The 32nd episode of The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory features Mookie diving deep into science, religion, and philosophy with indie author Patrick Abbott. a writer pulling from real-world experience to build science fiction that resonates. Patrick's Fallen series hurls readers into a first contact scenario where humanity is immediately outmatched technologically, strategically, and psychologically. The alien race, the Sabia, arrives speaking our languages, offering gifts, and refusing to explain themselves. The hope, confusion, and chaos fracture governments, ignite suspicion, and force impossible decisions. What makes the series land is Patrick's background working alongside foreign militaries. He understands what it feels like to operate between cultures, where loyalty blurs and every interaction carries tension. That perspective runs through the story: negotiation replaces heroics, and the real stakes live inside human relationships under stress. The conversation digs into how those experiences shaped the books, including the psychological toll of deployment and the quieter, often ignored forms of PTSD. He builds characters who function on the surface while slowly breaking underneath, telling the tales of people chasing adrenaline just to feel normal, even as it destroys them. Faith runs through the entire series. His characters carry belief systems that actively shape their decisions, especially when confronted with something as awe-inspiring and destabilizing as alien contact. The Sabia bring their own religious framework into the mix, turning first contact into a collision of worldviews as much as a geopolitical crisis. Mookie and Patrick then go broad, into his fascination with the elusive truths that might lurk within UFO mythology, cargo cults, and the human tendency to search for meaning in anything we can’t explain. Why do modern alien narratives feel so familiar? Why do belief systems keep resurfacing in new forms? And what happens when science, religion, and fear all collide at once? They also get into the reality of being an indie author. No gatekeepers, no safety net. Abbott breaks down what actually works: building a network, using reader magnets, showing up at events, and making direct connections with other writers and readers. The game is simple: do like Mookie and go full DIY, keep creating, keep reaching out, and don’t wait for anyone to notice you. This episode covers the intersection of experience, belief, and storytelling, and how real-world tension becomes narrative fuel. The glorious result demonstrates how science fiction can still say something honest about the people living inside it. The Guest Patrick Abbott is an indie sci-fi and fantasy author whose work fuses military experience, religious inquiry, and speculative imagination. A former overseas deployer with service in Iraq and Afghanistan, Abbott writes the Fallen series—Fallen, Risen, and Dormition—with the fourth and final novel Assumption set for around Christmas. His other works include The Savannah Paranormal Detective Agency, Savannah Paranormal Detective Agency 2: The Tybee Uranium Killer, An Odd Pilgrimage, and The Wick in the Wind. Through his fiction and Substack, he explores first contact, faith, trauma, and the stranger corners of human experience. Visit and subscribe to his Substack: https://www.patrickabbott.net/ Want to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text! Support the show
