitter/X
@ChristopherRowe

Bluesky
@christopherrowe

Christopher Rowe’s Amazon Page

The Introduction

Christopher Rowe is the author of the critically acclaimed novellas The Navigating Fox and These Prisoning Hills, as well as a story collection regarded as one of best of recent years, Telling the Map. He has been a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, Neukom, and Theodore Sturgeon Awards, as well as others. He lives in Kentucky.

Episode 125: Brian Trent

An hour-long chat with Brian Trent, award-winning author of Redspace Rising and Ten Thousand Thunders plus numerous short stories.

Website
www.briantrent.com

Facebook

Brian Trent’s Amazon Page

Brian Trent’s work regularly appears in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science FictionAnalog Science Fiction and Fact, the New York Times-bestselling Black Tide Rising anthologies, The Year’s Best Military and Adventure SFTerraform, Flash Fiction Online, Daily Science FictionApex, Pseudopod, Escape Pod, Galaxy’s EdgeNature, and numerous year’s-best anthologies.

The author of the science fiction novels Redspace Rising and Ten Thousand Thunders, Trent is a winner of the 2019 Year’s Best Military and Adventure SF Readers’ Choice Award from Baen Books and a Writers of the Future winner. He is also a contributor to the Baen anthologies Weird World War III, Weird World War IV, Weird World War China, and the newly released Worlds Long Lost. Trent lives in New England.

Episode 109: James Van Pelt

An hour-long chat with award-winning science fiction and fantasy short-story writer and novelist James Van Pelt.

Website
www.jamesvanpelt.com

Facebook
@james.vanpelt.14

James Van Pelt’s Amazon Page

The Introduction

James Van Pelt is a former high school English teacher who is now a full-time science fiction, fantasy and horror writer (among other things). His short stories have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies, including Asimov’s, Analog, Talebones, Realms of Fantasy, Weird Tales, and others. He has eight books out, including six short story collections, Strangers and Beggars, The Last of the O-Forms and Other Stories, The Radio Magician and Other Stories, Flying in the Heart of the Lafayette Escadrille, The Experience Arcade, and The Best of James Van Pelt. His two novels are Summer of the Apocalypse and Pandora’s Gun.

He has been a Nebula finalist and a John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer finalist and has been nominated for Pushcart prizes. His first collection was named a Best Book for Young Adults by the American Library Association, and his last collection won the Colorado Book Award. Many of his short stories have appeared in various Year’s Best collections.

Episode 106: Richard Paolinelli

An hour-long chat with award-winning science fiction and fantasy novelist and short-story writer, publisher, and podcaster Richard Paolinelli.

Website
scifiscribe.com

Facebook
@scifiscribe

Richard Paolinelli’s Amazon Page

The Introduction

Richard Paolinelli began his writing journey as a freelance writer in 1984 and gained his first fiction credit serving as the lead writer for the first two issues of the Elite Comics sci-fi/fantasy series Seadragon.

After nearly a quarter of a century in the newspaper field, in 2010, Richard retired as a sportswriter and returned to his fiction-writing roots. Since then he has written several award-winning novels, two non-fiction sports books, and has appeared in over 20 anthologies including eight of the 11-book Tuscany Bay Books’ Planetary Anthology Series and five Sherlock Holmes collections. He also blogs and writes some fan fiction on his website and is co-owner of Tuscany Bay Books.

He runs weekly features on his website, including an occasional podcast, and serves as a regular co-host on LA Talk Radio’s The Writer’s Block. He sometimes leads the show whenever Jim Christina’s horse runs off and leaves him stranded in the middle of the desert.  

He currently resides in Western Colorado.