ABOUT MARISSA
(long version)
Marissa van Uden is a writer and full-time editor of dark speculative fiction (especially weird, horror, and eco-fiction) and nonfiction. Her editing credits include award winners, Amazon #1 bestsellers, National Geographic books, and genre magazines. She’s an associate editor at Apex Magazine, an assistant editor at Dark Matter Magazine, and a regular guest on the SFF Audio Podcast. Her short stories appear in Dark Matter Magazine and the Los Suelos interactive anthology. She grew up in Aotearoa-New Zealand, has lived in Dublin, Munich, Berlin, and Los Angeles, and now lives in the woods of rural Vermont, where she reads and writes next a beaver pond.
Notable fiction she’s helped to develop include Alys Arden’s The Casquette Girls (Amazon #1 bestseller, Starred by Publishers Weekly, and picked up in two-book deal by Skyscape Publishing) and The Romeo Catchers (Nominated for Best Young Adult Protagonist in the 2017 RT Reviewers’ Choice Awards); Ciara Ballintyne’s In The Company of the Dead (winner of Pinnacle Awards Best Fantasy Novel); Megan Crewe’s A Mortal Song (Amazon Kindle #1 Bestseller) and A Ruthless Magic; D Robert Pease’s Shadow Swarm (Winner of Mom’s Choice Awards Gold Medal in Fantasy & Science Fiction), D.A. Godwins Guardian’s Prophecy Series; and Debra Goelz’s Mermaids and the Vampires Who Love Them, which won the Watty award in 2014, was picked up by Hatchette Audiobooks, and was adapted into an interactive game in 2018.
She is a member of the Editorial Freelancers Association and has worked in a volunteer capacity for SFWA (Nebula Conference and curating book bundles) and FIYAH Magazine (the inaugral FIYAH Con).
Creatives who inspire her include Philip K Dick, Jeff VanderMeer, Roald Dahl (his fiction, not his politics), James Tiptree Jr., China Miéville, Octavia Butler, Cordwainer Smith, Carl Sagan, Jim Henson, Quentin Tarantino, Neil Druckmann, and every single person who worked on the video game The Last of Us.
PODCASTS & BOOK REVIEWS
Marissa reviews novels, nonfiction, short stories and (coming soon) science fiction/fantasy narrative-based video games. She joins fellow dickheads Jesse Willis and Paul Weimar — sometimes with very special guests — at the SFF Audio podcast to review all of PKD’s works in roughly the order he wrote them, and to talk about Things in speculative fiction.
- The Dickheads Podcast: Dick Adjacent #12 – Dune – with Marissa van Uden & Michael Moore
- The Genre Hustle Professional Editing with Marissa VU
- SFF Audio #449 “Dagon” by HP Lovecraft (with Paul Weimar & voice actor / audiobook narrator Oliver Wyman).
- SFF Audio #446 “The Night Flier” by Stephen King (with Paul Weimar & Scott Danielson)
- SFF Audio #429 In the Mountains of Madness: The Life and Afterlife of HP Lovecraft by W. Scott Poole (with Jim Moon & Wayne June!)
- SFF Audio #425 “The Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang + movie adaptation Arrival (with Paul Weimar & Maissa Bessada)
- SFF Audio #422 The Running Man by Stephen King + The Prize of Peril by Robert Sheckly (with Paul Weimar & Scott Danielson)
- SFF Audio #419 A Podcast About Podcasts! (with Paul Weimar & Bryan Alexander)
- SFF Audio #412 Rite of Passage by Alexi Panshin (with Paul Weimar, Bryan Alexander & Maissa Bessada)
- SFF Audio #404 The Call of Cthulu by HP Lovecraft (with Paul Weimar, Mr Jim Moon, Bryan Alexander & Wayne June)
- SFF Audio #396 “The Thing on the Doorstep” by HP Lovecraft (with Paul Weimar and Wayne June)
- SFF Audio #363 The Puppetmasters by Robert A Heinlein (with Paul Weimar)
- SFF Audio #356 The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester (with Paul Weimar)
- SFF Audio #250 “Scanners Live in Vain” by Cordwainer Smith (with Tamahome and J.J. Campanella)
- METHULESAH’S CHILDREN by Robert A Heinlein, read by MacLeod Andrews (Brilliance Audio)
- OZ REIMAGINED performed by Tanya Eby and Nick Podehl (Brilliance Audio)
- BREAKDOWN by Katherine Amt Hanna, read by Ralph Lister (Brilliance Audio)
- ATTEMPTING NORMAL by Marc Maron, read by Marc Maron (Random House Audio)
- WORLD UNTIL YESTERDAY by Jared Diamond, read by Jay Snyder (Penguin Audio)
- MATILDA by Roald Dahl, read by Kate Winslet (Penguin Audio)
- THE BFG by Roald Dahl, read by David Walliams (Penguin Audio)
- THE WITCHES by Roald Dahl,read by Miranda Richardson (Penguin Audio)
- BOY by Roald Dahl (autobiography) read by Dan Stevens (Penguin Audio)
Other writing/guest spots
- Interview at Phantom Owl blog
- SF Signal MindMeld: Must-Hear Audiobooks and Audio Fiction
- SF Signal MindMeld: The Best Book Openings
- #453: “The Hood Maker” (with Evan Lampe of 100 Pages at a Time podcast & Bryan Alexander)
- #451: PUTTERING ABOUT IN A SMALL LAND
- #443: UBIK
- #437: “The Turning Wheel” (with Mr Jim Moon of Hypnogoria Podcast & Mirko Stauch)
- #432: COUNTER CLOCK WORLD (with the voice of HP Lovecraft & Darkest Dungeon Wayne June!)
- #421: “We Can Build You”
- #411 THE CHROMIUM FENCE (with Maissa Bessada & Bryan Alexander))
- #406 OUR FRIENDS FROM FROLIX 8
- #402 THE MAZE OF DEATH
- #400 “Faith of Our Fathers” (with the voice of HP Lovecraft & Darkest Dungeon Wayne June!)
- #391 SECOND VARIETY
- #389 Short story: “The Zap Gun”
- #386 NICK AND THE GLIMMUNG and THE GALACTIC POT HEALER
- #380 THE THREE STIGMATA OF PALMER EDRITCH
- #378 THE PENULTIMATE TRUTH
- #371 CLANS OF THE ALPHANE MOON
- #370 THE CRACK IN SPACE
- #362 THE GAME PLAYERS OF TITAN
- #358 THE SIMULACRA
- #353 DR BLOODMONEY
- #347 THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE
- #346 THE MAN WHO JAPED
- #344 NOW WAIT FOR LAST YEAR
- #339 VULCAN’S HAMMER
- #330 DR FUTURITY
- #321 SOLAR LOTTERY
- #320 THE COSMIC PUPPETS
- #310 EYE IN THE SKY
- #304 TIME OUT OF JOINT
- #291 MARTAIN TIME SLIP
Plus a crossover guest appearance on The Skiffy & Fanty Show with Shaun Duke and Paul Weimar to talk BLADERUNNER 2049.
PKD audiobook reviews at SFF Audio.com
- A MAZE OF DEATH by Philip K Dick, read by Benjamin L. Darcie (Brilliance Audio)
- THE WORLD JONES MADE by Philip K Dick, read by Christopher Lane (Brilliance Audio)
- MARTAIN TIME SLIP read by Jeff Cummings (Brilliance Audio)
- PUTTERING ABOUT IN A SMALL LAND by Philip K Dick (Brilliance Audio)