I’ll shortly be heading off to Baltimore for the World Fantasy Convention (where I’m one of the Guests of Honor), but in my mind I’m back in San Jose, California, still attending this year’s World Science Fiction Convention. That’s because having already allowed you to eavesdrop on my meals with Pat Cadigan, K. Tempest Bradford, and Rebecca Roanhorse, I now ask that you join me for lunch at The Fish Market with Steve Rasnic Tem.

Tem has published more than 400 short stories, garnering multiple award nominations and wins, including a British Fantasy Award in 1988 for “Leaks,” a 2001 International Horror Guild Award for “City Fishing,” and a 2002 Bram Stoker Award for “In These Final Days of Sales.” His many collections include Fairytales, Celestial Inventory, The Far Side of the Lake, and others. Some of his poetry has been collected in The Hydrocephalic Ward, and he edited The Umbral Anthology of Science Fiction Poetry. His novel Blood Kin won the 2014 Bram Stoker Award. His collaborative novella with his late wife Melanie Tem, The Man On The Ceiling, won the World Fantasy, Bram Stoker, and International Horror Guild awards in 2001.

We discussed the importance of writing until you get to page eight, what he did the day after Harlan Ellison died, why even though he was a fearful kid he turned to horror, the thing which if I’d known about his marriage might have caused problems with my own, how crushed we both were when comics went up to 12 cents from a dime, why his all-time favorite short story is Franz Kafka’s “A Country Doctor,” how TV shows like “So You Think You Can Dance” had an effect on the way he writes action scenes, why he made an early pivot from science fiction to creating horror, the way joining Ed Bryant’s writing workshop taught him to become a writer, how math destroyed his intended science career, the reason it took him 48 years to take Ubo from initial idea to finished novel, why beginning writers should consciously read 1,000 short stories (and what they should do once they’re done), and much more.

Here’s how you can listen in as we chow down—

1) Subscribe over at the iTunes store, where you’ll also be able to browse the 79 previous episodes.

2) Listen to the episode using the RSS feed of http://eatingthefantastic.libsyn.com/rss on any device you’d like.

3) Or simply click on the embed below.

And as you do, you can vicariously enjoy our meal via the photos below—

Bread

Bay Scallop Ceviche
avocado, tortilla chips

Crab Cake
with lemon caper sauce

Dungeness Crab Cioppino
assorted seafood in housemade marinara sauce,
romano cheese, served with garlic bread

Fish & Chips Combination
cod, prawns, and scallops

Warm Triple Berry Crisp ala Mode
almond crumb topping, vanilla ice cream

If you enjoyed this episode and want to support my mission of breaking bread with creators of the fantastic while letting you eavesdrop, there are a few ways you can help bring this podcast to the attention of potential new listeners looking for science fiction, fantasy, horror, and comics ear candy—

You could rate Eating the Fantastic on iTunes and like it on Facebook. Also—you could tell your friends about the show by sending them a link to your favorite episode and letting them know what I’m doing here.

If you’d like to become even more involved, there are three more substantial ways you can support this show. There are expenses such as equipment, bandwidth, gas, parking, shuttling guests from hotels and convention centers to restaurants and back, and, as always, the meals which relax my guests and loosen their tongues for you.

It’s said there’s no such thing as a free lunch, and while that’s not true for my guests, it’s definitely true for Eating the Fantastic, because I do pay for that food with which I entice my guests to come out with me and share of themselves with you, in an environment far more open and intimate than being locked away in a sterile studio. So anything you feel up to sending my way to help cover those and other associated costs would be most appreciated.

You could make a small recurring monthly donation over at Patreon, where there are various perks involved depending on your level of support, such as access to a patrons-only blog, getting a shout-out on the show, stickers, postcards, and more.

Or if an ongoing level of commitment’s not for you, or if Patreon’s just not your thing, then consider tossing a couple of bucks in the tip jar instead and making a one-time donation of any size via Paypal.me.

Or you could head on over to https://ko-fi.com/eatingthefantastic and send me the funds to cover the cost of a cup of coffee.

Thank you!

And I hope you’ll join me next episode to eavesdrop on my Italian lunch with Vina Jie-Min Prasad—who was a three-time awards nominee heading into Worldcon weekend.

Meanwhile—enjoy!