JA Merkel is the author of the Fall Gauntlet novella series, as well as The Fourth Portal, a dystopian science fiction novel kicking off the Song of Saudade series. Here we mostly discuss the Fourth Portal, set in a distant future on another planet, where love itself has been criminalized. We talk about him, his process, editing, and how the Fourth Portal can be read as a commentary on individualistic vs communal societies. JA, as I found out, spent three years living in South Korea as an ESL teacher, and I just had to pick his brain on that because of the trip I took to Korea in the autumn of 2024, so we spend a few minutes discussing Korea.

Reading from The Fourth Portal at timestamp 1:06:20

Author website: https://jamerkel.com/

Author store: https://store.jamerkel.com/

Amazon storefront:

https://www.amazon.com/stores/J.-A.-Merkel/author/B0CCNM9DKB

J.A. Merkel in the media!: https://jamerkel.com/media-press-kit/

Join J.A.’s Street Team: https://store.jamerkel.com/pages/street-team

Newsletter Sign-Up: https://jamerkel.com/newsletter-sign-up/

Jason Shannon is an indie Canadian author of science fiction and more. His seventh novel, Tiger Blues, is available now: “A plucky crew of mercenaries must keep a doomsday weapon from the Maoists in alt-history 1948 Tibet.”

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