And now for something completely different—the first (and likely only) episode of Eating the Fantastic to be recorded during a live-streamed fundraising telethon.

I’d been trying for quite a while to schedule the recording of an episode with Brian Keene—on whose podcast The Horror Show I appeared nearly two years ago, inspiring me to create this podcast. Unfortunately, our schedules never synced.

But when it came time for Brian to record the 100th episode of The Horror Show as a live 24-hour-long telethon to raise funds for the Scares That Care charity, he had a brainstorm—that I invade his event with a meal of some sort, and record my own show as part of his livestream.

So that’s what I did—show up at a conference room of a Hunt Valley hotel with a ton of takeout from Andy Nelson’s Barbecue, which has repeatedly been voted best BBQ by Baltimore Magazine—bringing enough to feed Brian, his co-hosts, and some of the live studio audience you’ll hear in this episode, too.

Brian’s published more than 40 novels, including the best-selling The Rising, and he’s the winner of the 2014 World Horror Grand Master Award. He’s also written comics, including the adventures of the Doom Patrol.

We discussed why the ending to The Rising isn’t as bewildering as some seem to think it is, whether new horror writers should try to replicate his career path, how Marvel Comics creator Steve Gerber is responsible for him becoming a writer, the shady way Brian amassed the largest comics collection in the sixth grade, if he’s a Scully who changed into a Mulder as he got older or if he’s been a Mulder all along, and more.

Here’s how you can share the BBQ with us—

1) Subscribe to the show at the iTunes store, where you’ll be able to also browse all 33 previous episodes.

2) Download the episode to a device of your choosing via the show’s RSS feed of http://eatingthefantastic.libsyn.com/rss.

3) Or listen to the episode right here via the embed below.

Here’s what we all chomped down on during this episode—

Beef Brisket

Collard greens, BBQ beans, redskin potato salad

Coming up two weeks from today will be lunch with K. M. Szpara, whose short fiction has appeared in Shimmer, Lightspeed, and Glittership, and who recently edited Transcendent: the Year’s Best Transgender Speculative Fiction, which Publishers Weekly gave a rave review, calling it among other things “splendid” and “timely” and “highly enjoyable.”

Before you go, a reminder—

If you’d like new episodes of Eating the Fantastic to appear more frequently than biweekly, a way to help me get there is by making a small recurring monthly donation via Patreon. I’d appreciate your support as I attempt to capture all the amazing creators out there. (There are, of course, perks for all patrons.) If you’d prefer, you can make a one-time donation via Paypal.me.

But you can also help without it costing you a dime—by subscribing to Eating the Fantastic, rating the show on iTunes or liking us on Facebook, all of which will help bring it to the attention of new listeners.

Thanks for listening!