1 rich Libsyn https://www.libsyn.com 90 600 My guest this week is Phil M. Cohen, whose new novel creates a dystopian future of uncooperative machines, a messianic Jewish cult, and the quest for control over a powerful new drug. He uses humor and scifi to discover the meaning of being Jewish in a chaotic world. Phil's book,&amp;nbsp;Nick Bones Underground, combines&amp;nbsp;the Jewish wit of Michael Chabon with the sci-fi absurdity of Douglas Adams.&amp;nbsp;The backdrop to this story is a dystopia, where machines stop working, or just evolve other priorities, and an economic collapse that further stratified the world.&amp;nbsp;It's the classic Holmes and Watson, but with Holmes a somewhat depressed, middle-aged Jewish professor and Watson a wise-cracking, gender-switching computer.&amp;nbsp; Every week I interview a member of ALLi to talk about their writing and what inspires them, and why they are inspiring to other authors. Find more author advice, tips and tools at our&amp;nbsp;Self-publishing Author Advice Center:&amp;nbsp;https://selfpublishingadvice.org, with a huge archive of nearly 2,000 blog posts, and a handy search box to find key info on the topic you need. And, if you haven’t already, we invite you to&amp;nbsp;join our organization&amp;nbsp;and become a self-publishing ally. You can do that at&amp;nbsp;http://allianceindependentauthors.org. About the Host Howard Lovy has been a journalist for more than 30 years, and has spent the last six years amplifying the voices of independent publishers and authors. He works with authors as a book editor to prepare their work to be published. Howard is also a freelance writer specializing in Jewish issues whose work appears regularly in Publishers Weekly, the Jewish Daily Forward, and Longreads. Find Howard at howardlovy.com,&amp;nbsp;LinkedIn and Twitter. Self-Publishing with ALLi https://selfpublishingadvice.org/ask-alli-podcast/ <iframe title="Libsyn Player" style="border: none" src="//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/11770121/height/90/theme/custom/thumbnail/yes/direction/forward/render-playlist/no/custom-color/88AA3C/" height="90" width="600" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen></iframe> https://assets.libsyn.com/secure/content/55821644