Gus James' The Xeno Files: Alien Sex, Bad Decisions, and a Damn Good Time

The Science Fiction & Fantasy Factory · Sep 11, 2026 · 1h 24m

Gus James, author of The Xeno File and The Terra File, joins Mookie on the Science Fiction and Fantasy Factory podcast to talk about his evolving trilogy. Gus is an Oregon attorney by day, spending his hours fighting insurance companies, and a first-time novelist who wrote his debut purely to make himself laugh. When an early reader sent him detailed notes on proper three-act structure and where certain beats were supposed to land, he read every note and ignored almost all of them on purpose, reasoning that his story should be his, so screw the rules dictating how it's built. That instinct…