April’s StokerCon was cancelled — but not here at Eating the Fantastic. That’s because I’m on a mission to reclaim all of 2020’s convention conversations lost to COVID-19. I’ve already shared with you three “might have been” chats which would have taken place in New Zealand during Worldcon — with Lee Murray, Stephen Dedman, and Farah Mendlesohn — and now it’s time to head to Scarborough for lunch — or is it dinner? — with Priya Sharma.

Priya Sharma has published fiction in Interzone, Black Static, Nightmare, The Dark, and other venues. “Fabulous Beasts” was a Shirley Jackson Award finalist and won a British Fantasy Award for Short Fiction. “Ormeshadow,” her first novella, won a Shirley Jackson Award. All the Fabulous Beasts, a collection of some of her work, won both the Shirley Jackson Award and British Fantasy Award. She’s also a Grand Judge for the Aeon Award, an annual writing competition run by Albedo One, Ireland’s magazine of the Fantastic.

We discussed the best decision she made about her debut short story collection All the Fabulous Beasts, how the cover to that book conveys a different message in our COVID-19 world, why we each destroyed much of our early writing, a surprising revelation about the changed ending to one of her stories, who told her as a child “your soul is cracked,” the two of us being both longhand writers and defenders of ambiguity, what it’s like writing (and not writing) for theme anthologies, the most difficult story for her to write, how the pandemic has affected our writing, and much more.

Here’s how you can eavesdrop on our conversation —

1) Subscribe at Apple Podcasts — where I hope you might be moved to sample a few of the 128 previous episodes.

2) Check it out using the RSS feed of http://eatingthefantastic.libsyn.com/rss on the device of your choice.

3) Or listen using the embed below.

Here’s what we nibbled as we chatted —

Priya’s Pappardelle
with rose harissa, black olives and capers

Scott’s Pappardelle
with sausage, garlic, and vegetables

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

One is to rate Eating the Fantastic on Apple Podcasts 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.

Finally — because of Eating the Fantastic’s unique niche — that is, on-the-road restaurant interviews, to which I’ll return as soon as the pandemic allows — there are expenses beyond the usual ones for studio-based podcasts. I sometimes use ride-sharing services to carry me and my guests from convention centers to restaurants and back, or I gas up to drive them myself — and then there’s that food I use to entice those guests to wander off and share of themselves with you, food which loosens their tongues, relaxes them, and — counterintuitively, because we are after all out in public surrounded by other diners — results a much more intimate environment than if we were alone together in a sterile studio.

So I hope you’ll consider becoming a supporter of the show, and help fund this mission of mine.

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.

Next up will be another meal I would have had earlier this year at StokerCon had the con not been cancelled. Please join us!