Author
A Sorcerer, a City, and the Search for Identity
Joe Weinberg talks about writing urban fantasy, the importance of diverse mythologies, neurodivergence in storytelling, and the therapeutic power of writing.
Episode notes
Joe Weinberg writes urban fantasy built on a principle about mythology: which mythos is correct? All of them and none of them. Over the last 10 to 15 years Joe has built a shared supernatural world, and the conversation runs through its gargoyles, tattoo witches, occult shop owners, and demons.
Joe sees speculative fiction as a way to talk about important things without the baggage they usually carry. Elves and orcs let a writer focus on one element of prejudice, and fiction has always given neurodivergent readers a place to see themselves. Personal identity runs through all of Joe's work, especially gender, sexuality, and neurodivergence, and a former teacher's care for explaining things from another person's perspective shows up throughout.
Joe's book Infinity Ball stars Micah Turner, a schizophrenic city sorcerer who draws her magic from what people believe about loners, stoners, and punks. Joe also talks about how humor releases tension, why The Good Place is a master class in storytelling, and how writing became a form of therapy, with a pace of four to five thousand words a day since April 2025.
Before signing off, Joe lists a wide catalogue that includes the AJ books, the Sam Archer series, and several LitRPG, romance, and gaming titles, and warns authors about the common scam of being asked to move to another platform and pay for a feature.
When you give a neurodivergent person a creative outlet, they're going to show you all of the things that they see.
Joe Weinberg
In this episode
- Worldbuilding with every mythology at once
- Neurodivergence in fiction
- Writing a schizophrenic main character
- Humor and tension
- Writing as therapy
- Scams that target authors
Books mentioned
- Infinity Ball
- Virtues of Skin
- Between Death and a Hard Place
- Pipe and Pestle
- Wheels Within Wheels
- First Favor
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