Podcast appearance
I joined Dominic on the Hidden Secrets in Books podcast for a conversation that reached all the way back to where the Resonant Earth quartet began: the personal story behind Broken Mirror, why I call my novels cautionary utopias, how I approach writing neurodivergent characters, what a decade of editing other authors’ manuscripts teaches you about your own, and where hope fits in a cautionary tale. It runs about half an hour.
Listen to the episode: Broken Mirror: Science Fiction, Neurodivergence & the Search for Truth | Cody Sisco
Where the story began
“When I was a teenager, I had a cousin a few years older than me who was diagnosed with schizophrenia, and he was an amazing artist. … Over the years he faced a lot of problems related to his condition. He was estranged from his family and became institutionalized in California. And that’s where he passed away. The feeling that was left with me, alongside grief, was really a question about our society — how we penalize and stigmatize people whose minds work differently, and how we fail them at a very basic level in terms of care and sustenance.”
Why I call it cautionary utopian fiction
“I call it cautionary utopian fiction, because the setting of these books imagines some ways that society has solved some of our problems — and others where we want to be very careful about going in a particular direction.”
Writing neurodivergent characters
“I’m not trying to represent any one of those conditions — but I want people to empathize with, and maybe even see themselves in, the characters who have this fictional mental condition. That’s one way we build empathy when we read: when we see ourselves identifying with the character in some way.”
What editing other writers teaches
“Often there’s a mismatch between the story we have developed in our minds for a long time and what goes on the page. … Sometimes authors know the emotions the characters are feeling, but struggle to write those emotions in a way the reader recognizes — or the reader can then feel.”
Where hope fits in a cautionary tale
“One of the best ways to have hope is actually to create it — to work towards something. Not just sit back and feel that maybe someday things will get better, but to work towards them, and to engage in that act with others, and to stand up for what we think is right.”
The question at the core
“The core question at the heart of the series is whether a cure is needed — whether this is something that will help him live his life better, or something that’s an even worse option. That’s what’s really at the core of the final book in the quartet, which comes out in October. The title is Toxic Medicine — and the toxic medicine the title refers to is this cure that he uncovers.”
Toxic Medicine, the fourth and final book in the Resonant Earth quartet, arrives October 14, 2026.
Listen + keep in touch
Thank you to Dominic and the Hidden Secrets in Books podcast for a conversation about science fiction, neurodivergence, and the search for truth. Listen to the full episode here.
New to the series? Start the Resonant Earth quartet with the free prequel novella Believe and Live at codysisco.com, and join the newsletter to hear first when Toxic Medicine arrives this October.