Bringing a Novel to Life: Writing the Transfinite Reality Engine

What do you get when a dopamine-deficient bald guy, a stack of manuscript pages, and an accidental reader with a doctorate walk into a podcast? You get this wild, heartfelt, and brutally honest episode of No Hair, All Heart—where Mookie Spitz, writer, ranter, and recovering bullshit artist, opens up about the creation of his latest science fiction novel: Jonnie Fazoolie and the Transfinite Reality Engine.

In a full-circle moment of gratitude and literary soul-searching, Mookie hands the mic to Michelle Waugh — the sharp-eyed first reader who tore through his draft and called him out, pushed him harder, and helped bring his sprawling vision into the light. Together, they go deep.

Topics include:

• Origin story of the novel: How a 10-year-old kid obsessed with Asimov and infinity never stopped writing—even when he forgot he was a writer.
• The central idea: What if a con artist accidentally builds a machine that jumps between infinite universes, and every dumb wish could actually come true?
• The characters: A lovable scumbag named Johnny Fazoolie. A transgender orphaned physicist-genius with tools in her afro. A Gen Z journalist with Ivy League trauma. A mysterious cosmic woman named Alice who might be the universe itself, begging for love.
• The cover: Drawn by his niece, featuring cats, a bathtub, poker chips, and chaos.
• The writing process: Why good books feel effortless—and why that’s a lie. The relentless, punishing craft behind those “easy to read” pages.
• Gender, identity & generational war: Writing women authentically. Giving trans characters dignity and power. Capturing the crackling tension between Zoomers, Boomers, and everyone spinning in between.
• The core theme: In a multiverse where anything can happen, how do we find meaning in this life, this version of ourselves?

Michelle Waugh doesn’t just ask questions — she reads from the novel, and her performance of “Alice Unchained” captures some of the mystery and madness. 

Writers, readers, and anyone trying to make peace with their fractured attention span and haunted dreams will dig this episode -- One that's for anyone wondering if meaning still exists in a world of infinite versions of you. For anyone who’s ever created something and whispered, please tell me it’s good.

So tune in for an interview that's a cross-dimensional dive into fiction, failure, love, and redemption.

The Short Story

https://medium.com/@mookiespitz/johnny-fazoolie-the-transfinite-reality-engine-9b2ee679b837?sk=ce18b77c905e6e729c584855841e80b4

The Novel

https://a.co/d/bv5FBdl