Sonitotum with Matthew Wayne Selznick Matthew Wayne Selznick

It’s time for the 99th Sonitotum with Matthew Wayne Selznick, the podcast about making stuff (mostly writing), finding success as we each define it for ourselves, and staying healthy and sane in the process. Settle in for an in-depth and evergreen conversation with historical and literary fiction author Maureen Morrissey!
Maureen Morrissey is a writer for online publications and a published novelist; retired educator; and wife/mother/grandmother/dog mommy. She is an amateur photographer; traveler who loves to wander and wonder; and most recently, half-marathon runner. In her spare time, she attends live theater events and rock concerts, and investigates the integrity of roof top bars in her hometown NYC.
Maureen has been a writer for as long as she remembers. She began writing her first novel, Woven: Six Stories, One Epic Journey in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic, the day after retiring from teaching fourth grade. It was published in November of 2020. She published a second novel, Sonder: Janie’s Story in March 2022, and her third, Seeing is Believing in June 2023. She published a short story, “Win, Lose or Draw,” at the beginning of January 2024, and her most recent release is the children’s picture book Country Dog, City Dog.
Find Maureen Morrissey at maureenmorrissey.com.
The interview portion of this episode was recorded on January 18, 2024. The other bits were recorded on April 10, 2024. This episode took about eight hours fifteen minutes to record, produce, and delivery to you.
Links and Topics Mentioned in This Episode

My day job? I’m a creative services provider helping authors, podcasters and other creators. How can I help you?
The book that drove Maureen to pursue independent publishing was Walter the Farting Dog by the multi-genre, multiple-award-winning author William Kotzwinkle. You know you want to click those links…
I mentioned Norman MacLean, author of A River Runs Through It, as an author who wrote a masterwork late in life.
Novels told through a linked collection of short stories or novellas are sometimes called composite novels. Examples include The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury, The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, and The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. There are many, many others!
Maureen tags the Goosebumps books as an example of a “beach book” for kids.
More on Louise Rosenblatt’s transactional theory of reading, which I contrast / supplement with my own position that the reader / author relationship is collaborative.
The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig is a collection of various concepts for which there are only words in languages other than English.
The flat earther who believes every person has their own personal sun came up in the conversation as an example of a wonderful and compelling unintentional metaphor.
Maureen’s “Judge Not” article.
The Cult of Done Manifesto from Bre Pettis and Kio Stark.
By the time you’re listening to this episode or reading these show notes, my new novelette “Reggie versus Kaiju Storm Dragon Squidbat” will be available wherever you buy e-books and, of course, directly from my site!
Big thanks to my Multiversalists patron community, including J. C. Hutchins, Zoë Kohen Ley, Jim Lewinson, Amelia Bowen, and Ted Leonhardt! I’m incredibly grateful for the support of my patrons. If Sonitotum with Matthew Wayne Selznick brings you joy, become a patron!

Every month net earnings from my Multiversalist patron memberships is at least $100, I will donate 10% to 826 National in support of literacy and creative writing advocacy for children. Let’s go!



This episode has extra content only available for patron members of the Multiversalists community! If you're a patron member at the Bronze level or above, please log in! Click here to learn more about the benefits of membership.

This content is by Matthew Wayne Selznick and came from his website.

The 98th episode of Sonitotum with Matthew Wayne Selznick, the podcast about making stuff (mostly writing), finding success as we each define it for ourselves, and staying healthy and sane in the process, features a conversation with post-cyberpunk science fiction thriller author Bryan Chaffin.
Bryan Chaffin is the author of science fiction thriller Accidental Intelligence. As of April 2024, he’s working on the follow up novel, Inside the Mirror, as well as multiple short stories set in this universe.

In a past life, Bryan wrote about Apple and technology for 23 years as the cofounder and editor-in-chief of The Mac Observer. He and his business partner sold TMO in 2022, and Bryan has been busy living out his fantasy of writing fiction since.
Today, Bryan lives with his dog Commander Ichabod Ezekiel Cromwell in Silicon Valley, where they both enjoy the fantabulous pastime of THROW THE DAMNED BALL!
Find Bryan Chaffin — and sign up for his newsletter — at geektells.com.
The interview portion of this episode was recorded on January 15, 2024. The other bits were recorded on April 01, 2024.
Links and Topics Mentioned in This Episode

My day job? I’m a creative services provider helping authors, podcasters and other creators. How can I help you?
Bryan co-hosts a podcast called The Context Machine.
Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett (as well as Ross MacDonald!) are some great hard-boiled / noir mystery / detective novelists. Check ’em out!
We mention my novels Light of the Outsider and Brave Men Run in our discussion about Facebook and Amazon advertising.
Patty Jansen is mentioned as an example of a very prolific author.
Dan Simmons gave a young Bryan Chaffin his writing eureka moment, thanks to books like Summer of Night and the Hyperion Cantos series.
We talk about selling books directly from our website, and I tell Bryan about what I use and recommend, MemberPress.
Big thanks to my Multiversalists patron community, including J. C. Hutchins, Zoë Kohen Ley, Jim Lewinson, Amelia Bowen, and Ted Leonhardt! I’m incredibly grateful for the support of my patrons. If Sonitotum with Matthew Wayne Selznick brings you joy, become a patron!

Every month net earnings from my Multiversalist patron memberships is at least $100, I will donate 10% to 826 National in support of literacy and creative writing advocacy for children. Let’s go!



This episode has extra content only available for patron members of the Multiversalists community! If you're a patron member at the Bronze level or above, please log in! Click here to learn more about the benefits of membership.

This content is by Matthew Wayne Selznick and came from his website.

It’s here! The premiere episode of the 2024 season of Sonitotum with Matthew Wayne Selznick, a podcast about making stuff (mostly writing!), finding success as we each define it for ourselves, and staying healthy and sane in the process!
Listen to learn about the fifteen guests I’ve recorded for the season, what to expect across the planned twenty episodes to come, the Very Special Year in which this season takes place, how to support the show, and more!
This episode was recorded on Tuesday, March 19, 2024.
Links and Topics Mentioned in This Episode

My day job? I’m a creative services provider helping authors, podcasters and other creators. How can I help you?
Guests you’ll hear this season include:

Bryan Chaffin
Maureen Morrissey
A.J. Super
Thom Carnell
Juliet Kemp
Rosemary Jones
A.J. Pagan IV
Kristin Osani
Wendy Van Camp
Nicholas Snape
Abby Goldsmith
Nicole Wolverton
Kevin McLaughlin
Justine Manzano


Big thanks to my Multiversalists patron community, including J. C. Hutchins, Zoë Kohen Ley, Jim Lewinson, Amelia Bowen, and Ted Leonhardt! I’m incredibly grateful for the support of my patrons. If Sonitotum with Matthew Wayne Selznick brings you joy, become a patron!

Every month net earnings from my Multiversalist patron memberships is at least $100, I will donate 10% to 826 National in support of literacy and creative writing advocacy for children. Let’s go!



This episode has extra content only available for patron members of the Multiversalists community! If you're a patron member at the Bronze level or above, please log in! Click here to learn more about the benefits of membership.

This content is by Matthew Wayne Selznick and came from his website.

Episode 096 of Sonitotum with Matthew Wayne Selznick comes to you a couple months before the “official” beginning of the 2024 season of the show, which debuts on March 20, 2024. This interim episode presents a take on my new website design, and the renewed and expanded artistic commitment to my community, that’s more vulnerable, transparent, and, sure, emotional than the “nuts and bolts” overview presented in this Scribtotum article.
Read that article and listen to this episode for the whole story… and if you’re inspired, become a Multiversalist!
This episode was recorded on Saturday, January 13, 2024.
Links and Topics Mentioned in This Episode

My day job? I’m a creative services provider helping authors, podcasters and other creators. How can I help you?
All Multiversalists, including free members, have access to Hazy Days and Cloudy Nights: “How It All Got Started,” my free members-only serial set in my Sovereign Era storyworld.
Web hosting for this website is provided by Dreamhost, which I mention in the episode.
I also mention ConvertKit, my preferred mailing list service provider.
The direct sales, membership, and (in the future) online courses functionality on this site are all powered by MemberPress with Stripe.
Are you a writer or author? Want to be a future guest on Sonitotum with Matthew Wayne Selznick? Learn more!
Big thanks to my Multiversalists patron community, including J. C. Hutchins and Zoë Kohen Ley! I’m incredibly grateful for the support of my patrons. If Sonitotum with Matthew Wayne Selznick brings you joy, become a patron!

Every month net earnings from my Multiversalist patron memberships is at least $100, I will donate 10% to 826 National in support of literacy and creative writing advocacy for children. Let’s go!



This episode has extra content only available for patron members of the Multiversalists community! If you're a patron member at the Bronze level or above, please log in! Click here to learn more about the benefits of membership.

This content is by Matthew Wayne Selznick and came from his website.

Hey! It’s time for another episode of Sonitotum with Matthew Wayne Selznick! This time, I sit down and talk about making stuff (mostly writing), finding success as we each define it, and staying healthy and sane in the process with horror and “weird” fiction author Anna Ziegelhof!
In our wide-ranging and free-wheeling discussion, we touch on the shift from writing as an escape to writing as a vocation, crafting fiction from a thematic germ, employing dream logic in magic realism and weird fiction, asking questions of characters, method writing, “plantsing,” storyworlds and story wikis, anxiety vs. productive creativity… and much, much more.
The conversation with Anna Ziegelhof was recorded on June 5th, 2023. The rest of this episode was recorded on October 11, 2023.
About Anna Ziegelhof

Anna Ziegelhof writes horror and science fiction short stories. In either genre, she likes philosophical stories with themes like identity, memory, and belonging. There’s usually a spark of hope and whimsy, even in her darker stories. She also writes long-form fiction and has some science fiction novels and novellas in the works.
Her short stories can be found in many different online and print publications, like The Horror Library volume 8, Luna Station, Solarpunk Magazine, The Future Fire, Daily Science Fiction, the Flametree Press anthology Footsteps in the Dark, in several horror anthologies, and on the Tales to Terrify and Flash Fiction podcasts.
Anna is also an academic with a subject background in Sociology and Jewish Studies. She is a self-declared language-nerd and has been a language instructor, editor, translator, and, most recently, a linguist in the tech industry, working on Voice AI. She is currently on the editorial board of a magazine for academics who write fiction – AcademFic.
She is a member of SFWA (Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association) and HWA (Horror Writers Association).
Originally from Germany, she has lived abroad since 2008, first in England and then since 2015 in the San Francisco Bay Area. When she isn’t writing she enjoys reading, traveling, encountering strange places, being in nature, looking at art, as well as singing in a chamber choir. You can find her on Instagram as @anna with a z (all one word) and at www.annaziegelhof.com.
Also In This Episode
Stick around after the conversation with Anna Ziegelhof for big news about what’s coming next for Sonitotum with Matthew Wayne Selznick, and my creative endeavors in general!
Links and Topics Mentioned in This Episode

My day job? I’m a creative services provider helping authors, podcasters and other creators. How can I help you?
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association.
The Horror Writers Association.
The new wave science fiction movement of the mid-twentieth century. In the episode, I refer to it as “new fiction.”
Michael Moorcock‘s Eternal Champion, Elric, and Jerry Cornelius.
A quick search reveals I’m far from the first person to draw a line from Jerry Cornelius to Austin Powers.
The Avengers television series.
The abandoned building “backrooms” internet meme.
Vantablack, the blackest black that ever did black.
I touch on difficulties I had approaching the point of view for Shadow of the Outsider, the follow-up to my novel Light of the Outsider.
That flash fiction probably erroneously attributed to Hemingway that’s almost a Zen koan.
I swear I will try not to mention the damn David Simon quote for a few episodes. Pinky swear.
Anna mentions a TED talk from JJ Abrams.
I cannot promise this will be the last time Always Coming Home by Ursula K. Le Guin comes up on the podcast. But in my defense, I didn’t mention it first!
Hugh Howey‘s Silo storyworld.
I talk about a writing exercise on writing bad guys.
Are you a writer or author? Want to be a future guest on Sonitotum with Matthew Wayne Selznick? Learn more!
Big thanks to my Multiversalists p

Sonitotum with Matthew Wayne Selznick is back with another in-depth, evergreen podcast episode conversation on making stuff (mostly writing), finding success as we each define it, and staying healthy and sane in the process.
This time around, I speak with multi-genre pulp author R. Jean Mathieu.
He provides a fascinating perspective on the creative writing life, owing to his intersecting influences of Taoist philosophy, karate, and his Quaker beliefs. We talk about the difference between writing and publishing, especially as they pertain to difficult topics and “trigger” issues, the hidden rituals in our creative process, the importance of balance in all aspects of our lives, personal, professional, and creative (even as we strive to grow and challenge ourselves) and the “hat trick” that keeps it all moving forward…
The conversation with R. Jean Mathieu was recorded on May 29th, 2023. The rest of this episode was recorded on September 26, 2023.
About R. Jean Mathieu
R. Jean Mathieu is the fiction writer of all trades. From award-winning stories of the Peace Corps and meditators on Mars to time-traveling mysteries of a Mexican detective solving his own murder, Mathieu revels in different genres, different voices, and cultural chop suey. Under other noms de plume, he writes romances, thrillers, pulp adventures, Westerns, and mysteries.
Mathieu grew up in Morro Bay, California. He enrolled in college at fifteen, where he would spend the next ten years. With an Associate’s degree in International Studies and $100 in his pocket, Mathieu traveled to China, alternately working as a teahouse server, organic farmhand, Hong Kong movie extra, and English teacher. Despite being deported thrice, he won his degree in Sociology (minoring in Business) over his five years in China, refining his craft along the way.
He lives in San Luis Obispo with his wife Melissa and daughter Lyra, where they keep a good table when not writing side-by-side or chasing trains to the next adventure. A convinced Quaker, he attends Central Coast Friends Meeting in between writing and publishing his fiction, learning new languages, and practicing Uechi-ryu karate. You can find all his stories at Amazon.com and his commentary at RJeanMathieu.com.
Links and Topics Mentioned in This Episode

My day job? I’m a creative services provider helping authors, podcasters and other creators. How can I help you?
Who are the Quakers?
The Blade Runner soundtrack.
Renaissance humanism.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and his classic Flow make another appearance in a Sonitotum interview, just in case that’s on your bingo card…
The Big Chill.
Fear of Flying by Erica Jong.
How to Meditate: A Guide to Self Discovery by Lawrence LeShan.
Writing the Other by Cynthia Ward and Nisi Shawl.
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association.
My novel Light of the Outsider.
The “fridging” literary trope.
David Simon’s famous (to me?) Believer interview. Another frequent mention, for those playing at home.
Lester Dent‘s Doc Savage.
The “Mary Sue” literary trope.
Taoist philosophy.
Jack London’s No Mentor but Myself.
Maybe you would like to be a future guest on Sonitotum with Matthew Wayne Selznick? Learn more!
Big thanks to my Multiversalists patron community, including Amelia Bowen, Ted Leonhardt, Chuck Anderson, J. C. Hutchins, Jim Lewinson, and Pearl Zare! I’m incredibly grateful for the support of my patrons. If Sonitotum with Matthew Wayne Selznick brings you joy, become a patron!
The Multiversalists patron member community receives the uncut, unedited version of every episode. For this episode, patrons get almost forty five minutes of additional content, almost all of it extra content with R. Jean Mathieu! Want in on that?

Become a patron for at least $5.00 per month (start with a free seven-day trial / cancel any time) and get a bunch of other perks and special access, too.
Every month the member