When I was investigating venues where I could record episodes of Eating the Fantastic during the recent Long Beach StokerCon, one dish stood out above all others—the whole grilled snook served by chef Sergio Peñuela at his restaurant Cheko El Rey Del Sarandeado. So that’s where I headed for dinner on Thursday during the con, in order to learn whether that dish lived up to its rep.

Spoiler alert: It did.

My guest that night was Elizabeth Hand, a brilliant writer who’s won four World Fantasy Awards, two Nebula Awards, three Shirley Jackson Awards, and more other awards than I have space to mention. The latest novel in her Cass Neary series, Hard Light, was released last year.

We discussed why she probably won’t take LSD on her deathbed, what made her a fan of Marvel rather than DC when she was a kid, her unusual fee for writing term papers back in college, the true meaning of Man’s Search for Meaning, the unfortunate occupational hazard of book reviewing, who was the best science fiction writer of all time (and why), plus more.

Here’s how you can hook a snook with us—

1) Subscribe at the iTunes store, where all 39 previous episodes are still available.

2) Download the episode to your the device of your choice by using the show’s RSS feed of http://eatingthefantastic.libsyn.com/rss.

3) Or listen right here via the embed below.

Check what we ate during our chat—

Ceviche rey
(jicama, shrimp and octopus in habanero sauce)

Pescado sarandeado
A grilled snook to die for

If after ingesting this episode, you’re hungry for more, come back in two weeks when my guest will be Dennis Etchison—whose 1982 debut short story collection, The Dark Country, is one of the best horror short story collections ever—also recorded during StokerCon.

Next up will be Nancy Holder, George R. R. Martin, Bo Bolander, and A. Merc Rustad, to be followed by Readercon interviews as yet unrecorded, spaced out at two-week intervals. But remember—

If you’re so hungry you need more episodes more frequently, you can join with others to someday shorten that gap by making a small recurring monthly donation (with perks for all patrons, of course) over at Patreon. This will help subsidize some of the travel, bandwidth, equipment, and meal costs associated with the show. (Or, if that level of commitment’s not for you, you can make a one-time donation via Paypal.me.) I’d be eternally grateful for your encouragement as I continue my mission of shining a spotlight on all the amazing talents out there.

And please, if you can, rate the show on iTunes and like us on Facebook, two actions which will raise the profile of the show and potentially bring it to the attention of new listeners.

See you next time!