David Mack and I have known each other for nearly two decades, ever since I started working with him at the Syfy Channel (though back then it was the SCI FI Channel). But since he worked in the Rockefeller Center office and I was a remote employee, we never got to have the lunches two coworkers would usually have had, so I’m glad we were able to have a long, leisurely meal together recently when he was in the Baltimore area attending the annual Farpoint convention.

David’s written more than 30 novels, including the Star Trek Destiny and Cold Equations trilogies. He was also responsible for several episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. His newest novel is The Midnight Front, a World War II-era epic fantasy which is the first book in the Dark Arts series of secret-history novels.

The venue for our dinner was Orchard Market and Cafe, a wonderful Persian restaurant recommended by recent guest of the show Norman Prentiss. Norman had told me that the Chicken Fesenjune was one of his favorite things in the whole world, and now that I’ve been there, I can can tell you—he had good reason to say that. Believe me, the food there was wonderful, and I’ll be going back whenever I can.

David and I discussed the weird ways his life entwined with the famed comic book artist who shares his name, how worrying about the details of Star Trek canon helped him when it came time to unravel the secret history of WWII, the way a near-death experience led to him working for the Syfy Channel, why it was so important for necromancers to pay a heavy price for the magic they choose to wield in his new novel The Midnight Front, how not making a pitch to a book editor resulted in him selling TV scripts to Star Trek, his unabashed love for the Beat author Richard Brautigan, the reason that after 27 Trek novels and a ton of other tie-in work he’s chosen to publish his non-franchise breakout book now, and much more.

Here’s how you can share some beef tongue with us—

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Here’s what David and I ate at Orchard Market and Cafe—

Haleem Bademjune
eggplant & beans with sour cream, garlic, walnuts & spices

Mushroom Zaban
curried poached beef tongue, sauteed with onions & portobello mushrooms

Chicken Fesenjune
poached breast of chicken in a sweet and tart walnut pomegranate sauce

Seafood Paella

Baklava

Chocolate cake

Still hungry? Then I hope you’ll join me two weeks from now when when I sit down for an Italian lunch with Paul Di Filippo, who’s published more than than 200 short stories in such magazines as Asimov’s Science Fiction, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Interzone, and many more.

If you enjoyed this episode and would like to support my mission to break bread with creators of the fantastic while letting you take a seat at the table, there are several ways you can help—

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