The Publishing Performance Show Nicholas Keating-Casbarro – Creating Factions, Religion, and Government for Your Fictional World
Nicholas Keating-Casbarro is the author and creator of the Vitilarium Universe, a far-future sci-fi series following humanity after becoming multi-planetary. With seven books planned, Nicholas crafts character-focused stories exploring themes of power, corruption, government structure, and humanity's potential futures. A former medical professional turned author, Nicholas writes in an omniscient perspective similar to Frank Herbert's style, focusing on meaningful dialogue and immersive action scenes. He's expanded the Vitilarium world beyond books into comic book adaptations for Comic-Con audiences, working with illustrators Francisco Nilo, colorist Chandran Panusamy, and graphic designer Ahmed Gitar. Published through hybrid publisher Atmosphere Press, Nicholas maintains a massive Excel story guide tracking everything from character backstories to planetary exports across seven colonized worlds.
In this episode:
- The Vitilarium Universe: humanity's future as a multi-planetary civilization
- The Alcubierre drive: using exotic material for faster-than-light travel
- Discovering ancient alien ruins on Diorum, the seventh colonized planet
- Using conspiracy theories and "what if" questions for world-building
- Starting world-building with themes, not plot details
- Creating factions before characters (government, gangs, militias, religion)
- The Coalition for Prosperity: naming totalitarian governments ironically
- Writing the tenets of a future religion (with a no-cult disclaimer)
- The question-based method: every answer creates new questions to define
- The massive Excel story guide with unlimited tabs
- Building a survivalist protagonist who survives deadly fauna outside megacities
- Self-editing with story Bible and Book One PDF open for continuity
- Six rounds of proofreading to catch spelling and comma errors
- Working with editor John Smith to fix character motivation issues
- Maps of megacity Kairos and faction sigils for reader immersion
- Weaving world-building through character dialogue, not exposition dumps
- Treating plot holes as opportunities to add new technology or details
- Tools: Excel, Word, coffee, and nicotine (manual approach)
- Google Notebook LM: AI tool for querying your own manuscript
- Adapting books into comic series for Comic-Con crossover audience
- Working with Atmosphere Press hybrid publisher model
Resources mentioned:
- Vitilarium Series website: https://vitaleriumseries.com/
- Inside Vitilarium Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/InsideVitalerium/gift
- Atmosphere Press: https://atmospherepress.com/
- Google Notebook LM: https://notebooklm.google/
Connect with Nicholas Keating-Casbarro:
- Website: https://vitaleriumseries.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vitariumstudio/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vitarium.fb/reels/
- Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/discover/vitalerium-series-official-website
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