Scott H. Andrews, founder and editor and publisher of the online magazine Beneath Ceaseless Skies, celebrated the 10th anniversary of that magazine by hosting a party at the recent World Fantasy Convention in Baltimore, Maryland — which made it seem like the right time for us to discuss that first decade. So we raised a pint at Red’s Table in Reston, Virginia.

Well, he raised a pint — of bourbon-barrel aged Gold Cup Russian Imperial Stout from Old Bust Head Brewery in Fauquier County, Virginia — while I downed my usual bottle of Pellagrino. And as we sipped, we chatted about that work on Beneath Ceaseless Skies, which has so far earned him six World Fantasy Award nominations and six Hugo Award nominations — and won him a British Fantasy Award. He’s a writer as well, with his own fiction appearing in Weird Tales, Space and Time, On Spec, and other magazines.

We discussed the treatment he received as a writer which taught him what he wanted to do (and didn’t want to do) as an editor, how his time as member of a band helped him come up with the name for his magazine, why science fiction’s public perception as a literary genre is decades ahead of fantasy, what it takes for a submission to rise to the level of receiving a rewrite request, the time he made an editor cry (and why he was able to do it), how he felt being a student at the Odyssey Writing Workshop and then returning as a teacher, the phrase he tends to overuse in his personalized rejection letters (and the reason why it appears so often), the way magazine editing makes him like Arnold Schwarzenegger in Conan the Barbarian, why writers shouldn’t worry about the ratio of submitted stories to purchased ones, the reason he’ll probably never edit novels, what anyone considering starting a magazine of their own needs to know, and much more.

Here’s how you can listen to our conversation at Red’s Table —

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3) Or check us out via the embed below.

And now please vicariously enjoy the meal along with us —

Goat Cheese Fritters
with chili-apricot jam, green onion, and grana

Short Rib and Potato Soup

Maryland Lump Crabcake Sandwich
bread and butter pickles, lettuce, green onion remoulade

Red’s Fried Chicken Sandwich
white cheddar, chipotle ranch, bacon, bread and butter pickles, greens

Warm Irish apple cake
with vanilla bean crème anglaise and whiskey caramel sauce

Triple chocolate mousse cake
and ginger ice cream with chocolate pecan crunch

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Next episode, I’ll be lunching with Alan Smale, who won the 2010 Sidewise Award for Best Short-Form Alternate History for “A Clash of Eagles,” about a Roman invasion of ancient America — which became the basis for a trilogy of novels. Join us, won’t you?