ABOUT MARISSA
Marissa was born in New Zealand and has lived in Dublin, Munich, Berlin, and LA. She’s been helping authors develop their stories and edit their prose for over ten years. Her other loves are nature, hiking, video games, exploring abandoned buildings and writing.
Notable fiction she’s edited includes Alys Arden’s THE CASQUETTE GIRLS (Amazon #1 bestseller, Starred by Publishers Weekly, and picked up in two-book deal by Skyscape Publishing) and sequel 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 D Robert Pease’s SHADOW SWARM (Winner of Mom’s Choice Awards Gold Medal in Fantasy & Science Fiction).
One of her true loves is interactive fiction and narrative games. She was accepted into the Killscreen Intel Scholars “Women in Games” class 2017 and is currently seeking collaborations with narrative designers and game writers.
She loves imaginative fiction, Weird fiction and all things sciencey and fantastical. Her inspirations are Philip K Dick, Jeff VanderMeer, Kurt Vonnegut, Roald Dahl, James Tiptree Jr., China Miéville, Octavia Butler, Terry Pratchett, 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.
Hosted by Jesse Willis at SFF Audio Podcast
- #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)
- #449 “Dagon” by HP Lovecraft (with Paul Weimar & voice actor / audiobook narrator Oliver Wyman).
- #446 “The Night Flier” by Stephen King (with Paul Weimar & Scott Danielson)
- #429 IN THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS: THE LIFE AND AFTERLIFE OF HP LOVECRAFT by W. Scott Poole
(with Jim Moon & Wayne June!) - #425 “The Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang + movie adaptation ARRIVAL (with Paul Weimar & Maissa Bessada)
- #422 THE RUNNING MAN by Stephen King + The Prize of Peril” by Robert Sheckly (with Paul Weimar & Scott Danielson)
- #419 A Podcast About Podcasts! (with Paul Weimar & Bryan Alexander)
- #412 RITE OF PASSAGE by Alexi Panshin (with Paul Weimar, Bryan Alexander & Maissa Bessada)
- #404 THE CALL OF CTHULU by HP Lovecraft (with Paul Weimar, Mr Jim Moon, Bryan Alexander & Wayne June)
- #396 “The Thing on the Doorstep” by HP Lovecraft (with Paul Weimar and Wayne June)
- #363 THE PUPPETMASTERS by Robert A Heinlein (with Paul Weimar)
- #356 THE DEMOLISHED MAN by Alfred Bester (with Paul Weimar)
- #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