Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing

EP 437 - Nerding Out Over History, Science, and Maps with Malorie Cooper

Oct 10, 2025

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Mark interviews Malorie Cooper, who writes under the name M.D. Cooper, about the various things that fascinate and inspire her writing.

Prior to the interview, Mark shares a brief personal update and a word about this episode's sponsor.

This episode is sponsored by an affiliate link to Manuscript Report. Use code MARK5 at checkout and save $5.00 off your own personalized report.

In their interview, Mark and Malorie talk about:

Meeting up in New Brunswick in the spring at a writer's conference
Mal's passion about writing science-fiction and nerding out about science and history concepts
Mal working with her wife Jill on The Writing Wives - designed to help authors better market their books
Some misperceptions that authors have, such as "I'm not good at Facebook Ads"
Mal always being curious about everything, and getting story inspiration from looking at maps
How her fascination with maps led to mapping software for space maps, and an evolution into a sci-fi writer
Malorie's introduction to science fiction through the books of Anne McCaffrey
How maps can inform and inspire science fiction stories
The various struggles that Mal likes to tackle in stories she writes
Passion for history and looking at the US Naval build immediately after Pearl Harbor
The frustration Mal often has in much of science-fiction and fantasy where the world's aren't "big" enough
How Mal writes without having a story bible about the universes she has created and writes in
The way Malorie divides her time up between writing and working with authors for The Writing Wives
The long pause in writing new science fiction stories that happened shortly after 2020
Thinking back to 2016 when Mal's writing really started to take off (how the money being earned from that was better than the full-time employment work as a software developer)
The time when Mal was writing for about 14 to 16 hours a day, with her wife Jill creating a "protective bubble" around her so she could focus on writing
The experience of having two people on Patreon who have, for eight years, given Mal $50 a month
The power (and sense of accomplishment) that comes when you get to "the end"
Advice Mal would give to other writers
And more...

After the interview Mark reflects on the challenge of moving from part-time to full-time writer, as well as the heart-warming fact that there are those out there who resonate with a creator's works and step up to support them in heart-warming ways.

Links of Interest:

Malorie Cooper is a science fiction author and creator of the Aeon 14 universe. She has written over one hundred books and plans to write another hundred more (at least).

Having built her career using advertising to spread awareness of her books, she’s shifted focus to helping other authors get a leg up through paid ads on a variety of platforms, as well as optimizing their product page with a focus on increasing conversions.

She and her wife now run The Writing Wives, which helps dozens of authors a month reach their marketing goals.

In addition to storytelling and writing, Malorie loves playing games of any sort, gardening, and woodworking. She shares her home with a wife who also writes, an entrepreneurial teenaged daughter, and far more cats than are strictly necessary.

The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0